Ultrasound update

Yes, this took me 2 days to write.

CT and I had our ultrasound today (Wednesday)!! Wow- we were so excited and still are. I cried looking at the brain and heartbeat... we hadn't even gotten to the sex of the baby yet! CT took a little video on his phone but I have no idea how to upload that. I'll work on it b/c for some reason none of the pics from the U/S would save on our flash drive. But we're going to try and go back with a different one next week-ish.

So remember how I said I had gained like 3 or 4lbs in about 2 weeks? And it was like I got HUGE all of a sudden. Well, before this ultrasound the baby was measuring 2 days behind my due date, now it's measuring a whoppin' 9 days further ahead! Woah- big baby coming I'm afraid. I've definitely been feeling the stretching in my sides lately too, but I don't mind it one bit. I should probably just eat a bit less. Last night CT was rubbing some Bio Oil on my belly and he said "Are you pushing out your belly on purpose?" I said "I'M NOT!!!" He just started laughing... "Oh... well then it's getting big." ;). I had been telling him for the past couple weeks, I'm never going to make it to June 10th. I just feel enormous!

Enough about my largeness. I woke up this morning and wasn't feeling Tiny Thompson move so I went and ate some fruit... nothing. Drank some juice.... nothing. Ate 2 eggs, toast, and grits.... nothing. So I won't lie. I was getting worried. So as soon as I saw that sweet little heart beating I was crying. I didn't care about anything else. I knew it was silly and I truly have had a peace that the Lord is going to see this pregnancy through- but it was just unusual not to feel it moving.

Later in the U/S he was showing me "This is the femur..." and I said "It's female?" I mean he was of Indian decent so it wasn't like I was listening to someone with my same accent. The doctor looked at me and said "FE-MUR" I was like "yea, thats what I said." He also switched it over to 3D. Um... really cool. Got to see TT's little squishy face! Little cutie pie was opening it's mouth- almost like yawning. GOODNESS! I cannot wait to meet him/her!! I'm getting SO excited about JUNE!!

I promise to post pics of Tiny Thompson as soon as we can get them!

My 20 week shot... sorry, no Wallace. Maybe next time!

(Sorry to those who this this is SUPER immodest, BUT thankfully it's just close friends and family that have this blog. If you're offended by my bare belly pics... um... stop looking at it and make sure your husbands aren't around when you view it!)

Half way there...

20 weeks and 37 weeks

This is my friend Peace. I just love her even though she doesn't like ANY of my animals. She and her hubby got pregnant RIGHT after they got married. After getting use to the fact they are going to be parents they are totally excited about it! They go to our church and are in our home group that meets on Thursday nights. She's about to go soon so i wanted to make sure we got a picture together. I can't wait to find out what they are having! What am I talking about? I can't wait to find out what WE are having!! But we AREN'T GOING TO TELL YOU... so NO ASKING!

Wednesday is the big day. CT and I usually go in the afternoon for our scan and then just go on a date b/c that side of town has some nasty traffic in the evening and he's busy in the morning. So we walk around the mall and window shop till we get hungry (which doesn't take me long). Wednesday we have a churchy dinner meeting and so I wanted to go to that AND go on a date (Yes, I like my cake and want to eat it too). So I asked CT last night what we were going to do. He said "I think we should just make a day out of it!" Yippy! That means we can go for the scan in the morning then date for lunch! I think he's just as excited as I am to find out. He made the comment to me this week "I need something fun this week- I'm glad we're finding out." He's had so much on him, but I gotta brag on him... he's handling it so well. Must be the praying wives. ;) Which by the way our prayer time yesterday was AH-MAZ-ING. We never even got to our workout!

Cravings: CEREAL at NIGHT! I can't get enough of it. Mostly the cereals that aren't awesome for you... those are the ones I want. CT eats right along with me. Love having a snacking buddy. And I'm still obsessing over salads and other veggies.

