Ten Months of Silence is Too Long

Hello blogging world!! With the exception of my recent Easter post, it's been a while. Like, ten months! You wouldn't know it, but I do think about this little blog of mine quite regularly. I keep wanting to write, keep getting distracted, and then nothing happens.

Quite a while ago I even questioned why I keep this blog going at all. Blogging certainly isn't what it used to be. With so many different social media outlets available now that allow everyone to create short content and get maximum exposure, I know many bloggers are no longer blogging as much and instead are making use of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram (and whatever else is popular these days) to interact with readers and create communities.

As for me, I really do prefer this platform. So I want to continue this little bitty blog of mine and I do hope to be a bit more regular. Hopefully more than every ten months! Let's definitely hope for a bit more there.

So here we go!!

First, after looking over the last couple posts I did do (wow, those are old!!), a bit of an update is in order. [And I promise to stop using the word "bit" now.]

In one of my previous posts from spring 2016 I announced that I had submitted my resignation at my job of almost 16 years. In August I had my last day and I left with many wonderful memories and promises that I'd be back to visit (and I have). It was bittersweet. I loved that job for a long time; the last few years were starting to feel hard. I still liked aspects of it but my desire to be there had definitely started to fade. I miss the people, but I was definitely ready for something new.

Once I was no longer working, the boys and I had about 4 weeks at home together before they started school. We didn't do as much as I had hoped in that time period, but we got them set for school (uniforms, supplies, etc.) and we rested and had lazy days. We all just really needed some lazy days.

Since September we entered the world of school. But only partly. I am planning on blogging about this more so you'll have to wait for the details. But, we've really enjoyed this year! Homeschooling in a hybrid or collaborative environment is interesting and it really does feel like the best of both worlds. Like I said, more soon.

We had an unexpected development in our family early this year. Hubby hadn't been feeling well for over a year and had almost no energy most days. Finally in February he got a diagnosis of Celiac Disease. It hasn't been too difficult to transition to a gluten-free diet, but it does have it's challenges. I'll likely share more about this, too. The kids and I are not completely gluten-free, though more so than we were. I am considering going 100% along with Hubby for my own health too, I just haven't bit the bullet yet.

I have plenty of ideas in my head for upcoming blog posts. Let's hope I actually make them a reality. Hope you'll stick with me (whomever is still reading). I'll share more about what school things we're doing at home, other activities, homeschooling pre-school next year, and just whatever random things pop into my head. Oh, and I hope to also blog some on Benedictine Spirituality. If nothing else, it'll benefit me to write about the things that I should be living as a Benedictine oblate.

Blessings for this Easter season to you and yours!

Teaching Manners

My kids actually listen to me!

This was my realization this morning when I finally figured out what my children were trying to tell me while we listened to their Veggie Tales CD on the way to work and school (for the gazillionth time). Last week they were trying to tell me something about the Veggie Tales not saying please. And they were very adamant about it. I wasn't sure what they were referring to and they eventually dropped it.

Then this morning they started telling me again about how someone wasn't saying please. From their seats in the back row of my van I usually can't hear their tiny voices while this CD is playing. So they'er trying to tell me something, I keep shutting the CD off, I don't understand what they are talking about, I turn it back on, and the cycle starts again.

But I got it today! The CD finally hit on the song "Give me oil in my lamp" and they started yelling from the back, "The Veggie Tales not saying please, they not saying please!"

Ah, Veggie Tales, my almost 4 year old twins think you need a lesson in manners, apparently.

Despite how many times I remind my kids to say please instead of "I want" or "give me," it's good to know that they are listening. Hopefully they will put it into practice more eventually, too.

Listen to "Give me oil in my lamp" by the Veggie Tales HERE.

Better Late Than Never

For most of Silas' first year I managed to get a picture up at least once a month to track the many changes that happen over the course of a year. But after month 11 I fell silent. But if you've been reading for some time you may have noticed that I wasn't blogging on much of anything the past month or so.

So this is rather late, but ...

Happy Birthday, Silas!!!

He's so stinking cute!!

We had a birthday party planned for him for the Saturday just after his birthday, but ended up canceling it after sickness started going through our house. I was so glad we canceled! Silas wasn't feeling well, Hubby was on and off not feeling good, and then Sunday I caught a bug and was totally out of it that whole day. So this was better. The day the party should have been (which is when the above picture was actually taken), everyone was doing pretty okay. Silas wasn't the happiest, but he wasn't yet at the worst of what he would end up dealing with over the next week-plus.

Regardless, his Godmother came to see us anyway and she brought cupcakes. So we had a mini-celebration, Silas for a cupcake sans frosting, and we opened a couple gifts.

I can't believe my baby is 1. He's now walking, wearing 9 month size clothes, is getting close to 18 pounds, and knows how to stand up for himself when big brothers try to take toys out of his hands. The walking thing is hilarious. It is slowly becoming his favored method of mobility, but it's so funny to see this teeny tiny baby walking so well. He doesn't look big enough to walk!

Overall, not the best of birthday celebrations, but that's okay. He'll have plenty more in the future.

10 Months Old, Other Baby Updates, and Big Brothers Too

Silas is now 10 months old. He's apparently feeling his age, as you can see:

Now, before you think that I was taking pictures of my child while he was in a bad mood or sick or something, I assure you that was not the case. He was laughing hysterically one minute and then giving me faces like above the next. Such a silly boy. Here's one of the cuter ones:

So, at 10 months old he's crawling faster than you could possibly imagine, getting into everything, has figured out stairs (bring out the baby gates!), and loves walking with his baby walker. He's even stood on his own a few times for just a second or two. I'm not ready for him to start walking, but I have a feeling he'll be doing it much sooner than his brothers did. He's eating a bunch of foods (vegetables, meats, fruits, oatmeal), mostly pureed, but he's also eating pieces of banana, cheerios, and kix. So he's getting plenty of variety and developing some fine motor skills in the process. And he's using a sippy cup!! AND drinking water!! We're still trying to get his older brothers to drink water, so this feels BIG for us.

A few more pictures from the past month:

He's so tiny that I find him walking
like this the most adorable thing ever.

What's going on here?

It's Peter and Ethan!

Speaking of Peter and Ethan, these two just crack me up! They like to walk around with hands folded, singing "Alleluia." If a book is handy, Peter, and sometimes Ethan, will walk around holding it up like he sees the Deacon holding the Book of the Gospels during Mass. They will often step up on the fireplace and stand there with hands folded, singing away. It's very cute. They do it outside too. There are two brooms in our garage that have become candle holders or maybe the crucifix and they march around the backyard with them. They use one of the low walls around some of the garden beds to stand on after their "processional." So cute:

Their "Mass" processional. Altar servers in the making!

They are both doing great and are great big brothers to Silas. Potty training has gone nowhere, although their teacher at school is helping them to at least sit on the potty a few times a day. We do the same thing on the evenings we do baths, but we're not consistently doing it daily. But it really is just sitting there. It's a start, I guess. They are also incredibly silly. A bit of evidence:

Can you guess what they are doing?
And just LOOK at Ethan's face, oh my goodness!

