Introducing Lady Bug!

Lesson learned: I am never going to try to schedule anything ever again.

Two weeks ago after being on official bed rest for two weeks I got a very high blood pressure reading; 155/105. An hour later it was the same, so we went in to Labor and Delivery. I collapsed trying to make it into the building; that night my blood pressure peaked at 185/115. I was 35 weeks into the pregnancy. I got put on some blood pressure medications and magnesium sulfate to prevent seizures or strokes. Being on magnesium sulfate SUCKS, and I'll be writing more on the topic later.

My doctor decided he wanted to try to put off taking out the baby until I was 36 weeks, which is considered full term, with the hope that she would not have to spend any time in the NICU. So I spent a week in the hospital. On Saturday our daughter was born; 4lb 10 oz. She and I were doing very well at first, and I got to spend my time in recovery room with her and Principal Daddy.

First time seeing her again, two days later.

But then I started getting sick again and Lady Bug started having problems; first with oxygen saturation levels and then glucose processing issues. She was taken to the NICU, and I was so sick I didn't get to see her until two days later. I ended up needing a blood transfusion because the pre-eclampsia had stopped my liver from fully functioning and my body wasn't making enough red blood cells. (ETA: later my doctor said that he thought that a suture from my tubal ligation might have slipped and caused internal bleeding, which in turn caused the need for the blood transfusion. We'll never really know.)

Right now I'm out of the hospital, but I'm still so sick and weak that I can't even take the car ride to visit my baby at the hospital. I'm still dealing with high blood pressure, and have to be on a medication to keep it down. Lady Bug is doing better and is weened off the oxygen flow, but she has to meet several criteria before we can bring her home. We were hoping we could bring her home this weekend; the nurse we asked thought it would be another week. Each baby is different, it all depends on her. 

Pregnacy Update

I'm on official, doctor ordered bed rest. I have been for over a week, since I saw my doctor following my trip to Labor and Delivery from when I fainted at church. With my history of HELLPs pre-eclampsia with my first and a premature at 32 weeks birth because of severe pre-eclampsia with my second, my doctor's not taking any chances. My blood pressure is creeping up and while not yet at an emergency level yet, I have to stay in bed to keep it from going higher. I am 34 weeks, 2 days today. I'm going in twice a week for BP checks with my doctor and my blood is getting drawn once a week to make sure my liver isn't shutting down and failing like it did with Builder Boy. Have I mentioned before that I have a needle phobia? Yeah......

Thankfully I have a wonderful lady from our new church who is getting me to my appointments this week and who is watching the boys during the appointments so I don't have to worry about that. She's a homeschooler, too, and since she has a few boys who are older than mine I hope I can pick her brain and learn a lot from her. Also I have a family member who is coming up to stay with us to help out. I am so very grateful for the support, both physical and emotional, that we have been receiving, and the prayers. I've told God what it is I want for this pregnancy, but like last time I'm leaving it in His hands and His plans. Just 5 more weeks before my scheduled c-section!

School-wise, I've almost given up on finishing anything this summer. Space School is not something I can do from the bed. But I started something for L2R to R2L that I'm going to blog about soon that I can do from bed, and I signed Builder Boy up for a free trial of Dreambox so I'll be reviewing that in a week or so. (I am so grateful we got a laptop computer. I was against it in the beginning, but I'm not sure how I'd survive bed rest without it!) I also want to finish my follow up review of Reading Eggs and what my kids got out of it. So I'm going to keep blogging; it might end up preserving my sanity. But here's something I've figured out:

Bed rest was clearly invented by a man; a woman would know that there is no way a pregnant woman should be allowed this much free time to think/worry/obsess over every little thing that is happening to her!

Daughter, You're Worth all the Hassle

Dear Unborn Daughter,

I have to say out of the three pregnancies I've experienced, being pregnant with you has been the most difficult. The five straight months of puking, the month of not being able to walk, and now a second trip to the Labor and Delivery section of the hospital for fainting at church.

