While my mom was in town, we took full advantage of her Costco membership, including buying the Kitchaid mixer I've been salivating over a year. Since then I've made, cookies, more cookies, muffins, pizza crust, banana bread and my own whole wheat bread. In fact the whole wheat bread turned out so good, we've seriously thought about not buying sandwich bread again and just make our own (it's like a 5 ingredient bread and turns out like Great Harvest honey whole wheat! Yes, please!)
So here's where life started to get complicated. See, the blog I got the recipe off suggests that milling your own whole wheat flour is the way to go over store bought whole wheat because fresher tastes better. So I start looking into it. I don't really want to buy another expensive kitchen appliance, but I think I can grind the flour in the Vitamix my mom gave us (it was their old one. Yes, I got a baby, a stand mixer and an amazing blender all in one month, booyah!) So I start researching that. Results are inconclusive...
But, I also start looking into wheat and I notice you can buy hard winter red or hard spring white and I'm like, what's the difference, yo? (Yes, I talk like that now.) So I start searching and all this info comes up, and I'm still not sure what to buy yet (both I'm thinking, both is good.) Then, on another blog the writer mentions that you should sprout your wheat berries for even healthier bread, and she shows you how to do it. So now I'm looking into how to do that, and what I need, and phew! Life has just gotten very complicated! What was I trying to do? Oh yes, I wanted to make bread.
So I start thinking, maybe I'm overthinking this a bit, okay a lot. I just want to make bread, and I don't have to do all the extra steps to do that and get yummy, good for us bread. So maybe that's the lesson in this, that life doesn't require all the extra steps to get the blessings we need.
OR
A couple of days later I start thinking that maybe the lesson is if we put a little extra effort into our lives, we can receive even more blessings the the simple original ones.
So now I'm confused. Which lesson am I suppose to be getting out of this experience? Maybe both? Both is good.
13 February 2013
18 January 2013
An Unintentional Unmedicated Birth: Jared's birth story.
Friday morning I had an OB appointment with the NP in the office to check how things were going. I should say that this pregnancy by far as been my easiest health wise. I still gained the same amount of weight, but spending so much time at the gym, I wasn't feeling it. My back has been really strong, my pelvis didn't hurt, and I slept pretty good (except for getting up to use the restroom all the time!) So that was a big blessing and thankful since I was pretty healthy, I think that helped with labor. Anyway, at my appointment I was dilated to a 3 and 90% effaced which was positive news and progress from the week before. The NP, Dr. Sharp, thought I had a 50/50 chance of delivering over the weekend. I was slightly discouraged since I hadn't really had any early labor pain that I was going to go over due, and as we know from my previous babies, we make big ones. Doug and I spent Friday night on a "date," walking the mall, Best Buy & Barnes & Noble together while my mom watched the kids.
Saturday Doug let me sleep in a little, which was nice. With nothing planned for the day, we decided to stay in pjs all day and be lazy. I can't tell you what we did all morning, just passed the time I guess. Afternoon, I took a shower, and I was starting to feel some mild contraction pain, but I wasn't really concerned. Sometime after two I decided to whip out my iphone and start timing. Nothing really hurt, so I wasn't concerned, but I did have Doug get showered, dressed and pack his hospital bag (mine had been packed for awhile) just in case.
At 3:30 we sat down to watch the Broncos/Ravens game. Laboring during football was pretty awesome because I get really into the games and this one was intense. My contractions were pretty regular at this point, too, 3-4 minutes apart lasting 35-45 seconds or so, but they still didn't really hurt, so I wasn't really concerned about rushing to the hospital, not when there was good football on anyway. At halftime we had dinner. Doug and I had talked about it and since the contractions were not going away, we thought we'd eat and put the kids to bed, then head to the hospital. My contractions stayed the same duration during dinner, but some of them started to be a bit more painful. It was becoming clear that we weren't going to make it through the bedtime routine, so after we finished eating, we kissed Sariah and Bryson and headed to the hospital.
