Horsefly or Deer Fly Bite! Ouch!!

After Little Man woke up from his nap yesterday, I got him sunscreened and suited up to go hang out at our friend's pool!  We got there, set our stuff down...my friends were inside putting up groceries and told us to just go on in!

I put on Little Man's hat and puddle jumper so he was ready and stood him on the side of the pool.  I climbed down the ladder, and as I was reaching to get Little Man, I felt a big pinch on my stomach!  I thought it wasn't too bad, and went ahead and pulled him in the pool.  As my arm touched the water, I felt more stings and they KILLED!  I screamed and screamed.  I scared Little Man so bad that he started crying and screaming.  I set him out of the pool and yelled for the people inside the house.  No one heard my blood-curdling screams, so I jumped out, and walked up their back porch steps with Little Man in tow.  The teenage daughter cam outside, and I told her to "Get it off of me!!" as I held up my arm.  She didn't see anything at first, but then swatted something down.  I took Winston inside their house where the mother was, and I tried not to break down.  I was so scared that I was going to be allergic and that whatever stung me was going to hurt my baby!  Well the stinging died down, we went back outside, sat on the porch and tried to calm down Little Man.  The mom looked at the bug and thought it was some kind of bee, and the dad thought it might be a baby horsefly.  I still don't really know.

Anyway, I calmed down and took Little Man back out to the pool.  I took him in the water but he just cried and cried :(  He wanted to get out and wanted to sit in the chair.  He didn't want me in the water either, he told me "Up! Up!"  Well I got back in while he was sitting in the chair and started splashing around.  He was laughing really hard, so I asked if he wanted to get back in the water, to which he politely replied, "No!"  

We left a few minutes later.  I hope I haven't scarred him for life.  I really hope he wants to get back in their pool the next time we go!

I think I will be okay.  My bites have gotten a lot bigger.  I have one on my stomach, 9 on my underarm, and two on my hand.  I'm posting pictures for your amusement and opinions!

I called my OB today, and I am waiting for a return call to see what they want me to do.  We'll see!

I haven't really started taking belly pictures during this pregnancy yet, so since I had the camera out...

We find out boy or girl a week from tomorrow!! I probably won't be posting about it until the next week after we've had a chance to tell all of our family!  

Happy Wednesday! :)

21 month update!

21 month update

In just 3 months, Little Man will be 2 years old!! I can't believe it!  I guess I need to start party planning.  I'm thinking either a train themed party or bulldozer/truck themed party.  We'll see!

Life with Little Man has been so much fun lately.  He is so loving and affectionate, and offers big, wide-open-armed hugs and kisses to everyone.  A couple weeks ago, I ran into one of my friends in the mall.  The husband was pushing their daughter, who is just one month younger than Little Man, in a stroller.  I told Little Man to go give her a hug!  Not only did they have a huge embrace, but they kissed each other on the lips about 5 times before the husband said, "Okay, break it up you two!"

He loves to point to my stomach and say "baby!"  The only problem with that is he thinks everyone's tummy is a baby now.  

The other day we were playing around on the bed with him, and he came over and lifted my shirt and said, "Baby!"  Then he went over to hubby's tummy, lifted his shirt, and said, "Big Baby!"  It was hilarious!

He loves to help say the blessing, and the one he has learned at school is "A-B-C-D-E-F-G, Thank you God for feeding me.  Amen!"

He can answer yes or no questions really well.

"Have you been a good boy today?"  "Yeah!"  (He usually accompanies this with a head nod and sometimes says adds good boy!"

"Let's go change your dipe dipe."  "No!" (which is usually said as a question and smile)

His favorite book right now is called, "If You're Happy and You Know It!"  He loves to clap his hands, stomp his feet, flap his arms, go "kiss kiss," and do whatever else the book asks him to do.

He likes to help me put on my shoes, and he still loves to wear his.  

One of my favorite things to see is when his Daddy is giving me a kiss or a hug.  Little Man comes right over and either hits me or Daddy.  He gets so angry!  He thinks all the attention should be directed at him, and we shouldn't be kissing or hugging each other!

