Thoughts on teaching while pregnant

One of the reasons I decided to go into teaching is because I always thought it would be a great job to have if I had to be a working mom. I still believe this because teaching allows you to be home in the afternoons and evenings with your family. You get every weekend and holiday off. And of course you have the whole summer to play with your kids. It's also a job that provides good benefits. Yet as great as teaching is when you have to be or want to be a working mom I'm starting to think it's one of the worst jobs for being pregnant. The reasons being are:

- You can't cut back on your hours when you are huge, exhausted, swollen, and feel like your back may break at any moment

- You have to go to the bathroom every 30 minutes but unfortunately your classes are 100

minutes long and the nearest bathroom is 100 yards away

- You have to wake up at 5:30 in the morning after a night of tossing and turning because no position is comfortable when your belly is that large

Even though it is getting really hard to work full time at this stage of my pregnancy, I'm very grateful for my job. It's been very hard but also rewarding and it's helped Ethan and I a lot. I was able to get Ethan in state tuition our first year because of my job. I also have good insurance through my job. We have both been very blessed since moving to ABQ and we are about to become a whole lot more blessed with the addition of our little guy in only 5 1/2 weeks! We are so excited and can't wait for it to be December 7th! Now if only I can find enough energy to finish the nursery!

33 Weeks Pic

Alright, so Ethan makes me take pictures like all the time. Unfortunately I hate most of the pictures because they have basically all been taken at 6:30 in morning in our poorly lit apartment so I have been bad about posting them. But thanks to the harassment of my family I'm finally putting one up. This picture was taken at 33 weeks and 4 days. I definitely feel bigger every day now. He is growing so much. I finished painting the nursery this weekend and now I'm just waiting for a couple things I ordered to come in so I can finish it completely. I know I'm probably putting more effort into this nursery than I should since we will only be in it for another year or so but it's worth it to me. Ethan says that the baby won't care what it looks like but I said that I will be spending almost as much time in their as the baby and I DO care! Luckily Ethan typically ends up liking and appreciating what I do. Anyways back to the pic, here it is:

So other than me becoming larger by the second, I've just been working and trying to get everything ready for our addition. Ethan has been working hard at law school and stressing out about Cougar football. We have also been trying to give our pups a lot of attention because they will probably feel a little neglected when we bring home the baby. Here are our babies enjoying some quality daddy time

The Final Countdown

Ok so it may be too early to say it's the final countdown but I really only have 7 weeks and 1 day until my due date. Sometimes when I think about 7 weeks I think it is still forever away and other times I think Ethan and I need to take advantage of these last weeks we have being child free. I am so excited and nervous about being a mommy. I'm mostly nervous about the labor and delivery but I know I can get through it. My parents were in town this past weekend and they helped us out so much. We got a cute light fixture in Trey's room and my handyman dad installed it. For some reason the apartment complex had a little plastic box covering the place where you could put a light fixture so we have been living without a light in that room for over a year now. Trust me lamps don't light up a room like a ceiling light. We got the travel system assembled. We picked up our rocking chair and my parent gave us a dresser. Oh and my mom found an awesome lamp that matches the theme of the nursery. Everything is coming together. All I really need now is a baby swing so I can still shower and cook while the baby is awake. The nursery is about half done and hopefully will be completely finished in the next 2-3 weeks. I'll post pictures soon. I've had a really easy pregnancy up until this point. It has definitely gotten more difficult in the past 2 weeks or so. I have to use the bathroom every hour, sleep is no longer my best friend, my hands and feet swell and I had to send my wedding ring home with my parents. Rings don't look so pretty when you have hot dog fingers. Hearburn is not fun and I now must have perfect posture since bending hurts. The baby likes to either be high in my ribs or low on my bladder. He gets the hiccups a lot lately which was cute at first but now I find it very distracting. But even though it has gotten harder I'm still so grateful to be at this point without any complications. He already makes me so happy and it will only get better from here. On a brighter pregnancy note, I'm right on track with my weight gain. I'm hoping to only gain the minimum of 25 pounds and right now i've gained 18. I'm supposed to gain about 1 pound per week until he comes. I know I'm bad about posting pictures but I'll try to get a 33 week picture up in the next few days and maybe a sneak peak of the nursery as well.