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Thanks for all your prayers! And thanks, Holly, for keeping Caleb for me at the last minute; you're a great friend!!

I just got home from the hospital (it's 8:30pm). They put me on IV fluids and gave me a couple of shots of Zofran in the IV to help with the nausea. I do feel better...thank goodness. They ran some blood work and did an ultrasound just to make sure there wasn't anything wrong with my placenta. Everything was fine, and I got an early peek at the baby!! :-)

I wasn't able to eat much at the hospital, but I was able to keep some food down, so that's an improvement! They put me on a new nausea medicine that melts on my tongue because I kept throwing up the other one.

It's been a crazy day. My poor husband is somewhere over the Pacific Ocean praying for me and probably worrying himself silly.

I'm off to bed early tonight, and hoping that tomorrow is nausea-free. :-)

Please Pray

I can't stop throwing up. My sister is taking Justin to the airport right now because he's leaving for Singapore today. I told God I couldn't do this today. I did sleep last night, but I've been throwing up since last night and I haven't had anything on my stomach since yesterday.

Please, please pray that this goes away or they can figure out what's wrong. I just can't do this much longer. My doctor's office opens in a few minutes, so I'm going to give them a call.

Update: I'm headed to the hospital for IV fluids once my sister gets back from the airport.

Guess Who's Coming To Visit

My sister! She, Kurt, and Ava are on their way to our house right now!!! Kurt is working here for a few days, and Kimberly and Ava get to hang out with us. I'm so excited!!! I'll be sure to get some good pics of Caleb and his sweet cousin.

17-week check-up

Well, my doctor is officially concerned about my weight loss. I lost 3 pounds since my last visit, and at almost 18 weeks, that's not good. She's checking my thyroid levels again (I have hypothyroidism) because if they bounce around, that can make me nauseous (apparently). She also said people with a history of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) can have some acid reflux issues, so she wants me to take a Pepcid AC before every meal to help minimize the acid. I hope it helps!

On a happier note, the baby's heart rate is good and my belly is growing like it should. Everything with the baby is good so far. My next appointment is May 22, which will be my ultrasound and we'll find out if we're having a girl or a boy. We haven't even discussed names yet. Actually, I should be more clear. I keep trying to bring it up, but Justin doesn't want to talk about names yet. When we had Caleb, we had a girl's name and a boy's name picked out before the ultrasound. Justin thought we were having a girl (which was news to me) and really liked our girl name. When we found out we were having a boy, he couldn't live with the name we had picked out. So, I guess he's just trying to be safe and decide on a name after we have it firm in our minds whether we're expecting a son or a daughter. I can live with that. :-)

And So I Thought It Was Over...

Apparently when I wrote on my pregnancy calendar last week, "nausea gone," someone was laughing because that definitely would not be the end of it. Yesterday was B.A.D. Maybe my body thought I had some toxins that needed to be purged. I'm pretty sure we accomplished that. I have a check-up today, so we'll see what the doctor says. At some point I need to start gaining weight; so far I have only lost (almost 20 pounds in the last 4 months). I know some women experience nausea throughout pregnancy and many have it much worse than I do, so it could be much worse.

I have medicine for nausea, but I don't take it often because I don't feel nauseous until there is food in front of me or in my mouth. I usually start eating normal meals and end up with a bowl of cereal, which is the only thing that always goes down well. The food aversions are still very strong. When I was pregnant with Caleb, I felt bad until about 13 weeks and then magically I had energy and could eat whatever I wanted without feeling sick.

Yesterday, thankfully, my dad was in town and was able to come over until Justin could get home from work. What a husband I have...he cancelled a meeting and came home mid-morning to take care of me! He also did all the dishes and took Caleb out to dinner so I could rest some more. I couldn't ask for anything more!

I'm ready to start feeling better so I can make the trip to see my niece. My sister reminded me that I haven't seen her since she was 5 weeks old, and she's 13 weeks now. I'm kind of a sorry excuse for an aunt right now!

Here's a picture we took on Saturday. It's not a great shot, but it's my first belly pic for this pregnancy.


If you compare that to this horrid picture we took in Hawaii in December (where I was showing off the souvenir mud from our lovely hike), you can tell how much weight I've lost, especially in my face.


My sister, who for at least the last ten years has weighed less than me, let me borrow some of her maternity clothes (the ones that were the right season) At the beginning of this pregnancy, I couldn't fit into a single pair of her pants because they were too small, but since I have this nifty weight-loss plan, they are fitting great.

Scheduling My Child

I am feeling better, if you couldn't tell by the increase in posting around here! :-) Thank you for your prayers and calls and emails. I'm still not where I was in my second trimester with Caleb, but things are definitely looking up! That is a GOOD thing.

I was reading an old post of Katherine's today, which she linked to in this current post. It's about scheduling toddlers. I have fought this so hard. I feel pressure to get Caleb involved in gymnastics and swim class already. Sure it would be fun and it would get us out of the house, but I really hesitate to start scheduling activities for him already. He's only 19 months old, for pete's sake. AND, we're about to add a baby to the family, which would curtail all scheduled activities while mommy recovers and we all adjust to the new addition.

Am I alone in thinking we can start too early with the scheduling? I know gymnastics classes are harmless, but when does it stop?

