14 Weeks

So I realize that I totally skipped week 13, and no it's not because I think it's unlucky or that there's bad mojo with the number 13. It's actually because I started working night shift and spent every free moment sleeping without remembering that I needed to update the blog. So, sorry about that, I promise to try to be good about the weekly updates. I want to have good pictures of everything going on this pregnancy. So, without further ado, here we are:

Pregnancy Highlights:
How Far Along: 14 Weeks
Total Weight Gain/Loss: 8 pounds (yikes!)
Maternity Clothes: Yes. Jackson had the privilege of taking me shopping this week. The problem is my shirts don't fit because I've gone up several sizes on top, but I don't have the belly to fit the maternity shirts. Thankfully, I've been working a lot so my wardrobe lately has consisted mostly of hospital scrubs!
Best Moment this week: Being out of the first trimester and scheduling our 16 week 3D gender ultrasound! We also had another doctor's appointment that went well, with baby's heartbeat going strong in the 160s.
Gender: Who knows! It's too early to tell but we have a poll going on the blog, so feel free to vote!
Movement: None yet.
Food Craving: I haven't really had any specific cravings yet. Still having some aversions. Not really wanting to eat any chicken.
What I miss: Still missing my smaller chest!
Sleep: Definitely sleeping well now that I'm up at night and am exhausted. Thankfully, I havn't had any trouble adjusting to sleeping during the day.
What I am looking forward to: Watching my belly grow and going to the 3D ultrasound with our family. And going back to the gym...that's my goal for the week!
Belly Button: Definitely in
Symptoms: Feeling much better. I still had an upset stomach at the beginning of the week, but overall I feel great.

It seems like the past few weeks have flown by. I'm excited to find out whether there's a little boy or girl hiding inside there. Work has been fun, as there are several other girls that are expecting, so we all have babies on the mind and get to talk a lot. I wouldn't be surviving without my sweet husband, who has definitely been a lifesaver, doing all the grocery shopping, cooking, and straightening up. Stay tuned for week 15!

12 Weeks

The baby is now the size of a large plum!
Pregnancy Highlights:
How Far Along: 12 Weeks
Total Weight Gain/Loss: 5 pounds
Maternity Clothes: Yes. I had to buy some shorts and tops. I am spreading at an alarming rate!
Best Moment this week: My 12 week ultrasound, hearing the baby's heartbeat and seeing him/her wiggle and jump around.
Gender: Who knows! It's too early to tell but we have a poll going on the blog, so feel free to vote!
Movement: None yet.
Food Craving: I haven't really had any specific cravings yet. Usually I'll see a commercial or hear someone talking about a certain type of food and then I want to have it. Although I did eat popcorn with chocolate chips in it for dinner the other night.
What I miss: My clothes fitting! My smaller chest!
Sleep: Sleeping ok, but definitely having weird dreams. Between that and getting up 5-6 times during the night to go to the bathroom, I've been taking a lot of naps!
What I am looking forward to: Finding out what we're having and planning the nursery!
Belly Button: Definitely in
Symptoms: Slowly getting better, but I've definitely been nauseous and extremely tired. I wasn't prepared for how incredibly tired I would be!
Overall, the past 12 weeks havn't been too bad. I've only thrown up a few times (the most recent being an unfortunate event involving my 2 year old nephew, naptime, and a dirty diaper). Jackson has been incredibly supportive and accommodating these past few months. I think I've only cooked dinner twice and we've gotten a lot of use out of the takeout menu and frozen dinners! Stay tuned for the next update.

The Story

We are so overwhelmed and amazed by everyone's sweet words and prayers. We are blessed to have so many friends and family members encouraging us along the way. I'm hoping to be consistent in blogging so i can have something to look back on to remember this time. So here is how we got to where we are now.

I found out I was pregnant May 10th, the day after Mother's Day. I find it amazing that God in His great wisdom and allowed me to find out when I did. Mother's Day was a little hard given the miscarriage, and I was stuck on call at the hospital. I didn't feel well, but figured I was just tired. By Monday morning I wasn't feeling any better and I figured I might as well take a test, even though I shouldn't have been able to find out for another 4-5 days. Well, it was positive. And so were the 3 tests I took after that one! By the time Jackson got home in the afternoon, I was anxious and nervous and just wanted to tell someone. I was too excited to even think of any creative way to tell him. I think I just handed it over to him and said "here, look at this". Of course he was so excited and we went right out to buy a nice camera, which I still havn't figured out how to use!

