7 Weeks 2 days

Today was a bit scary for me. I woke up this morning and had spotting along with some left lower abdominal cramping. Since I am 36 and women my age have a 20% chance of miscarrying, you can imagine all the fears that crept up in my mind. So I carried myself to work and when my doctor's office opened I called and spoke with the nurse and informed her of my problem. By this time, the bleeding seemed to have stopped, but I still had a bit of cramping. She told me to come on in and have my ultrasound today, instead of tomorrow. So Shane met me and we went to the doctor. I did indeed have the ultrasound which revealed a 1 cm embryo that had a heart rate of 127. It measured just as it should for 7 weeks. She said things looked great!!!



The thing next to the baby is the yolk sac which is supplying the baby until the placenta takes over.

God is so good and so faithful. I am extremely grateful, but I will be honest, until the first trimester is over, I am sure I will continue to be on edge. I will continue to pray that God's will be done and that I am able to accept that whatever it may be.

7 Weeks 1 Day

It is the seventh week of pregnancy and apparently the beginning of being nauseated and tired!! I have been feeling "blah" as I would call it, but today the nausea definitely set in. And if that was not enough, around two this afternoon I was ready for a nap (me, the non-napper). I find that eating a few crackers or something of the like helps, but seems to be short lived. Luckily, it just seems to be for a few hours in the morning, and a few hours in the evening. I chuckle at reading the books on pregnancy because their solution to combating the fatigue, is to try to take a 15 minute nap at your job. I am a nurse and I can assure you I don't have the time or the place to take a nap. So, like the majority of other pregnant women in the world, I will just work through it!!

When I got home today, Shane and Connor gave me a late Mother's Day gift. (Since Connor lives in Texas, we usually celebrate Mother's Day sometime during the summer.) It was a book of 100,000 baby names. As far as I am concerned, we need all the help we can get with this because we have not a clue what we will name our child. The one thing I do know, is that the boy's name will NOT be Talon. Since Shane and I have been dating, he has told me that he likes the name Talon for a boy. The only thing I can think of when I hear that name is an eagle's claw. Not what I have envisioned for my child. Shane's solution to me not wanting that name is to have me knocked out after the child is born and then putting Talon on the birth certificate. If any of you reading this are present during my child's birth, PLEASE, PLEASE do not allow this!!! LOL!!! : ) I remind Shane that God does have a sense of humor and for him being so bound and determined for that name for a boy, that we will probably have a girl! Of course, I truly have no preference at all, just pray for a healthy baby. Only time will tell.

How our baby is growing:

The big news this week: Hands and feet are emerging from developing arms and legs. Technically, the baby has doubled in size since last week and now measures half an inch long, about the size of a blueberry. Both hemispheres of our baby's brain are growing, and her liver is churning out red blood cells until her bone marrow forms and takes over this role. She also has an appendix and a pancreas, which will eventually produce the hormone insulin to aid in digestion. A loop in the baby's growing intestines is bulging into her umbilical cord, which now has distinct blood vessels to carry oxygen and nutrients to and from her tiny body.

6 Weeks 1 Day

So I think the pregnancy hormones are kicking in and that part I don't care for, since I am an emotional person to begin with!!! I think I will do my best to work on trying to control them, but to be honest I am not sure that is an option. As far as my body goes, I have not really had any morning sickness, but have felt "blah" a few mornings. I will take "blah" over nausea any day though. On Tuesday I did have to have some extra lab work because my new nephew, Gavin, and his mother, Shanelle, have whooping cough and we were exposed to them while in Texas. They are checking to make sure that I still have immunity to pertussis (or whooping cough).

On Sunday my grandmother (Nan Naw) called because she had found out that I was pregnant, but the way she found out was funny. My nephew, Braden, was staying with my parents and they went to visit Nan Naw. She asked him if he had talked to me lately and his response to her was "No, she is in the hospital." Well, to say the least she was taken back. She questioned him several times, and when she asked him how he knew this he told her his parents said I was. Finally, my mother came into the room and also started questioning him and figured out that he thought I was in the hospital since he heard his parents saying that I was having a baby. Too cute!!! The mind of a 6 year old is too precious.


