Aaron's Birth Story

Now that Aaron's six months old, maybe I should write about how he got here! If I can remember everything, in the right chronological order, anyway!

One day in early to mid May, I thought for sure my water broke. Turns out, embarrassingly enough, it wasn't my water...just a baby head on my bladder. I can't tell you how funny my husband thought that was! I was significantly less amused. This was about three weeks before I ended up having Aaron, and that's when I had my first exam from the midwife. She said then that I was 3cm dilated, 80% effaced, and she could feel the baby's head, and since we all thought it was my water breaking, she told me I'd probably be having the baby soon! (We realized it wasn't my water when a couple days went by and absolutely nothing happened...we weren't worried because you continually produce more amniotic fluid, so there was no chance of the baby running out, and we were careful to prevent infection, while we thought it was broken water!)

So anyway, that got me on a major high, because I really thought I was having a baby any day. Any stinkin' day. Aaaaannnnyyy day now...for three weeks! I went on like that for two weeks, and I'd have a few painless cramps every evening when I went to bed, but nothing serious. After two weeks of that, I started having crampy feelings one morning and got really excited! THIS is it! Well...out came the midwife again, she checked me again, and I was 5cm, 90% effaced, baby's head was RIGHT there and engaged....but then nothing else. The cramps went away again. They came and went for days and days. I had dilated all the way to 5cm without really having any painful contractions at all! Some of them were a little uncomfortable and they'd keep me awake sometimes, but nothing I'd consider really painful. (We decided later I have a high pain tolerance, I guess.)

At almost a week past my due date (which was May 29th,) I started some natural labor getter-goings. I took fenugreek, evening primrose oil, and ended up taking castor oil a couple days before I actually went into labor. I've heard horror stories about the castor oil, but it didn't really do anything to me...I'm so weird! I don't think any of that really did much.... I also walked. And walked. Not a mile or anything...more like four. For a few days. And nothing happened! The good thing (and somewhat frustrating, at that point,) is that natural things to get labor started just won't work if you're not ready to go into labor yet. It's not like medically inducing at all.

So, after weeks of dilation and cramps and impatient waiting, I woke up June 5th with something different. The midwife had told me that if I woke up with "contractions" that wouldn't go away, to take a shower and see if they went away then. I got up around 4am and got in the shower and had four of them in the 20 minutes I was in the shower. (Yes, I've been told I take long showers.) I went back to bed and laid there for a while and I was still having contractions but they weren't really timeable, because they weren't regular and I couldn't feel any kind of peak really. I was a little bit hesitant to call my midwife again, because I'd called her with false alarms a few times and I really thought this would be like the other times...they would eventually go away. In the meantime, Jacob had gotten up and went on to work...he asked if he needed to stay home, but I really didn't want him to stay home and then it be nothing again! (At the time he was working over an hour away.) I laid around til 9am or so and finally did call the midwife, after I'd had contractions every 5 minutes for an hour. She was surprised and said they (I had two midwives...the main one and an assistant) would be on their way soon. Since I wasn't going about this "right" (no textbook labor for me! I'd been in labor for 3 weeks already!) we had no idea what I'd do next...if I'd go really fast since I was already halfway there, or what! I was just sure that once they got there and checked me, I'd be all the way dilated and ready to go...the contractions I'd had for the past few hours were definitely different and more uncomfortable, though I still wouldn't call them really painful.

Well, once the midwives got there, got settled and moved in, and checked me, I was all the way to....SIX stinkin' centimeters! And then once everyone got there (midwives, mother-in-law, mom, and one of Jacob's cousin's wives) my contractions pretty much stopped. I'd have one every 30 minutes, if I was lucky. I kept on like that for a couple more hours...very irregular if anything. We were just having a party sitting around and talking and laughing and eating.  After a little while of that, the midwife checked again and I was 8cm and my water broke for real then. So we called Jacob and told him to hurry on home...now! (It had to be soon, right?!) That was around 1pm, June 5th. (He said he told his boss I was 8cm and my water broke and his boss said "you better hurry!") I guess he got home around 2pm (times are kinda fuzzy...) and still nothing. I was walking and going up and down porch steps and doing a little bit of everything to try to get this thing going...and nothing was happening! I still wasn't having regular contractions at all!

