35 Weeks Pregnant, 2 weeks to Kindergarten

Wishin’ and Hopin’

One month to go! Wesley’s due date is exactly one month from today. I hope we make it all the way. So far, everything has been good. We have an ultrasound scheduled with our 36-week appointment on Tuesday to see the position of the baby. Keep your fingers crossed that he’s head-down! I would really, REALLY love to avoid having a c-section. I had a c-section with Mason, and while I was awake for the delivery, they gave me so much morphine that I was completely out for about 5 hours after I delivered him, so I didn’t even nurse him or hold him until then!

The big K

Two weeks from Tuesday, my oldest will start Kindergarten. I’m excited and also nervous for him, but I don’t know why! He’s been in day-care and then pre-school since he was 3 months old, so it’s not like he’ll have a big adjustment to go through. The only real difference will be that he will take a bus to school and get to eat his own packed lunch. My SIL will be watching him after school, so he’ll actually have to take a different bus in the afternoon to go to her house. Maybe I’m afraid he’ll get on the wrong bus? Whatever the reason, I just can’t believe he only has 2 weeks of pre-school left. My little guy isn’t so little anymore. We have a sort of Kindergarten Orientation to attend with him on Tuesday, as well. (I also had a dentist appointment for Tuesday…what the heck is up with that? What’s so great about Tuesday, August 23 that 3 completely unrelated events were all scheduled for that day? Weird.)

Exciting and New

About a month and a half ago, I convinced Mike to let us join a local produce delivery group. We pay a monthly fee and receive a box of fresh, local produce every Thursday. There are some great staples in the box, but it has also given me a reason to make foods with all sorts of different ingredients that I never would have tried before. So far, I’ve made a cabbage stew (really, you couldn’t even tell there was cabbage in it), peach and blueberry crisp (twice), Eggplant Parmesan, Pasta with Eggplant (using a delicious recipe from Ree Drummond), peach dump cake, fresh salsa, Tomorrow, I plan to make some old-fashioned grits for breakfast, then acorn and butternut squash soup for dinner. Hopefully, I’ll be able to blog a little more about the new foods I’m making while I’m home with Wesley.


Maternity Photos – 35 Weeks

We had Amanda Anderson (a fellow Richmond Mommy) with Amanda Anderson Photography come to our house this past Saturday morning to take some family and maternity photos. She was great and funny, and made our house look much nicer/cuter than it really is! We did clean up a bit before she arrived, but she didn’t have a huge space to work with, yet she produced some really beautiful pictures. I showed her some ideas with the style of photographs I was looking for, and she was able to re-create some shots, and also came up with even better ones! Here are some of my favorites:

32 Weeks

Okay, 32 weeks and counting! My doctor's appointment went well on Friday, but I have to see my cardiologist to have a look at my heart because of what happened at the end of my pregnancy with Mason. I was starting to feel my heart race for several seconds at random times. For a little while, it happened once about every other day, for no apparent reason (I wasn't in the middle of a strenuous activity, usually I was either sitting or lying down when it happened). But for the past week or so, I don't think I've felt my heart race at all. I don't know what the cardiologist will find.

I'm still playing volleyball once a week. I'm definitely slower, and I can't believe my team still wants me to play. I'm probably more of a hindrance than a help on the court! I think that next week will probably be my last week of playing.

This baby is SO active. He is moving all the time. I don't know if he ever sleeps! He moves while I'm walking, and on Sunday, I even felt him while I was running on the volleyball court! I have a feeling he's going to be a handful.

Wesley is still our top name pick, I'm starting to get more attached to it.

2 months

Dear Dad,

Today marks 2 months since you died. I'm sad to know that I'll never hear your voice again, or see you being silly with your grandchildren, or watch you hug Mom, or listen to you coax me to use less plastic/eat more coconut oil/throw away my microwave... I miss you. I wish that you didn't have to die in the hospital, that you could have come home one last time. Instead, you were whisked away from the nursing home to the hospital. I hated that place for you. I hated that you were there, and I'm so sorry I didn't push harder to have you transferred to a nicer place. I'm sorry if being in that place made you not want to live that way any more. I love you so much, and I hope you know that we would have helped Mom take care of you...but I know that you were too proud and that you didn't like relying on others (even if it was just your daughters and your wife) to help you.

I know you are with our Lord and Jesus Christ right now, happy and pain-free. I believe you are watching over me, Mom, Chark, and all your grandchildren every day. I believe you probably know more about your newest grandson than I do. You are probably rejoicing over being reunited with your parents, and your sisters. I know that my sadness and grief will fade, and the memories I have of your last weeks and days will be washed out by all of my other fonder memories of you. I know that even though you aren't physically here with us, you will still share our experiences...maybe even more so.

