My Big Fat Belly - 23 Weeks

January Photo Dump

 These are photos from January that never made it in a blog post but I felt like sharing.

Easton Thomas Crooks

 Last Tuesday, my sweet friend, Lauren, surprised everyone with a picture text to let us know that little Easton had be been born early that morning. I was so extremely excited for her and couldn't wait to get to the hospital to meet him. Coincidentally, Tuesday was also mine and Chase's anniversary but I still wanted to meet the little guy and see Lauren and Kevin before heading out to dinner. Lauren thankfully had a pretty easy labor and delivery, although she was pretty tired from laboring through the night and not getting much sleep during the day Tuesday.

Here he is...

 He was so tiny and so perfect! Easton was almost a whole 2 pounds smaller than BR was when she was born. It was pretty amazing to hold such a tiny little baby. I loved it! Even though he was sleeping, he made sweet little faces and didn't cry at all during my visit (and I don't mean that I had anything to do with that). He looks very much like his daddy already, which I think is really awesome!

I was so wrapped up in meeting Easton and taking pictures of him that I forgot to get one with his sweet Momma. I'll have to do better next time I see them.

Today marks his 1 week birthday so Happy 1 week Easton!!

At-Home Preschool

This week I have started teaching Brantley preschool. Over the past few weeks I've been realizing how bored she was and honestly, how lazy I was being and it was time to do something about it. Sunday night, I found THIS website that provides Preschool curriculum for free that was created by a SAHM as she taught her own children at home.

We are using the 26 week Preparatory Curriculum that teaches the letters of the alphabet, colors, shapes, numbers, has a weekly themes (animals) and a vocabulary word to go with each theme.

So far we are enjoying our "school" time. We only spend about 20-30  minutes each morning learning our new thing for the day and reviewing the previous days.

I'm thinking about doing the preparatory curriculum twice and then moving on the the Letter of the Week curriculum that begins to teach letter sounds and more.

Below is our Learning Board. I will be changing the pictures during the week depending on what we are learning about that day. This week, we learned about Cows and the vocabulary word- calf on Monday, the shape square on Tuesday, the letter A on Wednesday, today we'll learn about the number 1 and Friday I'll be reviewing all of these things and teaching Brantley the nursery rhyme "Hey, Diddle, Diddle".

This is my lesson plan for this week. On the website she gives ideas and suggestions for each day, including a list of books that can be checked out from a local library to support the theme for the week.

Day 1: Brantley colored a picture of a cow and we talked about them and I taught her that a baby cow is called a calf. So far, each day when I ask her about it she is still able to tell me that a baby cow is called a calf. I'm pretty impressed! After school, we went to the Hoover Library to check out a few of the books but unfortunately, they didn't have many of the ones on the list so we just read one of them at the library and then came back home. I'm going to have to do my preparations on the weekends or in the afternoons when I'm by myself so that I can go to more than 1 library.

Day 2: Brantley learned the shape, Square. She colored this page that had a bunch of squares on it. Then we went through the house taking pictures of things that are in the shape of a square. For some reason, this is the hardest shape for her to remember, but we're working on it and hopefully she'll get the hang of it soon.

Day 3: Yesterday we learned the letter A. Brantley painted the letter, we sang the ABC's and pointed out "A's" on boxes and signs throughout the day. I think that this will be the hardest part for BR. She can sing the alphabet all the way through but actually naming each letter is still a little above her head. This is why I'm thinking about doing this curriculum twice so I can make sure she really knows each letter before jumping into letter sounds.

Today will be day 4 and I'll be teaching her the number 1. Brantley can also count to 14 but she doesn't completely understand what the value of each number means. I'm hoping that after this morning, she understands just a little bit more about how many "1" is.

Our New Daily Structure

So far this week has been really great and I'm loving our new structure. I've started getting up with Chase at 5:15 for a cup of coffee and a quick devotion time for he and I before he leaves for work. 5:15am is really early but if Chase can do it every day then I can do it everyday as well. I then get a shower and I'm ready for the day by the time Brantley wakes up around 7:15. We eat breakfast until about 8:00 and then it's onto school time. After school we're able to run errands, go to the park or down to Star Lake to see the ducks and geese. Snack at 11:00, lunch at 1:00 and nap at 2:00. Ever since we said bye-bye to passy, Brantley has been fighting her nap. By moving it back to 2 o'clock, she is more tired by then and falls asleep faster. So far, her naps have been shorter than they used to be, which is hard for me to get used to, but she's growing up and I know she can't take 3 hours naps forever. Hopefully, our new structure continues to work and keep BR from becoming too bored and me from being to lazy. I know all of this will change come the end of May when Savannah joins the family but for now we're going to keep at it.