The drive there wasn't bad. Constantly timing my contractions was giving me something to focus on, plus a pretty good idea on when the next one was coming. They were still surprisingly easy to breathe through, so I was kind of worried that we'd get there and have very little progress to show for it. I guess I shouldn't have been so worried, but my previous experience of heading to triage and not being induced wasn't a pleasant one (I spent 2 hrs in triage with Sariah freaked out and throwing up my guts.) The walk from the car across the hospital and up to the 2nd floor was more painful. My contractions got closer together so I was having them every minute and lasted longer, plus I was feeling more pain and pressure so I had to stop walking. It was slow going. I think I even stopped and tried to use the restroom half way there, but that was kind of in vain.
So we finally made it to L&D and they set us up in triage one with a very nice nurse named Char. She was going to hook me up to the monitors first then have the resident come in and check me, but after a look, she decided to have him check me first. Good thing, too, because I was already progressed to an 8 and a half. I was pretty shocked, I was hoping for a 4, maybe a 5, Char was rooting for a big number like 6 or 7, but 8, pushing 9? Yeah, I was having a baby, and soon! So monitoring could wait, and they walked us to L&D room 10. (Our hospital is currently remodeling and we were placed in one of the three brand new rooms, lucky us!)
Char had asked what I had done for pain in my last two deliveries and I told her that I had an epidural both times, she was like, "Yeah, there's not going to be time for that!" But mentioned that I could probably get some IV drugs once I had my IV in. So they checked us in, put my IV in (this is when I gave Doug my iphone and finally stopped timing my contractions), and set up the monitors for the baby's heartbeat and my contractions. Because I had tested Group B Strep positive, they hung a bag of penicillin, and were waiting to break my water until they could hopefully get it all in. Doug asked about the pain meds. at this point. I was still doing okay with the pain, so I hadn't bothered. The resident said they could give them to me, but since I was so far along sometimes the drugs caused the baby to stop breathing, but they could give him meds after the birth to fix that. That seemed like a whole lot of danger to me, and since I was still breathing through the pain okay, I declined, much to Doug's surprise.
At this point it was about 7pm give or take. They wanted to monitor me for 20 minutes but the monitor for the contractions wasn't always picking them up, so I laid on my left side quite awhile watching the clock and trying to breath through the pain. It was getting harder to breathe through the pain. They had evened out to about every 5 minutes, but I was falling asleep in between and seriously questioning my sanity about doing all this unmedicated. I want to say it was about 7:35pm when I started talking to our L&D nurse, Carmen, about maybe getting something for the pain. We were discussing it when my water broke!
The next 20 minutes are kind of a blur. The pressure and pain got really bad after my water broke and my body wanted to push, push, push! Meconium was present in my water, so the NICU was called just in case he has aspirated any into his lungs. The resident (who I cannot remember) and Dr. Ogden from my OB practice came in. I'm pretty sure Carmen called in one other nurse to help. At one point Dr. Ogden was worried about shoulder dysplasia, where he shoulders get stuck, because he was such a big guy, so the OB surgery team was called in. Basically, all I remember is voices, faces and a wall of blue scrubs. My previous calm from labor was gone and I'm freaking out, having a hard time. Pushing hurt, I'm forgetting to breathe until one of the nurses talked me down. I remember at one point turning and looking for Doug, he had a quite a look of concern on his face, so I decided not to look at him anymore. I remember being so tired, there was burning as I tore through old scars, and oh, the pressure, but finally at 7:57pm, his head popped out, followed by the rest of him, and Jared Alan was born screaming his head off!
Crisis averted, people melted away, and they gave him to me to hold. He was red and perfect. The nicu checked him out, but he hadn't aspirated anything so they let me keep him. I didn't hold him too long because I was shaky from delivery, so Doug took him while I got stitched up. I had a 2nd degree tear, which is better than my first two deliveries, but it took a bit to stitch up because it went funny ways around the old scars.
Jared weighed in at 9 lbs, 9 oz. Our biggest baby yet! At 21 inches, he's also our longest. Because he was so big, they had to check his sugar levels for the first 12 hrs., but everything except the first time came back great, and a little extra nursing after the first test fixed things right up. We spent 2 hrs. bonding and then were moved to the 3rd floor to our recovery room where we spent the next two nights.
