Pregnancy Journal Week 23

Here I am up at 2 AM writing my post. It's just getting old, but it's worth it in the end. I can happily report I've stayed sick free for the longest time this pregnancy thus far. I really don't have much energy though. But I'm trying to get my house organized. I've never had everything in it's own place before. I feel that once the baby comes it's just going to be hard to do anything. Now that the girls are out of school I have time to focus. It's amazing how much time you don't have when your kids are in school. I haven't been to far from my house at all the last 5.5 months. It's scary enough to take 4 kids anywhere but taking them whilst sick and tired. I don't know how anyone one with tons of kids do it, and stay sane. I know that once the baby comes I'm going to be very close to home for a long time as well. Well on to other things.... My legs haven't been bothering me as much. My Dr. told me to take more calcium in order to control the wiggly legs. It works most of the time but not tonight. I'm going to go to the lab to get my monthly blood draw today. I have another appt. in one week and in 5 weeks I have another ultrasound. This has been my most eventful pregnancy so far. It makes for lots to write about.

Monday Memory #13

This post is a little late but oh well. 

When it was just 3 of us Jonathan and Lily would take Saturday afternoon naps together. It was a bonding time for them. Plus it's just too cute. 

(I made that outfit Lily is wearing too)

Ultrasound Picture

I forgot to put up a picture from my last ultrasound..... so here it is. It looks like she is sucking on her bottom lip. So very cute. At my next ultrasound we will be able to see even more detail as she will have some fat on her. I'll get an ultrasound in about 6 weeks. 

Pregnancy Journal Week 22.

So it's 2:20 am and I'm writing my post for week 22. I'm sitting here wiggling my legs because if I don't I'm going to go crazy. I get restless leg syndrome really bad when I'm pregnant. I HATE it. Ahhhhhh. It woke me from a good sleep. Anyways I'm not sick yet and I'm hoping to stay that way. The only thing is that I'm starting to have an side effect from the blood thinners. I'm so very tired all the time. If anyone knows me when I'm into my second and third trimesters I'm very active. I painted my whole house when I was pregnant with Benjamin. But NOPE not this time I'm too tired to do anything. Ok I'm going to stop complaining. I had a ultrasound on Monday to see if the blood flow was doing better since being on the blood thinners, and if baby is growing still. Blood flow is doing much better. I could actually hear a difference. Before I would hear a little blip in the sound of the blood when they listened to it on the ultrasound, and this time the blip was gone. I'm so glad. If it was still bad I would have to increase my dosage of the blood thinners. Baby is also growing right on track. They estimate her weight as 15 ozs. So she's almost a pound. She's still a she. I have an appt. later on today so I'll update this post later with what happens there.

Update:
I went in for my appt. and I was told that the plans were as is:
Every 2 weeks appt with Dr.
Every 4 weeks I visit the vampires to check my blood to make sure I'm not getting in trouble with the blood thinners.
In 6 weeks I go in for another Ultrasound.
Other than that my Dr. is very proud of himself that he has "saved this baby". I'm very grateful as well.

Jonathan's Graduation Day.

On May 9th was Jonathan's Graduation. It was so nice to finalize the whole going to school thing. He didn't have to go, but he worked so hard and he WAS going to walk. It was a nice ceremony with bag pipes and tons of names to be read. It was 3 hours long and the kids were troopers. I had tons of help as Jonathan's family came. It was long awaited and I'm so glad it's over with. I'm so very proud of Jonathan. It takes lots of hard work to go to school while having a growing family.

Jonathan on the big screen. This was the only way to get a close up shot.

Jonathan and I in the flood of people outside the cardinals stadium.

The whole Fam.

Monday Memory #12

When Lily was just over a year old I let her feed herself. She got more on her chin than her mouth.

Lily LOVED feeding herself. Problem was that she had to do it herself from that point forward.

My Cute Kids.

I've been so bad...... I haven't posted anything on my kids lately. But yes I do take pictures of them and love them dearly. I took some pictures of Jonathan's cousin's reception last week and had all the kids with me. They were all spiffed up so I took the opportunity to get some cute shots of them

Emma in a new dress we got for her. She just growing too fast and her old dress no longer fit her.

Benjamin is just the cutest baby ever. I'm biased though but come on what a face.

Peter giving me that I'm trying to give you a smile, but all I want to do right now is play.

