Dec 04 Mamas here comes summer

[nannymom]

starting a new thread for those of still hanging around.

[Past_VNE]

Out picking wild blackberries with Jett today.

We're also having wildlife adventures....got some tadpoles and minnows in an aquarium to watch growth and metamorphosis. Have a garter snake in another tank just for the day to play with and observe. Saw some HUGE nonpoisonous snake out in the pasture that we don't recognize and so we just came in to look it up.

[rozzie'sma]

Ohhhhhh those Grand Canyon pics were gorgeous!

Zann is having surgery on June 2nd. We took him for a second opinion because the first cardiologist did some off the wall things (called my ped and tried to suggest that their was nothing wrong with my son and I was not feeding him enough) I took him to Rainbow Babies and he has severe stenosis and his left ventricle is in trouble from all the pressure. THey are enlarging the slit in his aortic valve, removing the scar tissue from the VSD patch and removing the subaortic membrane. I am PO'ed at the first cardiologist but glad I got him in to see the other doc in time to get him treated before my two year old keeled over.

[Jenelle]

Best wishes with Zann's surgery! I am sorry he is still having so much trouble.

Edited because I was like... "Grand Canyon pics? What'd I miss?" Only thinking of the new thread... Then realized they are on the old thread... Duh!

Yes, kazmir, good to hear from you. Your RV looks like the same one my parents have that we borrow sometimes!

[nannymom]

rozzie'sma- Sorry to hear Zann's having so much trouble. I hope all goes well with his surgery. I know you have a lot on your plate but I hope when you have a chance you will complain about that cardilogist that is bizarre, unprofessional, and dangerous. Plus just about the last thing parents of a sick child need to deal with.

We have been back from Disney for a little under two weeks and I stil haven't caught up on my sleep. We only had three days at the parks due to the way my mom planned it (she just did not understand the full scope of Disney) and it was a grueling pace. The stuff that was hard was really hard, the pace, the heat, the m/s at Disney However, the good stuff was even better than I had thought it would be. We're not huge Disney fans so I was surprised by how much everyone enjoyed everything.

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q...202009/035.jpg

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q...202009/014.jpg
http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q...202009/026.jpg




I have an interview/ apt. with a potential midwife on Tuesday. In NC CPMs are illegal so finding a homebirth provider can be trickey. In this case it is actually a practice with a CNM and a CPM and they do home and hospital births and use some loose phrasing to get around the laws. I like that this practice takes my insurance becaus ethe average hb here is around $6,000 and we can't possibly afford that with out a sliding scale and a payment plan but I have some concerns about heir protocals and what not since they do hospital births.

[Lula's Mom]

Hi everyone!

nannymom, are you in Asheville again? My sister had an awesome homebirth there last year, with a doctor attending.

I am not one to recommend doctors much - but this guy was so laid back, so reassuring to her when anything looked like a potential complication along the way... I don't think she could have had her homebirth without him. Her previous birth in Asheville was in a hospital with a midwife group, and they were definitely more interventionist than this doctor. With them she ended up being induced for nothing.

Anyway, if you end up not sold on the midwives after you meet them, I can ask her for his name.

rozzie'sma, I am always thinking of you & Zann. I get his updates from Carepages. Hopefully his new cardiologist will work wonders and be able to do just what he needs.

I am 22.5 weeks pregnant now. I feel great and everything is going along well.

[nannymom]

Thanks Lula's mom. I think you're talking about Dr. Hayes. I'm not one for male OBs but people who have used him seem to love him so, he is next on my list if it doesn't work out with the mid wife.


I'm glad your pregnacy is progressing well and you are feeling so good.

[rozzie'sma]

OHhhhhh already half way there. How exciting, no new babies on the horizon for me so I am just so happy for you guys. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

And Disney looks awesoms.

[Past_VNE]

Love the Grand Canyon and Disney pics!!

Jett had his dance recital the other night. His dress rehearsal went great...he did a really good job. He kinda spaced out at the recital though. I'll have a movie of it in several weeks (pro crew, weren't allowed to tape your own.)

He's been really careless lately, with his body, his things, falling, stepping on us, hurting himself and us, etc. He has also been LOUD (both talking, yelling and just making a lot of noises/sounds), disobedient, even pushier than his usual high level of pushiness, and generally driving us crazy. I'm ready to kill him. It's obvious he's having some sort of emotional/mental growth, so I'm trying to go easy on him, but I've had it. Can't wait till this passes.

