21W5D

Julia 22 Weeks

Seth 22 Weeks

How Far Along: 21 Weeks 5 Days
Size of the Baby: About 10 1/2 inches long, the size of a carrot.
Total Weight Gain/Loss: 8 pound gained.This means I had a 6 pound month. Dr W. warned me we didn't need big weight gains like that each time, but since I was only up to 8 pounds total, he gave me a pass. I've been saying I thought I weighed more, so now that his scale shows that as well, I don't think I'll have to worry about the upcoming scolding. I am just hoping that if I nurse Julia as long as I did Seth, then the weight will come right off like it did last time. I came home from the hospital and put my regular jeans on. For some reason, I have feared gaining weight as an adult because I really don't want to have to be disciplined enough to lose the weight. So, I guess this is God's way of telling me to chill out and enjoy this time. I am so not naturally good at that.
Maternity Clothes: Yes. On occasion I can wear a non-maternity top if it's a less fitted style, but pants are limited to either maternity or loose like lounge/pajama pants.
Gender:GIRL~ Julia Renee. I am so blessed God has given me the desires of my heart. A while back I wrote in my journal "When I thought my influence and impact was small, you provided abundance of capacity and filled my life with lives to direct and mold according to your ways. May I never forget the emptiness that was and the fullness that is." So God has blessed me with 5 wonderful kids, girl boy order from oldest to youngest. I love it when I see God's plan come together and he gives me just what I want. I am well aware, that God doesn't always give us what we want, but sometimes, he does, and I am grateful for that.
Movement: About 2 weeks ago I started feeling our sweetheart move at least once a day. It reminds me more of when Seth would move (like roll or switch positions) more than just a subtle kick or movement. Obviously not as strong as in the end of my last pregnancy, but that's still what I think I'm feeling. No one else has felt it yet, but that took a while last time too.
What I Miss Most: Really feeling pretty good right now. Not too many things are different than my normal life. Eat whatever I want, but get full quickly. Falling to sleep pretty easily with the help of my body pillow.
Cravings:None. Ice cream like shakes or frostys sound good, but I don't get them more than once a week. I can eat pretty much whatever I want
Symptoms: Weird dreams. I don't remember this from before. Not really anything tragic or dramatic, but just weird. Like last night I dreamt we had to do something with a cabbage and hershey's chocolate bar before whoever would let us go to sleep. I guess we were being held hostage (not sure who the we is because I don't think it was BJ). Odd.
Best Moment of the week: Feeling our sweet girl move, hearing the heart beat. I'm actually looking forward to the gestational diabetes test in a few weeks. Every thing is another step closer to her being here. I'm really looking forward to having a baby girl.

On a totally different note, I believe I told you a while back that Seth picked up his Paci again over Christmas break and I just haven't had the strength, determination, to make him sleep without it. I've only given it to him to sleep, but no one else has given it to him at all. (Yes, prego mommy is too tired to be hard right now). My mom mentioned she thought about leaving the paci at her house last week so he wouldn't have it (and I couldn't give into him) but she didn't. I mentioned that to Mom Fowler today and then this evening I couldn't find it when it was time to sleep. (Not sure that she took it, but maybe she did) Seth looked for it with me and when we couldn't find it, I asked him if he thought he could be a big boy and go to sleep with out it. His response was "I think so." So I laid him down in his bed and he cried for like 10 seconds and then fell asleep with out it. Hopefully we have broken that. Now I just need to get rid of all the pacis in the house. He only has one that he loves, he was happier with none than with a bad one. Yeah for a big boy! He also gave up his bottles at the end of February, so we are done with that too. 2 more things to accomplish before the baby gets here. 1. switching to a twin bed/bunk bed with Daniel and 2. potty training. Oh the joys of motherhood!

Too Much

There are days when my relationship with God are dry. There are days when I'm filled with God's presence and find myself lost in worship. And there are days when God explodes his word to me and I feast on the richest of truths. The depths of who God is and can be in my life if I let him.

