Living the Dream

I finally feel like I can put the word out there, as I gave my boss the news last week.

On November 11th I will be leaving my current job to begin my new one. It has always been a dream of mine to be a stay at home mom and that dream is going to come true! I'm leaving about 10 days before my due date just to have a little last "me time" and to finish getting ready for Daniel's arrival. (Unless he decides to crash the party early!)

I can't even  begin to express how excited I am to do this! I've always done well with budgeting money and while I know that money is going to get tight and we're going to have to cutback on things, I can't imagine not being at home with him. I've had my moments of panic and wondering how we're going to do this, but somewhere deep down I know it can work.

There are so many kiddos in daycare...and if there weren't then I wouldn't have had the jobs that I've had in the past 10 years or so. I've always had the thought in mind though that I just couldn't put my child in daycare. Not if I could find a way to make it work. Jacob has been very supportive of me staying home and is happy that I am. Sure, I'd have the perk of being with my child still (especially that first year that he'd be in my room), but there are pros and cons to that. Then he'd move along to other rooms and I would have to accept or respect the way that other teachers felt was the right way to teach and discipline my child. To me, that's my job (well mine and Jacob's). I can't listen to my child call for me from another room without it breaking my heart. It's just not for me and the cons clearly outweighed the pros.

My mom stayed at home with us and I'm so glad that she did. I have lots of memories of doing things with her. We weren't poor by any means, but we wore a lot of 2nd hand clothes or "cheap" clothes and it never really bothered us. That's the way I plan to shop. Who cares if clothes have to come 2nd hand if it means being at home?

Eventually I may take a child in to babysit as a little bit of extra income, but to start with it'll just be Daniel and I!

I'm excited to be able to watch him learn and grow and know that I did a huge part to help shape him into what he becomes.

Showers, and Nesting and Sickness. Oh My!

So...I for sure hit the "Nesting" stage of pregnancy. I had cleaned the kitchen and living room. By cleaned I mean scrubbed top to bottom. Saturday afternoon I did the dining room, Daniel's room and our bedroom. Yesterday I tackled the bathroom. I saved it for last because who really likes to clean a bathroom? That was the deepest cleaning I think I've even done. I'm pretty sure it's cleaner than when we first moved in. Just wish it would stay spic and span without any effort!

The beginning of the weekend wasn't too exciting. Jacob came home from work Friday not feeling well. I wasn't feeling good either, but mine had more to do with forgetting to take Lactaid for our potluck at work! He ended up sleeping from the time he got home until 7:00 that night and was back in bed by 9:00! He did lots of sleeping on Saturday too. Poor guy!

Yesterday was a bit of an emotional roller coaster for me. I won't really go into why, but it was. Oh well, I was still happy with the fact that I had a clean house! My work was throwing me a baby shower yesterday at 2:00. I finally decided that I should get ready at 1:00. Since the weather was so beautiful I was able to wear a dress! The first one I put on made me look like a whale (seriously...haha!), so I had to change again.

I had a little issue of getting to the house where the shower was due to a road closure. Oh man, was I ever frustrated! Thankfully my GPS decided to not go all crazy on me like it has been and got me looped back around on another route. Needless to say, I was late to my own shower.

About half of the people weren't able to make it, but I'm thankful that the others were.

This picture was at home. Ashely wasn't able to make it, so she dropped my gift off. She swears by this tub and I'm thinking of taking my bulkier one back now. This one even folds up after use!



At the shower. The pregnant lady wanted food! (Especially because I didn't have time to eat lunch!)





My friend Jenny did a devotional that had little gifts to go along with it!



Opening gifts.





Hawkeye shoes!



The awesome letters that Jamie made for Daniel's room. They'll be going above his crib!



When I got home I unloaded everything and showed Jacob. I got everything put away or thrown into his hamper to be washed. He got a cute Christmas onesie that says: "All mommy wants for Christmas is a Silent Night!" Haha! So cute.

Jacob also took my 36 week pictures!



