Anyway, since the budget has been so tight we have not been reluctant to ask for things we need when someone posts an offer on freecycle. We’ve managed to get some pretty helpful things like pet food and baby stuff which has helped us big time. This last freecycler takes the cake though!

We expected a box or a sack of clothing items when we came to claim the baby girl stuff. She said she had a range of sizes and some various other odds and ends. She wanted the same person to take it all so she could be done with it. Sounded fine to us, we’ll just pick through it and pass on the stuff we don’t need or can’t use.

I have no problem with used baby clothes. I know some people do and N has even felt a bit bad about so much of Tater’s stuff being hand-me-down but the reality is babies grow out of stuff so fast and will only poo and vomit on things so there is no shame in reusing and recycling clothes. Saves money and is good for the environment right?

Don’t get me wrong, we’ve been gifted many new clothing items and we’ve even bought a few special outfits for Tater but after this recent freecycle score we wont need much clothes wise for Tater until she is in 6-9 month stuff, this makes me pretty happy and very relieved.

Here is what we ended up keeping:

This is the newborn & 0-3 month stuff that is hanging to dry after being washed. We don’t have a dryer yet (well we do but it doesn’t plug in to the outlet right now) so this is how we are drying clothes when we can’t hang them outside.

I know, it looks like an explosion of pink baby clothes. Don’t laugh, it saves us money with the electric bill too! Also, the pink might make my eyes bleed but I can’t complain when it is free right?

This box overflowing with clothes contains all the 3-6 month stuff and some blankets that still need to be washed. We got lots of good stuff! There were 4 total trash bags full of clothes, we are keeping about half of it. Freecycle was good to us this time around!

Now for the TMI pregnancy updates, flee if you don’t want to know about my cervix and other lady parts stuff.

I am still 50% effaced and am now 1cm dilated since my last visit a week ago. I’ve gained 4 more pounds (yep 4 in a week, enter your baby weight guess soon!) and have had more frequent BH contractions since last week too. Oh and I am now having some brownish, light spotting that my midwife says is just the result of the recent cervix check. The cervix check didn’t hurt today either.

Haven’t started leaking fluid and haven’t noticed the loss of my mucus plug. I am also not having any painful contractions though I am noticing some pelvic pain that is not accompanied by tightening. I’ve got irritable uterus it seems (Hot Belly Mama opened my eyes to this) and I need to be drinking more water.

Yesterday I ate an entire half of a watermelon in addition to drinking like 4 glasses of unsweetened iced tea. Still need more water though.

We’ve got 23 days until Tater’s “due date”. She is full term on Thursday and in 11 short days I’ll be at The Farm waiting for labor to start. Time is just sort of flying by.

The post Free baby clothes explosion and some TMI pregnancy talk. appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

A few people expressed an interest in hearing the updates from the prenatal appointment we just had back on Friday so here they go:

We met with the 3rd OBGYN in the practice’s rotation this appointment. They like to have you see each doctor once towards the end of the pregnancy just in case you go in to labor and your doctor isn’t on call. Seems pointless since I am not delivering here huh? Well the doctor still doesn’t know that though…

Did you know without “documented” prenatal care homebirth mothers can be at risk for questions and harassment from the authorities? There is a woman on one of the local message boards who had a homebirth and no documented prenatal care and now her pediatrician called CPS on her. She is sharing her saga with us and it is unbelievable.

Apparently not having medical records to prove you were pregnant, if you’ve chosen to forgo modern maternity practices, is a big deal. It is one of the reasons we’ve chosen to continue seeing an OBGYN and partake in the “dog and pony show” despite our plans to deliver with a midwife.

So back to the prenatal update… Surprisingly I didn’t get pressure about refusing the RhoGam shot from this 3rd doctor. She was actually quite respectful, informative, easy to interact with and she had lots of good stuff to share about the pregnancy progress. She acknowledged N and spoke to both of us about my stats throughout the visit. We were both very impressed with her.

She felt I was progressing well and that I appeared to be quite healthy. I weighed in at 128lbs which is 2 pounds lighter than I weighed in last checkup (29 week prenatal appointment) but she wasn’t concerned. Have you placed your baby weight guess yet? Apparently weight gain stalls and in our case of moving houses it is quite understandable to loose a bit of weight between appointments.

Obviously, we’ll want to see a good weight gain in 2 more weeks so I am focusing on exerting myself LESS and eating MORE now so Tater is not getting deprived of anything. I know my eating slowed down and my activity level was through the roof while we were doing the bulk of the moving. See how fickle my weight is and how fast my metabolism works?

Also, we were happy to see my blood pressure decrease! I was right back at 100/70 which is pretty much where I started out at in the pregnancy. The doctor advised me to watch how fast I change positions and to not overdo things as I am tiny and have lower blood pressure so I am more likely to become faint or to pass out from sudden position changes.

She also commented on the sticky note in my chart regarding my tendency to pass out during blood draws, she said it probably had more to do with my size and blood pressure and less to do with anxiety or phobia. LOL

I measured in at 31 centimeters for my fundal height which is right on target for the gestational age according to her and Tater is still head down. We are still checking out good and I am feeling good as well. My stress level is also way under control now that we are moved and in the home stretch of the pregnancy (which probably has lots to do in my blood pressure change).

We talked with the doctor about my blood glucose monitoring and she gave some diet and activity advice to help me. Like i’ve said  before on my junk food binges I’ve tested at 120 and my fasting levels are in the 70’s-80’s. She just basically said that I needed to keep and eye on those foods and drinks that were elevating my blood sugar (the junk food carbs and sugars) and to lay off them as much as needed to keep within normal range, common sense and easy enough right? Yep!

