Tuesday Garden Update

Well everything is growing, though we do have some out of control summer squash. We have yet to plant the corn, though I plan on getting that done this weekend. My only big disappointments so far is the flowers which some little critter keeps eating the seedlings of and the strawberries. Who knew flower seedlings were so yummy. Our garden at this house is at the end of the yard due to most of our yard being shaded. I am a BIG believer in keeping your garden very close to your house, I think you are much more likely to keep up with it, if it is right out your door. One of the draw backs of it being so removed from the house is that all the little animals have no fear of going and stealing our strawberries. Next year I will have to put the strawberry container right next to the house and maybe we will actually get to eat some.

We have tomatoes, cucumbers and summer squash almost ready to be picked.

So here it is in all of it's late spring glory. Sailor has been doing a GREAT job tending to her pumpkin plants.

The Garden 2010

Almost everything has made it into the garden, which seeing as I now have 3 kids and one of them is 4 weeks old I am feeling pretty good about it. I don't think it will be as big as last year but hopefully will do just as well.

2010 Plants:
*Strawberries - 8 plants
*Zucchinis - 3 plants
*Yellow Summer Squash - 3 plants
*Cherry Tomato's - 2 plants
*Roma Tomato's - 2 plants
*Pumpkins - 6 plants
*Watermelons - 3 plants
*Cantaloupe - 3 plants
*Bell Peppers - 7 plants
*Cucumbers - 4 plants
* Herbs - basil & parsley.

Okay so I know what you are thinking, WAY to much summer squash!!! But we did not do well with our squash last year so I over planted hoping some would die and some would make it. If they all live we will be putting squash in neighbors mailboxes;)

I do think I will do some corn again this year but I am planning on planting late, after the strawberries have quit. Last year we got our corn the first week of July so I think we will be fine to go a month later.

We also planted an entire raised bed of cutting flowers, this is something my mom has always done and I think it is often over looked. Often fresh flowers are WAY more expensive than vegetables in the grocery store. Therefore I rarely splurge but for a few dollars and with very little effort it is so easy to have your house filled with flowers all summer. Zinnia's are our personal favorite because they produce so many gorgeous flowers in so many different colors.

We did raised beds with Mel's Mix from Square Foot Gardening and the self watering planters from A Garden Patch.

Here is what it looks like so far:

SHE is HERE!!!!

Our daughter Linden Hazel Groom arrived on April 3rd 2010 at 2:26pm. She was 8pounds 12ounces and 20 1/2 inches long. She joined our family finally at 42 weeks and 1 day.



Here is the story of our very short homebirth:

Meredith one of our midwives had come over to do a membrane sweep on Friday April 2nd and I was 4cm with a bulging bag of water. We thought for sure that now at 42 weeks and being 4cm that this would convince our little baby to join us. We were wrong. Staring at about 37 weeks I had 3 different occasions of false labor. One of them so convincing that we had actually filled the birthing tub and called the midwives. I had never understood how women could be unsure if they were in labor or not since with my other two birth's it was so obvious, now I know. I had also been having strong braxton hicks contractions for many weeks.

Olivia our head midwife had decided she wanted to come over on Saturday to discuss doing an "induction" since by NC law I was pushing my limits as to whether I could even have a homebirth anymore. Normal term pregnancy is considered 37-42 weeks, at 42 weeks and 1 I was now considered to be out of "normal" range. I was feeling great and baby was kicking a ton, so I was unsure as to how I felt about giving baby an eviction notice. I truly believe that they will for the most part come when they are good and ready and I did not want to deprive our baby of any amount of time she needed inside my womb.

