Jumping and Twisting

Yesterday was the first day we could go outside in the evening and play with chalk. The first day because it was actually cool enough to sit outside and not sweat to death. It always amazes me when it actually gets cooler, it just seems like the heat is going to last forever.

Once we got outside Summer wanted to play hopscotch. I really don't know how to play, nor do I really know how to draw it but we improvised. Then I got Summer to jump a few times really high, she had a lot of fun with that.

Then I thought ... how about making a colorful bulls eye and jumping into it? Well why not?



Lastly we decided to play "how fast can you spin" because that is another fun game you have to play outside once it cools off right?


It was a lot of fun, and she was a mess, a beautiful chalky mess. After we finished outside we went inside and took a bath :o)

The perfect evening in my book!

I guess summer is over

Labor Day means summer is over right? I guess - I mean it is still nearly 100 this week, and my garden still has live plants. It is still too hot to venture outside, parks are still out of the question for a few more weeks. We did take down our pool, mostly because it was slowly creeping down my yard since my yard isn't exactly level. I didn't expect to see any grass but imagine my surprise - of course if the grass actually makes it, well only time will tell. For now I am hoping the horrible swampy smell goes away in the next few days. As for my own Summer, she isn't going anywhere, at least for another 13 more years, or more if I convince her to stay :o)

29 Weeks

I made it to 29 weeks and I feel terrific! Ok I wish I could say that, the truth is I feel horrible, well not horrible, just uncomfortable, tired, nauseous, bloated, I have trouble walking, I have no energy, but I guess besides all that. Only 10+ more weeks right?

In the meantime I am trying hard to ignore all of that, we are still doing school each morning, we started week 3 today even though it is Labor Day, I figured why would we skip school when we both enjoy it. Summer is starting choir in another week and I am really looking forward to that, it is a program through the Clark County, she will meet once a week for 30 minutes through December and I guess at the end they have a big performance. She loves singing and dancing so I can't wait to see how well she does. She still has dance and they plan on adding another class soon, acting! That should be fun. We are still horse vaulting on the weekend and I am happy at how much she is learning. I don't think she will be performing anytime soon but you never know, she never fails to amaze me. I also want to put her back into soccer, she really enjoys going. We will see what happens in the next few weeks. I am also planning on weekly library visits, we don't need to borrow any books with as many as she has but it is fun going and seeing other kids read. So we are staying pretty busy, not to mention our weekly play dates and other random things we do each week.

Here are so photos of us my loving husband took last night, aren't we the cutest and we match!

2 pounds, 14 ounces

Today I had a doctor appointment at the high risk clinic to get a growth scan. Basically an ultrasound where they measured the baby to determine how big she is and to make sure she is growing like she should be. First they took my blood pressure, 114/76 - perfect! I guess it isn't going up yet, or maybe it won't! The ultrasound tech showed me everything and explained what we were looking at, I swear I think they must see in 2D as much as she could see. I did find out the position of the baby and it wasn't really what I thought. She is head down but over on the right side of my body and her face is facing left. Her back is all along my right side, her butt is in my upper right corner just under my right boob. Her little legs are up top on the left side under my other boob. So basically she is in an upside down L type position. Sorta, because one of her legs was over her face for some of the exam. And for some of the exam her legs were crossed. I can't picture it. Anyway she is still a girl and still quite nameless. She was sleeping when the exam began and her resting heartbeat was 147. She, of course, woke after being poked on and because I was laying on my back she tends to wake up when I lay like that. I got to see her bones, her heart, her kidneys, her brain, and a few other things that you wouldn't expect to see, like her eyelids. While being examined I also found out that the very annoying feeling I sometimes get is her legs pushing out against my stomach. I guess maybe she stretches. Oh and I also got to see her swallowing a few times, and she stuck out her tongue. I saw a lot in the 20 or so minutes it took to do the exam.

Anyway everything was fine, she is measuring right on, her heart and brain looked good to the tech and doctor, so I go back in 4 more weeks to get another growth scan. I will also have to start going weekly to be monitored at that point, and that I am not looking forward too because that is when you just sit there and they need the baby to move so many times in a certain amount of time, it is just boring. But I will do what I must, and here are the photos from today.

I know most people like the profile picture best but this one is neat, the chin, nose and lips! And I am guessing a hand off to the side. Her little mouth is open, isn't that a unique u/s photo?

I think they gave me about 5-6 profile photos. They all look the same to me, so I just picked one lol.

At first she had her leg somehow over her face so the doctor basically smacked her in the butt a few times to get her to move it lol, and he wasn't gentle. Of course she didn't cry that I could tell haha and she moved her leg so we could get this photo!

I wonder if she looks like Summer? I need to go get her 4D ultrasound photo from when she was 29 weeks and compare ...

