- I’m waiting at the OB office for my weekly checkup, and some dude here (waiting with his wife for an ultrasound) has pissed off the nurses with all his complaining: “it’s just rude when you schedule an appointment and they keep you waiting for an hour.” He has complained to nurses (about the u/s tech) like it was their fault, he has gotten other patients riled up about waiting… Dude! Chill out!! You don’t know what happened to get them behind! What if the ultrasound tech had to deliver bad news to someone and it took longer than planned and got her behind schedule? Your wife looks perfectly healthy! So what if you have to wait an hour? Quit tapping your foot and being angry and just take a deep breath and enjoy this extra time you get to sit and chat with your wife! (I’m guessing this guy also has issues with road rage.)
- Meanwhile – another couple (a lighthearted couple of which the dude has some pretty rockin’ dreads) is in here, and his phone just rang and it was just a voice that screamed “Why won’t you answer me?!” I may or may not have laughed out loud.
- I want to take a picture of another lady in here. She’s older, and has her thinning, bleached (possible cause of the thinning?) hair teased up into a yellow-ish helmet that seems meant to disguise the thinning. And her eyebrows are crazily drawn into an almost-unibrow. She’s scary.
- So I just made someone even more angry than they were… the nurse that had taken the complaints of rude-guy in bullet # 1, who has since been called into the ultrasound, was taking my urine/weight/vitals, and so I naturally tried to cheer her up in case Mr. Sourpants had ruined her morning. So I told her not to let the rude guy get to her, and she was telling me that the girl before me had been mean to her too because she pronounced her name wrong when she called her (I witnessed that bit of a temper tantrum too). I came back into the waiting room and got a major glare from mispronounced-name girl. Do these people not know how much energy it takes to be all angry?! Perhaps I should start recommending some yoga poses to them. Some deep breathing exercises?
- Why am I lightheaded? I hate this. My blood pressure was actually great today (102/62). I usually get lightheaded when it’s something like 88/55. Maybe it dropped in the last five minutes. So annoying.
- I forgot to replenish the snacks in my purse. Eek! Oh well, I still won’t yell at anyone for waiting. At least I have a bottle of water. And mints – those don’t sound filling though.
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Apparently I let my domain name expire. The email attached to it was an old yahoo address, and we won’t go into how much I can’t stand yahoo! Okay, maybe we will — I had a yahoo email address forEVER, and then one day last summer, it had an error message. I messed with it for a couple of days, then contacted yahoo. They wrote me back and said it was such and such error, etc… fast forward several weeks of going back and forth with them, and the email address is not accessible, and even says that address doesn’t exist anytime I tried to log in, and when I went to sign up with the same email address, yahoo said it was taken. I”ve missed who knows how many emails (although I did try to transfer everything to my gmail address), but still – sometimes things like a website that is down for SIX days happens because the expiration notice went to YAHOO. Let’s just say I love gmail and leave it at that.
Vent over. My website is back. New topic…
I am 37 weeks, 4 days along in this pregnancy. The scheduled induction date is May 29th – when I’ll be 39 weeks, 2 days – if Vega doesn’t decide to make an appearance before then. I haven’t had regular contractions, though, so I’m thinking she’s in there for the long haul. I’d like to breathe again at some point, because she is already bigger than any baby I have given birth to (and I don’t know if you know this or not, but I’m not a big girl… there isn’t a lot of room in there!). The nurse listening to Vega’s heartbeat on Friday said “you’re so small” and I just laughed. Because this isn’t small for ME. Oh, and in the ultrasound this past Friday, Vega was up to approximately 7 pounds. I’m hoping she doesn’t go over 8!
I’m sure there are other things I could talk about, but anyone who has been in a full term pregnancy knows that’s pretty much what’s on my mind 24/7.
I guess to make this be not the most boring post ever, I’ll add a couple of photos…
These three crazy heads make me laugh all the time! Paige picked out her own clothes that day (which was March 1st according to the folder they were in… I have a lot of photos I haven’t shared – who knew?), and she loves being one of the “big” kids. I love them…
{note: these photos were taken as I was experimenting with my new camera… obviously this was before I had it figured out. So please overlook the poor photography and focus on the silly, cute subject matter} 
Small update (with photos – so fancy)…
- Vega found my sciatic nerve this week. Permanently. It’s brutal. The physical therapist did give me some movements that offer temporary relief, however, those don’t work out real well when I’m in public (getting on all fours and swinging my hips back and forth is not something I’m comfortable doing in a store).
