Brenda’s Pregnancy Journal

My good friend Beka & her husband Dan are comming from Virginia (or is it West Virginia?) for a quick visit in August! They’ll actually be on their way to Portland, but staying a night with us. I met Beka a couple years ago in a buddy group online & we’ve developed a good frienship. It’s about time I get to meet one of my online friends in real life! I have one other friend who might be out this way soon too. It’s so exciting that she’ll get to meet Elliot & she may very well be pregnant herself on the trip. I am pretty pleased with myself that I now will be numbered among those who get to meet people they met online in person.  

Charlie & I had yesterday off work together. It was nice to have him home with me on a Wednesday. The most fun part was the spectacular show Elliot gave Charlie while we were laying in bed in the morning. He gave him some powerful kicks & my belly was bouncing around everywhere. We relaxed in the morning & went to a movie in the afternoon. I made taco casserole for dinner & Charlie made a trip to the grocery store for brownie mix so we could have brownies & ice cream for dessert! Supposedly Elliot can actually taste the things I’m eating - not sure how it works, but I’ve read it several times now, I have a feeling he’s going to have a sweet tooth. I did have a nice healthy salad along with dinner though.

Charlie was able to talk with our neighbor on Tuesday night & she agreed to set up an apt. to have the contractor come to do a bid on Friday morning. The contractor confirmed the appointment with us yesterday! That means that it can be approved at the meeting on Monday night, and hopefully we’ll be able to get the work done soon. It may be another battle getting her to be available for them to do the work, but I do feel like progress is being made. Turns out she’s a correctional officer & that’s why she has such extreme hours. Hopefully we can get started on Elliot’s room very soon.

The crib is in @ Baby Depot but the combo & hutch have still not arrived. The manager is looking into things…we’ll see if he gets back to us as soon as he promised. I can’t wait to set up the furniture & start filling drawers with Elliot’s stuff.

The rain has finally subsided (if at least for a while) and the dogs are doing better too! So I am feeling much better about things!

We got to see our niece Natania again on Saturday night. Holding her made me even more excited for Elliot to be here. I want to see & hold him so badly I can hardly stand it! I spent an hour or so yesterday going through all the cloth diaper stuff, organizing & evaluating, cutting off tags from the wipes, and practicing different folds.

We also went through the clothing we have so far. We’ve been totally blessed by Charlie’s older brother & our sister-in-law who had a little boy last August. They’re basically giving us all of Myles hand-me-downs! It’s great and I don’t think we’re going to need many clothes, so it’s nice to have that part taken care of! Of course we haven’t been able to resist a couple basketball outfits, the most recent one being a cute Laker Onsie from walmart!

Because Charlie was layed up w/ a bad knee on Friday, my mom took me to my blood test. The worst part was drinking 10 oz. of what tasted like pure cocacola syrup. Well, that and the nurse had to poke around several different times to get my blood to come out - and I had to have my blood drawn 4 times! I don’t know the results yet, hopefully they will be in by tomorrow - and prayerfully they will be good.

In between each blood draw we went grocery shopping - it worked out well since I had 3 stores to go to. I felt fine too - even though I hadn’t eaten since the night before. But by the time I got home after the test I was getting pretty close to fainting, so I stuffed myself with 4 quesadillas and a banana.

Thursday night Charlie hurt his “good” knee badly in a basketball game. Poor guy was in a lot of pain. It’s healed some since, but he’ll be going to the doctor to get it checked out soon. It did confine us to the house for most of our long weekend, but so did the pouring rain. He’s not using crutches all the time, but his limp is rather obvious. We’re praying that it heals completely & quickly so he can finish the season & be able to play.

Speaking of the rain - of course that means more water damage - and every time I wake up in the middle of the night & hear the rain I get more upset about it. I’m frustrated w/ the neighbor whom we can’t seem to catch at home, frusterated w/ the HOA for not taking swifter action, and worried about the mold & how it could harm us & Elliot. Wondering when & how it’s all going to get fixed - so that we can start workin on the nursery. It’s stressing me out. Each time I get worked up about it I have to pray - it’s in God’s hands. After all, it is Him who is sending the rain! Once again, so glad that Charlie is the one dealing w/ all the people on the phone. I think I’d just get angry & say things I shouldn’t.

The nursery furniture was supposed to arrive on Sunday…but it’s not here yet. At least not all of it. Obviously we’re not in immediate need of it, but I haven’t been to happy w/ Baby Depot’s service so far, and it’s a little bit of a concern. Hopefully they will do what they said & call us back soon to let us know what’s up & when it will arrive.

And then there’s the dogs. As much as we love them, boy they can be frusterating. House-training hasn’t gone too badly overall, but with all the rain they really don’t want to go outside, and I don’t know if it’s pregnancy hormones or what, but I get quite upset when I find a mess. We forked out some cash this weekend for different dog stuff that will hopefully help. It will be worth the money if it works.

