Crockpot Whole Chicken

This recipe is so easy!

I usually just throw all of the ingredients together, but just for you guys I stole a recipe from Pinterest that is nearly identical to mine. It has all the exact measurements for all the spices that I use. I know, I'm lazy and I probably should have done it myself all the measuring and stuff, but if its already out there, why not give someone some credit? ;) Here is her link

Ingredients

1 whole chicken

1 medium onion

2 tsp salt

2 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp thyme

1 1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp garlic powder

Grease crockpot, set your crockpot on high.

Put your diced onion on the bottom of the pot

Put all spices together in a bowl and mix.

Put all the spices onto your chicken, it's like a dry rub.

Throw your chicken into the crockpot!

Takes about 4-5 hours to cook, so I would start cooking at about noon.

Use a meat thermometer to check temperature of chicken. Cook longer if needed. :)

Optional:

If I have it on hand, I put a few stalks of celery and/or whole garlic cloves inside the chicken. SOOO good!

Give this recipe a try and let me know what you think!

NOTICE:
When I mean that I had the chicken setting out all night, I actually had it sitting in the FRIDGE defrosting.
Don't have it sitting in room temperature all night! You could get food poisoning!

36 weeks

Today I am 36 weeks!

I will officially be at full term next week! She can be here any day after that.

We are almost ready. Just 1-2 more things and we are set.

Here is this weeks pregnancy vlog

Family Pics

We are so blessed to have friends that are willing to do pictures for us for free/cheap!

Once a year we try to do family pictures, we like to keep everything up to date. 

Usually we have our friend Tara doing pictures for us, but because she is due any day now we had a different photographer do our Christmas pictures.

Tara will be doing our newborn photo shoot for sure though! I can't wait for the girly colors and big, fluffy tutus that I am going to put her in!

Here are just a few of my favorites! Enjoy!!!

This one was on our Christmas card this year

I hope to get this one on a canopy soon! I absolutely love it!

All credit goes to Nichole Haverland at Haverland Photography

Pretty soon our little family of 3 will be 4 and I can't wait for pictures of us in the future!

Thanks for reading! 

-Jess

Change for the Good!

This morning Ben and I went to see our new midwife. I must say that I am in love with the lady.

Blogger mommy friend Kayla already said it in her blog while she was midwife seeking, and I just have to agree with what she said. 

The new midwife that I have, her name is Mabel. A woman from West Africa with a heart of gold. The moment she walked into the room, I immediately felt comfortable. She has done quite a few home births in her time and gets where I am coming from.

So down to earth and she has such a wonderful relaxed presence about her. So sweet. :)

Even my husband was super happy, his exact words were "Babe, she is by far my most favorite midwife that we have seen yet!" No offense to any other midwives out there, but I have to also agree with my husband. In the first visit I felt more at home with her quicker than the others. Perhaps this move was meant to be?

I already told Ben that for baby #3(why am I talking about this already?), if we are still living in Salem in a house I will probably ask her to do a home birth for me. Apparently, she still does those on the side of her midwifery work! Awesome!

So today, I left the clinic feeling happy and relaxed. I feel like having my birth the way that I want to is going to happen even more than before.

Everything really does happen for a reason, in this case it just took an extra step to get to where I am suppose to be. All thanks be to God that everything is falling into place so easily and stress free!

Now we are just waiting.

Waiting for the weeks to pass so that we can meet our brand new baby girl!

36 weeks on Wednesday! I can hardly wait! :)

-Jess

Natural Birth at a Hospital

I would say that this quite possibly may be a challenge for me or for anybody for that matter.

If you were at a birth center, or choose to do a homebirth, you don't have the option of an epidural. If an emergency arises, then yes, a midwife will take the necessary steps to get you taken care of.

Natural birth is already something that I want to experience and I feel like now that I am birthing in a hospital it may be just a little bit harder.

