5.5 weeks and counting...

This weekend was full of spending time with my best friend/husband, The Farmer. The Farmer is my best friend. And not because of lack of other options in Des Moines. :) He is my best friend because he laughs at my dumb jokes, listens to me complain, comforts me when I cry, let's me talk when we're in bed even if he's half asleep, does the dishes, makes me dinner, does the laundry (and is even learning not to dry everything!), goes grocery shopping when I can't go with him, let's me look at baby stuff at Kohl's for 45 minutes before deciding not to buy anything, tells me it's going to be okay even if he isn't sure it will be. The Farmer is going to be a wonderful dad to our little girl. He already talks to her and rubs my tummy when I show him where she's sticking out most. I love this man because he believes in me, he knows what he wants in life and he works hard. He's going to be a great little farmer.

Yesterday we spent the day together. We went to church early (we usually go at 11:30am), did some stuff around the house, had Boca burgers for lunch and then went to our birthing classes. Of course, we giggled our way through those. Either everyone else in class is boring or we're just really immature. After birthing class, we took a walk around Gray's Lake. We'd normally walk all the way around, but The Farmer had a meeting and at this stage in pregnancy, walking 2 miles just wasn't going to happen at the end of the day. We walked across the bridge over the lake, though and saw a beautiful bald eagle in flight. He landed on a tree branch that we walked under and we stood to look at him for awhile as he sharpened his beak on a branch. He stayed there until we left. We were hoping we'd get to see his wing span when he took off, but he seemed content where he was. Spring in Des Moines is a bit different than that of New Mexico. It's beautiful weather, low 70's with only a small breeze. Not like NM where it's close 90 with a disgusting wind blowing constantly. Not that I'm dissing NM, I just don't enjoy spring there.

I woke up this morning to a thunder storm. Well, I woke up and then went back to sleep for a few more hours. I should really start posting more pics of my pregnant belly before I'm not pregnant anymore, but that would involve taking pictures of it! For now I'll just post another from the Hobbs shower.

Getting ready

So I may not be the expert blogger that my husband is just yet, but I am getting better!

As of tomorrow, we only have 6 weeks left until we hit the 40 week mark! We started our birthing classes on Sunday and I must say I was less than impressed. We were told it'd be the most boring of the 4 classes, but I was not too fond of how some of the information was presented. The Farmer and I are very much hoping to go au natural in the labor/delivery department. Of course, neither of us has any idea what this entails. But, I have done my research and I know my options and if I get to a point where I can no longer tolerate the pain, then I just might ask for drugs. However, I am going in with the notion that I will not require drugs. Not that I'm trying to be super woman, it's just my preference. You have yours, I can have mine.

Anyway, so I was first put off by the instructor (who was subbing for who will be our regular instructor) starts going on and on about how she wanted drugs before she was ever even pregnant. Ok. To each their own. But when she started asking about birth plans and the girl behind me and I raised our hands to having one, it got a bit touchy. We both explained what we wanted on our birth plans (I think birth plans generally come with women who want to go natural is possible) and afterward the instructor said, Well I hope you're not too inflexible to change your mind if it's necessary. The thought going through my mind was IF medically necessary, then ok. If it makes your job easier, then uh, no. Anyway, not to get on my high horse about that, I just wondered why she asked or told us about birth plans in the first place. Neither of us made it sound like we were going natural OR ELSE! when we were explaining.

We did some breathing exercises at the end and she said we could lean back, close our eyes, etc. I am facing The Farmer during these exercises and have my eyes closed and open them about halfway through to see him leaning back with his eyes closed. To this I respond, "You're supposed to be focused on me! I'm the one that's supposed to be breathing." To which my adorable husband responds, "I want to learn how to do it too in case you aren't doing it and I have to help you." He also made me a playlist of songs for labor. I was way impressed with how well he did on that front!



The baby continues to do well as far as we know. She likes to kick me in the ribs these days. She is head down and in the right position, but man oh man, her hip does a doozy on me sometimes. We like to watch my tummy move around as she rolls around in there. I can't believe in 6 weeks we're going to hold our baby daughter in our arms. I hope she's ready to have us as parents!

In other news, the weather is heating up in Iowa! I can't tell you how excited I am. However, I must say that I am extremely thankful (Thank you, Lord!) that the baby will be born before the hot, humid months hit. Yesterday I was sweating to the oldies at work and hating every minute of it so I'm glad I won't have to be pregnant through those months. My heart goes out to those who do! Drink lots of fluids and if necessary stick frozen goods under your arms which is what I could be seen doing yesterday in my kitchen while asking The Farmer, "Are you hot? How are you not hot?"

November 17th & almost 17 weeks

I'm officially the worst blogger ever. I think my sister is the only person who reads it anyway and she pretty much knows everything I post so does it really matter?

I start my job today, finally! I am so excited to have a sense of purpose and something to do! It will definitely be a transition period for The Farmer and I because we are so used to spending our later afternoons and evenings together. For the rest of November I will work 4-9:15pm, but starting December I will work 3-10:45pm so we are glad we have this pre-transitional period in which to prepare us!

The baby is doing great as far as we know. We have our next appointment on December 1st and our gender ultrasound soon after that! We can't wait to find out what it is! We haven't purchased any baby equipment or items for a few reasons 1) it's too early, 2) we don't know the sex and 3) we still have to figure out where we are going to put anything that we get for the baby!

Our weekend was great. We had a date night on Saturday and had dinner at Panera, saw Rachel Getting Married and had cheesecake at Cheesecake Factory. We also went on a double date with Jeremy and Sara on Friday to Red Robin (yum!) and it was great to be out with people our age that we knew! We're still not sure what we're doing for Thanksgiving, but we'll head home to Hobbs for Christmas on Christmas Eve. We'll be back that Sunday so it'll be a short trip, but we are really excited to go home.

The Farmer is going to start refereeing soon as he took a reffing class last week to get his certification that he needed to do so. He also does private coaching for two young boys on Thursdays. Today he is at the farm and he and Uncle Kirk are going to dig the holes necessary for the grapes this weekend (provided it's not raining/snowing).

It has snowed twice in the past week (both on Saturdays) and it's been under 45 for at least 5 days. I suppose I'm getting use to it, but it's cold. We need to do something about our windows because our apartment is constantly freezing and our bedroom is the worst because it has two windows!

We welcome visitors so if you'd like to come see what it's like in Iowa in the winter, please come see us! :) We promise to have a warm bed for you!