Pregnancy Update – 6 weeks

Wow what a crazy, stressful week it’s been. I haven’t shared the details here previously, and I won’t get too deep into it now, but I have a history of recurrent miscarriage. I had 5 miscarriages before I found out I was expect Joey in August of 2007. I was never given a reason why. It was a devastating time for me, when I wanted another child so badly. So I did the only thing I knew to do – I prayed. I prayed like crazy and went to the altar for prayer at church whenever I got the chance. I just knew that God wanted to bless us with another child, and in His time, it would happen.

When I found out I was expecting that August, I immediately called dozens of ObGyns. I told them all my long, heartbreaking story, hoping one of them would say something, anything to give me a glimmer of hope. That’s when I found the awesome Drs and nurses at Caring for WOmen’s Health. They agreed it was imperative that I come in right away to see what could be done to make sure I did not experience another loss.

Long story short, I ended up seeing an awesome CNM and she and her fellow physicians treated me for several possibilities. I was immediately started on once daily progesterone supplements, baby asprin, and twice daily injections of Heparin. Something in that medical cocktail did the trick, because 9 months later, I was holding a beautifully healthy baby boy in my arms.

When I found out I was expecting again a few weeks ago, I immediately called my previous CNM, only to learn that she and the NP had left the practice and joined another. So I called and made an appointment. I will get to go in for my first pre-natal visit tomorrow afternoon.

But this past Saturday, a terrible thing happened. I started spotting. I took it easy for a couple of days, and when it seemed to have stopped, i resumed my usual activities. At the end of the day, I was horrified to have gone to the restroom and see more bright red blood than I had seen several days before. The next morning, i called the dr’s office and spoke to the nurse, She told me to immediately call my midwife and tell her what was going on, so I did.

The poor lady, I ended up talking to her 4 different times throughout the day. She thought it would be a good idea to call in a prescription for the hormones I needed and get started on them right away. At one point, my bleeding got heavier and I was almost ready to go to the ER. Then it tapered off again. Since I wasn’t in any pain, and the bleeding wasn’t heavy (like my previous miscarriages), I decided to rest at home and wait it out.

Today I decided I couldn’t wait any longer. I was in bed for almost 24 hours, with an occasional trip to the kitchen or the restroom. The bleeding wasn’t stopping or slowing down. We called a friend to come stay with the kids and off to the ER we went. It was NOT the place I wanted to be, but I had to have some answers.

After spending 3 hours in the ER, and receiving the warmest, most professional care I have ever had from an Emergency room, I have my answers!

The bleeding is not being cause by an impending miscarriage. In fact, the baby is doing quite well, we even got to see it’s little heart fluttering away on the ultrasound screen! However, they did find the source of the bleeding – I have a small subchorionic hemorrhage. This is basically a blood clot that has formed between the uterine wall and the placenta. It can be dangerous, but 90% of all pregnancies with this condition go on to deliver healthy babies.

I am anxious to talk with my midwife tomorrow and find out if I will have to decrease my activities, or be on bedrest, until the hemorrhage resolves on it’s own. But for now, it feels so good to know that my little blessing is alive and well and that there is an explanation for the bleeding I am having.

I will make sure to keep posting updates as I learn more, but for now, I thought you may enjoy seeing baby #5 for the first time ever!

The arrow is pointing to where the little heart was beating!

 

The other bit of news is pretty shocking – there was a second sac found by the us tech, although at this time, there doesn’t appear to be anything inside. That may or may not change as things progress and the baby(s) have more time to grow and develop. I am too shocked and overwhelmed right now to even share with you how I am feeling about this possibillity, but I am very happy to know that I have at least one healthy lil embryo floating around!

Blessings,

Happy Father’s Day to my husband…

My husband is an all around great guy, and not many people dislike him. But around here, we are pretty fond of him. Why you ask?

