So I haven't written in a while. I don't know if I was subconsciously trying to not jinx this pregnancy or what, but it was not on purpose! However, we are currently almost 35 weeks along and 37 weeks is technically considered term (though ask any NICU nurse and they'll tell you that it really kind of depends on the baby if that act full-term or not, so 37 weeks does not necessarily mean you are in the clear).
We have been quite busy over the last months! So I will keep this pretty brief and focus on what is happening now, we'll start with pregnancy and baby prep. Recently we went to a family reunion in South Dakota and I got to meet a lot of Ben's extended family that I had not had opportunity to meet before. I also got to meet his cousin who has twins! There were lots of little guys there about Samuel's size, so he had a great time hanging with them.
From the family perspective, it was an awesome trip! We even stayed at my parents on the way out and got to see Ben's Grandma, which is always good too. From the car ride perspective the trip was killer to my back! Between being in the third trimester, the car ride and twisting to help Samuel with stuff, my back was pretty well screaming in pain by the time we got home...
So I went to the chiropractor. I felt improvement after that, but it still hurt pretty bad. So off I went to get a massage and boy did that make a difference! Of course all of it has been helped by my husband, who has graciously been giving me nightly back rubs to attack the two spots that make it hurt. He is such a loving husband, playing along with my pain so nicely. I really don't know how to get to sleep without him rubbing my back. And yet, he's gone to the National LCMS Convention and sleep has definitely not come easy! I need my back rubber home again... Oh, well, tomorrow I'm getting another massage so hopefully that will help me get to the end of the week a little better!
Please do not read my back pain story as complaining, because I am far from truly complaining about the back pain. Yes, it is quite annoying and frustrating, but despite that my baby is growing. Right now my baby staying inside and growing is vastly more important than the back pain I have been having. So while it is not fun having back pain, I would take the back pain any day over a preemie. So in a sense I am thankful for it because it means that my baby is still inside me and growing.
This baby is going to have a way more organized and better decorated room than Samuel ever had! I suppose it helps that a) we have pretty much everything already and b) the baby hasn't been born yet! If this baby can as early as Samuel we would have been equally disorganized! Right now the baby has the crib all set up (no sheets on the mattress yet though, that shall be remedied soon though), a dresser (clothes aren't in it yet, but I am working on sorting them, yeah if we have a girl I'll probably end up pulling some of it out, but I'll put it all in for now for the little sizes, but there are bibs, burp cloths and swaddlers all ready to go), diapers are ready (we still have a pack or newborn and size 1 diapers from the baby showers for Samuel and I have all the newborn cloth diapers prepped, sorted and ready to go) and we have some decorations up with matching curtains. I'll post photos once we get things a little more set, but we are getting really close!
Samuel is doing great! He had a double ear infection in May and has one again, but otherwise he has been very healthy and keeps growing and learning new tricks. He has become quite proficient at scootching on his butt and army crawling. He has loved walking around, holding tightly onto our hands with both his hands and currently is getting more adventurous with walking the furniture. I don't think he will meet my deadly of being a very able walker by the time the baby is born, but he is getting much closer. I guess I will probably have to carry two babes around for a while...
Finally I have been working on lots of projects this summer and making slow progress on all of them. The first one to finish is a photo book I am making for my Grandma's 90th birthday! We are unfortunately going to miss out on the party as it is soo close to our due date, but maybe we'll give her a great-grandchild for her birthday instead!
I am also working on curriculum for the two classes I am teaching with the Wittenburg Academy. This is a classical Lutheran online high school. This next school year will be our second school year. We learned a lot from the first school year I think. We know more about things to avoid and things that are really good to do in that environment. I will be teaching German I and German II this next school year during the Christmas Term and Easter Term. Originally I was going to teach during the Michaelmas Term, but with baby coming about the time that term starts, I decided to opt out of that term. So only 2 levels of German this year, hopefully next year we can add German III. The faculty and staff recently had a retreat in conjunction with the Consortium on Classical Lutheran Education's Conference. Unfortunately I was unable to attend physically, but was able to join some of the sessions virtually. We talked about a lot of great stuff and I cannot wait to use some of the resources they pointed us to as I prepare my courses.
With all of this going on Ben has been quite busy too! He spent a week at guard training in June. It was quite entertaining when he came home. Samuel I think was afraid he was going to leave him again, so every time Ben left his site, he freaked out, even if he just left his sight for a few seconds. Then Ben brought some youth from our Church to the National Youth Gathering at the beginning of this month, came home and got VBS ready and had VBS and now is gone to the National LCMS Convention. I have not seen nearly enough of my husband! I am excited for him to be home soon, there is only 1 guard drill between now and our due date, so I will hopefully be seeing much more of him!
