Oh Boy!

I had my "official" ultrasound yesterday afternoon. Jon was too busy to go, so I picked Brooklyn up from school early and off we went to see the baby again....two days in a row! Oh yeah!

The technician took the measurements of the head and leg bones, as well as tons of other pictures that I could not decipher. I told her that the doctor had said she thought it was a boy and asked if we could find out for sure. She started panning around and was able to say with certainty that the baby is in fact a boy....he was very proud of himself and kept turning to show it to us.

Here are some pictures of our baby boy:

Hurray for same day appointments!

AIM got approved and my insurance became effective last Saturday, the 23rd, but with it being a holiday weekend I had to wait until yesterday morning to even get to talk to someone about setting up my first doctors appointment. I took Brooklyn to school and then called to set up the appointment praying that they would be able to get me in sometime next week. They happened to have a cancellation that afternoon at 4! Sweet! Jon and Brooklyn got to go with me and we heard the heartbeat and saw our baby for the first time...it was amazing. The doctor asked us if we wanted to know the sex of the baby and when we told her yes she started searching. It was pretty obvious that it was a BOY! Oh man were we excited! She said that she couldn't guarantee anything but that it sure looked like a boy to her...she said we would know more when we had our "official" ultrasound appointment at the Imaging Lab.

The baby is healthy and Dr Rodgers is sticking with October 17th as our due date. She said the only thing that concerns her about me is the fact that Brooklyn was born premature, but other than that everything was great.

This morning at 7:30, I called to set up my "official" ultrasound at the lab fully expecting to wait a couple weeks and was told that they had a cancellation TODAY at 1:45! So excited!

Goodbye Indiana

Indiana was our 18 month old male Nubian goat. He was given to us by a friend when we moved to our farm and was our first farm animal....the beginning of our farm life.

He became a wizard of escape, finding the tiniest of weak spots in the fence and forcing his way through into our yard or out onto the street. Several times we have had our doorbell ring to hear "Is that your goat out in the street?"

Usually he would wait until Jon was gone...I think he had the house bugged because he always knew when Jon would be gone for several hours, and that would leave the pregnant lady, the kid and that wussy pit bull home alone to try to get him back in.

Yesterday he got out again and before Jon had him back in I was posting an add on craigslist. Within minutes my phone was ringing off the hook. The first guy who called was at our house within 30 minutes of the post. He has 5 females that he wants to breed and was looking for a male...he asked if we thought Indie could "take care of his girls" and Jon and I laughed and told him how Indiana was always trying to "make babies" with Snickers, our other male goat.

So Indiana is now living in horny goat heaven with his very own harem.

Goodbye Indie!!! Enjoy!

Loving our country life!!!

Brooklyn and Jersey love to go to our pond and play with the ducks. These are not wild ducks, but ducklings that we have raised and just recently released on our pond. It's so fun to watch Brooklyn as she chases the ducks,

trying to catch or pet them.

When she actually catches one, the look on her face makes my heart all squishy. Ahhhh! I love her so much!

Don't get freaked out by the look on my dog's face. She loves the ducks...she just gets very protective of her "people". When we are not touching the ducks she is a lot less interested in them:)
She loves to swim with them.....

and will follow them all over the yard.

I just LOVE our country life!

18 weeks

Today marks that I am 18 weeks pregnant. I am really tired all the time and yet I have this urge to clean and organize everything in sight. My body and my brain really need to have a family meeting and figure this out......either let me rest without the guilt or allow me the energy to get stuff done.

Today was Brooklyn's school jog-a-thon....it's a fundraiser that they do every year. I volunteered to help and was there setting up while trying not to fall asleep on my feet. Brooklyn's class came out and they lined up at the starting line-so cute! The start gun was shot and off they went in an all out sprint around the track. I stood on the side cheering them on until I felt little arms wrap around my waist...where it used to be anyway. Brooklyn was crying and was too tired to run any longer, so I grabbed her hand and walked the rest of the time with her. After her class finished, I walked her to her classroom, went home and fell asleep on the couch until it was time to pick her up from school.

Approved!!!

Thanks for all the prayers friends! I got a call yesterday from AIM and found out that they had approved me....Yay!!! Before I can get an effective date though we need to pay in full the remaining balance from our miscarriage last year. It took me almost a year to get them to cancel my coverage and find out that even though we discovered a miscarriage on the FIRST day of my coverage we were going to have to pay the entire coverage fee. Grrrr! Now they have changed the policy so that if you miscarry in the first trimester you only pay one third of the premium.

So that is what we are waiting on now......for us to come up with an extra 650 dollars so that we can pay for our miscarriage and THEN I can go see a doctor about this baby.

Please be praying that God will provide that money for us.

I wish you enough...

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright no matter how gray the day may appear.

I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more.

I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting.

I wish you enough pain so that even the smallest of joys in life may appear bigger.

I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.

I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.

I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final goodbye.