They made these spider hats at school and
apparently wore them the rest of the day.

I have more updates and a few more blog posts in my head that I hope to get out soon. My time for writing seems to have dwindled a lot, but I'm not giving up. Be patient with me, please. More to come ... eventually.

Coming Up For Air

I'm still here!! Have you been wondering if I had disappeared? I have so many updates, so much has been going on. A quick run down (i.e., what you can look forward to hearing more about soon):

• I am now a Novice Oblate in the Order of St. Benedict
• We had a nice vacation in Hilton Head, SC
• ... and an "interesting" two day drive back home
• My recent (or not so recent) posts at Catholic Sistas
• An update on the boys

In the meantime, Silas is now 9 months old. How did that happen? He had his 9 month well-visit this week and he's now up to 16 pounds 10 ounces. He's my peanut. He weighed much more than his brothers at birth, but they were bigger than him by 9 months old. He's so tiny, but crawling, standing, walking along furniture, and even starting to stand for a second or two without holding onto anything. He is the cutest thing, so tiny and doing all these things. Seriously, cuteness everywhere!

That's all for now. More to come. Hopefully soon!

Unintentional Reverse Psychology

This morning's breakfast conversation:

Peter: "I done."

Me: "No, eat some of your Chex."

Peter: "No! I done!"

Me: "I asked you to eat some of your Chex. Eat five pieces, please."

Peter, defiantly: "No!"

I walk over and move five pieces to one side of the plate. "There, just eat those five pieces and then you can be done."

Peter: "No, I eat all."

Me: "Okay, eat them all."

And he did. Completely cleaned the plate. LOL!!

Family Update: Another ER Visit and A Different Diagnosis

Some people know what's been going on with us lately, some know only parts, and others probably have just wondered why I've been a bit absent lately on the blog and other social media (and I apologize for any non-answered emails). I figured an update here was appropriate and I could then easily share the story with anyone who has been wondering about us.

The short story is that after two trips to the ER and one hospital stay in a month, we have a child with asthma. That doesn't really explain a whole lot, so here's the longer version.

In mid-July Peter started not feeling well and we ended up at a doctor appointment, then the ER, and then admitted to the hospital. I mentioned this in a 7 Quick Takes post shortly after it all happened. you can read about it in Take #6 on this post HERE.

So the diagnosis then was pneumonia. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't.

Fast forward to August 17, almost exactly one month from his hospital stay, and his breathing seemed very labored again. He woke up that morning seeming a little off, so we gave him an albuterol treatment (the nebulizer) before leaving for Mass that morning. By the time we got home he was sounding bad again, so we did another one. But his breathing wasn't improving much and he was starting to get that grunting sound back. So I called the Twilight Clinic to find out if we should bother with them or go straight to the ER (told them we had dealt with this the month previous) and they said go to the ER. So, Hubby and Peter headed out. It was probably around 1:30, maybe 2:00, that afternoon.

I got updates from Hubby here and there and it sounded like Peter was responding well to some breathing treatments. It was looking like he was going to be sent home. During one of our phone conversations was when I first heard mention of possible asthma. Eventually I heard around 8 that evening that they were going to be sent home. They pulled in around 10:30 and I told Peter I'd get him anything he wanted for dinner. He chose yogurt, applesauce, and cinnamon-sugar toast, so that's what he got.

That was a Sunday. I made a follow-up with the pediatrician for Tuesday where we discussed asthma some, did some more nebulizer treatments, and got a new prescription to fill (someone in the ER didn't write one of the prescriptions they gave us correctly and I thought it looked odd when I got it filled so I waited until we saw the pediatrician and she agreed with me). We were also given an appointment for Thursday with the Pediatric Pulmonology Department.

As a side note, I went to the pharmacy on that Sunday to fill a prescription I had from July for more albuterol. I ended up getting the big box which was HUGE! 60 vials huge!! Then I went back on Monday with the two prescriptions from the ER. I went again on Tuesday with the prescription I got from the pediatrician and then again on Thursday (drop off) and Friday (pick up). I've spent a lot of money there recently. AND ... I now recognize the pharmacy's phone number on my phone when I get the automated "your prescriptions are ready" call. Hopefully we are done for a while.

Thursday's Pulmonology appointment was really good. The doctor was very nice and took time with me. We discussed asthma, what it means, a plan for treatment, allergies, and his nurse went over the treatment plan in detail with me as well. Plus they gave me a bunch of information to read. And we go back in three months for a follow-up.

So for now, we have an inhaler that he uses every four hours (albuterol, and I can use either the inhaler or the nebulizer; same medication, just different methods of distribution). Then he has a second inhaler that contains a steroid that is used twice a day, morning and night. Currently we are supposed to do 4 puffs of that one and then wean him down to two. He was on a prednisone for four days which we just finished up on Saturday. And finally he has some Singulair he takes just before bed.

I was taking in so much information this past week that I was starting to feel overwhelmed. It's hard enough to get things done on the weekends and also spend time with my kids without running a bunch more errands and trying to clean the house from top to bottom. I went to work on Thursday afternoon and just could not concentrate! So I made a very last minute decision on Friday morning and took a vacation day. I went and bought impermeable mattress and pillow case encasements for the boys' room, I washed all the sheets from their room (and Silas' room), dusted the furniture, and vacuumed everything, including moving the bed to get under it. I got the encasements all on and remade beds. I haven't yet done much else in the rest of the house, but luckily we had recently had guests so I had cleaned most of the house earlier in the week.

Now I just have to plan to actually change sheets once a week and figure out how to vacuum twice a week. I can vacuum and dust once over the weekend, but how in the world I'm going to find a way to do it once during the week is beyond me. Especially since Peter can not be in the room that is being vacuumed and he can't go into the room for 30 minutes after it is vacuumed. Normally we have about two hours between when we get home and when we start getting kids to bed, and those two hours are pretty packed.

There are a number of other things I hope to do and a few things that won't be happening (like replacing carpet with flooring or switching out our furniture, just can't do those things right now). But I need to get rid of some curtains that we have left hanging up from the previous owners of the house (which won't be sad at all, there are some horribly ugly curtains in our family room that I've been dying to get rid of) and I want to try and wash as many parts of the couches as I can. I've toyed with the idea of getting a cleaning service, even just once a year to do things like blinds and ceiling fans and all those things that are a pain and don't necessarily need to be done frequently, but now I'm seriously considering it. It'd be nice to know that we can get a good deep clean 1-2 times a year while I handle regular maintenance as much as possible.

I'm sure we'll be learning a lot more about asthma and allergies and who knows what as we go forward in the months and years to come. For now, Peter is doing great! He's running around, playing with his brothers, getting into trouble, and just being 3 years old. His breathing is excellent at the moment, I have't heard much coughing at all and definitely no grunting. So we're pleased.