Other times when he gets mad, he hits whatever is around him: the wall, the refrigerator, the floor.  Sometimes he will just sit down in the floor and throw a little tantrum.  They never last longer than a few seconds because I usually just walk away from him when he's doing it.  I don't want him to see me laughing!

He can identify a stop sign, and loves to stay the word stop...which sounds more like dop!

He speaks so well now!  He can pretty much say anything we say in complete sentences.  He loves his truck book and can identify the bulldozer, backhoe, tractor, and hummer in it.  

The other day we went to the yard of a house that is about to be torn down.  There were two machines in the front yard.  Little Man pointed at one, nodded his head, and said, "Bulldozer!"  I said, "Good Boy."  My sister was holding him and told me she thought he just said, "Bye Coco."  So I asked him what he said, and he was actually identifying the other machine, "Backhoe!"  Too smart!

Some of his other favorite words are bubbles, bumblebee (he loves the bumblebee song!), alligator, helicopter, airplane, truck, big truck, sun, horse (he makes a great horse sound!), juice, skunk...to which he says, "Shoo!" and many others...

He also says, "Scoos Me!" when he toots.  It is hilarious!  I think sometimes he does it just so he can say, "Scoos me!"

Before I put him to bed at night, one of his favorite things to do is hide our heads under his blanket today.  We put the blanket over our heads and he gives me kisses and laughs and says, "Hey!"

He is still sleeping great.  He still sleeps in his crib, and goes down around 7:30, and wakes up around 8.  He is in his crib from 1-4 everyday for naptime, and is usually asleep for about 2 1/2 hours of that time.  He loves to play in his crib when he wakes up, and sometimes won't let me get him out when I go in to get him!

He gets more amazing everyday, and I can't wait to find out if he will be having a little brother or little sister!  We find out in two weeks on July 7th!!

Hope everyone in blog world is doing well!  We just got a new treadmill, and I am going to start trying to do at least 30 minutes a day because it is way too hot to walk outside!  We'll see how that goes!

Happy Wednesday!!

Monday Message: Living is Christ, Dying is Gain!

 Philippians 1:21-26 (NRSV)

"For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain.  If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which I prefer.  I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better; but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you.  Since I am convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy in faith, so that I may share abundantly in your boasting in Christ Jesus when I come to you again."

Wherever we are and whatever we are doing, we should be living for Christ!  In death, we will be with Him eternally and we owe our lives to Him.  It is in Christ that I find peace.  Whenever I make a conscious effort to remember His presence in my life throughout the day, my day is better for it.  I wish it were easier to do, and I will strive to do this every moment that I live!

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Hope you have a wonderful week!  Little Man has an allergist appointment in the morning.  I am hoping to convince the doctor to check him for his peanut allergy again...I pray that he has already outgrown it, or does so before the age of 2!! (There's a much less chance of outgrowing the peanut allergy after 2).

A Peek at the Baby!

 My uncle let us go to his practice in Greenville today for an early peek at the gender.  There was a girl in the waiting room who was only 12 1/2 weeks pregnant with identical twins, and they were able to tell her she was having boys...so I had lots of hope that we would find out the gender.

Unfortunately, after lots of careful looking, the ultrasound tech couldn't say for sure... she kept thinking girl, and then would say, "Wait." And then it was "I don't know."  She said if she was pushed to guess today, she would lean towards "Girl," but that's really just a guess.

We were sent home so happy though after seeing the healthy heartbeat and with lots of pictures to keep!

If you have any experience and want to venture a guess, here are the "toilet poses" as they are called.  It means you are looking up at the baby's butt as if they were sitting on the toilet.

We find out for sure on July 7th! (5 weeks away!)

Oh and if you aren't a follower of my friend Heather at It's the World I Know, go check her out and join in on the OPI Swap!  Sign up ends tonight at midnight...so hurry up! :)

Hope everyone has a great weekend.  I'm off to my cousin's wedding tomorrow.  Can't wait to see some of my sisters and other extended family!!