• He is always up for a round of roughhousing with the big boys, or playing cars with the lil man,
• He works very hard, and goes to a job he doesn’t enjoy and pays very little, just to take care of us,
• He always tells us he loves us,
• He gives great hugs,
• He’s great at changing diapers, brushing little teeth, and clipping little nails and never complains about doing any of it,
• He takes the time to talk to our children and teaches them why right is right and wrong is wrong,
• He loves Jesus,
• He vacuums, cooks, and dusts when I just don’t have the motivation,
• He enjoys opportunities to teach our children life skills and pass on his wisdom to them,
• He loves us an awful lot,
• He puts our needs above his own,
• He always makes us laugh,
• He plays video games with us,
• He reads the stories we write and looks at the pictures we draw and tells us, “Good job!”
• He is just as comfortable with a newborn baby as he is a 10 or 13 year old,

• He enjoys spending time with us,
• He can fix just about anything,
• The list goes on!

We are so very lucky to have him in our lives and want to wish him a very Happy Father’s Day! Later on, the kids and I will be cleaning the van inside and out for him, and I am planning on making him a coconut cream pie for dessert. I wish we could do more but I know he will be pleased nonetheless!

Hoping you and yours a wonderful Father’s Day!

Why Classical Education?

Being a curriculum junkie and always looking for the next best thing means we have tried lots of different ways to homeschool. When we started out in our journey, I didn’t know anything was out there besides textbooks. Our first few years were filled with textbooks and lifepacks. But man were we bored! Over the years, being the researcher I am, I have learned that there are sooo many more options out there for homeschool families, and I have tried many of them,. But a few years ago, I heard about a book called “The Well-Trained Mind” and went to my local bookstore to purchase it.

TWTM (as it is affectionately called by die-hard fans) opened up a whole new world for me and my children. Through it’s pages, I learned how we can use non-fiction, living books instead of a boring, dry textbook to make learning more interesting and engaging. But more than that, I learned how to do this without neglecting important topics, eliminating the possibility of those much dreaded learning gaps. TWTM not only defines exactly what a classical education looks like, but lays out grade-by-grade, subject-by-subject HOW to cover all the needed material for a complete, rigorous home education!

By using the Trivium, I have gained more insights into how my children learn at different stages of their development and how to encourage and challenge them each and every day. I have learned how to eliminate the needless busywork and incorporate methods that make every teaching moment valuable. I have discovered ways that turn dry facts into adventures my boys can’t wait to begin! Not to mention we have added some wonderful projects and books to our repertoire.

I find it important to note at this time that I do NOT follow the recommendations in TWTM word for word. I do not feel the need to do everything suggested, rather, I use it as a resource to guide my curriculum choices and chosen topics of study. For instance, I combine the suggestions in TWTM with Tapestry of Grace’s curriculum. Especially in the grammar stage, TOG is a huge help by laying everything out for you. I find as my kids get older, I take more from TWTM’s suggestions and mesh it together with what we are doing in TOG. So far, this is working out beautifully and we are really enjoying all of the books, projects, and discussions that have resulted.

In certain subject areas, I have strayed at times very far away from the suggestions in TWTM. Some of these ventures have worked out just fine. But in other areas, I continually find myself cracking open the book again to re-evaluate, and many times going back alongside it’s suggestions and methods.

Many people, especially new homeschoolers, think a classical education requires a parent to have been college educated, or at the very least to have read many of the books from TWTM’s Great Books List. And while it is true that having experienced some of these great works yourself will give you an advantage in discussing them with your own child, there are many resources out there that will help you do this without having read the entire work on your own (TWTM talks about this very topic in-depth). The truth of the matter is simply that any parent who is willing to do their homework can give their child the awesome gift of a classical education at home!

I am aware that there are many books out there that claim to provide the same guidance for parents, and I have not read them. Nevertheless, TWTM so thoroughly covers every aspect of a classical home education that I have never felt the need to read these other books. It just works for us! In addition to the wealth of information and guidance found within the pages of TWTM, there is a blog (written by Susan Wise Bauer herself) and a forum available for those who desire a bit more. You can also find a wealth of information by visiting Peace Hill Press’s YouTube channel and watching some of the very informative videos listed there.

Please do not misunderstand, I am not writing this in order to try and convince you that a classical education is superior or even that you should run out and buy this book. My purpose is merely to introduce the concept and encourage those considering homeschooling classically that YOU CAN DO IT! And whether you find your confidence to do so through reading TWTM or another source, you will be so glad you took the time to do so!