Only thing we need now is tips on how to teach a 3 year old to take a sip of water, keep it in his mouth, swish it around, and spit it out. He needs to do this after the steroid inhaler and he doesn't yet get it. It's so hard to explain something that seems to intuitive to us.

If you've read this whole long story, thank you for sticking it out with me. As a reward, I give you a recent testosterone pile:

Yep, that's all four of my boys piled up there.

Bored Puppy Syndrome and Other Odds and Ends

Recently a friend of mine referred to her young children as bored puppies. The reference was to the craziness that seems to come out of nowhere when it is time for quiet time or nap time or bed time. I immediately realized that I too have a couple of "bored puppies." Every. Single. Night.

We have the same bed time routine every night. It hasn't changed in months and months. But that doesn't matter. Put them to bed, turn out the lights, crack the bedroom door ... and then the partying begins.

Part of the issue is that it is still light outside at this time of year. That certainly doesn't help things. You leave two three year old boys in a semi-dark room for just a couple of minutes and the chatter starts. That chatter quickly escalates, especially if no one goes in to put a stop to the madness!

This was Monday night. Which really isn't any different than most any other night. I was feeding Silas in his room listening to things slowly get out of hand in the room down the hall. Nothing like two bored puppies chewing up everyone's shoes and nothing being done to stop it. At least in this case there was no destruction. But still ...!

By the time I was finally able to put Silas down (who was only half done and didn't care for being stuck in his crib when he wanted his second course) I walked into the other room to find Bored Puppy Syndrome in full bloom: they were in the opposite beds, there was lots of giggling and shrieking, stuffed animals went flying through the air, and bed sheets were all twisted up. Honestly, I have no idea how I managed to NOT laugh at the antics. I play mean mom on TV, but really I'm laughing on the inside.

The amazing thing is how quickly these two little guys can hop back into their beds and have all the stuffed animals back in place. Two seconds flat. Seriously! Those are some mad skillz!

Threats of timeout, a chat with Hubby, and then I managed to get back to Silas. I continued to listen to things escalate once again (they just can't help themselves) and watched as Hubby enforced timeout. Eventually we had two sleeping boys. It just takes us an hour or more to get there. It is so much like watching bored puppies it's surreal.

In other news, Silas is now 6 months old and I did not get a picture of him on the day of. But we're finally having some professional pictures done this coming weekend and I can't wait to see some beautifully done pictures of all three boys! He also had his 6 month well visit and he's doing well. He's growing and gaining weight but apparently plateauing on the growth charts. He's healthy though, so we're not concerned. I'm going to take him back in a month just for a weight check and as long as he's going up we're not going to worry about it. He may just be a peanut. That's okay with me.

We did attempt to start him on some rice cereal, but it didn't go over very well. He was completely confused by the spoon. The boys had no interest until well past 7 months old, so I'm tempted to just put it away and wait. Hubby thinks we should keep trying. "We" would prefer to wait, but "he" is welcome to keep at it if that's what "he" wants to do.

Finally, I forgot to post here that I had an article up on Catholic Sistas this past Friday. Check out Marriage: A Catholic Understanding when you get a chance. I was especially surprised that Big Pulpit linked it up on their Friday Extra post. Never would have guessed that in a million years, but very honored by the link up.

Speaking of Catholic Sistas, if you don't follow the blog, I encourage you to check it out. We're currently working on a series of posts on the Anima Christi prayer (part 5 went up on Monday), there is a series started on Proverbs 31, and this coming Thursday I put up a guest post that is a letter from a mom to her unborn daughter who is not expected to live very long after birth (prayers for all of them, please!). The Thursday post will bring tears to your eyes! I'm amazed too at how this worked out. I won't go into details, but as it turned out, Thursday is also the day this precious baby will be induced. Putting the post up that day is a total coincidence. God works in amazing ways!! Anyway, all I can say is, we have a lot of good stuff going on at the blog. Posts go up usually four days a week and we have a lot of great talent.

There's a brief update on the goings on in these parts. I've been so sporadic with my blogging lately, but I do like to share when I can. I'm hoping to do another Lawn Chair Catechism post this week, too (I missed last week). Hopefully you'll hear more form me soon!

Big Brother "Reading"

I so wish I had a picture to go along with this post. But when this happened I was feeding the baby and I didn't want to intrude on the moment by trying to capture it with a picture. Anyway ...

Saturday I was sitting in our family room feeding the baby when Ethan brought a book over for me to read. I told him I couldn't read right then but that I would once the baby was done.  But he couldn't understand this concept. I'm assuming that at this age there is no concept of time and everything must happen NOW because there is no such thing as later. So far, all evidence points to this conclusion.

After much frustration (on Ethan's part) and many tears, somehow Peter ended up agreeing to "read" the book to Ethan. Ethan was immediately happy again and I watched to see how this would go.

I saw Peter take the book into his lap and Ethan sat down on the floor next to him. With the two of them sitting right next to each other (which by itself is the cutest thing ever), Peter opens the book.

"Someone ripped this book." Peter says. The text block is tearing away from the cover on this book (can you tell I'm a librarian?), Ethan agrees, and I laughed to myself at this exchange.

I found a picture: the book.

Peter proceeds to flip to the first page and says, "One dog." Moving on to the next page he continued with almost the exact words of each page.

I was impressed when I heard him "read" on the page with the picture of a maze, "One dog going in, three dogs going out." And then he got to the first exchange between the two dogs about the hat and it was perfect:

"Hello. Hello. Do you like hat? No, don't like hat. Good-bye. Good-bye."

I was sitting across the room in tears from holding in my laughter. I was enjoying listening to Peter read with a little help from Ethan here and there as they went through this book page by page. And for three year olds, this is a pretty lengthy book.

The kicker for me is that this is a library book. It's been in the house for only about three weeks. But library books are so loved here that we read every single one, every single night. So I've started limiting how many we bring home. And unfortunately we don't get to the library as often as I'd like so we end up keeping them for the whole four week loan period.

I love that the boys love books so much. I also love seeing how well they can get along when they want to (it doesn't happen all the time, I can assure you). And I love that Peter tried to read the book and did a pretty good job at it too. I can't wait until the day when they really can read a book! Oh the worlds that will open up to them.

Growing Kids and (Hopefully) Veggies

Everything is growing around here. It's spring!!

Silas is now 5 months old, as of Monday. Here's the picture I took of him:

I've been playing around with the website picmonkey.com. The above picture is the result of playing around with several different features. Fun, right?

Anyway, he's getting so big. And he's such a happy baby, too. He's a little under the weather this week, but generally he is so good and smiles so easily.

The boys are hitting an interesting phase. They are almost three and I think I'm becoming a believer in the "Terrible Threes." Without going into detail, things have just been ... well, challenging, for lack of a better word. Hopefully we'll all survive this next year.

