Little Family of 8

My 'What's Next' Appointment

2012-02-03T11:39:00.004-06:00

I had my appointment yesterday with my doctor to discuss whether the Lupron has worked or if I need three more months. I had already told the nurse twice (once before I got the third injection and then again yesterday) that I will not do three more months of this medication. The nurse asked why and I gave her a list of complaints (mood swings being number 1, cramps-can't stand for more than 5-10 minutes before I need to sit down, fatigue, I could go on and on but I won't).

I was very excited and nervous to tell the doctor I was through with the medication. When he walked into the examination room, he jokingly was teasing me about how I wanted to quit Lupron. He did the exam and told me that I was much better than I was when I first came in to see him and he seemed very excited and hopeful, which makes me VERY excited and hopeful. He then told me that even if I loved Lupron, he would take me off because there is no need for me to be on it any longer. I was THRILLED! He told me that the Lupron would still take another six weeks to work out of my system and to expect my next "friend" mid March. It has been 6 months since I've had my little "friend" and was one of the good things about Lupron, so I'm dreading it as my "friend" starts up the endometriosis and is one of the problems with my infertility. Doctor told me that I probably won't have a normal cycle until mid April and not to worry with this first one. But once I get my second one, we have to get pregnant soon before my endo gets worse again. No pressure.

I have my consult appointment March 5th to discuss what medications to go on to help getting pregnant, as I have issues ovulating on my own. So there was talk about inducing ovulation/carefully monitoring if I ovulate and going back on Metformin-which was the medication I took the month I became pregnant with Evie.

We are very excited by this news as when the doctor first told us of Lupron he had mentioned that I would go on it then go on birth control for a few months afterward, but when I mentioned birth control he told me that was not necessary and wanted to try to get us pregnant very quickly. We are thrilled and hopefully we will have BIG news to share by the end of the year...or sooner. :-)

Injection #2

2011-12-21T06:36:00.003-06:00

I received my second shot on Monday and so far do not have any new side-effects. According to the nurse, the worst should be over and I shouldn't have any new side-effects. I did mention how bad my mood swings have been, and she told me it was normal and not to go killing anyone-haha. I also mentioned the pain in my foot and told me she had never heard that being a side-effect before. She told me to keep an eye on it and if it got worse, she would direct me to a specialist. I still from time to time get nasty cramps due to endo and I should mention I haven't had my little friend since Sept, thanks to good ol' hormone therapy treatment and menopause. I do get hot flashes from time to time, but it's not too big of a deal. When I get hot, I ask people around me if they are hot and 99.9 percent of the time it's just myself who is hot. I've learned to dress in layers, that way if I do get really hot, I can shed one of the layers.

Well that's the gist of treatment so far. Not very exciting, but I am so looking forward to being myself again when this is all over and hopefully not seeing the doctor so often.

Week 1

2011-11-30T22:14:00.002-06:00

It's been 9 days since my injection. I didn't think I would be getting as many of the side-effects this early, but I've got 'em.

The first effect that I got from the shot was pain, this happened almost immediately. A day or two after I received the injection, I started noticing more frequent and intense pain. It has gotten worse over the last week. Last night was the worst. I had been in pain all afternoon and by 6 in the evening, I couldn't walk. I was in so much pain from the neck down. I felt awful that I wasn't able to make dinner or play with my daughter or even help Doug put our daughter to bed. All I could do was cry (mostly because of the pain, but also have been having extreme mood swings). My husband has been so good. I had blown up about something silly last night and he had every reason to be angry, but instead he cooked dinner, put Evie to bed and then helped me to bed. I truly am so very blessed that I married such a good man.

So I already mentioned the mood swings. It gets pretty bad. I'm usually angry all the time now, but have a few moments when I'm depressed and just feel the urge to cry-which I try my best not to do. Usually when I start crying, I can't get myself to stop plus I really don't have the time to cry.

Hot flashes. It's not too bad yet but it definitely disrupts my day and night. I was shopping earlier today and all of a sudden felt so hot. I was sweating, and I should mention that it was pretty chilly out. Once I got to the car, I turned the AC on full blast. At night, I will wake up sweating and will pull the sheets off of me and a couple hours later will wake up again freezing and pull the sheets over myself and this goes on all night. When I wake in the morning, I'm tired. Of course, I'm exhausted all the time now regardless of getting 4 hrs of sleep or 8 hrs.

I get headaches and migraines more frequently. It doesn't help that some days I am so nauseous I don't eat.

From everything the doctor told me before receiving the injection and from what women have said about the side-effects, this is all normal. Pain is at its worse in the first 14-30 days, but sadly the rest of the side-effects will probably be with me for 8 more months.

I'm so very thankful for my husband who has really been doing his best to care for me. I am also very thankful for my support groups who listen to me rant and offer understanding, support and advice. It has been so hard going through this when most of my family and friends have no idea what this is like. I know when I get to hold my second child in my arms, it will all be worth it, but I hate the process we have to go through to get there.

Although, Doug and I still have a lot of thinking and talking to do, I am really thinking that right after I have our next child (if we are blessed to have another bio baby), I am getting a hysterectomy. It's not set in stone yet and again, we have a lot of talking to do, but all I hear from women who have had severe endo, it's the best decision they made. I know it will put my body through menopause, but I'm already starting to go through some of that and will most likely be put back on some type of hormone therapy that will cause side-effects. I much rather (as of now), get it over with and be done with the pain and surgeries.

So this is what I have had to deal with during week 1 and 2. My purpose for this blog is to maybe help who ever is going through the same issues and to record my journey through infertility and maybe in a few years through adoption, if we are lead to doing that in the future. Although it has been rough, I try my best to count my blessings. I have a wonderful family. I love my husband and daughter more than life itself and count myself very blessed to have such an amazing family. The more we find out about my infertility issues, we really do thank God for our daughter as we feel she truly is a miracle.

Lupron Depot with Add-On

2011-11-22T05:45:00.005-06:00

I had my post-op yesterday and was given my first round of Lupron. I am very thankful and lucky that insurance covers the add-on pill, which is suppose to lower side-effects.

After surgery, Doug supposedly told me that the doctor wanted me to go on this therapy-but of course anything you tell anyone after surgery usually doesn't work since the person who just had surgery is still very out of it. So when the nurse called me the following day, after surgery, to tell me how everything went and how the doctor wanted me to go on this injection for the next 3 months, I was overwhelmed. The nurse said I would have to talk with insurance since they have to verify I want to go on this therapy, and every month I will have to verify to send the medicine to the doctor. I did my research and joined a support group, most women who have gone through this didn't end up liking it very much, but I still haven't found someone (from the support group) who has done this therapy with the add-on pill. From what I gathered from research, what the doctor told me, and from other women is this-the medicine has these side-effects: bone loss (will have to take calcium supplements), mood-swings, depression, hot flashes, won't be able to sleep (like tonight), and makes women angry (advice was to go to the gym and often).

The reason for this route, is because since my endometriosis is at a level/stage 3 (with level 1, being not severe/easily treated and level 4, being very severe/hard to treat), this medicine will stop my cycles and lower my levels of estrogen. Endometriosis is when endometrial tissues that lines the uterus, grows outside the uterus, this irritates the body, causing pain. Because the lining grows outside the uterus, on the ovaries, fallopian tubes, etc; the bleeding produced by the growths (same as menstruation), causes the body to react and surrounds the blood and tissue with scar tissue, causing more pain and infertility. By lowering my levels of estrogen, it should stop the tissues from forming/growing and will stop my ovaries, why it will "trick" my body into a menopause state.

When I went in to my post-op, I wasn't sure if they would have gotten the Lupron, since I talked to insurance about 4 days prior to my appointment-but sure enough, they had it (and I was very glad, since I hate having to make multiple appointments a month at their office since they don't allow children-due to respect towards couples who are having issues with conceiving). I had a million questions for the nurse and doctor and was pleasantly surprised that the nurse knew almost everything about this injection and gave me a few brochures about Lupron therapy and the side-effects. When the doctor came in to do the post-op examination, he seemed very (happily) shocked I had agreed to do this since the side-effects scare women off of doing this drug. But because I trust this doctor and I truly believe he is looking out for me and believes this will help me in the long-run, I agreed. I can't say enough how much I love this doctor. After the experience I went through with my last doctor, who was always too eager to open me up and not tell me anything-especially annoying when I was pregnant, I am so thankful for this doctor who tells me like it is, talks me through my issues and gives me options. Dr. Alfred Rodriguez is amazing. Anyway, after my exam, he talked with me about the medicine and told me that women under his care (who take the pills along with the injection), usually don't have severe side-effects, so that makes me hopeful. He told me that since I just had surgery and he took out as much of the endometriosis as possible, he strongly believes that I only need 3 months of this medicine-but the effects of the medicine will last 6-7 months and not to expect to TTC for 8 months. So what will happen is I will go in every month, for 3 months to get the injection. Two weeks after my third injection, he will do another exam and figure out if I will need 3 more months (6 months is usually the rule with women like me, but again just had surgery and am pretty cleaned up on the inside). Because endometriosis can occur quickly, we have no clue if I will need 3 extra months of this therapy. After the doctor left, the nurse had me turn around, as she didn't want to scare me with the size of the needle, and although the injection hurt just a tad, I joked with her saying it couldn't be worse than the epidural and we both laughed.

After reading the booklet the nurse gave to me it seems that the first 2 weeks will be hard. Pain might be severe and the symptoms of endometriosis might increase. After that, it is a guessing game when the side-effects and pseudo-menopause will kick in. Nurse said it could happen immediately or it could take as long as the third injection to appear.

My next scheduled injection is for Dec. 19.

Update

2011-11-10T16:12:00.004-06:00

I just received the call from the doctor's office. She told me that my endometriosis is really bad and ranking it between level 1-4, she said I was at a level 3. So the doctor wants me to come in every month to take a Lupron Depot shot for the next 3 months. This means that I will be going through menopause (since it shuts down my ovaries) for the next 7 months and cannot TTC at the earliest until June of next year. On the bright side, the doctor believes if I go through this, that it does have long term benefits. However, I'm nervous about having to go through pseudo menopause at 26, but everyone seems to say that it will make my life pain-free and more enjoyable. So I might start the first shot on the 21st of the month.

Surgery

2011-11-10T05:59:00.003-06:00

I had my third laparoscopy and first hysteroscopy yesterday. We dropped off our daughter at a very good friend's house (since she was SO nice and thoughtful to offer that to us) yesterday morning. After hanging out for awhile, we made the trek to the hospital. At around noon, they called us back to get everything started. I was extremely nervous over this surgery since I had to sign a form saying if something went wrong, the doctor would have to remove the ovaries (luckily it didn't come to that-Thank God!) They got my IV going and gave me anti-nausea medicine. All the nurses asked me a few questions and before I knew it, they were ready to take me to the OR. At about 1:15 I was completely out and stayed out until 4. They brought Doug into my room where he told me what the doctor had told him (and how badly the doctor felt that he had to do this surgery). Since I was still pretty out of it, I kept dozing off. The nicest nurse came into my room and said that when I felt ready to get up, to let her know. I actually have to say that these group of doctors and nurses were the nicest ones I have met thus far. Anyway, the nurse comes back in at around 6 and I'm feeling alright enough to stand, but only for a minute. Since I cannot leave the hospital until after I urinate (sorry), I was really wanting to go so we could leave. After 5 attempts of trying (because I am so dehydrated from the fasting), I finally told her I had gone and I was discharged at 8 p.m.

I have to say that this has been a much easier surgery than my other laparoscopies. The nurses and doctors took care of all my issues I have had to deal with in the past. Because I get nauseous so easily, I am still wearing a anti-nausea patch and before I can take any pain meds (again, makes me really sick), they gave me a bottle of anti-nausea pills. So for the majority, I have been feeling normal. No nausea (or very little) and just in a little bit of pain-nothing to complain about. The best part, is that I feel hungry enough to eat and have been eating a little every so often. I really am blessed to have a good doctor that actually listens to me, it feels so nice.

According to the doctor, to keep the cysts and other fertility issues at bay, I am going to start hormone therapy (low dosage birth control pills) either today or at the end of the week. I'm hoping that within a month or two we can start TTC.

I am extremely blessed to have so many family and friends who have been praying and helping us through this challenging time, I love you all and appreciate all that you have done for us. You all are amazing! Thank you!

Big Appointment

2011-10-18T19:16:00.004-05:00

Doug and I had our big doctor appointment this morning. We were blessed to have one of our good friends watch Evelyn, so we both could go to this appointment. And she had a ball playing with her pal, Mitch.

Once arriving at the hospital, we were almost immediately led into the doctor's office. The nurse gave us a brief overview of their findings and that the doctor would probably want to perform surgery. After she left the office, the doctor came in and spent a good hour with us explaining everything that was wrong. He told us how torn up he is about my case, because I am only 26 and have already had 4 surgeries. He informed us that I had a couple of conditions (Endometriosis, ovulatory dysfunction and PCOS). My uterine lining is very thick, on one ovary I have a very large functional cyst and the other ovary is polycystic and has many follicles. With all of this in action, I am not ovulating. The doctor isn't sure why this happens, but told us that there is no cure and I will battle this until I have a hysterectomy-which I will probably have done after our second child is born, although I would like to wait until I'm in my 30's.

This time around we were actually given a choice. I could go through another surgery (it's really a 2 for 1 since the doctor wants to do a laparoscopy and a hysteroscopy) or I could start hormone therapy. The pros to another surgery is that it would be a quick-fix and make me feel better. I should mention, that because of all of my infertility issues, I'm usually in pain all the time. I get sharp stabbing pains that seem like they come out of nowhere and cramp often. Don't get me started on how bad my menstrual cycles are, and I have other issues tied into this as well. The other pro to surgery is that after I recover, we can start TTC immediately. The cons to surgery is that Doug would have to stay home to care for our daughter while I recover. Recovery time is about 5 days and because I cannot take pain medications (very weak stomach), those 5 days are extremely rough (I have had a laparoscopy twice already and this will be my fifth surgery in the last 3 years).

With hormone therapy, the pro is that I may not have to have surgery. The cons are it would take 2 months of being on this before we could TTC. Another con is that I would most likely be sick 24/7 from the medication. And once I have been on it for two months and the cyst isn't gone (meaning it's a tumor), I would need surgery. Worst case scenario would be that we couldn't even start TTC until Feb. (at the earliest) and we basically would have wasted both time and money.

Both of us decided that surgery was the best route at this time and we pray we are making the right decision. My surgery is scheduled for November 9th and will have a few appointments before then (one a pre-op and another to place an instrument in the cervix). However, if we are blessed to get pregnant after this surgery, once the child is born I will have to start hormone therapy to control the cysts/PCOS until I decide to have a hysterectomy.

I want to thank everyone who have been praying for us and have welcomed Evelyn to stay at your home while I go to my appointments. You all are amazing blessings to us and we appreciate your kindness immensely.

17 Month Old is a Big Girl Now

2011-10-16T20:01:00.004-05:00

For the last two weeks, Doug and I had talked about making the transition from moving Evie from her crib to a toddler bed. Since the crib we received could convert to a toddler bed and a full size bed, we didn't have to go out a buy a new bed for her...just bedding. For as long as I can remember, Evelyn was constantly getting her legs stuck in between the crib slots but recently (for the last 2-3 months), she would get them stuck in the night up to three times. She would scream, we would wake up, try to remove her legs-without breaking the crib, then we'd go back to sleep just to be woken up again by the same thing. She would get them stuck mainly trying to climb out of the crib, but as she's not tall enough to successfully climb out, she would get her legs stuck. Also, because I am so short, it was always such a hassle to try to lift her over the crib while she's kicking and screaming. SO, we decided it would be best to convert the crib to a toddler bed over the weekend and try to have her transition into her "new" big girl bed. From everything I have read and have heard from family and friends, we knew this wouldn't be an easy task. However, we had converted her crib Friday morning after she woke up and when I put her down for a nap later on, she played for 30 minutes, cried/screamed for another 30 minutes, then crawled back into her bed and fell asleep for an hour. I was shocked! Then when bedtime rolled around, we put her into bed, she played for 30 minutes, then crawled into bed and fell asleep and stayed asleep all night long and didn't wake up until 7. Thinking that Friday was a fluke, we followed our routine and instead of playing after we put her down, she just went straight to sleep and has done that Saturday and today. I am amazed at how easy it was for her and us.

I joke that the next kid will be more cuddly (Evelyn is not cuddly and has never been cuddly ever), but will have a ton of issues with sleeping. I have to say, that Evelyn is usually an absolute angel when it comes to sleeping (unless she's sick or gets her legs stuck in the crib). We have been very fortunate in that regard!

In other Evie news, she is starting to become more affectionate, which I am LOVING! Like I said, she has never been a cuddly child, but now she is starting to give a lot more hugs and gives us real kisses. Tonight, I got a goodnight hug, a kiss on the cheek and then two of the sweetest kisses I have ever received on my lips. It almost brought me to tears. I love that little girl.

Transvaginal Saline Sonogram

2011-10-05T08:53:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I had the second procedure done and it was more intense. They examined me for a good 30 minutes (3 times as long as the last procedure). I heard the doctor and technician say something about polyps and my lining being too thick, but will not know their complete findings until the 18th of this month. It will be the big appointment and they told me to bring Doug if it is possible (of course it depends if we can find someone to watch Evie again). The doctor said that at the next appointment he will go over all of our tests, tell us what it means and where to go from there. I'm thinking if they did find abnormalities in my last procedure, I will probably need another laparoscopy-but the good news is that it is fixable. But since this is what I think I have heard and I am not 100% sure, we will find out for sure in two weeks. Until then, I am still on bc for the cysts and not sure when they will want to take me off of it-hopefully within the next month.

I was in a ton of pain last night because of yesterday, but this morning am feeling a lot better. Hopefully tomorrow I will be ready for my first real personal training session.

I am so thankful for all our friends who have been so willing to watch Evie short notice so that I can go to my appointments without taking Doug away from work. Thank you so much for being so generous. We truly appreciate and love you all!

In other news, Evie is sick again. Another cold and more teething pain. And now we all have her cold. But nothing will slow her down, she's as active as ever and getting into all sorts of mischief. :-)

HSG Results

2011-09-29T20:50:00.002-05:00

So very thankful that the procedure is over. Still having a few spasms and cramps, but overall wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Won't go into too much detail, but the technician took a look at my uterus (had to actually place the catheter inside uterus since it is tilted so far back) and my fallopian tubes. She said that they look perfectly normal and she didn't see a problem.

One less thing to worry about, but still have the other procedure to look forward to next week, then I will find out if he wants to do anymore testing or put me on more medication.

Test Results and Procedures

2011-09-27T17:19:00.004-05:00

My test results from Friday's appointment all came back normal, which is good. Next step is getting the HSG done, and am scheduled to go in this Thursday. I am also scheduled next Tuesday to get the transvaginal saline sonogram done. So hopefully I will know the full details of those procedures/tests by next Friday.

The nurse also informed me that the doctor wants me to go back on birth control to control the cysts that are forming on my ovaries for at least the next 30 days. Of course I wasn't too thrilled to hear that because that means another month of not being able to get pregnant.

Our biggest goal is to find out why I'm unable to get pregnant and we both hope these tests will shed some light on why we are having such a hard time, although I'm sure these won't be the last test we will have done.

Reminds me of a saying, "Every time we make plans, God laughs". Ain't that the truth. ha!

Another Doctor Visit

2011-09-23T11:29:00.004-05:00

Well I started a new cycle 2 weeks early. The nurses wanted me to come in to do another sonogram. So this morning I went in and the technician told me that my left ovary is enlarged and has a lot of follicles (which she assured me is normal with women who have PCOS) and my right ovary has a few small cysts. She told me not to be alarmed, that because the cysts are so small, it shouldn't be a big problem but that it could explain my cycle being off. The technician also seemed surprised at how tilted my uterus is, I knew that it is tilted backwards but everyone seemed to not be too alarmed by it, so not sure how to take that.

Before becoming pregnant with Evie (or ttc), my cycles were all over the place. Some months I would have multiple cycles (similar to this month) and sometimes I would go 2-3 months without starting a new cycle. I largely blame this on PCOS, especially now that I'm starting to have the same issues again.

Before leaving their office this morning, the technician thought it would be a smart idea to run more blood work to check my hormones and a few other things as well. I will find out the results on Monday and the doctor will inform us on what needs to be done next.

At the moment, I feel like a science experiment but I know we need to get to the bottom of my infertility issues so that when the time comes, I can get pregnant again and give our little princess a sibling.

Ever Growing Toddler

2011-09-21T13:04:00.005-05:00

Evelyn is 16-1/2 months old and we've been going to Gymboree for a couple months now and love it! She goes up to every single parent and tries to take the spotlight off of the other children and tries her best to be the center of everyone's attention. It's embarrassing, but it seems that the other parents think it's cute and don't mind too much. We love Gymboree as it is a fun room, filled with toys, play mats, and things for the kids to climb, run and play for an hour. By the time the class is over, Evie is usually somewhat tired, which is perfect because when we get home, she gets a quick snack then takes her nap.

Evie is quickly learning how to climb and tries to climb everything. It's very scary, because this child has no fear and she falls all the time from failed attempts of climbing onto boxes, chairs, couches, child gates and has tried to get her leg over the crib-thankfully she's not quite that tall yet. However, Doug and myself have been talking about converting her crib to a toddler bed sooner rather than later. I'm thinking within the next 6-8 weeks she will graduate to a big girl bed.

She is also getting very close to opening doors. She is definitely tall enough to reach the door knobs, but doesn't know that she has to turn them for the door to open but am pretty sure she'll figure that out way too soon and we'll have to put the child covers on the knobs.

Now for the best part, Evelyn is a hugger! She will hug everything and loves giving Mommy and Daddy hugs. They are the best hugs I've ever received. She will reach out to us, then hold us very tightly for a few seconds, then run off and either start playing or will hug her stuffed animals. It's the cutest! She also loves climbing all over us and is constantly giggling-unless she doesn't get her way. ;-) We even ended up putting all of her stuffed animals into her ball house and she loves throwing herself in there and rolling around with the toys.

She is very smart and knows how to work us and strangers. She can say "dada" (although right now she thinks Doug and myself are "dada", trying to teach her that I am "mama" but she doesn't get it yet). She can also say "baba" (referring to her bottle), "buba" (when she wants bubbles), "ca" (cat), "da" (dog), "mumums" (we call food yum-yums) and "bye bye". She can understand pretty much everything we say. It is really neat how much she understands. I can tell her to go bring me her shoes, and she does it within a minute, running into my arms with her shoes so I can put them on her feet. She LOVES being out and loves any opportunity to put her shoes on to go "bye bye".

For the last two weeks we have been battling with diarrhea, a cold and a yeast infection. It's been horrible, but she is finally on the mend and is a much happier person now. Although, she is still battling the diarrhea, we are hoping it will stop soon. Poor little thing has been on the BRAT (bananas, rice, apples, toast) diet for the last week and to make sure she's getting enough to eat, we've been trying to feed her every 2-3 hrs during the day.

I love my little family and I am soaking up all this time I get to spend with my daughter. Wouldn't trade it for the world. :-)

My First Visit to Dr. Rodriguez

2011-09-19T11:34:00.002-05:00

I had my first appointment with the fertility specialist this morning. Nothing too exciting, just a lot of talking about my surgeries, family medical history, my last pregnancy, etc. After about an hour and a half of talking, he told me that he wants to do more tests to see why I am not ovulating. One of the tests he wants to do is called Transvaginal Saline Sonogram. It basically will determine if there is something (polyps, fibroids, or adhesions) that is interfering with embryo implantation. Another test he is wanting to conduct is called a Hysterosalpingography (HSG). A HSG is an X-ray that examines the inside of the uterus and fallopian tubes. This test is done to determine if there is something blocking the fallopian tubes and to find other problems for women who are having difficulties becoming pregnant.

Currently, I am on CD 15 (with my cycles lasting about 31 days) and will need to call my doctor when I am on CD 1 of my next cycle to get this all moving and get these tests done.

Needless to say, I am nervous about all of this and am praying for the best.

Fertility Post

2011-09-03T20:33:00.003-05:00

Well, I am having more difficulty with my fertility. We knew that it would be a difficult path if we ever decided to become pregnant again, so it isn't a huge surprise.

After the rough time I had with my last OB/GYN, I decided it was time for a change. Now I know what to look for and what I like, I found a great doctor who I love. I went in for my initial visit this past Tuesday. I told her all the surgeries I have had, all the medicines I've tried and how I thought I had PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome). She wanted to get blood tests done to see what all is going on, so the nurse took 5 vials. She also wrote a prescription for Metformin, which is the same drug I took the month I became pregnant with Evelyn. Friday, I went back to the office to have a sonogram where it revealed I had multiple follicles on my left ovary. The doctor explained each test they ran in full detail, stating I was in perfect health, except for a couple of the tests. She strongly believes I do have PCOS (with the multiple follicles, fertility problems we've had, among other issues). On top of that, she revealed that my FSH (Follicle Stim Hormone) and my LH (Luteinizing Hormone) was low which is another factor that is preventing my body from ovulating. It's nice to know this now, as my last doctor didn't bother testing me for this and I was having issues with ovulating (which is why it took us 14 months to conceive). My doctor then recommended that I go see a fertility specialist to figure out why my body is not ovulating. A couple of theories my doctor mention was that I may not have many eggs left or my body thinks I'm running low on eggs. So she said that the fertility specialist can run tests and hopefully get a better idea of what is going on. Good news is that I should be able to get pregnant again, but it will just be another journey to get there.

For now, we are waiting to hear back from the fertility specialist and then we will go from there.

Although it is a tad disappointing, I am so grateful that we were blessed with a healthy, beautiful baby girl. She is the light of our lives (even if she is a toddler-haha!). ;-) We are blessed.

2011-07-12T09:20:00.006-05:00

Wow, cannot believe it has been 6 months since my last post. Life has been so crazy and busy.

I did very well last semester with school, but came to the decision to not return (until Evie is in school herself). With Evie growing up so rapidly and the stress of every day life, school was just another huge stress that was not working out for us. And with the hopes of growing our family, we agreed it was best for me to stay home. However, I am thinking about starting up my pet sitting business again hopefully in the next couple of years.

Evelyn is now 14 months old and I cannot believe how much she has changed. Everywhere I go, people stop me so they can chat with Evie and let me know what a beautiful child I have. Of course Evie soaks it all up and when someone doesn't pay attention to her, she makes sure they do. She will stare at people until they notice her, or she will scream as loud as she can. Either way, people cannot not notice her. She is hysterical like that. I have a feeling we are going to have to teach her to be wary when it comes to strangers.

Evelyn is also rapidly becoming more aware of her toys. Up until a few days ago, she just bit everything (and bites mommy and daddy all the time...it hurts!), but now she's realizing that certain toys go together and she tries to put the pieces together. I think she will be able to work puzzles soon. She tries to stack blocks and she has to put her baby in the stroller. She as of yesterday will put her baby in the stroller than walk around with them, it's adorable. If she can't find her baby, she will go around the house looking and saying "baby" over and over.

