Only 10 weeks left to go ... maybe!

7 months pregnant
with Funky Monkey

   This week marked 10 weeks away from my due date. This means that I have gone through three quarters of this pregnancy and that there is only one quarter left, at the most. Truth be told, I really don't expect this baby to wait until last week of November to arrive. Maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part. This pregnancy has been by far the most difficult one yet. I always tell everyone that being pregnant in my 30's is much harder than it was in my 20's. When I was pregnant with Funky Monkey I was only 24. To tell you the truth I didn't even really notice I was pregnant. I mean my baby bump got bigger, but I didn't feel any different. I read about heartburn, and nausea, and swollen feet in all the baby books but I never experienced any of it. It did help that I didn't have any kids to run after yet so I had lots of time to nap and pamper myself. Funky Monkey arrived on his due date but I would have been fine carrying him a little longer if not for the excitement of meeting him.

7 months pregnant
with Girly Monkey

   With each pregnancy it became more difficult and harder on my body. Girly Monkey's pregnancy was just a little harder than Funky Monkey's pregnancy. Morning sickness lasted a bit longer, and I got breathless a little earlier in the pregnancy. It was harder also because
Girly Monkey decided to stay in a little past her due date. Once I got to Little Monkey, though, I really started feeling it. I had bad heartburn, my feet got swollen all the time, and Little Monkey was bruising the inside of my ribs. I was really ready for him to come out. He must have listened too because he arrived almost 2 weeks early. The funniest thing is that all three Monkeys made their appearance into this world weighing almost the same amount. As a matter of fact they were all within 2 oz of each other. Funky Monkey was 8lbs7oz, Girly Monkey was 8lbs6oz, and Little Monkey was 8lbs5oz. So it might be that they receive an eviction notice from my body once they get to just over 8lbs. Well, if this trend continues, Monkey In-Waiting should be 8lbs5oz. I am putting that out there as my official prediction for his weight. And I am also guessing that he will arrive at
just over 37 weeks. This would mean that I only have 7 weeks left! Yikes!

7 months pregnant with Little Monkey

   So what is it about this pregnancy that is much harder this time around. First of all, I have 3 other kids and lots of responsibilities, and I am lucky to just get 8 hours of sleep per day. Sometimes I dream about napping during the day in my bed, and it's almost like the bed calls out to me. But my schedule is filled with lessons, dance classes, potty training, cleaning, soccer games, laundry, and all the other things that moms must do. There is no time for naps in my daily schedule.
   Another lovely surprise of fifth pregnancy (counting Molar pregnancy) is that Braxton Hicks started at 12 weeks this time around. At first I was very concerned and thought that there was something wrong, but reading my favorite forum comments on TCOYF assured me that I was not the only mom of many that started experiencing them this early. And as my pregnancy has progressed, they started to be a little more annoying and bothersome. I wouldn't classify them as painful, but they do make me stop and take few deep breaths when they are happening.

Today with
Monkey In-Waiting

   Add this to my Gestational Diabetes, peeing myself every time I sneeze or cough (sorry for raw pregnancy information), being unable to sleep and outgrowing all my pregnancy shirts at 30 weeks, and I am not a very happy mama-to-be. Add to this the fact that Girly Monkey was sick all this week and today Little Monkey started running fever, and I am a little miserable and cranky. I am hoping that tonight is going to be a better night and everyone will get some sleep.

*****

  This week was not only 30th week of my pregnancy, but it was also 3rd week of school. We are starting to settle into a routine now and things are a little easier. The weather has been very nice still and we managed to harvest some more tomatoes from our little garden. The kids loved eating them more than they like the ones form the store (and they are big fans of tomatoes to begin with).  Next year I have a plan to extend my garden a bit and seed more things in it. We will definitely do tomatoes, green beans and strawberries again since they were such a hit with the Monkeys. We'll see what we will fancy to add to our garden next year.

Girly Monkey doing copywork

   Funky Monkey had dictation for the second time this week. It's part our language arts study. He gets a different quote every week and we go over it on Monday. We examine any words he doesn't understand and get definition for them. He then copies that quote once a day, alternating between hand writing it and writing it in regular way for four days. Then on the fifth day I read the quote to him slowly and he writes it down without looking at it. The whole idea is that he had four days to practice copying the quotes so that on the fifth day he is able to know how to spell all the words and knows where all the commas, periods, and capital letters go. When he is done I use little strips of sticky pads and cover the words he got wrong and ask him to write them again. Most of the time he gets them correctly the second time around. If he doesn't then we go over what the word is spelled like and we leave it at that. Last week went OK and he had about 6 words incorrectly. But this week was a lot better and he only had 3 corrections. I like this system better than giving him a list of words to memorize and testing him on the list. This way is more gentle and relevant way of learning words.

Funky Monkey with dictation.

Watercolor pencils were lots of fun!

   We also got a chance to learn about Turkey this week and try out watercolor pencils. It was the first time that I worked with them too so it was a first we all shared together. The kids really liked the idea of drawing the picture first and then using water and brush to paint it in. Since we are still studying Georgia O'Keeffe, we looked up close at an orange as inspiration for our drawings/paintings. It was really fun thing to do.

Tomatoes from our garden

   This week I also saw my nutritionist and they lowered the amount of times that I have to test my blood to just one meal a day. My numbers were pretty good and there wasn't much to worry about except for the ketones in my urine. So one thing I have to work on is late night snacks. I have never had to plan meals to include late night snacks, so I made up new Meal Plan sheet that included late snack in it. I am sharing it here if you would like to print it and use it for your personal use. If I was looking for it on the internet, then there are other moms out there looking for one like that too. Hope you enjoy it!