Stories Of Everyday Life At The Steendahl’s

One more sleep until school starts! Of course they only go until 11:00 a.m. tomorrow, but it is the official first day of school. Dane starts Thurs.

Tonight is busy - we leave in a few minutes to go to football, then we have to leave early to go to the school open house - Christian is 7:00 - 7:30 and Ryan is 7:30 - 8:00. Matt has council at 8:00 as well. We ate dinner at 4:30 as I just didn’t see when else we would eat. As soo as we get home from school we’ll have snacks, baths and bed.

I read “Drowning Ruth” the last couple days. It was a nice quick easy read - I enjoyed it. After sufferng through “A Million Little Pieces” all summer long, it was refreshing to have an easy quick read. Have you ever read either one?

Ryan ended up only having one other little boy at his sleepover, but he still had a great time. Turns out that I guess going into third grade is a bit early to have a sleepover as the three others that were invited were too scared to sleep over.

All three boys went through the little bug - started with Dane, went to Christian and then Ryan. (3 days apart each) It was esentially a sore throat and fever for a day. Dane threw-up, but I think it was probably because I gave him Motrin on an empty stomache as he was fine after that and the other two boys didn’t throw-up. I was wondering if it was a really light version of hand, foot, mouth disease as both Ryan and Christian complained about a few little blisters on their hands and feet. I thought that lasted longer than 24 hours though, so who knows.

Well, I need to get water bottes etc. ready and jump into the car.

C-

I added a new feature to the blog tonight called Twitter. Essentially it is an application where I can write little one liners throughout the day to keep you up on what I am doing. I can also follow friends who ae Twitter members to see what they are doing in my Twitter account. It’s a free service if you want to join and Tweet along! I have had a few friends ask me to join throughot the past year and I never bit the bullet, but finaly decided I would give it a whirl - so we’ll see how it goes. So since I know you are all dying to see what I do all day every day, enjoy the little updates on the top right of the blog.

Four more days until school starts! We got them all registered on Tuesday. Dane wasn’t sure he wanted to leave his class he was having so much fun!

My birthday was great - I enjoyed my pregnancy massage and pedicure. Dinner with friends was great as well.

The day after my birthday Dane came down with the flu. I was just glad he waited until after my fun day. It was just a 24 hour thing. Then Wednesday night Christian came down with it. So far no one else has got it. With any luck Ryan won’t get it tonight because…

Ryan is having his first sleepover tonight to celebrate his birthday. He invited four friends but only two can come. They aren’t starting until after football - so around 8:00. They plan to have a campfire with hot dogs and Smores. Then they plan to play video games until I make them go to bed at midnight. He of course is very excited.

Football is keeping us busy every evening. They have been going until almost 8:00 p.m. every night when it starts to get dark, so about 2 1/2 hours of practice a night! That will go down to 3 nights a week after school starts, but I think the first week of school they are practicing every night since some schools haven’t started and they have their first game the following weekend. That is going to be a LONG week - next week! I am sure Ryan will be exhausted by the weekend.

Wednesday Dane had his school check-up and I had my pregnancy check-up - still measuring big! I was measuring 36 weeks and I’m only 31 weeks… So on the 25th I go in for an ultrasound to see how big she is really getting! Her kicks definitely feel big! I also had sugar in my urine again, so I have to prick my finger and test my blood glucose levels once every day 2 hours after a meal until my next appointment - fun fun! So far they have been fine and after reading this article http://www.drspock.com/faq/0,1511,9606,00.html I’m not too concerned. This doctor just seems to be on the extra cautious side, which is probably good, but I’m not really used to that after using a midwife for the last 3. Other than that, everything seems to be going well.

I’m off to clean up a bit for the party before we leave for football.
C-

All right… I have had a lot of requests for a belly shot lately. I’ve been asking Matt for awhile, but he never seems to get around to it, so I just stood in the mirror and took my own picture. LOL Obviously not the best picture, but at least you can get the idea. Perhaps I can convince him later to take some better pics. So here I am at 29 weeks. I’m about 30 1/2 now so this was about a week and a half ago.

I’ve also had questions on what differences I’ve noticed in this pregnancy since it is the first girl. Here are my thoughts:
- Morning sickess had about the same intensity as with Dane (who was the worst as far as that goes), but lasted a bit longer than with the boys.
- My belly is lower (that could just be gravity and it being the 4th baby) and it seems most weight has gone to the tummy instead of all over my body - which is nice.
- I’ve gained less weight then wih the boys
- I’m not sure I have really craved anything this pregnancy, however I have really been enjoying a lot of fried zucchini… (maybe that is a craving…)
- All in all I don’t think there are too many differences that I have noticed.

