Prego and the beach July 31, 2012

Being 26 weeks prego is limiting my ability to do some things lately. Mainly–bending and touching my feet! So I decided to the take the boys to the beach while I was in Florida before we left. I got up early that morning and lathered sunscreen all of over my boys and I. I was pretty sure I got my calves and feet. I don’t’ wear a swimsuit to the beach but I do have a skirt that I wear so I was sure that I got it all covered. I packed a few waters in the cooler (a small cooler I might I add) and gather a bag of towels and a sheet. Ready to go! They are extremely excited and can’t contain themselves. We arrive at the beach at 9:30 am. It was already getting hot. We were on the gulf side and the smell of the salt water and the constant wave motion were aromatherapy to this pregnant lady. I took several beautiful pictures of the shoreline and tried to relax  on the sheet that I had laid out.

Anyone who thinks they can go to the beach alone with children and relax have another thing coming! How do you relax when your child won’t listen to you as he continues to go out further to ride the waves? Ugh…wish daddy were here. Daddy always goes out in the water with them. Mommy stood on the shore and watched and yelled “Andrew!” I wondered how many times I called his name. His brother sat on the shore digging himself a hole to sit in! Why couldn’t he be reserved like his brother instead of such a daredevil? Oh well. I was getting tired of standing and then went to sit and watch him, but that didn’t last long. I was up again and standing and shouting his name. It was a cycle that this prego mama didn’t want to continue. After about 2 hours, Mama was ready to leave.

I called them both in and told them to help me with the cooler and the bag. All of a sudden, I had no helpers! LOL They had their shoes and towel to carry. Oh bother! I forgot to mention that I really didn’t stray too far from the entrance to the parking lot. The sand is beautiful and white, but a killer to walk in! So if you can picture the sight of this prego woman with a bag over her shoulder and carrying the cooler trudging through sand. Yeah, it wasn’t happening! I stopped and told one of them to help. He had as much of a time carrying it as I did. 🙂 I thought to myself “Pregnant and the beach do not go together!”

Finally home, I quickly discover that my left foot is sunburned and the left side of my left ankle is sunburned! This proved my inability to bend. Sandals and sunburn do not go well together. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. We made memories.

The finished hole in the sand!

Serenity

Good Intentions July 29, 2012

I know, I know….I am sooo behind on blogging. I meant to blog again before I left Florida, but did not have time. I must say I had a wonderful time with family and friends and will blog about all of it shortly so stay tuned.

This post is about my good intentions of walking on my mom’s treadmill while at her house. Ok, so I had my dr’s appointment before I left to go to Florida. I was so excited that I had only gained 6 pounds overall and I was 23 weeks prego!! Yay! for this pregnant girl! However, I fail to mention that I was extremely sick with sinusitis and bronchitis for the entire 1st trimester and really didn’t feel like eating the good stuff like candy and chocolate! This was the first Easter that I didn’t eat all of the Easter candy! Ha! I couldn’t taste so why eat all of those calories if you can’t really enjoy them?  So after discussing my weight with the doc I told her that it might be a little different when I see her the next time since I am going to Mom’s house. LOL She just smiled and told me to watch what I ate. I watched what I ate–I watched the eclair cake and the cherry dump cake go into my mouth! LOL Who goes to their mother’s house and says “Oh sorry Mom I can’t eat that–I am watching my weight!?” Not I!!!  My mom said well the only thing that you are watching is your caffeine intake while you are here. 🙂 She made decaf tea and decaf coffee for me! Isn’t she so sweet? 🙂 I love her!

As I watching my caffeine levels, I failed to watch the caloric counter. Each time I would get something out of my suitcase I would see my nice, pretty, comfy walking shoes. 🙂 I really had good intentions of putting them on to walk, but how can you do such a thing when the treadmill is covered in blankets? My oldest son decided when we first got there to make a fort out of blankets and pillows in the room where the treadmill was. He had them all over the treadmill and it was his secret hideout.  The fort stayed up on the treadmill for the first week while the cousins were there. The boys played in there. How could I say, “Boys, Mommy really needs to exercise.” I think they would just laugh at me. Mom–exercise–no way! So I let it stay like that. Then the next week came and my shoes once again remained in the suitcase. 😦 This time the blankets were cleaned up, but now the suitcases were on top of the treadmill. Good intentions yet again! Oh bother!! As I packed up from my trip, I sadly looked at my shoes and apologized to them and promised that I will be in them soon. It might be after the baby is born, but I will be in them again!

