Home Stretch

This is the toughest stretch of being pregnant for me. For starters, I'm so excited to meet our little man. While the rest of this pregnancy seems to have flown by, the final weeks seem to go so slow. I know I won't be sleeping with a new baby, I'll have an adjustment going from one child to two, and will have to start breastfeeding all over again. But to hold a tiny baby in your arms makes it all so worth it! With 10 weeks until the due date, I know that he could be here anytime after about 6 weeks! Trent was exactly one week early. We'll see what this one decides to do.

Another reason this stretch is difficult for me is the slowing down. I love to exercise. I have been diligent in keeping up with it the entire pregnancy. However, the more the baby grows (and in turn, I grow), the more it slows me down. Last week, my slow jog officially became a walk. In body pump, I have gradually been decreasing my weights and opting for lower options of some of the exercises. We also live in a tri-level house. Running up and down stairs leaves me out of breath and I don't get up from the floor as quickly when I'm playing with Trent. Jesse has taken over some of my chores that are uncomfortable when pregnant - usually they're the ones where the belly just gets in the way. For example, I can't put Trent's sheets on his crib mattress anymore. I simply can't reach the mattress bending over the bar!

When I was pregnant with Trent, I got tired of wearing the same clothes repeatedly. Fortunately, this hasn't been a problem yet. With the extended summer heat, I wore my same summer clothes over and over and over. But just this week, fall finally hit. The highs this week are in the high 70s/low 80s! This means my fall/winter maternity clothes that have been dying to come out are finally getting the chance to be worn. It's like having a whole new wardrobe. Since Trent was a March baby, I was at my biggest with him over the winter, so I shouldn't have a problem finishing out this pregnancy with my old maternity clothes. And since I had to wait so long to wear them this year, hopefully I won't tire of them as fast!

At 30 weeks, guesstimates are that the baby is about 3lbs and 16 inches long. Trent was usually smaller than the averages when we had ultrasounds. This big boy has measured larger than average on the ultrasounds. It'll be interesting to see how their birth weights differ when he arrives. I can't wait!

A Boy and His Dog(s)

There really is a special bond between boys and their dogs. This morning we had a playdate. We were meeting our friends at the YMCA, picking up donuts from Dunkin Donuts and then coming back to our house. We didn't have to leave for the Y until 9, so we had a few hours after breakfast to play. Trent was into the dogs all morning. Dozer is his pal. Trent is partial to him over Duke. Dozer lets him roll all over him and they really are best buds. This morning, Duke wanted to play tug of war with Trent. So Trent was chasing after Dozer and Duke was chasing after Trent with a tug of war toy. It was chaos but they were all loving it. Watching Trent play tug of war with Duke is funny. It's like watching a water skier being pulled on a ski rope. The dogs are more gentle with Trent than they are with us. But it's a good matchup - Trent outweighs the dogs by about 10 pounds but when the dogs plant their feet, they can still give a good tug! The three of them ran around playing for a good little while until they wore eachother out. Then it was rest time.

Dozer and TJ relaxing (TJ's not sleeping, it just looks like he is)

Milling My Own Flour

We have been baking our own bread for at least a year now. I primarily use our bread machine and a book called 'Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day.' Both ways provide quick and easy approaches to making really yummy bread. The bread machine also allows me to use the dough setting to make bagels, homemade rolls, etc.

We had been keeping massive bags of flour in the freezer. When I did some research, I found that the majority of the nutrients in flour are lost within 72 hours of being ground. When flour is commercially made, they purposely take out the bran and germ to increase the shelf life. This increases shelf life, but depletes the flour of nutrients. Even more nutrients are lost when the flour is bleached.

When you grind your own flour, the bread tastes delicious! It's lighter, moist and better tasting than commercial comparisons. Plus, there are many different kinds of grains to choose from - far more variety than you can find in the grocery store. I've never been a huge fan of toast, but homemade bread had me eating more, and bread made with freshly ground flour has me converted!

Now before you think I've lost my mind... it is SO easy. The grain mill works just like a coffee grinder. You toss wheat in the top and it shoots flour off the side into another bowl. It takes about a minute. So simple! Since you generally grind the grain right before you make the bread, you do have to do a little bit of math. 8 cups of grain makes 12 cups of flour so it's not a 1:1 ratio - still, it's not difficult.

So far I've made banana bread, a few loaves of sandwich bread and dinner rolls using the hard white wheat. They have all turned out really well. Tonight, I'm going to attempt some squash bread as well.

The first time we bought wheat, we drove about 30 minutes away to a store that sells the wheat. I later found a co-op in our town that we started using instead so we don't have to make the drive. I ordered Rye from the co-op so I'm anticipating its arrival so I can make some Rye bread and Pumpernickel Bread.

