Braxton-Hicks?

So today I'm just sitting here at my desk minding my own business when all of the sudden I feel this immense presure exuding from my belly! It was the weirdest thing ever. I got up and walked around a little and it went away after about 15 seconds. Of course it kind of concerned me, so to GOOGLE I go. Found out that the symptoms I had sounded just like Braxton-Hicks contractions. But BH don't usually start until 20 weeks (I'm just shy of 16 weeks), so I was on the worried side. When I went home at lunch I used the doppler and listened to Whatsit, and he sounded just fine, so that helped put me at ease. When I had another one after lunch, I called my doctor. The nurse said that as long as they aren't coming regularly or more than 4 an hour, I should be okay. Just to take it easy and call if I felt concerned about it.

Can I get an AMEN?!

So I called Mom for our ritual morning converstation while we're both supposed to be working... She told me that Jamie and Colby are going to be leaving their positions at the camp! Well of COURSE John and I would LOVE to have that job, so I told her that and then a little later I called Dad to talk to him about it. He, in turn, called Ezell and then called me back - with a date to come INTERVIEW!!!! Wow. John and I talked about it at lunch and then a LOT more after work. We are both so ready to leave Joplin and our jobs - I can't even describe how excited we are about this prospect.

I think the reason I'm the most excited is because this job would mean that John and I both would basically be working from home. I mean, we'll still have to go to the "office" but it will be right there on the campgrounds and I'll be able to take little Whatsit with me without having to interrupt the workplace. Not to mention the fact that John will be right there as well - I can't begin to say how many good things I can list because of this job.

The only down side is going to be trying to sell our house... But we have faith that God will take care of us. So it looks like we'll be going down on the 26th to talk to the board and convince them that they can't live without us.

So about those headaches...

I decided that I'm going to do something about these headaches... So I made an appointment for a massage at the YMCA. It's free with my membership, so that's a HUGE perk.

Well, I went to get the massage and the lady was SUPER nice and did a really good job, but it just wasn't quite as deep of a massage as I probably would have liked. But I didn't want her to be too rough, because I don't want to do anything that might be bad for me right now. It sure was relaxing, though, and I felt good afterwards.

Dr's Appointment

Got up this morning to go to the doctor for my monthly check up. John was going to go with me, but that was before we rented the doppler - the only real reason for him to go would be to hear the heartbeat, so he just stayed home. Stinker.

So basically, I get to the doctor at 8:15 (appointment is at 8:30). Get called back promtly at 8:30 and get to go in the cup and get weighed (I gained a pound) and then get sent to the exam room. The nurse came in and listened to the heartbeat - I asked her if she thought it was a boy or girl and she goes, "OH! Don't make me say!" And I said, "Well, I've had a feeling all along that it's a boy." And she responded with, "If I had to guess, I'd say boy." =) Then she said, I don't think Valery is here yet, but she should be here really soon, so just sit tight.

Good thing I brought a book.

35 minutes later, Valery came in. Finally. I was starting to debate about taking a nap on the exam table!! Hehe! Well, she talked to me for a few and then felt my belly to see if she could feel my uterus and that was it. 5 whole minutes with the doc. Wah-hoo. Good thing I'm not paying for all these visits or I'd be one ticked off momma. Anyway - I got to make my appointment for my "big" ultrasound - Sept. 19. I wanted it earlier, but the tech is only there on Mondays and Thursdays and the Monday I wanted, she wasn't going to be there. So I said, "Okay, how about that Thursday." And the receptionist goes, "WEEEEELLLL... Since Valery's new, we haven't gotten her Thursday schedule yet, so we don't know what weeks she's working..." So I had to bump it ANOTHER week. Oh well. At least the baby will be big enough by then that we should be able to see the sex without any problems (yes, we're finding out). The other good news is that my OB/GYN practice just bought a 3-D ultrasound machine and Valery said it should be up and running in no later than 5 weeks, and since my ultrasound is scheduled for 6 weeks from now, I'll almost for SURE get a 3-D ultrasound!!!!! YIPPPEE!! John's super excited about that, too.

Maternity Clothes!

I got a package at work today from Mom - it had some friendship bread in it (YUM!) and a really cute green maternity top from Walmart. I had to take it home and try it on at lunch. It looks so cute! I still don't really *look* pregnant, though, so this shirt just looks normal. Pretty soon, though.... I need to go buy some other stuff, but I don't really wanna spend the money right now.

