This morning at 4:00 a.m. I had some “painful” contractions. If the pattern follows as last year, I should be in labor this evening/early morning and have the baby maybe tomorrow! I’m hoping this is the case. As long as it’s after midnight.

The doctor said he doesn’t believe I will make it to my next appointment next Friday. I’m 3 cm and have lost a few pounds. He shared that he sees that a lot right before labor starts. We’ll see….

Come on little Matthew…

Well, here’s my last (hopefully last) pregnancy picture. Only two days to go… I’m hoping only 2 hours to go – before labor that is! I really don’t want this little one to be born on October 31st. But, my husband who always has a positive outlook on things shared with me that if he were born on that day, it would replace it with something good for us!

Our first baby chick was just hatched a few minutes ago. He is so cute!!! But, I was hoping to be wrong and that it would have been little Matthew to hatch first. But, I do have hope! He could be born on the same day as the baby birds. The night is not over yet. I only have 4 days left until my due date. We are both so excited. We can’t wait to see his little face and I can’t wait to hold him to me. I’m hoping to have him before my appointment on Friday. Otherwise, I will update on Friday to share if there’s any progress.

We have seven days left and still no baby. Nothing progressed out of yesterday but I am content and he will be here soon. I’ll update if there are any other changes.

Today at my appointment it was found I’ve gone from 1.5 cm to nearly 3 cm dilation and 70% effacement. I have been having some of the hurting contractions this morning and now after the exam things should pick up in the next several hours or so. I’m guessing we’ll have the baby here in the next day or two. I think by this evening after I do some walking we’ll be on our way. I’ll either post pictures and a birth story in a few days or give an update tomorrow. Lord be with us. Be with our children.

The neat thing about this morning is that I was going to deposit a check from a settlement regarding a car accident I was in in 2005. We received it yesterday. I was so excited after my appointment that I forgot to deposit the check. After making a stop and seeing the check in my purse, I turned around to go to the bank to deposit it. It just shows me how much value human life is over money and the priority of things. I think it was a neat thing to happen.

I am due in 10 days so I could actually have our baby any day now. Our next batch of incubating chicks are due in 7 days. Which will come first – the chick or the baby???

Matthew thinks we will have our baby first. I on the other hand think it will be after my due date in November. I don’t have anything really going on yet. My weekly appointments are on Friday so if there is a change, I will have to post it.

Here is Elisabeth playing in one of her favorite spots before dinner.
She likes to climb in and out of the playpen and watch me sew from here as well.

Here is Hannah playing under the kitchen table by daddy’s feet.
She gets more bumps and bruises here and sometimes gets stuck.
Because I’m pregnant, poor daddy has to retrieve her most of the time.

Elisabeth and Hannah helping mommy empty the dishwasher.

Here is our pantry. I’m raising bread on one of the top shelves
and we’re incubating eggs on the lower shelf. It’s a multi-purpose pantry.

Is that really me?
I’m not that big looking – really! I’m 37 weeks pregnant here but the apron is hiding my little boy in there. I’m making rosemary chicken with some fresh rosemary from our herb garden.

Here’s daddy vacuuming. He is a such a big help to me. He already does so much with helping around the house as he is retired. But, he really picks it up after I’m about 30 weeks pregnant and he’s got a lot to do outside with our animals, the barn, etc…

Daddy playing with the girls. He chases them around this corner every night.

Here’s my loaf of bread a rising!

Daddy on the Homesteading Today forum asking about chickens while the girls are
playing with pillows and blankets.

Time for dinner!

Daddy praying at the table. Hannah is just to my right – she’s with us!

Daddy playing with the girls while I clean the dinner dishes.

Here’s our kitchen all cleaned up!

And here’s our loaf of bread. It was yummy!

Elisabeth settling down before bed.

Hannah is tired and ready for bed. She got in trouble from daddy again. She kept going after the cord to the blinds that we have up high over the couch. She sneaks up the back of the couch and stands to get to it.

Daddy brushing Elisabeth’s teeth – or trying to! I give Hannah a bottle before bed each night while he takes care of Elisabeth… teeth and all.

Elisabeth tucked in her bed with her duck.

Mommy giving Hannah her bottle before bed – she is starting to want to get away from her bottle lately as she is on a cup most of the time. I believe this is the Lord’s doing as I’ll be nursing little Matthew here very soon.

