Emily had her one month check-up today! She now weighs 9 pounds 2 ounces and is 20 1/2 inches long. She's gained a lot of weight for two weeks, and the doctor is happy with her progress. I think I'm the happiest because I know that I made her gain that weight. I was so worried that we were going to be wrong about the birth control drying up my milk last time and that it would happen this time. I still want to get past 12 weeks because thats when I really knew it was time to give AJ formula, but I'm feeling more hopefully that I will be able to make it to at least 6 months and then hopefully a year.

Anyway here is my progress so far in the Day Zero Project:

1. Take my vitamin every day for three months (3/90)
2. Graduate with my bachelor’s degree
3. Lose 25 pounds (0/25)
4. Go through the closets (0/4)
5. Make sure the house is spotless before bed every day for a week (0/7)
6. Finish three of my WIPs (0/3)
7. Save $1.00 a day for 1001 days (3/1001)
8. Watch every episode of House (Season 1 - 3/22)
9. Finish this list
10. Buy one scratch off ticket every week for a year (0/52)

I found House Season One full length episodes at http://www.free-tv-video-online.info/internet/house/season_1.html. If you go there, make sure to use megavideo, and if it won't let you then novamov. I don't know that the other ones are safe, and I know that those two usually work.

Day One

Day One of 1001

So far I have 60 items on my list, and I have decided to work on these ones right now. It doesn't mean that I can't complete other ones, but I want to make an effort to work on these:

1. Buy one scratch off ticket every week for a year (0/52)
2. Finish this list
3. Save $1.00 a day for 1001 days (1/1001)
4. Finish three of my WIPs (0/3)
5. Make sure the house is spotless before bed every day for a week (0/7)
6. Go through the closets (0/4)
7. Take my vitamin every day for three months (1/90)
8. Lose 25 pounds (0/25)
9. Graduate with my bachelor’s degree

Day Zero

Emily was born on May 23. My dr decided to induce me on the 22nd after an ultrasound showed low amniotic fluid levels. The induction wasn't too bad this time. He used the foley method to start and then I was on pitocin. I elected to get the epidural but everything went so quickly that the epidural didn't even kick in before she was born.

She was 7 pounds 9 ounces and 19.25 inches long. She's absolutely perfect!

I'm really happy that I went through a whole pregnancy without finding out the sex. It was really hard, but very rewarding at the end, especially because she's a girl! I had a lot of people say right after that it's so great I have a boy and a girl, now I can be done. I really don't think I'm done yet. I definitely don't want another one until Emily is older than AJ is now. I think it would be great to wait until she is at least 3 before we start trying, so that would make her at the late end of 3 or maybe 4 depending on when I would get pregnant. Of course I don't know all of the details right now, but I know that as of this point, I'm not done.

So, I've decided to do this thing called Day Zero. You make a list of 101 things that you want to complete in 1001 days. I've made about half of my list so far:

1. Graduate with my bachelor’s degree
2. Take the Pro Ed exam
3. Take the Subject Area exam
4. Get certification to teach
5. Go one full semester without waiting until the last minute to do an assignment (0/16)
6. Join a gym
7. Exercise three to four days a week for a month (0/12)
8. Lose 25 pounds (0/25)
9. Make and take my lunch to work every day for a full month (0/30)
10. Replace 2 cans of soda with water every day for a month (0/30)
11. Take a walk everyday for a month (0/30)
12. Go without soda for a full week (0/7)
13. Go without soda for a full month (0/30)
14. No candy/chocolate/sweets for a full week (0/7)
15. No candy/chocolate/sweets for a full month (0/30)
16. Go to bed before midnight for one full week (0/7)
17. Get CPR certification
18. Donate 1 gallon of blood (0/8)
19. Take my vitamin every day for three months (1/90)
20. Buy a filing cabinet
21. Create a system for my bills and paperwork
22. Organize AJs toys
23. Go through the closets (0/4)
24. Make sure the house is spotless before bed every day for a week (0/7)
25. Don’t eat out for a month (0/30)
26. Potty train AJ
27. Change all of our light bulbs to energy saving
28. Eat dinner as a family at our table
29. Frame our family pictures and hang them
30. Finish three of my WIPs
31. Design and make my own graduation announcements
32. Make something for AJ
33. Make something for Emily
34. Donate one skien of squares to One Square at a Time Charity - http://onesquareatatime.wetpaint.com/
35. Learn to knit
36. Save $1.00 a day for 1001 days (0/1001)
37. Develop a budget
38. Find a new author that I like
39. Visit Aaron’s family
40. Go on a vacation with my family for at least 3 days
41. Watch every episode of House
42. Watch 15 movies that I have never seen recommended to me (0/15)
43. Go 24 hours without having the TV on
44. Go on one date night a month starting in September 2010
45. Go to a Redwings hockey game with Aaron
46. Finish this list
47. Get a new piercing or tattoo
48. Don’t go on Facebook for 24 hours
49. Get up to the alarm without hitting snooze 50 times (0/50)
50. Sleep without an alarm 50 times (0/50)
51. Go fruit picking with AJ
52. See a play
53. Make homemade bagels
54. Write from www.creativewritingprompts.com 20 times (0/20)
55. Build a blanket fort with AJ
56. Donate $5 for every task not completed after day 1001

