Home 'Schooling' Willow

Today we started 'seriously' homeschooling.  On top of our normal reading, art activities, and everyday life we will now spend 30-90 minutes a day doing activities designed to teach lessons.  Math skills, language skills, science.  In other words, we're going to sort buttons, trace lines, and hunt down animals and bugs in the yard.  Yep, homeschooling.   

 

 

Today we worked on sorting, colors and fine motor skills. I gave Willow a large plastic bowl full of rice and hidden multi-color and size buttons. Then she hunted out the buttons (fine motor skills) and sorted them first into colors and then into size (BIG and little).  She did this for about 30 minutes STRAIGHT.  Which at 3 years old I'd say is pretty good.  :-P  We did end up with a bit of a mess of rice all over the table and floor, but I think it went well overall.  I'm going to have to search down some different shaped buttons for another challenge.

I'm thinking tomorrow might be a field trip day since we have to take the Daddy to the airport in San Francisco anyways.  Who knows where we'll end up. ;-)  I think it's amazing that I get to 'stay home' with my girls and teach them everything they need to know to succeed.  I worried about many things when we first started talking about homeschooling our kids.  Will I be able to keep up with the skills they need to learn (Willow is almost at kindergarten level without even formally doing homeschooling so obviously this worry is not even an issue yet).  Will I have the energy to teach each child while meeting the needs of the younger ones and the household (so far having a 'lesson' planned has given me some extra time to work on other things nearby).  Will I get tired of having my kids around 24-7 (though I DO get tired of them occasionally, so far it's not enough for me to want to send them away ;-P ). 

We may change our decision as time goes by.  If we get in a better school district or can afford private school.  But for now, this is working for us.  :-)



I AM Bad Bass!

Ran my second 5k yesterday (The Bad Bass at Lake Chabot).  It was GRUELING!  There were crazy hills and it ended up actually being .2 miles more than a 5k.  My time wasn't as good as my last, but under those circumstances the fact that I ONLY added 2.06 minutes doesn't bother me so much!  I'm super sore today and I think I am about due for an hour long streching session.  I am now officially freaked out about the 10k we are running in THREE weeks!!!!!  The Bear Creek Trail Run 10k has even steeper hills and I have to do 2x what I did this week!  I am definitely going to have to step up my game these next weeks if I am going to survive! 

One step at a time I am getting myself into better shape.  I'm still not sure I'm going to be doing a half marathon in November, but who knows?  Life takes us in unexpected directions all the time.

Sadness

I sit here with tears barely contained in my eyes as I think about a friend.  Tasha is pregnant and due in the middle of September.  Sadly, it looks like little baby Maya will have to be born way too early.  Tasha has pre-eclampsia and has been put on hospital bed rest until Maya is born.  They are hoping for at least a couple of weeks, but docs say it could be days if Tasha's condition worsens at all.  Baby Maya has great odds, but it is going to be a hard path to travel for their whole family.  I wish I could be there more for Tasha.  She lost her mom a while before I met her and doesn't really have any close relatives.  I hate that she has so little support right now at a time when most people would be leaning on parents, aunts, uncles, siblings, friends she has only her husband and in-laws.  I've been reading about the odds and chances of survival at 28-29 weeks and they are really high (in the 90%), but it's hard to have my friend going through this when I can't be there to hold her hand and hug her tight.  No one should ever have to go through this turmoil of wondering if today could be the day baby is born until way later.  I had pre-eclampsia with both of my girls, and had to be induced both times, but it was never this serious and I was always 'term' by the time symptoms got severe (37 and 39 weeks).  I'm holding Tasha in my heart and praying that she improves with medical care.  I think the thing that hurts me most about this is I worry that when we decide to have another child I could get sick this early.  I could have to lay in a hospital bed waiting while my two older girls are wondering where mommy is.  I could have to come home without my baby and explain to my girls why baby can't come home yet.  I don't want to have to do that ever, but I also know my heart isn't full yet.  My family isn't complete.  My heart is with you Tasha and I will see you soon.

UPDATE:  Tasha ended up having little baby Maya at 27 1/2 weeks.  Both mom and baby are doing ok.  Maya is in NICU and will be there for a while yet, but she is a little trooper and is doing well.  She had to have surgery to fix an issue with her heart, but other than that she hasn't had any major issues.  I will get to see the little princess when I go up to throw her baby shower on August 25th.