17 weeks

17 weeks pregnant and I don't feel any larger than I did a few weeks ago. I have gained only four pounds because I still can't eat. Food just doesn't taste good to me so I have to force myself to eat. When something sounds good to me I will drive across town to get it because it is so rare right now.

I find out Monday if I have been approved for the AIM program......I am so nervous.

Several people have been asking if we are going to find out the sex of the baby and the answer to that question is "Heck yes!" I want to know.

Then they ask if we have names picked out yet. "Nope!" Names, like food, are just not appealing to me right now...so the name Apple is definitely out. I am hoping that once we know what this little one is, we will be inspired in some way. I like meanings of names, but that's not the sole criteria for a name for us. I think we will probably do the list thing we did when we were pregnant with B. Jon made a list, I made a list and then we traded and crossed off any names we vetoed (FRIENDS reference) as well as any names that were on the most popular name lists for the prior three years. Maybe this time we will dump out all of our scrabble letters on the table and just roll with whatever is in the tiles......that may just work.

Evil snack lady

Yep, that's me! That's how I feel right now.

Today was my turn to bring snack for Brooklyn's soccer team. I have been back to first trimester all-day sickness for over a week now and was praying all day that the rain would continue so our game would get cancelled and I could just sleep. No such luck. I got up and washed and cut up apples for the 8 kids on our team as well as a few extras for siblings and put them into individual baggies for the half-time snack and then I packed juice boxes and fruit by the foots for after the game. Brook and I got there early and I carried the cooler and my camp chair across the field to where our game was going to be and got set up(Jon was on an appointment and was going to meet us there).

Half time. I pull out my hand sanitizer wipes for the kids to clean their hands before snack and then reach for the bags of apple slices to pass out. I hear someone say "Come get your snacks" and see the kids line up at another parent who is passing out gogurts. What?!?!?!? I was really confused and I asked why he had snacks because it was my day....okay so "asked" may not be the right term. I'm pregnant and sick and reluctantly fulfilled my obligation and someone else shows up with tubes of yogurt....I probably came off a little aggressive. The coach said that someone would have to bring snacks for Monday and I said that it wouldn't be me; today was my scheduled day and I brought it.

After the game the coach tells me that she saw the dad wipe a tear from his eye. Now I don't really know how much of that is true and how much was the coach teasing me, but I felt really really bad at this point. Then I felt mad that I felt bad about it. IT WAS MY TURN TO BRING SNACK! How hard is it to look at a schedule and know when your date is? So then I get in the car and just start bawling. Now this man and who knows who else thinks that I am just an evil raging snack freak. Great.

Mommy/Daughter Date

Today after school I took Brooklyn to Chuck E Cheese, just me and her. We had such a good time together playing games and just hanging out. Our favorite games to play were the fishing and Skeeball....she totally kicked my butt at Skeeball. I think the skeeball skills that my own Mother possesses skipped me entirely and went straight to Brooklyn. I am still working that one out in therapy.



After that we went across the parking lot to the Sweet Spot and had some yummy gelato and sherbet. It was GOOD!

Today really made me think about just how much our lives will change when the baby gets here in a few months....no more going where we want when we want to. Life as we know it will never be the same. That realization smacked me in the face today.....big changes ahead.

Happy Birthday Jersey!

My dog Jersey is four years old today.....how time flies! I had to take her to a shot clinic today to get all her vaccinations and a rabies shot...I felt so bad to have to do it on her birthday. I bought her a big juicy bone after, so hopefully she will forgive me and still get excited next time I take her "Bye-bye".

She is an American Pit Bull Terrier and is such a sweetheart. She has changed so many peoples opinions on this breed because of what a great dog she is. We have several friends who also have pit bulls and they are all so loving and happy. It just breaks my heart to see this wonderful breed so mistreated and misjudged.

Here are some pictures of my second child:

16 Weeks + 1 Day

I forgot to write yesterday.......I would blame it on pregnesia, but I was just busy.

So let's see......this last week was pretty good until Wednesday and Thursday when I got nauseous and had the metal taste in my mouth again. Blech! I was in the office sitting on the floor with my head on the chair just crying to Jon "Two and a half weeks of bliss and I am back to this!!!!" and then I just broke down sobbing. Today I am feeling better, but food does not appeal to me so I have to make myself eat. I have gained only 2 pounds total and that has me a little worried, but I am taking my prenatal vitamins and eat fruits and veggies when I can. I am counting down the days until the 11th when I find out if I will be approved for the AIM program so I can get to a doctor.

My skin is a wreck right now....I have dry patches that won't go away no matter how much water I drink or how much moisturizer I slather on my face. I have never had dry skin until this pregnancy. I have two new broken capillaries and blemishes that just won't heal. Neat. On top of all that I have a darker pigmented circle on my forehead between my eyes and another at my hair line that I have been told should fade a few months after giving birth. Double Neat.

On a happy note, I have been feeling the baby move more and more each day and I can feel him/her getting bigger and stronger.....it is such an amazing feeling. I lay as still as I can and wait for the tiny little bumps and then I just smile. I am really looking forward to when Jon can feel the kicks too.