23 weeks, 1 day

Looks like we're a papaya for the entirety of month five. But if I had to guess, I would say that Piglet is a little on the big side. He sure can kick! My new favorite pastime is staring at my stomach during his active times to watch it bounce as he tries to kick a way out.  According to some sources, some of his favorite sounds are my voice and soft music. I should probably talk to him more. I sing to him in the car or if I'm home alone, and I think to him a lot, but I forget to actually speak those thoughts. Guess I need to talk to him, if I want him to know my voice.

I've had a pretty boring weekend. I didn't even do laundry or clean, just swept and did dishes. All I really feel like doing is being a bum, so I am.  As an update on my parents situation, they have decided to stay another year in Ohio. Mom will probably try to get a custodial job at the college. My heart hurts for Mom because she loved and was very good at the position she was in and it will be difficult to go to custodial from there.  Please pray that she will be able to find continued work at the college, and if it happens to be in custodial please pray for strength for her.  It's very physically demanding work. Me, I am bummed that they won't be moving to Texas but I didn't really think they would anyway and I really just wanted what was best for them.

Happy Birthday honey!

Yesterday was Nathan’s 24th birthday. Happy birthday honey! Now we’re the same age again. I made him a spice cake at his request and his mom brought over some B.lue B.ell, which is his favorite kind of ice cream. Melissa and Thomas and Mom and Dad Vines came over to have cake with us. Piglet was doing a happy birthday dance for his Daddy, but his Daddy was busy and didn’t get to feel. I think those were some of the strongest kicks I have felt yet--guess Piglet likes B.lue B.ell ice cream too! Nathan even got all of his candles out on the first blow! Good thing, too—with a pregnant wife I don’t think he could afford extra girlfriends.

A fellow blogger was talking about Braxton Hicks and it made me realize I never posted about having them. I got my first one right around 17 weeks after we got back from Ohio, when we were at S.onic. Since then they’ve gotten more frequent as I’ve gotten further along, but most of the time I don’t even notice them anymore. I forgot to tell Dr. H about them at my last visit so I will have to try to remember this next time. I never can remember anything I want to tell/ask him. He really liked my Christmas cookies though! I told him I’d bring the nurses brownies when I went into labor. Butter them up so they’ll be extra nice to me. He laughed and said that he was sure the nurses would appreciate it.

And speaking of labor, I got a lot of laughs out of this lady’s blog. I wish she would keep posting but I haven’t seen anything in a while. It’s at itsababynotbrainsurgery.blogspot.com/

Not sure how I got from Nathan’s birthday to labor and delivery, but between the missionary and the pregnant brain I’m about to be certified in rabbit trails…

Thanks to all of you for your comment on my last post. I really appreciate the encouragement.

22 weeks, 3 days

20 weeks

22 weeks

I feel like I’ve grown a lot in the past two weeks. Actually, I feel like I grow every single day. Which is probably true.

I had a very nice weekend. On Saturday I made my baby registry at Target, and went to a baby shower for a girl at church. Then we went to Nathan’s cousin’s birthday party. On Sunday after church Melissa (who has moved back up here) and I went to do my registry at Babies R Us. Man do I ever understand why people spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on their little babies. Stuff is just SO precious and of course as soon as you walk in they give you a list of things you “have” to have for a baby. But we had a lot of fun registering. Afterwards Melissa took me out to lunch at P.ei W.ei. I’ve never been there before but man am I hooked now! I had their Pad Thai—it was excellent! We met up with Nathan and Thomas back at our house and Melissa baked chocolate chip cookies. How sweet is that?!

Yesterday my mom got laid off. She loved the people she worked with and they love here and it was a really ideal job for her so she is understandably upset. Please pray for her and dad as they have big decisions to make now. And if you throw in an extra prayer for them to move down to Texas, I wouldn’t mind that. I was also told yesterday that I am either not needed or my hours are being cut. Yesterday I was told I would get 20 hours a week, but today I’m not sure. I have to talk to my supervisor still. And Nathan is in his off season and has only had a few hours of work in the past two months. So pray for all of us!

Funny Pictures

I was going through my phone deleting old stuff and I ran across a couple of funny photos. The first is a picture of Nathan from the day that we had our gender ultrasound. Read what the sign above his head says. The second is a picture of me from when we were at my parents house in Ohio. I was sitting at the table cutting beef and my dad was across the kitchen cutting onions. I've always had extremely sensitive eyes, and I started bawling. You can't tell very well, but I had makeup all kinds of streaked on my face!

