Well after about 4 years of wanting another baby, we are finally having one!! Brendon and I are so excited and Brenna couldn't be happier to finally become a big sister. She has been wanting a sibling for years now and I just know that she is going to make a GREAT big sister. She has definitely had 'baby' on the brain since we found out.
I had my first appointment last Thursday and the doctor estimated that I am about 6 weeks along and that my due date is December 23rd. I am going back to the doctor this Thursday (4/29) for my first ultrasound to make sure that everything is how it should be. I am a bit nervous about things going well but I have been trying not to dwell on it. I was told by one person that they couldn't believe we were already telling people because it's still so early but what I told them was that we've been wanting this baby for so long (and everyone knows that!) that we just can't NOT tell people. Yes, it is still early but I am hoping for and expecting the best.
We have a lot of planning ahead of us to get ready for another little person in our house. As of now we have a 2 bedroom house because the wall in Brenna's room was taken down before we bought it to make one big room. So we may either have to put the wall back up to make it two rooms again or we are contemplating on closing in our carport for a play room and then Brenna and the baby can share a bedroom for a while. I guess money will be the biggest factor in that.
So far I have been feeling wonderful! I am hoping that will continue because I was pretty sick when I was pregnant with Brenna. Just been a bit tired toward the middle of the day and I have been taking little naps. My belly is a bit bloated but I have not gained any weight at all. I've been eating so healthy this past week and drinking so much water that I have actually lost about 2 pounds. I am determined not to gain as much weight as I did with Brenna. I gained 60 pounds and was a very miserable pregnant person towards the end. And my weight gain caused a lot of problems too so I want to avoid that this time. I'm just very glad that I lost a lot of weight and changed my eating habits BEFORE I got pregnant - I think that will make a huge difference.
Well Brenna has her best friend over today and right now they are playing on the trampoline with the sprinkler under it, having a blast! This week is TAKS testing at the public schools and I am feeling very grateful that my daughter does not have to go thru that! LOL Seeing her jumping and playing outside while most other kids are sitting in a classroom all day taking a stupid government test makes my heart swell. :)
Ok, off to lay down and rest my baby-making body!! I will be posting more after my appointment on Thursday.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Doing Great
I felt that I had to write another post today - second one in a day. Impressive! I haven't written much lately about how we are doing. Of course, we've been pretty busy, hence the not writing! Brenna's birthday was last week and she turned 8 years old. Very hard to believe. I took out her baby scrapbook I made and went down memory lane a bit. Seems like just yesterday that she was a tiny little baby, but then again it seems so long ago too. Funny how things like that happen.
Brendon and I and my parents bought her a trampoline for her birthday and she was so excited about that! She's been wanting one for a long time and finally her birthday wish this year came true. I love that she has yet another thing to do outside, in the sunshine. I absolutely love the sweaty, red faced kid that she becomes after a long time spent outdoors. One of my favorite things to see. :)
It's hard to believe that I've been a stay-at-home mom now for 8 years. I would not change it for the world though. I remember when I found out I was pregnant and Brendon and I were both working at a call center for MSN. I had no intentions of becoming a Mom who stayed home. In fact, I had day care all lined up at a nice Christian school that my aunt worked at. I had planned on taking my 6 weeks (or whatever it was) of maternity leave and sending her off to day care and going back to work.
HA!
Little did I know how much a baby can change you! As soon as she was born and I laid eyes on that sweet little baby all of my plans flew out the window! No way I was going to let a stranger take care of my little baby - that was Momma's job!
It wasn't easy at all. With only a one income household (and it wasn't a lot of income!) we struggled majorly. For a while we did without all the luxuries that most people find a necessity today. No Internet, no cable, no going out to eat, Ramen Noodles and hot dogs for dinner quite often...... We did what we had to do though and if I had to do it again there would be no doubt in my mind that we would. It was completely worth it.
