Consolidated Kansas

[lizzyGSR]

Lizzy, been thinking about you driving the trailer and horses to the vet. So glad everything turned out awesome! I'm with Danz there... have you started on the nursery yet? A November baby! My daughter was born on Halloween. She was a tad early but you have no idea how many people kept asking us if we planned to have a Halloween baby. Duh... if we can predict exactly when a baby will be born (except for planned C-section I supposed), we would be rich by now.

Look a few posts back. I posted a baby-related update per Danz's request. My birthday is in late October, and I have never really liked it. My parents rarely let us celebrate Halloween growing up, and I disliked all of the attention that Halloween got when I didn't get to celebrate. Living out in the boonies didn't help because it was always a long drive to anywhere. If Baby does decide to come early, I am hoping that Baby comes early enough to be mid-October and not around Halloween time. Halloween becomes a distant memory pretty quickly as thoughts turn towards the quickly approaching Thanksgiving holiday, so I would like it even better if Baby decided to come on time...

I hope it went well. I'd be nervous about it, too. I don't even like driving DH's pickup because of the way it turns, never mind with a trailer on the back of it!

Everything went smoothly. The biggest hiccup was that I am not very good at backing the trailer and had to make several attempts to get it back into the driveway where it belongs. The vet said that the rabies vaccine should kick in pretty quickly (a couple of days) so I only have to be on pins and needs until then. I absolutely hate thinking about anything happening to any of my animals, but especially my horses (I know this is a poultry forum, but I have always been partial to horses... Ducks/geese have only recently joined my list of favorite animals while horses have been in the #1 spot for quite some time).

 

[chicken danz]

I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to leave you guys out! I guess I was just posting in so many places that I forgot about this one.

I am really hoping that my in-laws will be able to come for Thanksgiving. I honestly don't know about my family, as my sister is also expecting and is also due in November (Nov 27th). It is hard enough to plan around one baby's arrival, much less two! This will be my sister's third child, though, so she probably has a much better idea of what to expect than I do with all of this. I don't expect to see her around Thanksgiving time, unless we go see her. I'm sure it will all be a wait-and-see game as there are so many unknowns surrounding that now.

My husband's schedule usually requires that we only take vacation for one holiday. This year, maternity/paternity leave MIGHT cover Thanksgiving, so we might get to go home for Christmas/New Year's as well. That runs into the possibility of SNOW, though, and I'm not yet sure what I think about traveling (especially so far: about 4-5 hours) with a newborn with the threat of winter weather AND flu. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.

I am making steady progress on getting ready for Baby's arrival, though it seems like there is WAY more to do than there is time to get it done. My in-laws were here a little more than a week ago, and they helped my husband move my desk out of the nursery and into the sunroom. That freed up some space for baby-related things in the nursery and simultaneously moved my computer to a place where it will likely be a little safer. We started a "to give away" pile in the room that will be the nursery a while back (think last year) and haven't taken care of it yet, so there is still some clean up that needs done in that room. Meanwhile, I have been working hard on making the crib set and other things for the nursery. I have 3 sides of the crib skirt done, as well as one window curtain. I still have yet to finish the remaining side on the crib skirt, the remaining curtain, the skirt for the twin bed that will be staying in the room, and the decorations for the wall. Here is a teaser photo of the stuff for the nursery. This is the window curtain, folded up and laying on the sidewalk outside. Please ignore the chalk lines on the fabric as the curtain has not yet been washed. The nursery is coming together nicely, and I am starting to get excited!

Love the nursery stuff. It looks so much like I see your personality. When you get it all done we need more pictures. I have stuff to do a nursery for my second son and his wife that aren't any where near ready to start having a baby. They are too much involved in careers etc at the time. I will have a blast making it even if they never use it. I spent quite a bit of money to buy all the stuff. I am even making a custom mobile to match all the other things. Good winter project I guess. Not that it will get done this year.


I have been doing really pretty well, and can't really complain, though I believe I have just moved into the stage where sleep becomes difficult. I have been having a hard and hard time getting and staying comfortable at night. Then, when I do finally get comfortable that is, of course, when I have to get up to make a run to the bathroom... So far, that is my biggest complaint, so I'd say I'm doing pretty good. I actually JUST finished a belly picture collage, and I'll share it with you since you asked.
I appreciate the pictures as well. You are really looking good and healthy. Doesn't look like you've put on much weight.


My first baby shower will be in approximately two weeks! It is difficult to believe that it is almost here already! Gosh, how time flies!

Lizzy, been thinking about you driving the trailer and horses to the vet. So glad everything turned out awesome! I'm with Danz there... have you started on the nursery yet? A November baby! My daughter was born on Halloween. She was a tad early but you have no idea how many people kept asking us if we planned to have a Halloween baby. Duh... if we can predict exactly when a baby will be born (except for planned C-section I supposed), we would be rich by now.

