17 Weeks

Pregnancy Highlights for the Week:

How Far Along: 17 and a half Weeks - each week seems to just fly by

Fruit/Veggie: A sweet little onion (Around 5.1 inches and about 5.9 ounces)


Baby changes: Your baby's skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone, and the umbilical cord — her lifeline to the placenta — is growing stronger and thicker. She can move her joints, and her sweat glands are starting to develop. Those little fingers and toes are now topped by one-of-a-kind prints.

Best Moment this week: Well it was this past weekend and it was completely a 5K and passing up a few people while doing it!

Movement: Yes but since its so early, only I get to feel it so far, something just for me :) Kinda special

Food Cravings: Exact opposite, breakfast and lunch are enough for me recently!

What I am looking forward to: Another glimpse of the baby in a few weeks at our 20 week sono

Symptoms: Ligament pain, oh the joys of getting big again <3 and of course emotions all over the place, but thats probably half me and half the baby!

Sleep : Just fine but not on my belly anymore :( I kinda miss that!


Here's a pic to compare T2 and Jocelyn: So what is your prediction?

Love Is... an encouraging word (Week 35)

Have you ever gone through a rough day and just thought "Oh I can't wait until this is over" and then all of a sudden, you get a text, call or email from a random friend/loved one with an even more randon I love you or encouraging word?

Those are some of my favorite examples of love. You know... the ones that it takes you 5 seconds to send to a friend and you find out later that they have had a hard day or a tough time and there was something about what you sent that just made their day a little brighter. Or one of my favorites is when my mom or Jonathan tells Jocelyn, as I am leaving for the work day, "tell mommy bye bye and you love her" and then she does it! Just melts my heart and makes my day so much better!

I am so blessed to have surrounded myself with ladders (people that lift you up) instead of adders (people that just leave you feeling so low by adding un-necessary gunk to your life) in my life that I get to experience this quite often. Not in a "oh I am so awesome way" but more in the way that my friends know I love it when I get a "Hi, I was thinking of you today" or a "Just thought of the time you did blah blah blah and shot milk out of my nose" you know those normal day to day comments <3

These are a few recent examples that are so simple and yet made me feel so good
- Thank you for being you and helping me out today. ♥
- Praying you are feeling GREAT!
- so happy to see the tiddens this morning! :) it was a great way to start our day!
- I'm super excited for a new recipe that can double as a freezer recipe as well! Yay! Thanks!
- Just stopping by to share a Facebook hug! Miss yall
- I'm reminiscing and missing you. And on a side note our kids our soooo cute together.

So all that to say this, it takes maybe one minute to make a positive difference in someone's life. It can something so small and simple but yet make such a huge impact in our lives. Whether it be someone you know or someone you are just passing by in this crazy life. Take the few seconds to smile, say hi, write a friend, text a family member or make someone laugh. There will never be a time that you will regret too much positive communication with your love ones!

Project 52 Date #34

So sometimes life throws you a curve-ball, like planning a car wash date in the middle of a drought and all of a sudden a huge rainstorm comes in! But we tried to make the best of the situation! The date was to wash both of our cars and then go out to eat afters, so my plan was to take both cars and go to B&J's after, but it seemed like God had other plans, so we adapted!

We figured out that we could wash the cars but then they would just get extra dirty on the roads coming home, so we opted for vacuuming out a car. Well we got to the car wash place and wouldn't you know they had convenient little tarps over the vacuum place, SCORE! So the rain started to come down harder and we began to quickly realize that these tarps were not waterproof :) And that there was a 2 foot gap between tarp which allowed the sideways rain to wash the inside of our car too.

Plan B:
Since vacuuming went alot quicker then planned, and since we already had a babysitter for Jocelyn (Thanks mom) we opted to go see a movie that the both of us have been dying to see. We squeezed in a quick dinner of salads at Montana Mikes and then off to the movies we ran! All in all the night was great and full of laughter and "oh my goodness are you serious" moments :) We had a great time with the car, dinner was fabulous and the movie was great. Fantastic date night!



