Last thursday night, we had another doctor appointment. All is well...thus, the long delay in getting this post written...some 3 days later!!! My apologies in advance for this lengthy post...I hope you find it worthwhile. So, before you start scrolling, grab some snack or something to drink...
It was a standard issue appointment for us; no special purpose nor test to run that night. We listened to baby's heart beat again...still, the coolest sound in the world! We also asked her some questions we had thought about during our last baby class and since then. As of tomorrow, we're officially 35 weeks along on this journey...I call the journey magical, while Laura calls it long!!! We did learn that we will now be frequent flyers at the doctor from now on as we'll be heading there weekly until baby arrives. We were also told that we will now let baby come when she wants out!!! Prior to now, they would have given Laura medicine or tried other things to prevent labor, but now baby gets to call the shots!!! She also said that after a few weeks, if baby wants out, she won't need to spend as much time in the intensive care unit for premature babies as she'll be more developed. So...we're keeping our fingers crossed that she is comfy inside mom for at least a few more weeks, if not more...even though mom is definitely not comfy with baby in there!!!
I've also created a new plan for Laura this last month of pregnancy. The plan is called, "You're going to sit on the couch and do nothing, and you're going to like it!" Laura has been wayyyyy too active over the past few weeks. The doctor reinforced her need to take it easy and listen to her body, especially since she has been so uncomfortable. If she's exercising for short periods of time, that is perfectly fine, but she needs to limit her activities overall. Since she is pretty stubborn and independent, I've taken it upon myself to help her remember this important information, hence, my new plan!!! I told the doctor she had been fairly active over the past few weeks and I thought she had been overdoing it lately. The doctor said if she needs to do any shopping or errands and other activities where she is on her feet, she really needs to limit herself to an hour or so and then get off her feet for some resting.
I'll mention this just briefly since I don't have pictures on here yet, but the nursery is almost finished. We hung a shelf and some pictures this weekend to begin the finishing touches for the baby room. Last weekend, Laura and her mom made valances for the windows...and they look awesome! We did another 2 loads of laundry of all baby clothes, thanks to the baby shower my family threw for Laura last weekend...and lots of purchases from both grandmas!!! I'll spend some time writing about this room at another time...and yes, I'll include pictures!
I'm not sure if I've told you about baby names yet, so I figured I should let you in on that. We had names picked out for a boy and girl for a long time...probably at least since we've been married. Since we found out Laura was pregnant, we both wanted to switch the girl's name for various reasons. We loved the boy's name, but we'll hold onto it incase we ever need it again. As for the girl, we've had our work cut out for us lately! Since we found out it was a girl, we've had many conversations about names. We've looked up the top girl names online many times. Most have been easy to eliminate for us, and some have been super easy for me to say no to...especially as a teacher!!! Laura will mention a name and I don't even need to hear it fully pronounced before I quickly say, "NO!!!" due to a nightmare/flashback of a previous student!!! We both came up with a short list of names we both liked and threw the names out there once in a while to see how they sounded. So now, some 5 weeks away from our baby's birth, we've narrowed the list down to 2 possible names. And no, nobody gets to know until she arrives...not even the grandmas!!! So, stay tuned...
And finally, to wrap up this long post, I wanted to share a project I worked on in cooperation with my middle school students. I had them write a personal memoir of an important event that changed their life. I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to do some reflecting on my life's moments as well. (I also think the kids appreciated their teacher taking on such a big writing assignment with them!) I plan to put all of my Daddy Diary posts together into some sort of book for our baby to read at some point in her life, and I thought it would be great for her to here about my most important moment in my life prior to her arrival...it may not be what you think it is!!! So, I'll wrap up this post with my usual words of gratitude and appreciation to you all for reading my Daddy Diary. Laura, baby _________, Lexi and I all thank you for your continued kind words, thoughts, best wishes and/or prayers you've been sending our way for the past 35 weeks. Enjoy my memoir...
Mr. Lemke’s Personal
Memoir
Everyone makes memories as they go through life. Most of my memories are about family or
friends and doing something fun. The
most memorable moment in my life was the day I graduated high school because
that was the day I started viewing my life differently than I had before.
Before I graduated high school I was
an immature kid with limited thoughts and views on life. As I look back, I now realize that I walked
through my first 18 years of life in a selfish way. Before my graduation, I don’t think I had
many good friendships. In fact, I don’t
think many of the people I considered to be friends, were good friends at the
time. I think back to my middle school
years when my buddies would always make mean jokes about me, just to make other
people laugh. I considered them friends
because they would often make me laugh because they teased others in the same
way they teased me. Currently, of all
the close friends I had through my high school graduation, I still hang out
with one of them, and I don’t see him too often! My views on life were very limited before I
graduated. I was very stubborn, and I
made my decisions based on little information, and I didn’t change my point of
view even if I was wrong about something. When I was a sophomore in high
school, my outlook on life slowly started to change when I first had Ms. Lufkin
as my US History teacher. I had always
loved history, so I was able to connect with Ms. Lufkin very easily. She stands out in my mind as my favorite teacher
because she always seemed to care more about me as a person, rather than as her
history student. She quickly became my
favorite teacher that year, and I still consider her to be my favorite teacher
today; 10 years since I last left her classroom before graduation. My senior year, I took a class called
“Leadership” with Ms. Lufkin. I tried to
take this class many times before, but it was always cancelled due to low
enrollment. Taking this class was a
highlight of my senior year because it changed my thinking forever. Our textbook that year was called, “7Habits
of Highly Effective Teens.” This book,
with the help of Ms. Lufkin’s caring personality and coaching, changed the way
I thought. I would no longer go through
life making excuses for not doing things, nor would I sit around waiting or
hoping for things to happen or change; I would decide how I would live my. As my graduation loomed, I knew my time as a
“child” would end as I entered the “real world” as a legal adult beginning my
“real life.”