It's been about two months since I last posted. I guess I haven't really felt like posting. I think about it, and I sign in to see the other blogs on my list, and even those ones seem to be slowing down.

What's new with me?
I have 18 days left until my due date, and I've had quite a bit of people tell me they don't think I'll last.
I've enjoyed two weeks off of school. I got 5 A's my last semester! The next semester starts on Monday and the first of my classes just showed up so I'll be starting that very soon. I need to make sure that I'm always one step ahead so that when the baby comes I'm not going to be too stressed about it.
I've been crocheting a lot. Right now I'm working on an Elvis blanket for Aaron's birthday. I hope it will be done by then, but I haven't had much motivation to work on it. I'm also working on a newborn dress, bootie, and headband set. I'm in a "babyshower" for my online group and I have to send my partner her present very soon. She's having a little girl. I hope she likes it. So far I've got the headband and both booties done, and I'm working on the dress. If I have enough yarn left I might make a pair of bloomers, but I have to send it out soon because her due date is coming up. I think I have like a week left before the deadline.
I just started working on my baby's things last night. I got the bassinet all cleaned and set up... and that's about it so far. I'm not too worried about getting it done, it will get done eventually... even if that means waiting for the baby to get here.


What's up with AJ?

He's a full blown two year old. He can't talk but think he can so there is a huge meltdown if you don't understand him.
He's rough and tumble with daddy, and tones it way down for me.
He has started to greet me when I come home from work. He comes running at me full speed jumping and yelling, "Momma, HOME" and I can't help but smile everytime he does it because it is just too darn cute.
He freaks out when I try to leave. He even says bye to daddy and tries to walk out of the door with me, but when I have to shut the door I hear him scream and cry. That makes me feel bad, and I'm so glad I don't have to deal with that in the morning because he's still sleeping when I leave.


I'm feeling lazy, and I don't want to get up to get the camera, but I have some pictures to post later.

I'm feeling the effects of late pregnancy. The drain of my energy, and the soreness of my hips... I really could live without it, but it's all for this child that I'm carrying.

Anyway, I've been busy this week sleeping, and cleaning, and sleeping, and doing some school work, and sleeping, and crocheting. I'm trying something new with crochet that I have never done before, and that is changing colors. I'm crazy though.. I couldn't take it easy and just crochet a blanket that had different striped colors.. I had to do a pattern. I found the perfect pattern to make Aaron a blanket for his birthday. I hope I get it done in time! Here is what I have so far:




It's white, which scares me, but the pattern part of it is black, and it's important that it's that way, because it will say Elvis and have an outline of his face... hopefully... by the time I'm done.

AJ and I have also been working on our second week of homeschool. He's learning about the Jungle, the letter B, and he will learn about the number two tomorrow. We did fall a little behind this week because of my energy problem. Not too far behind that we couldn't catch up during the weekend. Here is our learning poster from last weekend, and you can find the curriculum for that here: Week 1.

My Son

My son is amazing. I don't take enough time out to think about how truly amazing his two year old self is.

He's extremely smart, and very very sweet.

