What A Week!

Last week, my husband and I drove 2400 miles across the country. R had to be in South Carolina for a military school, so we decided to make a mini-vacation out of the drive out there. We started planning this trip before I knew I was pregnant. I wasn't sure if it would work when I found out I was pregnant, but as the pregnancy progressed without complications and after talking to my doctor, we decided to go ahead with it. We took our time and stopped to stretch a lot, and overall, I felt great during the whole trip. 

I love road trips with my husband. It takes away all the distractions and we get to really connect. We also saw beautiful parts of the country, did some fun things and ate some good food. Our first major destination was Chicago.We spent two days there, starting things off with a Chicago White Sox game. The WS are R's favorite baseball team, and they won. It was also bring your dog to the park night. All of the dogs and their owners paraded around the park before the game. It was so cute! We stayed in a hotel downtown and walked around downtown the next day, even though it was rainy and windy.
I had my first Chicago deep dish pizza, and it was Ah-mazing!

I had several different strangers comment on or congratulate me on my pregnancy for the first time in Chicago. It was kinda strange, but it felt good. It's amazing how complete strangers will smile or talk to a pregnant woman. It somehow softens people. I don't quite understand it, but it's really interesting.

Our next stop was Kentucky to visit R's aunt and uncle. They live right in the heart of hourse racing country. It was beautiful, and I so enjoyed our time there. Finally, we made it to South Carolina. Before I had to fly home, we had time to explore the Fort where R will be spending the next 6 weeks. It wasn't until I was packing my bags that it hit me, I won't see my husband for 6 weeks. I had been so pre-occupied with planning the trip that I didn't have time to think about the 6 weeks that would follow. I know many military families go much longer separated from their loved one, and I know 6 weeks is a relatively short time, especially in the scope of a life time. But, I did break down and cry when I thought about being away from my best friend, my biggest supporter and my other half. And, when I got home to an empty house (well besides my animals who were very happy to see me) I cried off and on all afternoon.  But, I haven't cried since then. I know these 6 weeks will go by fast for both of us. R is so busy, he won't have time to think about the clock ticking, and I have several things to do. I am planning to drive to visit my family and new niece this weekend, and my mom is coming out to visit me in a few weeks. I also want to start getting the house ready for baby. I started feeling like I have a cold yesterday, but it isn't a full blown cold and not the typical cold symptoms. I am wondering if I am getting seasonal allergies. I have never gotten them before, but I have heard that it's possible to start getting allergies while pregnant. I really hope it doesn't turn into a full blown cold, because if it does, I really shouldn't being visiting my niece. I guess time will tell.

One of my goals is to do weekly updates with pictures, mainly so my husband can see my belly growing while he is away.

I had my 23 week appointment on Monday and everything looked good. My doctor commented on how much my belly/uterus has grown, but he said it is right where it should be. Little girl was moving all over the place while we tried to listen to her heartbeat. I don't really know if our baby moves more than the average baby. I just know that she moves A Lot, and I love every second of it. I also got the bottle of orange syrup for the blood glucose test at my next appointment. How crazy is that?! It is one of those milestones that I wasn't sure I would ever see.

I don't have a 23 week picture, but here are a couple pictures from 21 weeks. I will definately have a new picture within the week.

We have a very fiesty girl growing in my tummy

I had my 20 week ultra sound on Monday afternoon, and we found out that we are having a girl!  She definately made the ultra sound tech work to get the "money shot", but we finally got it. She was such a wiggler. She didn't stop moving for the entire 30 minute ultra sound. As soon as the u/s tech would try to get a shot of her heart or kidneys, she would twist and turn. That was probably the best part of the 30 minutes, just seeing her move all over the place. R and I were both surprised that she isn't a he, but we are so excited. I have to say, knowing that we will have a little girl makes it so much more real. I find myself getting teary eyed when I hear father daughter or mother daughter stories, because I can start to imagine R and I raising a little girl.

The first question I get from people when I tell them that we found out we are having a girl is, do you have a name picked out?  And the answer is, no, not even close. We thought it was a boy until yesterday and we didn't even have boy names narrowed down. We haven't talked really seriously about names yet. For me, I think this was partly because I was afraid to think too far into the future. I just wanted to take one day at a time, which meant not committing to a name or buying baby items. It is really starting to sink in and starting to feel like we will really be holding a baby in 5 months. I think we better start getting serious about baby names. We both think that we will have a few names in mind but we will wait until we see our baby to know for sure what her name should be. I am really into name meanings too. The meaning of a name is just as important to me as how it sounds. We have a long road trip coming up, so I am planning to bring the baby name book and start digging in to baby girl names.

