Celebrations

We had two exciting celebrations in late May.

First we celebrated Rowen completing his first full year of cooperative preschool and then a week later we celebrated Rowen completing his first full Kindermusik session.

Both experiences were fabulous! Rowen has grown so much this school year. Mommy and Daddy are so proud of him. Rowen is such a good listener at both preschool and Kindermusik, he follows directions very well which is something we don't always see at home :). He is polite to his teachers and classmates and participates with enthusiasm (I know- I totally sound like a Kindergarten teacher filling out a report card!).

Here a few photos from Rowen's last day at preschool...

Jumping

playing with a friend

being celebrated by his teacher and classmates

fishing with friends

playing with some favorites

enjoying his last co-op snack

And Kindermusik...

The Kindermusik concert was the most adorable thing I have ever seen. I cried from the beginning to the end. I was so proud of our little guy, walking tall, singing out in his deep voice so that we could hear him over the other children, and then bravely yet a little shyly, getting up on the stage to sing his solo- Baby Beluga. At the end of the program every child stood on the stage to sing a solo. I cried for every child but watching and hearing our Rowen sing made my heart soar and my tears come fast!

We had lots of laughs too believe me. There are 12 kids in the class and they have been practicing their solos for about the last 4 weeks of class. Every child chose his/her own song and practiced it each week, however, about 5 of them decided as they were literally stepping up on the stage that they were going to sing a different song. One little boy went from singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to The National Anthem! I was nervous that Rowen was going to change his mind but also very curious about what he would decide to sing instead. He did not change his mind, just sang in much more toned down voice than we hear at home or in the car but it was perfect just the same!

When I can get the video to upload I will- it is precious!!!

27 weeks

Another wonderful month and a half of pregnancy has flown by- I can't believe my last pregnancy post was at 21 weeks. Time is flying by! I am still feeling really good and enjoying every moment of it- mostly :). Believe me, I have my complaints but when I really stop to think about it, this pregnancy has been so great. The first trimester I was pretty nauseous but since then I have felt really good.

I have no major aches and pains. After experiencing such a painful pregnancy with Rowen (carpel tunnel and then pain from HELLP syndrome) I don't take "pain" lightly. I am able to keep it in perspective. Aches and a little discomfort and totally doable!! If I am on my feet really moving around for a long time then my sciatica does start to bug me but my carpel tunnel is still very minor. I am so grateful! I get tired out pretty quickly but I know my limits so I only do what is realistic for me. Working part time is truly the most I could do at this point. I don't know how I would be able to teach 22 Kindergarteners 5 days a week and come home to my 3 year old and still be a decent mother! It is challenging enough when I work 2-3 days a week.

At this point my health is looking good. I have an appointment on Friday at which point my doctor is going to run a few tests as a baseline for future tests to help him detect if pre-eclampsia is coming on over the next several weeks (HELLP hit with Rowen somewhere between 34 and 35 weeks). I will bring in a 24 hour urine sample (fun!) and then I will have some blood work done as well. I will also do my GD test on that day too. I am thinking positive and hoping to carry this baby to a safe, healthy place in pregnancy.

My in laws, my parents and Eric are all very supportive and helpful on my work days (and off days too!). They often make dinner, clean up, play with Ro (to get all of that 3 year old energy out before bed time), bath Rowen, put him to bed, and all at the same time pamper me too. Eric and I have said many times that we don't know what we would do without our parents during this time. My mom is especially a life saver for me. She is always there to do whatever she possibly can to help me get some rest and Rowen adores his time with Grammy.

We still haven't decided for sure on any names. We have a few that we both like but we have not settled on one girl name and one boy name quite yet. There are certainly a few names I absolutely LOVE but we just have to nail down a name. Not knowing the gender is making choosing a name much more difficult than I thought it would be. Choosing Rowen's name was a piece of cake compared to this time.


Baby is continuing to prove to be an active little bugger, especially at night between 9 and 11 or so; however, I do feel baby throughout the day- sitting, standing, laying down- this baby feels really strong. It is so amazing and precious and brings such joy to my life. One of our favorite things to do at night is to watch my belly move- we laugh and fall in love more and more with this busy baby. Between my darling Ro and this growing baby I feel like a very lucky mama!

Our one and only camping trip of 2011

The title of this post is telling- yes, this was probably our only camping trip this year. We had planned on going on about 3 but a few factors have discouraged us from making another overnight trip down to Lake Roosevelt.