Sunday morning Doug went home about 7:45am and picked up Sariah and Bryson, who were more than a little excited to meet their baby brother. We gave them the choice of going to church or spending the day at the hospital and they decided that they'd rather be with us. It was a great day of bonding as a new family (and watching all my football teams lose! What was up with that?!) Both kids are doing a pretty good job adjusting to new baby brother. It's easy to love such a cute little guy!
I'm glad it's over and Jared is here. I can now say that I never went overdue with any of my labors. I don't know if I'd say this was my best delivery, I don't know if I'd say them about any of my deliveries. It's something I've been thinking about a lot, but maybe a post for another day. Instead, here's some cute pictures to enjoy!
More from us later...
Saturday Doug let me sleep in a little, which was nice. With nothing planned for the day, we decided to stay in pjs all day and be lazy. I can't tell you what we did all morning, just passed the time I guess. Afternoon, I took a shower, and I was starting to feel some mild contraction pain, but I wasn't really concerned. Sometime after two I decided to whip out my iphone and start timing. Nothing really hurt, so I wasn't concerned, but I did have Doug get showered, dressed and pack his hospital bag (mine had been packed for awhile) just in case.
At 3:30 we sat down to watch the Broncos/Ravens game. Laboring during football was pretty awesome because I get really into the games and this one was intense. My contractions were pretty regular at this point, too, 3-4 minutes apart lasting 35-45 seconds or so, but they still didn't really hurt, so I wasn't really concerned about rushing to the hospital, not when there was good football on anyway. At halftime we had dinner. Doug and I had talked about it and since the contractions were not going away, we thought we'd eat and put the kids to bed, then head to the hospital. My contractions stayed the same duration during dinner, but some of them started to be a bit more painful. It was becoming clear that we weren't going to make it through the bedtime routine, so after we finished eating, we kissed Sariah and Bryson and headed to the hospital.
The drive there wasn't bad. Constantly timing my contractions was giving me something to focus on, plus a pretty good idea on when the next one was coming. They were still surprisingly easy to breathe through, so I was kind of worried that we'd get there and have very little progress to show for it. I guess I shouldn't have been so worried, but my previous experience of heading to triage and not being induced wasn't a pleasant one (I spent 2 hrs in triage with Sariah freaked out and throwing up my guts.) The walk from the car across the hospital and up to the 2nd floor was more painful. My contractions got closer together so I was having them every minute and lasted longer, plus I was feeling more pain and pressure so I had to stop walking. It was slow going. I think I even stopped and tried to use the restroom half way there, but that was kind of in vain.
So we finally made it to L&D and they set us up in triage one with a very nice nurse named Char. She was going to hook me up to the monitors first then have the resident come in and check me, but after a look, she decided to have him check me first. Good thing, too, because I was already progressed to an 8 and a half. I was pretty shocked, I was hoping for a 4, maybe a 5, Char was rooting for a big number like 6 or 7, but 8, pushing 9? Yeah, I was having a baby, and soon! So monitoring could wait, and they walked us to L&D room 10. (Our hospital is currently remodeling and we were placed in one of the three brand new rooms, lucky us!)
Char had asked what I had done for pain in my last two deliveries and I told her that I had an epidural both times, she was like, "Yeah, there's not going to be time for that!" But mentioned that I could probably get some IV drugs once I had my IV in. So they checked us in, put my IV in (this is when I gave Doug my iphone and finally stopped timing my contractions), and set up the monitors for the baby's heartbeat and my contractions. Because I had tested Group B Strep positive, they hung a bag of penicillin, and were waiting to break my water until they could hopefully get it all in. Doug asked about the pain meds. at this point. I was still doing okay with the pain, so I hadn't bothered. The resident said they could give them to me, but since I was so far along sometimes the drugs caused the baby to stop breathing, but they could give him meds after the birth to fix that. That seemed like a whole lot of danger to me, and since I was still breathing through the pain okay, I declined, much to Doug's surprise.
At this point it was about 7pm give or take. They wanted to monitor me for 20 minutes but the monitor for the contractions wasn't always picking them up, so I laid on my left side quite awhile watching the clock and trying to breath through the pain. It was getting harder to breathe through the pain. They had evened out to about every 5 minutes, but I was falling asleep in between and seriously questioning my sanity about doing all this unmedicated. I want to say it was about 7:35pm when I started talking to our L&D nurse, Carmen, about maybe getting something for the pain. We were discussing it when my water broke!
