Over all, My pregnancy has been extremely pleasant. At worst, quite tolerable. 

Sometimes I get winded walking up the stairs. 

Sometimes I take it personally when someone's car is leaking exhaust ( so MEAN!).

In the beginning, I had a sudden disdain for green vegetables of any kind. 

And when I roll over in the middle of the night sometimes it's a surprisingly challenging shift. 

I'm learning to brace myself for large movements like that...but when you're half asleep you kinda forget...

This morning, when I woke up I thought about all kinds of practical and logistical things, then I stood up and noticed the weight of this critter pulling forward from my center. "Hi, baby"

It's getting REALLY real. 

Upon checking in to the digital world, I am yet again FLABBERGASTED at the support that is rolling in, and I must continue to thank you all for your generous gifts to our new family. We are already nearly 2/3rds to our goal of funding this home birth! HOORAY!

A Great Big Belly Bump, 

Danielle, Dan & Sweet Baby

P.S. Below is a photo representation of why Dan and I will make such (um...) great parents...

My Goodness! What a generous world of supportive and amazing friends!

I am so touched by your generosity. It's astounding.

We are nearly half way to our goal of raising 3,000 for the home birth of sweet baby and it's been less than 24 hours.

All my love and gratitude to those of you who are helping us do something so magical.

We feel you are not only providing us with practical support but also sending us the message that you believe in what we are doing, and that is more valuable than anything we could ask for.

A huge THANK YOU and let's keep this little -jack- n -the -bean -stalk -fundraising- thermometer-thingy moving!

For those of you who have not read our first post- follow the link to our first post: "How You can Help Support our Home Birth" in the blog archive OR just scroll down to the next post!

Danielle, Dan & Sweet Baby (who just now sends you a mighty punch/roll through my striped shirt!)

How you can support our Home Birth: 

Dear friends and family and EVERYONE who has made our world wonderful enough for us to consider bringing a sweet baby into it:  We are reaching out to you for your support in our decision to have a home birth.

I always knew in my heart that this was the best and most peaceful way to guide our baby into this world and after much reading, talking and researching all the wonderful reasons to have a home birth, our decision feels so exciting and true to our core beliefs about life and birth.

We have found a wonderful midwife, Kelly Murphy @ BirthYourself.org who has brought us a wealth of information along with a sense of ease and trust in ourselves as parents to be. We feel that birthing at home where we feel safe happy and comfortable is the best thing for us and this sweet baby. And we trust our midwife to give us the care we need during this momentous occasion, however it proceeds. 

Because health insurance does not cover any of the costs of a home birth, we are pooling all our resources to birth the way we feel empowered to birth. We need to come up with $3,000 by our due date (MARCH 28th)!

Because we have already received such a generous abundance of practical (and adorable) baby goods from our friends and community, we are asking that if you wish to gift us, you do so with a donation of any size toward our Home Birth. For us, this is the greatest gift you could give us and our baby, and we will cherish this occasion for the rest of our lives.

 Dan and I are so grateful for all of the love and support we feel from our community as we become more and more pregnant. We are so excited to introduce our little clown to all of you!

Many thanks and love from all three of us, 

 Danielle, Dan and Sweet Baby

p.s. Keep checking in for more photos and updates on the pregnancy and birth and other news surrounding our baby adventure!