33 weeks tomorrow :)

Man time is flying! I bought labor prep herbs today, it will be here in 2 weeks. We still need some things on the home birth supply list, I will probably get them in a couple weeks. Today my order of coconut water came in, I bought 12 for labor and after labor to stay hydrated. It is so weird and amazing that in a few days I will be able to say "I'm having a baby next month"!!!! I can't wait! One of my favorite things has been seeing how happy and excited Matt is, he reads to the baby and my heart melts. I feel so blessed to have such a hard working, loving and nurturing husband and father of our baby. He has been helping me so much, I got a leg and foot massage last night, he did dishes, he made dinner and has been helping me with so much with chores in general! 

I have a check up on August 1st, I can't wait to hear the heartbeat and know what position the baby is in. Last appointment the baby was in the posterior position but I was told its no big deal because I have weeks for it to move :) 

Here are some photos for an update :)

32 weeks 

32 weeks 

I went hiking with my friend yesterday :) 

Reading to the little one :) 

I got a boppy pillow to make nursing easier 

My new swaddle blankets :) they are adorable!!!!

Matt and I went on a date to the antique shop 

I bought some tiny little pants for the baby

Update 7/13/13

So I pretty much doubled in size the last 10 weeks, its pretty fun looking back at older pregnancy photos! Today I went to my first birthing class! I am paying for private sessions which I am beginning to think was a mistake because the attention is completely on me haha and I was trying to avoid "awkward moments". The teacher is very sweet, I like her a lot. I just have to get used to the style of the class I guess, it will take a lot to get out of my comfort zone. I have a few assignments for the week, like reading, doing an exercise with ice cubes in my hand and focus on my breathing, to pay attention to my breathing throughout the week (especially during stressful situations), I have an art project to do and I have some worksheets to fill out. The class deals a lot with creativity (painting, poems, sculpting, imagination, and etc).

Tomorrow is my baby shower :) I cant wait! Im not used to so much attention being on me, its weird! My friend Teresa is hosting the baby shower, she is so awesome! I should probably go to bed soon so I wont be half asleep tomorrow....Matts at work and will be home soon, I think I will wait up for him. On Monday I have a check up with my midwife, after that check up we will see each other every two weeks until I have the baby!! Time is flying by! Today I set up the back seat organizer for the car, it will hold baby stuff when the baby is here. After the baby shower I am going to start buying things that we need, its really hard to not do that now haha.

I got a new bathing suit top today from Target, I tried on like 10 different ones (poor Matt) and still feel like I didnt get what I wanted. We are going to swim a little at the baby shower tomorrow :) I will also use this swim top in the birthing pool I think.

30 weeks pregnant today!

This has been going by so fast, I cant believe we will have our little one in less than 3 months, I will be considered "full term" in less than 2 months!! Its so exciting :D We should be starting our birth classes super soon....I actually have a late start on that. Here is what the classes will provide (from her website) 

Each prenatal class includes:

• Bringing our best selves to each moment of pregnancy, birth and postpartum
• Effective pain-coping practices
• Creating a nurturing birth space at home and in the hospital
• Helping partners feel prepared & confident
• Optimal positions and comfort measures for labor and birth
• Embracing our open, positive, confident mindset
• Preparation for crossing the threshold into parenthood
• Creative exploration using a variety of art media
• Postpartum gathering with babies

We are waiting until birth to find out the gender, it will be such a great surprise. I will be 100% happy with a boy or a girl, I just am hoping and praying for a healthy baby. Matt and I "feel" like it will be a boy, we keep calling it a "him" and have a name picked out for a boy. We like the name Dana Clive Powell for a boy and so far the girl name we have picked out is Paisley Olivia Powell.

We made a baby registry on Amazon, if you would like to take a look here is the link: Baby wish list
This week we got a baby bouncer that is so soft and adorable and a backseat organizer for baby things for the car, my second cousin Tammy bought it for the baby :) My Aunt Rachel also got us an adorable space saving high chair for the baby, it is green and has leaves on it with cute little bugs :) my Mother in-law sent us lots and lots of baby clothes from her 7 children and she made some of it, it is such a special gift! I feel so blessed to have people buying us stuff and giving us stuff, I am not used to it...

Red Raspberry Leaf Tea

This tea that I made is actually a blend of herbs that are safe for pregnancy, I may post the recipe later :) It is mostly Red Raspberry Leaf though!

Letting my tea seep then going to add some honey!

Here is an awesome video about Red Raspberry Leaf Tea, you can make ice cubes out of the tea to add to your smoothies!

I have been taking Red Raspberry Leaf Tea since the beginning of my pregnancy, it is some amazing stuff! Red Raspberry Leaf Tea helps to strengthen and tone your uterus for childbirth, you can take it for menstrual cramps after pregnancy too, which will be nice later too. The bulk herb store has a lot of great information on this tea, you can read it here Bulk Herb Store

Here is some information on Red Raspberry Leaf Tea for pregnancy, I got this from Bellybelly

What is Red Raspberry Leaf?

