Maternity Pictures

I was very blessed today to have a friend take some maternity pictures for me. I've been pretty lax about recording this pregnancy with pictures this time around. When I was pregnant with Taeya, I took pictures of myself on a regular basis but never had a fun maternity photo shoot and I really wanted to make sure I documented this pregnancy before baby boy comes. We had fun taking pictures in my little town. We went across the river for a few pictures and then to a local rail-road car that sits in town. Beth did a great job and best of all, was free!! I'm going to take some family pictures for her this weekend (as long as this baby doesn't decide to come early!). Here are a few of my favorites. I think I actually have 50 favorites from today! I uploaded all of my favorites to Facebook so you can view more there if you're friends with me on Facebook .

Counting it Down

I only have 14 days until I get to meet my little baby boy! Less than that because I'll be having my c-section early in the morning. I am ready for this little one to arrive but surprisingly, I can't believe how far I am in my pregnancy. I feel SO GOOD these days. I am getting naps during the day which has really helped but overall, I feel really good and not at all like I'm near the very end. Life as we know it, will soon be very different....and I'm excited about it!

My ticker is accurate as far as how far along I am in my pregnancy but it's 5 days ahead of the delivery date since I'm having a c-section...so just subtract 5 each time and you'll get baby's due date.

Pregnancy Update-32 weeks 2 days

Well, I am now 32 weeks 2 days along in my pregnancy. It's been going great and overall, I'm enjoying it. I definitely am starting to slow down and have less energy overall. I'm loving the baby movements and seeing my belly contort up and down as he twists around in his comfy cave. Only 7 more weeks from today (or less) and I'll have a baby in my arms!

I was feeling Baby move the other night and just thinking how I didn't want to forget how amazing it feels to have a life growing inside of me. This is most likely my last pregnancy (unless God has other plans) so I'm just trying to enjoy it and not wish it away as I go through the 3rd trimester.

In the past 2 weeks, I celebrated my 29th birthday. It's a little weird to think this will be my last year of my 20's. I've been so blessed in my 29 years and am thankful for all the Lord has taught me over the years through the trials as well as the triumphs. As my back has been hurting a lot the past few weeks, my husband blessed me with a pre-natal massage at a beautiful spa for my birthday. It was AMAZING. It didn't really help my back pain as they didn't massage deep enough for that but I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of it.

* Pics taken at 31 weeks 3 days.

29 Weeks Along

Technically, I'm not 7 months yet. I should be holding up 6 fingers but I forgot that until I uploaded the pics. I feel nearly as big as I was when I had Taeya. Still have a little room to breathe but only before I eat. Once I eat, I feel like someone has a belt tied around my upper belly.

I haven't been taking nearly as many belly shots as I did with Taeya so I thought I'd grab a couple in the mirror while I was thinking about it. That belly looks huge!

I go in for my next OB appointment on Wednesday. I'll be having a growth scan (ultrasound) done on baby boy. They want to make sure I don't have the same issues I had with Taeya. She grew on the small side from 1/2 way through the pregnancy to the end. I have a feeling this little boy is going to be a lot bigger than Taeya was when she was born. When they measured my belly at my last appt. 3 weeks ago, it was measuring 3 weeks ahead which it NEVER did with Taeya.

Please pray about Phil's job situation. He's in a four hour long interview right now!! It started Monday at 12 and should finish around 4. He has a face-to-face interview, 2 tests and some sort of role-playing scenario. We are praying that God will open the doors so Phil can start working soon!!!

We've been doing some fun things like camping, visiting family and moving Taeya to her old room so look for some pictures soon!

Baby Due Date Poll

At the request of our friend Annie, I created a second baby guessing poll for baby Camp # 2. I currently have a scheduled c-section for November 3, 2010 so there's little chance he'll come after that date. However, he can come early if I go into labor earlier than 11/3. We're pretty much 100% sure this baby is a boy but you can guess girl if you'd like. :) It'll dock you 400 points if you're wrong though.

I'd love for all of my blog readers to participate in the poll even if you don't regularly comment. It's fun for me to see who is viewing my blog. Please don't be shy! I know I have some readers who never comment on my blog and I want you to participate as well. I will mail a $5 Starbucks gift card to the highest winner based on the points that are earned as long as I am able to contact them when the time comes. (In other words, don't be anonymous or you won't receive the prize if you win).

The points are awarded using the following scale:
Point Penalties:(The lowest score wins):

Incorrect gender: 400 points
Date & Time: 5 points per hour
Weight: 5 points per ounce
Length: 10 points per inch

***The poll is located on the top of the right sidebar of my blog.***
May the best guesser win!

Less than 100 days!