The kids are down now – yeah! So, Matthew is transferring some things from one freezer to another. He bought a bigger freezer today to store some of the $10 barrel of bread we buy at a bread outlet place for our chickens. Cheap feed! And it’s nice to have the freezer to store all the fruit we have. We have tons of frozen blackberries from picking them all Summer. Bags of nectarines too.

Here I am having my bowl of cereal (healthy Sugar Puffs) with my husband after the kids go down. We do this each night. Whew! What a relief. It’s so nice to have it quiet.

Matthew reading the Bible while I read “Preparing Sons to Provide for a Single Income Family“.

Daddy leading the chickens out to eat.

Elisabeth watching daddy feed the chickens.

Oh look what our neighbor’s cows did to our gate! But, our cow Betsy has torn down some of their fences, etc… So today as I’m writing this Matthew and our neighbor Mike are out helping each other repair “damages”.

Hannah and I are going to run off to Walmart and the health food store to buy some bread flour in bulk. I need to buy another bread pan so I can make some friends who are coming over today some fresh bread to take home.

Hannah and I are back and the girls are eating lunch while daddy is canning fresh cranberries. See our cooler on the table filled with fresh cranberries? I bought a good bread pan, some stackable cooling racks and some cute, yellow fabric for .99/yard. I think I will make some cheerful aprons to sell when we start selling our eggs this Spring. At the health food store I found some malt that I bought. I would love to try it in pizza crust. I think it will make a tasty crust.

Here’s some of our cranberries. He’s already used up a few gallons over the past couple of days. They really blessed us!

Here’s Matthew canning the cranberries. They are to die for!

The end to a really good day. My friends, Shirley and Jane came over and brought us a big bag of brand new, baby boy clothes. They are so sweet! We sent them home with some homemade bread, canned cranberries and some of our other canned goods. It is fun to bless one another!

I first need to thank my God for the breath of life that He gives that all creatures may have the breath of life. I also thank my patient wife who continued to support me even when I had a real bad time trying to raise some beef cattle. She continued to support me and is one-hundred percent with me in this great adventure. Here are our first eggs before going into the incubator, there is also another dozen that was included. They are so pretty and good tasting but we saved these ones for the incubator.

Here are the eggs in the incubator day eighteen. They are in the kitchen pantry (My wife is so special). We are so nervous if one will even hatch, we can’t get over the idea that there are little chickens in those eggs.

We were in the kitchen on day twenty and we both heard a little chirp and neither one of us said anything because we just did not think that it was a chick. Tanya (my wife) then asked me if I heard a chirp and I said yes. We both waited and we heard it again. We were so excited. That night the first chick hatched and the next day (day 21) they just started to hatch. I went to check on the chicks and saw one ready to hatch so I took this picture and was just amazed by how the chicks peck their way around the shell and out of it.

This is the same little chick a little later, little guy is really at work. He just keeps pushing away. No free lunch here just hard work for such a little guy.

One more successful hatch. They are chirping the whole time and we are just amazed at the work of God. A chick does come out of the egg. It’s one thing to know, it’s another to experience.

Wait a minute where did that little guy go? He just hatched thirty seconds ago. Already walking and falling all over the place. Well time for him to dry off. It’s hatching day and moving day.

Our first chick. We will forget most of the chicks that are hatched but we won’t forget this one. The first one. What a cutie! Black with white tip wings. The drying bucket is right below the incubator in the pantry closet. A nice warm ninety-six Fahrenheit. A little food and water with a sprinkle of sugar in the water. Home sweet home, lots of room I can hear him now, “Where is everyone”.

What a crowd, things are getting a little packed in the new home but everyone is cozy and quiet. It’s still mid-day and we are thinking room should not be a problem.

Well time to rethink things over, (day 2) the house is getting a little crowed. It’s time to move again!

Much better into the mini coop we go. I constructed this out of pallets that the cranberry factory throws away. Just for safety we have two lights; a two-fifty (I.R) and a one-hundred.

An above picture of the chicks (all twenty-three) the two waters, feeder and one of the lights. Will be adding a trough feeder next week.

We’re so happy in our new home, look at us how vibrant we are. We’re so fortunate to be here for the rest of our days instead of some factory.