Oh, Monday

I started to do a post with a sneak peek of the bug's nursery... pictures of the bedding, crib and changing table / dresser that I plan to order and maybe a few other odds and ends that I'd like to put in there but now I'm thinking I might rather wait and just show y'all the finished product. Decisions, decisions!

In the meantime, I updated my pregnancy page (tab at the top) for anyone who's interested.

Hope your Monday isn't too awful :-)

{via}

Gee Thanks, Mama

Me: How much did I weigh when I was born?

Mom: Check in your baby book. Do you still have it?

Me: I never had it.

Mom: I didn't give it to you?

Me: No, I've never even seen it.

Mom: Well did I do a baby book for you?

Me: Um, well I'm not sure... I can't remember that far back.

Mom: Huh. Well, I guess I didn't then. Let's see... Kathy was about 6 pounds, Sharon was about 7 pounds, and Pam was a BIG baby at about 8 pounds. I remember worrying that you would be bigger than Pam since my babies just kept getting bigger but thankfully you weren't, so I'd say you were somewhere around 6 or 7 pounds.

Me: Thanks, Mama, that's very helpful.

Moral of the story / note to self: Make baby books for all of my babies even if I make it to a fourth child, just on the off chance that they might at some point be really interested in knowing some random bit of information like how much they weighed at birth.

I know my mama loves me more than words can say, which she demonstrates in countless ways, and it doesn't really bother me that I don't have a baby book but it would still be nice to have one to look back at!

What do y'all think about baby books? Do you have one and if so, do you enjoy looking back at it or is it not that important to you?

Placenta Previa Update

Hi, friends! I have some wonderful news! I had my latest prenatal visit yesterday and they did an ultrasound to check on the placenta previa situation I had going on, and our prayers were answered! The placenta has moved completely out of the way. Previa can occur in different degrees, from low-lying (when the placenta is 1 cm or less away from the opening of the cervix) to completely covering the opening (which mine was). Well now my placenta has moved so far out of the way that it's not even considered low-lying! I had heard of several cases when the placenta moved out of the way towards the end of a pregnancy -sometimes days before delivery- but it didn't even occur to me that it could or would move this quickly. All restrictions on my activity were removed and my doctor said I can do whatever I feel up to doing!

God has once again exceeded my expectations! As much faith as I had that everything would be ok, I had no idea we'd get our answer this soon.

When I was diagnosed with PCOS in June and we were told that I might not be able to become pregnant without intervention (or at all), we decided to put it all in God's hands and trust for His will to be done in our lives. Although doubt would creep in once in a while, I had a peace about the situation. Two months later, I was pregnant.

Then when I got pregnant I worried that something might happen to the baby since the risk of miscarriage is higher with PCOS, so JD and I (and close friends and family) prayed and prayed for the little lovebug. The risky time passed with no problems and things looked perfect.

Then at my last visit, I was told I had placenta previa. I knew that God had given us this child for a reason, and that helped me to not worry as much as I might have otherwise. We again asked close friends and family to pray and we got our perfect answer more quickly than I even dared to hope for. God is always faithful!

From the time of my diagnosis with PCOS, I've been holding onto the following scripture: "Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:6&7 NLT)

I am so thankful for the peace that He gives in potentially stressful and worrisome situations. I would've been a nervous wreck through my pregnancy journey without it.

So anyhoo... thank you, thank you, thank you to those of you who have prayed for and supported me the last few months! Your encouragement and friendship mean the world to me.

Oh and the baby is right on track with his growth and development, and I'm feeling great. We are so blessed, I just can't stop smiling today!

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P.S. I posted a new pregnancy update under the tab at the top for those who like to read them.

In Need of Decorating Inspiration

Now that the nursery will be taking over the room we previously used as an office / storage space, we have to figure out a way to make our guest room do double duty as an office. Neither of us need an actual home office but we do at least need a place to set up a printer and to put our laptops when they're not being used in the living room.

My dream would be to make the room into a library / reading room with a comfy sleeper sofa for our occasional guests, but the thought of selling our guest bed and completely making over a room from scratch (in addition to the nursery) is a bit overwhelming at this point. I'm having enough trouble picking out the baby furniture! So at least for now it's looking like we'll just switch some of our furniture pieces around and stuff our desk into the guest room. I'd at least like to change the chair out to something more fun than the one we currently have; maybe something similar to this round chair.