- I’m waiting at the doc’s office now for my OB checkup. I’m going to tell her that I can’t wait three more weeks.
- My blood pressure has been lower than usual. I got bloodwork done at the cardiologist this morning to rule out a couple of possible causes.
- I am finished with the three week heart monitor. That thing was driving my crazy. I have a sinus tachycardia, it’s just a matter of figuring out the cause, which we are working on.
- I’m so anti-chemical for the most part, but I have been thanking God for Lortab (Vicodin/Acetominaphen).
- Physical therapy is helping. Especially the pool workouts. They kick my butt though. But I get more than 2 hours of sleep per night now!!! Thank God!!!
- Did I tell you this is going to be my biggest baby? I mean, I know ultrasounds aren’t accurate with their size estimates, but 6 pounds at 33 weeks?! That’s just crazy!
- I haven’t been on bed rest at all this pregnancy! It’s been quite the novelty after my experiences with Paige and Jacob!!!
- I took this first photo at a bridal shop today while waiting on Justice to try on a prom tux. The second one is a self-portrait I just took. This, my friends, is the face of a woman who is ready to give birth! No makeup, in need of a haircut & color, and I let my contacts prescription expire without ordering more. *sigh*
Edited to add: Well, I tried. But they won’t schedule the induction until May 28th (for now anyway). I’m just 1cm dilated. And I haven’t had any regular contractions. Ultrasound next Friday.
I’ve been saying I would add a pregnancy update for a while now, but it seemed too long to type out on my iPhone WordPress app, and I always forget when I’m on my laptop. So tonight, I’m just going to get the thumb exercise and type it out on my phone!
Not sure where to begin, but I want to record what’s going on so I’ll just make a random list:
- As of today, I’m 33 weeks, 2 days.
- I’m still giving myself heparin shots, but I give them in my hips or thighs now instead of my belly. I ran out of fat to grab on my belly, and it’s really nice for it to no longer be covered In bruises!
- I started seeing a cardiologist a few weeks back. My heart ultrasound came back great – nice strong heart. Yay. I’m currently in the middle of three weeks of wearing a heart monitor. It pretty much sucks. I only can take it off to shower/bathe/swim, but the other day, I just ripped it all off and left it off for several hours. I needed the break. It’s hanging on a string around my neck with 3 wires that are attached to 3 adhesive electrodes that are stuck to my skin. I have a separate monitor that tracks it, links to the cardionet company, and has a touch screen where I record any ‘incidents’, such as shortness of breath, palpitations, dizziness, etc. Hopefully we’ll figure out what’s causing the tachycardia. (side note: this isn’t just pregnancy related – I’ve always had a higher resting heart rate than I should, low stamina even when I’m in great physical shape, etc… I really never even knew it wasn’t ‘normal’ until a few years ago, so I’m glad that I finally have a doctor who wanted to explore possible causes. I like having answers.
- I was also referred to a neurologist. I had to drive to Raleigh for that appointment, and pay a copay (not something I normally have to do with military insurance), but it was worth it!! Those who follow my blog or who have known me a while, already know that I’ve had headaches since I was young, and that my migraines decreased significantly when I discovered the celiac disease and stopped eating gluten. It’s really great to have experts now trying to help me figure out what’s causing the rest of it! For the rest of the pregnancy, I just have more Lortab (Vicodin plus Tylenol) to help ease the pain when I do get a migraine or bad tension headache, but I have an appointment set up for June to go back in and do a head scan, possibly a sleep study, and figure out what’s really happening. Also, they have me taking vitamin B2 supplements. I was already taking magnesium/potassium. Along with my multi-vitamin, of course.
- Today I had my first appointment with a physical therapist. She’s great! I had such issues in my pregnancy (& for two years after) with Paige, that I now wish they had sent me to a PT then! But I was going to a military hospital for treatment, and so I’m not surprised by all the “you’ll just have to deal with it” and “I’m sorry you’re dealing with that; it just comes from having lots of pregnancies” comments and “here’s a bucket of drugs to take because we only treat symptoms, we have no idea what causes anything”, and the “it’s all in your head” looks (because they didn’t know the answer, so it must have been in my head, right?)… Anyway, I’ll be going to PT 3 days per week until I’m ready to go back down to 2 days (what they initially scheduled me for this week), and next week I start some pool exercises. She’s not only going to address all my hip/pelvic issues – what we started with today – but she’s going to deal with the neck/shoulder/back issues I’ve had for years too. I’m hoping to finally say goodbye to chronic pain once I recover from giving birth this time! I have dealt with it for too many years and I’m ready to move on!
