52 Books: Book 41

Being pregnant has influenced several of my reading choices this year. My most recent book being Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way by Susan McCutcheon-Rosegg.

For the past 8 months or so I have spent a lot of time thinking about the topic of natural childbirth verses medicated childbirth. I have talked with many women about their personal experiences as well as read countless delivery stories online. I have asked my sister {a labor and delivery nurse} questions about what happens in the delivery room and I have spoken to my OB about her personal practices. Daniel and I have discussed the topic as well. 

Actually until a few weeks ago, it had not crossed my mind that Daniel would actually have an opinion one way or another {it is my body after all}. He surprised me by saying that if I was up to it, he was in favor of me seriously considering the natural childbirth route. His comment made me get serious about researching the topic to evaluate whether this was something I thought I could do or if I thought it was important enough to put my body through.

After reading various articles online and birth stories and even watching a documentary I feel that I am prepared to attempt a natural childbirth {note that I said attempt, in the event of complications or pain that is beyond my current comprehension, drugs will be considered}. I have spoken with my OB about it and she is incredibly supportive. We are in agreement that medical intervention is always on the table if there is truly a need for it. With that I feel good about my decision and pending delivery.

Due to my rural location I will not be able to take actual classes on the Bradley Method, but I feel that Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way offers a lot of great exercises for me to be practice now. Incidentally yoga provides great relaxation techniques that are very similar to the Bradley Method of relaxation that I already practice regularly.

Excerpts from the book:

Once medication begins... the choices slip through your fingers.

Responsibility belongs to those who will ultimately live with the consequences of decisions made during birthing – the parents.

...no one has ever been pregnant forever and the baby knows when it is time to be born.

There are undeniably strong sensations in labor which are felt by every woman, but whether these are described as pain is a subjective matter which depends a lot on expectations and experiences.

Drugs and medical technology can be enormously beneficial when used to take care of real complications.

Our technology needs to be used selectively or rather specifically in response to a problem.

Thoughts on Dormers

The closer we get to having our baby, the more I start to think about parenting type things. Things that have never crossed my mind before.

For instance last week I was looking out the nursery window and it dawned on me that I once lived in a house that had dormers. I was between the ages of 8 and 10 and for some reason I thought it was a good idea to knock the screen out of the window and crawl out and sit on the roof. What 8-year-old thinks that is a good idea??? I have no idea if this was my own adventurous spirit or if a friend encouraged me to do it. I do remember that my friend and I did this on a regular basis.

So now I am worried. We have dormers in both upstairs bedrooms AND the bathroom. I can just envision our kid {or kids} crawling out the window and walking down the roof to the other bedroom. I mean it was something I did as a kid, so what's to say our kid won't do something similar? 

This past weekend I told my parents about my penchant for sitting on the roof as a kid and asked if they knew I had done such things. They had no idea. So the good news is that if my kids do climb out windows and hang out on the roof I will probably be clueless about it...

When I was 10-12 I graduated from sitting on rooftops to climbing out windows and jumping off of the roof at my best friend's house in the middle of the night. We would wander around our small town before sneaking back and using a bicycle as a ladder to climb back onto a lower level of the house and back inside through a second floor window.

When I was growing up, my mom used to tell me stories of her adventures – she has quite a few of her own. I don't know if her stories made me more willing to try things or if I just had a natural compulsion to be adventurous. I never did the things she did, but I did plenty of my own stupid things. At least we have several years until we truly have to worry about kids getting brave {stupid} enough to climb out on rooftops... right?

Greeting Cards: Baby Showers

Thank you to my sister and best friend for throwing me an amazing baby shower.

*This is the ninth in my series of twelve "I Love You More" cards   
that I have designed and will be posting throughout the year.
 
© Cheree Moore

Baby Shower

Saturday was our baby shower for Jack. My sister did a great job of hosting. I love that I have such a creative family... I wonder where those genes came from {kidding, thank you mom and dad for passing along your creativity to us}.

