Gifts, Clothes, and More...

We're entering the 14th week and I'm happy to say I'm having better days! Some, but not all yet, days are getting easier with the nausea and sickness. I'm able to go longer between meals and to do more activities, which has been great! I still feel the exhaustion every day, but hope all of these things will be getting even better in the near future. I took this picture today, knowing I couldn't post without one- right Mom?:) Most all of my clothes are still fitting well, but I did buy a couple of new shirts recently, including the one in the picture, which are a little longer and more comfortable to wear than some of my other usual summer shirts. It was fun to go shopping and to see the cute maternity shirts in some of the stores. There aren't a lot of options here to choose from, but they do have some cute ones available for when I'm a little bigger:)


We recently got some really great and thoughtful gifts in the mail from Josh's Mom. They are some of our first baby/pregnancy gifts and were exciting to open. She gave me some cute maternity shirts, some children's books, and a couple of belly bands, which already come in handy with one pair of jeans:) She had everything wrapped individually and numbered in the order to be opened- the first one being the movie Cheaper by the Dozen. Josh used to tease me and say he would like to have 12 kids some day, so this gift idea was a perfect reminder of that!

I wish I had a picture for this next story, but I know Josh is glad we don't! I had my first really clumsy pregnancy moment recently. I made a delicious fruit salad last weekend with lots of fresh cherries, strawberries, and blackberries in it. I went to get a 2L water bottle out of the fridge and didn't even notice at all that I was pulling/knocking the glass bowl of fruit salad out of the fridge with it. I don't know how I didn't see it. It shattered at my feet and sent berries, glass, and a staining red juice everywhere! He was kind enough to force me from the kitchen so I wouldn't cut my bare feet (in my pregnancy fog) and he cleaned it all up. I did take care of our clothes- thanks to our Moms we have stain-sticks here and they really work:) The kitchen is ok as well, it didn't land on anything it could really stain in the end- but Josh had to clean and mop quickly:) I know it will be a funny story one day- but maybe never for Josh!

Busy Baby!

We had our third visit to the doctor today. Everything is continuing to go well- praise God! My exam results were normal, my BP was low/normal, and the ultrasound was wonderful:) We didn't get the best picture today, as you can see above, because the baby was moving so much and not in the best position. The doctor was really sweet and really patient with us. He let us watch for a little bit so we could see all the different parts of the baby as it moved and changed position. It was so amazing to see the head and the brain as they are much more defined now. We watched as the baby played with it's hands and fingers- the fingers looked really long! In this picture the head is at the top, far right, and then the hands were in the way around that area. The main, rounded, part that you can see in the middle is the abdomen. We saw the legs and feet today, but we couldn't get a good picture of them. I definitely won't forget seeing it all in person, though. The heartbeat was strong and clear and that was the best part for me. The next best part was seeing it's hands grasping and playing with eachother. I've completed 12 weeks today and the baby measured at 12 weeks and 4 days, so that was great news. Everything seems to be going well! Thank you for your many prayers. Please continue them! Our next appointment will be Friday, June 19th.

These are suckers I found at a Pharmacy here and they are for nausea related to pregnancy. A friend of ours told me about them when she heard about how sick I have been. I have heard of similar suckers in the U.S., but I have never known anyone to use them, and I didn't think they would have something like it here. Surprisingly, they do and they taste good and seem to help some. Hopefully, I won't need them much longer:)

A Happy Mother's Day!

We enjoyed a wonderful Mother's Day on Sunday- we finally shared the news of our pregnancy with our families and friends! It was exciting to be able to tell our Moms on their special day. Telling everyone made it all the more real for us now and I'm even more eager to visit the doctor next Monday and have another ultrasound done.

As for how I'm feeling these days, not much has changed. I've continued to have the all-day and all-night nausea with sickness. I'm really hoping that will change in the next couple of weeks:) Everything else has been going well. As you can see in the picture above, I've definitely grown some already. I still change a lot from morning until night, but that should, supposedly, settle down once the first trimester has passed and the nausea/sickness subsides. We'll see:)

These are the flowers Josh gave me for Mother's Day; it was very sweet of him! Though it does still feel early in our pregnancy to us, we have been trying to take advantage of all of the special moments we can. We feel very blessed by God with this gift and don't want to take it for granted or live in fear of the "what ifs?" We would appreciate your prayers for a healthy pregnancy and baby!