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If you're reading this, and you obviously are. * grins*
Please, drop us an e-mail at blitch@nktelco.net
UPDATE: She has arrived, take a look at her
first web page, and maybe even her first
year gallery.
20030404 ~ Added a page to this website with
Jake's recommendations to Lauren.
20030401 ~ Continuing the countdown. One (1) week from today
is the scheduled c-section date. I continue to love this time
off! Jake seems to be showing some kinds of signs like he is
really getting a little antsy for this whole thing. He woke up at
least 5 times last night. Each time saying I think it's April
now. Poor daddy was exhausted! I was up each time also, but
I just can't leap out of bed as quick anymore! *grins*
As for me, I have started having Braxton Hicks contractions fairly
often. Most of which are not really anything but
uncomfortable. Every once in a while there is one or two that take
my breath away for a moment.
My last OB appointment was with the nurse midwife, since my primary
OB was out of the office. She said I was high, tight and hard,
meaning I'm not making a whole lot of progress. This was last
Friday. My next appointment is tomorrow with the OB partner of my
OB, because my OB is still out and will be until the day before my
scheduled c-section. I'm really starting to wonder if I am just
going to go for the scheduled c-section or whether nature will intervene
and things will go a little differently. I "think" I am
ok with either. As you all know my main concern is that Lauren and
I are healthy! I am praying for a beautiful birth, whatever it
is!
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 38 weeks 4 days]
20030325 ~ Continuing the countdown. Two (2) weeks from today
is the scheduled c-section date. My to-do list doesn't have
as many check marks on it as I had "planned." But I feel
wonderful, because the real reason I needed this time is getting
accomplished! I have had such wonderful time to bond with Lauren;
extra special times with Jake, and time of just plain relaxation for
me. God is so good!
Joe and I had a wonderful conversation two evenings ago. I was
asking him from his perspective what this time is like for him. I
mean I know how this is for me, and how wonderful! ... Don't get
me wrong, I could focus on all the discomforts and on the outcomes,
etc. But I am choosing to focus on the great side ~ and there
really are so many! Anyway, I was really wondering since Joe
cannot feel the baby moving constantly, etc, is this time hard for him
or ... He is just an awesome husband and awesome daddy! Yes, he is
looking forward to him being able to be with Lauren; but he is really
happy to see me, Jake and Lauren where we're at right now. He
also, (just like a man), sees this as a necessary part of the
process. So he knows there is nothing he can do about it, and just
has peace about that! I could just see how much he loves his
family, in this conversation; and I must tell God thank you for giving
our family such a wonderful man!
Let's see, here is the update from my last OB appointment. Good
news: my blood pressure has gone down. Mind you, it was not
high (according to the averages), but it was high for me. More
good news: Lauren is moving wonderfully, and her heart rate was
good and strong! Not so good news: I test positive for Group
B Strep. But God is in control, and at this point the only thing I
can do is trust Him, that His protection is with Lauren and
I!
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 37 weeks 4 days]
20030318 ~ Continuing the countdown. Three (3) weeks from today
is the scheduled c-section date. Tonight Jake, Daddy and I will go to the hospital for their
sibling class. Jake is so ready for this! After that, I
begin the final stretch of checking off things on my to do list before
our newest little one arrives!
As for me, yesterday was officially my first full day of maternity
leave. And God just blessed me with the most awesome day! I
was able to take 3 walks! It was in the high 60s. I know
that does not sound that amazing, but our weather of late has been so
miserable! Thank you, so much God! Oh and I should give you an update on my last OB
appointment. All is good, her heart rate was great, she is moving
good, etc. But I have very definitely swollen a lot and
while my blood pressure is still not high, it has jumped a lot from my
pre-pregnancy measurement. So Dr. Chung wanted to see me again on
Monday or Wednesday of this week (I chose Wednesday [tomorrow]), then he said they
will be scheduling another ultrasound. So, yippee, I get another peak
in at Lauren's little world right now.
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 36 weeks 4 days]
20030311 ~ Continuing the countdown. Four (4) weeks from today
is the scheduled c-section date. My mom came up for a short visit
from Atlanta to have some special Grandma/Grandson time with Jake before
the baby arrives. This is such a special treat! I thank God
for making it available!
