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“I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the LORD.“ 1 Samuel 1:27,28

Today was a hard day, please say a prayer for us. When I can I will explain but for now just pray...

10 weeks and finger painting

Today I am 10 weeks pregnant with our second baby....I seriously look like I am more like 20 weeks! Ok maybe I am exaggerating but it is how I feel! Besides feeling huge, I have to say that I feel otherwise fantastic. I feel like my energy has returned this week....I haven't been nearly as tired as I was 2 weeks ago. Hopefully this continues because I hate feeling unprodictive, my laundry pile is gettting bigger and bigger by the minute! I did make a huge dent in it today though, with my new found energy :) I want to journal my experiences with this pregnancy soooo here goes:

35 weeks pregnant
July 2010

9 weeks pregnant
February 2012, almost like I picked up where I left off :)

How far along? 10 Weeks

Baby's Size? A little over an inch long, the size of a kumquat 

Weight Gain? 10lbs, yikes!

Maternity Clothes? All maternity pants. Maternity shirts in a size small 

Stretch marks? Oh yea, no new ones but old ones are starting to be more significant

Belly button in or out? No difference, still in

Sleep?I can't get enough! Although poor Joe says I have started doing my pregnant snoring (embarassing) so he gets no sleep. I also toss and turn because my back is achy

Foods I am loving? Carbs! I am really trying to cut back but I love my bread and pasta. Granny smith apples, only this kind will do. Water with lemon and tons of ice 

Foods I am hating? I had a bacon egg and cheese over the weekend and the bacon was not smelling good to me so I am thinking I am starting to hate it. 

Best moment this week? Adrianna kissing my belly is the best moment I have had for the past few weeks

Movement? Yes and no. I googled to see if it is possible to feel the baby this early with a second pregnancy because I swear I felt flutters that weren't gas last week and a little bit today. It is possible so I am going to say some

Symptoms? Bloody nose, headaches, moody...I cried for no reason on my way to the grocery store today, bloating

Genders? Don't know yet

What I miss? Not having to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.

What I'm looking forward to? Finding out what I am having!

Weekly Wisdom: Do not try to clean all three bathrooms from top to bottom and think you will not be hurting, even this early in the game

Milestone: Picked out big girl furniture for Adrianna. She will be getting her own bigger room soon!

Emotions: Nervous, we looked at double strollers the other day and I panicked about how I will be able to leave the house with a toddler and a newborn. Excited to feel all the special kicks and movements...I missed being pregnant

Today, because it was bath day, we decided to let Adrianna finger paint. Here are some of those fun pictures!

How can you not just adore that sweet face!

Baby Shower Festivities

My mother-in-law and I threw Joe's twin brother and his wife a baby shower a few days ago. They are expecting their first son around the end of April. Everyone is so excited to meet the newest baby Dolce soon! I for one am excited to hear what name they picked out and to hopefully have him and Adrianna grow up being close and just the best of friends. It was so fun to plan this out and to do some baby shopping for them, brought back so many memories :) Boy clothes are so cute, I never noticed how cute they are until recently! I am in love with the whale theme at Gymboree and Carter's....maybe I will be able to get some if I am blessed with a boy this time around :) We had a great time with friends and family, and I have to say they made out pretty well! Here are a few pics of the party!

"Wishing Well" Bassinet full of goodies

Adrianna wanted to climb inside

My favorite gift "Winnie the Pooh: Plan Bee"

Love the whale!

one of our gifts, vital part of his wardrobe ;)

Bow hat! (Did I mention my husband and his brother are identical twins) :)

Dessert spread

Yearly trip to Vermont

Every year, Joe and I take a trip with Joe's aunt to Smuggaler's Notch Ski Resort in Vermont. This year was as great as every other year we have made the trip...only Adrianna got to enjoy it so much more. I am so sad I didn't really take many pictures because this pregnancy has knocked me on my a**! Everyone would leave in the morning to ski while Adrianna and I stayed behind eating breakfast, coloring and hanging out until about noon when Joe would return. Once he was back all bets were off, I was napping! It felt great to get a break and be able to nap during the day since I def don't get a chance to do that this pregnancy having a very active toddler. I was very appreciative of my chance to relax. At around 3 Joe and I would take Adrianna to the Fun Zone, full of bouncy castles and all sorts of toys to play with. Adrianna is usually terrified of the bouncy castle but this time she was not afraid at all and even went in all by herself! So proud of her. Although unseasonably warm, Joe said the skiing was pretty good....I am sad I didn't get a chance to try it this year. Last year I took my first ski lesson and it was fun, hard but fun.

