4

I still can hardly believe baby #4 is rapidly growing in my womb. (Really, this is precious babe #5, as we miscarried a baby between Leila & Nadia). Feeling so blessed. This new baby will be a change for us…the first baby born away from both sides of the family. There is the biggest gap in ages between our children with this baby. Libbs & Leila are 17 months apart, Leila & Nadia 16 months apart…and now this baby will be a whopping 3 years younger than Nadia! I wonder what that will be like : ).

And the biggest change will be the birth plan. We are planning a home birth this time around. I have been wanting to try a water birth ever since I had Liberty…and now I am getting my chance. We are feeling confident about our decision at this point. I am 8 1/2 weeks pregnant right now and we met with our midwives and doula for the first time today. They are great. My doula is a friend of mine here…she’s an OB nurse at the hospital as well and she just had her first baby (at home) in July. One of the midwives is my doula’s mother. Both midwives live about 2 hours from us…but that doesn’t really worry me because my friend & doula lives just minutes from us and she has delivered babies before. I am looking forward to attempting a water birth. And I’m excited about the opportunity to give birth in my own comfortable environment. (Lest you be worried about complications…which so far I haven’t had any complicated pregnancies or deliveries…the hospital is RIGHT behind our house!!). I also have another good friend here who had a home birth in August (a vbac, actually). Anyway…I’m really excited about this opportunity. Another plus…a home birth is wayyyy less expensive than a hospital birth AND our insurance will cover a big part of it. Woo hoo!

So far I am feeling pretty good. I am super super tired…but that’s probably not surprising since I have 3 little ones to care for and we are homeschooling…and there’s a baby growing inside of me. I feel nauseous on and off, but haven’t actually gotten sick yet. I especially feel nauseous after eating. Haven’t had a ton of cravings, but I have been craving salads…but not with lettuce…just fresh spinach. Yum! This is weird for me b/c with the girls I always craved junk, junk and more junk. I hope this keeps up. I have a hard time cooking dinner lately b/c nothing sounds good, haha! I want to try to start putting my dinners together before lunch…b/c after that I am wiped out.

The girls are really excited…especially Liberty. She’s really hoping for a brother. She loves to look at the pregnancy sections of the human body books we have and she tells everyone she can about the baby in mommy’s belly. Official due date from the midwives: May 12, 2012. Weird fact about that…all of my pregnancies have gone 7 or 8 days past my due date. 7 days past my current due date is May 19, 2012…the day my dad passed away in 2010. Mixed feelings there.

Anyway…here are a few pics of the girlies…

Libbs. This girl is growing so much. She is learning to read now and doing well (what?!).

Leila-bear. This cutie is going to be 4 (FOUR?!) on Saturday.

Nonners (Nadia). Full of life and snuggles.

These girls play so well together (most of the time). I love them dearly.

There isn’t a lot of fall color changes out here like there is in the midwest/east. I miss that…

And a verse that has really been sticking with me lately…so much comfort and peace in this…speaking of Christ…

“He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

Colossians 1:17 (NASB)