We are so excited about adding a new baby to our family this summer. It seems like perfect timing as far as staying on track with our lessons without it all being too stressful. It also made me wonder how other homeschool moms do it all during the summer. Do you school year round? Do you choose just a few things to keep the kids fresh? Or do you use your summer to just have fun? What do you do when you are expecting a new baby?

Generally we homeschool year round. Instead of taking a long summer break we usually take frequent breaks during the year, it helps us prevent burn out. But since this summer we are expecting a new baby , I have been thinking that it would be good to take a little more of a break. We aren’t going to completely stop doing lessons. Every summer we do a math facts memorization and refresher course and I feel like the kids math skills would slip without it. We don’t do any other math. We just focus on facts. We do flashcards and math minutes and online games to help reinforce it all. The other thing we would like to do this summer is an intensive geography course. We use The Story of the World as our main history/ geography curriculum but the kids have shown a huge interest in learning the geography of the world. We figured summer would be a good time to pause from our regular curriculum and do this. I haven’t found anything that fits what I am looking for so I am going to develop my own (which I will be sharing on here) using books that I like and blank maps. The kids are begging to continue doing science so we are thinking about letting them do the Switched on Schoolhouse program for that. We will stop lessons a couple weeks before the baby is born and then continue them once everything has settled down. Our regular school schedule will start in early August.

I have been encouraging the kids to work extra hard to complete this year’s curriculum before the summer begins. I also needed enough time before the baby gets here to plan for next year. We have planned our spring break as an 8 day trip to Disneyland as our last “family of 7″ trip. Talk about motivation!

I was a little nervous about actually posting it on my blog because I was a little worried about the chance that I would have to come back and say, oh wait..no…. I am sure that those of you who have also experienced loss understand.

I am now 10 weeks and 5 days and everything is looking great. I have had the worst case of morning sickness of any pregnancy so far and unfortunately none of the remedies I have tried to far have been successful in helping. I am feeling less tired than I have with my other pregnancies so I am thankful for that. It’s a real blessing being able to keep up with my other children, for the most part anyway. I was even able to get back into the gym this week. Brian was hoping I would wait until we made it to the 12 week mark just to be safe but I just couldn’t wait. I just feel so much more positive about everything after a workout, it is amazing how much it helps my mood. I was starting to feel a little down and I knew I just needed to get back into the gym. I am taking it easy though and thinking about seeking out a personal trainer who can help me to find safe exercises to do while I am pregnant.

Here is a peek at our new little bun in the oven. (we are Bakers’ after all…)

This ultrasound was at 8 weeks. He or she already has Daddy’s head!

Thank you for sharing in this journey with us. Thank you for your praying for us.

You would think with 5 kids that it is easy for us. Well, there you would be wrong. I have PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome). My cycles are for lack of a better term.. all jacked up. I ovulate on a hit or miss basis. I am a mess. Really. I have lost at least 2 pregnancies very early. A little over a year ago after 8 months of trying to get pregnant we suffered our third loss with a molar pregnancy. It was a huge ordeal. It requires surgery. We had to wait an entire year to try again because when you have a molar pregnancy there is a risk for cancer. yes. cancer. from a pregnancy. I had no idea. Who knows this sort of thing?

After our year of  monthly cancer tests we got the all clear this June to get pregnant. So we have been trying. Last month we had success and then..failure.. I miscarried again…and then this month…another positive! But here is the deal. I got my positive test a mere 5 days after ovulation was indicated. A full 11 days before my period is actually due. Is that even possible?

I made an appointment with our OB, Dr.G. Let’s just say we stumped her a little. She was wondering…did I not actually miscarry and was I still pregnant from Sept.?…no I had ovulated in Oct….as crazy as it seems we even wondered for a second if I got pregnant twice at two different times…it was about this time that I am pretty sure my blood pressure went up a bit…there was no way we could have had a positive pregnancy test that soon after ovulation..right?

In comes the ultrasound machine. Dr.G murmuring information as she inputs it into the computer…she says name…birth date..LMP- who the hell really knows? nervous laugh..Then the words..it looks cystic…I covered my face with my hands…Dr. G said she was worried about another mole…I got cold…the room started to spin…”oh God, please not this again”…

She sent us down the hall a second more sophisticated ultrasound…the only cyst was on my ovary…healthy uterine lining…Praise God! and a “speck” that “could be a very early pregnancy”….or not…it’s just not real clear…but I could breath again. I could have kissed that sweet girl who did the ultrasound. No mole! We are safe. For now.

I had blood drawn to check on my Beta levels, and on my progesterone. We will get the results tomorrow. We are praying they look good. We will retest again on Friday to see how things are progressing.

So why am I telling you all of this? I need your prayer, scratch that our family needs your prayer. Yes, we already told our kids. They are receptive little beings and they already had the feeling something was up. They know when we are stressed. In the next few days there will be multiple trips back and forth to Dr. G. and I am not much on going to the doctor so they will be worried why all of the sudden I have to go so much. I would rather have them know the truth than to make up something in their own head and worry about that. Please just pray for peace to wash over us. No matter what the outcome. God’s will will be done in this and we trust He knows what is best for us. It may be painful. It may be joyous.