Saw Jane Run

This weekend I participated in the See Jane Run 5K.  It was lots of fun!  I was super nervous about running it since I hadn't even ran close to that lately, but I finished and wasn't even the last one!  My time was 45:24 and I felt great afterwards.  I'm not sure it that had to do with the champagne and chocolate afterwards or endorphins.  The weather was beautiful and running along the coast gave me a gorgeous view to keep my mind off the running.  I'm already looking forward to my next run! 

The only bad part about the weekend was David and Willow being sick and Phoebe keeping me up all night the night before my race.  Not exactly how I wanted to rest the night before, but it all worked out in the end and we all had a fun time. 

Now I have to get back into my routine of running so that I don't get out of shape before the next run!

Running Around

A few months ago I started training for a 5k with a group of awesome mommies I met here in Tracy.  I remember starting out thinking, oh, this is easy, I'll be running a 5k in NO time.  HAHA.  Right now I can walk/run 2.5 miles fine, but I am so scared about running the 5k in Alameda this weekend.  I know I don't have to run the whole way AND I wont be pushing the stroller, so I shouldn't have any problem doing the 3.1ish miles, but the whole idea of running with lots of people makes me nervous!  What if I'm the last one?  Heehee.  It's the See Jane Run and there will be champagne and chocolate at the finish line.  I think that's the best motivator EVER!  I AM looking forward to running with out the kiddos in tow!  I love my girls to death, but this momma needs some me time!  They'll be waiting at the finish line for me though.  :-D 

Now I feel like I need a nap after this morning's run.  Too bad the princesses have decided to NOT nap at the same time anymore.  :-(

Birth Stories...

I was reading a friends beautiful birth story and decided I should put both of mine in one place.  It will be nice to be able to reflect on this later.  Especially when we decide its time to add to our family again.  Someday I hope to have a more peaceful birth, but I realize that it may not turn out the way I imagine.  Between my history of gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia as well as having torn severely during both births I'll be lucky to find a doctor who will not mention c-section at every appointment.  :-/  In the end, it's all about having a happy, healthy baby safe in your arms and being healthy enough yourself to enjoy it.  :-D

Willow (7-13-2009):
(Copied from my Myspace profile...glad I could still find it!)

So, here is the story of how baby Willow came into this world.

Monday morning David and I get up to go to our regularly scheduled Dr's appointment at my ob's office. I barely drag myself out of bed and into a quick shower (I only washed my face and brushed my teeth) and then we had to rush out the door to make it on time. We got to the OB's office I peed in a cup and then they hooked me up for my regularly scheduled NST. Baby was looking GREAT I was contracting regularly (every 10 minutes), but couldn't feel anything, so far so good. Then I get in to see my Dr. and she says that I am dropping a LOT of protein in my urine and my BP is REALLY high and she wants me to go to L&D to be monitored for a few hours and get some blood work done because I am showing signs of pre-eclampsia (my feet were also abnormally swollen). And then either they'd send me home on bed rest for the rest of the pregnancy or I'd be induced and would be having my baby that day...depending on the test results. So we get to the hospital, I gown up and crawl into the bed. They hook me up to a BP monitor and a lab tech comes in to draw some blood. Blood work comes back and YEP, I have pre-eclampsia (though my BP was good the rest of the day). So, they move me to a labor/delivery room and hook up IV fluids and start me on a slow Pitocin drip. So, now I'm going to have my baby in 8-18 hours. David and I didn't even have our cell phones with us and I hadn't packed a hospital bag yet, so I sent him out during those first couple of hours of waiting to get everything we needed. I just laid in bed resting, I was a bit nervous (mostly that her lungs wouldn't be fully ready yet), but mostly excited to be finally meeting our little one. Sometime while David was gone my doc came in and broke my bag of waters and place an internal monitor to track the contractions. When David got back to the hospital we called people to let them know what was going on...well, mostly I just called my mom, I didn't feel like calling the world right then lol. So, I spent the rest of the day laboring. I was running a slight temp the whole day so I felt cold and shivery the whole time and it made it hard to focus on my hypnobirthing. I still made it to about 6 cms or so before I asked for something to take the edge off the pain. Then, just when I was about to give in and get an epidural they told me I was 9.5 cms so of course I said forget that then get the doc in here so I can push lol. It only took half an hour or so for me to dialate the rest of the way and then they told me to start pushing. I pushed for about an hour (which was the least painful yet most exhausting part of my labor) and at 10:16 pm on 7-13-09, after some severe tearing (fourth degree through to the anus) despite an emergency episiotomy, baby Willow was born. She is perfect. Even being born three weeks early her Apgar scores were 9 and 9. She has some bruising on her head where the doctor had to help her out, but other than that she is wonderful. It ended up being lucky that I was induced so early because if she had been any bigger I would have ended up having a c-section (and due to the severity of the tear I will probably have to deliver any future children c-section). Anyways, I'll get pics up eventually! Hope everyone is doing well!

