07.11.2012 - Dr Appt

This morning I went to the doctor to see how Finn was doing.  I am 36 1/2 weeks and this was the first time to be checked by the doctor.  My blood pressure was 124/74, Finn's heart was beating 156 BPM (he was moving around while she was checking it!), and I measured 36 cm on the outside of my uterus.  Every pregnancy is different, so I was trying not compare this one with the other two, but it is hard not to!  Before Dr. Anding examined me I told him that I was curious to see where things stood and he said "well, we're not taking any bets!"  He doesn't get as excited as I do!! Well, I am 2-3 cm dilated and 80% effaced.  Dr. Anding said that is typical with the 3rd child.  At this same time, I was 2 cm dilated and 75% effaced with Jase and nothing with Allyson.  I thought I was 1 cm with her, but I looked back today and read that my cervix was completely closed and not thinned out any.

So, it could be next week or could be in 3 weeks, you just never know.  I told Dr. Anding that Shawn is going out of town tomorrow and he asked for how long and I said for 3 days.  He said that should be fine and that I should have another week or so.  I made my appointment for next Wednesday, so we shall see what that brings.

I was able to eat lunch with Shawn today, which is always a treat when we get to sit down and enjoy a meal, just the two of us.  He was excited about the news, but also a huge realization that this could happen any day now.  Joking around I told him that I was going to run a marathon this weekend and do some body weight exercises at our local park.  He said "You better not do anything this weekend!!" We laughed!!  In all seriousness the following people will be out of town this weekend: Shawn, Mom, Stepdad, and Shawn's parents.  Talk about a perfect storm!!  Let's hope that it doesn't happen this weekend, but it obviously has crossed my mind.

No more fever?

Both kids slept in their own bed ALL night last night!!  Wahoo!!  Last week we were out of our routine with company over for 2 nights and then Ally being sick for 4 days.  Don't get me wrong we enjoyed the company, it just had Ally in our bed for those two nights and then she ended up getting sick, so it has been a struggle getting her back on track.

And this morning she woke up without a fever!  Double Wahoo!!  Praise God!  And she has been back to her "normal" self today as well.  The whining has almost diminished, which is wonderful news . . . if I'm being honest yesterday was rough!  She does have some congestion, but I'm glad the fever is gone and hopefully gone for good.

Today during our bible study we spoke about Day 5 of Creation where God created the birds and fish.  We recently bought a laminated birds guide with tons of birds on it and I had Jase look at it and he identified certain ones and I explained how wise God is to create all of these different types of birds with different colored feathers and features.  Pretty amazing if you stop and think about it.  Then for the sea life I found this cool Virtual World: Deep Sea from National Geographic that allows you to experience the deep sea through a Crittercam deployed on a sperm whale.  You click on a sea creatures that come in your path and when you do, a facts page comes up about the creature you found.  Jase loves the Wild Kratts show on PBS and is really into learning all about animals and their prey and who their predator is, and National Geographic provides this information when the facts page comes up.  There is not a ton of mouse movement, so it was perfect for Jase and he ended up going through it 3 times.  Ally was even intrigued and she watched him quite a bit and would say the creatures "giant squid, sperm whale."  They have other Virtual Worlds and I cannot wait to incorporate them with future lessons.

One more thing.  We were reviewing letters that we went over last week and I had him make the letters out of play dough.  After he finished making the letters it was free time to do whatever he wanted with the play dough.  He ended up making a little girl and boy for his Aunt Alisha and Uncle JoJo and wanted me to text it to both of them, so I did.  Then when Aunt Alisha texted back and said she loved it, he asked about Uncle JoJo.  I told him that he still might be asleep.  He said "oh yeah, Uncle JoJo is octurnal."  I said "nocturnal?" Jase said "Yes, he works really late and then sleeps during the day!"  Too cute!

