Looks can be misleading

Our little miss loves to swing and wasn't too happy about having to get out of the swing to have a bath. It's amazing she was so content sitting there in that mess. By the end of this adventure I needed a bath too! Thank goodness daddy had just gotten off work and took care of the messy swing. 

They say at this age babies should bathe 2-3 times a week (everyday would dry out their skin too much). With all her explosions we definitely meet our bath quota at all hours of the day. 

Moving

Well, it's true. She's moving, a lot! The books say by 20 weeks, if not sooner, a women should start being able to feel her baby move. Well, that wasn't the case for me, but that didn't stop people from asking me if I had felt her move or telling me how early they had felt their babies move. I started to get a little worried around the 22nd week when I still hadn't felt her move. Come to find out I have an anterior placenta so as the baby would kick she would kick the placenta and the movement would not register past that cushion.

And then her kicks became stronger and her body bigger that even with an anterior placenta I could feel her, Mark too. I loved it when Mark was able to feel her move for the first time. his eyes lit up. Somehow it made things seem even more real. What an incredible feeling! It is crazy to me to think that here in a few days or a few weeks she will be kicking on the outside instead of the inside.

Our baby is very possessive of "her stomach space". For example, when I rest the ipad on my stomach to watch a video clip for my Sunday School class or an episode of Alias she will kick at the ipad. One day she kicked it five times in a row! As the ipad jumped off my stomach I got the point-"get this thing off of me!"

One night I was cuddling Mark in bed and my stomach was pressed up against his back when all of the sudden my little sleeping baby hauled off and firmly kicked Mark in the back. How I wished he had been awake because I'm sure he could have felt it. It sure made me laugh.

Another day I was getting my blood drawn for preeclampsia labs when our baby just started rolling around and kicking. I usually probably would have kept it to myself, but for some reason commented out loud to the lab technician "I don't think she likes this". To which she responded in awe, "that was your baby? I thought that was you repositioning yourself. I caught that movement out of the corner of my eye. I wish I would have seen it straight on", she said. "I don't have any children of my own and that was one of the neatest things I have seen." The next day when I returned to the lab to turn in my 24 hour urine test (yep, fun stuff) she remembered my name and birthday. I guess you could say we left an impression on her.

She is always awake during Sacrament meeting for some reason and right during or shortly after meals. I usually don't feel her at night so hopefully she is in the habit of sleeping through the night. Sometimes bath time makes her wild too. One day I layer in the bath tub and watched with fascination as my belly moved and jumped around. Crazy stuff!

One day about a month ago Mark asked me if I had felt the baby move that day and I, all of the sudden, panicked. I had been so busy that I couldn't recall the baby moving at all in the last 3 days let alone that day. Needless to say I couldn't sleep that night. 'Come on baby, move, please let me know you're okay.' The next morning as Mark said the morning prayer he knew this was still on my mind so he prayed I would be able to feel her move. Boy did I ever that day! I think she moved non-stop for the rest of the day. It made me smile all day. I decided when you are too busy to feel your baby move you are too busy. My 14+ hour days came to an end shortly after that as my GED night class finished up. Phew.

As excited as I am to be able to soon be able to hold this baby in my arms I think part of me will miss the comforting movements of our baby. She loves to kick me right under my ribs on the right side to let me know she's awake for the day "good morning baby" I say as I smile and rub her feet.

Puppies, puppies! Who wants a puppy?

Our dog (still very much a puppy herself) had puppies on December 8th. She was only 14 months old when she got into trouble with the next door neighbors dog. Despite Marks many trips taking their dog Lucky back to tie him up at his own house in the early hours of the morning that dog was persistent. On the 4th and last attempt Lucky cut through the pasture and beat Mark back to the house.

And that is how we got 10 puppies! Luckily for us, our next door neighbors dog was also a pure-bred lab and so is our Sammy.

We have had a lot of fun (and learned a lot of things) through this process. Mark has done an amazing job with the maintenance and care of all these puppies. He built a kennel for Sammy and finished building her a doghouse just 2 days before she gave birth. That was cutting it pretty close!

Those puppies love Mark! He cannot go out to the kennel without coming under attack with all the puppies seeking his attention.

The sad part has finally come. We have sold 5 puppies and have 3 to go. (We lost 2 puppies during the first week, but 8 puppies is still a lot!) It will be nice not to have the expense of puppy chow for the growing appetite of those little puppies, as well as the never ending job of kennel cleaning, but it will be sad to see them all go. (Mark even more so than me because of all his time and dedication to those puppies. Me, I tried not to get too attached because I hate saying goodbye, but a person couldn't help getting a bit attached.)

On a side note-it is crazy to me that Sammy got pregnant after me, but still had her puppies before me, nursed them the appropriate time, weened them and now has sent them on their way in the world.

We are very glad our niece and nephews are getting one of the puppies so we can watch her grow up. They too are super excited and can't wait to come back from Disneyland to get their puppy.

Puppy stats:
-4 yellow 6 black at birth
-2 yellow males 1 yellow female, 3 black males and 2 black females
-At 7 weeks the biggest yellow male weighed 14 pounds and our smallest black female weighed 9 pounds
-Last week alone, the puppies (and Sammy) went through 4 bags of dog food.
-First puppy sold was our favorite yellow male then our favorite yellow female. The black males will be the last to go.

Marks Roles

Besides the typical roles of a man in the relationship, here are a few others Mark has played or displayed in more abundance recently.

Comedian-he always makes me laugh, even when I want to cry. Lately I have to ask him to please not be funny or make me laugh because it usually results in a coughing fit, but truly I am thankful for his humorous way of dealing with my little slumps.