Olivia arrived on the morning of Saturday, April 3rd to discuss our options. She was willing to let me choose what I wanted but thought it was in our best interest to go ahead with the induction, since we were sure of our dates. I agreed to start with some cervical pressure points. So at about 11am she did some cervical pressure points. Olivia headed out to get some brunch and said her and Meredith would be at our house in a couple hours. Chris and Sailor went to drop Hudson off at a birthday party for our close friend's son, she also happened to be our doula. I was having nothing but painless braxton hicks contractions. When Olivia and Meredith arrived at our home at 1pm they sat down to discuss with me their concerns about the heavy Easter weekend traffic. We live on an island that has one bridge in and out and this was not only Easter weekend but it was also the first really nice weekend. The local weatherman was promising sun and temperatures to be in the 80's all weekend so getting on the Island was getting tough. Our midwives also both live about an hour dive from us. So it was decided that they would be staying in the immediate area till baby arrived even if it meant spending their weekend in a hotel. We decided to do another round of cervical pressure points and an herbal "induction" using cotton root bark ticture to bring on some contractions. Olivia did the pressure points and found me to be 5cm with my water bag still bulging. I then took the first dose of cotton root bark at 1:25pm and then 15 minutes later took the second (1:40pm). I asked them if we could start filling the birthing pool since our water heater is only 40 gallons and I knew it would take forever to get it filled with warm water. They agreed as long as I was aware that I would not get to get in until I was in active labor. They checked heart tones and then I got up to go pee where I immediately had a contraction. I had the constant feeling of having to pee, she must have been pushing on my bladder or something. So I felt most comfortable in the bathroom. After about 2 or 3 contractions I was already moaning and asked Meredith for some cold wash cloths. I had taken the phone into the bathroom with me so I called Chris to make sure he was on his way home. He said he had just told Sailor one more minute and they would be getting in the car. I labored mostly on the toilet sitting on it with the seat down while I ran wash cloths under cold water in the sink while calling our doula who had Hudson at her sons birthday party and Chris to tell him I wanted him home. I called him again at 1:59pm to tell him I needed him NOW. He said he was cutting people off in traffic and driving as fast as he could. Meanwhile I was watching my midwives running up and down the hallway bringing in and setting up all the birth supplies. They would poke their heads in the door and tell me I was doing great. Olivia brought me gatorade and Meredith came in and sat on the edge of our bath tub so she could rub my back. During one of my contractions she said I was doing great and baby was coming soon. Only this is like my 7 or 8 contraction and I am think she is lying to me already this can't be good. Erin our doula said she was putting Hudson in her car and heading to our house. Meredith then said she saw our car pulling in. Chris arrived about 8 minutes after I called him, so around 2:07. He ran in gave me a kiss and told me he was going to put on the movie we had bought and hidden from the kids to keep them busy during my labor. Meredith reminded me to keep my voice and energy low, she said she hadn't wanted to mention it until Chris was here. He knelt down in front of me and helped me through about 2 or 3 contractions and then my water broke. I was still sitting on the toilet seat lid with underwear on. I screamed; "my water broke and the baby is COMING" Olivia dove on the bathroom floor to catch the baby. I yelled "NOT YET I AM GETTING IN THE POOL" someone ran to see if there was even enough water in it. They said it should be okay. I was helped into the pool by Olivia and Meredith, Chris had run to get a bathing suit on. I stepped into the pool and then knelt down, I quickly had a contraction, screamed and caught our daughter's head. I don't think Olivia had even gotten a chance to kneel down yet. I then grabbed onto the side of the pool while Meredith held one of my hips to make sure I didn't come out of the water since there was only about 10 inches in the pool. Olivia asked for my hands so I could catch our baby but I was not mentally present enough to do it so she caught our baby at 2:26pm, 46 minutes after my first contraction.




We had been calling for Sailor but she did not get into the room until I was sitting in the tub with Linden on my chest. Though we still had not checked the sex so she was the first one to look. I think she was as dazed and confused as I was, not surprisingly she had just gotten out of the car with Chris a few minutes earlier. But she was thrilled to have gotten the little SISTER she had wished for.



It was needles to say a VERY fast and EXCITING birth and though it was great being so fast, Sailor was 8 hours and Hudson was 4, I will say I was in a dazed shock afterwords. I did not get that post birth high until much later. After I got into our bed and the midwives had gone home, I had to ask Chris about some of the details. Like when did he ever have time to put his bathing suit on, it was while they we walking me to the tub and where he was when she was born. He said he had gotten one foot in the tub.



Erin our doula and Hudson arrived shortly after I got out of the tub, there was not enough water and it was not warm enough for baby and me to stay in it for very long. Erin was shocked to discover she had missed it and Hudson was thrilled to see the baby he had been waiting so long for.



We are all doing amazingly well. We owe so much to all our birthing team who were incredible. We were so blessed to have the women of Midwifery Services and Erin Bonello our doula to care for all of us during this pregnancy and birth and we are so thankful for them.

Waiting

Right now is all about waiting and practicing being patient. We are due with baby number three and I guess we all thought he or she would be with us by now. We should have known better, I think as a whole we as a society somehow think that making a baby is somehow comparable to a factory assembly line. We have some sort of expectation that a baby should grow in a certain amount of time. Why we would think that of a living thing I do not know. I could plant a row of seeds and there are always a few that show up early, some in the middle and a few stragglers but in the end they all grow up to young little plants. Though knowing all this to be true has not made waiting any easier. Especially considering all the false starts this baby has given us. The tub has already been filled and drained our doula has been called multiple times to just let her know we were having some good contractions. So for now we will continue to wait and stare at the little diapers, shirts and socks in the drawer all washed and ready.

