11 week baby appointment

As I've mentioned before, my 11 week appointment (which was yesterday morning) with the doctor was both something I was both excited and nervous about. Andrew came with me, and someone watched Marcail and Donovan for us.

As my doctor moved the doppler over my lower belly, we waited with expectancy to hear a little heartbeat. But we heard nothing. My doctor took a few minutes to slowly inch her way way across the belly, and a little up and a little down. Nope, still nothing. My heart was pounding so hard, and I kept thinking, "I can't do this all over again!," as I was fighting back tears. Finally Dr.Cassidy said, "We might need to take you to an ultrasound just to see what's going on in there." It was a replay of my last miscarriage, and my mind was swimming.

She took one last quick swipe across my belly, a little higher this time. "Oh! There it is!" she exclaimed and flashed me a huge smile. She hovered the doppler over the heartbeat and said, "I'm just going to keep this here a minute and let you enjoy that sound...." I finally breathed! : ) The sound of the baby's heart was so beautiful. It was music to my ears and a huge relief to my heart. Our little baby was doing just fine. The heartbeat was steady and strong, 163 beats per minute --- which means it's a girl : ) Haha! No, I'm just teasing Andrew because he thinks its a boy : )

Thankful for Thanksgiving

In less than two weeks, we are headed out on a loooonnnng road trip; we are going back to the Carolinas for 2 weeks during Thanksgiving! We'll arrive late on Monday, the 23rd, and head back on Friday, Dec. 4th.

I am SO excited and find it humorous how many times during the day I become thrilled just thinking about it : ) Andrew is hoping to actually have a vacation where we get some down-time, but with so many friends and family to see, I wonder how much down-time we will really get : )

For those of you that want to see us, email me and let me know what days/hours work best for you. Most of our schedule for the 2 weeks is unplanned and open. My guess is that with our schedule being so open and flexible, its easier for us to fit into your calendar, than the other way around.

See you soon!

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

So here is a photo of my 9 week pregnant belly. I wasn't kidding when I said it was HUGE already --- normally, this is what I look like at 4-5 months, not two. Earlier this week, my lower back was hurting so much, I could hardly walk; my theory is that there has been so much growth on my front, that my back muscles couldn't adapt quickly enough.

Nonetheless, I am sooooo happy that the baby is apparently growing so well!

When Normal is Good!

About 2 weeks ago, at my last doctor's visit, I had eleven viles of blood drawn. Eleven. Twenty viles make one liter, so that's a lot of blood. If you understood how squeamish I am around needles, you would know what a champion I am for having gone through with it! : )

My doctor wanted to be able to rule out any kind of blood disorders that would cause two miscarriages in a row, and she wanted to have that info to help prevent another loss. So to the lab I went. What a woman will do for a baby, right?!? As the technician took my blood, which took about 15 minutes of "needle time," I asked her if it was going to be okay for me to drive home right away. She chuckled and said, "Oh honey, its not like you're donating blood." Oh really??? Actually, I'm only doing this for a very noble cause!!!

Anyways, this morning, I got the results in the mail. Everything that potentially could have been a problem is normal! I am so happy! One of the blood disorders would have required an injection every day for the rest of the pregnancy (and any other pregnancies I might have). I probably don't have to explain that this would have been, well, less than fun : )

The News We've All Been Waiting For..... : )

Yes! We are pregnant with a little baby! The due date is June 7th, and we and so many others have been furiously praying for this darling child. I have to admit that being pregnant is as much a faith walk as trying forever to get pregnant.

We had an ultrasound at 6 weeks, which was about 2 weeks ago. I was so nervous, I actually accidentally showed up an hour before my appointment thinking I was on time! Andrew met me there at the correct time : ) , and when the technician called us back, my heart was pounding out of my throat. The room she viewed the baby in, happened to be the same room where I was informed in February that the baby had no heartbeat--- so you can imagine the emotion in me as I was prepping to see this child. You can also imagine my relief and joy as we saw a tiny healthy heartbeat!

The baby is now 8 weeks along, but my belly thinks that I must be at least 3 months along, because it is HUGE already. I can hardly believe it, but I am soooo thankful! When I walk past a mirror and see the swollen belly, I have to smile. Some days it takes work to not analyze whether my belly has "shrunk" (bad sign) or "expanded" (good sign). But there is no doubt that in the last couple weeks it has only grown, so,....... YAY!!!! : ) Now to find some pants that can fit me. Hmmmmm.

My next appointment is the middle of November, and I both cannot wait for it, and am certainly dreading it. How do I prepare myself for whatever happens??? It seems to me that life is full of circumstances where I simply have to trust the Lord with it. The circumstances are different in different seasons of life, but there is always something going on that require faith to walk in all of it!

And we are moved!

This is the first time that I've been online in over a week or so...... whew, what a ride!!!! We are semi-settled in our new place. That means that our garage is FULL of "stuff" and we are still digging through the piles to find random things that we need.

We spent the first few days tearing down very ill-done wallpaper, scrubbing the walls, and repainting. This sounds easy, theorectically, but..... let's just say there has to be a deep place in hell where no one can do anything but tear down wall paper. It is the worst chore in the the entire world. So tedious and never-ending and grueling. Yuck. Anyways, after we finished that task, we had 3 days left to move everything from our old house to this one, and clean BOTH houses.

At this point, I was seriously stressing out! Andrew and I were staying up till 2 am every morning trying to make this move happen, and still having to go to work every day or night, with 2 children that became very ornery and defiant in the stress of everything,.... all on 5 hours of sleep each night. I can tell you that its just not a pleasant combo.

In the midst of all of this, God just showed Himself so faithful. One guy helped Andrew move some furniture for a couple of hours, and when he left, another guy just "happened" to have some free time and swung by to help Andrew finish up. One friend of mine helped me scrub everything down in our old place, and I was amazed how much we were able to get accomplished.

Still, on the last night, the deadline of when we were supposed to be completely out, I was about to crack; we still had SOOOO much work left to do. 2 couples "randomly" showed up at our place around 9:30 pm, and we had that place spotless by midnight! Amazing!!! And the ladies at church watched Marcail and Donovan the entire next morning for me, just so I could have some down-time to myself.

As I look back on this last week, my heart is so touched with the awareness that the Lord cares for us so much! He loves to show Himself able! As we were finishing up that last night, I truly felt as though He had come over and given me a bear hug. Everything was going to be alright; He was going to make sure of it : )

Done Deal

Yesterday we signed the lease on the house! We are very excited; and have more to do than I even want to think about right now! Our agent said that they had been bombarded with applications, and we were picked as # 1 choice out of all of them. Isn't that remarkable?! And isn't our God so good to us?

The next two days will be filled with prepping the new house; cleaning it, sprucing up the yard, and.... PAINTING the walls (obviously my favorite part)! You have to understand, we have not been permitted to paint the walls of any place we have ever lived in. So now I have 4.5 years of pent-up painting frenzy just oozing out of me right now. Yesterday I went and picked out some colors to discuss with Andrew, and I think tonight we are going to purchase a couple of 5 gallon tubs. YAY!!!

So all the painting needs to be finished by Sunday, and we have until the 1st to be completely out of our current place. I have been blessed with ladies here offering to help watch the children and/or help me clean this place after everything gets moved out of it.

Plan on seeing some before and after pics. And pray that I don't lose my head in the business of the next week!