I'll just leave you with, we are getting excited about the baby's arrival (though it is not time for baby to come yet) and we are keeping quite busy with all our activities and jobs!
Showing posts with label pregnancy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pregnancy. Show all posts
22 July 2013
15 March 2013
Due Dates
WOW! I cannot hardly believe it's been since November since I posted last! I guess that makes me the slacker, ha! Anyways...
Due Dates are REALLY important, even though babies are generally not born on them! Samuel turned 1 year old (is that really possible?!?!) on January 27th, however we have not reached his due date yet, which makes him just over 10.5 months adjusted now.
He's doing great though! During the day he likes to keep busy grabbing any papers/keys within reach, watching Momma work out and just generally causing any mischief he can get his hands on. The music set and little car Oma and Opa gave him last weekend have been great for funneling his energy!
That said he's not mobile.... yet. I truly believe he is able to crawl, just doesn't. He does LOVE being on his tummy and goes in circles like it's nobody's business and eventually makes it a few feet across the floor. He is increasingly enjoying standing (with support), but is definitely not interested in taking any steps at this point. My only request is that he is fully mobile by August (more on that below if you haven't heard our news).
Currently he is also experimenting with dropping his morning nap, which means he will only have 1 afternoon nap. I'm saddened by that because I love having 2 nap times to do things or nap myself, but alas I'll adjust to only 1 nap time!
So I really want him mobile in the next few months because... I want to deal with the challenges that come with a mobile child before we have a newborn! Samuel's baby brother or sister (don't even bother asking if we know the gender, we don't and we're going to keep it that way until birth) is due August 29th. Samuel's due date was April 28th, so I guess we are trying our hand at the other A month.
So far this pregnancy has been easier on my than Samuel's. I believe I had more morning sickness problems (which were still more naseau than actual sickness) this time, but overal my energy level has been much higher. With Samuel I was simply exhausted and everyone would tell me that that is just the way it is when you're pregnant. I really wanted to start asking people if they'd borrow my level of exhaustion for a few days and then tell me that it's normal. It was not normal, I was more tired than most pregnant women and it only went away when Samuel was born.
A contributing factor to my exhaustion level might have been allergies. Due to getting sick a lot last fall I switched doctor's, went on allergy meds and have had more energy than I have had in years. In fact Ben told me one night that he had no idea what to do with me having all of that energy (that was just before we got pregnant). I was definitely tired during first trimester, but it wasn't anything a nap couldn't help. With Samuel sleep did not help my level of tiredness, I was simply tired all the time.
Right now everything is going completely normal with this pregnancy (and other than exhaustion, it did at this point with Samuel as well). At the last check-up our baby was definitely hiding from the doctor and it took her quite a while to find him/her so she could get a decent read for herself (and so I could hear well too of course). So this child is also proving to be quite active in the womb just like big brother. My doctor asked me if I could feel the baby move already, well I hadn't at that point. Since that appointment I think I have felt somethings that felt like it did when Samuel moved, but I am not 100% certain. I'm sure I'll feel the baby in the near future!
That is the big update for now! Hopefully I will not forget about my blog in the future and keep everyone updated! We have been quite busy this winter and the coming months do not appear to be slowing down at all! I'm loving my time home with Samuel!
Due Dates are REALLY important, even though babies are generally not born on them! Samuel turned 1 year old (is that really possible?!?!) on January 27th, however we have not reached his due date yet, which makes him just over 10.5 months adjusted now.
He's doing great though! During the day he likes to keep busy grabbing any papers/keys within reach, watching Momma work out and just generally causing any mischief he can get his hands on. The music set and little car Oma and Opa gave him last weekend have been great for funneling his energy!
That said he's not mobile.... yet. I truly believe he is able to crawl, just doesn't. He does LOVE being on his tummy and goes in circles like it's nobody's business and eventually makes it a few feet across the floor. He is increasingly enjoying standing (with support), but is definitely not interested in taking any steps at this point. My only request is that he is fully mobile by August (more on that below if you haven't heard our news).
Currently he is also experimenting with dropping his morning nap, which means he will only have 1 afternoon nap. I'm saddened by that because I love having 2 nap times to do things or nap myself, but alas I'll adjust to only 1 nap time!