Gaggers: Dog food. YUCK. Still grosses me out. CT has been great at helping out in that department and he gets up in the night with Wallace who has to take random poo's. Chris has been so sweet to me! Waiting on me and forgiving me when i lose.... EVERYTHING! I could get use to this :)

Poundage: I find it funny that it took me 18 weeks to gain 5lbs and it took me 2 weeks to gain 3lbs. (It's getting harder to see those numbers on the scale too!) Apparently in these last 2 weeks some serious growing took place.

I want to get another picture of Wallace and I together because he is getting so huge. I'll post that in a day or 2.

Some days I STILL CANNOT BELIEVE WE'RE PREGNANT!!! :)

T-MINUS 38 DAYS till we come home!

Wounds- still a bit fresh...

I have this friend at bible study whom I just really click with. We don't know each other super well but we just enjoy each other. She's a cute young mom with 2 little kids 3 and 1. Her husband works for google and so they were recently sent over here. They came in August and just received their container of ALL their stuff from the states. That HAS to be cool to be able to get a whole container of stuff. So maybe if you were thinking about applying to work with Google... you SHOULD!

Any hoots, she and I were sharing our prayer requests Monday at the end of bible study and hers was that she and her hubby are wanting to adopt from The Congo so they have started the process and have a lot of questions. I told her what we had been through and that my desire is to help others not to make the same mistakes we made and to help others in whatever way we could. She said she would definitely be taking me up on that offer. So she emailed me yesterday asking about what we did for a certified copy of our passports along with a few other questions. I could not, for the life of me, remember and so i looked around to find our adoption stuff. I hadn't looked at it since early August. I started digging through looking for our certified copies of our passports. I didn't find it immediately and was already discouraged just thinking about what a waste it all was. I looked up at Chris and said "Do you think we'll ever pick this back up again?" Chris: "I sure hope so." And I just started crying and crying. I didn't realize how fresh this all still is. (Yes, I know I'm hormonal- but this was for real.) Though we are beyond thrilled about this pregnancy it doesn't take away from the pain of our little ones sitting in an orphanage somewhere. Lately, during my morning prayer time, I just keep thinking about that ONE orphanage in Rwanda that has the credentials to adopt out orphans and now what is happening to all those babies that are coming in? They aren't being adopted out now so are they just piling up? I CANNOT stand the thought of this. It frustrates me beyond words. I hope this is what drives me to pick this stuff back up... one day... and try it again. I cannot express to you how discouraging it is to me to look back through the adoption papers wondering if we will ever hold those children in our arms. My heart has not healed. It still aches. Of course there is joy too. My joy is in the Lord and I still trust He has purpose for this.

I just didn't realize how fresh the wounds still are...

...and I wonder how and when they'll be healed enough to start back.

18 weeks is the most fun so far!

I bet all you really want to see is my belly pics ;) Since I haven't posted a bare belly in nearly 6 weeks I gladly oblige and will post them first thing. When I skype with my mother all she wants to do is stare at my belly any way. You guys are a bunch of sicko's. (hehe- just kidding)

So I finally got smart and instead of trying to hold my hand out and contort my wrist in odd positions i set the timer on the camera. So hopefully this is a better view than those chunky ones I had posted at 12 weeks.

So what do you think? Definitely looking like Tiny Thompson ain't so tiny any more. :) This has truly been the BEST week yet. I felt the baby move last Wednesday (Dec 29th) then Chris felt it a week later Wednesday night (Jan 5th). I knew he wanted to feel it but didn't think he would be able to until weeks 22ish. Poor buddy, he tried any way. I really did pray that I would feel the baby move early so that I could feel it for as long as possible. I think I felt it kind of early for my size- I'm no bean pole. Supposedly skinny people feel it sooner. So when my prayer was answered I started praying that CT could feel it soon too. So Wednesday night we were laying in bed and my little jack rabbit was going at it (Thanks for that description Sarah). So I thought- let me just try- "Chris put your hand right here and be really patient". Within 10 seconds he felt it and I didn't even say anything or look at him. He felt it and looked at me sucking in all kinds of air- "I FELT IT!" Yea... REALLY stinkin' cool.

