It was a warm and dry weekend here so N was able to grill dinner, which is his new favorite weekend thing and he also did yard work outside.

I am not handling the heat all that well over extended periods of time so I didn’t hang out with him too much for the yard work fun but we did enjoy a nice moonlit dinner of burgers and grilled corn Saturday. We listened to the frogs and watched the lightening in the distance. It was a nice quite time for us.

On Sunday we went to Target with some gift cards we got from our baby shower. We didn’t buy anything too exciting just like $30 of medical stuff for the home birth kit (things like gauze pads, alcohol, cotton balls, betadine and such).

One of the perks of birthing in a hospital is that they already have all the medical kit stuff there and they just bill your insurance for all of it, when you don’t birth in a hospital you need to gather all those goods on your own. It’s all good though. I just placed an order for the last few items I needed to complete the birth kit.

In case you are curious I ordered the Hylands Arnica Montana for swelling and muscle soreness and the Prevail Fluff Underpads for catching the birth mess and not ruining the floors/ carpets.

So that means our birthing kit supplies are all gathered up! The only thing we still need is some of thesefor our digital camcorder and we need to charge the digital camera batteries so my mom can capture all the birthing fun!

I am still feeling well, just slowing down quite a bit as can be expected. The belly is bigger and is currently killing my back, it is more like muscular pain as a result of the ever changing load size. The last few days were bad with the back pain but I appear to be doing better today after much icing and massaging the days before.

I still appear to be doing fine and haven’t noticed labor beginning or anything, though I doubt I will until it is well under way… Tater is very active and I am still having the tightening and achy “contractions” or whatever you want to call them.

I see the OBGYN for my group B strep test results and another cervix check tomorrow. It would be nice if some progress was made. Secretly we are hoping labor will start when N is with me, like dropping me off at The Farm or when he comes to visit… That way the stress of him getting there in time will not exist

;-p

Oh, two more people just put in their guesses for the Talina’s Baby Weight Contest but we still need more people to sign up so the cash pool gets bigger! Two winners will split the cash pool so the more entries the better for you.  All you have to do is guess my weight! Go forth and enter now… and spread the word.

Also, 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!

K, that is all I’ve got for now. Check back tomorrow for OBGYN updates and more.

The post In 12 days I am outta here to wait for Tater's birth… appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

When we arrived at the house she was waiting for us in the driveway. Needless to say she wasn’t in the best of moods. We came ready with another copy of the mutual release form for her to sign and we also video taped the entire thing… Here, wanna see?

She basically blitzed the walk though and didn’t seem to care much about the condition of the house, not that it was left in poor condition anyway. We always deep clean all the places we vacate.

She did sign our mutual release form which outlines the early termination of the lease, the agreement that all financial obligations have been met and that we are both legally released from the prior contract. Yay!

Her husbands signature isn’t on the forms as he wasn’t present… His is the only signature on the lease so that could be a potential issue but we are just pleased to have some sort of documentation that proves we didn’t make up the whole being let out of the lease thing.

Basically we are super happy to have this chapter of our lives now closed!

Lets, see… Over the weekend N worked on hooking up this free electric dryer we got off Freecycle. I guess we needed to get the vent hose for it and he had to change out the plug for it since it didn’t fit our outlet or something. We are resourceful and try to make due with what we are able to get… The free dryer was a good score and we got a working washer for $40 at a yard sale so we are making strides in the right direction I think.

Apparently the newer plug he put on the dryer still doesn’t fit our outlet so I am hanging clothes out to dry (which is fine by me) but he is still working on getting the proper plug installed on the dryer.

For his belated birthday/ mothers day we went to a local farm and bought some garden goodies. Things like potted herbs, tomatoes, zucchini, egg plant, collard greens and other stuff we’ll grow and eat. We only spent $20.00! He is working on getting a vegetable garden going now, he made some good progress on it this morning too.

We are hoping to grow as much as we can ourselves to cut down on the grocery costs and save more money. Oh, and we stopped by the Hostess/ Wonder Bread outlet store over the weekend and got 7 loaves of bread and 2 packs of buns for $8.00. Those are in the freezer now and will also help to cut the grocery bill and save money.

On the baby front: In 33 short days I’ll be staying at The Farm, preparing for Tater’s birth. Time is still flying and there are only 45 days until my due date (but we are open to Tater coming either before or after said due date if she feels ready). Things are still going great with the pregnancy and I am feeling good. Totally beginning to slow down energy wise and am having trouble breathing thanks to the cramping of my lungs but it is all good!

We are getting more and more excited and still have so much to do before she comes! We have been showered with many helpful things thanks to many of you and this has left us feeling so much more calm and prepared for Taters arrival. We’ve just about got everything we’ll need for her first week of life now and are focusing our attentions on gathering the medical supplies for the birth kit, then we’ve got to get busy gathering stuff like the cloth diapers and clothes she’ll need in the weeks following her birth.

Slowly but surely we are pulling it all together and before we know it we’ll be parents and it will all just fall right in to place. Exciting! Hopefully everyone had a good mothers day. I am off to read all your blogs now and find out how your weekends went!