And I'm STILL having such a wonderful time with Brenna 8 years later! I could not even imagine not being with her as much as I am. Homeschooling has become such a lifestyle for us. No homework, no very early mornings, no rushing around at night to get in bed early, no planning our lives around school. It is so, so wonderful to be able to pick up and go do something on a Tuesday! What a fantastic life we have!!
And Brenna is doing great. We are still not doing any kind of curriculum what so ever and it is working better than I could ever imagine. I do get caught up sometimes in worrying about what other kids her age are doing but then something happens that completely eases my mind.
For example, last week in Girl Scout the girls were making friendship scrapbooks. They had blank little books that they were supposed to draw pictures of friends or write something about them. During stuff like that I can't help but pay close attention to what the other girls are doing.
One thing I really noticed was the way the other girls were asking the troop leader about things they could draw and write in their books. It was like they were almost asking permission to do certain things or that they really couldn't come up with their own ideas so they were asking the "teacher" for ideas. This really reminded me of a poem I posted on my blog quite sometime ago. Brenna, on the other hand, just went with it! She heard 'scrapbook' and 'friends' and I could tell that she had a million ideas just going through that brain of hers and she did her own thing.
Another thing that shocked me somewhat was the way that Brenna was helping her peers with spelling! It was UNBELIEVABLE that my kid, who really has had no type of "schooling" at all, was coaching some of these other girls !!! I was floored and I have to admit, it made me feel pretty darn good and really justified what we have been doing.
I wonder how many times something like that is going to have to happen before I figure out that what we are doing WORKS?! I guess as a parent though you'll always wonder if what you are doing is right.
I am extremely proud of what our daughter is becoming and I am honored to be able to witness it and experience it all first hand.
Brendon and I and my parents bought her a trampoline for her birthday and she was so excited about that! She's been wanting one for a long time and finally her birthday wish this year came true. I love that she has yet another thing to do outside, in the sunshine. I absolutely love the sweaty, red faced kid that she becomes after a long time spent outdoors. One of my favorite things to see. :)
It's hard to believe that I've been a stay-at-home mom now for 8 years. I would not change it for the world though. I remember when I found out I was pregnant and Brendon and I were both working at a call center for MSN. I had no intentions of becoming a Mom who stayed home. In fact, I had day care all lined up at a nice Christian school that my aunt worked at. I had planned on taking my 6 weeks (or whatever it was) of maternity leave and sending her off to day care and going back to work.
HA!
Little did I know how much a baby can change you! As soon as she was born and I laid eyes on that sweet little baby all of my plans flew out the window! No way I was going to let a stranger take care of my little baby - that was Momma's job!
It wasn't easy at all. With only a one income household (and it wasn't a lot of income!) we struggled majorly. For a while we did without all the luxuries that most people find a necessity today. No Internet, no cable, no going out to eat, Ramen Noodles and hot dogs for dinner quite often...... We did what we had to do though and if I had to do it again there would be no doubt in my mind that we would. It was completely worth it.
And I'm STILL having such a wonderful time with Brenna 8 years later! I could not even imagine not being with her as much as I am. Homeschooling has become such a lifestyle for us. No homework, no very early mornings, no rushing around at night to get in bed early, no planning our lives around school. It is so, so wonderful to be able to pick up and go do something on a Tuesday! What a fantastic life we have!!
And Brenna is doing great. We are still not doing any kind of curriculum what so ever and it is working better than I could ever imagine. I do get caught up sometimes in worrying about what other kids her age are doing but then something happens that completely eases my mind.
For example, last week in Girl Scout the girls were making friendship scrapbooks. They had blank little books that they were supposed to draw pictures of friends or write something about them. During stuff like that I can't help but pay close attention to what the other girls are doing.