- The baby looks and sounds good! She was breech at my last ultrasound, two weeks ago, but at last Friday’s appointment, the doctor said she had turned. Hooray! I get another ultrasound this coming Friday. I’ve been saying my belly is bigger than usual, and it turns out I was probably right! They said she was in the 59th percentile at the last ultrasound. She said “so her size is perfect, she’s not too big!” and I was like “that’s huge! Most of my babies were in the 10th percentile!” So I’m hoping for another tiny baby, but it sounds like she’s going to be my biggest one – or at least a 7 pounder, like Paige was.
- I’m still not sleeping much. I can’t wait until the baby comes out so I can sleep again!!! Not that I’ve ever slept well, but I sleep a lot more when getting up to nurse every two hours than I do when I’m pregnant! I guess it’s sad that I’m looking forward to how much sleep I’ll get with a newborn, but seriously – that’s how little sleep I get now!! I appreciate all the tips you guys have given me on Facebook, but every sedative I’ve taken has caused an allergic reaction (and I say no thank you to hallucinations, vomiting, and extreme vertigo), and all over the counter sleep aids wire me and make me shake and my eyes are so wide I barely blink. Oh, and you can’t take melatonin while pregnant, so I haven’t tried that.
- I have only told the baby’s name to a handful of people, but I guess I can go ahead and share: Vega Indigo Olivia Carden — so far, my consensus is that you will love it or hate it. If you hate it, well, I don’t really care.
- Between my OB, cardiologist, neurologist, and physical therapist, I feel like I have appointments all the time! But it’s all good – not too many more weeks to go!
- I have begun early labor. With a first child, women (including me) generally go through all the stages together, but by number three, it started sooner. I walked around at 4 cm for a week with Jarvis (comfy). The doctor has checked me at my last two visits… 2 1/2 weeks ago, everything was all closed up. Last Friday, I was still closed on the inside of my cervix, but 1 cm on the outside. My contractions and symptoms have exponentially increased since Friday. I go back this Friday, so we’ll see what they say.
- I’m definitely “nesting”. I’ve been working as much as I can to clean and get things ready and organized. My limited energy and time aren’t helping though. The kids are helping as much as they can, and I’m figuring out what my needs are – I do not have an unlimited budget, you know, so some things will have to wait. I’m going to start looking for a dresser on Craigslist. I hate searching for stuff on there – I don’t have the patience for that type of thing. I’d rather just go with the convenient route of buying new… but I’ll give it a go. I used to do more ebaying/freecycling, but that was two kids ago!
- I despise heartburn! Why did I eat red peppers with dinner?!?! Ugh. And all the meds for that (like Pepcid) have gluten in them so I’m out of luck. I have much less heartburn when I eat an apple every day and avoid spicy foods, but I ran out of apples a few days ago, and haven’t had the energy to hit the grocery store.
- I’ve been able to keep my blood sugar numbers in line with diet. Although they’ve gone up slightly since I haven’t been able to take my neighborhood walks (I miss those)!
Sorry if this was boring! I do these posts for future reference, for relatives who want the details, and so I don’t forget things that I may want to go back and remember.
I’ll leave you with two photos. The first is a 3d ultrasound photo from 2 1/2 weeks ago – looks like a deformed clay mold, but you get the idea. The second is my pregnant belly at 30 weeks 4 days.
I just ate six powerberries for my 30 grams of carbs I get with lunch. Delicioso. I figured since I have a near-debilitating migraine from getting glutened at a restaurant last night, I’m wearing an uncomfortable and awkward 24-hour heart monitor, and I’m about to try and nap, I’d cheat a little. It was worth it. I’ll test my blood sugar two hours after lunch, but I think it’ll be okay.
I’m actually ‘allowed’ to cheat a little here and there, but I have been ‘cheating’ way less than they said I could. I just prefer to feel as good as I can, and I’m so used to depriving myself of ‘treats’ that it’s not as big of a deal to refrain as it was once upon a time in the days of yore.
