27 Week update on my pregnancy

I can't believe I'm already 27 weeks! This pregnancy is flying by unlike anything I've ever seen! Each Saturday when I hit my next week of pregnancy I'm amazed that yet another week has come and gone and I'm that much closer to meeting this little soccer-playing princess in my belly!

I'm happy to report that this time around, I'm not experiencing a lot of the negative symptoms I was experiencing by or before this time of my first pregnancy. For one, I have yet to get the tingling hands/fingers and wrist problems. My hands are starting to swell but it's barely noticeable and I'm still able to wear my wedding ring. I haven't noticed any considerable swelling in my ankles or feet but they are starting to take on a puffier look. 

The things I AM experiencing are trouble talking for long periods of time (which makes for a really hard time as a teacher!), sciatic nerve pain, discomfort sleeping, increasingly frequent need to pee, occasional heartburn and itchy skin. I also have noticed an increase in my headaches but I don't know if that's just the stress from my job lately or the pregnancy. Either way, Tylenol has actually been working for me lately. Miracle of miracles!

This coming Tesday, February 1st, I have my 1 hour glucose test and monthly check-up. I'm not nervous because I highly doubt I will fail the test. I passed it with flying colors the last time and I don't see it being any different this time around. Of course, I'm also preparing myself for if I do have to go back for the 3 hour test, just in case. My sister was recently diagnosed with GD and is having to test her blood 4 times a day and is on a new diet. It seems to be working very well for her and hasn't been a huge inconvenience for her at all so I'm not going to freak out if I end up with it as well. I just don't think I will. I definitely think that if I wasn't working through this pregnancy, I probably would have a higher chance at getting it simply because I would be at home and probably eat a lot more throughout the day and it wouldn't be healthy food! Right now, I can only eat what I take with me to work and I try to choose healthy snacks that keep me full. One of my favorites right now is low fat mozzarella string cheese sticks. Keeping my fingers crossed and praying everything goes well!

As of right now, I have 12 weeks till I have Layla. I'm scheduled for a c-section on either April 20th or 21st (depending on their schedule). That's 10 days before my due date which seems early considering I was only 1 day early with Brooklyn. I'm not complaining though! As long as Layla is healthy and the doctor says everything looks good, I'm comfortable with this decision. I wouldn't want to schedule anything earlier then that unless there were some sort of complications, which I'm praying there won't be.

I've been approved for my maternity leave to start April 4th and will "officially" return June 3rd, just in time to check my room out and get signed off for the end of the school year. I'm very excited about this. :) I could possibly be taking off two weeks before April 4th too, depending on some things. I will be speaking with my OB about this on Tuesday. I can't say that I would be disappointed AT ALL if this happened. This means that my last week of work would be the second week of March! The 3rd week is spring break so that wouldn't count against me either, so I would be getting a bonus week in there. If this were the case, I will only have 6 weeks of work left until I'm on leave. If it doesn't work out that way, I'll have 9 full weeks of work (not counting that week of spring break). Either way, that doesn't leave me much time to prepare for the sub and get everything ready for the rest of the school year! Yikes!

Here's a picture of me that I just took from our iMac webcam (my hair looks horrible today so I cut my head out of the picture!)

Please ignore the slight messiness of our office. It's actually considerably better than it used to be when Waylon worked out of it! This is one of my new maternity tops I bought from Old Navy. It's very comfy. As you can see, I'm filling out quite nicely! I will be officially 27 weeks tomorrow.

There are still lots of things I need to get done, some I'm probably not even aware of at the moment, but I'm probably going to end up leaving those for when I'm on maternity leave. That's just the way it will go, I know it. It's hard to get things done during the week because Brooklyn goes to bed at 7 and most of the work needs to be done in her room. That leaves the weekends, which we have been using to get other parts of the house worked on. (like the garage we cleaned this past week - it looks so much better!)

I do still need to buy a double stroller and we need to figure out how we're going to keep Brooklyn and Layla's clothes all in the same room. It's overflowing at the moment and we already have a hard time with clothing control in our own room. 

