Jason and I put together a very special Christmas message just for you. Please note we are perhaps the most tone def family out there. Look past our imperfections and see our hearts. Also, we have short attention spans and are easily distracted by the pups. Happy Holidays!
This is our 100th blog! Hooray! Over the past several years I have attempted to blog several times. However, none of those attempts where successfully. I usually tried to stick to a topic or a theme but I grew bored with it (and so did the readers). Finally, I just decided to blog about our life and whatever popped in my little head and voila barks blog was born. I realize that in the grand scope of the blogosphere (another word I hate) a hundred post is nothing to get all excited about. However, for Jason and I it is a big deal. My joy is two fold. First that I have stuck with it this long and secondly that you all read it. Thank you for reading. I love you.
Now we have reached this milestone, how should we celebrate it? Jason and I have brainstormed for two days but between the holidays, pregnancy and Jason's head cold we came up busted. Really, nothing. Many bloggers compiled a 1oo facts about themselves but lets be honest -- who would want to read that? Beside if we put out all the interesting stuff in one post we wouldn't have anything else to blog about. Also, compiling those list are hard. We tired to come up with a few things off the top of our heads, we got three facts and then quit. We thought about making a funny video but all our ideas were lame. I did consider a give away but I realized I had nothing anyone would want. Well, I did consider giving Ann away . She got into a big pile of nut shells that Jason left on the coffee table and scatted them all over the living room while we were at the store. I was not happy. I was ready to kick her puppy tail to the curb. Then she looked at me with those big sweet eyes and I decided not to give her away. I am such a sucker.
So, I guess this is all we got . . . . .THANK YOU FOR READING! No, seriously THANK YOU. If you didn't read and comment we would not post. The aspect of the blog that we love the most is that we get to share our life with so many wonderful people. Thank you wonderful people of the internet!
I have learned over the last few weeks that some people feel as strongly about birth and child care choices as they do about politics and religion. Everyone has an opinion and there are a pretty wide range of views. I feel that each women is different and she needs to make the choices that are right for her. So, I thought that I would share with you the choices Jason and I have made so far in regards to pregnancy, birth and childcare. I was going to stick them all in one blog but I decided to spread it out over several posts in the next few weeks. If you have questions (concerns) about our choices, feel free to comment or drop an email (jaime [at] barksblog [dot] com). I love a good debate but I should also note, I am stubborn. Ask Jason, he will agree. So, I will listen, but I may not change my mind. Here you go . . .
Things you should know about the birth of our child:
Jason and I decided to have our child delivered by a Certified Nurse Midwife in a hospital. For those of you who are local, my midwife is Leigh Ann Stabler. She has her own stand alone practice called, Birthcare. Midwifes attend 98% of all home births in the US and only 8% of hospital births. This explains why everyone keeps asking me if I am having my baby at home. What does a midwife do? Basically, everything an obstetrician does expect for surgery. In the event that I need a cesarean, it would be preformed by Dr. Chambers, who is Leigh Ann's overseeing obstetrician. All midwives have an overseeing doctor and have access to all the same technologies that doctors have.
Why did we choose to use a midwife? Because we are planning on having a natural child birth without any interventions. Midwifes are generally more supportive of this choice (remember all those home births?) and they are able to spend more time with their patients than doctors. Why on earth would we choose this? This is an excellent question. For years I thought that women who refused medication were idiots. I have ridiculed women who had natural births or wanted to have natural births (I am sorry Tracy and Beth). However, when I started researching child birth options, it became clear that natural birth was a better fit for us. It is hard to explain all of our rationale for this choice so I will just share my comedic go to -- I hate needles so much that I am willing to endure the pain of child birth to avoid them. I would like to say that we are realistic and in the event of complications we will use interventions. I trust my midwife and her judgment. If you would like more information on why I made this choice just ask. Also, below is is a trailer documentary that caused us to begin exploring the options of a natural childbirth. The movie is one sided and is more emotional than intellectual but it did start the conversation. Even if you think natural birth is the dumbest idea ever, you should still watch the movie because it shows 3 uncensored natural births. It was quite educational and it shows Ricki Lakes lady parts.
Oh, one more tid-bit about the birth of our baby (for the local folks). We are having our baby at SkyRidge, the Cleveland hospital. The reason I am sharing this is that none of the women I know in town chose to have their baby at SkyRidge. They all have them at Erlanger in Chattnooga. I know it is a much better hospital. I picked to have my baby local primarily out of convenience. With my work schedule it would be really hard to make it Chattanooga for monthly appointments. Also, we live one mile from SkyRidge (my midwife's office is next door). I know we are totally lazy.
Hello second trimester!
Yes, this week marks the start of my second trimester in pregnancy. For those of you who know nothing about pregnancy, (this was once me) this means I am 1/3 of way through. According to all the books, the second trimester is supposed to be easier than the first. While I still don't feel "normal" I can tell a difference. I am starting to feel less nauseated and I have a bit more energy. There for a while I spent entire days feeling sick and I was going to bed at 7pm.
In addition to feeling better, I have the beginnings of a tiny baby bump. It is tiny, but it is there. It is really exciting. Actually, a week or so go, my bump made Jason cry. I was cropping an onion and I looked up to see Jason standing in to door to the kitchen with tears in his eyes. When I asking him what was wrong he just smiled and said "I can see our baby." Sometimes I still find myself in complete awe of the fact that we are going to bring a person into this world. We often lay in bed at night talking about the baby and what kind of changes it is going to bring into our life. While we are terrified, we are quite excited.
