Sickies

Ken's been sick this week. He woke up on Tuesday not feeling his best. I won't go into the details, but will just say, he's sick. He decided (and I was thankful) not to go into work yesterday. He rested most of the day and was able to eat a little dinner. Neither of us slept well last night, and he woke up in the same place he was yesterday. So he stayed home again today. He's eaten less, but still is nauseous, chilly, and achy. He feels well just about lunch time and is able to get in an hour or two of work, but then starts to feel crummy again. I feel so bad for him!! Hopefully, he'll feel better soon, although I love having the company during the day!

Finnegan's also been a little under the weather. He loses his appetite at least during one meal of the day, and has messy diapers (we'll just leave it at that). He doesn't seem to be bothered by it, as he plays and drinks all day long. So I'll continue to watch him and perhaps take him in if the diarrhea continues :) Finnegan also seems to have a small rash on his cheeks. I'm pretty sure this is unrelated but I think its from food that he gets on his cheeks that are a bit harsh to his skin (He's had it after eating cinnamon and ranch dressing - different meals) :)

On the other hand, I feel pretty good. I was pretty tired yesterday, more tired than I've been in a long time. I thought perhaps I had a touch of what Ken had. But I seem to feel better today.

So how am I feeling, you ask??

Many of you asked the question that I anticipated... so here's the answer. I feel ok, for the most part. My many prayers have been answered (about my morning sickness - I'll explain shortly) and I am finding that my first trimester is very different this time around. When I was pregnant with Finnegan, I couldn't get out of bed without each a few crackers first. And I was nauseous until 2 or 3pm. And then just tired the rest of the evening. It seems that things have flip-flopped with this pregnancy. I can get out of bed just fine in the morning and feel generally good. I even worked out every day until I was 8 weeks (from 6-7am).

Most of my "morning sickness" starts around 3 or 4pm. For about 3 weeks, I suffered from migraines at night, starting around 3pm until bedtime. Those were rough days. I had trouble seeing and was just having a miserable time. Then my doctor suggested I drink some caffeine, and sure enough, it works!! If I feel a headache coming on, I can drink a few drinks of soda or coffee and I'm good for a couple of hours. Recently, I've been getting nauseous at night. About 8pm, I get an upset stomach and have TONS of saliva (gross, I know). But normally I am starting to feel better by bed.

I'm starting to show a bit. They say that with your second or other pregnancies, you show earlier. I think I'm showing but Ken's not sure. I definitely feel the stretching and pulling of that growing baby and even think I've felt the baby move a few times. Which is rare this early, and I am the first to say it was probably gas. But I don't feel it too often, so that's why I think it's a squirm. :)

Oh, and as Jenney mentioned in her comment on my last post, I am taking it easy with the working out. After the spinning incident, I decided to take it easy. And up until my 8th week, Shawnta and I were working out each day. Since then, we haven't worked out but plan to walk a couple times a week once the weather permits. Shawnta and I had worked out a total of 15 weeks (i think) together consistantly. We both lost about 7lbs and over 10 inches each!!

I am definitely starting to crave different foods. I crave sweets again with this pregnancy but I also crave meat. There was about a 2 week period where I would drool everytime I saw steak on TV. I made Beef and Barley Soup and even made steak and potatoes myself :) I really LOVE McDonald's Cheeseburgers too. Kind of weird, but LOVE THEM. Who knows what that means... I hear it one way and then I hear it the other (gender wise).

So that's the deal! I'm also pretty excited to hear that my friends Ben and Audrey are pregnant too with their first baby! They are due a couple weeks before me. They were married a week before Ken and I and Ben was my VP when I was the President of the Student Body at CU. He's very dear to me... And I even let him borrow my sewing machine so he could make Audrey a pair of pj pants for Christmas, that year. :) Congrats, friends!

Long Awaited Post...

Many of my blog readers are writers themselves. Many of them write about when something particular happens in their lives, they think about how it might come out in the blog, or how you might phrase it. And I would be lying if I said that I don't do this. I most certainly do! This particular post, I've thought of writing, and even attempted to write a couple of weeks ago, but didnt ever post it. Well, now I have the guts (and support of the spouse) to say with PRIDE AND EXCITEMENT that...

I'M PREGNANT!!!!

Yippee!! I am 11 weeks pregnant and due Sept 29th. If you have any other dates on the calendar regarding our family, you'll know that Ken's birthday is the 18th, Finnegan's birthday is the 19th and if this baby even comes a week early, it puts three birthdays in one week!!

We don't know if its a boy or a girl and won't know for a couple of months. Ken didn't want to tell anyone that I was pregnant until we knew that it was a boy or girl... that's 5 months!!! I could barely wait 3 months!! :)

We told our parents and then our sibilings and now the news is to the rest of the world. We sent a fun card with a poem about Finnegan and his new sibling. I'll post the poem later this week. And then for extended family we sent a card that said "I'm gonna be a big brother!"

Here's baby's first photo at 9 weeks. :)

Sleepless nights!

Having a sick child is never fun. I have to say, I've been so blessed to have a child that sleeps well through the night and takes good naps. I hope all our children are like this!! These sleepless nights just aren't my cup of tea!!

