Birthdays, vehicles and skunks...

Good morning readers! 

It seems like time is going by fast now that it is warm and beautiful out.  I don't have any good photos, but our garden is doing well!  So far everything is up.  The corn and squash is looking really good.  Dan is currently in California, but when he gets home, we'll finish planting the rest of the corn, cucumbers and tomatoes. 

 

A few weeks ago, we celebrated Gwendolyn's 1st birthday.  She was not very thrilled with the hats and cake.   

 

 

 

 

While we sang the birthday song, she cried.

 

She wouldn't even eat any cake! 

 

I found out later that night that she was running a fever.  Those teeth just ruined her birthday! :)  There will be others though. 

 

 

 

A few weeks ago, we went to Vermont to visit some friends.  We went to an ice cream place and got ice cream cones...and I couldn't finish mine.  It was HUGE!

 

Right now, I'm preparing for Vacation Bible School, which is next month. 

The biggest news in our lives is that we sold my car and bought a minivan! 

I made sure to get a picture with my little car before we sold it. 

 

 

Also, the other week, I took some photos of Gwennie with the lilacs outside.  She had fun with that. 

 

And in other news, the other week, our dog Chula got sprayed by a skunk!  We tried everything- tomato juice, tomato sauce, baking soda and dish soap...and she STILL stinks. If anyone has any other tips or tricks for getting out the stench, please pass them on!

 

Have a fabulous day!!

Welcome, Baby Shedd!

 

As you may have guessed, baby Shedd #2 is here!

 

For the past few weeks, I had been feeling so ready and anxious about the baby's pending arrival.  I would tell Dan nearly every night "This is it...tonight's the night", only to sleep straight thru the night and wake up with no baby or any contractions.  People were asking me constantly "How much longer??" or "I thought for sure you'd have had the baby by now!"

Not only that, but Dan has a trip scheduled for June 8th, first to fly to Georgia, and then to fly straight to California from there to be at a conference at our Alma Mater.  We already talked about the fact that if the baby hadn't arrived by then, he would have to cancel the trip and we wouldn't be refunded any of the money from the plane tickets. 

 

I started finding that these impending "if this then that" and questions about the baby were causing me so much stress.  On Sunday evening of last week, May 26th, I told Dan that I just wanted to have a good Memorial Day, enjoy our time together, plant the garden, and not talk about the baby at all...

So we did!

We woke up early and while Dan tilled the garden, I planted peas, beans, kale, carrots, and squash and zucchini.  Then we cleaned up, and drove into the village to watch the Memorial Day parade.  Gwendolyn loved watching the marching bands and hearing the fire engines.  We went to the park and listened to the speeches by town officials and watched the dedications of the wreaths at the monuments to the fallen. 

 

 

We then came home, ate some lunch, and Dan went and worked at the house while Gwen and I made some cookies and dinner. 

 

That night, we went to sleep and I woke back up at 2, unable to feel comfortable in the bed, so I moved to the couch.  While I was laying there, I just thought about how nice it was to not worry about the baby not coming by a certain time or to stress when people don't talk to me about life aside from the baby.  For the last two months straight, there have been very few people who actually talk to me about life apart from questions about babies, pregnancies, and such. 

 

While I was thinking, I had a contraction.  Since I'd been having them pretty consistently for a few weeks, I put it from my mind and fell asleep.  I woke back up at 4:45 to stronger contractions.  I figured they were nothing and tried to go back to sleep.  When they persisted, I finally pulled out my phone and started timing them.  I determined to let Dan sleep longer before waking him up for a potential false alarm, so I just kept timing them until 6, when I finally decided this was real, and not false labor. 

 

I told Dan, he started working to inflate the birth pool while I made breakfast for him and Gwen and packed a bag for her to go be with the neighbors.  I called the midwife, told her that I was in labor and she asked "Should I come right now, or do I have time to shower?"

I said, "Take your time...this is just dilation and I can deal with it."