But I also have to say that you're worth it; all of it. We longed for you and prayed for you before you were even conceived. No matter how you turn out or who you grow up to be, you are worth all the trouble, stress, and sickness. You are loved without ever having to do anything but exist. And I wanted to let you know now, in case something happens, that you are worth it all, and I love you.

Mommy

Homemade Play Kitchen: Stovetop and Counter

My original plan called for an oven door below the stove. That didn't end up happening. But the boys never noticed that anything was "missing" from their kitchen. Most play kitchens that I researched when I was planning this project also included sinks. My past experience showed that my boys would not use a sink enough to justify the work that would involve. Also, on most of those kitchens with sink there is no counter space. Preparing the food is half of the fun of pretending to cook. Where exactly where were they suppose to prepare the food with no counter space? Especially since I had purchased for another one of Early Bird's Christmas presents a Cuttable Fruit set. So leaving out the oven door and a sink, I was able to complete this project with NO cutting and NO drilling the particle board, which kept the price really low and manageable.

6 months later

For the stove top, I used regular acrylic paint and painted on burners. Unfortunately, that didn't hold up very well. When I eventually find my paint I'm going to re-paint the burners and then cover that part of the kitchen with contact paper and see if that stays on well.

Little Star Detail

I thought the curtains under the sinks in the play kitchens I found on Pinterest were super cute. I didn't have a sink, but that didn't mean I couldn't have an under-counter curtain! Keeping in mind that I was going for cheap, fast/low effort, and no-sew, I purchased a blue washcloth at Walmart ($0.50?) that was the perfect size for my space. I used puffy fabric paint to add a star decal to the washcloth, purely for decoration. On the back of the washcloth I used cheap ribbon (already had some, but you can get it at Walmart for $1) and fabric glue to make four strips to hang the curtain from.

I found the wooden dowel in the painting/craft section in Walmart for less than $1, and the adhesive hooks in the picture hanging section (I think?) in housewares for less than $2/6-8 hooks. The small dowel turned out to be the perfect diameter for the hooks, so they are stuck quite firmly in place. The dowel was too long for the space, and I didn't have a hand saw, so I used my PVC pipe cutter and it worked just fine.

And that's all it took! I can't remember (six months later) how long it took to finish this project, but, not including waiting for the paint and glue to dry, it took very little total time! It took more time for me to walk around Walmart and find all the pieces for the various parts of the kitchen since my list was vague and unorganized than it did for me to put it all together. The boys love it and Early Bird plays with it a lot. Since the pieces aren't all stuck together it survived the move extremely well. This whole project cost me less than $20 for everything (because I already had the shelving units.)
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If you haven any questions about the process or if I left something out, leave a comment and I'll answer your question to the best of my memory.

If you made a play kitchen of your own based or inspired by any of these ideas, please let me know so I can share what you did!

Here's a link to my Homemade Play Kitchen Pinterest Board for other ideas that inspired me and some play food ideas that I still want to try someday.

Homemade Play Kitchen: Aprons

You can't have a play kitchen without aprons! (Okay, well, apparently you can, as my boys almost never use these, but I thought I had to make some, so I did.) I found a blue denim apron at the thrift store for $1.50. Score! But I have two kids, so I needed two aprons. I already had an idea for an easy to make, no-sew/little-sew apron, so while I was at the thrift store I looked at fabric place mats and found one I liked that would work as an apron for $0.50.

(I thought I took more pictures during the apron making process, but if I did, I can't find them.) The only other things I used for this project were some wide green ribbon I picked up at Walmart for (I think?) $1.00, and some Fray Check, fabric glue, and some Velcro Dots that I already had.














I ended up making this apron with a lot of "growing room." I thought about making the neck strap adjustable with Velcro, but decided it would probably be easier for the boys to just slip it over their heads, so I made it with enough room to do so. I cut the ribbon, fray checked the ribbon ends, and then glued and tacked (sewed on with just two stitches) the neck strap ribbon to the top of the place mat/apron.


For the waistband I measured the ribbon, again leaving plenty of growing room, fray checked the ends after cutting it, and then used fabric glue to affix the ribbon/waistband along the front of the apron. I used the sticky Velcro Dots on the ends so that it could easily secured (I wanted something that Early Bird could do on his own,) and that was that!

