Twenty Eight Weeks

How Far Along: 28 Weeks - my new doctor changed my due date to Oct. 17 so I'm going to do these posts on Wednesdays from now on.
Size of Baby: Peyton weighs as much as a Chinese cabbage (seriously, where do they come up with this stuff) and can open and shut his eyes now.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I'm at +11 since my base weight. I gained like 35 pounds with Kaleb. It seems a little off this time. BUT considering I started out 15 pounds heavier before I got pregnant, I'll chalk it up to that.
Maternity Clothes: Yep and my mom just bought me some new dresses. Yay!
Movement: He sure is a wiggle worm.
Gender: It's a boy! Peyton Graham Satterwhite
Sleep: I'm trying to get back on a school schedule since this is my last week of summer, but it's hard to go to bed earlier and wake up earlier when I know I don't HAVE to.
What I Miss: Carbs - gestational diabetes strikes again.
Cravings: Pretty much everything I can't have.
Symptoms: Newest symptom is gestational diabetes. I have to limit myself to 70 carbs a day. That's like ridiculously hard for me. It means no fruit, cookies, ice cream, breads, chips, etc. Basically everything I want. But I did find out I can eat all the steaks, hot wings, and crab legs I want. As long as someone else buys them for me.
Best Moment This Week: Getting my class list for this year. It makes me excited to start school again.
What I'm Looking Forward To: Being the nerd that I am, I'm looking forward to our beginning of the year meeting and getting my classroom ready.

Preschool Anxiety

First, let me say that Kaleb is super thrilled to be going to preschool in a couple of weeks. I'm the one who has anxiety. I've been up a couple nights just worrying over little things. Will he mind the teachers? Will he be able to pay attention during their instructional time? Will he have a lot of accidents? Will he actually lay down and be still and quiet during nap time? Will he make friends? How many times will they have to call me to come get him? I'm sure all parents go through this inner turmoil when their children start any type of structured school environment and I know that I'm preparing him for kindergarten early, but I still get nervous. He's very friendly and fun with us, but when he gets around new people he gets really quiet and shy. I'm sure it won't take him long to get over that.
I'm going to take him to meet his teacher and see his room and the playground and stuff on Friday morning. I think that will help alleviate some of the anxiety I'm feeling. I should probably make a list of questions that I have for the teacher.

Twenty Seven Weeks

How Far Along: 27 Weeks
Size of Baby: Peyton weighs about as much as a cauliflower (2 pounds). He can also start opening and closing his eyes now.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I'm at +12 since my base weight.
Maternity Clothes: Yep
Movement: All the time. I can't wait until it gets to the point where Kaleb might could see it.
Gender: It's a boy! Peyton Graham Satterwhite
Sleep: I seem to want/need more and more.
What I Miss: I miss foods that aren't Ramen noodles and sandwiches.
Cravings: Pretty much everything at this point.
Symptoms: The acid reflux is back in full force. I basically eat Tums.
Best Moment This Week: Getting Peyton's glider recovered and potty training Kaleb.

What I'm Looking Forward To: Going to Tupleo to see my sisters this weekend!

Twenty Six Weeks

How Far Along: 26 Weeks
Size of Baby: Peyton is about the length of an English hothouse cucumber (Ummm what?!) and weighs about 2 pounds. His hearing is better now and he can probably hear Eric's and my voice when we talk to each other.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I'm still at +10 since my base weight!
Maternity Clothes: Yep
Movement: All the time. I can't wait until it gets to the point where Kaleb might could see it.
Gender: It's a boy! Peyton Graham Satterwhite
Sleep: I feel like I still need a lot of sleep. Since I won't be able to sleep during the day once school starts, I'm taking full advantage of being the laziest person on Earth during the summer.
What I Miss: I missed all my quiet times last week so I'm definitely going to do better this week.
Cravings: Salad Sunday (which I got at Buffalo Wild Wings and it was SO good)
Symptoms: A lot of the symptoms have gone away, but I keep staying sleepy.
Best Moment This Week: Today we were talking about his baby brother and he said, "I love Peyton." I'm sure he won't like him at first, but it makes me excited to think about how they'll play once Peyton gets a little older.
What I'm Looking Forward To: I get to work  in my classroom this week and I'm actually looking forward to that. Plus, I'm going home sometime this week and I'm going to get something recovered. Either the ottoman or the glider.