Red raspberry leaf (RRL) or rubus idaeus is a pale green leaf produced by the raspberry plant. The
ancient Greeks and Romans are said to have used red raspberry leaves for treating a wide variety of ailments. Although records of its use date back to the 1500’s in Europe, North America, South America and China. In Australia, the red raspberry leaf is a traditional herb that has been used by indigenous cultures for centuries. It was only in the 1940's that western medicine practitioners recognized its use as a tonic for the uterus during pregnancy and childbirth.

What Vitamins and Minerals Can Be Found In Red Raspberry Leaf?

Vitamin A
Vitamin B complex
Vitamin C
Calcium
Iron
Manganese
Magnesium
Phosphorus
Potassium
Fragarine (or Framamine)
Flavonoids

How Can Raspberry Leaf Help With Pregnancy and Childbirth?

1. Eases morning sickness. It relieves nausea and stomach distress throughout pregnancy.
2. Soothes and prevents bleeding gums
3. Vitamin A aids the mother’s immune system and helps in the development of healthy skin and bones for the baby.
4. Vitamin E promotes better circulation in the mother.
5. Calcium is needed to control nerve response to pain during childbirth. It also aids in healthy bone development in the baby.
6. Fragarine allows the uterus to contract more effectively during labour. It also aids in toning the uterus after childbirth, when it returns back to its normal size.
7. Ease cramping of the uterus.
8. Magnesium is very helpful in strengthening uterine muscles.
9. Studies have shown that women who take red raspberry leaf have a reduced incidence of artificial rupture of membranes, forceps delivery or caesarean section
10. Assists in production of plentiful breast milk

You can buy teabags here: Amazon
You can buy loose leaf tea here: Bulk Herb Store

Before deciding to take red raspberry leaf, it is best to consult your doctor or midwife.

Home birth & Water birth

At first we decided we were going to do a home birth with a midwife because we didn't have insurance and the cost difference is amazing, but after researching births and seeing how safe and beneficial home birth is we decided it is best overall for us! I am a low risk, healthy, 22 year old women and my midwife is very well educated and I trust her 100%. What I had to think about is the fact that birth is  completely normal and natural, beautiful, and God knew what he is doing when he designed it this way. I love the motto "Healthy mom, healthy baby", I have been monitoring my diet (How much protein, fat, iron, calcium and etc I am eating) and have been taking all of the supplements I need to keep myself and my little bear healthy. I started reading "Ina Mays Guide To Childbirth" and because of that and talking to my midwife I have no real fears about whats coming in the next 11ish weeks, I feel ready for it and very blessed to have the midwife that I have, I wouldn't want anyone else to assist in bringing my baby to the outside world! So after reading a lot about childbirth I decided I really want to do a water birth, I talked to my midwife about it and I am going to make it official my next appointment. The benefits are so amazing, you are more relaxed in warm water, you are almost weightless in water, water relaxes your muscles improving blood flow, its a less stressful situation for you and your baby, your baby goes from a warm place to another warm and calm place and its a better way to be born in my opinion (less shocking), the water may reduce vaginal tearing and it is said that water births help reduce the amount of time you are in labor. I am getting so very excited about meeting our little baby and also the birthing experience! I am almost done with my home birth supply list, I will make another blog post about that when I get everything ready. Thanks for reading!

You can read more information on water births here: Water birth info

Garden Update 7/1/2013

I haven't written in a while, I haven't really been doing much I hurt my back about 2 weeks ago and the it got a little better for a few days then I hurt it again but not as bad as the first time. You have to be strong to be pregnant, I wish I had been working out prior to being pregnant haha! Anyways, our garden is growing more and more everyday, we have like 5 basil plants starting, tons of cilantro, the sunflowers are doing great, the oregano is doing ok I think (still not sure if its growing or if its weeds haha), the lettuce is really big, the kale is growing nicely, we have one bean plant growing and several types of onions. Last night Matt and I pulled all of the weeds in about 45 minutes, we gave it a good soak before we started so it was super easy to do. NO MORE GHETTO GARDEN!

Before pulling weeds 

After we pulled the weeds, I am so happy with it now! 

Some of the basil, I think I will need to transplant them farther apart when they get a little bigger

The lonely green bean plant

The second garden

Lots of cilantro, we always have cilantro in our fridge so this will be awesome to have from the garden!

How to cook a whole frozen chicken in your crockpot

Uncooked

Cooked and shredded

Ummm so this method has basically just changed my entire life! You cant get any easier than plopping a whole frozen chicken into your crock pot and leaving for 5 hours! I found this method on a youtube video and was impressed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX4DjU43Bj4 , I heard people can get 5 meals out of a whole (small) chicken so I had to try it out. I used a different "recipe" than the lady in the video, here is what I used.....