48 Hours of Labor!

My sister-in-law is amazing! She went into labor on Sunday morning at 1 am. Her contractions started at 20 minutes apart and by Sunday afternoon they were 6-10 minutes apart. She called her doctor and he said to go ahead and go to the hospital and get checked out. Since they have a 40 minute drive to the hospital they didn't want to wait too long. When they got to the hospital, they found out that she was only dilated 2 cm, so they told them to come back in 2 hours. They walked around and got some dinner, and then returned to the hospital. She hadn't progressed at all, so they were sent home at 11 pm Sunday night. She continued to labor all night at home. They went back to the hospital Monday mid-morning, and she had dilated to 4 cm, so she was admitted. This poor girl labored all day without pain meds. By that evening her contractions were right on top of each without a break in between, and she was still only dilated 3-4 cm. She really wanted to have a natural birth, but finally decided to get an epidural when things weren't progressing. Thankfully, the epidural helped her to rest and relax, and she began dilating. She had her baby girl at 2 am on Tuesday morning, after 48 hours of labor! I am so proud of her and overjoyed for her and my brother! My sweet little niece is healthy and everyone is doing well. They are very proud parents, and my goodness, what a story my SIL has to tell!

My sister-in-law is in labor!

My younger brother and his wife are also pregnant. I mentioned thier pregnancy announcement back in September. My SIL is due on May 8th and had a wonderful pregnancy. I just heard this afternoon that they were on their way to the hospital after SIL had been in labor since earling this morning. I am so excited for them!

I drove the 9 hours to visit them and go to SIL's baby shower a few weeks ago. It was so fun to see each other pregnant and get to share that special day with her. She got so many adorable girl outfits, so fun! SIL's mom made the most amazing cupcakes. They were almost too beautiful to eat.....almost. :-)  My mom made SIL a baby quilt that is adorable and goes with the colors in her nursery.

My mom and my aunt took a picture 30+ years ago when my aunt was days away from giving birth to my cousin and my mom was holding my oldest brother in her arms. They are standing back to back, my aunt pointing at her belly and my mom pointing at my brother. I have always loved this picture, so I knew I wanted to get a back to back picture of my SIL and myself. Hopefully we will get another one when I am almost due, with SIL holding her baby girl.

Here are some pictures from the shower. I was 16 weeks pregnant at the time and SIL was 36 weeks. The maternity dress I was wearing makes me look VERY pregnant. I don't look that pregnant in other outfits.

Can't wait to get word from my family when my niece is born!

Almost 20 weeks

I am so frustrated with myself for waiting so long to update, because there are so many things that I don’t want to forget about this pregnancy and the things that have been happening in our life lately. So, I am going to attempt to work much harder at updating regularly.


I will be 20 weeks pregnant in 3 days. I stopped feeling nauseous somewhere between 15 and 16 weeks. I have been feeling pretty great lately. I have a bit of reflux type stuff going on, but no heart burn and no nausea. I have pretty much gone back to eating almost everything that I was eating prior to pregnancy. I don’t think there any foods that I am avoiding, like I did in the 1st trimester, which is great! I still have that weird metallic taste in my mouth most of the time, but I think I have just learned to live with it. I am not as tired as I was, but I wouldn’t say that I am bursting with energy. My belly seems to have grown exponentially in the past 4 weeks. It is definitely getting big, and I think it is starting to look more like a pregnant belly and less like belly pudge.

I continue to be amazed every day that I am carrying life inside of me. It’s not that I thought from the very beginning of the pregnancy that I would lose this baby, but I haven’t really allowed myself to think too far into the future. I have just taken one day and one week at a time. I haven’t had any reason to think there would be any problems with this pregnancy, I think it just goes back to years of infertility and then three losses in a row (with the adoption, chemical pregnancy and then miscarriage all within 4 months). While I felt very blessed in most aspects of my life and certainly didn’t consider myself to be depressed, I just learned to expect disappointment, and it’s really hard to change that mindset. Right now, I feel ridiculously, lavishly blessed. I feel like I am living a dream that I don’t want to wake up from. I really cannot remember the last time that I was so happy.

