Ultrasound Info!

The baby is doing awesome! S/he is now measuring 11 weeks (which is 3 days ahead instead of 3 days behind!) My mom was so excited because s/he was flailing around in there a little bit of the time! It was pretty cool, if I do say so myself! It's really neat to have multiple ultrasounds and see the changes in the baby. Just a week and a half ago it really just looked like a little blob or a gummi bear or something! Now it looks like a whole baby!



Not the best picture b/c it's a picture of the picture but you can see both feet in this one! One (in person) you can see like the footprint of it!!! Soooo cute! I think I'm in love-again! ;)

I've also decided to skip the Nuchal Test Ultrasound (as well as the "quad" blood test) that tests for certain "defects". I talked to my dr and she said with my views on having the baby no matter what (because that's what I believe-even if it would be the hardest thing I'd ever make it through) that there's no point. Because if any of those tests come back with possible problems the next step is the amniocentesis. Since there is a risk of potentially causing a miscarriage (with the amnio) of a perfectly healthy/"normal" fetus...I wouldn't really want to do that. So, she said there's really no reason to do the screenings (the NT U/s and the blood test)!!!! I'm happy with my decision and feel like it's the right one for me. We'll continue to have regular ultrasounds as long as the dr sees it as a good thing...other than that? We're good to go!!!! :D

facebook quizzes

So, I thought I was doing pretty good on my IQ test on facebook. Until...I agreed to enter my cell phone number and carrier. Yeah. That dropped my score dramatically. All the way down to STUPID and a half. Now, I'm wondering exactly what all these texts I'm getting mean (did I purchase something? or is it just "spam" trying to get me to purchase something?). I'm trying to make them stop...and they just won't.
Really hoping that my stupid level doesn't get higher when I get the bill next month **eyes roll**. And the kicker??? I never even got my IQ score on that dumb thing!
Ok, I'm done.

This afternoon I have an ultrasound. On the last two the baby has been 2 and 3 days (respectively) behind. That has me a little anxious. I don't really want him/her dropping off anymore. The heartrate has been increasing (which is a good thing at this stage--although it should level off soon I think). The dr is fine with everything that has been found/seen. I'm just not sure I am. And since I got my medical degree--yeah, from a Cracker Jacks box--I think my opinion is more qualified than hers, right? My mom is going with me today (while dad watches the kids!) so that I don't have to go to the ultrasound alone. I'm very glad she's able to do that. When Harold can't go...I get way more anxious! (Oh, note: she can't go to my actual dr appointment after the u/s because of swine flu only the patient can be in the waiting room!?)

Various Ramblings

So, last night, the school room took a dramatic turn...for the better! Ok, so we still have a long way to go, but remember the blue wall with the big shelf and all the...junk...on it?? Here is what it now looks like (yep, the same wall!)




Isn't that better?? (Do you like my first Science thing that I can "display" and not have in my kitchen?? That little dead guy model thing provided my two older kids with something to do for quite a while last night. At bedtime.)

This morning hasn't started off quite as wonderful as it could've. My wonderful hubby (I really do mean that, but this wasn't a good example of it! LOL) He comes into our room (where Haley is sleeping soundly-yes, that's another post entirely because I have no desire for my 2 year old to be sleeping in my bed, especially when a newborn is coming in about 6 mos-but as I said, another post entirely) so, he comes into our room to inform me loudly that he "has a problem". Yep, buddy, you're gonna have a problem if you wake this two year old. But he keeps talking...all the while I'm trying to get up so we can leave the room and I can found out the "problem" (I also now know where Jared gets his talking loudly without having any realization of said loudness...and not stopping no matter what you say. I thought he got it from me, NOPE!)
He has locked his keys in his car. Ok, not good, but not tragic. Get the spare keys right? Nope! Know why? His have been lost before...so he now has MY KEYS to his car!!) And the only key to the camper. Yay. But still not tragic. We have another car (that he can use to get to work for today) and my dad can get into his car where we can (hopefully) find the keys and then I'll have something to drive in the event of an emergency (because trust me, you would only want to drive this car in the event of an emergency-unless you have on coveralls to cover your clothing). So, he left in my van (I waved bye bye to it-I just cleaned it out yesterday) and sure enough. My dad got the keys out. All is well again (and yes, I'll be making copies of said keys later today---when my van gets back home and I can drive it!!!!)