If you read my sister's blog, you'll notice that she just posted a 31 week update of her pregnancy and it may seem like I'm copying her. Well, I am! I realized I hadn't posted an official update of my pregnancy until I read her blog and had a 'duh' moment. So, Melissa, I hope you don't mind me copying your idea! I did give you credit though and post a link to your blog, so you can't be too mad, OK?

My 18 month baby.

Brooklyn is now 18 months old. I can't believe my baby girl is a year and a half. She has grown so fast and she's doing/saying new things every day.

Here's a list of things she's up to these days:

- She loves the word "No" and goes around saying it CONSTANTLY. She says it in answer to our questions but also when there is nothing to say no to. She also will say it to her baby and then spank her. That's pretty funny when she does that. I wonder where she got that from...

- She says "hi" and "bye" to almost everyone. This includes people in stores or if she sees people getting in their cars and driving away. She yells it! It's cute. She also says it to us first thing in the morning when we bring her to our bed after she wakes up. I'll try to close my eyes and rest a little more in bed and she will be right in my face saying "Hi! Hi! Hi!" It's hard to be irritated with her at that point because it's so darned cute!

- She has 15 teeth and is cutting her 16th!

- She still takes a bottle in the mornings and at bed time but we are working on weaning her off that.

- She can tell us when she has a poopy diaper, but sometimes will confuse a poopy diaper with just having gas.

- She says "peas" for please any time she wants something or we ask her a question and her answer would be "yes". She hasn't figured out "yes" yet so she says "peas" instead.

- We occasionally spank her (usually a not-very-hard pat on the diapered bottom) and she has now taken to spanking herself! I'll ask her (when she's being naughty) "Do you want a spank?" and sometimes she'll nod her head yes and start patting herself on the butt. It's really funny and completely undermines the authority of the spanking!

- She has started doing this thing with her pointer finger when she wants something. She will point at whatever it is and wag her finger up and down like that makes it more emphatic that she wants what she's pointing at.

- She can name several body parts, including: nose, eye, and ear (eow) and can point out those three plus her mouth, hands, feet, hair and belly button. She's a smart girl!

She's growing up so fast and becoming a little girl instead of my baby. Once Layla comes in April she will be the big sister and that part makes me a little sad. I didn't think it would be so hard to watch her grow up and not be a baby anymore. But she is a barrel of laughs and cute as a button!

I'll leave you with a picture I posted on Facebook of her a few days after turning 18 months.

There's my princess! 

We love you Brooklyn Alivia! I can't believe I lived 28 years of my life without you and I look forward to watching you grow into a beautiful young girl!

Good Morning Girls - An exciting journey

I recently (like 2 days ago) discovered and joined a wonderful online ministry and Bible study group called the Good Morning Girls. It's exactly what I need at this point in my life. I have longed to be in a study with other women, sharing and learning, but haven't had a schedule which allows for it. I have considered BSF as well and when my time allows me to, I will probably join one of their groups in my area. For now though, while I can't physically meet with other women for a Bible study, I'm thrilled to share about the Good Morning Girls. You can click on the link above and it will take you to the site which explains how they operate. In short, it's an online community of hundreds of women, from all over the country and the world, split into small groups, going through the same study (this 12 weeks we are going through the book of James) and keeping in contact with each other via email, twitter or facebook and holding each other accountable in our daily devotional time. It's a wonderful idea!! I encourage you to go check it out right now. They give you every resource you need to get started, including print outs for the each day with the passage you are to read and the break down of their S.O.A.P. study method. It's simple, easy and can be done quickly if you're busy like me, but can also be something you spend a little more time on. I can't say enough how excited I am to be a part of this.

The official start date of it was January 17th, but it's not too late for you to get started and catch up. You can also do it at your own pace. I've connected and become a group with two other young ladies that have a lot in common with me through the message boards on the GMG website. If you're interested in joining a group, I would be more than happy to have you in my group and add you to our email list. If you aren't ready for the pressure of being in a group and being in contact on a daily basis, then please don't let it stop you from going through the study on your own. The book of James is a wonderful book to study and I'm really looking forward to everything I will be learning from it and from the insights of the other ladies in my small group.

