Welcoming A Tiny New Blessing!

Much to my surprise, I woke up at 2:43am on the 28th of October (surprising because it was still 10 days before my due date and I usually give birth within a few days of my due date, not early) feeling odd, only to have my water break all over the bed a moment later. 5 hours later (which was another surprise, considering my previous labor was 66.5 hours long) we welcomed our precious 5th child! 9 pounds 12 ounces! Isn't she beautiful? :)

Our midwife was wonderful and helped this home water birth to be the experience I really hoped it would be! My husband caught her as she made her appearance. My oldest got to watch the birth and cut the cord. My other kiddos joined us about 15 minutes after baby's birth- I hadn't gotten out of the pool yet and my 5 year old son, coming into the kitchen to see me in the pool with the new baby on my chest, exclaimed, "I hearded 'RAAAAAHHHHHH!' sounds and I said to Weet that I thinked it sounds like Mommy's pushing out the baby!" Lol!
My Honeypie wasn't quite sure what to make of the whole situation at first.

She warmed up to the baby quickly and gets SO excited every time she sees her now.
My other children were in love with our new addition at first sight!

She's as precious as our first 4 and we are SO BLESSED!

We wrestle against ... spiritual hosts of wickedness...

It's that time of year. Every year in October it seems that evil becomes so tangible and overpoweringly present, and even proclaimed Christians are feeding it.
Over the last few weeks I've seen so much tragedy it's absolutely staggering. Just on my Facebook news feed and in my groups there have been multiple posts about relatives and friends of those in my circles having been diagnosed with cancers and given a very short time to live, babies and children being in accidents, or getting very sick, or dying, young healthy adults having strokes or committing suicide unexpectedly. Babies with anencephaly, dying of unknown causes, children in accidents, diagnosed with terminal illnesses... Someone in my town lost a 2 month old baby a few weeks ago to "sudden death." My heart is breaking with all the hurting. My friends and relatives are hurting and I'm hurting for them.
It's like the devil thinks he's big britches right now and is running rampant. And no wonder. Have we really stopped to examine the power that we give him this time of year? I've already beat this subject with a stick and longtime readers and "real-life" friends and family know where I stand on the subject. If you'd like to read my series on why I don't celebrate a certain last day of this month, you can read it HERE.
And a few new links to other blogs and sites that are worth checking out too (Updated 2018 10-19 to remove dead links and add new links):
An Open Halloween Letter From An Ex-Pagan
10 Reasons I Kissed Halloween Goodbye
The Christian Problem With Halloween
Ex Devil Worshipper: "I'm Shocked Christians Celebrate Halloween"

Final countdown... 20

CURRENT GESTATION: 37w 1d
DAYS UNTIL EDD: 20
NESTING READYNESS STATUS: 50% done everything I wanted to be before baby comes.
PHYSICAL READYNESS STATUS: Yeah I'm in alot of pain and queasy and huge and clumsy and awkward and my eyesight is failing a bit and my brain is foggy and my ankles are missing and, well, pretty much my body is at the "GET THIS KID OUTTA ME!" stage.
EMOTIONAL READYNESS STATUS: *insert screeching brakes sound effect here* I want my baby in my arms but I'm scared about the labor pain, the family dynamic changes, and being able to meet the needs of 4 small children and a newborn, so when I think about the upcoming birth, I'm not thinking, "I hope it's today!" I'm thinking, "I'm not ready! Wait! Hang on a few more days... I have to catch my breath here!"

On the to do list: Finish baby's afghan, clean and rearrange kitchen, clean my bedroom, wash my comforter.

4 weeks and 5 days until my EDD...

Yeah I'm totally counting down. Last month of pregnancy is crazy-land for me and seeing the number of days until my due date get smaller and smaller helps me hang onto that last thread of sanity. ;)

5 Weeks To Go!

Today marked 35 weeks of pregnancy. Yesterday I had a prenatal appointment. Vitals were all normal. Fundal height has been right on the whole time but yesterday 2 weeks ahead! LOL! I've been saying she's tall, this little baby. Been saying it for months. And that she's low in my pelvis. Today my midwife was like 'wow her head is really low in there!' and then she commented how high up baby's tush was and asked if my other babies were long. Funny to have her confirm what I'm thinking about baby being tall. She doesn't feel BIG like my son felt just big all over and he totally was a chub, but she feels really really tall. Her head is so low I can't describe it in public without blushing and she kicked me right under the ribs the other day so hard that I felt bruised there for days. But yet my belly is only JUST this week at 34.5 weeks preggo starting to feel like it's getting maxed out for fullness, so it's not feeling like she's heavy big, just tall big. I don't have any new stretch marks at all yet and my belly skin has only begun to look stretched and itch this past week, and I've gotten dozens of new marks every time with the others starting around 5-7 months along and itched with the stretching something crazy too. I dunno, she just doesn't feel BIG, just super duper tall. It's funny, my firstborn was I think 21 inches but only 7 pounds 12 ounces and she could not fit size NB because she was so tall, but #3 was 9 pounds 2 ounces and only 19.25 inches tall and she was in NB for a month at least because she was flopping around lost in 0-3 months! Crazy. Anyway it will be interesting to see if this little one stays on this growth curve or if she stops growing taller and starts getting to be a little chub before her birth.