 

30 minutes later I called her back and said "Okay...maybe you should come now."

 

By the time they arrived, Gwendolyn was almost finished her breakfast, the pool was up, and everything was ready.  Dan took Gwennie over to our neighbors house at 8:30, and I got in the birth pool.  I remember asking Dan the time and he said "9:13"...

 

At 9:41, May 28, our little Lucinda Rose Shedd was born!  The hard part of laboring only took 15 minutes!

Lucie was 8 pounds 4 ounces and 22 inches long. 

 

 

 

After cleaning up a bit, Dan went and retrieved Gwendolyn.  She loves the baby and loves to "pet" her and say "baby, baby".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm convinced that if I hadn't determined to stop worrying and being anxious about circumstances beyond my control (like, WHEN IS THIS BABY COMING????), I wouldn't have had the baby that night. 

There was something freeing about just deciding to stop worrying. 

Also, as just a side note, my midwives are awesome.  The day after the birth, my midwife's assistant brought me these energy bites.  I ate them all up, and really do feel so energetic! 

 

SO there you have it!  The story of my second homebirth.  No transfers to the hospital for any reason...no being pulled over by the police on the day of the birth...everything went just as smoothly as it could have gone. 

I won't ever be one of those women who say that it's possible to give birth with no pain...because I think that's baloney.  But it IS possible to give birth EASIER when you let go of stress and anxiety.  I believe that. 

 

Happy birthday to our Lucinda Rose!  Hope you all are doing well!  You'll likely see a lot more posts from me in this coming week. 

 

 

Family Visit and House Updates!

I mentioned in my last post that my father-in-law came to visit for a few weeks.  It was so nice to have him here.  Gwendolyn quickly learned how to say "paw paw" and he liked to make her laugh, so it was a nice time. 

Our first few days together were pretty chill. 

 

 

We took a day and showed dad the capitol in all it's glory. 

 

This time, the NY state museum was open, so I enjoyed going there!  My favorite exhibit was the antique carousel on the 4th floor.  All of the horses are original and hand carved and hand painted.  It is free to ride on and the rides begin every fifteen minutes.  Because I love carousels so much, we took two turns on it. 

 

Turns out Gwendolyn is a real fan of them as well.  :D

 

 

 

After that one day chilling in Albany, we put dad right to work on the house.  I felt bad that he worked so much on his visit here, but you can't stop a Shedd from working! 

 

Dan and his dad put new drywall up in the whole upstairs, and patched holes, mudded everything, sanded everything...

 

 

 

Dan is so close to finishing!  We can see the end is near and it's very exciting.  Here in May, we have fun things coming!  A baby will (hopefully) be born, we'll plant the garden, Gwendolyn will have her first birthday, we just celebrated our anniversary, and it's officially Spring, which really makes me feel alive.  I love the winter too, but when Spring does finally come, I'm very ready for it. 

 

 

While dad Shedd was visiting us, we also had a pretty intense Missions Conference.  I mentioned that in my last post.  We had four different missionary families in and really enjoyed getting to know them all.  While the one family was here staying in our prophets chamber, Dan was happy to have an extra hand then, re-doing the church name on the front of the building.  These wooden letters have been rotting off since we arrived two years ago, and recently, the bottom of the I in "Baptist" fell off, so it was really time to do some updating.  We purchased new lettering that won't rot.    

 

 

It's very nice to have that project completed.  Today, I finished planting all of the watermelon, cantaloupe, bell peppers, tomatoes, some kale, and a few pots of squash and zucchini and cucumbers indoor.  I'm slightly late doing it...so hopefully everything grows fine.  The hope is that we'll be able to plant outdoor the last week in May.  Dan already got a truckload of chicken manure and spread it and tilled it into the garden. 

That's what we've been up to!  I have a midwife appointment today, so who knows...maybe I'll be posting an update on baby Shedd #2 someday very soon!

(at least I hope so!)