By the way, and I knew this from previous times when I was completely sugar-free, fruit tastes SUPER sweet when you don’t eat other forms of sugar. Bananas are like eating a big stick of sugar – almost disgustingly sweet. It’s kind of funny, because I remember a time when sugar was in most of what I ate (even cooking ingredients like pasta sauce had added sugar – the cheapo brands I bought back in the day), and most fruit then didn’t taste very sweet to me.
I am glad that the gestational diabetes isn’t too terrible this time so I still get to enjoy fruit and flavored yogurt on a daily basis! My numbers did go higher than normal the other day after Andrew and I decided to have La Dolce Vita pizza for dinner… but even then, my numbers haven’t once hit where they frequently stayed when I had gestational diabetes with Jacob!! I think eating a ‘real food’ diet goes a LONG way in preventing disease!! I was carb and protein counting when pregnant with Jacob as well, but the blood sugar numbers were still difficult to control (and it stayed for six months after I gave birth). My numbers have been great almost all of the time since starting my diet a few weeks ago. Thank the Lord!
I have been tested for several things lately, and am actually figuring out some lifelong health issues! I had major breakthroughs with the celiac and fibromyalgia discoveries a few years ago, but there have been mysteries that remained. Lord willing, I will get some answers so I can get on the road with an all-natural healing plan.
Speaking of all-natural, I do take drugs when needed, as I think that’s what they are there for (or at least it should be), but the ultimate goal is to be naturally healthy with organic remedies and preventive measures so that I do not remain dependent on drugs to be able to function!
More on these issues in a pregnancy and health update coming up soon (probably after my next baby ultrasound on Wednesday). For now, I’m going to savor the yummy powerberry taste that still lingers. Mmmmmmm…
{the bottom part of my heart rate monitor, and my 30 week, 1 day belly – which is no longer covered in bruises because I am now doing the heparin shots in my hips and thighs as I ran out of fat to grab and poke on my belly, that and the doctor felt sorry for me and said my belly needed a break}…
I may have made a huge mistake. Some memories are best left alone.
I went back and read my birth story from when Paige was born. Eek! I had forgotten some of that. The *plan* this time is to be induced so that we can avoid the trauma of last time, but you know how plans go.
During one contraction, I’m pretty sure he said something like “Petra, you need to relax and breathe.” and I was like “YOU RELAX AND BREATHE!!!”
Good times. I’m trying not to think about delivery, because after already giving birth six times, I know that you cannot predict any of it (except that I go from 6 to 10 cm in about ten minutes).
We are less than 9 weeks away from the latest induction date… I cannot wait to be on the other side of all this!
Apparently I hit another blogging lull. Over a month? Really? Eh. Oh well. I’ve been jotting down notes for blog ideas in a notepad on my iPhone. I guess I just haven’t been going any further than that.
Pregnancy update ~
The pregnancy is going pretty well. I kind of hate giving out details because I feel like I’m just complaining, but these are the facts: I am still doing the heparin shots twice a day, and it still sucks, but whatever – we do what we have to do for a healthy baby! The contractions have started, and in the last week or so, I’ve had a couple of days where I couldn’t be off my feet because of them. But from the last two kiddos, I know just what to do (lie down and drink lots of water) – and sometimes I think my body is just trying to tell me to slow down. I have insomnia due to restless leg syndrome and fibromyalgia pain ~ but we are doing what we can for all that. I am aware it’s going to get worse before the baby comes, but that’s okay. I know it’ll take a while to get my fibromyalgia managed once the baby is born as well, but I’ve learned a lot since I had Paige, so I have high hopes that it won’t take two years before I’m able to run a block this time! :) There are other ailments and issues that come with pregnancy #13 such as pelvic bones that thought 16 weeks along was the time to go ahead and separate – making walking (and anything else) difficult at best, but I’m done talking about all that. SO…
The baby is very active, and she kicks ALL the time, letting me know that she is alive and well. I will be 25 weeks tomorrow. The midwife said they’d induce by 39 weeks if I don’t go before then (I see a combo of docs and midwives). Most of you know Paige was QUICK and very traumatic, so we’ll be keeping a close eye on things when it gets closer to the end. And… we are pretty sure we have a name picked out (as of last night), but we aren’t broadcasting that yet. ;)
The other six kiddos ~
Britta is doing great! She doesn’t update her blog much, but she adds posts to her Ethiopia group on Facebook. If you haven’t joined that, you should. We miss her like crazy, but love how she is allowing God to use her as He sees fit. This is such a great experience for her, and I’m so thankful that she was given this opportunity. Her plan right now, is to still come home in June, and then head off to college in the fall to study Art Education and Spanish, so she can teach (and minister to) inner city kids.