My feet have been swelling every night this past week. They were barely swollen at my appointment, which was surprising because being in the car usually makes it worse if I'm to the point of cankles. Odd. Anyway the midwife said it's a good sign they're coming and going and not constant. Yay? They still hurt though. The skin on the tops of my feet feels like it's sunburned or got scraped up with sandpaper or something from the stretching from the swelling. Tonight they are hardly fluffy looking at all though. Good because I plan to work them good tomorrow- LOL! I have a giant list of things I want done by 37 weeks. So now I've got 2 weeks to finish that list. Must push myself a bit harder!

Countdown... 37 days

Here it is 37 days to my due date and I'm feeling it for sure! Why is the end of a pregnancy such a hard time? Physically yes, but emotionally and psychologically too. Almost down to the last 5 weeks now and my feet have begun to swell a bit in the evenings. I'm tired all the time. I cannot breathe and bend over at the same time. :-) In fact, bending over at all is pretty much out of the question anymore. This precious baby is strong and fiesty. She feels small in size, but yet tall to me. Her siblings already adore her and are eagerly counting down the days until her due date. I know most babies don't arrive on their due date but I've had 3 out of 4 so far arrive within days of their EDD (including #4 who was born ON her EDD)so it's as good a guess as any, I'd say.
I'm excited and nervous. Would you believe a 5th time mom still has the fears of not being a good enough mom? :-) I wonder how another child will change the family dynamic, and, being a person who likes to plan things out, I wish I knew how to prepare for this unknown dynamic change. I can only let it rest with Jesus and be thankful not only for this precious gift of an already loved baby, but also that my Lord knows the future and will give me what I need when I need it.

Someone New

Someone tiny and new has joined our family and we'll get to see her for the first time in November, 2013!

It's sinking in that my youngest is over a year old now...

Beautiful baby,
Beautiful girl,
So precious and tiny,
Like a perfect pearl,
A treasure for Heaven,
Worth more than the Earthly,
A blessing is given,
From God to our family,
A beautiful baby,
A precious sweet baby,
A treasure, a soul,
A sweet baby girl.


My sweet youngest baby girl has turned one! In fact, because of the logistics of having a Christmas-vicinity birthday, we just had a party for her on Saturday! She's technically 13 months old now but it's finally sinking in for me I think... my babiest baby is almost a toddler! *bittersweet tears* How can time fly so fast? She is such a joy to all of us! Such a sweet happy baby! I was so blessed to marry my beloved husband, and every time God has multiplied our little family, we have all felt so blessed! Number 4 is no exception!

Crochet Cotton Ripple Dishcloth {Free Pattern}

Here's another dishcloth pattern I designed. I only knew how to do a ripple in double crochet stitch at the time and really wanted to make a ripple dishcloth but not to have all the "holes" double crochet stitch would leave. I didn't want my fingers sticking through the holes touching all the ickies I would be washing. Lol! So I tried and frogged and tried and frogged again until I got just the right size ripples, just the right number of them, and all in single crochet so no giant gaping holes for my fingers to slip through.



This dishcloth takes about and ounce and a half of cotton worsted weight yarn, and a G crochet hook.
CH = chain, SC = single crochet, SK = skip.

COTTON RIPPLE DISHCLOTH pattern by Jessica Mama Mirage (2010):
ROW 1: Ch 45 (multiple of 7 plus 3) loosely, sc in second ch from hook, skip 1, *sc in next 2 ch, (sc, ch 1, sc) in next ch, sc in next 2 ch, sk 2, repeat from * 4 times, sc in next 2 ch, (sc, ch 1, sc) in next ch, sc in next 2 ch, sk 1, sc in last ch, ch 1, turn.
ROW 2: Sc in first sc, sk 1, *sc in next 2 sc, (sc, ch 1, sc) around ch 1, sc in next 2 sc, sk next 2 sc, repeat from * 4 times, sc in next 2 sc, (sc, ch 1, sc) around ch 1, sc in next 2 sc, sk next sc, sc in last sc. Ch 1 & turn (omit on last row, row 25, of cloth).
ROWS 3-25: Repeat row 2 until cloth is square. Tie off.
Weave in tails.

Last time I got 2 comments asking for another pattern. I have a really cute leaf pattern and I am still undecided whether or not to bother typing it out. Unlike this ripple and the previously shared triangle, the leaf dishcloth is kind of complicated! If I get comments from 7 different people on this post before the end of January 2013, I'll share the leaf. If not, I may share it anyway and I may not. Time will tell. ;)
~*Jessica