It's Reversible!

Green Side

Homemade Play Kitchen: The Pantry Shelves

The pantry really didn't need anything added to it. I put sticky hooks on the side for the kid aprons. At the dollar store I found two blue baskets that look a lot like shopping baskets, and some small bowls, cups, and a baby spoons/forks/knifes set (four of each.)


Hooks (Command brand bought at Walmart)-$3
2 Baskets-$2
Set of 6 cups-$1
2 sets of 3 bowls-$2
Set of plastic forks, knifes, and spoons (four of each)-$1
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$9.00 (not counting tax)

Homemade Play Kitchen: The Refrigerator

I searched the dollar store, thrift stores, and finally Walmart and I found these plastic baskets: a set of three for less than $2. They are almost perfect. I measured them against the measured paper I took shopping with me and they were the right size but the corners catch a little bit when you try to close the door. I finally figured out with the last one to keep it from catching, position the basket slightly more towards the hinge rather than perfectly centered.




I hung them on adhesive hooks (no drilling!) which I got at Walmart for about $2/2 hooks, so total price for the refrigerator baskets and hanging them was $8.

I found a magnetic floor vent cover that I had hoped to turn into an area for refrigerator magnets on the door, but it didn't work out the way I'd hoped, and it wasn't strong enough.

Early Bird likes having different shelves and baskets in the fridge because that means he can sort his play food by food group.




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I was going through old drafts of blog posts that I'd never finished or posted and found my plans for sharing what I did to make the play kitchen that was Early Bird's Christmas present. I'm not up to doing much, but I can finish these up at least....

Builder Boy and Mama's Snap Circuit Adventure, Part 2

Hey, remember how in December I was going to blog about teaching electricity to a 1st grader and using Snap Circuits? Yeah, I didn't remember either. Because around Christmas time is when the "morning" sickness hit full force and I was hovering over a bowl for the entire month... and the month after that....and then we moved to another state....I was on virtual bed rest for two months...and the Snap Circuits didn't get unpacked. But today another homeschooling mom was asking about teaching electricity and using Snap Circuits with her young son and I remembered that I had a list of resources I could share and if I'd had it in a blog post instead of random links all over the place it would have been easier. So I'm posting it now, even though it's been a while since we actually did anything with it.

Back in December I found this wonderful book Switch On, Switch Off at our local library. It explained electricity in a simple enough way that my 6 year old could understand, yet had things in it that I had never learned before. It was a great introduction to the subject and Builder Boy liked it so much that we read it together many times before returning it. I highly recommend it.

Once we'd been introduced to the topic we tried out some sites that I can't remember how I found. Here are the links:

http://www.topmarks.co.uk/Interactive.aspx?cat=66

http://www.eon-uk.com/EnergyExperience/85.htm

http://www.switchedonkids.org.uk/

http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/using_electricity/eng/Introduction/default.htm


These are all games that teach about electricity in the home, where it comes from, and electricity safety. The top three are UK sites, so there is some British terminology that might need to be explained to your kids.

Since we've moved the boys have also watched a great Magic School Bus episode on electrical circuits and a Bill Nye episode on electricity. The Magic School Bus episode is "Get Charged." The one we watched on youtube disappeared, but I found another channel hosting it. The Magic School Bus episode "Gets Energized" is a great one to watch afterwards. It explores sources of energy generation, like gravity and water wheels.

I haven't read The Magic School Bus And The Electric Field Trip, but after looking at the preview on Amazon, I really want to now.

For some more ideas, check out: How to Teach Young Children About the Simple Electrical Circuit at eHow.com. I also started a Pinterest board on Electricity, but I don't have many pins yet.

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I don't get paid for reviews; I do get a small percentage if you purchase something on Amazon.com after clicking on one of my links.