Big Changes

I have know this was coming for a little while now, the hubby enjoyed becoming best friends with denial. The house we are currently living in is being foreclosed on. So we are moving on and yes for those of you who remember it was just this Spring we moved in, 5 months ago. I knew it was going to happen, someone had come to the house and had asked us if we were renters and did we have a lease. There were also two drive by's of a car who paused briefly enough for a picture of the front of the house. That combined by the fact that we live in a town hard hit by the economy I knew it was just around the corner.

So what did I do, start looking and altering plans. I looked for a new home for our chickens and a new home for us. I also didn't put in a fall garden, scared that all my hard work would go to waste. Well the front yard looks bare and sad with no garden and the backyard is quite. We found a great couple that took Marge and Ruby even though they turned out to be Mark and Robert. That's right roosters, I had no idea. They didn't fight, got along great with Whiskey, didn't crow and let me pet them and pick them up. I guessed we would have figured it out. It turns out the couple who came to get them knew exactly where we had gotten them, a farmer now known for selling all roosters as sex link hens. He had actually sold them their first birds, 23 of them in total to bad 22 were roosters!!!! They were so kind to take them one for them and one for a neighbor. We found a great family who needed a coop, I told the hubby he should start a side business as a chicken coop builder, he said he was going to pass.

We were so lucky to find a house that had just been put up for rent that is exactly what we need. We will now be living down in Oak Island where the hubby works. I will miss this little town of Southport and our amazing neighbors. We loved being able to walk around everyday. On the other hand we will now be a LOT closer to the beach, as in walking distance so that will be nice. The hubby signs the new lease today and we move in soon, two weeks.

I know there are a lot of families going through something very similar and it is just so sad. You end up loosing so much, there are programs out there. Cash for Keys is one of them, unfortunately you have to wait until you are forced out by the bank to really get any help. For us that wasn't an option, we weren't going to wait until the bank said get out and then rush to see if we could find a place to live just so we could get reimbursed for some of our losses.

I'm BACK.

For those of you check in, sorry for the long absence. This pregnancy has been a bit more challenging than my other two. I am usually one of those lucky pregnant women who hit the second trimester and feel amazing. By now I am usually driving the hubby crazy with all my cleaning, organizing and project lists. But this time around I am lucky if I get some food on the table for everyone twice a day. The good news is each day I seem to feel a little better than the last.

We are managing to get our homeschool/unschooling life organized. We got a bunch of new art supplies, we have been good about making frequent trips to the library and following Sailor's request we are holding school at home. We have been following the Oak Meadow Kindergarten program. She also loves to do show and tell and have recess but I will be back with more on all of that later this week.

For now thank you for being patient as our Summer here ran a little long.

Lack of Blogging

I am sorry I have been so absent lately. I had promised myself I would be here at least twice a week and lately I have been lucky to get one post in every couple of weeks. But I must say I have two really good reasons for not blogging lately.

The first:


I just LOVE this and found it through Kelly over at Our Lincoln Log, I am truly a prisoner of summer in all aspects of my life right now which you would know if you came to my house. I am on a sort of mommy strike at the moment. Leaving my wonderful husband to pick up the pieces or at least the laundry. You can click on the button to come and take the POS pledge.

Reason #2:


This one is even better though. I or I guess I should say We are expecting baby #3!!!! That's right I am pregnant again and we are sooo excited. We had decided to leave it up to the fertility gods to see if we would have baby #3. Truth be told I was really worried it wouldn't happen with Hudson still nursing during the day and night. But Artemis must have been looking down on us because I am 8 weeks and due around March 18, 2010. We have already met with the local homebirth midwife. Their is only one in our area, thank goodness she is amazing and we fell in love with her when we met her for the first time. North Carolina has horrible laws regarding midwifery and we are lucky to have anyone willing to practice here. Hopefully though the Big Push and NC Friends of Midwives will be able to change all that. As for me this has been my easiest first trimester as of yet but I am lacking all motivation and I mean to do ANYTHING. My poor kids, lucky for all of us the grandparents will be in town on Wednesday to help out for a week. In the mean time I will be hiding in my air conditioned house most likely in my PJ's allowing the kids to watch as much TV as they want and praying the hubby will cook diner, clean up this mess, put the kids to bed and tell me how beautiful I look even though I don't have the energy to even take a shower. I love him so much. I promise by fall and the arrival of my second trimester I will be here on a much more regular schedule. Until then enjoy the dog days of Summer.