37 Weeks...Full Term!

Yesterday we had our 37 week and 2 days appointment. Everything is continuing to progress normally and it seems like our little girl is getting very close to coming into this world. Since last week our baby is still in the same position with her head down and her foot jabbing me right in the ribs (the doctor said she wont move from this position; lucky me!). Also, mom is now 2 centimeters dilated! We asked the doctor how far along does a mother usually dilate before labor starts. Of course, the doctors can never give you an exact answer to anything because every labor and delivery is different for every woman. She said usually they wont dilate past 3 centimeters. So, we will see, but this little girl might come out a little before her due date.
I'm trying to keep busy and not get to focused on wondering when she is going to arrive. I'm starting to have contractions now, but they differ in strength, length, and frequency every time. As we approach the big day we are getting more and more excited. Sometimes I feel like this pregnancy has gone by so fast and then again, it's hard to remember what it's like to not be pregnant.

Waiting at the doctor's office



Jason goofing around in the doctor's office.

Update on Baby at 36 weeks

Today we had our 36 week (and 2 days) appointment. This was an exciting appointment because we were getting another ultrasound. Our doctor's office only administers two ultrasounds in normal pregnancies, one at 20 weeks and one at 36 weeks.
This ultrasound was much different from our first one. In the first one the doctor was checking every inch of babies body for development and growth. At this ultrasound the doctor was determining the size/weight and positioning of the baby. They also tried to get a good image of her face with the 4-d ultrasound.
Baby is positioned with her head already down (and ready to come out!). Because of the position of her head, the technician couldn't get the best shot of her face. However, if you look our darling baby girl is sticking her tongue out at us. She's going to be a little trouble maker, just like her parents!
The doctor also determined that the baby is already 7 pounds! I guess for anyone thinking I was having a small baby, you're wrong. Although she is already 7lbs., the doctor said she doesn't think she'll go much past 8 lbs.
Everything is looking great with baby and with mom :). I'm 1 centimeter dilated, so I guess my body is getting prepared for the hard work ahead! We are both getting very excited....it's getting close.

Repopulating The Flock

It has been a little over a week now since the loss of other chickens. However, we couldn't leave poor Toula and Satine alone in such a big coop. Last Thursday we were able to purchase 4 more chickens and bring our McCluckski's family back together.

When deciding to get new chickens we both decided the hassle of raising them from 5 days old was not worth it (especially with our own newborn coming soon). We ended up finding some postings on Craigslist about older chickens for sale. We ended up heading out to the H and J Ranch to pick up two 8 week old chickens (the same age as the one's we have). If anyone is ever interested in purchasing older chickens or having some wonderful fresh farm eggs (of course we bought a dozen and made deviled eggs for the 4th of July--delicious!!), we both would highly recommend this ranch. The head rancher's name is Henry and he will help you with picking out some great chickens and answering all your questions (512-926-1773). We purchased one Buff Orpington and named her Nala and one Barred Plymouth Rock and named her Latika (we are still sticking to the theme of female movie characters...can you guess the movie?).

Latika free ranging in the yard


We were still down two chickens and ended up finding the breed that we were searching for originally when we embarked on this chicken adventure. The breed of chicken is called Silkies. We both think these chickens are so cute and interesting looking. The only hiccup when it came to purchasing the Silkies was the fact that they were only 4 weeks old. However, we couldn't pass up the chance to get this breed. We purchased two chicks, and named them Buttercup and Ariel.

The babies...


Nala and Latika had to be separated from Toula and Satine in the coop for about 3 days. This is recommended when introducing new chickens to a flock so the chickens can get use to each other without a fight breaking out (they need to establish their pecking order). Now the four chickens are getting along great and have transitioned into a flock without any problems. The babies (that's what I like to call them-- I wonder if I'm ready for my baby to be here??) are still in the garage, but will move out to the sectioned off area of the coop this weekend. They will stay sectioned off for longer because of their small size.

