Post-Due Date Waiting

Well, here I still am, now six days after my “due date” for baby number seven.  It’s nothing new to me, this waiting for a “late” baby to show up; in fact, baby number five decided to wait a whopping 18 days (and he packed on the pounds to prove it, at 10lb 15oz).  The other part that is not new is the discouragement; it is hard to know the baby is all well and good and is just bidding his (her?) time.  And of course, the phone calls, the surprised looks (“what? you’re still pregnant?!”)….I’m sure many of you have been there!

So this is what I’ve been doing in the meantime, in this period of just waiting.  First of all, I’ve been staying mostly home.  I’m just so swollen and am sooooo terribly waddle-ly and slow; folks think I’m going to drop a baby right there on the floor in front of them.

I make myself go outside at least, and take a walk around the place, noticing what is waning (the daffodils) and what is blooming (the clematis).  Spring is definitely here.  I love having all windows open to the fresh air cleaning out the house, too.

 

 

I did notice that we lost one of our cherry trees, but the rest of the fruit trees are beginning to bloom in beautiful colors.  I do miss my honeybees, though, the ones I used to find all over my orchard and garden.  I think of doing that again, next year.

 

 

My men built a “buck hut” for my male goats, which I appreciated.  I sat on the lawn chair keeping them company while they put it together.  They have designs of putting up signs that say things like “no does allowed”.

 

 

Speaking of goats, there was some excitement yesterday as the goat barn was getting cleaned out.  My husband sunk into some soft mud and almost lost his tractor down a ravine.  The whole left side of the tractor is in mid-air in the picture, being held up by the backhoe and a small alder tree.  Yours truly got to burn rubber on the old 4×4 pickup trying to pull the thing out of the ravine with a chain while husband balanced on the tractor trying to help back it out.  You would have thought *that* sort of fun would have put me into labor!  And yes, I got the tractor out, and yes, it was fun in a crazy sort of way.

 

 

When I have to go inside to put this baby down (oy), I find myself doing this and that.  This morning I was listening to a sermon and following along in my Bible while working on some embroidery.  Magazines and books keep me occupied, too.  Oh, and blogging (smile).

 

 

I was bummed to miss the homeschool conference this weekend, really.  But I spent some time rethinking and reorganizing what I want to do next year anyway.  Next year I’ll be teaching a 1st grader all the way through 9th, plus Ruby (who is almost four) and loving on a new baby too (…who needs to come out, hear me, Baby?)

 

 

And truly, why not start another quilt?  I think this little thing would be so sweet for a baby girl.  If this one is a boy, that will just give me an excuse to create a whole other quilt, so that’s a win-win in my mind.

 

 

Back outside, I’m watching my family do chores around the place.  It’s hard not to feel guilty for being unable to help; they are all keeping the home and land going without me.  They are so excited about this baby; every morning I’ve been having to give them a sheepish grin, “no, no contractions, no baby yet…sorry.”  But they are very lighthearted about it all.  We keep saying, “Well, we’re one day closer!”

 

 

Here is the wonderful work my family finished today; getting the muck cleaned up outside of the barn and replacing it with gravel and rock.  Oh I cannot tell you what a GIFT this was to me (AND my goats).  All four of my “girls” are due to have their own babies next month.

 

 

Sometimes I spend time just sitting in the wooded pasture watching my goats forage.  It’s so incredibly quiet; all I can hear are my children whooping and playing outside, along with the chorus of birds and the munching of my goats moving through the brush.  I have some very sweet goats who will come and snuggle their heads on my lap to say “hello” too.  It’s all very relaxing.  I love the slow life and want more of it.

 

 

This is my herd queen, Splat.  She demands (and gets) respect from the rest of the group.  She was always stand-offish to me until I kept her company last year while she was kidding for the first time.  Now we sort of *understand* one another and she’ll give me some attention, butting others out of the way to get it if need be.  Poor thing is missing fur from her nose because of our feeder rubbing it wrong.  Isn’t she beautiful, though?  I think she’s carrying at least three babies.  I planned to have mine first, but at this point, I guess we’ll see…

 

 

Here’s another trusty chair of mine to use outside.  I was harvesting nettle, and used some to dehydrate, and some to make tea with, mixed with peppermint.  I found a recipe for nettle pasta but lately just the thought of that much kitchen time hasn’t been appealing.  Right now I’ve got quite a bit of frozen pizza in the freezer.

 

 

I did manage to make some sourdough raisin bread for breakfasts, though. They are in the freezer, also.  I’m looking forward to having some toasted, with butter, with scrambled eggs and orange juice, the morning after the birth-day or thereabouts.

 

 

I’ll tell you some things I haven’t done.  I haven’t changed a diaper in a while, or cleaned a dish, or cleaned a bathroom, or swept a floor, or pulled a weed.  My family is taking care of all of that, except the weeding.  In fact, the whole place is overrun with weeds (and of course, what are weeds but pretty flowers growing where you don’t want them?).  I decided to let the whole plot go fallow this spring and summer, and will get it all tackled hopefully this fall.  In the meantime, I’m looking up and finding recipes for dandelion jam and so forth.

 

 

So there it is.  Supper’s coming out of the crockpot right now and tonight I’ll take yet another bath and go to bed again hoping for a wake-up in the wee hours.  If the sun greets me for another day of waiting, you’ll know what I’ll probably be up to.  And yes, it will at least be another day closer…