For my fellow BabyWise mommies...

Here are a couple of blog articles I've read recently that I plan to utilize or have been so helpful for me to read. This first one is on not losing ground with your child(ren). Let me tell you how helpful and reassuring it has been for me to read. While I believe I've been a fairly good BabyWise (BW) follower, lately it seems as if the boys are regressing or staying stagnant in their development. They've been more clingly than usual and haven't been able to keep themselves preoccupied. For awhile, it felt like I couldn't leave their sides and needed to keep them preoccupied and entertained. Ummm...I can't do that with another on the way! This has been a HUGE source of anxiety for me lately. Anyway, I've been working on scheduling their awake time more and it has helped immensely. Then I read this article and I sighed a huge sigh of relief! It's about how from about 12-18 months, we should just try not to lose ground with the work we've done with our children. If we can make progress with our children-great! If not, we shouldn't worry about it as this is just an age to coast and not lose ground.

Here is the article

This next article is about dealing with the upcoming time change (Nov. 7 I think?). I've already been thinking about how it's going to affect the boys' schedule. She suggests starting a month early and moving your child's schedule back slowly.

Here is the time change article

My little piano players

The boys aren't allowed to go in Eric's parent's formal living room. One afternoon, however, they got a special treat and were allowed to play on mom's piano in the forbidden room. They loved it!

Little feet. Oh, how I love these little feet!

And here they are with their masterpieces! :)

Countdown

I just looked at the countdown on the blog; the baby is coming in 100 days. Oh my! It's coming fast!

I had an ultrasound this morning. Because I have placenta lakes (pools of blood in the placenta), they are monitoring the growth of the baby to make sure my placenta is still functioning well. I asked the perinatologist if I have the lakes because of the subchorionic hemmorhage I had early in the pregnancy. He said you never know why you get the lakes, but that it probably was related to the hemorrhage. The good thing was that there was no blood flow in the lakes which means that that's just what they are: pools are blood. So, the placenta is still working (yeah, placenta! keep up the good work!) and the baby is still growing.

For those who are in denial and keep thinking this baby is still going to sprout a penis, it's still a girl :). Baby "A" is in about the 50th percentile, so she's growing right on track.

Awhile ago, I put in my request for my c-section date for Monday, December 13th. It's coming up soon! We should probably figure out where this little girl is going to sleep. Maybe even get her a crib!

A fun day at the park

Eric and I took the boys to this really cool park that's close to the house awhile ago. We were so excited to find it. It has a splash park that we really wanted to take the boys to, but with just our luck, the splash park closed just two days before. Nevertheless, we had fun with the boys on the playground equipment and had a picnic.


Brandt likes to swing!

Carter likes it, too!

The boys are finally big enough to go on a slide (with some help). They liked it!

Will County Fair

A few weeks ago, we went to the Will County Fair. It was fun to show the boys all the farm animals and they even got their favorite thing to eat: corn on the cob!

The boys meeting goats for the first time

The boys thought the baby goats were so cool!

Eating corn on the cob. They were such a mess!

The life of a resident's wife...

I haven't posted much about Eric and his first year in his residency. I'm a bad wife. Actually, I haven't posted much about anything. I feel like I'm more busy living here in IL than in AZ. I was having a hard time figuring out why that was. I mean, I'm still taking care of boys all day, but I don't have near the social life as I did in AZ (oh, how I miss my AZ peeps). I was thinking that it was because of my pregnancy. I just seems like doing anything when you're pregnant is so much more difficult. I look at a floor and think, "Man, that's a dirty floor. I should really vacuum it." If I wasn't pregnant, it would have already been vacuumed and mopped!

That aside, I figured out that the majority of it is because my partner is gone. He is working all. the. time. He is an amazing father and I miss him. He's already in his third rotation (he has a new rotation every month). In his first, he did pediatrics at a children's hospital. He loved it. He was incredibly busy, but he loved it. He had a somewhat normal schedule (meaning, he came home at night) and was on-call every fourth night. When you're on-call, you stay at the hospital over night. This meant that he would work around 30 hours straight. He'd come home, sleep, and then go back the next day.

In his second rotation, he did emergency medicine. He really didn't like it (that's saying it nicely). He hated dealing with stupid people coming into the ER for stupid reasons. I don't blame him! With this schedule, he started at 1 in the afternoon and would work until 1 in the morning. This really conflicted with the rest of the family's schedule because the boys wake up at 7. Eric would sleep in late and then the boys would take a nap. Eric would only see them for about 30 minutes before he went back to work.

This month, he's doing internal medicine (IM) and so far, he has the stupidest schedule yet. He's at a podunk hospital just over the border in Indiana. During the week day, he does cardiology until 5 and if it's not Tuesday or Wednesday, he's on-call. This means that he's doing cardiology during the day and then does general IM all night long. This also means that he has to work every day. EVERY DAY. He's either on-call or post call (the term used for the day after you're on-call, even though you still have to work half the day) or it's Tuesday or Wednesday, where he just works a normal day. I think it's stupid.

This month, since he's going to be living at the hospital, I'm going to make it a point to go eat dinner with him. If he can't come home to me, I'll go to him!:)

Anyway, I miss him. It's probably worse because I'm in full nesting mode and am getting anxious about taking care of the boys plus the baby. I guess this is the life of a resident's wife. Hopefully someday I get my husband back. I'm so proud of Eric and all of his hard work and I can't wait for this year of his residency to be over!

Fases' 50th Wedding Anniversary

Last weekend, we all traveled up to the U.P. (upper peninsula of Michigan for those of you who aren't in the know of the lingo:) ) for Eric's grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary party. We had a wonderful time getting away for a few days. The boys had a fantastic time experiencing a bunch of "firsts."


Eric had to work last Thursday and got home at 1:30 in the morning. Instead of going to bed for a couple of hours, we decided to leave when he got home. It was the best decision! It's a 7-8 hour drive and the boys slept most of the way. By the time we got there, the rest of the family who was already up there was just finishing breakfast.

Here the boys are in the cabin. They loved the rocking horse and little rocking chair.

The boys got tons of lawn mower rides. Here, they were still getting ready for the big party but saw Grandpa and coerced him to give them a ride (hence the lack of pants).

Eric's dad partying it up a little too much (he he!). There was a wardrobe change shortly after this picture was taken :).

Brandt hanging out with his second cousin, Carson.

A picture of all four generations of Fases.

Grandma and Granpa Fase at their party. Isn't this picture too cute!

A family pic with the happy couple.

The boys drinking gatorade like big boys.

The next day after the party, we all went to church with Grandma and Grandpa in Gladstone, MI. There is a wonderful park on the beach we took the boys to after the service. It was the boys' first beach experience. Carter sat in the water the whole time. He loved it! Brandt, on the other hand, would walk down to the water and immediately turn around and walk back up the beach. He continued to repeat this until he finally touched the water. By the time we were ready to leave, he was finally having fun and splashing the water.

We had such a great time in Michigan. It was so much fun to experience everything with the boys. Hope we can go back up soon!