Pretty much everything on my to-do list is done, I am ready to go and am slightly excited to arrive at The Farm. On the other hand I am sort of sad to leave the house, pets and N behind. It is going to be strange to be away from it all and when I return I’ll be a mother. Kind of a crazy concept when you think about it.

Today has been a calm day for severe weather, thank goodness! After 2 days of thunderstorms and tornado warnings we were both exhausted. N was of course chasing storms for work and I was having to herd animals and hide out in our “safe place” in the downstairs bathroom…

Not sure if you noticed the odd blog format from yesterday’s post. It’s how my future live blog posts will look as I update you on my progress while I am away at The Farm. Those updates are sent via text messaging from my cell phone, they show up in my twitter timeline (but aren’t as pretty) and they auto post to the blog also. Like I’ve mentioned before you can subscribe to this blog to ensure you don’t miss an update, that way you’ll know exactly when I go in to labor!

I’ll be offline as far as internet access goes so I wont see or be able to respond to your comments (or read your blogs). The best way to communicate with me (if you need to) is via direct message on twitter (those should come to my cell phone, possibly). This is all dependent on the access and quality of cell phone reception out at The Farm of course, just an FYI.

All the feelings and sensations I described in graphic detail yesterday are continuing and happening more regularly. I am not in labor yet but things are headed that direction and I am just trying to keep active as much as possible (which isn’t very much at all really)…

N and I did a mini shopping trip this morning to get some groceries and such for me to take along to the birthing cabin. The best deal we got today was 5 gallons of milk for a total of $5.15, yep paid $1.03 for each gallon thanks to coupons and store sales! I am a big milk drinker and use it to cook so we’ll have no problem using it all plus it will last us weeks.

Walking around at the stores today was way harder and more painful than normal so that means it shouldn’t be too long now, we’ll get to meet Tater so soon!

My mom is delusional thinking she is going to get me to toodle around Columbia, TN and do fun things with her when she comes to The Farm to stay with me and wait for labor to begin. I can hardly handle walking back and forth from the bed/ chair to the kitchen for food or to the bathroom these days. Of course that is probably due to the stairs but still, I am pretty immobile these days.

Here is a farewell belly shot. It’s probably the last you’ll see until I get back from The Farm.

You can compare it to the very first belly shot I took at the start of the pregnancy if you need more “wow factor”.

It is kind of funny to see how my mole/ freckle has moved up as my belly has grown. It’s totally amazing how the body can adapt and accommodate a growing baby inside you all while you do nothing but rest and increase food intake. The body is truly a smart, complex and highly evolved “machine” isn’t it?

Well I am off to make some been and cheese burritos (hopefully) and to possibly tidy up the place a bit. Stay tuned for the labor updates and progress and don’t forget to enter the baby weight contest!

The post Bags are packed, I'm ready to go! appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

Today I am 38 weeks pregnant and last night was the first night I’ve been in actual pain with regards to contractions. You know that cervical pain I’ve been mentioning? Well I’ve now decided it feels like Tater is poking or clawing at the cervix and that I’ll pop and gush water at any moment as a result, lol.

I know it is kind of a strange way to describe it all and technically Tater isn’t touching my cervix since my bag of water/ membranes are separating her from the actual cervix right now. She isn’t clawing the cervix so to speak but I am pretty sure she is stretching or pushing on it based on what it feels like and I am sure that is how it will feel right before my water breaks.

I am not leaking or bleeding and my membranes are still intact as far as I know but the cervical pain sure got worse than normal last night for a few brief seconds. I would not describe the pain as all encompassing or as debilitating by any means. It was more like a stabbing pain inside me where I think my cervix is. The pain would last a few seconds and then go away, like she was bumping something and it caused a stabbing pain.

Didn’t feel anything contracting or tightening during the stabs of pain (it would come before or after) but I did have some lower abdominal aching and some real back aching that N massaged away while I laid on my side.

It all came on late last night right after the tornado sirens sounded and I went out to secure the bunnies. I was making some spaghetti Alfredo (didn’t have fettuccine noodles) with shrimp and N was almost home from work. I took this video of the coming storm, the lightening was way cool. Make sure your sound isn’t on full blast when you play it though. The sirens are loud!

Anyway, I was having a burst of energy so I took a video, got the animals ready for the storm, was cooking dinner and then I even mopped the kitchen floor because there were ants coming in from somewhere and eating somthing off the floor that you couldn’t see.

I was having a few moments of “nesting” or whatever and then the weird pain and uncomfortableness began. At first I would find relief in sitting down but towards the end sitting or laying just didn’t do the trick. It was not like I was crying or screaming in agony like everyone perceives woman should be. It was annoyingly uncomfortable that is all. Not sure if that is normal or what but that is how I felt.

Oh, and how come nobody talks about the constant constipated feeling of late pregnancy when the baby drops? It is like people are scared to say that it feels like you’ve got a 10 lb shit chillin in there. Some have said it is like sitting on a bowling ball, others say you feel like you are trying to carry a bowing ball between your legs. None of those descriptions seem to fit what I am feeling.

After some internet searching I was able to uncover the fact that feeling like “you have to #2” all the time (when you really don’t) is an early labor sign. Yeah, okay so feeling like you need to crap 24/7 means something is definitely getting ready to come out of there (either baby or poo), got it. Was that so hard to say?

It’s like women are afraid to bluntly discuss the yuck parts of labor and pregnancy because they aren’t lady like or something, LOL. Well I am proud to say I lack that behavioral conditioning and I am all for being real about it.

Oh and anyone else have stabbing pain in the anus/ perennium when they bend over? I know this is related to the 10 lb shit I described above, just putting it out there as pretty annoying in my book.

So yeah, my ass hurts along with my tailbone my pubic bone, my belly skin and occasionally my cervix. I am happy to report no diarrhea or hemorrhoids though, what a silver lining huh?

My hormones are changing too. Just the other day I went from sweating my ass off to freezing ass cold in minutes. I stayed huddled under the covers all day and now I’ve got a cold sore coming in so it seems my body is making the shift from human incubator to no longer incubating spawn. Woot.

We are counting down the hours till we leave for The Farm, can’t wait to get this show on the road and to meet our little girl already!

The post Late pregnancy, early labor symptoms. Blunt and graphic talk ;-) appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.