Thank God I have my awesome doula(Britney) to help me with this. Her and my wonderful husband will be a huge help. Not only to help me to relax but they will both remind me at how badly I want a natural birth. They will (hopefully) ;) keep those nurses away from me that want to ask me if I want painkillers.

I think that hospitals don’t expect women to give birth naturally.  They don’t expect that you understand or are prepared for your labor and birth.  They don’t expect you to be able to manage your contractions. They expect that you will be in pain, be overwhelmed, and want interventions and medication and that is what they are set up to provide. They don’t expect that you would actually desire to have a natural birth experience. I am not against hospitals in any way. I just think that they push it too far sometimes. But I mean they do somewhat have a point, why go through pain that can easily be managed by drugs? I have had a lot of women ask me why? Why do I want to do a natural birth?

I want to be in complete control of everything that my body is doing. When I had the epidural with my son I had no control over my legs, I couldn't feel him coming out and the result in that was he came out much too quickly in my opinion. He was pushed out in 20 minutes(my husband says it was less) the result of that was an awful tear! ugh! Postpartum healing in that region down there was no joke. I seriously needed a full 6 weeks of healing, and it took me awhile after that to even think about sex. I seriously believe that if I were to feel him while pushing, and was taking my time and not pushing as hard as I could like the hospital midwife wanted me too I would not have torn nearly as bad. I don't want that awful postpartum experience again. 

There are many other reasons that I want to go natural but I won't list them here. That probably should be in another blog post. :)

I will still be open to options for when i go to the hospital to have my baby. But as for now, I really desire a natural, drug-free birth. Women have success stories and that is super encouraging to me. I have done a ton of my own research on the different types of drugs that are offered and what exactly they do to you and your baby. Compared to my son's birth I am so much more prepared for this little one, I hope that her birth is gentle and beautiful as I imagine it to be.

Do you have any good advice on having a success natural birth experience?

I would love to know!

Thanks for reading my thoughts! :)

-Jess

***Nesting***

Ah yes, my favorite part of pregnancy. 

Nesting. 

Right after my baby shower it did not take me long at all to get started on the washing, organizing, and just holding all of those little girl items.

I know that it's silly, but I nearly cried when I was drying her last little load of clothes and blankets, and the lint catcher came out all pink. :) I am loving all of the flower headbands that were made for me and now I have a great excuse to make her a little frame to hold all of those adorable head pieces.

I truly cherish all of these little moments of her moving in my tummy. She is definitely an active one! If she is anything like her big brother, I may be a very busy mommy for the next few years. Even Ben loves to talk to her and put his hand on my belly as she kicks. He was pretty affectionate with our son while I was pregnant with him, but I think that because of the fact that he knows what is to come, he pays a little more attention to the little moves that she makes.

This pregnancy has been emotionally and physically challenging. On top of having a busy toddler, I had to switch out my midwife because of some unexpected insurance changes. :/ I am sad that I will not be birthing at Bella Vie, but everything happens for a reason right? After much prayer of what to do, I am at peace at where we will be birthing our daughter. 35 weeks and now I have a different midwife, I was heartbroken when I told my Bella Vie midwife, and she seemed to be too. But that's OK, it'll all work out. :) I am trying to stay positive. :)

I definitely have not been keeping up with this pregnancy on my blog, but I have weekly updates on my YouTube instead. It is just so much easier to make a video about what's going on rather than to type it up. Of course it doesn't help that pieces of my poor computer still doesn't work. :/

So I'll give you a mini update now.

Weight gain? None! Which is good! I am at 155, eating healthy and going for little walks here and there when the weather is nice. I hope that after I have this little girl, I will keep up this habit and get back to the weight that I was when I married my husband. Wearing maternity clothes is a challenge because the ones that I have are TOO BIG! I am actually wearing my old jeans pre-pregnancy and doing the hair tie loop trick. Shirts are a little more of a challenge though. But that's OK! I'm not going to buy anything maternity clothes for this baby. She is almost fully cooked! ;)

I am measuring right on track. Did you know that when they measure your belly, it is roughly suppose to be how many weeks you are at? I had know idea! Good to know!

