School Room of Life: January 2010

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Family Portraits Jan. 2010

Eric ended up not working this weekend so I went ahead and rescheduled our family portraits for Saturday. Graham was NOT happy most of the time, but we did end up with some good shots. Here is a sample of some of the shots.

Pregnancy Update:
I had some spotting Friday evening and when I called the dr., they wanted me to go into L&D and get checked. I thought for sure it would be a quick trip, so we dropped the kids off with a friend and went up there. 6 hours later, they sent me home with no real answers. Nothing seemed to be wrong, so they released me. I guess that's good news! Baby needs to bake a little bit longer! I will be 36 weeks tomorrow. Hopefully little Leah can hang out for at least another week. THEN, all bets are off! lol

Monday, January 18, 2010

Reflecting on this Pregnancy: 35 weeks

I feel like I've let this pregnancy just fly by with very minimal attention put on it at all. I guess that's what happens with a 4th baby. *sigh* But I thought I'd take some time today and reflect on what has been, so far, my easiest pregnancy by far. My morning sickness was not too terribly bad. It was definitely the worst with Natalie. Throwing up all day every day for nearly 6 months, yet still dealing with nausea until delivery. This time around I had my fair share of nausea and vomiting, but Zofran was my best friend and helped me function until it subsided when I got to my 2nd trimester. I did show early this time, as I have with each pg except for my first. But, I haven't gotten nearly as big as I did with Erica and Graham, although I am bigger than I was with Natalie. I think that is a big part in me still feeling relatively good. With Natalie, I was still just so nauseous all the time, that I never felt good. Then with Erica and Graham, I was so big that I had horrible back and pelvic pain by this point. I definitely have a hard time getting comfortable, and I do have some pain, but I can still roll over in bed without much of a problem. I have noticed that if I'm on my feet for too long, especially walking around, that I get really sore and feel a ton of pressure. But as long as I rest and don't exert myself too much, I feel pretty good! I was originally thinking that I'd probably go into labor a little early this time. I'd heard that you typically go earlier with each one. Natalie came a few days past my due date and Erica came a few days before. With Graham, I was induced at 38w, so I can't count that. But I was thinking I'd probably go on my own somewhere between 38-39w, but now I'm not so sure. My dr. already thinks this baby is "big", but I'm not worried. I delivered three 8 and a half pounders, which I hear most people consider big, but is actually on the small side of mine and Eric's families. I have a feeling that she may offer to induce me a week or so early but I'm hoping if that happens, I'll have the willpower to deny it. My induction with Graham was gruesome and I really have no desire to ever go through that again. Of course if I reach my due date or I start getting really uncomfortable, I may start singing a different tune. Only time will tell I guess. And I suppose I can't conclude this post without some belly pics!

and ick, hair pulled back in a messy ponytail and no makeup lol

Natalie's New Earrings

When Natalie was born (or maybe it was even before she was born), Eric and I decided that we were going to wait to get her ears pierced until she was old enough to decide it for herself. The time came recently, when she showed interest in getting earrings. I didn't discourage nor encourage her, as it really didn't matter to me either way when/if she ever did it. I did explain to her what they would do, and that it would hurt, but only for a minute. And I also explained to her how important it would be to keep them clean and take good care of them. Saturday she'd decided she was definitely ready to take the plunge! It actually worked out well because I took her to church on my own on Sunday (more on that in a minute), so after church we headed to the mall. I let her pick which pair she wanted from the sheet, and told her that after her 6-8 weeks when she could take them out, we'd come back and pick another pair. She chose some a pair of pink flowers (with 14k posts) and was getting really excited. Then when the lady walked off to go get the supplies, Natalie started looking more and more nervous. Her smile faded and she just looked worried. I told her she could back out if she didn't want to do it. She assured me she was ok and still wanted to do it, as long as I held her hand. Of course! She was so patient as the lady came back and explained everything she was doing. First she clipped her hair back. Then she cleaned her ears. Then she marked the spots with a purple marker. Then finally, she got the piercing gun and did the first ear. Natalie flinched just the slightest, but didn't cry at all! We told her how great she did and showed her the first earring in place. She smiled and felt much better now that she knew what to expect. One thing I told her before hand was that once the first earring was done, she HAD to go ahead with the second one. Not a problem at all. She did great for that one as well. Once the lady put some more antiseptic on her ears, she was good to go! She was so proud of her new earrings and couldn't wait to get home and show Daddy! I am so proud of her! It is so excited watching her grow up into such a beautiful young lady right before my eyes.

Before

Waiting patiently

Just after

Beautiful!

The reason I took her to church on my own is because Eric stayed home with Erica and Graham. Graham has a little cold, and Erica has croup. She woke up Saturday morning with a fever and a terrible barking cough. I knew it was croup, so I took her in right away to the ped so she could get some steroids to help her airways. I'm so glad I got her in so quick, because it made a huge difference. Her very croupy cough has turned into the wet productive cough already so I know she's on the road to recovery. So far, Graham doesn't seem to be getting any worse either, so that's a good thing!

