11 Weeks

I am 11 weeks pregnant and I think my belly has officially popped. :) I just called my best friend Lindsey and said..."Ok when you had Cohen (her second child) did your stomach turn into a fat gut?" LOL...when I was pregnant with Ian I just remember it being so hard and firm. It wasn't just fat at all (that's in my memory though) I feel so fat and ugly. I am now getting weekly manicures by my sweet friend Ms.Tammy and today I told her..."If I have to be fat at least my nails can look good."

So...what about our sweet baby?!? Well, this sweet little baby is proving to be night and day to our previous sweet Ian. This baby makes me nauseated most days all day and now I have even thrown up. I am probably the only woman in the history of pregnant women to be PUMPED about being jolted from my sleep on a Sunday night to throw up. :) I keep hearing if you're sick it's a healthy baby so I was so happy to throw up. My precious cousin Katie is four weeks ahead of me and that poor girl throws up 24 hours a day when she is pregnant. She has now lost nine pounds and as she reads this she is probably thinking..."Mary you have thrown up once!" LOL...hey I'm happy about it though. :) :)

I gave in to the inteligender test and took it. For those of you who don't know what that is just let me tell you about it girlfriend! You buy this kit...mine was a whopping $40 at CVS. You hold your bladder all night. Now remember this is a pregnant woman you're talking to. The ones who go anywhere from 2 to five times a night to the bathroom. I was miserable all night because I so needed to go to the bathroom but I had to hold it for this test you see. So picture this...I couldn't sleep b/c I was so excited to see if it was a boy or girl and then I needed to go to the bathroom so bad I was hurting. LOL....Finally at 4 am I gave in and relieved myself in the nice little "cup" provided for my $40. And I sat and waited with my timer on for 5 minutes. You can only wait 5 minutes and look at the result then. Any sooner and it could be wrong any after five and it could change colors and be wrong. So...you wait! If your urine turns green "It's a boy" and if it is a yellow/orange color "It's a girl" Well...mine turned green so supposedly "IT'S A BOY!!!" Now this is all fun and games. I didn't go decorate my nursery or buy the coming home outfit based off of this silly $40 test. I did however narrow down some favorite boy names, decide on boy baby bedding, order samples of the baby bedding fabric, and got my cousin Mallory ready to decorate a boy nursery. With all of that being said I can pretty much guarantee that now it'll be a girl. LOL... Some names I'm loving are Asher, Aiden, and Samuel. Asher is my favorite at this minute but tomorrow it might be different. Asher is a name from the Bible. If you don't believe me look it up. LOL...I had to show my dad Genesis 30:13. Anybody have any cute ideas on boy names??? Anyhow Asher means "Happiness and blessed" Just what we are with this sweet baby!!!

On to the good stuff...our baby is now big enough to hold in the palm of my hand. He/she weighs about .25 of an ounce and that explains the 5-10 pound weight gain right?!? That totally makes sense to me. :) Our baby has arms and legs and fingers and toes. He/she is now capable of opening and closing his/her fists. WOW!!! The baby is now officially considered a fetus and the most critical stages of development are over. He/she is now about he size of a fig. During this week, blood will begin to circulate between the baby and the uterus and the placenta begins to function entirely. It's humbling to me that God entrusts us to "grow" His precious miracles within our bodies. What an awesome God we serve. How do people who don't believe in Jesus Christ explain life??? Do they think WE are just that good to create another human. I think not! It's a miracle what is happening in my tummy and I praise God he is allowing me to join him in creating this sweet child.

The doctor's appointments are all in the next two weeks. Wae and I have a busy day on Tuesday with sonograms, and doctors, and genetecists. Please pray for my "mama heart" to be calm, cool, and collective instead of overbearing and pushy. Please pray for God's wisdom on what to do with some serious decisions we will be making and most of all...pray for a healthy baby. I'll let you all know how the appointments go and I'll definitely post a pic of our little "fig" next week.

Love you all and so appreciate the prayers for a healthy baby. Talk to you soon!!! Enjoy this sunshine...

Wow...I'm really pregnant!!!

I am 8 1/2 weeks pregnant and it has really kicked in full force at this point. If you've ever been pregnant before you know what I'm talking about. It's like you have wanted this for so long and when it finally happens it's kind of surreal. You have to let the news sink in and after about five weeks of knowing it has offically "sunk" in.

I see babies laughing and smiling and instead of crying because I miss my sweet little Ian I just smile all over because I know in less than 7 months we too will have that healthy happy baby. I just pray all day every day..."God please bless us with a healthy child...God please form a healthy and strong heart in this child...God please foster a love for Christ in this child." It's all day I pray. I think about the bible verse 1 Samuel 1:27 "I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him." For THIS child I have prayed and I have faith that the Lord will grant us with a healthy child.

I might have jinked myself in one of my previous posts. I said I was the pregnant woman you hated who never got sick. Well...things are a bit different this time. :) I'm not actually throwing up but I am VERY nauseous ummm...about all day. LOL. I want to eat and I try to eat and I hate everything I try. I am working hard to drink my water and I try but it makes me gag. This pregnancy has started out quite different from Ian. Maybe this is a sign of a healthy pregnancy?!?

I have had my first prenatal doctor's visit with my for real baby doctor. I wasn't in the infertility clinic I was in the waiting room with all the normal women who were also pregnant. I was in the waiting room filled with smiles, laughter and happiness instead of defeat, sadness, and an overwhelming feeling of hopelessness. If you have ever went through infertility you know what I'm talking about. It felt GOOD to be in the "normal" waiting room. Of course our pregnancy is anything but normal and we obviously have a lot of talks about genetics in our near future but my God is in control of that and you know what?!? He's got this!!! I am with an awesome doctor at St.Vincent's hospital and she has a nurse who cares about what happened to us with Ian and I don't feel like just a patient. I feel loved and cared for and I know I am at the right place for this baby and us. That's a good feeling in itself.

So far things with the doctor look good. It was just a normal first visit with your doctor. We did discuss some testing we will be "strongly encouraged" to do. We will be having these tests done. A peace of mind will do wonders for this pregnancy and after these tests there won't be any questions. Please pray for us as we go through these tests and that everything is normal with no chance of health issues. We will go at week 20 and have an ultrasound on the baby's heart. That will be the end of April. At that point we will KNOW that God has once again answered our many prayers and that this baby has a strong and healthy heart. I should be having some of these tests in the next month so feel free to flood the gates of Heaven with prayers for the doctors, nurses,and everyone involved with these tests. But most of all...pray for our sweet and perfect little baby during the tests.

Well, without furthur ado I introduce to you sweet baby Ellis. You can't tell much from this picture but I should be getting another one soon that will look more like a baby. Isn't she/he cute as pie already??? :)