And the best perk... having a house that smells like freshly made bread!

Ready for Game Day

Front

Back - Look at the adorable little pockets!

Last night I finished Trent's game day pants. The pictures don't do them justice, but I just had to share anyways. They are SO cute. He's going to look absolutely adorable with his plaid pants and Orange and Blue Shaker. We're working on teaching him how to say "War Eagle!" For those of you dying to know when the game is... Auburn plays Clemson this weekend at Auburn. College Game Day will be there. Kick off is at 6pm on ESPN. And lastly, here's a funny commentary for my fellow Auburn fans. Have a great weekend!

Warp Speed

One of TJ's new overalls

Wow, a week has already passed since my last post. This pregnancy has been flying by, but now that we're in the final stretch (last trimester - woohoo!), time has ramped up to warp speed.

Women's bible studies have kicked off again and we've been going to life group on Sunday nights. We really love our church and have met so many great friends through it. Trent and I continue to do our daily workouts. I'm so impressed he holds up for as long as he does when we go running. The bigger I get, the slower I run, but the distance has stayed the same. He's been so good about letting me finish my workout each day. I also planted our fall garden on Saturday. I love living in a place that has such a long growing season.

I made a list of all the things I need/want to get to done before baby number 2 gets here and it is lengthy! We need to get Trent transitioned into his "big boy room" pronto. That means that we have to renovate that room, pronto. I need to make Trent's fall/winter pants. I need to make Trent's halloween costume. I need to make his game day outfit. Next week is already the third week of football season! Auburn has been playing well, but it's just not the same when their number one fan is not decked out in his orange and blue! :) I've made a few pairs of overalls and a few pairs of pants so we have enough to get by, but not enough to keep me from doing laundry more often than I'd like. I still have 10 diapers to make before the baby arrives so we'll have plenty of cloth diapers for two boys in diapers. I'd like to get some freezer meals made so that cooking is easy while I'm adjusting to life with two children. Also, since baby number two will most likely be arriving sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I'd like to get started on Christmas shopping because that will not be a priority after the baby gets here. (Screaming newborn, hyper toddler, and crazy holiday malls, no thanks!) I don't remember everything on the list, but I know fall will be busy!

Long Weekend in Tennessee

We went up to my parents for Labor Day weekend. It was a lot of fun. While visiting with Nanny, Poppy, Mom and Dad; we played cards, rode bikes, went on boat rides, swam in the lake, played in the yard. We also watched Auburn's opening football game (which we won - War Eagle!) Overall, we just had a really nice time together. The weather was perfect. The lows were in the 50s and highs in the 80s and 90s. The cool nights make the views of the mountains so clear. The leaves are already starting to change color. We went on one particular boat ride up Abrams Creek in the Smokies. It was so pretty. There are steep, forested, mountain ledges on each side that go straight down to the water. It's going to be really gorgeous in about a month when the leaves are vibrant reds, oranges and yellows. Anyway, we took a bunch of pictures from the weekend, but none on the boat because the normal photographer (Jesse) did some of the driving and I don't remember to take pics as often as he does.

Spending Time with Nanny and Poppy

Playing At Grandma and Grandpa R's

Structured Days

Arts and Crafts Time

Such Artistic Talent!

I'm a list person. I like to make lists and consequently scratch them off. I noticed with Trent, our best days tend to be when we schedule them out ahead of time. Otherwise, both of us get cranky by the end of the day. I can't schedule things down to the minute because there are a lot of "maybes" in our day. Maybe he'll eat a big lunch, maybe he won't. Maybe he'll sleep for 1 hour, maybe he'll sleep for 3 hours. The added structure has been great for both of us because we're not in a playtime haze and wondering what to do next. Just when he starts to get bored with something, we're onto the next thing. Here's an example of what I mean.
This was our Monday:
Breakfast, Get dinner ready in the crockpot, and kick off a load of laundry
Exercise
Errands/Play Outside
Cleaning (Trent loves to help)
Lunch
Naptime
Craft Time
Read/Puzzles
Dinner
Playtime with Daddy
Bath Time
Bed Time

It has been working for us all week. Each day is different depending on what appointments or agendas we have to get through. However, it's so nice to have a general plan of what we want to accomplish throughout the day. I'm sure it'll go back to chaos for a little while after number 2 gets here, but for now it's working well so I'm sticking with it. :)

The other nice thing is the lack of television. Everyone has their own views on TV time at this age. I'm not a huge fan. We don't have cable at our house, but we do have Netflix. Netflix has an extensive instant streaming library so if I really need to get something done, I can pop on an episode of Veggietales, but for the most part, the TV does not get much use in our house. Pandora gets a TON of use though. Our little boy loves music, so we have praise music or toddler music playing all.the.time.