A Big Thank You and Some Good News!

Thank you so much for all of your wonderful comments yesterday.  I truly appreciate you sharing with me and supporting me.

To continue the story...after my first round of Clomid, we successfully became pregnant!  I have since had many doctor's appointments and two ultrasounds.  We heard the heartbeat at our appointment this morning, and it is the most beautiful sound!!

This is the shirt Little Man got to wear last week!

Today, I am 12 weeks and 6 days pregnant.  We are so excited and putting all of our trust in God for a healthy pregnancy!!  Thank you again for all of your prayers and support!

Sharing My Story: Read at Your Own Risk!

Over the past few months, I've been through a lot.  I have thought about putting it on my blog, but just wasn't ready to do so yet, but I am now!

My life is usually an open book, and I will pretty much answer any question that anyone asks me.  Many family members and even my husband says that I tell people too much, but I think that anything I say could be helping someone out, and I try not to offend anyone by saying too much about certain topics.

But one thing I have been thinking about lately is that when little girls are growing up, most of us want the life of a fairy princess.  We have our whole life planned out...to marry our prince at whatever age we choose (mine was 22), to have a certain amount of kids by a certain age (mine was to have 4 by 30), and to live happily ever after (well that could still happen!)

Well here I am...I married at 24, had my first son at 27 (yes...I still want 4!), and I'm now 29.  My timeline definitely didn't work out the way I had planned.  I know that we can all learn the life lesson at some point in our lives...that the truth is no one's life is a fairy tale come true.  I do think it's important to allow girls to have hopes and dreams, but we should also be told of the reality of some situations.  God's plan is going to overrule our plan, and he will work ALL things together for good, according to HIS purpose.  I just always thought that our plans would be the same! :)

When I realized that I was not going to be married by 22, I was completely fine with it!  I graduated college telling God that I would be perfectly happy being single for the rest of my life and to please guard my heart from any emotions that could lead to an unhealthy relationship.  I guess that's when God realized I was ready to meet my husband... I met him the summer after I graduated, but that's another story!  We did marry two years later in 2006, when I was 24.

In my original timeline, I probably should have started having kids when I turned 24 if I wanted 4 before I was 30!  But I was completely fine waiting.  I wanted to spend time with my husband...just us!  So that's what we did.  We did talk about when we wanted to start our family, and we said we would get pregnant in May of 2008 and have a February baby.  Many things happened that month.  My sister-in-law suffered the devastating loss of her baby Luke when she was 7 months pregnant...on Mother's Day.  We had just started trying, and it hit us hard.  We realized that our timeline might not work out the way we wanted it too.  We decided to continue trying for a baby, but knew that it might take more than one month.  We did not know it would take us 7 months.  When we were going through the "motions," it seemed like 7 months was an eternity to conceive!! But now it seems like no time at all.  I have so many friends and family that have either taken much longer than 7 months, or realized that they might not be able to conceive their own child.  So 7 months was nothing!

When our blessing did arrive, we of course went through our ups and downs, but I knew I still wanted more and I wanted them to be close in age.  My sister's second daughter was born two months after my son and hers are 17 months apart.  That sounded good to me!  Well, right before my son's first birthday, my husband and I discussed having a second, and we decided we would start trying in November of 2010.  This would put our kids almost 2 years apart...if we were luckier than the last time.  Little did I know, during that discussion, we were already pregnant.  I took a test the day my son turned 1, and it was positive.  My estimated due date was May 30, 2011.  We were very surprised but excited that it happened spontaneously and without really trying.  We bought our son a shirt that said, "Shhh...I have a secret" on the front, and "I'm going to be a big brother!" on the back.  We decided we would tell our families around 8 1/2 weeks because we were going to see them all that weekend.  Our families were excited for us.  When I was 9 weeks, 1 day, my husband, Little Man, and I went in for our first ultrasound to figure out the true due date.  Unfortunately, we learned that our sweet baby had stopped growing at 8 weeks and no longer had a heartbeat.  We were heartbroken.  I had already started a second blog for that pregnancy.  I am making it public today, and if you are interested in more details of that pregnancy and that story, you are welcome to read it here.