As for me, I will have my routine OB appointment this Thursday and I
would really love it if we could sneak in an ultrasound. I would
just love to have one more peak into her little world right
now! I seem to be going from 'I'm doing great!' to 'I can
hardly move.' in a matter of hours and lots of time the transition seems
to come in the middle of the night. I am also convinced that I pee
twice as much through the night compared to during the day, even though
all my water consumption is during the day. Why is
that? Ah the mysteries of pregnancy.
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 35 weeks 4 days]
20030304 ~ Continuing the countdown. Five (5) weeks from today
is the scheduled c-section date.
As for me, I am just so in awe of this whole pregnancy! I love
(really love) feeling Lauren inside of me. She nudges me.
She squirms. She ripples. All-in-all, I just feel like it is
my special time with her. And it my little window into her
personality! I just feel so privileged to have the honor of
carrying this life within!
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 34 weeks 4 days]
20030225 ~ Continuing the countdown. Six (6) weeks from today is
the scheduled c-section date. Lauren has officially developed a
real pattern to her active times. Actually she has had this for a
while, I suspect, it is just that I am now taking the time to notice
it. She seems to be most active 3 times a day, right about wake up
time (6ish), a little before lunch (11:30ish), a little after supper
(6:30ish), and at night time (9ish) and then sometime in the middle of
the night (around 2 or 3ish).
As for me, my swelling has kick into major gear this last week.
It had started on a mild basis earlier. But now it is to the point
of pain. It hurts to type because my fingers are so big. It
hurts to walk because my feet feel like they are tearing. But I am
so thankful for the privilege to still be caring this precious life,
that I can't even get a little upset about it!
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 33 weeks 4 days]
20030218 ~ Beginning the countdown. Seven (7) weeks from today
is the scheduled c-section date. We now have the crib up. (Thanks
to a surprise Daddy and Jake did this Sunday, which literally brought
tears to my eyes!) Most of the house has been decluttered. A
lot of the decluttered items need to get to Goodwill. The nearly
foot of snow that we got this weekend kept that from happening.
And we need diapers. Other than that, we are pretty ready
for our little girl to arrive!
As for me, I am feeling big. She is quite high still. By
mid-day my back aches pretty bad. But the birthing ball has proved
to be a God-send in this area as well! Despite running a
humidifier on high every night in our room, I still have a very dry
nose. I had this with Jake, too, and really don't remember if this
passed before he was born or not. Also, I officially had to remove
my rings this weekend due to swelling. So I am now wearing my
wedding and engagement rings on my "Mother's" necklace.
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 32 weeks 4 days]
20030210 ~ The date has been set!!!: Received a call from my OB's office. They wanted to
schedule the c-section. My doctor wanted it around week 39.
Since that occurs on a Saturday, they were going to have to err on the
side of waiting a little extra or going a little early. Since
going a little early would have put us at April 1st, and because I
want to give this baby every opportunity to be ready for delivery, we
erred on the side of waiting a little extra. So the big date is
... Tuesday, April 8th, 2003.
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 31 weeks 3 days]
20030117 ~ Wow! Where does the time go! I suppose I
should update you on the whole cardiologist thing. I have to say I
was VERY disappointed with the care I received. It literally took
2 1/2 weeks for the doctor to even read the tests that she
ordered. Bottom line, though, as I had trusted, all will be fine,
and she does not feel we should medicate at this time.
Lauren is doing awesome! Moving, moving, moving. Honestly
she has very little quiet time. It is nice, though, because she is
not jabbing me in the ribs, yet. She's moving to point where you
can see it from the outside of my belly as well. A little bit of a
freaky looking thing.
I'm looking forward to this weekend. Joe is going to a men's
meeting at church on Saturday, and Jake and I are going to drive the 2
hours to visit my sister-in-law and their 5 kids. Then my
sister-in-law, her 4 year old daughter, Jake and I are going to drive
another 1/2 hour or so to go to the outlets! I am so blessed
to not really "need" anything. So this is just for fun
shopping. And sometimes that is the best kind. Jake is
calling this "4 Year Olds take Your Mommies Shopping
Day."
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 28 weeks]
20021227 ~ I sure am a site for sore eyes today. I am hooked to
a 24 hour electronic halter heart monitor. Yesterday I went to the
cardiologist, and while she is fairly sure we are dealing with the same
thing as we were with my last pregnancy (the 2 leaking valves in my
heart), she did want to repeat the same tests to be able to compare them
to what my results were over 4 years ago, just to be sure there is no
significant change. So yesterday she performed an EKG in her
office and they worked me in for an ECG (ultrasound of the heart).