As for words, she can say baby really well. She understands cat, dog, baby, head and monster. She will point to just about anything, if we ask where it is. She absolutely adores Lucky. They have their own little game they play. Lucky will go around the house running every which way and Evie will follow him with his toy. She will even throw his toys in his direction and he will snatch it up. It is really something to watch them interact with each other.

Evelyn has a monster voice she uses when she wants to play with Doug's My Pet Monsters. There are 3 mini monsters that Evie always puts together. If they are all on the futon, she will take them down one-by-one until she has them somewhere else, but they must always stay together. She will line them up, then talk to them, then she will throw herself on top of them and throw them around. But after that, she will place them neatly together again. She can play with them for well over 15 minutes before moving on.

Doug and myself just celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary. We are so blessed to have Russ and Ginny watch Evie while we went to Las Vegas. It was a much needed trip after the past 2 years and it was so nice to just be a couple again.

On Friday morning, we finished up packing, went over Evie's routine a ton with Russ and Ginny, and tried to spend as much time with our little girl before we left the house to take Lucky to get boarded and then make the drive to the airport. We arrived at the airport 2 hours before our plane was schedule to take off and we were very lucky. The moment we walked into the place, we did the self check-in, then went straight to security checkpoint-which was only a few steps away from where we arrived, the moment we got past that, our terminal/gate was right in front of us. I'm used to walking at least a mile to get to where I need to be, so this was a nice break from that. Not only was our gate right there, but there was a restaurant only about 10 steps away where we decided to eat lunch. We spent as much time at the restaurant as possible since we had a lot of time to burn, but once we were done, we sat down and waited for boarding time which was only for a few minutes.

By the time we got on the plane, I was feeling a little nauseous. Since my pregnancy, I've realized that Benadryl works wonders on the stomach so I had taken a few during lunch as I'm not very good during take-offs. Doug on the other hand, had a different story when it came to landing. Poor guy. His stomach become very upset the moment the plane started descending. He held out as long as he could, but he got out his sick bag and tried opening it...there was a piece of used gum closing the bag together. He couldn't wait any longer and just ripped it wide open and got sick. Yeah, it got every where. Thank God for the nice lady sitting next to him, she was so understanding. I got a steward to come by, but he said there was nothing he could do for us since we were about to land. Doug asked if he could at least get some napkins, the steward very annoyed walked off. About 5 minutes later he comes back with about 10 napkins, there is a mess everywhere and he only comes back with a few? After about a few seconds, we both ask for more and he comes back with at least 200! Haha! The moment we get off the plane Doug goes straight to the bathroom, he later tells me he just went ahead and threw his old outfit away since he didn't want the rest of his clothing to stink. Poor guy had a very rough day.

We arrive at the hotel at around 1 p.m. and the staff couldn't be more accommodating. As promised, they asked if we wanted a glass of champagne. Doug of course did not, and instead they brought him a bottle of water and ginger ale. I wasn't about to refuse, so they brought me a tall glass of champagne and boy was it strong. They begin to explain the Prestige features, which included complimentary continental breakfast from 7-10 a.m. in the lounge, then it becomes a coffee and tea area from 10-4 p.m., then cocktails and d'oeuvres from 5-8 p.m. We arrived to our room and couldn't believe how large it was. We were in heaven! Doug, still feeling uneasy went to the bed to rest. After awhile, he still was not feeling any better, so I suggested he go take a shower. After a little while he eventually started to feel better and became hungry again, which was perfect since we needed to find somewhere to eat before Jersey Boys. I loved Jersey Boys and Doug got the most perfect seats. We were front orchestra, Row A, seats 1 & 2. You could see the sweat dripping off their faces! We were able to appreciate even more how in tune they all were to the music, their dancing and the way they played off each others facial expressions. Perfect! After that, I was anxious to see the night lights of Vegas so we stepped outside the hotel to find it was raining a little. But that didn't stop me from at least getting a glimpse of the city before returning to our room for the night.

Saturday was very different for me. I am so used to waking up at the crack of dawn to Evie, that it was so nice to wake up on my own and lay in bed for a little while without anything to do. But when we finally got out of bed and got ourselves ready, we decided to check out the lounge to see what they offered. Holy Cow! There was a TON of food and it was SO good. Both Doug and myself went back for seconds, although we didn't want to gorge ourselves just yet. Afterwards, we decided to check out the huge mall they have on the second floor of the hotel and there were a few times we got lost. When it came time, we decided to head on over to the Bellagio hotel to make sure we got to our lunch reservation at Olives on time. We got there much too early, I think it was around 9:30 a.m. and our reservation wasn't until noon. But we walked around to see what they offered and found a wedding chapel and joked about renewing our vows. We made our way back to the shopping/dining area and went in a few stores (Chanel, Gucci, Prada, etc). I saw a Tiffany's and and Doug asked if I wanted to go in, I said, "Sure, then you can see how outrageous their prices are!" After a few minutes, we were looking at wedding bands and there was one that I really liked. Doug, out of nowhere, asks if I want it. Ha! I just thought he was kidding, and said "maybe". Well I guess he wasn't because after I admitted that I wanted it, he bought it. I was stunned, still am that I have this beautiful Tiffany wedding band. Afterward, we went to lunch where everyone could see my little blue bag and had to see what my wonderful husband got me. I must say I do have the best hubby ever and am one very blessed and lucky girl! Lunch at Olives was amazing, so much so we made reservations for dinner when we were leaving. During lunch, the fountains started going off and it was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. The way they get those fountains to move to the music was incredible. And I couldn't believe how high they went, it's something you have to see yourself to understand.

After lunch, my feet were killing me. I didn't bring my usual sneakers that I wear all the time, but decided to bring my pretty little sandals and flip flops. That was not the best decision and I will never do that again. By noon Saturday, I had blisters all over both feet and it was so uncomfortable to walk, so we headed back to our hotel after lunch to rest a little before our massages and my hair appointment.

At 3 p.m. we headed down to the spa to get our couples massage. We told our massage therapists that we both were having aches and pains in our neck and back, so they told us they would work on those areas. Wow, did they! Afterward, Doug and myself were talking to each other asking the other if the massage hurt. Doug said that it hurt a little, but clearly my therapist tore me apart. Doug's therapist worked on his back more, while mine worked on my neck for at least 30 minutes. She would move things around in there and poke as hard as she could in the tender spot, but I knew she was helping me and afterward I felt much better. Although, being back home now and having to carry a 24 lb toddler around most of the day is wearing on my back and neck again.

Immediately after the massage, I made my way to the salon to get my hair cut and styled. The woman who worked on me, definitely was not a big talker, so it was a bit awkward. But she worked fast, my hair looks great and I am so glad I did this. The last time I got my hair professionally done was back when I was 14 years old. My grandmother took me to her salon and I just remember feeling fantastic afterward. Since then, I've only gone to franchise hair places (Great Clips, Pro-Cuts, etc) and they never do a great job. It was a great way to treat myself. After I got my hair done, it was about 5 p.m. and we were both starting to get hungry, so we ventured into the Prestige Lounge for d'oeuvres and cocktails. Oh my goodness, this was wonderful! We weren't sure if the bartender knew how to make certain drinks, so we ordered wine at first. We sat down at a table, then made our way to the amazing food they had. After eating some fabulous food, I was curious if they could make a wedding cake martini, so I asked. The bartender wasn't sure how to make one, so I ordered 2 chocolate martinis instead. The waiter on hand, stopped by our table and said he would make me a wedding cake martini. After about 3 minutes, he came back with a glass that he said he thought was what I wanted. Not sure if it was the recipe I was used to, but it tasted amazing. Since I had 3 glasses of drinks, I wasn't seeing straight, but we decided to go back down the the mall they have downstairs to look around some more.

Dinner reservations were for 9:45 p.m. so we started making that "long" walk back to the Bellagio at 8:30. On our way to dinner, we noticed a ton of people who seemed to be waiting for something to happen at the Mirage. So we stopped and waited. Turns out that at 9, the volcano in front of the Mirage erupts. That was quite a show! It lasted about 5 minutes, then we continued the walk to dinner. Since I was so tired by the time we got to Olives, I wasn't very hungry, but couldn't resist the Beef Carpaccio that we had had for lunch earlier that day. After the appetizer, I was pretty much done and wanting to crash into bed.

On Sunday, we went back to the Prestige lounge for breakfast and it did not disappoint. Afterward, we went back to our suite and packed our things to head to the airport. The flight back home was uneventful and we were sad to be leaving, but glad to be going home to see our little princess. Doug's parents gave us the good news that Evie was on her best behavior and actually slept for them. Hallelujah! Before we left for Las Vegas, Evie was waking up during the night, multiple times, then would wake up at 6 a.m. So it was nice that she actually slept until 7 for them.

We had a very nice time and hope to go back soon. It was a very nice way to celebrate five wonderful years of marriage. Pray for many more years of this journey and cannot wait to see what the future holds for our little family.

Update

2011-01-21T17:26:00.003-06:00

Well with school back in session, I am swamped.

This semester I am taking a Walking/Fitness class, Algebra class and a Speech class. Means a lot of homework, papers, workouts...assignments in general. All that to say, I probably won't be writing as much as I used to on here. I already have a speech due on Tuesday, so I am busy with that.

Evie has a tooth, which was pretty big news a few weeks ago. Although, now she has a lot more coming in and is a very cranky baby because of it. She recently developed a cold (which is common when babies teethe) and she was nice enough to share that with us. I woke up this morning feeling awful. I am thankful that I had one of my major workouts yesterday morning before all this came hitting me, so hopefully I'll be over this cold by the time I go back next week.

Doug and I have been a little worried by the lack of crawling and standing herself up, so we've been trying to get her to warm up to the idea of them. It's not working out so well. The more we push, the more she doesn't want to do either of the activities. I've tried to be laid back when it came to this before, but now that she is almost 9 months old and isn't interested in doing these activities and it has me a bit worried. I know all babies reach milestones differently, but I will talk to her doctor at her 9 month wellness to see what he has to say.

We bought Evie a walker a couple of weeks ago and Evie absolutely loves it. Within the last 10 days she has discovered how to steer where she wants to go, move backwards and can usually get herself out of a jam if she gets stuck. She doesn't walk in this thing, she runs! We are going to have our hands full when she starts walking on her own.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-02T21:34:00.003-06:00

Doug and I just returned from our second Christmas trip. Still am feeling a little bad (and upset) that we had to all get sick that whole Christmas week. But at least Doug's parents were able to see Evie again and see how much she's grown, and of course how funny she is. I just wish that we were all well enough to have my side of the family see Evie again.

Anyway, the moment we got back, I decided I needed to go grocery shopping. Luckily, I had all my coupons and list set before we left so all I had to do was grab my list and coupons and go. I ended up saving $20 with all my coupons and spent way under budget. Woohoo! I also have almost everything I need to make dinners for this week. Would have had more ingredients, but since it was so late and it was packed with people, Target was sadly sold out of some stuff. No worries, will go back tomorrow to grab the few items I still need. I decided to make lunches from scratch too, so this week will be a big experiment. I know Doug has got to be sick to death of all the frozen crap that he eats day in and day out, so hopefully having a nice homemade sandwich (I even am going to make the bread!) will be a nice change.

Just paid for my tuition. I'm nervous, but excited to be taking 3 classes this semester. I figure since I got straight A's for the past few years of school, I SHOULD be able to pull this off. I have decided though, not to take a summer course for a few reasons. This summer will be our 5 year anniversary and we've been thinking about going on a vacation with Evie...if you call that a vacation. Haha! Plus I hear horror stories from those who have taken summer courses and I am not sure I want to put myself through that. I just won't be able to finish my associates until the end of Spring 2012. But we'll see. I plan on talking to an adviser next weekend to discuss how many more classes I need to complete.

Evie is turning 1 in four short months and usually I have everything figured out way before this, but I finally now have it all planned out. Over the next couple of weeks, I'm going to look more into four of the parks that I've narrowed the party destination and will put down a reservation deposit on it once I have picked out the one I like best. It has to have everything on my list, which isn't too much: playground, covered picnic area, and restrooms. If it rains, we'll have the party at our house. I have the theme picked out (owls) and the place where I found it has anything you could think of to complete the party, pinatas, bibs, shirts, banners, etc. So I'm really happy! I will start purchasing a little every month until I have everything. I'm so excited, can you tell? ;-)

I can already tell, 2011 is going to be a great year! Happy New Year everybody!

New Blog

2010-12-30T23:21:00.002-06:00

I've decided to create another blog specifically for recipes and cooking. For the last year and a half, or since I became pregnant back in August of 2009, and developed HG, I haven't been cooking. So one of my new year resolutions is to not only start cooking, at the very least, five nights a week, but to create yummy and healthy dishes. The big reason for this new interest, is for my daughter who will be joining the family dinner table fairly soon and I want her to develop healthy eating habits and the first way to make that happen is to be the role model.

Now I haven't posted any recipes yet, but the the first ones I do are not going to be healthy, so just be warned. But hopefully in a few months, I will have tried some new recipes (more healthier ones) and have found some winners.

I'm not trying to become some ridiculous high class gourmet chef...yet. Right now it's just something to hold myself accountable so I don't fall back into the same rut I've been in for the last 16-18 months.

So here's to a happy and healthier New Year! Cheers!

http://beginnercooks.blogspot.com

Stomach Bug

2010-12-22T11:02:00.002-06:00

Evie is now 7 months old and is weighing about 19-1/2 lbs.

This past Monday Evie came down with the stomach bug. She threw up violently Monday evening at around 5:30 and didn't stop. It got to the point where we thought she was throwing up blood (turns out from our pediatrician that it did sound like she was throwing up dried blood as it was a brownish color). We decided at around 9 that night to take her to the ER. We were there for 2-1/2 hrs without being seen. I went to the front desk a couple of times to ask if they knew how much longer it would be. The first time, the lady told me we were next and it shouldn't be too much longer. An hour later, I went back and asked again. The lady rudely told me there was no way of knowing. After a couple of patients who came in after we did got called back, we decided to leave. We got home around 12:30 a.m. We moved Evie's swing into our room and put her down. She woke up a few hours later for something to drink. Since we were told not to give her formula until her tummy settles, we started giving her watered down Gerber apple juice. Turns out that wasn't the greatest decision. All day Tuesday, she produced diarrhea diapers. She did not have a wet diaper for about 20 hrs, so I called the pediatrician. They told me to come immediately to get her evaluated. They had me trying to give her all sorts of different Pedialytes, but she refused to take any of them. Then they tried having me give her formula, again she refused. She was getting so frustrated and tired, she was screaming bloody murder. Two nurses came in and took her to try to calm her down, but to no avail. They handed her back to me and I was able to get her to fall asleep. When she woke up, I tried again to give her a bottle, but again she refused. BUT, the nurse checked her diaper and there was trace amount of pee in there so they told me I could go as she wasn't dehydrated. Since then she's been taking her formula and producing wet diapers. However, she did wake up puking at 1:30 this morning so we had to wash her swing fabric, change her clothes/wipe her down and got her to go back to sleep in her bouncer. Needless to say, these past 3 days have been exhausting and I feel so badly there is nothing we can do to make our little girl feel any better. But I do have to say, that she is still the happiest baby ever! I swear, ever since her colic/reflux went away she doesn't cry as much and she is so happy. I guess the colic/reflux mix was the hardest, most trying time of our life and now that it is over, we have been blessed with a beautiful, wonderful, happy, smart, active, funny little girl.

I was looking back at her newborn pictures when she was born and had me tearing up. All Doug could do was laugh and told me we would have another one someday. Haha!

Doug is awesome. He took a half day Tuesday to help me take care of Evie and he has been so patient. He is wonderful! He works all day, five days a week (sometimes more), comes home, cares for Evie, puts her to bed, goes to bed, wakes up to care for her then goes to work. What can I say, I'm lucky. :-)

As for school. I found out I received A's in both classes and my GPA is now at 3.7! So thrilled about that, but nervous about next semester.

Anyway, I am just trying to do everything before Christmas comes in 3 days. Eek! Cleaning a house that is constantly getting dirty, taking care of a sick Evie and getting everything ready for Christmas has been challenging, but it's all good. Praying Evie's stomach bug will leave soon.

2010-12-02T11:17:00.003-06:00

Well I haven't updated this thing in a while and since Evie has been napping for a couple of hours, I finally have some time.

Evie turns 7 months old tomorrow and is still growing like a weed. At her 6 month wellness appointment she weighed 17 lbs and 10 oz and is 27.5 inches tall now (90 percentile)! Every time I bring her to the doctor, he always remarks on her strength and that she is continually getting stronger...yeah, I know. There are times when it takes everything in me to hold her (or hold her down since she has a horrible cold and I have to suck up the snot). I think she took every ounce of strength I used to have when I was pregnant with her, as I cannot do as much as I used to. Haha!

So Evie has a nasty cold now for a few days, and it is a pain! I don't think she has ever been this sick before. Yes, she's had colds before this one, but this time around seems to be a whole lot worse. But the doctor assured me that it is just a cold and to ride it out. She is more fussy (which not sure if it's the cold or teething since the doctor also told me her bottom gums look like it may produce teeth in a little while). She has a ton of snot in her nose and I can only suck out so much. She is eating every 2-2.5 hrs and I'm trying to get her to sleep more often. The cool air humidifier is going non-stop and we've decided to move her swing into her room and let her sleep in that during the nights. Thank goodness she is sleeping through the night (thanks to Christine's recommendation of overnight diapers-life saver!). So Doug is getting reasonable night's sleep.

For Thanksgiving we went to Doug's parents house in Oklahoma and I am so thankful for the new car as it held all of Evie's stuff in it with no problem. We brought the bouncer, the jumperoo, half of her toys, the pack n play, clothes, food, bottles, spoons, bowls, and our stuff. We stayed there for four days. Doug's parents were nice enough to let us sleep in their room and I am grateful for that. Doug's older brother and his family also came. It was so nice to finally meet our niece, Charlotte, and nephew, Davis. All the kids did very well together. Davis and Charlotte were angels, and it was heartwarming to see them all interact with each other. Needless to say, it was one of the best Thanksgivings in a long time.

I am almost done with this semester. Tonight is my last class for one of my classes and then I take a final next Wednesday for math. Even though I was really sick earlier this week and had to resort with not-so-good grades, I didn't do as horribly as thought and I should still manage to get A's and B's this semester. Thank goodness!

Well Doug opened the bag of worms last week. He mentioned about having another baby soon. I keep going through all the pros and cons of this decision and I am still undecided. I love the idea of giving Evie a sibling, but at the same time I do not want to have another hyperemesis gravidarum pregnancy. I keep thinking, what if it gets so bad I have to be hospitalized, like a lot of other women with this condition have to be. ugh. But then I wonder, what if I have a 'normal' pregnancy with mild morning sickness. If I knew 100% that I wouldn't have another hg pregnancy, I would be all for it, but since I have had it, I will more than likely have it again. The only question is, will it be milder or worse. I guess we will have to talk more and pray about it.

Now that Thanksgiving is over, let the fun of Christmas begin! :-)

Baptism and Rolling

2010-10-28T21:18:00.003-05:00

So a lot is going on lately.

First, Evelyn was baptized this past Sunday at our church and we were blessed to have both of our parents attend, plus my grandmother and a lot of our friends. I was a wreck for the last few weeks, stressing about her schedule since she follows it religiously and when I ever stray from that schedule, she has a total meltdown. BUT, she was an absolute angel and we both let out a huge breath when the baptism was done. She wore my baptism dress I wore when I was a baby that my godmother had made for me. So happy I was able to pass that down to Evie, and she was a doll in it! Later we threw a party. We had Dickey's Barbecue cater, and I had made way too many treats like I always do. Haha! Although after a few minutes, Evie became extremely fussy as it was too much for her to take in, so she went down for a little nap while the party continued. Doug's parents, my parents and my grandmother bought a TON of stuff for Evie and we are extremely thankful. I was worried as Evie seems to be outgrowing her 6 month clothes, and we don't really have the money anymore to spend money for her clothes, so we are very grateful that we have a ton of 9 month clothes for her to wear now. My parents bought her a very nice silver photo carousel with her name, birth date, and her baptism date on it with a whole lot of other 'firsts' on it, so we thought that was a very nice baptism gift for our little princess.

We finally found a constant babysitter through a site called www.care.com. This will be the first time we've left her with a stranger, so I'm a little paranoid, but when we interviewed her she seemed very reliable, trustworthy, caring, responsible person who loves children so we're hoping this works out as we need a date night every once and awhile.

I am extremely busy these days with maintaining an 'A' average at school, keeping Evelyn happy, trying to keep the house somewhat clean, fully stocked with food and organized and manage/schedule date nights, appointments and parties. Seems like it never ends around here.

Well it looks like the new medication I tried for the ovarian cysts has failed. Once we have everything worked out with this new babysitter, I am going to schedule my physical with my doctor and see what else I can try, but I have a feeling nothing is going to work. I'm thinking the choice we may need to make in the near future is whether to have another baby now and then go through with a hysterectomy or to have the hysterectomy soon with no more hope of having a biological child or to have a laparoscopy every year/every other year. There are times when I think I want another baby, then I am quickly reminded that I am not sure I want to go through another hyperemesis gravidarum pregnancy and have two little ones to care for while I'm trying to get my degree. But then I wonder if this will be our only chance to have another one. I guess we will have to pray about it and see what happens. Evie was our miracle baby and maybe asking for another one is just too much to ask for.

Evelyn will be SIX months old in just 6 short days. I cannot believe she is already getting to be 1/2 year old. She isn't sitting up by herself yet-she actually HATES sitting. Every time I put her in the Bumbo, she quickly straightens herself to get out and is getting so big that she is almost falling over in it. So I really don't put her in it that often anymore. Her new trick is rolling all over the place. She's been rolling around this past month, but today she was really trying to go somewhere. I took four videos of her doing this, but had to cut off since she kept rolling into either her dresser, her changing table, her crib or her trash can. I would start her off at the far end of her room, and at one point she almost made it all the way to the other end and almost rolled out of her room. She's not super fast yet about it, but I have a feeling now that she's figured it out it's only a matter of time.

Evelyn at 5-1/2 Months

2010-10-14T10:25:00.003-05:00

Evelyn is now battling with colic, reflux and it seems she now is teething. So life over here is crazy and chaotic. She literally screams all day long, unless she is being fed, sucking/chewing on her fingers/feet, or is sleeping-which I make her do often for my sanity. Sleeping has become a little bit of a challenge recently. She was doing so well sleeping in her crib at night and during naps, but this week she has been refusing naps and as a result very fussy and inconsolable. Because she has been more fussy this week, I try to have her sleep in the crib, but after a certain amount of time of her screaming I have to pick her up and place her in the swing-where she falls asleep instantly. At night it's become harder. We still haven't had to resort to the Ferber method of letting her "cry it out" as she doesn't really cry for too long at night. More like getting frustrated, trying to get comfortable. We hear in the baby monitor her sighing, rolling, grunting, sucking, etc. It can be funny in the early night, but when it happens all night long, it can be tiring.

We're trying to teach Evelyn to sit up by herself, but it's not working for us too well. Every time we have her sit she pushes herself up to stand. She hates sitting. If she doesn't try to stand she just falls over on to her back or stomach, which can be interesting. She still hasn't quite figured out how to crawl yet, and I have stopped holding my breath when she gets close as she's been "almost" crawling for 3 months now. I figure it's going to be one of those light switch moments for her (like grabbing her feet, sucking/chewing on her fingers, kicking), so I guess we'll let her discover these things in her own time.

With the solid foods she has tried green beans, peas and carrots. She loved the green beans, hated the peas and was indifferent to the carrots. Tomorrow I will have her try the sweet potatoes and see how that goes. So far, no allergic reactions-so we're hoping it stays like that. November we will have her try the fruits and am kind of excited to see how she does with that.

We've decided to have Evelyn baptized on the 24th of this month and I'm so excited. I am going to throw an after party at our house and am currently trying to think of appropriate foods to make.

I'm on new medication for birth control, but it's really for my ovarian cysts. According to my doctor, birth control helps reduce the chances of developing the cysts so I'm not constantly having to have surgery to have them removed. The only reason I never really went on birth control before was because my body doesn't react too well to them. I get horribly ill, but I'm giving it another shot as it's been 4-5 years since I was on it last and I don't want to go through another laparoscopy. I started taking them on Monday and am going to give it 2-4 weeks, if I'm still really sick by that time, I will have another talk with my doctor.

That is all that is going on in our neck of the woods. :-)

Praline-Pumpkin Cake (or Cupcakes)

2010-10-10T14:03:00.003-05:00

I saw this recipe on Betty Crocker online. I'm trying to learn how to bake more, especially with the holidays coming up and this one caught my eye.

You will need the following:
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup coarsely chopped pecans
1 box yellow cake mix
1 cup (from 15 oz can) pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1-1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 lb cream cheese frosting
Caramel topping, if desired
Additional coarsely chopped pecans, if desired

Heat oven to 325 degrees. In 1-quart heavy saucepan, stir together butter, whipping cream and brown sugar. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, just until butter is melted. Pour into your desired pan(s); sprinkle evenly with 3/4 cup pecans.

In large bowl, beat cake mix, pumpkin, water, oil, eggs and 1 tsp of the pumpkin pie spice with mixer until well mixed. Spoon batter over pecan mixture in pan(s).

Bake 43-45 minutes or until cake springs back when touched lightly in center. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

Stir remaining 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice into frosting. To assemble cake, place 1 layer, praline side up on serving plate. Spread with half of frosting. Top with second layer, praline side up; spread remainly frosting to edge of layer. Drizzle with caramel topping and additional pecans. Store loosely covered in refriderator.

Hope you enjoy this as much as we have! :-)

5 Months Old Tomorrow!

2010-10-02T12:25:00.007-05:00

This weekend is going very well so far.

Since Evie was pretty sick up until recently, we decided not to go to Oktober Fest. But now that she is 100%, we plan on going to the State Fair tomorrow to celebrate her 5-month-birthday. Silly, I know, but it's a pretty big deal to me since we didn't get to celebrate Christopher's 5 month birthday. Anyway, she is growing up so much. She definitely lets me know when she's bored, angry, sleepy, hungry, happy, sad, etc. She has a way to express different emotions differently, which I find very fascinating. She still battles with colic and reflux, but I think both are starting to fade. I believe they will be gone by the time she is 6 months old-cannot wait!

We finally bought a highchair today through amazon.com and am so excited to having a nice working chair to feed Evie in. Speaking of, we started Evelyn on solids this morning and it was a huge success. It was almost like she's been on solids for a few weeks, which is weird, but I'm not complaining. We started her on green beans since we keep hearing that we need to start her on solids that aren't sweet as we don't want her to be accustomed to only wanting sweet tasting foods. Every time she saw the spoon, she opened her mouth wide, closed her mouth once the spoon was in and ate quite a bit. Needless to say, we are very impressed and proud.

