What do you do?

I find myself having a hard time answering this question lately and it's something that seems to come up a lot, most recently when Yusaku and I met with pediatricians. This question is in reference to my job, something which I don't currently have. It's strange though, because as a teacher, I would normally be on summer vacation right now, so it hasn't really kicked in yet that I am no longer working. My automatic response is usually, of course, that I am a teacher. Even though I won't be going back in the fall and haven't yet decided when I will go back, I still feel that being a teacher is so much a part of who I am that it's hard for me to not give that answer. I am choosing to stay home and am looking forward to doing so, but I think it will be hard for me in the fall when school starts back up and I am not there.

Today, for a few hours at least, I had enough energy and motivation to go through/organize some of the teaching "stuff" that I brought home from my classroom and is now living in our basement. Doing this made me eager to be back in a classroom with kids. Maybe I can do some tutoring in the second half of next school year or sub part time. We shall see! :)  The organization process ended, however, when I ate lunch, which was then followed by my now daily nap, after which I decided I will continue organizing tomorrow.

26 weeks (and 1 day) : 97 days til baby!

Here's the 25.5 week baby bump picture, which was taken at the beach. There's a lot of skin...you've been forewarned! I did bring two other bathing suits - a tankini and a maternity one piece, but honestly, it was most comfortable wearing this one and letting it all hang out! :)

This Monday I had to do the glucose screening, which meant I had to drink 10 oz. of nasty orange sugar water stuff and then go have my blood drawn. I was worried beforehand about drinking the "glucola" and how it would make me feel, but it all turned out okay. 

On Tuesday, I went for my regular check up and found out the results of glucose test. I was nervous because I knew if I didn't pass, I would have to take a three-hour-long test which would entail drinking even more gross stuff and having my blood drawn once every hour. Thankfully, I passed, although not with flying colors. As the midwife told me, I just barely passed. She told me that I needed to cut back on carbs (my favorite food group) and eat a lot more protein. She also said I needed to be drinking A GALLON OF WATER a day, which I know I have not been doing - not even close. So, I am trying to be good and follow doctor's orders. My next appointment is in a month, at which point I will be 30 weeks. From then on, I will start going every two weeks, instead of every four, and then then last month or so, I will go every week.

This weekend Yusaku and I have a weekend full of childbirth preparation classes at the hospital (10-4 on both Saturday and Sunday). I have also scheduled two prenatal consultations for us in the next few weeks with two different pediatricians so we can try to pick one. Just trying to get everything I can think of taken care of and out of the way. I know I still have three months left but I don't want to wait until the last minute.

One last hurrah!

We just got back from the beach late Saturday night. It was a wonderful vacation - full of sitting on the beach, reading books, and just relaxing. The condo was beachfront, which was awesome.  In the past the condo we've stayed at is just a row or two back, which was still not bad, but our beach access at this condo was pretty much right outside our door.

We saw more wildlife on this trip than we have ever seen before. We saw dolphins every day - one day we probably saw 15 or 20. We also saw a group (school?) of stingrays, as well as a shark - a nice big five foot long shark that was a couple feet away from shore. Kind of cool, kind of scary.

We got to visit with Pop Pop and Florence - having dinner at their house one night and then crabs at our condo another night. It was great seeing them and the crabs, which are an annual tradition, were great as usual!

I managed to finish a 560 something page book, which I had gotten less than halfway through before vacation and then read two more books (Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and Little Bee) and start another during the course of our vacation. It felt great! I can't remember the last time I got to read that much in such a short amount of time. I'm hoping to do a lot of reading this summer before the baby arrives. (Yusaku was having fun playing with his camera and taking picture of me reading on our balcony.)

 

Enjoy this last picture of the beautiful intracoastal waterway at sunset!

School's Out For Summer!

My last day of school (and teaching for awhile) was yesterday. It was very surreal. I had certain expectations of how I thought the day would go and how I would feel. I expected to be sentimental because I am sad to be leaving, but weirdly I didn't feel that sad or sentimental even at the very end of the day. Maybe it's because it just hasn't sunk in yet. Who knows? It's funny because I was kind of frustrated with myself that I wasn't more emotional about the whole thing.

Today, Yusaku and I headed out to my classroom to pack up as much as we could fit in the car. I had A LOT of books, which Yusaku single-handedly had to load into the car and unload again at home. (See pic below of all the books from my classroom unloaded at home). I still have a little bit of work left to do on Monday before I turn in my keys. Then, I am free for the summer!