Coming out of the bouncy castle maze all by herself!

The trip coincided with Valentine's day, which was fun to spend as a group. Joe and I had already exchanged gifts and we don't usually go out for dinner because of the long wait times at restaurants. Typically I cook a nice dinner at home, usually a recipe I have never tried before, and we enjoy at home. We did go out to eat as a group and Adrianna had the most adorable outfit on!

My sweet little Valentine

His aunt has friends that own a barn very close to Smuggs called LaJoie Stables, they run sleigh rides and horseback riding among other activities during the season and Adrianna was able to ride on a pony! 

She loved it!

We also got a chance to visit the Ben and Jerry's factory, for the thousandth time :) It is always a stop for us when we go to VT. It did not disappoint!

We just enjoyed ourselves to the fullest, and I mean fullest because Joe's aunt is a fantastic cook! ;) We look forward to next year when Adrianna will be old enough to get her first ski lesson!

19 months...

My big girl is going to be a BIG SISTER! I still can't believe how much she has changed in a few weeks. Today she said her first two word sentence "the bells" while we were at little gym. She is amazing. Her funniest moments, when I ask her to call daddy she screams JOE! It cracks me up every time. Joe tries to correct her but I think it's cute :) Tomorrow we go in for her weight check, hoping she has gained a few ounces because she has been eating up a storm lately. I never thought I would see the day she would ask for food, and I am so glad she does. After a trip to the ENT, they have decided to put tubes in her ears to help with all of her ear infections. Unfortunately Joe wont be here with me since he will be gone by then. Her surgery is on March 20th, they will have to put her under general anesthesia for the procedure but it will be a quick 15 minute surgery. I want to do what is best for her. I am still a little bit nervous but only about putting her under. I don't know that I will keep composure watching that. I know she will be ok though. 

Our slightly bumpy road to exciting news...

I found out on December 12th that I was pregnant! I was so happy, but had to keep the news to myself because Joe was out of town at the time. I noticed I was spotting a bit but I thought nothing of it since I did spot throughout my pregnancy with Adrianna. A few hours after discovering that we were expecting I knew something wasn't right. I just didn't feel right. My whole body was aching, as if I had the flu. The spotting turned a little bit heavier....now I was worried. I decided the next day I would go to the med clinic on base and get a blood test done. For whatever reason at this base in order for Tricare to jump start prenatal care you need to test positive for pregnancy at the med clinic first otherwise you cannot be seen by an OB. I went to the clinic and did my test and awaited the results. The next day I got a phone call stating that the test was negative. I had taken 2 tests that morning because I was still feeling sickly and achy so I wanted to be sure I was still pregnant. Those came back positive yet the blood test came back negative. It was very strange. The morning that I recieved the negative blood test I was still spotting. Later on that day I decided it was best to schedule an appointment to see my PCM because I was starting to get scared. If I were pregnant, I would only be about 5 weeks along at that point.....very early. My PCM examined me and had me do another blood test and also had me do a quantitative blood test (that is the kind that measures the levels of hCG in your blood, the kind they do in an OB office). Late that night, around 6pm or so I recieved a phone call from my PCM. PCM's never call you personally, that freaked me out. She told me that initially, the qualitative blood test (the one that just draws a positive or negative, much like a home pregnancy test) came back negative but when rechecked after 5 minutes it was positive. She asked me how I was feeling and I told her I felt like I had a severe flu. I was not feverish but my muscled ached. I did not have any cramping however so she couldn't tell me whether or not I was really miscarrying. The next morning we were due out to Colorado Springs for Joe's graduation ceremony. I woke up that morning knowing I was not pregnant anymore. I just felt it....as if something detached from within. Sure enough, I miscarried that morning....this is TMI but I just started what seemed to be a normal period. This was devastating to me, to us. I never thought it would happen to me, which is strange because I know how common it is especially so early in pregnancy. I told Joe, he comforted me and told me it was going to be ok. we headed off on our mini vacation, all the while I kept thinking "yep, I am currently miscarrying in an airport. Am I the only one here going through something like this? Why is this happening?" We ended up having a fantastic time out in Colorado. We met up with an old friend from WR who graciously let us stay in his home while he left to visit family and we also met up with a very good friend of mine from HS with whom we shared an afternoon full of good food and good beer. We had the holidays to look forward to, my distraction from my "issue." I didn't think I would be so sad, but I kept thinking about Adrianna and how I found out I was pregnant with her when I was only about 4 weeks along. Pregnancy is a miracle, it is difficult to wrap your head around how many bad things can happen and it is a wonder how most of the time a perfectly healthy child is the outcome. I was grateful and ready to move on. We decided we would try again after the holidays.

