6 Months

Here is the belly at 24 weeks (6 months)! I was at my parent's house when this picture was taken.

My next appointment is in about 3 weeks, and I'll have to do another glucose screening, to test for gestational diabetes. The following appointment, I will be 7 months along, and then I start going every two weeks! After the 8 month mark, I start going every week-holy cow!

Here is what BabyCenter.com says about Avery's development this week:

Your baby's growing steadily, having gained about 4 ounces since last week. That puts him at just over a pound. Since he's almost a foot long (picture an ear of corn), he cuts a pretty lean figure at this point, but his body is filling out proportionally and he'll soon start to plump up. His brain is also growing quickly now, and his taste buds are continuing to develop. His lungs are developing "branches" of the respiratory "tree" as well as cells that produce surfactant, a substance that will help his air sacs inflate once he hits the outside world. His skin is still thin and translucent, but that will start to change soon.

NY Whirlwind Trip

John and I just got back from going to NY for a few days. I was there about a week, and John was there a little less.

It was a whirlwind trip: best friend's bridal shower, John's parents 30th wedding anniversary party, and my baby shower!

It was an amazing time spent with family and friends that we don't get to see very often. Everyone showered us with love, prayers, gifts, and affection...Avery is a blessed little girl!

Here are some pictures from Sunday at my baby shower.

John and I at the baby shower

My two girlfriends Jen and FriedaThe two hostesses: my sister and my mom

John and I with his mom
My two girlfriends from elementary/middle school: Jenn and Wendy

23 Weeks

Here is what BabyCenter.com says about her development this week:


Turn on the radio and sway to the music. With her sense of movement well developed by now, your baby can feel you dance. And now that she's more than 11 inches long and weighs just over a pound (about as much as a large mango), you may be able to see her squirm underneath your clothes. Blood vessels in her lungs are developing to prepare for breathing, and the sounds that your baby's increasingly keen ears pick up are preparing her for entry into the outside world. Loud noises that become familiar now — such as your dog barking or the roar of the vacuum cleaner — probably won't faze her when she hears them outside the womb.

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On Monday I had my 6 month appointment, and everything went great! Her heartbeat was strong, and my doctor did an ultrasound for me, which wa super nice of her! It wasn't a detailed ultrasound, just a quickie so I could take a current picture of Avery to NY for my baby shower in a few days. I'm excited for share the pregnancy with my long-distance family, and friends who haven't seen me much, or at all, during the pregnacy. I'll post pictures from the shower when John and I get back home to VA.

Bye Bye Palmer

Like I wrote in the last post, I ended an amazing school year yesterday!

We had to report to school at 8am, and we were given time to work in our classrooms to clean up, pack up, and finish paperwork if needed. We had a luncheon at noon that we went to in downtown Hampton at the marina.

It was really hard for me to say goodbye to such wonderful people who have been so supportive of me throughout the school year. The luncheon was spent enjoying yummy food, giving out awards, recognizing people who are retiring, moving, or being transferred, and then saying good-bye.

Me with Alice and Sandy (the 4th Grade Collaborative Teachers)

Me with Ms. Brown, Palmer's Principal

3rd Grade Team (minus Jacqueline who left early)

Myself and two of the 4th Grade Teachers

The End

Another school year has come to an end, and I'm left wondering where time went!

This was an awesome school year, and I ended it the best way I knew how- a kickball tournament against a few classes in the grade level, and a BBQ the last day of school with a 4th grade class.

On Thursday (yesterday), we went outside around 11:00, and stayed out until about 1:45! The day was filled with hot dogs, watermelon, cookies, juice, chips, and Popsicles, kickball, free recess time, and good ol' tag! The students had a great time, and I enjoyed sitting back with a few fellow teachers watching the kids.

After walking my students to the bus for the last time, the whole staff lined up on the sidewalk and waved goodbye as the buses drove away. This always makes me tear up, and this year was no different! Watching the kids leave with huge smiles on their faces, and hands waving out the bus windows made me feel so blessed to be a teacher.

Not many people get to experience what it feels like to impact students. Not many people get to work with 20 (more or less) kids for 9 months on big, little, and in between skills that grow them in various areas of their lives. And not many people get to wave goodbye, knowing they're saying farewell to completely different kids than you said hello to in September.

I am so blessed.