For now, though, I just wish you were still here.

Love always,

Kath

Tyler's Kindergarten Registration, Mason & the Potty, 30 Weeks

Wow…so, I’ve been completely slacking on the blog posts recently. I don’t think it will get any better for a while, but I am still going to try to update as much as I can.

We spent quite a bit of time and effort talking with Tyler about his feelings and controlling his emotions (both positive and negative), and discussing with his preschool teacher how to handle his outbursts at school. One major contributor to his mood was his hunger! Imagine that, just like Mommy and Daddy! J So, along with discussing Tyler’s feelings at appropriate times, his teacher allowed me to bring in an additional snack for him to eat during the day, when he felt his energy was low. All of that together seemed to work very well, because he has had great weekly behavioral reports for the past few months!

In April, we registered Tyler for Kindergarten!! We took a tour of his school, and he was also given a quick assessment of some basic knowledge. He is so excited about going to school! In May, his preschool held a graduation ceremony for his class. They were completely adorable in their graduation caps, singing all sorts of songs, like:

Zippity doo da

Zippity ay

My oh my, summer’s coming our way!

Plenty of sunshine heading our way

Zippity doo da

Zippity ay

There’s aNo sadness in the air

It’s over, it’s done, but wasn’t preschool fun?!

Zippity doo da

Zippity ay

Summer’s coming, coming our way!

Tyler has grown so much just in the past 4 months. It really is amazing how fast kids learn and grow. When Mike’s awesome sister & her kids moved down (to within 5 miles of our house!), his brother’s family, her family, and our family all joined the local pool. It’s been a lifesaver on hot summer days for this preggo momma, let me tell you! It has also helped Tyler and Mason build their swimming skills. Tyler is a much better swimmer (still not swim-team material, but definitely next summer) than he was while just taking once-a-week lessons at VCU. Tyler can now jump off a diving board and swim to the side of the pool. He did that over and over just a few days ago!

The latest development just happened on Sunday. Tyler announced his first loose tooth! Maybe it’s the pregnancy hormones, but when he told us, I just gushed over him and gave him a big hug, calling him a big boy and trying to wiggle the tooth J He was so darn cute! And not at all worried, either.

Now, Mason’s big event happened just recently, too. He is consistently peeing in the potty!! It’s only been two weeks since he started wearing regular “big boy” underwear to school and during the day. He had a LOT of accidents the first day, and then 1 the second, and no accidents at school since then! We still wear pull-ups to bed, and some mornings he wakes up dry, but others he’s wet. He loves using the potty, but has yet to poop in the potty. So far, we’ve thrown out 2 or 3 pairs of underwear that were just too soiled for me to save & clean up (we weren’t at home when Mason decided he didn’t care he was wearing underwear, he would poop in them anyway!). I’m excited that Mason may be fully and completely potty-trained by the time the baby is born!

Mason is also very adventurous in the water. Something that has developed, I’m sure, because of the amount of time we’re able to spend at the pool, now that we’re members. He learned first to put his whole face in the water, and once we introduced him to using goggles, he wanted to put his face in the water all the time! When we were at the pool last week, Mason wanted to touch the bottom of the pool with his feet. He did that several times, completely immersing himself underwater! The last time, he got too excited and ended up taking a breath while he was still underwater, which resulted in him coughing up his dinner. Afterwards, he was done for the day.

As for the baby, we found out at the end of April that we’re having…drum-roll please…another boy! Yes, we’re just destined to be an all-boy family, because we are DONE! Three kids is a perfect amount for us. I’m 30 weeks along, and getting more uncomfortable every day, but only because of the recent stifling heat! I don’t have anything to really complain about, I’m probably rather lucky in that I just have some minor aches and pains, but nothing to keep me away from volleyball! I played on Sunday night, and did much better than I thought I would. I’m not sure that I’ll play any longer than July, but I’ll see how I feel each week.

Mike and I are considering naming the baby Wesley, but only because neither of us like the other’s name picks!

20 weeks!

It's been a while since my last post. I haven't even taken any belly pictures (I took one at 9 weeks, and that was it). I'll try to take one this week, since I've hit the halfway point.

A lot has happened since my last post. Last Friday, we found out that everyone was wrong about the sex of the baby. All signs seemed to be pointing to a girl, since everything was so different for me this time around. But, like I said, everyone was wrong...we're having another boy! I guess God figured we're good at raising them (or that we'd be terrible at raising a girl!).

11 Weeks & Tyler's Emotions

11 weeks and 3 days along today.  My goal is to take my first pregnancy photo this weekend.  I’m definitely feeling much better.  I hardly experience any nausea and I am generally feeling more energetic.  I still seem to hit a wave of tiredness every afternoon around 2 or 3 pm, though.
 