Finnegan started teething last night about 5:30... He was cranky and crabby. So I gave him his "normal" dose of Tylenol and 8pm came and I put him to bed. At 10pm he woke up and was crying, so I went back up and gave him another "normal" does of Tylenol. He was burning up and I took his temp and it was over 100. Almost 102. About 45 minutes later, he was still awake and kind of out of it. But awake. So I did what any other mommy would do... I pulled out my "What to Expect the First Year" book and began reading. Obviously I knew it was from teething and the temp was normal. I was reading about temp taking. Oh, how confusing!! The books says that recal temps are the best. Where under the arm and ear temps are acceptable but the under armpit is the most inaccurate. I decided to do the under the arm as that's less invasive. That temp was about 101. I have an ear temp guage, and I've heard over and over that they aren't accurate because you can't always get the same angle and blah blah blah. And I was finding that the ear temp wasn't always giving me the same temp. All I knew is that the temp was over 100 and less than 102... or just hovering at 102. No higher.

I got a cool washcloth and put it on his forehead. And he actually layed with it on his head for a while before moving. I then removed his jammies (footed fleece ones) and put the wash cloth on his back, as we rocked for a while. After changing his jammies into some cooler ones, he's temp had gone down about a degree (from cooling) but the tylenol wasn't putting him to sleep or breaking the fever as fast as I thought it should. So I pulled out the bottle and began reading about dosages... I'm an idiot. My child is 18 months old and weight about 27 lbs. Therefore, I'm allowed to give him the full dose - 1.6mg of baby Tylenol - which is TWO droppers full. His normal does.... was .4mg = 1/2 a dropper full. I'm an idiot. I immediately gave him one dropper full to help his little body. He seemed to go right to sleep after a bit more rocking and snuggling. At 4am, he woke up, and I gave him another full dropper full of Tylenol, as his temperature still hadn't broken... It was still hovering around 101. We rocked for a little while and I gave him another cold wash cloth, and he slept until 7am... when he woke up screaming... Obviously, he was awoken by the pain. But the good news was that his fever had finally broken. So it was Baby Orajel to the rescue, and then a couple more hours of sleep for the both of us. ** After some thinking, I decided that we'd started giving finnegan Tylenol at such an early age - .4mg at 3 months when he first started teething. And we really shyed away from giving him tylenol if we didn't have too. And when we did, we just gave him the does he was used too. He'd never teethed so bad before and always seemed to do just fine with the "normal" dose he was used too. So now that we've had this problem, we've adjusted his dose and it's closer to the suggested dose on the bottle :) **

When we woke up at 9am, he was refreshed and ready for the day. I was ready to just chill for the day but he was playing and back to his old self, other than the small loss of appetite. So we got out and ran some errands, and even took a walk with Daddy when he got home!

I sure hope Finn doesn't suffer from this too much. I know it's those darn molars! Hopefully he'll be done with the teething soon... at least this stint of it :)

Photo Blog

I hadn't posted a lot of photos recently, so I thought I would. Here are some photos from the past couple of weeks...


Finnegan is a huge fan of Grapes. HE LOVES THEM!! And he'll do anything for grapes. It is pretty cute!

He loves the cell phone, just like other kids!

Finn was taking a ride in the wheel barrel and daddy was pulling him along!
More grapes... just like a dude watching sports on the floor... with his grapes in tow. :)
One more with the phone. He just loves it!

So many prayers, so little time...

Here are some prayer requests that have been heavy on my mind and heart recently...

• Again, our friends Angie and Ernesto. They are in India, and busy telling the dalit people (the lowest of the low in the hindu/indian hyerarchy... they are below animals...) about Jesus and that Jesus came to save them too, and loves them. They've been there for 2 months and really just up and left the USA and moved to India. They've recently received a disturbing phone call. The person on the other end had been watching them and knew that they were converting people to Christianity. They essentially told Angie and Ernesto to back off. CREEPY!!! So, I've been praying for their safety a lot. I'm concerned about them but KNOW that God is moving and God called them to go and will reach people through them, as He already has. I just pray for our friends...
• For my friend Jenney... Her husband (#1) has Grave's Disease. He was just diagnosed. He is starting a radiation treatment and working with new meds as well. Also, her second son has been deemed "failure to thrive" at the age of 8 months. So very sad. They have countless doctors appointments and tests. Please pray for this little family and their health.
• As always, I've been praying for my dad who is still out of work. He's been out of work for about 8 months. God is still faithful to our family and we know that he will provide something in the perfect timing. I just pray for peace and rest for mom and dad as they work through the details of each day.
  

Manicure Monday!!

On Monday, some friends of mine took me to the mall for my birthday! It's kind of a tradition now... we did it last year and now again this year. Although this year, they had arranged for me to have a manicure, while they strolled around the mall with the kids for 30 minutes. And what a blessing it was! I was completely surprised, and was not expecting it at all. I had a wonderful time with the nail technician and could have sat in the chair all day long! I chose a deep pink color for my nails, something I only wear on my toes. And when we were all done, I felt like my hands were as pretty as a lady from my church... there's this lady that is a dear friend of my family and she always has pretty manicured hands. And her nails are always painted a pretty deep pink color. And come to think of it, she has painted nails all the time!! But, I digress...

It was a nice time with the ladies and the kids. We weren't able to make it the full day, but it was a nice time to spend together!!