Leap Year

Happy February 29th! These past few weeks have been busy as usual, making my last weeks of pregnancy go a tad bit faster, but not quite fast enough ;) I'm 35 weeks and everything is looking good. Next week when I go to my appointment, they will check me to see if I'm dilating at all and give us a good idea on what baby is up to. Kyle is due to travel to Bangkok in 2 weeks (when I'm 37 weeks pregnant) so these next two appointments will be a good indicator of whether or not he can keep those travel plans. Yesterday he left for Istanbul, Turkey for the week. These are the last two trips he has on his schedule- so the month of April he will be home for sure. He also gets one week paid paternity leave, which will be a big help getting the other two off to school after baby is born. Overall I am still feeling pretty good. Besides the standard "tired, my lower is back is starting to hurt from extra weight, and I can't get comfortable to sleep at night", I've been lucky this third trimester with no complaints. I would have to say though I've been starting to have heartburn more frequently, which is something I did not experience with the other two. The old wives tale is red head babies make for heartburn, so we shall see if we get another red head!

This past weekend Kyle and I got to travel to St. Charles IL to visit all my college girl friends and their significant others for the day. I met these 4 girls at WIU on Floor 11 of our dorm in 2003, and we have been friends ever since. We try to get together around 4 times a year, and keep in touch daily through texts. I've been lucky in life to find such a great group of friends from childhood and college. We had fun catching up and it was a nice refresher from parenting duties for 48 hours ;)

We were not the only ones that had fun this weekend. The kids spent the weekend with my parents, and they got to go to the Discovery Center in Rockford on Saturday. Reese had fun telling me all about what they did/ Preston's favorite part was riding in the tractors. Here are a few pics from their day.

Minnesota weekend

We picked Reese up from school on Friday and headed north to my sister's place for the weekend. Saturday morning the kids got to play all morning, before heading out to hockey events in the afternoon. I got to meet up with a friend (Jennie) who we lived by in Madison. Her family moved last summer about 10 minutes from my sister. It was great to catch up and see her and her daughter since I've only seen them twice in the past 3 years!

Aubrey had hockey practice Saturday afternoon while Preston stayed home and rested with the boys. After her practice, us girls went and got pedicures before meeting the guys at Aidan's hockey game. 

Sunday the kids skated (well, tried) on the ice rink Uncle Kyle made in the backyard on their basketball court. Preston lasted about 5 minutes, but Reese tried skates before putting on her boots and attempting to play hockey. She really enjoyed watching Aidan and Aubrey play. 

Sunday morning/afternoon we headed to the Mall of America to go to Nickelodeon Uverse. A theme park within the mall. The kids had a blast doing rides. It wore them out for sure. We headed home around 4:00. The last picture is right before Reese said "Mom, I'm not tired" right after we left to head home. Yea, right Reese! 

Reese enjoyed a day off school yesterday, sledding and helping Kyle clean off the driveway in the morning, and getting to play at home all afternoon. It's not often that we are home that she gets to just sit and play with her toys, so she had a fun day!

Saturday morning cartoon time

Spoke too soon

Doesn't it always appear that you speak to soon, and jinx yourself? Well, it happened to me. I just posted about Reese getting a stomach bug and us dodging that bullet, but it appears not. Last night before bed Preston said he didn't feel well, and sure enough, he woke up an hour later and had gotten sick in his bed. He got sick a few more times, and we were finally able to get to sleep around 1:00 am. I did two loads of laundry and cleaned carpet during that time, not what I imagined my Tuesday night would be. But, he is on the mend, and has rested up today. Still not a ton of energy, but has had toast and his stomach seems to be settled. He really doesn't want to miss his Valentine's Day party at preschool tomorrow, and it's looking like he will be able to make it.

Sick day board games

 If you know Preston, you know the child REFUSES to wear sweat pants/comfy pants. Even on a sick day, he won't wear them! The kid and his jeans...

Coincidentally, Preston has had a nasty cough going on day 9 now. I took him to the doctor Monday morning, and its just an upper respiratory virus going around lasting 7-10 days. He is SO  much better now, but still has it. His stats from the doctor appointment are 35 lbs 3.2 oz (67% tile) and 40.6" tall (87%tile) Little bugger is having a rough week!