The next 20 minutes are kind of a blur. The pressure and pain got really bad after my water broke and my body wanted to push, push, push! Meconium was present in my water, so the NICU was called just in case he has aspirated any into his lungs. The resident (who I cannot remember) and Dr. Ogden from my OB practice came in. I'm pretty sure Carmen called in one other nurse to help. At one point Dr. Ogden was worried about shoulder dysplasia, where he shoulders get stuck, because he was such a big guy, so the OB surgery team was called in. Basically, all I remember is voices, faces and a wall of blue scrubs. My previous calm from labor was gone and I'm freaking out, having a hard time. Pushing hurt, I'm forgetting to breathe until one of the nurses talked me down. I remember at one point turning and looking for Doug, he had a quite a look of concern on his face, so I decided not to look at him anymore. I remember being so tired, there was burning as I tore through old scars, and oh, the pressure, but finally at 7:57pm, his head popped out, followed by the rest of him, and Jared Alan was born screaming his head off!
Crisis averted, people melted away, and they gave him to me to hold. He was red and perfect. The nicu checked him out, but he hadn't aspirated anything so they let me keep him. I didn't hold him too long because I was shaky from delivery, so Doug took him while I got stitched up. I had a 2nd degree tear, which is better than my first two deliveries, but it took a bit to stitch up because it went funny ways around the old scars.
Jared weighed in at 9 lbs, 9 oz. Our biggest baby yet! At 21 inches, he's also our longest. Because he was so big, they had to check his sugar levels for the first 12 hrs., but everything except the first time came back great, and a little extra nursing after the first test fixed things right up. We spent 2 hrs. bonding and then were moved to the 3rd floor to our recovery room where we spent the next two nights.
Sunday morning Doug went home about 7:45am and picked up Sariah and Bryson, who were more than a little excited to meet their baby brother. We gave them the choice of going to church or spending the day at the hospital and they decided that they'd rather be with us. It was a great day of bonding as a new family (and watching all my football teams lose! What was up with that?!) Both kids are doing a pretty good job adjusting to new baby brother. It's easy to love such a cute little guy!
I'm glad it's over and Jared is here. I can now say that I never went overdue with any of my labors. I don't know if I'd say this was my best delivery, I don't know if I'd say them about any of my deliveries. It's something I've been thinking about a lot, but maybe a post for another day. Instead, here's some cute pictures to enjoy!
31 December 2012
27 November 2012
09 November 2012
Least Exciting Post Ever
This might not matter much to anyone but us, but I'm going to document it because it makes me happy. Our garage door was the original to the house and OLD. Its been giving us problems since I can't remember, probably the beginning of us living here. Anytime the weather changed, it wouldn't stay down. We've been living with it for years, until last Saturday when it did this and wouldn't move.
24 October 2012
Update
I was thinking that maybe I should update people on what's going on with us. I think about it often, but there's usually never real time to sit down and write about what's going on. There's not really even time right now when I should be moving the laundry, but I'm upstairs and it's down, so I it can wait a moment.
Sariah: Sariah loves school. She has already made several new friends and tells me all the time about what they did that day. For awhile the thing to do was start different clubs. During recess they were in a grasshopper club where they tried to catch grasshoppers in the grass near the playground. I hear they caught a couple too, but for awhile they were concerned that "Queen" grasshoppers ate people, so we had to look up what they actually ate (not people.)
Her favorite thing in class is a center called "writer's workshop." There they draw a picture and try to write a story. Sariah loves to write. She can't read yet, but she loves to try. She actually just started sounding things out more for me. I'm sure she does it much more at school because she's much more inclined to try things for other people instead of me. I've noticed that she also tends to write and read things right to left instead of left to right. She spells her name backwards often, and the other day she read "no" instead of "on." I'm hoping it's just a learning thing and not something to worry about. (I'm a mom, I tend to worry.)
