May 16

I really am terrible at blogging. I always mean to update and record but I go months and months with no entries. And then I regret it because I believe strongly that recording my unimportant and day to day activities is important to help me with my memories later on.

I'm now 26 weeks pregnant. We have chosen the name I picked, Noah. We are still unsure on middle name but my suggestion is Gabriel, Noah Gabriel. This name just came to me and I liked it without a lot of other names considered. Maybe it is God telling me the name for my son. :-)

My stomach illness has been nearly completely gone for over a month now and it is such a relief. I truly thought it would go to the end like Zach. I am much more comfortable this time than with Zach, perhaps due to the position Noah is in. He seems to be a lot lower than Zach was, but then again maybe I am just not remembering correctly. I continue to have some pelvic pain on certain movements and walking, but again nothing like my last pregnancy and overall feel quite good. My energy/exercise tolerance is low though. At this point I weigh approximately 176 pounds, or about 11 pounds over prepregnancy weight. My lowest weight during the pregnancy was during the first trimester at 160 pounds. I eagerly look forward to weight loss after pregnancy and am determined to finally do it this time and get back to a healthier weight and a more active lifestyle.

I continue to work part-time in QA and am enjoying the extra time. Lately I have been spending considerable time researching homeschool for Zach. I am 99% sure that is the way I want to go. There are so many benefits to it I won't even list them all here. Some of the strongest for me are strong family environment, learning catered to his style and interests and less negative influences of school. While religion is not at the top of my list, I also do thing I can more effectively teach our morals and Catholic tradition in a homeschool environment simply because I have more time to do it and more opportunities to discuss issues as they occur in regular day to day activities.

Zach continues to present several parenting challenges to another good portion of my free time goes towards reading parenting books searching for effective yet gentle solutions that give respect to him and leave him with positive self-esteem and good parent/child bond while still allowing us some sanity! 1-2-3 Magic worked really well for a while but seems to failing some and we need to relook at whether we have slacked off on strict administration of it. Or perhaps he is just going through a stage and this too shall pass.

I continue to struggle with housework and clutter in the midst of all of the above, ongoing. There just does not seem to be enough time in the day, which is puzzling given I used to work full time and do basically what I do now. My attitude on life is better though and stress is much less. Life overall continues to be quite good.

My current read: Parenting Without Punishment by John W. Maag, PhD