Master of Arts in Special Education

The end is finally here!  Today I graduated from the College of Charleston with my Master of Arts in Special Education with a focus in emotional disabilities.  It has been a busy 1.5 years getting this degree.  And as been likes to joke, I went through 3 cycles of stress because I always stress out at the end of the semester because it seems like so much and then usually get it all done early.  I guess that's just me, but it all worked out in the end.

We are going to be the first and only class to finish the degree in 1.5 years because they will no longer be offering that option.  Personally I count it a blessing to have been able to finish it so quick because, with a baby coming in February, I am not sure what I would have done if I still had a semester left to go.  God's timing was definitely perfect and now I have a degree that I gained a lot of valuable experience through and will hopefully someday use.  However, at least for the next few years, I will simply be applying what I have learned toward being a mommy for a while.  We shall see where things go from there! :-)

Me and my love

Me and the 'rents

We went out to Mellow Mushroom, my favorite pizza place, to celebrate afterwards.

32 weeks down, 8 to go!

Wow, it’s hard to believe that I only have 8 weeks left until my estimated due date!  Time is definitely flying by.  We had our regular appointment and this time it was with the midwife.  There are 5 doctors in the practice, any of which could potentially deliver our baby, and this was the last one that we had yet to meet.  To be quite honest I was a little concerned about meeting her because I had heard she was a little tougher, but she actually turned out to be my favorite of all of them.  She was really super nice and even though we were her last appointment of the day she was very interested in all of my questions and was super talkative.  That is definitely not typically the case when I go in for appointments.

The appointment went well.  We found out for sure that my glucose test went well, which we had figured since didn’t hear anything.  From that test though they discovered that my iron levels are borderline being a concern.  So it looks like I am going to have to start eating more iron rich foods. 

I also got in a bit of trouble too because according to their calculations I hadn’t gained anything, but had actually lost a ½ a lb. since the last appointment.  However, according to my weigh ins, since the last appointment 6 weeks ago I had gained 2 lbs. which makes me at least feel better that I am going up in weight.  Either way, the doctor said that by my next appointment in 4 weeks I need to have gained at least 3 1lbs.  My parents were at the appointment too and she turned to them and said that they needed to make sure to fatten me up over the holidays. J  So hopefully, as long as I don’t have a Thanksgiving repeat, I can continue to gain about a lb. a week like I have been over the past several weeks.

As far as baby, everything is looking good.  The heartbeat slowed a little bit so now it is in the mid 140s.  My uterus was measuring a little small though, only 30cm, which she said if I can pick up my weight gain that should help with that too.  But overall she said everything looks great and baby is moving around healthy.

In general everything has been going well with the pregnancy.  The tiredness has seemed to return so around 3ish every day I pretty much hit a wall that I have to push through until bedtime.  Then I have also had some pretty bad hip pain of late to the point where many days I have a bit of a limp.  None of these are ideal symptoms, but really if they are the least of my worries, I am good to go!  Only 8ish more weeks!

32 week belly!

Locks of Love

So after about 2 years of growing it out again, I cut my hair today for Locks of Love.  This is the third time I have done it and it is definitely the most hair I have even given...13 inches!  I am definitely glad to be done with the hair and have passed it on for such a good cause.  I am sure I will torture myself again and grow it out, but for now I am satisfied with less up top. :-)

Here is the before:

Now 13 inches less:

This is just all natural, but I am excited to be back to simple styling for a while!

29 weeks, 2 days ultrasound and the coast is clear!

For now we can relax in knowing that we don't have to worry about the location of the placenta causing us to have to have a c-section.  We went in today for an ultrasound to double-check that the placenta had shifted and thankfully it has so unless another crazy circumstance comes along we don't have to worry about a c-section anymore.  Baby is also positioned head down (at least for today) so that is a good sign if conditions remain the same closer to birth. :-)

It was also super fun to have another ultrasound.  Really they were only supposed to be checking for the placenta location, but I asked if we could get a picture of the baby again and she was super sweet and let us get a few pics as well as checking the heartbeat (still 150bpm). So now we have so more developed ultrasound pictures.  Baby has definitely gotten bigger and it doesn't really even all fit on the screen any longer.  Baby was also super active which was fun and it kept covering it's face whenever she was trying to get a face shot for us.  Though that meant we didn't get to have a picture, it was still fun to see the baby moving so much.  It was also neat because we were able to see the baby yawning and moving it's tongue around a lot.  Super cute!

Baby doesn't even fit on the screen anymore

At 29 weeks, 2 days it looks like baby and mama are both doing well.  I am able to feel baby move a ton lately and even sometimes see the crazy movements from the outside.  The downside of the movement is that some days (especially on Thanksgiving) baby decides to use my bladder as a trampoline which isn't exactly pleasurable.  Thankfully I have still been feeling pretty well.  Though the tiredness has really hit me hard over the past few weeks, if that is the least of my worries, I am okay with that.  My prayer is that the good times keep rolling until February. :-)  Still not gaining a whole lot of weight, but as long as baby is doing okay, I am fine with not having to get rid of very much weight afterward. :-)  Though that means that many people have a hard time believing I am as far along as I am, it still works for me.  The less size probably reduces the discomforts that I would otherwise have.  I will take just being tired and the occasional hip pain.

They say I look a little bigger this week...definitely a bump :-)

New York Baby Shower

One baby shower down, good times!  We had a great time having some family and friends over to celebrate the coming of a new life here soon.  It was really neat because they spent some time in prayer praying for us as we prepare for the baby and prayers for after the baby is born.  We are so blessed.