While Angela was busy decorating on Friday night, Robert wandered downstairs and said, "I thought we weren't decorating the whole house?" I don't think Angela is capable of throwing a party without going all out. Of course, it looked great and I appreciate all of her trouble.

We had a potluck style BBQ. Many thanks to all of our family members for bringing such wonderful dishes. Everything tasted superb. 

Thank you to my best friend, Kristalynne, for coming up with the games. The trivia was hilarious.

Examples: 

What was the best way to calm Daniel as a baby?
A) Take the car apart
B) Build a deck
C) Read a calculus book
D) Hold him and rock him

What was Cheree's first word?
A) Yoga
B) Dada
C) Mountain
D) Daniel

We had such a fun time and enjoyed seeing everyone who was able to make it while missing those who couldn't come. We are looking forward to introducing Baby Jack to all of our loved ones in the very near future.

You're Looking Swell...

We just made it home from a wonderful weekend spent with family and friends. My sister and best friend from high school threw us an amazing shower. We feel very blessed that so many people that love us came out to celebrate the coming arrival of baby Jack. Tomorrow I will blog about our wonderful shower, but wanted to write a quick post about a recent pregnancy-related experience...

A couple of weeks ago, I took my wedding rings off because I was noticing some mild swelling in my hands. The rings still fit, but I didn't want to run into an issue of not being able to get them off my hand. 

Now fast forward to Friday... we were getting ready to leave for Nashville for the weekend and I noticed my rings sitting on my bathroom counter next to the sink. In my mind I thought that maybe I should take them with me just in case someone broke into our house while we were gone and stole them {unlikely but the thought did cross my mind}. So I slipped my rings onto my slightly swollen baby finger and we headed to Nashville.

During the course of the weekend I proceeded to move my rings back and forth between my ring finger and my baby finger – sometimes it just felt too snug on my ring finger and sometimes it felt too loose on my baby finger.

This morning I actually woke up with really swollen hands and struggled to pull the rings off of my ring finger. Throughout the course of the day I proceeded to experience THE WORST SWELLING of my life. It was so bad that when we left my sister's house I discovered that neither pairs of my shoes fit. Boo.

We drove to Murfreesboro to visit with Daniel's dad before heading home. When we arrived at his dad's house, we went inside and I mentioned the swelling to Wesley – about this time I looked down at my baby finger and realized that my engagement ring {the one with the diamonds} was GONE. I tried not to panic but abruptly ran outside to tell Daniel and search our car.

Daniel and I looked everywhere that we could think of and even called my brother-in-law and asked him to look around their house as well. All of this was to no avail. We finally gave up our search and hoped for the best while we finished our visit with Wesley.

We were really hoping the ring would be somewhere in the car, but on the drive home Daniel asked if I thought we should replace the ring in the event that we couldn't find it. I told him we could cross that bridge if we came to it.

Once we were home, Daniel meticulously unloaded the car, starting with the big boxes in the back. As we got closer to the front, he went through every gift bag and open container that the ring might have fallen into. Thankfully it turned out that the ring was sitting loose on the back seat – it probably slipped off my finger when I had reached back to pet Sophie.

I am so thankful that we found that ring. It is now safely stored for the duration of my pregnancy...

52 Books: Book 40

Last week's book was Gloryland by Shelton Johnson. It is the story of Elijah Yancy who is born on Emancipation Day in 1863. He is the son of sharecroppers who live in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Unfortunately they quickly learn that in the South emancipation did not mean equality.

Elijah's background is interesting in that he is both black and of Indian descent. As a teenager he witnesses a lynching and soon after he must leave the South in order to be spared his own life. He walks until he reaches Nebraska where he ends up joining the U.S. Army as part of the Calvary. 

Elijah struggles with being a part of an army that requires him to subdue Native Americans in the West and then sends him to the Philippines to help quell a rebellion. In both cases he realizes he is helping to take away land and freedoms from strangers – freedoms he has never experienced himself.