I'm with KNHKluckers, this is the first year we are in this house. All these talks about holiday decorations and what not really got me thinking about how to decorate the house. I have several huge picture windows so it is just a matter of which window I want the Christmas tree at and how much decorations I want to put on the tree. Gotta remember what goes up on the tree will have to come down eventually and it is the coming down part that I dread every year. Thanksgiving and Christmas are my most favorite holidays. Part of it is because the weather will be cooler (ya know... I've been looking forward to Fall since Spring...

) and the other part is I love to celebrate and cook. Those 2 holidays give me perfect reason to bake and cook ALL THE TIME! My son is also a budding chef (so he self proclaimed!!) so I think this year's holiday will be extra exciting with him buzzing around in the kitchen with me cooking and baking. As a matter of fact, he was just helping me cook up some soy milk from scratch last night!! I'll be making more soy milk this week too now that he has a taste of it and likes it (he tasted it before but didn't like it).

Oh... cooler thoughts... cooler thoughts... LOL

I love cooking for the holidays.I have always done the entire meal, but the last couple years the kids have been bringing this and that and I have to admit it sure helps me keep the stress level down. I am the pie maker, turkey and dressing cooker. Then they always request my candied sweet potatoes as well. Have fun planning yoru first Christmas in your house.
Quote:

Good! I know my niece said the blu-kote really worked for her duck.


I hope it went well. I'd be nervous about it, too. I don't even like driving DH's pickup because of the way it turns, never mind with a trailer on the back of it!


It finally dried out enough at the garden to plant that extra plot we were given. I had a bad attack of something yesterday and couldn't go, but DH and my aunt spent all afternoon out there. DH said he had to till it four times to get it broken up enough to plant. I'm not sure what all they planted, but they were planning on trying for a fall crop of scallop squash and peas, as well as wax beans, carrots, beets, and radishes. Tomorrow morning, before it's melting-hot out, I need to go harvest more of the flat green beans and poke around in the tomatilloes to see if they're ready to harvest.
So tell me when to pick the tomatilloes. I have tons of them. None of them are large but how do you know when they are ready??
Stay cool everyone!

I'm finally getting some pods forming on my lima beans. Nothing on the green beans though. They were much later. Lots of blooms if they just produce beans. I'm getting lots of cucumbers which the birds and I both appreciate. I've been feeding the over grown left over radishes to the peafowl. They live the tops and nibble at the radishes. Everything green and every thing that isn't good for human consumption like tomatoes with holes in them go to the birds.

 

[lizzyGSR]

Love the nursery stuff. It looks so much like I see your personality. When you get it all done we need more pictures. I have stuff to do a nursery for my second son and his wife that aren't any where near ready to start having a baby. They are too much involved in careers etc at the time. I will have a blast making it even if they never use it. I spent quite a bit of money to buy all the stuff. I am even making a custom mobile to match all the other things. Good winter project I guess. Not that it will get done this year.

I appreciate the pictures as well. You are really looking good and healthy. Doesn't look like you've put on much weight.

I will do my best to post more nursery pictures. I am trying very hard to restrain myself. I would like to be able to have a "grand reveal" of the nursery when it's done. More motivation to get it done in a timely manner that way. It is starting to come together nicely, though, and I am really excited to make more progress. There's just not enough time in the day to get everything done. The good news is that my sewing machine is in the basement, where it is cool. It's a good place to go spend some time on these hot days.

I have put on approximately 22 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight. I say approximately because I rarely ever weighed myself pre-pregnancy, so I am not 100% sure what my "before" weight was. I FEEL really big now, but that is probably because I've always been pretty small. The biggest frustrations are that my belly gets in the way of me reaching things, and I can NOT seem to keep my shirts clean - I keep dropping things on my belly and getting spots on my shirts. I have also come pretty close to touching the hot stove with my belly. I guess you could say I'm clumsy and adding a big belly hasn't helped much.

 

[Trish44]

Well it's been a frustrating two days, but finally we just went today & bought a new water softener. Our old one started leaking & my DH tried ordering parts & it just wouldn't quit leaking. Even with all the water turned off to the house it still was leaking water, so we had a huge mess in the utility/laundry room. I had to carry everything outside to get the floor mopped up & it's all still sitting out there. I had metal shelf units I was using for storing things on them & they were full so I had to empty all of those & carry it all out of there to get things cleaned up. It ran into the storage room too, but hopefully it will dry out OK, I don' think it went too far into there & most of the things in there are in plastic tubs thankfully. Anyway, we decided we didn't want to throw any more money at trying to get parts for the old softener & just went & got the new one today & my DH took half the day off to install it. It was just one in a line of things that has happened lately, so he was not a happy camper to have to go spend that much money.

I haven't been able to even work on my duck pen to get it finished due to all the frustrations with the leaking & water cleanup. I hope I can get it done before it gets to 100 degrees out, but I don't know the way things have been going around here.

lizzy, I'm glad you got your horses taken to the Vet safely & back. You're looking very healthy in your pics, I hope you have a very easy time with your labor & delivery. That's not much weight to gain being pregnant, I know I gained a whole lot more than that with my son. Your nursery stuff looks really cute, I hope you will share pics when you get it all done.

