Today, November 20th, I had my first doctor's appointment. I met with the PA and really liked her. She knew my chart and I didn't have to repeat sad details that she should have known because she was on top of it.
I'm not having too much anxiety about the pregnancy which is good. I'm a lot healthier than I was going in last time for what that's worth. But at first I was going to snub all the "rules" (within reason) like no alcohol, no hot tub, no soft cheese, but then that cause some anxious feelings so I'm going to stick to the rules... : )
I still won't have a amnio or a CVS test but there are some blood screens that I could have and it would be nice to get some good results from those before we start telling more people. I found out more about a new non-evasive genetic blood screen (but it's pretty close to a test) at the appointment today. They take the mom's blood and can separate out the baby's genetic material to determine if there are any genetic disorders. With my risk factors (age and previous genetic issue) the insurance should pay for it. It can be done as early as 9 weeks and it takes 1 week to get the results so it looks like we'll be able to know right before Christmas. Assuming good results, we'll tell our families and the kids on Christmas.
I'll go back to the doctor in 2 weeks for an ultrasound. At this ultrasound, Joshua was measuring really small already (10 or so days behind) so for us, if this baby is measuring on time, we will take that as a very good sign,
I think I started to having a little bit of morning sickness on Saturday. It started just before and after lunch. I think I waited too long to eat and then had maybe too much at once. I remember that happening before. I felt sick if I didn't eat but then I also felt sick if I did eat. Need to remember small and frequent meals. I'm also starting feeling tired earlier than usually (6,7,8 pm instead of 9 or 10 pm).
I've been keeping up with my exercising that I've been doing since I quit work. Aerobics with some weights twice a week and then swimming once a week. Hoping to keep that up as long as possible.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
Sunday, November 17, 2013
On being (mostly) out of the workforce
When most people ask me how my voluntary unemployment is going I say that I like it and I'm still busy. All true. But here's the longer answer.
I still base how well my life is going on how many things I'm getting done. So I keep having to remind myself of all the things I'm doing that aren't on any list to cross off or are less concrete. I'm exercising again and losing weight (slowly) but more importantly that's keeping me healthy. I can even put that on a list - a goal list. Our life is less hectic, particularly during dinnertime (goal, check). This is the first year that Dylan has had homework and with that and piano lessons/practice, getting home at 6:30pm three days a week and trying to do dinner and getting the kids in bed by 8pm would have been crazy. Now we have time for family worship after dinner and some wrestling time with daddy. And Martin is less stressed and doesn't have to cook dinner as much.
I've gotten to do some things that I was never able to do before - take Lydia on playdates with her friends from school, go on the annual trip to Cox farms with Dylan's school, take Lydia to the Frying Pan Park, have time for the kids to just be home and play, be around for Dylan to have playdates with the neighbors, and have time for last minute shopping trips when I forget to get a gift for someone. Things are a lot less stressful as far as our schedule. I spend a lot of time at the playground. My kids are enjoying the outdoors (a priority for our family) and I'm being available to connect with people there.
And as I recently read in Simplicity Parenting, it's this downtime where real connection with your children are made. These intangibles (being more healthy, more quality time, etc.) are hard things for this to do list person.
I got a bunch of little projects done and even some work on a big project in that first month after I quit. But life fills up quick and even things that I agree to that I don't think will take much of my time end up do taking time. Plus, I'm not very disciplined. If I have 20 minutes before going to pick up the kids, I'm not going to read or clean a bathroom or file papers, I'm going to check facebook. Some of the best advice I ever got was to chop up every job until 15 minute chunks. That's the way to get things done. Then, even when you have a few minutes, you make progress.
I've decided to inject a little more structure into my 12 hours per week that the kids are in school so that I can see more fruit. I'm going to take 3 classes in the spring. So hopefully I will feel more of an urgency to be diligent about my school work. I think I can handle the load because I've had the prof already and she is easy and the other classes don't have any prereqs and are usually taken as 8 week classes and I'm going to take them as 16 week classes.
But mostly I just need to enjoy this time that I'm in. And I need to celebrate progress and not focus on what's not done.
