Brain-sucking baby

I'm managing to squeeze one last post in before the end of the month, but 4 posts for July is pretty abysmal. Hopefully next month will be better.

I really hope this baby is intelligent, because with this pregnancy, more than the other two, I feel like my own brain is just not functioning. I half-wonder if it's because I'm at home this time (instead of working and being in school), but I really don't know. I can't seem to string together two coherent sentences. This has not helped me keep up with blogging!

Peter worked last night so the kids and I headed out to the yard for some play time this morning. Hannah and Nathan both enjoy playing in the sand box and it is fun to see them play together. I still have to do more refereeing than I would like, but that will hopefully decrease as they get older. While they were playing I continued setting up my trellises for my climbing plants. I will be so glad to have these all ready to go at the start of next year! I now have two set up completely (a gardening post is coming early next week ...). The third, which I need for 4 cucumber plants, has not even been started.

After lunch both kids had a rest (Hannah napped and Nathan played in his room). I sat and read a book for an hour - what bliss! I'm reading through the Women's Murder Club series by James Patterson. I have to ignore approximately one page per book of stuff that I don't want to read about, but other than that I am really enjoying them. I'm on book 6.

After their rest we set up the kid's pool and they played in that while my wonderful husband tore up a bunch of weeds. I have had very few problems with weeds inside my garden boxes, but outside the boxes they had basically taken over. He got about half of them removed today and hopefully he can get to the other half early next week. I watered plants, and generally babied them. I spend way too much time watching them grow.

We took the kids for ice cream in the late afternoon. Hannah ate almost a whole small ice cream! Unbelievable. Of course, since it was so late neither child ate a great supper, but I figure that's ok every once in a while.

And ... since I haven't posted many this month ... here are some pictures I took tonight of the kids. They're not the best pictures, but they'll have to do for now.

Where have I been?

Through text conversations with two people today I was reminded that this blog has been neglected. So ... I thought I'd come and at least post something, even if it's nothing really well thought out or composed.

Our month has been fairly uneventful thus far. I can feel the third trimester draining my energy more each day, but as long as I remember to rest in the afternoon when the kids do and in the evenings after they go to bed I seem to be able to keep up.

Here are some of the highlights of what we've been up to this month ...

Swimming Lessons
We signed Nathan up for swimming lessons. They were every morning for two weeks at the outdoor pool just down the road. We signed him up in a preschool class for ages 3 - 5. He went the first day ... and wouldn't get in the water. It wasn't the water that was the problem, it was the whole atmosphere of having to go in with new kids and without Mom or Dad. We tried for 4 days before admitting defeat and taking him to the parents and tots class. He loved that, but Peter and I were still worried about his hesitance to leave our side. The swimming part he did really well. He loves to go underwater and has even started 'swimming' a bit unassisted. It's messy, but at least we have forward floating :)

VBS
We signed Nathan up for VBS for this week. After our experience with swimming lessons we weren't too sure how this was going to go. Yesterday, Nathan started crying as soon as we entered the church building (it's not at the church we attend, which didn't help). One of his friends is also going to this VBS and we had hoped that would help somewhat. It may have, but Peter still ended up staying for the whole time. Today I took Nathan. I still stayed for the whole time, but after the first few minutes left the room and he stayed with his class. He did so much better today that I'm hoping to leave after the opening time tomorrow. I'm so glad to see progress!

Garden
The garden is growing really well. There are obviously a few things I will do differently next year. I am going to try a different variety of spinach as I wasn't very happy with the yield of the kind I had. I will plant more lettuce, beans, and carrots. I finally got one of my three trellises up with netting for the squash and some cucumbers. One of the other trellises is up but the netting is not finished and the third has yet to be constructed. I can't wait until they are all set but it's getting late!

Stitching
I have been doing a very small amount of stitching lately. Not much to report.

YNAB
What has been taking up most of my free time is playing around with and reading about a new budgeting software I downloaded and eventually bought. It's called YNAB (You Need A Budget), and after using it for the last month I love it!! Peter and I have made multiple budgets throughout the years but this is the first software I've seen that seems to work the same way my brain works. I also love the methodology behind the software.

Hannah
Hannah is still not walking :( I'll do a summary post for her around the first of August so I'll leave the other details for then.

Visitors
Last Friday night my aunt and uncle came for a visit!! It was so nice to see family. The drove from the east coast and stopped in for a night on their way to visit my cousin several hours away. They arrived in time for supper Friday night and headed out early Saturday morning. We had a great time visiting and playing games. Nathan talked about them all day Saturday - so cute!

Well, that's about all the typing I can handle for one night ... I'm out of practice!

Pregnancy Summary - Week 27

I've been putting off doing a pregnancy summary post because I haven't taken an 'official' belly pic in months. However, Peter took these pictures of Nathan and I flying a kite earlier this week and I figured they will have to do.



Hmmm ... changes since my 16 week summary ... lots! lol. The most noticeable difference is my energy level. I am realizing that I can't quite keep up with everything the way I normally do. I'm trying to cut myself some slack, but there's only so much I can let go without the house and kids getting out of control!

In the same vein, I mentioned to the nurse practitioner a couple of weeks ago at my appointment that I'm having some Braxton Hicks contractions when I've been doing a lot of picking things up off the floor. Her solution ... stop picking things up off the floor! lol. Ummm ... not really possible. Thankfully they seem to have disappeared since then.

I had my regular 20 week ultrasound and when I went to my next doctor's appointment they said they needed to do another as they didn't quite get all the measurements they needed. When I went for the second ultrasound the technician said they had been worried about low fluid levels, but that everything looked good. Then, when I went to the obstetrician today he said the radiologist who read the initial ultrasound thought the baby might have club foot ... but that the second ultrasound looked good. I'm really wondering which person was telling me the truth. I'm guessing the obstetrician, but it seems weird I got three different stories.

My first appointment with the obstetrician was today (July 6th). He seemed very nice, although he has me a little worked up since he said my drug of choice (fentanyl) will most likely not be an option for this baby! I have no idea what to do ... I'm going to try and get some more information before I really start to worry.

He asked me to come back in three weeks and then every two weeks after that. I was totally shocked when he said that. I hadn't realized we were at that point in the pregnancy already.

Hannah - 15 month summary

I'm about a week late with this post, but better late than never, right?

Hannah's skin cleared up this month. No more rashes and her eczema seems to be gone for now.

Hannah started giving kisses and hugs this month. So cute!! She is generally not overly affectionate, so being able to get her to lean in for a kiss is precious. She seems to find it quite amusing, too, so that makes it fun.

Hannah is still talking, although hasn't really added many words to her vocabulary this month. It's so close ... she just keeps on babbling all the time.

One big change for Hannah this month is I took her soother away. Peter was away for a week so I decided that was a good time to do it (I know, I'm a sucker for punishment). The first two days were rough - she cried 20 or 30 minutes every time she went down for a sleep. After that she seemed to resign herself to no soother and has been ok for naps and night time since. I still miss it when it would come in handy to keep Hannah quiet (such as at church) but that's the price I pay for having a soother-free toddler :)

We are in the middle of trying out one nap for Hannah. We have moved her afternoon nap to 12:30 or 1:00 instead of 2:00. This time works better for Nathan's rest time, too.

And, the final update for this month ... a few nights ago Hannah had a small fever. She was unusually cranky and wouldn't sleep for her naps at all. Today I noticed she has two new teeth!! So ... I guess I can cut her some slack for being cranky :) She now has 8 teeth (6 top and 2 bottom).

Still no walking progress ... I am ready for that at any time!!