So what have we been doing around here? Well, football practice has started. That runs every week night from 5:30 - 7:30. Ryan seems to be really enjoying it. They handed out a sheet of the line-up the other night that we are supposed to teach them, so I’m glad Matt came along that night, as I am completely clueless on what all that means. He and the coach chatted about it and hopefully he has some clue at this point. I don’t think I have ever seen him so sweaty before - they are definitely working them hard. Tonight was the first night with pads on. I actually didn’t go to practice the last two nights as he went to his friend’s house yesterday afternoon and he is in football too, so she took him last night, he stayed overnight at his house and then stayed all day today, she took him to practice again today and then brought him home. I’m sure he is exhausted now after only sleeping about 5 hours, swimming all morning and then football practice. Maybe he’ll actually sleep in a tad in the morning.

Dane had to go have his lead screening at the health clinic today for school. You can either take him to the public health clinic and they do a finger prick, or take him to the Dr. and they do an actual blood draw. I talked to my Dr. who is soon Dane’s Dr. about it and she said either way - it was up to us - so I went for the finger prick. I made Matt take him, and he said he did really good - he sat on his lap and watched and didn’t cry a bit. They gave him stickers and a certificate for a free ice-cream cone at McDonalds so he was a happy boy. Then he and daddy went and did a couple errands together and came home.

Yesterday we went to the new pastor’s house in Woodworth - 3 miles down the road where the kids go to school. His wife is also named Christine, and invited our moms Bible Study group over for ice-cream. It was fun to chat with everyone, but there were I think I counted 15 kids there so by the end I was ready to leave - I think I was on stimulation overload. Then last night we went to pick up our veggies at the farm and do our grocery shopping. Oh and I had a meeting at church in the evening.

Today was fairly relaxed. I slept in, did some laundry, worked out in the garden etc. Then Matt had a wedding rehearsal tonight for the wedding tomorrow afternoon. I wasn’t planning on going to the wedding because I was supposed to have the changing table / dresser delivered tomorrow between 2:30 - 4:30 and the wedding is at 3:00 so I figured I would have to stay home and wait for the delivery guy. Well, then they called later today (after setting up the appointment this morning) to inform us that they had damaged the item and it will be another 2 weeks to get a replacement. LOVELY. I guess at least I get to go to the wedding now! I won’t go to the reception since Ryan will have to be hauled off to football.

Saturday is my birthday and I have a fun day planned. A couple friends asked me if I wanted to go to the spa with them. They had their birthday’s the last couple weeks and were going to celebrate and didn’t realize it was my birthday too. So we are going to the spa - none of us have ever been! I am getting a 30 minute pregnancy massage and a 1 hour pedicure/foot massage. It sounds heavenly! Matt was a bit disappointed as I guess he was planning on getting me a spa gift certificate for my B-day so that was kind of spoiled when I told him my plans. Anyway, so after our treatments the hubby’s are going to meet up with us to go out to dinner. Should be fun!

Well, it is getting late, so I should be heading to bed. I’m sure I’ll have to watch my recorded episode of Big Brother before I go to slep.

C-

The nursery that is - it is a pale yellow - yup I got my painting done! YEA! I spent 2 days masking (no not all day of course) and then Saturday painted for about 6 hours. I ran out of paint and it needed a second coat, so on Sunday I headed back to town for more paint (there are times it is a pain to live an hour each way to the nearest home improvement store….) and then Monday I put on the final coat. I took video, but I’ll wait to post it until I have some furniture in there - which should be soon. The bookcase arrived today, the crib is in the dining room and the big changing table/dresser thing should be arriving early next week I think. It has been shipped, but I think it is one of those things that is delivered by a delivery company and they have to call to make an appointment with you. YEA! It’s coming together! I just had the boys haul down all the bedding and baby clothes to the laundry room be washed up.

Notice I said I went to town on Sunday to get paint. Yup, that’s right, I got out all by myself to do some shopping. (that rarely happens) It was lots of fun to be on my own for a few hours. I hit the mall and did some girly clothes shopping (there were some great sales!) and then hit Sam’s club for a car load of things we have been needing for awhile. My arms were seriously tired from carrying my heavy bags by the time I got to the car! LOL

So between painting, working in the garden in our hot humid weather, and shopping I have been getting my exercise lately!

This morning I had my baby Dr. appointment and everything was great. My blood pressure was lower than it has been - not that it has been bad… It has been around 127/70 and it was 118/66 today which she was pleased with. (must be all that exercise LOL) I passed my 3 hour gestational diabetes test with flying colors - YEA! You have to pass two of the four blood draws to pass and I passed all four. And I have gained about 20 pounds which is much better than with the boys. It has been hot and I haven’t swelled up much at all - periodically in the evening, but just a tad and it is down by morning. So things are going great! She said at my next appointment in 2 weeks she will schedule another ultrasound to see how big she’s getting and to see if she has decided to turn head down yet or not - that’s what I am praying for next - that she will decide she likes it head down. It think she is still moving and trying out various positions at the moment as I feel kicks in all kinds of places. Other than that it is just a waiting game - about 10 1/2 more weeks until she’s due! The boys are starting to talk a lot more about when baby is here as well, which is fun.

