18 weeks along...

How far along?  18 weeks along! Baby is about 5.5 inches about the size of a bell pepper! :)

Total weight gain/measurements: I started at 142, and as of last week I had only gained 2 pounds! woo hoo!

Maternity clothes: Still haven't bought a thing! I got the exchange the too small belly bands my mom got me, and got ones that were a little bit bigger, so now I can comfortably wear my clothes and not be in pain when I sit (due to the tight button).

Stretch marks: No way baby! I've still been using the coconut butter from Trader Joes, and it keeps my sin smooth, and moisturized all day long. None yet, phew!

Sleep: It's been great! Although now my left shoulder has been hurting when I tried to tuck it behind my head under my pillow... so thankfully when I don't sleep on my left side, it seems to be ok. 

Best moment this week: Well in the last 2 weeks, it's been awesome getting to see my husband and I so impressed with how much my belly is growing, and how the baby is growing, it keeps impressing us! Also I'm totally loving my husband rubbing my belly daily, it's the sweetest thing and makes me love him so much! 

Miss anything? Not a thing! I really LOVE being pregnant. 

Movement: Haven't felt anything yet, but everyday after eating, I usually sit & rub my belly to see if I can feel anything. I should in the next week or two. 

Food cravings: Not anything that I can think of right now, just any food is great to me, but no real cravings that I can't live without.. thankfully that's not happening right now. At one point I almost was about to cry when I wasn't getting the food I wanted after a week or so. 

Anything making you queasy or sick? Nope. :)

Gender:  Not sure yet. We find out next Monday, March 4th! Woo hoo! I'm totally excited! I'm thinking a boy, but we're not sure, and who knows.. it could be a little girl.

Labor signs: Not yet! PHEW!

Symptoms: Feeling awesome! I really enjoy being pregnant and barely realize that I am, until I look in the mirror, and see my belly sticking out.

Belly button in or out? Still in!

Wedding rings on or off? On! :)

Happy or moody most of the time: Happy, all the time! Somethings do tend to easily irritate me at times, I guess that's part of the hormones, but it's only when things don't go as planned.... which can happen from time to time. But otherwise, I'm totally happy! :)

Looking forward to: Feeling the baby move & getting to our appt next Monday to find out if we're having a boy or girl! Oh my.. the anticipation is killing me! :) 

(Above: Weeks 17 & 18

Below: Weeks 11, 14, 16.5)

Will you be my Valentine?

So yesterday was another wonderful Valentine's Day spent with my wonderful husband. After 7+ years of being together, I still love him more than I could ever imagine!!! 

He was so sweet to showed up to my job, and surprised me!!!! So I think the part that shocked me the most was that he was supposed to be at work! He told me that morning that he would be gone before I was out of the shower, so he kissed me goodbye and was gone when I was getting ready. All the sudden, he text me in the morning saying how he wanted to Skype with me during my lunch break, but I was planning to go to a meeting (yeah we have to use our lunch breaks-EHH!). So I went to half of the meeting, and then planned to meet with him on skype from 1-1:15pm, and all the sudden at 1pm I get a text that he can't meet until 1:15 - when I have to be back at work! NOOOO!!!! I was totally bummed! It actually really made me sad that he said could no longer skype with me.. all along he was driving to my job. So soon after 1:15 he text me and said, can we skype now, and I told him.. no babe I'm back at my desk. So he sent me a pic of my offices parking lot, and I was shocked! Meanwhile, I'm on the phone with a member who won't let me get off - AHHH!!! (Imagine me knowing my husband is waiting for me in the parking lot, and wanting to get off the phone... oh man I was anxious!!!) I was wanting to run out of my office and just get a huge hug!! So finally I got off the phone and I was so happy to see him! He surely made my day so special. It was great that we were able to hang out at home and order some awesome thai food and watch a movie together! What a memorable Valentine's Day! Can't wait until next year! :)

15 weeks & 3 days....

How far along?  15 weeks & 3 days! Baby is about 4+ inches about the size of an apple.

Total weight gain/measurements: Not really sure at this time.. I think a pound or 2 & not sure on my measurements as they haven't started measuring me & probably won't until around 20+ weeks.

Maternity clothes: Haven't bought a thing! I've been graciously been given used things, as well as my mom bought me some belly bands, and my mother in law bought me some maternity shirts!