Weekend Update

This weekend has come and gone. We stayed at home most of the weekend since little sister is still running a fever.  :-(  Tonight makes 4 days of running a fever.  The doctor said she would run a fever 3-4 days and she definitely has.  We prayed tonight that her fever will break soon.  Oh and she no longer wants to take medicine to keep the fever down.  We fought her tooth and nail this morning at 5:15 for 45 minutes to get 1 tsp of ibuprofen down, but she was not having it.  After church I asked Shawn to pick up some Tylenol chewables for her.  When he got home she took two of them like it was nothing . . . we were SO excited!!  Then when it came around for her next dose, she would NOT take them!!  So frustrating.  Tomorrow is a new day and hopefully she will not need them anyway, but she is set on not taking any medicine.  Aside from her not feeling well, she has not been herself these past few days.  Very whiny and cranky, which is unlike her.  Praying for a fresh start tomorrow and patience for me!

The food plan went pretty well this week.  I ended up scrapping one dinner meal later in the week because we had so many leftovers and Shawn is currently on a strict fruits and veggies eating plan, so it makes it hard to finish up a 9x13 casserole dish when it is usually only Jase and I eating.  All and all the plan has been great though.  I know what we are scheduled to have each day for every meal and yesterday I bought all of the food for the week, so in theory I am set!

My first week of homeschool wasn't bad at all.  Even with Allyson being sick half of the week, we were still able to do 4 days (we took off the 4th).  I still have a lot to iron out and add to our morning routine, but for the most part it is getting there.  Tomorrow we will be starting a weather graph.  The kids will look outside and see if the weather is sunny, rainy, cloudy or windy and chart it on our bar graph I made.  At the end of the month we will be able to see what kind of weather we had that month and which category had the most and least.  I think Jase will enjoy it.

The baby's room is coming right along.  Nothing is on the walls, but all of the furniture is in place and the bedding has been washed and is on his bed.  I am using the same bedding from Jase and it works for sure.  We've washed 4 loads of baby clothes from Jase and his dresser is now full!!  Shawn was folding some of the clothes earlier and started laughing and said "We're about to have another baby!"  Hard to believe we are down to the final weeks now.  :-)

A little illness

These past two days have been pretty low key for us at the French household.  Wednesday night after coming home from church, Allyson felt warm and has had a fever ever since.  I ended up taking her to the doctor today because her temperature was still 103 degrees this morning with basically no other symptoms.  Ears looked fine, no congestion, but the doctor said her throat was red with a couple of puss pockets.  They tested her for strep, but it was negative, which means that she has a viral throat infection.  The doctor said that fever and sore throat will probably last 3-4 days and then congestion and runny nose may follow for 10 days or so.  :(  She also said that she has seen a lot of these viral throat infections lately and that they can hurt just as bad as strep throat, with no antibiotics to treat it.  We are giving her ibuprofen for pain and to keep her fever down.  We are praying that her fever breaks soon.

As for Jase, he went over to Aunt Alisha's while I took her to the doctor.  It was a real treat for him to spend one-on-one time with Alisha and Joseph.  As soon as I told him this morning where he was going he immediately asked if he could bring his Star Wars pods and I said sure.  Alisha sent this picture to me and obviously he was soaking up the time with his Uncle JoJo!!

After we came home, we ate lunch and I laid sister down for a nap.  Jase and I were able to have our time together for school and it went well.  I've really been wanting to get him on the computer more and have him navigate more on his own.  This afternoon was a perfect time to do that.  Last week I found a website with some free math games, so we checked it out and he found a couple that he liked.  It was great helping him and watching his little brain problem solve to pop the balloons.  And before going to bed tonight he remembered that he wanted to show Daddy, so the three of us went into our bedroom and watched Jase play.  Of course he thinks he is a pro now (or "master" as he refers to himself) . . . we need to work on being humble just a little!

Oh and 36 weeks today . . . I can't believe that I have 4 weeks left.  In the beginning it felt like time would not pass fast enough, but once I hit about half way it has been going by super fast.  I'm getting really excited about meeting our little Finn. I even had a dream last night that I was in the hospital with him.  EEK!!  I'm so excited!!

Happy 4th of July

What a full day!  This morning Shawn went golfing with all the boys in his family and Jase went on his first golf outing!!  Shawn said that Jase had a blast and on the way home Jase said "I had a really good time golfing today!"  So sweet!  Shawn is excited that he will be able to start playing golf at such an early age.