The past couple of days have been the latter and it has been too much in the best way possible.  Coming out of a very spiritually dry place in my life, I have realized how good it is to soak in the word, to listen when God speaks, to study God's word and let him teach me.  If you've never been there, there are really no words to describe it. Oh, the goodness of God!

By nature, I am a worshipper. Maybe that is partially due to my upbringing in a musical family that has always been very involved in worship.  But I am becoming more of a lover of the Word. I look forward to studying verses and seeing what they mean and letting God show me more. And he has given me a taste and created a hunger for his word that draws me back, day after day.

I am amazed at the way God moves us, grows us, relates with us. I am overwhelmed that he desires to be with me. Despite my failures, and there are many, his grace is sufficient and he continues to call me his daughter and show me more than I could ever expect or imagine.

What's in a Name?

Before we found out the gender of our sweet baby, we had names picked for both a boy and a girl. I know that everyone has different opinions about names, so I'll share mine. I am not at all saying that any one else's opinions are wrong or that mine is right, but just that everyone has on opinion. This in itself makes naming a baby hard. And once you've chosen a name you will get everyone's thoughts, good or bad. Its one of the many areas parents judge each other. So, if you don't want to hear it, save your baby name announcement for after birth.

So my rules/pet leaves for baby naming are as follows:
1. No juniors. I have a friend whose husband is a junior. They live in the same city and are constant!y getting each others mail or getting mixed up in general.
2. Name your kid what you want to call them. If you want to call them a nickname, name them that name.
3. Nothing too popular or trendy. Eventually it will be not cool or they will have 4 kids in their classes with the same name.
4. Nothing too weird. This includes changing normal names to a unique spelling. No one will ever spell it right or pronounce it correctly. And the poor kid can't buy anything with his/her name on it unless you get it special ordered.

OK, so our boy name which we will never use (we are so done after this. 7 is God's perfect number and after she gets here, we will be a family of 7) is Luke Wesley. Luke is a good Bible name that means light giver and Wesley is my grandfather's name. All of my kids have family names (mostly as middle names).

Our sweet baby girl's name is Julia Renee. Julia means youthful and Renee is after my sister. Actually Jill Renee, my sister's name, means exactly the same as Julia Renee. Renee means reborn. I tend to like simple names that aren't too simple or too common but not mistakable or causing confusion as to spelling or pronunciation. So there you have it.

2 blogs in 2 days, must mean tax season is over.

Haley Girl

Haley is my hardest child. Not because of her. Because of me. We are both first borns, both stubborn, both like to be in control. So we bump heads and egos a lot. Maybe if I was a second born, or middle, a peacemaker, I would deal with her better.

But today was golden. I think the new chore chart has been really good for her. For us. She's earned about $10 this week and I haven't had to do laundry or vacuum. She even folded a load that's been sitting around for a while cause its not priority to me. She keeps asking what else she can do. I love it! And when I'm less stressed about the house and what isn't getting done (because I am lazy and really just want to lay around) I am much more patient with everyone. And she loves taking responsibility and accomplishing tasks and having something to show for it. Yeah, she's a lot like me.

She is doing so much better in school than a year ago when we received her learning disability diagnosis. Her current teachers don't think she'd even qualify for services if we had her retested. She is definitely moving I the right direction. I am considering having her retested next year. She doesn't want the extra help really, but I think it has done her a world of good. That and just growing up some. I'm hoping Daniel has the same growth in maturity in the next year (even though I know boys mature later, I can always hope.)

While all the kids were outside, I hung up some pictures on my walls. That has been on my list for about 6 months. Felt good to get something accomplished. I am really enjoying the quiet time when all the kids are outside playing. That hasn't been possible until recently, since Seth thinks he is so big. I'd better enjoy it before Julia gets here. I only have about 4 months before the chaos will ensue. But it'll be good chaos. Chaos I asked for, prayed for, God given chaos.

And as much as I worry and wonder what it'll be like and if we can handle it, I know that God will provide strength again. As he always has.

That One Time My Plan Actually Worked

Being a mom is hard and if anyone ever tells you anything different, they are lying to you. Those people should not be trusted. :) And I learned the hard way that my great solutions to every mothering problem was a bunch of fluff before I had kids to try them out on. But every once in a while, by the grace of God, I find a punishment or a motivation that works to move my kids in the right direction.

