11 weeks

How Far Along: 11 weeks

Size of baby: Fig

Sleep: Really good, because I'm exhausted.

Total Weight Gain: +3.9

Symptoms: SO TIRED, morning sickness in the evenings, round ligament pain

Movement: Baby is moving, but I can't notice it.

Maternity Clothes: Some pants and belly bands

Go-to eats: juice & seltzer water, blueberry waffles with peanut butter & honey

Best moment of the week: I think the morning sickness is starting to subside a bit!

Gender: ? no clue

What I wish people knew: That I'm pregnant. :)

What I’m looking forward to: Movement, being out of the first tri, morning sickness going away

Milestones: Baby is now almost fully formed!

I've been a little anxious this week. My next appointment is tomorrow morning at 10:00; I am hoping to hear the baby's heartbeat. I didn't really think I was that nervous, but I keep having dreams about it and that the doctor can't find it. Just trying to "Be anxious about nothing but in everything, by prayer & petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." Carrying this baby is a blessing, and that is something to be thankful for!

January

My, oh my, where has the time gone? We have been pretty busy, I guess. Let's see...well, January pretty much flew by as we got back into our normal routines after having about three weeks off from most of our activities. Ryan turned 32, and just like every year, I tease him that he is an old man. I found out some new information about a program called "It Takes Two to Talk" by Hanen. Ryan & I will start attending these "classes" for about eight weeks to get more tips on how to help Zooey become even better at her communication.

Zooey is doing really great at her language! Everyone comments on how much she is talking and how good she's doing. People who haven't seen her in over a week are constantly amazed. I prayed for her to have a language explosion, and it looks like God answered that prayer. She loves her SLP, and I think the continued work is really making an impact. In fact, I was told today by the lady from Hanen that Zooey is pretty much where she should be now with the number of words (at least 3-4 word sentences). Now she just needs to work up to being 75-80% intelligible by most adults. We are continuing to work on her speech, which is the pronunciation of words, now.

We enrolled Zooey in preschool for the fall at a wonderful Christian preschool which is right by our house. I am really, really excited for her to go, and when I ask her about it, she is too. We went this morning to drop off some paperwork, and Zooey just wanted to go right then. :)

Zooey is so affectionate! She tells us she loves us, gives us hugs all the time and tells us "it's ok" when something's wrong, while she pats our backs. Whenever she sees RaRa and her big baby belly, she hugs her tummy and tells the baby, "I love you!" Her favorite things right now are play-doh, her LeapPad, books (she recently let me read her the "Eloise Wilken Stories," a 206 page book!), her Bible and devotionals (she always wants to read these), BSF (she gives her teacher a hug and tells her "Hi Teacher! Love you Teacher!" and, of course, Chick-Fil-A, except she always says, "Chick-Fil-A No COW!" She is a spunky, adorable, lovable, fun sweet little girl.

10 weeks

How Far Along: 10 weeks

Size of baby: kumquat

Sleep: Good, thanks to the Unisom the doctor said to take for the morning sickness

Total Weight Gain: +3.9

Symptoms: belly's getting bigger sooner this time than with Zooey; morning sickness (worst in evenings, just like with Zooey); headaches; some round ligament pain; exhaustion

Movement: Although baby is stretching, doing somersaults and rolls, it's still too soon to feel it.

Maternity Clothes: pants & belly bands

Go-to eats: lemonade

Best moment of the week: I don't know why, but 10 weeks feels like an accomplishment of some sort. Perhaps because most of baby's critical development is complete.

Gender: Who knows but God :)

What I wish people knew: That I'm sorry if I seem so disconnected or seem like a bad friend. I just get so tired sometimes I can't focus. I wish I could tell my sweet Zooey a definite time I'd be feeling better and that she could understand that it breaks my heart when I can't play with her like I used to when I feel so sick. Thankfully, she's a very sweet girl who says, "It's ok Mommy. Feel better."

What I’m looking forward to: The end of morning sickness, the second trimester, movement, hearing the heartbeat on the doppler (hopefully before or at my next appointment on 3/1)

Milestones: The most critical portion of Baby's development is complete.

I am finding it harder to bond early with this baby than I did with Zooey. I am still praying for the baby and want him/her to develop well and am at times very excited for him/her to join our family, it's just harder to bond. I don't know why? Maybe because the morning sickness is so much worse than it was with my first pregnancy, maybe it's because Zooey keeps me so busy, I don't know. I'm praying that God helps me bond with the baby and grows him/her to be strong, healthy and smart. I have a feeling that once I first feel those movements, the bond will grow.

Zooey has started putting her Little People in her shirt and saying there's a baby in her tummy but they're too small to come out. :) I think she gets more than we even think she does. She's so cute! The other day, she was praying, "Thank You God, Mommy, Daddy. Thank You God baby mommy's tummy." She pats my belly and says, "It's ok, baby," and "No throw up, feel better Mommy." I think she's going to be a great, loving big sister. She's very nourturing and empathetic.

9 weeks

How Far Along: 9 weeks

Size of baby: grape

Sleep: off and on, but mostly ok

Total Weight Gain: 3 lbs

Symptoms: nausea, exhaustion, migraines

Movement: Baby is moving, but too early to feel

Maternity Clothes: Bella band and some pants

Go-to eats: This week I felt pretty barfy but at the same time was craving Cheetos, then little Zooey also suggested a Slurpee. SO UNHEALTHY I KNOW - but you know what? They totally made my nausea go away. Also, lemonade

Best moment of the week: Having a compassionate nurse call me back with an action plan for my migraines that was more than Tylenol and caffeine.

Gender: What's weird: I "think" it's a girl, but I call it a boy.

