Baby Bump...

So I'm finally posting a baby bump pic. I have been dreading this day. Many have asked me to post one. I guess I've put it off as long as I can. So here you go. When I look at other women that are expecting around the same time as me, they look so much smaller! My stomach never went down after the transfer...it continues to grow and I'm trying my best to embrace that. Alex absolutely loves it. He constantly reminds me that we prayed for this belly, for many years. When I think about that and get over myself and my vanity, I find myself loving it as well. I also think that once I start laying out by the pool and get a tan, I will feel even better about it. :) I am a little fearful as to what my doc is going to say on Tuesday. I'm very scared of the scale. I know that I've gained weight. I'm sure that you aren't supposed to gain this early on. We'll see. I may only be eating salad for the next 5 months.



I'm feeling really good. Day sickness is completely gone. I get tired by the afternoon and really want a nap. And when I say nap, I mean NAP. I'm not like my mom and sister. When they speak of a nap, it means they need 30 mins (at the most) to rest. When I say I'm taking a nap, it means SEE YA IN 3 HOURS. So depending upon my day, sometimes I get one ~ sometimes I don't.

I'm having crazy dreams. I dreamed that my Mom and I were both pregnant. We were so excited to be sharing our pregnancies at the same time. Alex says, I've been watching too much Father of The Bride II. I watch it at least once a week. I'm pretty sure my mom said to shoot her if that ever happens.

I've started feeling things...little flutters. I have no idea if it's the baby or not, but it's so neat to think that it might be. I told Alex that I was ready to hear the heartbeat again, so what does he do? He gets online and orders a baby doppler. We should receive it next week. It's supposed to be a really good one...like what a lot of doctor's offices and midwives use. We'll see. If it does work well, I might start having parties with all of my preggo friends...we can sit around and listen to our babies! I'm a wild woman, I know.

The weather is beautiful here. I hope to enjoy some time outside, tomorrow. I hope you have a wonderful weekend planned!

Love you guys,
Jill

Baby, Baby...

My parents are 'in town' for the week. I was able to spend some time with them before they headed to the condo in Hot Springs. Daddy agreed to go to our girly place for lunch. He even ordered raspberry vinaigrette for his salad...I think he secretly likes our girly place, as much as we do. ;) Afterwards, we went to Pickles and Ice Cream to look at some baby furniture. I found three more strollers that I like...guess that decision isn't made yet. I'm going to take Alex over to test them out and see what he thinks. He's definitely going to like the price tags on these, better. (ha!) I found another crib and upholstered chair that I really like. It's just so much fun shopping for this stuff. I will post pics when I can finally make a decision.

I can't believe I'm about to start my 2nd trimester! The morning sickness is just about gone. It started tapering off around 10 weeks. There for a few weeks, I was going to church and that was it. Now I actually feel like getting out of the house. I'm hungry all of the time. I'm exhausted easily. I don't sleep well. But that's all normal, right? :) I LOOK pregnant. The stomach never went down...if anything, it's growing. (LOL) I thought I would be the girl that took weekly pics of her belly, but I'm not. I will post one at the end of each trimester, how about that? I'm doing well at keeping my journal and pregnancy calendar, up to date. I really want my kiddos to have those things to go back to and read. Before we lost everything in a house fire, I used to go into my Mom's cedar hope chest and read through my baby book. I loved reading my Mom's words/thoughts. And it was a book all about me! What kid doesn't love that? :)

Oh, and I have to share this. Have you heard of something called pregnancy amnesia? Well I have it. I took my nephews to lunch a few days ago and as we were walking into the restaurant, my nephew says, "those people parked next to us left their car running." We all started laughing at the silly, forgetful person that would do such a thing and then I thought to myself...where are your keys? I look in my purse and they aren't there. I look at my nephew and say, "go see if that's my car running." He did. And it was. I had locked my keys in my car, while it was running. Thank goodness he said something or I would have left it running the entire time we were eating! As of late, I just can't seem to remember things. I'm losing my mind.

I'm thinking about seeing a movie this afternoon. Yes, by myself. Alex says it's sad to do that, but I love it. I literally have the theatre all to myself. I sit at the very top and eat my popcorn and jr. mints and put my feet up on the seat in front of me. It's not sad...it's lovely. :)

Weekend is almost here...do you have big plans?

Love,
Jill

Long Time No Post...

I have been wanting to post for almost a week, but to be honest, I've been sick. Very sick. All I have been able to do is just lay here...praying that it will go away. I always hope to just fall asleep, because then I don't feel the nausea. The morning sickness is getting worse, not better. If anyone has any advice on how to help with the morning sickness, feel free to comment. Right now, I sit with cheerios on one side of me and a bowl on the other side. A very large bowl...to catch the cheerios, incase they decide not to stay down. I know...gross. I had hoped and prayed that I would be one of those women that didn't experience this, but knew in my heart that nothing about pregnancy has come easy, so I'm not surprised. I have never been more thankful to be at stay-at-home-wife. I have a sweet friend that is having to drag herself to work every day and is running to the bathroom, every 5 minutes. Bless her heart. I couldn't do it.

