Tuesday, July 29, 2008

First visit with the midwife

Well, I've finally scheduled our first visit with a midwife. Our appt is for next Thursday. Kind of sad really, I'm 15wks, will be 16wks by then, and I'm just now seeing someone. That's life though. REally, I didn't intend to put it off that long. First we looked at our options, then we heard of this mw, but when I e-mailed her she was leaving the country for a few weeks, then she was busy with births, etc. So anyways, I just now got an appt made. I don't mind that much really though. Sure, lots could go wrong in the first half of pg, but there's not much anybody can do about it either. Now is when we get to the really fun part, anyways. Which reminds me, I think I felt the baby move earlier today. Genesis was nursing and was sitting right on my uterus, so the pressure from her allowed me to feel some pressure from the other side! I can't wait until it gets more frequent. Definately the best part of pregnancy!

Going on vacation

DH took some time off from work, so I probably won't be around much. Starting tomorrow he's off for the next week and a half (b/c of his normal thur/Fri weekend). Hopefully I'll be able to pop on now and then and let you know how we're doing, maybe even post some pictures. I know we're going camping probably on Thurs through Sun or Mon, haven't decided yet. It should be fun. See you later!

Thursday, July 24, 2008

I can't believe we did it again

We are one sad couple. For the second time, we forgot our anniversary. The first time we forgot was our 4th anniversary, and this was our 8th. It was on the 15th. Do you know what today is? The 24th. We're obviously too busy day-to-day to remember such minute things as our wedding anniversary. sigh. Ah well. Two days after our annivesary was when we got our car and went with the kids and saw a movie and just had a good time as a family. So I guess that's as good a way as any to celebrate, lol.

A cure for insomnia

My last pregnancy and this pregnancy are the only times in my entire life I've suffered from insomnia (can we say, another girl?). I've always loved sleep and never had a problem with it. I generally sleep like a rock. So insomnia drives me crazy. I as laying in bed as long as 12 hours a night and getting only 5-6 hours of sleep. I'd sleep a few hours a soon as I went to bed and then I'd toss and turn until the wee hours of the morning when I'd fall back asleep. So I decided to try getting up earlier, figuring maybe if I was in bed less hours, I'd be more tired and be able to sleep better. Plus I really needed my early morning quiet time back. So for the last 4 days I've been getting up at 6am. And surprise! I'm sleeping WAY better. And the really interesting part is that I'm even taking a 1-2 hour nap during the nap. So I'm getting a full 9-10 hours of good sleep throughout a 24 hour period. I feel so much better when I'm fully rested.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

A natural housekeeper

I am not a natural housekeeper. Oh how I wish I were. I work very hard to keep my house looking even decent. And you can blame it on the kids, but I know they're really not the problem. It's me. I just can't seem to keep a house clean. I am an adequate housekeeper, at best. Sometimes I really think my life would be so much easier if I were a natural housekeeper. But most likely, if I were, I would lack something else that I know have. Maybe I would be more uptight and not able to relax unless my house were spotless, and that would be a BIG problem with all the kids we want to have, lol. So what I'm trying to do is see what kinds of things natural housekeepers do and pick up some of their habits. For example, they probably sweep their floor more than once a day, especially if it needs it more often. I have a tendancy to let things go until it's "time" to sweep the floor. "Oh, Genesis spilt dry oatmeal all over the floor. It'll be there in a few hours when I get ready to sweep." Is it any wonder my house doesn't look all that great except at the end of the day, after it's "time" to clean everything? I need to be more on top of messes and take care of them right away, and I think that will help things a lot. Even if that does mean I'm sweeping floor more than once a day!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Sleeping through the night

As the time for the new baby approaches, I've been moving Genesis out of our bed. Right now she's got a little bed at the foot of our bed, but will eventually move to the boys' room on the other side of the house. She's been doing great with her bed. She goes to sleep in it well for nap and bedtime, as long as she nurses fairly close to bedtime, if not right before. She just crawls into our bed when she wants to nurse at night. Some nights she'll cuddle with me for a while before asking to nurse and some nights, when she's done nursing she'll crawl back into her own bed. But then she usually returns an hour or two later. But the big news is that last night she spent the whole night in her own bed!! The first time she has officially slept through the whole night!!! I knew it was coming soon. The boys did the same thing when my milk started drying up and I know she's only getting a few swallows at most when she nurses. But I'm excited to be entering this new phase in her life. She's getting to be such a big girl!