Just go away already!!

Had another REALLY bad headache today. Ended up going home at noon and sleeping the rest of the afternoon. I guess it helped a little, but WOW. All I really remember is John coming home at 5 and being surprised that I was home and in bed. I had no idea that I'd been asleep so long. I don't know how many more of these headaches I can take!!

Jeans and Headaches and Heartbeats, Oh My!

John finally got his bonus from last month on this paycheck. So I got to go find myself a pair of pants that would actually fit me. My jeans aren't so bad, they're just getting tight - and that makes it hard to sit in them all day. So we went to Target and I found a pair that I like... I tried on some maternity pants, but WOW - I think they must make them for women with ghetto booties. I couldn't see myself EVER fitting into a pair of those. But I guess I shouldn't be too sure.

Yesterday I woke up with the worst headache - I think it's from sleeping with my head at weird angles through the night. Anyway, it didn't go away ALL DAY LONG. I took Tylenol, drank some Dr. Pepper, tried to lie still on the couch... NOTHING worked. I ended up going to bed with it still hurting. But it was okay when I woke up this morning. I'll tell you something that was GREAT about the day, though - John was home from work all day and spent the afternoon cleaning. He did the dishes, took out all the trash, vacuumed, and picked up clutter that was EVERYWHERE. He deserves the "Husband of the Year" award.

Then TODAY I got a fetal doppler in the mail that I rented from sweetbeats.net. I can use it at home to listen to the baby's heartbeat. So John finally got to hear the little thing today at lunch. He looked so proud. He's gonna make a great daddy. I'm probably going to spend way too much of my time for the next month listening to the little thumping. It's such a comforting sound.

Sick Again...

Got sick again today. This time I gagged myself while brushing my teeth. That wasn't fun - almost made me late for work. I hate throwing up. Hopefully this will be the last time.

ZZZZZZZ....

I was so tired at work today that I actually had to leave for a little bit to go home and lie down!! It was that bad! I can't handle too many days like this. It's hard enough working in a quiet office all day long, but to add the exhaustion of pregnancy to that... I need to make a bed under my desk like George did on Seinfeld. That would be great. I would sure take advantage of it! John got his DSL today.

He's been upstairs with it - I'm sure I'll never see him again. hehe!

Cravings...

Had my first big cravings today - first for ice cream and then for pizza. Didn't get either one, but MAN did I want them!!!!

Icky "Morning" Sickness

I've been nauseous off and on for the entire pregnancy so far, but no throwing up. Until today. I came home at lunch and caught a whiff of SOMETHING (who knows what, it was just something stale smelling) and it sent me into gag mode. I did my best to convince myself that I was NOT going to be sick, but I ended up giving in. I'm just glad I hadn't eaten lunch yet. That would have been so horrible.

Silver Dollar City

Since John's mom and all his sisters (plus Nikolas) were here this week, we (of course) had to make a trip to Branson. We drove up there yesterday and went to the park for about long enough to get wet. Everyone was hungry, and so we left to go eat at McDonalds. We made it back to the park just in time to exchange the girls' tickets for the 2 day pass. We stayed at the Bradford in the Loft - LOTS OF FUN. I of course went to bed early. I was so tired. Should have had more water! Sunday morning we all got up bright and early and went downstairs for breakfast (yum!) and then headed off to SDC. It was SUPER hot out, but we had a good time. Everyone rode the rides except me (and Nikolas), but I was fine with that - seems like I spent most of the day chugging water and running to the bathroom. We ended up leaving a little early because a really bad storm was moving in. But we beat it and made it home at a decent hour. John still had to drive to Vinita to drop all the girls (and Nikolas) off with Greg, who met him there. Glad he didn't have to drive all the way to Sapulpa!!! That would have made for a very long day for him.

Dr's Appointment - Heartbeat

Well, the baby has been dubbed "Whatsit" by my mom and dad. Guess they didn't like "Cricket." Oh well. Because of the 4th of July, I couldn't have my monthly appointment on Monday like usual - so I had to go today. Because it was a normal workday for John, he couldn't go with me... I got to my appointment and got called back. The nurse weighed me (I've lost a pound), and the took me to my exam room. She got out the doppler and told me that she'd try to find the heartbeat, but to not get my hopes up too much because I wasn't far along enough for there to be any promises that we'd hear it. But she found it in about 1/2 second. She didn't even have to try!! It was SO great. I can't believe John missed it! It was just thunking away in there - she didn't tell me how many beats per minute it was going, but it was quick! I ended up not feeling well this afternoon, so I took the afternoon off to go home and lie down. So glad I have sick days to use!!!