How are baby is growing:

This week's major developments: The nose, mouth, and ears are beginning to take shape. The baby's eyes and nostrils are starting to form. His emerging ears are marked by small depressions on the sides of the head, and his arms and legs by protruding buds. His heart is beating about 100 to 160 times a minute and blood is beginning to course through his body. His intestines are developing, and the bud of tissue that will give rise to his lungs has appeared. His pituitary gland is forming, as are the rest of his brain, muscles, and bones. Right now, our baby is a quarter of an inch long, about the size of a lentil bean.

5 Weeks 3 days - First appointment

Today I had my first OBGYN appointment. It had actually been scheduled for a year, since it was 'supposed' to be my yearly appointment. So upon arrival, I informed the nurse that I had two positive tests the week prior. She performed her own test and confirmed what I had known, but was still having a hard time believing. I then met with the insurance lady, and a nurse that asked me a lot of questions regarding our family history and then I met with my physician, Dr. DiPiazza. I absolutely fell in love with her last year, so was glad I was still here in Alabama for my pregnancy. (Although I still can't believe my child will be born in Alabama instead of Texas!!!) She discussed the different things that they are concerned about with me being considered 'Advanced Maternal Age' or AMA. Since I am now 36, the possibility of having a child with a chromosomal disorder are increased. I feel that I can only do my part in this by eating well, drinking lots of fluids, and avoiding environmental hazards in order to have a happy and healthy baby. Other than that, it is in God's hands. She scheduled me for an ultrasound in two weeks just to check things out and of course I had my prenatal lab work done.

When I arrived home after work, I was hit in the face with the aroma of brownies. Shane and Connor (my step-son) had made brownies and were planning to make burritos and tacos for supper. Now any one that knows my husband, knows he does not step foot in the kitchen except to fix his breakfast or a sandwich for lunch. So to say the least, I was very pleasantly surprised! And I might add, everything they fixed was very good!!! So it was a nice ending to a good day.

How our baby is growing:

At this point, he's about the size of a sesame seed, and he looks more like a tiny tadpole than a human. The neural tube — from which the baby's brain, spinal cord, nerves, and backbone will sprout — is starting to develop in the top layer, called the ectoderm. This layer will also give rise to his skin, hair, nails, mammary and sweat glands, and tooth enamel.

His heart and circulatory system begin to form in the middle layer, or mesoderm. (This week, in fact, his tiny heart begins to divide into chambers and beat and pump blood.) The mesoderm will also form the baby's muscles, cartilage, bone, and subcutaneous (under skin) tissue.

The third layer, or endoderm, will house his lungs, intestines, and urinary system, as well as his thyroid, liver, and pancreas. In the meantime, the placenta and umbilical cord, which deliver nourishment and oxygen to the baby, are already on the job.

The Beginning

With my friend's encouragement, I have decided to start this blog to track my pregnancy and the beginning of our new family. I love reading other people's blogs, but have never thought of myself as creative enough to do it myself. But since this is such a special time in our lives, I am going to give it a shot in order to let our friends and family keep up with us since we do not live close to the majority of them.