Outside of school she is still swimming, and she's doing really well. She's been in level two and becoming a very strong swimmer without aid. I'm thinking they might graduate her to level three for the Spring, but we'll have to see. She's also doing a community class called "Showstoppers" Its a basic broadway class for grade K-2 kids. Her group is doing a medley of Beatles songs, and she's have an official recital on her birthday. She really enjoys it but tells me that the hour long rehearsals make her very tired. They have rehearsals on Monday afternoons since it's an early release day from school.
At home Sariah loves to play with her brother. They often wake each other up in the morning to play before school. She's a good example for him (most of the time.) After the disappointment of not getting a sister, she's gotten over it with the purchase of a low loft bed. Bryson will be sleeping in her room for awhile after the baby comes on a mattress on the floor. They're very excited. She's planning on being Morgana (from King Arthur legend) for Halloween, but she wanted to be a good Morgana because we watch a BBC series called Merlin where Morgana was good for the first 2 seasons, so it's a very pretty Morgana dress.
Sariah also amazes me with her love of the gospel. At times I think she was more excited for General Conference than Christmas! It helped that we had treats for most the speakers and pictures of the First Presidency and the Twelve on the wall. After each talk, she would write the topic of the talk on a paper under each person's picture. I meant to take a picture of the finished project, but never got around to it. She's excited about the Primary program coming up in 3 weeks. She's really learned the music well this year. She's also been working at home at memorizing the Articles of Faith, and she's managed so far to memorize 11 of the 13.
Bryson: Bryson is growing up, which means he gets in trouble more often. There's a whole new world of things to explore! Taking after his sister, he's learned to climb and be his own kind of monkey. He's still a very helpful little boy. He loves to help with the dishes or the laundry and especially the cooking and gets very upset when there's nothing for him to do. It's been really nice to spend some one on one time with just Bryson and learn more about his personality. Bryson loves dogs. He's really into Blue's Clues and books with dogs. Sariah never cared for being read to, but Bryson will sit in my lap and let me read story after story to him. Sometimes I think he's trying to grow up too fast on me, but he is becoming more independent. Today he got dressed all by himself for (what I think is) the first time (that I've seen.) He's picky about his clothes. Bryson is planning on being King Arthur for Halloween, and if you didn't see, there's a preview picture on my facebook page.
I purpose under scheduled our time this semester after a super crazy Summer, and with driving Sariah to school and back every day. We do have a couple of activities that Bryson enjoys during the week. We attend a Sound Beginnings music class every Monday (we call it Bubby/Mommy music class.) Bryson tends to be more musically inclined, so I've been trying to encourage that. I'm also thinking a sound basis in music theory will help him later in math and science. He really does love it, and has been picking up lots of rhythms and sounds. He's very involved during class. I'm very pleased with it considering it costs a bit more money then I like to spend for classes. He's also doing a class on Thursday called Jumping Jellybeans which has helped him be more social. I'm hoping he'll be ready for Itty Bitty Broadway in the Spring which is an individual class and not a parent/child like Jellybeans is since I can't bring the baby in with us.
Bryson is also swimming. This is his last semester in the parent/child class. They use float belts and noodles, but he's confident to go out on his own and not cling to Doug the whole time. He loves to jump off the side of the pool. When he starts Shrimp one in the Spring they play a game called "Chop Chop Timber!" and he's very excited about that.
Bryson is very excited about the baby and loves to kids and hug him already. He can't wait to hold his little brother and talks about it all the time. He was a bit sad when we moved the toys out of his room to make room for the baby bed and dresser but he's excited again to share his room. He's also in love with his whole family. He still gets really upset when Sariah and Doug leave in the morning, and I usually hear about 10 minutes of "Me miss sister and daddy" once they leave.
Speaking of speaking... we're firmly stuck in what I call the cookie monster phase. Everything Bryson says is "me" or "us" instead of "I" and "we." It's driving me insane. I know it won't last forever but I seem to be correcting him 500 times a day. He will repeat the correct way, but I know I get tired of correcting him and he's not really interested in saying it right yet. At least it is kinda cute, and I'm sure he'll figure it out eventually.