What 32 Weeks Means to Me

Today I am officially at week 32 of my pregnancy. This milestone means a lot to me because it was at 32 weeks exactly with my last pregnancy that I collapsed with severe preeclampsia and had to go to the hospital and have an emergency c-section. That means every day after today is "breaking" the record of my last pregnancy.

First time we got to hold Early Bird (a week after he was born)

When Early Bird was in the NICU, even before he came home, I struggled with the question of whether or not we would have another baby. We had planned on more, we wanted a medium sized family (in our view that was 3 or 4 kids.) But I had just had emergency c-sections twice now, and this one was premature. Should we really risk it again?






That choice is individual and personal for every couple to consider for themselves. For us it took three and a half years of talking with each other, thinking, and praying about it. For a long time we didn't feel like we had the spiritual "go ahead" signal. And then, we did. I had intended seeing a OB for a consultation before starting to try to get pregnant for a third time, but that didn't end up happening.

I could still end up with a premature baby. We're not out of the woods yet. This time around I made sure I am being watched by a High Risk OB and I'm monitoring myself very carefully. But every day after today I'm going to feel just a little bit easier.

LTR 2 RTL Part 2: Our Home Library and Guided Reading Levels

Our home library. Before we moved I had three full bookshelves in the master bedroom, two half-sized bookshelves in the boys' room (one held toys,) and shelves downstairs for homeschooling books. None of the full bookshelves survived the trip in the moving van. Two completely fell apart (they were the put together yourself sets from Walmart) and the third split in half with one half okay and the other in pieces. Of the three half-sized bookshelves we had, two survived mostly intact, one fell apart. (And when I say "fell apart" I mean there's no putting these things back together.) And because of the move, we're broke until the next tax return next year, so no replacement shelves for almost a year. (I'm not buying cheep this time around!) With 1/3 the book holding capacity that we used to have, that means all of "my" books are staying in boxes. The homeschooling books are in an armoire in the play room and the kids' books are the only ones who get any shelf space. Because I've been so sick, there are still a LOT of unpacked boxes hanging around. And some of them must be unlabeled holding kid books, because I know I have to have more than what's on the shelves now (and what's in the boys' room bedtime reading basket and in Builder Boy's bed. Yup, you read that right, my 6 year old insists on sleeping with his nine Magic School Bus books.)

Builder Boy's Bed of Books

Thursday I sat down in front of my home library to label the books with their Guided Reading Level. I got this idea from Jen at TeachingMyBabyToRead.com and her "Learning to Read' to 'Reading to Learn" suggestions. However, my past super pickiness when it comes to purchasing books and the fact that I'm still missing some boxes of books means that I didn't have many books on the list I was suppose to be working from. So instead of taking a book off the shelf and looking it up on the alphabetical list, I scanned the 1st and 2nd grade lists by level and when I saw the title of a book I knew I had I pulled it off the shelf and labeled it. That may not work for most people, and certainly not for someone who has more common books than I do, but it worked for me. I don't have enough books that I felt I needed to Organize My Home Library like Jen suggests; but when I acquire more books and my kids get older, I probably will. For now, what I have works for me. I do love her idea of having a "return" basket so the books are returned to their proper place and as a way to keep track of what your child is reading independently. Trouble is, my kids don't read independently. Yet. That's one of the things we're going to be working on. And now that I have at least a few books labeled with their levels, I can more confidently say to Builder Boy "I know you can read this all on your own; I really want you to try."

I was hoping that I could use the Guided Reading Levels books to further assess Builder Boy's reading level, but labeling the books left me somewhat skeptical. So far the various assessments I have used seems to place Builder Boy at a late 2nd grade/beginning 3rd grade level. But looking at the levels they placed some of the books we have, the list seems to have a higher expectation of 1st and 2nd graders than the other assessments I was using. Part of this is probably because I am very strict about phonics only because of my sight word phobia. But when I put several books next to each other that were labeled with the same level, I was even more skeptical.