And just as a praise, the front drivers side tire of my car has been pretty bald for a while now and I've know it was going to blow, but we can't afford a new one.  Just like the last tire that I wrote about, the trouble started days ago by the car vibrating a lot. All the way home from work yesterday I knew that they tire was going and I was praying that God would just let me get home safely because I would've been in deep hoodoo if it had blown on the highway. I would have been S.T.U.C.K. So I finally get home and look at the tire and it's split and bulging and peices are popping out. I think it's pretty obvious that the only reason it held until I got home is that God put his hand on it. Thanks!

21 weeks, 2 days

I just want to say that a ten and a half inch banana is a very long banana. And Piglet is probably longer than that anyways, since he was measuring ahead at our last ultrasound. Piglet is also tasting everything I eat now, according to popular websites. In the next four weeks, Piglet will have a growth spurt and will double his current size. And Nathan wonders why I fall asleep so early every night!

Nathan got to feel Piglet move last night. He said he wasn't sure if he was really feeling him move or if it was just his hand but I told him it was Piglet, since I felt a big kick at the same time. Apparently he was pretty excited that he might feel him move because when we went to bed he put his mouth on my stomach and said, “Piglet, it’s Daddy. Wake Uuuuuup.” Then he cuddled up to me and laid there with his hand on my stomach for quite a while. Unfortunately for N, Piglet was being a good boy and sleeping while mommy sleeps.

For some people, dying means going Home

A pastor that has been very special in my family’s lives is very ill and close to death. They don’t think he has much longer to live. Please pray for his wife, his children, and his church family as they grieve, and please rejoice with Pastor M as he looks forward to going home and seeing our Father.

What does it feel like?

This is a conversation N and I had a few nights ago about what if feels like when Piglet plays:

Me: I can’t wait till you can feel Piglet. It’s the neatest thing feeling him play around in there.
N: Oh, is he moving around right now? What does it feel like?
Me: Yah he just kicked me. It feels like…um…you know how sometimes you have a really big fart coming and you know it’s coming because you feel a big bubble go across your stomach and then it goes away and then you fart?
N: Yeah….
Me: He feels like one of those fart bubbles. Mostly. But different too. I can tell the difference.
N: (laughing) So piglet’s just a fart waiting to happen?
Me: Yeah, a nine month fart.

And last night I told him it was also like the feeling you get in your stomach when you go over a hill really fast.

Also last night my sweet husband looked at me and asked:

N: Did I tell you yet today that you're beautiful?
Me: No, but you still have time...
N: You're beautiful. And I think you're even more beautiful than ever now when you're carrying my baby.
Swoon. I melt.

20 weeks, 2 days

Wow, I can’t believe I’m halfway through being pregnant. It seems like I’ve come so far, and yet have so far left to go. I have so much left to do and yet I’m so eager for him to be here. He’s the length of a banana now. Growing big and strong! And, my uterus is around the level of my belly button. Piglet is breathing amniotic fluid and making meconium. He’s also covered in vernix now.

My weekend was uneventful. I slept A LOT, and didn’t do much else other than clean the house and do laundry. The best part of my weekend by far has been feeling Piglet moving around. I can’t even describe the warm fuzzies that I get from feeling him. It’s the best thing ever! My mom tells me I will miss feeling him after he is born, and I believe her. It is so special to know that I am growing this little life, and for now, just for these few months, I can nurture him and protect him and know him in such a special way. I know that in a way that relationship will continue for much of his life but it won’t be the same as it is now. Physically, we are the closest we will ever be. I’m able to bond with him and keep him warm and well fed and the reality is that as a parent you have to let your kids go eventually. You have to let them make their own decisions and their own mistakes and hope pray that they will remember the things you’ve taught them. But for a few more months, I don’t have to do any of those things. I know where he is at every moment of every day and I have a pretty good guess at what he’s doing. Every day I love him a little bit more.

Psalm 139:9

"For You did form my inward parts; You did knit me together in my mother's womb."

Jeremiah 1:5
Before I formed you in the womb I knew [and] approved of you...

And, to commemorate the half-way point, BELLY PICTURES!  (All in the same shirt, to please my mother.)

4 weeks

10 weeks

20 weeks

Movement?

I do believe that Piglet has finally decided to make his presence known. I’ve thought I felt him moving around in there for several weeks but I’ve never been sure. It’s not been daily, and usually I only feel “it” once or twice when “it” does happen. So I’ve always dismissed it as some sort of digestive thing. But today it seems different. I keep feeling something in there, and it seems odd that my stomach would have that much to do that would seem out of the norm. So I’m going to attribute it to Piglet playing around. If I’m wrong, well, I’m wrong, but it’s so very nice to think that it might be him. I’ve really been looking forward to feeling him!

Shades of Red

Nathan has always claimed he couldn’t be embarrassed. In my experience that has always proven true—and I certainly never believed he could blush! That’s usually my department. Well, last night I proved him wrong!