So I really want him mobile in the next few months because... I want to deal with the challenges that come with a mobile child before we have a newborn! Samuel's baby brother or sister (don't even bother asking if we know the gender, we don't and we're going to keep it that way until birth) is due August 29th. Samuel's due date was April 28th, so I guess we are trying our hand at the other A month.
So far this pregnancy has been easier on my than Samuel's. I believe I had more morning sickness problems (which were still more naseau than actual sickness) this time, but overal my energy level has been much higher. With Samuel I was simply exhausted and everyone would tell me that that is just the way it is when you're pregnant. I really wanted to start asking people if they'd borrow my level of exhaustion for a few days and then tell me that it's normal. It was not normal, I was more tired than most pregnant women and it only went away when Samuel was born.
A contributing factor to my exhaustion level might have been allergies. Due to getting sick a lot last fall I switched doctor's, went on allergy meds and have had more energy than I have had in years. In fact Ben told me one night that he had no idea what to do with me having all of that energy (that was just before we got pregnant). I was definitely tired during first trimester, but it wasn't anything a nap couldn't help. With Samuel sleep did not help my level of tiredness, I was simply tired all the time.
Right now everything is going completely normal with this pregnancy (and other than exhaustion, it did at this point with Samuel as well). At the last check-up our baby was definitely hiding from the doctor and it took her quite a while to find him/her so she could get a decent read for herself (and so I could hear well too of course). So this child is also proving to be quite active in the womb just like big brother. My doctor asked me if I could feel the baby move already, well I hadn't at that point. Since that appointment I think I have felt somethings that felt like it did when Samuel moved, but I am not 100% certain. I'm sure I'll feel the baby in the near future!
That is the big update for now! Hopefully I will not forget about my blog in the future and keep everyone updated! We have been quite busy this winter and the coming months do not appear to be slowing down at all! I'm loving my time home with Samuel!
21 January 2012
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions
It's been a while since I have been on and posted, which is evidence of how busy and tiring this pregnancy and job situation has been! Finally I am sitting down to write a post and I am not completely sure what I want to say, but I know I should update.
To get perspective on where we are at on the pregnancy, we are at 26 weeks today and almost in the third trimester!! It is unbelievable that in apr. 3 months we are going to be bringing a little baby boy or girl home from the hospital. This little one sure makes her/her presence known already though! I have read forum posts about the baby playing bongos on your bladder.... Well our little one sure does do that and has been doing it since about the end of November! I have felt our baby move since about mid November. In November at our check up the doctor was using a doppler to get the heartbeat and our dear child would not stop moving! She was literally chasing our baby down on my belly. It was quite entertaining!
The December check-up was ultrasound time! Our baby kept placing his/her hands by the mouth, making it really hard to get a good 3D shot of the head. We elected not to find out the gender of our baby. So we don't know, and if we don't know we sure can't tell you!
We also had an exciting and not so fun incident the week before Thanksgiving. My husband was playing basketball and managed to not only sprain his ankle, but also break his foot. For a little more than a week now he has finally be allowed to not wear a walking boot all the time. Which is also good thing for me, because he broke his right foot, meaning I have been honored to do all the driving!
Now the reason I called this post Decisions, Decisions, Decisions is because of a decision I was left needing to make this winter. As I mentioned before the only real pregnancy symptom I have had has been exhaustion. Well, that continues to be the case. Now the exhaustion I have been experiencing has been really hard to deal with when it comes to be a first year, full time teacher.
This school year has been amazing! I have thoroughly enjoyed being a Spanish teacher. I just noticed a downhill slide when my energy never seemed to really come back. I had a slight bump in energy for about a week or two as first tri ended and the second one began, but that was it, then I was back to just being completely exhausted all the time again and this time it was wearing on my quite a bit. I started going to bed insanely early just to make it through the next day. If I got what used to be my usual amount of sleep, I would be pretty worthless the next day...
So after lots of conversations with my husband and lots of prayer I went back from Christmas break having decided to step down from the position. This has really been one of the hardest decisions of my life. I really wanted to continue, I enjoyed teaching, but at the same time the joy I felt at the beginning of the school year seemed to be lost in yawns in constantly checking the clock. Besides with our baby due in April I wasn't going to be able to finish the school year anyways...