At the end of the story Elijah is sent to Yosemite to help patrol the newly created National Park. It is the first time he feels at home and that he has found a source of personal freedom. Along the way he realizes that he has lived most of his life being angry and he is looking for a way to leave that anger behind him.

This was a very good book though some components of it were fairly graphic – I had a particularly hard time reading the description of the lynching.

Excerpts from the book:

...He once told me that if you have to ask for something that was already yours, then you'd given it up. Up to that day Daddy believed as if he had rights, but he died outside that courthouse trying to claim what nobody should have to ask for.

When you're afraid, everything is clear, too clear, and the fear seems like something living, the shadow of everything you're seeing and feeling... I was afraid of everything and nothing, especially the nothing that's a hole living inside when you got no one near who cares if you live or die.

Seems like to get something in this world, you gotta take it from someone else.

If Anger is a place to live in, then I think 1898 is the year I moved all the way there. but when you're a good citizen of Anger, you're living alone and there ain't no church, no God to hear you raging, and no family near enough to get singed by your heat...

No one wants to die. No one wants to be forgotten, and to be forgotten is to die. maybe that's why I pray so much, so God can learn to pick my voice out of the noise he's got to listen to, so he can remember my voice.

I lived in Anger so long I forgot that there were other places you could live. I didn't notice that I had no neighbors and no friends. I didn't notice that being alone was a place I'd built with my own hands. When you're a good citizen of Anger, you're stuck inside you, feeling sorry for yourself cause there ain't nobody around to take up the slack.

What components of your cars air conditioner should not look like...

We had a pretty uneventful weekend. Sometimes it is nice to just chill. We made a little headway on the nursery – adding shelves to one of the closets. There is still much to do.

On Sunday Daniel worked on our Subaru's air conditioner. It has some kind of leak and over the last several weeks he has been on a mission to find the leak and fix it. He finally decided to replace the condenser and evaporator {he will have to correct me if I get any of this wrong}.

Anyways, the evaporator is located behind the glove box. Yesterday he removed the evaporator to install the new one and this is what he discovered:

Dirt and leaves and fur and who knows what is clogging everything up {on the right}! Compared to the new one {on the left} the old looks like it has been dragged through mud. We have no idea how it could be so gross since it is a closed system that is behind the glove box {inside the car, separate from where the engine is}. 

It really looks like it could be from a vehicle that had been through a flood, but that makes no sense because none of the the interior looks like it had been through a flood. We are really scratching our heads on this one.

Tonight he will finish up the project – something about recharging the system. We are keeping our fingers crossed that this will fix our A/C for good.

Fourth Time's a Charm

We finally were able to see Jack's face today – how amazing is technology??? This was our fourth attempt at the 3D ultrasound and he finally cooperated! We even got a little smile out of him at one point – though no picture of that. His heart rate was 145 today and he is still measuring on schedule with our due date.

52 Books: Book 39

Last week I finished BabyWise by Gary Ezzo and Robert Bucknam. Based on internet reviews this seems to be one of those books that people either love or hate. I am not a parent yet so I can't say definitely how it will work for us, but I do know many people who have used the principles in this book and have had great results.

I didn't find this book to be as extreme as some of the reviewers claimed it was. In fact from how I was raised and my own personal beliefs I think this book supports a style of parenting that I am very much on board with. I think schedules are good though there should be flexibility within any schedule. Also I really believe parents need to be in charge and that teaching {even at a young age} is the parents responsibility. I know not everyone will agree with this approach and that is OK. We are all allowed to raise our kids as we see fit.

From all of the hype I thought the book would be predominantly about getting your baby to sleep and making them cry it out. After reading the book I was surprised at how much of the focus is on feeding your baby and helping to regulate their metabolism. Also the emphasis on awake time before sleep time was new to me, but it makes a lot of sense.

I recognize that until we have our baby in November we have no idea what we are in for but we do plan to work on implementing a lot of the tactics in this book.

A friend of mine also recommended that we read The Happiest Baby on the Block. 