First, the water is WAY too far down for this time of year. We were shocked to to see so much beach. We had to walk out a long ways to get to the water and then you can't really do anything at that point due to the steep hills. This is unusual for this time of year so we were really disappointed. Second, my ever growing pregnant hips were sore for 2 days after sleeping in our cozy and comfy pop up trailer, and possibly from the boat ride too. I had all my pillows to make sleeping as comfortable as possible but the mattress just isn't going to cut it. We could probably work harder to make it work and maybe we will, but for now we will make day trips down when the water comes up far enough for us to enjoy the beach. And last but not least, our 3 year old gave us all a few not so pleasant moments on the way down there and then once again later on. Overall he was delightful and as usual helped us all to see the beauty and joy in everything we did that weekend.

Regardless of the few disappointing things, we made the most of our one and only camping trip...

Rowen caught a fish! He insisted on putting it into that green sand toy. He thinks that is his fishing net :).

Wow! Big fish!

We spotted a black bear cub and watched it get into the water then go back up the hill.

We roasted delicious s'mores. My sweet tooth boy is not so fond of them. He took his apart and ate only the chocolate out of the center then offered the remains to everyone else.

Papa being silly

Enjoying the sunshine and eating peanuts on the boat- one of Rowen's favorite things to do on Papa and Grammy's boat.

Walking the logs.

Isn't that ridiculous- look at all that beach. Yuck!

Rowen, pulling his dump truck and sand toys across the vast desert
(as Rowen referred to it all weekend).

Thanks Grammy and Papa for such a fun camping trip!
You two make everything possible :).

Happy Birthday Uncle TJ

Over Memorial Day weekend my parents, Rowen, and I went to Corvallis to visit TJ and Erin and to celebrate TJ's birthday. We had a great time hanging out, checking out the Corvallis Farmer's Market, exploring OSU's beautiful campus, playing on the beach, eating lots of yummy treats including TJ's home made cinnamon rolls (a pregnant ladies dream come true!), and of course celebrating TJ's birthday.

Rowen thoroughly enjoyed every minute with his Uncle and Aunt. Uncle TJ tickled and wrestled with Rowen, chased him around the OSU campus and took amazing photographs of him. Aunt Erin continues to be Rowen's biggest crush even without her wedding dress on :).

It was hard to say good bye to TJ and Erin but we know we will see them in early August!

21 Weeks

The past month has flown by. It has been a good month in pregnancy land for me. I feel really good. For the most part I have lots of energy, although I still want to go to bed by 9:00! I guess it is more accurate to say that I am asleep by 9:00. I would like to be asleep by 8 but that isn't possible :).

I am not feeling any major carpel tunnel symptoms at this point, only minor manageable ones. I am doing tons of preventative stuff to keep the very uncomfortable symptoms at bay and I am pleased that I have made it this far without any discomfort! I was about 24 weeks along with Rowen when I really started to feel it so I am not there yet but I was sure it was going to get bad much sooner this time around- I was wrong thank goodness. We will deal with it as it comes.

I am still having pretty crazy pregnancy dreams both just weird and scary. I haven't had a birth dream since the ultrasound, however, I dream about other stuff not related to pregnancy at all- weird things happening to me or unfortunately, bad things happening to Rowen or others I love. Those dreams make my heart pound so fast I have to get up out of bed, walk to the bathroom, go check on Rowen, get a drink of water and then finally I can settle my heart and breathing down enough to get back to sleep. This doesn't happen a lot but enough to disrupt my sleep about once a week. Sometimes I wake Eric up with questions like, "Did you hear that?" or "What is that sound!". He just grunts and tells me everything is fine.

I am feeling baby move lots and lots! This one is certainly a mover. I will have days where baby is pretty calm and then others where I can't seem to find an hour in the day where I don't feel it move. I have to admit, I am a bit obsessed with thinking about if "it" is a boy or a girl. I didn't think about it really at all (at least consciously) until the big ultrasound and then after that I have been thinking about it way too much. I am still very happy with our decision to wait until the birth to find out, in fact, I think it is going to be downright incredible! Boy or girl I am going to bawl my eyes out when I have a healthy, darling, tiny baby in my arms!

Rowen is getting more and more excited. We talk about the baby but not all the time. I don't want to get him pumped up for 4 more months of waiting. However, he brings it up and when he does we talk about the baby. He says things like, "I want to see the baby now!", "When is the baby coming out? It has been a LONG time!", "The baby is so cute!" while he hugs my tummy. He also still asks me what the baby is saying and I continue to tell him stories about the baby asking questions about it's big brother. Rowen still calls the baby a "he" but still tells anyone who asks (which by the way we never do!) that he wants a baby sister. Rowen also has started to tell us about all the things he is going to teach his "baby brother or baby sister". We just figured out this evening why he is so excited about Mother's Day. I thought he was excited to give me a special gift or do something special for me but through a few conversations it has been made clear that he thought the baby would come on Mother's Day. So sweet and innocent.