Is Hop on Pop really the same level as a Franklin book? Early Bird could read Hop on Pop....eons ago! (Okay, maybe just a year or so ago.) Does that mean he can also read a whole Franklin book? He read half of Franklin's Halloween to me the other night, but there were still words in there he didn't know. Hop on Pop is all decodable phonics with short sentences, big type, and only two sentences at the most on a page. Franklin books are much smaller print with paragraphs on every other page, and a lot of more advanced/complex words. (These are level J, beginning of 2nd grade)

Then I saw that Doctor De Soto and the Magic Tree House books were considered the same level (level M, 2.75) and I really couldn't believe it! That little picture book was the same level as a chapter book? But when I sat down with Builder Boy and read it I remembered that there are a lot of technical terms in that book. That made a bit more sense, and then I wondered if the average 2nd grader really could read it on their own.

Builder Boy is currently very close to loosing a tooth, and this has made him extra emotional and getting him to read a "whole" one of these books to assess his Guided Reading Level has not happened. It's made me realize that while he has a good reading vocabulary, his fluency, expression, and stamina have been neglected. I haven't encouraged independent reading before now because I wanted to make sure he was reading all the words right and wasn't skipping. But I need to step back and encourage him to start reading on his own or I'm going to inhibit him and keep him from developing confidence in his abilities. In that sense, this assessment has probably taught me more about myself and my parenting/teaching than it has about what Builder Boy is capable of. Most of all, it's giving me a good idea of some gaps and what I need to work on.

"Learning to Read" to "Reading to Learn" Part 1: Assessments

So, on my way to figuring out how I'm going to help Builder Boy make the transition from "learning to read" to "reading to learn," (hereto after shortened to "LTR 2 RTL") I realized I should probably start with knowing where exactly he is now. But how?

Reading Eggs has a Parent's Dashboard where parents can keep track of what their kids are doing on the program and where developmentally the program thinks your kid is. The problem for me, however, is that the Reading Eggs levels only go up to what they consider to be "age 7." That doesn't give me a grade level, and I already know that these levels were nothing new for Builder Boy.

Looking to my curriculum isn't much help either. We use The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading and supplement with Hooked on Phonics. Unfortunately, OPGTR doesn't come with grade levels labeled, even though it is described as a complete K-4 curriculum. I did a match up of the two, using HOP to decide where grade levels in OPGTR is, but HOP only goes through 2nd grade. And both kids finished those 6 months ago. (Interestingly, those HOP levels cover pretty much the same stuff as Reading Eggs, which puts Reading Eggs at a K-2 level as well.)

A few weeks ago or so I was reading something on The Well Trained Mind Forum and saw a link to the San Diego Quick Reading Assessment. It gives you a list of ten words per grade level and has kids read them. If they get 9/10, they "pass" that level of reading. Personally, that seems a bit....incomplete for a reading "assessment," not to mention that it seems to be mainly sight words since they have "play, see, look, here" on the pre-school level! Out of curiosity I showed it to the boys (independent of each other) and they both passed the 2nd grade level, but not the 3rd (which had words like "frightened" and "exclaimed.")

At the beginning of our "school year" I purchased 3-Minute Reading Assessments: Word Recognition, Fluency, and Comprehension: Grades 1-4 at the referral of Jen at Teaching My Baby to Read. This book of assessments is MUCH more thorough than the Sand Diego Quick Assessment. It is intended for classroom use, but as it's one-on-one it works just fine for a homeschool setting (assuming you can get your other kids to leave you and the one child alone for 5 minutes.) It has four different reading passages per grade level, so you're always testing them on something they haven't read before. There are clear directions on what to listen for, how to conduct the assessment, and scoring charts and record keeping devices that are very nice. The pages don't tear out, so it's a bit of a pain to scan in the pages perfectly straight, but the book isn't all that thick, so as long as you don't have a problem with breaking the bindings on books like this, you're fine. They recommend that you give the assessment at different times throughout the school year so you can track improvement and spot areas that need working on. I gave this test to Builder Boy at the beginning of the "school year" and then with the move and being sick from being pregnant forgot about it until last week. I gave a 1st grade assessment to each of the boys (again, individually) since tecniclly we're still "1st grade" and they both passed on word recognition accuracy and reading fluency-automaticity, but I forgot to rate their expression or test their comprehension. Since they did so well I gave Builder Boy a 2nd grade assessment informally. I just had him read the passage to me out of the book without me keeping track of every mistake and he did very well on that as well. (Early Bird got distracted by something and didn't want to go on when it was his turn.) I will probably next Monday give him another of the 2nd grade assessment tests formally, and try to make sure I rate his expression and comprehension as well.