Excerpts from the book: 

The greatest overall influence you will have on your children will not come in your role as an individual, but in your joint role as husband and wife.

Children should be welcome members of the family and not the center of it.

Immediate gratification training negatively impacts a child's ability to learn the skills of sitting, focusing, and concentrating.

...feelings are not the basis for sound decision making. To deny the importance of careful assessment is to deny parents their leadership role. Leaders must be clear-headed and ready to make decisions. They should not be driven by their emotions.

...sometimes people redefine order to mean rigidity, and that leads to imbalance. Balance includes both structure and flexibility.

Paddling from Bellefonte

Since the weather has been a little cooler, Daniel and I decided to take our canoe out on Sunday. We started the day eating breakfast on our back porch and listening to the church bells down the road chime out the song "When Peace Like a River." It was a perfect way to start our day.

After lunch we loaded up our canoe, gear and Sophie and headed over to Bellefonte. There was a time when Sophie was terrified of the water. But she got used to it. And then she didn't like her life jacket. But she got used to that too. And she wasn't fond of sitting in the canoe. But she got used to that as well. In fact, when I climbed in the canoe, she waded out in the water and tried to climb in by herself – I guess she didn't want to get left behind.

We paddled about 1.5 miles through a marshy inlet to get to the Tennessee River. It is amazing what a difference there is between a big flowing river and a little tributary. There was plenty of wildlife to see – mostly huge cranes and storks and the occasional fish flopping on the surface of the water. I thought Sophie was going to launch herself into the water on several occasions, but I think her fear of deep water kept her in check.

When we finally reached the river, Daniel decided to jump in. Then we coaxed Sophie to get in with him {i.e. we tossed her overboard} – we are all about exposing her to things she doesn't like so that she can get used to them. For the most part this works great. As long as she could float with Daniel, she was fine. However she was shaking a bit so we put her back in the boat.

When Daniel went to get back in the canoe – I mentioned multiple times how he better not flip us. Being 7 months pregnant I am in no shape to pull myself back into a canoe out on open water. He started out by pulling himself up on the left side of the boat while I shifted my weight to the right as a counter balance. We were doing good until I realized he had somehow slid all the way across the back of the canoe and we were in danger of flipping over to the right! I shifted my weight to the left and he fell back into the water {we were precariously close to flipping and I was NOT HAPPY}. Anyways, his second try was better.

We paddled a total of about 3.5 miles. It was a perfect afternoon to be out on the water.

Our route.

S'mores with the Moores

Golden Graham S'mores Bars – recipe adapted from Macaroni and Cheesecake

A year ago we were still living in a camper at Raccoon Mountain and we invited our good friends, the Reynolds, to come visit us to indulge in "S'mores with the Moores." Both of our families were about to embark on some big changes – the Reynold's were expecting baby #3 any day and we were about to close on our house in Alabama.

Almost a year later, we finally found a weekend where the Reynolds could come down for a quick visit to see our new house. We {meaning Daniel} indulged in taking the two older kids on four wheeler rides and we finished the evening by grilling steaks.

Andrew waiting for his turn to ride our ATV with Daniel.

The best compliment ever is to have a little kid tell you how much they loved their dinner – Sadie {who just turned five} surprised everyone by eating 1.5 ears of corn as opposed to the half an ear we originally gave her. This might have had something to do with the fact that I let her role her corn in the butter dish – sorry Courtney if I started a bad habit – that's how we do it around here :)

For dessert I surprised them with Golden Graham S'mores Bars. Funny that the kids remembered coming to make s'mores with us last year {or at least trying to since last year we had some serious problems with the wood for our campfire not wanting to burn}.

 Sadie taking a turn.

We might have to continue the yearly tradition of having the Reynolds over to make s'mores in the fall.

I think the kids had fun on the four wheeler {I know Daniel did}. Initially they couldn't agree on who should go first... one wanted to wait to prolong her excitement, the other wanted to wait because he was a bit nervous. Daniel told them to play Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide. Sadie "lost" and had to go first. In the end, they both seemed to enjoy it.

