Catching Up

Okay, for the sake of time, I'm just going to post a lot of pictures of what's been going on since... mid-March (?) and try and fill in details and explanations where necessary :)

Well let's start here.  Jim bought me this wonderful camera for a (quite early) birthday gift.  He's a big sweetheart.  He knows I've wanted a nice camera for years and has been planning/saving up for it for a while :) However, I get it early so that I can (1) document these fun times in the next few months (2) get some experience with the camera and practice before little one comes (3) aaaaaand it went on a nice sale ;)  So, we're taking a lot of pictures! Which means you may get more blog posts.  Enjoy!

And I took the 3 hour glucose test! (because I failed the 1 hour) Which, this dumb test, is more like a 5 hour waste of time from your day.  

It felt like forever... and I found out 2 things a few weeks later.  

#1- I passed the 3 hour glucose test! I don't have gestational diabetes

#2- ...I never actually even failed the 1 hour.  I passed by about 3 points and the nurse misread my test results.  Thanks nurse, for wasting an entire Saturday :)

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Also, I finished my practicum! My fourth graders were really sweet and each wrote me a card.  We had our "Mighty Mall" on my last day there where students were able to trade in the money they earned from good behavior for different little gifts and such.

One of my students bought balloon animal kit and made me this excellent party hat.  

My mentor teacher brought me these beautiful flowers.

And I made this for my mentor teacher: 

Fun, huh?! I can't really take credit for it though.  One of my friends made something very similar which was based on something found on Pinterest.  So I made my own version and I thought it turned out quite nicely!

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Towards the end of practicum, my heart decided to start doing some crazy things.  One night, after work, when I was just sitting on my bed planning a lesson, I passed out. Since I hadn't passed out in a long time and I had never passed out just sitting there, not doing anything physical to trigger it, it alarmed me.  I hadn't felt a ton of movement and was feeling extremely nauseous so we decided to go check it out.  The baby was fine, it was just my heart being weird.  Seemed like POTS just acting up again, but the doctor wanted me to see the cardiologist to make sure it wasn't anything more serious. 

The cardiologist agreed that it was probably just POTS symptoms being aggravated by pregnancy, low blood pressure, etc. but wanted to get tests done.  I had an echocardiogram which came back normal. And I had to wear THAT ^ awesome heart monitor for 2.5 weeks.  Because the 3rd trimester is so comfortable as it is, we thought we'd make it more comfortable by having wires and monitors hooked up to me 24/7 with electrodes that I ended up being allergic to and gave me a rash and burns.  Woohoo! Ha! Needless to say, I nearly cried with joy when I was allowed to send that wretched heart monitor back.

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Easter

We didn't dye eggs or do anything very fun. But the Easter bunny came! 

And I looked like an Easter Egg... 

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After practicum, we went back to classes for a few weeks.  And in the Elementary Education major, we do things like make edible DNA.  That's how we roll.  

 My last day of classes was a week ago today!  Time is flying by.  I've officially completed all classes that I need to/will ever take.  (Unless for some bizarre reason I end up going to grad school years later.  Ha! Very doubtful! 99.999% sure of that!)

It's a little bitter sweet... but mostly sweet :)

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A few weeks ago, we had a bit of a scare, which thankfully turned out to be nothing!

We went to the hospital on Sunday because I wasn't getting fetal movement.

It was more than just a "lazy" day where he's tired after having a busy day the day before.

I would do the "drink ice cold water" or "something naturally sweet", lay on my left side and count kicks.  On Saturday, I could get about 4-5 very faint movements instead of the typical 6-10, we continued to monitor it throughout the day and still were feeling a little uneasy about it. 

By Sunday, after being up for several hours, I wasn't getting any movement at all so we decided to head into L & D.  

The room we were put in had a BEAUTIFUL view though! So it was a little more enjoyable :) and now we know to request room #7 the next time I have to go to the hospital... hopefully next time we leave, it will be with a little baby :)

 Clearly, I enjoyed it.  

Turns out, everything was just fine.  They kept me there for several hours monitoring for any contractions and the baby's heartbeat for normal accelerations and decelerations.  Everything looked normal and we were free to go!  We haven't had any concerns or issues since then thankfully.

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Though the temperature of the air may not feel like it, the blooming plants and flowers around here tell a different story!  A few days after we got the camera, I wanted to try it out, so I went out into our backyard and took some pictures of spring in full bloom. 

And poor Nala ends up getting a lot of pictures taken of her, but we'll spare you.

Jim's posted most of them on his Facebook if you're interested :)

I gotta practice taking pictures of someone so that I can take nice pictures of our baby.

And Nala sends her love to all of you :)