In the meantime, Jacob went and got some pizzas and we still just sat around having a big party, laughing and cutting up. I would have a contraction every now and then, and they were more uncomfortable, but still not horrid labor pains like I'd heard about. My midwife would watch me and could see when I was having one, but other than that, there weren't a lot of indicators to everyone else. I mean, I wasn't screaming or anything!

By about 10pm, I was all the way dilated and still didn't feel like pushing at all, but they had me start pushing some, to try to stimulate pushing contractions, I guess. (If I had it to do over, I'd have waited until the real thing...seeing as I still had so long to go. It really wore me out.) It wasn't too long before I was pushing my guts out about every 2 minutes...I did eventually start having regular pushing contractions. It started hurting more then, and that didn't go away! I pushed and pushed and pushed...and not much was happening. The midwife said I had an issue with a cervical lip, so she had to hold that back while I pushed. Ow. Like super ow. Once that was out of the way, Aaron got stuck behind my pubic bone. She couldn't really do much about that, so I changed positions a lot trying to get him under that. We finally got past that and I pushed and pushed and there still wasn't anything happening. She said there was some muscle in there that wasn't stretching like it was supposed to and they tried to stretch it while I pushed. Super Super Ow!

This whole time I was pushing my guts out, I was sitting up in our bed, with someone holding my legs up for me to push against. By the end, I was pulling on my mom, who was sitting in front of me, and Jacob's mom, his cousin's wife, Jacob, and the midwife were all rotating who would push against my legs. (The Amish assistant midwife was in the living room watching a movie and crocheting..LOL!) Apparently, I'm like super strong, and everyone was sore after my labor...my mom had marks on her hands from me grabbing her to pull! My wrists were hurting a LOT, because every time I pushed (every 2 minutes, if I was lucky) I would slide down, so I'd have to push myself back up. At some point, Jacob sat behind me for a long time and I'd sit back against him, so he'd pull me back up after every push. He was really sore the next day too! I'd read a lot about the advantages of different positions in labor, and I knew that sitting up in the bed wasn't ideal, but I couldn't really do much else. I tried hands and knees but that was excruciating and I absolutely could not push in that position. I also had to be in a position that offered the midwife easy-ish access, because she was trying to hold that muscle back while I pushed.

After pushing like this for so long (by now it was 3am or so) without getting anywhere, the Amish assistant midwife mentioned something about the hospital. I knew without a doubt that I did NOT want to go to the hospital and I think the first time she said it because she thought I wasn't giving it everything I had. She was wrong about that, for sure. Someone asked her if she was serious and she said something about "well, if she can't have it..." My main midwife didn't feel there was any need to consider a hospital...no one was in any danger (she kept monitoring the baby the whole time,) I was just exhausted! I knew what would happen if we showed up in the ER after I'd already been pushing for 4 or 5 hours and my water had been broken for 18 hours! I would have had a c-section for sure. At that point, everyone but my main midwife started to get a little concerned...I'd been at this for a long time, I was beat, and nothing was happening. She put me on oxygen to revive me a bit then. Everyone left my room and started praying and calling everyone we knew to start praying. While everyone was still out of the room, I was still pushing and my midwife called everyone and said they might want to come on in there now....she was seeing the head! It took about 20 or 30 more minutes (I think...?) before I got him out. Jacob caught him and it was so amazing...he was really excited! He'd been really concerned and just about couldn't handle seeing me like I was. Aaron was born at 4:54am, Thursday morning, June 6th. I tore a tiny bit and didn't need stitches...I just stretched too fast at the last minute... Turns out, Aaron had his hand up by his head the whole time, which is what made everything so slow and hard! Somehow, his elbow was sticking up too, because the back of his hand was up against his temple...figure that out! (Put the back of your hand by your head and see where that leaves your elbow. Yeah.)

