Things that Make My Life a Little Bit Better...

Some things that just make life a little bit sweeter....

Coke....mmmm

My loving and supportive parents

Tums for my continous heartburn

The truth of God's love and plan for us

My beautiful fur babies
Shelby

Dieter

My amazing hardworking, supportive husband

Let Your Kingdom Come Here in my Heart

I addicted to Lincoln Brewster's song The Power of Your Name. Which has really made me reflect on mission work. I miss it. I miss all the wonderful things I experienced serving in various locations. I miss those adorable, smiling, dirty Guatemalan faces. I can't wait until our girl is old enough and we can go somewhere and serve together! I will never forget serving side by side with my dad and sister.

I have a week and 2 days of school left!! Which hopefully will give me some free time to pack our place up and study for my boards. But I am also hoping that after we find a place to live and our schedules become a little more stable that I can volunteer at the Pregnancy Care Center doing ultrasounds! This would be an awesome way to serve and keep up on my experience! I will be contacting them very soon.

And I will live to carry your compassion to love a world thats broken, to be your hands and feet. And I will give with the life that I've been given and go beyond religion to see the world be changed by the power of Your name...

24 Week Update

Feelings about being pregnant: I'm over it. Completely over it. I feel guilty I don't enjoy this amazing journey, but its not pleasurable. My friend told me the more I hate being pregnant the less I will be terrified of labor. Perhaps there is truth in that. If baby girl could come now and be completely healthy and ready I would welcome her with open arms. Of course I will endure 16+ more weeks for her well being and would never wish her to come early for my benefit. Kicks are becoming painful and frequently on my bladder. Heartburn is becoming severe. And morning sickness is as real as ever. Oh yea, and yesterday I went to bed around 11 and was up 4 times to pee before Kellen got up for work at 2:45. UGHHH people tell me to rest up before the baby, well that isn't happening!

Cravings: Meat and banana popsicles! I could have a continuous banana popsicle and be happy. My appetite is increased though for sure!

Changes: I'm ten pounds heavier and counting. Not thrilled about gaining weight and starting to not be able to see my toes! My belly really popped out lately! My pants still fit, but could use some cute maternity tops! My skin has become super sensitive, but mostly just under my arms. I cannot use the deodorant I have used for years because it makes me so itchy! I have been using Kellen's axe but should see about getting some dove sensitive skin stuff. How bizarre!

Preparations: We have very little ready. We haven't registered yet. We know we are doing an OWL theme for the nursery, but considering we don't know where we are living we don't have anything together. I am even starting to doubt the name we have for her!

Coming up: Kellen and I are registering soon. My biggest upcoming concern for the pregnancy is my glucose test for gestation diabetes. This can be very serious, and I pray I do not have this! We do our testing in a little over 2 weeks.

Biggest Adjustments so far: Dealing with my changing body and not knowing what to expect and people touching me, and not being able to get comfortable enough to sleep.

I'll post pictures soon!

Update

As of now it looks like we will be staying in the Pittsburgh area. I really thought we were going to move to Florida. Kellen accepted a flight position in Beaver so we will be around our family and friends as we start our family. Its exciting- I am glad because I really like my OBs and did not want to transfer to a new doctor's care. And Kellen and I both agreed being near family was important, we just were losing hope of it happening. We trusted God had a plan we just figured it included moving. God is good.

We are looking to move. We gave up our apartment and have to be out by May 31, which will be here SOON! As of now we don't have any place to live but we have a few apartments we plan on looking at in the surrounding areas. I'm picky when it comes to apartments- if it was just Kellen and I it would be different but with a baby I want a decent place.

I am slowly feeling better from having my appendix removed. The big incision is still very sore and I have trouble finding a comfortable sleeping position. So I toss and turn and start my day exhausted. School doesn't allow for much of a break and even though I had a week off, its just stressful because I have to make up 16 hours. Yuck. I'm just putting it off until after because I'm too busy to squeeze in the time now.

Our baby girl is doing great. We did a growth on her at school and she is weighing 1 lb 3 ounces. This is a little below the 50% so she is right on track. We can't wait to meet her, but know its best if its not for another 16 weeks!

Hiccups!

For those of you who know my family well, know that my sisters and I cannot take a sip of pop without it being followed by a hiccup. It still makes Kellen laugh to this day. Everytime without fail. I am not sure why we are like this but we are. Anyway, I think baby girl is going to be a hiccup-er! I felt them today for the first time. It was a crazy feeling. Everytime she moves I really enjoy it but sometimes it creeps me out a little! Its just so crazy to think of a living person in there!

Kellen and I were talking today, we can't believe how soon she will be here. We can't wait of course, but are nervous too!

Cost of Living

I am anxious to see how much my hospital bills total from the stay, tests, medicines and surgery. I was researching the cost for an appendectomy and people's bills were around $20,000-30,000. YIKES! Thank the Lord for insurance. So glad my husband works so hard at a crappy job that offers good benefits! I think our out of pocket max is $2,000, which we would have to pay with the baby anyway!

So many people were complaining that they didn't have insurance and were going to refuse to pay their bill because after 7 years it wouldn't affect their credit anymore. Other's mentioned just by explaining their lack of insurance problem to the to the hospital BEFORE the hospital contacted them, their bills were dropped by atleast 30%!

But my thing is this surgery saved my life and our baby's! What price can I put on that?? Would I be extremely sad and frustrated and stressed if we had a $20,000 bill to pay? Yes of course I would, but people spend this on cars every day. Surely my life is worth more than a car, even Kellen would agree and he loves cars! Why do the people who refuse to pay for this surgery feel like they are entitled to free healthcare? When you need a service you pay it, if you don't its stealing. It is easy to think about not paying because those people are alive still today, but without that surgery they would be dead. $20,000 or death. I know what I'd choose.

Just food for thought.

Magee- my second home.

Soo last night after church, the husband and I stopped by starbucks to visit with some coworkers where I became mildly uncomfortable. On the drive home, I got a lot of severe pain all of my abdominal. I thought it was just normal ligamental pain. About an hour later, and struggling to eat any dinner at all. I started to throw up and the pain was more severe. We called the OB who said to come into the ER. However, after throwing up I was feeling better and thought they were just chuckle at us being over cautious since it our first and send us home.

Well they tested my urine and blood. My WBC was mildly elevated. Felt my abdominal a bunch and came up with a differential diagnosis: appendicitis or ligamental strecthing pain. They tried to convince me to have a CT scan to rule out appendicitis since my symptoms and pain were text book. Worried about baby girl, I was relucant but agreed. As I was drinking the contrast, I became very sick again throwing up. As I was in the middle of CT I started to freak out thinking I made the wrong decision, I was putting baby girl in danger and for no reason because I was fine. I was exhausted- its now 4 am and I just wanted to go home.

Around 5, they confirmed I indeed had appendicitis. I was shocked and literally told the doctor. "NO WAY". By 7 am I was in surgery. They were able to do the surgery laproscopic and although I am in pain, its probably just good practice for labor.


Moral of the story...you're pain might be serious. So don't always be stubborn. If I would have waiting my appendix could have burst which would more than likely cause me to lose our precious baby!


God is good and has given us great medical technology in this country. Pray for a quick and easy recover for me!