Here's to 3 years!

Happy Anniversary to Chase and I! On Tuesday, we celebrated 3 years of marriage by going to dinner at Surin 280 and spending a little time without BR. (Thanks, Mom and Dad for watching her!) Dinner was delicious! I was able to have sushi and Chase had the Thai BBQ Chicken. AMAZING!! We didn't take any pictures at dinner this year. Hopefully, I don't regret that one day but there just wasn't a good time.

Chase brought me these beauties with a card and some Snickers ice cream bars when he got home from work. He is so sweet and thoughtful.

We are still very much in love and I don't know what I would do without him. I (we) look forward to many many more years together!!
We're thinking about taking a vacation in March or April that will be our anniversary/baby-moon before Savannah gets here and we become a family of 4. We're thinking about going to Savannah, GA (Chase has never been there and it's beautiful) or just going down to Gulf Shores, AL. Updates on that decision will come later.

January 24th, 2009

My Big Fat Belly - 22 Weeks

How I'm Feeling at 22 weeks: I'm still feeling pretty good these days but I've started having a lot of lower back pain this week. Last night was the pain was bad and I had a hard time getting to sleep. I haven't had any more run-ins with heart burn (knock on wood) and I'm very thankful to record that. I feel like Savannah has been doing a lot of growing this week because I'm feeling bigger and more uncomfortable. It's getting a lot harder to get down on the floor with Brantley and then get up easily.I haven't noticed any new or worsening stretch marks but my belly is kinda itchy at times. I bought some Tummy Butter to put on it a few times a day to hopefully alleviate some of the itching.

Gender: GIRL!

Movements: Savannah has become a lot more active at times. I'm definitely starting to see a pattern in her awake times. She usually wakes up and starts doing gymnastics after I lay down to go to bed and then again in the morning after breakfast she moves around a lot.

Baby's size at 22 weeks:

From here on out the fruit picture only changes monthly.

During month five, the average fetus measures about 10.5 to 11.8 inches and weighs about 12.7 to 20.8 ounces. At our 20 weeks, 5 day ultrasound. Savannah was already 14oz so I'm pretty sure she's well over a pound now. We won't know her weight again for sure until we have our 4D ultrasound at around 28 weeks.

• Now that she's got more developed eyes and lips, she's looking even more like a newborn.
• She's sleeping in cycles -- about 12 to 14 hours per day (hint: they're probably those times you're not feeling any kicks!).

Belly pic for the week:

What I'm Looking Forward to: I'm still looking forward to starting on the nursery and changing Brantley's room around a bit. I'm not sure when we'll be able to do all of this but I'm ready. Also, I'm looking forward to seeing Savannah again during our 4D ultrasound in a couple of weeks and then meeting her after birth in just 4 short months. We are so excited!!

Bye-Bye Passy - Day 2

This is really just for my documentation but feel free to read.

Brantley finally fell asleep after about an hour of crying last night and slept through the night without a peep. This morning she woke up at her normal time, happy and not looking for passy.

Nap time was a little rough today but not as bad as last night. BR cried for about 15 minutes and then slept for a little over an hour. She usually takes at least a 3 hour nap every day so today's short nap was strange. Hopefully this will not become an every day length of a nap because I need that 3 hours to get things done and just for some "me" time.

Bedtime went way better than last night for sure. Brantley cried for about 10-15 minutes and then went on to sleep. Yay! I was strong and didn't go back in her room, despite her screaming, and I think that's why she gave up quicker tonight. Last night, Chase and I both went into her room once each to reassure her and calm her down but all that did was just start the crying time over again.

Lesson learned: Going back in the room does not make her(him) go to sleep faster. Don't do it! Stand your ground!! 

Easier said than done, I know!! haha

I'm hoping that after another day or so she will forget her ole' pal and we'll never hear about him again. Next up on the list of transitioning Brantley into a real big girl, is to buy her a twin bed and get her sleeping in it. Not sure exactly when this is going to happen but in the next month or so for sure.

My plan is to try potty training after the big girl bed but I'm still not 100% sure about the timing. I'd LOVE for her to be potty trained before Savannah is born, but I'm not sure she'll be ready before then. She shows us NO signs of being ready so I'm still going to give her some more time.

So that's all for tonight. I wish I had a super cute picture to share but unfortunately I don't. Maybe tomorrow I'll take some pictures during our playdate and then share those.