You see, my dear sweet husband has a little problem—he likes to grab/smack my butt. And he does not care where we are, in public or private, or who is watching. I’ve turned red several times because of this. Last night, as we were walking into The-Armpit-of-the-Earth, otherwise known as Walmart, he grabbed my butt. So, I waited until we were past the elderly greeter (wouldn’t want to give her a heart attack, y’know), and grabbed his right back. His face flamed red and he hissed, “I know that girl that just walked by. I sung with her in choir in high school. And she was Looking. Right. At. Me!” Well, I cracked up. Because I’m a sweet wife like that. And in between howls of laughter I said encouraging things like, “I’ve never seen you blush before and YOWZA now you look like you belong in the tomato bin!” and, “See, now you know how it feels!” and, “You look so cute in that shade of red!”

Eventually, after I quit laughing and we got back to the car, I told him I was going to write about his experience in my blog. He said, “You can’t write about me in your blog! You can only write sweet things!” I laughed at him again and told him it was sweet for me!

How Piglet became Piglet...

Well, technically Piglet became Piglet because of A.A. Milne. And my Piglet became Piglet because, well, when a mommy and a daddy love each other very much.... But Piglet got named Piglet because of my mom.  And it all started back when we were kids...

...We called my brother, of the bouncy energetic personality, Tigger. My sister, of the morose, poor me personality, Eeyore.  My dad and I, fix-it people, were Christopher Robin. And my lovable sweet mom was Pooh. Fast forward many years to when Mom and I were shopping during our Christmas visit.  We were at Walmart and she told me I had to see this little pillow, because it reminded her of us.

"Oh", I said, "there's Miah, Erika, Mom, and...Piglet?"

"Yeah," she said. "Piglet is Baby Vines!" I thought it was an adorable idea, so when we got home we told everyone our little story.

And that is how Piglet became Piglet.

19 weeks, 2 days

Baby: This week, baby is getting covered in vernix. Yum. His body parts are all becoming more proportionate, and supposedly he can hear voices and will react to light. (I think this is funny because N likes to put his mouth right against my stomach and holler all sorts of random and strange things to the baby)

Me: No sickness. Occasional faintness, especially while standing and singing in church. Decent energy, need less sleep. Back to eating a normal portion size, but not super hungry yet. Did sort of indulge in all the holiday treats, so I'm hoping not to get in trouble at my next appointment. Crippling hip pain is GREATLY lessened and I hardly notice it now (thanks Doug!!) Still feel as though someone kicked me on the pubic bone with a steel toed boot, which is another side effect of SPD and one that I will have to find a female chiropractor to take care of.

I'm not sure that I ever mentioned it on the blog but since I was six weeks pregnant I've had severe pain in my hips. It was worse if I spend any time on my feet, and at times I was almost unable to stand or move. My Mom did some research and found out about SPD, or Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction.    

As stated on http://www.baby-pregnancy-ultrasound-3d-4d.co.uk/Pregnancy-SPD.htm, some symptoms of SPD include: "Pain and tenderness in the area of the symphysis pubis joint can often be accompanied by pain in the hips, lower abdomen and groin. Sometimes the pain can also manifest itself in the inner thighs and in one or both buttocks. Walking and other activities exacerbate the pain. Standing on one leg can be virtually impossible, so activities that rely on this to some degree will increase the pain. Climbing stairs, getting dressed and getting in and out of cars or the bath all involve the use of one leg at a time. Women can also experience pain while trying to move in bed, lifting things, sitting down and getting up. They may also have pain if they try to spread their legs past a certain point. Sometimes there can be a clicking during hip movement felt or even heard. A tendency to shuffle along or waddle may develop as women try to distribute their weight evenly." Um, yep, yep, and yep. That described me, so I asked Dr. H about it.  He gave me the usual spiel about how it is fairly common in pregnancy and there's really nothing to do but grin and bear it, yada yada, but did clear me to go see a chiropractor.  So when we were in NY for Christmas my Dad called and got us in with Doug, a super-good chiropractor who's helped us in the past.  He snap-crackle-popped my back and hips and since then the pain has been much much less. He didn't do the actual pelvic adjustment as apparently that requires hands to be placed in awkward places but he did recommend that I find a woman pediatric chiropractor to get that done. I think that being able to walk and function would in this case be worth paying  a chiropractor every couple months, and there are a few things I've read that you can do to help. I don't know if anyone reads my blog other than my family and a few friends, but if there are any women out there with SPD who read this please let me know any of your tips to help.