Ultrasound

This is a long one. I wrote down as much as I could remember, not so much for the readers but for our family to look back on in the months and years to come. Thanks for putting up with the novel ;).

My mom took this photo of Rowen and I right before leaving for the ultrasound.
I can't believe how big my boy is!

We had such a great time at our ultrasound. I couldn't have asked for a better experience. The ultrasound tech was super positive and excited about all the great pictures we were getting of the baby. We told her right away that we didn't want to know the gender. Eric made it very clear to her :). She told us that she calls all babies "he" because she doesn't like "it", so we shouldn't read into it (but it was hard not to). She began the scan, showed us a few things quickly then told us to look away so that she could see if the baby was going to make it's gender obvious to her or not. We looked away, she went to that area and within about 5 seconds she said the baby was making it very clear to her so she would have to be careful. So of course, Eric and I think that it must be a boy with his legs spread eagle! Rowen made it very obvious too.

Right after she checked the gender she asked us if Rowen wanted a little brother. We said that he has been pretty consistent with saying things about a baby sister but he calls the baby a he when we talk about the baby or to the baby. She just laughed and said that it seems like most 2 and 3 year old little boys want baby sisters and most 4 and 5 year old little boys want baby brothers. They must figure out around 4 or 5 that a baby brother might be more fun in the long run :).

She continued the scan, showing us all sorts of great things. She kept saying that the baby was in a great position and giving her really good pictures. Baby moved a lot but stayed in about the same position the same time- head on my right side and feet about an inch below my belly button. At about this time she let me go to the bathroom to empty my bladder and then Eric went out to the waiting room to get Grammy and Rowen.

Rowen was bit hesitant in the darkened room at first but as soon as the tech put that gooey stuff on my tummy again he was very interested in what that was and wanted to touch it :). The tech continued the scan again, then showed us some fun stuff- the feet and the profile. Then she said the baby was in the perfect position for 4D so she switched it over and wow! We saw the babies face so clearly. Babies hands were in fists under the chin, moving up and down and around the face. Baby opened and closed its mouth several times. We asked Rowen what he thought the baby was saying? We suggested that maybe baby was singing or saying "hi big brother!". Ro got a kick out of that. At one point Rowen said, "That is a girl baby!". We laughed.

The tech said that they normally don't get very good 4D pics at this gestational age so she was surprised they looked so good. She said we have one of the cutest babies she has seen in a long time! Ha- we thought that was good news and very sweet of her to say (we know... she probably says it to everyone). We had to look away several times to avoid seeing the gender. Our tech was great at giving us plenty of time to look away before moving to that area. Finally our tech said that she was having so much fun looking at our baby that she was going to be late for her next appointment. She ended the scan and gave us some great photos along with the video we had her record.

Eric and I went over to the the next door office to wait for my doctors appointment while Grammy took Rowen home. While sitting in the waiting room and admiring our new photos, our tech came out again and sat down beside me. She said that she didn't realize it was my birthday until we had already left. She wanted to wish me a happy birthday and say again how much fun that scan was for her to do. We thought that was really nice of her.


So here are some photos. Sorry they are so small. I had a hard time scanning them in one at a time. You can click on them to make them bigger.








My doctor's appointment went just as well. My nurse, who I really like, let us listen to the heartbeat on the Doppler even though we had just had an ultrasound. The heartbeat was 153 (Rowen's was in the 160's at this time). That is the best sound when you are pregnant! Then she took my blood pressure which I was nervous about because last time it was a bit high. However, this time it was just right! My doctor came in and I got a chance to ask many questions that I had been writing down over the last few weeks. He took lots of time to chat with us and ease my mind about a few things.

We feel so fortunate and happy right now to have had such a positive anatomy scan. I feel like the next 4 1/2 months are going to fly by so I want to enjoy this amazing time in my life, being pregnant and spending time with my sweet 3 year old boy.

skiing 2

That is my little boy going up the ski lift with his Papa!

Rowen LOVED going up the lift! He smiled the whole way and then when it was time to come down the mountain...

he continued to smile and yell happy sounds ALL THE WAY DOWN. We laughed at our silly boy while people all around him stopped to look at him, making sure that little boy was really yelling out happy sounds and not terrified ones.

Papa was/is an amazing teacher. Rowen felt very safe and secure the entire time. Papa's back was a bit sore though :).

I don't know how many times Rowen went up the lift and down the mountain. I lost track very quickly.

Rowen skiing with Papa and Daddy

Rowen thought that chasing his Daddy down the mountain was super fun. That is Eric on the snowboard right in front of Papa and Ro.

Rowen singing his way down the mountain.