 Andrew taking a turn.

Quick funny story: Right before we decided to take the four wheeler out, the golden retriever "puppy" from down the street decided to grace us with a visit. He is 60+ pounds and very playful. Unfortunately he has no concept of how big he is. Right away he knocked Sadie off of her feet and he was jumping on everyone. Normally Sophie chases this dog off {she does not like him AT ALL} but Sophie was off wandering around the woods. She did eventually come back and get into a snarling fight with him, but the golden always thinks that she is just playing. In the end, Daniel picked up this dog and put it on the back of the four wheeler and drove him back to his house down the street. It was pretty funny – too bad I didn't have the camera handy.

52 Books: Book 38

When I was a teenager I read several Erma Bombeck books that my mom had checked out of the library. They were hysterical. Even as a teenager, the honesty and humor of everyday life was not lost on me. 

My most recent book to read was A Marriage Made in Heaven: Or Too Tired for an Affair and was full of gems on getting married, wading through the waters of being a wife and a mother, joining the workforce, becoming super mom, and growing old with your mate.

Excerpts from the book:

What Bill and I looked like and how we lived didn't seem to matter anymore. The impact was driven home one afternoon when I realized there was nothing of either of us left in the house any more. Our hobbies and interests had been regulated to cardboard boxes and stored in the attic. Our favorite books had been replaced by doctors Spock and Seuss. We didn't have toys of our own... they had been replaced by head-bumping mobiles and shin-cracking rocking horses. Even our wedding picture had been replaced by a framed naked baby.

All the wages from both our paychecks went into one account and we shared. All the daily experiences of our individual jobs were exchanged over dinner and we shared. All the child raising and crud detail – the baton twirling classes, the orthodontist appointments, car pools, shopping and errands – were mine alone.

When married couples say "We never argue," it's an incomplete sentence. "We never argue in public/in front of the children/during sex," maybe. But there is something wrong with two people who agree to never disagree.

Women generally hang on to their illusions about romance. They want desperately to believe it's a phase men go through and that one day they will appear at the door with violets out of season, a bottle of wine, and two airline tickets to Paris... That will happen on the day two squirrels sit down at our picnic table feeder and order a corn-on-the-cob daiquiri.

There are no marriage manuals. It's just as well. If there were, no one would get married. It would be like reading a book on how babies are born. They both sound worse than they are. There are no guarantees that marriage will work when you get it home. There are no exchanges or credits or returns. No life-time batteries. It's a high-risk profession.

52 Books: Books 37

I have been reading some pregnancy/parenting books lately. It seems fitting since we are expecting soon. Mostly I have been disappointed. In regards to pregnancy, mine has been an easy one and most of the symptoms that the books suggest I should experience, I have not experienced. I have some great recommendations for parenting books, but haven't felt the need to start them yet since I still have about 9 weeks to go. 

Anyways, I just finished reading And Baby Makes Three by John Gottman and Julie Schwartz Gottman. To be quite honest, this read like a marital counseling book targeted at couples who had not been married very long. Daniel and I have almost a decade of marriage under our belts and the issues discussed in the book are essentially non issues for us. So maybe a good read for a young couple or a newly married couple, but not for us. I need to find a book that addresses people who have chosen to wait a significant amount of time before they decided to have children.

Labor Day Weekend

On Friday our long-time friends, the Wheeler's, came down to our place to spend part of the weekend with us. We were really excited because we haven't seen them in over 5 years. Gwynn and Chuck were our first "couple" friends to make after we were newly married and in Cookeville. We are so thankful that we have been able to keep in touch with them and now that we live a little closer, we are hoping to see them more often.

Much has changed since we left Cookeville 7 years ago... they have three kids now and we have a dog and a baby on the way. 

Originally we had planned to go camping but due to the fact that it has been HOT and I am pregnant and finding a place to camp on Labor Day was proving difficult, we decided to invite them to our place to have some fun.

