We made it!

Well friends,

It has been a month of ups and downs here . . .
Some of the downs?
Lost mailbox key
Sickness
Had to find a different doula

Some of the ups?
Valentine's Day
Murray Family get together for Ivan
Sullins Family get together for ALL the February birthdays - including Jeff's
Service to a friend
Singing for All State Choir kids and workshop with Rene Clausen

I'm in my third trimester now - which is good - although, I still have so much to do to prepare for the baby and this month was a giant setback for making progress in that area. But all is well and I know everything will be okay.

This month has been a month of a lot of reflection and searching for me. I wish I had all the answers sometimes or that I could see the end from the beginning. But no matter what, I will try to always remain hopeful and grateful and do my best.

Here are some pics . . .
I'm trying to take a few more pics of myself this pregnancy than I have so far. Some pics I look bigger than others. In this one, I'm not as big as I think I actually look. Occasionally I'll get a comment like the one I did a few weeks ago at choir, where someone said, "Are you gonna make it???" - referring to how big I was getting. I'm thinking, "I hope so!" What choice is there? : )


Mary likes to be the baby in the stomach sometimes. : ) She has done this with Jeff too.


She loves swimming so much. I try to take her every couple of weeks.


Snow has been a part of our lives this month for sure. Here is Mary wearing the snowman hat and scarf.


A friend of mine's boy - who is also Mary's age - stayed with us a few nights while she was in the hospital. Mary enjoyed having a playmate - mostly. Sharing was not her strength. But she did well enough. We enjoyed being able to help out a friend.


Sullins family get together- GrammE and our new baby boy cousin - who is the same age as our baby boy will be!

Our little family.

Sullins girl cousins!


On the docket of things to do while we were at the new Sullins home in Parker was for the men to put Ellen's dollhouse together. I love the size difference between Mary and Charles here.
Yes - that is how big Ellen's doll house is! Can you just imagine how fun it would be to be one of her granddaughters?


Lately whenever Mary encounters pretty characters with long flowing dresses, she says they are married. She has taken to saying this about herself whenever she has lots of pretty jewelry or in this case blankets draped on herself. Here she says, "I'm so married!!!!" SOOO Cute!!!

Seriously? I don't even know what to say about this except that she takes after her mother a bit. : )

Happy Leap Day everyone! Here's to looking forward to a new month, a new season, and new adventures.
Love,
Annie

My Valentine

If you know me at all, you should know that I LOVE Valentine's Day. It is probably my 2nd favorite holiday after Christmas. Course I love all the holidays. Holidays make life more fun and festive. I know some people hate Valentine's but I have a hard time relating. Yea, maybe you don't have a significant other or maybe they are lame and don't do anything to show their love for you. But still, what about all the other people who show love to you? And it is also a chance to show others that you love them. And of course, I love pink and red . . . and chocolate. : ) (Easter actually has the best candy of all the holidays IMHO but I could actually write a post about that and I will spare you that for today : )).

But speaking of chocolate . . . about the 2nd week in January I told Jeff that I wanted to have an early Valentine's box of chocolates. And he obliged! Because of his sweetness, I thought it might be fun to document so many of the nice things he does for me on a regular basis and share them here.


Jeff consistently tries to make me happy by giving in to many of my unnecessary wants.

The first pic - which would have been here - was supposed to be a pic of the chocolates, but alas, I ate them all before I got my act together to take a pic. : ) But just imagine a beautiful array of chocolates and their luscious smell.

Jeff helps with several chores I just don't like doing:
Deboning chicken!


Shoveling the driveway!


Jeff is - and always has been - a huge help with Mary. He is a wonderful father!



Jeff takes care of me when I'm sick. This is a lovely picture of me last week after getting probably the worst case of food poisoning I've ever had. Last week wasn't a good week all around I tell ya.


He regularly goes to social events that he would gladly skip just to make me happy.



These are some of the main things, but of course, not all of them. I feel blessed to be married to such a devoted husband and father. Jeff, you are my Valentine!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Thanks for all your love!

Scrapbook done. Doula hired.

I'm pleased because I have recently finished two big projects that needed getting done.

The first one was that I finally finished an engagement scrapbook that I made for my friend, Annabel. Her mom asked me if I would make one for her and I thought it would be a wonderful thing that she could always treasure. I spent many, MANY hours on it and I feel like I did my best. There are some amazing scrapbookers in this world - and I am not one of them unfortunately. But I'm decent and it almost doesn't matter. Because what matters most is capturing the memories. So here is a picture of the album cover(I won't include pics of each page). The entire album was based on these colors. I found an awesome line at Archiver's that just screamed Annabel (Teresa Collins Posh line) and it streamlined the process.



The other project that I wanted to figure out/do was hire a doula for my upcoming birth. I wanted to share a few thoughts about that here briefly.

I can't really share all the details here or reasons for why I am doing this, but I have wanted to -for a long time- have this next baby without drugs (if I can). By choosing this, I hope others don't feel that I am judging them if they don't choose this route. It really is true that each woman is different and cares about different things and so I know that natural childbirth is not for everyone. But for me, it is really something that has always been in my head and I think if you have that desire, it doesn't go away until you get to experience it.

Here are the main reasons why I'm choosing this method:
Incidentally, I chose to hire a doula because hiring a midwife is similar to having a doctor. A midwife can do medical things such as check the cervix, check the heart rate, etc. Since I have a doctor I feel like more what I need is someone who can just help me through labor and prepare for it. I didn't feel like I could do it with just Jeff and me. I felt like I needed someone with a lot of experience and someone who understood me and would be with me through the entire labor.

1. I believe that natural childbirth is the healthiest and safest way to bring a baby into the world (generally). This is widely known and accepted and proven even by the medical community (though not really encouraged, sadly).

2. I will have more control over what happens to my body in the hospital if I don't start having interventions (enducing, pitocin, epidurals, etc.) to begin with.

3. I feel a strong desire to experience what it actually feels like to have a baby. I feel it could be an amazing learning experience. I also feel completely terrified! I HATE pain and discomfort. I'm kind of a princess. And I live my life in such a way to avoid health problems if at all possible. That is why pregnancy is hard for me I think. But I do feel I have something to learn from this.

People always use the word "empowered". Maybe that is it. My sister Jennifer has said that when she had to take care of one of her children that died before turning one, that it taught her a lot about herself and boosted her self esteem because SHE was the one who took care of him. So maybe this will be something like that for me.

4. I feel a desire to experience what women throughout the ages - including my pioneer ancestors - experienced. I keep having the thought that if I ever go back to acting (or even anything artistic) that this experience will be a huge resource for me. When I tell women of my mother's generation that I want to do this, I usually get a "you're crazy" kind of look followed by an admission that, "yes, I'm glad I had the experience". My own mother had 5 natural births and 1 epidural. She has said before she'd rather have had 1 natural and 5 epidurals. But she does always say that she is glad she got to know what it is like to go naturally.

So that is basically it! Jeff is supportive but also thinks I am a little crazy I think. He has said that some women are more apt for this sort of thing than I am - which is probably true. But he is supportive and I'm grateful for that.

I am fairly determined to go this route, but as we all know, labor doesn't always go as planned. If the baby is turned funny or something I might change my mind. But I really hope that this will be a wonderful experience for us and planning for it to be so. I invoke your prayers and good thoughts now so that I will continue to have a healthy pregnancy and a wonderful childbirth.

If you'd like more details, I'm pretty much an open book. You can feel free to ask me anything.

Also, if you're interested in seeing my doula's (Heather is her name) website, I will also include that here. http://www.birthangel.net/