Monday, April 27, 2009

Spring Thunderstorm.

We had quite the storm come through the other day. It was gorgeous outside all day and then some big, dark, nasty clouds rolled in and brought wind, hail, and downpours. Erin thought it was great the ice was falling from the sky and Scott went and gathered some for her. We also got a beautiful rainbow in the middle of it all that seemed to end in our field. No, I did not run out there and look for a pot of gold. I didn't feel like getting beaned in the head with golfball size hail.


Erin is still doing really well with potty training. We have graduated from being naked to being able to have pants on without accidents. She still resists going poo poo on the potty and holds it for far too long and then has to run for the bathroom. But I am very proud of her progress.

We have cancelled our cable and our land line. It will save us about $65 a month! I was a little nervous about saying goodbye to the landline just because I know that it is the only way for you to be able to call 911 and have them know your location. However, we do have our cell phones and I know our address and hopefully we will never have to use it!

We cancelled the cable because it was only used for Erin and she was getting bored with the same shows every day anyway. We subscribe to Netflix and with a certain level of subscription ($8.99 miniumun I believe) you can watch lots of movies and shows instantly over the internet. So I connected my laptop to our flat screen and we watch on there.

I am now 28 weeks pregnant and our last appointment went well. I got tested for Gestational Diabetes, did our birth plan with the maternity counselor, and a follow-up ultrasound to get better pictures of baby's spine. Great news, it is still a girl and she looks great! They were also checking what my cervix looked like because of going into pre-term labor last time. My cervix is still closed but it has shortened a bit. My midwife called me on Friday to give me this information and explain that when mom's come in because of contractions they are using cervical length a lot more to judge when they need to intervene. Their cutoff is 3cm and I am now at 2.9cm. . . so I need to be careful. She cautioned me about paying attention to the contractions and back off exercising if I need to. I really can't afford to spend a week in the hospital for pre-term labor this time with a toddler at home. Maybe gnomes will plant my garden??



We also got the garden tilled up. We ended up hiring someone with a tractor to come out and do it. It cost us $70, but with the size of it we felt it was worth it. Now this rain needs to stop so I can get my cold weather veggies in the ground!

Monday, April 20, 2009

Easter and Stuff.

We had a fun Easter this year. Erin was at a much more fun age to do things. We colored eggs, went to a communtiy egg hunt, and had a little Easter basket for her. She loved putting the stickers on the eggs, and then taking them off, and putting them back on. The Easter egg hunt was a crazy mess of kids where she almost got trampled by the bigger kids, but she found two eggs and then got to play on the slide, so she was happy. She was very excited to go through her Easter basket, but she is kind of particular about the chocolate she likes. She likes Hershy's plain chocolate. . . and that's about it.




We didn't do any family visiting for Easter this year. We decided to have a nice quiet holiday here at home. I baked a ham with a pineapple glaze on it. I also did some creamy Rosemary Au Gratin potatoes that turned out really well. I made a roux and did the cream sauce before baking it so that it turned out really creamy and not chunky. It was a great dinner.

Pregnancy stuff is still going well. I'm still walking on my treadmill most days for about an hour. I get a little bit of heartburn once in awhile, which I'm sure will increase as baby Izzy gets bigger in there. I go in for Gestational Diabetes testing on Wednesday. They also want to do a quick ultrasound to get a better picture of baby's spine because they didn't get a very good one the last time. They will also check on the ultrasound that my cervix is still long and closed. No pre-term labor this time please! On top of all that I meet with the Maternity Counselor to set up my birth plan and meet with my midwife. Whew. It will be a long morning.

I have noticed that stress affects me a lot more this pregnancy. I just can't handle much of it at all. So it doesn't help that things have been stressful with my mom. Hopefully over time they will get better.

