I want to take the time this Memorial day to express my gratitude for all of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for the freedom of our country. It is truly sobering to think of so many young men and women paying the price for our rights and privileges with their lives, not to mention the price that their family members paid by letting them go.

the weekend found us, once again, celebrating with friends at the annual lake party.  the turkey and I had a great time floating in the water and relaxing on the beach while hubby enjoyed the water toys.  the bastard suns were back again this year so baby boy got to attend his first concert as I carefully jumped around and sang along right up front.  we always have such a great time and this year was no different.  although we did choose to go home instead of staying the night like we usually do.  with all the traveling we’ve got coming up, I just didn’t want to give up any more time with my bed than I had to.  not to mention that the pile of pillows I’ve got to have is a little embarrassing.

From Memorial Weekend Lake Party 2014, posted by J’Lynn Holloway on 5/26/2014 (54 items)

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23 May 2014

I’ve been feeling all kinds of great about this pregnancy until I got a phone call yesterday from the dr office saying that I failed the glucose screening and have to go back for the 3 hour test.  anything over 126 requires advanced testing; mine was 148.  looking back over labs from the last few years, it looks like my pre-pregnancy glucose level stays right around 90.  insert major funk of depression here.  I know that this doesn’t necessarily mean that I have gestational diabetes and I know that, even if I do, it’s fairly common and easy to control and blah blah blah… but I just can’t shake this disappointment and melancholy.  I’ve been trying so hard to keep us healthy – I’ve been eating nutritionally, I’ve largely avoided junk food and fried food, I’ve been exercising – and all for what?  just a big smack-in-the-head reminder of how much my body hates me.  just like when I lost forty pounds and my cholesterol shot up instead of getting better.  it feels like I’m already failing my kid as a mother and that’s a lousy feeling.  so it’s going to be 2.5 weeks before I can get in to do the long glucose test.  here’s hoping that I can pull myself out of this funk and learn to deal with whatever comes because there doesn’t seem to be anything I can do about it.

cheers to the start of trimester the third!

16 May 2014

09 May 2014

the heartburn is back with a vengeance and I assume it’s probably here to stay.  also, the sacroiliac on my right side keeps slipping out of joint and I cannot for the life of me figure out a stretch or movement that pops it back in place.  when it’s out, there is much discomfort and I can’t bend over at all.  like, not even to pick something up from the couch.  when it magically puts itself back in alignment, I have no trouble at all.  it’s not slowing me down though… I’m still doing a lot of walking.  somewhere between sixteen and twenty-three miles a week, depending on weather and motivation.  all else is good.  he is active and getting stronger all the time.  hubby can not only feel his movements without effort but can also see them a lot of the time.  no obvious feet pressing out at us but big rolls of belly motion that are unnatural and creepy in a this-is-so-cool-I-love-my-baby kind of way.  when we were down in Orlando the week before last, my dad was laughing about me playing music on my belly.  I told him the turkey likes music.  he jumps around when they’re playing at church.  and when I play him music or sing to him, he likes to roll around.  hubby has been talking more to him lately too.  he likes to lay his head on my belly and dare him to kick daddy in the face.  he gets his wish about half the time.  around the house, we’re trying to de-clutter some more.  we’ve got ads up to try to sell some stuff and we’re gathering boxes to take to ‘bama for storage or giveaway.  hubby has also been doing a phenomenal job of keeping the house clean since we’ve been back from Orlando.

hubby has been doing a much better job of nesting than I have. he worked like a mad man to get all of the home improvement projects that we already had supplies for finished up before my sissy came to visit back in march. he put up all the crown molding throughout the entire house and finished the shoe molding around the baseboards in the closets and laundry room. he framed out the mirrors in the bathrooms so that they don’t look quite so much like giant, ugly mirrors pasted to the walls.

framed mirror and crown in master bath

he put up some accent tile around the top of the guest bath.

framed mirror and tiled accent around the top of the guest bath

he tiled the backsplash in the kitchen. I can’t say enough how much I love this tile. it is gorgeous. we’re debating doing something with the space above the cabinets… the light color up there just seems to draw my eye and I don’t like it. we’re trying to decide if we want to continue the backsplash tile up there or if we should just paint it gray. thoughts?

fabulous backsplash in kitchen

in the main living area and the master bedroom, I had him do extended crown to dress those areas up more. I think it looks fantastic. he also got my 53-pounds-of-glass photos hung back up over our bed.

extened crown and my custom artwork in master

he says he’s just going through his honey-do list. I say he’s man-nesting. and if all that work wasn’t enough, he’s now in hyper-organizational mode. he finally went through and shredded/tossed boxes of papers he’s been holding onto since before me (15+ years). he’s also buying all kinds of storage and organizational stuff to help put things in order. maybe one of these days we really will be able to start making a nursery out of the guest room which is stuffed to the gills with stuff.  I’ve been doing what I can to help with all of this but I certainly don’t feel like I’ve been able to get into nesting mode nearly to the extent he has.  maybe once the guest room is empty and it’s time to start building the nursery, maybe then it will hit me.