Besides our growing boys we're also hoping to have a garden this year. We're getting a late start, but since it was actually cool this last week, it seems to be a late starting growing season this year anyway. Not that I really know, I've never done this before. But Hubby has been hard at work building our raised garden beds.

The house we bought last summer had a garden spot already that was overgrown and obviously neglected. Hubby cleaned it up and it's been sitting there ever since, waiting for us to do something with it.

Hubby working on the raised beds (the frame is upside down in these pictures):

He has two of these almost done now, which will give us four spaces of about 4 feet by 4 feet each. I plan on documenting more of this endeavor, so expect more pictures soon.

And one last picture. I tried taking some pictures of Silas and I using our new ring sling. Selfies aren't really my thing, but here's the best I could do:

He looks like a redhead here, but he's definitely a blondie (for now)

Bonus picture, the boys were in the backyard while I was taking pictures of the garden area and they insisted I take their picture too:

7 Quick Takes Friday, Vol. 56: Double Posting Today, Lenten Mission, Kiddisms, Praying, and More

~1~

Rarely do I write a 7 Quick Takes post on a Friday when I also have a post going up over at Catholic Sistas. But apparently I decided that this week was going to be crazy week. So read this post, but please go check out today's post at Catholic Sistas as well: Uniting Our Lenten Sacrifices with Christ Crucified.

~2~

Earlier this week was our parish's Lenten Mission. I used to always go to these, all three nights even. But since having kids they have gotten harder to attend. Sometimes I've gone alone, sometimes Hubby goes, sometimes we go together and put the kids in the nursery, or sometimes we skip it altogether. This year we went on Sunday night and put the older boys in the nursery and kept the baby with us. The boys don't care for the nursery. We almost never use it on Sundays, so it is just special talks like this when we use it. Usually they scream and cry and the volunteers have to pry them off of us, but they always end up having a good time.

This time, we tried to bring them over to the train table to help get them interested in something. They were interested, but not enough to forget about us. They were keeping a close eye on us and not getting too close to the train table. Then I pointed out the two play kitchens. That did it! Off they went with no thought at all of us. I grabbed Hubby's arm and said, "Let's go!" and we were out of there.

No screaming, no hanging off of us. And all for a play kitchen. Not the trains. Go figure!

~3~

The first night of the Lenten Mission was very good! One of my favorite priests, Fr. Frank, was the speaker on the first night. I spent a lot of time walking around with the baby, but I was still mostly listening. I did step out during the first half to change a diaper and kind of missed the point of what was being discussed (I checked with Hubby later and it was a run-down of evangelization in the early Church) but the second half of the talk was excellent!!

Here is basically what I got out of it. Sometimes, trying to follow Jesus is very difficult. It can sometimes feel so hard that we might give up or declare that we are not "good enough" to be able to follow Him in all things. Fr. Frank pointed out that St. Paul tells the people in one of his letters (I forget which one) to follow him. That's right, follow St. Paul. By this he means that while he is following Christ, we can be following Paul, and others may then follow us and so on and so on. What it basically comes down to is that all the saints are available for us to follow behind in our quest to follow Christ. We're not alone in this journey. He used an analogy of being on a hike and hiking on a trail in a single file line. You are in the middle of the line and you can't see where the group is going. You can only see the person (or the backpack) right in front of you. So you have to follow that person. And the person behind you is following you.

I know I fail at following and imitating Christ all the time. Fr. Frank said to find a saint or two and follow them. And if we are following someone who is helping us to be more like Christ than others may then follow us.

~4~

And for a complete change of subject:
Some time ago Hubby taught the boys how to dip their toast into the yoke of a fried egg. They love doing it. And now, every night when we put the boys to bed, as we start heading out of the room, we hear Peter say, "Fried egg? Fried egg?" Every. Single. Night.

Hubby has told me he also asks for a fried egg when he wakes them up in the morning too. This boy loves his fried eggs!!

~5~

Teaching kids to pray is so amusing. Up until now we haven't specifically taught them much in terms of prayer,we mostly demonstrate it for them (which is incredibly important, of course) and we have worked with them on doing the sign of the cross. They are slowly picking things up. Ethan often "prays" with us when we do bedtimes prayers. It sounds like a cross between a drone and a chant. Maybe he'll be a monk one day. Since they have been soaking up the alphabet and counting in both English and Spanish, I decided that maybe now was the time to start teaching them a prayer. My choice was the Hail Mary. For one, they love pointing out "Mama Mary" in pictures or stopping by her statue at our church to say "hi," and secondly, it's a fairly short prayer.

So we got started one morning and I said a few words at a time and had them repeat after me. What I have learned during this process is:

1. Even a short prayer can feel long when you are doing it a few words at a time.
2. It's very easy to forget the words yourself when you chop it up into little bits. No matter how well you know the prayer yourself.
3. When you only do the first half and decide to wait on teaching the second half until another time, you end up inadvertently teaching them that there is applause between the first and second half of the prayer.
4. Two year olds skip words like: of, the, is, a, you, your. So when I say "is the fruit" all that is repeated back to me is "fruit." Or "of your womb" becomes simply "womb."
5. Once they start getting it, one child will think that when you say the first set of words his job is to then say the next set of words.

It's a start and I find it incredibly humorous to do this with the boys. We laugh a lot while learning the Hail Mary. I think Mama Mary probably laughs with us.

~6~

Went to the dentist on Tuesday for my regular 6 month cleaning. After having the dentist check everything out, how pleasant to then hear him say, "Well, it's not any worse." Um ... thanks?

On the plus side, he did say we can wait another 12 months before they do X-rays again. They use the child thingys on me and they still make me gag. I really do have a tiny mouth. And can't they come up with a better way of doing X-rays?

~7~

I'm going to wrap up this post by sharing my pains from last weekend. I woke up in horrific pain on Saturday morning. I've had a "crick" in the neck before, some worse than others, but Saturday morning's was the worst I've ever had. I can still feel some of the effects of it today (Thursday). By Saturday night I was dreading going to sleep because I knew I would wake up in more pain. It dulled a little over the course of the day Saturday, but not nearly enough. Sure enough, I woke up Sunday in a great deal of pain as well. It's been almost a week and I can still feel a little pain when I turn my head to the right, though it is definitely not nearly as bad as it was. I do not remember ever having a neck/back/shoulder issue like that ever in my life. Ever. I hope that was a once in a lifetime thing!

Pleasant note to end on, right? Ha!! I should have used that pain for good, but the idea of "offering it up" never occurs to me until afterwards, never in the moment.

That's it for today's Quick Takes. Don't forget to check out my post at Catholic Sistas today. And, of course, thanks to Jen for hosting 7 Quick Takes!! Go check her out as well.

Sing with Me: A B C D ...

The boys are in that phase where they are soaking up tons of stuff and repeating things back to you all the time. They love letters and love counting to ten. At not even three years old, I'm amazed at what they know.

For the alphabet they have a DVD from Leap Frog called "The Letter Factory." This is not a review, but I love this video, so if you're looking for something for your kids to help them get to know the alphabet, this is a good one.