On Monday, I had my “12-week” check-up a week early.  Mike came with me and we heard the baby’s heartbeat (166 bpm!) and talked with my doctor about having a VBAC, and the possible risks.  She thinks I’m a good candidate for a VBAC, unless the baby is in a breech position (or some other complication that would prevent a smooth labor and delivery).  I was very happy to hear that, and am hoping and praying that this pregnancy goes to full term, that nothing weird or strange happens at the end, and I am finally able to experience natural labor and delivery, even though it will be fully monitored in a hospital.

Emotional?
We receive weekly written reports about Tyler and Mason from each of their main teachers at daycare.  For the past few months, Tyler’s report usually says that he’s emotional and will have a crying/screaming tantrum about once a day.  The tantrums are worse when he’s tired or hungry (I could have told them that), and he’s usually fine the rest of the day after throws his fit.  They tell me that he’s very emotional, and I guess that’s related to the tantrums.  He does this at home with us at least once a day, as well, and we usually tell him that we don’t like seeing him throw an immature fit (for his age), and to go in his room if he wants to act like that.  Yesterday, when I picked him up from daycare, Tyler had gotten in trouble for throwing a toy at another child.  According to him, he was just trying to throw it to her to give it to her, but I think that he threw it hard and hurt her, unintentionally.  He was put in “red” for that and I had to sign an incident report.  He hasn’t been in “red” for months, it seems, so I don’t think that this was a malicious act, but we still had to punish him by not allowing him to watch TV.  I talked with Tyler that evening about how to act when he feels mad, and that kicking his legs and flailing his arms won’t necessarily make him feel better.  I told him that he could try to talk about what is making him so mad, and we would work on a solution to find what would make him feel better.  So, I am going to try to work on being calmer at home, not yelling so much (which ends up actually KEEPING me calm, too).

9 Weeks and 4 Days

Today I’m 9 weeks and 4 days along, and I finally was able to wake up early and do 30 minutes of yoga this morning.  I love how relaxing and meditative yoga is, but I haven’t done any since I’ve been pregnant.  This morning’s session energized me and has kept me feeling good all day!
 
This pregnancy is really kicking my butt this time around.  I’m sure it’s because all pregnancies are different, yadda, yadda, yadda, but this one has hit me hard on the morning sickness end and has constantly left me feeling exhausted.  For the past 2 or 3 weeks, I’ve been hit with random waves of nausea, luckily not to the point of actually vomiting, but there were many days when I would take a few minutes during the morning to plan out what to make for dinner only for dinner time to come and find that I felt sick at the thought of that carefully planned meal.  Often, the only thing I’d be able to stomach was fresh fruit or something “bad” for you (like canned chicken soup or Ramen noodles).  I’ve also felt so fatigued and exhausted every day, especially by the afternoon/early evening.  Some days, I would come home from work and have to take a nap just to get through the evening.  Luckily, Mike has been very understanding and accommodating J
 
Hopefully, as I near the end of my first trimester, things will get better!  I think the nausea is subsiding (somewhat), or at least has become less frequent.  And I think the yoga this morning really helped with my fatigue today (maybe the frozen yogurt this afternoon helped a little, too).  But now, 30 minutes later, I’m about to fall asleep at my desk.  Go figure.
 
I broke down and told my co-workers last week, and found out that many of them had already suspected I was preggers!  One of them noticed I was showing (which I knew, since my pants didn’t fit me anymore, but I tried to hold it in most of the day), and a few others noticed I wasn’t drinking as much coffee.  My boss has 4 kids, and he has some sort of baby radar or something.  He wasn’t surprised when I told him.

First Check-Up

We just had our first OB check-up yesterday morning, and they said everything looked great!  We saw the baby for the first time with the ultrasound, the little arm and leg nubs, the head and torso (although Mike thinks you can’t see much of anything in the printouts they gave us).  
 
Based on the baby’s size, yesterday they put me at 8 weeks exactly.  We told the boys together that night, and they seemed briefly excited.  They seemed more concerned about not being able to jump on Mommy’s belly for a while, though.  Both are hoping for a little sister.

Worries

I’m excited about a third child, but I feel a little nervous about this pregnancy.  We actively tried to get pregnant with our other two boys, so I was very much aware of my cycle and my nutrition.  I made sure to take my prenatal vitamins and I cut back on caffeine way before I even got pregnant.  This time, I had no idea, and I don’t think I ate so well, and I KNOW I had a few drinks on New Year’s Eve.  I just hope everything is okay, but I feel like I need to prepare myself for disappointment, just in case.  I don’t know why I think something might go wrong.  Maybe it’s because I just don’t feel that I was as careful in getting pregnant this time as I have been in the past?  
 