What I wish people knew: That I'm not just getting fat, there's a baby inside me lol

What I’m looking forward to: Getting out of the first tri and movement.

Milestones: Baby's external sex organs are formed but too early to see, baby's brain is now developing rapidly, baby looks more "human"

My Faithful, Comforting God

One of the things I'd forgotten about pregnancy is the migraines. I have had one since yesterday morning (it's now 2:25). I've kind of kep it at bay off and on since then, but last night I woke up in intense pain and had to take one of my migraine pills. I worried about and prayed about it and felt it was the best thing to do. Then this morning, I prayed for peace. I announced my pregnancy to my small group at BSF today, because I am not sure how much longer I'll be in their group and when I'll move to leader's. After group, a sweet lady came up to me and said the Lord gave her a verse for me. She said when I announced it, God spoke to her and said, "She will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living." (It comes from Ps. 27:13.) Then she said, "God wants you to know this pregnancy is a blessing and you're going to have a healthy baby." Then she prayed over me. What a sweet blessing! I just sat down to listen to my lecture and was reading the opening from this morning. The TL spoke on fear. She said:

"When we are in fear we can do nothing less than pray to God, but Our Lord has a right to expect that those who name His Name should have an understanding confidence in Him. God expects His children to be so confident in Him that in any crisis they are the reliable ones. Our trust is in God up to a certain point, then we go back to the elementary panic prayers of those who do not know God. We get to our wits’ end, showing that we have not the slightest confidence in Him and His government of the world; He seems to be asleep, and we see nothing but breakers ahead."

Then:

"We have been talking a great deal about sanctification – what is it all going to amount to? It should work out into rest in God which means oneness with God, a oneness which will make us not only blameless in His sight, but a deep joy to Him."

I believe God has my best in mind. It is so sweet to know that even when I falter in my faith and give into fear that He is still there to reassure me that He will never let me go, even in a true crisis.

December

December was an interesting month for our family. Ryan got deployed for Hurricane Sandy Relief on November 10. He was gone until December 20! I was doing a lot of single-mom'ing it. Thankfully, family lives here, and they helped me to not feel as lonely while he was away. That being said, it was obviously very busy. Since I wasn't hanging out with him at night, I had time to make a lot of Christmas gifts and even some decorations for the house. We kept busy and missed him a lot, and we're very thankful he got to be home with us for Christmas. It was a big answer to prayer.

Here's what Zooey was up to:
~ After not being into coloring as much, she resumed her love for it. She started coloring people, mostly circles, sometimes with dots for eyes. She likes to draw Mommy, Daddy & Zooey.
~ She had a lot of speech and language growth this month. The SLP who is her BSF leader and her SLP at school noticed a big change this month with lots more language and better pronunciation. She started using 5-6 word sentences more frequently.
~ The SLP also noticed she's gotten much more purposeful in her play. I noticed this, too. She's very imaginitive and has a definite focus and goal in what she's doing.
~ She loves the fingerplays she's learning at BSF and wants to sing them all the time.
~ When I took her to see Santa, she told me she was going to ask Santa for a kiss from Daddy and for Daddy to come home. :)
~ Christmas was so much different for her this year. She knew just what to do and loved opening gifts and playing with them. She liked to say, "Ho Ho Ho! Merry Christmas!" Like any kid, she also grabbed a couple of my gifts and tore into them, as well. :)

I thought a lot about gratitude and living every moment to it's fullest this month. I sat watching the news about the tragedy this month in Newtown, CT. I bawled. I could not wrap my head around how someone could do something so senseless...so evil...to little children. My heart wrenches in grief for those poor parents (& siblings & other family members) every time I think about it.

Some days, I am not very patient with Zooey. I yell. I get mad about stupid things that Ryan's (normal, healthy) response to is: "She's three." I rush her out the door to get places in the morning and I sometimes rush her down to bed at night, so I can have some "me" time. I do not wish to make these people's pain all about me, but I have to say, since this is Zooey's monthly update, I have a fresh appreciation for all those little things that drive me nuts. For HER and who she is. These days, I have snuggled her a little longer, tried to laugh when things don't go exactly the way my control-freak mind thinks they should and tried to let her be three.

God, have mercy on those poor families back east. Comfort them today, tomorrow and in all the minutes and seconds they're going to endure from here on out without their sweet babies.

Week 8

This has been a rough week morning sickness-wise. I feel much sicker than I did with Zooey and even asked my doctor for something to take. She suggested Unisom & Vitamin B6 at night, but I have had some really rough days where I think I may call back and ask for some Zofran for the evenings. I think part of what makes it worse is that I'm running around more, whereas with Zooey I sat down most of the day. However, I am grateful I have these symptoms to remind me God is knitting together a little baby inside.

A friend told me this week that with her second baby she started wearing maternity clothes at 11 weeks, compared to 16 weeks with her first. I am at that stage where I feel uncomfortably bloated and have started to wear my BellaBand, completely skipping the rubberband trick (except for one day).

How Far Along: 8 weeks

Size of baby: raspberry

Sleep: off and on, I wake up feeling sick even with the Unisom

Total Weight Gain:

Symptoms: SUPER nausea, SUPER exhausted

Movement: too early

Maternity Clothes: After battling the uncomfortable bloat and bigger belly than last time, I broke down and started wearing some maternity pants and my belly band.

Go-to eats: Everything sounds disgusting, so I just eat what sound "ok" in the moment.

Best moment of the week: getting another week further

Gender: I think girl.

What I wish people knew: That I'm not fat, I'm pregnant. :)

What I’m looking forward to: Getting out of this first trimester and getting some energy back.

Milestones: Baby has webbed fingers & toes, eyelids to practically cover his/her eyes, primitive neural pathways forming in the brain.