Can we talk about baby movement? It is seriously the coolest thing! I felt absolute, without a doubt movement at 16 weeks, and it has gotten progressively stronger and more consistent since then. I definitely feel it distinctly every day, several times a day. R felt it from the outside a week ago when I was 18 weeks pregnant. We had just laid down in bed, and I was pressing on my belly just below my belly button to feel the uterus. Apparently I woke the little guy/girl up, because it felt like he/she started doing flips. I quickly put R’s hand on my belly and he felt another flip. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. He felt a few more kicks and jabs after that. I don’t think he has felt any movement since then, but he tries. He often puts his hand on my belly while laying in bed, but baby hasn’t been cooperating. I have felt movement from the outside a few times myself, a lot of times right after I wake up in the morning. 

I had some cramping on Thursday of this week. I wasn’t super worried about it, but it was the first time I had felt any menstrual like cramping. It was slightly uncomfortable to painful at times. I decided to call the doctor’s office, just to be safe. I assumed they would tell me not to worry about it, but if it gets worse to let them know. I was surprised when they told me to come into the office because they can’t evaluate the seriousness of cramping over the phone. I felt kinda silly for seeing the doctor after only 30 minutes of cramping. They checked for a bladder infection (it was negative), and the doctor checked my cervix. Everything looked great, my cervix was long and thick, and I got to hear the baby’s heart beating on the doppler. My doctor said that cramping is normal, but I have to figure out what is a normal level for me. He said to call if it gets worse, of course. The cramping promptly stopped when I got to the doctor’s office and I haven’t felt it since.

Our 20 week ultra sound is scheduled for Monday…..yay!! I am so excited! We had an ultra sound at the pregnancy resource center at 17 weeks. We planned to find out the sex of the baby then, but the baby had other plans. Once we got to the point of checking the sex, the baby had its legs crossed and tucked underneath itself, so we couldn’t see anything. The baby did finally move, but the U/S tech still couldn’t tell if it was a boy or girl. She definitely didn’t see boy parts, but she didn’t see the girl parts either. We have thought since the beginning that this baby is a boy, but this made us start to wonder if maybe there is a baby girl growing inside. There is a big difference in the quality of the ultra sound machines at the pregnancy resource center and the doctor’s office, so we should have a much clearer picture on Monday’s ultra sound. I am also looking forward to seeing all of the baby’s body parts and organs, and seeing how the baby has grown. I still have so much more I want to blog about, but I will have to save it for next time.

Popped!

Apparently my belly popped at about 12 weeks......

Just kidding! :-)  This is a prosthetic belly that I found in the dressing room of a maternity shop.

But, my belly has started to bulge a little. It has actually been bulging since about 5 weeks. I have been really bloated since then, but in the past few weeks it has been a little less bloat and more bump.  I had the opportunity to do some shopping in a larger city a week ago and found some great deals on maternity clothes to get me through the next couple months. I found a couple 2nd hand/consignment stores with really nice clothes, plus some great clearance at department stores.  Maternity clothes are SO comfortable. I still have a couple pairs of regular pants that I can button, but they are pretty uncomfortable.

Along with shopping, my husband and I also got to go to the Rock and Worship Road Show.  It was awesome!  I love The Afters, I only wish they got to play more than 5 or so songs.  Mercy Me closed the show and it was so worshipful.  It was amazing to worship with thousands of other people.  I think it gave us a teeny tiny glimpse of what heaven will be like.

I will leave you with a picture of the real belly bump at 12 weeks:

Faith of a Child

My little 4 year old niece is so sweet.  She is quite a character, full of spunk and imagination.  She is such a ham, always wanting to perform and saying the silliest things. The first time I saw her after my mis-carriage, she said, "Aunt A, how come your baby died?" (while her mother was cringing in the background).  I said, I don't know sweetheart.  Ever since then, she tells me that she prays for our baby. I always thought she meant our baby that we lost.  My sister-in-law was really excited to tell her that I was expecting again to see what her reaction would be.  My sister-in-law told her that God put a new baby in my tummy, and my niece said matter of factly, "I, know."  My sister-in-law said, "how do you know?"  My niece said, "BECAUSE, I pray every night that God will give Aunt A a new baby."  It was that simple.  She had asked God for this, why wouldn't she expect any different.  I LOVE this!  It's so simple, asking God for the desire of our hearts and believing that He will provide.  I know, with pain and loss, it's not quite so simple.  Our hurt and disappointment clouds our view at times.  But the truth is that God loves us and wants to bless us. I love this sweet reminder from my niece.