Homebirth is not for every woman and every pregnancy which is why there needs to be adequate laws and regulations in place to protect women and midwives (like there are in Tennessee). Homebirth should be an acceptable and viable option for most but thanks to one sided stories, scare tactics and profit driven laws it is not. This is sad and maddening to me.

Another thing that is wearing on my nerves is breastfeeding ignorance. Everly is just over a month old and we are exclusively breastfeeding. We haven’t introduced the bottle or a pacifier because we don’t want to cause “nipple confusion” and disrupt the working breastfeeding relationship (you are supposed to wait until 6-8 weeks). For some reason people who hardly know me can’t wrap their minds around this and it is annoying me. (If you are reading this, it’s not about you I promise!)

Sure bottles and pacifiers would be more convenient but they aren’t best for E at this time (in my mind) and I’ve chosen to commit to breastfeeding, why can’t people understand and respect this? Plus she wont have anything to do with them anyway.

Speaking of respect, my ex-doctors office (remember the bad OBGYN?) sold my info to formula companies without my consent. I’ve been receiving formula vouchers like crazy and I’ve got free formula coming out my ears now!

Sure, free stuff is nice but not when you wont use it and the only reason they are giving it is to get you to mess up with breastfeeding and to get you hooked on their products. It is like they are tempting you to give up on breastfeeding. And don’t even get me started on how little support exists for breastfeeding moms…

Can you tell I am running on major lack of sleep? I am all irritable and full of complaints today.

The post People just don't get it sometimes… appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

It’s a rainy 4th of July here. We’ll see if any neighbors set off fireworks tonight like they were doing last night, probably not since it is raining. It’s all good though! Everly got to see her first fireworks last night in our backyard. The neighbors have been setting them off for days. That is enough for us.

Oh and for those of you who entered the baby weight contest I’ve got results! Sadly only 5 people entered the pool. The morning my water broke I weighed in at a whopping 151lbs!

When I weighed myself a week after delivery I weighed 115lbs. The combination of the two weigh-ins totals 266. That means Maiden53 and Teeni are the winners of the cash pool since their guesses were the closest to 266, I’ll get the money to your paypal accounts ladies!

Here is the list of the entries.

Hopefully everyone is having a safe and fun 4th of July and hopefully Everly will sleep well tonight. Take care!

The post Just having a relaxing 4th of July here at home. appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

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.

Happy Friday to all! This is a prewritten (brain dump) post as we are off at the OBGYN early this morning for the 31 week checkup and more fights about the RhoGam shot. When will this OBGYN care be done? (Oh yeah, we need to fire them already.)

We are also finishing up last minute cleaning at the old place this morning in addition to running several loads of laundry over there while we’ve still got access to the washer and dryer. I am trying to make sure we wash all the baby clothes and anything else we might need to launder now because as soon as we turn the keys over we are without a washer and dryer.

Not sure if I mentioned this but N and I talked and prioritized stuff. It looks like we are going to be laundry mat people until after we’ve paid off the remaining $2000 for Tater’s birth costs. It just doesn’t seem smart for us to spend money we don’t have on something that wont be a good investment for us…

We were considering finding a cheapo, top loading, used washer that we could snag for $100 or less to tide us over. Then we went window shopping for washers last weekend and saw some nifty floor model, energy star washers for only $400-$500 at Home Depot.

We’ve been eying those energy star, front loading beauties for quite some time and if we can hold off a few months, get the birth paid off and save we’ll be able to buy one that is just what we want and need.

Like everything else in the world it is one of those things we need and want but just can’t have immediately. It will take some saving and patience that’s all.

Heck we might even get some gift cards from people that we can use to help us pay for a portion of  the washer, since the washer is a must for cloth diapering and all… Basically we’ve just resolved to wait on it for now. The timing and cash flow isn’t right.

Besides, I could always walk down to our “pond” out back and launder the clothes old fashion style…

LOL! I am kidding, don’t freak out. I am just spewing all the random thoughts out right now. I would wash them in the tub if need be, not the muddy pond, Seesh! (Kidding again!)

Oh, in other news N got a set of comp media tickets to see Spelling Bee this weekend so we’ll be enjoying a date night out and a Tony-Award winning show which is always super fun for us.

It looks like we are going to have a warm, stress free and fun-filled weekend. It has been well overdue I think and it gives me a reason to get all spiffied up and looking nice for a change. TGIF!

Hopefully you are all having a nice Friday and are looking forward to a nice weekend.

The post Picture this: Talina washing laundry in the pond out back and balancing a laundry basket on her head… appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

Perhaps it is because he is apparently swallowing whole pieces of food as opposed to chewing them like every other animal in the world. Yep, those whole bits came right from his stomach!

Nothing like the sound of a cat preparing to vomit waking you from your afternoon pregnancy nap and when you try to quicky move him from the carpet to a vomit safe tiled area. BAM, explosive vomit stream shoots from his mouth and splatters the white carpet. AND, there is not carpet cleaner here for me to clean the mess up with. Double WTF!

Called N and told him to either pick me up so orange dye for the carpet or to bring home some damn carpet cleaner for the explosive vomit mess.

And now I present you with the view of our recently cleaned out basement at the old place.The stuff has been moved out, the carpets are vacuumed and we are just about done cleaning the place-

Wait! WTF is that in the corner? Is the wall leaking again and flooding the basement? I thought it was a dry day today…

Oh, wait. We shouldn’t be surprised. It is just mold, like I’ve been saying all along. Except now we can actually see evidence of it with our own eyes. Big shocker huh?

Notice how it is all pretty and furry it is growing on top of the carpet and up the wood siding? There are black, green and even some gray types all mixed together. Ooo, so enchanting – NOPE!

More like effing disgusting and super bad for the body! Sure mold isn’t a big deal if you can clean it up with some bleach or something. Too bad the mold is growing under and now right on top of totally finished areas that if bleached will look severely destroyed.

It is no wonder N has been draining some major crap from his sinuses since we’ve moved to our new, not toxic house! Now if the slumloards don’t set up a freaking move out inspection with us and take back possession of this shit-hole of a house I am going to get really nasty!

I am talking having all neighbors come over to walk through the house and observe it’s current state, while we video tape the whole thing. Then we’ll call the sheriff and give them the keys to the house with a copy of our video or something. Heck I might even put the walk through video online for the world to see and perhaps I’ll share the address of the house, to warn any future tenants…

Seriously! All I can say is WTF? Okay, I am done now. Happy wordless Wednesday everyone.

The post Wordless Wednesday: WTF? Edition!! appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.