Stretch marks: No way baby! Too early for that!

Sleep: It's gotten much better. I thought I couldn't sleep on my back (I have high blood pressure when I get anxious) so my midwife said that I could sleep on my back until 20 weeks, so I'm enjoying it!!! 

Best moment this week: My doctors appointment on Tuesday 2/5/13. It was great to hear the babies heart rate currently at 145! I got to hear the baby move around too when they were listening in, which was awesome. It's great knowing that he/she is doing wonderful!

Miss anything? Nothing! 

Movement: None yet. Too soon to feel much, but everyday I'm waiting! I desire to feel my baby move so badly!

Food cravings: Hmm.. what am I not craving?!?! Last week was egg salad sandwiches. Last night was pasta! 

Anything making you queasy or sick? Nope

Gender:  Not sure! But we find out March 4th.. if the baby is letting us see of course!

Labor signs: Thankfully.. NO!

Symptoms: Feeling great! If I didn't see my belly growing little by little every week, then I wouldn't know I was pregnant! Also, if I didn't hear the little heart beat as well! It's been an amazing pregnancy, as I've had very little nausea from time to time. Praise God for that! 

Belly button in or out? Oh definitely still in!

Wedding rings on or off? On!

Happy or moody most of the time: Yes! Loving being pregnant!

Looking forward to: Feeling the baby move (hopefully in the next 3-4 weeks) and to find out the sex of the baby!!!! The anticipation is driving me crazy, but it will be here before we know it!

Miscarriage & Pregnancy

Wow... so it's been quite the time since I've posted anything on here!!!! Feels great to be able to give quite an update. So as of yesterday I was able to announce on Facebook that my husband and I are expecting a baby, due July 30, 2013! We're super excited as we get to enter into this new phase of our marriage, parenting! 

So here's a shortened version on the last few months...

(To begin, this is not to make you sad, etc. but to hopefully be able to 
help another girl/woman whose gone through this, and to hopefully
 turn their eyes towards Christ through a struggle of loss.)

Carlos & I wanted to start a family back in the summer, and praise God we didn't struggle. So I was pregnant in early August, and we found out about 6 weeks along. I was so excited, as was he. We couldn't want to begin planning things for our new baby! About a week later, I began to bleed, and I panicked, but tried to stay calm and prayed a WHOLE lot. So 3 days later at a Women of Faith conference in DC, with 3 amazing friends of mine, they helped me to cope as I was dealing with going through the process of miscarrying my child. It was by far the toughest thing I've ever had to work through, but praise God that right after it happened, I was able to walk right into praising God as they were singing beautiful songs to worship our Creator. Yes, it was tough to be joyful after losing your child, but I know it was only by God's grace, because I was able to smile after such a tough loss. Looking back I think I was more upset with myself, not once do I remember being angry with God for taking my child. I started to think, could I have done something differently, eating even better, not stood in front of the microwave, had more rest, etc. Was there really anything that I could have done to change the will of God? NOPE! Ultimately this was the plan, and I was okay with it, because it taught me to trust God 10 times more, knowing that His sovereignty would happen regardless of how careful I was. So many woman drink alcohol, smoke, eat terribly, throughout their pregnancies and have perfectly healthy babies, and yet that's what God intended. So I realized that I had to be content with whatever the Lord decided. If we look at Genesis 29:31 " When the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren." So overall the Lord controlled everything, and later on the Lord opened Rachel's womb! (Genesis 30:22 "Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb.") Praise God that He is in control, and has taught me to trust His infinite plan, not my own plan of when I should have a baby - for all those who know me very well, I'm VERY planned and scheduled. I definitely was planning everything out, and I had to learn that my plans are NOT my own, because ultimately the Lord will change mine, to whatever His plans are. 

Ultimately we were thankful when the doc gave us the go-ahead to try again, and thankfully we didn't struggle with that either. We've praised God for opening my womb to be able to conceive, as we desired after 3 years of marriage, to start a family. We're praising God for keeping this life safe, and for preserving the life that we so desire to raise, in a couple of months. 

http://www.thevillagechurch.net/the-village-blog/miscarriage-and-me/

^ that's another blog that was posted about a miscarriage as well, which I feel she words this so much better than myself, but I'm so thankful for others desiring to see the good in the bad times. 

Electricity?!?!