I don't sleep great but I'm completely fine with that. Between the 3 bathroom breaks and the jack rabbit I lay awake... a lot. I LOVE feeling this baby move- i think I'm obsessed. I feel it at night and can't go back to sleep b/c it gets me so excited EVERY TIME IT MOVES. Like right now...moving... I just really love it. Can you tell I love it? It has just made this pregnancy feel so much more real. Like I'm not dreaming.. it's for real. So I've been both giddy this past week and yet very weepy and emotional too. More emotional b/c of ministry stress on my man. The word stress used to never be in his vocabulary. He used to think people abused the word stress. But he admits that he knew not "stress" until he came to Kenya. Without going into detail, things are getting crazier and more stressful. I just don't know how to help him or what I can do. I feel so helpless and as his help mate- this is very hard for me. I pray for him and I don't ever want to downplay that. I'm in a group 2-3 girls who get together and just lift up our men every Friday morning. I really really enjoy that. My friend Sandra is an amazing intercessor and I LOVE to hear her pray. I just try my best to cook him really great food and help him to relax and get his mind off stuff in the evening. He needs to be able to escape from it a bit.

With that being said and the fact that I have been ridiculously homesick since I've been pregnant (even before I actually found out) -we are trying to figure out how we can get home for the month of March. We can speak at churches for more support too. I call my mother for no reason at all. I have nothing at all to talk about- I just miss her! We are praying for enough goods to sell to get home. Since we are coming home more for mental health and personal reasons we're praying that our personal monies will allow this to happen. Again, Sandra has taught me there is nothing too small to pray about so I'm doing a lot more praying these days because our Lord really DOES care about the small things. I really think the Lord is going to provide the money for the tickets and new churches to speak to, so maybe I should now concentrate on praying for a car to drive, gas and grocery money... oh and some WARM maternity clothes to borrow ;) The Helsby's prayed for a place to stay and 1 vehicle and they by the time they were leaving to go home they had 3 houses and 3 big SUV's (for their big ol

fam). See! Told ya God cares.

[Another quick story: Had my first OB apt Tuesday and we got lost on the way there and ended up in the worst traffic. I called the office and told them I wouldn't make it by 3:30 could they see me at 4. The MD could not because she had a meeting at 4. So I just started praying so hard and we pulled into the hospital parking at 3:28 and I ran up to the office in 2 minutes! I really do not know how in the world Chris knew which roads to take. We'd never even driven those roads before!]

It will be our quickest trip home we've had. I know it will fly by. We already have 2 families coming from far away states to see us if we can get home.

MD Appointment:

All is well- I have gained a whoppin' 4.5lbs. I'm eating...a lot people and it's staying down. I don't know if this has anything to do with my obsession with veggies or not. But that is all I crave- salads and veggies. Weird? Yea I know. I'm also not a huge raw tomato eater but I purposely made a tomato hummus pita the other day. Chris was like "What's wrong with you?" Know what I bought yesterday to eat? You're going to need to sit down for this one... PEAS! Yep- gonna make some peas or attempt to make my sister-in-laws famous peas and onions. Ask my mother- I have HATED PEAS MY ENTIRE LIFE. It is the only thing that I wouldn't eat. I'm a weirdo. Oh yea- back to the MD apt. Uterus is measuring appropriately- it's above my belly button. I can now see the bottom of my button- i do not recall having ever seen that in my life. She has okayed me to fly home. On the way back she would like for me to take a baby aspirin to prevent DVT's and something to prevent preterm labor... hmmmm... I'm going to check into that one. She has no issues with the flying- it's mainly the airlines that don't want you flying after 35weeks. All my blood work is fine. I have another U/S about 21weeks and I the glucose test in February. Yes, we will learn the sex of the baby. No, we will not tell you until we see you in March. Come on, don't you want to hear SOMETHING from us face to face?

Well, I suppose that is all the exciting stuff... nope.. nope... 2 more things:

MY MATERNITY CLOTHES ARRIVE IN 2 DAYS!! WOOHOO for pants that fit!! My gauchos can have a rest now. :)

and..... MY PARENTS BOUGHT TICKETS TO COME JUNE 18th!! I cannot believe they are actually coming. And they are SO committed now b/c they have tickets. I'm still having a hard time believing it... oh the power oh grandchildren.