Since I'm trying to follow the steps (just maybe not in order) that Jen lays out in her "LTR 2 RTL" blog post, as part of assessment I also need to figure out Builder Boy's Guided Reading Level. More on that tomorrow.

Going From Reading Eggs to Reading Eggspress

Builder Boy has been racing ahead in Reading Eggs with the intent of finishing the maps and starting the Reading Eggspress level. Because everything in the Reading Eggs lessons have been review for him, I've been letting him go ahead with two lessons a day. Today he finished the last two lessons on the very last map. He was so proud of himself! He went right into Reading Eggspress with all the eager anticipation of an explorer and braved the assessment test, even though he did not like getting answers wrong. Thankfully we tried the spelling assessment test last week on the Reading Eggs level. This was his first time with an assessment test that he didn't know all the answers to. He cried and got very upset. (Probably my fault for not introducing him to something like this before now.) I calmed him down and explained that it was okay that he didn't know the answer because it was something he hadn't learned yet, and getting it wrong taught the computer what he didn't know yet so it could teach him. Knowing his response to the last assessment test helped me better prepare Builder Boy for the Reading Eggspress comprehension assessment test, and this time he didn't cry when he got the answers wrong.

It placed him at the beginning, which was just fine with me. Eager to get started, Builder Boy chose a book titled "Trains." Right away it started asking him questions about what he thought the book would be about, giving him several different options. I am not sure if he was reading all the options, or if he didn't understand the question, but right away we had a problem. This was a BIG difference from Reading Eggs, and seems like a really big leap! There is no easing into it, no in between steps or teaching how. This was discouraging for Builder Boy, and right now, for this week, we're going to go back to Reading Eggs and work on the spelling lessons that we didn't figure out until last week and he will finish the storyland paths.

I will also be reading up on Jen Bardsly's "From 'Learning to Read' to 'Reading to Learn'" suggestions at TeachingMyBabyToRead.com and will blog about implementing them and how they work out for us.

I'm really not sure what I'm going to do with Early Bird and Reading Eggs now. He's been working hard to catch up with Builder Boy on the maps, and will finish the last lesson by the end of the week. Though they have the same reading vocabulary level, I don't think Early Bird is mature enough for the "Learning to Read to Reading to Learn" developmental leap. I'm really glad I got those codes so that we could figure this all out before we have to start paying for it....

When A Flower Blooms

When A Flower Blooms

By Winter Jorgenson

My hands were full of dishes and soap when I turned to see her crawling towards me grinning from ear to ear.  I reached for the camera, precariously held it while I looked through the view finder and, in horror, watched as it slipped from my hand, fell and bounced on the floor.  I didn’t pause.  I didn’t put the dishes down or wipe my slick hands because my beautiful baby was still crawling towards me.   I picked the camera up, snapped the picture and dropped it a second time.  This time it broke.  In the aftermath, I grieved not for the camera but for all the moments that would be lost from memory because I could not possibly record them all.  I wanted to celebrate each moment over and over again.

In those early days of motherhood, I openly shared and celebrated my child and all her milestones.  Unfortunately, snarky comments quieted my sharing.  An acquaintance asked “Did she really say that?” when I shared about a precocious witty comment my little girl made.  Another time a parent snapped at me, “Have you had her tested yet?  She could have Aspergers.”  With the exception of a small group of family and friends, I do not discuss my everyday experiences with many people anymore.  The omission seems dishonest and I believe my children, all children, deserve better from their parents and community.

I believe all children deserve be celebrated.

