A Recap.

Another component of hormones, and lots of time of your hands, is lot's and lots of reflection! I feel like I will spend an hour or so just sitting and "remembering"where Lew and I were a year ago today, or 6 months ago etc... Also as this pregnancy has drawn close to the end I have thought even more about the last 9 months and there is so much I don't want to forget about this journey. Lot's of of the memories are just funny random things, but none the less, I'm sure down the road they will be a fun memory. So, in essence, this is my way of recapping the last 9 months :)
(I'll try to recap in order starting close to the beginning)

-This pregnancy wasn't planned. Our plan was to wait until the fall or winter, which was only a few months away. But now looking back I can see how God's timing was oh so perfect (isn't it always?)

-I had a "gut" feeling I was pregnant at least a week before I took a test to confirm. This was funny because we were in the beginning of the process to buy a home and I had this raging feeling that we should put it on hold, but it was hard to explain to my sweet hubby why. I'll never forget the night we sat with our small group talking through our thoughts on buying now having kids later, or having kids now and buying later...My gut was "kid's now, buy later" and Lew was still trying to sort through what God's will for us was....Just a week later I'll never forget the laughter that erupted when I shared with the dear ladies in our small group that God has made His will "VERY" clear, without a shadow of a doubt :) It was a sweet memory and taught Lew and I a lot about trusting God's timing, rather than our own.

-Lew was the one to tell me I was pregnant. It was a very early morning (probably just slightly before 5) I was getting ready for work and I had taken a pregnancy test but forgot about it (imagine that!) and Lew went to the bathroom and came out with a confused smile and just said "your pregnant!?" It was a funny moment. I wasn't surprised....but I'm pretty sure he was! That was one of the hardest days at work (this is when I was at the PICU) because I was very distracted by the news.

-Our first ultrasound showed that our pregnancy started out as a twin pregnancy, which apparently is very common. I remember the 2 weeks we had to wait in between ultrasounds to confirm if there was 1 or 2...it was a funny time. Though we would receive 2 children as a great gift...we were still overwhelmed by the thought of 1!

-For the first few weeks I took a pregnancy test about every morning just to "be sure" it was real. Thank goodness for dollar tree brand pregnancy tests!

-Morning sickness kicked in at about 7 weeks and progressed until about 14 weeks. Thankfully, I rarely had to throw up during that time frame, but sometimes I almost wished I would. Zofran helped but I was a little leery of taking it too regularly so I just spent a lot of time resting (sleep did wonders on the nausea) and munching on crackers.

-For the first month of my pregnancy I cried every day when I was getting ready to go to work. It was just the thought of working a 12 hour shift and leaving before 6 only to get home after 8 that made me weary. I learned a lot about dependence on the Lord during this weary phase, and boy was it a joy when Lew and I prayerfully decided that transitioning to something part time and a little less demanding was the right decision.

-A few of my cravings in the first trimester: Cereal, most types, but in particular peanut butter captain crunch, life, cracklin oat bran, and peanut butter puffins. I craved fruit like crazy mostly: watermelon, oranges, grapes, and apples. I also liked any fruit juice, for some reason it was hard to just get down water so I really drank a lot of what Lew called my "cocktail" which was either seltzer water mixed with juice, or ginerale mixed with juice (usually cranberry juice). Oh and it had to have lots and lots of ice, crushed was best, especially the crushed ice my hubby made with a plastic bag and our meat mallot :) I also cannot forget my saving grace which was slurpees. I LOVED the coke flavor mixed with a little bit of pina colada. Even as I type this now my mouth is watering. Those things got me through many a hard days. I also loved watermelon italian ice. Another staple was potatoes, I especially loved mashed potatoes from a box! Foods I LOATHED in the first trimester: ANYTHING that had to do with meat....the thought made me gag. Especially ground beef. I remember one night I really wanted to serve Lew and make him a yummy dinner. I think I was going to make tacos, I had everything ready but as soon as I started cooking the ground beef I felt the sickest I think I have ever felt. That meal prep was cut short by a very unfortunate trip to the bathroom....and to be honest it wasn't until recently that cooking ground beef seemed manageable again. I also hated vegetables, garlic or anything that smelled like it. Funny enough I hated most foods that had an odor, so that eliminated most cooked food. So, basically I drank most of my nutrition during the first trimester!

