Baby Update

There's something Shocking about our Stockings!

Alright lets catch you up about this baby!  Starting at the beginning...  We always said we'd have another baby, we just wanted a break after the first two and then life got in the way for awhile (night school, work transition, etc.).  So we started trying for the baby in March.  Yep March!  But then, we didn't in April....April has been our magical month it seemed since that is the month I got pregnant with both Bennett and Ashley.  Being 9 months pregnant in December was something I didn't want to repeat again!  Looking back, we probably should have just gone with April and been done with it.

Fast forward to September.  At the beginning of September I still wasn't pregnant plus I had this weird side ache crampy feeling so I went in to my doctor for check on that and also discuss how it has been 6 months and we weren't having luck getting pregnant.  Well for the side-ache she pushed on my side and belly and all of that and it didn't hurt or anything and they did a blood test and urine test and it all came back fine.  And as far as the baby, she said to use ovulation tests  this month and if that didn't help, in October I'd go to the OBGYN and have a blue dye shot up into my ovaries to see if there was some blockage.  

October 8th I took a pregnancy test and low and behold, there was a very faint line!  Whohoo.  So then, instead of going to the OBGYN for the blue dye, I still kept that appointment and went in to confirm pregnancy and also to ask her now about my side-aches.  She confirmed a baby and also had me go get an ultrasound of my ovaries to be sure nothing was wrong there, wondering if that was the cause of my discomfort.  The ultrasound showed that my ovaries are fine!  But, since the baby was sooo small, it was only measuring a heart-rate in the 80's.  So because of this, I had to go in the following week to get another ultrasound done of the baby.  Talk about a nerve-wrecking week!  So that following week when I went in, thank God the heart-rate was in the 130's!  

Following this a few weeks later I had my first regular monthly baby appointment where the pap smear also determined nothing wrong which was another relief.  

My regular appointment in November right after Thanksgiving went well too and she was able to pick up the baby heart beat immediately, even only at 11 weeks at that point.  

Now this week!  What a week.  On Sunday morning, I threw up my breakfast.  There have been plenty of icky feeling days where I felt like I could have thrown up but I never did.  But now, in week 12, I threw up my breakfast.  The rest of that day I was feeling pretty ok I guess.  Later on Sunday we found out some bad news about our pastor - kidney cancer.  Now obviously I know this affected me to some point since one, he's our pastor but two, I work so closely with him.  But seriously, I never expected all of this to happen.  Sunday night overnight I threw up a few more times.  And then Monday morning, Mike stayed home from work since he knew I wasn't feeling good.  Since I had him home and since I had just heard that terrible news, I made up my mind that I was going into the doctor again and I wanted real answers this time about my side-aches.  I ended up seeing that OBGYN again and she ordered an ultrasound this time of my kidneys, bladder area.  For the rest of Monday, I threw up everything I ate or drank - like everything!  It was terrible.  Then Tuesday morning, I continued to throw up even on the way to ultrasound appointment - there is puke along side the road somewhere.  

Even though I didn't have the full bladder of water like you're supposed to have for an ultrasound she was able to still do it.  After checking my kidneys and all the organs around there, she did let Mike and I peak at the baby.  Oh gosh guys, it was a real baby now!  Head, legs, spine....way more than 6 weeks ago when it was seriously just a blob on the screen.  So exciting.  

So from the ultrasound I decided to stick around for a few minutes and ask my doctors nurse about all the throwing up.  They decided I needed to go to the ER and get an IV with fluids to help so I don't dehydrate.  That was my first experience ever in an ER setting.  But, I felt so much better after that.  And, since I was actually in the ER, the doctor saw I was just in for an ultrasound so he put a rush on those results and I had them back within an hour instead of 48 hours which was nice.  My kidneys, bladder and uterus are completely normal!  Thank you Jesus!  They are suspecting that the cause of my discomfort might be a muscle or just something being pinched/pulled when I sit wrong or lay wrong etc.  I'll take that any day as long as it's nothing super serious.  

I was able to start eating alittle bit now again yesterday (Wed) and today and I haven't gotten sick again.  That IV did wonders, along with a nausea pill.  But man, what a miserable week.  It was seriously like once I started throwing up, I just couldn't stop!  

If you were keeping track, that's 8 appointments since September!  5 regular appointments, 3 ultrasounds and 1 ER visit.  I know Mike has good insurance.  We'll get to see how good it really is. 

So now I am about 12.5 weeks and for the most part feeling good.  I've been very very tired and my energy level has been terrible but I can tell it's starting to get alittle better.  I know my belly is getting alittle bigger but I've actually lost about 15 lbs since I became pregnant since food wasn't appetizing and then now with throwing up for two days.  Hopefully by Christmas, food will be a wonderful treat and I'll plump up alittle bit maybe.  

Sorry this got so long.  I told you I'd post more when I had time.  And now that I waiting another week to do so, I had lots more to share with all my excitement this week.  Please keep baby and me in your prayers for health.  

Oh and Mike is very excited (even though he won't always show it), Bennett loves me more now than he ever has I think, and Ashley is realizing she won't be the baby anymore and has reverted to calling me Mama instead of her normal Mom.  

