a craving outing

I really have not had many cravings; mostly aversions, so I eat whatever doesn't make me feel nauseous to think about. But, I have craved watermelon consistently, & I found a juice that I like that Josh went to buy for me one day after work because I had checked two stores & hadn't found it, so he took care of me. But last night was the first time that I really wanted something random, that I wanted immediately: a snow cone.

I googled & searched & apparently San Antonio is a snow cone desert. This was a PROBLEM; I needed that snow cone. So after I texted a friend who I knew loved snow cones, I found out that some HEBs have snow cone stands in front, so Josh oh-so-kindly called one to make sure, & we headed out there. When we got there & walked up, there was another largely pregnant woman, as well as her sister who had given birth 3 weeks ago, in line in front of us, so we got to chat pregnancy. Josh thought it was hilarious that another pregnant woman was buying a snow cone since this was the first time he'd taken me somewhere to fulfill a craving.

This place was no Bahama Bucks, but they had lots of flavor options: I got tiger's blood & Josh got coconut cream pie (yum, I'll have to get that next time). We'll definitely be going back. Lucky for me, it's open any day that it's over 70 degrees, so that will easily be through the rest of my pregnancy.

We sat out in the Adirondack chairs in front of HEB & ate our snow cones. It was a nice evening. :-)

Pregnancy until now

So, I have to warn you, if pregnancy-related stuff doesn't interest you, you can skip this post (& that is unfortunate, since it is a big part of my life right now, such a topic will probably show up often).

I'll try to cover the first 15 weeks of my pregnancy with the info I think people want to know (because I have wanted to know it for others), however I will not share EVERYTHING I think people want to know, because quite frankly when it comes to pregnancy people feel freedom to ask questions they should not ask... I think I shall save that for another post: Things You Should Not Feel Free to Ask, Say, or Advise People in Regard to Pregnancy and Babies (in Stuff Christians Like fashion, that would be the TYSNFFTASOAPIRTPAB post).

Week 4.5: We find out we are pregnant. I had experienced a couple of symptoms for a day or so that led me to believe something might be up. We were excited but it definitely took a couple of days for the information to sink in.

(On a related note, I just got an email from a baby website & the subject line is "Our Best Birth Videos." Ummm, I think I'll pass for now...)

Week 5: I begin experiencing aversions to water, mint, coffee, & chocolate. So, things that had had a daily presence in my life before. I have been able to have a couple of iced coffee drinks (decaf of course) in the past couple of weeks, but besides that, these aversions are still kickin' which is not great. Especially the water one - lemonade & juice for me! Oh, & think about brushing your teeth when the smell & taste of mint makes you want to throw up. I finally bought Disney Princess Bubble Gum toothpaste, which basically changed my life for the better.

Week 6: I begin feeling a carsick-type nausea. It progressively got worse until about week 11, when I started having better days. I never threw up though, which is nice, I just felt like it all the time (all the time - whether I had food in my stomach or not; morning, day or night). I still have periods of feeling like this, mostly in the morning or after dinner now.

Weeks 8-11: The worst weeks of my pregnancy. I felt sick & exhausted all the time. Luckily, I didn't have much work those few weeks so I was able to take lots of naps & lay on the couch. After that, like I said, it slowed down a bit.

During those two weeks, I had my first two appointments. Josh loved seeing baby wave at him on the sonogram. It was nice to know everything was normal & healthy. At 10 weeks we told our family, then slowly started telling friends, church family, etc.

Week 13: My tummy pooched. Josh & I felt it was a noticeable difference, although to the normal world, I just looked (& still do look) like I am just gaining weight, all in my stomach. It doesn't scream "baby" quite yet, but people who know me have started making comments about how I'm showing. My jeans stopped buttoning at this point, so I switched to a BeBand (to keep wearing my jeans) & started wearing some maternity shirts.

Week 14: I had gotten a few headaches so far, which happens in pregnancy (a little worse than my normal headaches), but this week I had a headache for about 4 days straight. Yuuuck. Tylenol would help for a little bit, but I don't want to take medicine if I can avoid it, so I toughed it out.

I started feeling flutters, but only when I laid really still & concentrated (& sometimes still felt nothing).

Week 15: I stopped wearing my normal life pants. The BeBand is not comfortable to me, so I am pretty consistently wearing maternity at this point. My back is hurting off & on now; I have to make sure my posture is good & switch the shoulder I hold my purse on every now & then. It's getting a little uncomfortable to lay on my back.

I also now have the symptom of stuffy nose, mainly when I sleep.

I have felt a couple big kicks/flops (I can't tell which) this week, which has been fun. It seems maybe baby is switching positions because it is just one movement then it stops.

I had an appointment yesterday, which is where I got the picture below. Baby was hiding from the doppler so I got a second sonogram, which was fun. No gender known yet, but four weeks to go!! We can't wait to find out. We do have both names picked out already, but won't be sharing until we find out boy or girl, & whichever name we don't use, we will keep in the vault for next time!

I think that covers everything pretty well at this point. I still I'll start doing weekly updates on baby's size, growth, & changes with me.

By the way, baby is bigger than a Red Delicious apple right now. He'll be a new fruit on Saturday. :-)

Baby's debut

I have about a million things to say on here now that I'm not keeping a huge secret (which is mostly the reason I have been slacking so badly on the blogging), but don't have time now, so for now, here is a picture of baby:

This is a great article about the purpose of marriage.

Real Christianity

I really liked today's devo - it hits on Christianity that is real & alive, vs. plain old religion, which is what a lot of people are unknowingly living.

"These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." - 1 Peter 1:7

"One of the great tragedies of the Christian life is that if we fail to enter into a relationship with God that is born of the Holy Spirit, we are left with a religion, not a relationship. Many a person today lives with an intellectual belief in God, but without a relationship that is based on two-way communication. This is the greatest tragedy of all. It's like having a brand-new car but never having the gas to run it. It can't move you anywhere. It only looks pretty, but one cannot enjoy the ride or smell the newness inside.

Peter tells us that until our faith is proved genuine, we will never be able to give praise, glory, and honor to Jesus, because until such testing He will not be revealed in our lives. Peter describes this in the verse before: "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials" (1 Pet. 1:6). Trials are designed to bring us to a level of trust and experience with God that we would never know otherwise. These "faith experiences" with God allow us to know firsthand the faithfulness of God, the love of God, and the personal nature of God. If you cannot recount several instances when God has met you personally, then chances are your faith has not been born of the Holy Spirit into a living relationship with God. It is easy to fall prey to a relationship to God that never experiences His real presence; rather, it is based on knowledge only. This is a tragic place to be.

If this is where you have been in your Christian experience, ask God today to make Himself real to you. Ask Him to show you His personal nature and love. He desires to do this. Those whom He has called know His voice. He will show Himself to those who are His. "He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I too will love him and show Myself to him" (Jn. 14:21b)."

-Os Hillman