Latika and Nala sectioned off from Toula and Satine


It's great to have the flock back. However, we still miss our old guys. We have both learned some good lessons about having backyard chickens. We now keep Bella inside when we let the older ones have free range time in the yard. It's working out great and there is no worry of Bella making a run for them. Hopefully the transition of the babies to the flock will go smoothly and all will be back to normal. Then we can start to look forward to some eggs---that's the reason we got these guys, right?!?

The last family pic of the old McCluckski's, a new will be on it's way...

Has It Already Been A Year??

Today marks our 1st anniversary and I can't believe how fast this past year has gone. I remember a year ago at this time I was waking up in my bed thinking, "I'm going to get married today!". Now a year later I couldn't be happier with my life and the exciting things that have happened.
Jason took me out on Friday to celebrate our anniversary. As many of you probably know, the two of us love to eat, cook, go to wonderful restaurants, etc. So we decided to make our first year anniversary gift to one another food, instead of paper (who makes up these rules anyway??). Jason booked a reservation at the Driskill Hotel Restaurant, which is consistently named one of the best restaurants in Austin (neither one of us had ever been there).

The night was amazing and we both had a great time. It was fun getting dressed up (even though I hardly had any dresses I could squeeze into since I refuse to buy a lot of maternity clothes), going out downtown, and being together. The food, the service, and the ambiance at the Driskill was all top notch and we both would recommend it to anyone celebrating a special occasion. When Jason made the reservation he let them know it was our first anniversary. This got us a secluded, more romantic table, a congratulations printed on our menus, and at the end of the night a dessert with "Happy Anniversary" spelled out in chocolate. The little touches made it that much more special.
I want to thank my husband for an amazing first year of marriage. You have been my best friend through all the adventures we have had together. I can't imagine not having you by my side as I travel through life. I love you and hope you enjoyed our anniversary celebration as much as I did (it will be our first and last anniversary alone!).

Playing around before dinner downtown...



Our Menus at the Driskill...

Enjoying our meal...

Our delicious dessert...

Rest In Peace...

Last night was a night full of lessons learned for both Jason and me. In the past week we have been letting the chickens free range more and more. For the most part we were staying outside with them to keep an eye on our dog Bella. Although a few times we would go inside for 20 minutes at a time. It seemed that Bella was completely used to the chickens and for the most part would get bored of watching them and just leave them alone.


Well...here is where the lessons are learned. Yesterday when I got home from my doctor's appointment around 5pm I let the chickens out. This was the first time I had been home alone with the chickens free ranging and Bella coming in and out of the backyard as she pleases. I spent the first hour I was home outside because yesterday was the first day in a month that it wasn't over 100 degrees. After being outside for an hour and nothing occurring between the chickens and Bella, I decided to go inside for a while.


As you can probably guess, everything wasn't completely good between the chickens and Bella. About 30 minutes later I peeked outside to check on everything and found that Bella had tapped into her natural hunting instincts.
In the end, two of our chickens survived the attack: Toula (not a surprise, she is the same chicken that made the great escape at a young age) and Satine.
Obviously it's not an option to let the chickens free range and have Bella in the backyard. We are also going to try and set more boundaries between Bella and the chickens in general (not letting her sit in front of the coop staring at them).

Lucy, Apollonia, Clementine, and Angelica were all wonderful chickens and provided us with lots of entertainment. Unfortunately they didn't get to live a full life, but we both believe that the life they did live was a happy one.

Baby Shower

Last weekend Jason and I had a couples baby shower for Baby Girl Dzubinski. It was a wonderful time getting some of our family and friends together to celebrate with us.

The shower was held at my dad's house and thank goodness. Orginally I was thinking we could have it at our house, but as some of you may or may not know, our house is quite small. We had about 25 people show up, so it would have been jam packed. Our guests included Jason's parents (who made the trip from Midland), his sister, her husband, and their son (from Fort Worth area), and his other sister and her husband (who live in Austin). Of course my Dad was there, since the party was at his house, and my brother was also able to make it in town for the party (from St.Paul). The rest of our guests included friends from the area. It was a great group of people and I think everyone had a wonderful time.