Cravings? Grapefruit! Citrus! Anything sweet! The holidays were a challenge, all those yummy cookies and candies just laying around. I did indulge a little, but I made up for it by staying away from bread like items. Which is also another thing that I crave.

One of the things that I noticed that I didn't get with Josiah, was that her kicks and stretches are painful! Like, I have to cringe when I feel a strong jab or a long stretch. 

She sits up higher and farther forward, making breathing difficult. Also my poor ribs are so sore. 

This last month of pregnancy is going to go by so fast. I know about a total of 4 girls that are all due ahead of me. 2 boys, 2 girls(including me) and 1 surprise! So it's all just a waiting game to see who all has their baby first. According to my iPhone calculations, baby girl can come anywhere between January 30th and march 5th!. Quite a big range there, but I truly have no idea when she will come. I do have cramps on and off which really aren't a big deal. Just the norm for being in the last month.

I hope to keep up with this. I am sorry that I have been slacking on making any kind of updates. I hope that you all are having a great New Year like me! Love you all!.

-Jess

Baby shower Haul

Dresser/Changing table set-up

My thoughts on C-Sections

Before you read this I just want to let you know that the grammar is probably off and it's kind of all over the place with my wording. I guess this is what happens when you blog on your smart phone. ;)

So I was reading an app on my iPhone today. You all know how great those are when you're pregnant. A fun read here and there when you're waiting for something or someone.
This little note about c-sections really caught my eye. I will try my best not to sound arrogant or anything, but this is truly what I think about this topic.
Having a c-section IS major surgery. No you aren't put under, you aren't passed out or anything, you are fully awaken during it yet it is still surgery. All surgery comes with risks, some that can include death. They have to cut through skin, then muscle, then your uterus to get to your precious baby. Then they take your baby out of you. Some doctors are not the most gentle taking your baby out. If you actually watch a c-section birth, there is nothing nice about it. You can't hold your baby right away, you can't even see your baby right away. It's sad that you will probably be the 5th person to hold your baby. Where is the motherly bond that they say is so important? You have to go through so much more medical intervention having your baby this way.
There are so many women that have completely normal pregnancies, so why do some many women have major surgery to have their babies? In the US, about 30% of women have there babies this way. Which is WAY more than what should be happening. On top of that, about half of these are elective! What?! That kinda blew my mind.
Elective(meaning to choose) surgery is when you schedule your surgery, not an emergency, but still somehow necessary . I don't hate doctors, in fact I love them!
I just wish that more doctors were up to trying all the options before a surgery.
With that being said, if my baby ever were to be breech, I would probably get many second opinions before opting for surgery.
I would rather deliver my breech baby vaginally before a c-section. Women have done it this way for 1000s of years! Why aren't we striving for more vaginal births this way? Why don't we have more OBs trained to handle more difficult births in a natural sense? Why are midwives the only ones willing and comfortable delivering breech births or even larger babies?
I had a friend who was told with her second baby that she would need a c-section because they estimated a 10 pound baby. Well, when the day came to have her daughter, turns out baby was only about 8 pounds. This poor momma had to go through something unnecessary and have the physical and emotional pain that comes with it. Which is much harder than having a vaginal birth.
Now if she were to ever decide to have a third child, she would have to go through the process of having a V-BAC. Which from what I hear, isn't easy sometimes. Now I am not an expert at all on this subject.
The only thing that I ask, before you say ok to a cesarean, look at all the options. Ask more questions, you and your baby will thank you if you just research and ask questions more. Get another opinion, go that extra step, you won't regret it!
In fact, even if you do have to get surgery in the end, at least you can say you tried to avoid it.
Surgery is absolutely necessary for some women. I am thankful that it is there for the ones that have a high risk pregnancy. But for many of you, it can be avoided.
I love you all and I hope that you aren't offended by my post. Let's make moms aware if their options. Doctors are so great, but they are human like you and I. They make mistakes just like we do. No one is perfect.