Single Digit Countdown

I am now 31 weeks, heading into my 32nd week. This is good. It means the baby can come as early as in 6 weeks!! Yikes! Daunting as that seems, it will be so nice not dealing with the hip pain, the numerous nightly trips to the bathroom, the swelling of my hands and feet every morning and every night. It is time to start preparing for our little one. One thing I think I will miss is Alex and Jenna running to give me a hug only to bounce their little heads off my belly - it's pretty funny watching them!! I think Jenna will miss using the baby as a pillow, even if she does get kicked every now and then. Only good times are ahead for us. I am looking forward to them!!

Going Green

In light of the whole "Green" movement and yesterday's celebration of Earth Day, I really want to think of different changes we can make in our lives to help the environment. I know we are doing our bit now, but I didn't realize how much we actually already do until I did some research and watched some "green" shows. It makes me feel good knowing that simple things we do everyday are already helping our planet. We, of course, recycle. It is one of the easiest things I think anybody can do. And growing up with the recycling nazi, aka my mom, it comes as second nature. One of Alex and Jenna's chores is to put the recycling in the bin. Joe made a change a year ago and one that I was resistant to at first, but now, it's just part of our life. We compost. We have a stainless steel pail that sits on our kitchen counter with a bio-degradable bag as a liner and all our eligible kitchen food waste goes in. We can easily fill a bag in less than two days with apple skins and cores, banana peels, egg shells, veggie cuttings, etc. And when the kids and I go on picnic lunches, we bring our compost home. Joe finally received his compost tumbler for his birthday and it is a hit with the kids. They love giving it a roll to mix the compost. This compost is then used in the garden where Joe and the kids grow a good part of our produce for the summer (yet another eco-friendly job on our part). We have replaced about 90% of the light bulbs in our house with compact florescent lighting. We have installed a programmable thermostat and have energy efficient appliances. We do not use water bottles. Our latest adventure is our purchase of BPA-free baby bottles. I found a wonderful site on-line called Green to Grow and have decided to go with these bottles. I'm sure there is more that we already do and there is so much more that we can do. I'm not saying I'm going 100% green. I really don't think I can do cloth diapers and paper towels are really, really handy with little kids. And a mini-van is pretty essential if we want our family of five (all in car seats of some kind) to travel together. I would buy a hybrid in an instant if they made one as the gas guzzling beast we currently own makes me cringe every time I fill it up - not only for the effects on my wallet but to the environment as well. However, where I can make changes I will try. I think my next step will be transitioning to reusable shopping bags. Of course, this means I have to think of another source for kitty litter garbage bags and bathroom garbage can liners!! But these changes give me some peace knowing that I am trying to make this planet better for my kids. And, that I am teaching my kids to waste less and reuse more.

First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

We had our ultrasound yesterday. Everything looks great with the baby! The baby was moving around a lot but we were able to see him/her yawn and swallow. We saw the heart beating - a nice strong beat. We saw the baby's big belly, to match mommy's! And we saw his/her leg. Oh, we did see some arm movements too! The baby is a bit on the big side, already weighing over 3 lbs. The size of the baby would move my due date up by a week to June 19th, but my doctor is not going to officially move it because she is just expecting a baby around 8 lbs or so. But the best part was seeing the baby's face in 3D! This wasn't available to us when we had Alex and Jenna. I didn't understand the image at first and was the last one in the room to get it. In my defense, the image was not nearly as clear as those you see in commercials or on TV. The baby was not giving a good shot of his/her face, so the image is not solid. But when I did understand what I was looking at, I instantly thought the baby looked just like Joe. After a couple of more pictures, Joe and I both agreed that the baby looks a lot more like Jenna than Alex. So of course, I am picturing a blond-haired, blue-eyed girl. But I told Joe that it would be funny if it turns out to be a brown-haired, brown-eyed boy with features like Jenna's - the perfect combination of Joe and I!! Ten weeks and counting!! My excitement builds every day! Oh, and I have laid down the law regarding names and told Joe he has until May 1st to complete his list. I have narrowed my list down to my top three choices for each gender, which Joe agrees with. So, I can rest just a bit easier now. We don't know if we will share the names or not. That just may be surprise too!

