Gender reveal

 In case you missed it, it's a girl! Before I go any further, let's back up a few days to Wednesday. Wednesday was my 18 week check-up and first ultrasound. It literally took FOREVER to get to the ultrasound portion; I'm pretty sure I'm never going in 15 minutes early to another appointment because it's the second time I've sat in the waiting room for over 30 minutes. Anyway, the worst part about OB appointments are when they check your weight...I hate that scale, but I will report that from week 14 to 18 I did really good and only gained 2 pounds to make a total of 12 pounds! But I feel every bit of 12 pounds hanging around my waist, thighs, and bottom! Our ultrasound was kind of funny because Addilyn is breech and was sitting cross-legged facing the "camera." We have a lot of pictures of her alien looking face, but the tech was able to get the important parts she needed like the brain, heart, kidneys, measurement of her head...etc. Finally, at the very end, Addi moved long enough to show off her goodies to the "camera," and as soon as the scanner hovered over the sex part I immediately looked at Brandon and said "there is no pee-pee in that picture." His eyes got really big and he smiled and we started shaking our head and then of course crying...a little girl is a big deal! We are excited, no matter the gender, but raising a little girl is going to be a tough job. I am very thankful that everything is normal as far as her development, placenta placement, and cervix length. We received the okay from the doctor to see a midwife from here on out and I couldn't be more thrilled. The doctor we saw wasn't very friendly and I didn't really feel the same connection to him as I have with the midwives.

Now, for the fun part! Yesterday, we had a gender reveal party with the help of Brandon's sister. Parties are fun, but I was exhausted and you can probably tell from the pictures. I'm pretty sure we had a good 20 people at our house eating, talking, and we thoroughly enjoyed the love and support from all of you! Our theme was tutus or ties and we thought it was fitting because Brandon is a business man and owns a gazillion ties from his old job and well I guess you say I'm pretty girly (hence the tutus). We had a ton of decorations that I made and some were purchased too. Once everyone arrived we made them vote and wear a pin. Brandon's sister bought pretty blue mason jars and pink flowers...all of which we found on Pinterest. See, Pinterest always has great ideas of things to do for parties...I'm already planning and pinning ideas for a fall themed baby shower! After eating, I counted the votes: 9 girl and 8 boy votes, then we decided to go ahead and cut our gender reveal cake. It was an amazing cake designed by Billie's former co-worker and friend (she does professional cakes on the side). It literally looked like the one off Pinterest..and it tasted really good! We cut the cake and...surprise....it was a girl and we didn't have to keep our secret any longer!

And in this moment I probably could have cried again with excitement, but I contained it (darn pregnancy hormones). Even Briley was excited to see that it was a girl and he could maintain his "only boy" status for awhile. December 7th ish can not arrive soon enough, we are already planning the baby shower and starting a nursery...if only I could decide between coral, gold, and teal or coral and gold themes...who knows! We hope this baby really is sugar, and spice, and everything nice and of course, most importantly, kind! Hopefully she lacks the bit of sass that I have, but still gets our humor ;) 

Thank you all for coming and celebrating Addilyn Claire Jones. I am sure there will be many more celebrations and get togethers. We are happy and thankful to have your support, guidance, and most importantly love and friendship. For those of you who are too far to travel, we could still feel the love from miles away!

My decorator and planner in crime!

Besties since high school and my guidance counselor..hehe

Yes...so I missed out on my nap. It was worth it!

What I've learned...

Sorry, I know everyone is more interested in baby Jones but there isn't anything interesting going on in that department. I had a very quick appointment on June 3rd where they checked my blood pressure and went over my blood test results; which they had failed to send by mail. Basically I have gained 10 pounds and I felt very ashamed by this because I feel 10 pounds heavier, everywhere! I'm sure by the end of all of this, someone will have to roll me around because I'll be one giant swiss cake roll :) The midwife told me her concerns with my iron levels, she said they weren't low but they weren't "where they needed to be," this was a little depressing because I eat a lot of vegetable and fruit. On my next visit, they are going to draw more blood and check it again to make sure I don't need to take an iron supplement as well as the prenatal vitamins. Oh and the baby's heart rate was in the high 150's! Other than that...nothing has changed in the baby department.

However....I'm on summer break and I am pretty excited to have a break! This will officially become my first summer off from school (grad school that is). But, my brain is already planning for next year and I'm working on changing up my cooperative learning centers. In my spare time I read a lot of blogs from teachers who are successful with different things. I found a great science related blog that fits with fifth grade! This lady is seriously a woman after my own heart in that we share a lot of the same beliefs about teaching. She also has amazing ideas for note booking, vocabulary, and cooperative learning stations. I really wish CSI would offer a training on science note booking, or note booking in general because they are amazing tools when set up and implemented the correct way.

