It's a....

...GIRL!!!!!! Sapphira Mattea is on her way! We had our regular ultrasound today at 4 pm and it went really well. She was very squirmy and was constantly moving the part of her body the technician was trying to look at. I remember Natalie being like that during all of her ultrasounds, so we might have another spicy girl on our hands!! We had no problem determining that she was a girl!! She spent most of the time with her ankles crossed and kept fidgeting with her face. At one point, she had her hand under her chin like "The Thinker", at another time, she had her arm over her forehead like "woe is me", and towards the end, I think she had tired herself out and was taking a break reclined back with her legs up, ankles crossed, and both hand behind her head. We saw her mouth open and close and her tiny little butt cheeks and the beginning of her arm chub. Today is 17 weeks and 5 days and she measured in at 18 weeks 5 days and weighed approximately 8 ounces. We are so excited to be able to add to another healthy member to our family. Can't wait until April!!!

Catch up!

I realized today that it has been almost a week and a half since I last posted. Ack!! I guess it has been a busy week full of things to do, headaches, fatigue, and doctor's appointments.

Last Wednesday, Malachi had an appointment to get his 15 month shots...behind I know, but we didn't have insurance back then. I am in love with the new pediatrician's office we are taking him to. Everything is explained very plainly and written out for you to take home and remember. The doctor doesn't act rushed, and I have yet to have him act like one of my paranoid mommy questions are stupid. Anyways, the shots went ok, he got three stickers afterwards which helped him get his mind off of things. He picked out a doggy one, a truck one, and a sticker with a tractor on it...some of his favorite things. At nearly 18 months, he weighed in at 28 pounds, 12 ounces (85th percentile), was 33.5 inches long (86th percentile), and his head measured 50 centimeters around (96th percentile). He is officially a big kid.

His vocabulary continues to expand. New words in the last week or so include bus (a-ba), moo (moom), hee-haw (like a donkey--except his is ha-ee), meow, and his new best friend, cousin Isabella (we call her Bella for short, so he calls her lella). They played together at church on Sunday, and ever since, he has been calling out, "lella" and looking for her. It's a good thing she is coming over tomorrow...he'll be glad to see her!

Friday, was my OB appointment. Everything went really well and we got to hear the heartbeat and the Dr. said it sounded really good. My worry and anxiety have been getting the best of me and ruining my days again, so he suggested I up my meds. Hopefully that will work. Please pray for this...my worry it taking me to awful places that I last visited when I was in the midst of losing Natalie. I don't need to be there again right now, and it makes it hard on my family when I'm having bad days like this. Stinkin' pregnant hormones!

On Saturday, we got invited to a joint birthday party for a little girl at church and her sister. Malachi was a bit whinier than normal, but I thought maybe he was a little bit bored or something or going through another growth spurt since he has been eating tons and sleeping extra. Once we got to the party, he had fun coloring (first time ever actually making marks on the paper!) and playing with some of his friends from church, but once everyone got there, we think he started feeling a bit uneasy since he hadn't ever been around this many people at once and he actually asked to go home. Poor thing! I was bummed because I thought he would really enjoy it, but I guess it wasn't our day. We left in time to be able to go to my brother's hockey game in Sherwood, and after getting over the loud cheering (he thought people were mad or upset!), really enjoyed the game. We even got to cheer loud when Uncle Lee scored the team's only goal. He yelled and shook his fist in the air...so cute. He also liked being able to spend time with Grammy and Grampy. We will have to try to make it to more of them!!

Well, that's all the interesting things I have to say right now...hope you are having a good week so far!!

Thank the Lord for good friends!

Remember when I mentioned that this is my weepy pregnancy? You can add worry to the list, too. This last week was a really bad worrying week for me. I worried about everything, but mainly the health of peanut. Not so much an illness or disability like Natalie had, but miscarrying. The thoughts consumed me, making quality sleep impossible, enjoying playing with Malachi or being around my husband, and the days were incredibly long and unbearable. I talked to Samuel about it a little bit, but it just didn't seem to help calm my fears. Enter good friends. On Friday morning, I attended my mom's group at church and as soon as I walked in the door, I felt like I could cry at the drop of a hat. I found some of my friends who I have known for a couple years and who have been with me back when things were rough with Natalie. Bree asked me if I was OK (have I mentioned that I couldn't hide my emotions if my life depended on it?) and I said "Yeah...No." and promptly started crying. I told her about my worrying and that I didn't know what to do. Bree has also lost a child, so she has been a great friend to talk to about things that not everyone would understand or know what to say. She helped me calm down, and reminded me that us mommies have to remember that things aren't always in our control and that this was up to the Lord. That simple thought really struck home. How quickly I had forgotten that simple fact. There is nothing I can do...no amount of worrying will help my child...it only makes me feel worse. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding..." Proverbs 3:5. Can I tell you how much better I feel. I was on the verge of a breakdown and ready to call my OB and insist he see me right then, but Friday night I didn't worry about Peanut. I was able to play with Malachi and have fun. Samuel and I spent some time watching TV without me being in the dumps. I even got good sleep and felt refreshed when I woke up. Thank you Bree for reminding me of the Lord's faithfulness. Thank you Lord for good friends.