I still plan to one day have my cozy reading room and I have a general idea of what I'd want it to look like but I'd love to start collecting inspiration pictures for the specifics. Do y'all have any design or decorating sites or blogs that are sources of inspiration for you? I have one helpful blog that a friend recently recommended but other than that, I don't know where to even start.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions and have a happy hump day! :-)

Randoms

1. As desperately as I want to get back to blogging regularly, I feel as though I don't have much to contribute lately since I'm so restricted with what I can do, thanks to the placenta previa. Our extra-curricular activities have taken a backseat for now and besides planning for the baby, my life isn't what I would consider exciting or really "blog-worthy." I very much appreciate those of you who are sticking around and reading my increasingly sporadic posts!

2. One of my New Year Goals (I've always liked goals better than resolutions... for some reason I don't feel quite as loser-ish if I don't stick with them) is to record at least one blessing or thing that made me happy each day. Some days it's as simple as having sushi for lunch or laughing at something silly one of the fur babies did, but it makes me stop and realize how much I have to be thankful for on a daily basis. I know we're only 10 days into the new year but I'm loving it so far.

3. I get so confused when trying to figure out what month of pregnancy I'm in. I'm in my 22nd week so if I divide that by 4 weeks, that would be 5 1/2 months. But if I count the months I've actually been pregnant it would be more like 4 1/2. Can someone explain this to me or should I just plan to be confused for the rest of my pregnancy?

4. Last night as I was brushing my teeth, minding my own business, JD lifted up my shirt to look at my belly. To give him the full picutre, I poked it out as far as I could get it. He immediately screeched this high-pitched noise I'm pretty sure I've never heard him make, ran out of the room, dove into the bed and hid his head under his pillow. Ummm, not exactly the response any woman wants to elicit from the love of her life, four (five?) months pregnant or not.

I think lately he's been used to seeing me in looser fitting clothes and the sudden image of my rapidly expanding, snow-white, huge hunk of baby flesh in all its glory was a bit more than he could handle at the moment. In any case, once he felt safe enough to venture out from beneath his pillow, he was sure to let me know that he does indeed love me, the bug and my rather larger than normal belly very much. But I think it's safe to say he'll no longer randomly lift up my shirt to have a peek at the progress.

5. I think I had a couple more notes but I just made plans to eat lunch at a Mexican restaurant with my niece today and frankly, the thought of food has pretty much erased any rational thoughts I might have hoped to share with ya'll. Hopefully I'll be able to scrape up something interesting enough to post about soon!

Happy Monday y'all!

Holidays 2010

By now Christmas posts are so 2010 but I'm determined to get one in anyway. I'll understand if you skip it! In case you do, I'll mention now that I posted a new pregnancy update in the tab at the top if you're interested in that.

We spent Christmas Eve day with my mom's side of our family at my sister's house. I think it goes without saying that it was so good to see everyone. One of my sisters had to work so she, her husband and five children were absent. We missed them but still had a wonderful day.

Here's a shot of me with some of my sisters and nieces. The one standing to the left behind the chair is my oldest sister, Kathy, and the one sitting in the chair wearing the red shirt is my middle sister, Sharon.

The counter behind us only held half of the food we had. I think we might've over cooked just a tad.

This is my dad with my youngest great-nephew, Ethan. How cute are they? :-) Ethan's mama is the one in the middle of the picture below this one.

These are Sharon's girls. So beautiful!

And this is my older great-nephew, Tyler. He went through a little phase when he refused to take pictures with anyone so I'm really glad he's out of that and back to his usual happy picture-posing ways! He makes my heart so happy. His mama is the one on the left in the picture above.

Christmas Eve night, we went to JD's parents' house to celebrate with his mom's side of the family and Christmas Day was spent with his dad's side of the family at his grandparents' house. We really enjoyed our time at each place but unfortunately, I didn't get a single picture from either of the other celebrations! Sad.

Since I'm pregnant and trying to avoid bed rest, we rang in the new year from our couch. Our last two New Years were spent in New York and Disney World, so this year was a bit of a letdown for us. But really, I'm just impressed that I stayed awake to see 12:00!

I hope your holidays were filled with as many wonderful memories (and as much good food) as ours were!

Don't forget to check out my pregnancy update... there are some big belly pictures in it for you if you do :-)