I'm praying that this lets up, at least for Sunday. The past couple of Sundays, God has been good. As soon as I need to go up on the stage to sing, I feel okay and I'm able to worship and not think about anything else, but Him. My parents are coming in this Easter and I'm looking forward to time with family, as well. I just want to be able to enjoy the day. Easter is such an emotional holiday for me...I'm so thankful for God's love. I'm thankful that He sent His Son to die. But let us not forget...it didn't end there...the true meaning of Easter is Jesus Christ's victory over death! He died, but more importantly, He rose again! His resurrection symbolizes the eternal life that is granted to all who believe in Him! Just makes me want to shout!! :)

I pray that you have a wonderful Easter holiday with family and friends. And I pray that we not lose sight of the true meaning of Easter.

Love to all,
Jill

We have a heartbeat!!

We arrived around 10:00am, this morning. We waited for almost an hour. Alex and I were rather anxious. We asked our Moms to go with us. They were something else. We thought we were going to have to split them up...they were laughing and carrying on the entire time! :) I love that our Moms get along so well though. We were so happy that they could share this moment with us.

Anxiously waiting...


Did I mention that these two were a mess!? HA!


They finally called me back, so off the four of us went. I think the nurse and Dr. M got a kick out of us bringing our Mommas. This is the first time we've ever seen Dr. M smile. He's rather serious and to the point, which we love about him. He first checked my ovary (which seemed like it took forever). I found out that the cramps and large abdomen that I've been sporting are from my ovary being overstimulated. It was huge. He said it could take a while to go down, since I'm pregnant. I've been able to manage the pain with tylenol and he said my stomach will go back down eventually, so that was good to hear.

Still waiting but getting excited!!


He then found the baby (that's right...there's ONE in there :) He asked me to hold my breath and that's when we heard it...music to our ears...the heartbeat. The baby's heart rate was 107bpm. I was a little concerned when I heard that it was 107, but he said this was a totally normal heart rate for a baby at 6 weeks. He said that I would come back in two weeks and that we will see a lot of changes in the baby's growth and heart rate by then. When we heard the heartbeat, we all started crying. The nurse put her arm on my Mom's back and said, "you guys are making me cry." It was just the coolest thing I've ever heard in my life. Alex told me later, "it took my breath away." I heard him gasp, but I thought it was him holding back tears. I just couldn't believe that we could hear the heartbeat from something that tiny. From what I read, our baby is roughly the size of 1/2 a small corn kernel. TRULY AMAZING!!! I had my blood drawn and received hugs and congrats by all of the nurses, on my way out. My due date is November 23rd...my sister, Joy's birthday. She told me that if Alex wants, I can be induced, so that the baby will come on his birthday, November 22nd. :) Either way, a Thanksgiving baby is rather appropriate in my book. I'm so very thankful for the last 3 years that have brought us to this very moment. It has been a wonderful day...one we will never forget.

Our itty-bitty baby. :)


Love you guys,
Jill

I've never been more thankful...

Well, it's official...I'm pregnant. The nausea has kicked in. I laid down most of the day, because getting up made me want to throw up. Yuck. Alex asks me every day if I'm nauseous and when I say "yes", he says, "good!" He says that means everything is normal and the baby is doing it's thing. Sweet man. I do want to say...I've never been more thankful for nausea. :)

I have the sweetest friends/family. My S-I-L, Sara, brought me these items. A pregnancy calendar, it's so neat. It comes with stickers to mark special days. She also gave me some preggo pops for the nausea and some lotions for when my belly is a little bigger. :) Thank you, Sara!!


My neighbor, Becca, gave me these items. This book is huge and covers from pregnancy-2 years old. She also gave me this cute sign, which I love! Thank you, Becca!! By the way, Becca is one of my sweet friends that is also preggers. She's due in October, so we get to watch each other's bellies grow. :) This will be her 5th child, so I may be calling her with a lot of questions, once the baby is here. :)


And last, but not least...our sweet friend, Mrs. Vae, heard that I was pregnant and she bought me these pretty tulips.


Excuse the poor quality of the pics. As I told you, we don't have a camera right now, so these are taken with Alex's phone.

I have to say, I'm usually on the giving end of the pregnancy gifts and enjoy giving with everything in me, but receiving these preggo gifts was so much fun for me. They just put a huge smile on my face. :) We're excited for the u/s on Thursday...can't wait to hear the heartbeat(s)!!

Have a great week!

Love you guys,
Jill

The dentist...

I went to the dentist yesterday for my 6 month cleaning. We took x-rays last time, assuming that I would be preggers this time around. My hygienist and dentist were so excited for me. They want me to call next week, to let them know how many babies we're having. I got the speech about flossing every night. (I get this speech every 6 months) I'm really going to do better though. From what I understand, oral health is even more important while pregnant. I use my Sonicare toothbrush, twice a day. I absolutely love that thing. I have to admit, I don't floss every evening before bed. I promised them that I would be an avid flosser, when I return in 6 months. :)

My friend Holly (mother of twins) gave me these wonderful books, yesterday. Alex and I both started reading, last night. :) We love them! I'm going into this, fairly clueless, so it's wonderful to read what's going on in there and what I can expect. Thank you, Holly...you're the best!!





I would have taken an actual picture of the books, but we no longer have a camera. I didn't tell you guys the funny story of when I first took the pregnancy test. Alex was holding the camera and out of excitement of seeing the positive sign, he began to rejoice. The camera flew in the air. He almost caught it a couple of times. It hit his hand, then his elbow, but in the end, it hit the bathroom floor. LOL I took it to the camera shop, but they said I would be better off to just buy a new one...it would cost a lot to fix it. We were wanting to upgrade anyway, so I see this as the perfect time to get my Canon SLR! :)

I hope you're all having a wonderful week! The weekend is almost here...yay!!!

Love you guys,
Jill