Here are some misc. pics I took of him the other day. He was in such a silly mood when he woke up from his nap. Love his bed head.

And I thought this one was funny. He found Natalie's nametag from church and put it on. Our church children's dept. has these labels that you print out each time you go that has the child's info with a code matching the parent's pick up ticket. I think he missed going to church on Sunday and was trying to tell me something lol.

Friday, January 15, 2010

Jan,. 15

I'd planned on us having family pics done this Saturday, but decided last night to reschedule them. Graham has a nasty runny nose and little cough, and we're still working on getting rid of the dry rash on his cheeks. He gets it now and then when it's cold and he drools a lot and it gets trapped behind his paci. A couple days of ointment usually do the trick. I rescheduled for Sat. Jan. 31, when I'll be just shy of 37 weeks. Hopefully we make it! lol Eric is most likely working next weekend, so that was out. Anyway, I'll be sure to post pics of that afterwards.

It's nasty rainy here today so that means it's a perfect day to get some housework done! Dishes are loaded, laundry is going, and there are messy floors all over this house with my name on them!

And I guess I'll throw this out here if anyone wants to offer up some suggestions. At the kids' last pedi visit I asked her about their speech. Natalie can still not say hard and soft th sounds properly, and it's starting to affect her reading/spelling. And Erica can still not say a lot of things correctly. I can understand most of what she says, but other people still have trouble. And I'm trying to teach her the letter sounds, which is not going over well since she can't pronounce many of them correctly. So... the pedi said it would probably be a good idea to have them seen by a speech therapist. I meant to make appts back in December, but didn't get on the ball. This week, I looked on our insurance website and there is not a single speech dr. in all of SA that takes our insurance. So my other option would be to go through the public schools. Even though we homeschool, my kids are still eligible for speech benefits. And it's free! The downsides are that it usually takes a long time to get in, and I've heard from other homeschooling families, that some schools will give you a hard time about using their services while homeschooling and just homeschooling in general. So I'm kind of stuck as to what to do. Do I just fork over the money and get them in possibly quicker with an actual dr, or do I go the free/slow route of the public school system? Quite the quandry.

And on the topic of speech, Graham does not say any words. He can say mama and dada but he doesn't always use them in correct context. He mostly just does caveman grunts. He *was* signing more, milk, and all done, but hasn't signed anything for weeks. He is almost 15 mos old, so I'm not worried yet at all, but just wanted to throw that out there as a reference to look back on.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Your message has been received!

I've been getting a lot of flack (positive flack) about me not posting enough on my blog. I know I've been BAD. I guess I just feel like if I don't have anything substantial to say or any pics to post, who cares? Well, apparently some people do... lol So I'm going to try to post more often. Warning that the posts might be dull and boring, but who am I kidding. It's not like my posts were ever full of excitement and intrigue to begin with, ha! I'm not going to say "I'll try to blog everyday" or even "I'll try to blog twice a week", but I'm merely going to say "I'll try to blog more." I know that isn't saying much, but it's something right!?! Most of my entries will probably go something like:

We went to the store this morning because we're out of milk and bread. Then we came home and ate lunch. Then it was naptime for Erica and Graham. Just finished up some schoolwork with Natalie. She learned about weather today. I'm going to be making pasta for dinner. Tomorrow we're going to MOPS.

You get the idea. Boring and mundane. I'll try to include some of the more interesting aspects of my day when they arise.

TODAY - we went to the Carter's store this morning and I got some great deals! I got some PJs for Graham for $3/each. I finally found him a Big Brother shirt. It's a 2T which will be huge on him, but it's hard (if not impossible) to find one any smaller without special ordering. I also of course got Leah a few new things as well. The other day I was looking on etsy wanting to order her some new infant headbands and bows. I went to look in her closet to see what colors she mostly had in her wardrobe, thinking that I'd bought her plenty (since we gave away most of the girls' old clothes when we found out Graham was a boy). To my surprise I found but only a few packs of onesies and sleepers! GASP! I've made up for it in the past week though and picked up a bit more at Target and Carter's. We should be set now for at least the first few months. I also bought a carseat and bouncy seat from a friend of mine. So glad about that. The infant seat we have is the same one we had when Natalie was born and it's reached it's expiration date. I was so glad to hear my friend was selling hers because I didn't want to fork over the money for a brand new one to only be used for a few months. And it's PINK! Yay for girly baby stuff! I also bought her bouncy seat from her (which is also girly!) because the one we had was shot. I'm glad we are finally getting things in order for this baby to arrive. I still need to pack up all my sewing stuff and move it out of her room (or at least into the closet). And I REALLY need to organize the school room. I would love if that was done before she got here. But it's hard because I can't really do much/any of the moving and stuff by myself. Ok, I feel like I've babbled enough for today. Hopefully, I'll be back soon (and maybe with pics!).