First Midwife Appointment

I am 11 weeks and 4 days pregnant today and had my first appointment with my midwife, Kyanna, this afternoon. It was great! She did a sonogram (again, unexpected since they never did that at the regular appointments in my last pregnancy) so I got to see Baby and was given some pictures to take home. Baby was super active moving all over the place while Kyanna was trying to get some basic measurements. It was so awesome to see! Also, I told Richard last night that my appointment was at 3pm today and to try to be available for a phone call around that time if he could. Where he is at training he only gets cell phone reception in certain places, and not in any buildings, so he kept walking outside to check in with me every few minutes until we were ready to listen to the heartbeat via doppler. Baby's heart was thumping about 170 beats per minute and Richard was able to hear it on speakerphone. (Next best thing to being there, right?)

My next appointment will be September 27, my birthday!, so I will definitely update again then if not before.

Done?, Airport Trip, Testing

After my wonderous hospital experience I had a couple days of stomach turmoil and yuckiness but now... I think... I might be done with the morning sickness phase!?!?!! About the last four days I have been HUNGRY and eating like a champ. I feel a tad bit queasy at night still but it is barely noticeable. I even worked out a couple days ago and went for a neighborhood walk last night; it was amazing. It was so awesome to have my dear friend Meredith here for almost a week too. She was an immense help with Lil A and the pups when I was feeling bad, and then we were able to play and have fun when I magically felt good all of a sudden. Ava and I took Mere back to the airport and kind of made a day of the trip. I took a bunch of books for the ride and when we stopped in Topeka on the way I got her a new book and a See 'n Say that spins and makes a bunch of animal sounds. We had lunch and Ava got some playground time in the mall on the way. We stopped in Topeka on the way back, too, for an early supper and a little leg stretching. 2+ hours each way is a long time for a 20 month old to endure the carseat. She gets genuinely bored now (and probably uncomfortable sitting in the seat for so long). Long gone are the days of sleeping peacefully for hours straight on our road trips. Makes the idea of our upcoming winter road trip to GA seem like a very daunting task right now.
Anyway, I am loving this stage in Ava's life. She is SO smart and constantly learning and trying to figure out new things. Everywhere we go she is pointing at things, identifying them or wanting to. I think she pointed out every boy and girl at the mall today. We saw one little boy carrying a sippy cup and Ava said "Boy!" followed by "cup" and then "juice please." She is making so many connections, it's crazy. She has also started testing me a little more in the last few days. For example, her recorder and tamborine were on the kitchen floor and she walked over and stood on her tamborine with both feet. I said, "Ava, you don't need to step on your tamborine. You might break it. Don't step on your tamborine." She looked at me and lightly stepped on it with one foot. I said, "Ava, you need to listen to Mama. I said not to step on your tamborine. Look at me. If you step on it again you will get a spankin because you're not listening." So she stood there for a second and then lightly stepped on the recorder instead. Seriously!? "Ava, you don't need to step on your tamborine or your recorder. We don't step on our toys because we might break them." She stood there another few seconds and then very slowly and lightly touched her foot to the tamborine again. So she got a little spankin, cried it out for a minute, and then moved on. Lesson learned: Mama means business and she really will do what she says. I really need to listen. CONSISTENCY IS THE KEY! (No matter where we are or what we're doing.)

ER Trip With a Silver Lining

So I've talked some about my nausea in previous posts. I said that it was definitely present and annoying but not debilitating and not constant puking. When I did throw up I would feel a little better and would be able to eat again. Well... as of Saturday morning all of that changed. I didn't keep down anything I ate all day. I slept literally half the day with no energy to function. (Thank goodness it was the weekend and Richard was home.) Sunday morning God granted me a reprieve just long enough to sing at church and then it was back to throwing up the rest of the day. Richard left for JRTC (for a month) at 4am today. I got up when he did so I could eat a snack and see him off. Well about 20 minutes after getting back in bed I lost that aforementioned snack. Breakfast and morning snack went the same way. I turned on a DVD for Ava and went back to bed. At this point I was feeling exhausted and achy on top of the nausea. Finally I called my friend Anne-Marie to come and get Ava. She took her for the day to play with her son, Carter. I slept a lot more and tried nursing down some chicken broth, crackers, and Powerade Zero with some success for a little while but then it all came back up again. Finally I decided I needed some help so I went to the Emergency Room (6:45pm at this point). The doctor said I was not deathly dehydrated to where he would demand that I get IV fluids but that I could definitely benefit from them, so that's what I did. After about an hour of IV fluids and some Zofran I felt much better. During the IV process the nurse came in with an ultrasound machine to see if she could check out Baby. (This was totally unexpected as I am only 9 weeks and 4 days along and they practically never do "unnecessary" ultrasounds at this hospital.) Well it was awesome. The picture was not clear at all and the nurse's sleeve was blocking my view half the time but I got to see Baby's little flutter of a heartbeat! 136 beats per minute. And to top it all off, Richard called to check in while I was there and I got to fill him in on everything. I don't know how I'm going to make it through the last month of this trimester without him but I'm taking it one day at a time. And I've got awesome girlfriends around who are always willing to help. In fact, my BFF and college roommate Meredith is flying in tomorrow afternoon! This trip was planned before I even knew I was pregnant but now it's as though God knew I would need a little extra help with Richard gone. :)

So now I am home and am about to attempt to eat some cereal or something. My neighbor Emily took BB and Pancake to her house to play with their dog Sookie while I was at the hospital. They are worn out now. :) Ava had an absolutely awesome day at Anne-Marie's house and is spending the night there. All I have left to do is rest and recover. It's weird and quiet without Richard and Ava here.

Anyway, despite the obvious yuckiness of the past couple days I have experienced blessings as well. I know the Lord will provide for my ever-changing needs. I am so thankful for my friends. I so love my husband and am looking forward to our family time when he gets home before the deployment. I love my sweet girl Ava and can't wait to see her tomorrow!

Long Overdue Videos

6-10-10 Reading & Getting Situated on Pancake

7-6-10 Feeding Fallow Deer at KC Zoo


7-7-10 Hotel Workout

7-27-10 Pool Talkin'

8-4-10 Chasing BB

8-8-10 Scowling & Singing

First Appointment

Well I had my first appointment at the OB clinic today. I filled out tons of paperwork (personal info, medical history, etc), got some informational papers and a booklet about how things will go throughout my pregnancy at the hospital here, got my baseline height and blood pressure, and did my initial blood tests and urinalysis. My due date is March 17, just as I had already calculated.

I will have my first appointment with my midwife August 30, at which time she will do a physical exam and use the doppler to hear Baby's heartbeat! That's the appointment I'm looking forward to, although I'm a little bummed that Richard is going to miss hearing the heartbeat for the first time. (He missed that with Ava too.) He'll be at a month long training out of state in preparation for this next deployment. I'm really hoping he will be here for the ultrasound appointment around 20 weeks!

I've been feeling a lot better. I feel mostly normal in the morning, start getting a little queasy in the afternoon, and often feel the worst at night. But I've found that if I keep eating... constantly... and never let my stomach get empty, it's much more tolerable.

Obviously, since you're reading this right now, this whole thing is not a big secret. However, we're not quite going facebook public yet, so thanks for keeping any pregnancy comments off my wall, hehe. I guess that's about it for now. I will definitely update again on the 30th if not before. And I have some video of Ava that I need to get on here. :)