Merry Christmas!

Please Pray

We are headed off to the perinatologist this morning for a follow up ultrasound. They saw a mass on my placenta last Wednesday and we are praying that the baby is and will be ok. More after we get back from the appointment.

**Update**
Well we got some good news and I am so thankful to God and our Blessed Mother for that. The tumor on my placenta (it's a chorioangioma) hasn't gotten any bigger in the last week and is just on the borderline of of being a size that can cause major complications. The baby looks normal, all the measurements look good, the heart and brain are normal, and baby is growing well. I am so relieved! Now we just need to keep praying that the tumor won't get bigger/cause problems for the baby. We also found out it is a little girl! I was very surprised at first since from the beginning of my pregnancy I "felt" like it was a boy. Now we just need to pick out a girl name.

The Immaculate Conception

A new hobby

Sewing! Well, sewing diapers and covers to be exact. Now that I am working part time I have more time (and energy!) to get ready for the baby. Here are my latest accomplishments.
These took me a LONG time to make but I am encouraged by the results. Hopefully as I get better at sewing it will get faster. Aren't they cute!?

Product review and free stuff!

Hop on over to Jen's blog and check it out!

First week

So what's new? Well I am 17 weeks and 2 days today and feeling much better. The nausea has mostly subsided and I have a little more energy these days. Also for the first time, as of this week, I am working part time, on purpose, and not because I have other obligations such as school, etc. I am working only 3 days a week and to be honest it feels a little weird. As someone who has either worked full time for the last 5 years or so and who always was trying to fit work in anytime I could when I was in school it feels a little strange to have this sudden... freedom. Not that I have nothing to do, there are things to be done, housework, preparation for the baby, projects to finish... Just the knowledge that I can make my own schedule is kind of wonderful and frightening at the same time. Sometimes I think it is a little crazy and selfish of me to take this time when the economy is in such dire straits. Money is certainly going to be tight around here for quite awhile. On the other hand, I didn't realize how exhausting it would be for me to continue to work full time while pregnant. It isn't that I can't do it, it's just that at the end of the day I rarely have any energy leftover for the things in my life that are really important: my husband, my home, prayer, and my personal well being and health. Well anyway, it seems like this post has started to ramble a bit so to spare anyone my long winded musings I think I will leave it at this. Trim the sails me hearty! We are off into uncharted waters.

I am still here

Still sick all day every day, still throwing up every couple days or so, but still here. This has been much more difficult to handle than I thought it would. God is truly testing me and I don't think I am passing most of the time. I am s-l-o-w-l-y learning to place my trust in Him, however, since so much of what is happening to my body is completely out of my control and the realm of my experience. For example: I always used to say that I just "don't throw up". I hate it so much that I refuse to do it, I won't let myself, etc. etc. I used to believe that it was simply a mind over matter type of thing. I even sometimes thought that people who throw up when they get sick either: a) don't mind throwing up or b) didn't have sufficient willpower not to. Oh how silly and sad and wrong I was. I even read this before I got pregnant and didn't quite believe it, well I believe it now!
(Excerpt courtesy of babygaga.com)

"Some women are lucky; they don’t get morning sickness. There are some that have a little less luck; they get some morning sickness. Then there are the rest of us, the women with weeks of nonstop vomiting.

All that nonstop vomiting has a name: Hyperemesis. I have a feeling that hyperemesis is Latin for “Poor woman that vomits everything in sight.”

Since hyperemesis isn’t that well known, most people tend to ask questions such as “have you tried crackers?” or “I hear that ginger works.”

For many women, the only thing that works is having an 8-pound baby shoot out of her crotch

.

I know that people are trying to be helpful, but it is really hard not to go postal on someone offering “advice,” especially if you spent the night before in the emergency room, getting IV fluids for dehydration.

I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to say “Crackers? Really? That’s all it takes? Eating a few stinking crackers? I’ve been vomiting for five months straight and all I needed to do was eat a stinking cracker?” "

Thank goodness I don't have it that bad!

May she rest in peace

My grandmother died this morning at about 6:30am. Please pray for the repose of her soul.

SARAH PALIN VP - 2008 RNC SPEECH

For anyone who didn't get a chance to watch her speech last night, you can find it all on Youtube. This is the first part. This woman gives me hope for this years election.

Onward and Upward

As I sit on the couch, trying not to move too much and eating re-fried bean and cheese quesadillas very v e r y slowly, I have a sinking feeling that things are going to get worse before they get better. I am just 7 weeks pregnant yesterday and I spent a good portion of this morning dry heaving while my wonderful husband tried to find something for me to eat that would make it stop. I got some sea bands or travel bands which seemed to help at first. And they may still be helping, but I think the nausea is simply getting worse. In fact as I type this I can feel that wonderful feeling creeping up on me again. Ugghh, sometimes I wish I could fast forward to the second trimester...