Well hello everyone! So I know a lot has happened recently.. but I'll give you a brief overview of the past FUN weekend we've had. 


So Friday night, I was going out to dinner with my family, and my brother was going to be our server, since he works there. So as we're eating dinner... the lights begin to flicker. So of course I begin to joke about how their giving us a lights show & my brother says that they've been having issues with the AC at his job. So we all ignore it, but yet moments later it continues to happen, and then we see many servers run outside to grab the umbrellas at the tables, as the wind begins to pick up. We all got a little nervous, but thankfully the servers made it safely inside, as the storm began to reveal itself. The pouring rain came quickly, and left it's impact for days. Well needless to say, this was the beginning of our fun weekend, as we ate dinner in the dark....

(The bottom pic was when we lost electricity)

So soon after I began to eat dinner, I received a call from my husband. He told me that him & our friend Jon were stuck on the Metro & that they weren't going any farther due to no electricity. Oh course, I begin to freak out as I know most areas have lost electricity, and if you know me... I hate to drive in areas I don't know... especially when everything is pitch black. Thankfully I found out he was 2 miles down the street, but getting there took quite sometime due to down trees, no working intersections, etc. So we soon enough got home safely, of course to a VERY dark house... poor dogs!   

So the next day (Saturday) Carlos had plans from quite sometime ago, so I stayed home with the dogs.. this became quite the day! While Carlos was gone, I was enjoying the nice day, getting out of the house for a bit in the morning & just trying to keep busy and not think about how hot it really was. So I began to try & keep myself occupied in the mean time....

(Yes, I did do all this by myself.. this is what boredom does to you!) 

 

(Yes, we typically want the house cold, and it became over 80 degrees later on)

Unfortunately we had lost a lot of food in our fridge, so I had to make a run to the store, in order to help restock some of the lost food, and have something to eat, since we had to eat out. 

(YUMMY!)

We had then decided that we could no longer stay at our house, due to the poor dogs getting so overly heated (their spoiled indoor dogs.. who get tons of AC all day long), and so we decided to head over to my mother-in-laws house. She graciously opened up her home to us, fed us, and gave us her bed so we would have somewhere comfortable to sleep. What a wonderful woman she is! :) She even restocked our fridge! WOW!

(Left: One of the meals she made. Right: before & after of our fridge!)

Overall we made the best of the situation, and plus the dogs loved seeing all the family! Thankfully my mom & stepdad watched them for a few days, so we could handle work, and get our lives back in order when we got the power back on Monday! Phew, only 3 days without power.. but it was long enough! 

(So happy to be going home!)

Since we last spoke...

Wow since we last spoke.. a few things have happened.. so time to update! Well first, we recently visited Philly.. OH YES! We enjoyed some yummy cheesesteaks & danced the night away at Cuba Libre! 

(Carlos eating, hotel & view from hotel)

(Some yummy cheesesteaks!)

Afterwards we came home for my niece's 4th birthday party! What a celebration that was! We did the pinata, enjoyed a cupcake tower, played with some snakes... okay I lied, they did- not me! 

(Makayla the bday girl & mommy, family, April & Auntie N w/snake, & Auntie N w/snake)

(More fun from the party.. Makayla was getting the pinata!)

Then lastly, Penny has started doggy training classes! She was a little rowdy in the beginning when she saw the other dogs & then a few minutes later....

Yup, she laid down (in the street) an just cuddled with daddy! What a blessing! She really became a barker, but once we got inside, she was distracted soon after & then was focused on learning her new commands & practicing old ones! I'll post more pics from the class, once we continue them. We've been teaching Preemo the same things (mainly the hand motions) just to make sure that we can have them both on the same level.. an wow they both learn fast! This clicker training is something else! I'm excited for her next class this week! 

Studying.. YEAH

So I'm preparing to teach the High School Girls bible study tomorrow night. I'm tired after a long day at work.. an it sure was busy... BUT the Lord is good & giving me some strength to keep pushing through & getting this study prepared. Looks like we're going over 1 John 1:5-10 & 1 John 2:1-6... should be exciting! It's definitely fun getting to prepare to teach the Bible to these knowledgeable young ladies, who desire to study their word! Praise God for an awesome group of young ladies! 

(MacArthur Study Bible ESV-bottom. ESV Study Bible-top)