here he is!

Zachariah!

Birth Announcement!

Our son was born into this world at 11:10am on Monday november 24, 2008.  He was born into daddy’s hands in our tub, with biggest sis watching and helping to cut the umbilical cord.  Labor was about 4.5 hours and the most intense out of them all, but with the great help of my husband and midwives (and support from my mom and neice) we had our third homebirth. The oldest two are in love with their new brother but the thirdborn doesn’t really know what to think (then again, she’s only 15 months old).

I just wanted to post the update real quick – off to bed with me!

Any day now, baby #4 will be here

I’ve finished nearly all of the projects I want to have done before baby arrives.  This includes:

- Canning chicken and beef stock
- rendering most of my tallow (I only have a few bags of fat left, which I’ll keep frozen until we get the meat grinder for my KitchenAid, then I’ll thaw, grind, and render)
- make curtains for our bedroom
- Switch the kids playroom with my office on the 2nd floor
- Make a number of healthy snacks to have on hand for the first few days after birth
- Process our latest meat order (preparing and wrapping chicken breasts in our favorite cuts, mainly.  The ground chuck is already packaged in 2lb packages)
- Get birthing supplies, baby clothes, cloth diapers and all of that baby related stuff taken care of.
- Cleaning the house!
- Get some soap curing for holiday gifts (two batches are done)

Now all i have left to do, hopefully tomorrow, is:
- make a snake to catch drafts from our front door
- Fill our freezer with easy meals my husband can thaw and heat (I was waiting on our meat order!)
- Return our library books before they all become late
- Can some cooked chicken (for an easier time making chicken potpies, I’d rather have a jar of chicken ready to use rather than thaw, cube and cook chicken)

I’m taking a much more controlled approach to this birth – I know how crazy life is with three little ones, I’m admittedly quite curious as to how life is going to go with a fourth little one (this will be our fourth in 4.5 years).  I’ve never done so much preparing, with ‘pre-baby’ projects.  I think i had a mental block on going into labor before these last few things were done, because once I got most everything done, my body started showing signs that labor will be here soon.

Thinking back, after my first was born, I didn’t really have much of a chance to rest.  I didnt’ really need one.  After our second was born, I really needed time to recover, but my husband was having a lot of trouble adjusting to Mr. Mom AND he had to return to work within a few days of the birth.  I would have benefited from some pre-baby planning like keeping the house picked up, filling the freezer with food, and having a gameplan.  With our third, i was up and back to being mom the evening after I gave birth.  I felt great!  Should I have?  Probably not.  I didn’t get back to anything tiresome or grueling, but I was up making no-bakes for my husband that evening after resting much of the day.

With this one, I really want to be prepared – whether I need extra help or not.  I want to make the transition easy on the whole family, especially my husband, by handling what I can BEFORE the baby gets here, so that when I’m in labor, I don’t have to worry about things. 

In our household, my husband is the one that brings home the bacon, and I cook it.  Meaning, his duties are outside of the home and mine are within it.  I enjoy this very much, and it suits both of our personalities and abilities perfectly.  I don’t expect anything from him around the house other than to bring home the money to pay bills, and he handles all of the outdoor stuff – car repairs, lawn work, house repairs.  In exchange, I take care of all the house chores, do my best to spend his paycheck wisely, handle kid care, homeschooling and homesteading tasks.  So when his role gets reversed 100%, it’s a hard adjustment to suddenly have to care for small children and a wife, when he’s never had so much responsibility around the house.  That’s not to say he DOESN’T help – if I need his help he’s right there, if I have questions or want his opinion on how our schooling is doing, he’s there, he helps with schooling on things that I’m struggling over teaching or the kids understanding… It’s not like he’s completely absent from our lives at home.  He drives a truck over the road right now and is gone much of the week and home on weekends, so when he IS home I’d rather spend time with him and the kids too, rather than have a list of house chores to keep him busy.  Well, even when he wasn’t working we still handled things the same way – I’d care for him, our kids and our home.  It’ satisfying to me.  Anyway…

Ideally I’ll have a big meal in the crockpot for after the birth, a clean and organized home, someone to watch the kids while I labor, and the companionship of midwives and family that I love and trust.  After the birth I’ll have showered and perhaps go to bed for a nap – or at least sit on the couch in the living room and let the kids oogle over their new brother or sister.  I’d hate to make them wait to see their brother or sister again if I went away to sleep, and I can catch a catnap on the couch until the initial excitement passes over.  My oldest daughter is dead set on watching the birth and cutting the umbilical cord.  She is so involved with my pregnancies and just loves the whole idea of pregnancy and babies. 

I had what is probably my final midwife visit today.  The baby is very low and they guess we’ll have a baby by the weekend.  I’m betting on that as well, based on what my body has been doing.  I hope I have enough time tomorrow to complete those last tasks! 

I’ll post when baby arrives!

Waiting on baby!

My birth kit has arrived, my birthing supplies are ready.  I’m trying to keep the house picked up and am trying to prepare a freezer full of meals so that when baby decides to make his or her arrival, my husband isn’t bombarded with being Mr. Mom in a cluttered home with no food ready to eat.  And to be honest, when my kids eat boxed or canned meals, most of it causes them to become hyperactive and misbehave.  Not the thing I want while trying to recover from birth and cheer my hubby on (who only ever takes on my chores when I have a baby.  he got off lucky with our last baby – i was back to being mom full time the evening I gave birth because I felt GREAT!)  Quality, healthy, homemade meals are the name of the game to keep three children under the age of 4.5 happy, obedient and cheerful   

I must be crazy, because I DID end up switching my office with my kids playroom.  My indoor garden is thanking me (it’s the upstairs windows shown in the blog banner, at the front of the house).  I pulled up some spinach and green pepper plants before the frost hit, and they’re both thriving in their pots. 

I made some soap from all the tallow I’ve been rendering.  We ended up buying fragerant oils, which I wasn’t happy about but was so desperate to make some soap and couldn’t find any true essential oils anywhere I went so we settled on an apple scent and I added oatmeal to the soap.  I have 32 bars of soap curing and if they turn out well (my husband couldn’t wait any longer and just took a shower and said the soap rocks.  It’s lathery, moisturizing and my husbands new favorite soap), I may give them as Christmas presents.  As I rendered the tallow, i went ahead and weighed it in the correct ounces I’d need for future batches to take out SOME of the work involved in weighing everything.  I’m looking forward to making more soap.

Candlemaking is next. I just need to gather the few supplies I need for making wicks and I’ll be ready to go.  The latest projects around the homestead here have been: tending to my indoor veggie and herb garden, making a bunch of breadcrumbs, making and canning stocks, pasta making, cleaning and organizing.  I made an alfredo sauce for my husband that he loved and tried a shredded roast beef recipe for the crockpot that was also a really big hit. 

Homeschooling has been going great – I think my son is ready for some pre-k stuff so I am going to include some lessons for him in addition to my oldest daughter.

I need some sleep, so g’nite!