Aaron didn't want to nurse much right away but he hasn't hardly stopped since. He was 7lb 13oz and 21 inches long.

I am so happy I had Aaron at home. As slow as I was progressing, I know I would have had "intervention" had I been in a hospital. Even though there was a time when I was beyond exhausted and couldn't see progression at all, I knew I didn't need intervention...I knew that I could do this. A woman's body was designed for this very thing, so I knew it was possible. I wouldn't give anything for the relaxed atmosphere we had here all day while we waited for my body to do it's thing. There was no tension to stall things (like I needed anything to stall anything!) and we had a lot of fun, just hanging around! With the exception of the last few, tough hours, we all laughed and cut up more than anything. Maybe this is TMI (but isn't that the definition of a birth story?) but during one of the checks to see about the cervical lip, someone said something really funny and I just laughed and laughed and the midwife said "oh, that helped!" It was just so low-key and happy and exciting! I am so thankful for my midwife and how she kept cool even when things went slow...we'd ask her how I was doing and she'd say "oh, there's progress..." Now maybe she couldn't see any progress and was just trying to make us feel better, but it worked! :) They ended up being at our house for about 20 hours or so.

So, labor was hard and long and hurt like crazy (at least the last few hours!) but I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Here at home, of course! :)

A Few Pictures

I found a blogger app for our iPhone so I can at least post a few pictures every now and then. I wouldn't expect long posts though, if I were you...typing isn't all that fun on here!!! 

That's it for now...all I have on here. Now that I know I can post from the iPhone, I'll try to get more pictures. 

Aaron is two days shy of 5 months, and no, I don't know how that happened! He's about 20 pounds already and is just the cutest thing EVER. 

Since the most common question seems to be "does he sleep through the night yet?" I'll answer that. He will, if I let him, but I try to wake him up for personal reasons. :) He is still completely breastfed    and will be for a while. 

I love using cloth diapers and can't believe how expensive "fake" diapers are! I do use disposables at night, so we do buy a pack every few weeks, but using them all the time sure would add up!

Aaron already sits up pretty good...I try to spend a lot of time sitting with him in the floor and he does well. I don't know how long it will be before he crawls, but when he's lying on his tummy, he already gets up on his knees and rocks. It's super duper cute. :)

That's it for now. Ttyl!

A Few More Pictures

3 weeks...

5 weeks...

Baby feet!

We're all doing great and Aaron just keeps getting cuter and cuter! He still pretty much just sleeps and eats but he has started smiling sometimes which is just really really adorable! 

My grandpa came to see us and meet his great-grandson...

And here is my grandpa holding me...24 years ago!

I really got a kick out of this picture...my dad and grandpa in the floor ogling over Aaron and talking baby talk!

We're pretty tickled right now. :)

My Guys

My guys! :) Aren't they just adorable?!

Aaron's a month old and we're all doing great. He's already up to about 12lbs, and pretty much just eats and sleeps!

I end up posting more pictures on Facebook these days, (it's easier than uploading pics for my blog now) so feel free to add me there to see more pictures!

Introducing!!!

Aaron Lee Ellis!

He arrived June 6th, eight days after my due date. He was 7lb 13oz and 21 inches long. He was slow getting here and took an awful lot of work to get out! The short version of the story is that I dilated to 10cm with little pain or regular contractions but then I pushed every 2 minutes for 6 hours. I was in labor for about 24 hours, starting Wednesday morning and he was born at 4:54 Thursday morning. We had a homebirth and I'm really grateful for that...I really feel sure I would have had a c-section had I been in the hospital due to the length of my labor. I was completely exhausted by the time it was over and the midwives put me on oxygen for the last hour or so, to help me get through the last little bit. Turns out, he had his hand up by his head while he was being born, which definitely didn't help anything, and that was after I got past a cervical lip and a certain muscle that he had a hard time getting past. I'm doing pretty good now, and Aaron's great! 

So there's the latest update from the Ellis family! 

Update..

