First Days of School

Two quick "afterschool" photo from this week...

School started on Tuesday - which was also the day we had our doctor's appointment and our childbirth class in which we got to view the birth... needless to say, it was a long week!

We'll start with school. First of all, the girls in my class are enamored with my stomach. A few of them have caught glimpses of Oakes moving and think it's the coolest thing in the world. And the parents of my students have been amazing and very supportive as they realize I'm in my last month of pregnancy and am bound to teach until Oakes arrives. I still can't get used to the belly and I have undoubtedly hit at least 5 kids in the head with my belly this week as I try squeezing behind kids to help them with their work. Luckily they just laugh at me. :) On another note, my air conditioning has been out since last Wednesday and while Asheville weather is mild compared to Charleston, it has certainly been hot in my classroom. Add 27 kids after recess to that mix and now it's hot and smelly. After coming into my room nearly every single day, the maintenance guys finally fixed it this past Thursday. Now it's blowing so cold the kids are wearing jackets and I'm cooling off a little. :) However, with the August heat and being back on my feet all day, the feet swelling hit a new level. Here's a photo of the feet after the first day of school and after the doctor's appointment as well as a comparison photo from the summer of 2005...

The doctor wasn't too worried as it is just my feet (no hands, face, or other area are swelling), my protein levels and blood pressure are completely normal, and from this point on he sees me every week so we're just going to keep an eye on it. Boy are they ugly and painful, though! Feels like someone smacked the outsides of my ankles with a hammer.

Oakes is doing great - we had our first internal exam on Tuesday and he's at -3 station (high up in there!) with no dilation and no effacement. I'm very happy about this as I want to make it at least to the due date, maybe a few days later. His heartrate is 168 bpm (with no candy beforehand!) and we're measuring right on target with my 35 weeks.

We also bought a new camera this week. Evan was very adamant about wanting a good camera to take Oakes' first photo and he wanted some time to play with the camera so that he'll be ready to capture those first moments. He's been researching a few cameras for a while and after seeing a friend's photos who has the same camera, he was completely convinced. So last night at 8:30, we caved in and went to the store to make the purchase. We got a good deal on it and now we have a month to play with it. I've got to say that it does take some amazingly crisp shots - if we can figure out how to use it in the next week, you may be seeing the rest of the belly shots taken with the new camera.

So that's it for now. We have another doctor's appointment late on Tuesday afternoon and another childbirth class on Tuesday night. Tuesdays seem like they may be rather busy for us over the next few weeks...