It's Just a Little Cold

It's just a little cold. no biggie, right?
Last week, starting about Tuesday night, I started feeling just a bit under the weather. Nothing serious that a good night's sleep couldn't fix. But I'm student teaching and hopelessly devoted to being the best student teacher i can be-- so I stayed up late working on lesson plans.

Wednesday came. I began a bad cough, so Brad insisted I go to the doctor. Dr says it's just a minor respiratory virus that kids have been getting but that adults can usually shake off pretty easy. I may just feel yucky a little while because I'm pregnant, and have asthma, and Utah has the worst air quality in the country. I was home by 3pm when Brad practically had to force me to eat lunch, then fell asleep until 8pm. I even skipped Brad's last hockey game of the season! I was back asleep by 10:30pm. All lesson planning was thrown out the window and I picked some movies for the kids to watch at school the next day. I at least put thought into what movies I would show; none of that watching Aladin in US Gov!

Thursday came with a vengence. I was coughing and exhausted, but went to school anyway because it was a short day and I figured I could make it till 12:30pm. US Gov watched "A More Perfect Union," Psychology watched "A Beautiful Mind," and my revolutions class started reading "The Communist Manifesto." After getting home, I promptly fell asleep until 8-ish. I woke up with some energy, so I spent an hour washing dishes that I had neglected the past couple of days, then collapsed on the floor of the kitchen in tears, realizing that I hadn't eaten since 8:30am. I was starving my poor, unborn baby. I am a horrible mother to a child that isn't even born yet! Gotta love those pregnancy hormones! And I couldn't even think of something I wanted to eat or had the energy to cook. Brad got home from class about 10:45pm, found his emotionally wrecked wife, and took me out to get hamburgers. I promptly collapsed into bed by 12:30am.

Friday morning, I woke up miserable, coughing, tired, and having difficulty breathing. But I still got ready for school. When I woke up Brad to take me to class, he refused to let me go. Instead, he calls the school director and my mentor teacher and tells them I'm too sick to go in. He agrees to take in the movies, but I have to stay home. I fight about it until the last second, insisting I could still go and just show movies like I did Thursday, but that ends when I have an asthma attack, start coughing uncontrollably, and can't breath. I go back to bed and wake up at 10-ish; Brad called his aunt June and she calls in a bunch of prescriptions for me-- a new inhaler, an asthma controller, cough syrup, and a short round of antibiotics (just in case); and Brad drives to Park City to borrow a humidifier from her to help me breath easier. While he's gone, I go back to sleep on the couch-- dozing in and out of consciousness for the rest of the day while watching "The 10th Kingdom."

Saturday and Sunday was much the same thing-- lots of sleep, except Sunday I stayed up til 12:30am because I realized that I have classes again in the morning and haven't planned ANYTHING! This Monday morning, I wake up after a horrible night's sleep and again, can't stop coughing. But I somehow convince Brad that my coughing isn't as bad as last week and I can do it. He drives me to school, but insists that he walk me inside-- I still can't stop coughing and I'm about to fall asleep while walking up the stairs to my classes. My mentor and the school director tell me to leave my lesson plans with them and they'll find someone to cover my classes for the day. When I get back home, I sleep from 9am-2pm. Brad makes me lunch, and now I'm sitting here, still coughing, planning more lessons and hoping I can get back to teaching tomorrow.

Parent-teacher conferences are this week-- gotta get ready! Just a little cold can be a big deal.

On Teaching and Being Preggers

So, I'm fully in the midst of student teaching, and beginning my third trimester of being pregnant. What a roller coaster I am on! Those in the teaching world have called my situation "baptism by fire"-- I started teaching my very own classes on day 1 of student teaching. Somethings have gone really well-- somethings that I thought would be problems aren't which makes me really happy. But on the flip side, there are things happening that I never would have imagined.

I stay up till midnight planning and wake up at 5:30am to do some more planning before classes start at 8:30am. I have 1st period US Government, 2nd period Financial Literacy (co-taught with my mentor teacher), 3rd period US Government, 4th period Psychology, 5th period revolutions through History, and prep period during 6th and 7th (for now anyway. I'll prolly be teaching another section of US gov next term). It's a full day. And being pregnant complicates matters-- like the fact that I need to eat small snacks throughout the day, but don't have time. Yesterday, I didn't bring any extra snacks other than my lunch-- and after school I had a student teacher meeting. No extra food, no time to pick something up, and no refreshments at the meeting. Needless to say, I was terribly nauseous by 5pm and the meeting didn't get out till close to 6pm. Driving home, I almost passed out, but luckily a friend called me and kept me conscious for the drive home until I could grab the quickest and easiest thing to eat. After picking up my dear husband from class at 8:15pm, I went home and quickly fell asleep. I didn't get any planning done for my classes the next day, so I woke up at 5am to prep for all of my classes.