Justice has a few more months before he gets his license (June). North Carolina’s driving laws are out of control ridiculous and it takes FOREVER for kids to get a license. He’s applying for jobs. He’s making mostly A’s (and a B or two) in school. And he is planning to join the Special Forces right after high school.
Jarvis’ 13th birthday is TODAY! He’s such a great kid! We lifted his usual time restrictions on the Xbox just for today, and I don’t even know how many hours he has been on there – he is taking FULL advantage and killing as many brain cells as possible. ;) Even though he will graduate from high school very young (a few months after turning 16), he still goes back and forth on what he wants to “be”. And we don’t really push that sort of thing (the whole “YOU MUST HAVE DEFINITE GOALS” sort of thing), as we just want our children to flexibly follow God’s plan for their lives, and we know that sometimes that is revealed at a young age, and sometimes not until the last minute.
Darby is 10 and the drama knows no bounds. She has more confidence than anyone I’ve ever known, which cracks us up all the time. She still talks incessantly, and I’m not sure that’ll ever change. She’s a GREAT big sister to Paige, and Paige thinks she hung the moon. Their relationship reminds me a lot of me and my older sister, Marci. I got her room completely purged/organized/cleaned/almost-completely-decorated this last week, and she’s working hard to keep it that way.
Jacob is hilarious. He loves math but hates the tediousness of reading/writing, which is a lot like Justice was. He plays outside all the time, and thinks he’s the coolest dude around. He’s still planning to marry Katie – our friends’ daughter who he sees maybe once a year, if that, since they live in Tennessee. But he is devoted. He’s totally into cars right now. And magic tricks.
Paige will be 3 in a couple of months (on Easter). She was never that interested in the potty, but a few weeks ago, she decided that she would just be potty trained in one day with nearly no effort from me. She still goes at night, but stays dry through naps, even long ones. She says some super funny things, and reminds us a lot of me! She’s very determined, and we love watching her little mind work.
That’s all I got for now. I have tons to blog about, but most of it takes actual brain power, rather than just stating some current facts about my kids… and brain power is lacking lately. ;)
So, the other day, a friend asked me what my middle name is. I’ve never kept my middle name a secret, but for some reason, when she asked me, I hesitated. So I decided to just put it all out here on the blog. Because inquiring minds want to know. And because, being pregnant, names are on my mind.
My middle name is…
***drumroll***
Candy
That’s right. Candy. Like the food you eat on Halloween. Or every day. Depends on who you are.
What’s the story behind my name, you ask? Okay, I’ll tell you.
My first name is the feminine form of Peter. Petra means ‘rock’. It’s also a city in Jordan, and a Christian rock band. But I was named after Peter. My six older siblings also have Biblical names – the boys after Bible dudes, and the girls… after Bible dudes (Joel, Joshua, Matthew, Marci [from Mark], Titus, and Timberly [from Timothy].
My middle name is my mom’s first name. Petra Candy. Her name is Candy Lovely. Her mom’s name was Lovely Brownie. (I’m not making this up). I always wanted to keep up with the tradition of naming a daughter’s middle name after my first name, but I really liked the name Brittany when I was pregnant with her (and I’m going to just make it known right now that Brittany was NOT a popular name until AFTER I named her – that next year it was like the most popular name… ugh), and Brittany Petra didn’t go together. So then when I was pregnant with another girl – and I was *sure* it was going to be my last pregnancy (haha!), we decided her middle name would be Petra. However, when she was born we could NOT decide between Darby and Aliya, so we were like “let’s just use both!” So she is Darby Aliya Petra.
More interesting family names: My mom’s sister’s name is Cherry. My great aunt’s name was Love (my sister’s middle name is also Love). My paternal grandparent’s names were Wilbur and Charlotte… and they lived on a farm. I remember being completely intrigued when I read Charlotte’s Web as a kid.
