September 18, 2010

Week 9

This week was probably my most 'pregnant' week.  Which, I read, is pretty typical.  My food aversions are still very piqued and simply smelling, or even looking at some foods... well, most food, makes me get the gagging sensation.  It's really annoying but I'm trying not to complain because I still haven't actually thrown up.  Last night hubby made some garlic & chive pasta from Trader Joe's and I had to go upstairs to avoid the smell... and I usually LOVE garlic.  Two nights ago he made some frozen veggies that had light garlic on them and I had to sit on the other side of the room to be away from the smell.  I feel bad that he's got to do most of the cooking for himself, he's such an amazing husband and one of the things I enjoy doing is cooking him a good meal, but not so much lately.  I just can't stomach it. 
As for what I'm eating... not much it seems, even though I feel like I'm eating all day.  The closest thing to a meal that I can stomach lately is Ramen.  How horrible is that.  Seriously.  I know, but I have to eat something!  Plus it's easy for me to take to school for lunch.  We also made breakfast for dinner the other day - pancakes, hash browns and turkey bacon - that was good.  I can do cereal too.  Two nights ago we had dinner with our friends and it was the best dinner I've had since I don't know when - steaks off the grill and baked potatoes.  YUM.  I could have eaten 12 potatoes... that's one thing that always sounds good to me - baked or mashed potatoes.  I don't really have cravings, I pretty much eat whatever I can look at and not have a gag reflex for.
The hormones raged a couple of days this week too.  One day at school I just wanted so much to just cry because I didn't want to be there.  I don't want to teach anymore, at least not in America, and I was just overwhelmed.  Other than that day, I haven't really had many hormonal instances though and I'm okay with that.
I've noticed my lower back aching a lot more lately, my uterus is stretching too and I get pains from that once in a while.  Other than that I haven't had any achey feelings.  I'm definitely still tired ALL the time too.  Very low energy level.  I hear that tapers off during the 2nd trimester so maybe in a few weeks I'll be back to my 'normal' self.    :)

September 12, 2010

One Step Closer

I'm taking another step.  Another step closer to making our dreams a reality.  Another step closer to bringing God's love to each and every person on this globe.  Another step closer to living out God's call on our lives.

Check it out here.

September 11, 2010

September 6-10

8 Weeks!

Symptoms so far - exhaustion, frequenting the bathroom, craving salty - new one - major food aversions.  Seriously, I can just look at food and I feel like I'm going to be sick.  Sometimes I can just think about it and feel sick. 
The major one is chicken.  The thought of it, the smell of it, a picture of it, a commercial of it - oh. my. gosh.  YUCK!  I can't stand it.  In any way, shape or form - nuggets, breasts, fried, nope.  Yuck.  Double Yuck.  String cheese - ugh.  I just ate some the other day but the one that's left in my fridge still is making my stomach turn.  Red sauce of any type, can't do it.  We had some friends over for dinner yesterday and I made this 'inside out lasagna bake' thing that I normally really like.  I took one bite and didn't touch the rest.  My friends looked at me and said, "Are you okay?"  I said, "Yea, I just don't like it, sorry guys."  They assured me that it tasted amazing and it was just my pregnancy taste buds kicking in.  I believed them too because they all had more than one helping!  At least they liked it I guess!  I ate the garlic bread and had some cereal later on.  I can't do pizza either -just the thought of it, ick. 
I feel so irrational.  I can't believe that just thinking about food or seeing it makes me want to loose my stomach contents!  (Which I still haven't done yet, thank you Jesus!)  I mean, we walk through the grocery store and I have to be careful what I look at, so I don't get nauseated.  Which I do get - a lot lately.  Lots of nausia, but never actually throwing up, which is good.  I just have to try and make myself eat every 2 hours or so.  Which is really hard when nothing looks or sounds good.  I feel like I'm eating all day long, that's all I ever do.  Wake up, eat, shower, eat, teach, eat, teach, eat, plan, eat, teach, eat, drive home, eat, watch tv, eat, go to bed.  Seriously. 
Another 'symptom' I've noticed is growth.  My pants are getting tight lately - and I can tell it's not from all the eating because my stomach is hard down there. :)  I'm... ahem, growing in other places too.  I'm gonna need to get some new clothes soon.  I can't believe I need to get new clothes and I'm only in my 8th week!  I've read about people starting to show and stuff as early as 6 weeks - everyone's different I guess. 
So that's about it for my 8th week.  I'll be 9 on Monday, I'll be back on to journal how week 9 turns out!

September 2

Today we went to the doc. for our first ultrasound!  The ultrasound tech was really a sweet lady, she was very nice and had a good sense of humor.  She tried it the 'regular' way, but the baby is still too far back so we had to do the internal ultrasound instead.  It was so incredible to see my little bean up on that screen!  The look on Bill's face was priceless, indescribable.  He actually saw the heartbeat before I did, because he saw it on the tech's screen before the TV kicked on for me to see it.  It's so crazy to think that our little baby is literally the size of a kidney bean, but it has a heartbeat beating 167 bpms, it's elbows and wrists are forming and can bend, it's got eyelids... crazy!  I don't know how anyone could NOT believe in God when it comes to creaking new life like this.  The tech was really sweet, we got to see a lot of different angles and images of the baby while she was taking her measurements and tracking the heartbeat.  Our little bean is only 1/8 of an inch long and has a heart beating nice and smooth at 167 bpms - I can't get over it!  So it turns out, according to the ultrasound, that I'm 7 weeks 4 days today.  Which means on Monday I'll be 8 weeks.  Our due date, again according to the ultrasound measurements, will be April 17th, 2011. 
Seeing the baby and the heartbeat today really made everything real.  Especially since I haven't had many typical symptoms of pregnancy yet.  I do have a new one to add to the exhaustion and frequent bathroom trips - food.  I've found out that I do crave - anything salty.  I have no desire for sweets at all, but I definitely ate four pickles the other day.  Pickles, pasta, funyuns, pringles... yum.  I do feel like I eat all day long.  I get hungry every few hours, but I can never eat a huge meal.  I eat really small portions and frequently throughout the day.  I'm still eating pretty normal - cereal for breakfast, leftovers for lunch, pasta for dinner usually.  We made steak the other day and that was yummy, but it's usually pasta or chicken or both, once in a while we have pizza.  I love that I can still eat 'normally' even though it's smaller portions.
 So that's that.  I'm loving this journey we're on!  I guess I should leave you with this!
I know it doesn't look like much, but it's our lil' bean!  The head is downward, and the butt/legs are up in the air.  :)