Daddy-One of the best things about finding out the sex of our baby was that we got to start using she when we prayed. I love hearing Mark pray with gratitude for our daughter and thank Heavenly Father that we are her parents. I kind of had the mind set that we were going to be her parents and that I was going to be her mother, but he prays thanking Heavenly Father that we already are.

I sometimes get a little anxious when I realize that in just a few months we will have a baby. I know, we have wanted and waited and prayed for this opportunity and responsibility for a long time, but when reality starts hitting a little close to home I get a little nervously excited. I often ask Mark, "are you nervous?" To which he always responds with a twinkle in his eye that he is not. He is excited. I cannot wait to see him hold our dear daughter for the first time. He is already so much in love with her.

Ambulance driver-Okay, not ambulance driver, although sometimes it has felt that I've needed one, but over the last 7 weeks, actually over the last 2+ years he had taken me to and from doctors appointments at all hours of the day and night. Even though he has been driving for years (and was a delivery driver for DHL for 10+ years) he continues to get better about going over bumps when my rib is dislocate, or I've just had some medical procedure or surgery. I don't particularly like doctors, or didn't (I'm getting better) and Mark had gone to every appointment with me.

Chef-He loves to watch the food network and has taken such good care of me-cooking often when I am too sick, too nauseous or too tired to cook.

I know I have said this before and I will say it again and again. I am so thankful for Mark. He is not perfect, but he is perfect for me.

Thoughts on Puking

(Dad, you should not read this. Sisters, please do not tell dad I wrote this he will just shake his head and say "Charity" in his knowing, but not believing, disappointed voice).

-monochromatic foods are not very exciting to puke up: for example a hotdog with ketchup, sweet potato fries, orange juice and strawberries don't make for very visually diverse throw up.

-supreme pizza is really unique to throw up-you have a lot of elements in there from the crust to the olives to the pineapple...

-worst thing to throw up: I would probably have to say prenatal vitamins or any type if medicine. Ick! That tastes much worst coming back up than it did going down.

-best thing to throw up: milk with a sugar cookie dipped in it. I have to say if I had to throw up everyday I would choose to throw that up. It is so smooth and comes up pleasantly.

Other notes: I throw up ice cream 100% of the time. Even knowing this, I will sometimes still choose to eat it because I just really like ice cream, but it always makes me think twice.

Orange juice is supposed to help when you are sick, but when you are pregnant and sick I think I would recommend some other way to get vitamin C. I throw this up 87% of the time. (Actual results may vary person to person).

If you go to an urgent care facility look for the very coveted blue throw up rings on the wall. Seriously, those are awesome! When I have a couple they go in the car and church with me, but they never last too long.

People often wonder if, when you have to go to the bathroom and you have to puke, which you should do first. I truly believe in multi-tasking and just plan on bringing my throw up bowl to the bathroom when I need to go.

I prefer my bedside, couch side, toilet side throw up bucket to be the medium size metal Pampered Chef bowl. I don't know why but this bowl is not only the perfect size but the coolness of it has a bit of a calming influence after you throw up. I am currently using my medium sized blue Tupperware bowl, but must say I need to finish off the pasta salad in the fridge so I can have my bowl back.

Tomorrow I will be 25 weeks along in my pregnancy. I sailed through the first 8-10 weeks with mild nauseous but no vomiting. Since then, the story has been much different.

I have become very good at the art of puking. I started with your typical "morning sickness". (Definition: you start feeling sick in the morning and it usually goes and comes throughout the day and hits again with a vengeance mid-afternoon/evening.) I would puke up water, prenatal vitamins, and nothing. I could easily dry heave 20+ times in a setting.

I quickly went from morning sickness to heartburn induced vomiting where tums became my best friend until that no longer worked and now zyntac is ever dear to my heart.

Bronchitis came next with coughing spells that would result in not being able to breath which resulted in, yep, you guessed it, vomiting.

They say I'm carrying the baby really high which doesn't help with breathing, heartburn or nauseous so next they said I had pregnancy induced asthma.

Interestingly enough, I have only thrown up in front of my students once, and even then only one student saw me (but I must say she was deeply traumatized and I don't think she has been able to look at me quite the same since.) I often taught with a paper bag by my chair and used the "turn and talk to your partner about..." teaching strategy while I waited for the urge to pass. I found myself puking at recess and the second the kids walked out the door at the end of the day. But, I have had to pull over on the way to school and in the way home from school more than once to throw up on the side of the road.

Okay, really I could go on and on about this topic. It is just a daily part of my life lately. I realize that reading or thinking about this may lead you to pulling out your medium-sized metal Pampered Chef bowl and slightly apologize if that is the case. I really wanted to include a picture in the post, after all, posts with pictures are so much more exciting, but, alas, for your sake, I will refrain.

(After Mark read this he remembered we had pasta salad in the fridge so I am now that much closer to getting my bowl back!)

From my corner to yours

Dear Corner,
I've been putting off telling you this long enough, but I really think we should part ways, soon. I know you have been there for me this last 5 weeks, and through some yucky times too. You've been there through tears, snot, throw up, spit, and other things I'd rather not discuss. You have held me up when I couldn't hold up my own weight but I think you realized from the start this was a temporary arrangement.

I've been through "just a cough" to bronchitis to pregnancy induced asthma (because I'm carrying the baby really high) to a bruised rib to a dislocated rib to being treated for whooping cough all in a matter of a few weeks and you have been there. Put morning sickness on top of heartburn vomiting on top of difficulty breathing resulting in panic attacks that result in throwing up and we've had quite the times together.

I'm kind of tired of looking at you and I'm sure you could say the same about me. I'm a little less attractive with a broken blood vessel in my eye-first it was one eye, now its the other and the first eye has a bruised eyelid. Oh yeah and I've got a beautiful cold sore on my lip to boot.

They say a pregnant woman has a glow-not sure this is what they meant by that.

Thanks again for everything,
Charity