18 Apr 2014

i sure wish the belly would get to that nice, pregnant, basketball look… I know it’s coming and I shouldn’t want to rush things but right now, I just look fat. it’s just that awkward stage where people don’t say anything because they don’t know if you’re putting on weight or baking a bun.

this week has been a bit rough for some reason. all of a sudden, there has been a re-emergence of the night-nausea and heart palpitations (golly, did I ever even mention those in the first tri? seriously scary heart jumping out of your chest and skipping beats… who the heck decided that was a necessary part of pregnancy?). the “morning sickness” nausea was a little kinder because it made me so queasy that I wasn’t even hungry. this week, I’ve been plenty hungry but everything I eat makes me want to puke and/or gives me crazy heartburn. how the heck does a bowl of bland cereal or a smoothie give a person heartburn? it makes no sense. no worries though, this too shall pass.

the silver lining of this week has been that hubby now has no trouble at all with feeling our little turkey moving around. when he has his hand on my belly, he can feel almost every movement that I feel (he’s spared from the jump kicks to the bladder that send me racing to the bathroom). it makes me so happy to be able to share that with him now. he asked me the other day if I was ready for him to be born so that I can finally play with him.  I told him I can already play with him (he kicks me, I poke him back or he squirms around and I rub him to soothe him) and I can talk to him but I can also take him everywhere I go, guilt-free, and don’t have to worry about feeding or changing or baby sitters so this is really the perfect parenting time!

11 Apr 2014

I have no clue how but I lost a pound this week. I’ve been trying to eat like I should but I must be doing something wrong.  all the books say i’m supposed to be at a 10-15 pound weight gain by now.  I had finally started gaining about a pound a week over the last five weeks and last week I had finally gained back to my pre-pregnancy weight but this week i’m just below it again.  I’m trying not to worry too much since the ultrasound two weeks ago showed that baby boy was weighing a little ahead of schedule so he must be doing okay.  Surely the weight will start picking up soon enough.  i’m trying my best to eat often and fairly healthy so I don’t know that there’s a lot more I can do to get it going.

bring on the cheerleaders, it’s half-time!!!

4 Apr 2014

today was our “20 week” ultrasound appointment, which happened to fall at 19 weeks. even better is that it happened to fall over my nephews’/niece’s spring break so we got to have some family in town for the excitement. we invited my sissy and niece to come with us so we could share the magic of the ultrasound.

the first one was awesome because it was it was our first time seeing the turkey and because of the shock of finding out it was four weeks older than we thought.  this one was incredible because there was just so much more to see, I got to feel the movement while seeing it, and the technology was incredible.  the technician was great.  she walked us through all the parts we were looking at.  she spent a lot of time trying to get us good, clear shots of the turkey’s face, which wasn’t easy because the turkey was praying the whole time with it’s hands folded in front of its face.

look at our precious little turkey!

and then she started showing us 3d images, which I wasn’t expecting at all.  look at that beautiful face!!!  you can see the one hand holding the other arm right in front of the face.

3d imaging... how cool is that?

she showed us the four chambers of the heart, which were all beating very healthily.  she then explained how they estimate the weight by taking cross-section views of the head and abdomen to get their diameters and then the length of the femur and they plug those measurements into some algorithm that comes up with a fetal weight… our turkey weighs about 9 oz or just over half a pound.  the books all say about 7 oz by now so hubby’s concerns about my weight seem to be unfounded.  the turkey is healthy and growing great.  all of the measurements, including amniotic fluid and such, led them to the conclusion that everything is well on track.  praise God!

the most exciting thing, though, was that the turkey was not shy… Read the rest of this entry »

28 Mar 2014

finally starting to see a bit of a baby bump. mostly, though, it’s just that awkward point at which I just look like i’m getting fat.