Friday, November 30, 2007

Wow, really fat pregnant ladies have no time to blog because they are too busy eating. Thanksgiving was delicious and wonderful and, yes, Maggie, I did think back to that one magical Thanksgiving years ago when Jamie Berger made the most wonderul turnips in the whole world.

But speaking of eating, after two and a half years of a struggle involving probably at least fifty dollars of flour( whole wheat, white, rye, spelt-- you name it! ) and mounain spring water and untold amounts of tears, fist shaking and wailing and grinding of teeth, I have FINALLY baked a sucsessful loaf of sourdough bread. What does sucsessful mean?

It is useless as a weapon or projectile object, being light and springy in texture.

It will not break any fillings in your teeth.

My children ask for repeated slices rather that giving my strange mistrustful looks.

Ben doesn't say. "Well it's not too bad."

Now part of the suscsess is due to the fact that the starter was from Dian who got it from Sophia who got it from the magical city of San Francisco, and was not a starter of my own concoction. But I did nurse it back to health following the move in our wonderfully chilly north facing clothes closet which apparently is the ideal temperature for the little yeasties.

So I can now die a contented woman.

I also managed to knit Ben two hats this past week. The first was horrible and looked like an old lady hat. I think Ben gave it to the girls and now it has disappeared hopefully forever. The second has turned out much better and now graces the head of our little family.

Lastly the midwife came today for the home visit and I was all embarassed because I didn't have me records from Karen yet and the Cascade Health people hadn't sent the birth kit yet and then while the midwife was here the UPS man deliviered the birth kit. Talk about convenient timing! So now I can breath easy about the baby comming. (otherwise we were going to have to look around for something to use as a cord clamp. ) The other good news is Hatke # 3 has decided to be an obliging little one and become anterior! Hooray!!!! I thought I got him to shift positon when I was doing my hands and knees exercises but I wasn't sure. Mary Ann says he has definitiley shifted positions which will hopefully mean shorter less intense labor but we'll see. I am not out of the woods yet. If he decides to return to his wayward ways she gave me the phone number of a chiropractor I can go see. I'd rather not, just because I hate "seeing" anyone. I loathe the dentist, doctor, tax person. You name it. All those things are appointments that keep me away from important buisness like growing starter in my closet, and blogging. Sheesh.

I need to go to bed. I will post pics of the sourdough when I get around to loading them.

7 comments:

j'aime said...

yay for sourdough! that is most marvelous!

also, it was carrots and rutabagas, the most awkward-sounding dish ever, which i just made for ryan's family and succeeded in scorching their pot and mortifying myself, but it all turned out allright in the end :)

and many, many congratulations on the anterior little guy! good sign that #3 is being so accommodating already.

Ben Hatke said...

That's right! Carrots and rutabagas. I couldn't remember what it was!!!!!! Yum. My mouth is watering now.

Ben Hatke said...

oops that was me posting under Ben but I am sure he agrees :)

Jill said...

Anna,
Just out of curiousity, do you find laboring lying on your side to be comfortable? I know that's what the Bradley books say but I never could get through the contractions in that position. I found it really hard to relax. just curious,
Jill

Ben Hatke said...

I did it with Angelica for a while but remember really preferring hanigng on something ( like a bellboy pulling a bell) with my hands braced around something like a railing or Ben's poor neck. I used one of those birth balls with Zita too and that was really great. I generally preferred upright unless I was tiring. I think most labors do better in general in an upright position or moving around . . . (natuarally as with all things birthwise there are no hard and fast rules . . . :) Every woman and baby is different.

Ben Hatke said...

This is the real Ben.

Don't you mean "graces the head of the head of our family"?

Margaret E. Perry said...

but jaime: it was good...

anna: YAY for sourdough!!! try baking your bread in a cast iron dutch oven. it makes the most MARVELOUS crispy crust. and if you don't have a cast iron dutch oven, you should get one, because they are the best things ever created by man.

you can get cheap ones at target, and ikea.