Three of my students are pregnant.

I teach 8th grade.

I just wish more school districts would stop teaching abstinence only education and admit that, regardless if you approve or not, teens are going to have sex. Teach them how to protect themselves if they make that choice! I would love for them to let me teach sex ed. I wish 14 year olds weren't choosing to be sexually active, but if they're going to be, give them the knowledge they need and show them that, yes, even 14 year olds can get pregnant.

Anyway, it makes me super sad to think about how their lives are forever changed at such a young age. I LOVE Baby D more than everything, but having a baby is HARD. It's so many other positive things, but being easy isn't something parenthood is. And to have to have a baby and still have over 4 years of school left to complete before you graduate high school? I can't even imagine.

Anyway, off of that tangent.

Baby D is doing great. She has hit a majorly cranky stage, though. We think maybe she's already teething, even though she's only a little over 3 months old. She's irritable, drools a lot, and chews on her hands (which used to mean she was hungry, but refuses to eat when she's chewing on her hands). She was screaming in such a painful manor the other night that we finally broke down a gave her a little baby tylenol, which stopped the crying almost right away, so we think she was definitely in pain. I'm going to miss my girl's gummy smile!!

Having a growing baby is definitely bittersweet. I look forward to all of the things she'll be able to do within the next year - rolling over, crawling, walking, talking - but I will desperately miss the infant stage. Even with the unstoppable crying at times. She is just so perfect and beautiful. I will miss her rubberband wrists and her giant elbow dimple, her 14 chins, her perfectly soft baby skin. But at the same time I am looking forward to when she asks me if she can help me cook, or even when she comes padding into our room in the morning to wake us up! (Remind me of that when it annoys me)

Right now she's snoozing away on her newborn lounger (which she has almost outgrown), the morning light coming in and lighting up her little porcelain face. I love her!!