Friday night they arrived late and put the kids straight to bed. In the meanwhile, we adults stayed up way past our bedtime {1:30-ish} visiting.

The next morning, after breakfast, we loaded the kids and canoe up and went to Goosepond for some paddling on the Tennessee River. Daniel and Chuck took all three kids out for a short spin. Then Abi {age two} came back to shore to hang out with Gwynn and I while we visited. The older kids and guys took a longer spin. 

Finally when they came back, Abi decided she wanted to go again. Zoe {age 6?} stayed on shore to swim while Eli {age 7?} went for another ride. The guys made it out past the dock when all of a sudden the canoe flipped over! Gwynn and I were watching and ran out on the dock to collect kids so that Daniel and Chuck could bring the canoe in. Amazingly neither kid panicked and the life jackets kept them afloat. 

The rest of the day, we hung out, grilled burgers and enjoyed each others company.

Sunday we slept in and visited some more, followed by a quick devo, then Daniel and Chuck took the kids out one at a time on our four wheeler. I think the kids {and Chuck} were in heaven :) After riding around the yard, we decided to go into town to grab lunch and then to the Scottsboro Splash Pad for the kids to play.

On the way to Scottsboro it started raining but the kids still wanted to go to the Splash Pad, so we figured it didn't matter since they would be getting wet anyways. The adults hung out in the pavilion while the kids played.

We had a fun, very kid friendly weekend. It is good for us to see that our future can definitely be one of us introducing kids to activities that we love.

52 Books: Books 36

Back in 2009 I read Julie and Julia {book 55 for that year} and was sorely disappointed. A book about blogging and cooking should have been perfect for me. Instead I read my way through a book about a woman whose mission in life {beside cooking her way through Julia Child's recipes} was to whine and complain about everything. I was not a fan. At all.

So two years later, I finally picked up My Life in France, the memoir of Julia Child. While Julie and Julia definitely have some things in common, Julia Child is much more of a grown up in how she deals with her problems. She embraces challenges and NEVER WHINES. I don't know if Julia Child ever read Julie Powell's book, but I think she would be appalled by how much of a whiner Julie is.

That being said, I enjoyed reading My Life in France and may have to incorporate some French recipes into my weekly menu.

Excerpts from the book:

"It's easy to get the feeling that you know the language just because you order a beer and they don't bring you oysters." – Paul Child

Upon reflection, I decided that I had three main weaknesses: I was confused (evidenced by a lack of facts, an inability to coordinate my thoughts, and an inability to verbalize my ideas); I had a lack of confidence, which caused me to back down from forcefully stated positions; and I was overly emotional at the expense of careful, "scientific" thought. I was thirty-seven years old and still discovering who I was.

...the more you learn, the more you realize you don't know...

I don't believe in twisting yourself in knots of excuses and explanations over the food you make... usually one's cooking is better than one thinks it is. And if the food is truly vile... then the cook must simply grit her teeth and bear it with a smile – and learn from her own mistakes.

This is my invariable advice to people: Learn how to cook – try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun!

Red Velvet Ant

{via}

Have you ever seen one of these 2-inch ants before? I never had until a month ago when I noticed on one our driveway. It ran away before I had a chance to show it to Daniel. And then last weekend we found one on our back porch while eating breakfast. I steered Sophie away from it {she can be too curious for her own good sometimes} while Daniel killed it {or attempted to}.

Once the ant was immobile, Daniel looked it up on the internet and we discovered that it was called a Red Velvet Ant. Also commonly known as a Cow Killer because it inflicts a sting that is so painful that it would in theory kill a cow {they don't really kill cows}. Thankfully they are not supposed to be hostile and will run away from people. 

It turned out that the ant was not quite dead and was making attempts to come back to life while Daniel researched it – it's a tough little sucker. The good news is that these Red Velvet Ants {actually a part of the wasp family} prey on Yellow Jackets – which we have a lot of. So I will keep a respectful distance the next time I see one and be thankful that it will hunt down the Yellow Jacket nests and destroy them.