Well, there's not much to update on right now, but I didn't want y'all to be freaking out because you haven't heard from me in a while! I'm 37 weeks along now, so we're just waiting for the baby to come now! It's getting more and more exciting, and we absolutely can't wait to meet our little one!

I'm still doing good...just getting bigger and bigger. I get tired a lot and I don't sleep well at night and I can't even roll out of bed without a lot of hoisting and maneuvering, but I guess I'll manage a few more weeks! My midwives came last week and everything looks great....baby's head down already. They'll come back again next week, since I'm getting closer....

I wasn't really planning on having a baby room, but as I started getting baby stuff, I needed a place to put it, and now I'm excited about our baby room! We had a spare bedroom, but it was pretty full...it was sort of a catch-all room for stuff that didn't have anywhere else to go! Jacob and I bought a new bed a few months after we got married (the best thing we ever did...besides actually getting married, anyway!) so our old bed went into the spare room, where all sorts of things got piled on and around it. I found a place for most of the stuff in the room (meaning I boxed it up and put it in our building outside...lol) and Jacob's brother took the bed so all I had left in there was a bookshelf and a small dresser. I cleaned out some of the dresser (my old, skinnier clothes that I soooo can't wear anymore) and put some baby stuff in there. One of Jacob's cousins brought over a crib and changing table for us to use, my granny got us a car seat and stroller, and I've gotten a few smaller things that have all gone in there now. My sweet husband has been trying to buy me more stuff to decorate the room with (matching crib set, etc) but not knowing whether there's a boy or girl tucked away in here creates a bit of a problem! We just can't find a lot of neutral stuff, so we'll be waiting on some of that. The baby won't notice for a while anyway! ;)

The room right now is baby blue, just what we randomly picked before we got married. I wonder if there's something to that? Anyway, Jacob told me if we have a girl, he'll repaint it for me. I'm telling ya....he's sweet!

I do plan to use cloth diapers and several people have given me diapers and covers and nifty things like that, and my mom is going to see what she has left from my two younger brothers, as far as diapers go. My mother-in-law pulled out enough newborn boy and girl clothes to get us by for a little while, as they'll be giving me a baby shower a couple weeks after baby gets here. We decided that would be preferable to having a shower beforehand...otherwise we'd have LOTS of greens and yellows!

I'll see about getting pictures of our house sometime...it hasn't changed that much since we moved in...just gotten messy at times. Right now there's laundry hanging everywhere because our dryer quit yesterday, in the middle of laundry....so you're not getting pictures today!!! I have a lot of fun keeping my own house, although right now I can't even sweep (we have wood or linoleum floors in our whole house) without getting winded. Good grief!

I guess that's it for now. I need to get home and start some bread, I think. I want to make some cinnamon rolls....mmmm.

I Went Fishing

Jacob and I have done a good bit of fishing in the last couple of weeks...it finally warmed up around here, and he bought me a new fishing pole. I never have much luck, though. Last night, we were fishing in his parents' pond, and all I was catching was tiny little bluegill...like 3 or 4 inches long. Tiny little things. Someone, who shall remain nameless (guess) was really making fun of me for my tiny fish...he was catching bass and crappie and all sorts of bigger fish. Well, finally I caught something a little bigger...

Catfish, 27 inches long. I caught it with a tiny bluegill hook, which was bent really bad by the time I got the fish in. Jacob thought it was going to get off, so he waded in the pond after it once I got it close to the shore.

Sorry about the lighting...it was getting dark by the time I got this picture. You know the sad thing..this is the only maternity picture I have so far! I'm 34 weeks here....and yes, I feel as big as I look.

31 weeks!

I'm still here...hard to believe, isn't it? :)

So, I'm 31 weeks along now, and I'm round. Like, very round. I've gained about 25 pounds or so, I think. (I don't have a scale so I only weigh whenever we go down to Mom's, every couple weeks.) Baby Ellis loves to kick (so my granny says it's a girl) and I've pretty much only gained in my stomach area (so my granny says it's a boy.) Fact is, we're having a baby...haha!

