PJ at 11 days old

Yup, I think he's fitting in our home nicely here..........  He actually likes this style of sling better than the Moby wrap I have, so here soon I have to buy a sling that isn't quite so girly to wear him in public since we don't own a stroller (and have no plans to buy one either, I have an umbrella stroller we'll use with him when he's older but none that will work with him right now at this size that will lay down flat for him).

math headaches

As you know, I have a lot of fun with teaching Missa sometimes.  She is stubborn just like I am, and we butt heads regularly.  I had tried passing math to Scott to do with her, but his approach doesn't actually teach her how to do the work.  It only taught her how to be lazy and mess around until he gives her the answer and tells her how to do the problem.  I make her actually DO the work herself, and keep trying when she makes simple mistakes where I know she knows what she's doing.  I'm talking a problem like 62+16, she'll just randomly say that the answer is 91 and then when I send her to redo the computation she'll put 92, then 90, then 93, and so on every time in hopes that I'll give up and tell her the answer.  That was one of today's math problems, by the way, one that she just threw down answers on to get out of the work.  She's capable, she knows how to do the work.  I sent her back to recheck her computation on that problem (and 3 others) four different times before she started screaming at me about it.

Time out, kid.  Get on your bed.

She detests actually putting forth a little effort in math.  Of course it is difficult, she doesn't take her time with each problem.  She did so well in math before, even when I moved her up to Beta in October.  But I've noticed that the last 6 weeks or so, she's become increasingly resistant to doing the work.  She has balked at it, ignoring me when I say it is time for math, she's smarting off, screaming at me, not even trying to do the work, and doing everything she can to get out of it.  And every day, math gets interrupted by my having to send her off to cool down on her bed for a little bit so she can regroup and focus on the couple problems that she keeps butting heads with me on.

These are the moments that make me want to bang my head on the brick walls in our home and just scream.  These are the moments that lead to me fantasizing about enrolling them all in the local public school and saying forget it.  These are the moments that make me feel most like a failure as a mom because my child won't listen to me.  I know they are hard on Missa too.  She gets all worked up and flustered, then starts to scream and freak out which makes me yell back.  She pulls every excuse she can out of the bag, from trying to use her dyslexia to get out of it to saying its because she's not a Peterman like everyone else so she doesn't get it as fast to anything else she can think of.  She manipulates, ot ay least tries to, and I smack down those attempts as fast as she makes them.

She will make a great politician one day, if we can get her through school and college..........

today

So here it is, 10 days after we welcomed little PJ into our family.  He's a great baby, one of the easiest I've had so far.  Sleeps great at night (6 hour stretch already!) and nursing like a champ.  We had a few hangups with my milk not coming in right away, it took a full week before I was producing enough to completely stop supplementing with an ounce or two of formula a few times daily.  But now we are settled there too.  He has a birth mark on his forehead, right between his eyebrows, that we originally had thought was just bruising from how fast he was born but now I see it as a birth mark as he lightens up and the jaundice resolves.  It is getting darker as his skin lightens, and it is kind of in the shape of a capital U or V.  Once he's fully to the pale he will end up being, I'll get a good picture of it to show you what I mean.

But today is another day.  Today is the day that I was originally scheduled to be induced because of my blood pressure.  And instead, here I sit with my baby in my arms, sleeping happily after a heck of a good feeding while I get my computer stuff done for the morning before kids get up to start our day.  It is a strange feeling, knowing that today I was supposed to be induced when he's laying here in my lap, but I'm ok with that right now.

But for the rest of today, I have some goals.  It appears that the weather is going to be tolerably decent as far as temperature and such, so I'm thinking that today I may see if I can recruit the girls to help me with a little outdoor spring cleaning.  We have some toys laying around in the yard, and leaves still out back from fall that need raked up, so I'm going to try and bribe with cookie making to get that done.  I also have to get Missa finished up with her math lesson and taking her test today, and Liddy has a unit test to take today.  If Liddy does well with that test and is open to it, we'll also start her on her new lesson so that I don't have 2 kids starting a lesson tomorrow.  Ummmm, what else?  Oh yeah, I have to portion out meat into meal size packs for the freezer today, and our usual daily chores.  And perhaps we'll get to some extra schoolwork, I may attempt to add in history lessons this week if I am feeling up to it.  Or maybe we'll just do another week of the R's while I figure out how to do all this stuff in my life one-handed, PJ isn't loving the Moby wrap as much as his sisters did right now so I have to keep an arm available for him at all times.  Maybe when his umbilical stump falls off and finishes healing fully he will like it better, or he'll like the ring sling that I am planning to buy in the next few weeks.

Oh, and I have to find something that I can use as a diaper pail until I manage to remember to buy myself a small trash can to use, I'm sick of the smell of dirty/wet disposable diapers in my house.  I have my very small set of diapers and covers all washed and ready, so now I need to use the silly things.  I'm hoping to get that going today too.  I can't wait to see how cute his booty will be all fluffed up from his diapers!

Yup, that covers my day I think.  I'll come back tonight hopefully with a positive progress report on how we did here with that list.  Hopefully I have a positive report for you on this one.