I just want to enjoy my baby while he's a baby. We can play gymnastics in the living room...Caleb does every single day. We can play soccer in the back yard and be creative at the kitchen table (eating play-doh is the new favorite thing around here). Hey, we can even go for a walk down to the pond and feed the ducks. (Now that mommy's feeling better!)

I know not everybody feels this way. We all have different approaches to parenting. I just want to enjoy this time that Caleb is young and not be stressed out from trying to make it to this or that activity. On time. With a toddler.

Thoughts, anyone? (I'll step down off my soap box now.)

A Few Recent Pictures

The snow at Easter. This was just the beginning, but I can't believe it was so cold!


Caleb in the bluebonnets the weekend before Easter. Something was really funny!

At Daddy's work egg hunt. Caleb was much more interested in the bsketball they gave him than the egg hunt.

Dad's Surgery *Updated*

My Dad is having surgery today. Back in August, he had surgery to remove a tumor from behind his ear drum for the second time in 4 years. The surgery was extensive and they had to remove his hearing bones(s) in the process. As a result, he has had no hearing in his left ear since then. Today he is having surgery to rebuild the ear canal and replace the hearing bone(s). After a lifetime of ear/hearing problems and several serious surgeries, our prayer is that Dad's hearing returns to better than his normal and the tumor never returns.

He sure would love to hear every word his grandson says.

Would you say a prayer for him today?

Update: Thanks for praying! Dad's surgery went well. They did not have to do the radical procedure since the tumor had not grown back, and they were able to rebuild part of one hearing bone and put in a prosthetic for the other one. His hearing should be better today and get progressively better over the next 4 weeks. We sure hope so!

Birthday Meme

I was tagged by Carol to do this fun birthday meme.

The rules are:

1) Go to Wikipedia
2) In the search box, type your birth month and day but not the year.
3) List three events that happened on your birthday
4) List two important birthdays and one death
5) One holiday or observance (if any)
6) Tag 5 other bloggers to complete

December 2

EVENTS:

1. 1942 - Manhattan Project: A team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction.
2. 1954 - Red Scare: The United States Senate votes 65 to 22 to condemn Joseph McCarthy for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute."
3. 1976 - Fidel Castro becomes President of Cuba replacing Osvaldo Dorticós Torrado.
4. 1982 - Michael Jackson's album, Thriller, is released.
5. 2001 - Enron files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

BIRTHDAYS:
1. 1973 - Monica Seles, Yugoslavian-born tennis player
2. 1978 - Nelly Furtado, Canadian singer and songwriter

DEATH:
1. 1986 - Desi Arnaz, Cuban-born actor, musician, band leader, and composer (b. 1917)

HOLIDAY:
International Day for the Abolition of Slavery - United Nations

I learned so many cool things that happened on my birthday.

I'm tagging:
My sister, because she needs more to do!
Lisa, and anyone else who wants to play along.

It's pretty interesting to see what has happened on the day of your birth!

A Sweet Friend

Yesterday I had the privilege of meeting with a sweet friend of mine for about an hour at my house. I asked her to come over and talk because I was in need of some encouragement. She's got about 12 years on me and 14+ years of parenting 3 kids, and I needed to hear from someone who's been in the "trenches" with small ones and has come out on the other side. I admire this friend so much because of her devotion to God's Word and her sweet spirit.

She cut right to the point and said, "How can I help you?" What a blessing. She listenened to me recount all I've been feeling lately (physical and otherwise), and offered great advice. Everything she said was something I already knew, but I needed to hear it all again. (Actually it's stuff you've all been saying, too, but it helps to have someone face-to-face saying, "It's OKAY! You're not SuperMom and Caleb will survive all of this!")

This morning that same friend emailed me and said she could go to the grocery store for me today if I needed that.

I love this friend because I know that she will always ask me if I've been in God's Word. She will always be encouraging to me and love on me and be straight with me.

Thank you all for your amazing support. God has been sending people to this blog to encourage me and pray for me, and I couldn't be more grateful for that. As much as I hate to ask for help, I've needed it lately.

I may be one of the last people to find out Beth Moore and her daughter, Amanda, have a blog, but I've been so blessed by what they've written there. Yesterday, Beth posted about being a young mom and the power of other moms in her life. It's worth a read.

Quick Update

Well, things here are about the same. Some days I feel pretty good, and other days, like yesterday, Justin has to come home early because I'm sick and laying on the couch all day. The sweet girls from our Life Group at church are bringing us dinner every other day this week and next, which is a HUGE blessing. Poor Caleb wants to be outside all the time but his mommy doesn't feel like it. He wants me to put on his shoes and then says, "bye bye," which means, "let's go outside now."

In other news, we spent Easter at my parent's house in central Texas where it snowed 2 inches and knocked the power out over night. I've never had an Easter quite like that! I'll post some pictures whenever my mom emails them to me from her camera (hint, hint). I have never seen so much snow in Texas; the flakes were enormous, and the next day the trees and fields were all covered. It was beautiful! (strange, but beautiful)

I'm trying to get back to doing a Bible study regularly. Now that Caleb only takes one nap a day, I have to decide what to do during his naptime...rest, take a shower, or do my Bible study. If I got up earlier, all this would take care of itself, but I can't seem to make that happen. We'll see.

In the meantime, if you have any super easy recipes, feel free to share. If and when I ever make it back to the grocery store, I'll start cooking for us again!