It was amazing how quickly they managed to find someone to step in. God is good all time! After less than a week after break they were already hiring the new teacher! I met with her a few times (it turns out we live in the same town and thus have the same half hour commute to work) and then this week (Mon-Wed) I worked with her to get things set up in the classroom and let her take over. She seems like she will do a great job! I left the job feeling excited for my (former) students that they have a new teacher excited to be there and one that has a lot of energy!
Now I get to focus on nesting. :-) I haven't done too much with that this week, but this first week is more about recovery and getting my feet back under me. I did cook my husband breakfast yesterday (I hadn't cooked in a long time) and I am cooking him supper today, so I am moving forward, doing things I had been lacking the energy to do. Hoping to make our house a home ready for a newborn infant.
With this change, I am sure I will be able to get on more often and write more about what is going on. I will also be able to get caught up on things that were shoved to the side while working. I am excited about the next 3 months. It feels great to have a fresh start for the last trimester!
To get perspective on where we are at on the pregnancy, we are at 26 weeks today and almost in the third trimester!! It is unbelievable that in apr. 3 months we are going to be bringing a little baby boy or girl home from the hospital. This little one sure makes her/her presence known already though! I have read forum posts about the baby playing bongos on your bladder.... Well our little one sure does do that and has been doing it since about the end of November! I have felt our baby move since about mid November. In November at our check up the doctor was using a doppler to get the heartbeat and our dear child would not stop moving! She was literally chasing our baby down on my belly. It was quite entertaining!
The December check-up was ultrasound time! Our baby kept placing his/her hands by the mouth, making it really hard to get a good 3D shot of the head. We elected not to find out the gender of our baby. So we don't know, and if we don't know we sure can't tell you!
We also had an exciting and not so fun incident the week before Thanksgiving. My husband was playing basketball and managed to not only sprain his ankle, but also break his foot. For a little more than a week now he has finally be allowed to not wear a walking boot all the time. Which is also good thing for me, because he broke his right foot, meaning I have been honored to do all the driving!
Now the reason I called this post Decisions, Decisions, Decisions is because of a decision I was left needing to make this winter. As I mentioned before the only real pregnancy symptom I have had has been exhaustion. Well, that continues to be the case. Now the exhaustion I have been experiencing has been really hard to deal with when it comes to be a first year, full time teacher.
This school year has been amazing! I have thoroughly enjoyed being a Spanish teacher. I just noticed a downhill slide when my energy never seemed to really come back. I had a slight bump in energy for about a week or two as first tri ended and the second one began, but that was it, then I was back to just being completely exhausted all the time again and this time it was wearing on my quite a bit. I started going to bed insanely early just to make it through the next day. If I got what used to be my usual amount of sleep, I would be pretty worthless the next day...
So after lots of conversations with my husband and lots of prayer I went back from Christmas break having decided to step down from the position. This has really been one of the hardest decisions of my life. I really wanted to continue, I enjoyed teaching, but at the same time the joy I felt at the beginning of the school year seemed to be lost in yawns in constantly checking the clock. Besides with our baby due in April I wasn't going to be able to finish the school year anyways...
It was amazing how quickly they managed to find someone to step in. God is good all time! After less than a week after break they were already hiring the new teacher! I met with her a few times (it turns out we live in the same town and thus have the same half hour commute to work) and then this week (Mon-Wed) I worked with her to get things set up in the classroom and let her take over. She seems like she will do a great job! I left the job feeling excited for my (former) students that they have a new teacher excited to be there and one that has a lot of energy!
Now I get to focus on nesting. :-) I haven't done too much with that this week, but this first week is more about recovery and getting my feet back under me. I did cook my husband breakfast yesterday (I hadn't cooked in a long time) and I am cooking him supper today, so I am moving forward, doing things I had been lacking the energy to do. Hoping to make our house a home ready for a newborn infant.
With this change, I am sure I will be able to get on more often and write more about what is going on. I will also be able to get caught up on things that were shoved to the side while working. I am excited about the next 3 months. It feels great to have a fresh start for the last trimester!
13 November 2011
The Newest Addition!
So the buzz is out on facebook and we have told people in real life too, but I figured I should still post about it. After all the first child is BIG news right? Yes, you read that right, our first child. God willing, at the end of April, Ben and I will be proud new parents of a baby (boy or girl? Don't know yet, we are waiting until the delivery to find out!).