Switching topics from school to our baby, last weekend Yusaku and I headed down to northern Cincinnati to a baby store called Treehouse Kids. It was really nice and the woman who helped us was very knowledgeable. We ordered both our glider and our stroller. We had originally thought of getting a travel system (carseat/carrier and stroller altogether), but Yusaku wanted a jogging stroller so we ended up getting something kind of in the middle...an all-terrain stroller. It looks like a jogging stroller (three wheels and rubber tires instead of plastic) but still has the option of putting on an adapter so you can snap the car seat into it at least for the first 6 months or so. We got the adapter so we will be able to put the car seat in it.  Pretty exciting stuff, huh? :)

Next Friday we'll be heading down to Topsail Island in North Carolina for one last little vacation. We'll get to see my PopPop, which I'm excited about and just sit on the beach, read, and relax. I will post again when we get back. I'll leave you with an updated baby bump picture!

22 weeks and counting!

Tomorrow, I will officially be 22 weeks along. I'm excited to be past the halfway mark! I just had a doctor's appointment today. Everything looked good! The doctor said the results from my ultrasound 10 days ago were "boringly normal," which sounds good to me. I asked about the size of the baby, which was 12 oz and the ultrasound tech said was right on track, and the doctor said it was "average" - 43 percentile. I hope this is good and means that come late September/early October I won't have a gigantic baby! :)

I had my first Braxton Hicks contractions yesterday - an interesting experience. My whole lower abdomen got really tight and rock hard for a minute or two and of course, I was a little concerned. I was pretty sure it was Braxton Hicks thanks to having listened to all the pregnancy stories of my friends who've already had babies, but I did a little online research and confirmed my diagnosis. Everything I read said they could be brought on by dehydration, which I'm sure was the culprit because I know I don't drink enough water. I am going to try to get much better about that.

We picked up the crib and dresser this weekend (can't even begin to tell you what a crazy hassle it turned out to be) and since the bedding had arrived earlier in the week, we started to decorate the nursery. It's definitely not done yet, but it's looking good. I had a great shower at work and got tons of blankets, towels, and clothes, which I now have a place to store.  Check out the pictures below.

Only eight more days of school until it's officially summer! I have a lot to look forward to this summer. Yusaku and I are taking one more "last hurrah" to the beach (Topsail Island) for a week in the middle of June and we've got tickets to Phantom of the Opera and childbirth preparation classes at the end of June. In between all that, we'll celebrate our 4th anniversary...hard to believe! In July, I'm looking forward to seeing family and friends for my baby shower. The rest of the summer and during the remainder of my pregnancy, I look forward to relaxing and preparing for the arrival of the baby!

It's a Girl!

We had our 20 week ultrasound today and as the title of the post points out, IT'S A GIRL!  We are very excited! The ultrasound tech looked at everything - the head, the stomach, the arms, the legs - all the while keeping us in suspense. Clearly I didn't know what I was looking at because at one point I said, "Oh, is that the head?" and she said "No, that's the stomach."  Finally we got a nice little butt and leg shot and she announced that it was a girl!  (See the picture below.) Now we can start deciding on a name and decorating the nursery. Lots of fun to come!

Enjoy the rest of the pictures!

18 week update

It's been about two weeks since I last updated the blog so I thought I would write something and post another picture of my bigger bump. I was 18 weeks on Tuesday and had a doctor's appointment on Friday. It was just a regular checkup. We got to hear the baby's heartbeat, which was in the high 150's - always fun to hear! Just two more weeks until the ultrasound...we are both really excited for that!  

I've started registering online at Babies R' Us for at least the basics. Today Yusaku and I went to Babies R' Us and looked at car seats, strollers, cribs, etc. We found stuff we liked but aren't ready to buy it just yet. We need to clear the existing furniture out of the soon-to-be baby's room and would like to paint before bringing home the crib and any other furniture. Hopefully next month sometime, once we find out the sex, we will get started on painting and setting up the nursery.

Our current project is making the basement a more finished space that we can use it as a place to hang out as well as a play room/ guest room. We had the basement re-carpeted a few weeks ago and got bookshelves, a storage cubby, and a sofa bed at Ikea yesterday. It's starting to look good. Yusaku built everything pretty much by himself and did a great job!  All we have left to do is to fill up the shelves with everything that got pushed into the laundry and boiler rooms when we had the carpeting done. So, whenever you want to come visit, you'll have a nice place to stay!  Who wants to be the first guest? :)