As I was saying, we have this video and the boys love it. They pick out random letters on boxes and pieces of paper and books laying around and tell us the letter and sometimes tell us what it sounds like. In the last day or so they both say "pu, pu" every time they see a "P" on something. When they want to watch the video they ask for it by pointing at the TV and saying "A-B-C-D, A-B-C-D."

In school they are also slowly working on letters. They occasionally bring home coloring sheets with a letter on it and three items that all begin with that letter. They obviously love doing this. The sheet for D had a drum on it and whenever I ask them about the letter D and mention a drum they bang on whatever is nearby and say "boom, boom."

Peter will often say "A-B-C-D" just to refer to letters in general, not necessarily the video. He was doing that this morning at breakfast. He said it several times while pointing out the letters on the side of his bowl. And then this conversation occurred:

Peter: A-B-C-D
Me: E-F-G
Peter (with a HUGE smile): H-I-J
Me: [stunned silence, I wasn't expecting him to respond]

I then went on to say a few more letters and he responded with the next few after that. We went through a few more and then I stopped saying any and encouraged him to keep going. I think he said "L-M-N-O-P" as one big word (what kid doesn't) and he may have skipped "X" but otherwise, everything was there.

By the time he got to "Z" I was cheering for him. How did he manage to learn to say the entire alphabet?! He's not yet 3 years old! But he did!

I love how they absorb so much at this age, without you even knowing it. Amazing!!

Returning to Work

After three months of being off from work (a glorious time!) I had to return on this Monday morning. I wish I had known that I would be losing an hour of sleep the weekend right before I went back or I might have worked it out to be a different day. Oh well, what can you do!

Sunday night I made a list for myself of everything I needed to be sure I brought with me. For your amusement, here is the list:

• Boys' bag with their nap time blankets, the weekly check, and Silas' vaccination form
• The boys' lunch boxes (don't forget to pack food in it too)
• Silas' bag containing:
• diapers
• wipes
• diaper cream
• two changes of clothes
• three bottles
• An extra nursing cover (for me to nurse him there)
• Bags of frozen breast milk for Silas (stick in my lunch bag until we get to day care)
• My work bag
• My purse
• My lunch
• The breast pump
• My water bottle

If you're counting, that's 10 bags or groups of items.

I happened to acquire an extra nursing cover recently. I was going to give it away to one of the many people I know who are expecting and then I realized on Sunday evening that I could still use it. So I have one in my diaper bag that I can use when we are out and about. Now with this second one I can keep it with the stuff Silas needs at school each day and I can feed him there and have a nursing cover with me. I was worried about trying to keep up with my nursing cover and accidentally leaving it home one day or leaving it at school over the weekend. So having a second one ended up working out great!

Monday morning rolled around and I was ready. Or, I hoped I was. I had laid out clothes for myself and all three boys the night before. Plus all the stuff I needed to bring was piled up near the garage door. Here's how the morning went:

5:45 am: Phone alarm goes off. I reach over and turn it off, sit up and groggily look at the clock. Wonder if 5:45 is really necessary and then alarm clock alarm goes off. Decide that 5:45 is necessary. Get up, wake baby and change his diaper.

6:00 am: Bring baby into bed and start feeding him. Check iPod and see message from friend, read it, decide to respond later, bring up Morning Prayer to pray while baby eats.

6:20 am: Baby finishes on one side, burps, proceeds to poop, poop goes up his back due to my hand being right on his butt. Get up again and change his diaper and now also his clothes.

6:25 am: Back in bed and feeding baby on second side. Manage to finish up Morning Prayer.

6:35 am: Baby is done, put him back in bed, go downstairs to pump more milk.

6:45 am: Finish pumping, clean everything so I can take it to work, head back upstairs.

7:00 am: Shower, dress, dry hair, etc.

7:30 am: Join Hubby and the boys who are all already at the kitchen table eating breakfast. Realize that the goal of leaving the house at 7:45 am is probably not going to happen.

7:50 am: Finish up breakfast, go back upstairs to brush teeth and get baby from his crib.

8:00 am: Get baby in car seat, jackets on the boys, start loading all my bags into the car.

8:05 am: Finally pull out of the driveway, Hubby stops on the side of the road to bring the trash cans back around to the back of the house. I pull around him knowing that I'll now get to the day care long before him.

8:20 am (or thereabouts): Get to the day care, unload everybody and everything, get to the door and realize that I have forgotten the code again. Nice mom pulling out of the parking lot sees me and tells me what it is. Phew!

8:25 am: Drop off baby and his bag in his room, tell the teachers I'll be right back down, bring check and form to office, take boys upstairs to their room. Hubby shows up to say good bye to the boys.

8:30 am: Hubby and I are back in Silas' room, get everything squared away, say good bye to Hubby, I sit down to feed Silas one last time.

8:55 am: I leave the day care.

9:15 am: I finally find a parking spot and start walking to my building.

9:30 am: I walk into the library. Wonder if maybe 5:45 am isn't early enough. Can I do 5:30 am tomorrow?

By the time I got to work I had had a full day already!! I will say it hasn't been too bad yet. I've had one pumping session so far and I'm praying Silas has enough of my milk for the day. Feeding him when I dropped him off helps. I am hoping he will only need two feedings until I can pick him up again.

I have lots of catch up on. My desk kind of says it all:

Yes, somewhere back there is my desk. You can see the computer monitor off to the right. In front are two book trucks (with the breast pump sitting on top of one of them). Unfortunately, all that clutter, piles of papers, and other crap stuff is not a result of my being off the last three months. Sadly it often looks like this.

What you also don't see are the walls of bookshelves on two sides full of CDs, scores, dissertations and theses, books, and various cataloging tools and reference manuals. Obviously there is plenty to keep me busy.

With that said, I must get back to it. Hope you enjoyed the rundown of my first morning back to work. 

[This post was written in haste and for your amusement. If you are bothered by typos, misspellings, or grammatical failures, please keep them to yourself. Or, if you must say them aloud, share them with a friend as long as that friend is not me. My tired brain thanks you.]

7 Quick Takes Friday, v. 54

~1~

Once again, I have gone many months without doing a 7 Quick Takes post here. I've done a few over at Catholic Sistas, but not on my little humble blog. So I thought I'd have a crack at it again while I have a little time. By the way, there is a 7 Quick Takes post at Catholic Sistas today, but not by me. I'm working at trying to share the fun of these posts with the other writers. So one of my fellow ink slingers took a crack at this month's post and she put together a list of 7 meatless meals that do not include seafood or pasta. Love that idea! I'm definitely one who gravitates to seafood or pasta on meatless days. Go on over there and check it out!

~2~

My boys are getting so big and they are constantly surprising us with what they say and what they know and what they do. I love hearing them talk. First of all it is just too darn cute whether you can understand them or not. Not too long ago we were sitting down to eat, the boys were in their seats with their food already in front of them. I was still in the working part of the kitchen when the following conversation happened:

Peter: Bunnies [pointing at the kitchen counter]

Me: Bunnies?