24 weeks and Summer Vacation July 19, 2012

I am 24 weeks and on summer vacation for a couple of weeks at home in Florida. It is so nice to see my family and friends. The trip over here is 8 hours. Straight I-10 all the way across with the majority of the time spent in Louisiana. I downloaded several audiobooks for the iPod for the kids to listen to on the way. They had their electronics and were happy. Happy and excited! I heard “Are we to Louisiana yet Mom?” “How much further through Louisiana?” I would say “We have a few hours to go.” “We are half way through Louisiana.” They would inform me that I already said that and it has already been that long. I didn’t realize they paid THAT close attention to the time! 🙂 “Are we to Mississippi yet?” “Are we to Alabama yet?” The questions continued. I just wanted them to take a nap! I told them if they would just take a nap I am sure we will be there when they wake up. No luck with that one! 😦 Oh well. You should have heard the noise in the car when the Florida sign appeared! I had a headache after that one. When we finally arrived in Pensacola they couldn’t contain themselves. I forgot to tell you how many times we had to stop due to a 6 yr old’s bladder. My drama king was so dramatic about having to go soooo bad! The 9 yr old kept telling him that if he drinks too much then he will have to go to the bathroom and it will take us longer to get to Nana’s house. Ha! At least someone understands how this traveling thing works! 🙂

We got here last Thursday and had a good time on Friday at the Creation Store where the dinosaurs abound. 🙂 On Saturday they were surprised by Nana bringing their cousins over. They live in Georgia and she met them half way and brought them down. The kids were so surprised! 5 boys in the same house….need I say more. Two 9 yr olds, two 6 yr olds, and a 4 yr old. 🙂 Nana has had something planned each day. Skating on Monday, Goofy Golf  on Tuesday, shooting with Grandad and birthday party for the little guy on Wednesday, and today we are relaxing! Each night the kids have been attending VBS. They are having a ball. Glad I am here to help my mom–she didn’t realize what she got herself in to. I am also taking all the pictures and posting them on Facebook so my hubby can see and my sister can see too.

Looking forward to seeing more friends this week and next week. 🙂

23 weeks and counting July 10, 2012

This week marks 23 weeks!! Woohoo!! I can’t believe how fast it goes. Soon I will have my little bundle of joy sitting here with me.

Yesterday I had an appointment and another ultrasound. At 19 weeks, my little jelly bean didn’t cooperate well enough for them to see his spine all the way so my doctor ordered a heart and spine ultrasound. The little bean is getting bigger and I got some great pictures of him yesterday. He is doing great and on track for 23 weeks! 🙂 Mommy is happy. At one time during the ultrasound he had his finger up and it looked like he was motioning me to come here. 🙂 Total sweetness! You know at first I was a little disappointed that it was not a girl, but I prayed that God would help me and He has. I have fallen in love with this little guy. 🙂 He has me wrapped around his finger. 🙂

I took all the ultrasound pictures and created a digital scrapbook album last night. I will post it here so you all can see it. 🙂

I registered at Target over the weekend. I did it all online so hopefully it worked well.

This week the boys and I are headed to Florida to see family and friends. 🙂 We are so excited! I will have my computer with me to keep you updated.

On a final note, I was happy to find out that I have only gained 6 pounds overall. I was happy about that because I feel huge even though I know I have many more weeks to go. LOL Of course, I told the doctor that I’m going to my mom’s house so it might look different the next time she sees me. LOL My mom is an excellent cook and always goes out of her way when the kids come home. Did I mention that she always has chocolate all over her house? Yes, so I will be bringing my lovely walking shoes (Thanks “B”) to work out on her treadmill.

I will leave you with my beautiful baby boy’s pictures. 🙂 Click on the link to see the PDF file I created. I hope you enjoy. 🙂