Book Review: Divergent & Insurgent

I like to think that I'm kinda nutty about reading. I get it from my dad. Lately I've wanted to read a lot of series. You've got the popular series: Narnia, Harry Potter, Twilight, The Hunger Games; and then you have the ones that are catching on: The Maze Runner, Incarceron, and now this one...The Divergent series. Only two of the books have come out so far. Divergent is the first one. I downloaded it to my Nook awhile back for Eric to read but he never really got the chance. I decided to give it a whirl. About 24 hours later, I finished it. It's set in a dystopian world (like everything else these days) where the city is divided into five factions: Abnegation who value selflessness, Dauntless who value bravery, Candor who value truth, Erudite who value knowledge, and Amity who value peace. At 16, each person is required to choose one of the five factions to grow up in and learn from. If not, or if they don't pass initiation, they are considered factionless...a fate worse than death. This story follows Beatrice Prior, the faction she chooses, and the consequences of her decision. She learns how far she can push herself and how far others can push her before she fights back. It isn't until the end of the book that she discovers some of the factions have motives that could result in catastrophe for the rest of the civilization. Because she is divergent, she feels called to save the life she knows.

The second book, Insurgent, picks up right where Divergent leaves off...the same day and everything. This book has a lot more action, drama, secrets, and deception but less romance I think. Tris and her friends have devised a plan to overthrow the faction causing all the problems. The problem is that they might destroy everything they've ever known and believed in in the process. The theme of this book is decisions. Every decision Tris makes leads to another problem and another decision. Who will she choose? The faction she's come to associate with? Her friends? Her boyfriend? Her family? Or herself? The book ends with new information that could lead the whole population either to freedom or slavery.

Twenty-Five Weeks

How Far Along: 25 Weeks
Size of Baby: Peyton weighs as much as a rutabaga (about 1.5 pounds) and is a little over a foot long.
He has hair now-hopefully-and it'll keep getting thicker.

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I'm at +10 since my base weight! It must've been a hungry week.
Maternity Clothes: Yep
Movement: Yes, I love it
Gender: It's a boy! Peyton Graham Satterwhite
Sleep: That insomnia is sticking around so I'm taking naps during the day when I can...which probably leads to the insomnia now that I think about it.
What I Miss: I miss hanging out with people. We still don't know anyone in Laurel yet so it gets pretty lonely.
Cravings: Cereal
Symptoms: I'm feeling pretty good this week. I've had a couple of days when I just felt cruddy, but I'm getting more prepared for Peyton to be here.
Best Moment This Week: I've really had fun with Kaleb this week. I've been frustrated, too, but he's just so darn cute and smart that I can't help but be enamored by him this week.
What I'm Looking Forward To: I'm going to hang out with a friend Monday and I'm pretty excited about that. Plus we're thinking of going to this Movie In the Park thing that they have. They show kid movies at night on a big screen. I don't think we'll make it through the whole movie, but it'll be something fun to do.

A Common Controversial Decision

With the release of Magic Mike and the hype surrounding Fifty Shades of Grey, I wanted to write a post about why I will NOT be seeing the movie or reading the books. As a friend of mine said, "Fifty Shades of Grey is the devil in print. Literally." I'm not going to lie. I was intrigued by all the hype surrounding the books. It's all over Pinterest, Facebook, the news, and the internet. At frist I didn't know what it was about - maybe another series like The Hunger Games or The Maze Runner. Yeah, not so much. As I started looking up information about the books I realized just exactly what they are about. I think what's most startling about the series is that EVERYONE is endorsing it. Okay, not everyone, but you get it. Women in Sunday School classes talk about it in whispers, housewives proclaim it boldly. It's confusing. Knowing that the book is essentially porn in print, it makes me wonder why so many people are saying how great it is. Well, that's not true. Everyone I've talked to that's read it says, "It's a terrible book. I don't endorse it at all. But I've read the whole series twice." Here's the deal that a friend brought up on Facebook. When did we stop being ashamed of these sins? This is porn. This is something that, 5 or 10 years ago, people would have hidden their faces in shame if anyone found out they were reading it. Now it's celebrated.
As for Magic Mike, the whole movie premise is a double standard. As another article I read pointed out, if the movie was about women strippers, all ovaries would be up in arms over it. I didn't want to see the movie at all even from the beginning. It's one of those things that makes me want to look away because I'm embarrased for these men. They're parading around naked in an obvious ploy to get women to see the movie. I mean, if a star is taking off his shirt in a swimming scene, that's different. But this is designed specifically to get women all wound up and thinking of them. I get very nervous for my children because they will grow up in this type of situation...or worse. I used to think it was crazy when parents actually enforced the No R rated movie rule, but since R is now what NC 17 was then, that rule will definitely have to be enforced. Movies will be screened, music will be censored, and I will protect my family from trast like Magic Mike and Fifty Shades of Grey.