8-6-0

8-6-0



What does that mean?











Those will be the ages of my kids in June....!


Yep, we're having a baby, due June 19th!  Right now I'm about 10 weeks along.  We're slowly starting to tell people (not on facebook yet), so I figured I'd let you blog readers get a chance to be one of the early ones to know.
I'll post more information when I have a bit more time to do so.

Lydia

Last September I started watching a baby girl named Lydia.  At that time she was about 3 month old.  I watched her on Monday and Tuesdays from 8:30am-4:30pm.  She was a challenging baby with naps but other than that, she was so good and I enjoyed my time with her.  My kids, Ashley especially, loved her to death.  There were many days that Lydia would get put in my van multiple times a day to pick up kids from school.  Besides to the kids school or to my office on occasion, I didn't really venture out anywhere else with her.  

Over the winter they let me know that they were expecting another baby in August and asked if I'd be interested in watching both Lydia and the new baby.  I declined.  There were a few reasons that led to that decision but one of them was that I knew it would be alot harder to take a 1 year old and new baby to any of the kids school events.  Even picking them up from school would be alot harder.  For the money reason, parts of me still wishes I hadn't said no but, I know it was the right choice.  

The Mom had the new baby boy in August but I still watched Lydia on my days for a few weeks still into September since she was recovering from a c-section and to help her adjust to the new baby.

Overall it was a great experience and I was so glad to work with such a great family.

Here are just a few pictures from our year with Lydia.

 

 

 

 

 

She had a big 'Jeep' at home and assumed that Ashley's Barbie Jeep was the same as her.  We all had a good laugh when we tried to climb into it.

Kids Say...

Here are a few quotes from the kids that I've been able to jot down during the year.  Some of these are almost a year old though so Ashley would be 4/5 years and Bennett 6/7 years.  

Ashley was playing Amazing Grace on the Ipad so I sang the words to the song for her.  "Was blind, but now, I see".  She said, "Yeah, she was blind but now she can see."  I said who was?  "That amazing Grace!"  The only Grace she apparently knows is cousin Grace.

One Saturday night in June I told the kids they needed to shower and get to bed because we had church in the morning to which Ashley asked "When is the last day of church?"  I explained to her how going to church will NEVER end, unlike Sunday School which we don't have during the summer.

Ashley ""I want to eat blueberries with my feet"   She she explained to us that Curious George can do this.

Bennett and I were watching the Price Is Right.  "...come on down, you're the next contestant..."  The (larger) female contestant then got all excited and was running down and Bennett said "Her boobs are shaking!"

Ashley "The real Mother Goose writes the best nursery rhymes!"

Ashley wanted to look at a book in the van one night when it was dark.  I told her I wasn't turning the interior lights on and she got all mad and yelled "Pull over to the elbow and turn the lights on".

Ashley was reading the ketcup bottle at supper and sounded out Hunts, the brand of ketchup.  She said "Oh they hunt for tomatoes!"

Ashley:  It was time for her shower and she sat on the toilet to pee quick before her shower.  I stepped out of the bathroom to help Bennett with something and came back in a few minutes later and she was still sitting on the toilet.  I said "Hurry up Ashley."  She said "I'm slow like a sloth."

I asked Ashley "When are you going to want to clean your room?" (it was a disaster!)  Ashley "At a different time."  R: "Like when?"  Ashley "When the government says."  .......WHAT??  So weird. 

LIC - Bags Tourney

David made a set of bean bag boards and he took them with to donate to the camp, specifically the retreat house (Kay, make sure you look for them either in the downstairs of the house or in the shed)  We had to test them out so we had a family tournament.  We paired up in teams so surprisingly it only took a couple hours from start to finish.  The winning team was Josh and Jon.  Josh is a master bags thrower.  Seriously, nobody in our family can win against him.

LIC - Amusement Park

One evening we drove about 45 minutes away to Alexandria to go to Casey's Amusement Park for a fun night out.  We've never been here before so didn't exactly know what to expect but we saw on their website that they had go-carts and mini golf which is something we wanted to do.  Yes, it was alittle bit of a drive and it cost some money (I think it was around $15 per person), but we all had a really fun time.  Not sure if it's something we'd do every year but it was just a nice little change of pace outing for us.

Gah...this girl seriously never takes a bad picture.  Even the pictures I have of her cruising around the track....what a cutie.

These two did surprisingly really well at this!  They both had lots of smiles.  

Dennis actually did better than most of our boys who tried out batting.

 Gifty had lots of "firsts" on vacation with us....first time tubing, and now go-carting and mini golf. 

LIC - Misc. Pics

We got to celebrate Laura's 30th birthday with her!  

Every night the campers got to go to campfire and sing-along by the lake and my kids enjoyed going to a few of those.  I was just getting back from fishing one night and spotted that my two were at campfire so I got this picture of them - front row, doing actions and everything, every unlike both of them.  

Bennett met this counselor in June when he was at camp for a weekend, and he was looking forward to seeing her this week.  She was by far his favorite :-) - he definitely had alittle crush action going on.  He's hoping she is back again next summer.