The technician was wonderful, even though it was very near the end of
her day, she was kind enough to offer to take a peak at the baby.
Of course, that was the highlight for me!
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 25 weeks]
20021219 ~ Well if the old wives tale is true, "Lauren"
(oh, did I mention, we think we have picked a name?) has been busy
growing some hair over the last couple of days, 'cause boy has my
heartburn set in. ;-)
Oh and an update on the "kids" room. We finished
painting it. Ironically the color we chose - "pale
sunshine", turns out to be very very little different than the off
white color that was already on the walls, other than the one
wallpapered wall. It was literally hard to tell if we missed any
spots. ... Sure was a lot of work, though. Ah well, it's the
thought that counts. Because all the furniture is back in the
room, so I will just have to accessorize to pull out some of the
color.
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 23 weeks 6 days]
20021213 ~ Had my first official trip to the Labor and Delivery area
of our local hospital. It was no fun; but the end result is
good. The baby and I were monitored. The baby is doing
well. But my heart was not doing as good. My pulse was
racing just lying in their hospital bed. The doctor on call and my
OB both agreed it is time to call in a cardiologists to reassess if we
should treat or not. So I have an appointment with the
cardiologist on December 26th.
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 23 weeks]
20021210 ~ We worked all yesterday evening stripping wallpaper.
Didn't quite finish it, but made great progress. I was really
blessed because when I got home, Joe had already moved all the furniture
in Jake's room and was hard at work with his son! They both are
such wonderful helps! Another wonderful thing happened last night;
Joe got to feel the baby kick! Such an awesome reminder of life!
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 22 weeks 4 days]
20021209 ~ Well, I've done it. Once I get something in my head,
I tend to want to get right to doing it. So, I started stripping
wallpaper in the "kids" room. (Gotta get used to saying that!
;-) We even went out and bought the paint (a very very pail
buttery yellow). I'm thinking we're going to move all the Veggie
Tale decor down to the play room and decorate that room in the primary
colors that used to be in Jake's room. This was honestly just an idea I
had that I needed to "soften" the room up a bit and maybe make
an area that was a little more girlish. It turned from just an
idea into action pretty quickly though. Now I'm thinking about
buying fabric for curtains, etc etc. It's fun,
though!
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 22 weeks 3 days]
20021205 ~ The ultrasound report: it was just awesome!!! The baby looks wonderful! Very active, as I had suspected! Although the baby was head up, face up when we started then almost immediately flipped and we were looking at its spine/toosh. ... The ultrasound technician said,
"wow, did you feel that?" I said, "nope." That was only the beginning almost every picture she tried to get the baby would move completely. It was so cool though.
Both Joe and I were able to keep total perspective this time and it was really like seeing a video of
our baby doing tumbling practice or something! The absolute cutest thing was when we finally saw the profile, you could see the baby open
its mouth and lift its hand to try to get its thumb in its mouth ... which it did do eventually. ...
Yikes! We're going to have another thumb sucker!!! But oh how cute it was!!! The technician just kept saying,
"so sweet, so sweet!" She was wonderful! I asked a ton of question, trying to show I had some interest and some concern ... and she kept saying ...
"oh that looks fine, why do you ask?" I would tell her,
"no reason, just that it was something I thought they looked for at this stage" ... She was so reassuring, she said "I see absolutely nothing I would be concerned about!" She was very very positive and that made a huge difference!
I did have kind of an embarrassing moment. The ultrasound itself was between 40 and 45 minutes and of course I was lying on my back. Anyway at about 30 minutes I nearly passed out! It was really kind of scarey! I could feel that my heart had started doing the racing thing ... and I know one of the worst things I can do for it is lie on my back, because it puts pressure on the main vessel that brings blood back to the heart. Anyway, I was so into the ultrasound that I was trying to ignore those feelings when bam!!! I'm really glad Joe was there with me ... but it was really embarrassing! They got me a cool clothe,
and I sat up for a few minutes then she had to do the rest of the ultrasound with me on my side. My heart rate was way up there!
Anyway, all in all, it was an awesome appointment. Oh ..... you probably want to know the gender (I tried so hard not to give it away above)....well, let me just answer that by telling you how Jake prayed last night ..... Thank you God for my baby .... sister!!! *Big BIG tears*
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 21 weeks 6 days]
20021202 ~ Happy Anniversary, Joe! 13 Wonderful
years!