We celebrate to give thanks, to show support, to welcome someone home or into the family, to show someone that they are valued and loved, to build community, to uphold a tradition, to acknowledge effort or an accomplishment.  Our celebrations can range from extravagant events, to simple words, to quietly inhaling the moment.  When we celebrate a child, we tell him that we are thankful for him, that he is welcomed in the community, that he is valued.  Likewise, when we only celebrate some children and refuse to celebrate others, we are saying that “only some children are welcomed here, only some children are valued, only some children deserve community support.”

It is easy to preach “celebrate every child” but it is difficult to practice, even within a loving family.  When my eldest started reading, I took her to the local coffee shop and we celebrated with a mommy/daughter date.  I waited to tell people outside of our small circle of friends until I was certain other children were reading.  I did not mention that my two year old son had started reading before my four year old.  I did not celebrate his milestone.  Instead, I hid it from everyone including his sister because I feared his intuitive grasp of how to read would undermine her accomplishment.  In doing so, I missed an opportunity to support him for the child he is and to teach him not to hide his abilities.  I also missed an opportunity to teach my daughter to be gracious about others’ accomplishments and that her worth is not dependent upon comparisons or being first.

I missed something else as well.  I remember the reading coffee date with my daughter.  She remembers it.  We have pictures of the event that we can look at fondly for years and years.  In contrast, my memory of my son’s first reading is blurry and loaded with mixed emotions.  If I had chosen to celebrate, then we would have a fond memory for him as well.  Growing up is hard.  Parenting is hard.  It is easy to remember the timeouts and the tantrums because those raw moments demand our full attention and push our limits.  It is more difficult to remember quieter times, small moments of growth and subtle changes.  If we stop to celebrate them, we create maps of positive memories to look back on, maps that will define our time together when we are all older.

I have an iPhone now that I have dropped many times trying to photograph a moment with my children.  Thankfully, the phone seems unbreakable.  Out the window, I can see the kids smelling flowers through slanted sunlight.  It’s a sight worth remembering.  From spring until fall, different plants will flower and the kids will press their noses into them all not caring if a flower is an early or late bloomer.  They do this because that is what you do when a flower blooms.  You take a moment and celebrate.

Parenting the Gifted Blog Tour 2013: Day 7

Today is the last day of the Parenting the Gifted Blog Tour 2013!

Check out the contributions at Homeschooling Hatters about “Just Let Him Be a Kid,” and the last post is a guest post here at Sceleratus Classical Academy titled “When a Flower Blooms.”

I hope you enjoyed the blog tour this year! If you're interested in contributing next year, keep an eye out for an announcement next May in the Accelerated Learner's Board at the Well Trained Mind Forum, or contact Jennifer Bardsley at Teaching My Baby to Read.

Special thanks to Susan Wise Bauer, author of The Well Trained Mind and sponsor of the Well Trained Mind Forum.

 

Special thanks also to Jennifer Bardsley at Teaching My Baby to Read for coming up with the idea of and arranging the blog tour for two years in a row now!

Parenting the Gifted Blog Tour 2013: Day 6

Today is the sixth day of the Parenting the Gifted Blog Tour 2013!

Check out the contributions at Northwood Classical Academy about “The Making of a Mathlete.”

There's still one day left of the blog tour!

Parenting the Gifted Blog Tour 2013: Day 5

Today is the fifth day of the Parenting the Gifted Blog Tour 2013!

Check out the contributions at Strader Spiel  about “Homeschooling a Gifted Child with Special Needs,” and at The Washington Collation of Gifted Education  about “I’m an Advocate and So Are You.”

Parenting the Gifted Blog Tour 2013: Day 4

Today is the fourth day of the Parenting the Gifted Blog Tour 2013!

Check out the contribution at Homeschooling: or Who’s Ever Home about “Nurturing Musical Talent in the Gifted Child.”

Parenting the Gifted Blog Tour 2013: Day 3

Today is the third day of the Parenting the Gifted Blog Tour 2013!

Check out the contribution at Teaching My Baby to Read about “Harry Potter, Muggles, Mudbloods, and Giftedness in Family Trees.”

This blog tour will be going on for five more days so check it out!