Peter: No, bunnies! [very emphatic pointing at nothing I could see]

Me: Where are bunnies?

Peter: No, bunny. Bunnies!

Ethan [now apparently catching on]: Bunnies!

I finally figured out that they meant vitamins. Don't ask me how I finally got "vitamins" out of "bunnies."

~3~

The boys also now have two favorite DVDs that they constantly want to watch. They would watch these two DVDs all day long if we let them (which we don't, just to clarify). I don't mind them watching since they are also educational. One is The Letter Factory and the other Numberland, both by Leap Frog. The boys ask for them as "ABCD" and "number." They are also learning some of their letters at day care. Between these DVDs, day care, and the little tiny bit of review we do with them, I'm amazed at how much they are retaining. They did the letter "H" at day care recently and will now tell us "Letter H, hu, hu." They'll point to an "S" and say "sssss" like a snake and they seem to have a special affinity for the letter "A." They aren't even three yet!

~4~

As for numbers, they can count to ten and usually stay in order. More often than not they skip the number 7, but everything else makes it in there.

~5~

Let me just add, we did not set out to have our kids learn their letters and numbers at such an early age. I bought the DVDs figuring they would enjoy them but not really pay a whole lot of attention quite yet. It really is amazing what little you can do for your kids to learn so much!

~6~

Baby Silas (or Baby Sassy, as the boys say) and I went for a walk today. My last weekday home alone with him and we finally manage to get out for a walk. There is still some ice in places and there are mounds of snow on the grass where it was shoveled into big piles, but it felt like spring. I think it was around 60 degrees when we were out. It felt so good!! 

~7~

So, yes, I go back to work on Monday. I'm really going to miss the time I had home with Silas. Especially now that the weather is finally warming up again. I already sent an email to my unit to cancel a meeting we have every Monday morning. I need time to get used to things again and not go right in for a meeting first thing. I've been out for long periods of time before, many longer than this one, but I think this one is going to be the hardest to come back from. Pray for me in this transition, please.

This 7 Quick Takes post is linked up at Conversion Diary in the 7 Quick Takes carnival. Check it out for more 7 Quick Takes from tons of other bloggers.

Introducing Baby

Sorry for the silence on the blog lately. But I have a great excuse and here he is:

Silas Augustine arrived at 2:18 pm on Thursday Dec. 19, 2013. He was a plump 9 pounds and 20.25 inches long. I worked really hard to get the delivery I wanted. But things turned out a little differently. Silas was face up and not descending at all despite my pushing efforts. So he came via C-section. Not what I had wanted, but I have no regrets. We have a healthy baby!

He's a bit of a thinker. Haha!

I managed to get a picture of Peter with baby brother Silas. Ethan had no interest in a similar picture. Peter is happy as punch to have a baby brother.

And a Christmas morning picture of all three of my boys. I can't believe I'm a mom of three boys!!

All is going well so far. We've had some bumps along the way, expected growing pains. Nursing did not take right away but we seem to be doing better in that respect now, though Silas still needs a little extra formula to make sure he's getting enough calories. Otherwise, we're figuring things out.

Thank you to everyone for the prayers over the last 9 months. We are so happy to have Silas with us finally!!

Pregnancy Update: Week 30

How far along? 30 weeks, 0 days. We're in the 30s!!!!! It's funny now to look back at the 30 week update with the boys and see that we were predicting 4-6 more weeks (it ended up being about 6). This time, I'm thinking, "Wow, only 10 weeks to go!" It's amazing how different things are this time.

How big is baby? Supposedly, baby is "almost" 3 pounds (roughly the size of a cabbage) and about 16 inches long. Survival chances are still at 95% if baby came this week.

Cravings/Aversions: Nothing in particular. However, I have a new favorite beverage: the Vitamin Water Zero, lemonade flavor. It's not really a craving, but I do really like it, especially since it is chock full of important vitamins and electrolytes. Doesn't hurt that it's been on sale at our local grocery store for a really great deal. I'm going to stock up again this week before the sales change over on Sunday. This is week two it's been on sale, so I'm not expecting it to still be on sale next week.

Belly Button: What belly button? I think it is disappearing!! I can feel it pushing out, but it's funny how it doesn't look like much.

Movement: Definitely lots of movement. It occurred to me this week that the kind of movement I am feeling is completely different from what I felt with the boys. It's hard to describe, but this time around I know which baby I'm feeling because there is only one. So I really know that this baby is moving, instead of wondering if one or the other or both are shaking things up in there. I think I feel a lot more with this one than I did with the boys, too. They just had less room.

Leg cramps: None this week. I'm hoping the Vitamin Water Zero is part of the reason. I am still feeling a bit of restlessness in my legs. It happens sitting at my desk at work, sitting on the couch in the evenings. It's more an annoyance than anything else.

Sleep: Last week I didn't sleep well, but this past week I've been doing better. I still occasionally get up during the night, but it's not too bad. I'm limited in sleep positions, though. I finally gave up sleeping on my back. In addition, sleeping on my right side usually causes my right hand and wrist to fall asleep fairly quickly (no other tendinitis symptoms, that's the only one). So I end up on my left side pretty much the entire night.

Weight gain: I finally weighed myself on my scale, which is a bit more accurate since my starting weight was done on that scale. I get thrown off by the one at the doctor's office, it always shows me about 4 pounds more than mine. It might be more accurate in terms of actual weight, but relative to my starting weight, my scale shows me a more accurate look at overall weight gain. All that being said, I think my total weight gain is more like 14 pounds at this point. I might be able to keep things to under 20 after all!!

Ultrasound: No more planned as of now. I keep meaning to scan one of the 3D images I have. I keep forgetting! Sorry.

Appointment: Next one is Monday, just the standard appointment. Still taking the progesterone, no NSTs (non-stress tests) as of yet.

The Big Brothers: They are going to be getting a new bedroom soon. Hubby has been working on painting the room. He has the ceiling and the trim done. We have two colors picked out for the walls. So his next step is painting one wall one color and then painting the rest a different color once that first wall dries. We have beds, but still need mattresses, a dresser (or two?), and some sort of book shelf or on-the-wall shelving for their books and a few toys. Oh, and he's replacing the ceiling fan in that room as well.

Cutest thing the boys have started doing lately has to do with the crucifix I occasionally wear. I used to wear it more, but when we were moving I stopped bothering with it and then just didn't get around to fishing it out of my jewelry box (items got tangled up a bit during our move) until just recently. So I put it on and the boys started giving Jesus kisses. It's been several days now and they will often pick up the crucifix, kiss it, and then try to hug it. Peter has also added in a fist bump, something I'm sure Jesus appreciates. Thank goodness it is on a long cord necklace!

Names: Still waiting on Hubby. We're both convinced it'll be a boy because we can't agree on a boy name.

