Thursday, September 30, 2010

oops!

Wow, it sure is hard to keep up the blog when you're in the midst of a move. I found this post from a couple of weeks back (9/30):


I woke up the other morning and hopped on the scale, only to discover - to my horror - that I managed to gain 10 pounds in 20 days! Now, if this change in weight were going the other direction I'd have a new hit diet on my hands. Instead I'm wondering how I've managed to put on 30 pounds with 3 months still left to go!


But today I got a checkup at my doctor's office and she reassured me that all is well. "You're all baby," she said. That and cankles, I thought to myself. She pointed to my low blood pressure and my negative test for gestational diabetes and pronounced me healthy as a horse. "Don't worry about it," she said. Excellent. Looks like ice cream is back on the menu!


Here's a photo from then.



Here's where I am now (30 weeks tomorrow!).





I would say I'm currently about the size I was with Roan at 40 weeks. (This is from then)



The astonished comments keep coming. "You're not due till Christmas?!? You poor thing! How's your back?" and so forth. For the most part, I'm still laughing along. Although I am starting to find myself getting tired out more easily, having a harder time breathing, straining myself more easily, and being a little more uncomfortable in bed. I still feel pretty cheerful though. This time around it's easier to keep in perspective how short this period is. With Roan it just felt like it was going to drag on forever. I think it helps significantly having that C-section date on the calendar. I know with certainty that the finish line is right there. The not knowing was so hard with Roan.

Ok, truth be told, for the most part I'm my chipper happy go lucky self. But from time to time when things stack up - like this evening: stabbing abdominal pain, a crick in my back making it hard to walk, a lack of hot water for a restorative soak in the tub, a stove that inexplicably stopped working one day after making an exhausting trip to the grocery store with Roan in tow, and a missing cookie sheet making it impossible to heat up some toaster oven nachos - then I suddenly find myself near tears just trying to make it the last couple of hours till Roan is in bed and I can put my feet up.

But ya know, the difference is this time around I can say "Wow, tonight sucks!" or "The last couple days have been rough" whereas with Roan my mental state was more like, "Oh crap it's all downhill from here on out, and by the way, when the h3ll is this baby coming?!?!"

In other news - we have moved into the new house. That is, all our stuff is here, whether we can find it or not in the boxes strewn about every inch of floor space. So we still have a lot of unpacking and settling in to do. We have a few pieces of furniture to buy (like a big girl bed for Roan and a crib that's not recalled for our precious unborn), a ceiling fan to install, now a stove to replace and some more suprise electrical work to do. We also have some touch up to do on the old house before we rent it out. Plus we need to have a garage sale. I think that's the plan for this weekend, though we're not organized at all yet. Other than that we're just sitting around with nothing to do.

But every morning we wake up in our beautiful (cluttered yes, but I can see past that) bedroom with 10 windows and see actual mountains lit purple in the morning sun. And on our way out the door we smile as we get a noseful of lavendar growing along the walkway. (And try not to stress about all the trimming and cleanup that needs to be done before snow is upon us.) But it is a really special place we feel so lucky to call home, and every day brings us closer to being settled in here.

Also Roan is doing so great. We just had her first parent/teacher conference at school. She is doing great in all the areas they evaluated her in - 8 different subjects from language to math to grace & courtesy. She has apparrently set a school record for the youngest child ever to be placed in a kindergarten aged reading group. She has taken to it like a fish in water. We are so grateful to her teachers, who all are so kind and thoughtful in their dealings with the children. She's blossoming under their care.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Howdy there. Missed me? I've been missing the blog, that's for sure. We are living out of the old house as the renovations continue at the new place, and we only have an Internet connection at the new place. My work schedule has shortened to just 5-6 hours per day, so I can't manage to squeeze in time to get any blogging done. And it's been killing me because there's been so much exciting stuff going on.


I continue to get bigger and bigger - big suprise right? This photo is from 2 weeks back, week 25. I'd like to think I've plateaued but it's possible I may be kidding myself. In any case, my mobility is good (if a little waddle-y) so my spirits are up. I am getting a kick out of seeing how big this little troublemaker can make me.