In response to my scripture memory challenge (and adding a $10 bribe each), all 3 of my kids learned Psalm 91 over a period of 6 weeks. You have no idea how excited I am to see God's word going into their hearts! I am very well aware that scripture memory alone does not change your attitude or the way you treat people, or teach you respect, but I also know that God's word WILL NOT, CAN NOT return void but will accomplish God's purposes in their lives.

So when my kids asked for another verse they could learn (and earn some money) I was more than happy to oblige. They will start learning Psalm 23 today, the KJV way that most Christians have learned it. I am generally a NIV girl, but I also know that it's kinda cool when people start referring to a verse you've learned in the version you learned it and it clicks in your brain. I think that will happen much more easily if they learn this particular passage in KJV.

We are also changing the way we do chores/allowance this week. I am well aware that some moms think they shouldn't pay their kids to do chores and I totally understand that view as well, but I also know that teaching kids the value of hard work is important. I don't want to buy them many of the things they want. Not because they are bad things, but because I don't see a use for them. I wasn't a typical kid. I chose mostly to play with educational things so I find no use with what I consider stupid toys and I totally don't get the boy weapon obsession. All that to say, if my kids want to buy something with their money that will make them happy, I feel like I should provide a way for them to earn such money to spend.

So starting today, there is a list of chores and the amount we will pay them to complete such chores. Up until this time, it has been kinda arbitrary. We ask them to do something, if they don't moan about it they earn money. They are not always excited and we aren't always consistent, depending on our moods, so it had kinda worked, but not as well as I'd like.

This new plan requires them to take initiative. If we have to ask someone to do the chore, they get to do it for free. I told them they can ask what needs to be done and we can tell them but we aren't going to harp on them to get it done. It's stressful. It's annoying and not what I want to do. So if they want the money, like they say they do, they will take initiative to seek out ways to earn money. And the list is a place to start. If they do the job poorly, they get one chance to fix it with better instruction and then they get to complete it for free. It is so hard for me to not just get frustrated about everything that needs to be done and to yell at them about it, so this is going to be a change for me. I want to take a backseat approach that gives them responsibility and gets things done around the house that I don't like without me having to get onto everyone to pitch in. There are somethings they are still required to do without pay (like make their beds and clean up their dishes after a meal) but there are also plenty of opportunities to earn money.

The other idea that actually works, kinda, is replacing grounding (which is really hard for me to enforce at this age since my kids don't really go anywhere without us anyways and it is so general) with copying scriptures a certain number of times. The number of times varies by kid and the verse varies with infraction. This is prevents them from doing what they want (playing) and makes them once again repeat/write scripture multiple times, which can't be wrong. Sometimes they act like they don't care but if I've chosen enough times, by the end they are getting weary, getting God's word in their hearts, and hopefully remembering what got them in the current predicament so they can make better choices.

Goodness, nothing works 100% of the time, but if it works most of the time, I'm golden.

Tonight the new chore method worked. The kids bathroom got cleaned, the closet got organized, dishes done, and base boards cleaned , and that all by the kids. Not a bad evening if I do say so myself.

Anyone have a great discipline/motivation technique that works for your kids?

It's a ....

I really hate how when I start a blog with exciting news, and then post it to Facebook, using networked blogs, the first few sentences of the blog show up as a preview. So just to make you all actually go to my blog to read, I have added these few sentences of rambling.

So since I found out what the gender of our new baby was on Wednesday and since all of the family would be together for Easter lunch, I decided to let the kids find out with the grandparents watching. I decided to fill 20 balloons and put a piece of paper in each, with one saying "It's a _____." They would have to pop the balloons and find the secret message to share with everyone watching. Bj videod the reveal, so I'll let you watch it.

For whatever reason, Seth was scared (he usually loves popping balloons.) By chance the message was in the very last balloon. The kids responses are great! Daniel left the room upset.

More details to follow. Ha! You have to watch the video to find out!