Then, just when you thought it would be all good from there...Good Morning America-the only news I have time to watch-has on their headline segment a story of a "baby faced killer". Ok, no surprise. But then...there are suspicions of sexual abuse by the father-the victim of the murder. So, this 14 year old killed his father and maybe it was because the father was a scoundrel of the worst kind. I can explain all of this easily to my 9 year old daughter. Then, they say (loud and clear), that something of, ummm, how shall I say, suspicious nature was found in his room--only they said it in very obvious terms. OH MY GOSH. Really? So, what does Lindsay ask me? She asked what that was! I almost puked. And it had nothing to do with morning sickness. I did the best I could ("it's a very grown up thing" oh, I also threw in "it's bad" because I didn't want her telling her friends!?). But that is in her mind now. See why I don't watch the news???? OY. Has anyone had an experience like this? With their child learning something you weren't quite ready for them to learn from the news??

First Things First!

You know what I realized? I never posted after pics of our bathroom. I don't know if you remember or not (it's been a LONNNNNG time) but this is what it looked like before!
Now, not all things that need to be done have been done. But I must say that it's a sure sight better than it was before! I love having my own bathroom that is not blue and has a shower!!! I don't know if the pictures reflect it or not, but it used to be only a half-bath with a large closet. Now, it's a full bath with linen shelves. :)





(one light bulb is left unscrewed on purpose...don't want to see myself in too much light! ;) )
(still have some organizing and prettifying to do in the shelves)
(the main thing that still needs to be done is a shower door. did you know those are very expensive? And the curtain is working quite well and makes cleaning much easier...we may just stick with the curtain after all!)

Now, we did the bedroom about the same time, I tried to make it coordinate as best as I could. I think I did a pretty good job if I do say so myself. :)





I tried to go for a minimalist look because the rest of the house is so cluttered that I figured we needed one space that was as un-cluttered as possible, right? I have a frame with 3 spaces in it...I had planned to put my mama/baby pictures from each child in those spaces. Now what to do? any ideas? I think you can see said frame in one of the pictures (I think the picture with the-necessary-box fan it).

So, if we have first things first, then you know there has to be something "second", right? Well, it is my school room! I'm finally (now that Lindsay will be in 5th grade and we've been homeschooling since pre-kindergarten) going to have a specified school room! And I could not be more excited!
I'll bet you wanna see it, right??? Ok, here it is! Ta da!!!!!



What's a matter? You can't see the pupils learning diligently in that room? Oh, that's because right now, it's half of our garage! We have a vision though. My dad and I do. We're going to use that half of the garage for our school room! (The kids wanted to know if it was going to have air conditioning--lol, yep!) I'm so excited to post pictures as changes are made! (My laundry room will be separated from the school room by a half-wall, giving it some delineation but also making it a temperature controlled room and giving us a space (above the washer/dryer) for a nice window. For some reason I just think of that creepy book/movie "Flowers in the Attic" when I think of kids trying to live and learn in a windowless dreary room! Stay tuned dear readers! (My dad has already-yesterday-built a HUGE whole wall unit of bookshelves. It has shelves big enough for my biggest reference books and Haley's picture books...hopefully all of our books in the whole house will be housed on that one wall of our school room!!!)

Ramblings

So, I love my baby (well, all 4 of them) but I'm so ready to feel like myself again. My get up and go...got up and went. I feel puny all the time now (I used to think it was funny that my morning sickness was at night but now it's all the time)--although my doctor did warn me that this week would prob'ly see the worst of the pukey/tired feeling. She said it usually peaks in the 10th week (I'm 9 weeks and 4 days today) and then starts to subside. I hope!!!! **fingers crossed**

My dear husband is on his way home right about now with a strawberry milkshake for me. It's the only thing that sounds good.

Now, when you're feeling like I am lately, it's not the best to go (by yourself, unattended) to the grocery store. I wanted to get baked beans (hey, we have hamburgers, what else are you gonna put with burgers and corn on the cob?) but when I was looking at them it just confounded and overwhelmed me) and when I finally settled on a "flavor" I didn't have the energy to pick up the can and put it in the basket!