JT: So the date night was for us to go wash and clean out our cars together and wouldn't you know that the day we plan that is the one day in the last 100 days that it decides to rain! I'm not complaining because we needed the rain but it was kinda funny. So we get to the carwash place and it's raining lightly and as soon as we start cleaning out the car it starts raining harder. So we're starting to get wet because the tarp canopy roof they have isn't really offering any protection but instead has just enough gaps in it to let the rain get to us. So we hurry up and get the car all nice and clean and get outta there just in time, as soon as we got in the car again it started raining even more! SO now it's time to grab some dinner so we head over to Montana Mikes and kill a small mountain of cheese fries followed by a killer salad(yeah real healthy...). Then we top the evening off with a trip to the movies and watch Rise of Planet of The Apes! I highly recommend this movie, it was so much better than I anticipated. I'll warn you though, it may change your mind about that cute little pet monkey you've been wanting lately.......

Love Is... New Life (Week 34)

Earlier this week I was sitting down brainstorming what I should make the topic of this week's edition of "Love Is..." and then, all of a sudden, it hit me. Literally. First in the hip, then in the ribs, and then lastly, straight to the bladder. So this week I decided to write about my new, tiny, growing life. So, here I sit- 30 weeks pregnant with a little baby bug kicking, hitting, moving and shaking all around. Feeling SO blessed to be expecting my second darling daughter. Deciding to have children is one of the MOST wonderful, most terrifying adventures any couple will go on. And some of us are crazy enough to have more than one! :)

But, getting pregnant or staying pregnant, does not come easy to everyone. I know couples who struggle for months and years to conceive a child... and for some that dream never comes to fruition. Thankfully, with the help of modern technology and a God that has been SO good to us, we were able to have our healthy, beautiful, spoiled rotten little girl in July of 2009, and her little sister will join us in October of this year. They did not come without heartache, though. After two miscarriages in 2008, my doctor ran a series of tests on me and my husband to see if there was any reason why this was happening to us, or if it was just a case of- "this is not your time."

Before getting pregnant the first time, we had prayed faithfully and truly felt like God was giving us the green light. So after our second loss, we were really struggling to understand why this was happening. To say I was angry at God.... would be an understatement. I was livid. I cried, John cried, we were crushed. Then- my blood work came back. My doctor called us in to the office to tell me that the tests showed two abnormalities with my blood. One- a folic acid deficiency, and the other- a blood clotting disorder. Both with a high miscarriage rate. She told us right away that she had seen this before and it was a TREATABLE condition. AMEN! We were so thrilled to know that other women with this disorder had successfully carried a baby to term. Then came the "bad news." The treatment?? Daily injections of blood thinner. that I would do myself. in my stomach. everyday that I was pregnant. SAY WHAAAAAAAT?

John and I talked about it... for about half a second. I immediately knew I wanted to do it. I have known since I was about 6 years old that I wanted to be, no, that I was CALLED TO BE, a mother. So my doctor sent us to a Maternal Fetal Medicine doctor. He told us the plan was- as soon as I got a positive home pregnancy test, I was to go to the pharmacy and fill my prescription for a drug called Lovenox. It's a once daily injection, straight in the gut. So, we tried again. and got pregnant right away. Hallelujah! So off I went to the pharmacy, got my prescription and went home and gave myself my first ever shot. I ended up doing 232 shots my first pregnancy. It was not NEARLY as bad as I had first imagined. For the miracle that is our sweet Kennedy, it was an extremely small price to pay.

So, in my 30th week of pregnancy with baby #2, I've done approximately 161 shots... not that I'm counting. ;)

People go to MUCH greater lengths than I have to have a baby. I've known people that have spent their entire life savings on fertility treatment. A friend of a friend re-mortgaged their home to do ONE.MORE.ROUND of IVF... so I am counting my blessings. I am grateful, thankful and extremely happy that all I have to do is a tiny little shot in the belly everyday. Every time I tell people my story, they immediately say "there is no way I could do that." To which I reply "You could if you had to." And it's true, if you were really faced with that choice, you'd do it... because THAT'S what Love is.



