I, too, had my first (and only) just shy of my 39th birthday.  No problems with the pregnancy.  I started as a "high risk", if you will, in that I normally miscarried in the first few months (it's been 4 now), but as soon as that passed I was "down graded" to NORMAL.  I was very happy about that, however, if you're a high risk mom you get the nice rooms in the hospital ha ha...  (If you look hard enough you can always find something good.)

I wouldn't have a second thought about being an "old" woman and being pregnant!  Don't worry about it!  I'm sure that all will go well and when it's all said and done and you're lying in the hospital bed with your little one sleeping in the bassinet beside you you'll shake your head at yourself and all the worrying you did over nothing.  I wish you well.

Dear Kimbosan,

I, too, started to try to get pregnant when I was 34...and I,too, know the deep agony of trying unsucessfully to have a baby.  I know that the pain is far, far deeper than anyone around you can even guess.  I will share what I know and pray that you will find something to spur your own research.

I became pregnant within three months of trying but we lost that baby to miscarriage.  It never even dawned on me that that would, or even could, happen to me.   It took us a long time to become pregnant again even though we tried almost immediately. It was during that time that I began to educate myself about how a woman's body works - how it prepares to become pregnant, how it gets pregnant and how it maintains a pregnancy.  I HIGHLY suggest you getting your hands on a copy of "Taking Charge of Your Fertility".  It is a huge book with so much information.  You may find it at your local library, but it was a 3 month wait at mine to get it.  Luckily, I found a friend who had it.  It's pretty pricey - but if you can't read it for free (friend or library) BUY IT, BUY IT BUY IT!!!!

First of all, at your age, DO NOT wait any longer to see a fertility specialist.  If a woman under 30 is unable to become pregnant within ONE year they should see someone.  If a woman over 30 is unable to become pregnant with SIX MONTHS they are encouraged to see a specialist.  This is so that valuable time is not wasted.  It could be as simple as taking a prometrium supplement and your hormones may become balanced enough to get pregnant and maintain the pregnancy.  Not all women who are unsuccessful at the beginning have major problems.  My girlfriend, Jen, struggled with this and finally went to see a fertility specialist and was prescribed a prometrium supplement.  I, on the other hand, had to take the prometrium supplement, an ASA pill and daily heparin shots.  I'm happy to say that we both became pregnant and Jen's baby is a week younger than mine!

Kimbosan, the most important thing is that if your heart is okay with just trying for a few more years then do it.  If not, do not delay.  Ask your doctor for a referal to a specialist.  If he or she says no, find a different doctor who will.  Even when you get a referal you usually have to wait several months (our clinic has a 4-6 month wait right now!).  Maybe you'll get pregnant while you are still on the waiting list, but if you're not, you'll be happy to have an appointment scheduled.

So, to recap:  buy the book & see a specialist...a very simple solution could be waiting for you!

And, yes, continue to take your prenatal vitamins and I'd recommend a B Complex of sorts -it will help you with your stress levels.

If I can help in any way feel free to PM me.

My son is 21 months now so we've got some time to think things out, but we're seriously looking at homeschooling as an option.  (As someone else pointed out in a different thread, we're all homeschooling by giving our kids YBCR, LR, Little Pim, etc, but I'm referring to official "my kid is kindergarten age we need to tell the government" homeschooling)

I'm wondering if there's anyone out there who is or who knows of a family who homeschools an only child.  Do you think it is significantly different to homeschool just one child as opposed to a larger family group?  Is there anything I should be concerned with in regards to it being a "just mommy & me" thing?  I plan to sign him up for music, gymnastics, & miscellaneous other group lessons.  I guess what I'm really looking for is assurance that he'll be no worse for wear if we teach him alone at home as opposed to sending him to a group setting as in a public school.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

My little one is 21 months old.  He has been showing a lot of interest in the two children's atlases we have.  We'll be buying him a globe for Christmas.  That's it.  We bought a mini trampoline a few months ago and we may give him that now, too. His grandparents and aunts & uncles go a bit overboard with gifts so we won't be doing a whole lot more.

Hmmm....in reading TheyCan's comment I decided to take a quick look at my stash of books.  I haven't read my son (21mo) very many fairy tales, but most, I'd say a good 2/3 of the fiction books in my library (I used to teach lower elementary so I have about 3-400 kid books), has talking animals...just 5 minutes ago I read "Who stole the cookies from the cookie jar" - animals talking to other animals in search of the cookies... 

I know very, very little about Montessori.  So, TheyCan, can you clarify to me what they recommend?  Is it only non-fiction that they recommend?  And when do they suggest introducing these types of books?  My son has started pretend play - feeding his stuffed dog ("Bones") and showing it different things around the house ("See toes Bonesy?")...but come to think of it, I don't recall him ever seeing a real dog yet...other than pictures & dvds...  Anyway, I'm rambling...