I will give you a little background so that you can see just how great of a God we serve and how faithful He is to each of us. To start, Shane and I had each been in relationships that were unhealthy and full of lies. We were both worn out and carried a lot of skepticism going into any new relationship. We had a mutual friend who had played baseball with Shane in college and several years later they started attending the same church. I knew this same friend through the cardiology office where I worked. He was a pacemaker representative that came into the office weekly. He had told each of us about the other and after a month or so of "talking us both up" we finally met in February 2006. I was taken by the fact that he was (and still is) such a spiritual man, competitive, very good looking, and quiet, but strong. Now Shane had not been thrilled with his current work situation and had prayed for awhile for God to reveal to him His plan. Shane told me one night that he had decided that he was going to fulfill his dream and what he felt was God's plan for him and he was going to move to Tuscaloosa, Alabama and attend the University of Alabama to pursue his Bachelors Degree in Kinesiology. His love for baseball and the ability to work closely with kids who need a good role model would all be in his reach by obtaining his degree and becoming a coach. I was thrilled when he told me, but at the same time unsure because that means our relationship would come to an end. Shane was unsure if I would actually pick up and move to Alabama, but all he had to do was ask. My only stipulation was that we were married!!! So, in April 2007 we were married on a small island in the Bahamas.

Now, aside from our meeting, the next part of our story (to me) shows just how faithful God is and how if you are doing what He has planned for you, that everything will just fall right into place. Shane and I each owned homes, mine in Orange and his in Beaumont. The housing market in Orange was not all that great and I knew it would take awhile to sell my home. Shane's home in Beaumont was in a great school district and we knew it should sell pretty easily. So after we were engaged in November, I put my house on the market. We decided we would wait until April to put Shane's on the market. After a contract or two falling through on my home, it finally sold in April as well as Shane's house. This worked perfectly since we were looking to move to Alabama in May. After several quick weekend trips to Alabama, we found a new home in a nice neighborhood which would be ready the exact weekend we needed. So in one month's time we were able to sell two homes and buy a new home!!!! Now as far as a job went, I had worked as a registered nurse in a cardiology office in Beaumont for five years and decided I would email a cardiology clinic in Tuscaloosa. I did this in November and in my letter told them we would be moving in May. In February, I contacted the woman I had sent my resume to and she informed me that they were opening up a nuclear lab in August and really needed someone who was familiar with this. Needless to say, we had been doing nuclear stress tests at the office in Beaumont the whole five years I had been there. So during one of our trips to look for a house, I interviewed and it seemed to be a perfect fit!!! How awesome that all of that fell exactly into place.

So Shane started school at the University of Alabama in June 2007 and I started at Cardiology Consultants. The plan was/is for him to finish in May 2010. He seems to really love school and does very well. The past two years he has been able to be an assistant coach at a local high school which will definitely give him good experience for the future. After getting over my home sickness and us making some great friends at church, our time here has been enjoyable. I have enjoyed seeing how my role of being a coach's wife will be!!

Shane has known my desire for a family since the time we started dating. After we figured out that we were moving to Tuscaloosa for him to finish school, we decided that we would wait until his last year in school to even start trying to have a child. Originally we were going to start trying around August, 2009 so that we would have a child sometime around May or after. I was fine with this, until about 8 or 9 months ago. I was more than ready to have a child, but knew that we had to plan accordingly. So what better to do than to pray about it. So we did. After awhile, I felt like we were to start trying in May. We both decided if we actually did try to start trying in August and deliver in May it would be harder for us to pack up and head back to Texas (which is our plan). Also, we would run into a problem with health insurance. So, we decided that May would be the month to start trying and whatever God's plan for us would be revealed in His time.

On June 3, 2009, after one month of trying, a positive pregnancy test confirmed we were pregnant. How awesome is that!!!! At first I though to myself, a February baby?? But after thinking about Shane's school and the amount of time off I will have at work, it will actually work perfectly!!! I can stay home with the baby until Shane is finished with his student teaching and then he can keep the baby while I go back to work. We will be getting all of our ducks in a row to move back to Texas, but I will need to remain employed for insurance purposes until Shane finds a job and his insurance goes into effect. Now of course that is a ways off, so that is the plan for now, but who knows.......

I must say I have no intent for the rest of my posts to be this long, but I really wanted everyone to see how faithful God is. From our story, I think it is evident that God does have a plan for each one of us. If things are meant to be, they will fall into place just like they should. Prayer is an amazing thing!!!