I realized that there were a lot of things that I was doing at work and know I have to do them at home so I didn't gain quite as much time as I thought I might. And I do miss work and the issues and the people. I went to a meeting for something at Dylan's school and I was so into it and feeling like I was back in the game again. So it's hard when you like both (or many) things, determining how to spend your time. If I could do work for 15 hours per week, when I wanted to do that work (no set hours), I'd be working now. The 30 hours per week scheduled work hours was too much but I'd love to find another arrangement to get back in the game. All in good time. Just going to enjoy this season for now. It's a good one.
I still base how well my life is going on how many things I'm getting done. So I keep having to remind myself of all the things I'm doing that aren't on any list to cross off or are less concrete. I'm exercising again and losing weight (slowly) but more importantly that's keeping me healthy. I can even put that on a list - a goal list. Our life is less hectic, particularly during dinnertime (goal, check). This is the first year that Dylan has had homework and with that and piano lessons/practice, getting home at 6:30pm three days a week and trying to do dinner and getting the kids in bed by 8pm would have been crazy. Now we have time for family worship after dinner and some wrestling time with daddy. And Martin is less stressed and doesn't have to cook dinner as much.
I've gotten to do some things that I was never able to do before - take Lydia on playdates with her friends from school, go on the annual trip to Cox farms with Dylan's school, take Lydia to the Frying Pan Park, have time for the kids to just be home and play, be around for Dylan to have playdates with the neighbors, and have time for last minute shopping trips when I forget to get a gift for someone. Things are a lot less stressful as far as our schedule. I spend a lot of time at the playground. My kids are enjoying the outdoors (a priority for our family) and I'm being available to connect with people there.
And as I recently read in Simplicity Parenting, it's this downtime where real connection with your children are made. These intangibles (being more healthy, more quality time, etc.) are hard things for this to do list person.
I got a bunch of little projects done and even some work on a big project in that first month after I quit. But life fills up quick and even things that I agree to that I don't think will take much of my time end up do taking time. Plus, I'm not very disciplined. If I have 20 minutes before going to pick up the kids, I'm not going to read or clean a bathroom or file papers, I'm going to check facebook. Some of the best advice I ever got was to chop up every job until 15 minute chunks. That's the way to get things done. Then, even when you have a few minutes, you make progress.
I've decided to inject a little more structure into my 12 hours per week that the kids are in school so that I can see more fruit. I'm going to take 3 classes in the spring. So hopefully I will feel more of an urgency to be diligent about my school work. I think I can handle the load because I've had the prof already and she is easy and the other classes don't have any prereqs and are usually taken as 8 week classes and I'm going to take them as 16 week classes.
But mostly I just need to enjoy this time that I'm in. And I need to celebrate progress and not focus on what's not done.
I realized that there were a lot of things that I was doing at work and know I have to do them at home so I didn't gain quite as much time as I thought I might. And I do miss work and the issues and the people. I went to a meeting for something at Dylan's school and I was so into it and feeling like I was back in the game again. So it's hard when you like both (or many) things, determining how to spend your time. If I could do work for 15 hours per week, when I wanted to do that work (no set hours), I'd be working now. The 30 hours per week scheduled work hours was too much but I'd love to find another arrangement to get back in the game. All in good time. Just going to enjoy this season for now. It's a good one.
Wednesday, November 06, 2013
Baby #4 due to arrive in July
I found out today (November 6th, our anniversary) that I'm pregnant with our fourth child. Yea!!! So excited. Happy anniversary to us! Sweet November!
You won't be reading this until January because we decided not to tell the kids until Christmas. Well, we decide not to tell our families until Christmas and you can't tell a 7 year old and 4 year old a secret.
This is the first time I've really felt the profoundness of the decision we made to have a child. Dylan wasn't planned and the decisions to have Lydia and Joshua were just sort of what came next. This time we had to think hard about whether we wanted another child. God is sovereign but I still I felt the weight of the decision in the sense that we would be changing the course of our lives forever. That's exciting and weighty to me.