Anyway, what I really wanted to blog about are the things that I have learned from teaching. It's safe to say that I've come a long way from the first year, "survival of the fittest!" Literally, my first year of teaching is a blur...I really don't remember much aside from some of my students (who are now going into 7th grade, say what???). The first thing I've learned is that I am not a "fluff" teacher, but I do give out hugs. I don't have the calming soothing voice that a lot of k-2 teachers have, but I also don't yell at kids either. I think the best thing to think about is your attitude toward teaching and toward your students, as my favorite blogger states, "Stay upbeat about learning, don't tolerate nonsense, and be interested in your students success." I expect the same amount of effort from everyone and when it's not their very best, I make them do it again until it is. This is very frustrating on both parts, but it's tried and true. Once you accept something other than the best, your students become lazy, give-up easily, and will wear you down. Once they realize that someone believes in them and holds them to a standard, they will build respect for you and often put in extra effort to be successful. I can honestly say that my students this year but in a lot of effort, especially on those dread EOG's! Being consistent in how you manage your routines and your students behavior is very important. I don't like change...I'll be the first to admit it, when we constantly change things up in our rooms; it gets hectic and confusing (lesson learned from the first year of teaching). One last thing I've learned is to PLAN, PLAN, PLAN....and that is what I do during all of my "free" time. Literally, every summer (while I've been childless) I have used a backwards design for planning lessons (minus my first year). I actually didn't know the name for this technique until last summer when I took a graduate class on classroom management. One of the required readings for the class was a wonderful book called: Engaging Readers and Writers with Inquiry. In this book, it talked about using a backwards design for teaching. Basically, you begin your lesson plan with the end expectation (thinking about what you need your students to know) and work your way up to all of the little details. I'm pretty sure most teachers do this anyway, especially when you create a pre-test to determine what your students know before you teach a unit.

No, I'm not saying these are the best ways...everyone has their "niche." This is what works for me, and year after year I see my old students trickle back down to "mean ole" Mrs.Jones's room to chit- chat about life and school. Actually, many of them like to come and show me their report cards and the great work they are doing! Honestly, teachers are truly talented people who go through extreme measures to make sure children are successful. The best part is seeing them grow from the beginning until the end; even if it's only a little bit! As much as I've enjoyed Science this year, I'm glad for two months of R&R to re-vamp some things for next year!

No margaritas or bikinis for this chick!

And then there were 3 humans and 1 dog...

If you haven't heard, which I am sure you have, I am getting larger by the day (having a baby). I'll try to keep this post more on the peaches and cream side, but I am honestly feeling a lot of animosity toward pregnancy; I don't feel beautiful and am ready to have my own body back to normal!

Today I am 12 weeks and 5 days, let's just round up and say 13 weeks. I am entering what they call the second trimester which, according to blogs and this book I'm reading, it's supposed to be the easiest trimester; the first trimester has been pretty interesting!  I think we kind of knew I was pregnant around March 27th, when I took the first pregnancy test and received a faint positive. I waited a week and took another one of April 2nd and BOOM that thing didn't waste time turning into a bright blue plus sign. Like most people, I took another one to make sure the first two were right (because that makes total sense, right?). Honestly, I was totally freaking out, babies are expensive (especially daycare) I might need to donate an organ just to afford it...good grief! Eventually my nerves calmed down and here we are at 13 weeks...and growing (definitely growing).

There are many interesting things that happen to your body that I don't like..the first being nausea.  When I went to the doctor at five weeks, to confirm the pregnancy, I felt great and the midwife reminded me that by week 6 most women get "morning sickness". What a joke that word is! Literally this happened overnight, one day I felt great and the next day I felt like I had a very bad case of the stomach flu.....for the next, what are we 7 weeks in? During week 7, I finally called the midwife and told her that I was miserable and she let me go in a few times to get an IV (I really don't know why this made me feel better, but it always did). She also prescribed me two different things to try for the nausea-Diclegis (basically its Unisom and vitamin B6) and Phenergan...Zofran is apparently not good for pregnancy anymore. Phenergan works pretty well but it makes me very sleepy so I tried not to take it at work, but then I couldn't stop dry-heaving so I had to take it at work and just deal with being sluggish. I think most people experience some type of nausea during pregnancy, I'm the type that dry-heaves and literally throws-up..can't tell you how many times I've had to swallow barf while working. So, it's not been easy, there aren't any rainbows or butterflies, and I'm pretty sure I never want to go through this again...one baby is all we need (and I haven't even done the worst part). Also, your ta-ta's get really big, really fast and they hurt all the time! People keep saying they will get larger once my milk comes in post baby---I'll be able to tie those things around my neck if they keep growing...GROSS! But you know...this is such a "wonderful" time. One other thing that stinks about it all, is that the OB I am going to and have always gone to, does not do ultrasounds until it's time to scan for the anatomy at 17 weeks. So here I sit, getting bigger, being sick, and have no real visual of a baby....just symptoms;  it's pretty disheartening.

Luckily, they have APPS that you can download and it will show you pictures of the baby during each week and what, developmentally,  is taking place inside of the womb. Another great thing is that many people post pictures of their ultrasounds so I can get an idea of what mine would look like. Right now, it is the size of a peach and has developed all of it's major organs. I don't have cravings for things, but there are things I prefer to eat because they fill me up such as pizza, chips, popcorn (basically and unfortunately carbs). However, I do eat a lot of fruits and veggies like I normally would. I am struggling to eat meat!!! Some days I can handle it and other days it looks and tastes disgusting! I used to meal plan but now it's impossible to figure out what I am willing to eat from day to day; I am hoping this changes!

Anyways, here is to the 2nd trimester and hoping that the nausea takes a hike in a few weeks so I can feel more like myself instead of a walking zombie! My next appointment is this week, June 3rd and I'll go in so they can tell me  how fat I am, pee in a cup, and listen to the babies heart beat. July 8th is the anatomy scan where we will get to see the baby and determine if it's a boy or a girl. This will also allow us to start thinking about the nursery theme and slowly get that taken care of before the busy holidays come and we have a new baby.

Also.....it's almost summer break!!!! I've never been this excited to lounge around the house and rest!

Definitely... Pregnant!