a hard pill to swallow

I read several blogs of people that I don't know. Some are crafty, some talk about family life, and some often touch on spiritual things. Most I have just run across from another blog. Here is a page that I enjoy reading. Much of what she writes is a little hard to swallow. However, I often find myself agreeing with most of it. If nothing else, it really makes me think. So, I thought I would share. Maybe you'll enjoy reading it, too. If you go read some of it, let me know what you think.

a jacket for William

Nathan has been asking me for probably a year now to make a bluejean jacket for William. Last week I finally took the time to do it. I made it from the leftover seat of a pair of jeans. I have these from making Nathan's bluejean quilt many moons ago. With that project I used up the legs of quite a few pair of jeans. Anyway, the jacket still needs some minor work on the edges, but it's wearable and usable. And Nathan likes it. And I guess that's all that really matters. So, here are the before and after pictures.

yard work

Last Saturday, Matt and I (with some help from the kids) did some yard work. We're still slowly marching toward getting the yard in shape. There is still a TON to do. Now that it's starting to cool off just a little, we can get back outside some. Anyway, here are some before and after pictures of most of our work. In this before picture, you can see that we had sunflowers that were drying up in the front. Behind that is a dead azalea covered in bunches of weedy vines. Behind that was a privet bush that was getting bigger and bigger. It was all junk that needed to be removed. Also, you can't really see it in the picture, but there was a tree growing up in the middle of the dogwoods and azaleas that Matt cut down. Thanks for all the help, Matt! Now, we just have to figure out what to do with that space. As you can see, there is a bunch of monkey grass there. We may move it somewhere else in the yard...or we can incorporate that space into a flower bed of some sort. We'll see. If anybody has suggestions, feel free to leave them!

butterflies like lantana

so here are the pregnancy details

Sorry about the delay. I think most of you will understand once you read this post.

Back in mid-July, I finally convinced Matt that it was time to take a pregnancy test. I had thought I was pregnant for a while. Matt, however, was a bit skeptical because...well...just because. He went to the store and bought a two pack of pregnancy tests. I went ahead and took one. After waiting the alloted time, we checked it. It was not clear. Grrr. We thought that it meant "pregnant", but we weren't sure enough that we would have told anybody. So, I took the second in the pack the next morning. Same result. Grrr. So, the next day, I went to the store and bought a digital pregnancy test. I didn't want any more ambiguity. I wanted a test that simply said "pregnant" or "not pregnant". Well, that one popped up "pregnant". Yay! A clear answer was great.

We went ahead and told Nathan and Caroline that day. Then, we also told our immediate families. We told them that it was ok to tell people, but we didn't want them to make any big announcements. Basically, I didn't want to answer the question "When are you due?" I didn't know the answer. Now, I've always thought that it was silly when people didn't know how far along they were...unless that had always been very irregular. But...I was in that situation. I just wasn't sure. (If you want to know why, email me. I'm trying to spare the male and squeamish readers.) And...I didn't have an OB appointment until August 1st...still several weeks away.

Well, when we finally made it to appointment day, I was anxious. I was ready to have a date to go by. And I was ready to make sure everything was going well with the baby. We did all the "normal" stuff for a first OB visit. One of the last things the doctor was going to do was check the heartbeat. My doctor's office does not have an ultrasound machine, so there wasn't an opportunity to have an early ultrasound there. She just uses a handheld doppler thing. Anyway, she started checking and couldn't find a heartbeat. I didn't figure it was a big deal, though, because I was still early. I figured she would move to a different place and find it. Well, I was wrong. She tried to find it for about 5 minutes and couldn't.

So, instead, she sent us to the hospital to get an ultrasound. (Usually we do ultrasounds at a stand alone place...not the hospital.) I tried to hold myself together, but I also had to face the fact that we may not be having a baby after all. On the way to the hospital, I gave Matt some information about what I wanted to do (or not do) if the news was bad. Once we got there and signed in, we were told that it might be a couple hours before they could get to me. That was not the answer I wanted. I was expecting to be seen pretty quickly. Luckily, it didn't end up taking a couple hours (though I can't tell you how long it really was).

When the doctor who was doing the ultrasound started, I asked him if he could turn the monitor toward me so I could watch. He said that he would in just a minute. In the meantime, Matt couldn't make out what he was seeing. After a minute or two, he turned it toward me and showed me a little baby with a heartbeat. Yay! The rest didn't much matter. Our baby had a heartbeat. It was fine. Alive. However, I did ask him about the heart rate which was 171 and about how far along I was. He was within two days of what I would have said, so I was just a month off in my original best guess. So, I was about 8 weeks. I was glad to be able to go into the weekend with a positive answer and a definite timeline.

So, on to other more "normal" things...Not long after I took the pregnancy tests, I started feeling yuck. I have had the typical pregnancy all-day-not-just-morning sickness. With Nathan and Caroline, however, it was a little different. With them, as long as I didn't get even remotely hungry, I felt fine. With this one, though, eating doesn't help so much. While I'm eating, I feel better, but the yuck quickly returns. I know that I can't complain when compared to what a lot of women go through, but I'm tired of having a yucky stomach all the time. I have to say, though, that it has seemed to lessen in the last week or two. I'm not yuck all day long every day. Just sometimes every day.

Things seem to be normal for early pregnancy. I am tired quite a bit. I'm not sleeping the best. I hope that here in a couple weeks, those things will let up a bit. Between the stomach and the tired, I haven't given my kids the attention they need a good bit of the time. I'm ready to be feeling better and to get back in the groove.

So...for a due date. Since I haven't been back to the doctor, she hasn't set a due date. However, I am going with March 12th. Even if she picks a date that is a couple off (based on the ultrasound), I'll probably still stick with the 12th. I'm just stubborn that way. :)

Again, sorry for the delay in giving info. It was just taking me a while to process all that happened that first day. I also haven't felt the best so I just haven't been functioning well. I'm hoping to get back on the ball with things soon, though. So, if you have any questions that I haven't answered, let me know.

are you there?

No, I have not fallen off the face of the planet. I am still alive! I really do hope to get back to posting soon. I really do plan to give you all more info on being pregnant. Really, I do. I just haven't taken the time to sit down and do it. I'm coming back, though. Really. Both here and over at the kiddos' blog. Really. One day. Hopefully soon.

(ps - I'm due in March)

I'm pregnant

...thought you might like to know. :)