15 Weeks & Your Great Name

Once again, this morning started out with our little one reminding me he/she is still in there and growing through some undesired morning sickness! I was so hopeful that I would go more than a week without vomiting, but today (which would've been the 1 week mark) began at 6:30AM with a great reminder that baby is growing! So grateful to have this experience, but it is extremely trying at times. All that to say, there is no picture this week...but there really has been no visual change from last week.

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 15 Weeks

Size of baby: 4 1/2 inches long (Naval Orange)

Total Weight Gain/Loss: 8 lbs

Maternity Clothes: Maternity pants, but regular dresses and shirts (mostly)

Gender: It will be a surprise!

Movement: I don't think I've felt anything...

Sleep: Waking up in the middle of the night feeling nauseous disturbs my sleep... 

What I miss: Fitting into my wardrobe

Cravings: Sour Cream & Onion Chips, Pickles, Almost anything salty

Symptoms: STILL vomiting and nausea, heartburn every night, sneezing

Best Moment this week: Finding out the date of our ultrasound -- March 18th! Can't wait to see how our little "Chuy" (as he/she has affectionately been named by his/her Uncle Matthew) is growing and praying for a good ultrasound!

Ok, this week EVERY.SINGLE.TIME I get in the car this song is on the radio and I feel like the Lord is trying to move me. EVERY.SINGLE.TIME this song comes on, all other thoughts leave my brain and I begin to just praise this amazing God we serve. I also love how "Jesus" is only stated in the chorus with WORTHY and HIGH AND LIFTED UP. My prayer this week is that our little one will grown to know the power of Jesus GREAT name and the peace that comes with knowing Him as our saviour.

14 Weeks & HUGE Prayer Request

**Update** Okay, I added a picture only because I had children asking me if there was a baby in my belly this evening, and even a friend & I agreed it looks/feels like I just "popped" overnight and I just cannot suck in my gut anymore -- just excuse my large back-side that seems to be getting pushed out more these days :-/


I'm  realizing that I'm just not too good at remember to take pictures. I truly am starting to show more now, and I really do want to document this time in pictures, so I will try very very hard to remember next week! I can't believe how fast time is flying! I feel like it was only a month ago (4 weeks, or so) that I was calling to make my first appointment (it was about 9 weeks ago)! Trying to savor every moment when the days are good! 

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 14 Weeks

Size of baby: Lemon

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I'm sticking with what my scale says: 5 lbs

Maternity Clothes: This week, I've been trying to stick to dresses - I find them the most comfortable

Gender: It will be a surprise!

Movement: I don't think I've felt anything...

Sleep: I think I'm FINALLY sleeping a little better! YAY!  

What I miss: Fitting into my wardrobe

Cravings: Fruit Rollup (Thanks, Carey!), Pot Roast, Chuy's 

Symptoms: STILL vomiting and a little nausea, heartburn every night, hiccups, sneezing

Best Moment this week: Sleeping better and having a sweet husband/daddy-to-be to take care of me in the mornings! Oh, and discovering that pickle juice really is yummy :-)

Friends, I have a HUGE prayer request! A dear friend of a friend, a young mother of 5 (one sweet little one in heaven), went into heart failure about a week ago. Her name is Summer - she was 6 months pregnant with their fifth child and Lila Mae was delivered by C-section and went to be with her heavenly Father. After the C-section, Summer went into a 7 hour open heart surgery. Summer has remained in ICU with some ups and downs and an infection in her heart. Today she is being taken off of ECMO via another open-heart surgery. Please please please visit her CaringBridge site and follow the most up-to-date prayer needs for Summer and her family. Thank you for your prayers! The Lord has been so good to Summer in this long healing process! 

13 Weeks & Jonah's EB Auction

I don't really have a picture of just me, but I'll post a recent picture from our trip to Disney World just because it's fun. It still just looks like I'm just gaining tons of weight or in some clothes nothing has changed, but I can tell there's a little baby something :-)

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 13 Weeks

Size of baby: Peach

Total Weight Gain/Loss: My scale says I've gained 3 lbs (I weigh first thing in the morning); the Dr. at 3:00pm said I gained 7 lbs :-(

Maternity Clothes: BeBand saved my clothing life! I can wear it with my non-maternity pants & with the maternity pants that are too big but more comfortable than my normal pants. I should probably buy another one since I wear it every day!

Gender: It will be a surprise!

