Silas has a very cute speech impediment: instead of the "th" sound, he says "f". He says "fank you" instead of "thank you" and "free" instead of "three".
I think it's pretty common in preschoolers, and I hope he will out grow it on his own, but the other day I thought perhaps he was going to need some prodding, so I looked up online how to teach the "th" sound and followed the directions to assist him. We've practiced the "th" sound, sticking our tongues out and blowing air across it. He wasn't immediately able to connect it to a "th" word, but he did have fun making the sound.
Sunday we were stuck in traffic and he began whining about when we were going to get to wherever we were going. Steve suggested that they count to 100 together, a little game that daddy started to help pass the time, and one that mom, the educator, very much approves of! They volley numbers back in forth, so Silas gets lots of help at the change of tens (from 69 to 70 and so on), and at the same time, he's becoming familiar with the order.
Well, naturally he began the 30's with "firty-one, firty-two..." And I interjected a little speech therapy lesson, reminding him to make the "th" sound to say "thirty-one". He did a great job all the way to thirty-nine and then started right in on the 40's. "Thorty-one, Thorty-two..."
It's really hilarious, and unfortunate at the same time. He was following my rule of changing the "f" sound into a "th", but here was a word that was supposed to sound like an "f". Sigh. We'll get there eventually, I hope.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Nesting...
With less than 5 weeks to go to my actual due date, I am beginning some serious nesting. This weekend, Steve and I started working on the nursery (I'll post pictures when it's "done"), and somehow I ended up reorganizing the crawlspace in the basement!
When I was pregnant with Silas, I remember scrubbing with a toothbrush the tracks that the drawers in my bathroom slide in and out on - very important to have cleaned those before bringing home a baby. Really, they could use another scrubbing as it has been four 1/2 years since I last paid attention to them. It's so funny how something I've been able to ignore suddenly becomes all consuming. It's the fear of the craziness to come, I think.
This time, it's not so terrifying. Now I have a little idea of what to expect, and if nothing else, I won't be going back to work (outside the home, I mean), and that alone will be so different. I really do feel lucky that I get to stay home and be a full time mom. There certainly are days when I feel like I'm "just a mom" with very little to offer, but that message of insecurity quickly evaporates when I look at my sweet four-year-old boy.
Today is a serious laundry day - time to wash up all Silas' old clothes getting them ready for his baby brother. It's so fun to pull out all those teeny onesies and sleepers and imagine what they will look like when Josiah is here filling them out. (For those of you who didn't know, we're having a boy and we're calling him Josiah.)
I just picked up Silas from preschool, and we stopped at the library to return a stack of books and pick up some new ones. He is on the computer next to me playing computer games. We LOVE the library, and right now it's so easy to go - that will change too, I think.
We are praying for a smooth transition with Josiah, that he will be a peaceful baby, and that Silas will be a wonderful big brother, just like my big brother, Uncle Dusty, and daddy's big brother, Uncle Martin. Silas has some pretty big shoes to fill, but I know he's up to the task.
When I was pregnant with Silas, I remember scrubbing with a toothbrush the tracks that the drawers in my bathroom slide in and out on - very important to have cleaned those before bringing home a baby. Really, they could use another scrubbing as it has been four 1/2 years since I last paid attention to them. It's so funny how something I've been able to ignore suddenly becomes all consuming. It's the fear of the craziness to come, I think.
This time, it's not so terrifying. Now I have a little idea of what to expect, and if nothing else, I won't be going back to work (outside the home, I mean), and that alone will be so different. I really do feel lucky that I get to stay home and be a full time mom. There certainly are days when I feel like I'm "just a mom" with very little to offer, but that message of insecurity quickly evaporates when I look at my sweet four-year-old boy.
Today is a serious laundry day - time to wash up all Silas' old clothes getting them ready for his baby brother. It's so fun to pull out all those teeny onesies and sleepers and imagine what they will look like when Josiah is here filling them out. (For those of you who didn't know, we're having a boy and we're calling him Josiah.)
I just picked up Silas from preschool, and we stopped at the library to return a stack of books and pick up some new ones. He is on the computer next to me playing computer games. We LOVE the library, and right now it's so easy to go - that will change too, I think.
We are praying for a smooth transition with Josiah, that he will be a peaceful baby, and that Silas will be a wonderful big brother, just like my big brother, Uncle Dusty, and daddy's big brother, Uncle Martin. Silas has some pretty big shoes to fill, but I know he's up to the task.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Pregnancy: a third trimester summery
As we come closer to the end of this pregnancy, I think both Steve and I are feeling a bit unprepared for what lies ahead. Certainly, we have some clue about parenting now that we didn't have when we brought Silas home, but still, I think we are excited and apprehensive at the same time. I suppose that's normal.
Being pregnant hasn't been very easy this time. Perhaps it's that I'm 32, not exactly a "young" mother. The first trimester was really a blur of guarded emotions and fatigue. The second trimester was NOT what the books said it should have been - the high point in the pregnancy when I should be feeling my best. Instead, I was struggling with extreme insomnia and terrible muscle pain. I would lay down after a busy day and my whole body would be one tight contraction refusing to release.