Blessings,

BIG Announcements!

Almost a month has passed by since I last blogged and there has been a lot to talk about – but I sadly have just not had the time! My days have been filled with

• three extra children in my home M-F for 8 hours a day
• appointments, paperwork, and phone calls
• spending time with my hubby and children
• schoolwork
• housecleaning (or maybe the way it’s been going we should call it damage control)
• laundry
• watching the past seasons of Army Wives online (I recently found out about this show and LOVE it)
• enjoying the warm, sunny weather

At first read, this may not seem like so much that I am too busy to blog, but let me share a bit more with you…

I have two big announcements to share with you. Both are extremely life changing and exciting (and maybe a little scary).

Announcement #1 – My husband is joining the Army!

Are you surprised? This is something that has been in the works for a few months now. We decided that he should go ahead and pursue this dream about 3 or 4 months ago. For a long time I was completely opposed to the idea. I didn’t sign up to be a military wife. There is no way I could ever be strong enough to handle the separation, the worrying, the stress. But after talking about it a LOT for several weeks, and praying, we decided that the military life would be an awesome opportunity for all of us. My husband has always wanted to enlist. He took the asvab when he was 18, but missed the cutoff by a few measly points. Then he had his first child and life took over. But it is something that has always been in the back of his mind. Now is the perfect time (well, almost, but we will get to that in a minute) to make this change. We are struggling financially. We have no retirement or savings. We have no idea how we will pay for the kids to go to college someday. We haven’t had insurance for well over a year now. Life as it now stands has gotten to be pretty frustrating. We need a change. We need the means to provide a better life for our children. We need a little excitement and a change of surroundings.

So we are jumping right in! My husband passed his asvab, passed his physical, and next week signs his initial enlistment contract. Then we will be official. Then it’s time to countdown. He will have 9-10 weeks of basic training to complete, and after graduation, he will then have 6-8 weeks of AIT training for his “job”. It’s actually really great, because through a program called the Army Civilian Acquired Skills Program, he will get to use his experience as a truck driver in the Army. He also gets to start out, not at the bottom rank as most recruits do, but as an E4 (specialist). This means a higher pay grade, and a little more rank to help us through relocating, etc.

Yeah, I said relocating. After hubby finishes his 4 months of training, he will receive orders and be assigned a post to report to. This means that we will all pick up and move somewhere new and exciting! We could end up anywhere in the US that houses an Army post, or even overseas! The best part is, the Army will pay all of our moving costs AND pay each member of our family mileage to move. We could never do something like this on our own and we can’t wait to see where we end up!

Announcement #2 – We are expecting baby #5!!!

I don’t even know what to tell you about this, lol. We are firm believers in allowing God to decide how many children we will have and when we have them. We knew we definitely wanted to have another one, we just weren’t expecting it to happen right NOW. Apparently, God has other plans! I am about 4 weeks pregnant, and although that seems really early to be announcing it to the world, I just can’t help it. I am really excited, and a little scared. I am going to be alone during a big part of this pregnancy, not to mention I will likely be moving my family to another state and starting a new life. But I know the God will never give me more than I can handle, and He must have a lot of faith in me! I go to the Dr. this coming Tuesday, so I can get started on the meds I need to sustain this pregnancy. For those that don’t know my history, I had 6 miscarriages between my 2 pregnancies, and with my now 2yo son, I was on several medications to prevent the same from happening again. I have a Luteal Phase Defect which cause me to miscarry the embryo instead of it implanting properly. To treat this, my previous Dr. prescribed a progesterone supplement and I had no problems sustaining the pregnancy.

The bad part of this is that I have NO choice but to go to the Dr., and we have NO insurance coverage. For this reason, we are in a bit of a hurry to get hubby off to basic and start our benefits as soon as possible. For now, family is paying for my initial visit to the Dr. and thank GOD I have them there to do so! I would be a mess otherwise worrying about this pregnancy.

In light of all this, would you please keep our family in your prayers? There is so much going on right now, some days can be pretty overwhelming! I will do my best to keep you updated on both the pregnancy and the Army process. I hope you are having an awesome summer!

Blessings,