Wahoo! I just noticed my ticker says I'm down to 98 days. It's actually more like 93 (or less) because of the scheduled c-section. It's getting closer. 13 weeks 2 days left until the c-section.

I found out today that I passed my glucose test last week. So glad I didn't have to do the 3 hr test. I have to do a 24 hour urine collection because I've been spilling protein in my urine for the past three visits. I think it's just because I need to drink more but we shall see. I feel great and my blood pressure has been great at each visit so I'm not too worried about pre-eclampsia.

At my visit on Wednesday, I was 25 weeks 2 days but was measuring 28 weeks so it seems that baby boy is growing well.

Still Pregnant

If I gained back a few readers when I started blogging about my pregnancy, I'm guessing they're all gone again. Sorry for the lapse of blog posts. I have time to blog but have been doing other things instead. I'm keeping busy with babysitting 2 days a week, teaching swim lessons, running my household and catching up on my digital scrap booking.

Scrapbooking
In the past couple of weeks, I finally uploaded all of my photos to Shutterfly from 2008 and 2009. I finished my 2008 scrap book online!! Yeah!!! It's about 85 pages long. If anyone is interested in seeing it, I can share it with you if you leave your email address or let me know that you want to see it. I feel a little funny just posting it to my blog since anyone can then see it. It was fun to work on as it was primarily about the first year of Taeya's life. So many sweet sweet memories. I've begun working on my 2009 scrapbook and am into April. I like to scrap book from January 1-December 31st. I try to create pages of all of the major events/activities throughout the year and include family favorites as well. It's very much a time-line of memories for me and it's so fun to go back through and remember all the fun we've had over the years.

Pregnancy
I'm currently 25 weeks 1 day pregnant and am feeling really good. I am able to take a nap most days which really helps. I haven't been puking at all lately which is WONDERFUL! Baby boy generally is pretty quiet but he'll wake up and start bopping around in there pretty good. I have my next OB appointment tomorrow morning. This past month I developed carpal tunnel syndrome in my left arm. I had it in my right with Taeya. I wear a brace about 75% of the time and it definitely helps. Sometimes my hand is in a lot of pain and other times it doesn't bother me at all. Hopefully it won't last the rest of the pregnancy but if that's my only problem, I can't complain!

Family
Phil's mom, grandma, sister, brother and his parents dog came to visit us for a week in July. We had a great time just hanging out and relaxing. We played lots of games (I LOVE playing games with family!), went to the falls and fish hatchery near where we live and just had a great time.

US
We're still waiting to hear whether Phil has a job or not. He's applied for a local job which looks very promising and it's between him or one other individual. We were supposed to hear yesterday or today but they didn't call. We're praying that he's able to get this job so we can stay in our house and not have to move right now! Taeya is growing more and more each day. She is talking quite a bit. She loves to sing and can sing all the way through the ABC's (although I'm not really sure if she says them perfectly as she mumbles some of the letters). Her favorite song is "Itsy Bitsy" (The Itsy Bitsy Spider). She requests it every single time we get in the car and would listen to it on repeat if we let her! She is such a little helper and a joy to have around. She loves to help Mommy and Daddy and if we ask her to help with something, she is almost always readily willing to jump up and do whatever we ask of her. The most exciting thing to share is that she if FULLY potty-trained, even at night! She'll occasionally have an accident if we're out and about but even then she's consistently asking to go to the potty. She never has accidents at home anymore which is so wonderful.

I guess I haven't downloaded my camera recently (as in since July 4th or so). Here are some cute pictures I had of Taeya from June and early July.

Helping Mommy make cookies. She always loves to "nitch." She "nitches" flour by the handful while we bake!

The next few pics are from the day we found out we were having a boy. June 19th. We spent the day down in GJ hanging out and having fun! Here's Taeya at Red Robin.

At the pond, feeding the ducks.

Eating mommy's ice cream. I guess mine was better tasting than hers. She calls it icekeem which I love hearing her say.

Playing at the park! She and Daddy played chase all over the playground. Mommy joined in some fun but not the chase as it involved small tunnels that Mommy was NOT about to crawl through!

Our pastor's family just returned from a month long trip to China. Annie, one of Taeya's special girls purchased this beautiful Chinese dress for Taeya. I tried to get a good picture of her wearing it but Taeya wasn't very cooperative that Sunday. I'll have to try again soon.

Guess that's all for now. I'll try to take another belly shot soon. I'm DEFINITELY pregnant and showing at this point. Hopefully, it won't take over a month for me to post again.

It's a BOY!!!!