I never looked at life the same
again the day after I graduated from high school. The day I graduated, I began living my life
by focusing on my values and morals, and not doing things I felt others wanted
me to do. I don’t remember too many
details from that day itself, but I remember waking up the next morning and
feeling like a totally new person. At
the ceremony, I remember one of my favorite teachers giving a speech and
motivating us new graduates to reach for the stars as we walked through life. I remember walking across the stage and
shaking hands with school district officials I had never met. I remember hanging out with my classmates
that night during an all night “lock-in” at the school. To this day, I have not spoken with most of
those people since graduation night. The
day after the lock-in, I remember waking up with a new outlook on life. I no longer needed to act cool at school. I no longer needed to see people I didn’t get
along with each day. I no longer had my
life ruled by an hourly bell. My life
was now mine to control and do what I wanted with it. I recall going through my cell phone and
deleting people who used to call me to get help on homework, or those that
would want to hang out with me if their other friends were busy. Most importantly, I began treating people
differently. The day after I graduated,
I also realized that the girl I was dating wasn’t the girl I planned to marry
and that the relationship would likely end when I went away to college that
fall. I realized that relationships were
actually partnerships and friendships. I
viewed her as a girlfriend, but not as a best friend. I was putting more effort into the
relationship at times than she was, and I felt that I wasn’t getting something
out of the relationship that I was emotionally looking for. I realized I needed to be in a relationship
with someone that I wanted to be with forever.
My graduation day made me who I am today because I am guided
by my values and morals. I take pride in
my integrity by always doing what I feel is the right thing to do, even if it
is unpopular to do so. Before I
graduated, I acted in selfish ways that only benefited me; I would help others
if I got something out of it. Since that
day, I began taking genuine interest in other people and their lives. I ask how people are doing because I want to
hear about their lives. I began helping
others in need because I felt my life would be wasted if I only cared about
myself. Today, I enjoy helping others
and expect nothing in return. I try
listening more to friends and others in need, rather than talking more. I value the opinions of others even if I
disagree with those ideas because they make me see the other side of the
argument. After my graduation, my
priorities in life shifted. I was no
longer concerned with petty or childish things. I was focused on important things in life like
being successful at everything I did.
Before graduation, I quit many things in life; whether it was baseball,
Tae Kwon Do, soccer, cross country running or other activities. Since my graduation day, I haven’t quit
anything even if I would have benefited from quitting. During my second year teaching, I was offered
a full time job that would have paid me almost 3 times as much as I made as a
part time teacher, but I didn’t take the job because I felt it would have been
wrong to quit and leave my colleagues, but most importantly, I couldn’t leave
my students behind in the middle of the year.
I’m determined to be successful at all I do, and I’m determined to prove
others wrong. My leadership class with
Ms. Lufkin helped me to start coming “out of my shell” and paying attention to
others as well as to start taking control of my life. Without Ms. Lufkin’s wisdom and caring
personality, I would not have a mentor who I look up to so much today as a
young teacher. Without that class I
don’t think I would’ve caught the attention of Laura, who is now my wife, when
we first started college! I can truly
say that Laura makes me a better person.
She is a great person, and if I hadn’t changed who I was, I know I would
not have deserved a chance to be lucky enough to be her boyfriend in
college. My dad told me a long time ago
that I should marry my best friend. To
this day, that’s the best advice he ever gave me, because I have truly married
the greatest friend I could ever ask for.
I attribute all of these details of my life today to my graduation day.
Before my graduation day, when I entered the real world, I
viewed life as an immature kid who only cared about himself. Today, I am happy to say, I am a caring adult
who is determined to be successful at whatever I do in life, and I will be guided
by the good and caring people I surround myself with on daily basis. Since my graduation, my family has become
much more than a source of annoyance to me; they are a support network that
encourages me and motivates me to do the best and be the best at all I do. My parents, wife and other family members are
all cheering for me as I help build AVID in Inver Grove Heights, and all are
hopeful that my hard work will be rewarded with a successful program and more
work for me in the future. I’m looking
forward to passing along my values to my baby girl when she is born in a couple
of months; before my graduation changed my life, I don’t think I would have
passed along good enough values to my child.
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