About the kicking...wow. In the last couple of weeks, he/she started kicking higher up in my ribs, mostly when I am NOT expecting it, and it's pretty uncomfortable. One day we were having a casual conversation over supper and all of the sudden, in the middle of my sentence, I hollered "Ow!!!" Jacob said "what is it??!" There's a foot in my ribs...that's what! It's really incredible though, you can definitely see and feel baby parts in there...a little bump here, or a big bump there. If I lay on one side for a while, you can feel the baby's head (a big round bump) on one side of my stomach and it's pretty obvious that's what it is. When he/she (I don't like saying "it") kicks, you can feel a little heel sticking out...or maybe that's an elbow sometimes. A few nights ago, we were laying in bed talking and the baby had the hiccups. That was really cute....

I have an appointment with my midwives next week, then they'll come at the end of April, and every two weeks after that. At my last check-up, about a month ago, everything looked great and I was measuring right on target.

Physically, I'm still doing good. And round. I am swelling up a little sometimes (especially in my stomach! lol) but it hasn't been too bad. I've had a harder time sleeping lately, which has been hard on me, just because I NEVER have a hard time sleeping. I do have to get up a few times every night, and I think that wakes the baby up! Every time I lay back down, the baby goes crazy in there, moving all around. When I lay right up next to Jacob, he can feel it moving too.

Other than the whole pregnancy thing, not much is new around here. I'm still cooking, cleaning house, all those things I usually do, and Jacob is still working every day. Tonight we're going down to Mom's for a birthday party for the both of us (mom and me) and tomorrow Jacob is taking me to Bowling Green on an all-day date for my birthday. He gets Good Friday off, and my birthday falls on Good Friday this year. How lucky am I?!

I really, really need to get a picture, don't I? I'll see about working on that. But I think I said that last time...

25 Weeks and Valentine's Day

As of yesterday, I'm 25 weeks along now. After going through all of my first trimester without gaining a pound, and actually losing a few, I've caught up now. I've gained about 15 pounds so far, and that's all been in the last month or so. I feel like a blimp, and I'm told that's only going to get worse! Obviously...

I most definitely look pregnant, but I don't have any pictures to prove it yet, so you'll just have to take my word for it! Maybe I'll get Jacob to take some pictures for me soon. I have taken some pictures on my phone, to text to a few people, but they're the cheesy reflection-in-the-bathroom-mirror-with-the-toilet-in-the-background pictures, and not really great for the blog! We'll see if we can do better. I'm getting all dressed up for a date tomorrow night, so maybe we'll get one then. We need one of both of us then...

I'm still not really craving anything specifically...just everything in general. Food, basically, and lots of it. :)

I've had the hardest time with this Valentine's Day. It's hard living with someone and hiding stuff, and that's just the facts! Thankfully, Jacob works 7-3:30, so I have lots of time alone to work on stuff like this. It's also tough because we're never apart...if we go to town, we almost always go together. I did go off with Dave (my brother) this past Monday, so I swung by Walmart and picked up a card. I was going to get him other stuff too, but darn it...I had to buy toilet paper and only had a certain amount of money with me. I mean, truffles or toilet paper..how do you pick?! You pick toilet paper, obviously. Dave did take me out for coffee that day, and the coffee shop had chocolate covered espresso beans, which Jacob loves, so I got him 1/4 lb of those. Funny thing...he didn't know he loved them until this time last year... :)