On July 16, 2010, Phil, Taeya and I headed down to a town about an hour from us for my level 2 ultrasound. My doctor was just being cautious when she ordered a level 2 ultrasound. I have a liver disease and am on medicine that very rarely can affect the baby. My previous ultrasounds looked good but she wanted the level 2 just to rule out any abnormalities. The ultrasound was done when our baby was 19 weeks 2 days along.

We had a GREAT ultrasound. The technician and doctor were both extremely kind. I had a big TV screen that I was able to watch the entire ultrasound on. The tech asked us if we wanted to find out the gender. We told her that we thought it was a boy based on our last ultrasound. However, the tech at our last ultrasound had first said that she thought we were having a girl and then changed her mind a few minutes later and said she was pretty sure it was a boy. The tech from yesterday looked and very quickly confirmed that we indeed are having a son. He was very cooperative during the entire ultrasound, and not just when she was looking at whether he was a boy or a girl.

He was laying on his back for the ultrasound and she was able to get all of the measurements she needed and took a ton of pictures of baby's heart. The technology we have today is amazing!! It is amazing to see the miracle of life that is growing within me every day. I loved watching his little four-chamber heart pumping the blood through his body.

When the doctor came in, he was very personable and friendly. He asked me some questions about myself and told me that he had another Master's College student in within the past few weeks. Interesting considering how small our school is. I wonder who it was. He did some of the ultrasound as well. He took a sideways view of the baby swallowing. He showed the fluid in the baby's mouth and then showed how it moved past his esophagus into his stomach. Baby did a number of really quick swallows that the doctor pointed out as well. He pointed out how amazing and advanced this is for such a tiny baby to be doing. He talked about how if the baby is swallowing how so many processes have to work together and be coordinated and it shows the brain development of the baby is where it needs to be. He didn't use the word miracle but that's basically what he was saying it was.

Before we left, the technician did more scanning and kept saying what a beautiful baby we had. She certainly seemed to be enjoying looking at our baby as much as we did. It made for a very lovely experience that I thoroughly enjoyed. (Much better than my first ultrasound I had this pregnancy!!) She said the baby was so cooperative which made her ultrasound look good. She also said she can't always tell 100% the gender of a baby but she was 100% certain we are having a boy. He definitely wasn't shy!! She also showed us some 4D ultrasounds where the baby was captured and she could move the image around. She printed off some 3D pictures of Baby's face from those views. We have a little cutie hiding in my belly!!! I can't wait to meet him.

Taeya is understanding more and more each day that there's a baby in mommy's belly. Even when they did the ultrasound, she recognized that the pictures on the screen were of the baby. She likes to kiss and pat my tummy and every now and then, she turns to me and says, "Baby in Mommy." It's precious. I need to take another belly picture. This past week I went from not looking pregnant to definitely looking (and feeling) pregnant!

It's a BOY!!! Can you find the evidence?

18 Weeks Pregnant

On Monday I was 18 weeks along in my pregnancy. I finally got around to taking some more pictures. Nearly 4 1/2 months along now.

Life As it Is

Well, this past month has flown by! Things are going very well pregnancy wise. I heard baby's heartbeat at the doctor's this past week. (14 weeks along). I don't feel like I've grown much yet. I can still wear all of my regular jeans. I've been trying to take some more pregnancy pics but haven't gotten many pics because I've just been so busy. My OB wants me to get a level 2 ultrasound soon. As far as they've told me, everything is looking good with the baby. I think they just want to be extra cautious because of my liver disease and because Taeya was so tiny in utero.

I've been working a ton lately, which is hard at times but is also a huge praise as Phil is still out of work. What am I doing? I'm tutoring, babysitting 2 days a week, working for the Census, gardening for my HOA and will probably start teaching swim lessons in a couple weeks.

As a family, we drove to Las Vegas Mother's Day weekend. We were meeting up with Phil's parents to spend a little time with them. Phil's dad just boarded a ship yesterday and will deploy for the next number of months. We had a really nice time hanging out. Grandma, I and Taeya LOVED the pool and spent as much time as we could there. I have some pictures I'll post when I get around to downloading them from my camera. We brought back Timmy, Phil's brother, and Bruiser his parents dog. When we returned home, we also ended up getting another renter as well. He's the stepson of our first renter, who is still here as well. Needless to say, it's been VERY BUSY around here. Next week, Phil's mom and sister will be joining us for about 5 days. Good thing we have lots of room in our house!! We'll be one big happy family!