I still can't believe I am having a baby. I still can't believe I don't have a name for her yet. I still can't believe I have so much longer to wait!

28 Weeks

I am 28 weeks pregnant. I am 7 months pregnant. I am in my third trimester. I only have 12 weeks left until I deliver this baby - more or less. I am having a baby shower in a month. I have to go register. I had a doctor appointment this morning. It was boring ;o) which is good. My blood pressure was 128/76. I realize I always post my blood pressure, and this is because it started to get high with my last pregnancy and I am really concerned it will get high again. It is up from my last appointment but I am already on a two week schedule so I am not worried, yet. My temperature was 97.5. My pulse was 80. The baby was asleep when the nurse got her heartbeat at 150. Later the doctor checked the heartbeat and it was 160. I am measuring correctly I guess. I am seeing the high risk doctor next Tuesday and then I will get an ultrasound and a growth scan. Oh and I passed my glucose test and my iron levels were normal.

I guess I am doing great. Of course I still feel tired most of the time, it hurts to walk, it feels like the gap between my legs are trying to widen, but at this point that is probably expected.

This week also ends the first week of school. I think it was very successful. Summer is doing great spending at least an hour each day working on letters, numbers, counting, reading, learning! I really enjoy teaching her, and it helps me stay on some sort of schedule. Normally we do her schoolwork first thing in the morning after breakfast, then when we are finished I go clean the kitchen. Here she is from earlier in the week learning how to mix colors. We froze the colored ice cubes and then used them to draw on the sidewalk later in the afternoon.

154.5 at 27 weeks

Weight gain is always a touchy subject, of course not as touchy when you are pregnant but still ... anyway I was looking back to my blog when I was pregnant with Summer, 4+ years ago. I found this post where I was 26 weeks pregnant. At that time I weighed 153. I was just thinking that a week later with this pregnancy I weigh the same. To make sure I went and weighted and at 27+ weeks today I am weighing 154.5. Then I realized that I started this pregnancy 10 pounds lighter, which means I have gained an extra 10 pounds already in this pregnancy. Yikes. I really don't care, in fact I want to go get something to eat right now :o) but how wild that I caught up to my other pregnancy weight. I should realize I am larger than before, Kris had made comments as to how big my stomach is already, as you can clearly see!

First Day of School

Today marks a milestone in my life, oh ya and in Summer's life too because we started school today! I am still getting the feel of it but I have help this time, thanks to a program I found, Time4Learning, I now have some help. Teaching Summer is so easy, honestly, she loves learning and was really excited about starting school.

Of course the day didn't start as I planned, I woke up constipated (thank you pregnancy) and spent a bit of time in the bathroom. I had Summer sit on my bed and watch cartoons while I suffered a bit, but finally we got on track. We had breakfast together at the kitchen table, we got dressed for school, and we were on our way.

We start school each day by looking at the calendar to see what day it is. Then we took our daily blank index color, pick the color we want, and Summer got to choose her word of the day. Any random word. She chose mouse. I helped her write mouse on the index card and then gave it to her with a piece of tape to hang up. I bought these refrigerator daily reminder things that I am using for her performance, every time she does something good, completes a paper or whatever, she gets a sticker. Today she ended up with 4 stickers!

She also writes in her Hello Kitty journal daily. She can write whatever she wants. Today she wrote her name, she wrote "cat" and "dog". She can also draw a picture on her page if she wishes.

After that we worked out of some workbooks. We did the number 1, she had to write it a few times, then she had to write the word "one". We also did some counting where she has to count the pictures and write the numbers out beside it. She is doing so well with her writing, her numbers 1-10 are coming along nicely. Since we were working on the number 1 I went ahead and took out the foam clock and taught her how to tell time. Just the hour times (o'clock). That seemed almost too easy. We did a little addition, added stickers to numbers, I really just went with the flow.

After that we headed over to the computer to start the school preK software. She likes it, I guess we spent at least 30+ minutes on it. We skipped ahead to the PreK2 because it seems a bit harder and she learned about mixing colors. We did the section on mixing colors and for our project I took my ice tray and food coloring and let her see how mixing colors works. It is in the freezer now, as soon as it freezes I will continue using it as a teaching aide somehow.

Overall I am satisfied with how this is going to work, a few hours in the morning and of course the learning never ends throughout the day.

Hopefully I don't wake up constipated tomorrow :o) I guess I will drink more water today, maybe eat a few raisins. The joys of being pregnant ... oh and speaking of my pregnancy, I have less than 13 weeks, which seems like it is getting closer. I bought my first pack of diapers the other day. I have an appointment on Friday, just a normal one I think, oh and I will find out if I passed my glucose test too.

I didn't take any first day of school photos yet because while we did get dressed we didn't brush our hair, so I will try to get some of those later. Until then ...