January 5th comes around, the date I am suppose to begin my cycle....no period. Pregnancy test, positive! We are expecting again! Oops, so much for "after the holidays" ;) I found out when I was about 4 weeks along....estimated due date of September 19th! We are just beaming with excitment! I cannot wait to experience all of this again and to hold my new baby in my arms. This makes me love Adrianna even more, I get to give her a sibling! She is just going to love being a big sister. We are talking about the baby a lot with her. I know she is still young and may not understand, but she understands more than we think she does. We have lots of baby dolls to practice on and as I grow bigger I hope she feels a bond with my belly. It will be so special to share pregnancy with her, and challenging as well. I hope she naps well in the afternoons because if I plan things correctly I will get a nap in as well! So it's official folks, we are expecting our second child!!!! Am I crazy enough to do this all again? It wasn't so bad..... :)

Ps. I had a much cuter way to announce our pregnancy planned out but we just couldn't wait much longer to share with everyone :)

Pre-deployment

Now don't freak out, Joe is getting deployed technically but it is within the US and partially overseas so it isn't so bad. But because he will be in deployment status come March, we had to do a pre-deployment meeting at the airman family readiness center. Now I know that this is going to be a fairly easy 4 month deployments only because I will know where he is and what he is doing the majority of the time and I will even get to visit him for extended periods of time. Why I can't go the full time I will explain in another post...but essentially I could have. We started off the meeting fine, in my mind I thought it was silly to be doing this because it wasn't like he was going to be overseas so the separation wasn't going to be emotional for me or hard for us. The minute the ssgt started to mention the empty seat at the dinne table and the lonely weekends I lost it....water works out of no where! I did not expect to cry at this meeting. We knew what to except with this "why are we even calling it a deployment" deployment. He volunteered, we have known of a while he was leaving. But today when the ssgt started speaking of all of the birthdays and anniversaries Joe would miss out on and how Adrianna may act out at first because she will sense the change (he says his 2 year old felt the change for a few weeks but then was fine) I couldn't help but cry. A deployment is a deployment no matter what or where. This is what I want to stress with this post. I hold a special place in my heart for my friends who have significant others or loved ones deployed overseas for months or even years, I really feel for them and can't imagine how they live their daily lives without breaking down. I admire them, really. But my husband will be missing out on four months of our family daily livings. He will miss our five year anniversary, our daughters 2nd birthday, and just hangin out on a Saturday morning taking a drive to new Hampshire just to explore. It is going to be hard. Not as hard as it could be but still hard. I get to visit sometime in April and right before he goes overseas which I am looking forward to doing. I plan on spending some time here at home with Adrianna, doing our daily routines. I have plenty of friends around that will keep me company so I am grateful. In may I may go to NY for a month or so and spend time with my family and with Joe's family which will be nice. I may find myself down in NY quite a few times, i am not one to feel lonely....I don't like it.

So here's hoping time flies without the hubby here and we can get back to our normal routines soon after he returns sometime late July. I'm thinking I am going to just keep myself busy in the mean time...