Flutters

This sweet baby of ours is making his/her activeness known! Certain positions (laying flat on my back) I can feel little nudges every so often. I LOVE this! It's my absolute favorite thing about pregnancy and the thing I always miss the most after having the baby. It's the every day reminder and reality of life, forming and developing right inside my tummy. And it's a great comfort in knowing that activity is a very good sign! I love you sweet baby!

Ultrasounds

Wednesday I went in for three different ultrasounds so that my doctor could hopefully get a better idea of what is causing me the pain in my lower abdomen. I have to admit, as annoying as these procedures are I find great joy in being able to see our little squirmier as often as I do! Still looking super cute and developing great! Our baby is even measuring at 15 weeks instead of 14, which would move my due date up to November 9th. Sounds great to me (even though it's not entirely official). I was even asked if I wanted to find out the sex of the baby....how lucky is that! Of coarse I told them I would prefer to wait for my husband to be here for that one. We are scheduled to find out on June 28th.
Results: everything is looking normal and healthy. Therefor the only cause left is stress. I have been told to take bubble baths, meditate, prenatal yoga, anything to relax and get my mind off the stressful things.

Deserved

This whole past week I've been down and taking it easy, due to the unbearable pain that shoots from my right lower side. I went in on Friday to see the doctor again with this new pain and she has set me up for more tests to see if we can get to the bottom of what's going on. It's one thing after another these days....
On Wednesday I will go in for two ultrasounds that will hopefully give the doctor an idea on how everything is looking. My kidneys, appendix, bladder, the whole enchilada! Should be a blast. In the meantime my instructions were to take it easy with bubble baths, relaxation, and just not over doing it.
Well, I've been dealing with this for a while and my house has been the evidence of my taking it easy. It was driving me nuts and I wasn't going to stand for it any longer! Yesterday, I did some cleaning. But some cleaning turned into more cleaning and then of coarse more cleaning. (Now don't get me wrong, my husband and children did their share of cleaning as well. I was just suppose to be taking it easy) During this process I was getting hungry, but every time I would stop and look for something that would appeal, everything made me want to gag! So I went back to cleaning. Very bad idea! Yep I over did it and well my body made sure I paid for it.
After I finally decided that perhaps I should rest; I found some watermelon that my husband lovingly brought home for me and was eating that. It of coarse wasn't solid enough to ease my hunger pains so I got up to look for something else that just might appeal. By that time I was feeling really sick and sure enough I found myself lightheaded and heaving over the toilet bowl. At least the bowl was clean! So I have decided that even if it doesn't appeal, just eat it anyway because eating something is always better than not! This pregnancy thing is rough!

Tests

Friday morning I woke up with some sharp pains in my rectal area and tightness in my abdominal area. When I felt they had calmed down, I got up and did my regular routine. When I was sitting down to breakfast though, that's when it really hit! A HUGE sharp pain was bursting inside of me and I had to drop to the floor. I've never experienced this before and didn't really know what to do. I called the nurse at my doctors office for some advice and after being on the phone with her for 45 minutes she finally decided that perhaps I should come in and get looked at by my doctor. I was scheduled an hour later. They did all kinds of tests to rule anything out to try to get to the bottom of what was causing me such pain. But every test they took came out normal. The best news in all of this is that our baby is doing well, everything is looking normal and healthy with it! And we got a little peek of our little squirt! Super cute! I can't believe that little thing is growing inside of me right now! Anyway, I was given some horrible(embarrassing) medicine to try at home and to report by today(Monday). I gave it a try and I haven't had the sharp pain since, but everything inside still hurts, like my body became a pinball machine and my insides are bruised. And now yesterday and this morning I have been having a little bit of cramping and mostly tightness in my abdominal again. I feel that if it's nothing that is physically related, then it must be emotionally. Like they say, "Stress is a killer!"

Seeing A Light

Being 12 weeks now things are finally progressing in the nausea stage. I don't feel as sick every day anymore, it's mostly off and on. The constipation issues are settling down (I hope) and I am starting to get some energy back. It's a slow process, but it's coming along! Keeping myself going and busy sure does help me forget about all these pregnancy discomforts. I am anxious to get my full boost of energy back so that I can actually complete the projects that I have only started and put off.

Crying Over Crap

Changes on the body can sure be a pain in the butt, literally! I don't usually experience this problem until right after giving birth, but for some reason I get to experience it early and WOW it sure has been painfully unpleasant! It's funny sometimes the things we take for granted. I found myself in tears the other day because everyone else seemed to have no problem doing the very thing I couldn't do.....poop! I've tried laxatives, stool softeners, fruits & veggies, extra fiber foods, etc..... NOTHING seems to work. I am a walking preggo lady who is officially physically and emotionally constipated. Any new ideas that I haven't listed yet would be great! What worked for you?

In Comparison

to my other two pregnancies this one seems to be right in the middle. I was very sick with Bryson, barely keeping things down and living off of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Of coarse after the 'yucky' stage was over I was then craving everything Mexican, especially chips with salsa; and big bowls of popcorn!

With McKenna on the other hand, I wasn't sick at all, but definitely felt the effects of major hormones and mood swings! My cravings with her were anything and EVERYTHING lemon. I made lemon bars every week, lemonade, lemon meringue(without the pie), and sour patch candies.

This one is completely different from both of them. NOTHING sounds good (food wise), smells good, or even tastes right anymore. AND this baby wont let me eat much meat....yep it's a vegetarian baby for now. I'm hoping I can change that later down the road. Being that I am only at the start of my second trimester I haven't had any cravings yet. I am excited to see what it is I crave most with this one!

How We Told....

I love unique ideas on how to share great news with the family. With a cute baby type frame, I printed this out and stuck it in. We gave it to our families for Easter!

To: Grandpa and Grandma
I do not have a face to see, or put inside a frame.
I do not have soft cheeks to kiss, I don’t yet have a name.
You can’t yet hold my tiny hands, ‘nor whisper in my ear.
It’s still too soon to sing a song, or cuddle me so near.
But all that will change come November 16th 2010;
that’s when they say I am due. I’ll be your fourth grandchild;
I can’t wait till I meet you. All I ask between now and then
is your patience while I grow. I promise I’ll be worth the wait,
because of all the love we’ll know. So have a Happy Easter.
A wish to you from me. I cannot wait to be a part of this great family!
Love, Baby Hall

How I told my husband:

He was heading out for two weeks to Tennessee and I had just taken a pregnancy test. Before going to bed the night before he left I gave him a little gift. I handed it to him and said it was just something that would allow us to be with him even when we aren't. He opened it up, found a rolled up paper printout of a picture of our family and it was wrapped around the pregnancy test. He looked at it a little confused as he had never read one before. It took it a moment to sink in what I was really trying to tell him, then he got excited! He stood up jumping and gave me a big hug while trying to spin me. It was cute!

How we told the kids.... the video says it all!