Doug: Doug is even busier now that he was two months ago. He's worked his work schedule out so that he is able to take Sariah to school most mornings, but still get home for dinner most nights. Sometimes deadlines do get in the way of that, though. He seems to be enjoying work still, so that's good.
Scouting takes up a new chunk of his time, but I know he loves it. He's really into getting those boys to progress. They had his first campout (and thankfully the last of this year) a couple of weeks ago and I swear scouting took over our whole house and van for a week. They were very prepared (even for the wind and rain that hit them overnight into the next day) and I think it was a success.
Scouting has become a bit of a family affair. Bryson and I went out to purchase Doug's uniform, and I sewed all his patches on (good practice for later when Bryson starts) and Sariah and Doug went on a pre-scout campout campout together weeks before Doug took the boys out.
Doug was able to take the day off on my birthday and we found a sitter for Bryson so we could have a lunch date at our favorite Indian buffet. It was super tasty, and our first date in over 7 months. We really don't get out enough. I'm looking forward to the end of the year when he burns off his remaining vacation days (so he doesn't lose them, he can only roll over 8) so we can spend some more time together.
Marin: Nothing too exciting going on at my end. Still pregnant. We just entered the 3rd trimester last Saturday and I'm feeling pretty good. Exercise is amazing. I'm not as constant as I was about going to the gym, I've cut down from 6 days to 3 or 4 partly because my gym buddy had her baby, partly because of scheduling conflicts with the kids. I am still doing pretty well, I can squat down and still get back up, I'm lifting the same amount of weight, and I can hold plank position for 12 seconds, which I do twice. Pretty good for 28 weeks pregnant. The exercise has really helped, I'm not as sore this go around (somethings are sore, but that's just pregnancy.) I'm sleeping pretty well, too. I can't complain.
Pregnancy and exercise are really my life right now. I'm not singing with the Wisconsin Chamber Choir right now because their first concert is on Sariah's birthday, and I'll have a newborn for the next two. I'm still technically on the board, but I'm not participating as much, in fact I only go when they need a quorum to make decisions. It's been a welcome relief not to have the responsibility on my shoulders right now, as much as I miss singing in the choir.
Other than that, life is normal. I can't keep up the cleaning before the messes happen, but life goes on. I'm looking forward to the fun at the end of the year. After making the Halloween costumes for the kids, my next big project is Sariah's birthday, including a Butterfly Princess Party. I start volunteering once a week at her school next month as well. So I keep busy.
Baby: Our little guy is doing fine. As far as I can tell, he seems to be head down already, but I'm sure my doctor will check next appointment, he's pretty good at telling. He must be bigger because he feels way more active now. I can feel him, not just when I'm lying down, but almost all the time. Plus, for the first time, Doug felt him kick the other day. Its actually the first time Doug has felt any of the babies kick. So that was kind of cool.
We're pretty much ready for him to be here, even though we've got awhile to go. The biggest project to finish is to put the baby clothes in the dresser drawers, but that shouldn't take long. So nothing too exciting on that front. I've kind of resigned myself to the fact that he will probably be a 9 pounder again. I guess if I accept it and expect it, maybe I'll be emotionally more ready this time than last time when I tried to fight it. Babies are going to be as big as they're going to be and come when they're ready.
So, that's what's going on with us. Hope it was exciting... pat yourself on the back if you actually read all that!
Sariah: Sariah loves school. She has already made several new friends and tells me all the time about what they did that day. For awhile the thing to do was start different clubs. During recess they were in a grasshopper club where they tried to catch grasshoppers in the grass near the playground. I hear they caught a couple too, but for awhile they were concerned that "Queen" grasshoppers ate people, so we had to look up what they actually ate (not people.)
Her favorite thing in class is a center called "writer's workshop." There they draw a picture and try to write a story. Sariah loves to write. She can't read yet, but she loves to try. She actually just started sounding things out more for me. I'm sure she does it much more at school because she's much more inclined to try things for other people instead of me. I've noticed that she also tends to write and read things right to left instead of left to right. She spells her name backwards often, and the other day she read "no" instead of "on." I'm hoping it's just a learning thing and not something to worry about. (I'm a mom, I tend to worry.)
