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!

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Felt good to be adjusted and all put back in place. Here’s hoping all stays that way for the delivery. With chiropractic care labor and delivery are supposed to be quicker and easier. Yesterdays adjustment was my last before heading off to The Farm.

Before I head off I’ve been sure to write many advance posts and get them all scheduled here to tide you over while we all wait to meet Tater. I’ll also be live blogging via text message (and twitter) while I am at The Farm and through labor/ delivery if conditions permit (subscribe and follow me so you don’t miss a thing).

I’ve also documented all the baby stuff you all have sent and I’ve got many belly shots that will be showcased here via slideshow and whatnot while I am away. Some will even be guest posting here too. So, rest assured you’ll have something to sink your teeth in to while I am having Tater. And now here are some belly shots for you.

Over two weeks ago at 35 weeks pregnant:

More than one week ago at 36 weeks 6 days pregnant:

Then there was a few days ago at 37 weeks and 5 days pregnant:

Tomorrow I am 38 weeks pregnant and ready to blow any second. Being at this stage of the pregnancy totally makes me appreciate and understand why so many ladies agree to labor induction. I mean this is crazy uncomfortable (even more so that all the previous 35 weeks combined) and when you’ve got a doc that wants to get things going via induction it just means that your discomfort and anxiety can end sooner. What is not to like about that?

No, I am not hoping for an induction though. Just saying I totally get it now, if that makes sense.

For more of my Wordless Wednesday posts throughout the years click here.

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Still pregnant as ever, feeling more and more uncomfortable as the days pass. Am still gaining weight despite all the talk in books about how weight gain slows or stops towards the end of the pregnancy.

Captured this belly shot yesterday after getting off the phone with Krystal. She said “you must be getting so huge”, I sure feel freaking huge but you can be the judge of that based upon the photo.

My hormones are sure in full swing these days. Yesterday I had a blow up at the post office thanks to a rude postal worker. Super annoying situation, very irritating employee and I reacted.

Snatched my stuff off the counter to allow the next person in line to be helped and remarked at what a “fucking bitch” the employee was. Oops, it just flew out of my mouth. I assure you it was warranted though!

Oh and it seems Tater is also going to have no problem expressing what she doesn’t appreciate either. She is already letting her feistiness shine through and she hasn’t even left the womb yet.

Just the other day I was laying down for a rest. I laid on my right side as that is usually the side she is calmest in. We were going to have some nap time and take some of the weight off my upper belly skin.

I laid there for about 15 min while she kicked the hell out of my ribs and also jabbed my hip. She even got a few good punches to the cervix in during that time and man those are painful. After several minutes of this I got the memo that she wasn’t happy in that position so I rolled over to my left side instead. Sure enough that calmed her right down and we both napped.

Told N he is going to have two feisty ladies in the house soon and is he ready? He said he’s probably going to need to get a hobby or two that will get him out of the house on occasion. LOL. Poor guy is going to be outnumbered.

Talked to my midwife out at The Farm yesterday. Two more weeks until Tater is “full term” and we are getting in the baby having mindset. Three more weeks until I leave for The Farm. It is all becoming more and more “real” as the days pass but I suspect it wont completely sink in for us until the labor begins.

My accommodations are all lined up out at The Farm and I’ve got an appointment set with a backup doctor near The Farm in case hospital transport is necessary. Everything is pretty much lined up and seems like it will just fall in to place once labor begins. I am still having no pregnancy complications and am feeling pretty good about how my body has held up throughout the process.

Oh and the mad-lib birth announcement is making it’s rounds to those who have said they would like to be included. There is still time to sign up if you wanna play too, the more the merrier!

The post Today I am 35 weeks pregnant, another belly shot shared. appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

In 6 short weeks I’ll be taking a blog hiatus and enjoying the forest settings at The Farm while I wait for Tater to join us. Can you believe that? 6 weeks! I am feeling pretty good about it all and am still totally ready and excited! If you missed the update on my latest OBGYN appointment from yesterday you can read about it here.

Some of you already know, we went thrift store rummaging for baby clothes as did Maiden53 (who is a doll for thinking of us) and we’ve also received some new clothes from N’s family and from my grandparents for Tater. This means we have about 30 outfits in varying sizes and styles ranging from 0-24 months!

I succeeded in getting them all laundered at the moldy rental while we were cleaning it over the weekend. I am so pleased to have some clean clothing packed away in the birth kit ready for Tater’s arrival, makes me feel all prepared and stuff!

As I am writing this it is 3pm and 82 degrees in the coolest part of our house. I am chugging water and eating a jonagold apple with the fan blasting me while I type this. I am a Phoenix, Arizona baby and am very used to NOT having AC (thanks to Flagstaff, AZ apartment living) so I refuse to use the AC unless it is totally unbearable. I know once the humidity comes I’ll need the AC but for now, while it is a dry heat I’ll make do. It saves money right?

On Saturday we called and were avoided by the slumloards but left more messages, we are still trying to set up a move out inspection time. We also spent several hours over at the old place cleaning and doing laundry. While we were there N got to chatting with the neighbors who were all very curious about our landlord drama.

