One Mother Rambling Through Life

SO this is a little belated because I had this sono done at 16/17 weeks and I am now currently 21 weeks. Soooo we have known for some time what little joy we are expecting. Mahalia Dawn is the name that we have chosen. Dawn after my sister, my best friend, and my father in law "Don" so I think I have covered a few bases with the choice. We are sooo excited to be having a little girl along with Stephen who will be, no doubt, the best big brother ever! He is such a sweet giving little boy that he will def have no problems "sharing" his life and home with a little girl. He calls her "Baby Sister" right now. We have had discussions with him about the baby in mommy's belly who is "gwowing" and is his baby sister. We have talked about Mahalia in way such as when we buy an outfit to put away for her etc that it is Mahalia's. He has looked at the sonogram pictures and we have said that it is baby sister. There is actually the sono pic of her sucking her thumb up on the computer as the desktop background and when he sees it he points out that it is baby sister and sometimes if we are doing something on the computer he asks where baby sister is.

Stephen has been having regular craft time recently. We have been working on crafts for the Mahalia's room. It is great and fun and they are turning out wonderful. The pictures def show Stephen having a blast. I have a great time well. It is good time for bonding with Stephen. We also went to Michael's and did craft time there. Stephen made a bag with Fish on it that he now uses as his Daily here and there diaper bag. He loves it because he is able to carry it himself.

Brad got to feel Mahalai move the other day. It was great. He got a goofy grin on his face and started talking to her. It was really cute. I can't wait until Stephen gets to feel Mahalia move. That will be great for him. Well hopefully I can update more later.

Some preggo women have no symptoms... I on the other hand range the gammet from increased emotions to morning sickness. So yes with my 24/7 m/s I still have cravings. There are the common cravings which are chicken friend rice, that I love anyway but I crave it now. Then there is bread & butter pickes which I am devouring like a mad woman. To the point that last night I dreamed of Whoppers and so on my way to work I stopped and picked up whoppers to sooth the craving. It is not so bad but cravings are so random at times that you can't catch em. Like philly cheese steak sandwiches and then when faced with getting one the craving is gone. But I guess that is how it goes.

We are at 12 weeks. So two more weeks and we are out of the first trimester which I must say is the scariest and possibly most miserable part of pregnancy for me. I am one that has the 24 hour morning sickness variety with aversion to any strong odor. During this time I have had to run to the bathroom for both good and bad odors the strangest being the baby powder smell that Stephen's pampers have. It is by far worse in the evening when I am not always able to eat and if I do I am prepared for anything to happen. During the morning I feel at my peak and sometimes in the early afternoon depending on the day. It has started as early as noon when I quietly exited a training I was in and as late as 5pm. Generally I get sick around 4, or better said nausea sets in. Thankfully I have been able to maintian and gain appropraitely according to the doctor meaning that the days I keep everything down are helping the days I worship the toilet bowl (whichever it might be). I read a funny article a woman who had terrible morning sickness throughout her pregnancy wrote where her bi-line was "I just enjoy vomiting." At times when hubby doesn't understand and tells me I think about it to much and if I would just think about something else I would be fine. That is when I think about the article and laugh to myself about enjoying vomiting, which no woman does. I have hope that the morning sickness will fade away with the transition of the first trimester or at least get to the point it was with Stephen where I felt a little nauseated if I needed to eat. at the same time my heartburn has offically started but it pretty mild at this point and also get increasingly annoying toward the evening. I am so very excited about the journey I am embarking on with #2.
The news is being shared now and not before because we were a little nervous about who knew because of the dangers in the first trimester. Hearing the heartbeat yesterday was amazing and it was a breath of fresh air that caused me to relax a little bit. I will feel a lot more relaxed when I feel regular movement in a couple of months but for now I live off of that little heart going within me in the 170's range which is healthy and wonderful at this point. We have our second sono in a month, we had our first because of not being able to easily find the heart beat a month ago and it had changed the due date that we originally had. So we will see the baby in month. We might know the sex in a month. And I will get another sigh of relief in a month. Until then... I might look into investing into a personal doppler from babys-r-us. From what I have heard from family and friends it works well and helped them through their anxious moments.

Not long after we were married. We moved into a cute little home. We found out soon after that we were expecting. After morning sickness and craving Stephen was born on June 21st 2007. He spent some time in the NICU but is doing great. Stephen continues to change and grow and learn. All of this is happening while Brad and I are learning as well from him.

Brad and I met on January 28th 2004 officially. We had been emailing and chatting via yahoo personals and messanger for about a month and we finally met. We went out to Westerville Bowl with a college friend of mine and bowled. We hit it off, even though I was trying to let my friend and Brad talk more. We were goners at that point. Over the next three years we lived and loved and after my graduation in June 2006 we moved to Amarillo and were married on July 28th, 2006 on our 2 1/2 year anni.