Latest Ultrasound Pictures and a New Due Date

I had an ultrasound and doctor appointment this past week. The purpose of the ultrasound was to check the location of my placenta. It had looked low at my 20 weeks ultrasound, and they had thought I might have placenta previa. Everything looked great at this ultrasound! The placenta has moved up, and baby and the fluid levels looked perfect. There are still no visible boy parts, so we are pretty sure that we really are having a little girl! The tech surprised me at the end by switching over to 3D, and taking a picture of baby's face. We think that she has the same little nose as Drew has! A shot of her little legs.

She is lying sideways right now, facing out. She can still change position in the next several weeks, but even if she doesn't, I am planning to have a c-section, so it will be fine.

I had a doctor appointment after my ultrasound, and this week I saw a different doctor than my regular doctor. He came in and was glancing over my ultrasound and mentioned that I was 27 weeks. According to the due date I was given from my first two early ultrasounds this summer, I was only supposed to be 24 and a half weeks. He checked the dates and agreed with me, but then he looked at the ultrasound again and told me he would be right back.

He came back after about five minutes and said that they had looked over all four of my ultrasounds so far, and that there was no way that I was only 24 and a half weeks. The early two ultrasounds had agreed that I was not as far along as I had originally thought, but my 20 weeks ultrasound and the most recent one both agreed that I was actually 27 weeks (28 weeks today). He said that we would do more ultrasounds before the end to make sure of my dates, but he was pretty confident that my due date was earlier than we thought. My due date was March 9, and it is now changed to February 21. I am still planning for a c-section a week before my due date, so this baby could possibly be a Valentine's Day baby!

I will be seeing my regular doctor later this week to get her take on things and to have my blood sugar tested. With my past history and this discrepancy of dates, things could get interesting in the next few months!

Fall at the Park

I took Drew to the park the other day to play in the leaves and on the playground (and take pictures, of course). We had lots of fun!

Drew let me take a few pictures in the leaves before we went to play on the playground.

We rode the slides a few times.

Drew went on the swings for a ltitle while too.

We had a fun time on one of our rare afternoons together (now that I am teaching), and I was happy to be able to get a few fall pictures before the leaves are all gone and the snow comes!

Drew's First School Program

Drew was in his first school program this past Friday evening. It was a special "Around the World" evening at school with a program in the gym and an open house with special food and projects in each classroom. Drew's preschool class chose India as their country, so the children were supposed to wear Indian-looking clothing or the colors of the Indian flag.
For Drew's costume, I bought a women's linen shirt at the thrift store and cut it down, rehemmed it, and put the smaller sleeves back in. I was amazed that it worked as well as it did!
Here is Drew's class on the front row and the kindergarten class behind them.

The preschool and kindergarten classes sang a song together at the beginning of the program. Drew found Jim in the audience and waved to him.

Here they are singing "Jesus Loves the Little Children." They did a great job!

I wish we could have gotten it on video! Drew was very intense as he sang - he almost looked angry!

I was playing a couple of roles at the program that evening - proud mother and fourth grade teacher! Jim had to be the photographer in the audience because I was sitting with my class. As of last week, I am the temporary fourth grade teacher at our school. The previous teacher left mid-semester, and the principal was struggling to find a permanent replacement for her. He called and asked if there was any way that I would consider filling in for a few weeks while he tries to find a teacher to finish the year.

I wasn't sure what I should do since Drew is not in school full-time yet, and I'm in the middle of a high-risk pregnancy. Jim and I talked and prayed about it. We decided that I would give it a try, and that if it was too much for our family or if I started having any kind of health troubles, I would stop.

My first week was busy and tiring, but it really went very well. I have a great class with 11 students, and I am really enjoying my time with them. Drew is going to school three mornings a week, and my mother in law is keeping him for us during the rest of the week. Jim's schedule has freed up quite a bit just this past week since the days have gotten shorter, and he has gotten an assistant for the off-season. He is picking Drew up from his mom's house every afternoon, and he has taken on most of the cooking. He e-mailed me with this week's menu, and he seems to be excited to be the cook at our house for the next few weeks. I am so thankful that he and my mother-in-law are filling in for me with Drew and at home. They are really trying to help me make this work, and I appreciate their help so much! It should be an interesting next few weeks for all of us!

A Slight Curious George Addiction

Drew has always loved Curious George! I got him his first one at Kohl's when he was about 18 months old. It was supposed to be a Christmas gift, but he found it before I had a chance to hide it, and it was love at first sight. He became a fixture in Drew's crib, and Drew wanted to sleep with George every night.
I found another one exactly like it at the thrift store, and I decided to take it home and wash it and keep it as a spare. Well, Drew didn't want it to be a spare. He wanted two Georges! He started sleeping with both of them every night.
My parents got Drew a mini George in striped pajamas for his second birthday, and Drew liked him, but not quite as much as he loved the twin Georges.
Lately, Drew has gotten into George again. He carries the three Georges around the house. The other day, I found him reading to them! They have gone on a few errands with us (monkeys aren't allowed in stores - they have to stay in the van). The Georges are currently sitting on our couch watching Drew play with his train. He took a little train break a few minutes ago to go pat each George on the head. This past Wednesday night at church, Drew got to use his accumulated points from his church children's program to purchase something from the little program store. He came home with another George! He was absolutely thrilled to have found a fireman George! He told us that he saw it as soon as he went into the store, and he ran right over to it to make sure that he was able to buy it before anyone else did.

A month or so ago, Drew and I were shopping at the thrift store, and we found a Curious George crib sheet that fits on the mattress in Drew's Thomas bed. He loves these sheets!

I'm afraid to think of how many Georges we might end up with before this phase is over!

