Happy Birthday Lover!!

37 years young and every single day I fall more and more in love with you. Our expanding family & growing love is what makes our world go 'round. I wouldn't want to share this joy with anyone else. You are my best friend, my soulmate, and you have my heart for the rest of both of our lives. I hope that you have enjoyed your birthday festivities and continue to enjoy every year of celebration.

17 Weeks

In a few short weeks I will be able to say that we are half way through this pregnancy. By no means do I want to rush bringing this child into the world but honestly I am the most impatient person when it comes to long term things. From my first pregnancy I know that the second & early third trimester seem to feel like they drag on and on, so this time around I am trying not to focus so much on the fact that I am pregnant. Sometimes I even have to remind myself that I am pregnant because its just something that we dont talk about too often. Thats not to say we aren't very very excited about this pregnancy, we are just being more discrete about things. I've known that we are pregnant for a little over two months now and I have been really good about not blabbing it on Facebook. I can speak freely on here obviously because I only have one follower (my dear friend, KStina) But otherwise the only people who are aware are close family & friends. I haven't quite figured out if/when I'll spread the good word all over Facebook, maybe I'll wait until the day before delivery just as a shock factor for all the Facebook Stalkers out there. Who knows, maybe everyone already knows but really just doesn't care :/ I would like to think that isn't true. Wish me luck through the next 23 weeks, the most difficult days are yet to come!

Hunger

I should not stay up past 11pm, for no reason at all my stomach always starts growling if I stay up to0 late. There is no reason I should be hungry, I had a decent size dinner, two chicken tacos & steamed califlower plus an Large Orange for my dessert ;) And that was only 4 hours ago! My hungry fetus is telling me to eat more I suppose. Maybe IHOP will make him/her feel better in the morning. Mmmm, ALL YOU CAN EAT PANCAKES!!! Goodnight ;)

This is me

I have to begin by saying that I am so proud of the place that I grew up. Its kept me grounded and humble. I dont take things for granted. I'm sure a lot of this has to do with the people that raised me (and I sure am proud of those people too) but I just feel like if I had grown up in a big city in another state I wouldn't appreciate the little things in life. I enjoy the fact that my life doesn't have to be fast paced if I dont want it to be. Its calm, quiet, and really peaceful. One day I pray that I'll be able to move into a nice country home surrrounded by fields of corn or wheat...and I am glad that my children will get to experience the same upbringing that I had as a child. I'm not saying that my life was perfect but all the happy memories I have of my childhood are being outside in the fresh crisp air of the country life.

So speaking of children, I have exciting news pertaining to the future of my little family. We have a beautiful baby growing inside my body and we are very overjoyed that we are expanding our family. Ish will have a little sibling to play and grow with. I am staying optimistic that he will be a wonderful, caring, loving big brother! I'm sure it will not be an easy transition but he has been such a wonderful child so far and I expect that to continue no matter how many times we bring another child into our home. I am in my 14th week of pregnancy and in a couple weeks we have another appointment to go see the doctor. I am hoping that its an ultrasound appt but I highly doubt it will be. Everything seems to be going smoothly, I have not had any morning sickness other than feeling slightly nauseated during the early weeks. I am taking good care of myself, exercising 5 times a week and doing my best to eat healthy foods. I want to make sure that I give my growing baby the best nutrients while also monitoring my weight gain. I really can't imagine gaining another 50 pounds for this pregnancy like I did with my first. Our due date is July 7, 2011 but because of the C-section my doctor says I will be able to schedule the birth for at least a week before that. So if everything goes well we will have a June baby in our house. My first concern is that he/she be a healthy-mentally & physically- newborn, but deep down I am hoping for a girl. I think Steve and I have also confirmed that (God-willing) this will NOT be our last child. We have completely fallen in love with watching Ish grow up and we want to experience that joy a least a couple more times. My doctor says that realistically its not medically smart to have more than 4 children born via C-section so we have to take that into account. I say as long as we feel like my body is healthy enough, we will continue to bear children.