We bought Evelyn's first Halloween costume last week and I got a good deal on it, so I'm happy about that as we don't want to spend $50 on something she's only going to wear once or twice. I'm thinking about throwing a family friendly Halloween party this year. My goal is to try many different Fall recipes as possible for Halloween and when we visit Doug's parents for Thanksgiving. Hopefully I can find a new winner.

That's pretty much all that is going on with us lately. Mainly busy taking care of a very active baby girl, five needy pets, school, house, etc. But it's all good and we are very blessed.

Home Renovation

2010-09-24T11:36:00.004-05:00

We are FINALLY done with the new floor and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. Took the installation guys 4 days to do it, but now that it's over I'm happy we decided to get it done. The front room looks so much bigger and the living room finally looks like a living room. Imagine that. Haha! The only downside, is that we are having to kill a TON of bugs and dust is EVERYWHERE! I've already deep cleaned the front room and am still working on the living room, although I should be able to finish it today. Next week I plan to deep clean our room, the dining room, the nursery and guest room. Would love to have this house spotless by the end of next week and then throw a party as I'm sure that will be the only time the house will be clean.

Evie is sick at the moment, but I think whatever she has is on its way out. She now weighs a little over 16 lbs! She wears size 6 and 9 month clothes and she isn't even 5 months old yet! So crazy how big she is getting. I think she is going to be tall which I'm happy about since I am not a fan of being so short. Haha!

I am doing REALLY well in school. Straight A's and have been invited to join Phi Theta Kappa again (was invited last year too but didn't join). I think I will join this year. It will give me more opportunities for scholarships. Plus a notation of the membership will be on my transcripts and diploma, not to mention any future employers will know I was a member. Phi Theta Kappa is basically a honor society that gives me a lot of opportunities to succeed in my academic and professional career. So I'm excited that I was invited to join again this year.

We are having Evelyn baptized in November and if she still fits, she will wear my baptism gown that I wore as a baby...if it still fits. If not, we will get a new one. We are also having professional family portraits done in October, finally! We don't have any pictures of all of us, so it is much needed.

We are also starting Evelyn on solids next week and attempting to put her in her room at night again. We had to put the bumper on the bed as she got her legs trapped in between the bars and couldn't get them out. I don't know how she got them jammed in there, but it took me awhile to get her poor little leg out the last time, so we both agreed it's safer and better to have the bumper in the crib. I know the SIDS argument against it, but I figure since she can roll both ways now she should be okay, plus we put a fan in her room so that should keep the air circulating.

Our weekends are starting to become booked. We plan on going to Oktober Fest in McKinney this weekend, then between having family portraits done, going to the State Fair and Fort Worth Zoo, we are pretty busy this Fall. :-)

Evie, Surgery and School

2010-09-13T09:10:00.002-05:00

Evie is four months old and had her appointment last week. She now weighs 15 lbs and 5.5 oz and is 26-1/4 inches tall-she is in the 97th percentile for both height and weight!!! I cannot believe how fast she is growing and how determined she is to be a toddler. She has mastered rolling from tummy to back and more recently from back to tummy. She CANNOT be on her back any more-she HATES it! So every time I place her on her back within 1 minute she is on her stomach. It's crazy! We tried to move her into her room last week, but since she constantly rolls onto her stomach and gets her hands and feet stuck in between the bars, we decided to keep her in the swing until we feel comfortable enough to put the bumper back on and have her sleep in there. So I guess she'll be in our room for another month, which I am totally fine with. Haha! Evie is really starting to crawl. She's been trying to crawl since she was 2-3 months old, but seems DETERMINED to crawl soon and can slightly move around. We think she will be full blown crawling by next month. Her favorite show is Yo Gabba Gabba and her favorite movie (which she literally can watch 3 times a day, start to finish) is Monster's Inc. Never knew a baby could watch t.v. shows and movies at this young of an age, but keep hearing that Doug did it as a baby too. Weird!

So had my second laparoscopy last Wednesday and this time around I am struggling. I knew it was going to be hard since I remember it being a rough recovery last year and I knew it was going to be worse than the C-sec. But, goodness, it's been so bad that we considered going to the ER yesterday but thankfully I am finally starting to feel like I will make it until my doctor follow up appointment this week. I originally went in for a complex cyst on my left ovary, but he also found some more endometriosis, so he took care of that too. He also noted to Doug that my uterus seems to be more tilted now to the back, so not sure how that's going to affect our chances for another baby. But as far as I've been told, this cyst was a fluke and wasn't cancerous so I guess we will still wait 4-5 years for baby #2. However, if this does happen again I really think I'll just have a hysterectomy as I don't think I can go through this surgery for a third time. But we'll cross that bridge when/if we come to it.

I've been really proud of myself when it comes to school. Even though I had surgery on Wednesday, I still showed up for class to take a test Thursday night and I'm pretty certain I at the very least got a B on it. I also took a quiz over the weekend and got a 100% on it. Now I just have to finish homework and will be caught up in all of my classes. Thank goodness!

This Friday we are having the carpet ripped up and tile installed. I think it's going to be a 4 or 5 day thing, which is not going to be fun with me recovering and having a little one around but it will be SO worth it when it's all over with. Now I'm on the look out for a good hard floor cleaner, since the main reason we are having tile put in is because of the pets constantly peeing/pooping/vomiting on the floor and I need to keep it clean for our soon to be crawler. ;-)

Laughing Evie

2010-09-05T22:55:00.002-05:00

At four months old Evie has mastered rolling, both from stomach to back and back to stomach. We are thrilled! She has also begun to really laugh. It's a happy thing, but also a little sad. Apparently only I can make her laugh for the most part. Doug tries so hard, but the moment I step in, that's when she starts the cutest belly laugh ever.

We now have her down on a schedule and if we don't follow it, Evie gets very cranky. We were at a friend's house for dinner tonight and since it was a "late" dinner and she usually goes to sleep at 8 p.m. she was pretty much fussy from the moment we arrived until the time we left, which was an hour later. Thank heaven, the friends we hung out with between the 3 couples, had 6 kids, so they all understood.

I had my pre-op appointment on Friday and it went by so much faster than I thought it would. Maybe it's because it's my forth surgery in two years. Haha! But I arrived at the hospital at 2 and left at 3, which is a record. I remember going to my first pre-op appointment back in February 2009 and it took at least a couple of hours. I had to wait in the waiting room to do all the routine paperwork and payments, then they put me in a different waiting room where I had to wait 45+ minutes to do all the blood work and answer at least 100 questions. But this time around I immediately got the paperwork taken care of then almost immediately got the blood work done and only answered maybe a total of 25 questions, if that. So that's a huge relief. And I'm SO grateful to all the wonderful people who take care of Evie while I go to all my doctor appointments. Can't imagine having to wait in the waiting room with a screaming baby, just because she wants the spotlight 24/7. ;-p

I'm also so very grateful to Doug's mom. She helped us out SO much when we brought Evie home and now she is going to be here to help us out as I recover from yet another surgery. I can't imagine a better mother in-law and I am truly blessed to be her daughter in-law.

That's pretty much the gist of what is going on in our neck of the woods.

16 Weeks Old

2010-08-27T15:14:00.004-05:00

Well I started my classes this past week and so far, so good. My Monday/Wednesday class goes from 7-8:15 p.m. and she is a wacky, but good teacher. Since it has been 5 years since I last took a math class, I was worried but it looks like some of this stuff is coming back. I also have an Art Appreciation class on Thursdays from 7-9:45 p.m. but when he took a poll on who wanted to go from those times and get a break, a few raised their hands. But when he asked us if we wanted to go from 7-8:30 p.m. without any breaks, practically the whole class raised their hands. SO, I get out now at 8:30 instead of 9:45-which is amazing and I'm glad to get home earlier. So far, this arrangement is going very well and I think I should be able to pull off A's and B's. If I'm able to do this, then I will start taking 3 night classes next semester and go from there. So I'm pretty excited. I just really want to get my degree and move on with my life and help support our family...not to mention go to Italy, Greece, and Egypt. ;-) Can't wait to take our daughter to those places I've always dreamed about.

Evelyn is 16 weeks old and will turn 4 months old this time next week! Crazy how time is flying. She can now be buckled into the stroller without the car seat, so that's pretty cool and I think she really loves going on walks (especially now the weather is cooling down slightly). She's slowly getting in a routine schedule of waking up around 7 a.m. eating, playing, napping, eating, playing, napping; so we're pretty excited about that. I keep saying that we have finally hit the "honeymoon" phase with her now that the colic and reflux seem to have died down quite a bit. She is a happy baby, always smiling and cooing which melts our hearts. I am always trying to take videos and pictures of her. We both continually keep telling each other how beautiful she is and how blessed we are. We are in awe of her.

So Doug and I made the decision to tile the whole house with exception to the bedrooms. The carpet is pretty disgusting with pet hair, pet "accidents", baby vomit/spit up, etc. Not to mention with our allergies and the allergies/asthma Evie is going to have, it just makes sense to rip the carpet up and replace it with tile. And of course it should add a little more value to our home when we decide to sell.

I Surrender!

2010-08-19T22:36:00.002-05:00

Looking back at the pictures when Evelyn was itty bitty is making me realize I DO want another baby. It's crazy because I know in my head that I would probably have to endure the same crap when I was pregnant with Evie but I keep wondering what a "normal" pregnancy would be like and gosh darn it, I want to have that newborn stage back. You know, when they're all snuggly and just want to be held/rocked. Evelyn is at the stage where she is happy as a clam in front of the t.v. watching Yo Gabba Gabba or Wonder Pets (although I don't just leave her in front of the t.v. all day). She hates being rocked or snuggled. The only time I can hold her is if I show her around the house, but if I sit down she screams.

Don't get me wrong, I love this new stage she's in. She's SO active and alert. She smiles and laughs all the time (although when I put a camera to record the cuteness she gets shy). And I am going to miss this stage once she figures out how to crawl, then walk...ugh. Just hate that she seems to be growing up so quickly. Now I understand when moms say they miss their baby (even when they are still technically a baby). I find myself constantly saying that I miss my little baby and how grown up she already is. I know, it's pathetic.

However, with all this said...we will not be having another baby for a LONG time. Between me being a full time mom, a full time housewife, and now adding on being a part time student, I have a full plate and I can't afford having another pregnancy from hell at this time. Haha! Plus I don't think we could afford another c-section. ;-)

15 Weeks

2010-08-15T21:47:00.004-05:00

Well we are all sick with an upper respiratory infection. Evie started coughing, sneezing (more than usual) and had a stuffy/runny nose on Wednesday. Called the pediatrician and got seen on Thursday and found out she was sick with her first illness. Saturday Doug started complaining about not feeling 100% and today it hit me. Ugh. Sore throat, congested and overall feeling like crap. But at least it's not too bad. Evie only screams when I try to remove stuff in her nose or when she's hungry or tired. So she may only cry for about 1-2 hours a day total-not bad. Not only has the crying gotten a lot better, but she is now sleeping 8-12 hours in the night! Woohoo! I can put her down in her swing at 8-9 p.m. and she doesn't wake up until 7-8 a.m. Not sure if it's the swing or the illness or both, but we are loving every extra minute we get to sleep in! Haha! We started giving her a dissolving tablet form of Prevacid for her reflux and even though she's only been on it a few days, she doesn't seem to be spitting up as much and is an overall happy baby (despite the cold).

Our favorite show is Wonder Pets and I'm in love with it. If I need to get dishes done or do a quick load of laundry, I can put her in her bouncer and turn that show on (I dvr all the episodes). It seriously keeps her entertained for the longest time...it's amazing! And one of our goals is to instill a love of animals and we think this show is PERFECT!

Even though Evie is only 3 months old, she is getting SO close to a version of crawling. She can slowly drag herself using her legs to push against the carpet, but gets easily frustrated when she isn't moving as fast as she wants. She is also very talkative and lets us know what she wants, and I think we are getting used to her commands. Haha!

We introduced the jumperoo earlier and she is just now (as of yesterday) starting to get the hang of it. She isn't quite tall enough to turn herself around in it, but she does play with some of the toys and bounces around.

As for us, I got a new laptop and am LOVING it! It was dirt cheap and has everything I wanted. Since my last laptop was dying on me, I needed a new one especially since I start school next week. I am so nervous about leaving during the nights to go to school, as I haven't taken night classes in 6 years and back then I hated taking the night classes. And now that I have to leave my baby, I'm especially feeling sad about it. BUT I did look into the classes and teachers teaching each class and I think it will be a good semester. Excited to get out and socialize with other people, but also not looking forward to leaving my little girl.

Time is flying and I can't believe May is behind us and it's getting close to Christmas. Yes, I am already planning Christmas. Haha! I'm saving up BIG so we can spoil Evelyn this year. So excited to celebrate all the holidays with my new family! :-)

13 Weeks

2010-08-07T10:20:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the lack of updates on the blog. Last couple of weeks have been a little rough here.

Evelyn is now 13 weeks old and will be 14 weeks in a couple of days. She is finally 3 months old!

Not to jinx ourselves, but she has been so good this past week. Hardly any spit up and she only gets fussy when tired. She takes a couple of naps during the day (one in the morning and another in the afternoon). The only thing is that she isn't wanting to go to sleep after her 8 p.m. feeding. We usually have to put her in the swing around 9-9:30 and by 10-10:30 we take her out and put her in the pack n play. She's still waking up around 2-3 a.m. for a feeding, so not sure how to discourage that. I feed her every 3 hours in the day and she is usually taking about 4 oz. I've tried giving her 5 oz, but she doesn't take all of it. Hoping we can get her to sleep through the night soon so we can move her into her room.

Speaking of her room, I've finally put up a cute little tree and the flowers match perfectly with the bedding. The tree and flowers are adhesive that just sticks to the wall and I think it looks so pretty and girly. Still have a few items to nail to the wall, then I think her room will be done. Trying to finish it soon before I start school in a couple of weeks.

As for milestones, Evie is a pro with rolling from stomach to back. She is so wanting to crawl and will start whining when she can't, so mommy helps her out a little. ;-) She is getting pretty close to rolling from back to stomach, but hasn't quite mastered it just yet. She now shrieks with delight-mainly when she sees the fan. She talks all the time, although we can't get it on camera as we guess she is a little camera-shy. A huge milestone is that she has discovered her feet last week! She is constantly kicking and grabbing her feet with her hands. Only problem is that it is now hard to keep her from kicking when trying to dress her or give her a bath. Because of that, we had to take down the newborn bath net and put her in the infant tub which is a little complicated as she is still a little wiggly with her head.

I want to start taking walks again, but since it has been 105-110 degrees here, it's not been happening. I'm hoping it will be cooler (under 100 degrees) next week so I can start taking her for walks. Want to get her used to being outside as we plan to take her to the zoo and state fair next month.

10 Weeks

2010-07-16T11:05:00.003-05:00

Well Evie has slowed down on the eating front. Instead of taking in 20-25 oz of formula in a day, she is now only taking in 15-18 oz. I'm a little worried, but I'm thinking maybe she's stopped hitting major growth spurts for the time being. However, if I feel she isn't getting enough (or not producing enough wet diapers) I will definitely call the doctor.

Evie hit a HUGE milestone earlier this week. She rolled from stomach to side to her back!!! I am so proud of her, although she hasn't done it since then. She is holding her head up really well these days. It's only a matter of time before she starts crawling, at least I'm hoping she's ahead of the game and will start crawling in a couple of months. She is always wanting to be on the move. She is usually awake all day now and gets bored so easily that I am having to take her to different stores every day to keep her entertained as it is way too hot to take walks outside these days. If I decide to stay at home, I have to carry her around the house while she looks around and coos at different objects/rooms. By the time Doug gets home, my legs are killing me! Haha! So yes, I am praying she starts crawling soon so I don't have to carry her around the house all day. And not to mention she has to be carried a certain way or she will scream her head off. SO picky and such a diva! Haha! But she is gorgeous and smart, so I guess we'll just do what she wants. ;-) I'm actually really surprised that she's sleeping right now, which is why I'm updating the blog.

Colic usually rears its ugly head around 2 p.m. everyday and usually doesn't go away until she falls asleep for the night at 10 p.m. Yesterday I was lucky. She was fussy for an hour here and there, but nothing like what we are used to. PRAYING this goes away by next month. Our pediatrician told me that it usually goes away by 3 months, but could last longer-really hope not.

Evie slept through the night for the second time since birth last night. We put her down at 10:30 p.m. and she slept in her pack n play until 7 a.m.!!! Although since it was the first time we really let her sleep in her pack n play in a couple of weeks, I was checking in on her making sure she was breathing every few hours. She scared me a couple of times as she can roll from back to side (actually her favorite sleeping position is side sleeping where half of her face is resting on the mattress) and since she breathes so quietly, I had to move her to make sure she was okay. I know, I'm paranoid. I just love when she's able to sleep in bed with us, that way I can just turn my head and hear her breathing. Although I am looking forward to her moving into her room, I am also really nervous about it. Also nervous that she is getting so good about rolling in different directions.

I know this blog has turned into me bragging about my daughter, but there is not much else going on with Doug and I. Pretty much our whole routine revolves around Evie since she is colicky and practically still a newborn. Once we save up some money and Evie is a little bit older, we plan on taking a little vacation. And of course when I start up school again, I might have a few complaints. Lol! But until then, it will remain a blog about our little Evelyn Rose. :-)

9 Weeks, 2 Month Checkup

2010-07-07T17:03:00.003-05:00

Evie had her 2 month checkup today and she is doing wonderfully. She now weighs 12 lbs and 4 oz! She is in the 90th percentile for weight and 50th percentile for height-she is currently 22.5 inches long now. We must be doing something right for her to be growing so fast. ;-) The doctor also presented Evelyn with another blanket that has her name and birth date on it. That makes three blankets that have her name on it, she sure is one spoiled little girl. I was so shocked that a pediatrician goes through all the trouble for their patients, but glad I chose them to care for our little girl. They can spoil her all they want! Haha!

She also received her two month shots and that was not fun. I had a ton of questions about the immunizations as we have friends who either refuse their child(ren) to receive them or whose children have received them and then became autistic. So we spent a good half hour going through all the shots and I felt confident enough with our doctor that I decided Evie is better off getting these immunizations than not receiving them. They gave her some Acetaminophen (Tylenol) before hand then gave her the shots in both legs. She screamed (of course) for a good 10-15 minutes, but finally settled down on the drive back home and slept a little while before I had to feed her again. Before leaving the office, the nurse asked what formula we have her on, then came back with SIX cans of the formula! How sweet are they?!? I probably have enough formula to last three weeks now. SO NICE!

When we got home, I fed little Evie and she was smiling and happy as if nothing had happened. Afterward she fell asleep and has been sleeping since. Hoping the doctor predicts correctly and she sleeps tonight, as she didn't sleep too well last night.

As for this past week, the colic and reflux seems to have returned. Reflux still isn't as bad as it was in the beginning, but no fun cleaning it up off of everything when it does occur. Colic is colic and every afternoon/evening is a battle. Yesterday was not fun, especially since I didn't sleep well the night before last. Poor Doug tried everything to keep Evie sleeping last night since I was just so tired. Tonight is his night for gaming, but I have a feeling it shouldn't be too bad of a night. Maybe she'll sleep through the night. Wishful thinking. Haha!

2 Months

2010-07-03T11:21:00.003-05:00

Well ever since the colic post, we've been really blessed with a really happy baby. It seems that she got all the screaming tantrums out on Monday and have had a really sweet baby the rest of the week. Watch, since I said that she will probably return to the screaming angry baby that we all know. Haha!

We left her for the first time with a professional babysitter and boy, was that a scary experience for me. Since we did not know her super well (she's a good friend of a neighbor-friend of ours), I was a nervous wreck the whole night. I was so excited to go pick her up. When we got to her house, we found Evie sleeping on the babysitter's (Jordan) chest. Apparently, she was prepared for a colicky baby and she told us that she was a little fussy here and there but nothing like what she was preparing for. Jordan told us that she was SO talkative and did very well on the tummy time mat (which surprised me to no end as she hates tummy time with mommy). Jordan kept telling me how smart she is for her age-seriously I hear that SO often and soak it up, makes me extremely proud. I know she's smart and so pretty, but I love it (can't get enough) when people say what I think all the time. :-) Sorry, have to brag. Haha! Anyway, for our night out Doug and I went to Outback Steakhouse for dinner, then back home where Doug played some computer games and I read Eclipse. Since it was the first time to have the house with no Evie, it was so quiet it reminded me of coming home last year when we had to give Christopher back-which is probably why I was so eager to pick her up again. Since Evie did so well with Jordan, we're planning on her babysitting again on Monday so we can go catch Eclipse at Studio Movie Grill.

So it seems like the colicky behavior might be on it's way out and along with it, the reflux seems to be gone too! She hardly spits up anymore (maybe with 2-3 of her 6 feedings), so I'm super happy about that as she would go through 3 outfits in a day with all the spit up. And since the spit up seems to be gone, she is less fussy-thank GOD! Don't get me wrong, she's a baby and some fussiness is to be expected but it doesn't last 3+ hours at a time, more like 20-30 minutes which I can handle. She is smiling A LOT more and such a talkative little girl. She loves music and some movies. She loves to smile at our ceiling fans and talk to the t.v. It's SO funny...at least to me! ;-) I have to say the first month of her life was not-so-fun, but I could see missing this stage...but I don't plan on having another kid for at least 3-5 more years. Haha!

She is starting to sleep a lot better in places other than my arms. She now will sleep in her bouncer, her swing and her pack n play. She still sleeps in bed with us at night as I get panic attacks when she is not right next to me. I used to not like the fact that she had to be in bed with us to sleep, but now I don't want to move her into anything else. Love waking up to that face. It's going to be hard when we graduate her from our bed into her crib in her own room. I know, it's sad. ;-) Although Doug cannot wait to move her into her room.

Colic

2010-07-01T08:59:00.002-05:00

Monday night Evie had one of the worst afternoon and night screaming tantrum that we've heard from her yet. It started around 3:30 (like it usually does) and lasted up until 9:30! Let me tell you, six hours of screaming, crying, tears running down her cute little face is SO frustrating and heartbreaking at the same time. I took her to the doctor Tuesday morning to make sure she wasn't sick and was told that she does have colic and has probably had it for awhile. Didn't realize that three hours of crying/screaming a day wasn't normal-that it was actually colicky behavior that she's had since week 3 or 4. So I was given some tips on how to handle a colicky baby and so far haven't had any horrible tantrums like the one on Monday. I am also giving her something called Gripe Water which is helping a LOT more than the Mylicon. Another thing the doctor told me was not to feed her if she has been fed less than 2 hours ago, as that can cause colicky behavior (due to stomach problems). So I'm having to put her back onto a semi-schedule (feeding her every 2-1/2 to 3 hours) and she's been doing much better. THANK GOD!

Yesterday was my first mommy break since Evelyn was born. A good friend of ours offered to babysit her during the day yesterday so I could run errands and have a little "me time" which was so nice. I was able to get my car inspected and get some new clothes so overall it was a good day and Evie seemed to have a blast with her four kids. We also have hired a babysitter for tomorrow night so we could either go to the movies or out to dinner, so I'm super excited about that. Gotta say, even though babysitters can get expensive, it is SO worth it and I am blessed that we have so many good people who are willing to babysit our little angel. :-)

8 Weeks

2010-06-27T16:37:00.003-05:00

Evelyn will be 8 weeks tomorrow and will turn 2 months in six short days. Just means that in 1 more month we can start implementing a schedule and start putting her into her room at night. So super excited for August to get here. ;-)

We just returned home from a weekend getaway to Doug's parents house. Since Doug's dad hadn't met Evie yet (not to mention we NEEDED a break), we decided to go up there. She was really good on the drive up there and back, which was nice. While in Oklahoma, Evie did fairly well. She cries A LOT, so Doug's parents got a taste of what I have been going through for the last two months. I've basically have given up on trying to schedule feedings, and just feed her whenever she cries. Doug's parents seemed very impressed with Evie and how expressive she is with her face and body, not to mention how chatty she is now. Just makes me proud when other people acknowledge how smart and funny she can be. Saturday evening we went out to a nice restaurant, just Doug and I, and it was a really nice break. Since it has been about 10 months since we went out on a date where I didn't get sick afterward, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and had a few too many drinks-but it was so worth it! ;-) After dinner, Doug's good friend and his kids came over and we all hung out. His little girl is 4 years old now and I can remember when she was a newborn. I couldn't get over how big she has gotten and enjoyed cuddling on the couch with her while we watched t.v. Overall, we had a nice weekend, stressful, but nice and I think the grandparents had a blast with their newest granddaughter.

Evie is smiling a lot more these days, which makes up for the hours of screaming, crying, and the tears that streams down her face every day. She is actually starting to laugh when she sleeps, which is really cute. She also gets nightmares and will sometimes cry out which worries me and I do plan on bringing this up at her next appointment next week.

We recently met someone who we are seriously considering to babysit Evie one night a week. She seems really nice, is a good friend of a friend of ours, has a sweet baby girl herself and who does this for a living. So I'm thinking I will probably give her a call and a start date for sometime this week or next week. So far my really good friend, Megan, has stepped up to help me out by babysitting Evie for our anniversary and am so grateful. I cannot wait to have another date night with the hubby and possibly a day to myself at some point this week. Although if I do get to have a day to myself, it will probably be devoted to deep cleaning this house. :-( But I do need to get new clothes as I've lost so much weight and all my non-pregnancy clothes are winter clothes. So who knows, maybe I'll splurge and go clothes shopping.

I've registered for classes for the Fall and am so excited! As much as I enjoy being able to stay home with Evie all day, I am looking forward to going to class during the nights and socializing with people.

Slowly life is starting to become a new normal and I'm quickly learning how to be a mom to 5 fur babies and the cutest little baby girl I know. Life is good. :-)

7 Weeks

2010-06-24T12:19:00.002-05:00

Evelyn is now 7 weeks (52 days old!) and is growing so fast! I wouldn't be surprised if she weighed 12 lbs already. People keep telling me how she looks like she is a 3 month old and not a 1-1/2 month old.

She now has really good control over her head, although it still wobbles around sometimes. She is also getting better control over her eyes which is nice, although she still opens her eyes when she sleeps and that just freaks me out. Haha! She is very vocal. She screams when she doesn't get her way, but when she's happy she is a chatter box.

As for the pets, she is not bothered by them at all. Lucky licks her all over (might I mention he has never licked us), and she could care less. She actually will pet him when he is close by. I see a very close friendship has started between them. Cats will walk by her now and she acts as if they don't exist. Happy that she hasn't developed any allergies towards them so far and thrilled that she isn't scared of them yet.