Finally, I threw my back out the morning before a trip to Northern Michigan. I had been unloading the dishwasher when I felt a snap and that was it. I called "doctor mom", who prescribed additional magnesium, which acts as a large muscle relaxer. She had recently pulled a muscle in her back and found relief when she increased her magnesium intake. When we looked into it, we found that a pregnant woman should be getting 450 mg a day, and I was only getting 100 mg in my prenatals! Well, no wonder I was so tight! Within 2 weeks I was feeling soooooo much better! It was amazing! I could still be active and not pay for it all through the night!
Soon after, I interviewed a doula to assist us with my delivery, and she inquired about my calcium intake. I thought I was getting enough until she asked about insomnia and leg cramps. It had become a joke how little I was sleeping (maybe 2-3 hours a night!) and just two nights before I had the most servere charlie horse in my life! I started taking a calcium/magnesium supplement before going to bed and began sleeping better immediately!
Why didn't my regular OB tell me about this?!? It's not that I haven't been sharing my symptoms with her. It's so frustrating that we think we are getting good prenatal care, when really all we are getting is some mild monitoring and someone who will show up at the last minute to whisk our baby away and suggest loads of medical intervention which will serve more to protect her liability than provide the best for the health and comfort of mommy and baby. This is one reason we are hiring a doula. I just want to feel like someone is holding my hand, listening to me and making helpful suggestions which actually provide relief.
So here we are on the home stretch, just 6 weeks to go. It dawned on me last week that this delivery may not be anything like my delivery with Silas. I was planning on going two weeks early, but then I realized that I won't be under the same stressful conditions that I was under when I had Silas. Thankfully, I will not be working 14 hours the day before I go into labor. I have the luxury of resting throughout the day (not always as much as I would like, but as much a mother of a very active four and a half year old boy will allow.) And so now I am preparing mentally that I might actually be late, going past my due date (Novemeber 22, the week before Thanksgiving).
Still, even with my revised time frame of 4-8 weeks, there is still so much to be done. Our "To Do" list keeps growing daily, and the feeling that we are unprepared is keeping me from getting the rest that I need. I can't manage to stay off my feet and lately they have been swelling to elephant proportions. I need to take a picture of them, though it won't be pretty.
And these are our last days of being a family of three. I so enjoyed this summer with Silas, the ease of going places and the enjoyment of seeing things for the first time again through his eyes. Lately, I've been so busy preparing for the baby, that I haven't paused much to drink in these last few moments. I just need a few productive days of activity, and then I will feel I can stop. These are days to be thankful for, and I am very, very, very thankful.
Being pregnant hasn't been very easy this time. Perhaps it's that I'm 32, not exactly a "young" mother. The first trimester was really a blur of guarded emotions and fatigue. The second trimester was NOT what the books said it should have been - the high point in the pregnancy when I should be feeling my best. Instead, I was struggling with extreme insomnia and terrible muscle pain. I would lay down after a busy day and my whole body would be one tight contraction refusing to release.
Finally, I threw my back out the morning before a trip to Northern Michigan. I had been unloading the dishwasher when I felt a snap and that was it. I called "doctor mom", who prescribed additional magnesium, which acts as a large muscle relaxer. She had recently pulled a muscle in her back and found relief when she increased her magnesium intake. When we looked into it, we found that a pregnant woman should be getting 450 mg a day, and I was only getting 100 mg in my prenatals! Well, no wonder I was so tight! Within 2 weeks I was feeling soooooo much better! It was amazing! I could still be active and not pay for it all through the night!
Soon after, I interviewed a doula to assist us with my delivery, and she inquired about my calcium intake. I thought I was getting enough until she asked about insomnia and leg cramps. It had become a joke how little I was sleeping (maybe 2-3 hours a night!) and just two nights before I had the most servere charlie horse in my life! I started taking a calcium/magnesium supplement before going to bed and began sleeping better immediately!
Why didn't my regular OB tell me about this?!? It's not that I haven't been sharing my symptoms with her. It's so frustrating that we think we are getting good prenatal care, when really all we are getting is some mild monitoring and someone who will show up at the last minute to whisk our baby away and suggest loads of medical intervention which will serve more to protect her liability than provide the best for the health and comfort of mommy and baby. This is one reason we are hiring a doula. I just want to feel like someone is holding my hand, listening to me and making helpful suggestions which actually provide relief.
So here we are on the home stretch, just 6 weeks to go. It dawned on me last week that this delivery may not be anything like my delivery with Silas. I was planning on going two weeks early, but then I realized that I won't be under the same stressful conditions that I was under when I had Silas. Thankfully, I will not be working 14 hours the day before I go into labor. I have the luxury of resting throughout the day (not always as much as I would like, but as much a mother of a very active four and a half year old boy will allow.) And so now I am preparing mentally that I might actually be late, going past my due date (Novemeber 22, the week before Thanksgiving).
Still, even with my revised time frame of 4-8 weeks, there is still so much to be done. Our "To Do" list keeps growing daily, and the feeling that we are unprepared is keeping me from getting the rest that I need. I can't manage to stay off my feet and lately they have been swelling to elephant proportions. I need to take a picture of them, though it won't be pretty.
And these are our last days of being a family of three. I so enjoyed this summer with Silas, the ease of going places and the enjoyment of seeing things for the first time again through his eyes. Lately, I've been so busy preparing for the baby, that I haven't paused much to drink in these last few moments. I just need a few productive days of activity, and then I will feel I can stop. These are days to be thankful for, and I am very, very, very thankful.
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