😃😃😃

Mostly fun updates

I realize that it has been forever since I posted.  Something about spring coming makes me want to be outside.  I have hardly taken any photos lately because my iPhone storage is full...and even though I've deleted every unused app, every photo and video, and every text I get, it still says I have no room to take photos.  I'm ready to step back in time and buy myself a digital camera again.  😄😄😄

 

Our snow is gone!!! I thought at the beginning of April that we were snow-free until winter again, but then it snowed right at the beginning of the month.  But now, I'm pretty sure we're out of the snow season for good. 

 

A lot of this post will probably be pictures of Gwendolyn.  She has been growing so much lately. 

 

 

 

She loves to walk all over and pick up anything and everything and put it in her mouth.

 

A few weeks ago, we were in Albany and decided to stop at the site of the first Shaker settlement in the United States which is right by the airport.  There was a small loom there which I used to weave several rows of a scarf. 

 

They also had sample articles of clothing in the style of that of the Shakers.  There was a sign reading "Try me on", so you can be sure I did.  It mostly didn't fit because I am pregnant... I think.  It could have been because they were meant for a child though haha.😄😄😄

 

 

Since the last of the snow and ice dissipated, we've been doing a lot of door-to-door inviting people to visit our church.  Dan likes to take Gwendolyn with him and she helps hand out the flyers.

Gwennie and I

 

On Palm Sunday, we bought a few palm branches, had the children in the church lay them in the aisle, and then they could take them home after church.  Gwen liked trying to chew on hers.

 

 

We had missionaries stay in the church for two weeks straight during and after missions conference (which I will also post about later), so the downstairs needed a serious deep cleaning. 

 

Dan snapped this photo of us as we were vacuuming the fellowship hall.

 

 

On Saturday, we celebrated our anniversary early (it was actually yesterday) by going to a restaurant to which we had a gift card.  We both had the salad bar, and because it was lunch time, they also had soups, deep fried cheesecake, and some teriyaki stirfry on the salad bar.  My favorite part was that they offer complimentary milk and chocolate milk with the salad bar.  We discovered that Gwendolyn loves chocolate milk....

 

Easter Sunday, after our services, we took a walk down the road to the river.  Last time we went there, it was nearly frozen.  Due to the overabundance of rain we've had lately, the river was VERY high, so the falls were roaring and showering us with a cold mist.  It reminded me of Niagara Falls, but on a much smaller scale of course.  😄😄😄

 

Yes, that is Dan laying on his back on the rock by the river.  Gwendolyn started getting very sleepy and needed a nap, so she was resting on his chest.

 

 

 

 

Other than these small family updates, we had a very busy two months!  My father-in-law came to visit us for two weeks and helped Dan SO MUCH on the house.  Then we had missionaries staying with us and at the church for missions conference.  After that, we had another missionary family in, and then Easter Sunday.  Dan continues to get what he can done at the house.

I mentioned before in a post that I sing with the Adirondack Voices, a community choir.  We finished our regular season's concert in April, but immediately began practicing rigorously to sing Beethoven's 9th Symphony and Chichester Psalms by Leonard Bernstein.  We've had extra practices and of course, they are both in different languages, so they take a little bit longer to learn.  Anyway, I'm very much looking forward to being finished with the concert next week.  After church on Sunday, we drove to Eastern Vermont to visit some friends who recently took over pastoring a small church similar to ours.  They were having a revival meeting, so it was nice to be there for the Sunday night service, and then stay with them the night, visit with them, and then also attend the Monday night service before coming home.  A good friend is coming to visit this weekend with her family, which will be very nice.  And last but not least, our baby is due to come this month!  I'm very grateful for all the visitors (friends, family, and missionaries) we've hosted.  It has helped to keep my mind off of the baby and being anxious about her arrival. 

 

Hopefully my next post will be sooner rather than later, now that I managed to put all of the photos from my phone onto my computer.  Until next time!