Woah, what a weekend lol

So, we had a VERY eventful weekend here.  Scott, being the awesome guy he is, called in late to work on Friday and watched the kids while I went to my midwife appointment.  I knew it was going to be an interesting day when Erica told me that my blood pressure was too high and my protein had more than doubled in my 24hr test so I needed to go to the hospital for monitoring, testing, and to be induced the next day.  So, I went home and got the family so that Scott could drop me off on his way to taking the kids to his mom's before hanging with me at the hospital.

I got there and all hooked up at 9am to the monitors, where they picked up mild contractions and got my blood pressure back down again with laying me down.  2pm came and they decided to keep me another 2 hours just to see what was going on, and the monitor decided to stop picking up my random contractions at that point.  When they checked me at 4pm, they had to RUN to get a delivery room ready and call in the midwife, I was ready to have a baby.  Oops...... lol  So, at 5:05pm on Friday, February 17th we had a baby.  I wanted an epidural, instead I got some Nubain after he came because I was really sore.  Oh, and I kicked the midwife in the chest in the process, and didn't get both doses of antibiotics so they had to keep us 48hrs to watch for Strep B in the baby.  It was by far my fastest, easiest, and least painful birth, even with him being posterior.  And yes, I was pissed that I didn't get an epidural at that moment when I had to push him out and feel every bit of that pain, but now I'm really happy I didn't get it because I am moving so much easier than I did after Jordan (the only epidural I did have before, I had planned on it mainly because it can lower blood pressure and I wanted to increase my chances of keeping it down).

Then Saturday we watched as my blood pressure started going up again. *sigh*  Yup, the pre-eclampsia didn't resolve itself with delivery.  I was put on blood pressure meds to bring it back down once it hit 154/109 at 11pm.  They are working though, so I was released with a prescription and orders to get checked again in 2 weeks to see how its going.

Yeah, you could say this weekend was eventful.........  Welcome to the world, Scott Preston Jr.

8lbs 1oz, just shy of 20" long, and already spoiled rotten lol  Not a bad size at all for being born at 37  1/2 weeks, he came a full 10 days before we had planned to induce for safety with the blood pressure issues I was having.  And yes, I made it a total of 3 hours after coming home before I grabbed the Moby Wrap and tied him to my chest so I could take care of a few things easier.  I have a bit of a headache on and off, and I get little spells of dizziness where my scalp starts tingling, but other than that I have the standard pains and discomforts of having just had a baby 2 days ago.  As soon as Scott gets the girls into bed here in a little bit, he's going to go pick up my blood pressure meds at the pharmacy for me.

Oh, and Scott's car has officially died now so we are down to just my van until the tax refund gets here and clears the bank so he can buy himself a used compact car to replace it.  I sure hope it comes soon, I don't like being stuck at home even if I did just have a baby and I have NO plans to go anywhere without him for several weeks.  He is taking a day or two off work here tomorrow, then in 2 weeks he has a full week vacation so I can schedule my appointments with the pediatrician and the midwife and WIC so I can go with just little man and Scott can watch the kids if I don't decide I'd rather he drive me to them.

the waiting game

Yup, that sums it up pretty much I think.  We're in a holding pattern here waiting on our little boy to arrive.  I've been having random signs for almost 2 weeks now that he will be coming soon, and it has me worn out and grumpy.  And since I'm a big believer in keeping your mouth shut if you don't have anything nice to say, I've been quiet here to avoid a huge long rant post about how I'm feeling.  I'm just tired of it now, and will leave it at that.

But on the plus side, my midwife has said that if I don't go into labor beforehand, she is going to induce me on Feb. 27th because of my blood pressure issues.  Of course, that is all provided that I manage to continue to stay fairly stable in that area and we don't have a major change that would require immediate delivery.  So this means that in 11 days at the most, we will have our first son join our family.  I hope we are all ready for this, I've not had any children at all in diapers for a year now, and it has been 4 1/2 years since I've had a newborn in my home.  Scott is hopefully planning to take time off work with FMLA for us to have some time together as a family and adjust to being a family of 7, and all the girls are beyond excited at the upcoming arrival of their new brother.  I, on the other hand, keep having dreams at night that involve my own anxieties about this upcoming change in our family size.  I need this to hurry up and happen so that I can just be thrown into the middle of all the chaos and have my sink or swim moment.

Oh, and the baby shower last weekend that Scott's family had for us was a total hit.  I got so many baby clothes and such that I don't know WHAT to think of it all.  I'm totally overwhelmed still by all the clothes and stuff we got, even though it has been washed and folded and is all ready to go.  I even have 90% of my bag packed for the hospital, minus a few little things I need to buy for myself (bathroom stuff, and I want a new robe and slippers), and the car seat is installed in the van and all ready to go thanks to a wonderful friend who is just as good as I am with that stuff.  Just need to buy a baby swing and some more cloth diapers, and I'll be good to go.

nervous for Friday

Friday morning is the growth scan to make sure that my blood pressure hasn't caused any issues with lil man's size and development.  I wish Scott could go with me for it, but we need him to stay at the house with the other kids.  I am worried that they will find something wrong and need to induce, especially knowing what my resting blood pressure has been running lately.

