Clearly I Lied...

A few post ago when I said I wouldn't chart. I'm five days in and honestly it is kind of fun building this graph. Then again I've always had fun making charts and such. I am using a hand iPhone/iPad app that allows me to put in my information and it graphs everything for me so the error margin is hopefully less.

My reasoning for starting this is our time frame. My career is blossoming and if I want to be in a leadership role next year then I'd rather not have to take off for maternity leave. We're going to attempt to aim for a specific window of time but granted of that doesn't happen then so be it. I'd prefer that if we get pregnant that the baby would be due during the tail end of the school year but more so summer. However with our school calendar that leaves just July. If we can have her early July then six weeks later school starts up. Perfect! But our second best timing would be mid to late June. I have a co-teacher so relatively things would be okay once she is there. However I'd rather not have to be out during the school year at all. So our months would be...

-Conception in September and born in June
-Conception in October and born in July

Therefore that gives me 6 months to chart and get the timing just right.

If we miss that set then our next plan would be March and birth in November. After that... I'm throwing the plans out the window and I'll say when it happens it happens. My lesson so far in life has been patience so hopefully God sees these next 6 months of preparation as planning with extreme patience. ;)

I know some people will say I am a fool for planning a time frame and that its putting too much pressure on myself but honestly if it didn't fall in one of those months then I'd feel extreme personal guilt from leaving my kiddos mid-year for 6 weeks. Plus it's not the end of the world if we don't meet the two time frames because after that it's whatever.

I just know that a huge change like that is tough on 4 year olds and I don't want to put them through that if I can help it. They are not my kids but at the same time they are very much my kids.

So anyways, once my first month chart is done I'll post a screen cap on here in case anyone spots something I don't.

I'm off to bed before our busy Friday starts. Goodnight :)

Visiting Home

I had the most wonderful drive home on Thursday. As I headed back up to my parents house, leaving behind the hustle and bustle of the city I couldn't help but miss country life. I drove the whole way with the wind in my hair and my radio blasting. Smelling the sweet wisteria in bloom, passing the fields of cows, and going up and down the hills of east Texas with nothing but trees and blue bonnets on the sides of the roads. It was heavenly.

What awaited me at my parents house was pure bliss. The front of their yard has a line of wisteria bushes that filled the yard with their beautiful perfume. The house was filled with the scent of a chocolate kalua cake and for dinner we (mom, Jane, and I) prepared a delicious mixture of kabobs containing shrimp, steak, onions, plums, and nectarines. The guys (Don, dad, and Alex) grilled the meat while we finished the salad, baked potatoes, and bread. Then we all sat down to an amazing dinner followed by several rounds of dominos. I was able to get some photos during the game but of course I'm not in them because I took them. This is why I need to bring Chris :)

Seriously I wish life was constantly like this. I would move us back to our home town in a heartbeat. This was definitely the best ending to my spring break.

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In other news, you know how your parents say that you'll always have your room at the house even after you move out? Apparently that expires after they realize they can use that room. I'm currently laying on a plastic wrapped mattress on the floor of the storage room. Hmm... If they were not great parents then I would totally guilt them for this. ;)

I love coming home. :)

Before Your Pregnancy - Book Review

I've stated several times in the past that I'm a planner. I planned my whole college career out each semester, I planned my wedding over a two year time span, and I plan everytime we rearrange our house to figure out what arrangement I'd like first. Sure it drives my husband crazy at times but it has saved us in so many situations that he doesn't complain. :) Clearly this skill comes in handy being a teacher as well. Now imagine how surprised I was when I was questioned by a friend (of 15 years) about "over-planning" for a baby because I mentioned that our preconception doctors appointment is coming up. Haha... hello? Do you remember me? Fear of judgement set aside... I want to be as knowledgeable as I can be because it eases my over-worrying mind.

With that being said here is my first book review! I bought the book from Amazon for my kindle/ipad. First off I questioned why the kindle version is more expensive than the actual book, but this book has click-able links inside that lead to a website where you can download forms for planning along with links to jump to diagrams and other chapters. That won me over quickly.

This book hits most of the key topics that I was left wondering about after reading a few pregnancy books. While other books merely devote one chapter to preconception, this book is loaded with everything I could have ever wondered about. It really is an over-planners dream guide. This book is geared for 90 days of planning, which is three months. That is how long doctors typically suggest you to be off your birth control for before officially trying even though some studies suggest otherwise. The authors accept that some people are on a faster pace and there are little picture guides to help guide you through if you're ready to hit the ground running or if you have the time to take three months to plan.

Topics Addressed: Readiness emotionally and financially, lifestyle habits that may need adjusting, home and work environments, preconception visits, past health issues that could cause issues, ancestry and genetics, conception friendly medications and herbs, what your SO can do to prepare, vitamins and minerals, using MyPyramid.gov (now myplate), diet tailoring, body weight from both sides of the issue, getting in shape, keeping the romance while ttc, and infertility.