Movement: I swear I felt a little flutter a few days ago & Dr. M said that was possible, but I'm not sure

Sleep: Waking up a few times in the middle of the night and very restless 

What I miss: Sleeping well, feeling "normal"

Cravings: Pasta/Rice-a-roni, Banana Pudding, Iced Tea (decaf, of course)

Symptoms: Nausea, vomiting, heartburn, exhaustion, irritability, super sensitive to smells

Best Moment this week: Hearing the baby's heartbeat on Monday! It was a very healthy 155bpm -- Praise the Lord! Dr. M said everything is progressing normally. Also, baby took his/her first trip to Disney World & we got him/her this:

Sorry for the incredibly cruddy quality - phone picture. The front says "Lovable" and teh back has Mickey Mouse's signature on the top right corner. The infant sized hat has the baby's initials on it :-)

Also, today I want to share with you something very cool going on to raise money for Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa Research Association of America (Debra). Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB for short), is a genetic skin disorder, which causes blistering all over the skin and inside the body, as well. 

This precious little boy, Jonah, has a miraculous life! I could go on and on about his cuteness and everything else, but you can read it all for yourself right here. 

Anyways, the second annual Jonah's EB Auction is being held online over at jonahsebauction.blogspot.com. Beginning February 24th @ 8pm until Sunday, February 27th @ 8pm, you can head over to the website and bid on some really cool donated items! I've donated a full size warmer & a Scentsy bar so head over there beginning February 24th and place your bids! 

Stay warm & have a wonderful Wednesday!

-Sarah

Update & Things that Make Me Smile

Typically, my write a pregnancy update once a week on Wednesdays...so where's my 12 week post? I was too wrapped up in fun at DISNEY WORLD with my parents & sweet husband! Really, not much changed in the 12th week, but I cannot wait to write my 13 week post tomorrow! There's some exciting stuff happening :-)

So, really, I had hoped on writing a post today about baby's first trip to Disney World, but all of the pictures have yet to be loaded to this computer, so that will have to wait a little while longer.

I'm having a REALLY rough day...today just could not have started out worse than waking up at 4:30AM to some lovely morning sickness that has continued about every hour, despite trying several different foods, drinks, and remedies. I am nearly 13 weeks pregnant and this is the worst morning sickness I have dealt with to date. I have an awesome ladies' Bible study on Tuesday mornings which I always look forward to, and for some stinkin' reason, I have tended to have rough days on Tuesday mornings. Praying for this to change so I can enjoy the rest of this study! This sounds like a case of needing to write a "Things That Make Me Smile" post.

Even though we were in 70-80 degree weather the entire time, I smiled [and longed to be part of] all the snow Central Texas received! I have sweet friends who graciously sent me pictures of the snow, in particular, our house & our sweet Abbey girl!

Ok, seriously, where is our grass, sidewalk, side porch, & front porch? CRAZY!

 Abbey supposedly loved eating the snow and looks forward to the *fingers crossed* next snow on Wednesday!

I don't know what the Lord has in store for me, but as I was missing this winter wonderland in Central Texas, the reminder that He has something wonderful waiting for me some day resonated in my mind. You see, I love snow (and that's even an understatement). Somehow, I always seem to dodge it. The most snow I saw was last year around this time when it snowed several days in Waco, but did not accumulate much, then, Brian & I drove to the Dallas area and saw all the leftover snow (when they got like a foot of snow) and made my first official snowman! I missed Abbey's first snow (I know, she's a dog, but seriously, I wish I could see her excitement!) and missed the biggest snow storm in Texas in over 20 years...

Now, the thing that REALLY makes me smile about this -- despite not leaving the heater on, outside faucets wrapped (shout out to Jonathan Allen for saving us!), or water dripping inside and the below zero wind chills, we had NO frozen/broken pipes!! Praise the Lord! We were hearing horror stories of friends in CS with broken pipes and with temperatures being even worse in Central Texas, we were VERY concerned. That is something that makes me GLOW! 

Despite the fact that I had high hopes and plans for getting out and accomplishing so much today, I must say that cuddling with my sweet Abbey girl is something that is making me smile right now. First of all, she is snoring and it cracks me up. Second of all, she's cuddling as if she hasn't cuddled with me before...which, I don't blame her since it's been more than a week since we've cuddled! 

My sweet scraggly-muffin is getting groomed tomorrow for the first time professionally and we cannot wait! Her hair is so long and beautiful and soft, but it's also retaining odors easier and getting matted easily and that's got to go! We cannot wait to see what she will look like :-) 

And the final thing that makes me smile today -- Sea Bands! Check them out if you suffer from motion sickness or morning sickness. They are the wrist bands that have a plastic ball on the inside that hits a pressure point in both of your wrists -- talk about nausea relief! Out of all the recommendations I have received for relief from morning sickness, I must say that popsicles and Sea Bands are my favorites. Brian has even started using them when he has sympathy morning sickness (cracks me up he seriously does get nauseous from things that never bothered him before...). Within 15 minutes, most times, the nausea is lessened or completely gone!

**Ricearoni is my biggest smile for today! Only food I've been able to keep down all day! :-)

I hope you all have a terrific Tuesday!

-Sarah