The post The Renters and the Slumlords: The drama comes to a close (and other updates). appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

The last few weeks have been filled with all sorts of crapola and it’s made us grumpy at times but we are glad to have gotten so much accomplished. Here is a recap complete with links in case you missed something or a bored and want to read our drama.

We got our taxes filed and our returns are on the way, we got our February rent check mystery solved with the bank, we got our march rent paid and sent off in this certified letter that still hasn’t been picked up!

We looked at so many home options, decided on and bought Tater’s nursery bedding, we rescued a bird from the wall of this house, delt with and remedied the broken garbage disposal, we finished Boners homemade cage but he managed to mate with Maybelle anyway and we are expecting baby bunnies in a few weeks now!

In the next two weeks I’ve got 2 prenatal appointments (one at The Farm with Pamela and one with the local OBGYN), I have a chiropractor appointment and my 27th birthday is March 20th.

Then we have the end of March and all of April to pack and move, again. In May I’ll be nesting and unpacking and then I am off to The Farm to have Tater in June! Time is just flying these days, unbelievable…

Oh wait, I skipped over the big news… We found our home!

Saturday we entered a verbal agreement and hashed out all the terms, now we are going back and fourth drafting up a contract. On April 1st we are making a down payment, moving in to the house and will have 12 months to take over ownership of it.

We are super happy and also pretty excited about it all. The place is just what we need right now! It doesn’t need major work to be ready for Tater’s arrival, it is in our price range and it is a pretty good investment for us. Here are some more photos of it from the weekend:

I think we will be very happy there and it is something we can call our own. After 5 years we’ve finally managed to find the right house at the right price and terms. I’ve always wanted to be in our own home before we brought home a baby too. It’s funny how it all works out in the strangest of ways!

Like I’ve said before the last six months have been quite the roller coaster ride for us! We went from making no life progress over several years to making tons of progress all at once within like 6 months. When it rains, it pours!

Oh and I am entering to win a Bumgenius over at http://hotbellymama.blogspot.com/, you can too. Here is how:

The post Time flies… When it Rains, it pours… We have some more news too! appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

Pamela spent over 2 hours with us discussing policies and options. We talked about my health, the progress of the pregnancy, took my stats and she even did an internal examination of my pelvic structure. All went really well!

Shoot I even gained another pound and a half between Thursday and Saturday, I weighed in at almost 112! My blood pressure was normal (100/60) and she agrees that my weight gain of about 12 pounds over the course of 16 weeks of pregnancy is great for my body type and is also normal in pregnancy.

I told her about how upset my OBGYN made me about the weight thing. She said that my OBGYN was most likely just commenting on my weight without taking my body type and personal history in to account. Besides, she agreed with the info in my book that says 14 pounds weight gain is typically the average gain for the end of the 2nd trimester. She also noted that those numbers are only averages and that typically smaller women gain more.

We talked about lots of diet and nutrition stuff, got many pointers on what I need to eat and why. I even asked her about the possibility of “being too small” for a natural birth. She did an internal exam to see how wide and deep my pelvis was and confirmed that I had ample room to birth a baby naturally.

Apparently the visible size of our hips and pelvis from the outside does not indicate the size of the pelvis cavities internally. She even had a pelvis (one of those educational skeleton thingies) to show me and she went over all the measurements of mine compared to the pelvis she was showing me.

We talked about potential complications in natural birth that usually warrant a c-section, things like breach positioning, the shoulders getting stuck or multiple births. She assured me that they have delivered babies in all these situations naturally and that it is no challenge for them, since I am already in their care.

I guess they do turn people away who show up months before delivery wanting a more complicated natural birth (VBAC, breach or multiples) at The Farm who have not gone through prenatal care with them. They are very particular about prenatal care, they want you to have proper attention during pregnancy (even if it is though your local doctor) and they want to thoroughly assess all your risk factors before agreeing to do a natural birth with you. It is not all about making money for them, the want to do what is safest for you and your baby so that means turning people away sometimes.

We also learned that Pamela has EMT training and that all the midwives in the area also participate in the hospitals neonatal intensive care unit training course as a means to further their education. The Farm also has LPN’s and RN’s on staff to, that was a fun tidbit of info for us.

Also, CPM’s are legal in Tennessee and The Farm midwives have a great working relationship with staff at the regional hospital so in the case of emergency (or if the mom simply requests it) there is no hesitation in transporting to the hospital to finish the delivery.

We toured a birthing cabin despite the pouring rain and learned that each room is equip with oxygen, baby warmers and all the essentials. They’ll even analyze my child’s cord blood after delivery to determine if the RhoGam shot is even necessary (which they also have on site to administer.

Both N and I were super pleased with Pamela and are sure birthing at The Farm is right for us. We aren’t required to travel down for anymore prenatal appointments but we are welcome to if we want and are able to work it in to the schedule.

They are working with us to make things convenient with regards to how far we live from The Farm. Pamela will be chatting with us once a month by phone following each prenatal appointment with our local doctor to get updates on the progress of the pregnancy.

We are also forwarding my prenatal charts from the OBGYN to Pamela so she has all the most up to date info on my health and the pregnancy developments. It looks like birthing at The Farm is the direction we are going, for sure and we are so relieved! It really is the best of 2 worlds for us and our birthing needs!

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