She is also getting very good at putting her hands in her mouth. When she wants to suck on something, she is getting better at being able to put her thumb in her mouth. She also loves to suck her arm. She loves sticking her tongue out and will smile big when we imitate her. She also loves to watch t.v. I know I shouldn't encourage this, but when it's the only thing that will calm her down and even make her smile, well I let her.

I took her out to a restaurant last night and she did very well. She sat in her car seat for a good 15-20 minutes, then I held her until it was time to go.

Overall she is a great baby and I am so proud.

6 Weeks

2010-06-18T15:22:00.002-05:00

Evie is now 46 days old and hit a couple more milestones yesterday. She can now smile when she sees me or if I do something funny. She can also react and imitate my facial expressions. If I stick my tongue out, she either smiles or sticks her tongue out too. It's really funny how this just started happening yesterday. She was sleeping ALL day yesterday and when she finally woke up late in the afternoon, I was just talking to her and she was all smiles (so I HAD to take a lot of pictures). Almost like a light switch went off in her head, but it's so nice to see her react to all my silliness. ;-)

This week also marks the most fussiest week of her existence. She screams and cries all day and evening long. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with the reflux, but I was starting to wonder if this was normal and it turns out week six usually marks the peak of fussiness with babies. Trying to take some comfort in that, but when she screams for 1-3 hours, it's hard. Just glad she is now starting to smile more and is trying to use her "words" to communicate with me, it's enough to melt my heart.

40 Days Old

2010-06-12T10:23:00.003-05:00

There's not a whole lot new to report, except that Evie is getting bigger by the hour and is now wearing size 3 month clothes. She already has a lot of SUPER cute clothes, but to get out of the house and use a coupon I had, we went to Carter's Outlet store yesterday and bought more outfits for her including a really cute 4th of July onesie. My goal is to take pictures everyday of her in clothes that we and many other people have bought her over the past few months. I was even telling Doug how amazing it is that such a small person has so many adorable clothes. To give a mental image, she has her closet and dresser full of clothes, then she has half of the guest room closet full of more clothes and now she is starting to take over our closet. Haha! I can't help but buy her new pretty clothes, I mean she's a girl and that's what we're suppose to do, right? ;-)

Evie is now more awake these days. She sleeps really well during the night and mornings so we are trying to put her in her pack n play at night instead of her sleeping with us in bed. It was a little rough last night, but overall not too bad. She usually sleeps from 10 p.m. -4 a.m., then wakes up to eat, goes back to sleep around 5 then is up again around 7:30-8. Feed her again around 7:30 then falls back asleep around 8:30. Give her her first round of medicine around 10, feed her again around 11 and then she falls asleep again until around 2. Then everything changes after her 2 p.m. feeding. She stays awake from 2 until 10, and I am finding it quite difficult to keep her entertained these days. She gets so bored very easily. Every day I am having to sing to her, read to her, walk her, take her for a drive, do tummy time, put her in the bouncer and let her watch a little t.v. (I know it's not the best thing for her, but it keeps her from screaming for a good 20 mins).

Her reflux is doing better. She still spits up often and if it's bad, she screams but usually it's just a little here and there. She gets two rounds of medicine a day, plus doing everything else that we've been doing for the last 2 weeks. She seems to be a little happier when it comes to the reflux, so that's nice. The only time she really screams is when she has a dirty diaper or more likely when she's bored. Lol! She definitely has a diva mentality and I'm not looking forward to the teenage years-boy, are we in trouble! Haha!

33 Days Old

2010-06-05T13:02:00.002-05:00

We finally made it to the 1 month mark!

Evelyn is getting a lot better about holding her head up and can sometimes steady it like a 3 month old. She can also roll to her side now, so we are constantly having to make sure she isn't yet rolling onto her stomach (thank goodness she sleeps in bed with us). As for sleeping, if we let her she can sleep 6 hours at a time at night-so we count ourselves very lucky (of course it probably has more to do with her new diet than anything). As for her diet, she eats every 2-3 hours during the day and every 4-6 hours at night and takes in 3-4 ounces at a time. She is now eating Enfamil Gentlease for gassy/fussy babies along with 1 tsp rice cereal per 2 oz of formula. So needless to say, she is gaining fast but isn't super chunky yet. We haven't weighed her recently, but if I were to guess I'd say she is close to 9-1/2 lbs now. She is definitely filling out and getting heavier (and taller), so it will be interesting to see how big she becomes. She still has a full head of hair and it is actually getting longer and curling slightly. Everyone admires her hair and I am constantly told that their 6 month to 1 year olds still don't have as much hair as our 1 month old. Haha! Can't wait until she's 6 months old so I can start playing around with her beautiful hair. :-)

I recently was able to get Evelyn's medication for her reflux and I think that along with her new diet is helping a GREAT deal. She hardly spits up now and if she does spit up, it's only a little bit...unless I don't burp her enough within the feeding. However she still becomes very cranky (to the point I can't calm her down) once a day. Usually it's in the morning after her 7 a.m. feeding but yesterday morning she was TOO good for it to last. Around 2 p.m. she became so fussy. I tried feeding her, changing her, hugging/loving on her, making sure she wasn't too cold/hot, etc and nothing helped. Finally I just put her in the car and she immediately fell asleep! So I think the next time that happens, I will immediately put her in the car and drive around. ;-) Since she was so fussy yesterday I took her to see daddy at work. She was so good and Doug got to show her off to everyone. We LOVE being able to show her off.

Another milestone this week was that I was able to take her grocery shopping by myself, something that I was trying to avoid at all costs but am finding it is a lot easier than what I expected. I was actually able to renew my car registration and go grocery shopping without her protesting too much. We were probably out and about for 2 hours, but by the time I got home and put everything away she was in need of lunch.

So far Evelyn is proving to be a pretty easy baby and we are counting ourselves blessed every day. We can't help but tell everyone how pretty, smart and strong she is...of course people keep telling us the same thing, so we are beaming with pride. Can't wait to see what this month holds for our new family.

4 Weeks Old

2010-05-31T11:07:00.003-05:00

Evelyn is now 4 weeks old and will turn 1 month in 3 short days! I know it's silly, but I am so happy we've made it (or will soon) to the 1 month mark. Just means that in 2 months we can start the self-soothing method we did with Christopher and hopefully by the time she is 4 months old she will be sleeping through the night, like Christopher, and will be in her own bed. I CANNOT wait to be able to start her on a schedule and sleep through the night again.

We feel that Evie is the smartest (and most beautiful) baby EVER! When she is calm, she is so gorgeous-we can't help but take pictures. However, when she is cranky it is a whole different story. Haha! Since birth, she talks ALL the time. When she's mad-she will grunt and make all sorts of angry sounds. When she's content, she makes the cutest sounds and just tells me all about what she's thinking. :-) She is now 9 lbs, which we cannot believe as she is still really tiny.

This past couple of weeks, Evie has been especially cranky so I decided to take her to the pediatrician. Turns out she has reflux. She spits up before, during and after EVERY feeding. I have to change her clothes, my clothes and our bedding all the time. And of course when she's spitting up that much, it makes her uncomfortable and she screams bloody murder (sometimes for hours). It's really painful for us to hear her cry so much-especially now that tears stream down her face...breaks my heart. On top of spitting up, she coughs which we found out is also related to the reflux. So we're on new formula (again), giving her rice cereal in her formula, we have to feed her with her sitting up (which I've been doing since formula feeding her), we have to keep her sitting up for at least 30 minutes after a feeding, she now has to be fed every 3 hours with smaller portions and she has to be burped constantly. Doing all this seems to have helped somewhat, but she is still spitting up before/during/after each feeding. Since she won't be on our insurance until sometime this week, we haven't been able to give her the meds the pediatrician prescribed but hoping once we are able to pick it up, it will help a lot.

Other than the reflux and the cranky baby that comes with that, she is doing great! She is already trying to roll over and sometimes will cry when she realizes she can't roll over just yet. She loves stretching-LOVES! She also loves stretching out her neck and trying to hold her head up without any support from anyone. She really just has a mind of her own and is very stubborn. Gee, wonder where she gets that from? Haha!

In other news, I am finally getting a new dishwasher tomorrow! I am so excited. For the past 5 weeks, I have been having to hand wash everything as our dishwasher broke a few days before my induction date, but we wanted to try everything we could to see if we could fix it and since we couldn't we just decided to get a new one. Worked out very well as it is Memorial day weekend and there are a TON of great sales going on in Texas (we got 20% off and then it was tax free-YAY!) I cannot wait until I can just put the bottles in there and have the dishwasher wash them for me, especially since I am having to hold Evie 16-20 hours of the day and it is very inconvenient to hand wash everything.

Doug is moving to his new office building tomorrow, so I guess that's kind of exciting. ;-)

Now that Evelyn is getting bigger and older, we are seriously considering making a trip to Oklahoma in late June and possibly taking a small vacation sometime soon. Of course since I am planning on going back to school in August, it might have to wait. We shall see.

Birth Story

2010-05-20T21:38:00.002-05:00

Since I have a few minutes before needing to feed Evelyn and she is currently napping, I figured I would give the full story of little miss Evelyn's birth.

After getting about six hours of sleep, we woke up bright and early at around 4 a.m. We finished packing all that we thought we would need (by the way-we didn't need/use most of the stuff we packed). We got ready and loaded up the car with our two bags, the diaper bag and a gift basket for the nurses (I had only made one for the L&D nurses, but should have also made one for the postpartum nurses as well-they may have been nicer if I had done so). We took one last pregnancy picture, then headed off to the hospital at around 7 a.m. We arrived at the hospital at 7:30, checked in and signed all the necessary paperwork. Afterward we were taken to the labor and delivery room, where they immediately started me on Pitocin and anti-nausea meds. I was also told that I did test positive for GBS and started antibiotics for that. When my OB came to check on me at 9, I was still dilated to 1 and 25% effaced. Soon I fell asleep due to the anti-nausea meds (every 4-6 hours they would give me more and it ALWAYS knocked me out). At noon, my stats still had not changed and my OB came in to break my water. Immediately afterward I received the epidural and boy, that was a scary experience-but SO worth it! Everyone was shocked I was able to sleep through such horrible contractions. Apparently normal contractions range between 200-300, but mine were well above 300 (not sure what it means, but that is what I was told). When I was awake, all I could feel was mild cramps so I kind of laughed it off that everyone was so worried. By 3 p.m. I had dilated to 2 but was still only 25% effaced and was then told to be prepared for the big possibility that I would probably need a c-section. By 6 p.m. we got the good news that I dilated to 3 and was 50% effaced, and was relieved that I might not need that c-section but of course by 8:30 p.m. nothing had changed and my OB told me that I would need the c-section. After 13 hours of labor, mainly in and out of conscience, the nurses prepped Doug and I for the OR. After being surrounded by our closest friends and a group prayer, I was rolled away to the OR. Needless to say, I was freaking out just a tad...actually I think I was crying my eyes out. Haha. The actual procedure turned out to be a big nothing and it all happened SO fast. I think by the time I went in to the time I heard Evelyn cry for the first time was only a matter of 20 minutes-if that. All I really remember is shaking so bad and crying (first out of fear, then out of OMG, I just had a baby-haha!) The nurse standing next to me during the procedure noticed Doug had brought his camera, so she volunteered to take pictures so he could focus on me-she was so sweet. So thankful to that nurse because she got some really good shots of my OB holding Evie up when I saw her for the first time. Once the cord was cut and Evie was getting cleaned up, Doug immediately went over to take many more pictures. She was born at 9:09 p.m. She weighed 7 lbs 11.6 oz and her height was 20.1 inches. Her APGAR scores was 9/9. Once she was cleaned up, they brought her to me and I was able to touch her for the first time-such a surreal moment and one I will never forget. After a few minutes of touching/holding her, Doug was told to go with the nurses as they rolled Evie away into the recovery room to meet up with our friends while the doctors finished stitching me. From the time they rolled her away to the time they brought me back into the recovery room seemed like an eternity, but once in the recovery room I couldn't wait to see her again. While all our friends (all women) were in the room, I immediately started skin-to-skin and breastfeeding (yeah, I was really excited to get that going-Haha!), but no one seemed to mind too much. ;-) Although this was not the way I intended to give birth, I am so happy to have Evelyn here and am excited to get to know her. I am one happy, proud, excited mom.

2 Weeks

2010-05-17T17:15:00.006-05:00

Evelyn is 2 weeks old today! She now weighs 7 lbs and 15.5 oz and is in the 50% percentile for height and weight-woohoo! I am so happy to hear she weighs more-it's a huge relief.

Evie is definitely starting to develop a personality. She makes the silliest faces (ranging from angry, sad, frustrated, happy, annoyed, etc)-it's quiet funny. She's starting to sleep a little more, although still up most of the day/night. She loves looking up, trying to move her head ALL the time. We are actually starting tummy time this week, and she is really good about lifting her head up for a few seconds-so proud. :-) She also loves looking around and staring at me, daddy, and the t.v. We just think the world of her, if you couldn't tell. ;-) We tried taking her and Lucky on a walk yesterday and she wanted NONE of it! Haha! We had to turn around half way to the pond/park. However, she did VERY well during our Sunday school class. Everyone seemed very impressed we were out and that she was doing so well. I guess we have a pretty perfect baby (minus the few minor temper tantrums).

I also had a 2 week check up today. I can drive again and take baths (YAY!!!!). Doug actually let me go to the store by myself and it was SO nice to get out. My incision looks great, and I am feeling better by the day. I only took pain meds for a few days after the c-sec and discontinued, because I forgot to take them. Everyone seems surprised how fast I recovered, but I just can't sit in bed all day when I have a newborn to take care of and I hate not being able to do stuff. My bloating is gone and I am 5 lbs away from my pre-pregnancy weight, which I am very happy about. I actually had put away all of my pre-pregnancy clothes a couple of months ago, thinking it would take a few months to get my body back, but had to take them all out over the weekend. Who knew my body would bounce back so quickly-I am definitely shocked. I cannot wait until June 14th, when I can start working out to lose the rest of the weight (and then some).

Life is good and although things have really changed (and sometimes I wonder if I can handle this), I am extremely blessed and am loving this new chapter in my life. I have a wonderful, supportive, caring, compassionate, loving husband who tries his best to make me happy and I have a gorgeous, smart, active, alert baby girl. These two people are my world and I couldn't ask for more. God has really blessed me. :-)

Update

2010-05-13T16:34:00.004-05:00

So things have been very hectic around here and trying to cope with a newborn is very exhausting.

Today marks the first week home with Evelyn and it has definitely been a learning experience. I unfortunately have been dealing with the common postpartum blues and find myself crying for little to no reason whatsoever-most likely from exhaustion. I have also been struggling with breastfeeding and have come to the conclusion that I will pump half of her feeding supply and will supplement the rest with formula, as I just cannot breastfeed-I guess it's just not for me. Something I feel VERY guilty about, but it's been causing more problems than it's worth and by pumping, she's still getting the breast milk, so I'm trying not to feel too guilty about this new arrangement. Doug's mom left yesterday morning and I am definitely missing her A LOT! She helped us out so much, and there is no way I could ever thank her enough for everything she's done for us. But now that she's gone, it's been tough. I don't get as many naps as I used to, trying to find a time to pump has been challenging and trying to cope with Evelyn's non-schedule is exhausting. I had always thought that newborns were suppose to sleep a lot (from the classes we took, they said about 12-16 hours a day!), BUT not the case with Evie. She maybe sleeps 3-4 hours during the day (1/2 hour to 1 hour intervals), and she usually sleeps pretty well during the nights (maybe about 5 hours). Still that does not equal the amount we were told-which is frustrating, but again a learning experience. I've come to the conclusion today that she isn't going to sleep much, so don't count on her sleeping unless I've rocked her for a great amount of time or if I have her lay on top of me-which doesn't allow me to sleep. I CANNOT wait until she's a few months old and sleeping better and on a schedule. I can't help but think about how easy it was with Christopher, because I didn't have the stress of breastfeeding him, he was on a schedule, he took two naps (usually 2 hours) and slept through the night (about 6-10 hours). So I guess my goal is to make it until she hits the 3-4 month mark. Hopefully I can survive. Haha.

Okay, enough of my complaining.

Evie is a great baby. She hardly cries. She is SO sweet. She smiles ALL the time, and although I know it's involuntary, it's still really cute. I cannot wait until she can purposely smile and giggle. I love the way she smells-gotta LOVE that baby scent! She absolutely LOVES to be held and can easily fall asleep in my arms, although putting her down in her pack n play is a different story (it's as if she knows mommy isn't holding her anymore-lol!). Not much else to report as her personality is still emerging. She definitely takes all her looks from daddy, but it will be interesting to see if she inherits anything from me.

Doug has been WONDERFUL! He changes the diapers with me in the middle of the night. He holds her and sometimes feeds her the bottle when I need a break. He constantly talks to her and tells her how beautiful she is-which melts my heart. He is an awesome dad and I am so lucky, although I wish we had more time to ourselves, but I guess that's the price you pay when having a family. :-) Seeing how wonderful he is with Evie, makes me love him so much more and appreciate all that he has done for us. I love him so much and am so blessed to have found my perfect guy.

Evelyn Rose Has Arrived!

2010-05-08T17:08:00.003-05:00

Our beautiful daughter was born Monday May 3rd 2010 at 9:09 p.m. After 13 hours of being in labor, my doctor told me that I was not progressing and that I would need a c-section. Due to having a small pelvis, Evie was not able to drop (and thus I wasn't dilating-even though I was having very strong contractions). Although it was not what I wanted, we went ahead and went through the c-section. I am actually quite impressed as it went very fast (probably about 20 mins) and despite the different scary noises, wasn't as bad as I was expecting. After only a few minutes of freaking out and waiting, Doug and I finally heard the sounds of our little girl. I was sobbing. It was the most surreal moment in my life and when my doctor showed her to me, I couldn't believe how perfect she looked.

After they fixed her up, Doug took her to meet all of our friends who were waiting to meet her. However, it took me a little while to get stitched and cleaned up...seemed like it took forever! Once they rolled me back into the recovery room, I was able to hold her. I immediately did skin-to-skin and breast fed her, it all seemed so easy. She latched perfectly and I thought, Wow-this is going to be a piece of cake! Ha! Next day was a different story and needless to say, we've been having problems ever since. I've talked to at least 5 different lactation consultants and I know all the different positions, what to do, etc. I'm thinking the problem with it is that Evie is getting stressed out and because of her low weight, she just doesn't have the energy to try. We hired a lactation consultant to come to our home on Monday to help me and to work out a plan. As of now I am pumping every chance I can and feeding that to her. I have to admit, that I was getting depressed about not being able to do something that should be so simple-but I know I'm doing the best I can and that is all I can do and I'm not going to stress about it. She is getting the milk and she is healthy. Just would be a lot simpler to have her latch on when she's hungry.

Since Doug and I have been feeling SO overwhelmed by this new addition and all the stresses from the c-section, latching problems and 5 pets who seem to go potty where ever, we needed someone to come and help. THANK GOD for Doug's mom and for all of our friends! I don't have to worry about everything, all I have to focus on is Evie. Doug focuses on the pets and somehow everything else works itself out-which is so nice. I am able to enjoy every waking moment I have with my daughter and bonding with her is the most precious thing and I am blessed I am able to do that. Yes, I am sleep deprived. Yes, I have to pump every 3-4 hours-which gets old fast. Yes, it breaks my heart to hear my little girl scream her head off. Yes, I do some times cry. BUT beyond all that, I am loving this journey and am loving motherhood. I also have found that I am falling more in love with Doug. He has been amazing and it's beautiful to see him bonding with Evie. I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful family.

So there's the short version of Evelyn's birth. I will try to post again with all the details when I have more time, but thought I would post this before things get even crazier.

Good News!

2010-04-30T12:14:00.002-05:00

Had my re-check this morning and it looks like I am FINALLY dilating (1 cm) and am now 25% effaced. May not sound like much, but I'm thrilled to know that my body is doing something. So I no longer have to go into L&D Sunday night, which is good. I will go in Monday morning-7:30 a.m. and start on pitocin and go from there. I'm really hoping we'll get to meet her that night. I'm so excited!

Since I've been having panic attacks for the last few days (thinking I would never dilate), I didn't get much sleep last night and as a result woke up bright and early at 5 this morning. Woke up to the (sad-to-say) usual of cat pee in front of the litter boxes, so had to clean the kitchen floors...again. Since I was already cleaning, I decided to go ahead and finally clean the guest bathroom, the ceiling fans, vacuum and start on the laundry. So I'm pretty proud of myself for getting that done. Now if only I could steam clean the front room and our bedroom and finish packing my bags, I will be one happy and prepared momma! I think it's pretty doable as it wouldn't take too much time to do.

All of this still seems pretty surreal to me, I guess I'm STILL in denial that we are finally going to be parents...and in only a few days. Just 3-4 more days until we meet our little princess.

Less Than 7 Days to Go!

2010-04-26T21:30:00.002-05:00

FINALLY!!!

So I've had a really nice break from the sickness from weeks 36 up until this past Friday. I started becoming nauseous again in the mornings last week, then on Saturday I couldn't keep anything down...again. ugh. BUT, I've had a couple of good days...today being a really good day. So I'm thrilled.

Saturday I went to the hospital to get our car seat inspected and installed correctly (apparently I can't use the latch system in the center back seat-which is good to know). The woman who worked on the infant seat is 12 weeks pregnant with her 5th(!) child and was telling me how sick she is. I told her about my hyperemesis and she told me she has had that with all five pregnancies! I cannot even imagine. We ended up talking for an hour about it, and it was so nice to talk to someone in the flesh about this as I've been able to talk to other women, who either don't understand or do understand but can only talk with them online through posts. The one thing that has kept me going is that all of them tell me that the sickness goes away almost immediately after giving birth. I may still feel nauseated for the first few months of Evie's life, but not as bad as the nausea/sickness with the pregnancy. THANK GOD! However I do find it funny that the day I spoke with her is the day my sickness came back in full. I guess it's God's humor. Haha!

While I was sick in bed all day on Saturday, Doug went to a church event called Amigo's Day where our Sunday school group (among other groups within the church) help restore/build a house for people who desperately need help. So that was a really awesome experience for Doug and I wish I could have gone, but a) I was very ill and b) no pregnant women are allowed to help. Maybe next year, if I'm not pregnant again. ;-)

Had my 38 week appointment this morning and nothing has changed. Still not effaced and have not dilated yet, which has me a little concerned. I haven't really been trying to self induce, but am thinking I might have to this week and pray it does something. The plan now is to go back in on Friday morning for a re-check to see if I'm progressing, if not then I will go to the hospital Sunday evening and start on something called cervidil. It is a thin rectangular object that contains a medicine, called dinoprostone, and they will administer it inside me to help soften the cervix. Then on Monday morning, my doctor will start me on pitocin which will make my body start contracting-and hopefully with all of this, I will dilate and become effaced fairly quickly. Once I reach 3-4 cm dilated, I will then get the epidural and hopefully by the end of Monday we will get to finally meet Evelyn. So that's the plan as of now. I asked about the likelihood of needing a c-section and he told me it would be extremely rare, so I will assume he knows what he's doing and if he's not concerned, then I will try my best not to be either.

On top of that, I also expressed some concern about my hands and feet. For the past few weeks, my hands and feet become numb for no reason whatsoever, they just fall asleep. It's been especially annoying as it is happening more frequently with my fingers and asked him if it was something to be concerned about. He told me it sounded like carpal tunnel syndrome and to immediately get splints for both hands and to wear it at night. I told him it's not only at night when it happens, and he then said I should probably wear it as much as possible. Great. He told me if they were still causing me problems by Friday that he might want to induce me even earlier so I can see a specialist about it. Ha! Well bought the splints and wore them all morning and afternoon, but after doing some research, I found that this can be a common pregnancy symptom and it usually goes away after giving birth. Don't get me wrong, I'm still going to wear them as much as I can as I don't want permanent nerve damage, but am more relaxed that it could be a big nothing.

There has been some major concern over Evelyn's movements as of a few weeks ago. She has definitely slowed down, which has made me paranoid. We were tempted to go into L&D last night because I hadn't felt her move at all. I've been monitoring her movements every evening (doctor's orders) and was extremely worried that it took 40 minutes to feel 10 movements, when usually I can count 10 in (at the most) a 10 minute period. Anyway, my doctor didn't seem to be concerned at all about that and I was relieved to hear her precious heartbeat this morning (not to mention that she was extremely active this morning). :-)

The only things left to do now is to finish packing my bags for the hospital and to figure out who can come take care of our cats while we're away. Lucky will be boarded, but since the cats are now being fed twice a day (due to the kittens needing a special diet), we will probably need to hire a pet sitter (or a really good friend) to come...although Doug is certain he can do it all and take care of them while I'm giving birth. LOL! My fear with that is that if Doug decides he want to be with us the whole time, we need a back up plan for the cats, not to mention that if I do go in Sunday evening and give birth the next day, he needs to be there with me-which means someone will need to come in to take care of the cats on Monday at the very least. So I'm a little stressed about that, but I'm sure it will work itself out soon...I hope.

I still cannot believe we are going to be parents next week. I'm still in denial that there is a baby in there. I guess when I have to get up every hour, it will hit me. Heck, I'm getting up every hour that I sleep to either get something to drink or go to the bathroom, so maybe I am just weird. Haha! I cannot wait to meet this little person. Only 7 more days!

13 Days Left

2010-04-20T08:46:00.003-05:00

In 13 days I will be at the hospital being induced, and hopefully will get to meet our baby girl that afternoon/night. Yesterday I went in for my 37 week check-up and got the paperwork for what to expect and what to do on the day of the induction, which freaked me out a little bit. Her bpm was in the 160s which is good. I now have to do movement counts every night. My doctor wants me to do them after dinner every night, but as I've noticed over the last few months, is that she moves when she wants to. I tried yesterday evening (after eating dinner) and NO movement whatsoever, but after meeting with the pediatricians, that's when she started moving a little. So I guess as long as I can feel 10 movements within 20-30 mins we're fine. Speaking of movements, she now (I'm guessing) has little to no room to move as I barely feel her anymore. Instead of the HARD and PAINFUL movements I've been feeling these last 2-3 months, it's now like it was when I was 6 months pregnant-very subtle and amazing. I absolutely love watching her move and poking her when she pokes me. Although, I do not like her playing with my bladder and stomach. ;-) I just this past week got my pregnancy cravings, nothing weird, but strong enough to put me in a bitchy mood if I don't get it. haha! Another thing that I'm sure Doug is LOVING (haha!) is that anything can set me off. I get irritated and annoyed so easily, and I know deep down how insane I sound, but it's something that I am trying my best to control. I sometimes feel like Rachel from Friends when she is in the last stage of pregnancy and she is yelling and snapping at everyone for no reason whatsoever, funny episode-but so true! Other than being uncomfortable and anxious to meet our daughter, this past week has been the BEST week EVER! I haven't thrown up once (gagged, yes-but no vomit!) and I've been eating like crazy! It's been wonderful. Needless to say, I've gained back the weight that I lost within a couple of days. Yikes! ;-) I think altogether, I have gained 27 lbs which I am happy about. I'm thinking that I'll have gained 30 lbs by the end, which I will be very happy about. Hopefully it won't be too hard to lose...I'm actually hoping I'll lose a lot more than the 30, more like 40 but we will see.

