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.

Summer Projects

While Phil is still unemployed, we decided that this was a great time to get some of the house projects done that we've wanted to do since moving in last August.

*Re-do the flagstone patio. Take out the little rocks that get kicked up everywhere and lower the flagstone so the wooden beams show so we can build a railing eventually for safety.

*Plant a veggie and flower garden on the side of the house in the flower beds.

*Plant flowers and plants out front to make the front of the house look nice. As you can see, it's still a work in progress.

*Build a storage loft in the garage so we can park one of the cars in the garage and clean/organize the garage.

I am so proud of my husband and what a great job he did on the loft. I helped a little here and there when needed but he was the mastermind behind the job. Great job for your FIRST EVER construction job!!

Over the past 3 weeks or so, we were able to accomplish all of those projects. We still have a little more to plant in the front of the house but the other projects are done! Now for leveling, tilling, topsoiling and seeding the side-yard. I can't WAIT until we have a nice side-yard of grass for Taeya to play in. I'm also looking forward to not tracking in TONS of dirt every time we go out to water our garden.

ER Visit-17 weeks 2 days

Well, on the way to my OB appointment today after 3 days of not feeling well, they called on my way there and said my doctor had been called into an emergency c-section and that I’d have to go to the Family Birthplace. I tried checking in at the hospital to the Family Birthplace but they decided to send me to the ER instead since I wasn’t 20 weeks along yet. So, down to the ER we (Phil, Taeya and I) went.

They checked me in pretty quickly which was nice. I explained that I’ve been having some abdominal pain for 3 days, my left arm has been tingly and I’ve been achy and just not feeling well all over. Very quickly after I arrived at the ER, the ultrasound tech came for me. We were able to see Baby Camp who is doing great!!! He/She is measuring right on schedule at 17 weeks 3 days (I’m 17 weeks 2 days). Everything looked great with the baby. The tech asked if we wanted to find out the gender which we said, “Yes!” She has a pretty good idea of what the baby is and printed some pictures for us. I'll do another post on that in a day or so. Sorry, I wrote it out but then decided to delete it. :) You'll have to wait a bit. I’ll be having another ultrasound down the road so we’ll check down there again I’m sure. Everything looked good on the ultrasound and they couldn’t find any abnormalities. Pictures of Baby Camp to come later.

Back to the ER room I went. They drew blood, took a urine sample, and did a pelvic exam. All of which looked great. They didn’t have an explanation for the pain (which was improving while I was there). Once we left, my body started aching quite a bit on the way home. I thought I’d write this post for those of you who have been praying to have an update and then it’s off to relax. Please pray that my body starts to feel better as it’s hard not having an answer for the pain. Although I am VERY THANKFUL that everything is okay with the baby!!!

Oh, and while we were in the ER, Taeya was SUCH a good girl! Everyone loved her and kept bringing her things. She received a soft cow baby rattle bracelet which accidentally got left behind.  Two other people brought her coloring books and two others suggested that we give her icecream/juice/crackers from the little snack station in the ER. We even had a couple people peek their head in to see her because they heard there was a very cute little girl in our room.  I must say, Phil and I were very pleased at how patient she was for the 2 ½ hours we spent at the hospital. What a special little girl God has given us!

Thank you all for your prayers if you saw my message on Facebook earlier today.

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 Fun Family Outing

At the end of March, Phil and I decided that we needed to get out of the house and do something fun with our little family. We drove to Grand Junction and made our first stop at Wendy's for frosties.

We then drove through the Colorado National Monument. It was stunning.

Taeya is scared of heights, hence her need to hang onto the fence as she tentatively looked over the edge of the cliff.

After driving through the National Monument, we took Taeya to a park to play. While we were there, we found out there was a little pond with ducks so Taeya had her first experiencing feeding the ducks. She loved it!

Taeya did some rolling down hills and running up and down them which she thought was great fun.

After hanging out at the park we drove to Chuck E Cheese. When Phil's parents were here after Christmas, Grandma took Taeya there and had a few leftover tokens that she left with us. We were able to take her there without spending a penny (thanks Grandma!). She had a very fun filled day and we enjoyed playing with our sweet girl and seeing the joy that the park and Chuck E Cheese brought her.

It was so wonderful to get out of the house and do a little something different as a family.

At the end of our fun filled day, we had a special treat and went out to dinner (with coupons of course!) I'm so glad we were able to just spend some great family time together making some wonderful memories. Phil and I are excited to take Taeya back to that park again to feed the ducks.

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. :)