I had a lot of time that day by myself to take it all in and I immediately thought to myself "I don't think I can go through this again, I can't have another miscarriage". But I decided right then that I wasn't going to allow this experience to be ruled by fear or worry. I thanked God for the amazing gift of a baby and said that if this pregnancy lasted 9 days or 9 weeks or the whole 9 months, I would praise Him and enjoy every moment. I read Psalm 34:4 which said "I sought the Lord and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears". What an amazing thought. I needed to trust God to deliver me from all my fears and worry and live with the joy that He has intended for me. Our first appointment went well and I held my breath as the doctor did the ultrasound, until we saw this...

As she zoomed in, we saw the beautiful flicker of a little heartbeat and I started to cry. Everything looked great, but my sweet doctor said "I know you're nervous, so why don't you come back next week and we'll do another ultrasound". It was music to my ears. So the next week Jackson and I and our sweet friend Kim (Jackson wasn't sure if he'd be able to make it so she came with me so I wasn't by myself) headed back to the office, and that's when we heard the heartbeat for the very first time (I tried to post a video, but havn't figured out how to do that yet).
I've never been so happy in my life. So here we are 12 weeks into our journey and we continue to be amazed at God's goodness.

So thanks for coming along with us on this exciting ride! Don't forget to vote for your thoughts on whether baby is a boy or girl. And feel free to leave a comment, as I usually check them daily. Tomorrow will be my first belly shot (yikes!), so we'll see how that goes!

It's Official

Well, Jackson and I will be changing our names come January 2011.....we will further be known as "mommy and daddy"! That's right, God has blessed us with the most incredible gift and we couldn't be more humbled or grateful. We had our 12 week ultrasound today and everything looks great. Baby's heart was beating strong at 170 and the little peanut was fast asleep. The ultrasound tech had me drink a coke to help wake him/her up and it certainly did the trick. After that little burst of caffeine we had a full fledged acrobat putting on a show inside my belly. I can't put into words how amazing it is to see this life growing and I can only be more certain of the fact that God is an amazing Creator. So without further ado, we are proud to introduce you to Baby Jones!

I am so excited to have this blog as a way to keep family and friends updated on our little one's progress as well as having a way for me to keep a journal of this exciting time. Every Friday I will be updating the blog with a belly shot (yikes!) and the latest info on where we're at. Tomorrow I'll update with more pictures and how we found out about the little one. Thank you for all of your encouragement and support. We covet your prayers for a healthy baby and look forward to the next several months!

Birthday Month

June first designated the first day of what I fondly call birthday month. Because I don't just want one day, I want 30! I'm still trying to convince Jackson that I should get one gift for every day, but he's not buying it. But June is just not about me. It's also the birth month of one of the dearest people I know. And while today is not her birthday (June 3rd was), I am technically not late, because it is birthday month.
This sweet girl is one of the best friends a girl could ask for. She has helped me move more times then any one person should (including a trip to Philadelphia and back), laughed with me, cried with me, put up with me on very long road trips, taken care of me when I was sick, helped me justify the purchase of several coach purses, encouraged me, stood up for me, prayed for me, and stood by me on the happiest day of my life. She has a servant's heart and is an excellent, compassionate nurse.
Several years ago I was in school full-time getting a Masters degree while also working full-time as a transport nurse in the NICU. I was in the middle of completing 620 clinical hours at the hospital. Translation: I was exhausted and spent an average of 5-6 days in the NICU and slept at the hospital 4-5 nights a week. I would head home for a quick change of clothes or to study and then head right back to the hospital. Needless to day, my house was a mess. Laundry had piled up and I didn't have the time or energy to clean. It was overwhelming and discouraging (especially to a clean freak like myself). One Saturday I got home after working a long shift to find Jenn at my house. She had cleaned everything from top to bottom, and had done all of my laundry. On her day off. On a Saturday. I was amazed and couldn't do anything but cry. To this day, I think that act of selflessness and kindness has been the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. She demonstrated the love of God to me in a real and tangible way. I can only pray that I will be as good of a friend as she has been to me, and that I will use her example as a motivation to show God's amazing love to others.