My grandfather's memorial service is this Thursday and I wish I could be there, as it turns out I am the only one not there right now. I called my grandmother and I think she is still somewhat in shock over everything, but she definitely needs prayers as she is having a hard time. I cannot imagine what she must be going through and I think the reality of him being gone is starting to sink in and it's sad. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for her and keep the prayers coming. Thank you.

Sad

2010-04-15T07:33:00.003-05:00

I think it is finally setting in that my grandpa is gone. Although they live in California and I don't see them as often as I would like, I am realizing that he will never get to meet Evie or any other kids we may have. I'm still in shock, since he was only in his early 70's and I don't understand why he died. I'm saddened that because him and my grandmother were together for so long (50+ years), I'm thinking it's only a matter of time before I receive the phone call that my grandma has passed. At that point, all my grandparents will be gone and Evie won't get the joy that I had of knowing her great-grandparents. I wish I could fly to see my grandma and to be there for my grandpa's funeral, but since I'm so close to delivering there is no way.

All I can say is that he will be dearly missed.

19 Days...Eek!

2010-04-14T21:57:00.004-05:00

So there is only 19 days until the big day and I am starting to get pretty nervous. The nausea seems to have gone away (for now) and I have been doing great (no vomiting) for 3 days! Woohoo! But something else has taken it's place. During the days and nights it constantly feels as if there is a 5 lb bowling ball right on my pelvis/cervix area and it is VERY uncomfortable and sometimes it feels like my water is about to break. I was grocery shopping this morning and constantly had to stop, crouch down, and breathe before resuming my shopping. That is practically all I did today and am still dealing with it plus lots of BH contractions. I'm sure it's completely normal during this stage of the pregnancy, but it can be so annoying at times. I hate feeling like I cannot do my normal stuff and basically being forced to sit around and play the waiting game. Oh, well. Only a few more days, then I finally get to meet our daughter and spoil her rotten. ;-)

Found out late last night that my grandfather passed away. My mom called, after not speaking with her for 3 months and broke the news to me. My parents are with my grandmother in California as of this morning. Please pray hard for my grandmother and my dad, as I cannot imagine losing a spouse of 50+ years or a parent. It makes me sad that I cannot be there, but as I don't feel 100% safe traveling during this late stage of my pregnancy, I won't be able to be there for my grandmother.

This Saturday is our baby shower and I am SO excited! I'm hoping I will still be feeling great so I can eat all the yummy foods people are bringing/making. Plus I can't wait to hang out with all my friends, as I've been so ill for 8 months, I haven't been able to really hang out with anyone.

Only 4 days until I'm considered full term and 19 days until my induction. So very excited, but scared. I cannot wait to meet my little girl. :-)

May 3rd is the BIG day!

2010-04-12T11:17:00.002-05:00

Went to my 36 week OB apt and because I was SO sick these past two weeks, we went ahead and scheduled an induction date for May 3rd!!!!!!!!!! I am seriously excited and can FINALLY see the light at the end of the tunnel. From Thursday to today, I have lost 3 lbs-so the doctor was a little worried that I've started to lose weight again, but since I am so close and am feeling better, he thought I shouldn't go back on the pump. Also because I've been so sick, I still am not taking my prenatal vitamin and have now stopped taking my iron supplements, and my OB seemed perfectly okay with that. I asked if I would bleed out during delivery and he told me not to worry about that. Everyone keeps telling me that Evie is getting everything she needs, it's just me that won't be getting what I need. Right now I'm just really hoping she will come naturally in 1-2 weeks, and if not, hoping my body will be ready for the induction on the 3rd. I've heard so many horror stories about inductions, that I'm scared but I think I am more anxious to be rid of this sickness than a few days of extreme pain. Plus I get to finally meet our baby girl a week sooner! Yay!

Sick

2010-04-10T07:26:00.003-05:00

So most of you know that I've been really sick again. I actually think it's worse than the first and second trimester sickness-which sucks. In the last 48 hours I have lost a pound (brings my weight gain to 25 lbs), which isn't horrible-but it definitely isn't good. The only thing that seems to stay down is toast and I've only been able to eat about two slices of toast within the last 48-72 hours, everything else comes right back up. I've been monitoring my temperature, but it's been normal (around 98.5-99.0), so I'm thinking it's just the HG coming back full force.

I called the OB yesterday morning, but since they close their office around 11:30 a.m. they told me there was nothing they could do and to watch out for signs of dehydration (dry mouth, dry eyes, not able to use the bathroom). If I start to notice that I'm having these symptoms, I need to go straight to L&D. I'm trying my best to drink as much water as possible, but since I'm throwing up so much, it's hard. I honestly feel like the worse mom ever. I can't take care of myself enough to take care of this precious little girl inside me and it's an awful feeling.

Today is our last baby-prep class and not sure if I'll make it through the whole thing, but I want to try as it is the one class we actually paid for. Plus, if I feel like I'm dehydrated, well then, we're already at the hospital. ;-)

I'm really hoping my OB will induce at 39 weeks as I can't take much more of this...I wish he'd actually induce at 38 weeks, but I will take what I can get. I know we'd already discussed this a few weeks ago, but I plan on bringing it up at my Monday apt and try to schedule a day. If he allows, I would only have 3 weeks to go. 3 weeks on the pump is a whole lot better than 4. lol.

Alright, enough of my complaining. Only 29 more days to go until May 9th, let's hope it's more like 22 days to go. ;-)

35 Weeks!

2010-04-05T11:45:00.004-05:00

So week 34 was really difficult, probably one of the more difficult weeks that I've had recently. Nausea is worse. I wake up at least twice a week around 2-4 a.m. to throw up (not to mention waking up about 2-3 times on top of that to go to the bathroom). I'm also dealing with contractions (the ones that hurt like hell and are getting more serious), back pains, headaches, etc during the nights. So needless to say, I am not getting as much sleep as I would like...but of course it's prepping me for when baby comes. Ugh.

I've had to discontinue my prenatal pills as I immediately throw them up now (along with whatever I've had to eat within the last 4-6 hours-YUCK!) Since I went to see my OB this morning, I told him what has been going on and he told me I no longer needed to take them-that they're really important during the first few months of pregnancy, but now that she is fully developed, it's not a huge deal to not take them. THANK GOD!

As my contractions have been getting worse now, I had to ask my OB when I should call when I get them again. He told me that I should immediately call if 1.) they hurt (which they do) 2.) they are at least 45 seconds to 1 minute long and 3.) if they are 10 minutes apart. Since I haven't really been monitoring my contractions super closely, all I know is that they usually last about an hour and they hurt. So now I guess I will have to start timing them from here on out so I make it to the hospital on time if they are the real thing.

Had my GBS test done today and boy, that was NO fun but I am so glad it's over with. I asked when I should get the results back and they told me they wouldn't call me either way. What??? So I guess when I go in next week I will demand the results so I can know either way. I know that if it does come back positive, they will give me a shot at delivery, but it would still be nice to know before hand.

Evelyn is continuing to keep me on my toes. Some days she hardly moves, of course on those particular days I am usually so busy doing something that I probably just miss it or she just stays asleep due to all my movements. Other days are a completely different story. She really punches me...and HARD! I thought by now she wouldn't have much room to do this, but she apparently does. It's funny because my father in-law saw her do a number and his eyes got so wide, it was pretty funny. My belly makes all sorts of weird shapes and it's really kind of scary sometimes. I can feel her when she moves her elbows or knees around and I have to say that is the WEIRDEST feeling EVER! I can definitely see why women say it feels like an alien is in there...or an octopus. Haha!

Saturday we had our maternity shots taken at the Botanic Gardens in Fort Worth by my great friend, Megan. It was a gorgeous day, which I am VERY thankful for, and we are so blessed to have such a wonderful friend to do this for us. Cannot wait until my shower so I can see all the photos!

Easter was fabulous. Doug's parents came and I think it all went well. Since Doug's finger was still hurting him, he wasn't able to play for the services but it was kind of nice as it is one of first times I was able to sit with him and enjoy Easter service together. For Easter lunch, we had a Honey Baked ham, Ginny's yummy potatoes, corn, fruit salad, rolls and a pecan pie. The night before we went to Fogo de Chao and that is SO good. LOVE their meats and salad bar!

Tonight we have our breastfeeding class and am excited to learn this, but also a little nervous. I cannot believe that by the end of Saturday all of our childbirth classes will be over. Even more scared that I am 13 days away from being considered FULL TERM! YIKES! Not sure if I'm ready to push a baby out, but at the same time-SO ready to have her here and meet our daughter. I feel like I already know here completely, so I just want to match the personality with a face.

I guess anytime from 13 to 34 days we will become parents. Hoping the nausea will go away after she's born. Haha!

34 Weeks

2010-03-30T09:32:00.003-05:00

Had our first garage sale this past Saturday and the weather was absolutely perfect! We got rid of most of our big items (desk chair, big screen t.v., king bed), so we are thrilled to have the extra space in our home again. I think between us and our friends, we all did a great job and it was a huge success. The only problem we encountered was at the end of the sale around noon, when a buyer showed up interested in the t.v. Since we were so eager to get rid of it, the buyer made a very low offer for it and we immediately took it. Little did we know how big of an ass he really was. Since it would normally take around 3-4 people to lift a t.v. of this size, the buyer had one end, Doug had the other end and one of our friends had the back of the t.v. Well the buyer told everyone to lift up, so our friend and Doug did. However, what we didn't know was that the buyer was going to lift up so high that all the weight would be on Doug's end. Doug couldn't support that kind of weight and the t.v. came down smashing his fingers against the concrete of our driveway. We all stopped and tried to get to Doug except for this ass who just kept on going. Our good friend took Doug inside to get him fixed up, and the buyer then wanted me to take over Doug's end! I tried, but thankfully our friends took over and got it into his truck and he drove off. When I got back inside, Doug was lying on the floor, pale white with a cold rag on his head and his fingers wrapped in another cold rag. When Doug started to feel better, he got up and was able to move his fingers-so we decided he probably didn't need to go the the ER as we didn't think they were broken. I am just so thankful we have such great friends, especially friends who know how to take care of people/kids who are hurt. I must say we are really blessed and I thank God every day for our friends and family.

So I am 34 weeks along now and am feeling as if I could 'go' at any time (maybe it's just wishful thinking). I've been having really bad bouts of contractions, and it is a pain in the you-know-what. I hate when they strike because I can't walk, think, concentrate, breathe...I am basically useless and in a ton of pain. But since these 'false' labor contractions only last for about an hour or two, I lay down and drink LOTS of fluids and they tend to ease up and go away. I also asked my OB about it yesterday and he just shrugged it off saying that I was probably doing too much and not drinking enough.

Apparently I have now reached the point to where I start visiting the OB every week. I was a little surprised as I thought that wouldn't start happening until week 36, but just shows how little I know. ;-) I will also be tested for GBS, so a little nervous about that. My doctor also informed me that he will start to check to see if I have dilated starting at week 38. I am definitely starting to freak out a little as I have waited and waited to do anything major to get ready for baby, and now we're only a few weeks away from the big day, I am starting to feel overwhelmed with everything that needs to be done.

Well we finally have a new back door and I couldn't be more happier! While I was busy planning the garage sale, Doug decided to shop around and look for the new door. Well within about a week to a week and a half, he picked the door, paid for it, scheduled a time to have it installed and had it installed. Amazing! Can't believe how fast it all happened, but very grateful to have a husband that got it all done and it looks FABULOUS!

My big 25th birthday was yesterday and it was really nice. We went to the Melting Pot on Sunday night, where a bouquet of balloons, chocolate and a birthday card were awaiting me. The food was awesome and it was really nice to have a date with my husband. Yesterday morning Doug cooked me breakfast for the first time and I thought that was so sweet! He also took the day off so I wouldn't have to deal with the installation men, which was a very good thing as I had another bout of contractions and had to go to bed. Needless to say, it was a good birthday and I am thankful for my husband, all our friends and family.

Only 40 days left until my due date!

33 Weeks and Nesting

2010-03-25T14:26:00.002-05:00

I will be 34 weeks this Sunday and am finally getting the urge to clean and get the house 'perfect' before Evelyn shows up. I have this crazy (and yes I know it's crazy) idea of getting everything together and for everything to be perfect so when our daughter shows up, I won't have to worry about anything except taking care of her. Crazy, huh? I know with five pets, nothing is going to stay clean, but thank goodness for gates! I have already installed a tall gate to block off the playroom and am ecstatic that the cats cannot jump over it. So we will probably be ordering another one for our room since we don't get very good air circulation-and that is also a cat-free zone (at least until Evie is old enough to go into her own room).

I've been doing some cleaning here and there. I've managed to wipe down the kitchen blinds-which were disgusting, I've deep cleaned the guest bathroom and I have made a huge dent in the guest room. The rest of the house is a different story as we are having a garage sale this Sat, but do plan on deep cleaning the rest of the house next week.

Doug's parents are coming for Easter and I am so excited. We are also having our maternity pictures done on the third of April and am hoping I am up for a whole day of entertaining the in-laws and looking good for the pictures. ;-) We are pretty much booked for the next 4 weeks and hoping everything can get done before Evie comes. Since we are so close to becoming parents, I am really feeling the pressure to get it all done as soon as possible.

Only 45 more days until my due date. Woohoo for almost being done!

32 Weeks...

2010-03-16T08:35:00.002-05:00

And it has definitely not been a good week. I've been throwing up about 4 times a day since Saturday and generally feeling like crap all day long. I have been taking 3 hour naps along with sleeping about 6 hours at night. Not sick, but with the extra weight, pains/aches of the ever-growing belly and throwing up all the time-I have no energy to do anything productive and I'm not all that happy about it. Sorry to complain, but just needed to vent a little.

Lamaze class went well and we learned quite a bit about birthing techniques and hospital routines, so glad we did it...especially since it was free! Learned that every woman has her own room in LDR (Labor, Delivery, Recovery) and her own room in Postpartum-so VERY happy about that. Not all too thrilled about their room service (food), but I figure that's what Doug is for. ;-) I also can order out from some restaurants, so I think I will have to take advantage of that. Another "perk" of the hospital is they don't promote using the nursery, they pretty much demand the baby stay in the room the WHOLE time. In fact, when we were touring the hospital, there were NO babies in the nursery. So guess who's getting NO sleep while in the hospital for three days? But I'm sure once I finally get to see her, I won't want to let her go. :-)

Had my OB apt yesterday and everything looks perfect with Evelyn. I've now gained a surprising 23 lbs-not sure how I pulled that off with my sickness, but glad to be on track with weight gain and happy to know that most of it is going to her.

Athena is healed-thank God! And Booh Bear is going in today to get the third eye lid back down, as it's been trying to come down since we brought her home and that could be dangerous for her eye. Hoping once it's down, I will only have to give her drops for another week and HOPEFULLY she will also be healed.

Garage sale is off for this Saturday as we're expecting a thunderstorm that day. :-( But we were starting to lean away from doing a garage sale as the sickness has gotten a lot worse. So our new plan is to sale most of our stuff on Ebay and Craigslist. A little nervous to do this, as I haven't had to sale anything through the internet before (and of course the horror stories you hear on the news about Craigslist), but our friends really love selling things through these sites so we will give it a try and see how it goes. Why can't I just snap my fingers and have everything done already? ;-)

Only 54 days left until May 9th!

Booh Bear Update

2010-03-10T17:39:00.002-06:00

Booh had her surgery today and everything went beautifully. The vet made a small incision around the ulcer to remove it, then taped up her third eye lid so nothing could get in to that eye to prevent healing. Apparently the ulcer, which has been superficial, was starting to get deeper in to the eye-so it was a very good thing that we went ahead and did the surgery. If we had waited too much longer, she may have lost that eye.

It is going to take two weeks for her to recover and we will make the drive to Grapevine again next week for a check-up. Hoping these next two weeks go by fast and that she heals properly. Another good thing is that her eye medications have gone from 12 drops a day to 7! I'm very happy about that. So instead of giving her drops every hour from 8 a.m.-8p.m., I can now give her a drop every other hour. :-) Just so relieved that she came out of surgery okay. I know I'm not suppose to have a favorite, but Booh Bear has definitely turned into my favorite pet and I couldn't imagine losing her.

Okay, so I know this is suppose to be a Booh update, but I can't resist updating further on the pregnancy. ;-)

For the past two days I haven't thrown up once! I probably just jinxed myself, but I am so thrilled about this. Doug seems to think it's because I've been out and about lately and not in the house so much-that the house is making me ill. Haha! Don't think it's that, as I have been getting sick anywhere and everywhere these last 7 months. Still can't eat whatever I want and what I should be eating, but I'm gaining with all the ice cream and pasta. ;-)

Our little Evie has been VERY active lately, kicking, punching, rolling, etc and really hurting me. Sometimes she knocks the wind out of me and I am force to sit or lay down. I've also been having a lot more BH contractions, cramping and pain on the left side of my lower abdomen. Not so sure what the pain is, but am going to ask my doctor on Monday.

Still not sure whether she has dropped or not, but today I've noticed that I can actually breathe. I've been running around all day cleaning, doing laundry, dropping off/picking up Booh and I haven't felt out of breath once today-which is really odd. I also have been waking up about 3 times during the night to use the bathroom and am noticing that I seem to go to that room a lot more these days. I guess we'll find out for sure on Monday if she's dropped or not...probably just wishful thinking. lol

Speaking of wishful thinking, I've really be researching child birth and delivery since we have Lamaze starting on Friday and then my OB apt on Monday, and I'm finding that I'm actually excited to go through this. It's really weird because I've ALWAYS been scared to death about giving birth, but now that I'm making myself watch the videos and find out what all these drugs are-I am finding out exactly what I want and do not want. I definitely have figured out that I do not want to be induced, of course if the baby is in distress I will do what is necessary. I know things won't go my way 100%, so I'm not stressing about having the "perfect" delivery-but at the same time I do not want to be taken advantage of especially since I do not really like my doctor too much. I figure it's good to know these things and doesn't hurt to be educated and prepared. Like I keep hearing, every pregnancy/woman/delivery is different and I am wanting to go in this with knowledge and a positive attitude-hoping it will end with a good experience.

On a slightly different note, it seems that people are now not shy to put hands on my tummy and ask me about the pregnancy-especially strangers. It's kind of weird and can be annoying when cashiers ask about the pregnancy and ask if it was an "oops". Are they kidding me?!? Seriously, these people are strangers and they want to know if this was a mistake? What business is it of theirs? ANYWAY, yesterday while walking around the block with a good friend, some men who I guess were walking back to their house stopped us and immediately placed his hands on my belly and just talked away about pregnancy and whatnot. It's interesting to say the least.

Okay, I think I jinxed myself because now I'm feeling really sick again. Ugh.

Only 60 more days until my due date! Will I make it or go overdue? Time will tell. ;-)

31 Weeks

2010-03-07T07:28:00.004-06:00

Only 8-9 more weeks to go! Praying they go by REALLY fast!

I am now getting sick on average 3 times a day and I pass out about every other day. Some mornings my sickness is so bad that I can't even drink water-so going back on the pump is something we're now seriously discussing. I managed to have a pretty good day yesterday (still got sick 3 times-but didn't faint). I'm trying to eat as much as my body will allow, so hopefully I'm still gaining. It's pretty tough some days, but when I feel good-I feel good/normal and am able to do normal things. Although I am used to throwing up everyday, I can't help but feel jealous of some of my pregnant friends when they get their cravings and want to eat all the time. For me, I can't wait until I'm not pregnant so I can eat again. haha! I guess that's my biggest complaint-I want to eat like a pregnant woman...I thought that was my one excuse to gain a lot of weight. ;-) I, of course, also hate the leg cramps, sciatica pains, back/shoulder/leg aches, bloating, etc but I stand by the nausea/vomiting being the worst part of this pregnancy.

Lamaze class starts on Friday and I am SO nervous! I really don't want to know about childbirth. Throughout this pregnancy, I have pushed this as far back from my mind as possible and now it's something I can no longer escape. I know it's childish and I need to know this stuff to be prepared, I'm just scared. But am excited about touring the hospital-that I want to know about-especially where the babies go and what they have food wise. ;-)

If weather permits, we will have our garage sale on the 20th and have a TON to sale! Cannot wait to get rid of a lot of this stuff so I can make more room for all of Evie's things. Looks like we will be selling the futon (maybe), the breakfast table (another maybe), big screen t.v., tons of dvds, vhs players, side table, lamps, receiver, king size bed and possibly one of our newer queen size bed-although I warn you it will be expensive as Doug doesn't really want to sell it, but we have no room for it either. We've got a ton of other items to sell, so hopefully we'll make some decent money. Doug and I have never done a garage sale before, so I'm basically going to wing-it and hope we get people to come.

Booh Bear is now having to go through surgery this Wednesday and I'm so nervous for her. After 12 days of non-stop eye meds, her eye continues to look worse so I'm thinking she needs surgery. Ick! The surgery will cost about a thousand dollars, so that's no fun-but hopefully it will fix her eye.

We finally got our guest bathroom fixed yesterday!!! I'm so thrilled! Now we can have guests over when Evie arrives. :-)

We also bought a Tempupedic bed the other day and slept on it last night. Since we received the wrong mattress size, we slept on the mattresses they did give us (was suppose to be 2 twin extra long and received 2 twins). We got an adjustable base-which is AMAZING! Since we both got our own, I can do what I need to do to be comfortable and Doug can adjust his anyway he likes and it was really nice to be able to do that last night. Slept better, but the mattresses will need to be broken in to before they can be really comfy.

Only 63 days to go!

30 Weeks

2010-03-02T09:48:00.002-06:00

Had my OB apt yesterday morning. I was having a really rough day and had thrown up at his office. Needless to say, I was miserable and close to bawling. Anyway, doctor walks in and I tell him about the issues I've been dealing with (throwing up, nausea, passing out) and he mentioned that I go back on the pump. I immediately told him that I was already on it once before and it made my legs swell, turn red, made it hard to walk and bruise-in which he told he never heard of those kinds of reactions...umm, really? because I've heard a lot of women on my support group mention those kinds of reactions. Anyway, he went on to tell me that my weight gain is right on track and the only reason he mentions I go back on the pump is because he believes that my fainting has to do with low blood sugar and I need to eat more (3 healthy meals and 3 healthy snacks). Ugh. Told him even on my good days I cannot eat any kind of protein or vegetable as it WILL NOT stay down. I also mentioned that the only reason I'm gaining weight is because I eat whatever I crave, and it's usually very unhealthy...but he didn't seem to care what I am eating. We then start to discuss the possibility of me being induced and agreed that if I still want to be induced in a few weeks, the earliest he could do that is at 39 weeks. Hoping, praying, wishing that she will come on her own before then as I don't really want to be induced, but I think if she's not out by then I will do what it takes to get her out. I'm just really worried not only about my health, but for her health as well. I can't imagine my diet is good for her at all and every time I try to change my diet, nothing stays down. I figure the sooner she is out (38 weeks+), the sooner I can get control over my diet again and produce healthy milk for her.

Okay, sorry for that little rant/pity-party. Lol.

I am starting to wash everything in the nursery. Can't believe how many toys, clothes, gear that need to be washed. It's a little overwhelming. On top of that I have 2-3 pediatricians I am looking in to and plan to schedule apts either this week or next. With only 9 weeks left, I am starting to feel the pressure to get stuff done, even if I feel like crap all the time. ;-)

Athena is at the vet today getting her second anal sac removed and we're praying that everything goes as smoothly as it did last time. It took her about a week to recover from the last one, so hoping it will only take her a week to recover this time around.

Booh Bear will go back to the vet next week to have a check up on her eyes. I'm starting to believe she will need the surgery, but we'll see what the vet says. All I can say is that I am dead tired of trying to get drops into her eyes every hour of the day and will be glad when I no longer have to worry about giving her all the meds she needs every day. It's exhausting! Especially since Athena is going to be on meds for the next 5-6 days too. BUT hopefully this mess will be OVER within the month and I won't have to worry about any of it anymore.

Come on April! Can't wait to be able to nest and only worry about house, baby and Doug. :-)

Pregnancy

2010-02-26T10:00:00.002-06:00

Well I will be 30 weeks this Sunday and so excited about that. However, lately I've been experiencing some new symptoms. For the past 2-3 weeks I come close to passing out about 1-2 times a week. I lose hearing in my right ear, then if I'm still standing the room will start to spin, but once I'm laying down and drinking some water, the sensation goes away after a few minutes. It's scary, but I'm hoping it's just low blood sugar-which I'm not quite sure that's the case since I eat so frequently. I called this morning and they decided to bring me in a week early for my OB apt to check it out, so I now have an apt for Monday which is really good as I have a lot more questions to ask. Along with feeling like I could pass out at any given time, I think I might have felt Evie drop yesterday. For the past few days now, movement hasn't been very frequent but I'm assuming that's because I've been under a lot of stress recently. Now any movement I do feel, feels like it is way low (which isn't unusual as I do sometimes feel low movements), but it seems all movements are low. I would figure if something were wrong with Evie, I would have severe symptoms but I am so glad to now see my doctor in three days instead of ten.

As for weight gain, it's been pretty weird. When I get really sick, I can lose a pound within a couple of days but I usually make that up (and more) when I have good days. I have now gained 16 lbs and weigh 150, so I'm pretty happy with that. Most people who see me don't know I'm pregnant when I'm wearing a sweatshirt or a big coat and when they can see my belly, all they can say is that my whole belly is just baby. Makes me feel good (I know, it's totally selfish and vain) but every time we see a tech or doctor they tell me baby is gaining the appropriate amount of weight and is perfectly healthy, so I'm happy. It would be SO nice to lose what extra weight I have put on quickly after Evie is born. I figure it shouldn't be too hard (unless I start eating like crazy) due to being sick so much and since I will be breastfeeding.

Most books say that the baby should have developed a routine by now. Ha! When she is really active, she could be a night owl one day and a morning girl the next OR she could be active all day long. Every day is different, except when she hibernates like she has been doing for the past 2-3 days. All I can say is that along with being very stubborn, she is also very unpredictable. Should be interesting when she makes her debut.

I received my first ever prenatal massage yesterday and it was long overdue. With everything that has been going on in the last seven months, I have been so stressed out and I know it's not good for me or Evie, so I felt it was in our best interest to get it done. Even though the massage therapist wouldn't stop talking at first (she had A LOT of old wives tales-which was annoying! not to mention she could barely speak English), it was worth it.

No major swelling yet to report. I had to stop wearing my engagement ring as it no longer fits, but since the wedding ring is a little bigger, I've been wearing that. No weird cravings, just aversions. Still nauseous 24/7, but now that I have Zofran, I don't get sick 3 times a day which is nice.