*** I had a 5 pound chicken and left it in all night and it was amazing!


Ingredients: 
1 whole frozen chicken (3ish pounds)
1 cup water
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 carrots sliced
1/2 onion diced
2 stalks celery cut
2 bay leaves


Directions:
Pour 1 cup water in your crockpot, lay chicken breast down in your crock pot, sprinkle salt and pepper on and around your chicken, stuff the cut carrots, onion, celery and bay leaves around chicken. Cover, set on high and go do something fun for 5 hours. To check if done you can stick a knife in a thick spot of the chicken and see if the meat is still pink, if it is still pink cook longer. When done, remove from crockpot and separate chicken as desired. If you want you can broil your chicken 5 minutes on each side for a more crispy chicken.

If you want to make chicken stock: 
Source: http://www.momskitchenhandbook.com/uncategorized/who-knew-crock-pot-chicken/

Remove the skin from the chicken and pull the meat off the bones.  Store the meat in the fridge until ready to use. Put the bones back into the crock pot.  Add two more whole carrots, 2 whole stalks celery, half an onion, and another bay leaf.  Add 5 more cups of water, turn the pot to low and cook an additional 4 hours. Strain the broth through a fine mesh sieve. Refrigerate or freeze until ready to use.

Update with the garden

Well, I dont know what I am doing haha. There are a million plants growing and I think 90% of them are weeds so I am waiting for them to get a little bigger so I can know for a fact its a weed before ripping out some cilantro or something. I havent skipped a day watering yet! YES! The bigger garden doesnt look like anything is growing from a distance, when you get up close you can see there are plants all over, some are getting to the point where I can tell what it is. Here are some pictures...

Cilantro for sure...

Looks like nothing, right? 

Then you look closer and you're like, HEY KALE!

The sunflowers are growing like CRAZY! 

How to take your prenatal vitamins when you cant swallow pills....

So, I am a giant wimp. For whatever reason I am terrified of swallowing pills, I have like mini panic attacks whenever I "try" and trying ends up with me holding it in my mouth while people yell at me "You have to swish water around in your mouth" or "Put it on the back of your tongue and let it fall down" and then I cry like a giant baby and get shaky. With that being said, I NEED to take my prenatal vitamins, I was buying those gummy ones they sell at Walmart and then realized (after talking to my midwife about it) they are not nearly good enough. I wish I could just pop pills like a drug addict, I have a friend who can take all of her horse pill vitamins at once (its like a handful of pills). So, I bought prenatal vitamins in those dissolvable  capsules and tried out the ole put it in applesauce trick, I wanted to get it over with so I poured two pills worth of powder into a tablespoon of applesauce....FAIL....that ended up with gagging and throwing up! So then I bought protein powder and tried it in a shake with a banana and it didn't taste bad and you cant taste it at all when you add strawberries too! Woohoo, grow baby grow!

See? Dont blend the whole pill, just the powder. 

Ta Dah!

Ingredients: 
Your daily dose of Prenatal vitamins in capsules
 1 Banana
5 frozen strawberries
Protein powder (read on the back how many scoops you need for the serving, I need 1/3 cup)
About 1 - 1 1/2 cups of milk

Directions: 
Put chopped banana, frozen strawberries, protein powder, THE POWDER from your prenatal vitamins (Please dont blend the clear dissolvable part!) and milk into blender and blend until smooth. Enjoy and grow that beautiful baby!

In case you are wondering what supplements I am taking, here it is. Its all recommended by my midwife, so ask your doctor or midwife before taking anything. Everything I take is chewable, liquid, or powder.

Freeze green smoothies for later!

So, I will start out by saying I HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT BLENDER! I sure don't....I used my magic bullet and I am chewing my smoothie haha its alright though because it tastes really good. I am now researching the best blender in my price range. I would like to have a Blendtec or Vitamix but those are way out of my price range! Anyways, the original recipe called for parsley and then I found out after making 6 bags of smoothies that pregnant women are not allowed to have that much parsley, I ended up picking out the fruit and throwing the kale and parsley out because it was too evenly mixed together. Next time I am going to make it with spinach so that is who im going to write the recipe. Oh two more things...if you want to minimize the texture I would suggest peeling the apples and 1 bunch of kale equaled 4 cups when chopped up (for me at least).