Another thing. I'm thinking of using cloth diapers this time around. I don't know if it's so much about the cost of diapers or feeling extremely guilty about having had 3 kids already go through thousands upon thousands of disposables (sposies) and that we've surely already used up our fair share of the landfills, right? So, that has me feeling bad. Then, they are pretty cute. Oh, and there is a cost savings. I don't know what the exact savings is when you figure extra detergent and water and electricity...but it must still be some, right? For one year's worth of Huggies (going conservatively on how many I would use) it's like $540. So multiply that by 2 and you have $1080!). The diapers I'm looking at (and they're the fancies of the cloth diapering world I think) are going to cost around $500 for everything. Hmmmm....Not sure we'll go through with it but it's something to think about--when I'm bored. Ha ha.

Brain Zapped...Camera Challenged

I think that this little bean (barely the size of a bean) has zapped every ounce of creativity, strength and fortitude out of my mind and body. Seriously. I am uninspired, unmotivated, unenergetic...and the list of "uns" could go on and on. So, I'm sparing you by not posting lately. See how that works? I'm a kind soul even if I'm a dead-head.

Also, my rechargeable batteries for my camera are telling me that they have been overused, underappreciated and are done. So, I haven't even been taking pictures.

On the upside, we are almost done with school for the year! We're just kind of finishing up one thing a day-no pressures, no worries at this point. This means that I have started lesson plans for next year! I'm always excited about that--it means leafing through brand new school books! Never used, marked in or dog-eared books! The best! And I have a plan for next year...this year we tried the (very popular) homeschooling method of no lesson plans. Doesn't work for me. I NEEEEEED the lesson plans and to color each lesson in as it's completed. Otherwise I'm totally unorganized just don't get what needs to be done done. (ie-Science and History took a real hit this year--which isn't that horrible b/c 1) the kids already know more history than I learned in public school and 2)this past year's curriculum was not that awesome anyway). So, this coming year we're going back to LESSON PLANS! We'll need to start a month early so that we can take off all of December and possibly January for the baby! That ought to motivate the kids, huh? I've also combined their lessons in Bible, History and Science! Yeah! That means those 3 subjects I only have to teach once a day and we can use those subjects to do a lot of reading aloud (I think that is SOOOOO important). I'm so excited about that!!!!!

Ok, so maybe I did have something to write about. Not sure that it's interesting to anyone besides a fellow-homeschooler but hey, it's my life! :p

Our Little Bean!

Ok, so one day, some day I'll write about something besides our newest little addition again. It just seems to take up so much of my mental energy at this point. We had a doctor visit today and an ultrasound. The little heart was fluttering away at 160 bpm (beats per minute). Awesome sight. **heart melts** I can't wait til it's a little less, ahem, delicate of a procedure and the kids can go and see it. The older ones are gonna be excited! Haley? Nah. She'll just wonder why that tv doesn't have cartoons on it. :)

Oh, and the nausea and food aversions and "cravings" have set in (by cravings I mean more along the lines of foods that sound like I can choke them down--but later don't seem like such a great idea as they're rebelling in my stomach.) The thing that amazes me so much is that something so tiny can wreak such utter havoc on your ENTIRE system! How does that work? I'll take it all though for the prize at the end.

Eventful Uneventful Weekend

Saturday morning found us in a place we VOWED we'd never voluntarily walk into again. The ER. I went with Haley and we spent the ENTIRE NIGHT (seriously, from 9pm until 6am) there and they did so little-we were prob'ly with medical professionals (and I use the term lightly) for about 45 mins of that time. When we left there we said we'd never go back unless we had a limb missing or were taken there unconscious.

Ok, so I lied.

2 full days plus a wake up is way too long to go when you're bleeding (in any amount) and pregnant. So, off we went. Dh didn't put up a fight either...he's a good man that dh. (Dear husband). Long story short (I know, totally unlike me) everything is fine so far. No explanation for the problems. Keep your feet up (LOL) and oh yeah, the baby's heart rate is 131! Yup, we saw the heartbeat-well, I did. Apparently for top secret reasons the spouse is not allowed to go to the sonogram room!? Really! Oh well, he took my word that there is a baby with a heartbeat in there. :D

Now, funny thing is, with Harold's back being out...you would've thought (if you saw us entering or leaving the hospital) that we were there for him! ha ha ha!

I will be continuing to take it easy (as much as possible) and will call my dr on Monday.

**Thanks Mom and Dad for not only watching the kiddos but for cleaning my kitchen and doing all of my laundry!!!!! Loads of pressure off of me!!!!