We went to gymnastics tonight. AJ was the only one there, which was actually kind of nice because the teacher was able to spend all her time with both us making sure that I was helping him correctly. She had nothing but compliments for how fast he is progressing. He can crawl across the foam pit by himself, he can climb ladders by himself, he can almost do a forward roll without any help, and he really tries to do the monkey bars by himself, but he's not really big enough to do it without help. He did wonderful being the only student as well... he barely got sidetracked with the big girls running and flipping all over the place. His class is about 45 minutes long and he lasted about 30 minutes before he tried to escape to see the big girls.

We also started Week 1 with our homeschool preschool. This week's theme is cows. He'll also learn about squares, the letter A, and the number 1 this week. Today though, we worked on coloring a cow, saying the word cow, and saying the sound a cow makes. It takes a lot of coaxing to get him to say the words and the sounds... but I have found out that he can say them almost perfectly, he prefers not too. We read the book Cow by Malachy Doyle, and by the middle of the book he was pointing out the cow, and either saying "There it is!" or "Cow, MOO". Although his cow sounds like his word for car which sort of sounds like "Caw". My expectation was that by Friday he would be saying Cow and Moo... not that he would be saying it the first day. Something else that I was surprised by was that when we started to read the book, AJ stood up and started pointing at the picture of the cow that he colored. Like I said, he amazes me.

I am so lucky to have a little boy who loves to give kisses and blow kisses and give hugs. I am so lucky to have a little boy who is so smart and beautiful, and completely mine. I couldn't have asked for more!

I can sum up my month of March so far in one word.... YUCK!

Last week was spring break for me, and I had envisioned going places and doing things with AJ while working my fanny off for some extra spending money since I would be free the whole week to work. Nope... didn't happen. I've been sick sick sick. Practically on my death bed! Ok, maybe not THAT bad, but it really hasn't been fun. And, I'm still sick. We're coming up on two weeks of being sick if I don't miraculously recover in the next two days. Since I'm pregnant there isn't much medicine to take to help me, and the medicine that is available hasn't really done much. I've had some good days where I feel much better, but then the next day I'm drained and feel even worse. At least I have a doctor's appointment on Saturday, so if it is still here by then, I'll talk to the doc.

I also had put my mind into working on AJ and the potty. That plan did not pan out. I was not feeling up to that much cleaning! So, instead the last few nights I have been working on getting AJ to sleep in his own bed. So for the last three nights, I have put him in his bed, and put him back in his bed, and back in his bed again and again and again. And for the last three nights, he has fallen asleep in his own bed. Now, he hasn't exactly stayed there the whole night, but baby steps! My goal is a whole week, and then we'll celebrate. It has gone pretty smooth. There are no tears when we walk back into the bedroom. Last night he was the most challenging because he'd run out and then run back to bed, giggling as if it were a game. It has really helped that there haven't been any tears because I'm dealing with a bit of guilt. While I do enjoy having my husband sleep in the bed, I kind of miss sleeping with my two year old bed hog. It's really amazing how such a little guy can take up so much of a queen size bed! Anyway, I have become accustomed to waking up several times in the night to make sure that his roley poley butt is covered with a blanket. Now, I'm waking up several times a night to tell husband to stop snoring. Oh well, in just a few short months I'll have a tiny little baby who will probably end up sharing my bed, and there really isn't room to have AJ sleeping in the bed as well.

Which is a whole new issue that I've started to deal with. I'm going to have a new baby, and I feel guilty because AJ won't have Mommy to himself anymore. I remember singing and talking to my belly all the time when I was pregnant with AJ. I think that I really bonded with the idea of AJ while I was pregnant, and that made it easier to bond after he was born and I wasn't so sick anymore. This time... I don't feel pregnant very often, and I don't talk or sing to my belly. I want this baby, but I don't know if I have bonded to the idea of this baby like I did with AJ. I'm sure that bonding after the baby is born will be just fine, maybe my issue is because I don't know very much about this baby. I don't know whether it is going to be a boy or girl, and I don't know if my due date is very accurate so I don't really even know when it will be here. I hope AJ bonds well with the baby too because he really doesn't have a clue that it's coming....