So anyway, all I had was a card and 1/4 lb (which is a tiny amount) of coffee beans, and I felt like I was lacking. So I tried using my imagination. I can be crafty sometimes, but not when it comes to stuff like this. He really loves truffles and I had really wanted to get him some, but do you know how much they cost? Like, a lot. I knew I had stuff to make truffles at home, but I'd never covered them with chocolate before...which is how he really like them. I figured I'd give it a go, and they actually turned out pretty good. I made the truffles and then froze them overnight, so maybe they would stand up to being dipped in melted chocolate. When Jacob got home from work that night (Tuesday) I told him "there's something in the freezer, and I don't want you to know what it is, so I want you to stay out of the freezer!" Wow....that was soooo hard on him! He dearly wanted to open the freezer, and he bugged me about it all the time! "Is it something to eat tonight? Can we eat it later when we get home? It's for Valentine's day isn't it? What is it? Is it chocolate?..." and that just went on and on! He never did find out though, and I covered them with the chocolate Wednesday morning and then wrapped them up and hid them in the fridge. They did okay for a little while, being dipped in the chocolate, but when they started thawing a bit, they started leaving chocolate residue in the melting chocolate and that ended up making it too thick and weird.

So after I covered them with chocolate and they set up, I drizzled them with white chocolate. I wrapped them in foil squares, twisted the ends shut, and tied some red ribbon around it. Then I dipped fresh strawberries in the chocolate (I actually got the order of things wrong...I dipped the strawberries before the chocolate started acting up) and after they set up, I drizzled those with white chocolate as well. I didn't have a gift bag or anything fancy to put all this in, and it sounded cheesy to lay it all out on the table, so I found a box, probably 10 inches square, and cut the bottom four inches off. I covered it (Modge Podge) in lovey-dovey scrapbook paper I had leftover from last year, and glued on some cute stuff that matched. Then I wound up a bit of tulle (leftover form the wedding) and stuff it in the bottom, and added the candies. I had covered a tuna can (short and squatty!) with the lovey-dovey paper, put the coffee beans in a little baggie tied with a ribbon, and then put the beans in the can. In went all of that and the card, and voila....a very thrifty homemade Valentine's Day gift for my husband.

So, last night, Jacob got up at 2am to feed the fire like he always does, and I woke up having to go to the bathroom, like I always do, but I sort of pretended to be asleep until he came back to bed and fell back asleep...sort of. I got up at 2:30am, pulled the door shut behind me (otherwise he could see into the kitchen) and very quietly went to work. See, some of that stuff had to be refrigerated so it would be chocolate goo in his gift basket, so I had to assemble pretty much everything right then. So, I fixed everything all up, left it beside his lunchbox on the kitchen table, and went back to bed...at which point he was very much not asleep, but apparently didn't think anything of me being up and gone for 15 minutes when I'm usually gone for 1.5 minutes. Then I laid there for an hour because I was thoroughly awake and worried to death that the strawberries would sweat or that the inside of the truffle would leak out. Does he even like chocolate covered strawberries? Then I finally fell asleep again.

Jacob got up at 6am to get ready for work, and I seriously spied. I laid there in bed and peeked at him, while he opened his card and ate some candy. He sort of laughed when he bit into the truffles...a good laugh...I'd never tried anything like that before, and they're a lot like the ones from the store. Then he put some in his lunchbox. :) So anyway, I guess it was a success...

Now I'm off to finish up a few things online and get home to work on some other stuff. Jacob was going to take me out for supper so I wouldn't have to cook, but we decided it would be more fun to go out on the weekend when he didn't have to get up for work the next day, so I'm cooking tonight. I think I'll make Shrimp Alfredo, which is one of his favorite meals I make. I was going to make Pots de Creme for dessert, but I think I'll make strawberry shortcake instead...we have lots of chocolate around right now! So, I've got to get busy making shortcake and cleaning up the house a bit and making alfredo sauce and all that fun stuff!

Who am I kidding...I've just got to get off here and go find something to eat because I'm officially starving. It's probably been like an hour since I've had anything to eat. Ok...it's been longer than that....

Florida Pictures

I came back from FL with some good pictures of Jacob and me...hope you enjoy!

I was about 17.5 weeks pregnant in these pictures, so you can't really tell much...can you? Sometimes I looked pregnant but most of the time I just looked very well-fed. ;)

At the beach...

Dave took these for us...

He likes me.

He splashed me...

I like him too.

Funny...maybe I don't look pregnant because I was wearing men's shorts. They apparently don't make those in maternity. Who knew?

