(Disclaimer: this is a random post with a hodge podge of events and items I've wanted to blog about but just haven't been able to bring myself to do yet. Sorry no pics!)
Big breakthrough over here! Dean has been speaking in the first person the last few days! He occasionally still refers to himself in the third person, but he'll often catch himself. I think it's partly because Walter has really been picking up on it and using those words correctly in sentences, and Dean's heard us praising Walt. I also just think it's because he's getting older and understands more. Good timing too since he's starting preschool next week!
We had Dean's meet the teacher yesterday and I think it will be a great year with her. They only have 7 kids in their class, about half girls and half boys. He seemed to really like it. It's a non-denominational Christian preschool. They have different play stations, circle time, snack, art, music, story, an outside recess time, soccer, and have a 15 min. chapel time once a week where they sing songs about Jesus. It's based in a Presbyterian church, but there are actually a ton of Mormon (and other faiths) kids who attend. I'm happy I chose to put him in a preschool as opposed to a co-op. I think the co-op was perfect for last year, but I'm not sure I'd have been up for that this semester, and I couldn't have done it next with the baby coming and all. It's relatively affordable ($160 for 3 hours twice a week), way cheaper than anything else around here, so that's a plus too. Plus, I have TONS of friends who recommended it and said their kids loved going there. I hope he has a fantastic experience.
School started this week for the public schools. My running partner is in the last few weeks of training before her marathon, so she has been getting up between 4-5 to go running so she can finish in time to get the kids up and to school! I've gone running with her 4 times this week, twice at 5 and twice at 5:30 where I jumped in with her in the middle of her run since she had like 10-20 miles to run and I could only do about 5 mi. I've run about 23+ miles this week, which I think is fairly decent considering I'm 16+ weeks pregnant. I have noticed it affecting my runs a little, though. The water belt has been so cumbersome. I wear it above my belly, but sometimes it feels so heavy so I switch it to below. I can baaaaarely hook it below my belly! I'm definitely feeling more pregnant this week! I'm about 10-11 min. miles, too, so slower than I was a month ago. I'm hoping I can keep running long enough to help Kirstin finish her training before her race.
Walter's still anemic. Boo. We took him to get his blood tested again (I put it off for more than 8 months and the doctor just issued another order for it.) We had done this so many times last year that he because absolutely terrified of going to the doctor, even if we weren't there for him. We'd walk in and he'd start bawling. We've finally gotten over that fear, so I wasn't happy to take him in again and start the process all over again. They had to stick him 3 times to get his blood since he kept jerking around so much. I'm giving him the flinstones vitamins and today I bought some black strap molasses. He wouldn't take it straight, but he drank it in some juice, which I guess is good since Julie told me vitamin C helps the absorption of the iron anyway.
Last night Dean packed up one of his tool boxes with a bunch of random things and said, "This is my emergency kit. I am going to sleep with it just in case there is an emergency and I need to take it with me." Haha. I don't know where he got that from. If it's from our 72 hour kits or if he's heard us talking about Hurricane Irene or something?
One night last week we forgot to put a pull-up on Dean before he went to bed. He woke up dry and felt like such a big boy!! We let him try it in underwear. About half the week he had accidents and half the week he was dry. I think we'll keep trying and probably wake him up around 10-11 to go. Matt did that last night for him and he totally had to go and went right back to sleep.
Walter went poop on the potty (for the second time) last night before bed.
We've been contemplating the need for a new house and a new vehicle. Our Rav4 can fit 3 carseats if we get rid of our monster Britax seats and switch them for Sunshine Kids Radian 65. If we had 2 of those on the sides and an infant seat (or the smaller Britax) in the middle, we can still shut the doors, but there's really no room between the door and the seats. So, we're not sure how safe that would be in a wreck. So, doable, but not sure if we want to do it. I really don't want to have a car loan (or at least a significant one) so we've started making a "car payment" into our savings account once a month. Once we have 10K+ for our car down, we'll start looking more seriously. We're already over half way there, so that's good. As for houses, well, everything is dependent on if we can sell this house and what we can realistically get for it. Matt has now started on the living room floor. He's going to do a little at a time. Today he ripped out the linoleum in front of the boys' rooms/entrance to the garage and cleaned it. We bought all the laminate at Costco a few weeks ago when it was on sale. I'm hoping by Thanksgiving/before Christmas it will all be done. We'll probably list the house in March or April when the buying season starts back up again. In addition to the flooring, I think we mainly only have trim, kitchen cabinets, and one room left that will need painting. We've put a lot into this house this past year!