NOTE: planning 3 lessons in 3 hours for 3 different classes is a recipe for disaster. Luckily, my BYU professor came to visit me yesterday so I didn't need to be on my best for her review-- but still, my kids deserve better. This weekend is all about planning the best lessons ever. For my kids, and also for my Teacher Work Sample.

I have also started knocking things over with my ever expanding baby belly. Wish me luck!

Drum Roll Please!

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A GIRL!!!!!!!

"I Like to Move It, Move It!"

The beloved song of king Julian from Madagascar is now baby Neeley's theme song. I had my 16 weeks appointment on Monday and the nurse couldn't find baby's heartbeat because baby was moving too much and hiding. BUT-- we could hear non-stop baby kicking noises...

Our little baby likes to move it, movie it!

Our Healthy and Busy Baby

This weekend was pretty stressful for me. Brad and I had a terrifying scares this weekend about baby, so we had an appointment on monday to make sure everything was ok. They checked for the heartbeat and the midwife found it no problem! it was beating at 150 bpm (alot slower than the last couple times... 179, 170, 165) and we could even hear him/her kicking away and having fun doing whatever babies do in the womb. But my midwife sent me to get an ultrasound just to make sure eveything was ok.
Baby is doing fantastic and our fears were for naught. Guess brad and I are just super-worried first time parents. Baby measured in at an even 50th%ile for his/her age really likes to move. Since I was 15 weeks, I asked the ultrasu0nd tech if they could tell if it was a boy or girl yet and they said they could try to check, but usually they can't tell until at least 17 weeks. Baby finally stopped moving long enough for them to get a clear image, but he or she was bashful and had his/her legs crossed. We moved it around a bit, and then we get a nice big baby foot where baby seemed to be kicking the ultrasound telling it to, "go away! stop trying to look at me while I'm not decent!."

Result: the two ultrsound techs couldn't tell, so we're gonna have to be patient and wait a few more weeks before we know if baby is a he or she. what's you're vote?

Thump...Thump...Thump

We got to hear little Baby Neeley's heartbeat on Monday last week!!! It was really fast, 165 beats per minute, and sounded like marching/drumming. Little Baby is getting big and strong as Marie begins week 13 of pregnancy, also the beginning of the second trimester! I've been told that's the best time in pregnancy and am defiantly looking forward to not feeling sick!

Family has been asking for pictures of a pregnant belly, but they don't exist yet. Brad and I will take a picture and see if anyone can see the beginnings of a baby bump? Brad says he can, but I just feel fat. Thanks little baby!Marie at 5 weeks 6days preggers (soon after we found out, we took a "beginning of pregnancy" photo for future comparison). I was always so proud of my flat tummy...


Marie is 13 weeks and 1 day preggers here. Look like a baby bump, or a fat lady attempting to look like she has a baby bump?

Baby Blob's First Picture!

We got to see our baby for the first time on Friday afternoon. Crazy stuff! There really is this little, vaguely person-shaped blob growing in my tummy. And he/she has a really REALLY big head. Aunt Sam says it's cuz baby will be really smart, or really full of him/herself. Mommy and Daddy agree that it's because baby is going to take after Daddy and just have a big noggin. Mommy isn't looking forward to that in 7 months.

Baby blob is just barely and inch big, and his/her head makes up about 1/3 to 1/2 the size of his/her entire body at this point. The heartbeat was an amazing 170 beats per minute (but sadly we didn't get to hear it this time). The ultrasound was fun to have, more so for brad than me. I had to drink two large bottle of water before my appointment and wasn't allowed to use the bathroom. The entire time I'm looking at our baby on the screen, in my head I'm thinking, "I really have to pee. I need to pee. If she pushes that thing into my stomach any harder, I might not be able to hold it!" Whereas, Brad is smiling like a little kid at the movies and staring at the screen in amazement thinking, "Woah, I made that! That's so cool!" But no matter how blobby our baby is right now, we are so excited to see him/her and to finally see that he/she is really in there-- growing and making Mommy feel fat and have to use the bathroom alot.

We love our little blob!