We haven’t told anyone on either side of our family yet (not even our boys…Tyler can be a blabbermouth at school!), although I think that there may be some suspicion, at least on Mike’s side.  Our first appointment with my OB for a check-up and our first ultrasound is on Monday morning.  If all is well, then we’ll tell the boys and have them tell our families via a picture or video.  
 
So, based on when I think my last period was, I’m 7 weeks and 5 days along.  The baby is about the size of a blueberry, and has doubled in size since last week!

5 years of being a Mommy

Dear Tyler,
 
Today you are 5 years old!  Happy birthday, my sweet boy!  We are so proud of the boy you are growing up to be.  You are energetic, sweet, caring, thoughtful, brilliant, athletic, creative, and so much more.  
 
We already had a big birthday party for you with some of your friends from school earlier this month.  You all had such a good time at the Little Gym, jumping, crawling, climbing, and playing with tons of squishy balls.  
 
This year you are taking more of an interest in what words say and in math and numbers.  You can recognize short words, but you often don’t have the patience to try and sound out a word that you see.  You can count to 100 (and higher) by 1s and 10s.  You can count to ten by 2s.  
 
You are wonderful with LEGOs and love to make different Minifigures with all the parts we have.  You can follow directions to build small things (vehicles, small objects) without any help.  
 
You almost always remind us to say the blessing before dinner and to say our prayers at night before bed.  You like to ask questions about God, our family, and have coped with your Grandpa Clark’s death very well.  
 
You are open to trying new things, with a gentle nudge from Mommy or Daddy.  In the summer and fall, you took 2 sessions of swimming lessons and did REALLY well!  You gained so much confidence and were one of the only kids in your class to ask to go underwater.  You love using goggles underwater so you can look around.  Over the summer, we had a small 2’ deep pool in the yard, and you loved playing with dive toys and shooting back and forth across the pool underwater.  
 
You have a great memory, and recently recalled to us something that happened when you were 3!  It was amazing, because it was a specific event that hasn’t happened since!
 
This year has been full of fun experiences with you.  We saw monster trucks on the beach in May, you moved into a bunk bed later that month, we attended a couple of Squirrels baseball games, you attended your first vacation bible school for a week in the summer, we went to Virginia Beach and Yorktown Beach, we took you to DC, you played a season of Dynamo soccer, we went apple-picking with your cousins, and we went trick-or-treating for Halloween with your cousins, too.  
 
You are very interested in super heroes, knights, castles, dragons, and playing dress-up.  We got you and Mason a dress-up box of clothes for Christmas, and you are both constantly pretending to be one super hero or another.  
 
While you can get frustrated and upset with Mason, you are generally a very good and caring big brother.  We are so excited that you will have another little sibling soon, and can’t wait to see how you are with a little baby brother or sister.  You are very helpful with Mason.  Some mornings, you help him put his coat or shoes on, or you get his blanket for him at night, or you even help him get undressed and ready for a bath in the evening!
 
Lately, we have been getting reports from your pre-school that you are rather emotional, but we haven’t been able to get to the bottom of this yet.  It seems that if you get in “trouble” at school, you immediately break down and start crying.  This usually only happens one time, and then you’re fine for the rest of the day.  One of your teachers thinks that you are disappointed in yourself when you get in trouble, which is what upsets you.  While we love that you have such high standards for yourself, we also don’t want you to be too hard on yourself if you slip up and do something wrong at school.  It’s hard for us to communicate this to you in a way you’ll understand, though.
 
It’s hard to believe that you’ll be starting kindergarten this year, getting on a bus and going to school like a big boy.  You have really grown up a lot over the past year.  I can tell in the way you talk, how you play, and how you are with other children.  
 
I don’t know how many times I’ve said this, or how many more times I will say it, but I’m so proud of you and how wonderful of a boy you are!  
 
Love, with all my heart,
Mommy

Interesting...

Well, here we are 12 days into the new year, and we just found out we’re expecting! This is so unlike us (me), since we’ve tried hard to plan everything so precisely in the past. I went off of my birth control back in August, just to allow my body to get on it’s own cycle before we actively started trying for #3. My plan was to start really trying in January or February, but we must have had a romantic evening around Christmas sometime, because here we are, baking #3 in the oven J It didn’t even cross my mind that I was pregnant, it was Mike who asked me if I had gotten my period yet. He asked me last week, on the 8th or 9th of January. I said that I hadn’t, but I could get it any day. Every day after, Mike asked me if I got my period. Each day I said no, and Mike would say, “Interesting…” Then he suggested that I take a pregnancy test. I waited a couple of days, still no period. So I went out and bought a test. I took it yesterday and here we are!