Life Update

Soooo...what's new. Well, I'm still pregnant, for starters. I've gotten concerned emails from folks wanting to make sure I was still in a motherly way, since I haven't said anything else about it lately. So yes, I'm still pregnant! I'm now almost 22 weeks along, and I'm definitely starting to show, if I wear maternity clothes. If I wear regular clothes, I just look like I ate way too much. For a long time. But I have a few maternity skirts and that makes all the difference in the world. I actually look pregnant. Used to, I'd try on some clothes someone gave me and say to my mom "ugh....this makes me look pregnant!" Now, I try on clothes and say "look, Jacob!!! This makes me look pregnant!!!" Funny how that works. I’ve had a hard time finding maternity skirts so I finally bought a few pair of maternity jeans (Goodwill) and turned them into skirts. They’re nice, but my closet consists of denim, denim, and more denim right now. Jacob likes denim best, so I guess that’s a good thing!

I've also started to feel the baby move, which is exciting, I think. For the first few days I really couldn't figure out what it was, but then when it kept feeling the same way, I figured it out. I first started feeling it a little at 18 weeks, and then a lot more regularly around 20 weeks. Jacob can also feel it now, for the past week or so, which is cooler than cool, if you ask me. The first time I held his hand there and he actually could feel something, I cried a little. It was so sweet. According to "What to Expect When You're Expecting," Baby Ellis is now over 8 inches long and weighs nearly 1 pound!

I met with my midwives several weeks ago and really liked them. There will be two of them working with me and we'll start regular check-ups and visits around 6 months. I love the hands-off approach, as far as that goes...I don't have a disease that needs to be treated...I have a baby! The midwives did one check-up the day they came out (they come and check me at home) and everything looks good and normal....including the baby's heartbeat. :) It was 156, which puts it in the girl range, but my boy cousins all had girly heartbeats, so you can't go by that, I guess. We're not having an ultrasound (unless there's a need for one...) so what we’re having will be a surprise. For those of you who didn't know, we are planning for a home birth. Maybe that's a little off-the-wall, but hey...what else did you expect??!! "Normality???"

Okiedoke...what else...oh, I'm not sick anymore, thank God. I was really getting tired of throwing up every single day. I've never been sick much (at least as far as stomach stuff goes) so all that getting sick was aggravating! I was really sick for a few weeks (I want to say weeks 9-14 or so) but I've been good for a while now. Now all I do is eat. And eat. And then eat some more. But really, I only eat whenever I'm hungry, which puts it at, oh...every 17 minutes. I love salt. Salt is so good. I started craving chocolate covered pretzels (chocolate AND SALT....life is good!) a few weeks ago, so somebody (who shall remain nameless but has a lot to do with my present condition...) went out and bought me a bag of chocolate covered pretzels. When those ran out, he made some more for me. Then we went to Florida (more on that in a sec) and he bought me a BIG one at a chocolate shop. Nice guy, I think. I also LOVE salt and vinegar potato chips. Oh, yes, they're on my diet. Everyone has to have the right amount of salt, vinegar, and potatoes in their diet....didn't you know that? Anyway, kettle cooked is the best, but any kind will do in a pinch. I'm in trouble since the family store started carrying (since someone lodged a complaint with the owners...) kettle cooked salt and vinegar...I've already had two bags. Individual size, of course. They're just so good! Not that this has anything to do with the chips, but I have finally gained a few pounds....just 4, I think, last time I weighed. But that’s been a couple weeks ago now, so…yikes!

About that Florida thing....Jacob and I were able to make a trip to GA and FL to see all of my family there around Christmas. I got to take him to family get-togethers where he met all kinds of distant cousins and other relatives and he really loved that. Haha. Not. We did some sight-seeing stuff in FL and walked on the beach and all that sort of fun stuff and that part was really fun. By the time it was all said and done, we were gone for about ten days and were sure glad to get home. Vacation is nice, but home is home. My family ended up staying a full two weeks or something...we met up with them some once we got down to FL, but we didn't travel or stay together.

I think that'll be all for now...I'll talk to y'all later.