This is my favorite pregnancy picture I think.



I have one more shower coming up this weekend. Jacob's mom is throwing it for me in Villa Grove! After that I think we'll be pretty well set. I'll still need to buy a few things I'm sure, but we're doing pretty well.

I didn't feel like cooking last night, so we had Pizza Hut and then hung out watching the Cardinal game.

I worked a full day today and Jacob ended up leaving school early with a fever. Hopefully this sickness passes soon! I feel bad for him!

More Baby News

It's all starting to sink in more now. As each day passes I get closer to my due date. In fact I am due in 1 month now!

I started my weekly appointments this week. My drive to Springfield wasn't enjoyable. Any time I have to drive more than a few miles lately, it becomes pretty uncomfortable for me. Daniel hates my seat belt I think. He goes nuts the entire time I'm driving and uses my insides as his punching bag. Plus my back ached the entire way there (and didn't stop until late last night). 

They were running a little behind yesterday, but I finally got in. I really love my doctor because she takes the time to explain everything and lets me ask questions. She checked his position yesterday. I knew he was low, but apparently his head is EXTREMELY low. (Explains the trips to the bathroom every 30 minutes or so!). His heartbeat is still in the 130's range. She also asked if I'd like have a cervical check yesterday. I opted to do so and as it turns out, I am ever so slightly starting to dilate.

That really doesn't tell me anything though. As I knew, and she explained, I could go basically any time between now and my due date. I was happy to know that my body was already starting to make some progress though. That's encouraging. I also asked what her views are on inductions...because I REALLY want to avoid that. If he hasn't made his grand entrance by a week after I'm due, they induce, but she said she really doesn't see me going past my due date. They do allow elective induction at 39 weeks, but I told her I'm not interested in it and she was glad, because she doesn't really recommend it. I'm praying to stay away from Pitocin and from having a higher risk of C-Section.

I have moments of excitement and others of fear. The other night I said to Jacob, "Only a few more weeks of just the 2 of us." and he replied, "I know. I'm going to miss that." Both of us are SO excited for Daniel's arrival, but it's strange to know that there will be another person living here soon! Life is about to change in a huge way. I'm ready for it about 90% of the time. I don't think anything can fully prepare you for it until it's reality.

Now I'm getting nervous about going into labor. Knowing that even though it probably isn't likely, it COULD happen soon. I need to get some things together so it will be easier to pack for the hospital (because I honestly can't figure out how people pack in advance. I wear the clothes that I plan to wear there and use the items I need too!) I also have to figure out how to properly install the car seat base. Those suckers are tricky.

Last night Jacob had his first concert of the year. I even got a special chair to sit in, instead of the bleachers. Thank goodness, because my back still hurt so bad. His kids did an awesome job! When he started teaching he had 19 middle schoolers in choir. This year he has over 70! I'm proud of him!

We got home and I laid with heat on my back and took some extra strength Tylenol PM. My back felt better, but I woke up at 4:15 this morning and only managed a 15 minute nap this afternoon. Jacob isn't feeling well and has been asleep for going on 4 hours. I decided to let him sleep...maybe it'll help him get better faster!

This weekend I have a baby shower that my co-workers are throwing for me and next weekend Jacob's mom is throwing me one at her house. I've informed Little Man that he has to stay put until after the showers, so hopefully he listens.

Playing Catch Up

This will probably just be a random post of things that have happened since I last wrote because I have nothing particularly interesting to write about.

I haven't had any trouble with my tooth since getting the filling repaired, but my jaw hurt really bad that night once the Novocain wore off. I ended up sitting with an ice pack on it for the rest of the night.

Friday I only worked 3 hours because I had my OB appointment in Springfield. After much debate, I finally opted to get the flu shot. I feel like it will at least help benefit Daniel until he's old enough to get one. The appointment itself went well. My doctor told me that Daniel is head down (which believe me, I already knew!). I can tell that he's dropped more because my bladder seems to have shrunk to an even smaller size. I think I spend half of my life in the bathroom now! It doesn't help that I am constantly thirsty and probably drink around a gallon of water a day! His heartbeat was 132, which is the norm for him. This week I start my weekly appointments, which means I go every Thursday from now until he makes his appearance!