Spencer Louis Canada

Independence Day Celebration July 7, 2012

On Tuesday, July 3rd, I took the kids the library so they could learn more about Dinosaurs. My kids are on a dinosaur kick this summer. We took them to the Houston Museum of Natural Science a few weeks ago and they have a huge dinosaur exhibit. Ever since then we are checking out every single book on dinosaurs there is at the library! Which is totally cool with me because they are learning and reading. The other night I saw Philip on his top bunk with his notebook out writing and taking notes while he was reading. That made Mommy happy. 🙂 They are also in the summer reading program at the library and both are in a competition to see how many books they can read. Both are above 40 books each since beginning the second week of June. We head to the library every week. 🙂 I said all that to say that while I was at the library I read the newspaper. I found in the paper that there was a celebration with the Houston Symphony that was free and it was that night. 🙂 I texted hubby and told him if he remembered when we went about 10 years ago! He asked me if that was a hint. LOL I love how he knows me so well. We arranged to meet up and go. I was wondering how the boys would do with a symphony, but it turned out that they did quite well.  They had tons of free things for the kids and we had a great seat.  The signature event of this outdoor concert is always the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky where they shoot off 16 cannons during the piece. The boys anticipated this event for the last hour. They did great the first hour, but then became restless during the second hour all but the last 15 minutes. You should have seen their reaction to the cannons! The loved it! Andrew asked where the cannon balls went. I told him that if they had cannon balls in there then we would be in trouble. 🙂 It was a great evening. Spencer enjoyed the second half. He was bouncing all around. 🙂

We enjoyed a lazy morning on July 4th. We headed over to a friend’s house for some great food and fellowship that afternoon and topped the evening off with watching the fireworks show. The good thing about living in Houston is there are so many shows all over the entire city and you don’t have to fight the crowd to see it! 🙂 We saw numerous shows driving all the way home.

We had a great day and I hope you did too.

 

Daycare July 4, 2012

Well today’s post is technically not about Independence day even though it is the 4th of July. I will save that post for tomorrow since we have plans later today–I will blog about it tomorrow. 🙂

I recently contacted HR regarding maternity benefits and found out that I will have only 6 weeks-8 weeks depending upon the type of delivery. I remember with our oldest I was took FMLA and was off for 12 weeks. That was wonderful! 🙂 I quit working about a month before our second son was due so I was able to stay at home with him with no problem. This time around I must take short-term disability in order to get paid for my time off. The short-term disability will begin on November 1st. I am due on November 4th. Spencer better stay in there until then. LOL

I am trying to get things lined up so I am not waiting until the last minute. I had previously called a daycare and spoke with the owner and she offered me to come in and tour the place. This week I have been to two daycares. Our first born went to daycare for a few months and then I stayed home with him. My husband worked for a great company that allowed 3 months of onsite daycare with no charge so Philip was able to be there with his daddy and Daddy was able to see him throughout the day. It was awesome. I then stayed home with him until he was 13 months old and returned to work.  I worked until I was 8 months pregnant with our second son and then quit to stay at home with both. I stayed home with both until Andrew was 18 months old. At that time, my husband and I worked opposite shifts so daycare wouldn’t cost us. It worked for years. Recently, my husband and I have been on the same shifts and love having the family time and the normal dinner time routines. The boys love it too. So daycare will have to be for Spencer. I have experienced both ways and know the pros and cons of it all. So off to the daycares I went.

My husband urged me to visit them so we can pray about our decision. The first one was cheaper and gives educator discounts, but I was a little uneasy as I went through each part of the building with my other sons. It didn’t seem as clean as I would like it. I know it has been a long time, but I want the best for my baby. There was a room that smelled a little off. It was right before lunch time and I saw that several classes of kids were parked in front of the T.V. Didn’t really care for that. Of course it could just be their down time. Not sure. I saw several with runny noses and it reminded me of all the sickness, but they either gain antibodies now or when they go to Kindergarten. Oh well. They gave me tons of information and were very polite. I just kept having an uneasy feeling about it. So off to the next one I went yesterday. This one was much cleaner and smelled nice. The infant room seemed big and clean. It was after lunch and the children were all napping. It is 10 bucks more a week and give educator discounts as well. I felt better about that place. The boys could tell that it was cleaner. I think there might be one or 2 more to look at to make our decision. Of course I might have hubby come with me and look too.  Just as any mother, I want what’s best for our baby. Prayers will be going up for this decision.

On another note, my pregnancy hormones are haywire! LOL I could cry over anything. I was reading “M”‘s blog on her favorite scriptures the other day and tears were flowing down my cheek! Crazy, right? LOL I laid in bed the other night and told my husband that I don’t remember it being like this with the other two. He said “Oh I do!” I said “Oh no you didn’t!” LOL I laughed about it because I guess if anyone would know it would be him. I told him “I’m going to blog about this!” We laughed and laughed as we went to sleep.

Remember me when you see a pregnant woman. 🙂 Until next time.