Parenting the Gifted Blog Tour 2013: Day 2

Today is the second day of the Parenting the Gifted Blog Tour 2013!

Check out the contributions at Only Passionate Curiosity about “Maturity vs. Ability; It’s a Big Deal,” and at Childhood Inspired about “Nurturing Other Aspects of Giftedness Besides Academics”.

This blog tour will be going on for a week so check it out!

Red is Bad!

My first pregnancy ended in HELLPS preeclampsia. I didn't have any of the outward, obvious symptoms of preeclampsia. I was overdue by two weeks, in the hospital with contractions but not progressing for 12 hours. They were going to send me home when the bloodwork came back: your liver is failing, you and the baby could both die if we don't get him out now; emergency c-section less than 10 minutes later.

My second pregnancy I collapsed after dinner at my in-laws house (who are retired EMTs) with high blood pressure. This time with a history of preeclampsia I went in to the hospital. Overnight, my blood pressure remained high (I don't remember the top number, but my bottom number never went below 100 and that was lying down for hours.) In the morning they transferred me to another hospital that specialized in premature babies. My oxygen saturation levels started dropping rapidly, there were concerns of fluid in my lungs and further complications if we waited, so another emergency c-section a short time later and I had a premature baby who only weighted 3lb 1 oz.

This time when we found out I was pregnant we immediately purchased a computerized/automatic blood pressure cuff. (Maybe $40 at CVS.) I was unhappy with the way my OB with my second pregnancy had not monitored me seriously (I was in her office the day before I collapsed with high blood pressure) and had dismissed my concerns (I tried to tell her I thought I was swelling at that appointment!) So I was determined that this time around I was going to get a doctor who dealt with high risk pregnancies and I was going to keep myself well monitored with the blood pressure cuff.

The blood pressure cuff I got comes with a green to yellow to red indicator to let you know how your blood pressure rates. Green is good, red is bad. They have two levels of green, one of yellow, and three of red. So when the night before last I couldn't sleep because of horrible spiking pain, vomiting, urge to "push," and blood pressure in the second level of red, I got really worried. When it didn't go away, and I kept vomiting and being in horrible pain and my blood pressure stayed in that red zone, I went in to Labor and Delivery after talking with the on call doctor. We didn't get there until after this had been going on for 8 hours so by the time I was hooked up to the monitors, the contractions/pain spikes were done, and my blood pressure was, I don't know what it was, but the nurse and doctor weren't concerned by it. Turns out I was really dehydrated, which brought on the pain and problems I was having. They hydrated me with an IV and sent me home.

Before we left, I showed my doctor the readings I'd had at home (I took my blood pressure about 5 times throughout the night) and he said that the top number wasn't high enough to be considered preeclampsia. I was too out of it to think to ask what was high enough to get worried about. After all, my blood pressure cuff said I was in the red zone! According to WebMD, the top number of 160 or a bottom number of 110 is the real RED ZONE. My highest reading for the night was "only" 132/102, so I wasn't there. That would have been nice to know before this all happened, but now that I know I'm going to ignore the colors on my cuff unless it's at the top red zone.

But I would like to share something sweet that did come out of all of this. I was holding it together just fine emotionally until we got into the L&D room and I was supposed to put on the gown. Then I lost it and became a crying, blubbering mess. My husband tried to comfort me, but I just needed to let it out. But that really upset the boys, especially Builder Boy, who looked like he was about to cry, too (we're new to the area and don't know anyone who could babysit, which is why the boys were at the hospital with us.) Once I made it in the gown and on the bed he took my hand and all on his own prayed for me and after that I didn't have any contractions and my pain level never went back to above a 4 (it had been spiking at a 7 before then.) It was such a beautiful comfort to see my child turn to God when he knew I was in need of help that he (Builder Boy) could not give me. A little while later Early Bird followed his example and did the same thing. 


I am so grateful for all the family, friends, and church members who got the message out and were praying for us. We felt those prayers, and every one of them was answered in the way we wanted them to be. Here's hoping for no more drama or worries until August 20th, the date of my scheduled c-section. Only 2 months and 6 days away!