Lily loves to pose when I take her picture. She really is a funny girl. Oh and she's growing up too fast as well. I can't believe she will be eight in January

Pregnancy Journal Week 21

On to another week. This week has been chalk full of needle pricks. I tried injecting myself and pretty much traumatized myself. I hated doing it. It didn't really hurt that much but I have to watch as the needle goes in. So Jonathan is doing it for me. I have bruises all over my stomach. I don't have any side effects from the medication. I have another ultrasound next Monday and an appt. on Wednesday. I'll see more what is going on then. But I've doing doing really good. I'm not sick anymore (knock on wood). I have energy again. Baby is starting to feel the baby move more. I can feel her move from the outside and see my stomach move along with her. It's fun to have the kids feel her move around. They love it. I'm really confident that things are going to be running smoothly as long as I'm doing exactly what the Dr. says. I plan on putting up a belly shot later on today. I've really slacked at doing that. I just don't see much difference in the size of my belly that much lately.

Baja Fresh Fundraiser

Monday Memory #11

Lily's first birthday............ Well she got presents and got to destroy her cake. She didn't do that..... She daintily touched it and was done........... until daddy made her go at it. At that point she started to LOVE cake.

Ewwww sticky.

I also found out that I was pregnant with Emma just days before the party. What is up with finding out I'm pregnant near or on Lily's birthday parties.

Pregnancy Journal Week 20.

WOW!!! I'm half way done. YESSSSSSSSSSS. Well I have another cold. Come on........ I hoped for a sick free week and I jinxed myself. I'm hoping it's going to get over it soon. I had an appt. today and I learned what the game plan is for the rest of the pregnancy. First of all I have to start taking my blood thinner Thursday. I am taking a shot once a day instead two as I was originally told. I'm going to have lots of Dr. appointments, ultrasounds, and blood tests. My next ultrasound on May 18th. Then every 4 weeks. I asked what the likely hood of the baby coming early. He told me that he wouldn't let me go past 38 weeks. I'm so glad that I have an idea about the time I'll have the baby. With blood thinners you need to stop them before you deliver so it's important to induce labor. I'm down 8 lbs so far. I don't really know how that happened. Other than that things are pretty normal around here.

Monday Memory #10

On to another milestone of Lily's. Lily started to walk 3 days after she turned 1. I, as most new mothers was very anxious for this day.


I just love the look on her face. She was so very cute.

I love it when babies have their arms out to the sides when they start walking.

Pregnancy Journal Week 19

So I'm a day late on updating my pregnancy journal. I have a good reason. I got a call yesterday from my Dr. insisting that I come in today. He received my Ultrasound report and felt it was very urgent to get me in right away. So many things ran through my mind. The major thing was bed rest. How would I do that? I arranged child care and waited for today to arrive. I got the kids situated and went to me Dr. I waited for 1 hour and a half. He came in and told me that my placenta had abnormal blood flow and that I was at risk for intra uterine fetal demise. He wanted to check me for a blood clotting disorder, and I would be put on blood thinners. Heprin is the blood thinner and the only way to take it is by injection. He told me that they were going to show me how to give myself a shot twice a day. AHHHHHHHHH I can't do that. So I asked if I could have Jonathan do it for me. My Dr. was completely fine with that. So soon we will be taught how to make me a pin cushion for the next 4.5 months. YEAH???? He told me if I didn't do this that the baby would die. I have to have an ultrasound in 3 weeks to check on the blood flow. What is the cause of this???? Dr. thinks it could be that my uterus is getting too old. I'm only almost 30. I'm not old. But I guess my uterus isn't as good as others. So this is for sure my last baby. I can't do this again. It's just too scary. I'm not on bed rest but I'm told that I have to limit my activity. I can't do anything that's going to bring up my heart rate. I also asked if the baby is going to come early and he said that he didn't know. Well this is going to be difficult, and scary. But I can do difficult things. I do have faith that my baby is going to be born healthy. I just have to be super careful.

The BIG Ultrasound!

I've already have had an ultrasound that only told us the gender of the baby. So yesterday I had the ultrasound that tells you how organs and growth of the baby are doing. It was a really long ultrasound at a high risk ultrasound place. (my dr. sends all of his patients there). Yes she's still a girl. She weighs 9 ozs and is measuring right on time. Everything looks great. So after the ultrasound the tech told me that she was going to show the Dr. the pictures and then the Dr. would be in to talk to me. WHAT?!?!? I've never had the Dr. talk to me after an ultrasound. So I had to wait like 10 min in suspense. The Dr. came in and told me that the baby looked really healthy but...........BUT!!! there is a small problem. The babies umbilical has an abnormality that isn't allowing the blood to flow at the correct velocity. It's called Abnormal Umbilical Cord Artery Doppler. What does this mean....... it means the baby could be small or I could get high blood pressure during pregnancy. Both could result in bed rest and early delivery. How does a mother of 4 stay on bed rest. I will know more of what my Dr. wants me to do next Wed. I also have another ultrasound at 26 to 30 weeks. They will check the growth of the baby and go from there. I would really appreciate prayers to come my way.

