14 weeks

Today marks 14 weeks pregnant. It's amazing to think that I am already this far. I know I have awhile to go, but each week gets me closer to meeting our sweet little baby. I am actually down 1.5 pounds since last week. That should be impossible since it's Thanksgiving week, but I think due to the stress of everyone being sick this week and spending Thanksgiving by ourselves, I didn't have much time to indulge in all the festivities.

Mia is finally feeling better, but today Josh woke up and had the stomach bug. I think I need to seriously disinfect my house!! I am praying that I don't get it and can stay healthy. On a good note, I haven't thrown up in a few days, so I am hoping that we are going to stay on that path.

Well here is the belly this week. I feel like it looks huge, might just be the shirt.

14 weeks covered

And here is the bare belly!

Hope your holidays were blessed and you had plenty to be thankful for. Even amidst sickness, we had plenty to be thankful for this year!

Thanksgiving and Black Friday Fun...or something like that!

So this year, I was especially excited for Thanksgiving. I was excited because Mia would be old enough to enjoy some of the festivities and we had great meals planned...except the day, or should I say weekend, turned out slightly different than planned.

Thanksgiving morning Josh worked the Turkey Trot and so he got up early...at 9am, Mia was still sleeping. Now while this seems great, this is TOTALLY unlike her! She is an early riser ALL THE TIME! So I decided I better wake her so we can start getting ready for the day. I walk into her room to find a horrific smell. I walk over to her and she is passed out, that is when I notice chunks of hot dog...yes, she had puked all over her self, her crib, her stinks, her blanket, everything! So I get her up, wash all her stuff, give her a bath and we head downstairs...she seems to be feeling fine, so I assume the puking was due to the coughing fit she had about 6am.

In the meantime, I prep my turkey, which I am making for dinner. We are hosting and I am very excited.

So Josh gets home, we get loaded up and head to the Cracker Barrel to meet up with Josh's grandparents for Thanksgiving lunch. Josh drops Mia and I off at the door, we go inside, get to the hostess stand, say hi to his grandpa and it happens...she vomits everywhere. I don't mean a little, I mean all over the floor, herself, a towel, or clean stink, and it just keeps coming. She was crying, I was mortified and the manager was beyond angry, "sorry sir, like I meant to have my 19 month old daughter vomit all over your restaurant." So we clean her up as much as possible and head home. We get her home, clean her up, get on fresh jammies and it happens again...all over the floor. UGH!! The joys of parenthood. So she ran around in a diaper for awhile and luckily that was the end of the puking.

So, since she was sick, we knew we couldn't have family over at our house, so my mom picked up the turkey and dropped off some leftovers and Josh and I enjoyed Thanksgiving all by ourselves with a sick little girl at our side. Oh well!

Friday, I woke up praying for a better day. Well, it didn't quite happen. For the past couple of days I have been cramping really bad. I've also been having to go to the bathroom a ton. I called my midwife, but the office was closed, the nurse said she thought I had the start of a bladder infection. Well, as the night went on, the pain got worse. I decided I should go to the ER and get it taken care of, since I was hospitalized with Mia for a kidney infection. I get there, see the Dr. and she is pretty sure it's a bladder infection, we just had to wait for my urine sample to go through the lab. The nurse comes back in (who was my neighbor, by the way) and it is clean, they do a blood draw, all is good, even my white blood cell count. Then I get to have an ultrasound. I am still amazed everytime I see our baby...it is such a miracle. It has long legs and is measuring a tad ahead of schedule, but alas, everything was normal. SO the diagnosis...severe round ligament pain.

Now I had RLP with Mia, but it was NOTHING compared to this. So I will follow up with my midwife on Monday, and for right now, take some tylenol and rest.
As if the weekend wasn't eventful enough, woke up at 9am on Saturday to again find Mia still sleeping. Go in her room, afraid she has thrown up again. She wakes up and I bring her downstairs, she almost falls asleep in her highchair and then only wants to cuddle with me. I put her back down and she sleeps from 9:30 to 11:30...gets up, but will only sit with me on the couch. She goes back down for a nap from 1:30 to 4:00 and finally seemed to be feeling better when she got up. The doctor said he thinks she had a stomach virus...seriously can my house feel better soon or what!!!

So that was my amazing Thanksgiving weekend...however, eventhough it went entirely NOT as planned, I have so much to be thankful for:

* Even when my baby is sick, I am thankful I have the opportunity to be a mom and continue to pray for those who are struggling with infertility and yearning for their own baby to care for
* I am thankful that we can afford medical attention when necessary
* I am thankful I have an amazing husband that loves me so much and tries to help more than the average dad
* I am thankful for my family, even though we didn't get to spend the holiday together, I know how much they love us, and pray they know how much they mean to us as well
* I am thankful to be blessed enough to carry another child. The shear joy of seeing a baby, created in love, on an ultrasound, reminds me of God's amazing works
* I am thankful for so much! I feel I have been blessed abundantly in life


On a more exciting note...I got my ring back from the jewelers this weekend. We took the center stone from my grandmother's ring and put it in the center of my ring and then I got my 5 year anniversary band!! YAY!! So the top band you see is the brand new anniversary band (it is not soldered yet), the middle is my engagement ring with my grandmother's stone in the middle now, and the bottom is my wedding band! I LOVE IT!!!