Since I have my OB apt this Monday, I do plan to see if it is possible or safe to be induced at 38 weeks. Since I have a friend who sees the same doc and has told me he is pretty easy to convince, I am hoping he will agree that it would be best for me and Evie to be induced. If he thinks it's too risky for whatever reason, then I will wait until she's ready but am SO hoping and praying that either way she will come at 38 weeks as I am ready for this to be over ASAP! Tired of throwing up, being nauseous, fainting sensations, sciatica pains, constantly worrying about lack of movements, etc. Just hoping everything is ready in 2 months!

Booh Bear Update

2010-02-24T16:21:00.002-06:00

I was originally hoping that we would immediately do the procedure and it almost came to that as I have been at my wits end for some time now with having two sick cats, but came to the realization that if meds can work, then we should at least give it a shot. It's basically a 50/50 chance that the meds will not work and we will have to resort to surgery in a couple of weeks, but I figured it's best for Booh Bear. She's only been under once and I didn't want to risk it if all she really needs is more medication. It would be easier for me to just go ahead with the surgery, but I don't think I would handle it well if something were to happen to her.

So Booh Bear is on 4 different kinds of eye drops. With one of the drops (Idoxuridine) I had to start off today with giving her one drop in each eye every five minutes for thirty minutes, needless to say she isn't really liking me right about now. BUT now that's over with, she'll only need that particular drop three times a day from now on. Interferon is another drop that has to be applied four times a day. Tobramycin (which was the eye drop she's been on and originally had to get every three hours), she now only needs it three times a day (woohoo). I-Drop Vet Plus is another eye drop that we'll give her twice a day for the pain. And then she's also on Viralys Powder that we have to sprinkle on her food twice a day. So she's going to get about 12 eye drops a day for two weeks plus the powder. The reason for all the meds is because the doctor believes this is herpetic and with the RIGHT medication treatment it should go away, but again if there is no improvement in two weeks we will have no other choice but to do the surgery.

The good news is, is that her left eye (the eye that we just discovered on Sat had an ulcer) is now healed. So the doctor believes medication should do the trick as it is still superficial in the right eye. Please pray that this works as I'm not quite sure I can handle having two cats go under in the same week and deal with their recoveries at the same time.

I am a ball of stress right now and am completely overwhelmed with all that is going on with the cats being sick, to trying to get everything set up for Evie, and Doug wanting to do some home improvements. I was so looking forward to taking a mini-vacation next weekend, but now that has been put on hold probably until I am 36-37 weeks (at the very least another month). :-( But I am excited to get my first prenatal massage tomorrow (hopefully they won't cancel on me again) and I plan on getting a massage twice a month from here on out until Evie makes her debut. I figure that with everything going on, I need some way to relax and get out so I don't go crazy with cat eye drops, oral meds, being constantly sick, housework, baby stuff, home improvement items, etc.

Praying and hoping this is over and all the cats are healthy by the time Evie comes.

Booh Bear

2010-02-21T08:30:00.000-06:00

We went to Booh Bear's vet appointment yesterday morning and we knew something was amiss as she has been messing with her other eye and squinting it. Turns out she now has an ulcer in both eyes. We got a refill of her pain meds and am now having to put drops in both eyes, hoping it will help with her eye that has a new ulcer. I will call to make an appointment with the specialist on Monday and hope they can squeeze her in on Tuesday as this has been going on for 3 weeks now and only getting worse. I am completely stressed out about it. Don't think she will lose both eyes, but if the procedure doesn't work, we're not sure what will happen next. From what the vet told us, the specialist will put Booh under and poke her eyes around the ulcer and that usually helps heal the ulcer, but again if Booh has some underlying problem it may not work. We'll see.

Athena is doing a lot better. She doesn't seem to be in any pain which is great. She jumps on/off things with ease, even though she's not suppose to for another week. The incision looks great despite her jumping on/off. We are still keeping a very close eye on her and when she's jumping too much/often we put her in the crate with her food, water and litter box.

On top of having to constantly worry about the two sickies, I am throwing up all the time again. I wasn't really able to keep much (if anything) down yesterday and am feeling very nauseous this morning. I'm really happy that I've been able to gain 14 lbs and now weigh 148, but I am scared that I will start losing weight again if I can't keep anything down. I won't be able to get any more meds to help with this problem until tomorrow afternoon, so hopefully once I do have it I will start to feel somewhat normal again. But for now I am taking one Benadryl tablet every 6 hours as it sometimes helps with the nausea (of course it puts me to sleep too).

On a more cheerful note, Doug saw Evie move for the first time last night. We were on the couch watching a movie, I was looking at my stomach as I have been able to see her move for quite some time now and it's always so amazing to me. Well, Doug happened to look over and looked at my belly for a few minutes when Evie really did a number. He couldn't believe it. Doug is also feeling Evie move more and more these days, sometimes she will be stubborn and stop moving when he puts his hand on me, but the other times she is moving so much that he can quickly feel her. So most people know that I've really hated this pregnancy, BUT this is the ONE thing I LOVE. I love her moving and feeling her do all sorts of things, even if she really can hurt my ribs. Haha! It's amazing to me and I treasure this experience. :-)

If I have it my way (and hopefully I will since most technicians and people say I should), I will be induced in 9 weeks! That's only 63-70 days away! And since the 4D tech told us that Evie has gained a normal amount of weight so far and she's in position, I'm feeling very good about it. I am of course nervous and I will try to hold out as long as possible, but if I'm continually getting sick and not keeping any food/water down I will want her out as soon as possible.

110% Sure It's a Girl!!!

2010-02-18T16:56:00.004-06:00

This is Evelyn Rose. :-)

So obviously we had our 4D ultrasound done this afternoon at a place called Stork Vision and I just KNEW she wasn't going to corporate. She has been up moving and kicking up a storm since 5 a.m. She actually woke me up for the first time with her kicking at 5 this morning. She's been moving around a lot, which she normally doesn't do, so I was pretty darn certain she wasn't going to be moving a whole lot (if at all) at the big appointment, and I was right.

I was told to drink LOTS of water a few days before the appointment, so I was drinking 8-12 glasses of water a day to help with the clarity of the video and pictures. I was also told to eat a sugary snack before coming in, so we could get some live action shots of her moving. Haha! After eating a couple of Pop Tarts and a Coke, she just slept away. At one point the technician stopped the ultrasound and told me to walk around and jiggle my tummy to wake her up. So after about 5 minutes of me stretching, walking, doing jumping jacks, shaking my belly, etc she came back into the room and we tried again. Evie apparently (like during the NT screen) didn't want to show herself. She had her arms and legs covering her face and was refusing to move even though we knew she was awake. She hiccuped and yawned, which was AMAZING!

The technician asked us if we knew the gender and we told her that a couple of doctors thought she might be a girl, so she went and triple checked for us and told us it was definitely a girl and she even pointed out her girly parts. We are ecstatic!

I am really happy we decided to do this as it makes things a little more real, although I am still not 100% convinced yet...I know, it's silly. I am so happy to see that everything is right where it should be and that she is gaining weight perfectly despite me not gaining too much. She has the cutest chubby checks and I can't help but feel slightly proud of her stubbornness (definitely takes after both of us). She is perfect and I cannot wait to meet her in 10 weeks. What can I say, I'm in love. :-)

Update

2010-02-16T11:43:00.002-06:00

First I just want to ask anyone who reads this to please keep my sister-in-law, Amber and her precious little baby girl in your prayers. I can't go into details as it's pretty overwhelming and really not my place to blab my big mouth about.

So Athena is home and surgery went pretty well, but the next 2 weeks are going to be a lot of work. She is staying in our room as she can't jump, run, etc as it could cause the incision to open and get infected, although she would love to be out with the rest of the pets. She's mainly just sleeping in one of the carriers, eating and drinking, which is great. She needs all the rest she can get! Doug is doing the meds for her. She's on a liquid oral medication that she has to have every 8 hours, and since we're pro's at getting stuff down our cats mouths, it's not a big deal. She does have to have a cone around her neck pretty much 24/7 (unless we are strictly monitoring her) and she will probably have to have that on for at least a week. Poor thing. And to think we are going to do this again in 2-3 weeks. ugh. All I can say is that, even though it's a pain in the butt and it sucks for her, I am glad we're getting this done now before our newest addition shows up. And I'm sure Athena will thank us in the long run, as she will no longer have to go to the vet to get her anal glands expressed every month.

On to the other sicky. Booh Bear had a check up yesterday and her eye isn't getting any better. It's still superficial, which is great, but as our vet told us it should be gone by now or at least looking better. So the vet supplied us with more medication to help speed up the process, but if it doesn't look any better by Saturday we will have to take her to a specialist. Ugh! So now Booh is on one pill a day for her eye, which I thought would be really hard as she's never taken a pill before, but surprisingly enough after a couple of minutes it was down and she didn't even try to spit it back up. She is also on a liquid oral medication for the pain, and she takes that twice a day-again not hard at all! And of course she is still on the eye drops and we give that to her every 2-3 hours during the day (we've kind of stopped waking up 2 times in the night to give it to her as the vet told us if we do it enough during the day it should be fine).

My life basically revolves around the pets now. Each pet gets fed 3 times a day. Athena is being free-fed as it's easier and she needs to eat and drink as much as she needs. Weasley goes into the guest bathroom to get his soft food. And the rest of the pets food dishes get uncovered for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Between their feedings, their medications and having to give them each love and attention (as they get VERY jealous of each other), I am worn out some days. And of course with trying to bond with Evie, it's proving to be quite challenging. Not to mention feeling so tired, sore, cramping, nauseous, sick (some days) and overwhelmed. Some days, I just want to crawl into a hole and disappear. Haha! Hopefully the pets issues will be resolved before Evelyn gets here and I won't be so overwhelmed with having to do all this plus dealing with a newborn.

Our BIG 4D ultrasound is Thursday and we are ecstatic! Doug keeps counting down the days until we get to really see our little girl and see what she looks like. Hoping all looks the way it should. LOL! The only thing is that I have to keep VERY hydrated this whole week, which has been one of the most challenging things in this pregnancy since the nausea is so severe, I can't choke down a glass of water some days. BUT I am making a strong effort to choke down as much as possible so we can get a really good image of Evie.

Besides my day revolving around the pets, trying to get things done around the house and trying to prepare myself for a little baby, I am keeping busy. It is looking as if I may be induced around 38 weeks, which means I really only have about 10 weeks left before she's here-which is totally freaking us out. We're excited, of course, but so very scared too. Haha!

THIRD TRIMESTER!!!

2010-02-14T04:13:00.002-06:00

I don't know why I find this to be such a big deal, but it seems like a HUGE accomplishment. I can't believe I've made it this far and am now in the shortest trimester of them all. Woohoo! 84 days until my due date (9-12 weeks).

I am still sick 24/7 which is NO fun. But since I do not want to go back on the pump, I will endure...unless I start losing weight again. Right now I weigh about 146 (gained 12 lbs), which is great! I have a feeling that with the sickness steadily getting worse, I will probably only gain about 20 lbs which I think is healthy. I will talk to my doctor more next month to discuss my weight.

Evelyn is starting to slow down with the movements, I figure it's probably starting to get a little snug in there. No more hard kicks/movements, mainly little flutters and a few kicks that can be felt on the outside. This week I will start monitoring kicks to make sure she is kicking/moving 10 times within 2 hours. She is no longer a night owl, she is an morning girl. If I lay in bed until around 8 am, she will start moving around like crazy. She doesn't really move too much after that (just flutters).

We now have all our big purchase items that were needed. We of course have the crib, changing table and rocking chair from last year. And now we have a Pack N Play and a travel system. I have to go on about the travel system for a bit as I am still SO excited about it. Doug and I decided on the Graco Stylus Ben Travel system a few weeks/months ago, but were waiting until later to buy it. Well we get a flyer in the mail from Babies R Us about the "Great Trade In" where we can trade in a travel system, car seat, stroller, crib, etc and get a 25% off coupon (in-store) for a big purchase item. Well we just so happened to still have the used travel system I bought last year and have been planning on getting rid of, so we went in handed them the old travel system and started looking for the one we wanted (not sure if they sold it in stores). Well there it was, it was in the store! Only 2 left. I was thrilled! On top of the coupon, Doug's aunt and uncle had given us a gift card last year for Christopher and since we never got around to using it for him we were finally able to use it for this. We saved $100!!! And now we have all the necessities...I think. LOL! Starting to feel a little more prepared.

On a different note, Athena's surgery is on Monday. Doug is really worried. We are having one anal sac removed and hoping all goes well. We originally wanted to get both done at the same time, but after the consultation the vet told us that it would be very risky. The reason being is that if they can't repair a nerve or muscle, she might lose control of her bowels. But if they do one and it's a bust, then she still has control over that and we will just have to continue taking her to the vet monthly to get the other gland expressed. So we are hoping all goes really well with the surgery and the site doesn't look too awful by the time she is able to come back home. Not sure whether or not she will come home same day, but the feeling I got was that we would pick her up next day unless she does REALLY well and the vet doesn't see the need for her to stay overnight.

Swee'Pea's eye looks a lot better, so I discontinued the medication.

Booh Bear's eye is getting better, I hope, still giving her the eye treatment every 3-4 hours. Her check up apt was scheduled to be last Thursday, but since we got all that snow I decided to reschedule for Friday thinking it would be melting by then. Ha! Cancelled that apt too and am now hoping to get her in on Monday.

Lucky also is needing his Bordetella shot on Monday. Needless to say Monday is going to be crazy. Thank goodness Doug has the day off to help. :-)

One Year Ago

2010-02-11T21:46:00.003-06:00

So it has been one year to the day since I had my surgery, and now I'm almost 7 months pregnant! I cannot believe all that has happened since that time.

Just thought I would share, as it came to my mind earlier this evening. :-)

Sick Again...

2010-02-07T17:24:00.002-06:00

So things have been getting worse again. I am constantly, non-stop nauseated and am getting sick everyday...sometimes 2-3 times a day. I am feeling like I have absolutely no energy and just want to lay in bed all day long, even though there are things I HAVE to do (take care of the pets, go to all the apts, clean the house, do laundry, clean dishes, etc).

All I can say is that this sucks. We were suppose to go to a Super Bowl party tonight, but instead I am home feeling crappy, updating my blog.

As of now, I have gained 9 lbs when I should have gained about 18 lbs by now. I'm glad that I am gaining, but not sure how long that will last since I am getting sick so often again. Not sure what will happen if I start losing weight again...don't really want to think about that right now. Lol.

I am feeling more and more guilty with the fact that all I seem to do these days is complain. I know that it's a miracle that we have this little girl growing inside of me, and I am really excited to become a mom, but I seriously believe this will be the last time I get pregnant. I say that because this pregnancy has been so hard physically and emotionally. I knew pregnancy wasn't going to be easy, but this has been over the top ridiculous. I'm not always going to be this fortunate not to be working or going to school, and I can't revolve my whole life around whether or not I'm going to be sick that day or feeling well enough to do a certain activity-even if it means going to the grocery store or something as simple as doing the laundry. And it's definitely not fair for Doug, who works a full time job just to come home to a dirty house and a wife who is constantly ill. Not to mention having to do this all over again with a baby hanging off of me. Yes, I might change my mind once I hold my baby girl for the first time, but I'm hoping Doug will remind me how bad and hard this has been.

I have my 27 week OB apt tomorrow morning and am going to ask him if there is any way possible to be induced at 38/39 weeks. I've talked to many women and I've heard both sides of the issue, but I would really like to have this baby out asap. I'm hoping it will be possible since I really don't want to be sick for a week longer than necessary. But if my doctor thinks it won't be good for Evie, then of course I will endure. I'm already somewhat at risk of delivering early due to the fact that I haven't been gaining much weight and because I am shorter than some women, so I'm hoping we can plan on being induced at 38/39 weeks and if she decides to come at 37/38 weeks, great, but if not she would only stay in a week longer. If you can't tell, I am REALLY hoping the doctor will agree with me and help me out with this one. Not to mention we would know her exact due date, which I think would be awesome! As for the possibility of needing an emergency C-section (as that is a risk with being induced), I really am not that afraid. All that I care about is her being out as soon as possible but only if she can come out healthy.

27 weeks down, 10-13 more to go. Hoping (and praying) these last few weeks go by fast! :-)

Update

2010-02-03T21:09:00.003-06:00

I went to my OB's office yesterday to have him check to see if there was a cyst. He had first asked me why I just didn't go to the ER that night to have the surgery, and I responded that I wanted him to verify that it was a cyst. He quickly told me that if it was, he was prepared to remove it right then and there. Eek! After doing three different paps on me, he told me I did not have a cyst. Praise the Lord! He then did an internal ultrasound to check and make sure water and baby were the way they were suppose to be, sure enough everything looked perfect. He quickly apologized for the inconvenience and said he'd see me next week for my monthly appointment.

All I can say is that I am so over pap smears. LOL! I know once Evie comes out, paps are going to be a big nothing...but 3 in 1 day plus an internal ultrasound is exhausting and humiliating. But I am SO, SO, SO relieved that Evelyn and I are both healthy and doing well.

On to the bad news. Took Booh Bear to the vet today as she's been squinting and messing with her right eye a lot lately for about a week. Persians tend to have watery eyes, so I gave it a couple of days, but yesterday it just looked awful so I called to get her in to the vet. Looks like she has a HUGE ulcer (it takes up 2/3 of her right eye)! It's not deep, which is good but with these types of ulcers they can get bad FAST. So she's now on pain med drops for that eye (once daily) and then on a med that should help her eye. However, with the second eye med, she has to get it every FOUR HOURS! Nurse told me I cannot give her too much, she cannot OD on it so Doug and I are giving it to her every 3 hours. On top of that I have to take her to the vet every THREE DAYS so they can monitor her progress. If it gets any worse, she may lose her right eye. Needless to say, we are scared for her as she is the "girly" cat who takes pride in her looks and beauty. On top of being stressed about Booh Bear, Weasley, Swee'Pea and Athena's problems, we are now going to be slightly sleep deprived due to waking up every 3-4 hours to give Booh her meds. Not fun.

Back to the pregnancy. ;-)

I am now trying to make a hard effort to drink as much water and juice as possible as Sat. night was VERY scary and I do not want to have a preemie. After seeing so many pictures of preemies (babies born after only being in mom for 25 weeks), I DO NOT want to have that kind of stress and worry in my life. I want a healthy, strong, beautiful baby girl. I still have Braxton Hicks everyday, but since I know everything with baby is perfect, I don't worry too much about it.

I scheduled my 4D ultrasound appointment and am SO excited to finally see our baby girl move and actually see her features. Made the appointment during the evening so Doug didn't have to take time off and since she is always up and moving during the evenings/nights/early mornings I figured it would work to our advantage. It's Feb. 18th and I will be 28.5 weeks (THIRD TRIMESTER BABY!!!)

As more baby things arrive, the more freaked out I am getting. I am starting to realize how unprepared I am. I signed us up for CPS certification through our church (as the CPR/Baby Basics class at the hospital doesn't offer certification), and we'll start that at the end of the month. Lamaze starts in March and then the other two start in April...hoping by then I'll feel more prepared. I am used to infants, but definitely not newborns. I am very excited to be a mom again, but so very nervous too.

With trying to get the house ready for baby, trying to fix 4 sick pets and trying to maintain a clean house, I am dead tired all the time. It feels like I am constantly on the go, with little to no resting time. I guess it's God's way of really preparing me for motherhood...like parenthood bootcamp. ugh. Can't I just rest now, so I can savor every minute of being able to not do anything...because I know it goes out the window once a newborn enters our home.

Here's to waking up every 3 hours to a sick little Booh Bear...

BAD Weekend

2010-02-02T08:40:00.004-06:00

Shortly after my post on Saturday, I started experiencing VERY painful contractions. So bad that it hurt to walk, lay down, sit, move, etc. I went to bed and laid down on my left side while trying to drink lots of water. I know I didn't drink enough water that day and I didn't want to go to L&D (Labor and Delivery) for just being dehydrated. So after about an hour or so, the pains slowly started easing up and I was able to move and walk again.

Sunday, I did not feel Evie moving at all until that night, which had me very worried (especially since I was trying to do things that would make her move).

Monday I started feeling a little movement, but thought I would call my OB's office just to make them aware of what happened over the weekend and my concerns. My doctor apparently was on jury duty and wasn't at the office, so the nurse told me to drink a full glass of Coke, lay down, and count how many times she moves within the hour. I call back an hour later and tell her that I felt her move six times. She said that they preferred ten counts within an hour, so she told me to take it easy and count how many times she moves every hour. Half hour later she calls back and tells me she contacted the doctor and as long as I'm not having the painful contractions and that she is moving every hour, not to worry. Well at that time I was having mild Braxton Hicks contractions and told her, she said it was normal and to call her if the contractions got severe. Half hour later I had more Braxton Hicks and then all of a sudden felt that my underwear was soaked (sorry, I know-TMI). I immediately went to the bathroom to check it, thinking maybe it was normal stuff. It definitely wasn't urine and it was very watery, so I called the office back and they told me to go straight to L&D. Doug met me there and we were both very impressed with the room they put us in. Since I had not been to L&D before, I was happily surprised with it. Anyway, when we got there the nurse told me to put a gown on and strapped me up to two disk-like things to monitor the baby's heart rate and to monitor my contractions. Evelyn's heart was perfect (THANK GOD!) and (of course) I wasn't experiencing too many contractions. The nurse told me that she thinks everything is good and that she didn't believe my water had ruptured, but tested just to make sure. Sure enough, my water is still intact and everything looks like it is going well. All I can say is that I am SO relieved! I was so scared. But when the nurse was testing to see if my water had ruptured, she said she noticed something that could be a cyst. So now I have to go to the office today and get it checked out. If it is another cyst, he'll probably just numb me, cut it open and let it drain without having to go to the hospital. Not sure how I feel about this...hoping that it's not another cyst. I'm so OVER cysts!!! I mean seriously, I had two surgeries last year due to cysts and now I might need another one?!?

Of course I am just THRILLED Evelyn is doing great. And of course the moment we left the hospital, she has been going crazy in there. She practically kept me up ALL night last night (probably only got 3 hours) with her stunts...I can tell she is definitely going to be a night owl...great. haha!

On another note, while I was at the hospital, I heard the sounds of a newborn crying. Oh my GOSH! I started tearing up, thinking-Holy crap I'm going to have one in 3 MONTHS! I think it is finally starting to become a little more real to me after being there and hearing that. I'm scared, nervous, anxious, excited...who knew one could feel so many emotions over a little cry. LOL!

Only 96 more days...so much to do before she gets here!

26 Weeks and a Scare.

2010-01-30T20:27:00.003-06:00

Tomorrow I will be 26 weeks! Only 14 more weeks to go until the estimated due date and only 2 short weeks until I am finally in my THIRD trimester! I am so excited as the second trimester has been dragging. I know once Evelyn is born I will wonder where the time went, but right now this pregnancy cannot go by fast enough.

The sleeping issues have gotten a little better since my last post. I sleep with between 3-5 pillows and am slowly adjusting to the fact that I will be hurting, sore and uncomfortable from here on out.

HG is still mild, but definitely is becoming more bothersome. Since late December, I was only getting sick about once a week then mid-January I started getting sick twice a week and now I am getting sick every other day. Sometimes I get sick more than once a day, it's awful! Today for instance I was driving home and had to stop, open my door and still didn't really make it in time. YUCK! And I know it's going to get worse in my third trimester, so I'm not entirely looking forward to that. Heck, at this rate I'll be back on the pump by March. :-(

So the BIG scare happened earlier this evening. I usually look to make sure my theme to the nursery is still available once a week so I can wait to purchase it. Well, I happened to look at the sites and lo and behold everything is out of stock! YIKES! I thankfully found a site that only had a couple left in stock and immediately purchased them. So sometime next week I will have the bedding set, matching hamper, and matching blanket. THANK GOD!!! I should have the complete set, which I am VERY thankful for. I'm getting excited to be that much closer to a completed nursery. Woohoo!

Do I Have to go to Sleep?

2010-01-27T13:48:00.002-06:00

The dreaded night time has been awful lately. Trying to go to bed, get comfortable, breathe, and finally actually sleep for a few hours has been a challenge in the past week. I'm trying all sorts of things, such as using pillows in different ways, but in the end I always wake up in the morning tired and usually in a lot of pain. On top of that, I also wake up several times during the night and it usually takes an hour and a half to go back to sleep, so I end up getting only a few hours of rest before it's daytime again. I can't believe I have 4 more months of this. Should get very interesting. I keep telling people that I wish I could just live off of strong coffee for the rest of the pregnancy and skip sleeping all together-haha! Would make for interesting days/nights. But of course I know it's not good for the baby, so I try to sleep...or at least rest when in bed.

Since my body is changing drastically, my back/butt/legs/chest have been in extreme pain lately. So I decided to get a yoga dvd to help me out with all of that. I sometimes can't even walk some parts of the day, and end up either crawling or limping to do simple things. And of course to change positions (side to side) while trying to sleep is VERY painful, so I'm hoping doing some yoga will help with that.

So I am definitely, for-sure showing now. It looks as if there is a basketball under my clothes, it's different to say the least. I knew I was going to be big since I'm petite, but good Lord, waddling and having people look in my eyes for 2 seconds before STARING at my huge belly is something I'm not used to. Haha!

Talking about huge bellies, I have now gained about 8 lbs total! I cannot believe how much I'm gaining. I know my weight gain should be around 15 lbs by now, but to gain 2 lbs in 1 week is a little extreme. Now I'm just praying I don't gain more than 30 lbs this pregnancy...but since I am starting to become sick again every other day, I may not have to worry about gaining more than that. Lol!

Doug and I are still trying to figure out what to do for a babymoon. At first we considered taking another cruise, but since the cut-off date for pregnant women (from my understanding) is 24 weeks, plus there probably aren't too many excursions that are pregnant-friendly, we decided against going. We also considered going to Mexico or some place out of the country, but that is expensive and I'm not sure I want to leave the country while pregnant (not to mention the long plane rides). So now we're down to Disney World (which I think would be a BLAST) or taking a couple of mini-vacations in the DFW area. Both have their pros and cons, but I would absolutely love going back to DW one last time before we start going for the kids-plus there are A LOT of yummy places to eat there too! I'm hoping we can 100% make up our minds over the weekend/next week so I can make the arrangements, since if we do end up going to DW we will need to go sometime in Feb/maybe early March. We'll see. I just want to do something fun one last time before we go into survival mode with new baby.

Okay, so here are my big pregnancy symptoms to date: sciatica, leg cramps/spasms, fatigue, nausea/mild HG, chest tightness, emotional, more hungry. My big cravings include: anything sugary, pasta, fruit, smoothies. Evie tends to kick only when I'm wanting to rest, which again makes it difficult to sleep/rest. Oh, the joys of motherhood!