To-Do List: Time to update this a bit.

Finished or In-Progress:

• Still thinking on the pediatrician. Haven't made a decision and haven't really done anything further.
• We are signed up for two childbirth classes and two breastfeeding classes. Plus a friend is letting me borrow one of her breastfeeding books and I'm currently reading the CCL book on breastfeeding and a book on natural childbirth in a hospital (written by a doula), which has been really good and has given me a new perspective on my previous two birthing experiences (thinking of possibly writing a blog post about those).
• Sold: cloth diapers and one infant car seat. Still have an extra car seat base to sell (Graco brand, if anyone needs an extra, we don't need three).
• Boys room is in the process of being painted.
• Pond has been removed from the back yard as well as a portion of the fence (Yay!!!!)
• Decision on baby's room was made: not going to paint at this time

Still waiting to be done:

• Get a single stroller for the infant car seat to attach to
• Get a baby carrier and attend one of the babywearing support group meetings
• Ask potential Godparents to be Godparents
• Talk to priest and set a date for the baptism
• Work out plans for the boys for when labor hits (I have to think of the scenarios and figure out a Plan A and a Plan B for each one, just in case). I have ideas in my head, just need to start having conversations with the key people.
• Not baby related: but we're having issues with our kitchen sink. Plan A didn't work out and Plan B doesn't look like it is going to work out. So now we're looking at Plan C. More on this in a later post.

Prayers: October is Respect Life Month. Please remember to pray for all the unborn during this month. Also, prayers for all mothers and fathers facing difficult pregnancies, unplanned pregnancies, unexpected news about their babies, and much more. And don't forget prayers for all people struggling with disabilities, illness, old age, and more. Let's pray that we can cultivate a culture of life in our country.

This post was way longer than expected. Thanks for reading along!! I'm posting again on Friday over at Catholic Sistas and will probably be posting another update next week. Stay tuned!

Pregnancy Update: Week 28

Time for another update!! Lots about the pregnancy, the baby, and some updates on the boys. Enjoy!

How far along? 28 weeks! Hello, third trimester!! So hard to believe we are here. Last pregnancy, this was the first goal that we hoped I would make. Chances of survival at this time is 95%. This is such a great place to be.

How big is baby: According to my sources, the baby is about two and a quarter pounds and 14.8 inches long (roughly the size of a Chinese cabbage). That kind of shocks me!! I can't believe baby is already that big!

Cravings/Aversions: Still nothing. I feel great!

Belly Button: Just when I think it can't possibly change much more and it's got to pop out at any, it continues to widen.

Movement: So much moving around! I think I can tell when baby is head down versus not depending on where I feel the most movement. Hubby has been feeling baby moving and kicking around a lot. Peter won't touch my belly when I ask him if he wants to feel the baby. I think it freaks him out. Ethan will put his hand there, but he's not patient enough so he hasn't felt anything yet.

Cute story: I was feeling the baby move around a lot and wanted to take the opportunity to see if the boys could feel the baby. Of course, I stopped feeling much movement at that point. I had pulled my shirt up just a bit and I gently shook my belly to get the baby to move some. Well! That was all Ethan needed to see. He proceeded to put both his hands on my belly and shake, laugh, and do it again. He never felt the baby, but he was having fun.

Leg cramps: They're back!! I've had several recently. I seem to be getting them in the morning anywhere from a half hour to an hour and a half before I usually get up. And many of these I seem to catch just as they start. This is good for Hubby, because then I don't wake him up. However, this past Sunday morning I got another doozy of a leg cramp. Hubby had to help me but then as soon as he let go, I swung my legs around to get out of bed and it started again. I could feel the pain in my calf throughout the whole rest of the day. Especially walking up or down the stairs. Ouch!!

And I won't even mention the restless leg issues. Those are still there too.

Sleep: Definitely starting to get a little harder to get comfortable.

Weight gain: I'm happily ignorant at the moment. And I'm okay with that!

Ultrasound: Tuesday was ultrasound day and it looks like it may be my last one. Cervical length was right around 3 cm. This is the bottom of "normal" but at this point in the pregnancy, it's actually a good place to be. I asked lots of questions, one of which was: when does the cervix start to shorten naturally for a woman in a normal pregnancy (i.e., no history like mine). The answer: usually starting around 28 weeks. It's usually a pretty slow process. In my case we have no idea what it will do. I also asked about the progesterone I am taking and was told I will probably stay on it until about 34 weeks. I was expecting it to be a few weeks past that, but 34 is doable. Overall, it was a good appointment. Got to see the baby again (still head down), verified that the placenta has definitely moved out of the way of the cervix, and took a couple 3D pictures.

Appointment: Next one is this coming Monday. I have several new questions suddenly. Another tidbit of info I learned at my ultrasound appointment was that Dr. M is also expecting again and due just before me, like one week! I kind of wondered at my last appointment with her, but I wasn't sure so didn't want to ask. Very happy for her, but wondering what that means. I told Hubby tonight I'm either going to be delivering with a very pregnant OB or she'll have already delivered and I'll end up with either someone I don't know or maybe (hopefully?) either Dr. O or Dr. H, the MFMs I'm already familiar with. I also joked with Hubby that we might need to have another baby after this one just so we can actually deliver at least one child with my actual doctor. LOL! He didn't find that as amusing as I did.

The Big Brothers: Besides just always being incredibly cute, they are also learning to love football and showing off their Gamecock spirit (courtesy of Peter's godparents):

Watching the disappointing game against Georgia

Brotherly love in front of our house.
Thank you, Craig and Anne, for our Gamecock shirts!

They also love playing on their bikes on the back driveway.

Peter works his way back up the hill

Ethan showing off his cool bike

Names: I'm just waiting for Hubby at this point. I'm done discussing it.

The To-Do List:

• I have one appointment set up with a new-to-us pediatrician. I also just learned that a new pediatrician has been hired in the practice. So I may also set up an appointment with her. Plus there is a family doctor I'm still considering. So some progress is being made.
• I'm looking into birth classes and have some ideas. Need to just talk with Hubby more about our options.
• Stroller: been put on hold. Temporarily.
• Cloth diapers are sold!
• Baby carriers: haven't really done much research, but I know when the babywearing support group in the area meets and I think I'm holding off until I can get to that and see some various options. I really would like to try an Ergo, though. Just don't want to spend the money on it until I can really see it.
• The boys, labor, what's going to happen? We have time. I hope.
• Godparents: we know who we want to ask. Just haven't had the opportunity yet.
• Baptism: still plenty of time.

New on the list:

• Paint the boys' new room. We have colors picked out, which means we have a plan!
• Buy mattresses for the boys' new beds.
• Decide what to do with the baby room (paint it? don't paint it? take one crib out (won't need two!))
• See if we can arrange to take a postpartum NFP class. I have spoken to someone about it. Just haven't followed up.