Happy Birthday Jenn. Here's to the best year ever!
"A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity" Proverbs 17:17

It's Official

I am the world's worst blogger. And the sad thing is, I've done some fun things and had some great experiences in the time since I last posted. I've written at least ten different posts in my head, but for some reason, I just havn't been able to get around to actually putting it on the blog. I think part of it is that I'm always waiting for something bigger or better to write about. It's kind of strange really. Since April, I've spent a weekend in beautiful Savannah, met The Pioneer Woman at a book signing, seen the space shuttle take off on one of it's last missions, etc., but I was still waiting for more. But all three of my readers have been asking me to update things, so here I am. I also got a brand new camera, which I am desperately trying to learn how to use. I'm sure it will take amazing pictures once I figure it out. I'm actually thinking about signing up for a class this fall to help me learn more about it. All this to say, I have pictures of all of those fun things I listed above, they're just not on the computer yet. One of the highlights of the past few weeks for me was that our office went from a hot mess of papers, books, and randomness that my husband claimed as his own, to a sewing room with my own TV. I could not be more excited! We're still trying to take care of some of the details of the room, but I already love it. I promise to post pictures of it once it's all finished. In celebration of having my very own creative space, I have been sewing up a storm. I have two friends who are expecting and were wanting a "hooter hider" AKA nursing cover, and one of them wanted some summer dresses for her girls. So I accepted the challenge and went about getting them done. I'm pretty sure Jackson didn't see me for a couple days while I was getting them done! I think they turned out pretty well for my first attempt.


Me modeling one of the covers

Norma posing with her gift

What do you think?
Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting Titus for the first time. He's the four month old son of my sweet friend from college, Laine. She and her husband were in Clearwater for work and so Jackson and I headed over there to have lunch with the three of them. I couldn't get enough of him! Here he is in all his baby cuteness!

All this and I still didn't mention the fact that I babysat the 5 Knouse kids for a few days and that Jackson and I purchased some land that will one day (God willing) be the sight of our future home (more about that in another post)!
It's been a fun, busy few weeks and I am excited to see what God is doing in my life right now. Anyways, thanks for sticking with me and encouraging me to get back to blogging. I promise I will try to be better at being consistent with it from now on, as I want to document Jackson and I's life together, and I want to keep my family and friends updated and involved. Stick with me, there's some exciting things going on and I think it's going to be a fun summer!

Fun with the Knouse Family

Last week I had the pleasure of going back down to my hometown with my favorite family of seven. My best friend Tara, her husband Kelly, her five precious kiddos and I packed up two cars and headed to Homestead. Kelly was the guest speaker at the annual Good Friday Community Prayer Breakfast that my mom helps to put on and we figured we'd all make a fun trip out of it. We got down their Thursday afternoon after a fun road trip and only two stops-which isn't bad considering we had 8 people with us! My sister Debi and her family of 3 met us at my parent's house so that Alex could spend some time with the other kids. But not before we all stopped at Robert's fruit stand for a delicious milk shake and the miniature petting zoo. She helped me babysit all 6 of them while Kelly and Tara went out to dinner with the prayer breakfast committee. After several hours of playtime, Debi and I had them all fed and in pajamas within an hour. I must say, we were a well oiled machine!
The next morning, we were all up early and headed to the prayer breakfast, which started at the crazy hour of 7:15. The kids were so wonderful and all of them were ready to go without even a hint of complaining. Kelly did a wonderful job of sharing the Good News and the hope of Easter with everyone at the breakfast, and I think everyone was glad they got to hear him speak. Following the breakfast we all headed to the Alligator farm for a little afternoon fun.








I think their favorite part was the airboat ride, although, getting to pet the alligator was a close second!
After heading back to the house for lunch followed by a good long nap, we loaded back up and headed for home. All the kids were so good and I think my parents enjoyed the fun chaos of a house filled with kids again. Which is good, since J and I are planning to send our kids to "grammy and papa summer camp" for at least a few weeks every year when we have them!
Overall, everyone enjoyed themselves and it was a quick, but enjoyable trip. And I'm pretty sure some new friendships were made...