So far my kiddos names are:
Brittany Caitlin (I already had picked out Brittany, but was searching for a middle name – I was looking through the baby name book and my brother, Matt, said “what about Caitlin?” and I looked and that was the next name on the list, spelled the same way he was spelling it, AND I loved it – so Caitlin it was)
Justice Thor (Thor is Andrew’s middle name, and also Andrew’s dad’s first name)
Jarvis Alexander (his first name was going to be Ethan, but then he was born on his Great Uncle Jarvis’ birthday – so we named him after him)
Darby Aliya Petra
Jacob Andrew
Paige Sophia Grace
And the new one? I always start a boy/girl name list when I find out I’m pregnant (because it takes the entire pregnancy to come up with one we both like and agree on, and plus, it’s fun to name people), and I had two names on the girl list but have since decided I hate them both. So since I think this baby is a girl, we’ll see if she actually gets a name in the next 32 (or 30 – fingers crossed) weeks.
I get so many questions every time I get pregnant, so I figure I’ll just head most of them off at the pass by providing you with this handy FAQ post. You’re welcome.
Q: Again?!?!
A: Apparently so.
Q: Aren’t you worried about being pregnant again? You’ve had some problems (miscarriages, bed rest, rough delivery with Paige)…
A: Matthew 6:24 – “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” and Luke 12:25 – “And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?” I don’t really see the point in worrying about what could or might happen, because I serve a God who can get me through another pregnancy (even if it ends up with complications). Whenever I am tempted to worry, I just “cast all [my] care upon Him” (I Peter 5:7). If you are worrying about me, then I suggest you cast all your cares upon Him as well.
Q: You’ve got your hands full! How can you handle another baby?
A: Um, I’m pretty sure 7 is not much different than 6, and so far so good there.
Q: Oh no! How can you take care of a baby with your big helper (Britta) not living with you??
A: I’m the one who raised Britta, and I didn’t have a teenage helper then. I can handle taking care of a baby without a teenage girl in the house. Thanks for your vote of confidence though.
Q: Don’t you hate being pregnant?!
A: Why yes, yes I do. And it’s already an unpleasant experience. I’m sure I’ll be sharing all my pains and nausea (four days straight of it so far with no end in sight) with you as we go along. Be excited.
Q: Why is your belly already poking out so far?
A: I guess when you get pregnant for the 13th time, you just start showing immediately after conception. Half my clothes already don’t fit. It’s a problem.
Q: Are you guys ever going to stop having kids?
A: I imagine one day we’ll have to. We weren’t planning on this one, but God apparently wasn’t on the same page, and that’s okay. I never thought I’d be getting pregnant at age 35, but here we are. I was having menopausal symptoms before this, so maybe after this baby comes, I will go through the “change” and there will be no more pregnancies. Only time will tell, and I cannot see the future.
Q: Why didn’t you get your tubes tied?? Or why didn’t Andrew get a vasectomy?? At least go on the pill!
A: Well – I do not care what form of birth control any of you use. Seriously – I don’t care (as long as it’s not the kind that causes an abortion – I do care about that). If you want to cut/burn/alter your innards to be sure that God doesn’t bless you with anymore children, that’s entirely up to you (and maybe you have good reason to do so). However, Andrew and I decided a long time ago that we were not going to make any permanent changes to our bodies. I hate being on the pill (a.k.a. filling my body with chemicals that alter all my hormones and moods and make me feel like crap), and don’t even get me started on condoms. Natural family planning has always worked for us aside from this time and last time – both times when my cycle was all crazy (see previous post) so I lost track of ovulation time. Eh. Whatever. Obviously (as pointed out earlier) God wanted us to conceive again, since the ONE time I miscalculated ended up with a baby. ;)
Q: How can you start over??? You know you won’t be getting any sleep… ever… right?!
A: I love babies. Andrew loves babies. We had actually been seriously discussing adoption when we found out I am pregnant. If I hadn’t had all the problems I have had and didn’t hate pregnancy so much? We’d have never even done the “natural planning” method and would have been cranking babies out like crazy. Seriously – we’d probably have 14 kids by now if it hadn’t been for my health issues! We LOVE them. Some women complain about the newborn stage, but not me. I would lose sleep over a tiny newborn every single day of my life! (of course, if I wasn’t sleeping EVER, then I’d have to give up some other things in order to nap during the day – lol)
Q: Don’t you know what causes that?!