Prayers: Thank you all for the prayers, not just for me but for the other intentions I asked for prayers for. If you could still keep friend M in your prayers, I'd appreciate it. She had her baby girl (so cute!!) right at 35 weeks. Baby did really well. Mom had some difficulties and required an emergency hysterectomy. She's home now and recovering, but I know she'd appreciate prayers. Please also continue to pray for friend A and please also add friend L. Friend L is 21 weeks, has been put on modified bed rest, and has a placenta previa. She also has a young toddler at home. There are several other friends I have in difficult pregnancies. So prayers for all ladies in difficult pregnancies.

St. Gerard, pray for us!

That's the update this week!! Yay for being in the third trimester. Hope to have more to share next week.

Pregnancy Update: Week 26

Wednesday morning was crazy. Read on to find out why.

How far along: 26 weeks, 1 day. I found my book The Preemie Primer and have started reading through it again. Chance of survival at this point is 85%, which is great news!!

How big is baby: According to babycenter.com, the baby is about 1 and 2/3 pounds and roughly 14 inches long, about the size of an English cucumber.

Cravings/Aversions: Still none. Doing well.

Belly Button: Sort of stating to pop out, but still rather flat. Hubby commented the other day that it isn't so much a belly button as a belly hole at this point. Thanks dear!

Movement: Lots and lots. This child is doing somersaults.

Leg cramps: None this week. I'm trying to stay hydrated, eat my bananas, and take my vitamins.

Sleep: Not too bad. I'm starting to wake up more during the night to use the bathroom. The progesterone may be making my sleep a little less comfortable, but it's not too bad yet.

Weight gain: I hate the scale at the doctor's office, it was about two pounds more than my one at home. I weighed myself on mine Wednesday morning and then got weighed again at my appointment a few hours later. According to my scale I'm up around 14 pounds. I'm going with that since my starting weight was also done on my scale at home. Not too bad.

Crazy Wednesday: Let's start with the fact that I had to do the glucose test that morning as well. I called last Friday to double check when the lab opens as well as the main office to make sure I could get the blood work done before my ultrasound appointment at 8:45. I was told that everything opened at 8. Great! Plenty of time. But then that evening I found the paper about the test and it said there that the lab didn't open until 9 AM. I debated on whether I should take the chance or not, decided I didn't want to waste the drink only to have to do it again because I couldn't get the blood draw an hour after drinking it and so on and so forth. So I changed my plans. Instead I drank the orange sweetness in the car on my way into town. Got to the office and went to check in with the main OB/GYN office so they could get the order in for my blood work. It was 8:45 AM at the time and I just needed to know that they were taking care of it so I could go down the hall for my ultrasound appointment. I was assured they were and I left to go to ultrasound. (More on that appointment below). I finally got called back for my appointment at 9:00, told them I had to have my blood drawn at 9:20. So we did the exams, chatted briefly, and I left. The lab is right there so I got there right at 9:20 to discover that the lab person was not there. She showed up 5 minutes later and couldn't find any order for me in the computer. By the time she finally put me in manually, it was 9:30, time for my next appointment. I knew I was probably cutting everything a little too close but I should have known not to worry. My doctor is always a few minutes behind, so it wasn't a big deal. But still, I was watching my clock like a hawk all morning!!

Ultrasound: But now the important part. If you remember from my Week 24 Update I had previously had cervical length measurements of around 4 cm or more. Since normal is between 3 and 4 or higher, this was great. At 23 weeks it was around 3.5 to 3.7. Shorter, but well within normal still. At 24 weeks however, I was closer to 3.0 cm. I've been taking progesterone ever since and this Wednesday's ultrasound was the first follow-up since then. All I can say is that prayer is really working!! Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us. Amazingly I had measurements this time of around 3.4 to 3.7. Yes, that means longer measurements than the previous time. The cervix isn't normally going to lengthen!! And actually the longest measurement she got was right around 4 cm. It may be the progesterone, but I like to think that prayer has a lot to do with it too!!

During the quick scan of the baby we also noted that the placenta has moved out of the way of the cervix. Yay!! And the baby is currently head down. Baby has plenty of time to still move a different direction and back again, most likely several times. LOL! The tech also asked if I wanted a 3D image! I said YES, of course! I've had ultrasounds in this same office for 4 or my 5 pregnancies and have never known that they could do 3D images. They were so cool!! Such a cute little baby. The face reminded me a lot of Peter and Ethan as newborns. Awww!

Appointment: After ultrasound was the glucose blood draw and then my appointment. Appointment went fine. These are the easy ones. Baby's heartbeat was around 140 bpm. We also talked about possible follow-up ultrasounds. I could have stopped at this point but I feel better getting one more in right around 28 weeks. 28 weeks seems to be one of those milestones in pregnancy, so it felt like a good point to do one more. After that I'm okay not checking any more (it's not like I look forward to those ultrasounds with the fun wand that goes ... hm, hm ... you know where). So I'll do one more at 28 weeks and that will be it for cervical checks. We discussed a little bit about labor and birth, classes to take or look into, and that was about it.

Glucose Results: I was able to obtain the results of my glucose screening on Wednesday evening. My doctor emailed me the results and her exact words were "Awesome, passed." The number was 122, but I don't know what the scale is. Either way, it's a passing score so that's all that matters to me. She also mentioned that Hemogram/blood count looks great as well. So I guess that's good news too.

The Big Brothers: Oh, those sweet boys! They love giving kisses now. Not just to my belly, but now they are kissing their toys and stuffed animals, pictures of animals and other characters in their books, and other random things as well. They loved seeing the printouts I had of the 3D pictures of the baby. They are both just so sweet!

Names: No progress on a boy name. I have now given my husband two options and I'm done. He's got to pick one or come up with something else that I also like. Eventually maybe we'll agree on something. Or he'll just have to learn to live with one of the names I have chosen. It could still be a girl too and this would all be a mute point.

To-Do List: I think it is the same as last week. I don't think I've crossed anything off. If anything, I've probably added to it. Not going to retype it here. If you really want to look at it, check our last week's update.

Prayers: I so appreciate the prayers from everyone! I think I appreciate them even more now than I may have in the past. Not that I didn't appreciate them, but you know, sometimes they just strike you more than they do at other times. Anyway, if you could add two other pregnancy related prayer requests to your prayers I'd really appreciate it. One is for my pregnancy prayer buddy in a Catholic moms group I am in. We pair pregnant ladies up with non-pregnant ladies to prayer for each other's intentions. My pregnancy prayer buddy is trying to get pregnant herself. If you could say a quick prayer for my friend A for this intention I'd love it. And I know she would too. Also, just found out that another mom in the group who is around 34 weeks pregnant is in the hospital due to placenta previa issues. They are trying to keep things stable so she can get to at least 35 weeks. Prayers for my friend M are also greatly appreciated!!

That's all for this update. Next week's will probably be a short one again or maybe I'll skip it. I need to blog about other things, not just this pregnancy! My mom has specifically requested more updates on the boys.