The Klembcyzk family 

A peak a the rest of who was there

They started it all off with a game to have everyone guess the gender and birthday, and then they picked out a boy and girl name for us.  The names don't matter as much because we already have the names picked whether it's a girl or boy but it was fun to hear all the predictions, but some examples of some are Arriana, Abigail, Collin and William.  The party consensus is that we are going to have a boy (9 people said boy, 4 said girl) and the birthdays range from February 3rd to February 28th.  Personally I am hoping for one of the earlier dates, but we will just have to wait and see what baby decides.

Then we opened up all of our gifts.  We got lots of goodies and it was fun because Diane also had everyone bring a favorite children's book so our collection is beginning to fill up.  One really sweet thing was the Klembcyzk family (Ben's "big brother's" family) chose books out of their own personally library to share with us. They had each of the kids pick one book that was their favorite and they wanted to pass along to our little one.  So those books will have lots of sentimental meaning to us. :-)

 Ben's friend Tim from high school gave us a cute book that basically

 "teaches kids to write on walls" as he said it. Ben got a kick out of that.

Opening a special something sent all the way from MI, via GA and SC

for us from my mom. :-) Some of it gave Ben quite the embarrassed chuckle. 

 Picture of some of the spread of gifts

A few more

Next I worked on trying to put on some weight by eating a massive piece of cake.  MMMMMM, I love me some cake!  We shall see how it works on the weight gain though. :-)

The cake was delicious!

And of course no baby shower would be complete without some XBOX 360 Kinect for 

the boys to indulge in...it made all the baby stuff worth sitting through I think. :-)

Thanksgiving happenings and such...

This past week has been quite the week.  It began with a funeral for my grandmother which was a bit of a serendipity of sorts.  Yes it was sad to bid farewell, but we know she is in heaven and is no longer in pain.  Plus, as a result we got to spend a ton of time with family we had not seen all together in almost 16 years.  Crazy how death can actually bring together such a joyous occasion.

Then on top of that, because I had flown in for the funeral I was able to spend an early Thanksgiving with my parents, brothers, and grandparents.  It was so great to see them and it was comforting to when saying goodbye to know that I would be seeing them in less than a month for Christmas.  I got to help my daddy make dumplings and just spend some quality time with the family.

I got back from KY on Saturday night and then on Sunday I was able to go to church and spend some quality time with Ben before heading off to Thanksgiving #2 at church.  It was a great time of celebration and we really enjoyed the fellowship with friends. Yummy food too!

Then all I had was one and a half days of student teaching (the last official full days, crazy!) and then we were off to NY.  We left SC at 1:00pm on Tuesday and we arrived at Ben's mom's in NY at 3:45am Wednesday morning.  It was a crazy long trip, but it actually worked out quite well. We enjoyed some quality time together and then we were both able to get some sleep along the way by sharing the driving duties.  Plus then we didn't have to pay for a hotel or anything along the way which is always a nice financial savings.

Our time has been great here so far.  It is always filled with a lot more driving than I care to due to the fact that Ben's family is spread out so much though.  We spend a relaxing Wednesday with Ben's mom and grandfather so it was nice to just chill out and enjoy some company.  Then we went to Syracuse to visit his dad and dad's side of the family.  That was a wonderful time together.  We ate some wonderful food at his cousins and got to see their beautiful daughter again for the first time in almost a year.  What a cutie!  Then on Friday we went out for some Panera with his dad and grandma before heading back to Rochester to spend more time with his mom.

Today has been fun so far too.  I got up and did the normal weigh in and weekly bump picture.  And to my surprise I had lost 1.5lbs over the past week instead of gaining.  I don't understand how that happens, but I guess I can't really complain.  Then we had fun relaxing this morning, spending a little time with Ben's mom and grandpa again before heading out to pick up our first Christmas present which is a comforter for the King size bed we are getting Ben from Christmas. :-)  After that crazy Ben decided he wanted to go by and visit a childhood friend (no calling to see if they were home or anything....so uncomfortable).  It ended up working quite well.  I had never met them and they were so glad to see the both of us.  So it was a nice time of catching up even if it was awkward at first. :-)

Now just enjoying some down time before our first baby shower tonight!

26 weeks down, less than 14 weeks to go!

We had our 26 week check-up today.  It was definitely the world’s fastest actual appointment.  I was in and out so fast that Ben didn’t even make it to the appointment.  Not really a big deal I guess and he was at least able to be there to help schedule our ultrasound in 3 weeks to check on the placenta and also our next dr. appt.  is set for the day before I graduate!  I can’t believe that time is really that close! 

Baby is doing fine.  The heart rate is still in the 150s and it was fun because while the tech was getting the heart rate I was resting my hands on the top of my belly and the baby was kicking up a storm to where my hands were actually visibly bouncing. J  The doctor said that everything is looking good.  My uterus is measuring right on target and I am doing well with weight gain.  I just barely made my goal so my gluttony this past weekend paid off.  Now my total weight gain is up to about 6.5 lbs.  Works for me!  Unfortunately the doctor had no better suggestions for hip flexor pain that I am having at night, other than what I already do.  But I am just counting my blessings that so far that pain is really the only pain I face on a semi-regular basis.

The not so fun part came after the doctor appointment because I had to go down to the lab for my glucose test.  They make you drink this funky drink that tastes like bad, flat orange soda and then you have to sit around in the waiting area for an hour.  After that they take your blood.  Not exactly the most entertaining time ever, but I just hope that it was worth it and we find out that I am in the clear for gestational diabetes.  That would definitely not be a fun complication to have to face.

That's all I know for now, but here is the most recent bump picture:

26 weeks with new shirts and maternity jeans that will hopefully 

last me for the duration of the pregnancy pics. :-)