Today's happenings

This morning Jeff and I got up earlyish, to have brunch at Hometown Buffet with his sister and brother-in-law, who are visiting from New Hampshire. We actually got there on time--a big shocker for us Baumans who are never early anywhere! We paid the breakfast price: $6.50 plus $1.99 each for the beverages. I left feeling very frustrated. I didn't eat nearly enough for what I paid. In fact, I can count on one hand all that I ate: 2 hasbrowns, a small serving of macaroni, a muffin without butter, a delicious cinnamon roll (not as good as Shaylah's!) and cheesecake. How sad is that?!? I didn't even go back for breakfast. (head down in shame...) I'm so embarrassed and ashamed of myself.

After breakfast we headed to Target to finish up our baby registering. It was fun, I got to man the "laser gun" the entire time, which was pretty darn fun. Later, after we got home from Target, I got online to show my mom my registry, and to my dismay...half of what we scanned was NOT on the registry. ARRRG! That happened last night also. Ugggh. Therefore, I spent all evening registering ONLINE at Target, to make sure everything I picked actually ended up on the list and stayed there. :-/

When we left Target, we headed to my parent's house, where my mom and I planned on meeting with Dawn, a midwife. We've been trying to get together with her for a while and it just hasn't worked out for any of us yet, so we were excited to finally get to sit down with her today.

Dawn was my mom's midwife for Shylie and we all absolutely loooveed her! We actually ended up with her by "accident," as my mom's other midwife was sick when my mom went into labor. But oh boy, God knew what he was doing when he struck her midwife down with a flu! Dawn was absolutely wonderful! She's the sweetest Christian lady EVER and just...well, absolutely wonderful in every way!

With our last pregnancy, we had planned on having her be our midwife. But after I miscarried, we ended up spending the "midwife money" on life and our house. So now, being pregnant again and needing to make these labor decisions, we had kind of just written Dawn off the list and planned on going unassisted, as we didn't have $3,600 just lying around anymore.

I think it might have been the Lord this morning, when she randomly called and asked to meet with us. After meeting with her again (haven't seen her in almost a year) I had forgotten how much we loved her! And now I want her to be my midwife super badly! Dawn is really unique in her thinking. She views her being a midwife as an opportunity to use it as her ministry to other believers. She never wants a couple to make a decision to go unassisted purely because of money, and for that reason, she's willing to work with people who don't have the money. She told Jeff and I to pray about what we can afford and to let her know. It sounds like she's willing to take us on, with however much the Lord puts on our heart's to pay her. (Which is a super stressful thing! We don't want to rip her off, yet at the same time...money doesn't grow on trees.)

After Dawn left, my parents, Jeff and I sat down and talked over our options and choices and delivery plans. Money has really been holding me back in our decision about a midwife, but like my parents pointed out tonight: is saving _x_ amount of money worth the 1% possibility that something goes wrong during labor for me or the baby? And the answer obviously, is "no."

I'm planning on emailing Dawn tomorrow, and I just pray that the Lord goes before me and paves the way. If he wants Dawn to be present at our birth, he will already have worked that out for me.

We hung out at my parent's house for the rest of the evening. Jeff and my dad worked on the cradles a lot--Jeff spent a very long time working on it tonight. I'm excited to see it finished!!!! :-D After a dinner of homemade pizza (which was super yummy...we've finally mastered the pizza crust!) we all sat down to watch "Father of the Bride 2." We all laughed very hard during the movie, as we can all relate just about 100%. After the movie was over, my dad was strangely quiet....I don't think I blame him. Dealing with two pregnant women, who are due in the same week, is very stressful and overwhelming for the men of the family!

After the movie, we left and headed to Walmart. We bought some clearanced Valentine's conversation hearts (yuck!!) and some contact solution. Fun stuff, really. ;-) Now we are home and getting ready for bed! (Well, I'm getting ready to go take a nice hot and relaxing bath first!)

Tomorrow is church, I don't plan on going into service. I'm sick of getting sick. (Get it? hehehe...) So I'm going to bring my devotionals and sit in the fellowship hall doing my devotions and spending time with the Lord...alone I guess. At least I'll be at church though. :-)

...Well, I thought we were going to go to bed...but it looks like Jeff is diving into setting up my rocking chair. Yaaayy!!! :-D

I'm off to take pictures and watch in excitement!