One thing I really noticed was the way the other girls were asking the troop leader about things they could draw and write in their books. It was like they were almost asking permission to do certain things or that they really couldn't come up with their own ideas so they were asking the "teacher" for ideas. This really reminded me of a poem I posted on my blog quite sometime ago. Brenna, on the other hand, just went with it! She heard 'scrapbook' and 'friends' and I could tell that she had a million ideas just going through that brain of hers and she did her own thing.
Another thing that shocked me somewhat was the way that Brenna was helping her peers with spelling! It was UNBELIEVABLE that my kid, who really has had no type of "schooling" at all, was coaching some of these other girls !!! I was floored and I have to admit, it made me feel pretty darn good and really justified what we have been doing.
I wonder how many times something like that is going to have to happen before I figure out that what we are doing WORKS?! I guess as a parent though you'll always wonder if what you are doing is right.
I am extremely proud of what our daughter is becoming and I am honored to be able to witness it and experience it all first hand.
Great Quote
I've been really horrible about posting lately - my apologies. Wonder if anyone even still comes to read or if everyone has given up on me. LOL
Going to be busy today cleaning my house and doing laundry. I found a quote today that I thought would be great on my blog so I will end with that and hopefully get on here again soon......
"What sells most people on the idea of school is the fact that the unschooled child learns what it wants to learn when it wants to learn it. This is intolerable to them, because they're convinced that children don't want to learn anything at all--and they point to school children to prove it. What they fail to recognize is that the learning curve of preschool children swoops upward like a mountain--but quickly levels off when they enter school. By the third or fourth grade it's completely flat for most kids. Learning, such as it is, has become a boring, painful experience they'd love to be able to avoid if they could. But there's another reason why people abhor the idea of children learning what they want to learn when they want to learn it. They won't all learn the same things!
Some of them will never learn to analyze a poem! Some of them will never learn to parse a sentence or write a theme! Some of them will never read Julius Caesar! Some will never learn geometry! Some will never dissect a frog! Some will never learn how a bill passes Congress! Well, of course, this is too horrible to imagine. It doesn't matter that 90% of these students will never read another poem or another play by Shakespeare in their lives. It doesn't matter that 90% of them will never have occasion to parse another sentence or write another theme in their lives. It doesn't matter that 90% retain no functional knowledge of the geometry or algebra they studied. It doesn't matter that 90% never have any use for whatever knowledge they were supposed to gain from dissecting a frog. It doesn't matter that 90% graduate without having the vaguest idea how a bill passes Congress. All that matters is that they've gone through it!" -Daniel Quinn
Going to be busy today cleaning my house and doing laundry. I found a quote today that I thought would be great on my blog so I will end with that and hopefully get on here again soon......
"What sells most people on the idea of school is the fact that the unschooled child learns what it wants to learn when it wants to learn it. This is intolerable to them, because they're convinced that children don't want to learn anything at all--and they point to school children to prove it. What they fail to recognize is that the learning curve of preschool children swoops upward like a mountain--but quickly levels off when they enter school. By the third or fourth grade it's completely flat for most kids. Learning, such as it is, has become a boring, painful experience they'd love to be able to avoid if they could. But there's another reason why people abhor the idea of children learning what they want to learn when they want to learn it. They won't all learn the same things!
Some of them will never learn to analyze a poem! Some of them will never learn to parse a sentence or write a theme! Some of them will never read Julius Caesar! Some will never learn geometry! Some will never dissect a frog! Some will never learn how a bill passes Congress! Well, of course, this is too horrible to imagine. It doesn't matter that 90% of these students will never read another poem or another play by Shakespeare in their lives. It doesn't matter that 90% of them will never have occasion to parse another sentence or write another theme in their lives. It doesn't matter that 90% retain no functional knowledge of the geometry or algebra they studied. It doesn't matter that 90% never have any use for whatever knowledge they were supposed to gain from dissecting a frog. It doesn't matter that 90% graduate without having the vaguest idea how a bill passes Congress. All that matters is that they've gone through it!" -Daniel Quinn
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