Maybe. No promises...

Wedding Pics!!!

So, I've finally gotten some of my pictures online so I can post them now! I'm going to try (haha) to keep the writing to a minimum...we'll see how well that works!

Reception Decorations...I covered cans with scrapbook paper that went with my colors (turquoise and coral) and alternated those with plain ol' mason jars, decorated with coordinating ribbon. These all were filled with water and bright, cheery flowers and set on all the tables at the reception. My main thing was trying to make it look nice without spending tons of money and I think it turned out pretty well. I saved cans to decorate (from cooking a few months prior to the wedding,) so no additional costs there. We already had lots of pint jars, so all I had to buy was scrapbook paper and ribbon. The flowers came from Walmart. I decided that fancy flowers were just not worth the extra money and I really liked these that Walmart had. You should have seen Mom and me the morning of our wedding...we checked out at Walmart with armloads of the flowers!

I made my cake and took it to the church the day before the wedding, and then assembled everything there the morning of the wedding. 

When I ordered my bouquet, I got a few extra roses for decoration...

The board the cake is sitting on is a piece of 3/4 inch plywood that I had left from a table my dad had built me, so I got him to cut it in a circle a little bigger than my bottom tier and I glued a piece of the matching ribbon to cover the edge. The coral decoration is all piped buttercream and the turquoise is just plain ribbon...had to be removed as we cut it. 

I have a million pictures of prepping, but I only have certain ones uploaded right now and I figured it would be better to post what I did have instead of waiting for a lot more to upload. Maybe I'll get to that soon!

Here I am...all made up, decked out, and ready to go. A few other financial specs...I bought my dress and veil online, from a private seller. It was $200 and I had it altered. I spent a total of $300 on the dress itself. I bought a crinoline slip off Ebay for $20. I knew I wanted a bit of turquoise (my take on my something blue!) in my necklace so I kept my eyes open whenever I was out and about. I bought my necklace at some store in a mall...can't remember exactly which one...it was $5. Couldn't find any earrings to match until the week before the wedding...found them at Goodwill for $2, if I remember right. My shoes also came from Goodwill...white flat sandals, new condition...$2. I was on a tight budget and I wanted everything to look nice, so I tried to keep an open mind...not get too picky...and everything came out wonderfully!

One of Jacob's cousins did my hair and makeup.

Dad's first look...

And then it was time...

I don't have any more of the ceremony right now...just the formal shots afterwards. It'll do for now. Let's see...for the music before the ceremony, I spent a week or so listening to LOTS of wedding music on Amazon and finally decided on a few songs. I made a CD of my selected songs, including a bridal march that I fell in love with, and made a detailed list of the songs, times, when to play what, etc. Jacob's cousin's husband handled the sound booth for us, for which we are so very grateful! This wedding was definitely pulled off by several key people and we couldn't have had such a wonderful, glitch-free day without everyone's help! 

So, to get on with formal shots. There are a lot!

There are lots of kissy pics. It got old shooting all those. Not.

My favorite pictures were taken outside. We had beautiful weather right up until it was time for us to leave...storm clouds started rolling in when we rolled out. But the weather was gorgeous for pictures!

One of my absolute favorites...

LOVE this one too...

We were laughing here because the photographer said "ok...you can stop kissing now..." Naaah that's alright....

There was a road right behind the church and it was pretty out-of-the-way, so we decided it would look good to get pictures in the middle of the road. It worked for a little while, and we got some really nice shots...

Oh, remember how I said taking pictures in the road worked for a little while? Well, a police car drove by, so we had to get out of the road...it was really funny.

Then we went back in the church to finish up formal posed shots before heading to the reception...

Is it me or does he look scared?!?

I know this one's goofy, but I love it. It's our "we're tired of pictures and our faces hurt from smiling...can we go eat now?" look...

That's all the pictures for now. I have a lot more of the getting ready, the reception, and just fun random pictures, but they're not online yet. The internet I'm on is a little slow right now, but maybe I can get more uploaded soon! This is better than nothing though, right?