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 21 weeks 3 days]
20021126 ~ Get your guess in!!!! Send us an e-mail with
your guess on the gender of this Blitch-to-be. We will be having
our ultrasound on Wednesday, December 4th, 2002 and are hoping to be
able to find out the gender at that time. So speak up now, if you
have any guesses you want to make for the record. blitch@nktelco.net
The baby has been very active for the last several days! Praise
God! But today has been even more than the last few days. It
is such a joy to feel that life within!
My tummy also has settled quite a bit. Mornings are still tough
but once that passes the days are usually pretty good!
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 20 weeks 4 days]
20021122 ~ Look at me three days in a row! The baby has been
quite active of late. Most of the "activity" has been
quite low. It is such an amazing thing to feel a life moving
inside of you! Oh and today marks 20 weeks for me, so we are
half way there. Which in and of itself is a funny thing. I
mean "half" way, like as if all pregnancy last precisely 40
weeks. Also, you really don't know you're pregnant until you are 4
weeks along or so. It is sort of a funny time in pregnancy.
You're no where near delivery, but your also not in that inital shock
stage either.
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 20 weeks]
20021121 ~ Wow, two days in a row I am making an entry in this
journal! Don't take that as a sign I'm bored or anything.
Maybe it just means I am getting more energy. Or ... who
knows!
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 19 weeks 6 days]
20021120 ~ My goodness how time flies! The days of throwing up returned rather quickly. But I still praise God, because he has
given me the grace to walk through them with full assurance that He is
with me! I have good news to report, a good friend of mine from
church had her fourth baby last week Friday, November 15th. His
name is Cameron Joseph and he weighed in at 9 pounds 5
ounces. The birth of new child is so emotional, so much more so
being a mom! God sure did make an amazing thing when he made
moms! I'm thankful to get to be one!
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 19 weeks 5 days]
20021023 ~ I praise God, as I am typing this, I officially did not
throw up all day yesterday! I know, I know, those of you amongst
the non-pregnant crowd do not always celebrate such
accomplishments. But for me, of late, this is truly a wonderful
thing!
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 15 weeks 5 days]
20021018 ~ I have been very sick to my stomach for the last several
weeks. My doctor prescribed meds for it at my last appointment, as he
was a bit concerned that I was beginning to show signs of
dehydration. Unfortunately, one of the side effects of this
medicine is it causes sleepiness. I guess it's ok, because you can
only be so tired before you're actually asleep.
Right? * grin *
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 15 weeks]
20021008 ~ Officially wore my first maternity outfit to work. I
have worn them a few times during weekends, but this is the first time
to work. Had a bad bout with morning sickness this morning, so I
had to make sure nothing was pressing against my belly.
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 13 weeks 4 days]
20021004 ~ Began this online journal to record our thoughts and
prayers, as we prepare for the arrival of our second child.
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 13 weeks 0 days]
20020916 ~ Officially told my boss and co-workers today. It is
nice to have it out in the open!
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 10 weeks 3 days]
20020820 ~ Had our first ultrasound to verify that the baby was
forming in the uterus, since I am at high risk for ectopic
pregnancy. The baby is indeed in the uterus and looks wonderful,
measuring right on date at 6 weeks 4 days. We were also blessed to
hear the babies good strong heartbeat!
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 6 weeks 4 days]
20020819 ~ Jake let the cat out of the bag, and told Grandma Simmons
he is going to be a big brother. I was hoping to wait until after
tomorrow's ultrasound, to make sure all was well; but he just couldn't
wait!
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 6 weeks 3 days]
200208 ~ Shared the news with Jake that he would be a big brother;
that mommy is pregnant. His reaction was absolutely
priceless! We had him video a message for baby, telling the baby
how happy he was that soon he would have a little brother or little
sister to share in his family!
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina;
20020807 ~ Met with Pastor Marc at church to share the news and ask
him to pray with us, which he did.
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 4 weeks 5 days]
20020805 ~ Confirmed at home pregnancy test with blood work at the
hospital. My hcg level came back at 328.
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 4 weeks 3 days]
20020804 ~ Took an at home pregnancy test which came back positive.
[Entry made by: Mommy~Tina; 4 weeks 2 days]
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