back to the grind...

I've been having teacher work days since last Thursday, but today is the kids' first day of school. They are all quite excited to see my big belly since in May, I was much smaller! On Saturday at Josh's football scrimmage, I saw one of my now-2nd graders. She told me, "Man, you got bigger!" I said, "Yes, I did!" To which she replied, "But only a little bit. I don't want to hurt your feelings." I told her that was very nice of her while I was fighting back laughter. :)

My day hasn't been too busy, but I have only had two classes so far. My mornings will start off with 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd and 4th grade, and then kindergarten. During 3rd hour, I have two students learning new instruments. They're great kids and on Josh's team, so it's going to be a fun class. Then I have my prep time and lunch until 12:30. 5th hour, I'll have my high school choir, then my 5th and 6th grade class during 6th hour, and then last hour of the day will be Jr. High, alternating between band and choir depending on the day. I didn't have my elementary kids today (except for kindergarten, she still brought that class...) since they do their big "Back to school rules" thing in the mornings. I'll see them first thing tomorrow morning.

So, we're back to the grind. I have it in my mind that I only have about 6 weeks and then a nice long "vacation" (aka maternity leave), so it's kind of hard to get back into the swing of things! Especially when you're used to eating whenever you want to during the day and now that's reserved for when I have breaks. That's a bummer.

it's begun already.

I started washing all of the baby's clothes today, so I don't have to worry about it later. The first load was all his onesies, socks, and a few outfits. And wouldn't you know, I got done folding all the clothes, and there is ONE LEFTOVER SOCK. Now how in the world does that start already?! I have no idea where the one sock is. Apparently, our washing machine likes to eat tiny baby socks as much as it does our big adult socks.

sad, sad day

It is a sad, sad day in the Sandlian house. My favorite maternity jeans, the real-waist button up ones, will not button this morning. I thought about wearing them still and just not buttoning the button, but the zipper will not zip up either. Time to say goodbye to those. Good thing I have some elastic-waisted ones that do not have to button up. I must have grown a lot in the past week.

Sad, sad day. :(

I'm on my way to the football field, where Saratoga will be scrimmaging Hanna at 10:30. Wright wanted to come too but I think they're scrimmaging Midwest now or something.

I feel huge.

Can I just tell everyone how HUGE I feel right now? I'm really uncomfortable because of it. My maternity shorts don't fit anymore, I don't think. They were hurting my belly so I took them off when I got home from Laramie and put on a pair of Josh's athletic shorts. They feel much better. My maternity shirts are all too small too. They don't cover my belly anymore. Oy. I hope my school clothes fit, otherwise I will be teaching in Josh's shorts and t-shirts. :)

I don't even have to tie Josh's shorts tighter because my waist size is bigger than his now. 41.5 inches. I don't know how I'll last another six and a half weeks.

The good news is, after all those wonderful restaurants I ate at last week, I only gained TWO pounds in the past two weeks! HOORAY! I was dreading getting on that scale but it wasn't so bad. :)

I have another appointment in 2 weeks and we'll do the Group B Strep test then, as well as another ultrasound. If the placenta is still in the way, or the baby is breech, we'll probably schedule my C-section. If neither is the case, we'll let it go naturally. I keep telling the baby to hurry and get his lungs finished so he can be born at any time. I'm ready to be done being pregnant. My hips hurt so bad I can't hardly walk sometimes, and I get shooting pains when I roll over in bed. I WILL miss feeling him move around in there though- that's the part of pregnancy I'll miss the most!! :(

back to the grind...

Sorry it's been so long since my last post! We had a wonderful trip to Chicago and just got back on Wednesday. My grandma that lives in Chicago got to see my sister's 8 week old, and she was SOOOOO excited about it. So I think Josh and I are going to have to find a way to get back to Chicago for a couple days during our spring break. Grandma needs something to look forward to, and babies, especialy her great-grandsons, are just the ticket.

The boys all had a great time working at the PGA. Us girls had a fun time shopping. :) Let's see- Sunday we ALL went downtown to see my grandma. Monday, we girls went to the Woodfield Mall. Ate lunch at the Rainforest Cafe, and my nephew Ryan loved seeing the lights inside. Tuesday, we went back down to the city and explored Navy Pier. It was a beautiful day to do that! Ryan had his first ferris wheel ride and slept through the whole thing. Wednesday, we went to the PGA practice round. Kristen and I got a lot of great autographs, mainly thanks to Ryan. MAN, people stop to talk to you when you have a cute baby with you!! Even Rich Beem, the 2002 winner, stopped to talk to him. Pulled the blankets away from Ryan and everything. Next time I go to a golf event like that, I'm going to make sure I have cute kids with me! :) Wednesday night, the whole gang headed out to Wheaton for Chicago Deep Dish pizza at Gino's East. The best pizza EVER!!! My two cousins, Chris and Catie, met us out there and it was great to see them.