They’re relatively minor things I guess (some people’s homes are sliding down mudslides right now), but I generally don’t get stressed out about things as much as I have recently - and I don’t like it! Prayer has definetly been my best weapon so far - and am I having to pray a LOT!

We found out recently that the contractor who is going to fix our leaks has tried to contact our upstairs neighbor by leaving 8 doorknockers since October! She has not responded to a single one. Fortunately Charlie is handling this - he’s so much calmer & nicer dealing w/ conflict - so we’re writing her a letter asking her to get this taken care of. If she doesn’t respond we did find out that there are provisions for the HOA to enter her apt with a Sheriff to get the problem taken care of - but I sure hope it doesn’t come to that. I don’t understand how she could be so rude! They said they’ve never had someone be like this before. I really want to start working on the nursery & this is holding us up.

We have a nice long 4-day weekend coming up, actually Charlie will have 6 days off starting tomorrow & I will work on next Tuesday, but we’ll have Wednesday off together. Tomorrow I take my 3 hour Glucose Tolerance Test - expecting to pass - my co-worker has diabetes & she took my blood sugar this morning and it was just fine, if not low, so that’s a good sign! After the test we’re going to visit Daryl & Becky & new baby Natania. I’m attaching her pic to the post so you can see her.

Basketball season has officially ended, so Charlie & I will have lots more time together - and it works out b/c we have a lot to do. We’re going to start reading for an hour or so every night our labor & delivery books. I’ve read several of them, but it’s going to be different now that we’re doing it together in practice for Elliot’s arrival. I’ve kept up my exersize - 1 mile about 3-4 X per week, but we’re also going to start walking in the evenings - gotta build up my endurance!

Elliot’s newest cousin, Natania Providence Spradley:

My new niece that is! My sister-in-law had her baby on Saturday. They went in to be induced & after they broke her water at 4 cm they let her labor on her own. It all happened in an amazing 6 hours or so! Natania Providence was born on February 12, 2005, she weighs 6lbs, 15 oz. and is 19 inches long. She’s a beautiful little girl! Mom looked fabulous after it was all over & the new family is doing very well. I will add a pic to my album ASAP!

We got to take another exciting step in this whole baby process this weekend & register. Thinking about it, it’s kinda weird asking for gifts ahead of time, but it is a very practical way to get what you really NEED. We had fun picking out all the items - and goodness I can’t believe how much stuff is ‘needed’ for a baby. I used my trusty Baby Bargains book & for the most part we did it the most economically practical way we could.

Yesterday was really just a day of rest…went to church in the morning & relaxed for the rest of the day. Made spaggetti for dinner & watched a Star-Treck movie on TV.

Elliot is growing out & moving around more & more - he’s started bouncing on my bladder & it’s not too plesant when that happens. I’m pretty sure he had his first round of hiccups on Saturday night. He really is most active during the night - and this morning-person mama is a little concerned! I am so relieved to have finally found a sleeping position that has eliminated my back pain!! It has made my rest so much more enjoyable.

Today is Valentines day! We’ve done pretty extravagant & expensive celebrations in the past, but we’re practicing living by our 3-person-family-budget, so we’re not going out & spending any money. Not really sad about it either - we’ve had 8 years of Valentines where we had plenty of cash to blow - but this one is special b/c our reason for being frugal is more than wondeful!

Tomorrow begins my third trimester. Wow! I am so excited to be here. There’s a lot to do in the last 3 months and getting it all done is going to be a lot of fun.

Today at our check-up I found that I’d gained another 7lbs! (suggested weight gain is a pound a week - 7lbs is almost double that). I’m up 20lbs over all. The doc was reluctant to tell me for fear I’d be upset. Quite the contrary, I find it rather amusing. Even at this rate I’ll be well within healthy limits when Elliot arrives. He may just be a little bigger than I expected. It’s quite crazy to see my body changing and my belly getting so big.  Charlie’s had a couple suggestions lately that he is looking thinner, he hasn’t weighed to see, but we were joking that it may just look that way - as I get larger he looks smaller! :-) 

At each appointment they check his heart rate with the dopper. His heartrate has been quite consistant - 146 beats per minute at the last several appointments. Today, when she put the doppler on my tummy he gave it a little bump, a few seconds later he gave it a good kick - Charlie saw it from across the room. It was cute, and probably the first time he’s responded to pressure on my abdomen.

Doc said all is looking good - I do have a glucose tolerance test next Friday, I hope to pass it! For most of my pregnancy I haven’t had many significant cravings - especially for anything out of the ordinary - but lately I’ve been drinking sweetened condensed milk - like it were a beverage. Well, not like it were water, but I do drink it strait. Course that probably isn’t good for my blood sugar so I’m going to have to begin denying that craving!  The milk in it has to be good for us though, right?