Pumpkin Patch

Saturday, Samuel was sent home from work early, so after nap, we headed to the pumpkin patch. My parents, Samuel's parents and our two nieces, Isabella (5) and Addie (2-1/2) joined us on the adventure. We have been going to the same farm where my brother and I went when we were kids, so it is fun seeing some of the same things from when we were little. The weather was absolutely perfect, and we all had fun. We played in the corn maze, and found the perfect pumpkins...the biggest one for Natalie, a medium sized one for Malachi, and a little one for peanut. There was also a little field of gourds that Malachi loved. They were all the perfect size for his little hands to pick up and throw. He found a really little one that he carried with him the entire time--either in his hands or mouth!!--so of course we had to buy it. Addie was so funny trying to pick out her pumpkin. It took her about an hour to find one that wasn't too dirty, didn't have a "too-pokey" stem, wasn't too heavy or too light, wasn't a "down pumpkin" (still trying to figure out what that meant), and wasn't sleeping (laying on it's side). We all took turns helping her find one and came close many times, but they always didn't fit her criteria. As soon as she settled on one, we quickly walked away from the fields so she couldn't change her mind. So cute! Malachi loved being able to wear his galoshes (even though he really didn't end up needing them...all the mud had dried up) and running and exploring. He also loved the fact that all his favorite people were there (except for Uncle Lee) and got to play with all of them. I have to tell you that this was one of my favorite days ever, and I got lots of good pictures to help remember it.

For a bit of reference, here is Malachi last year at the pumpkin patch...my how we've grown.

I also put some more pictures from the pumpkin patch on my Flickr account, a link to it is in my sidebar!

I think I know now...

So on my last Peanut post, I mentioned that I don't have a real sense of the baby's gender yet. I think I lied...without realizing it of course! :) Thinking back a bit, I have always thought (even before I wanted to start trying for baby #3) that this one would be a girl. I was in no hurry to find a boy name and I was looking at girl clothes because I knew that I would need be buying some soon. This is the way I felt about Natalie and Malachi...I knew their gender before they were even conceived. Am I crazy?? I call it a mommy's intuition, but I guess that could be a polite thing to say! haha This pregnancy is already zooming by compared to the other two. I really think having a baby at home this time around is making all the difference!! I just can hardly wait until we get to see Peanut again in November or December to see if I am three for three!!

OB visit

We had our first appointment with our OB was this morning. I wasn't sure what all would happen this time around...Dr. did an ultrasound with Malachi at 12 weeks (probably for our peace of mind!). So when we were ushered into the room and I saw the ultrasound machine, I was quite excited!! We were able to see our little peanut (looks just like one!!) somersaulting and wiggling around like a little fish. So adorable. Malachi was not interested in the least and just wanted to play with and throw his cars (Matchbox cars are his latest obsession. He runs around the house with his fists full of cars and loves to "drive" them (complete with sound effects!) on the window sill and wooden chest in the living room. He is definitely all boy!). Dr said the baby looked really good and measured 11 weeks today so he said it is a bit ahead (today is 10 weeks 5 days). He kept saying that it is a girl. Maybe it is because I brought up the fact that while I was pregnant with Malachi, a lady at church told me that I probably just can't carry or give birth to a healthy girl and that she knew several women in our church who had children of all the same gender who had miscarried the opposite gender and that I was probably the same. It was all I could do to keep from balling my eyes out!! People just don't think!! He reassured me taht what happened to Natalie was such a kazillion to one type of thing (we could only find less than 20 cases of her problem in recorded history!) and that that type of thing very rarely happens. Anyways, so I don't know if he was trying to make me feel better or if he has a feeling (since the u/s was too early to tell). By the time I was this far along with both of the others, I knew for certain the gender and I ended up being right. But I have no "for sure" feeling either way on this one. I tend to lean towards a girl when I think about it, but since I want a girl at home so bad, I wonder if that is just wishful thinking. I also feel much more weepy so far with this one, so I wonder if that could mean girl since there are more female hormones in my body, making me want to cry at the drop of a hat. Hmmm...I guess we'll see!

Well, I will end my ramblings. Hope you are all having a fabulous Monday!

Happy little secret

Thank you for the congratulations...it makes me happy to have good friends!!

Well, our happy little (not so) secret is that I am pregnant!! I am 10 weeks and 1 day along today. So exciting!! This makes me due April 15th, but with the way I bake them, I'm sure this one will be born in the single digits of April. April 6th would be good...my birthday!!...but I'm not sure how I feel about April 5th...that was Natalie's due date. This pregnancy follows nearly the same timeline as Natalie's (20 week ultrasound appointment, etc), so we'll see how that goes. I think it is enough differnt that it won't bother us too much, but we'll see. Only a day and a half of a little bit of "morning" (ahem...more like all day!!) sickness, mostly when I take an adult, non-flintstones vitamin, but full fledged food adversions. Very manageable and normal for me.

We are so happy and excited. To help surprise our parents, we bought Malachi a little book about being a big brother with a baby coming home which he loves. We have been pointing out and showing him pictures of babies and he just calls them all "nana". Keep in mind that we have a cat named Hannah, so all cats are called "nana" as well. Hmmm...this might be a bit interesting. Malachi will about a month shy of two years old when the baby is born, so I think that it will be fun to have them closer in age. Everyone that I have talked to who has children this close in age say that their children are more closely bonded to each other and seem to get along better than other kids who are spaced farther apart. Hopefully that will be true for us, too!!

I keep thinking I can feel it squirming a tiny bit in there (I felt Malachi pretty early on, too), but who knows...could be gas! haha If the baby is a girl, than we will name her Sapphira (this was Natalie's middle name and means "beautiful" in Aramaic) Mattea ("gift from God" in Hebrew) and if it is a boy, we are leaning towards the first name Elias (Hebrew for "the Lord is my God") and we aren't sure about the middle name yet. Tell me, and be brutally honest if you need to be, what do you think about Elias?? We have a hard time coming up with and agreeing on boy names, so we don't want to give him something hokey.

Well, that's about it. Nothing terribly fabulous to report this early in the game. I have an OB appointment on Monday, so we will see what he says. Hope you are all having a good day! Thank you for sharing in our excitement!!

Wordless Wednesday