Sunday, July 20, 2008

I'm back!!

As luck would have it, several weeks ago the kids broke the power cord to our laptop, our only computer. No power cord, means no comp. And they're expensive! So we were without our computer for a while. But all is well now. We got a check that we weren't expecting for a few more months and were able to buy not only a new power cord, but also a car!! It's a 94 Suburban, runs great and was a great price. We're so excited to finally have a vehicle. And I'm so happy we didn't get a minivan. I cannot stand how little cargo space minivan's have. It's just horrible. For now we actually have the back seat folded flat so we have even more cargo space and since we only need the one row of seats. The front bench is a 40/60 split, so we're thinking after the baby is born we'll fold the smaller portion flat to keep it easier to get into the back seat. So it'll bascially be set up like a minivan then, but with lots more cargo space of course. We had so much fun the day we bought it. We were able to go out as a family and really enjoyed ourselves. We've not been able to go anywhere as a family unless we walked, and living in a tiny town, there isn't much you can walk to. Of course the biggest problem is affording gas, but we've decided that we will basically continue to live as though we don't have a vehicle. DH will still ride his bike back and forth to work, and we're pretty much only going to leave town on grocery shopping days, but we'll make them fun :) And it'll just be nice to get out of the house as a family.

In other news, Canaan is night trained! I've thought for a while that he might be able to do it, but I just haven't been ready to try it out. So one night there was a miscommunication between me and DH and Canaan got put to bed without a diaper. He actually got up to pee in the middle of the night. So we decided it was time to go without diapers at night. He didn't have any accidents until he was diaper free for over 2 wks, and then it was b/c he had been up too late the night before with no nap so he was overtired. I'm so excited to only one in diapers day and night.And since we only use disposables at night, that just cut our diaper use in half! At least for 6 months or so, lol.

On the pregnancy front, things are going good. My morning sickness is pretty much gone and it's so nice to be back to myself again. All the sickies are out of the house, finally. I ended up having to take Genesis to the emergency one Sunday b/c she had a bad ear infection. I'm pleased to say though that this our first ear infection ever, in any of the kids. A few days later I got it and it took a good two weeks before it was completely gone for me. But we're all good now. The house is clean, meals are getting cooked, school is getting done and DH is happy.

Speaking of school, the kids are doing great. Genesis gets her time first. We've got a color/shape sorter thing that she does every day. She has other options but that's what she always chooses, so I let her do it. I tell her the color as she puts the shapes on and she's starting to repeat them back to me. After she gets all the shapes on she usually plays for it a little bit longer and then she starts coloring. Meanwhile, I start with Canaan. He doesn't know hardly any letters, so we're working on that mostly, and then he has a few other toy type things that he gets to choose from where we solidfy colors, shapes, counting to 5, etc. Then he likes to color, or I've got some tracing sheets he likes to do. Last is Asher. We're only a few weeks into the K program we're using, mainly b/c a lot of weeks we only did school once a week, lol. But now we're doing school 4 days a week and I'm trying ot get it up to 5, but the first day of hte week is always so busy cleaning the house after having dh home for 2 days. Anyways, Asher is doing good but I knew he would b/c we started with stuff he already knows. I'm really looking forward to in a few weeks when we work more on reading words. He can sound words out, but he has no retention or comprehension, so we'll be focusing a lot on that. He is learning a lot about science and God though. He's learned how Jesus is like the sun and is the light of the world and how we're like the moon and reflect Jesus' light. He also learned about the phases of the moon, how the Earth, the moon and the sun rotate around each other and create day/night etc. This week we're talking about leaves and how we need God in our lives just like leaves need the plant they're attached to. Sometimes he zones out when I start talking too deep (or start getting too long winded!) but he's really remembering and understanding a lot.

I think that's a pretty good update of our household for now.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Sickeness

My house is full of sickies!! First Asher was running a fever and had a headache, for like 2 days. A few days after that the other two got it. And you know how a baby is when sick! Then Asher got a cold, which turned into a sinus infection and it wasn't long again before hte other two got it! So now, Asher is almost all better. He's a little stuffy and has an occasional cough, but he doesn't have thick green snot coming out of his nose at all times. Canaan's didn't turn into a sinus infection, so he's almost over it as well, with a slightly runny nose and residual cough. Genesis is still full blown into it, with snot everywhere, coughing at night etc. And of course, yesterday it hit me. I had to take DH to the dentist to get his top two wisdom teeth pulled out b/c one of them was breaking apart and causing him major pain. By the time we got home I had a huge sinus headache, and a stuffy, runny nose.