Ingredients: 
1 cup of kale (remove the stem and chop up the kale)
1/2 spinach
1 banana (sliced)
1 apple (chopped)
2 1/2 cups water

Directions: 
Add everything EXCEPT THE WATER to a freezable ziplock bag and freeze. When ready to use you will want to put it in the blender (frozen) with the 2 1/2 cups of water and blend! :)

*try other variations, you can add avocado or yogurt for a creamier texture

Last minute crockpot oatmeal

I was laying in bed and couldn't sleep, so then I went on Pinterest on my phone and it told me to make crockpot oatmeal and I did...I will see how it turns out in the morning. My husband works two jobs and works his butt off! So tomorrow I am also going to make bacon for a morning snack....it means "I love you and appreciate you working all of those long hours" in man talk. (I am trying to make it seem like I'm not going to eat the bacon too, the truth is that it's my número uno craving haha)

See? Guys....

*about 8 hours later*
So, my husband is not a fan because of the texture but I love it! Its more mushy than your average oatmeal and Matts one of those texture people (he wont eat grits or cream of wheat because of the same thing). I poured some cream on mine and mixed it in.

Ingredients:

2 apples (chopped up)

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 Tablespoon cinnamon 

2 cups oatmeal

4 cups water 

Directions: 

Add chopped apples, brown sugar, cinnamon, oatmeal and water in crock pot, do not stir, cook on low for 8 to 9 hours.  

Geocaching will save your marriage!

The title is a pretty bold statement and probably not true hahaha.... if you are cheating on your wife I would encourage you to tell her and seek counseling or something, not to go hiking and have fun. BUT if your marriage is getting a little boring, your getting chubby, your spouse is getting chubby and you dont want to tell them to get outside and move around, or you need a little adventure then geocaching could be for you!

Basically geocaching is a high tech treasure hunt, you use your GPS (we use our iphones with the Geocaching app), and it guides you to hidden containers with cool random stuff in it (If you take something you put something to replace it) and a log so you can write down your username (you create an account on geocaching.com). These containers are hidden basically everywhere, you can look at the website to check if they are near you. Anyone can hide them, you have to get it approved before it goes public though. Here is a video that shows a little more about geoaching

Also...

My husband and I really enjoy geocaching, Matt HATES hiking unless there is a special destination and I grew up hiking different places every week so for me to not hike is just crazy. Our compromise is geocaching because Matt feels like there is a purpose to going outside, being in nature and exercising. He is appreciating nature more and it is REALLY fun and beautiful to see!!! Dont get me wrong, I love finding the caches too, I have found so many cool things in the containers (today I found money, haha!) and I love the adventure part, I am just super excited that Matt and I can both enjoy the world together now. Here are some photos from geocaching with my husband today. 

First blog post!

Well this is exciting, my first blog post on this blog. Well to get started, I am a terrible writer, I am going to do my best though! Here is some personal information about me...my name is Tabby (like the cat, yes), I am 22, I am married to an awesome man named Matt and we have been married for 3 years, I am 24 weeks pregnant with our first little bear and we are going to have a home birth (I will write more about that later) we live in Boise Idaho, we LOVE geocaching (if you dont know what it is, you can get more information here http://www.geocaching.com/ ), hiking, playing uno, and dreaming about stuff we want to do. When I got married I really didnt know what I was doing, I still barley know anything about cooking, organizing, gardening, cleaning and etc. but with this blog I hope to write down my experiences with trying to start my own little homestead in town. We live in a duplex, my yard is in the back by the alley and the landlord said I can basically do whatever I want with it, woot! We have almost lived here for 1 month and we currently have 3 little gardens going. Here is the "major" garden, we are growing 2 different types of lettuce, kale, green beans, basil, green onions, red onions and uhh...normal onions? (we like onions)

When we moved in our yard looked like a fire hazard so we are "trying" to make it look nice with little to no money. We dug up like 500 million rocks when we made the flower bed above....I used some of those to line the garden/flower beds and the rest I gave away. I will create another blog post about giving rocks away, its exciting and....fun. I am watering the dirt every day, my hope is that I will grow thick green weeds all over the yard and mow them down, from a distance it will look like grass! Yes, I am ghetto....but I am also limited on money haha. We are going to buy grass seed, the problem is there is like 50 different types of grass and I just want normal grass so I get frustrated whenever I try to pick it out. Anyways, I have two fluffy cats named Goob (male) and Penelope (female), they are SO ANNOYING and I love them!!! My cats love me and follow me everywhere, I cant walk anywhere without them weaving through my feet. Goob and Penelope have a love/hate relationship...I think Penelope is playing hard to get (she is a diva like that) and Goob just wants to constantly play. Since we moved here they have started playing together!!!! It is so sweet to watch because for the past year they have been fighting haha and and and Goob even cleaned Penelopes face recently without her trying to rip his eyes out! *beautiful moment* These are my cat babies

Goob :) he is my favorite....I can write that here without hurting Penelopes feelings because she cant read, HA HA.

and Penelope! This is not animal abuse haha they stink....especially her, her breath smells like dead animals 24/7 and she is an indoor cat. Kind of weird.