One of the primary things that we are worried about is cash. Do you guys have any idea how much money is needed to bring a baby into the developed world? What in the world possessed me to get pregnant! All the lists you guys have sent me have been wonderful and have sent me into a total panic. So far we have only bought one baby item. Do you know what it is? Baby bedding. Yes, bedding. I found it on clearance at WalMart.com (yes, walmart). I fell in love with the pattern and the price so snatched it up. I keep looking at it thinking there are a 100 more practical items that I should have bought. Ahhhh! Am I the only future parent to freak out about all the needed baby items? Yes, I am sure I will have a baby shower or two but still there is a lot of crap that we need. I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to all the women who showers I have attended. I always brought cute and totally impractical gifts to showers. Forgive me for my ignorance. Sigh. I think I feel better getting my worries and that apology off my chest.
For now I am going to focus on the positives like the fact that on Thursday we get to hear our little ones heart beat. I hope he or she is nice and cozy in my expanding womb. Junior only has 6 more months before he or she gets evicted.
Here are our family Christmas photos. They aren't the best because we took them ourselves. The ones with both of us were a bit sketchy. We used a tripod and had the camera on timer. This resulted in one of us frantically running across the room and diving under the tree. Dangerous and festive. I am happy to report that Ann did incredible thanks to all the puppy training. She patiently laid down under the tree and didn't move until we were done. It was amazing. The only accident she had is when Jason released her from down stay. We gave her a treat for her hard work which resulted in her tail going crazy. Some how her tail hit a glass ornament just like a base ball bat. It soared across the room and shattered when it hit our hard wood floor. We couldn't really scolder her, it was an accident and it was hilarious. Ann was completely oblivious to what had taken place, she was engrossed in her treat. Prissy on the other hand was terrified. She is scared of everything. All in all it was a fun filled evening of forcing everyone to crowd under the Christmas tree and to act like they liked it.
Over the thanksgiving holiday Jason's mom gave us a lovely, wrapped Christmas present. Being a Christmas morning purest, I placed it under the tree not to be touched until the 25th. However, Jason's mom asked about the gift and informed us that was, in fact, a Christmas decoration and that we needed to open it so we could enjoy it during the holiday season. So, since I had been told to, I ripped into it. It was a giant ceramic ginger bread train. While it was cute, we thought it was just another ceramic Christmas decoration. Until . . . . we plugged it in. WOW. Really, it is a spectacle of lights that is guaranteed to dazzle! When the lights went off and train lit up we both started started freaking out like little kids. It was quite dramatic. I think we enjoyed it so much because for a brief moment it brought back the wonder of Christmas. It felt as if we were kids again. Below is a peak at our train.
Jason and I took a much needed break on Sunday. We spent the entire day curled up in our pajamas resting, eating and watching documentaries. It was heaven. This past week was super hectic. In addition to the busy week, we spent the weekend enjoying Cleveland's Christmas Festivities. On Friday we went downtown for the tree lighting and took a carriage ride around the square with Ben and Cassie. Then on Saturday night, we got the honor of judging the floats in the Christmas Parade. We love our small town so we were more than willing to brave the cold to judge the floats. We drug Ben and Cassie along for the festivities and we agonizingly reviewed the entries. Let me tell you, for a little town we have a big parade. Choosing the winners was difficult, everyone was so great.
Needless to say, after that much Christmas fun, we needed to crash. I think every now and then everyone just needs to stop and spend an entire day doing NOTHING. I realize this may seem lazy but it is good for the soul. Yes, there was plenty that we could (should) have been doing but the rest was more beneficial. Oh yeah, while we did rest there was one thing that we did do. We made a "to do" list of all things that need to be done before the baby comes. Good thing we enjoyed Sunday, we might not get another break until the baby comes.
I mentioned we watched documentaries all day. We LOVE documentaries (yes, we are nerds). Anyway, below is a video clip from my favorite film of the day "I like Killing Flies." It is about this grumpy and philosophical restaurant owner in NYC. He makes the soup Nazi from Seinfeld look like a pansy. I love him. The clip here is about his philosophy of life. Please note his language is a little vulgar. If profanity offends you don't need to watch it. You have been warned.
ps. This is where the title for this entry came from:
Okay, I think I have mentioned this before, but I know nothing about babies. Really, I am pretty clueless and Jason is worse than me. A couple years back I volunteered to watch a friend's 6 month old. I actually sent her home with her diaper on backwards. Seriously. I know nothing. So, as you can imagine, putting together a baby register with this lack of information on babies is quite difficult. I know that is it a little early, but my family is throwing us a shower in the beginning of March so I wanted to start compiling a list of baby necessities (I am also a compulsive planner so I need to start early) I would like to emphasize necessities, because our house is small and storage space is limited, that I want to streamline the baby products as much as possible. Also, with the recession, everyone is broke. So here is what I want for those of you who have any experience with children.
Nothing about being pregnant has caused me to feel pretty. Perhaps later I will have the "pregnant glow" and feel lovely, but right now I just feel gross. I am already starting to gain weight, experience exhaustion, mood swings, nausea and my face is breaking out. Really God, pimples??? Pimples during pregnancy is just plain mean. When you feel bad the last thing you want is to look in a mirror and realize you look bad too. I have intentionally tried to combat the pregnant ugliness by getting my hair cut, buying some new clothes (stretchy things for my expanding belly) and by finally getting my contact prescription refilled. I think it has helped a little, but I still don't feel my best. I really hope this gets better but I have hard time imagining that I will feel much better when I have packed on 30 pounds and a giant belly. I suppose I will just have to wait and see. For now, I am trying to focus on the positives like .. . . WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A BABY! Usually this can get me though the worst morning sickness and ugly days.
PS. One day, when I don't feel so gross, I might post a picture of tiny baby bump.
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