August 25

The first day of school with kids.  I've got 22 this year.  It's an interesting group.  That's all I'll say.  Man was I pooped by the end of the day.  Gosh, who am I kidding, I was ready for bed at 11:00am.  I barely made it through the day, and once I got home I crashed.  Whew.  This pregnancy thing takes a LOT out of me!  Not to mention corralling 22 7-year-olds!

August 18

First day of school today.  Ugh.  I really don't want to go back to work yet.   Ever since I got the call from God to... well, let's just say my final destiny in this world is not to be teaching in public schools.  So it's very hard for me to come back to school.  Not to mention the pure exhaustion.  Good gracious, we don't even have kids yet and I came home and took a nap, I was so tired. 

The good news is I still don't have any other 'typical' symptoms of pregnancy.  I'm extremely tired and I have to use the bathroom a lot but that's all.  No nausia at all, no aversions to food, no cravings for food.  I'm pretty normal in all other areas.  I hope this is a sign that it will be a smooth and easy pregnancy!

September 06, 2010

August 14

There's a huge consignment sale at a church down the road today.  I headed down there just to look around.  My friend told me they had a bunch of good stuff for really cheap so I thought I'd wander down there while Bill was at work.  I found a Pottery Barn boppy pillow for only $9 that was in awesome shape and came with a good cover for it - so I grabbed that up (they're $30-40 in the store).

Then I spotted a car seat for only $35.  It was in great shape and it came with two bases.  I called A and had her look it up online to make sure it wasn't expired yet, sure enough, it still has at least 3 years on it.  The thing is in great shape, it's a name brand and it's only $35!  Plus it had paperwork assuring me it had never been in an accident and it only had one previous owner.  I called Bill. 
"So I'm at this consignment sale and I found a car seat for $35"
"Is that a good price?"
"Yea, it's an awesome price, bases alone can be that much and this one is the seat and two bases.  It's probably worth over $100.  Do you think I should buy it?"
"Wow, I don't know. Yea, I guess so."
"I know, right?  It just seems so early to be buying stuff like this!"
"Yea, but where else are you going to find it that cheap?"
"True.  Okay, I'll get it, are you sure?"
"Yea honey, go for it.  I'm excited to see it when I get home."

So I bought a car seat and a boppy pillow for just under $50!  Not too bad.  I head to A's to show her my loot. :)  She's excited and approves of course.  I went in to hang out a bit and we start talking about consignment.  There's a store down in the university area I heard was having a sale, so we gave them a call to see if they have anything good.  I was looking for a pack-n-play to keep at our house, not just for our little one but for when we have friends over with babies.  Turns out they have one, and everything in the store is 60% off.
So the two of us head down there with a sleepy toddler in tow.  We get there and it's this Eddie Bauer pack-n-play with all the bells & whistles.  A bassinet insert, a changing table insert, a pocket on the side for diapers, a tray for supplies, a mobile, little shades that roll down over the mesh sides - it even has a dust ruffle!  And the best thing - it's only $29!  SOLD!

And then there was this...


I sort of fell in love... but felt so crazy at the same time for even thinking about getting it this early in the stage!  But when I saw the price... man, the crazy kinda went away and I called Bill again.  I told him all about it - that it was solid wood, a 3 way convertable (crib, toddler bed, full size bed), came with the mattress and everything.  What did he say?  "Man, honey, I wish I could be the one there with you doing all this shopping."  Isn't he the sweetest ever?  I replied that it wasn't intentional by any means, we'd just stumbled upon it.  I definitely didn't plan on buying anything at all today, I was just out to look around.  But I knew there was no way on earth I would find a crib this quality for only $79!  So we got it!  When I got home, I looked up the original price online - $400.  Seriously.  AND that isn't including the mattress - which was $70 on it's own!  I was so excited for the awesome deal!
So on this lazy Saturday I ended up buying a lot of our 'major' baby purchases and all for under $200!  Crazy.  I can't believe we have all this stuff already, and I can't believe how much money I didn't have to spend for it!  Thank you Jesus for small... and LARGE blessings! :)

August 12

Went to the doctor today to confirm the home test.  Sure enough I had to pee like crazy when we got there - the only symptom I've had so far.  I pee ALL the time.  I wake up at least once, but usually 2-3 times a night to go and I Never, Ever used to wake up to go to the bathroom.

So the doc. confirms and figures I'm about 6-7 weeks along.  He talks me through what to avoid as far as food and exercise, and all that jazz.  It's still pretty surreal, even though hearing from the doctor makes it a little more real than the at home test.  We're excited.  But I'm pretty sure it hasn't hit us all the way yet.