A: Seriously, even though I said I would punch anyone in the mouth that asked me that question – I’ll go ahead and answer. The answer is YES… and God has blessed me with a husband who enjoys making babies with me and vice versa. Our beautiful, sensuous, hot, exciting love-making causes babies, and we don’t plan on quitting anytime soon. Anymore questions on that topic? Didn’t think so.
Q: Is this a post-deployment baby? I knew you were going to get pregnant on that vacation! That’s when it happened, isn’t it?
A: No. You were wrong. While we did enjoy one another on our vacation, this happened right around September 10th, an average day in our existence. Andrew had been home for a month and a half, and even if he’d been home for a year and a half – we are still intimate regularly. Not just when we’re on vacation or when we haven’t seen each other in a while. It always causes me to be curious when people ask these sorts of things – do they not have sex on a regular basis? Maybe they should seek some marital counseling. Or read I Corinthians 7:5.
Q: How can you afford all these kids?
A: We can’t… However, God has mercifully provided for us time and time again, and we figure He’s not going to stop now.
Q: Can I rub your belly?
A: That depends. Are you in my very-close-knit circle of family/friends? If you are unsure, then please ask before groping me. My friend, Molly, apparently had no question about whether or not she was in this circle since she manhandled me at church this past Sunday. Martha was witness.
Q: Are you eating enough? (and/or) Are you gaining enough weight?
A: For those of you who think I need to gain 815 pounds while pregnant – what’s wrong with you? I have gained the proper amount of weight for pregnancy EVERY SINGLE TIME (between 24 and 32 pounds, if you must know – and before you tell me 24 pounds doesn’t meet the required “25 pound minimum”… that pregnancy was Justice, who was born at 35 weeks). Please stop telling me I’m not fat enough. Because I am. (Again — just heading this one off at the pass, from prior experience)
Q: Are you excited?
A: Yes!!! We view children as a blessing from God (see: the Bible), and are completely open to whatever He has for us. We love all our children at all ages and are excited for the opportunity to raise yet another one! :)
p.s. I realize this addresses mostly questions with negative connotations, but you would be amazed at how many negative comments/questions I have gotten since pregnancy #3! I’m going to refer all negative comments for the duration of the pregnancy to this blog post. For all of you who have been nothing but positive, encouraging, and loving – I thank you. ;)
So, apparently, if you are having early menopausal symptoms, and your cycles are all wonky… it’s probably not the best time to use “natural family planning” as your preferred method of birth control. Because if you do, then you might, hypothetically, have a conversation like this [bracketed phrases have been paraphrased for your tender ears/eyes]:
her: “I’m ovulating… oh crap – [we weren't careful] two days ago!!!
him: “well, it’s been two days – we should be fine.”
her: “THOSE SUCKERS CAN LIVE UP TO FIVE DAYS!!!”
Then, again —> hypothetically, you might forget that conversation happened and go on with your way-too-busy life, overlooking symptoms such as being “bloated” and super tired and the fact that you can smell EVERYthing, because you’ve been having crazy symptoms for months anyways!
Then, a few weeks later, for instance, you might go to your scheduled doctor’s appointment (because you’ve already been and had ultrasounds of your lady innards that came back wonky), and have a conversation something like this:
doc: “I want to do a biopsy of your uterine lining, but I want to do a pregnancy test first. I don’t think you are pregnant, but we need to be sure.”
her: “ok”
*pees in a cup – waits in the room*
doc: “well, the test was positive.”
her: *looks at doctor like she just said “there’s a unicorn in the hallway”* (then remembers the conversation from a few weeks ago)
doc: “so let’s do an ultrasound instead of a biopsy”
So then they do an ultrasound, and take 6,748 tubes of blood out of you and make you come back two days later for more blood, and a week later for another ultrasound…
So, yeah, all that to say this:
Today, at the doctor, I saw our 6 week, 1 day old baby and heard/saw a strong heartbeat. We’re going to do some progesterone fun (a.k.a. it doesn’t sound fun) in the form of ”gel” to hopefully help get me through the first trimester (since, ya know, I’ve had six miscarriages and all). Due date is June 4th.
FAQ’s will be addressed in the next blog post. If you have questions you want added to that list, make a comment – however, just a warning, if you say “don’t you know what causes that?”, I might have to punch you in the mouth… ya know, lovingly – in a tough love kind of way – cause you might possibly be an idiot. Of course I know what causes it. I had a freaking 12 day period and absentmindedly lost track of when I was going to ovulate! It could happen to anyone! ;)
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