The only cravings I can think of that have carried all the way through to this point: still the fruit juice thing with ice, oranges and most fruit, scrambled eggs, and potatoes. We pretty much eat scrambled eggs once a day :) I also crave potbelly's a lot. Once I got over the "no meat" phase all I wanted was the italian sub from there with everything on it including lots and lots of hot peppers.

-I felt her first movement around 16 weeks. I don't remember what I was doing but all I remember was feeling what felt like bubbles, or popcorn. The feelings got stronger and stronger and by 18 weeks I was feeling definite movement.

-When it came time to find out the gender almost everybody was certain it was a boy, (shout out to Sam, Priscila, Mama Lewis, and Kelly who guessed girl :)) In fact still to this day I have random strangers come up to be and try to convince me that I am carrying a boy. I kid you not. If I had a penny for every stranger that comes up to me and says "oh it's a boy!" I would be a wealthy woman. I had one funny encounter with a woman at my work who said "oh you are definitely having a boy!" I assured her "nope ultrasound says it's a girl" and she replied with "Oh he's hiding it well, huh?!" I almost burst into tears... In fact it made me very alarmed that maybe the ultrasound tech had seen things wrong on the 20 week ultrasound. Thankfully I was able to breath a sigh of relief at the 36 week ultrasound when she assured me "it's still a girl!"

-This pregnancy is the first one (since my sister Hannah had Isaiah, the first grandbaby) where I am pregnant alone. Usually pregnancies come by twos in our family. But now I can't help but wonder, whose next? :) I have my guesses.

-This makes grandchild number 6 for my parents. That is 6 little ones under the age of 3!! It's hard to believe how close in age they are because they are all in such different stages right now. But I hope they will all be close when they are older. And I hope Brendon and Isaiah will protect all the girls :)

-We called Miya "poppy" up until we found out she was a girl and named her. It's hard to believe that she started out as a poppy seed and now is a watermelon!

-We were pretty certain about our chosen names by about 10 or 12 weeks. The boy name was a lot harder than the girls name, but we didn't fight at all over names. I think we kid around a lot, Lew had some very interesting choices picked out, but thankfully we were able to peacefully come up with names we both really liked.

-Lew has been unashamedly talking/singing/reading to my belly since about 10 weeks. Before she could hear of course, but I love his tender heart for this child growing in my belly :) Since about 25 weeks she loves to hear his voice. When he starts talking she just starts to move like crazy. She is gonna love her daddy, and I can't wait to see it.

-I loved the 2nd trimester. In fact I think the 2nd trimester is real gift from God, and probably the reason most women make it through the pregnancy sanely. I had bursts of energy during those 14 weeks that I don't know if I'll ever see again! I would tend to forget I was pregnant too, if it weren't for that growing bump.

-These past few weeks I entered this phase where I feel safest at home, or close to home. Isn't that funny? I have tried to explain it to Lew, it's this feeling of "she is coming any minute and I need to be close to home". Now granted I am just 36 weeks, so more than likely I have a few weeks to go, but I still feel this "safety" at home. I thought it was just be until I read about it in "What to Expect When you are Expecting." Apparently it's an instinct like the nesting instinct.

-I couldn't stand the sight or smell of coffee for the whole first trimester, but by the middle of the second trimester I would have some occasionally. Then when the 3rd trimester fatigue hit I wanted it more often. Lew and I made this "agreement" that if I was going to get coffee every day he would make the coffee and I would either get regular coffee, decaf, or half reg/decaf. The point has been to keep me from knowing what I am getting so I don't get hooked on the caffeine. It kind of makes me laugh though because I am usually pretty certain what I am getting, because by about 9 I can tell that I am running out of steam :) But it has worked pretty well so far.

I think that is it for now. Haha I wonder if anyone actually read this far! I think I did it more for the memory, so I guess it was a very selfish blog post!

Here is the most recent belly shot. We took it during 35 weeks. You can see how high she is, but she has since dropped some (Praise the LORD!) so I can breath slightly better and keep down more than a tablespoon of food at a time :)