We're on the 61st day over 100* here in the Dallas area this summer! That is second only to 1980 when they had 69 days over 100*. We have had a record breaking August for heat. Yesterday we beat the record for that day by 7 degrees!!! That's a huge jump! We've only had 1 day with rain in the last 4 months! That was only for 4 hours (and I actually ran 5 miles in the downpour that day), but we were grateful for that. I've been going in and out of anger over the heat, but in the end we'll live through it. I just hope that next year will be better. I just hope our foundation doesn't get hurt from it. Since we have clay for ground here, it shifts like crazy and pulls away from the foundation when it dries up, so you actually have to water your house!
I met with a potential Doula on Thursday. I liked almost everything about her, the only thing that put me off a little was the dead fish handshake. haha. I like it when people have some sort of grip! She's very reasonably priced and I"m sure she'd work fine if I went with her, though I'll probably interview one or two more people. She's helped over 30 mothers who have delivered with my doctor (a number of which were vbac) and said the one thing about him is that he uses the foreceps a lot more than other doctors. She said most docs use the vaccuum now a days, but that if you're skilled with foeceps, it's actually safer and more accurate. He only uses them if the baby isn't descending properly and when he does use them, he doesn't pull the baby all the way out. He pulls the baby to the pubic bone and then has the mom push the baby out. I thought that was interesting. Good to know before going into labor I think! Of those 30 with him, she's only seen him have to do 2 c-sections. One was for a breech baby with a cord wrapped, and the other was for a mom doing a vbac after 3 c-sections. She had 3 separate bands of scar tissue around her uterous and when she contracted it contracted in all 3 places keeping the baby in! I have good hopes for delivering vbac with him. Anyone have recommendations on laboring methods that you swear helped you during labor (besides an epidural!)? Hpnobirthing? Bradley? Something else?
Shockers are quite possibly the best candy on earth.
I am still incredibly addicted to salt right now.
5 comments:
So is one of the kids at preschool androgynous? :)
Anyway, I did hypnobirthing and thought it was great. I didn't have a doula or birthing coach, so I probably didn't get into it as much as I could have, but I thought it worked well doing it on my own.
I think you're amazing for running- running at all, but especially while you are pregnant! I got on the treadmill the other day and died after 5 minutes of walking! Way to go!
Well, there was that one kid I just wasn't sure about...
haha. 4 boys and 3 girls after actually looking at the list. Unless Berkley was a boy...just kidding. I do hate androgynous names that you just aren't sure about unless you see them in person.
I did hypnobirthing, too, just with my third birth and it made a world of a difference for me. I only read the book, but I've heard that the classes are worth it because you get to see videos of women applying the techniques.
We love blackstrap molasses on cornbread. I learned it from Will. Its a southern thing, but all my kids will eat as much of it as I let them!
May you have rain very, very soon!!!
I love reading posts like this, but then I always have monster comments. :)
That's awesome you are still running that much. Way to go.
Good luck with the car and the house. I had a lot of the same thoughts about upgrading our car. We "fit" in my Civic, but I didn't feel super safe. We didn't want a big car loan and aren't able to save much so we opted for used. It was only $16k which to me isn't bad at all for a well cared for Toyota with only 56k miles on it.
Thanks for your comment on my post about doing your best. I realized I did not word that very well. Trust me, I know that kids are born with a certain personality. I learned that important fact before I had kids because of my family. We all have such different personalities and tendencies, yet have the same parents.
Oh, my only birthing advice, just wait to go to the hospital when you're crowning so you don't have time for epidurals, hypnobirthing, breathing, etc. :) Ha ha.
Seriously though, I took a red rasberry compound that had red rasberry and black and blue cohaosh in it. Everyone I know that has taken it has seemed to have an easier labor. You can't take the cohosh until you are about 6 weeks from your due date. It's meant to soften you up, so I don't know how that would affect your scarring, if at all.
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