Later we went over to Shawn's parents' house to eat and enjoy the 4th together.  Shawn's older sister, Kimberly, broke out a little science experiment and the boys had a fun time playing with it.  When you add cornstarch and water together, it will act like both a solid and a liquid.  {Reminds me of the metallic material that was in Terminator.  Remember?}  Anyway, it was neat.

We rounded everyone up for some family pictures and getting everyone to smile and look at the camera at the same time is always a challenge!!  Hopefully the big group picture that is on Grandpa's camera turned out nicely.

Yesterday during school I explained to Jase what Independence Day was all about.  I told him that Great Britain was taxing the United States and making more rules for us, so a group of men got together and created the Declaration of Independence back in July 1776 and did not want Great Britain to rule over them anymore.  I told him that they had to be very brave to do this and when they signed their name to this document, that Great Britain could have punished these men, even putting them to death.  The same goes for all the soldiers who fight for our country's freedom, they are putting their life on the line for this very same reason.  Then I related it to living for Jesus and how sometimes people do not like us or what we stand for, but we strive to live for the Lord because we feel and believe this is what God wants for our life according to His word.  Thank you Jesus for your ultimate sacrifice and the grace you give; we do not deserve it.  And thank you to the men and women of this country who have either given their life or put their life in jeopardy so we may have freedom.  God bless you.

Jase lost his first tooth!

This evening we went to Shawn's parents to visit with his family.  Jase was playing with one of his older cousins and all of a sudden his tooth fell out . . . right into his hand!!  I'm so glad this was NOT a traumatic experience, since all of his other dental experiences have been pretty eventful to say the least.

He is getting too big!!

First Day: Homeschool & Meal Planner

I can honestly say that today was a great day. I actually got out of bed when my alarm went off and did not snooze it 5 times.  I took a bath and got ready for the day before the kids were even awake.  Sad to say, that doesn't not happen very often.  I set Jase's alarm for 8:30 since today we had our first day of kindergarten homeschool!! :)  (Jase was SUPER excited last night when we were tucking him in bed and I told him that tomorrow was his first day of school!)  Jase ended up waking up on his own at 8:00; he got dressed and made his bed before coming downstairs.  Then Ally woke up, even though she could have easily slept for another hour . . . she is my sleeper, takes after her Daddy! ;-)

We were all dressed by 8:30 and ahead of schedule in my book.  We sat at the kitchen table and had breakfast together (according to the meal plan), then headed upstairs for school.  We began right at 9:00, which is what I had envisioned, so it was nice to see your plans on paper actually work out.  We started our school day with prayer, asking God to bless our homeschool time together.  While I still have a lot of work to do with prepping and setting things up, we got through everything that I wanted to.  And little sister was right beside us the whole time, coloring away.  ;-)  Of course not everything went perfect and Jase did ask if we were finished yet and how much longer a few times, but we finished.  I've been reading on some organizational methods to help with this, that way he knows exactly what is expected of him and how much work he has to finish each day, but it will just take time to implement.  For tomorrow I did put green sticky notes (I have a few of them!) on all the pages/activities I have planned and he can remove them once finished. This should be a good visual for him on what he has left to do.  And we will get there, but baby steps for now.

We ended up sticking to the meal plan all day long, which was great.  And Jase even asked about our afternoon snack (grapes, cheese cubes and wheat ritz crackers) and was excited about it.  I know that today was only Day 1 and there will be days when plans change, but it was nice to have a plan and stick to it.

This afternoon I took the kids over to Shawn's parent's house to visit.  Shawn's older brother is in town with his three boys and his sister was also over with her three boys and Shawn's little brother's son was there as well.  With our two, there were nine grandchildren at the house; all boys except Miss Allyson.  Jase had a great time playing with his cousins and really enjoyed playing with the older boys too; I loved seeing them show him attention and taking the time to play with him.  Makes me think what it would be like if Jase had an older brother or how he is going to be as an older brother! And yes, if you didn't know Shawn is the middle child of 5 children, so he has a big family.  :-)