Phoebe (5-11-11):
While looking through stuff this is all I found about Phoebe's birth (all from facebook).  Haha, I guess I was a little busy to write out something official:

Good Morning Friends! Had a fabulous night sleep thanks to my OB and our little friend ambien. I'd usually never take something like that, but man does it feel good to not feel tired for once.   My home BPs are not looking promising this morning so unless a miracle happens I'm pretty sure we'll be having this baby today

Still no baby. BP is staying under 140/90 which is great. Contractions every 2 minutes. Feeling good! Sitting up on a birthing ball which is quite a feat when you have monitors on every surface.

had baby tonight at 19:19. 8 lbs 5 oz. 21 inches. no name yet. momma is waiting impatiently for them to bring her back from the nursery...and watching res evil that someone left in the dvd player with german subtitles

Ok. For all of you still waiting to hear. We decided to name baby Phoebe Joselynn Martinez. She's doing well. Nursing like a champ and sleeping mostly so far. David went home to be with Willow for a while and they will come back during visiting hours so she can meet her new sister. :D

Since I didn't write much at the time I'll take some time now and fill in what blanks I can about Phoebe's birth story.  I had been fighting high blood pressure for about a month before we went in to be induced so we pretty much knew I was in for another induction.  We hired a doula (Rachel Ching is amazing if you are in the Reno area and looking for a Doula) for this birth since I knew that David would be pre-occupied with his disseration AND I still wanted as natural a birth as possible even knowing I would be most likely having an induction (and especially since after my tearing last time my OB was kind of nudging for a c-section).  The day before my blood pressure was a little higher than normal (meaning pretty high since normal for me at the time was already right on the edge of what my OB and Perinatologist we comfortable with).  I was sent to the hospital for some monitoring and then my OB let me go home with a prescription for a sleeping aid (I hadn't been sleeping at all and couldn't have imagined going through an induction in the state I was in) with instructions to come back in the morning expecting to have a baby.  Went home, got our stuff in order, had a great night sleep, ate and ate and ate.  The next day blood pressures were no better and more protein in the urine meant induction time.  I texted Rachel and she said she'd be down shortly, got all hooked up and gowned up.  Then the waiting game started.  Rachel showed up and we played games, she helped me up when I needed up with all my wires and tubes and kept me company.  Had them bring in a birthing ball and had me laughing so hard at damnyouautocorrect.com that I thought the baby was going to be shaken out!  The rest of the day is kind of a blur of nurse scowling at me for not sitting still so the monitors would work, too much pitocin and contractions coming every 30 seconds, and trying to focus on my hypnobirthing relaxations.  My water broke on its own before the OB had a chance to do it and I wanted to spend the whole day sitting on the toilet (WHY hasn't anyone invented a birthing chair shaped like a toilet I'll never know, but it was THE most comfortable spot for me).  When things got intense Rachel put heating pads/pillows on my back and stomach and they felt really good.  Once it was time to push it was much more intense than with Willow, but she came much faster and was born on May 11th 2011 at 7:19 pm after maybe half an hour of pushing.  I 'only' got a third degree tear even though she was 2 lbs bigger than Willow was.  It took us a long time to decide on a name for our Babysaurus Rex, but we figured it out before we left the hospital and brought Phoebe Joselynn Martinez home.

Wow!  You would think I would have started blogging years ago.  You know, before it was the totally cool thing to do. It's right up my alley.  Writing and sharing what's going on in my life.  Most of this blog will probably be focused on my girls and the stuff I do for and with them, since, well, let's face it, they are pretty much my whole life right now.  Being a Stay-at-Home-Mom has it's ups and downs and now I finally have a place to put it all down.

Introductions:  I'm Lisa, I'm guessing you wont see my name written much in my own blog so there it is.  I married my high school sweetheart, David, in June 2006.  We have two beautiful (yes I know I'm biased, but it is also true) girls:  Willow (who will be 3 in July) and Phoebe (who just turned the big ONE).  So far they are about as different as two sisters can get.  Willow wont eat 90% of the foods we set in front of her while Phoebe tries to eat things that aren't even edible.  And that is just the beginning of their differences.

Today I finished my first Owl Beanie:

I don't think it turned out too bad.  Of course I'm probably my own worst critic and I see every little thing I could do differently next time.  I wish I had a newborn around (not my own though hehe) to model it for me.  I will have to make the next one sized to fit Willow.  She LOVES wearing hats.  :-D