I told N that if for some reason I do end up in preterm labor and we can’t make it to The Farm in time we need to make sure she was the doctor we asked for at the hospital. She is the ONLY one we could see ourselves under the care of, if need be. It was refreshing to meet and to get some good info from her and the prenatal visit was not even stressful this time! Next pregnancy I am going to use her as my OBGYN.

The post 31 week prenatal update and brain dump 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.

– Yesterday we signed the paperwork and paid the down payment for our new home. We got the keys and have begun slowly but surely moving stuff in over there. The utilities aren’t on there yet but they will be soon and I planned on doing a live video tour of the new place on April 2nd to share it with you.

– The video home tour will take place at 3pm Indiana time and will be posted @ http://www.harvestofdailylife.com/webcasts-vlog-live-chat for your viewing and chatting pleasure. It will also be recorded and available for you to view at any time after the live broadcast, you just wont be able to participate in the live chat.

– Got a funny call from my OBGYN’s office today! After not calling back to schedule my 3 hour blood test like they wanted on Friday they placed a follow up call this morning that I missed. Then this afternoon I get another call from them and they’ve changed their tune!

I was told by the nurse practitioner that “when the doctor was filled in she decided, since I only failed by one point, and because I have such a hard time with blood draws… that they would LET me skip the follow up test” if I came in and had a chat with my doctor about all the particulars.

I told the nurse that we were going to decline the 2nd test anyway and that we would come in to talk with the doctor about it all since I want to be written a prescription for the blood glucose test strips so I can just test and mange it all on my own. Isn’t it funny and kind of odd that they have changed their tune all the sudden?

– Oh, rent is due on the 1st right… Well, the slumlady never dropped that mutual release letter back off to us like she said she would. We met with her back on March 13th and she assured us she would retun the letter signed, she also said she would swing by to pick up our April 1st rent (as opposed to her just using our security deposit to cover it like we suggested).

Since she is still NOT following through with what she says she’ll do we’ve decided we are also going to quit following through with our own obligations. She can keep our security deposit for April’s rent, we’ll give her a check for any supposid “damages to the property” upon move out inspection and we are done.

Heck she can sue us if she really wants to, we would be happier if she did that way we could lay our case out to a judge (without having to pay crazy fees to begin the legal process) and get this all delt with officially. I bet she wont sue though, she seems to be avoiding paper trails and official stuff like the plague. We probably wont even be able to get her to do a move out inspection.

Oh, on Saturday we hid in the basement waiting out our Tornado warning and the basement flooded again. It was flowing like a river down there, I even took a video of it for fun. Luckily there wan’t ever a tornado, just another flood in the basement. We were kind of hoping that a tree would cave in the roof here or something, that would end our lease early I bet! LOL…

If you didn’t get email notification of the online shower Maiden53 put up for me you can check it out here. Be sure to stop by to sign the guest book and play a game or two. Oh and you’ll be able to see some cute photos of the baby bump (and her heartbeat) there too!

The post Just passing through to leave a quick update or On the move again! appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.

I never imagined I would receive so much helpful information as a result of that post and I am now very glad I choose to share my vulnerable moment with the internet. There really is so much knowledge and support out there!

Basically after reading all the comments you left and after chatting with many people about it I’ve got some direction and resolution. I found out that my mother also failed her GD tests with each of her 3 pregnancies. After failing the tests all they did was advise her of ways to eat a better diet. Essentially they did nothing more to treat the issue, my brothers and I we were all born fine…

Also, my midwife is not concerned about my failing the gestational diabetes screen by 1 point. When I talked to her she said her major concern for me was to watch my blood pressure and any potential swelling (you know preeclampsia or pregnancy induced hypertension).

She also suggested that I get my hands on a blood glucose meter so I could monitor my own blood sugar levels at home (for peace of mind). She said I didn’t need to follow up with the second 3 hour blood glucose test like my OBGYN wants. Nothing wrong with saving myself the stress and the insurance company money.

She did say we should keep an eye on my sugar levels with a meter for a few weeks just to be sure nothing funny really is going on. If I do show blood sugar problems with day to day testing then we’ll dive right in to diet modification.

Even if I was officially diagnosed with GD after the 3 hour blood glucose test I would only be advised to change my diet. In rare cases when a woman’s blood glucose level is super high insulin can be given as a treatment method but with my test coming back at 140 (which is normally the highest normal result with other physicians) all this is a bit funny to be getting worked up over.

For most women GD is something that can be managed and even avoided with the proper diet and nutrition. It’s not a world shattering thing for the average woman like the doctors make it out to be.

We’ve decided to decline the 3 hour blood glucose test along with the RhoGam shot the OBGYN is pushing. Either they will respect our decisions about it all and back off or they will continue pushing and we’ll just cancel our appointments and discontinue care with them.

We are definitely planning to get a blood glucose meter to keep tabs on by blood sugar here at home just to be sure we aren’t ignoring any potential issues. Plus, the glucose meter will help me to see what foods (if any) are impacting me.

We are pretty sure there is no blood sugar problem, I just need to focus on eating more good stuff like I was trying to do back in the first trimester before the bad advice from the OBGYN.

Eating well is always something I’ve had to conciously focus on, if I let my cravings dictate my eating I’ll eat nothing but crap, I knew that when I discovered I was pregnant. Then I let the OBGYN make me feel bad for not eating what I was craving, now I need to just go back to my initial way of thinking. I can do that!

The post Gestational diabetes screening in pregnant woman, how my situation unfolds. appeared first on Updates from Ryder Family Farm.