Outside of school she is still swimming, and she's doing really well. She's been in level two and becoming a very strong swimmer without aid. I'm thinking they might graduate her to level three for the Spring, but we'll have to see. She's also doing a community class called "Showstoppers" Its a basic broadway class for grade K-2 kids. Her group is doing a medley of Beatles songs, and she's have an official recital on her birthday. She really enjoys it but tells me that the hour long rehearsals make her very tired. They have rehearsals on Monday afternoons since it's an early release day from school.
At home Sariah loves to play with her brother. They often wake each other up in the morning to play before school. She's a good example for him (most of the time.) After the disappointment of not getting a sister, she's gotten over it with the purchase of a low loft bed. Bryson will be sleeping in her room for awhile after the baby comes on a mattress on the floor. They're very excited. She's planning on being Morgana (from King Arthur legend) for Halloween, but she wanted to be a good Morgana because we watch a BBC series called Merlin where Morgana was good for the first 2 seasons, so it's a very pretty Morgana dress.
Sariah also amazes me with her love of the gospel. At times I think she was more excited for General Conference than Christmas! It helped that we had treats for most the speakers and pictures of the First Presidency and the Twelve on the wall. After each talk, she would write the topic of the talk on a paper under each person's picture. I meant to take a picture of the finished project, but never got around to it. She's excited about the Primary program coming up in 3 weeks. She's really learned the music well this year. She's also been working at home at memorizing the Articles of Faith, and she's managed so far to memorize 11 of the 13.
Bryson: Bryson is growing up, which means he gets in trouble more often. There's a whole new world of things to explore! Taking after his sister, he's learned to climb and be his own kind of monkey. He's still a very helpful little boy. He loves to help with the dishes or the laundry and especially the cooking and gets very upset when there's nothing for him to do. It's been really nice to spend some one on one time with just Bryson and learn more about his personality. Bryson loves dogs. He's really into Blue's Clues and books with dogs. Sariah never cared for being read to, but Bryson will sit in my lap and let me read story after story to him. Sometimes I think he's trying to grow up too fast on me, but he is becoming more independent. Today he got dressed all by himself for (what I think is) the first time (that I've seen.) He's picky about his clothes. Bryson is planning on being King Arthur for Halloween, and if you didn't see, there's a preview picture on my facebook page.
I purpose under scheduled our time this semester after a super crazy Summer, and with driving Sariah to school and back every day. We do have a couple of activities that Bryson enjoys during the week. We attend a Sound Beginnings music class every Monday (we call it Bubby/Mommy music class.) Bryson tends to be more musically inclined, so I've been trying to encourage that. I'm also thinking a sound basis in music theory will help him later in math and science. He really does love it, and has been picking up lots of rhythms and sounds. He's very involved during class. I'm very pleased with it considering it costs a bit more money then I like to spend for classes. He's also doing a class on Thursday called Jumping Jellybeans which has helped him be more social. I'm hoping he'll be ready for Itty Bitty Broadway in the Spring which is an individual class and not a parent/child like Jellybeans is since I can't bring the baby in with us.
Bryson is also swimming. This is his last semester in the parent/child class. They use float belts and noodles, but he's confident to go out on his own and not cling to Doug the whole time. He loves to jump off the side of the pool. When he starts Shrimp one in the Spring they play a game called "Chop Chop Timber!" and he's very excited about that.
Bryson is very excited about the baby and loves to kids and hug him already. He can't wait to hold his little brother and talks about it all the time. He was a bit sad when we moved the toys out of his room to make room for the baby bed and dresser but he's excited again to share his room. He's also in love with his whole family. He still gets really upset when Sariah and Doug leave in the morning, and I usually hear about 10 minutes of "Me miss sister and daddy" once they leave.
Speaking of speaking... we're firmly stuck in what I call the cookie monster phase. Everything Bryson says is "me" or "us" instead of "I" and "we." It's driving me insane. I know it won't last forever but I seem to be correcting him 500 times a day. He will repeat the correct way, but I know I get tired of correcting him and he's not really interested in saying it right yet. At least it is kinda cute, and I'm sure he'll figure it out eventually.
