Will blogging stimulate labor????

At this point, I'll try anything!

Yeah - it's been forever. I know. Maybe now that I'm officially on maternity leave - with no baby - I'll get into the swing of this... maybe.

Charlotte is doing great! Just over 6lbs, according to the perinatologist's calculations - which is small for her gestation, but she's fantastically healthy. Now if she would just come out to play! She has so many friends waiting to meet her.... *sigh* And her mommy is really worn out, truth be told. I considered myself so well-prepared for the aches and pains of pregnancy, but it turned out that my chief problem is one that I'd never even known anyone else to have - carpal tunnel syndrome. It's getting increasingly severe - my right hand is at least 50% numb all of the time, and moves into fiery pain up through my shoulder several times a day, keeps me up at night. LAME! That's what I think about that. Leave it to me to get the one random thing that there's absolutely no cream, no chewable tablet, no therapy for at all. I just hope it goes away quickly after I deliver, or else it's going to be an issue with newborn care. :o(

Her room is done, though! The only thing left to do is to hang her window treatments, and I hope to get that accomplished in the next day or so. Everything is laundered, and folded, and ready - I just need a baby!

Here are some photos...





In non-Charlotte related news:

Quite a bit has happened in the lives of some of my sweet friends. My friend, Niki (whom I requested prayers for back when the hurricane was hitting her family in Jamaica) gave birth to her sweet little girl, Sydney, in October - at barely 26 weeks. You can read about her amazing journey here.

Then, in December, another girlfriend of mine - Ana - gave birth to her sweet little boy, Jayan, at only 24/25 weeks. You can read about him here.

Both of these babies are incredible fighters, and I can't imagine how challenging and scary it must be to be the mommy of someone so tiny. But both are proof of just how big our God is.

My dad is still in Iraq - he gets another vacation in March, then should be home for good in July. Keep him in your prayers, if you think about it... the stations he is training the PO's at are increasingly dangerous, and in rather remote areas. We were accustomed to hearing from him every 2-3 days, but now it's every 15-17.

Alright, I'm off to eat some pineapple.

So maybe posting once a month will just be *my thing*...

We've had an exciting few weeks!

We spent a week in Chicago - I attempted to go exploring on my own, I met a girlfriend at Navy Pier for a day, we had dinner with Aron & Suzanne (& Maggie, of course!), we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo, we took the El, I saw my family, I made a few too many stops at the Moonstruck Chocolate Shop.... it was a lovely trip. And exhausting, as well. Aron & Suzanne were the best! Great conversation, delicious dinner, perfect weather - Jason & I are both looking forward to getting to know them better, and watching Maggie grow. Her personality is already infectious.

And on the way home - American Airlines oversold our flight, so we volunteered to take the next one and each received a $300 voucher for it. That's our flight to New York next spring! Woot!

This weekend I started having contractions... since I'm only 22 weeks, it was obviously somewhat concerning, but I just kind of blew them off as braxton hicks. Then I read somewhere that you should call your doctor if you have more than 4 an hour. Oops. So I called this morning, him and my perinatologist had me rush in for an exam and a sonogram. Good news is that my cervix is still perfectly long and closed - the bad news is that I shouldn't be having so many, so strong. They're running some tests and hopefully it's just an unsymptomatic-infection of some sort, but I'm going to be on weekly progesterone injections from now on. One of the tests they ran is the fetal fibronectin test, which normally happens at 24 weeks - fFN is the "glue" that holds the fetal sack to the uterus, and if they can detect it's presence then that means that the "glue" is beginning to disintegrate - predicting preterm labor. I really, REALLY doubt they'll find that. My instinct says that nothing major is going on... just a little something is out of whack, and we'll get it fixed. My OB said that the progesterone injections will help "soothe my crabby uterus." I really feel like I'm blessed, the care I'm getting from both of my doctors is very cautious, very compassionate and super nice to me. They rock.

Here's the latest pictures of baby Charlotte. She's a doll, isn't she? I'm so in love.

I know, I know.... a month between posts? Me = Loser.

But man - today was the best day EVER!

Apparently, whatever the sonogram tech (and us) thought we saw at 12 weeks is there no more.

We had our appt with the perinatology group this morning, and had two sonograms with two different doctors, both of whom were 100% certain that this baby is a girl! And she's perfect, too! She has 10 little fingers, 10 little toes.... her cerebrum, cerebellum, aorta, heart, kidneys, bladder, stomach, femur, etc. all looked perfect and measured perfect.

I'm so in love! Isn't she adorable???

As for me - I'm feeling great! The headaches are much better, I only get sick every now and then, and I think that maybe, possibly, potentially.... I felt her this morning. *giddy*

babyDuck has a penis.... we think!