The past two days, I've had a constant headache that I haven't been able to get rid of with Tylenol. I don't get very many headaches and usually, if I take medicine, they disappear immediately. I have a lot of stress in my back from our drive to and from Vegas as well as all the Census work I've been doing. I'm thinking the muscle stress is causing the headaches. I need to get a message or find a chiro who can help me out I think.Well, that's about all that's going on lately. Just a little bit of busy. :)

First Ultrasound Pictures of Baby #2

On April 14th, I had my first OB appointment with my actual doctor. The first appointment I went to I just saw a nurse and answered a bunch of questions. Right before my OB appt, I had an ultrasound that she ordered done at the hospital.
Although I loved seeing the baby, and Phil was able to come along as well, it wasn't the best ultrasound ever because the technician was a bit on the grumpy, untalkative side. After questioning me as to why I was having an ultrasound done so early (I didn't actually know, the dr just ordered it) and saying it was unnecessary, she did the ultrasound and didn't say anything until the very end when she finally turned the screen to me and said, "Well, there's not too much to see." and then showed me my sweet little baby. The whole ultrasound lasted all of about 2-3 minutes. It was a quick view but I was very happy to see my little one and know that everything looks good at this point in the pregnancy.

Both ultrasound pictures are very similar. The head is on the left with little feet on the right and a hand waving in the middle. Baby measured 3.5 cm which is just over an inch. I was 10 weeks 2 days in my pregnancy at this point.

9 Weeks Pregnant

I took my first pregnancy picture on Monday, April 5, when I was 9 weeks pregnant. The reason I'm holding out 2 fingers is because I'm 2 months along (and a week). I'm going to try to take month pictures throughout the whole pregnancy so I can see the changes along the way. You can't really tell I'm pregnant at this point. I can tell a little bit of a difference but it's not really visible yet.

A Time to Trust

Well, trying to keep my promise to blog a bit more frequently. This week has been very busy and many things have been filling our time. As you'll be able to see from reading below, Monday was a big day in our week.

On Monday, Phil was laid off at work. We are trusting the Lord that He will provide for our needs and direct our steps to where He wants us to be. Although we are hoping to stay in our current area, we are willing to move to a different area is God opens the doors. It's definitely a time where all we can do is trust and do our best to be diligent to look for jobs, send in resumes and just be open to what God has for us. Bible study this week was on I Timothy 6. Read it sometime, it's a good chapter and was very applicable to the job situation. It talks about being content in all circumstances and our material possessions.

Monday was also the beginning of the puking stage of pregnancy. Although many friends have tried to encourage me that I may not be as sick with this pregnancy as I was with Taeya's, I have counted on being sick and would be pleasantly surprised if I wasn't. Well, I'm sick...it's horrible but at least I know it'll have an end...even if it's 9 months from now. So, be forewarned, if you visit my blog in the near future (or for the next few months) be prepared for me to talk about what is consuming my life right now, puke!

The last thing that happened on Monday was my mom ending up in the hospital in CA with a serious infection and reaction to a new medicine. Thankfully, she's doing much better and was able to go home on Saturday although she's still in a lot of pain. Please keep her in your prayers as it will be awhile until she recovers fully.

On some brighter news, I'll share something about Taeya, who is still doing great and is a joyful little girl! She doesn't watch much TV/Videos but lately, I've been letting her watch some Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in the evenings. As I type this blog, she was dancing all over the room to "The Old Bamboo" song. It's so precious to watch. I have to get it on video. I don't have any recent pictures because I haven't downloaded my pics lately so I attached a pic of Taeya from February.

Big Plans for November

This past weekend, Phil was away on a church retreat. When he returned, I made him a nice dinner of Moroccan Spiced Chicken and had a little present prepared for him. I gave him a box with five candy bars inside. They were: a Skor bar, Sugar Daddy, Sugar Babies, a Baby Ruth and Milk Duds. He immediately looked at me and said, "You're pregnant aren't you?!" I then replied with a "Yep." We celebrated our exciting news together and we're both looking forward to baby #2!

It's funny, because the past two months I felt like I was pregnant but ended up not being pregnant. This month, I don't feel pregnant but I am. We are very excited that Taeya will have a sibling regardless of whether it's a boy or a girl. We'll almost definitely find out the gender of the baby when we're able to. Although I haven't seen a doctor yet, based on pregnancy calculators on the computer, this baby will be due around November 8th. Since I had a C-section with Taeya, I'll definitely have to have another C-Section as there are no doctor's or hospitals that do V-BACs around here. I'm fine with that because my C-Section last time was very uncomplicated.

We'll be praying for a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby in the end. I am only five weeks along but want to share our exciting news with our friends and family so that they can offer their support no matter what happens.

I will try to pick up my blogging a bit more than I have been lately. I've been busy with Taeya, tutoring and running my house. In the evenings, Phil has had the computer more frequently than he used to and I just haven't made the time to blog on a regular basis. I will TRY to do a better job of it and hopefully, some of my readers will come back and leave comments once again. :)