My baby brother Ben graduated from Le Cordon Bleu cooking school this past Saturday! Scott and I were able to leave Erin with his mom and drive up for that. We also got to go to the restaurant that he works at after graduation and he cooked some amazing food for us! It was also the first time that my mom and dad had been in the same room since my wedding. They did fine, but it did not help my stress problems. =) We had a great time and I am so proud of him! Here is a link to the restaurant he works at http://www.inonnirestaurant.com/








My garden plans are in the works. We picked up a tiller from Scott's brother yesterday so as soon as the ground dries out a little bit we can get the ground worked up. It is a previously unworked area so there will be a lot of roots and such to get out of the ground, but I couldn't be more excited about it! My seedlings are still doing very well and I should be able to plant cold tolerant things like potatoes, onions and cabbage by the end of this month. I can't wait to see my little plants in the ground!

Friday, April 10, 2009

A Whole Lot of Nakedness Going On!


I am on another potty training adventure. I really did think that Erin would just take to it a lot better. She has always loved doing things on her own and accomplishing new tasks. So when after a week of her going poo poo in the potty every day she suddenly decided that going in the potty was not for her, I wasn't sure what to do. I guess I just decided she must not be ready and waited for another day.




We talked about it all the time and she would use the potty on occasion, but nothing consistent. I made her a potty book all about the process and the M & M rewards, but it was still sporadic. My next plan was to really tackle it once we moved to the new house. My pregnancy sickness got the best of me there. Then a few weeks ago I thought it was time for another go and told her when the box of diapers was gone, there would be no more and all the pee pee and poo poo would go in the potty. I set myself up for changing training underwear all day long and lots of accidents. So when she started asking for the underwear one day I obliged and put them on her. She wet two pair in the matter of 10 minutes. I was using the treadmill at the moment so she took off the second pair herself and remained naked from the waist down for the remainder of my walk. She used the potty chair several times while I walked so I decided to let her stay naked until bedtime and see what happened. She did not have one single accident.


As long as she is naked, she uses the potty. Thankfully most of our house has hard surface floors, so any accidents that might have happened would be easily cleaned up. But she does not have any. I guess we will go with this for awhile and work our way up to underwear. I shall keep my fingers crossed.

The pregnancy is going well. I am ashamed to admit that at my last midwife appointment I believe I had gained 10 pounds. I had grown accustomed to having to eat every 3 hours and eating what I wanted that even when I didn't need to eat that much I did anyway. I was quite disappointed with myself. So I resolved to start using my treadmill everyday. Surprisingly, it was not and has not been hard to do. My lower back pain that I was having is almost non-existent as well! Erin and I go downstairs after her nap and she watches a movie on the TV while I watch one on the computer. We subscribe to Netflix so I can watch movies instantly on there. I feel so much better physically and emotionally. Exercise is my prozac. My hormones have been much more unpredictable this pregnancy and exercise gives me a boost of the good ones and I feel like my happy normal self. On top of all that I do some stretching afterwards and I have not had a migraine since I started exercising regularly!

I have made some very budget friendly purchases for the new baby so far. I love finding a good deal, so I check Craigslist every morning for things that I need. Since we are having another girl, and at the same time of year, I don't need clothes. I have so far purchased an infant car seat with two bases $40, a double stroller $25, and a changing table/dresser for $30!




My knitting has been coming along as well. I have finally finally finished the sweater that I started for my brother quite awhile ago. He just came over for a visit the other weekend and it fit so nicely. I was so worried, but it really looks great. I had a bunch of yarn that I got for $1 a skein and decided that I would knit a blanket with it since we keep this house a bit colder than the last one. The blanket knit up pretty quickly and is so warm. I was spending a lot of time on the couch, not quite feeling that good, so it was a nice activity to occupy me while Erin watched cartoons. Now I am working on a blanket for Izzy (our new baby girl to come). It is coming along slower than I thought, but I have been so busy around the house and with Erin that I don't sit down a lot anymore. I do have a few months to finish it, so I'm not too worried. . . yet.









Gardening season is almost here and I have my seeds started. I can't even begin to relate how exceedingly excited I am about starting a garden at this new house. I could have a garden as big as my yard was at the old one! I have the spot all picked out and even checked what the soil is like the other day and it looks great. So now I just need Scott to go borrow his brother's tiller and till the crap out of the site. I can't wait! Also a picture of some friends running through our yard.