Kelly in NC

There are so many things to be thankful for and I know that my list will be incomplete. But I will try to do my best:
I am thankful for:
~My wonderful husband who has put up with months of my mood swings and exhaustion- yet still loves me unconditionally.
~My son who laughs constantly and finds a way to brighten everyday!
~My bump that seems to be growing bigger each day.
~My mom and sister Jennifer who drove all the way up from Florida to spend the holiday with us. (I couldn’t thank them enough!)
~My sister Renee who lets me whine, listens to my stories (even when they are stupid), and always finds a way to make me feel important.
~My dad for the sacrifices he made to provide for our family and send me off to college.
~My In-Laws who I couldn’t imagine living in NC without!
~All of my brothers & sisters-in-laws. To be honest I am not sure that I would have married Tim if he didn’t have such a fun family to become a part of!
~My neices and nephews who remind me how quickly life moves and how to enjoy the simple things in life.
~My BFF Carri. I am so thankful that she lives here and is happy here. I am thankful to her for many things- one of which is introducing me to Tim!
~My job and Tim’s job. I am constantly reminded (especially with the economy today) how lucky we are to have secure jobs that we both enjoy. Oh yeah and great bosses to work for!
~My health and the health of my family.
~The house of my dreams. It’s hard to believe that we have been in our house for over a year now. I still wake up some mornings amazed that it is really mine.
~The Girl’s Dinner Club. It’s hard finding time to see my friends and I am thankful for the dinner club because it “makes” me make time. I look forward to the one night a month that we all get together and I can catch up on everyone’s lives. The dinner club is definitely one of the highlights of every month and I am lucky to be a part of it.
~My dog Ozzy who continues to love us despite the fact that we very seldom give him the time that he deserves.

~Miralax.

***Warning*** If you do not wish to know about my current side effects of pregnancy inlcuding the inability to use the bathroom- please do not read this post.

Ahemm

Since the onset of this pregnancy I have had a number of the same side effects as my first pregnancy. Tiredness, food aversions, food cravings. But with this parasite growing inside my body, the side effects have been “more”. Tiredness= exhaustion. Food aversions=me not cooking dinner for over a week. Get my drift?
All of this was fine by me up until the side effect that took place this week. Constipation. (I did post a warning above- so feel free to quit reading if you “really do not want to know”.) I have never, never, NEVER had constipation as badly as this past week. It had gotten to the point (after 4 days on nothing) that I was “afraid” to push. I had taken colace (a stool softener) multiple times, all to no avail. Of course I called my older (wiser) sister Renee for some advice. “Miralax and maybe an enema if that doesn’t work.” An enema? I mean I’ve heard of them but what is an enema really? So of course I googled and came accross some websites like this and this . (And those are not the bad ones!) Whew. Now if reading all that wasn’t enough to make me poop my pants, then I guess an enema would be the next step. So off I went the next morning (on my way to work) to purcahse Miralax and a “just in case” enema. I took the Miralax asap and crossed my fingers that it would do the trick before I was forced to try the enema. A few hours later I decided to take a peek at the instructions for the enema and imagine my suprise when I saw this:

on the side of the box. On the side of the box! Ha! I couldn’t stop laughing. I personally loved how the use the cartoon of a man. Well anyhow, I guess all the laughter got my abdominals working and a few hours later (with the help of my favorite friend Miralax), I passed by “blockage”. No enema needed. Thank God!

Well, it is official. Tim, Grayson, and I are expecting an addition to our family. Another Baby is on the way! We are very excited and couldn’t wait to share the news. We’ve waited a few months due to a miscarriage this summer- but according to the Doctor we are free to tell everyone now! I am about 9 weeks pregnant and the baby will be due June 17th.
Baby’s Development: The baby is around an inch long, about the size of a grape, and weighs only a fraction of an ounce. We were able to see its’ arms moving and it’s little heart beating (at around 170 beats per second). According to baby development, it has tiny arms and legs with just the smallest of buds for fingers and toes. The head is still very large compared to the rest of the body- but does include fully formed eyes (coverd with eye lids), tiny earlobes, and the smallest indications of a mouth and nose.
How I Feel: The past few months have been challenging. It’s been like walking a tight walk- between wanting to feel excited about the new life growing inside me and yet not wanting to be too attached in case things did not turn out as hoped. I can’t explain the relief I felt this morning when the ultrasound indicated that the baby is doing well and the doctor said that we could start telling people. I guess that we are not completely in the clear for another 3 weeks- so everyone keep your fingers crossed until then.
This pregnancy’s symptoms have been slightly different than when I was pregnant with Grayson. As before, I have been exhausted. Only I can’t take the afternoon naps I loved so much last time. Instead I’ve been going to bed at around 7:45 every night and still do no feel as if I have gotten enough rest. I have had dull headaches especially in the afternoons and have had some serious food aversions. I have no problem eating for breakfast and lunch- but by dinner time nothing sounds good and I always feel on the edge of nausiousness. Something will sound delicious one second but two bites later I feel no desire to continue eating. I have had a few episodes of “night sickness” usually around the time I brush my teeth. Strange I know. Another wierd symptom I had this time around were a series of 5 little bumps that appeared one by one on the pads of my fingers. They were slightly painful- like a splinter- but there was nothing inside them. When I asked the doctor he said that it was most likely due to my progesterone levels. Has anyone ever heard of that before?
According to Grayson: Grayson doesn’t really know what changes are in store. He knows that there is a baby inside “mommy’s tummy” but what does that really mean to a 2.5 year old? Tim of course has already coached him to say “I want baby bover”. I guess we’ll find out in about 10 weeks if his wish comes true!

Tim and I took Grayson over to his Aunt Kate and Uncle Marc’s house for trick-or-treating again this year. They have the perfect neighborhood for candy gathering- and all the neighbors really get into the holiday. Most of the houses have spooky decortations and even a few haunted trails. This year the boys had a blast and covered about half of the neighborhood. Much better than last year. Luckily Nagy and Pop Pop came along. Without Pop Pop, it sould have taken twice as long to get to all the houses. Grayson was lucky enough to have Pop Pop carry him (at a jog) most of the way. Check out the photos from Halloween and the trip that we took to the pumpkin patch from last week by clicking on the photo at the top. Grayson was dressed as a UPS driver, Tim and I as boxes, Jack was Mater from the movie Cars, Molly was a chick, Nagy was a cowgirl, and Pop Pop was Frankenstein.