Just Another Day

Man am I tired. I had the beginnings of a migraine yesterday, but took the afternoon off and went home to sleep. That helped - it never got to full blown (thank goodness - especially because I'm out of excedrin, which I couldn't have taken anyway). My hips have been hurting lately - probably just normal growth stuff. Not fun, though. Three weeks from today is my next doctor's appointment!! I'm so excited.

Not a whole lot is going on these days... I just go to work and then go home and veg in front of the TV until bedtime. Usually I get up and make us a little dinner, but that's getting harder because I've started having some pretty bad food aversions and even worse is seeing dirty dishes... Which applies to even dishes that we JUST ate off of. I just can't handle it!! Even thinking about it starts up the gag reflex. =( Oh well. Gotta deal. I have a bunch of housework to catch up on this weekend - laundry, dishes, just general picking up, that kind of stuff.

Well, I have John on the phone, so I'm gonna go for now. =) Happy Friday!!!

All Day Sickness

Blech. I'm feeling so well these days. I still have yet to throw up, but I'm coming a little closer every day. I sneezed today and it about brought it on... Whew, glad I escaped. I've noticed that my car sickness has intensified. Yesterday I had all the classic car sick symptoms from just driving across town. Not fun at all.

Well, since my last posting, I've been to the doctor! Everything went fine. She checked me out, verified my due date and gave me lots of cool free stuff. Of course it's all still in my car, but... I was a little disappointed that they didn't try to do an internal ultrasound to see the sac, but the nurse said it was probably too early (only 5d5w). I'm gonna ask if I can have one at my next appointment - I'll be 10w2d then and hopefully we'll be able to see the heartbeat, too. I've been so parranoid about having a miscarriage. Seeing the heart beating would really help ease my worries a lot.

I'm still as tired as all get out. I pretty much spend all my time at home lying on the couch... I have a little nest that I've made for myself there - my body pillow covered with a soft blanket... My pillows for my head and a nice comfy blankie to cover up with. It's so nice. I think I spent close to all day Saturday there. Hehe!!

Kid, You're Wearing Me Out!

So I'm at work and I'm 100% totally absolutely and undeniably EXHAUSTED. I can barely keep my eyes open, and when they ARE open, I'm having trouble concentrating on my work. Which, by the way, I DO have a lot to do. Blah. At least I'm not throwing up, I guess. Well, not yet anyway. I have been feeling a bit queasy the last few days, but no gag reflexes.

The bathroom is almost done. We (note: generally when I say "we" I am actually meaning John) need to redo a few of the pipes that we thought were fine but are now leaking. We started painting yesterday (again, John), but realized that the color we picked was awful close to the color of our bedroom, so we're going to end up doing a glaze/sponge effect on the walls to "fix" it. Still have to put the sinks and toilet in, too. But we're not too far from being done!! YEAH!

WE'RE PREGNANT!!!

We finally did it!! We're pregnant!! I have no symptoms at all!! But I'm an obsessive pregnancy tester, so I just had to use one of those little sticks. And lo and behold, it came up possitive! I'm so excited and happy. John is thrilled, too. I can't believe it at all! It's like one big dream. Me. Pregnant. Wow. We called Rhonda last night to tell her - she was excited. Then we called my parents today... It was really neat to hear their reactions. Dad answered the phone when I called and I said, "Hi Grandpa!" And he goes, "Grandpa?" I said, "Yep. Grandpa." He goes, "You're not... Are you pregnant?!" He was very happy - I thought I about gave him a heart attack. Mom was very happy too! She just talked and talked and talked to me about it!

I called Eskai this afternoon... She and Mike are both trying right now, too - so hopefully they will get pregnant soon, too.

Well, that's about all... Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with my journaling throughout the next nine months. I'm already tired... But it COULD be from being at work. hehe

No babies, but lots of money.