I couldn't find an issue that I didn't question to be honest. This book is honest and will tell you that studies regarding certain issues have said one thing, but that other studies have showed another side without really confusing the issue at hand. The authors wrote this book in a way that makes it sound like a good friend or very honest and respected doctor is talking to you without judgement for issues that you may be facing. Above all of their information they do frequently mention that your doctor will know what is right for you in certain situations and that their book is now one to tell you that you have to do this or that.

I would without a doubt recommend this book to any couples that are thinking about TTC and would like to look at what they can do to try and help the process and their future baby as well.

Knowledge

Genetics are a funny thing, growing up I looked so much like my dad but we were not that close really. While I was a daddies girl, I was more of a mommies girl. Now my looks are closer to being even and trait wise things are split as well. One strong trait my dad always had behavior wise was his ability to research the hell out of anything that he was interested in. I definitely picked up that skill/habit. So now I am researching the hell out of preconception. I have the vitamins down, but I still worry about illness and genetics. Catching strep really made me nervous so all I can do to calm my nerves is read.

My newest book is called "Before Your Pregnancy". This will be the first actual book I'll have read that is about preconception. After looking through my kindle to try and relax my nerves I realized that I only had a pregnancy book which just had a small snip-it about preconception.

My other concern is my PMDD. While I did not plan on getting off of my BC this early I actually have now been off of it for one month now. We are not at the "whatever happens happens" phase yet because we haven't been to the doctor but it has already brought up some concerns. It's just the first month and already my PMDD has reared it's ugly head. My doctor mentioned before that there were other medications that we can try during preconception and that once pregnant that the hormones will level out and I will not need the medication during the pregnancy.

We have three weeks until the doctor appointment, so until then I'll just keep reading. Maybe ill stumble upon some PMDD research for maintaining symptoms.

My Office Progress

We have moved as forward on this office as we plan to for now. We bought two chairs, a side table, lamp, and two be beautiful vases. I finally hung up the paintings that have been waiting to be hung up for awhile. My next move was going to be reprinting but we decided to hold off until this summer when we try our hand at installing hardwood floors. We will be pulling up the carpet and trim so rather than have to paint again at that time we are just going to wait do it once.

Health wise the strep is gone! Yippie!

March!

Everything is on the up and up here!

I have my "game" on at work and have been on top of all everything as needed at work. This year is not even over yet and I'm already excited for next year. I will be piloting a writing curriculum that I've loved every since I found out about it during student teaching. The program is called Units of Study by Lucy Calkins, I loved it so much that I was able to talk the curriculum director into getting the program at my last school because I believe in it so much. Not only is it set up in an amazing order, but the writers wrote this book in a way that helps you break down writers workshop into skills. The skills build upon themselves and the curriculum is flexible enough that you can extend the lessons to last a multitude of days depending on your students needs. Truth be told we will not be using the full curriculum because technically the curriculum is for Kinder-2nd, but I want to bring the first half of it down to Pre-K because really our Pre-K students are doing what most schools consider to be kindergarten work. At the end of the year we'll take writing samples from this school year, and compare them to the pace of the class at the end of next school year to see if it is affective enough for our little ones. I'm just giddy about this!

On the home front things are going well. This week ended up being a major car week for us as Chris and I both had to get new tires. I hit a horrible pot hole that somehow blew out my tire. I am extremely grateful for Hyundai's roadside assurance as they quickly arrived to my location and towed my car to the nearest Hyundai lot for me. Their roadside assistance will cover my car for 5 years which gives me a peace of mind, especially given that the new Elantra does not come with a spare tire and the tire mobility kit did not work on my tire given the type of damage. As for Chris, he hit the same pot hole (before me) but he had to get two new tires due to the damage on one tire and the age of his tires as it was.

In other news I'm switching out the color of my office from purple to turquoise. I love my grey purple wall, but we saw some amazing pieces for the office that use turquoise as an accent and both fell in love. So next weekend we will spend the weekend repainting the room which we knew we needed to do anyways. This will also accomplish two goals, as we are trying to make the room guest, and nursery friendly despite it being an office right now.

That leads us right into where we are on the baby front. In exactly one month (also my birthday!) I'll go to the doctor for our pre-conception appointment. As long as the doctor gives the go ahead then we'll begin our adventure into possibly becoming parents. We're not going to actively be trying for a baby but we will not be preventing a baby. The reason being is that because I've been on BC due to extreme cramps since I was 16. That means I've been on BC for over 10+ years and while not true in every case, if you've been on BC for that long then it can take longer to conceive. To avoid any added stress we are going to let nature takes its course until the end of the summer when we actively start attempting for a baby. I don't know if that means I'll try charting or anything, but we'll see as time goes. My other possible reason is that if we get pregnant around the end of the summer and start of the school year, then the due date would fall in line with school ending for the summer.

So life is good :) No complaints at the moment ;)