Also, I have some video updates for you.

Here's Roan playing with her friend Gracie at her first sleepover at our house.


And here they are horsing around playing hide & seek


Roan has also recently taken a shine to her Fancy Nancy doll. One day she got a wild hair and decided she wanted to dress up just like her.




But she's still got a touch of tomboy in her, as you can tell by how much she likes catching & playing with bugs from the yard.


And here are a couple of videos of her reading. Here's her vocabulary list.


And here she is reading her first book, Jan and Pam.


More soon, I hope!

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

whirlwind

Life is chaotic but good at the moment. Roan had a rough start to her second week of school but caught her stride by the end of last week. She is doing GREAT. We are so happy, and feel like we've found a new second home for her.

We closed on the house last Thursday!!! And since that time we've hardly been able to tear ourselves away from this place. Initially the plan was just to move our basement stuff to the new house, and stay put at our old house until all the repairs we need to do are done. But instead we've found ourselves camping out over here sleeping on mattresses, eating take-out, and soaking in the new scene. I'm astonished that Roan could care less about her old room with all her toys and the bed she's slept in her whole life. She's so excited about her new room and the sparkly turquoise paint on the walls. And so are we... we'd rather sleep on a 3 inch foam mattress on the floor of our dining room and wake up to the birds and the frogs and the dew on the flowers than stick with the comfort and routine of our old house. How... illogical!

Arwen had a birthday over the weekend. We spent last saturday doing house fix up/ moving type stuff, and then that night had a small gathering here with birthday cake, before he and a friend headed down to a neighborhood pub crawl. The birthday boy had a great time and didn't come stumbling home till the wee hours. I figure he deserves a chance to cut loose a bit with all the hard work he's got ahead of him.

Roan had a traumatic 2nd swim lesson and since then has not really wanted to go back to class. But we're making improvements every couple of days. She's back to having fun in the water now, and tonight she even joined in with her classmates a little (with me right next to her). Apparently a purple noodle was all it took for her teacher to lure her back.

Logan is apparently crawling! What a big boy! His Aunt Heather is sure proud of him. Hope I'm not stealing your thunder Jen.

And - incredibly - Roan is starting to read. I wish I hadn't left the camera at the old house, so I could've gotten it on video tonight. But she actually read a bonafide book to us tonight, sounding out each word carefully. On her 3rd day of school her teacher had exclaimed enthusiastically that Roan already knows all the shapes and sounds of all her letters (duh, I was thinking) and that she was ready to start the reading program. This involves a series of dozens of "reading boxes" which contain little cards with pictures and words the kids sound out. After completing 7 reading boxes then they start them in on little phonics reader type books. It's quite a structured system. And Roan has blazed through the first 7 reading boxes. Monday Ms. Bridget told us "I just can't hold her back. She's going to be ready for reading homework soon! This is highly unusual." And today when I picked her up from school her teacher was practically aglow, as she explained how the books work and what we are to have her do.

We had such a big day today - friends in from Breckenridge, a short trip to the zoo, a swim lesson - that I wasn't expecting much with the book. I figured there was a good chance she'd just not be in the mood. But instead she wanted to read it over and over. First to Arwen and then to me. I could see she was sleepy, but still she wanted to keep going. It was so incredible to hear her sound out each word. "Jan is a fat cat... Jan has a pan of ham... Pam is a pal of Jan's." Amazing!!!

Oh and I am unbelievably enormous. Even close friends can't help but gape in wonder. I have had to resort to buying a 3-part maternity belt with straps and vecro and support in all sorts of places. It bears a slight resemblance to a medieval torture device, but it has helped with back & round ligament pain. I am LITERALLY the same size around as the beach ball I tote each week to swimming class with Roan. I have my 24 week doctor's visit tomorrow. Looking forward to posting another belly photo as soon as I can be bothered to bring the camera over to the new house.

That is all... reporting from a whirlwind of happy chaos, yours truly.