5 1/2 Week Belly

Here I am at 22 weeks (5 1/2 months)! This is what BabyCenter.com has to say about her development:

At 11 inches (the length of a spaghetti squash) and almost 1 pound, your baby is starting to look like a miniature newborn. His lips, eyelids, and eyebrows are becoming more distinct, and he's even developing tiny tooth buds beneath his gums. His eyes have formed, but his irises (the colored part of the eye) still lack pigment. If you could see inside your womb, you'd be able to spot the fine hair (lanugo) that covers his body and the deep wrinkles on his skin, which he'll sport until he adds a padding of fat to fill them in. Inside his belly, his pancreas — essential for the production of some important hormones — is developing steadily.

Avery's dance party

I tried forever yesterday to upload this video to the blog, so I'm going to try this instead- a link to Facebook. Hopefully you can view it this way.

Avery moves all the time, but her favorite times to move are in the morning, and in the evenings (when I'm least busy)! I love the weekends, clearly, and one reason is because I can lay in bed as long as I'd like and feel (and WATCH) her move! Sometimes she's shy, and won't move when I put John's hand on my belly, which can get a little frustrating...'I promise she just moved!!'

This morning she was extra shy when I tried to video tape her. She was allllll over the place, and the second I pushed the record button, she'd stop.

Well, after a few minutes, I was able to get her on video. So neat!

Bittersweet

Today is the last Friday of school year. Can you believe it??

The kids get out early next Thursday, which makes today the last Friday of the school year!

I cannot get over this! It seriously feels like just yesterday that I interviewed, and accepted a job in Newport News Public Schools!

Teachers are always ecstatic when the end of the year is near: no kids, waking up without an alarm, no grading, lesson plans, and the list goes on.

This has probably been one of the best years I've had as a teacher! I feel like I've grown a lot professionally, learned a lot about myself, and have had a positive impact on students.

With all of that said, I am so sad that this school year is coming to an end. And not returning in the fall will be weird (since I'm having Avery soon after the school year begins). Teaching is such a big part of my life, and not doing something I'm comfortable with, and familiar with will be so strange!

Please don't get me wrong, I am soooooooooooooo excited to meet Avery, and cannot wait to change careers from teacher to full-time Mom!

Bittersweet...

SHOWERed with Love

Today was a great day! A day I've been looking forward to for years, and thought about, prayed about, and anticipated for years- my baby shower! My grade level threw me and Avery a school-wide baby shower, and it was wonderful!

People were so generous, and we got great gifts! What made it even better was that John was able to be there for most of it, and it was really special sharing the event with him! Opening each pink gift after the other was a little overwhelming at first, but I got the hang of it...no problem!

Daddy Tool Box

Her cake

Ummmm, please let's not report on how big the belly has grown!

Our wreath-o-goodies!

Random baby 'stuff'

She's a moving, and groovin' little girl!









The power of the registry gun!

Ice pops, bubbles, and white cheddar popcorn...

These are the simple pleasures in life, aren't they? All incredibly inexpensive items, and all things that our 3rd graders went NUTS over on last Friday! Our grade level threw an End of SOL Celebration for our sweet 3rd graders.

SOLs (Standards of Learning) are the standardized tests students take in the state of Virginia grade 3-12. You'd think that since third grade is the first year they take these scary tests they'd go easy on them...nope! They take a test in every subject area, and let me tell you...it's rough! We spend months preparing them for these tests, and prepping them for what to expect. Our testing schedule was a little screwy this year, and it was stretched over a two week time frame. These tests lasted f-o-r-e-v-e-r! Everyone in the school was dying for them to be over!

We took the kids to the field next to the playground on Friday, the last day of testing, and rewarded them for a job well done with ice pops, bubbles, and white cheddar popcorn. You would have thought we gave them a million bucks! THEY LOVED IT! With the help of our Principal, Assistant Principal, Testing/Data Coordinator, and Reading Interventionist, we passed out about 130 ice pops, 130 bottles of bubbles, and 130 bags of Smartfood white cheddar popcorn.

The kids played with the bubbles in the hot sun, and enjoyed their treats for about 40 minutes. The whole grade level was able to mingle with each other, and the focus was on celebrating being DONE. It was so cool to see how much fun they had with such a simple concept. No pizza party. No movie. No ice cream party. We were kind of expecting them to be 'over it' pretty quickly, but they weren't!

Like I said- they loved every second of it!