I was also able to get a little bit of shopping done. I had some returns and exchanges to make and my first stop was JC Penny. I'm pretty proud of the deal I scored there. With the return I made I received around $11 on a gift card. I had planned to look and see if I could find a Christmas outfit for Daniel. While I was making the return I noticed their ad had a coupon...$10 off a purchase of $25 or more. Needless to say I got Daniel this:



and this:



My total was around $26, but after the coupon and gift card I got them for $6!! 2 brand new outfits for $3 apiece!

Next stop was Target. I had to doubles of things to return from my shower and a few things I wanted to exchange. Thankfully I got a really helpful customer service person, because Target is known for their strict return policy, and not everyone had gift receipts. I got store credit for the returns and merrily went on my way to shop for more baby things. I ended up with over $100 worth of stuff that I paid nothing for because of gift cards I had received and my store credit! Plus I got an additional $5 gift card for buying 3 packs of diapers (which I also had coupons for).

Oh and while I'm on the topic of diapers and deals...I had heard about something called Amazon Mom. I scored a box of 260 diapers for  $30! If you know the price of diapers, you know that's a good deal! Plus they ship free right to your door.

I finished at one last store and then headed home.

Saturday and Sunday both, I did some deep cleaning. I'm trying to go room by room. Saturday afternoon I scrubbed the living room down. Baseboards, window sills, curtain rod, all of the woodwork, the entryway floor and the tile in front of the fireplace. On Sunday I worked in the kitchen scrubbing the cupboards, window sills, baseboards and ceiling fan. I still need to clean the fridge and scrub the floor, which I plan to do on my hands and knees.

I did find time to relax over the weekend too. I especially enjoyed watching a Hawkeye victory and cheering on the Cards as they made it to the World Series!

Now we begin a new week. Hopefully it passes by quickly!

Nothing But The Tooth

Guess what I did this past weekend?

I broke another filling.

Anyone who knows me well, knows of my irrational fear of the dentist. I sucked it up and called on Monday to see if I could get in that day. They were full until today and I was told that the dentist I saw the first time was on vacation. Fine by me. I didn't like him anyway. I had an anxiety attack in the chair. He didn't numb me good enough (which was over half the reason I was terrified in the first place) and I cried.

I actually went into this fairly calm today. I shed a few tears this morning, but I was fine through the day. I prayed all the way to the office and then when I got there I was a little afraid they weren't going to let me get any work done. They hadn't told me that they needed an okay from my OB. I called their office and they faxed the okay over right away.

The dentist came in to take a look and told me that the filling broke because there's another cavity. I had no idea a cavity could get a cavity. He told me that he could see more and that after I have Daniel I need to come back and have a cleaning and get them fixed. (Besides my fears...not having dental insurance has been the other thing that holds me back from going). He put a temporary filling in for now. I'll probably go back in January for the rest.

Anyway...I explained to him that I have some anxiety issues when it comes to going to the dentist and he promised he'd be very nice to me. I never get numbed well. Dr. Smith gave me a double shot of Novocain. It's a miracle. It worked and I had the work done pain free. I still hate the sounds, but it's not so bad when you can't feel pain ripping through your mouth. In fact, he numbed me so well that it's been almost 4 hours since my appointment and I'm thinking it's finally almost totally worn off (although now my jaw hurts! Haha!). Maybe I can finally eat some supper though.

I did have to take some deep breaths to try and stay calm a few times when I'd get jittery, but no tears. Daniel helped me. He kicked the whole time the dentist was working on me, as if to tell me, "It's okay, mom!" That's what I choose to believe anyway. He was probably like, "What the heck is going on out there!?" (Because babies totally have thoughts like that...)

Anyway...I survived Round 1 and now I'm feeling far less scared to go back knowing that I found a better dentist.