Holiday Fun

Wow, I have a lot to catch up on! Unfortunately I was unable to find my camera cord, so while I have lots of good pictures of my time at home, I don’t have any to put up. I will try to put some up later

I’m just going to do a brief day-by-day rundown of each day’s activities. I had so much fun with my family and we made a lot of memories. I really enjoyed watching Nathan interact with my family as they don’t know each other well because of the distance.
Most evenings we did Advent, watched Christmas movies and other movies, and endlessly cooked and did dishes

12/17—Thurs—As you know we went to the Dr. to find out we were having a boy, then we packed and left for OH around 10 in the evening.

12/18—Fri—Drive, arrive in OH around 6 and see baby stuff mom bought

12/19—Sat—I shopped with mom all morning—Once upon a child, Mall, Target, Walmart, Chipotles!, the Boys did their own thing, then in the evening the boys went to the movies and to the mall, and Mom and I went to The Greene for the live Nativity. I met Mom and Dad’s pastor, and we bought a Chai Latte and shared it while we walked around.

12/20—Sun—Visit Mom and Dad’s church, then go to the Air Force museum. Nathan and I went on the tour of the presidential and experimental aircraft. Erika and her fiancé Nate, and a few of his siblings joined us there. Erika was with us from this point on.

12/21—Mon—Got family photos taken at Walmart (and they did a great job!), went to get schwarmas but the shop was closed :(, so we had lunch at Long John Silvers instead. Then we went Christmas shopping at Valley Thrift store. The four of us kids shopped, and we got $5 to spend on each person in the family. And you would not believe the amount of gifts we all bought for our money! It was really fun—a new take on something we did when we were kids in Africa. On the way back home we had a family outing to the Pitt Stop tire store, then spent the evening gift wrapping, packing for the tripto NY, movie watching, and baking stuff that couldn't be done in oven in NY. (We only had camp stoves in the NY house, since Mom had brought her nice stove to OH)

12/22—Tues—Drive to NY, us kids took Mom and Dad out to lunch at Bahama Breeze for their 25th anniversary, and we decorated the NY house for Christmas.

12/23—Weds—Went to Ellicottville to go to Doug (PTL!) and get back and hips adjusted. He actually did adjustments on Mom and Dad and Nathan and I. Then we all went down to this cute little coffee shop just the four of us. Nathan and I walked around and window shopped while Mom and Dad went to their realtors office. Later that afternoon my cousin Ethan came over and brought Guitar Hero (which apparently my mom loves to play!) and we all took turns for several hours. While we were having fun, Dad was down in the cold basement replacing mom’s brakes. That night was our Baby Shower/Party at the church, which was really fun. Grandma and Grandpa Holtz bought the cake, which was super cute, and we got to see a lot of relatives, friends, and church family. Baby got some really nice presents too! After the party the Coulters came over to the house and we got to visit with them for a while longer.

12/24—Thurs—Chrismas Eve—Played guitar hero all morning while Miah and Dad were working at Grandad’s house. Mom and I had to go to Uncle Den’s to borrow a cheese grater but we stopped at Brooks and sneaked a sub sandwich. Nathan , Erika, Mom and I spent the afternoon making the Christmas Eve foods and we had over the Stovers and the Rineharts. Aunt Bonnie, Derek, and Brian stopped by for a few minutes to say hello, but didn’t stay long.

12/25—Fri—Christmas—Family day. Grandad came over for a brief visit and everyone mostly just played games and watched Christmas movies.

12/26—Sat—Packed up and cleaned up house(it’s still able to be shown), drive NY-OH, stop to meet the Gould family (the family of Erika’s fiancé), and see our old family dog Cadet, who now lives with the Goulds. When we got back to Mom and Dad’s we unpacked the cars, and then Nathan and I packed up our stuff to leave the next morning.

12/27—Sun—Drive OH-TX. Cry on and off for most of the day while I’m driving. I hated leaving. More on this one later.

12/28—Mon—Back in Texas. Sleep in, unpack, weep some more, go see Alvin and Chipmunks Squeakwell as a matinee.

12/29—Tues—Back to work

12/31—Thurs—New Years Eve—Off work early. Ordered pizza and Melissa, Thomas, Nathan and I sat around and watched TV. I fell asleep (big surprise!), but they watched all the festivities.

Then on Saturday Melissa and Thomas left—they moved down to the coast of Texas. I am happy for them since it gives them a lot of new opportunities, but for me I am sad because Melissa is my best (and basically only) friend and I will miss her big bunches. With her gone, I’m back to just having Nathan. And don’t get me wrong, he’s my best friend and I love him to death, but the reality is that he is gone way more than half of the time and that leaves me kind of lonely sometimes.

Christmas was amazing and such a happy time. I am so glad that we got to go and that God provided the means and kept us safe. I really needed that trip. The New Year has started out a little bit sad, but I do have Piglet’s birth to look forward to this year, and my mom (and hopefully Dad) coming down to visit after he is born.