After I got home from the doctor it was obvious the boys needed to get out of the house. We hadn’t really gone anywhere for probably a week. Matt had to go visit someone in Champaign at the hospital so we all hopped in the car and went along. (well, not into the hospital - we waited outside). Then we did some errands and just had a good day as a family. The boys were asking all kinds of questions about college today for some reason. It was a fun discussion. Then we came home and ate at Southside - our favorite drive-in hamburger joint in town. It was a good day and much better than staying at home listening to them fight all day long again. I try to keep them busy, but after a week at home we just needed to get out.

19 more days until school starts!

Well, I better get the boys into bed.
C-

If you subscribe to our e-mail updates and got the CW Post Cereal bog post - sorry - wrong blog! It was meant for my Menu Mom Blog, but I guess I wasn’t awake enough or something… Anyway, it is moved over now.

The boys survived the dentist yesterday - they actually did really well. My pocketbook didn’t fair so well - $496 later! Such is part of life I guess. Ryan got his back four molars sealed. It’s was Dane’s first trip and he wasn’t very excited about it in the beginning, but he sat on daddy’s lap in the big chair and did really good. Christian and Ryan were big boys and went in all by themselves this time - per their request. He said that we don’t need to pull Christian’s bottom teeth out yet - to give it another six months so that is good.

We did some errands, finished Ryan’s sports physical and went out to dinner at Monicals afterwards - YUM! Then we came home and rested a bit before the swim party. Dane and I took a short nap, and Christian should have… he was kind of crabby before we left. It’s always a great idea to leave for an event at bedtime! Once they got in the pool they of course had a great time and swimming in the dark - great fun according to them! (of course the pool had lights, but I don’t think they had ever swam in the dark before). They were freezing when they got out to eat ice-cream of all things, but then got back in and warmed up. It was a good time. The parents chatted and the kids had a blast.

Here is a video from yesterday morning - lego fun!

Take Care!
C-

Well… I survived! I woke up at 3:00 a.m. and my stomache was growling! That never happens - go figure it happens on the morning I can’t eat. Anyway, I slept okay, I was worried I wouldn’t sleep at all since I was nervous. I got up at 6:00, got out the door at 6:45, and got to registration by 7:30. I was all registered and ready to go by 7:45 and just a couple minutes later they called me back EARLY for my 8:00 a.m. appointment - YEA! I was expecting a 3 hour wait and she said it can be up to 4 hours…. they take your blood and then they have to make sure your fasting glucose level is okay before they can have you drink the syrup stuff. She said sometimes that can take an hour to have the results before you can have the drink. So, the first draw was two vials - the fasting glucose level, and some test that tells them your average sugar level for the past 3 months. (amazing they can do that!) Well, it was about 8:15 and she came out with my drink. I had asked why they don’t make them cold anymore like they did when I was pregnant with Ryan and Christian and she said this is the first place she has ever worked where they don’t refrigerate it, but that she would bring me a cup of ice. That helped get it down much better than the first 1 hour test - I much prefer it cold. Well, I don’t like it at all… but if I have to drink it… cold is better. Anyway, 5 minutes to drink it, and then blood draws at 9:15, 10:15 and 11:15. I actually had 5 pricks because she decided to try the left arm for the 2nd draw so we could alternate arms, but she couldn’t get it to work. So in the end all 5 vials came out of a single vein in my right arm - which is now very sore. My doctor said I would feel terrible throughout the test and I had read that online as well. However, I believe thanks to everyone’s prayers, I felt nauseous for about 10-15 minutes but other than that, I was fine! The nurse who draws the blood asked me each time if I felt shakey or dizzy and each time I was fine. She said that is a good sign that I will hopefully pass - so that is good news! So thank you for everyone who prayed and now I just await the results. My Dr. said if I failed she would call in 2-3 days, otherwise she’d see me at my appointment in 2 weeks - so I’m hoping for no call! Of course she said that last time for my 1 hour and she didn’t call, but still made me go in for the 3 hour. I’m just hoping to pass with flying colors and be done with it! I came home and ate and slept.

Tomorrow the boys have dentist appointments in the afternoon and we will probably try to finish out Ryan’s sports physical too. I have asked Matt to come with me since it is all three boys and it will Dane’ first time and Christian might have to get teeth pulled… Matt said I could just wait in the waiting room with the two who aren’t being examined and he would go in the main room - YEA - sounds good to me!

Tomorrow night is the swim team swimming party from 8-10 p.m. The boys usually go to bed around 8:00 (although we have been lenient in the summer) so they have been warned they have to be good if they want to go! It is supposed to get cool in the evenings coming up though, so it might be freezing for them! I think I will sit on the sidelines and watch.

Well, I’m off to watch Big Brother in bed and then zonk out.

C-