But in good news, my lab testing I did over the weekend came back good.  Protein is still elevated but holding steady from the last time, and my blood tests all came back within normal parameters.  I repeat them again this weekend.  Praise God for the little things!

34 weeks and great news

I had another visit to the midwife today.  A friend of mine brought her son over to play with my girls so I could go without the kids, just in case my blood pressure was acting up so I wouldn't have to deal with that on top of it all.  Anyway, I came home to a clean house (minor miracle, she actually got my kids to listen and help out) AND I had a good appointment too.

I gained 3 1/2lbs since my appointment last week, which isn't so great in my eyes, but hey I'm in the final weeks so I'm not surprised.  My blood pressure was completely normal for the first time in several weeks, AND I wasn't spilling protein when they did the dip.  I do have to repeat all the blood tests and the 24 hour collection again since my 24 hour results last week are higher than the week before, but today was a VERY good day for me with her.  She had a smile on her face when she came in, its been a while since I've seen her smile when she opens the door.

I decided to ask for information about permanent birth control options, as the first step in our decision about what to do after this baby comes.  We have no plans to make any decisions like that until he is at least 6 months old, however.  I'm too unstable emotionally to trust my own judgement at this point, and I don't want to have any regrets later if we choose to do something right now.  The only thing I do know is what we'll do while we wait to make a decision when I'm mentally stable again (yes, I've turned into a nutcase this time around, as usual, and I do anticipate that I'll end up on antidepressants after birth again as well).

So I go back next week for the routine tests and checkup that happens at 35 weeks *yuck* and I also get an ultrasound to check on our little boy's growth, placental function, fluid levels, and such.  With the issues I've had with my blood pressure, there is some concern that it may have affected his growth, blood flow, or placental function so they are going to take a look to double check that everything is good.  While we're looking, I'm going to ask if we can take another peek between his legs to be sure he's still a boy.  Yes, I'm still having a little trouble believing that he's a boy after having the 4 girls.  That is a surprise I do NOT want to have on delivery day.

Downside to next week?  My appointment is at 7am.  I'm NOT a morning person, getting up before 8am is really pushing it for me.  But I can do it, especially since Scott is pulling strings to get covered at work for a couple hours so he can go in late that day and watch the girls for me.  Yes, daddy will be the one dealing with breakfast that day, my poor kids.  I just hope that all goes well again next week, now that I'm in crunch time to baby.

FINALLY a homeschool update lol

Yes, I know I've not done much of that the last couple months, but we've also not done much for lessons lately either.  I will explain that one in my pregnancy update here in a minute.

So I was having a good day today with my blood pressure and symptoms, and decided to take advantage instead of taking it easy and trying to not overdo it.  I did a history lesson and a tie-in art lesson with the girls.  Now, I don't know if I mentioned this yet, but we have streamlined our history from doing a full Sonlight world history core to just reading "A Child's History Of The World" and doing whatever strikes our fancy to go with it as I feel up to it to finish this school year.  Simplified history here, so we could work with my limitations of the pregnancy and also be able to not miss much with a new baby and getting settled and adjusted to 5 kids.

Today's chapter was about Egyptian writing, also known as hieroglyphics.  Now, a couple years ago I went over this material with Missa when she was in 1st grade with OHVA, so it was review for her and new for her sisters.  I read the chapter, and we discussed the stuff that we read (lots more than JUST writing in there, it was also a good bit about Egyptian culture and gods/goddesses they worshipped, I'm going to do some searching later today for coloring pages and simple things to do tomorrow and the next day when I crash physically so they can continue with the culture and such with minimal work from me directly and I won't have to read to them too much hopefully).  I then remembered that we had some stuff hanging around from Missa's time in OHVA so I went to dig a minute.

I got out 3 pages that show the American English alphabet and the hieroglyph translations, and made a couple copies for the kids to use as a reference.  The project was simple.  Draw a simple self-portrait and write their first name (or nickname, in the case of the little girls) in hieroglyphs.  I paired them up so that the little girls each had a big girl to help, and then spent 45 minutes listening to Liddy throw a conniption fit because she couldn't draw her name out perfectly enough.  *sigh*  Yes, she is my motor delayed child, mostly we're caught up but she still has some issues there at times, but she is also a MAJOR perfectionist and drawing is the enemy with her most times.  She spent time cooling off and working out her fit in her room while Missa helped both little girls with theirs (this girl has a talent for hieroglyph drawing, she does rather well for an 8 year old I think).  Liddy and I came to an agreement that she would draw her picture and point out which hieroglyphs she needed for her name, and I would draw her name out for her.

Missa did better than I did at drawing names out.  But that is ok, hopefully Liddy will see that it is ok to not be perfect at everything and sometimes someone else is better than you at something.  We hung their portraits on the wall over the fireplace, and a copy of the pages for the "translation key" as a display of our work today.  I'll take pictures later and might share, if I feel up to it.

But 3 of the 4 girls thought it was an awesome fun project, and I found it really simple to come up with in a pinch.  I just wanted something to fill a little time after reading the history chapter just in case I needed to lay down because of my blood pressure.