Zika, Zika, Zika. That's all we have been hearing about, right? With me being 32 weeks pregnant, and Kyle having traveled to Brazil and now Mexico (two Zika identified countries) I have called the nurse today and asked about my risk and/or any further steps I may need to take. She is going to talk with the providers tomorrow and let me know. I'll keep you updated. 

Praying we all stay healthy for this weekend so we can go to my sister's place. Reese is dying to ice skate on their ice rink in their backyard, and Preston can't wait to play "shoot gun" (a.k.a nerf guns) with Aidan. Kyle comes home tomorrow, YAY!, so maybe I can get a little extra rest- last night wore me out!

January re-cap

I hope everyone has had a great start to the New Year. It's, as usual, flying by for us. With Kyle traveling a lot more lately, days have been long for me, but weeks have been short. He is on his 4th week of traveling for work. It's been Brazil, Atlanta, Indianapolis, and now Mexico this week. Usually being home Thursday through Sunday. After this, he doesn't have much planned. I already made him block off mid March to mid April- he's not missing the birth (Hopefully!) I'm feeling pretty good still. My back started acting up last week, so I made a few trips to the chiropractor but all is well again. I'm also getting super tired- like first trimester tired- wanting to sleep all the time. I attribute it to being 32 weeks pregnant and being a single mom during the weeks, not getting much of a break.

31 1/2 weeks

 

Here's a little re cap of what we have been upto in January. Mondays and Wednesdays I watch my friends baby for 5 hours, allowing her to work from home baby free. Hudson is 9 months old and Preston and him get along great! Reese is always sad he is here when she is at school, so we show her lots of pictures of what we do with him throughout the day :) 

Kyle and I signed up for a 6 week class given by the New Glarus school on Monday nights called "Raising a Thinking Child". Its from 5:45-7:15 pm every Monday. They give us dinner (yay to no cooking!) then provide childcare while we go to class for an hour. Little did I know when I signed up, I'd be attending 4 of them alone since Kyle was traveling :) But it's been really interesting and I'm glad I'm doing it. We have two weeks left.

Tuesday and Thursdays we are busy with Reese taking gymnastics. She is still really loving it, and it gives her a good outlet for her energy during these winter months. I will probably stop it in the summer when t-ball and swimming start up. I signed her up for soccer again (starting in April) because she said all her "friends were doing it." A few days ago she said she changed her mind and didn't want to, so we will she is she ends up playing.

We had our first bout with winter sickness last week- and luckily, it only hit one of us. I got a call from the school nurse on Wednesday around 2:00 saying Reese was not feeling well and looking really pale. I went to get her right away, and as soon as we got home she got sick. After lots of afternoon sleep, and getting sick two more times, she was on the mend. It was only a 12 hour bug, and none of us caught it. I kept her quarantined in her room and didn't let Kyle or Preston near her!

Friday she did not have school because the school district did a birth through 5 year old development day. Preston had an appointment as he was screened so he can do 4K next year. After our morning appointment, we took off for the Dells for a nice little getaway. We had only intended on staying Friday night, but the kids had SO much fun swimming in the hotel pool that we booked another night. We did some outlet mall shopping Saturday too, and I got some good deals on things for baby. They were pretty sad to come home yesterday morning. It was a really fun weekend and nice to have some family time! The kids swam for literally 3 straight hours Friday afternoon, 2 straight hours upon waking Saturday morning, and probably another 2 straight hours Saturday afternoon. They were exhausted Saturday night! Preston's favorite part was the "hot pool" (aka hot tub) :)

We went to a friends house for the Super Bowl yesterday and had lots of yummy food and were happy to see the Broncos win (Kyle has lots of extended family in Denver) so we were cheering Peyton on.

Our kitchen is complete! The tile was installed by Kyle and his dad a few weekends ago, and Kyle and I did the grout by ourselves. The last step in these pictures was the outlet covers, but other than that, we are done, and VERY happy with it!

Our February is turning out to be a busy one too! This past weekend was the Dells, this weekend ahead we are traveling up to my sisters for the weekend, the following weekend we are going to a waterpark with some friends, and then we have a couples weekend the last weekend in February with some of my college girlfriends and their husbands. No wonder our months fly by!