Yet another month gone by and still no pregnancy for us. This SUCKS. We've now been trying for our little bundle of joy since December (actively trying since January). I never ever thought that it would be hard, but I did have fears about it. I really hope nothing is wrong and it's just taking a little while for us. I know all the stats and figures and stuff say that a NORMAL couple takes 6+ months to conceive. And even then only 89% of couples will conceive within a year of trying... I know that's a lot, but that still leaves 11 girls who don't. I'm scared that we're gonna end up being one of those. But then in the back of my mind, I'm completely positive about the whole thing (which is very unlike me). So... I guess you just never know.

Life is treating us fairly well right now, though... John got the "big" bonus at work last month - $1700!! And it looks as though he'll be getting it again this month. We have so many things that we need that money for - a new roof, fix my car, carpet, re-do the bathroom and the kitchen... etc, etc, etc. But of course, taking after my parents, we went and spent it on a new laptop for John. Hehe... Oh well. He loves it; it makes him happy. I got a pair of new shoes... That makes me happy. We also got new cell phones... Our Sprint contract is up 5/6, so we went ahead and switched over to Cingular. Yippee!! =)

Reminds me, I need to send out an email to let people know since our numbers are going to be different... Guess I should get on that. Hopefully I'll be back soon to share more of my life.

Our Kids...

So it's been a while... Oh well. Anyway - we've now been married a year and have started to think about having a family. No one really knows about this except a few select people. (John swore me to secrecy, but of course it's slipped out to people here and there. Like he really thought I could keep something that big to myself. Ha. Right.) Well, I've been having a hayday chatting on web boards (you know, little community posting places) and came across a post today from a girl wanting to kill some time... She said to give her the names of your future children and she'd describe the child to you... Here's what she said about the names we have picked for our kids:

Brayden Alan has sandy blonde hair and freckles on his cheeks. He always has a kool-aid mustache to accompany his grin. He loves to play in the sandbox and build things. He is a creative little guy and extremely thoughtful. His has blue/grey eyes that change with his mood.

Loryn (or Loren) Laine is tall but extremely poised. She is quite grown up for her age. Her brown/redish hair is always well kept, pulled back into a ponytail. She is the peacemaker in her group of friends.

I think this girl must know us to be able to put together such good descriptions of a combo of John and me! I just love it!!!

Jobs and Colds

I actually blogged yesterday, but right as I hit "publish post" our internet went all screwy and I lost my post. *Sniff, Sniff.* Guess I need to start copying the text before I post so that I can paste it back in if I need to...

Anyway - I've got a horribly bad cold. I can hardly breathe. And I don't want to breathe through my mouth because my throat is already dried out and it just makes it hurt more. My brain feels kinda cloudy, too. Not fun. But I guess I just need to suck it up! =)

Some good stuff has been happening lately... John finally emailed Uncle Steve about jobs at Dayspring and ended up applying for one that was open. I don't know if he'd actually get it or not (it wasn't REALLY his line of work - not sales or anything), but it would be neat to have the option. Melia called him today and left him a voicemail saying that she wanted to talk to him about the phone-a-thon and a possible future working here. I think that would make John so happy to have a job here. I know it's something he has a passion for. BUT at the same time, it's nice where he is now because he can work overtime and get paid for it... I dunno. I started crying last night over the whole thing (moving, staying, whatever). I feel bad because John said something about applying at Dayspring just to make me happy. I don't want him to think I'm unhappy. I just don't want to be stuck here forever and I feel like if we have an opportunity to move or look at other options, we should. But then at the same time, I don't want to do any of that because it's just more stress... And what happens if we move/get pregnant (don't know which order) and it messes stuff up like insurance!! Ick. I don't know what to think anymore. And having a cold doesn't help - it hurts to think too much.

A New Year...

So pretty much everyone has been asking us when we're going to be having kids. I wish I could tell them!! John and I decided that I would stop using my birth control in December... So I've been off of it for about almost two months now. It's really exciting to be "trying" but it's also been a little nerve wracking. I'm really scared that it's not going to be an easy thing for us, but I'm just trusting God and putting it in His hands. I know that he knows the best time for us - and as long as we're waiting, we can pay off some debt! I would love to be able to stay home after we have kids, but as of now, that is not even a remote possibility. John has a really good job, and it pays well, but it just doesn't pay enough to cover all of our bills. Once we get my car paid off (a year from October) and get rid of a few credit cards, we might be able to, though.

A lot of other stuff has been going on over the past few months, too... But it's all stuff that would take forever to write, and I'm sure that most of it will come out in the day-to-day journaling over the next few weeks/months. So I'll just let it be for now.