Thursday, we just took it easy. Dad didn't have to work so he, Mom, Kris, Ryan, and I went back to downtown to see Grandma one more time. The afternoon, we just took it easy while all the guys were working. Friday, my grandma Smith left for the airport and Josh flew in. He had enough time at the hotel to say hi to me, change his clothes, and off he went to the golf course. He was pretty excited to get out there!! Friday afternoon, we took Lennie to the Babies-R-Us store- she'd never been to one and she found out she loved it!!! :) Saturday, we took Kristen and Ryan to the airport so they could fly home. Saturday night, the whole gang went out to my aunt and uncle's house for a BBQ of ribs from my uncles company, Rose Packing. SO DELICIOUS. And it was nice to have a "real" meal after eating at restaurants every day for every meal! Sunday, Mom and Lennie and I went to IKEA. HOLY COW- next time I need to furnish a house, that's where I'm going!! I bought some good stuff for the baby's room and could've bought a lot more! Sunday evening, the whole gang went out to Millrose Restaurant, a restaurant my uncle's company, Rose Packing, owns. It was delicious!!!!!! Everyone needs to eat Rose's meat sometime. Actually, you might have already without knowing it. I think McDonalds gets their sausage and stuff from Rose, and Pizza Hut also. After that restaurant, we all went mini-golfing and that was a great way to end the trip. Monday morning, Craig, Lennie, Josh and myself were up at 3:15 to leave for the airport at 4. Very early morning!

The baby did great during this trip- no complications from my previa at all. We brought Dr. Keeler some PGA Medinah golf balls as a thank you for letting me go on this trip. :) We have a doctor's appointment today (last one before school starts- I'll have to start using sick days again to go to the doctor!!) so I'll update when we get back.

Some better news!

The doctor's visit was pretty good yesterday. I gained 6 lbs in a week and a half though- oops. :) The nurse said that was good though and that I look great so to quit worrying about it. I'm up to 148. 2 more pounds and she'll have to move the big heavy part of the slider to the 150 mark!

The baby has flipped again, he's breech now. His head is in my upper right. He likes to flip! Dr. Keeler said he might stay like that, because babies like to have their heads where the placenta is not, and mine is so low, the baby might stay breech. But the placenta, we found out, isn't covering my cervix. It's just right on the edge of it, so I have "marginal placenta previa". I COULD deliver naturally, if it's far enough away from the cervix. BUT, only if the baby flips again and isn't breech. If he's breech, it doesn't matter where my placenta is. So, it's a waiting game still. I have to have another ultrasound in 4 or 5 weeks to see if the placenta has moved and the baby has flipped. We don't know if it's moved really, because Dr. Keeler couldn't get that good of a picture last ultrasound. So either it's been like that the whole time, or it's moved up a tiny bit. We don't know. But I got the OK again to go to Chicago and just to take it easy like I already am. And Dr. Keeler said about 4 times how jealous he was that we get to go to the PGA, so Josh and I thought we better find him something small from the tournament and bring it back for him, especially since he's letting me go. :)

The baby is a little on the small side right now, 30th percentile at 3 1/4 pounds. Dr. Keeler said we won't be having a 10 lb baby, that's for sure, and I said that was just fine with me! Kristen said she thinks starting at 34 weeks, the baby should be putting on about a 1/2 pound a week, so ours might be around 6 1/2 lbs when he's born. Just an estimate of course. But small is good, I won't complain. :)

It was a long, tiring day yesterday. Josh and I went up with my sister, brother-in-law and new nephew to Worland for the weekend and met the rest of my family there. My cousin Robyn is stationed in Hawaii with the Navy and was home on leave. So we had a big family reunion there. It was great to see everyone and everyone got to see Ryan and hold him- he was the most popular person at the reunion! :)

We left early yesterday morning and headed home. We stopped in Thermopolis really fast to see Josh's Aunt Bev for a few minutes, then headed on home. We got home about 12:30, and Josh went to get the dogs from the kennel. Boy, were they glad to be home! We got great reports from the kennel lady though, so they had a fun time at the "Puppy Hotel". Poor dogs, we had to leave them in the backyard right away so we could get on to Laramie for my doctor's appointment. After the doctor, we met Josh's cousin Jason and his wife Joni, as well as Jeffrey for dinner. Jason and Joni are up in the Snowy's camping for the week. It was good to see them and catch up on stuff. We don't see them too often since they live in Kansas City.

After loading up on school supplies at Staples and their sale, and getting my B paper bound at Kinkos so I can mail it today, we finally were able to come home to Saratoga. Long day!