Archive for the ‘School’ Category

Baby update

Friday, April 9th, 2010

I kept thinking we’d get around to recording a short DFK podcast, but we haven’t yet. So here’s an update…

Good news! The ultrasound at 32 weeks showed that he’s right on track. In fact, he’s in the 52nd percentile in all of his measurements (weight, head, abdomen, length, etc.). This basically means out of 100 healthy babies at random, he’s bigger than 51 of them and smaller than 48 of them. It doesn’t explain why I’m measuring so much bigger, but we’ll take it. Of course, I’ve heard they can be off by as much as a pound on ultrasound measurements, (which would make him much much larger) but I’m choosing not to linger on that. Bonus: more baby pictures!

My appointment this week at 36 weeks went smoothly. I’m measuring at 38 weeks, but two weeks ago I was measuring at 37 weeks so I might be starting to level off. Looking at my pregnancy journal, I can see that it’s actually taken 12 weeks for my uterus to grow the equivalent of 10 weeks. At 24 weeks, I was measuring at 28 and at 36 weeks I’m measuring at 38. This makes me less concerned about measuring big.

I’ve gained a lot of weight. Like scary close to the weight I was before I lost all that weight. And if you remember how many pounds I lost, then you can guess within 10 pounds as to how much I’ve gained during pregnancy. They give you a weight range to try to stick to in gaining (based on your pre-pregnancy weight) and I flew by the high end on that range weeks ago. And I mean flew. And I mean weeks ago. I know in an instant I’ll lose like 10+ pounds with the baby and everything else that, umm, comes out. It’s just a mental thing. It confuses me because people tell me I look small. But I’m measuring big and weighing in big. So maybe people are just nice. But at my last appointment my doctor said “your blood pressure, your urine and your weight all still look good” so…we can add that to the list of things I love about her. I now will be going to appointments on a weekly basis until the baby comes.

Looking at my class schedule, it reminds me just how close we are to his arrival. I give a group presentation less than two weeks before our due date. It’s just weird to think about. Being two weeks before our due date pretty soon. Then, after my due date there are 3 classes left. Not really certain how that will all work out as I don’t know what my recovery will be like, but the professor said we’ll just play it by ear and work it out however we can. My hope is to only miss one class and then sit in class for the remainder of the weeks and just take notes – and then have Miles bring the baby half-way through the class (it lasts 3.5 hrs) so he can nurse before bed. In theory, it makes sense to me, but we have no idea what to expect. I do know that we have a final exam, so I am planning to at least be there for that.

Miles and me

Miles’s cousin Amber and aunt Karin threw a shower for the baby last weekend. We had a really good time and it was great to see everyone who came – many of whom I hadn’t seen in months! The baby scored a lot of loot and is loved already. We’re so excited to hold him and wrap him in all his new blankets and clean up his spit-up with all the new burp rags and dress him in dino outfits and change his diapers on his little butt. I’m obsessed with thinking about his little tiny hiney. Is that weird?

Animoto

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

I first heard of Animoto from friend Bryan. He was wondering if I’d recommend it for camp to use for slideshows. I was obviously no help. (End of my bad introduction paragraph.)

I’m in grad school right now to receive my M.Ed. in Teaching. I will be certified to teach K-12 Art if all goes as planned. One of my classes this semester is called Teaching and Learning with Technology. In this class we are learning a lot about different technologies we can incorporate into our classrooms. For a final project, we are to work in pairs to explore a particular technology tool and present it to the class, along with a how-to handout for our classmates to keep and refer to when they’re in the classroom. Well, my partner and I chose the Digital Photography category which just happened to have Animoto as one of the topics we could present on. (It has a great option for educators to apply for unlimited videos for them and their students. Awesome!) So I’ve been reading and messing around with it for about a half hour and it’s pretty sweet. It took less time to make the video than it did for it to render. And even then, it took about 5 minutes to render.

I thought I’d share my sample “messing around with Animoto” short. I’ll be making something a little more polished for the presentation. This is of little Anna, who we used to babysit, two years ago. Miss her.

(Also, I know. It’s been over 2 months. Get over it.)