Earthquake

Did you feel it this morning at 4:37am? We did!! It is the first earthquake that Joe and I have experienced and it was weird! We woke up at the same time and I asked Joe "why is our bed shaking?" We lay there for a second or two, and though neither one of said anything we were both thinking it was the cats that were causing it. But really, two cats could not produce that kind of shaking! Joe jumped out of bed (and told me later the floor was shaking too) to look for the cause and that is when I heard Alex saying "what is shaking my bed?" Alex later told us he thought Jenna was throwing a tantrum (she's on the bottom bunk and he's on top). Then he thought it was Joe giving him a back rub. When those two didn't pan out, that's when he asked why his bed was shaking. Joe told him it was nothing and to go back to sleep. But we knew it something! Logic told us it was an earthquake, but hey, we live in Illinois not California, so it didn't make sense - especially coming out of deep sleep. We thought a big truck driving in front of the house - no truck noise. We thought wind - absolute stillness outside. We thought foundation slipping - nah. Joe went on-line and came back a few minutes later to confirm that it was, indeed, an earthquake. It was hard to go back to sleep but we finally did. When we woke up for the day we told Alex he had felt an earthquake. In his little life he has experienced a tornado (two years ago) and now an earthquake. While both of these events have happened in Jenna's lifetime also, she doesn't remember the tornado and slept right through the earthquake. Joe felt the after-shock this morning around 10:15am or so. Jenna and I were in the car and didn't feel it. Alex was at preschool and also did not feel it. I have to say, it was a weird crazy feeling; frightening only in the respect that it jarred us awake and we had no clue what was going on. Mother Nature - she keeps us on our toes!

The Park

We took advantage of the beautiful weather we are having and went to the Rochester Park today after story time at the library. It is amazing to see what a difference a year makes in the kid's play at the park. Alex was able to do the monkey bars all by himself. He fearlessly went down the fire pole, no help needed. And for the first time ever, my heart did not skip a beat when I saw him leaping from rock to rock on the big boulders. I was confident in his ability and did not envision him missing the next rock and breaking an arm or gashing his head open. My little Jenna was quite fearless also, taking on every net climbing device the park had and succeeding at every one. She still needed help with lots of things, but her determination to be just like her brother made her try every thing he did. It's so nice to watch them run around together, deeply involved in whatever imaginary game they have chosen at that moment - Star Wars, Transformers, Ben 10, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It was a good time. We are headed to the "baby doctor" in about an hour and today we get to see our baby on the T.V. again. (This is how the kids describe it). I'm hoping the baby doesn't spill the beans about it's gender - we've held off this long and with only 10 weeks to go, I don't want the surprise ruined. Hopefully the tech will be very careful and not let us see anything!! I'm getting very anxious to have our little one arrive. Not only because of the increasing aches and pains - but because I just want to see his/her face, touch his/her little fingers, and just have a baby in my arms again!! We really need to get on that name thing. Not having any idea of what we may name this child is starting to keep me up at night. Joe's girl names were less than acceptable and he knows it, so he is starting over. I fear we may end up with Snowmanny Jedi if we don't get a move on it!!

I Passed!

This morning I had my glucose test. I have been really nervous about this test because my mom had gestational diabetes with my sister. My mom was the same age I am now. And since I seem to follow my mom's medical past, I thought for sure I would fail the test. But I passed. The number had to be lower than 135 and I was at 115. However, I was quite surprised to find out that I am anemic. Obviously I have realized that I have been much more tired with this pregnancy, but I chalked that up to being pregnant and taking care of two little kids. Heck, just taking care of Alex and Jenna alone can tire me out! But I never really thought anything of it. I have been given a prescription for an iron pill and must remain on it through the rest of my pregnancy. My doctor told me I should start feeling much better soon. It would be nice to feel more energized. Maybe I can actually start doing something around the house again!! I have an ultrasound in two weeks and my due date has been officially moved up to June 26th. I am almost 28 weeks pregnant, into my third trimester, with 12 weeks left!!! I have already picked picture outfits and coming home outfits for each gender. With my little pile, it looks like we are having twins!! We are no where close to picking names. I guess we should get a move on that. I don't want a repeat of last time with Joe flipping through the name book WHILE I am pushing the baby out!! Lucky for us Jenna was a girl and we had had her name picked out for quite some time!