Monday Memory #9

Lily started crawling when she turned 7 1/2 months old. Lily being my first baby every milestone took forever. I just wanted her to do everything right away. I've learned that babies can take their sweet time becoming mobile.

Can't you see the determination in her face.

It's hard work trying to learn to crawl. I just love her little tongue sticking out as she concentrates on the task at hand.

In Need of Baby Girl Clothes!

Since it's been nearly 6 years ago I had a baby girl I have nothing for this new baby girl. I've been looking on Craig's list a lot. All the good deals are for babies in need of lots of summer clothes. So if anyone is getting rid of baby girl clothes that would suit a baby born in Sept. I'll be more than happy to pay for them (for a good deal). Buying everything new is just way more than I can do. Really I just don't want to do it. So just let me know if, what, and how much you want for it that would be great.

Pregnancy Journal Week 18.

Wow time is just flying by. I can't believe I'm just 2 weeks away from being half way done. Soon it will be summer break for the girls and then time will fly by. Summers always fly for me. School years are soooooo slooooooowwww. I just hope it's not too hot. HAHAHA yeah right. As you all know I broke down and got my Ultrasound on Saturday. It was super super quick and didn't get to see much other than what we paid for. The gender, but that was what we wanted right. I'm excited for my ultrasound on Monday as well. They will do all the measurements, switch from 2d to 3d (very cool), and give me lots of pictures and a video. Jonathan won't be there so the video is very exciting for him. I'll be able to see her little face, but it's not a true description of what she will look like. Babies at 19 weeks are more skeletal as they don't have any chubbs on them yet. I'm going to take Lily and Emma with me. I think it will be fun for them. I don't want to go alone either. As for this week I've been sick AGAIN. I just don't get it. It seems as if I just can't get well. I've had lots of stomach problems. I wouldn't be surprised if I've lost more weight. Ugh it will pass. I've felt the baby move more, and I've been getting more practice contractions. Don't worry they aren't real they just prepare you for the real thing. It just starts earlier the more babies you have. The kids are helping me out tons. I'm really relying on Lily and Emma to help out with the house. They need prodding but they are great helpers. Peter wants to help as much as possible. When ever I ask the girls to get a bottle for Benjamin, or fetch me a diaper he wants to do it. So with the bottles Lily pours it and Peter brings it to Benjamin. He feels so big afterwards. I love it that he has such a desire to help out. I'm really curious if that will change once the baby comes. Other than that not much else is going on. Lets hope for a sick free week next week.

Monday Memory #8

I remember the day I became a Mother. It was a day I had waited for. I dreamed about this day. I had many years of preparation. I worked at a daycare, and being the 4Th oldest of 11 kids I had lots of experience. But having your own is such a rewarding time. Lily smiled at me the moment they gave her too me. It was a real bonding experience.

It was just Lily and I for a long time. I sure enjoyed her.
I love love love being a Mommy. It's the greatest gift I have ever received. I would want anything more.

The Revelation!!!

Well we know what is occupying my belly.
A BABY of course, but we know if we have joined the BLUE or PINK team.
To make it interesting we thought of a fun way to tell everyone.
Right after the ultrasound we called Jonathan's Mom and Dad and just told them the news.
But for everyone else they got a text saying
"We know the gender so decode the message to know for yourself
ytsoantiob
send us your answer"
We got text messages back very fast and I thought there is no way they all guessed that fast.
So the answers were a variety of "it's a boy" answers.






HAHAHAHA.

But one person GOT IT

So the answer was

"IT'S NOT A BOY"



Here is our new little GIRL. She has her arm across her face so we couldn't get any profile shots. I'm just so glad that I have another ultrasound in a week.

One of the many gender shots. We are just so happy that we are getting a girl.

Now on to a BIG question WHAT ARE WE GOING TO NAME HER. Well for a while we have played around with the name Eliana Belle, Isabella Hope, Isabella Nicole. But last night we just couldn't decide. All of the names were very cute. We liked them all. But with lots of thinking we have come to the decision of

Miriam Belle

We are sure that this is the final name, and we love it. We thought of not announcing the name, but with the arrival of 3 babies coming at once we were concerned that we may come to the problem of some of us choosing the same name. But we don't think someone would want this name. So we thought just in case we need to announce it now.

Easter '09

Here are some Easter pictures to enjoy. Each of the kids with their baskets.