Rebekah

Love is ... to serve (Week 33)

serv·ice

1. an act of helpful activity; help; aid: to do someone a service.

What is the first thing you think of when you hear the word "service?"

For me, the first thing that popped into my head is how someone else serves me. For example, at a restaurant. How good was the service? Did my food arrive on time? Was the wait staff friendly? Then I sat down and really started thinking about service and I was SO ASHAMED of myself that the very first thing I thought of was me and how well others serve me. I know tons and tons of others ways people serve, and ways I, myself can serve and have served but for some reason (I'll blame it on the pregnancy hormones) the first thing I thought of was me.

So this week, I am challenging myself, and all of you, to think of service in a bigger, grander way. After my appalling first thoughts about myself and food, I realized that there are several (way more important) ways in which people serve. Probably the most obvious is the Military. I can think of no greater act of love than to serve our country. To willing put your life on the line SOLELY to help others... is nothing short of amazing.

For me, as a Christian, another way of serving is in Church. Volunteering time to work in God's house is not only beneficial to the Church, but is SO beneficial to the individual that is doing the serving. Some of the times that I have felt the best is when I am serving in church. And serving in Church looks different for every person. Some people do child care, some greet at the door, some come early and make all those gallons of coffee, and some go on mission trips. All are equally important.

And finally, just helping people. Help anyone! Help an elderly person across the street, help a short, pregnant girl like myself reach something on the top shelf of the grocery store. Just DO SOMETHING for someone else. I promise it will not only make them feel good, but you'll be surprised how good it makes YOU feel!

Project 52 Date #33

This date was a combination of two because we were off by a date. Breakfast for dinner/Tower of Terror(Jenga)!

We made our favorite breakfast entree Swedish Pancakes, they're kinda like crepes. I used to make these for Mia almost every Saturday when we first got married. It's been awhile so we were pretty excited. Swedish pancakes with whipped creme and pears oh my! after we cleaned up the kitchen it was on to a game of Jenga. I made the mistake of asking Mia which table she wanted to use(we have 2) and after a long drawn out smarty pants thinking session she decided we will be sitting at Jocelyn's lilliputian table(if you don't know what a lilliputian is I really can't help you...)
So we get our first tower pretty high and then I loose my concentration and down it goes. Round 1 to Mia. Second time went down pretty quick and to Mia's hand, Round 2 to Jonathan. Best of 3 and I knocked it over again so Mia won. We love our pancakes and Jenga was alot of fun too!!!



Mia Says: This date was delicious, swedish pancakes are one of my favorite breakfast dishes and we seriously have not had it since before Jocelyn, so I was really looking forward to this date! Oh and we had whip cream and fruit as the topping which is a childhood favorite so it was double the awesomeness! Then JT asks me to choose my favorite table but won't tell me what for.... let me ask you this... do you have a "favorite" table? I don't, so when he MADE me choose, I chose the itty bitty Jocelyn table :) Jenga was a blast because at a table, that isn't made for your height, adds another element of "danger" Great date!

Project 52 Date #32

So last night's date got changed up twice but we ended up having a great night of take out from HuDat and then played a quick game of "Would you rather...?" Lots of fun questions and of course some surprising answers.

He says: Sometimes life throws you a changeup and you just have to go with it. So 2 trips to Hudat(the girl at the counter looked at me the second time i came in, in less than an hour :), and said "long time no see", and 2 Disney movies later and we were all set. We were going to play a board game but we had both had such long days so I got out the always ridiculous and sometimes inappropriate Would You Rather...? game and we played a mini 2-person game for a bit before calling it a night. Would you rather...parachute into the Superbowl naked or.....????