Here are some new pics from our world.
Aurora:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y94...g?t=1243358878
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y94...g?t=1243358853

Jett:
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y94...g?t=1243359492
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y94...g?t=1243359559
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y94...g?t=1243359580
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y94...g?t=1243359609
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y94...g?t=1243359631
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y94...g?t=1243359661
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y94...g?t=1243359675
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y94...g?t=1243359701

[Changed]

Welcome back Rainy and Kazmir! So glad to see you guys again. I've changed my username so many times no one recognizes me. It used to be myheartslight


So, Emma is with my mom. Totally off meds and things are GREAT! For the last week before she left she was off them and it was rough but it was getting better already when she left. She's coming home on the first for a few weeks with us and we're doing swimming lessons for Emma and Cole. I'm excited to see her and glad that she's thriving off all the meds.

J- Love the pics! It's just a totally normal reaction to a new sibling. I've known oodles of moms whos loving preschooler turned a little weird when the new kid arrived but it turns around on it's own eventually.

Em- Let us know how the mw visit goes!

Kristi- Thinking of Zann. Are you UCing again?

[Jenelle]

Bringing this up to page 1. My family is not cooperating... This is my second attempt.

Eli is done with preschool until September. He is nervous about having new teachers, even though he has met the new teacher and we keep reassuring him that she is SO nice.

I have a homeschool curriculum for him (P4/5 from Sonlight) but we haven't done much with it yet. Just read some of the stories.

Main focus has been on getting into homeschooling our oldest -- ended up taking him out of public school with only a month left of school. He started having some serious anxiety / stomach issues, and we were planning to homeschool next school year anyway, so I just had to remove the stress for all of us. It has been so nice.

Right now we've also been working on getting the house / garage cleaned out / organized because we are having a big summer birthday party for them next weekend. Skipped it last year, so first time in 2 years that we will have a lot of people at our house. Trying not to stress.

Thinking of you all... Wishing the best in your pregnancies, new house, adjusting to new babies, praying for Zann, etc!

Edited because I meant to ask about Emma. Do you mean she is living with your mom now? Hope the adjustment to no meds is still going well!

[nannymom]

Hi all. just checking in so I keep getting the thread.

My m/s seems to be actually getting worse now that I'm heading into week 13 so it's becoming hard to stay in a positive mood. I had a dating ultrasound and It was awesome to see the baby. The u/s technology has improved since I was pregnant with Iris. I can also feel it moving around in there which is so much earlier than I could feel it with Iris.

[green betty]

Hey everyone, just checking in. I love hearing what folks are up to and seeing your pics. There are some fairly recent ones of Charlie on his blog in my siggy.

Nannymom, big hugs on the m/s. I have my fingers and toes crossed for you that the rest of your pregnancy is as smooth as possible.

Jenelle, congrats on homeschooling! According to my friends with three or more, it's actually easier to homeschool than to get everyone organized on a schedule that revolves around the school day. I hope that's your experience. I've been planning to homeschool since waaaaaaay before I got pregnant (thanks to a bunch of homeschooled teenagers I got to know). We're unschoolers, although I'm not a huge fan of that term--I prefer interest-based, organic, independent learning.

[Jenelle]

Yes, green betty, I was really resentful of the public school schedule controlling our entire day / lives... And kept thinking, I cannot imagine trying to get three of them out the door, trying to pack three lunches, remember all of the various papers, forms, supplies, etc. that they need to take each day... And then having the three of them get home each day -- tired, yet wound up, hungry, and trying to do homework (#%&@!) for three different grade levels every. single. night.

I do it alone, the majority of the time also.

I haven't looked up "unschooling" a whole lot... But I can tell you that if the kids are interested in a particular thing, we've been going with that. I do have the core 3 Sonlight curriculum for my oldest, and we are getting through a "Day" of their schedule here and there... But, we have also had some really cool "unscheduled" moments -- like, when they were playing with their Hot Wheels the other day and wanted to know "Where is Thailand?" because it said on the bottom of one of the cars, "Made in Thailand". Sparked a 20-minute evaluation of our globe, where they also found where we live, where Madagascar is (from the movie ), where various family members live, how far away Hawaii really IS from the mainland, etc. etc. I love having the time / energy / good mood to do these things with them!