Halloween Fun

Drew had lots of fun this Halloween! He and Jim found Drew's Buzz Lightyear costume almost a year ago, and he was very excited to finally get to wear it.
Our first Halloween activity was a couple weeks ago. Our friends, the Scallys, had a little Halloween party. The children dressed up in their costumes and had lunch. They got to make a little sucker ghost, and they each got a little pumpkin with their initial on it. They had lots of fun playing. Here is the whole group.

Last night, before trick-or-treating, we carved our pumpkin. Drew wanted a "cross" face on the pumpkin this year, and he helped plan out the shapes we would use before Jim started cutting. Drew did not like the pumpkin's insides or seeds!

Drew helped pop out a few of the pumpkin's parts.

Admiring the cross-faced pumpkin.

Drew and his two pumpkins this year. I bought the big one a few weeks ago at Aldi for $1.99. (I love to watch Bargains to Bounty to find the best prices on seasonal things like this!) The little pumpkin is the one he got at his Halloween party.

Drew has had a cold all weekend, so we decided to just stop by a few relatives' homes instead of going and doing actual trick-or-treating as we had thought about this year. We went out for dinner at Chili's first. We had gotten an e-mail with a coupon for a free kid's meal. Drew enjoyed eating in his costume.

After dinner, we went over to Jim's mom's apartment to see her. Drew was very excited!

Heading down the hall to Grandma's apartment.

Drew was really into character, and he had to show Grandma all his gear.

Drew and his basket.

While we were in Jim's mom's apartment, someone knocked on the door. It was a lady who lives down the hall from Jim's mom. She had seen us come in, and she had brought Drew a big bag of treats. She gave him pudding cups, popsicles, chips, and candy! We also went upstairs to see Jim's aunt, who lives in the same building. Drew had to show her all the features of his wings.

He put on quite a show!

Our last stop of the night was at Jim's sister and brother-in-law's house.

They had a big bag of candy for him, and he had a great time playing hockey with his Aunt Sharon.

On our way out of Aunt Sharon and Uncle Larry's house, they gave Drew a bunch of their left over candy (they had only gotten 2 trick-or-treaters!). In spite of only going to a couple houses, Drew ended up with quite a haul! One of Jim's employees came by work yesterday on her day off with a big bag of treats for Drew, and Drew's Aunt Nora and Uncle Topher sent him a fun Halloween card and a McDonald's gift card too.

It was a good Halloween, and we can't wait for next year when we'll have two children to dress up and take trick-or-treating!

Baby Shoes

I have found several cute baby shoe ideas on the internet, and this weekend, I found this tutorial and free pattern for little baby Mary Janes. Since Drew and I had to stay home from church this morning (due to Drew's very runny nose), I thought I would see what I had on hand and try to make a pair of little shoes. I had everything I needed (all left over from other projects), so I got to work. I followed the tutorial almost exactly. I ended up top stitching the straps, but I think that was about the only difference. I really love how they turned out! My only disappointment was that the raw edges are exposed on the inside of the shoes. In the comments section of the tutorial, a reader told how to avoid raw edges, and I will try her method next time - there will be a next time! These little shoes are so cute and fairly simple to make. I see several pairs in baby girl's future!

The tutorial didn't give a seam allowance, so I just used a 1/4 inch seam allowance, and it seemed to work fine. I also just used cotton for the lining and soles of the shoes. I will post my future shoes and let you know how the new method of attaching the soles turns out. I have a few other projects that I am working on, and I hope to post them soon!

Baby is a . . .

Girl! We had our ultrasound last week, and we were so happy to find out that we have a healthy baby girl on the way! Jim and Drew insisted that this baby was another boy, and I really thought it might be. The ultrasound tech was pretty sure that it is a little girl this time.
Everything looked good with baby, so we were surprised when the tech told us that we would need to stay and talk with a doctor. The doctor told us that all the baby's measurements and organs look good, but they are concerned that the placenta is low. She said that it is possible that I could have Placenta Previa, and she wants me to come back and have another ultrasound in 5 weeks. The doctor said that in most cases, the placenta ends up not being as low as it looks, and things are fine. We are praying that everything with the placenta ends up being fine, and we are looking forward to an unexpected extra ultrasound (and hopefully another confirmation that this baby is a girl!).
I've been having fun this past week planning a little girl bedroom and shopping a little bit. We have ordered the bedding for the nursery, and we've bought a few girl clothes. We've even started receiving a few baby girl gifts - clothes and blankets! So fun!

I have been gathering ideas on Pinterest, and I have so many things I want to make for this baby girl. I plan to share the projects I make as I finish them, and I should have one to share soon!

Drew's Apple Orchard Field Trip

Drew had his first class field trip this week, and I got to go along. They went to an apple orchard, and it was a lot of fun! We rode a little train out to the apple trees. Here are Drew and his little buddy, Joseph. They were both excited when the train started up.

We got dropped off by some rows of trees. If you have ever seen how Drew walks/runs, you'll know that this picture captures that a little bit.

We each got to pick five apples.

Many of the apples on the lower parts of the trees had already been picked, so we really had to search for apples that the children could reach.

There were lots of fun things for the children to do after we picked apples. They loved climbing this big hay pyramid.

There were some wooden trains that they all enjoyed climbing through.

There was also a little petting farm with goats, pigs, chickens, ducks, and ponies.

Drew's preschool class.

At the end of the morning, we each had a donut and some cider. We all enjoyed those!

We petted the animals a little more, and then it was time to go.

We took one last picture by this huge hay man on the way out.

We had a great time on Drew's first field trip! I made an apple pie this morning with the apples that Drew and I picked at the orchard. We'll be enjoying that later this evening.