13 weeks pregnant and a 19 month old baby girl

Well, I have made it to the 13 week mark. I can't believe I am already 13 weeks and in the 2nd trimester. I am still amazed at the blessing before us. I am back to my starting weight, but still in all my regular clothes. I am hoping I can still hold out for awhile longer! I am feeling pretty good during the day for the most part. I am still getting up at least once a night to pee and usually still throwing up every dinner, but I know that it's all worth it in the end.

Here are some new belly pictures
It's probably just me, but I feel like it is starting to stick out more

On another note, Mia also turned 19 months. What a blessing she is. She has gotten so big and is just such a joy to be around. Josh and I took her to the Festival of Trees Parade and she couldn't have been more excited. Once it started she didn't move except to wave at the Balloons and people on the floats. It was so fun to see how much she is interacting now.

Here she is waiting for the parade to start.
That night we went to the Lighting of the Commons to see fireworks. She was NOT excited to see Santa, and was pretty scared of the fireworks at first, but overall, she loves being outside and she danced around for awhile.
Here is a family picture during the fireworks.
For reference, her is Mia at 1 week old, just 19 short months ago.
And here is my baby girl, 19 months old. I just can't believe where the time went.
Her new favorite thing when you get the camera out is to say "CHEESE", then she wants to see the picture.
However, when she says it, she usually closes her eyes!! :)

For those of you reading this, thanks once again for joining us on our journey. We are so blessed to be where we are.

Some of Mia too!

My baby girl is growing up right before our eyes. In less than 4 days, she will be 19 months old. She is so fun and full of personality, which also means she tends to be full of SASS too!! She is strong willed, independent, smart, funny and everything in between. I love when she wakes up in the morning and gets so excited to see us.
She is talking a ton. Her favorite words are mama, dada, dog, bubble, bath, elmo, dora, baby, milk, snack, eat...and there are many more, but those are some favorites.

We talk about the baby in mommy's belly, so she likes to lift up my shirt and talk to the baby (which she thinks is my belly button). She also gives the baby kisses and even shares her momo (pacifier). She will be an amazing big sister.

Here are some pictures from her 18 month shoot that we had done at Scott County Park. Isn't she adorable!

Looking out the train window

The First Trimester

So, I have obviously taken quite a break from the blogging, but have finally found some time to get caught up and am hoping to keep up a little better from now on. This first post will chronicle my First Trimester. As with Mia, the first trimester has been very hard on me, lots of throwing up (almost every dinner), some headaches, lots of emotions, etc. I actually got a prescription for Zofran, but didn't really want to take it. I hate taken medicine while I'm pregnant. So I only took it on the days that I knew I had a lot of presentations to give. My due date is May 30th, so we are very excited for another spring baby. Mia was due May 8th, but came 3 weeks early on April 22nd. We have also decided this time that we are not going to find out what we are having. This was more my choice, but I think Josh is finally onboard with the thought. I will also be attempting a VBAC (Vaginal Birth after Cesarean), which I am very excited about. So during this journey, I just ask for your prayers and support as we embark on this journey. So here are some of the pictures from the 1st trimester...just a warning...the belly is already not so cute!

12 weeks -back at my starting weight

Showing my belly

Here I am at 11 weeks 5 days before a date with Josh

11 weeks - Still down 1.5 pounds, but feeling huge

11 weeks10 weeks - down .5 pound, had an appointment with the Midwife this week and baby's heartrate was 166. The sound of a baby's heart beating is such an amazing sound. I have also started experiencing some round ligament pain, not horrible, but not comfortable.
10 weeks uncovered

9 weeks, down about 2 pounds

9 weeks uncovered

8 weeks, down 1 pound - had my OB interview this week. Basically just getting all the information again about what to expect and all the forms I have to fill out.

8 weeks uncovered

7 weeks, at starting weight. This week has been really exciting for us. We got to have an ultrasound to date the pregnancy since I ovulated so late. The baby was measuring right on track and the heartrate was 173. I still get so excited and emotional when I see and hear OUR little baby. Also exciting is the fact that on October 16th Josh and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. It has been 5 years filled with trials and tribulations, but most of all joy and excitement. I am so excited to once again be on the journey to parenthood with my best friend.

7 weeks uncovered

So here is a picture at 6 weeks after my Mother-In-Law's birthday dinner. I was pretty bloated. The nausea has started to set in and I am still at my starting weight.

5 weeks, up a pound. I think this is mainly due to the massive amount of bloat going on. I am feeling great at this point.5 weeks uncovered

4 weeks, really bloated, but so excited

4 weeks, check out that bloat

The day we found out, 3 weeks, 2 days.