The food included bite size sandwiches (smoked salmon with a cream cheese spread--delicious and my favorite!, chicken salad, and roast beef), a pasta salad, a wonderful fruit salad (woohoo! for summer and yummy fruit), mozzarella with tomato and basil, salami on cucumbers, and of course--chips and salsa. For desert we had a wonderful Tres Leches Coconut cake from Russell's Bakery in Austin.


After everyone ate some food and before we dove into the desert we had to play at least one game. Of course as many of you might know, baby shower games are often very silly and catered more to the "woman only" showers. So we decided to play: Blind Baby Food Tasting. I have to say it was really hilarious, just to see people's facial reactions to some of the foods and then what people wrote down for the flavor. I think the one that stumped everyone was called: Ham, Pineapple, and Rice (it was as awful as it sounds). Our friend Pam Ross won the game and so she got to feed Jason a bite of whatever favor she wanted (can you guess? Ham, Pineapple, Rice made another appearance). I would recommend this game to anyone having or throwing a baby shower, especially if it is a couple's shower. Everyone played and had a great time laughing their heads off.

After the game we got to the cake and the presents. We got some wonderful things from everyone. Of course it's always great to get some essentials for the baby-- a mattress, a high chair, a diaper bag-- but we also received a huge amount of clothes, that are all to cute to even describe. I have to say Baby Dzubinski is going to be one fashionable lady.

The shower was wonderful and we are both so thankful to everyone who was able to make it. We are so excited about the baby being here soon and are so happy we have such a great supportive group of family and friends surrounding us.

P.S. Of course Jason had to try one of the gifts out on Bella when we got home--this is the baby carrier from our friends Anuj and Pam...

The Coop is Done and the Chickens are Living the Good Life....

Today at 8pm the McCluckski family finally moved into their permanent home. It's been a long journey from having them on the first day to spending the last 6 weeks getting their coop done. The end result is a great home for the chickens and we think they will have a very happy life.

For the first time I was actually able to help Jason with the coop. Most of the construction was not in my field of expertise. However, today he needed help with painting the coop, which was right up my alley. We were able to buy some dark red paint at Lowe's in their discount section for only $3, which was great! We also had some white paint left over from painting the windows in both our bedroom and the nursery. We decided to paint their house red and used the white for their door and some trim. The color couldn't have been better...a nice "barn red".


The last steps Jason had to complete today were building the ladder for the chickens to get from the run to the coop and covering all the sides with the poultry mesh. Of course it was about 100 degrees today, so when noon rolled around we both needed a break. Jason started work back up around 4pm when he was hoping it would be a little cooler. I went out around 7pm and helped him with the last stages. Thank goodness my dad let us borrow his staple gun or it would have taken probably three times as long putting up the mesh. When we stapled in that last piece and everything was complete, a huge wave of success rolled over us both (although I imagine it was a larger wave for Jason who did 99% of the work).


We brought the chickens out to the home. Below are some more photos I took of the chickens getting accustomed to their new house. The whole process was very exciting, especially for Bella. Although after about 30 minutes she wasn't even interested in them anymore. They are still having some trouble getting use to the ladder. Currently they walk down about halfway and then flutter the rest of the way down. We also had to help them into the coop at the end of the night. I'm sure it will just take them a couple of tries before they are experts.










I'm so proud of Jason for building a wonderful home for the McCluckski's. I'm even more happy that we actually have them out of our garage and the smell of chicken poop can stop traveling throughout our house :)

Here's a video I took of when we first put the chickens into the coop...
(I love the look on Bella's face)




What will be the next adventure for the Dzubinski's? Oh yes....Baby Girl is due in 8 weeks!