2012 was quite the challenge for me and my little family, but we made it through!
There were some really neat things that happened, and some really frustrating things that happened, some sad, and some very happy (SEVERAL weddings!) so I would say that 2012 ended in the black...ish. :) Trying to be positive!
2013 is starting off much better than 2012 did (I think) and these are the things I am looking forward to so far:
The birth of our 3rd child! (Don't know gender - keeping it a surprise since we have one of each!)
My first younger sibling getting married! (Yay Ammon and Cambrai!)
Pike Family Reunion in July
Rebekah starts Kindergarten!
Additionally, we officially have two Bachelors degrees in the house, and Daryn is looking into getting a second Bachelors. I asked him to hold off starting classes until after the baby arrives, as this pregnancy has taken a toll on me.
I'm truly amazed at HOW different every pregnancy can be. While I've always heard that every pregnancy is different, I usually subscribed to the general idea that boy pregnancies go similarly and girl pregnancies go similarly - I'd heard enough women say essentially that. But each of mine have been quite unique - and there are certainly a number of reasons for that.
With Rebekah I threw-up nearly every day, right after breakfast, and felt nauseous if I didn't eat every 2 hours. But it was very easily managed, and just became part of my routine. "uh-oh, feeling sick! Must be 2 hours since I ate? Yep." *eat a granola bar, or applesauce or string cheese and go on my way* Also, I was a full time student, walking all over a large university campus and keeping crazy hours to keep up with my homework and still spend time with my full time student husband. I still feel like Rebekah's pregnancy was SO PERFECT. I was sick enough to know that my body's hormones were working correctly, but not sick enough that it kept me from doing anything I wanted to do, except maybe enjoy chocolate and a few other foods.
Josiah's pregnancy was just crazy. I was working full time as a high school math teacher and staying up to ridiculous hours trying to keep up with grading and lesson planning etc and still spend time with my daughter (who I felt I was neglecting - working mommy guilt SUCKS) and my husband who was unemployed. Many times I enlisted him to come to my office at school and do the grading that I'd usually pass off to a TA - if I'd had one. You know, the "mark it if it differs from the answer key" stuff. Anyway, I felt nauseous all the time, but eating didn't help me feel better, and I rarely vomited. In fact, there were many days I WISH I could have just puked and been done with the feeling. There was a lot more stress that pregnancy than with Rebekah's - being a first year teacher is no joke. Other than the nausea, though, most of my problems were work related, not pregnancy related. (Though, needing sleep did make getting work done more difficult. Thank goodness for my loving husband and his help!)
This little baby has taken a road far different from his or her older siblings. For starters, I'm a SAHM, and so my duties are quite different than they ever were for my past 2 pregnancies. Add that to the fact that I was barely getting used to being a SAHM to 2 children when I got pregnant and it's not a very pretty picture. Daryn has always been the cook in our home, and taking over that responsibility has been tremendously difficult for me. For some people, that's easy, but I'd much rather be writing lesson plans - and honestly, I don't enjoy writing lesson plans. Also, this pregnancy I haven't thrown up much at all - less than Rebekah's, but more than Josiah's - and my nausea is more like Josiah's in that eating doesn't help it and I can't just puke to get it over with, but different because it's not nearly as ever-present as it was with Josiah's. Physically, I've noticed more aches and pains, but I am more physical now than I was during Josiah's pregnancy, and possibly even Rebekah's (even though I walked all over campus, I didn't push 100 lbs of children and stroller while I did it, but this last year I went walking with the kids in a double stroller quite a bit)! In fact, one night my hip slipped out from under me and while I did not dislocate it, I felt as if that's what happened. It was from my ligaments being much looser - a side effect of multiple pregnancies. It took me nearly a month to recover from that, so I haven't been walking in the last couple months, but it was fun while it lasted. Despite all that, the biggest challenge this pregnancy has been mentally and emotionally. It's not something I'm interested in going into detail on here, but suffice it to say that I've only struggled emotionally that badly once before in my life, and it was at a time where I did not have anyone to care for except myself, so trying to work through emotional difficulties while still performing all my wifely and motherly duties was quite challenging, and there was a good portion of the time I failed. I am so thankful for loving friends and family - my husband and parents especially - who have helped me through all this craziness! I'm quite ready for it to end (though, the third trimester things improved a bit) even if I'm not actually ready for a baby to arrive!