Doug: Doug is even busier now that he was two months ago. He's worked his work schedule out so that he is able to take Sariah to school most mornings, but still get home for dinner most nights. Sometimes deadlines do get in the way of that, though. He seems to be enjoying work still, so that's good.
Scouting takes up a new chunk of his time, but I know he loves it. He's really into getting those boys to progress. They had his first campout (and thankfully the last of this year) a couple of weeks ago and I swear scouting took over our whole house and van for a week. They were very prepared (even for the wind and rain that hit them overnight into the next day) and I think it was a success.
Scouting has become a bit of a family affair. Bryson and I went out to purchase Doug's uniform, and I sewed all his patches on (good practice for later when Bryson starts) and Sariah and Doug went on a pre-scout campout campout together weeks before Doug took the boys out.
Doug was able to take the day off on my birthday and we found a sitter for Bryson so we could have a lunch date at our favorite Indian buffet. It was super tasty, and our first date in over 7 months. We really don't get out enough. I'm looking forward to the end of the year when he burns off his remaining vacation days (so he doesn't lose them, he can only roll over 8) so we can spend some more time together.
Marin: Nothing too exciting going on at my end. Still pregnant. We just entered the 3rd trimester last Saturday and I'm feeling pretty good. Exercise is amazing. I'm not as constant as I was about going to the gym, I've cut down from 6 days to 3 or 4 partly because my gym buddy had her baby, partly because of scheduling conflicts with the kids. I am still doing pretty well, I can squat down and still get back up, I'm lifting the same amount of weight, and I can hold plank position for 12 seconds, which I do twice. Pretty good for 28 weeks pregnant. The exercise has really helped, I'm not as sore this go around (somethings are sore, but that's just pregnancy.) I'm sleeping pretty well, too. I can't complain.
Pregnancy and exercise are really my life right now. I'm not singing with the Wisconsin Chamber Choir right now because their first concert is on Sariah's birthday, and I'll have a newborn for the next two. I'm still technically on the board, but I'm not participating as much, in fact I only go when they need a quorum to make decisions. It's been a welcome relief not to have the responsibility on my shoulders right now, as much as I miss singing in the choir.
Other than that, life is normal. I can't keep up the cleaning before the messes happen, but life goes on. I'm looking forward to the fun at the end of the year. After making the Halloween costumes for the kids, my next big project is Sariah's birthday, including a Butterfly Princess Party. I start volunteering once a week at her school next month as well. So I keep busy.
Baby: Our little guy is doing fine. As far as I can tell, he seems to be head down already, but I'm sure my doctor will check next appointment, he's pretty good at telling. He must be bigger because he feels way more active now. I can feel him, not just when I'm lying down, but almost all the time. Plus, for the first time, Doug felt him kick the other day. Its actually the first time Doug has felt any of the babies kick. So that was kind of cool.
We're pretty much ready for him to be here, even though we've got awhile to go. The biggest project to finish is to put the baby clothes in the dresser drawers, but that shouldn't take long. So nothing too exciting on that front. I've kind of resigned myself to the fact that he will probably be a 9 pounder again. I guess if I accept it and expect it, maybe I'll be emotionally more ready this time than last time when I tried to fight it. Babies are going to be as big as they're going to be and come when they're ready.
So, that's what's going on with us. Hope it was exciting... pat yourself on the back if you actually read all that!
10 September 2012
Ultrasound, take 2!
So we headed to the hospital earlier today to get another look at our little guy, and yes, we're very sure he's a little guy, Doug saw all his little boy parts, although I still totally missed them. I'm also very happy to report that while the cysts are still present, there are no other markers that might be present with him having Tri 18. If you want to know the odds that he still might have it, they're 1/320. (With no markers present, odds are 1/2000). After talking with the doctor and the genetic councilor, I'm satisfied in saying no other testing is necessary and we should have a healthy, happy boy in January.
On a side note, because I'm obsessed with it, he's currently weighing in at 1 lb, 7 oz, about 78% for 22 weeks. Its going to be another big baby for us. Yes, I'm freaking out.
So do you want to see some more pictures? Of course you do! These all ended up sideways, which I guess is what happens when I use my ipod to take pictures of pictures.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)