One of them even asked us for the landlords current phone number. I guess they’ve got a friend who also used to live in that place as renters. The slumloards never returned the owed security deposit to them, it’s been 2 years and they are still trying to get their money back. Also we were told that 2 other old tenants have had to abandon the premises without a move out inspection since the landlords mysteriously become unreachable. N talked to 3 different sets of neighbors about our crappy rental situation, the slumloards seem to be on everyone’s bad side!

We did have a wonderful “date night” Sunday. We were given tickets to a show and we rewarded ourselves to a cheap “linner” out (late lunch/ early dinner= linner, lol) and then went to the show in Owensboro, KY. It was fun to get dressed up and to go out since the majority of our days are spent cleaning, running errands or unpacking right now.

We went to Firefly Southern Grill and had the most amazing food. It was by far the BEST food we’ve had since moving here. We loved the atmosphere and the service and the food was amazing. I had my first taste of fried green tomatoes and collard greens, yummo! I enjoyed steak and N had salmon wellington as our entree items. Everything was fantastic!

The show we saw was also great! We saw the Broadway show, the Spelling Bee and thought it was tons of fun. Tater was super active during the show, I wonder what she thought of the singing and music. Hopefully she’ll be a lover of the arts like we are.

All in all the date was super fun, we had a great weekend and are off an running for another productive/ busy week.

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I’ve been trying to bust out some posts in advance that I’ll schedule in June to keep the blog fresh while I am away from the internet waiting for Tater to come. That is the idea at least. If anyone wants to guest post here just sign up as a user and I’ll get you all hooked up to be a contributor.

Okay, so over the weekend we did get lots done, as usual… For starters we wrangled the freecycle dog home through our back gate so now Dixie has an even nicer shelter to enjoy. Problem is Haily, the outdoor cat, is smarter than Dixie and she manages to take over the dog house every time. Dixie refuses to fight for it and just sleeps out on the deck.

Mind you Hailey has her own house that we built but she refuses to use it unless absolutely necessary. So when we go out and lure her out of Dixie’s home, Dixie can use it but it seems every time the rain starts to fall or when it gets windy Hailey is in the dog house and Dixie is outside… I give up! If the dog doesn’t want care to fight for her home that is her bad, right?

We also went by the old place to do some deep cleaning. We spent 3 hours there doing the kitchen and basement. We’ve only got a few rooms left to do now and then we’ll be totally done with that shit hole. Yay. Oh and while the cleaning was happening guess what we discovered growing on top of the basement carpet and up the outside of the wood paneling in the corner…

MOLD!!!

Yep, you can see it with your own two eyes just growing right on top of all the carpet and wood siding. We had a freestanding shelf in that corner holding my business stuff but once we moved all our things out of the basement and began vacuuming we spotted the fairly big moldy corner. N took some photos of it on his iPhone. I’ll share them soon.

It’s been over a month since we met with the slumlady and started the ball rolling on having them sign our mutual release letter. They’ve been avoiding us now for over a month and N has begun the harassing phone calls to them again. We’ve not paid them April’s rent and are trying to set up a meeting time to turn over the keys and complete the final walk though. It seems they could care less, still.

Last night N put the freecycle crib together in Tater’s room. It was an interesting process since it’s an older crib that needs work, plus the assembly instructions were nonexistent so we were winging it so to speak. It is now pieced together, just needs some wood glue and some screws tightened. We’ll buy a crib mattress for it sometime after Tater is here if we still haven’t found anything better/ safer.

We spent Sunday thrift store hopping. We were window shopping for a washing machine since come May 1 we will have no way to wash clothes (other than a laundry mat), we also thought we would keep our eyes peeled for some necessities for Tater while we were there. Things like cloth diapers, receiving blankets and a variety of sized onesies.

We managed to find some clothes and a few receiving blankets that we spent $6.00 on. We didn’t see any pack n’ play’s or newborn sleeping solutions and we didn’t see any washing machines either. We plan to keep looking, hopefully we’ll find all that we need in due time.

It’s was a windy, rainy weekend but we still managed to get some good progress made! We even found a work around for our failing external hard drive (I’ll post more on this later) and N painted my toenails for me since I can no longer reach them. Isn’t he a trooper?

We took my blood pressure at the grocery store and it was 108/70, I am still not swelling or having any heart racing or blood sugar issues. I haven’t weighed myself since we moved in, the scale is still missing but I feel like I’ve gained a few (5 or so) pounds. LOL. What do you think?

We’ve got a shower in our honor taking place in Phoenix, AZ courtesy of Krystal on May 2nd that we are getting excited about. We’ll be there via video conference to talk to and enjoy everyone’s company. If you are going to be out that direction and haven’t already received an invite shoot me an email and I’ll hook you up with the details.

We’ve also got a web baby shower going on right now and a live shower chat scheduled courtesy of another bloggy friend, Maiden53, that you can check it out here.

Don’t forget to put your dollar in and place your baby weight bet! Remember 2 winners split the pool of cash so the more people who enter the better it is for YOUR pocket book, lol.

Okay, I am off to try finishing those 3 blog posts and I’ve got to feed the animals and such. Have a good monday everyone!

Oh, and if you aren’t afraid to see how an actual homebirth was featured in a commercial check out this video. Thanks Ryan and Kari for blogging this! Don’t worry it is peaceful and beautiful. Just graphic, shows nudity and you know a baby coming out from down there:

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