So the due date is July 16th and since all the rest of our kids were born within a day of a holiday and were early I'm expecting this little on on July 5th. God's timing is great. The big kids will be out of school and done with most of their activities for the summer and I won't have too much on my plate with school stuff. I'm taking classes in the spring semester but they will be done in early May. Still hoping to go to Moms and Tots at Pine Springs Camp in early/mid June but that might be pushing it. And of course I couldn't go through a pregnancy with how it affects my work schedule so I'm hoping that the contract work I was hoping to do with the FDIC is still doable. It is nice to not be working and not have that stress of going to work with morning sickness or telling the boss. Also, having done this before a few times, it's nice to be able to just focus on praying for my child and dreaming about having a newborn rather than the other concerns that I thought about the other times (like what can/can't I do/eat/etc, planning, shopping, and work issues).
I'm exciting about bringing a baby home to this house. THEN it will be our house.
Another thing I'm excited about is that I think having another child after losing one is going to give me more opportunities to talk about Joshua which I love. People tend to ask pregnant women more questions about their families (what number is this? how were your other pregnancies? etc.) so I'll get opportunities to honor my third child as well and be excited for the new baby. And at church the announcement will say "expecting their fourth child."
I'm excited that Lydia will be home with me on Fridays next school year (K is only 4 days a week at their school) so I can get those special times of me taking care the baby and she helping or mimicking me by caring for her dolls.
And I get to finish the LHOTP series! I read the first 3 books to Dylan and the second 3 books to Lydia so I need to finish the last 3. And I'm excited to have a baby close in age to some friends who have had babies recently.
I'm also excited for the challenge of caring for a newborn and having two school-aged kids with all their running around and activities. Given the high priority I place on breastfeeding and sleep (for the child) this is certainly a challenge.
Going to try to keep up with the blogging every week or every other week throughout the pregnancy.
You won't be reading this until January because we decided not to tell the kids until Christmas. Well, we decide not to tell our families until Christmas and you can't tell a 7 year old and 4 year old a secret.
This is the first time I've really felt the profoundness of the decision we made to have a child. Dylan wasn't planned and the decisions to have Lydia and Joshua were just sort of what came next. This time we had to think hard about whether we wanted another child. God is sovereign but I still I felt the weight of the decision in the sense that we would be changing the course of our lives forever. That's exciting and weighty to me.
So the due date is July 16th and since all the rest of our kids were born within a day of a holiday and were early I'm expecting this little on on July 5th. God's timing is great. The big kids will be out of school and done with most of their activities for the summer and I won't have too much on my plate with school stuff. I'm taking classes in the spring semester but they will be done in early May. Still hoping to go to Moms and Tots at Pine Springs Camp in early/mid June but that might be pushing it. And of course I couldn't go through a pregnancy with how it affects my work schedule so I'm hoping that the contract work I was hoping to do with the FDIC is still doable. It is nice to not be working and not have that stress of going to work with morning sickness or telling the boss. Also, having done this before a few times, it's nice to be able to just focus on praying for my child and dreaming about having a newborn rather than the other concerns that I thought about the other times (like what can/can't I do/eat/etc, planning, shopping, and work issues).
I'm exciting about bringing a baby home to this house. THEN it will be our house.
Another thing I'm excited about is that I think having another child after losing one is going to give me more opportunities to talk about Joshua which I love. People tend to ask pregnant women more questions about their families (what number is this? how were your other pregnancies? etc.) so I'll get opportunities to honor my third child as well and be excited for the new baby. And at church the announcement will say "expecting their fourth child."
I'm excited that Lydia will be home with me on Fridays next school year (K is only 4 days a week at their school) so I can get those special times of me taking care the baby and she helping or mimicking me by caring for her dolls.
And I get to finish the LHOTP series! I read the first 3 books to Dylan and the second 3 books to Lydia so I need to finish the last 3. And I'm excited to have a baby close in age to some friends who have had babies recently.
I'm also excited for the challenge of caring for a newborn and having two school-aged kids with all their running around and activities. Given the high priority I place on breastfeeding and sleep (for the child) this is certainly a challenge.
Going to try to keep up with the blogging every week or every other week throughout the pregnancy.
Friday, November 01, 2013
Meet the newest members of the Etner Clan
Dylan Jr. and Delta.
We got out of the pet store without too much damage. We contemplated a guinea pig but it would have been a lot of expense and work and so we were fortunate that Dylan was glad to get some fish.
We got out of the pet store without too much damage. We contemplated a guinea pig but it would have been a lot of expense and work and so we were fortunate that Dylan was glad to get some fish.
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