Feeling Behind

Do you ever have so much to blog that you don't even know where to start?  That would be me.  Since I blog as one of my jobs, sometimes I'm worn out by the time I get to this blog.  At the same time I don't want it to suffer because it's my family blog and essentially my journal.  The first few months that I was pregnant, I didn't take on a lot on my other blog because I was just so tired, sick and had no motivation.  Now that I've gotten some steam back, I've overbooked myself a bit.  It's hard when there's a lot of good opportunity coming my way and I don't want to say no.  I'm hoping that in the next week, I'll be able to get a bunch of posts up here and get caught up, but just in case I don't it's because my other blog  is time consuming.  Until then, I'll leave you with some cute pictures of the boys.  In about the last year, I've become a little obsessed with Gymboree.  I'd say that a good 70% of my boy's wardrobe is Gymboree and Nova's closet is already overflowing with it as well.  So I was super duper excited to get to work with them.  Here are the boys showing off some of their new summer duds.  Cute boys, I love them so much.

24 Weeks

24 weeks!  I was looking back at some of my pictures at 23-24 weeks with the boys and I feel like I look pretty comparable.  I've gained more weight though than I had with the other two at this point which is discouraging.  Hopefully it evens out and I don't put on an excessive amount in the 3rd trimester like I normally do.  I talk about it in my vlog, but my starting weight was 138, I'm at 156 right now, so 18 lbs so far.  I'm definitely a lot bigger since 2 weeks ago.

Seeing Clearly

Back in January when I took Chan & Rowan in for well child visits, Chan had a hard time reading the bottom few lines of the eye chart. The Pediatrician recommended that I get him into the eye Dr. for a checkup to make sure he didn't need glasses. I put it off for a bit and finally made appointments for both of the boys this last week. Chandler kept telling me that he wanted glasses but sometimes I wondered if it was because some of his good buddies have gotten them recently. He was also telling me that he letters at school looked stacked on top of each other. After a trip to the eye Dr., it was confirmed that he did need glasses. He's around a -2.00 in both eyes. (I think one eye is a -1.75) but I can't remember which one right off the top of my head. It's funny because Marshall has almost the exact same prescription. Marsh has some extra glasses, so while we were waiting for Chandler's to come in, he wore Marshall's. I'm hoping that his eyes don't get too much worse over the years because my vision is really quite bad. I can't function at all without my contacts or glasses and would hate for it to be that bad for him. We went to Costco to get his glasses since the eye dr. wanted to charge a small fortune for them and we only have a vision exam included in our insurance. After trying on a bunch of frames, he settled on these.

His glasses came in today and we went to pick them up. Chan was so excited and he looks so handsome in them. We were out shopping that afternoon and he kept reading signs and things that were far away and it was really exciting for him. He is supposed to wear them all of the time except when he plays sports. I feel bad we didn't get him in sooner and wonder how long he's been struggling to see things at a distance. Here's to seeing clearer!

 

22 Weeks

This is basically a repost from my other blog, but I wanted it here as well.  I'll be 23 weeks tomorrow and these shots were taken last Friday.

Salt Lake Half Marathon

I just finished my 6th half marathon!  The accomplishment of it never gets old for me, especially this time being pregnant.  It was the coldest and wettest half that I have ever run, but it was amazing to finish it.  My mom, sister and I all met at my brother's house before to get ready and get some pictures.  I had to be up at 4:00 and out the door at 4:45, so it was an early morning.

Before the race, I thought about leaving my jacket and decided against it at the last minute.  I'm so glad that I had it.  I was pretty much soaked by mile 3, and had water squishing in between my toes every time I landed.  At mile 3.5, I had to use the bathroom for the first time.  It was one of 4 times that I had to stop.  I've never had to stop during a race before and I actually spent close to 20 minutes standing in line between the 4 stops.  Whenever I would stop, my knees would start throbbing.  I also had a good amount of pelvic pressure the entire time which I think was to be expected.

By mile 10 I was done and tired.  I was about ready to start walking when I saw my brother and his friend at mile 11.  They ran the last 2 miles with me which was absolutely awesome and just what I needed.  As I neared the finish line, I heard my dad call out out my name.  I was so excited to see him!  Then I saw Marsh and the boys.  I stopped to give them all a kiss before I crossed the finish line.  My time this year was 50 minutes slower than last year, which I totally expected.  Between all of my bathroom breaks, I averaged about a 13 minute mile.  Without bathroom breaks, it was about 11:45 minute miles, which is a lot slower than my usual, but I'm pretty darn proud of that at 22 weeks pregnant.

I've decided I'm going to start tapering off with my running and really I'm being forced to do so.  I've got tendonitis in my right foot and have had a lot of pain in it this week.  I've had to take it easy, but I'm trying to continue to be active by doing yoga and low impact exercises.  After I have the baby, I'm going to be training to improve on my half and marathon times.  My friend asked if I was interested in running the Ogden marathon (full) next May.  I'm all for it, but I want to improve upon my time. :)

Early Intervention

Today I had a meeting with Rowan's preschool teacher, principal and speech therapist.  It was to discuss his IEP and plans for Kindergarten.  His teacher said he is very smart.  He knows his letters, is sounding out words and has great fine motor skills.  He can write his name and has made huge progress since I wrote this delayed post a year and a half ago.  The part where she was concerned is that he has a hard time focusing and he still struggles in some areas where we've set goals.  She thinks if we were to mainstream him completely, that it might be to his disadvantage.

We decided that we are going to put him in small group kindergarten and mainstream him as they see fit.  So basically he will go to his small group kindergarten and then will go to the mainstream classroom different times throughout the day with a teacher aide.  He will go to the mainstream classroom more or less depending on how he does.  He will start out primarily in the small group class though.  The small group classes have less than 13 kids, this year they had 9.  I really feel like this is the best avenue for Rowan and have to say how thankful I am to have early intervention.  Having a child with delays has had it's challenges.  It's been challenging to me as a mom try not to compare my child to other kids his age.  It's also been frustrating with communication and there have been times that I've envied moms who have kids that talk at 2, or even right before they turn 3.  I've never known that.

I think Heavenly Father knew that I needed to learn patience and unconditional love, so he gave me Rowan.  I've learned love with both of my boys, but Rowan has taught me more than he'll ever know.  He's such an amazing and beautiful little boy.  He's my cuddle bug first thing in the morning, loves Transformers and imaginative play.  He's healthy and active and perfect in his own way.  I'm grateful for early intervention, that Heavenly Father answers prayers, and to live in one of the best school districts in the state.  His teacher, teacher's aides, principal, speech therapist and bus drivers have all been wonderful to work with.  I feel like they love my child and he loves going to school to see his teachers and friends.  This does mean Rowan will go to a different school than Chandler, but I think Rowan will be bused.  Hopefully their schedules don't clash too much with each other.

20 Weeks

I can't believe I'm past the halfway mark.  I feel impatient in wanting to meet and snuggle this little girl of ours, but I know I've got to take it a day at a time.