I will try to post once a week about what I'm learning in my study. This post won't include anything about my lessons so far, I just wanted to get the info out there for my small group of followers. :) I hope you will consider joining in on this! If you have any questions, Angela, the leader on the GMG website has shown to be very quick and attentive to the questions posted on the message boards. Or you can ask me and I can give you an answer if I know it!

A blog post about posting on my blog.

I have been struggling a lot with my blog lately. I have had the strong desire to write, and even think of several things I want to write throughout the day, BUT, when it comes down to actually sitting down and typing the words in, I draw a blank. Maybe it’s because I only have times in the late evening to do this and by then my brain has turned to mush and I’ve forgotten half of what happened that day, let alone what quickly entered and left my mind. *sigh* This brings me to the fact that if I truly want to keep my blog up, which I do, then I must come up with a plan to keep up with my thoughts and ideas for posts and things I simply want to share from my heart and mind.


I know that one way to do that is to just keep a small notepad on hand and jot down the ideas as I think of them. I know several people who do this for different areas of there life, such as to-do lists and work related things. I’ll have to try this. My problem will be remembering to get out the notepad and actually putting pen to paper with the thought I had at that moment. Forget the fact that, most of the time, when I have these ideas or thoughts, I’m not really in a place where I can stop and write it down. Often, thoughts come to me while I’m in the middle of teaching a lesson. Something funny/frustrating/”insert description here” will happen in my classroom which leads to me thinking of something else or some profound (yes, I have those sometimes!) concept in life and I’ll think “That would be a great anecdote to blog about!” or “I should do a post about this concept”. But then, my 20-something students that period will distract me from thinking about my blog by needing my mental capacity for their learning (gasp! How DARE they!) and I’ll forget all about it and go on with my day. Some days something like that will happen almost every class period. That’s 6 times in a day that I had good blog fodder and completely let it pass me by…oy!

Not that this means I want to constantly be thinking about my blog and coming up with ideas to write on it, BUT, I do want to have an interesting one that people want/look forward to reading (besides my immediate family who I know sit around wondering when I will post next! Haha).

One thing I enjoy about blogging is simply the catharsis it brings me to get things “out there” for someone to read, even if it’s just one person, or two – my mom and my sister. *smile*

I also am constantly inspired by some of the other blogs I read of women who are amazing writers with beautiful pictures and words that just flow together like music. I’ve never been one to write eloquently. I can write a good research paper and score an A, but inspirational writing just isn’t my gift. I’ve often considered taking another writing class just to improve that area. In fact, I won’t be surprised when community colleges begin offering a “writing for bloggers” class or something. Now THAT would be something I would definitely be interested in and that I believe would be a big hit with the up and coming blogging generation.



So, en lieu of this post about my blogging hopes and desires, here is a list of concrete goals I’m setting for myself in terms of blogging:

1. Write one post a week and maybe work up to 3 per week by the summer.
2. Keep my notepad handy for when ideas pop in my head for my blog.
3. Write meaningful posts that will inspire, help or encourage others out there who might be facing the same struggles/obstacles.
4. Be and honest blogger.
5. Blog in a way that is pleasing to God and, if that ever changes or it begins to take away from my serving Him, stop and re-evaluate whether I should keep one or not.
6. Have one day of the week where I have a theme or specific topic I blog about. I already have some ideas in the works.
7. Work ahead on future posts and get the ideas going so that I don’t have posts with too many different things going on in them.
8. Begin posting over at my other blog “What’s In My Coffee” again. Yes, I still have it up and yes, I still want to keep it up.
9. Take more pictures of my beautiful daughter and second daughter (coming in April!) and post them so you all can ooh and ahh over them with me.
10. Find a free layout I love or pay to have one designed for me. I'm so sick of not having a blog design that I like. It discourages me from blogging. I know that sounds silly, but it's true!

I'm working this evening on a couple of different posts with specific topics and one of them will be solely dedicated to Brooklyn as she will be turning 18 months on Sunday. I'll also probably do a post solely dedicated to my pregnancy as tomorrow I will be 25 weeks and am approaching my 3rd trimester with a vengeance!

All this and more coming up very soon! Stay tuned!