Luckily the house was clean two days ago so I've been able to let it a slide the last two days. My head is still killing me and I feel dizzy whenever I stand up. Of course now would be the time that we desperatly need me to do laundry. Thank goodness for 5yr olds!!Asher has been a huge help on laundry. I seperated it and start the washer, but he loads it up and helps me switch things to the dryer and empy the dryer. I don't think we'll be getting anythign folded today though ;)

I've been taking lots of vit C and garlic, but I'm not optimistic since the kids were taking it too and it still lasted over a week for them. If I could just get rid of this sinus headache I'd be alright I think.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Yay for a clean house!

So Sunday morning, DH went to work and then so did I! I spent all day cleaning this house from top to bottom. It looked better than it has in months. DH was so happy when he got home and saw it. As much as he says he understands that I'm sick, he also gets annoyed at a dirty house! Of course by the time he got home I was so tired and sick I didn't do anything but lay on the couch for the rest of the day, but he didn't care. The house was clean. So it is my goal to keep it from falling apart again in the next couple weeks until my morning sickness is gone. Yesterday and today I've done great. I've gotten the dishes done, the floors swept, all the toys are picked up in the evening. And I've even gotten a few other things done that I didn't get to on Sunday. Celebrate with me YAY FOR A CLEAN HOUSE!!!!

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Lack of Motivation

I lack serious motivation. I have a tendency towards laziness. Over the last several years I've made huge strides, but as soon as I have a semi-decent excuse to not do my jobs, I don't do them. So my house is falling apart big-time. Yes I'm nauseus. Yes, I'm tired. But I'm not THAT nauseus, and I'm not THAT tired. I can still be doing my jobs! I haven't actually thrown up, which I guess is good, lol. And I only feel mildly worse when I'm working. So I need to jsut get over it and do my job! I'm slowly adjusting to having morning sickness and more is getting done, but I'm still barely keeping up with the basics. My love-seat is covered in clean clothes. Half folded, waiting to be put away. My dishes are only getting washed every other day rather than twice a day. The bed isn't getting made, the floors aren't getting swept. It's horrible. Luckily my DH is understanding, but he also knows my tendency for laziness so sometimes he gets frustrated. He has helped me out some though and has actually cleaned the house twice in the last couple weeks. I'm thinking about asking him to do one thing for me every day, if he's up for it. Things that I"m just not getting to but need to be done. Like mopping the floor, cleaning the bathroom. B/c I really am wiped out after just daily stuff, if I even get it done.

A post on a message board the other day really gave me some things to think about. A mother of many children (I think she has 12) was saying how after you have about 4 or 5 kids you really need to work like a professional. It takes more skill, more education and more dedication than the average mom of few. (No offense to moms of few, just stating the facts!) So right now is my training period and I need to take it seriously! This is my chosen profesion. It needs my dedication if I'm going to be any good at it as my family size increases. Of course about the time I was ready to get started we had a water line break and I was without water for two days so the laundry and dishes fell even farther behind. I'm just now getting caught up from that with dishes and laundry all washed. I guess I'm telling myself that I need to get off the couch and get to work! It's almsot 10am and I"m still in my pjs!

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

The changes morning sickness brings

Today I went grocery shopping with my sister-in-law and her grandmother. All our groceries were in the back of the minivan (with the back seat taken out) and while somewhat separeted they still kind of meshed together. After we got back, DH was unloading our groceries and I was going through and trying to pick out what was ours and what wasn't. DH picked up a bag "Hotdogs, that's not ours" "Um, yes it is honey" "Oh. Well this bag with 4 boxes of Mac n' cheese isn't ours..." "yes it is" "oh." The joys of a mommy with morning sickness!

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Been MIA

I know, I've been MIA. Wouldn't you know it, insomnia kicked in actually right before my bfp, then the kids got sick, and now morning sickness has hit. So I'm not in much of a mood for anything right now, lol. The tiredness is kicking in too so I've lost like half my internet time since I'm now sleeping during that time, lol. My house is falling apart already and I've probably got a good 6wks of this left. Save me now.