Man, that baby was MOVIN'! How fun! The tech said not to go buy anything yet - but even I couldn't deny that SOMETHING was there... and it wasn't the cord.


And if this works the way it's supposed to - you should be able to click the video below to watch a snippet of the sonogram. Ignore the fact that I sound like an overly emotional chipmunk.... I've said before, that's kind of what I am. Thank you, everyone, for your prayers. They mean the world to us!

OK - it's not working. Here.... click me.

Need to create the habit.

It's absolute habit to click thru the list of blogs that I read - scanning for updates... but it's not yet habit to visit and/or post on this one. I'm going to work on that.

This morning was our monthly book club meeting. We read The Road by Cormack McCarthy. It wasn't the type of book I would normally pick up on my own (which is why I LOVE book club), but I ended up really investing myself in it. The first 60 pages or so were S-L-O-W, and I was really not sure if I was going to finish it (they took me 3 weeks) - but then the first big *thing* happened in the story line, and I was sucked in from there. I ended up finishing the rest of the book in 24 hours. I devoured it. And I blame the fact that I sobbed thru the last few pages on my crazy hormones. After our breakfast, I came home and ordered the next book (Water for Elephants) - I can't wait to get it and dive in. Being completely absorbed by a good book is such a divine feeling.

Dad is in Kuwait. I talked to him shortly before he flew out last night, but I probably won't get to talk to him again for a week or two. Before he left, he emailed me his class picture. He's front row, fourth from the right... doesn't he look excited? At least one of us is... I can't believe that (assuming everything goes well, and it will) I will have this baby before he comes home.

Speaking of the baby - I threw up! That, my friends, is something to be celebrated. I'm choosing to believe that it means this baby is growing and thriving. I'll be 9 weeks on Tuesday, and have my next sonogram on Monday. I'm following my doctors orders to take it easy, and NO exercise. I would think that would be the best order EVER - but I feel like I'm expanding exponentially. I officially have no jeans that I can wear anymore, and every part of me is squishy. I feel like if I could get some activity in, I'd feel better - but I'm just going to do as I'm told. Mark my words, though - I'm going to be one of those unfortunate souls that gains 80 lbs.

I found this amazing site that has all kinds of videos of embryos in-utero. Fascinating, God-revealing stuff. Life truly is a miracle. I'm going to try and include little links of where our baby is...

This video shows that at 8w2d, reflexive movement can be observed.

How cool is that??

I've grown a raspberry!

Today makes 7 weeks! According to the expert books and websites, in the last week our Little Skittle has grown from the size of a grain of rice into a nice, plump raspberry. We had a sonogram yesterday, which confirmed a strong heartbeat - 137bpm, to be exact. It was the first time we've been in that room and not been told that our baby was measuring behind where it should be.

To say it's a relief is a tremendous understatement. I'm not superstitious in the least, but I find these silly little thoughts running through my head... for instance, when we found out our last baby had died, we were supposed to have our camera with us, to video the sonogram. But we'd forgotten it. Yesterday, we charge the camera to again video the sonogram - and alas, we forgot it. Granted, the God I put my faith in doesn't use silly, inconsequential circumstance to dictate my future - but the human body and mind that I'm stuck in sometimes forgets that. I guess when you have the kind of recent history that Jason & I have, you almost expect the worst to happen. Which is dumb, dumb, dumb. So I'm working on changing that habit.

Our next sonogram is in two weeks - and we can't wait! Aside from the mental battles, physically I feel okay. Kind of like I'm fighting off the flu, maybe? Only it's not the flu, and I better not be fighting it at all. :o) Just kind of achy and icky - but I'm embracing every symptom I can get.

Other updates...

My dad is not actually in Iraq yet. As of today, he's still in Virginia undergoing his state department training. Friday, he leaves for Georgia for a week - and then he'll go to Kuwait. One week in Kuwait, then on to Baghdad. That entire situation is conflicting. One one hand, I hear the excitement and the passion in his voice. Police work is his passion - and what he's good at - and he will certainly be well compensated for his time. But on the other hand.... um, HELLO??? It's a freaking warzone, Dad! Are you crazy?

But what can you do? He's a grown man, his children are all grown, and he's determined. He's promised that "he's no hero" and that if things are ugly over there, or more dangerous than he was anticipating - he'll be the first in line to come home. That's the upside of being a contractor vs. being military.

Jason is still healing from his surgery. The incision site got infected- but we've just about got that beat. He's still very frustrated because his pain was supposed to be BETTER after the surgery - and we're a month out and it's still worse, but we haven't lost faith yet. Please continue to pray for his healing, though. He's only 30 and really shouldn't have to live life so incapacitated.