Currently this is the beginning of Week 16, meaning we have 4 months down and only 5sh to go! So what has this mean in our lives during the last several months? Well, we found out about 6 weeks in that we are pregnant and at first there were little side effects of the pregnancy... then the sheer exhaustion kicked in. Ok, I know some of you (like all the seasoned parents) are thinking, this is just the beginning, you think you're tired now, just wait till that little bundle of joy shows his or her face, then you'll REALLY be tired! Well, my understanding is that the baby will no longer be taking my energy from my body to use for growing, so that means the tiredness will at that point come from a lack of sleep. I also won't be working full time right after the baby is born, so certain other pressures will be relieved as well (though I must say, I really do enjoy my job a lot). This tiredness is unlike anything I have encountered before. I simply did not have the energy needed to get through the day though I was napping and sleeping longer at night... Which made it really hard for me to get through my duties and responsibilities of the day. This is where changes definitely happened for Ben, he has been so great about helping out when I didn't have the energy to do ANYTHING!
Ok, that was still just first trimester and as that trimester ended so did the severe exhaustion. Now I just notice that I might tire a little quicker than I did before, but I at least feel like I have energy. Oh yes, I was a little nauseous too during the first tri, but honestly compared to many stories I've heard, my nausea was nothing, which I am thankful for. I always imagined me spending hours in the bathroom when I got pregnant and am happy to find out that that hasn't been the case (though I frequent the restroom a little more frequently these days...).
Other fun tidbits would include the fact that my regular pants have not fit in over a month and my bump is showing itself a little more each week! So that is fun! No, I did not dread the awkward "fat" stage where it wasn't clearly a bump... Let's just say I slept through that portion, so even if I normally would have been concerned, I was too tired to care!
Starting in December and January we will start getting our basement organized better so we can more some furniture out of the guest bedroom in order to make room for a nursery. We won't probably take out all the furniture, but a lot of the stuff inside definitely needs to go. We probably won't have the baby sleep in our room, just because there isn't room in there to put a bassinet and the baby's room is just steps away from our room.
Anyways, that is a more thorough update on Baby Venteicher and we hope to have more and more updates as time goes on. We will probably have an ultrasound in December/January so we are really pumped about that. We also got to hear the baby's heartbeat last month which was pretty awesome (especially with my light symptoms it was good to hear our baby is doing fine inside there!).
Currently this is the beginning of Week 16, meaning we have 4 months down and only 5sh to go! So what has this mean in our lives during the last several months? Well, we found out about 6 weeks in that we are pregnant and at first there were little side effects of the pregnancy... then the sheer exhaustion kicked in. Ok, I know some of you (like all the seasoned parents) are thinking, this is just the beginning, you think you're tired now, just wait till that little bundle of joy shows his or her face, then you'll REALLY be tired! Well, my understanding is that the baby will no longer be taking my energy from my body to use for growing, so that means the tiredness will at that point come from a lack of sleep. I also won't be working full time right after the baby is born, so certain other pressures will be relieved as well (though I must say, I really do enjoy my job a lot). This tiredness is unlike anything I have encountered before. I simply did not have the energy needed to get through the day though I was napping and sleeping longer at night... Which made it really hard for me to get through my duties and responsibilities of the day. This is where changes definitely happened for Ben, he has been so great about helping out when I didn't have the energy to do ANYTHING!
Ok, that was still just first trimester and as that trimester ended so did the severe exhaustion. Now I just notice that I might tire a little quicker than I did before, but I at least feel like I have energy. Oh yes, I was a little nauseous too during the first tri, but honestly compared to many stories I've heard, my nausea was nothing, which I am thankful for. I always imagined me spending hours in the bathroom when I got pregnant and am happy to find out that that hasn't been the case (though I frequent the restroom a little more frequently these days...).
Other fun tidbits would include the fact that my regular pants have not fit in over a month and my bump is showing itself a little more each week! So that is fun! No, I did not dread the awkward "fat" stage where it wasn't clearly a bump... Let's just say I slept through that portion, so even if I normally would have been concerned, I was too tired to care!
Starting in December and January we will start getting our basement organized better so we can more some furniture out of the guest bedroom in order to make room for a nursery. We won't probably take out all the furniture, but a lot of the stuff inside definitely needs to go. We probably won't have the baby sleep in our room, just because there isn't room in there to put a bassinet and the baby's room is just steps away from our room.
Anyways, that is a more thorough update on Baby Venteicher and we hope to have more and more updates as time goes on. We will probably have an ultrasound in December/January so we are really pumped about that. We also got to hear the baby's heartbeat last month which was pretty awesome (especially with my light symptoms it was good to hear our baby is doing fine inside there!).
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