26 Weeks

How Far Along: 26 weeks

Size of baby: cucumber (9.2 in 2 lbs)

Total Weight Gain/Loss: +17 OK, this can slow down now. Really.

Maternity Clothes: A mix of everything.

Gender: GIRL! Harper...? No middle name yet!

Movement: Yes! She has slowed down the past few days. I still feel several punches in a row and then she's quiet for a few hours.

Sleep: Last night was not good. I woke up every 2 hours until I just got up at 6:30.

What I miss: not gaining weight every week

Cravings: pizza and ice cream...hmm this may be why I gained 3 lbs this week. :(

Symptoms: Very fast growing hair and nails, heartburn, stretching feeling around my belly.

Best Moment This Week: Ordering the crib and mattress. Can't wait to get her bed and bedding put together!

25 Weeks

How Far Along: 25 weeks

Size of baby: egg plant (9 in 1.7 lbs)

Total Weight Gain/Loss: +14

Maternity Clothes: A mix, I'm thinking of getting some maternity jeans. This belly band thing just isn't the best for me. It rolls up every time I sit so you see my fly is undone.

Gender: GIRL! Harper...? No middle name yet!

Movement: Yes! She was having a party the other night at about 1 am.

Sleep: It depends, some nights are good other not so much.

What I miss: feeling normal

Cravings: peanut butter and bananas

Symptoms: random pains/aches, I got my first leg cramp the other morning. Very painful awakening!

Best Moment This Week: Registering! So excited to meet this little girl!

Registering

We finally went and registered. We had yet another snow day, so today we decided to productive and headed over to Babies R Us. We are also going to register at Target, which is where I am guessing most people will end up shopping. This one is sort of a practice run with the whole registering thing. I have already added and deleted since we got home. :)

I have decided on a travel system. We are going to go with the Chicco Keyfit. I really wanted a pink car seat, but it only comes in a travel system combo. I don't want a pink stroller though in case later on we have boy. Decisions decisions. So for now I have given up on a pink car seat and am going to go with this boring grey color.

I could do red, and I still might. Graco has tons of cute car seats, but I looked on Consumer Reports and have read lots of reviews and Chicco is the way I want to go.

Anyway, today was fun/stressful. I wish I could just register for everything pink, but I know that is not practical. I reigned in the pinkness to clothes, blankets, bedding, and other things that I feel it would not be wasted on. Tomorrow I am going to shop for a friends baby shower with another best friend of mine. She just had a girl in September so I am hoping while we are out she will point out things she loved and things she could do without.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

-Jen

Cute Things

This hat will be a must for baby Harper. It's a snow day here so I am browsing through etsy.

I love this headband too!

24 Weeks

How Far Along: 24 weeks

Size of baby: ear of corn (8.5 in 1.5 lbs)

Total Weight Gain/Loss: +13

Maternity Clothes: I went shopping yesterday and got a belly band, 2 pairs of work pants, and 3 maternity tops. I also went to Old Navy because they were having a big sale. I got some larger sized sweaters to wear. So, yes I am wearing a mix of regular and maternity from here on out!

Gender: GIRL! Harper...? No middle name yet!

Movement: Yes! Still just soft little jabs and kicks. Every now and then I get a pretty powerful one. I think she bruised my abs yesterday in one little spot!

Sleep: My hips are starting to hurt from sleeping on my side. Maybe for Valentine's Day I will get one of those Boppy sleeper pillows...hint. hint.

What I miss: bending over with ease

Cravings: Braums hot fudge sunday, grape juice, peanut butter and apples

Symptoms: itchy belly/really dry skin

Best Moment This Week: Feeling the reassuring kicks of my daughter. She did not kick at all on Thursday and freaked me out!!!! I may have had a meltdown, but she has been kicking away ever since!

Venting

I haven't blogged about school in awhile so here goes.

The first year is ridiculous. I feel so unorganized and just surviving day to day. My kids are good. No, major classroom management issues. It could run a lot more smoothly. I haven't been a stickler about some of our procedures and you can tell. Overall though I keep them under control and cross your fingers I haven't had too much girl/queen bee drama. Hope I don't regret saying that.

As far as academics go... well I always thought reading was my thing, but teaching reading kinda sucks. I mean it's hard to teach and teach good. We just got back our second benchmark scores and they suck. I mean suck. I HATE the way they group kids at my school. Ask and I will tell you. Some of you all ready know. All I know is that is sets some teachers up to fail, or feel like failures. Esp. the brand new ones. I have such high expectations for them and it's just not happening.

I have been working on doing small groups and at this point I say screw small groups. I just can't get them to work well this year. We are going to do whole group. Dividing it up with a section of phonics focus, comprehension focus, and focus skills. At the end the last 20 mins we are going to have AR time in which I will pull students back in small groups to reteach skills.

We'll see how this goes. I am so frustrated. To be quite honest going to work is getting hard, but I guess most first year teachers feel this way at some point.

-Jen

23 Weeks

How Far Along: 23 weeks

Size of baby:papaya (8in 1.2lbs)

Total Weight Gain/Loss: +11

Maternity Clothes: Shirts are getting tight. One of my students asked me if I was going to get some stretchy shirts...guess I should look into that.

Gender: GIRL! Harper...? No middle name yet!

Movement: Yes! Still just soft little jabs and kicks. I mainly notice it when I sit or lie down.

Sleep: A few scary dreams this week which made me end up on the couch watching T.V. to fall back asleep.

What I miss: not feeling full all the time

Cravings: none really

Symptoms: heartburn every now and then and feeling like my whole body is full to the max and stretching even further!

Best Moment This Week: Getting her bedding and some clothes from my friend Sara. We went with the bedding I picked out on here. I LOVE it! Can't wait to get the crib so I can take some pics!

22 Weeks

How Far Along: 22 weeks

Size of baby: spaghetti squash

Total Weight Gain/Loss: +10

Maternity Clothes: I am getting uncomfortable in my pants so I'm heading to Target to get one of those belly bands.

Gender: GIRL!

Movement: Who knows? Hit and miss. She likes to move around when I lay down in bed. I saw it from the outside last night! Very cool.

Sleep: flip sides all night long

What I miss: jeans that fit

Cravings: tuna tetrazzini and ice cream (not at the same time)

Symptoms: Very emotional. I cry so easily. I was listening to a song on the radio and tears just came rolling down!

Best Moment This Week: Feeling and seeing her kick!