Frankly, I'm terrified of having 3 children at home. It was probably the final nail in the coffin that was my thoughts of homeschooling Rebekah. I struggle to teach her things now, and usually give her one-on-one time only when Josiah is napping (if I am not also napping), so to try and coordinate the naps of 2 little ones and then get everything done that I'd want to do every day for Rebekah - it simply wouldn't be fair to her. She is such a bright girl, and I feel she will greatly enjoy going to school and meeting new friends. But even with Rebekah going to Kindergarten, I have 6 months of 3 children 4 and under to survive. I'll let you know how that goes.
We have several things to finish before I have this baby, so I'm hoping I can manage to knock them off the list this next week. Daryn is building bunk beds for the kids, and that will require a reorganization of their bedroom. I still need to pack up my Christmas things, and I'd like to deep clean a few more areas of the house before baby arrives. I had a baby shower just over a week ago and got a great head start on diapers and wipes, as well as a few other things that didn't survive my other children (yay new digital thermometer!) and I'm grateful to all who participated in that event. I love just seeing all my friends and family and having time to talk with them - it always makes me wish I was closer to everyone up in Phoenix, but I am also grateful for the few, close friends I have here in Tucson, and missing my Phoenix friends and family makes me even happier to have at least a few people down here whom I can rely on. I'm happy that Daryn finally feels like he's found some close friends, too - though it makes his willingness to move wane!
Eventually, we'd like to get a bigger place, but the benefit of having such a low rent and such a great landlord is keeping us put for now. (Hence the bunk beds.) The children are small enough that we'll endure here as long as we can, in hopes of diminishing our debt quite a bit further before picking up the largest debt we'll ever have - a mortgage. (That better be our largest debt!) I don't think our tax return will be as big as it was last year, so we probably won't be able to get rid of another debt fully this year, but I plan to take a bite out of it!
At church, Daryn is working with the 12-16 year old boys, and I teach the 18 month- 3 year old children. Both these assignments have come with some interesting challenges, but I feel that things are going well. I'll take a little bit of time off when I have the baby, but will resume rotation teaching with a few other women that have the same assignment as me. Josiah is in my classroom, and he is only okay with being left with ONE other woman, so I hope he does okay when I stop coming to class every Sunday! It will be quite the adjustment. Probably as difficult as getting him to stop coming to our bed will be, once the new baby is here and in "his" spot - I didn't have that problem with Rebekah and Josiah because they are a year further apart!
Another adjustment - every January, the program for the children at church changes. They graduate from one class and move on to the next. Rebekah was sick last week and missed this change. Sometimes they move the teachers up with the class, and sometimes they don't, so I made sure to have a talk with her this morning about how she might have a new teacher, and how that's okay etc. We talked about other teachers she's had in the past, and how she can still see them at church and say "hi" but it's fun to learn from a new person. So we get to church, and I see her name on a door of her new class, and she had the same teachers! I was relieved and left her at the door to her new class with Daryn and went in to the nursery to set up for my kids, but just a minute later Daryn brings Rebekah in to me and she is SOBBING with tears streaming down her cheeks!
What was wrong?
Her classroom was different.
Yeah, that's right.
She was upset because she was going to a different ROOM in the building.
It didn't take too long to calm her down and remind her how happy she should be that she still gets her beloved Brother and Sister Morse (the young newlyweds who've taught her class the last several months) and all her friends are in her class, too. But Wow. Daryn says it's my fault - she's my daughter. He's absolutely right. I'm just SO glad that we at least talked about changing teachers - can you imagine how much harder that would have been if she had a new room, AND a new teacher? Oh man. Poor girl. I'm gonna need to talk up Kindergarten ALLLL summer. And then some!
I always feel bad for writing so much when I actually DO write - and I hardly even covered what's been going on these last few months. But it is what it is. If you don't know me well enough to know that this is how I roll, well, I don't know why you're here then.
You'll probably hear from me next when I have pictures of the baby to post. I have quite a few other picture uploads to take care of, but it's definitely not much of a priority right now.
All in good time. Hope your families are doing well! Happy New Year.