102 more days of pregnancy, hoping she'll come out in 88 days. Trying to keep telling her that she HAS to come out at the end of April. Let's see how well she listens, or if she's just as stubborn as her father and I.

Busy Weekend and Another Milestone!

2010-01-24T06:56:00.003-06:00

Okay, I know I have gone overboard with the posts lately, but so much has happened in the last couple of days.

I'm an aunt again to a BEAUTIFUL little baby girl named Charlotte and am resisting every urge to go out and buy the cutest baby outfits and bows...although I'm not sure if I can resist much longer after seeing her pictures. Sorry Mike and Chris if you get a package from us sometime soon. ;-)

In other news, I am 25 weeks pregnant! I keep telling Evelyn that she WILL come out in 3 months (12 weeks). I am starting to get very uncomfortable and if I don't drink enough water in a day, I start getting some painful Braxton Hicks contractions...at least I'm pretty sure that's what they are. Last night would be a prime example of just that. Despite the cramps, back pain, severe butt pains, nausea, constipation, getting up in the middle of the night to eat/drink/pee, my irrational pregnant behavior, the fact I am getting bigger by the day-I absolutely LOVE being pregnant! Haha! Still in talks about whether #2 will be adopted or if we do decide to "go for it" and have another biological baby. I guess we'll wait and see. We both know that we want all our kids to be about 2 years apart, so we have another year to think it over.

Milestone! I can see Evie move now. It's very subtle and I have to pay close attention to be able to see her move, but I definitely can. The first time I saw her move, I think she was doing a body slam against my stomach as my whole belly quickly jumped up. Last night while eating out I could definitely see a kick, so I'm ecstatic! She still has her days when she is completely lazy and won't move an inch (usually 2-3 times a week), but the rest of the time she is moving around, beating the crap out of me. Lol!

Is it hot, or is it just me?

2010-01-22T15:33:00.007-06:00

Haha! So this past week I've been feeling very hot (mainly in my head and eyes). I had a doctor's appointment this afternoon and told her I was worried I may be coming down with something as I've been "sick" again (nausea-HG related) and was wondering if I could be coming down with a cold or an upper respiratory infection with my head being so warm lately. Nope, totally healthy...it's the wondrous pregnancy hormones that are making me so hot. Great. I thought I would bypass this since I was so cold during the first half of my pregnancy. I thought, "Hmm...maybe instead of the myth of getting hot in pregnancy, I'm having the total opposite reaction." WRONG! LOL! It's so funny because all of a sudden today it has gotten worse, since it's nice for once outside, so I have all fans going and wondering if I should turn the air conditioner on and the heater off, BUT since I know it's just me I don't want to freeze poor Doug. I have to say, it is a tad uncomfortable (and it's bound to get worse), but I LOVE this part of the pregnancy so much since I am no longer puking my head off 5 times a day and can laugh and enjoy these funny little moments.

As much as I complain about how bad this pregnancy has been for me, I am EXTREMELY blessed to finally be pregnant and FINALLY able to enjoy some aspects of it. It's the most amazing feeling in the world. I LOVE feeling her move inside me, even if she kicks the CRAP out of me or bounces off my bladder like a trampoline. I love having my little moments when I can sing and talk with her. It's really an awesome experience to have this time with her because every time I make an effort to spend some quality time with her, I know she can hear me because she starts moving around like crazy. It's weird, but so cool!

It's days like this when I do consider wanting to do this all over again, which most likely means I will in a couple of years. Yikes! Maybe we will take after a few of our friends and decide to have a baseball team full of children. Haha! When I first thought about having kids, I said I would like 4, then quickly changed my mind when dealing with HG to 3....now I'm thinking 4 again. I'm sure it will change again (+/-)...who knows.

So I am definitely gaining some more weight (YAY!) I think I am ranging around 140 now, which is amazing. However, I am now starting to look more closely at my diet as it mainly consists of: mac & cheese, chocolates, sugary cereals, gummy snacks, etc (you get the picture). Mainly fatty, sugary, no good substances. SO I am trying to make a huge change and start eating healthier. The only reason I've been eating so crappy is because with the HG, I ate only what I could bear to eat and it usually was snack-like foods but as the HG has gotten a bit more manageable, my diet didn't really change...it just got worse since I was trying to pack on the pounds. I really do not want to develop diabetes, so I'm trying to limit my intake of sugars. I have a couple of pregnancy cookbooks that have a lot of good recipes in it, so I plan on trying them out next week. I'm surprised to learn that I LOVE fruit parfaits. I've never had one before today and even though it was a fast food one, it was SO good! LOL! Now I'm craving another one and a smoothie to go with it. Haha!

24 Weeks

2010-01-16T19:48:00.007-06:00

I'll be 24 weeks tomorrow, which means Evie will finally be viable if she decides to show up way too early. Another milestone! :-)

I've been noticing a lot lately (within the last couple of days) that I can't move like I used to. It's starting to get very uncomfortable to bend over to pick things up or reach for certain items. On top of that my back/butt pains have not gone away at all since my last post. My doctor assures me it's perfectly normal to have these kinds of pains, but if I walk/stand for even a half hour to an hour, I am in serious pain. Baths sometimes helps and sometimes makes it worse, but I'm slowly starting to get used to it (much like the HG-haha!). Speaking of HG, I think it is back. :-( In the last 3 weeks, I've gotten sick about 3 (or 4-can't remember) times-which isn't too bad considering the way I used to be a couple of months ago. I'm taking Zofran when I need it, as I don't want to run out when I desperately need it. I'm joking that even though I HATE HG and HATE the way it makes me feel, I do on some level appreciate it as I haven't gained a crap load of weight yet...hopefully I'll gain 15 lbs with this pregnancy (that's my goal). When I first found out I was pregnant, I weighed 134. Now at 24 weeks, I weigh about 137-138. Not too shabby. ;-) My doctor isn't concerned with my lack of weight gain, so I figure as long as baby is healthy, there's nothing to worry about. Other than the back/butt pains and the constant (never-ending) nausea, there's not much else to report.

Doug and I agreed to get a 4D ultrasound when I'm 27 weeks, since our OB sonogram pictures aren't that great and we'd love to see our little girl in detail and see her moving around (as I feel her a lot these days). I'm really excited to get this done as it will probably be the last one I get before meeting her in person in 4 months! As much as this pregnancy has been dragging (and I constantly am praying and wishing she's out in 3 months), I cannot believe we only have 4 more months of preparing until we are back in the no sleeping, no eating, basically no doing anything stage in our lives...only it will be much worse as she will be a newborn and not a nice, cuddly infant. I am terrified to say the least, but at the same time overjoyed to have some new life in this house as it has been way too quiet since Christopher left us.

I am officially done with my registry (woohoo!)! I figure I wouldn't register for the cute girly clothes, as we learned with Christopher that people are going to buy A LOT of cute clothes for Evelyn. Since we got such an out pouring of gifts when we got Christopher, the registry is mainly a way for me to remember what I wanted so we can go out and get it all when the time comes. :-) I figure we will buy the bedding and the accessories that go with it in a couple of weeks (eek!), so I am getting really excited about that.

On a different note, my baby Weasley had to get his teeth cleaned yesterday. I drop him off, praying he comes out of it just fine as his brother did not make it when he was put under to get declawed. I get a call a couple of hours later telling me he came out of it just fine, but while they were cleaning his teeth, 2 of them fell out. Apparently he has holes in the bottom of his teeth. So since his teeth are weak (and hurt him), he has to be on soft food for the rest of his life and he has to get his teeth cleaned once a year to make sure they stay in his mouth for as long as possible. Right now, all the other cats are on the hard food diet and Weasley is on the soft food diet. But once Evie is born, I figure I will (for probably a month or two-until I get used to all the new responsibilities), put them all on the soft food diet. If Athena doesn't eat, she doesn't eat. I am very sure that with a newborn around, I won't have much (if any) time to do anything, especially separate the cats for their feedings 3 times a day. Heck, with Christopher around I didn't have time to eat, clean, cook, sleep, etc. and he was a 4 month old baby! Anyway, that's the plan and that's what we've been up to this past week-taking care of my little boy. :-)

Only 16 more weeks left...lets pray it's more like 13 weeks left, it sounds better. ;-)

23 Weeks

2010-01-11T10:58:00.002-06:00

Okay, this is just a warning for those who don't want to read about gross material...you might not want to read this post.

Went in for my monthly appointment and it went fairly well. He actually spent more than 10 mins with us and I was overall very pleased. I had my list of questions that I handed him first thing and he went down the list answering all of my questions. He came down to the last question which I wrote: "Is it normal to have black/dark green stools?" He immediately said "NO" and how long it's been going on. I told him I did not know as I've been having severe constipation and just noticed it yesterday. He gave me the name and number of a specialist. He said it shouldn't hurt the baby, but I'm worried as it does sound pretty serious. I've never had an ulcer, so I have no clue what to do except see the specialist (who I will see in Feb.). My doctor seems to think it was probably caused due to my HG. But I guess this explains why I'm bloated all the time and my stomach hurts most of the day...and probably why I still vomit once a week. Needless to say, I'm worried and wish I could see the specialist sooner, but he's packed until Feb, however I did ask to be put on a waiting list, so hopefully I might get in sooner. We'll see.

Okay, so that was the bad news. Now on to the good news!

Evie looks PERFECT!!! She is right on target, nothing looks wrong. She now weighs a little over a pound (1.12). Heart, brain, fingers, toes, stomach all look perfect! I am so relieved. I feel horrible for not eating totally healthy, so it's nice to know that I'm not screwing her up before she's born. Lol! The pictures we got are nothing exciting, so I won't be posting them as I can't tell what they're pictures of (obviously it's of the baby, but it just looks like blobs to me).

Since I now know how to get what I need out of the appointments (finally), I don't think I will be switching. yay! Didn't want to go through the pains of switching, so I'm happy I feel more at ease with asking my silly questions and getting to see our baby girl.

My placenta looks as if it is slowly going up and going further away from my cervix, which is great news! It's still relatively close to my cervix, but it is going up and my doctor is not concerned whatsoever about it anymore. I was concerned about that as I wasn't taking it easy like he told me to do (moving furniture, vacuuming, cleaning, walking long distances, etc), but thank goodness it is looking better.

Other than that, I'm praying that the ulcer fixes itself within the next couple of weeks as I do not want to have another surgery or whatever the plan is to fix the problem. Of course having stomach pains are no fun either. I'm leaning more and more towards adopting #2. We shall see. I might want to get pregnant immediately after having Evelyn, but as of now I'm not quite sure I want to do this all again, at least not for another 6-10 years. LOL!!!

First!

2010-01-09T11:03:00.002-06:00

So I've really been enjoying not having classes anymore and getting to sleep in, but this morning little Evelyn was kicking my lower right side around 9:30-10 a.m. and I quickly put my hand over it and waited to see if I could feel her from the outside. A few minutes later, Doug was wondering what I was doing (if I was in pain, since I usually am, or what). I told him I was trying to see if I could feel Evie, so he quickly volunteered and put his hand over my side and laid down. After a minute she kicked and Doug could feel it!!! This is a huge milestone for us and it's slowly becoming more real that we are going to be parents again!

I'm also very happy to feel her kick and move since I only feel her about every other day (yesterday being the day of no movement). Of course, I am usually always doing something whether it's moving furniture, doing laundry, cleaning, doing dishes, vacuuming, etc which can lull her to sleep.

Just really happy and excited to feel her move and for Doug to now feel her too!!! It's my favorite part of the day feeling her move and now Doug can be a part of it too! yay!

Kicking?

2010-01-07T14:56:00.004-06:00

So I have been questioning whether or not little Evelyn has been kicking me for the past month or so because I usually only feel movement when I'm gassy (I know, it's gross) or at night when I'm half asleep. Lately though I feel her kicking/punching my bladder. All of a sudden, boom, and then I need to go! Is it possible? I know she is still really small as I am still VERY small, so it's hard to believe she can do that or if it's possible for her to actually kick my bladder. I guess it's a silly first time mom question.

HG is back. At first I was hoping that I had just come down with a minor bug, but unfortunately it's not looking that way. I'm back on Zofran (the dissolving tablet) and eating whatever I'm in the mood for (which is usually unhealthy). I feel like a horrible mom yet again for not eating organic and my recommended healthy foods, but I don't know what else to do. I have to remind myself of the good parts of the pregnancy and that I only have 4 more months. I absolutely LOVE feeling her move and I cannot wait to start buying baby things.

Our next OB appointment is on Monday and I am optimistic that it will go well. I am waiting to get my ultrasound to actually see Evie on Monday before buying anything. I figure if she is okay at 23 weeks (and she will be viable at 24 weeks), that we will end up having a baby in the next couple of months. I am skeptical about all this as I hardly look pregnant (especially in the morning), I'm lucky if I feel her kick (if it is her kicking or if it's something else), I've only gained back the weight I've lost, and other than the nausea I still don't feel pregnant. Plus including the fact that I have a few friends who have lost their babies, a few people on my board who are having still births, and the fact we lost Christopher last year; it seems too good to be true to actually have a healthy baby. I know, I'm a pessimist, but I guess it's my way of preparing for the worst.

In other news, I have the nursery completely clean and the furniture right where I want it. All I need to do is buy everything! I am so excited. I think I am completely done researching baby items and have them all on the registry, so hopefully when I get my coupon, I'll start getting the big items.

Doug also went ahead and bought a replacement battery for our irobot that has been sitting in our garage for the past 2-1/2 years! I have no idea why I was saving it, but glad I did. Since it is older (about 4 years at least), it has it quirks, but it still works reasonably well...and it allows me to have a nice vacuumed house everyday. :-) Granted it doesn't do a perfect job, but at the very least it picks up well enough so I'm not stressing out about a dirty carpet. I figure I can have the irobot vacuum everyday and then I can vacuum myself once a week. I'm a happy girl. Now if only they would come out with an irobot that could do the dishes, laundry and go grocery shopping for me. Haha!

Interviewing New OBs

2010-01-04T09:09:00.002-06:00

After two weeks of thinking, I am leaning more towards finding an OB who I actually like. Since my current OB/GYN was my first, finding a new doctor is going to be stressful but I know that in the end it will be worth it. With my current OB I feel rushed, not taken care properly, and not respected.

At my last appointment, he was suppose to give an in depth ultrasound so we could see the sex (which he did do, after us asking him), but he failed to look at the brain and heart which I think is more important. I ended up calling their office the day after the appointment, and the nurses had never heard of an anatomy scan and told me to call another doctor. After I talked to a specialist, they told me they didn't do anatomy scans just because the mom wants one, that I should be able to get one through my OB. Ugh! So I called again this morning and asked if they were going to give me another ultrasound due to the fact I have a low-lying placenta and if I was were they going to check the baby. I told the nurse that he had only checked her gender and nothing else at the last appointment. She asked if I saw the heartbeat, and I told her no. So hopefully we'll get a more in depth ultrasound next Monday, but I am still fuming.

I feel that my current doctor dragged his feet when it came to diagnosing me with HG, that he is so rushed during appointments, he never gives me time to ask my questions (or makes me feel comfortable to ask questions), he seems to have a cold personality, and his office just seems very disorganized. Also since he does run his own practice, if something were to happen to him when I went into labor, I have no clue who would be my doctor when I gave birth. For all of these reasons, I am (as of this week) actively looking for a new OB.

I absolutely HATE that I am having to do this, but I know that if I find a doctor who I love it will all be worth it. Most importantly I need to feel as if I'm getting the best care and also feel comfortable with my doctor, and currently I do not.

Sorry for the rant.

I am currently 22 weeks 1 day along now. Nausea is back. In the mornings I still look as if I'm not pregnant, almost a flat tummy...another big concern I have at the moment. But by the end of the day, I am so bloated I look as if I could give birth at any given moment. Lol! Haven't felt the baby move in a couple of days, so I'm a little concerned about that too. Back/butt hurt ALL the time. Cramping a little, but not all the time and it's not too severe. Since week 19/20 I have gained 4 lbs and haven't seemed to gain any more since last week. Big cravings include: ice cream, cake, cookies, chocolate, coke, pasta, anything spicy. Things that make me nauseous could be anything at any given time, which sucks. But a couple of things I am not loving so much these days are chicken and steak, they make me gag.

Nesting is in full swing. I have cleaned out the nursery (for the most part). All the boy clothes and nursery decor are now stored away in the closet and all of our crap that was in that closet has either been trashed or stored away in the attic. The girl clothes we have bought over the years are now hanging in the closet and in the dresser. We only have about 15 outfits so far as I haven't bought a single thing for Evie yet (which will change very soon). I think I might start buying some cute clothes in the next couple of weeks and then we will slowly start buying the bedding and decor over the next 4 months starting in Feb. I think I am almost done researching baby equipment, and so glad I'm almost done. Since we have so much more time to research baby items than last time, it has definitely been overwhelming. With big items, such as the travel system, we are going neutral as we would like to use it for baby #2. I cannot wait until the nursery is finished. Right now it looks so bare and sad.

Christmas '09

2009-12-28T14:45:00.004-06:00

We are finally home from our Christmas vacation.

We left on the 20th and arrived in Kent, WA in the evening where Doug's brother (Jeff) picked us up. I must say, this vacation was probably the smoothest we've ever experienced. We departed on time and arrived a half hour sooner than expected. Since we arrived early, I thought it would take the baggage peoples forever, but thankfully when we arrived at our baggage claim our bags were already out ready for us to pick up. It only took Jeff about 5-10 mins to get to their house, where we enjoyed a lovely lasagna meal prepared by Lisa.

The next day we went to Pikes Place Market, and I was so surprised to see so many fresh produce and meats. If we were residents, I think that's where I would be shopping. :-) We ate lunch at Lowell's Restaurant & Bar where we had a gorgeous view of Elliott Bay.

Tuesday we had a relaxing day. Since Jeff had to work that day, Lisa took us to a few stores to get some items and got to see a little bit more of the Seattle area. That evening Lisa picked up Doug's parents from the airport and we all hung out a bit before going to bed.

Wednesday we all headed out early to Olympic Game Farm, as it took about 2 hours or so to get there by car and ferry. We got to see (and feed) all sorts of animals such as: Elk, Zebras, Prairie Dogs, Llama, Yak, Rhino, Bison, Tiger, Lion, Coyote, Wolves, Bears, birds, etc. It was so amazing! I would venture to say it was one of the best experiences of my life. :-) Most of these animals came right to the car, which was exciting but also a little frightening at times. Afterward, we raced back to the house and quickly got ready for dinner at Sky City restaurant. Doug had the Seafood Pasta, which he loved and I had Cedar Wrapped King Crab Legs with a side of Crab Mac and Cheese, which was excellent. Thank you so much to Russ and Ginny for being so generous!

Thursday, the girls went out shopping at the mall for last minute Christmas gifts. I was very impressed with the mall they had there...it was HUGE! And the surprising thing was that it wasn't nearly as crowded as we were expecting. I found a new store that I loved called Teavana. Seriously, they had one sample of tea that I fell in love with and will have to get for myself when I go to the Dallas Galleria. Lisa made another fantastic meal, which I didn't get to enjoy for myself as I wasn't feeling particularly well that evening.

Christmas day was wonderful! We all opened our gifts that morning and enjoyed them all day long. I received some yummy bath/beauty items, nursery items, jewelry, clothes, among some other items. Lisa made another wonderful meal that we enjoyed. Afterward, Ginny, Lisa, Doug and myself went to see Nine. I LOVED it! Doug wasn't as impressed, but I thought it was very good.

Saturday, Doug and I had to wake up a bit early to get ready for our plane. We departed at 12 p.m. and arrived around 6 p.m. central time. We probably waited a good half hour for our luggage, then made our way back home.

Needless to say we had a wonderful time in Seattle and can't wait until we all get together again soon.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas holiday! So excited for 2010! :-)

It's a GIRL!!!

2009-12-17T13:52:00.004-06:00

I am so excited! I've had the "feeling" that it's a girl since about week 10 and am usually spot-on with my intuition, so I'm thrilled!

Some of you might be wondering how we found out as the apt was suppose to be tomorrow. Well, I've been having some painful cramping and it's been lasting all day and night for the past week. I have been a little scared that something might be wrong with the cervix or something, but thank goodness it all looked good. The only thing the doctor could see was that I have a low lying placenta. Since I'm only 20 weeks (well actually 19 weeks 4 days), the doctor didn't seem too concerned. He basically told me to take it easy for the next month and if it doesn't resolve itself by then that I may need to be put on bed rest. I'm glad I decided not to decorate the house for Christmas this year and dragging the heavy tree from the attic. ;-)

Now I can start ordering girly items for the nursery!!! Just wished I could go to the stores and shop til I drop, LOL! Only 20 more weeks until we meet our baby girl!!!

Crazy!

2009-12-13T23:02:00.005-06:00

So I just found out that I received A's in both of my classes this semester. I'm not sure how I pulled that off, as I would have been happy with B's and C's with everything that's been happening...but, hey, I will take my A's! My GPA is now at 3.7! I'm pretty dang shocked and thrilled.

I am now 19 weeks and officially showing. I think it all happened around 18-1/2 weeks. I'm still pretty small in the mornings, but by the time I go to bed I am HUGE! It's kind of nice to be showing. Strangers hold the door for me and go out of their way to help me out, which is weird but nice. Lol!

It has now been 3 days since I stopped the pump and 9 days since I last got sick! I have now graduated to morning sickness and gag if I smell something that doesn't appeal to me. I also can eat a lot more things, but once I am full I have to walk away from the smell as it will make me extremely nauseous. When I do get extremely nauseous, I just gag for a little while, cough, choke down whatever might be coming back up and move on and the nausea pretty much goes away 10 mins after doing that.

I have to admit that I am finally enjoying pregnancy. I'm out of school now and will have more time to relax and do a lot of home repairs. My hyperemesis seems to be gone. I don't seem to have much symptoms. My weight is still at 128-129, so I still look small, except for my growing belly (which people are now wanting to touch). I'm having fun...finally!

We officially find out the gender this Friday. I am beyond excited! All I need is for my OB to tell me it's a girl, and we'll spend the rest of the day shopping for Evelyn. I figure if my intuition (which is usually always spot on), the NT screen dr, and my OB all say it's a girl, we should have a girl. BUT if it's a boy by the time I deliver, we'll be set. We've got tons of boy clothes and stuff for a boy nursery, so if it turns out it's a boy, it won't mess anything up. The room is still staying blue, just because it's such a beautiful color and we think it's neutral.

Doug and I just got home from a Christmas party a couple of friends hosted, and had a blast! It's been a LONG time since I've been out of the house for fun, so it was so nice to catch up with everyone, especially since I haven't seen most of them in 3 months. We got some really cool gifts from the elephant gift exchange and since I can eat again, there was some amazing food too! Overall, it was a wonderful party and now I'm starting to get excited about Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, Doug played for our church's service this morning and the music was so beautiful. I'm not a big fan of Christmas music, but they seemed to play all my favorites (First Noel, Joy to the World, Hark the Harold Angels Sing), it was phenomenal. :-)

Only 1 week left until we're in Seattle! So excited!

Getting Off the Pump TOMORROW!

2009-12-09T09:59:00.002-06:00

I have been able to eat again, which is absolutely amazing! Still can't eat a lot, as my stomach has shrunk and there are still foods that make me gag, but I have been able to eat and drink more lately than I've been able to in 3 months. I can finally drink water again. I can eat ice cream again. And now that I found out I can have egg nog, I drink that too! I've also noticed that I can drink my Silk infused with DHA and calcium with Nesquik and it's so good! I've also been able to eat cheese fries (with bacon and ranch), chicken friend steak, mac and cheese, pickles, etc and not throw it up! I actually haven't thrown up all week...which is a first for me since week 6 (I'm now 18-1/2 weeks).

I originally started the pump a little over 2 weeks ago and had a constant flow of medication go through my body at 0.42 ml/hr, then a few days later had to go up from that as I was still really ill. So they boost my meds up to 0.5 ml/hr. That still wasn't doing much for me, so they yet again boost my meds up to 0.6 ml/hr. After a week of it being at 0.6, I was starting to feel much better. So much so, that on this past Sunday I asked if they could lower my dosage back to 0.5, which they did. And since I was still feeling really good, they lowered it again yesterday to 0.42. This morning when I called to give them my "morning report" the nurse told me that if I do well today, that I could get off the pump tomorrow morning!!! I am so thrilled as I have a TON of bruises all over my legs and abdomen...and of course they all are swollen and very tender. Not to mention, I hate sticking myself and wondering if the meds are affecting my poor baby-that's the biggest reason I want off this stuff now. I keep having nightmares that by doing this, I'm harming Evie...I know it's silly, but it's a fear.

So excited I get to get off the pump tomorrow!!!

Nursery

2009-12-05T10:13:00.004-06:00

For the past few weeks, Doug and I have been trying to figure out a nice girly nursery theme for the blue room. I think we came to a decision last night and I am so excited! Again, if we have a boy the nursery will stay the same with a few minor adjustments. But if it is a girl, the theme is going to be birds/garden. I've already picked out all the bedding, decor and am even thinking about painting a mural. Hopefully our doctor will tell us with 100% certainty if it's a boy or girl, so I can start to get to work on everything. :-)

Can't Believe It!

2009-12-04T13:23:00.002-06:00

Today was seeming like an already "good" day (nausea wise) which always makes me a little more cheerful. But when I went to my first class this morning (World Lit), three girls who sit behind me in class came up to me and handed me a HUGE bag filled with all sorts of things for baby Evie. I was (still am) shocked and surprised with their generosity. It was so unexpected and so sweet of them to give me all of that. I now have pink bibs, a pink bottle brush, baby wipes, clippers, baby wash, baby lotion, powder, etc. I am in shock. lol! Totally made my day!

Not only did I receive all these items for Evelyn, but I also received an A on my last paper which is worth 25% of my grade! Woohoo!

Today rocks! ;-)

Thanksgiving

2009-11-30T15:29:00.004-06:00

Doug and I had gone to see Doug's parents for Thanksgiving and it was nice to get away from everything here in Texas. Thanksgiving dinner was so yummy, and I was so happy to be able to enjoy all the good food. :-) Thank you Russ and Ginny!

So I have A LOT to be thankful for: a wonderful husband who loves me and tries to make me happy. I am finally pregnant, which I thought would never happen. And not only am I pregnant, but Evie seems to be very healthy (which makes up for the fact I am so unhealthy). I have great family and friends. I have a roof over my head, fresh water, and plenty of food. There is a lot to be thankful for and I am very blessed. :-)

Okay, so I haven't taken pictures of myself since becoming pregnant and I'm planning to change that soon. I'm still not really showing too much, just a little bulge, but I guess I need to start taking some pictures to remember this pregnancy. So hopefully in the next couple of weeks I'll start posting some pictures of me and the bump.