[nannymom]

Just dropping into say hi. I think I lost my subscription to the thread.

[nannymom]

Anyone still out there?

[Past_VNE]

I was wondering the same thing. Couldn't seem to find my subscription either.

MDC is going further downhill, in my opinion, now that nobody will be able to have any links in their siggies. I SOOOO enjoyed clicking on people's pictures, blogs, useful info, etc. It's NOT cool. This place has become way too restrictive. They claim all sorts of reasons why it's needed. But, I'm on other sites that do much better without the b.s.

Jett's in swim lessons at the city pool. I HATE them. They are bassackwards and making him a danger to himself. It's too bad, b/c the coaches are REALLY nice and it's only 15 minutes away. Heck, one coach is the brother of his tumbling coach, and they're awesome people. But, they're following the Red Cross course and I think it's crap, honestly. Some of the kids are scared and they push them way too hard, sometimes literally pushing them into the water. If they considered doing that to Jett, I'd pull him NOW. But, he LOVES the water and doesn't want to quit. So, as soon as the session is over, I'm going to take him to amother town with a decent school. I hate to drive an hour for it with A, who doesn't always like the car, but it's my own fault. Even a year ago, I didn't understand the implication of picking a place to live with no extra-curricular activities except Baptist church and rodeo. Swim teams, homeschooloing groups, pony clubs, whatever else is soooo freaking far away. I mean, it doesn't really matter...what we wanted was out of price range "over there" anywhere. Our choices were pretty limited to here (for a farm) or the huge house/tiny yard of suburbia. I guess I'd rather make the drive.

Other Jett news? Hmmmm.....he had a eye dr. visit yesterday....passed with flying colors. Except they had him do these outline pictures instead of letters and he got the "man riding a horse," "a duck," "a hand," and, "um, uh, a, mmmm, uh..." hecouldn't identify the telephone. He has never seen one that looked like a real, classic, rotary phone. He only knows what cell phones and a cordless home phone looks like. LOL I'll have to show him rotary phones when we visit my grandparents next month. They still have a couple of them in use.

I wish I had more good stuff to report, but I've got nothing. Sorry. Hot and boring around here, I guess.

[Jenelle]

I am still around. Pop in each day and see if anyone has posted. Not a whole lot new here either...

Eli will start preschool again, 3 afternoons a week, in September. He misses "going to school" and I'm sure will love it when he can go again.

Sometimes I don't post because I can't get a minute by myself to think. Right now my husband and my niece are at the movie theater with all 3 boys seeing "Up". That is the only reason I have a quiet moment to think straight.

By the time I get them to bed, I have time for laundry, dishes... Maybe figuring out the checkbook... But am usually too tired to do much online except stare blankly at the screen while skimming the headlines.

I do think of you all often... Glad to hear the updates... Have been wondering about you, nannymom, and how you are feeling. Past, I hear ya about the place in the country... We had a bigger house, bigger yard, in the country but it was not close to ANYTHING and it eventually drove me nuts. We opted for the smaller home, smaller yard, in suburbia, and now I wish daily that we were in the country again. But wish we could be just-outside-of-town-country.

So... no big news I can think of. We've been filling up the kiddie pool almost daily... Dh has been working A LOT again... And the heat -- or more like the humidity / lack of breeze -- is just not pleasant to go out in a lot of the time. By the time I get all 3 kids loaded up in the car to actually GO somewhere / carseats strapped etc... I am shot.

[claras_mom]

Originally Posted by Past_VNE

He's been really careless lately, with his body, his things, falling, stepping on us, hurting himself and us, etc. He has also been LOUD (both talking, yelling and just making a lot of noises/sounds), disobedient, even pushier than his usual high level of pushiness, and generally driving us crazy. I'm ready to kill him. It's obvious he's having some sort of emotional/mental growth, so I'm trying to go easy on him, but I've had it. Can't wait till this passes.

Crashing the thread...I came on tonight looking for solace on the general behavior of my older daughter--a December 04 kid. This describes her to a tee.

Except when she's being really clingy and needy and whiny.

<sigh>

Should make me feel better that I'm not alone in these feelings, but somehow it doesn't. It makes my heart hurt to have her going through whatever she's going through and not be able to do anything to make it easier on her.

[Jenelle]

Welcome, claras_mom! Crash any time.

And to you and Past. It does sound like a very difficult time for you guys!