Hi Mother of Faith,

Are you asking about rhyming or TRADITIONAL nursery rhymes?  As a kindergarten teacher I NEVER taught the traditional nursery rhymes - mainly because I thought that they were the rhymes that mom and dad knew and that they could do at home, also because I, personally, find them boring.  I always did ALOT with rhyming though.   ALOT.  As TheyCan stated, rhyming is very, very important so whatever you can do with rhymes is great.

That said, I came home from the library with a Mother Goose book the other day and my 21 month old can't get enough of it!  So, I'm reading Humpty Dumpty, Sing a song of Sixpence, and Hey Diddle Diddle four to five times a day!  (Why do kids gravitate to things you don't like????)

Kizudo

To add to Laughingwater's question...  Do you have an estimated schedule as to when you'll introduce French?

Hi Waterdreamer,

My humble suggestion: Show him on a hundred chart how you get to the number ten in the first row, then twenty in the second row, then thirty in the next...

After you've shown him that the number 21 comes AFTER twenty play a little "I'm thinking of" game.  Ie.  "Mommy's thinking about a number that is one bigger than 9.  Put a raisin on the number Mommy is thinking about."  Do a few numbers under 10 then try 11, 13, 12 before going on to 20 and 21.  This is a fun game for trying a number of things - subtraction, addition, mult, div, etc. 

Also, you could cover a few numbers on your hundred chart with an opaque piece of construction or cardboard paper and make him guess what number is under it.

Games always work better for me...I'm all about the fun

Oh, Waterdreamer...so nice of you to say nice things about me...you don't even know the half of my craziness yet!!!  (bwa haa haa  - that's my Count impersonation)

And Khatty, how do you remember where people are from????  Amazing.

Hope you're both having a great day!

We're doing colours (and shapes) right now (I have a 20 month old, too).   

I have a calendar posted with a large black poster board beside it.  On the black posterboard I have a white sheet of paper on which I have a shape drawn with the word below (ie. this week it's "square").  Just beside this shape paper I have a construction paper with it's word printed on it (ie. this week it's "blue").  Below I've stuck several blue square things (lid, duplo block, small bag).  Daily we look at the black poster board and then stick a blue square sticker (that I coloured and cut out of mailing labels) on to the calendar. Then we say "Today is Monday, November 9th" (not that he gets that part, yet, but one day he will). 

During the week we'll do different square arts ("mosaic" - sticking various coloured or sized squares all over his sheet as he likes, glue a "tower" made with squares, trace them with a crayon, etc).  We'll also do blue activities, too (sort his duplo, go on a scavenger hunt, glue down misc. things to a black piece of const paper (last week we did yellow - a leaf sticker, a feather and a pompom were some).  Not to imply that we don't look at other shapes or colours during the week, but we focus on these colours/shapes more.

We'll do this for the entire week (Sunday to Saturday - so he can see a row of 7 of the same colour and shape) then change colours and shapes the next week.  He seems to like it and he's really trying to name colours more now.  Plus, it's good hand/eye coordination for him to try to get the sticker in the right spot (believe me - this is probably the trickiest part of it all! )

Re:  "The Cat in the Hat"  and teaching science

My sister just gave us a set of books from "The Cat in the Hat's Learning Library".  They are what they call "transition" books from fiction to non-fiction.  They still have the familiar rhyming of the Dr.Seuss books but they give LOTS of facts about the highlighted topic.  (sea creatures, weather, dinosaurs, healthy living, insects, space, mammals, birds).  These are a lot of fun (and interesting for Mom & Dad, too!).  I'd recommend the splurge ($14/book - or much cheaper I believe at Costco).

Two days ago we sat down to do LM & LR.  As usual my son squirmed during LM but when I put on LR he calmed right down.  As I was scrolling down to our lesson he started shouting "Dog!  Dog!  Dog!"  I looked all over my screen (the LR screen, the screen saver, etc.) and I couldn't see any dog so I said "There's no dog, honey." and got the lesson going.  Yesterday he did the same thing.  When the program opened and I was scrolling down to our lesson he again began shouting "Dog, Dog, Dog!"  This time I figured out what was going on...on the top of the LR tool bar there is a small icon of a printer.  Coming out of the printer is a "page" with the letters d-o-g on it.  Turns out there was a dog after all!!!!

Same for me...we want our son to enjoy classical music and therefore are exposing him to it using "Classical Magic".  It covers many different composers and eras.  In fact, after listening to Vivaldi's Spring from the Four Seasons only about 3 or 4 times, today when I put it on he said "Baldy?" and "Conchero?"  (he's 19 months and has got the idea if not the pronounciation!).

Hi Lappy,

I got it today!  However, I'm on Day 72 and the words sent to me are from Day 1. 

Is it correct to assume that you are suggesting that I review these words with my son or should I be bumped up to the lists that we are studying currently?  If that is the case, how in the world would you keep track of what day everyone was on to send the right list???

Thanks for your help.
 
   

Thanks for telling us about him, Waterdreamer!  I love this guy! 

This one's my favourite   http://www.youtube.com/user/Readeez#p/u/14/ODy1at58D_o

But the "Tonite & Every Night" one is so sweet too.