I am now over 17 weeks along, which means I am really close to being half way done with the pregnancy! Yay! Can't wait until Dec. 18 when we officially find out the sex of the baby. Only a couple more weeks. :-)

Zofran Pump

2009-11-29T16:56:00.003-06:00

I've been on this pump now for almost a week and it's really not too bad. The only down side is that I cannot take baths (which I really hate) and I have to change "sites" every 12 hours. When all the equipment came on Tuesday, I was freaking out a little since there are a lot of pieces (tubes, needles, syringes, alcohol wipes, pump, pump cover, shower pump cover, pump manual, etc). The nurse came by Tuesday night and probably spent a good 2+ hours going over paperwork and how all the equipment works. She showed me a not-so-painful way of sticking myself with the catheter, and then how to connect the tubing to the catheter, then hooking it up to the syringe, then finally hooking it up to the pump, and of course how to work the pump. It took me a few days of going through the manual step-by-step to get everything down. The syringe full of the Zofran probably lasts me about 15 hours, and I have to change the catheter and tubing at least every 12 hours. Another thing that isn't all that fun is changing site to site. There are only 8 places where I can stick myself and after 12 hours, the site becomes bruised, red and swollen. The swelling doesn't go down for about 3-4 days, which is about the time I have to stick myself again in the same spot. The only places I can stick myself is the outer/inner thigh, upper/lower abdomen on each side. The worst and most painful site is the inner thigh and lower abdomen. The best is my upper abdomen.

By the way, I am on the pump because I have hyperemesis gravidarum, which is just a fancy term for REALLY horrible morning sickness. Since I've lost weight and am 17 weeks pregnant, the doctor isn't too thrilled with the fact I haven't gained one pound since becoming pregnant. Without any meds I am vomiting up to 6 times a day, with meds I vomit about 3 times a day and with the pump it's down to once a day. I cannot control when/where I vomit and I am nauseous 24/7. Although the pump can be a pain in the butt, I am glad I'm on it as I can eat more than just 6 yogurts a day (which was practically my diet for the last 2 weeks before getting on the pump).

The nurse told us on Tuesday to expect to be on the pump for at least 2 weeks, I'm thinking I'll have to be on it a little bit longer than that as I'm still nauseous all the time and I'm still vomiting. The key signs the nurses are looking at are my weight, my ketones, my nausea level, and of course my vomiting. Although I have been on the pump for almost a week now, I haven't gained any weight...I actually had lost a pound the other day, but thankfully gained it back. Since we don't have a scale at our house, I'm going to have to run to the store later on tonight and go buy one as I have to check it every morning (along with my ketones) and call the nurses every morning and give them my "report". Although this seems like a lot of work (and it is), I am grateful that these nurses seem so nice and caring, it does make having to do all this a little more easier.

So the pump is hooked up to me 24/7, so I get a steady flow of Zofran pumped into my body all the time and if at any moment I do get sick or feel really nauseous, I just call my nurse and ask for a "demand dose" and I can get even more Zofran pumped into my body to help ease the nausea. So that's pretty cool.

The most important thing is that I am eating enough to sustain little Evie and my body, and all of this is 110% worth the work if it means I have a healthy baby in 5 months. But I do plan to take pictures of all this to remind my little one how much work it took to carry her to term and to make sure we were healthy. Ha! ;-)

16 Weeks (2 Days)

2009-11-24T11:39:00.002-06:00

So I had my monthly OB appointment this morning and was anxious to hear the heartbeat again. Unfortunately, little Evie was moving around so much, that the doctor would find the heartbeat and then it would disappear, which scared the crap out of me since I really didn't get to hear the heartbeat all that well. He said the heartbeat was 162 bpm, which is good.

Also found out this morning that I've lost another 3 lbs! My doctor is starting to become very worried about this and his office is trying to schedule an appointment to see a specialist so I can be put on a Zofran pump. From what I understand the pump is hooked into my hip (I think) and is constantly running Zofran through me so I don't have to take the pills/tablets (especially since insurance only covers so many tablets in a 1 month period). Although I know it's probably impossible, it would be really awesome if they were able to get me in today as I would like to enjoy Thanksgiving. Even with all the drugs my doctor has prescribed, I am still vomiting 3 times a day which isn't so bad but the big thing is that I hate food now. Nothing sounds good, so unless I'm craving something (which is rare), I live on yogurt. So definitely not surprised that I've lost more weight, but starting to become concerned again as I should be gaining weight by now. Actually I think I should be gaining 5 lbs a month now, and it worries me that my doctor is worried about my weight. Oh well. As long as the baby is okay, I can endure.

So we have our BIG sonogram appointment in 3 weeks!!! I am beyond excited! December 18th, we should know 100% if we are really having a girl. Once he tells us it's a girl, I am going to do some serious shopping! :-) I mean that's the best part of expecting. I loved shopping for Christopher, and am thrilled I get to re-decorate the nursery for our little girl. Now if he says a boy and we have proof, then the nursery will stay as is, but I'll still go shopping for cute boy things. Either way, I am over the moon.

School is going very well. I had made an appointment with my Lit teacher to discuss my paper that's due on the 30th, to make sure it was acceptable. She really seemed to like it and told me it was strong. Beside a few grammar errors, which I've already fixed, I am set. Thank goodness! Next week is the last week of classes. Kind of bummed that schools don't have dead week anymore, so we actually have homework, quizzes, etc the last week of class. ugh. But at least there is only 3 class days left before finals, then I'm done for a little while. I tell ya, dealing with hyperemesis gravidarum, 5 pets, classes and a crap load of house work, is not all that fun but it will make me appreciate next semester all that much more. :-)

Registered for Classes Today!

2009-11-18T13:58:00.004-06:00

And no, it was not college classes that I registered for. ;-) Doug and I spent some time going over what classes we wanted to take to prepare us (the best they can) for childbirth and how to take care of a new baby. We agreed that we wanted to take a Lamaze class (which will begin in March), a basic class to help us prepare for the new baby, to learn CPR and to tour the hospital (April) and then another class on breastfeeding (April). We also really wanted to take a baby sign language class, but the closest one the hospital provides is in Dallas. Driving over an hour for a class...no thank you. Plus there are tons of books on that issue, so I think we will be okay. And the woman I talked with told me it's mainly for parents with an infant already since most babies can learn to start signing at 6 months. I am really excited about the classes, although pretty nervous about the Lamaze class as I don't do too well seeing videos on childbirth or heck, even thinking about labor and birth. I always end up passing out. Hope I don't pass out when Evie wants to finally enter the world. Haha!

Well I was doing very well with m/s for the last few days. I actually had a REALLY good day yesterday. I was able to write my rough draft, run to 3 different stores for groceries and prescriptions, clean the house a bit and cook Doug's favorite dinner (to make up for the last 9 weeks of not cooking). BUT this morning was a total nightmare. I woke up, got out of bed and was about to take the Prilosec, then got sick. Ick! Well after getting sick, I took the med and ate a couple of yogurts thinking it would help with the m/s. After that, I took my shower and got sick again! :-( Needless to say, I felt like crap. I had thrown up everything I had drank and was feeling gross and starting to feel a bit dehydrated. I rushed to get Zofran and took it immediately and although I am still nauseous, I've been able to keep everything down so far today. I guess I should be somewhat grateful for all this nausea and sickness, as I haven't gained any weight and still have an okay figure. LOL! I know the weight will pile on once I reach the third trimester, so I'm okay with not looking like a fat cow just yet. ;-)

I know I talk A LOT about this pregnancy, as it has consumed every aspect of my life so far due to all the fabulous symptoms that comes with pregnancy. So sorry to bore a lot of you about it, but it's my little way of keeping track of the pregnancy to remember.

Only 5 more class days left before finals and then I'm DONE for the semester!!! So excited and proud I've been able to hang in there with all the puking, aches, and pains. In government, we have a group project that's due Friday, which I completed over the past weekend. So I'm happy I don't have to worry about that anymore. And in English, we have a paper due on the 30th and I've already completed the rough draft. So all I really need to do is look over it, make adjustments, and perhaps schedule a meeting with the professor and make sure it looks good to her. My goal is to have the paper finished by the end of this week, that way the only thing I need to worry about is finals. Plus, since we are traveling over the Thanksgiving holiday, I really don't want to have to worry about this paper and rush through it. All that to say, I am glad the semester is almost over. I won't be registering for classes in the Spring, but do plan to take some summer classes. Another goal of mine is to get my Associate's degree before we try for baby #2. Still need 30 more credits in order to get to that point, so I'll have to work my butt off if we want our kids to be close in age. :-) Already know from this pregnancy, that I do NOT want to be working or going to school while pregnant again, especially while having to chase a little toddler around. lol.

15 Weeks

2009-11-16T13:30:00.003-06:00

As of yesterday, I am 15 weeks pregnant!

On Friday I started taking Prilosec OTC along with Zofran and did not get sick once Friday or Saturday! Woohoo! So excited about that as I don't think I ever have had a two day streak of no puking. Well, Sunday (and today) I did get sick again, but only once which I also count as good days. :-) Last night Doug and I went to Target to get some groceries (as I desperately needed yogurt-lol). For the past 8-9 weeks, every time I went grocery shopping, the moment I got home I would get sick. I was SO thrilled to be able to walk around the store and not gag (although I was still nauseous) and come home, eat and not get sick. I think the combination of the meds I'm taking is calming my gag reflexes, although not completely.

I've also been developing some new symptoms, which I'm assuming come with pregnancy. I get headaches a lot more frequently, but nothing Tylenol can't fix. And I also have some shooting pains in my legs. Most of the time this happens, I jump into a nice hot bath and it helps a little, but it is something I plan on bringing up at my 16 week appointment next week.

I am slowly starting to gain back some energy that has been lost since everything hit the roof during week 6. I've been able to clean, vacuum, do laundry, and keep up with school work...actually I'm a bit ahead on some of my work. I am ecstatic that this semester is almost over. I think I only have 6 class days left, then finals. WOOHOO!

Another Dr Apt.

2009-11-13T17:17:00.003-06:00

Had an appointment today with my general practitioner for my asthma, as it has gotten a little bit worse since I've become pregnant. I did another breathing test, which came back lower than when I took it 3-4 months ago. She went ahead and prescribed a few more medications for me to start taking to help control both allergies and asthma. It's ridiculous how much medicine I'll be taking by next week (2 for m/s and 4 for allergies/asthma). All that to say, I HOPE to start feeling normal again by next week. Since this was the first time I've seen my regular doctor since last year, she was thrilled to hear the good news and to feel my belly. I told her the story about Christopher, how the nursery is set for a little boy and that we're most likely having a girl. It was pretty neat to share the good news with her and hear her excitement. :-)

As for m/s goes, I started taking Prilosec OTC and Zofran today and...NO M/S at all!!! *Knock on wood* I'm hoping this is the beginning of the end of my m/s, as I'd like to be able to eat again. Talking about food, I am finally starting to eat healthier (now that fruit is sounding good again). In the last 24 hrs or so I have gone through a whole bag of grapes, 6 yogurts, and a couple of Fiber One bars, among some other things. I am also having a little bit of cravings, lately it's been Chick-fil-a, so I'm pretty excited about that.

OB

2009-11-12T14:44:00.003-06:00

Since I have been so sick lately (well for the last 8 weeks), I called my doctor and talked to one of the nurses. She told me they had an opening and would like to see me to make sure I wasn't dehydrated. Of course when I got there, everything was fine (since I only got sick twice today instead of the usual 3-4). Got to hear the heartbeat again, a strong 157. He recommended I start taking Prilosec OTC along with the Zofran and that I could also take the Benadryl, if it really helps with the morning sickness. He also told me that it's rare for someone to be this sick this far along in their pregnancy and that if this continues or gets worse (although it would be very rare), I might have to go to the hospital. So I really need to start gaining some weight soon, as this is pretty scary and I don't want to look like one of those anorexic chicks with a huge belly that she cannot support. LOL!

As for bellies, I think it's safe to say that I am showing a little. I'm sure most of it is still bloating but it is starting to become a little bit more firmer, and since I know I have not gained any weight, it must be the baby. Thank goodness, I got some maternity clothes on Monday. I have a feeling I'll need more soon, but I should be okay for now. I can still pull off wearing baggy shirts, although not a big fan.

Head Over Heels

2009-11-03T12:56:00.004-06:00

Today I am 13 weeks and 2 days along and went to my NT screening appointment. Everything looks perfect, we're thrilled! We were able to get three more pictures of our little one and a dvd of the ultra sound, which I am also very happy about.

During the ultra sound, the doctor told us that the little one looks absolutely perfect and there is nothing he could see that is wrong with him/her. We were so relieved to hear that, granted we knew that there shouldn't be any abnormalities. We should hear back about the blood test on Monday. Anyway, the little one was resting, which I was trying to not let happen by drinking orange juice, a little bit of coke, Propel, sugary oatmeal before the appointment as I've heard that drinking/eating sugary things would make baby more active...no such luck. The little one had his/her legs crossed the whole time except at the end when we finally got him/her to move and kick by coughing and having Doug and the doctor play with my belly. I must have been coughing for about 5 minutes, then had the doctor jiggle my belly, then coughed again, then had Doug jiggle my belly, then finally I coughed and jiggled my belly really hard and the little one FINALLY started to move (talk about stubborn!). The doctor then told us he was 80% sure she is a girl! I know that's not 100%, but I've also been thinking it's a girl since week 9-10, so I'm pretty certain it's a girl!!! Now, we're not going out and buying cute little girl items yet as we are going to wait until the 19 week appointment (which is in 6 weeks!) to get a definite answer. I am over the moon right now and SO relieved that she looks perfect, thank GOD! She has the cutest little hands, a pointed chin (that she gets from daddy), and the stubbornness of the both of us (HA!).

Now whenever I feel like crap, I can just put in that dvd and be reminded of why I'm doing this. Couldn't be happier. :-)

Here she is. You can see her little head, brain, and hands clenched. This is Evelyn Rose...unless we hear otherwise. ;-)

12 Weeks 2 Days!

2009-10-27T10:54:00.004-05:00

Went to my 12 week OB appointment this morning and everything looks good so far. They took blood samples and got to hear our little one on the Doppler (174 bpm!!!). Was a little nervous when the doctor couldn't find the heartbeat, but was so relieved when he did. Yet again, the doctor was so fast with my appointment that I forgot to ask my questions I had. I guess I can blame this on my pregnancy brain. I am so much more forgetful these days, and it can be very annoying. Haha!

Well I am going to go in for my Nuchal Translucency screening next Tuesday morning. My OB recommended him to me and told me that I might even get to find out the gender. So excited about that, not so much for the actual testing. A Nuchal Translucency Screening detects the possibility of Down Syndrome and Trisomies 18 and 13. I'm pretty sure we should be in the clear, but it still can be a little nerve wracking. At the very least I'll get to see our little one again, which I'm thrilled about.

As for planning our babymoon, we still have A LOT of ideas up in the air. Planning vacations is absolutely no fun, but there are a few spots that look great for the month of January. We both want to go somewhere tropical and warm, lounge around and do nothing. So far, we've looked into another cruise, going to Hawaii, Los Cabos, Virgin Islands, New York (although I'm pretty sure we won't be going there...brrr...too cold!). It looks as if Mexico or the Caribbean are going to be the main options, although the Caribbean is far too expensive. And of course I have no clue how big I'll be in Jan/Feb or how I'll be feeling. So who knows, we might not even go. It's a kind of wait and see type of deal, so I'm sure once December rolls around we can make the decision and go from there.

School is going. I've now been dealing with this horrible morning sickness for 6 weeks and have not missed a day of school while dealing with this (missed a couple of classes when we were dealing with the Christopher situation). I'm still getting pretty good grades, which I'm very proud of and only have a few weeks of school left (6 weeks to be exact).

I'm thinking this morning sickness is on it's way out (hopefully I didn't just jinx myself). For the past 2 weeks, I have good and bad days. Usually I can have up to 3 days straight of good days (meaning I only get sick 0-1 times a day), so I'm hoping the good days will get longer and longer and then the bad days will be nonexistent. My OB seems to think that it should be leaving within the next couple of weeks, I really hope so! Don't know if I could handle all day sickness for the rest of the pregnancy. I'm also hoping my energy comes back soon.

Only a few more days until I finally reach the second trimester! Yay!

YES!!!

2009-10-22T09:16:00.004-05:00

I can use Proactiv again!!! SO thrilled about this!

Another blessing (Ha!) of pregnancy - acne. It's bad. I wake up in the morning and two are maybe gone, but four take its place. ugh. I was using something else that seemed to work when I found out I was pregnant, but now it's doing absolutely nothing and it's drying my face really badly. Hopefully Proactiv will help and I'll start looking more like myself again. Woohoo!

Well I'm still on Zofran and it must be doing something (or my m/s is finally wearing down) because I'm still only getting sick, on average, twice a day. However, my food aversions has gotten worse again. I can't be in the same room as Doug when he either makes himself dinner or brings it home. I almost have to run to the bathroom sometimes. It's awful. I end up eating a small snack before he gets home, then go to our bedroom and watch t.v. while he's eating dinner, then I can come out and eat my dinner (usually toast or oatmeal), then I have to take the dreaded prenatal pills, then almost get sick brushing my teeth and flossing, THEN I can finally go to bed at 8. That's what my evening now consists of and I'm not all too thrilled about that.

The only thing I am looking forward to is December. It seems everything good is happening in that month and it cannot come soon enough. In December we will 1) find out the gender of this precious baby. 2) I will probably start to feel the baby moving. 3) I will be DONE with classes for probably a year! Woohoo! 4) We'll get to see some of our family and take a little vacation to Seattle. 5) CHRISTMAS! So for all of these reasons, I really wish December would hurry up and get here! ;-)

I've started the countdown to the end of classes which is only 7 weeks away. And 8 more weeks until we find out the gender of this baby. And only 10 more days until I'm in the second tri! And of course only 5 more days until the 12 week appointment!

So I've officially lost 10 lbs (as of yesterday) during the past 5 weeks or so. I have mixed feelings about this. It's funny because even though I'm down to my high school weight, I don't look it. My stomach is still bloated and even when I wake up in the morning there is still a bulge there...not sure if this is bloating or if I'm starting to show since I've lost so much weight. I'm now down to 125-126. It's crazy. If I lose anymore, I won't be able to remember the last time I was ever that skinny.

I am grateful that I've been doing very well with getting my prenatal vitamins down and staying down. It's definitely not easy, but I think I've learned that once I take them I need to immediately lay down or go to bed and go to sleep.

I must say, that I had absolutely NO clue about how this pregnancy was going to affect me (and Doug) and even though I joke about this being the last, I know it's not true. Yeah, this pregnancy has been very rough, but it's been a learning experience. I now know what to expect (somewhat) for the next one and definitely am still under the mindset of taking time off from school/work when we decide to become pregnant again. But even though it's been rough these past few weeks, whenever I watch anything about pregnancy and babies I get so excited and all these symptoms really don't seem all that bad...although if you get me on a bad day, I might be singing a different tune. lol.

Pets

2009-10-20T10:05:00.002-05:00

For the last month or so, Athena has decided to pee on our futon. I personally think she's pissed at us for kicking her out of our room and I also think that all the pets know something is up. So anyway, this has been going on for awhile and we finally bought a futon cover and she still pees on it. I refuse to put the fabric cover over the plastic one as it is a pain to put on the fabric cover, just for Athena to pee on it again and I'm glad I didn't put it back on the futon. This morning I found Athena on the futon and she had just peed on it for the second time. That was the last straw. She immediately went back into the carrier (where she spends her nights) and now I'm putting her back on Buspar which is a relaxer and usually helps with this problem. I just can't have the cats peeing wherever they want just because they don't get their way, and it's going to be a long time before we let them back into our room.

On a different note, I have been faithfully taking Zofran for the past 4 days and it is helping. Instead of getting sick every 2 hrs, I now only get sick, on average, twice a day. It still sucks, but at least I'm not having everything come back up. Grocery shopping and brushing my teeth definitely still makes me gag and I'm hoping this passes, as I know Doug wants me to start cooking dinners again...which is another thing I can't do at the moment. Poor guy actually made dinner for himself last night, barbecue chicken. I feel so badly about not being able to cook him dinners, but at the same time I would be running to the bathroom every 5 minutes if I did cook.

11 Weeks Down!

2009-10-18T08:12:00.004-05:00

Only 2 more weeks until the second tri! Hope and pray this m/s and food aversions die down by then...or sooner!

Starting from this past Friday, I've been taking Zofran again. It really doesn't help that much, but I guess instead of getting sick every 2 hrs, I only get sick about 2-3 times a day (sometimes more, sometimes less than that). Food aversions are in full swing again, like m/s, and EVERYTHING under the sun disgusts me. I have to concentrate really hard to figure out if I'm craving anything, then we go out and get it. Most times though, I just eat toast and oatmeal (as I figured out those are the only 2 things I can eat without getting sick). Propel is still the only thing I can drink. I keep trying to drink lemonade or Sprite (flat and bubbly), but those just won't stay down. I've pretty much completely given up on water, but am going to try to put some lemon juice in it at some point and see if that helps any as I would love to be able to drink 7-8 glasses of water like I'm suppose to, instead of only being able to drink 4 Propel's.

I probably have lost about 10 lbs by now and am now fitting into clothes I haven't been able to wear in 2 years! A few months ago, I got so sick of looking at my skinny clothes, that I threw them in a bag in the closet so I wouldn't have to look at them. Out of curiosity this morning, I went through the clothes in there and started putting them on...they all fit again. And not only that, some of them are loose! I know I shouldn't be too happy about this (Doug for sure is worried), but it's kind of nice being able to wear things I wore when Doug and I were dating/first married. :-) And please don't get me wrong, I've been trying very hard to put on pounds...but I just can't right now. I haven't been eating healthy at all since the m/s and food aversions hit me, so I would have thought I would be gaining something by now but I guess the m/s is so bad, I can't gain anything. REALLY hope this m/s goes away and doesn't last the whole pregnancy.

My next OB appointment is in 9 days! I am so excited to hear our little one (hoping we do get to hear her/him). I just hope that (s)he is okay, since I haven't been doing too well with my diet and water intake.

Only 29 more weeks! :-)

Less Than 30 Weeks Left!

2009-10-13T08:43:00.004-05:00

I am now 10 weeks, 2 days pregnant! And only 2 more weeks until the next dr apt. I just hope time FLIES, so we can hear our lo again.

So I've been having the BAD case of m/s (hypermesis gravidarum) for the last month and have probably lost more than 5 pounds at this point (don't have a scale, so I don't check my weight until the dr apts). I've been living off of whole wheat peanut butter toast, which is one of the only things that stays down. I was really freaked out this past weekend when I was able to go to the Olive Garden on Friday and eat salad, bread sticks and some of my fettuccine alfredo without getting sick. And even more freaked out when I was able to eat the leftovers - which is one of the worst things I could put in my mouth during this pregnancy, and again not throw it all up. I started feeling not pregnant pretty much during the entire weekend! I was a wreck thinking something bad had happened. But was reassured by many that since I'm getting close to my second tri that it was perfectly normal to start feeling normal again. However, once I started not worrying about it...BAM, I was back to my usual sickness on Monday. Just in time for my midterm week. So I'm back on eating toast, and whatever else I try to eat, just comes right back up. I'm really hoping that it will slowly die down again and stay that way as I would LOVE to be able to eat again.

Still no tummy to show yet, although when we went to the state fair a couple of weekends ago, someone gave up their seat for me and asked how far along I was. Hrmm... But I guess I am pretty big due to all the bloating. I think it's kind of funny that I'm down to my high school weight, but my tummy looks awful because of all the bloating. I hope that once I'm 13-15 weeks I'll be "showing" and I can start taking pictures of him/her.

So Halloween is coming up. I have no idea what I'm going to be, probably nothing, but we'll see. Since we ran out of candy last year, I bought A TON of baggies and candy this year. I'll probably start working on filling the baggies this weekend (or if/when I have down time) since it's probably going to take me a while to fill 200-250 bags. I love Halloween, it's my second favorite holiday, Christmas being first of course.

Speaking of Christmas, I have been so anxious to put up Christmas decorations (I know, it's WAY too early for that). It's been so dark, cold and gloomy outside, that it feels almost like winter. But I shall wait until the week before Thanksgiving, so that when we come back, almost everything is already set up for Christmas. :-)

Dropping...

2009-10-09T09:04:00.002-05:00

So there has been a little talk of me dropping my classes. Although it sounds REALLY nice, I am practically half way through this semester and haven't once gotten a C or lower on anything. Yes, I would be able to rest more, get more housework done and not have to stress about tests or papers BUT I think in the end I would regret not finishing this semester. Especially since it looks like I won't be going back next semester. I just want to be closer to graduating, and dropping 2 classes (which I'm doing well in) would be a mistake. For the last few weeks (when my morning sickness was getting worse), I was seriously thinking about dropping. I would come home from class, be sick and cry. But I know that I need to finish this semester and work through it all. Plus I only have 3 more weeks until I reach the second trimester, which I'm hoping gets better. And when the baby gets here, I'm going to have to start trying going full time again and I will HAVE to work through not sleeping too much and having to do a lot more work. Just would like to be able to have my associates degree before we start trying for another baby in 1-2 yrs. And I KNOW that I don't want to work or have to deal with school with the second pregnancy now that I know what to expect. Lol.

Another thing I'm trying to do (dr's orders) is drinking a lot more fluids. I need to drink at least 8 glasses of water, flat Sprite or flavored water. Since drinking more fluids will help me feel better (help with my headaches, cramps, morning sickness, fatigue, etc) so I'm trying to up my drinking load to 6 today and then shoot for 7 tomorrow and so on. I really hope this helps, as the thought of drinking so much makes me gag.

18 more days until the second OB apt and only 23 more days until I reach the second trimester!!!

I LOVE my doctors!

2009-10-08T14:02:00.003-05:00

I had an appointment with my regular doctor this morning. They weighed me and I have lost more weight. I'm now down to 131, when I was 136 about 2-3 weeks ago. I know that it's normal to lose some weight in the first trimester, but now that I've been down to my goal weight for some time, I thought I would start to see some gaining. Nope. So I've known for the past couple weeks that I have the severe case of morning sickness, hyperemesis gravidarum, in which I throw up CONSTANTLY! Thank goodness I have caring doctors! I had 2 doctors in with me at my appointment (which was suppose to be about my asthma) to help me figure out what to do. They gave me some advice on what to do, and called around for the cheapest price of Zofran to pay out of pocket. Seriously, this is the nicest thing any doctor has ever done for me! She found out that Costco has the cheapest price and wrote the prescription. I was in there talking with them for about 2 hrs! Ha! Love them! So when I got to Costco they gave me 40 tablets and it only cost $37 (normally it would be over $150)!!! I am so thrilled! And not only that, but this doctor prescribed the 8 mg (instead of the 4 mg my OB gave me), so hopefully this will help me out a lot!

Of course when I got home, I had to get sick...again! But I've taken the Zofran and now am hoping and praying it does the trick. I am so blessed to have these doctors who actually care.