 

[lizzyGSR]

lizzy, I'm glad you got your horses taken to the Vet safely & back. You're looking very healthy in your pics, I hope you have a very easy time with your labor & delivery. That's not much weight to gain being pregnant, I know I gained a whole lot more than that with my son. Your nursery stuff looks really cute, I hope you will share pics when you get it all done.

I'm sorry to hear about everything that's gone wrong for you recently.

I intend to show more pictures of the nursery once things are closer to being finished... I finished the 2nd window curtain today. 22 pound may not be much, but I am also only 30 weeks along. 10 weeks to go, and they say that I should be gaining about a pound a week from here on out...

 

[chicken danz]

We could definitely use a water softener but it's one of those creature comforts we just do without. I am sure it would save some life on some faucets and appliances. I had to replace my shower head that was only 3 years old because the outlets got plugged with lime and it caused it to spring leaks. The second one is already starting to do the same thing after about a year and a half. It was nice quality but just not made for these conditions. The company did replace the first one for free.
Lizzy I gained very little with my kids but I starved myself and the babies for that matter. Remember you can pretty much double the weight of the baby by the weight of the amniotic fluid. Eating right is a lot more important than whether you gain weight or not in my books. You look really good.
I got the bank of nest boxes taken down out of the old garage yesterday. Then drug them outside and pressure washed them inside and out so I could start with clean ones. I wrestled them onto a wagon and pulled them out to the coop. I got them in the coop then DH came in and attached them with a couple strong ties at the top just to make sure they didn't tip over. I had to take a roost out to make room for them but there is a second roost in there anyway. I suppose the dumb birds will roost in the nests when I get them moved in there. I want to move the birds in today but it's so hot I'm almost afraid to. I must have forgotten to shut the door to one pen because the rooster I planned to put in there is out running around. I may have to just wait one more day rather than try to chase him around the yard.
It seems like getting that nest box ready and moved was an all day project. That and watering all the birds to keep them cool.
I've got to get feed today. Hopefully I can convince DH to go get it for me. It takes an hour out of my day to get feed and I can spend that time taking care of other things. I can always shovel it off after it cools down this evening.
I need to make at least three more nest boxes for other pens. They only need to be one or two holes each. And I need to make a roost for the peachicks. Sounds like I need to get on my carpenter pants and get busy.

 

[lizzyGSR]

Lizzy I gained very little with my kids but I starved myself and the babies for that matter. Remember you can pretty much double the weight of the baby by the weight of the amniotic fluid. Eating right is a lot more important than whether you gain weight or not in my books. You look really good.

Gosh, Danz! You make me tired just reading about all you do! I went out this morning and dumped and refilled the kiddie pool for my birds/dog. I hadn't seen them using it recently, which usually means it is time.... Silly birds LOVE making the water dirty but refuse to use it once it is dirty. Once it is dirty to their satisfaction, even the dog stops using it... Now, if only I could figure out a way to keep it clean for longer.....

 

[lizzyGSR]

Lizzy I gained very little with my kids but I starved myself and the babies for that matter. Remember you can pretty much double the weight of the baby by the weight of the amniotic fluid. Eating right is a lot more important than whether you gain weight or not in my books. You look really good.

Oops... Meant to also say that I eat when I'm hungry and stop when I'm full. My dr. isn't worried about how much/little weight I've gained so far, so I'm not worrying about it either.

 

[chicken danz]

What a sweet husband! I am sure he loves you regardless of little or how much you gain. I have terrible eating habits. I keep working and forget to eat and then when I do eat I binge and binge. Unfortunately it is usually late evening before I get around to eating. I did much better when I worked full time. I always ate breakfast and ate veggies for lunch and took it easy for dinner. It's just too easy to get wrapped up in what I am doing. I have some blood sugar problems though and sometimes go way too long without eating something.
I had a peachick hatch this morning. I only have one more pea egg in the incubator which is one that the girls laid outside of where they are nesting. They sure are laying late. They did that last year as well. It's okay as long as the ladies raise them. I don't really have a place to keep peachicks once the weather gets cold. Last year my hen did a great job of raising her chicks herself though.

 

[tweetybaby2005]

I'm sorry to hear about everything that's gone wrong for you recently.

I intend to show more pictures of the nursery once things are closer to being finished... I finished the 2nd window curtain today. 22 pound may not be much, but I am also only 30 weeks along. 10 weeks to go, and they say that I should be gaining about a pound a week from here on out...

Lizzy, looks like you are gaining healthy weight there. Different people gained differently. The Dr gives guideline to pregnant women on how much they should gain based on the initial weigh-in at the office, at least my Dr did. Again, that was only a guideline, not etch in stone. As long as you are eating healthy and gaining healthy weight, that's all that matters. I gained about 27 lbs with my first one and 22 lbs with my second. All was good.

Enjoy your pregnancy. You are getting to the finish line soon!