The doctor's wanted us to wait at least one cycle before trying to conceive again, and by this time, we were both ready to hold a baby in our arms.  So we waited and found out we were pregnant again in early January.  About a week later, I miscarried again.  I couldn't believe that it would happen again...two in a row.  Again, we were told to wait one more cycle and that they would run some tests on me during that time.  We discovered that I "probably" have a luteal phase defect, and that my progesterone was normal, but on the low side of normal.  My doctor told me that we could take an aggressive approach and start Clomid on my next cycle at the end of February.  He said the Clomid would help me ovulate earlier and help boost my progesterone to help sustain the pregnancy.  He also said there is an 8% increase in risk of multiples, and that it could still take a few months for me to get pregnant again.

Well, we were now walking around on pins and needles, but we felt as though we were taking the right steps to adding a beautiful new blessing to our family.

Throughout the whole process, I was surrounded by the love and support of many women who had similar experiences.  I realized that God wasn't causing any of my misfortunes and heartache, that instead he was crying with me and holding me while I cried and didn't understand.  I also realized that I should be thankful in every situation.  My situation seemed like the worst thing to me, but it wasn't and it isn't, and it never will be the worst thing.  We all have our own separate heartaches and trials that we face, but we can help each other through those by talking about what we have been through and offer support to those who need it.

I was mad.  I cried.  I didn't understand.  I hated it.  But God was with me through it all...showing up through the loving hugs, words, faces, and relationships of those he put in my life at the perfect time.

I don't think I will ever look at "the bad things" the same again.  I will choose to look at my blessings instead, and use "the bad things" to grow stronger and help others!

If you are still reading...thanks for listening to my story.  If there is anything I can ever do to help you, my life is an open book, and I will gladly answer any questions or just listen.

Email:  mamasmessages@gmail.com

I love all of my faithful followers, friends, and family!  Thanks for your support and love!

20 month update!

 20 month update

• I feel like Little Man has grown SO much in the past two months.  He is so big and smart, and I love spending every day with him!
• He now counts to 10!! (He leaves out four and seven a lot, but still...such an accomplishment!)
• He can sing all of the song, "Row Row Row Your Boat!"  My favorite part is when he gets to "merrily."  He gets so high and sounds hilarious!  Sometimes I will turn on the monitor in the morning and he is singing it to himself in bed.  So sweet!
• He still loves to read books and have us read to him.  He just climbs up in my lap (or anyone's lap who is around), hands me the book, and we read.
• He still loves to take baths!
• He loves to wear his shoes, and will sometimes go get different pairs out of his closet and want to wear two different types of shoes.  He also likes to try on mine when they are laying around the house.

• He is still very sociable and says "Hey!" to everyone.  He gives the best hugs and kisses.  We will be sitting somewhere and tell him we need a hug or kiss, and he runs over and says, "Hug!!" with his arms open wide.
• He likes to dance to any music he hears, and looks so funny doing it!
• He loves to push anything and everything...chairs, ottomans, toys, trucks, whatever!
• He really laughs when I act like I am going to fall asleep in his crib, or when I'm clapping and I "accidentally" hit my own face instead of clapping my hands together.  He says, "Ow!" and laughs hysterically.
• He still loves anyone's cell phone.  He walks around with them up to his ear and says, "Heh-yo" and walks around talking gibberish.  Sometimes he'll even throw back his head and fake laugh.
• He loves to brush his teeth.
• He loves to play outside, and he says the word "oot-side" :)
• He is the most wonderful thing in the whole wide world and I love watching him grow and learn!!
• He says a lot of words now...too many to list, but some of his favorites are:
• ootside=outside
  book
  upstairs
  ball
  doggie (sometimes sounds like cookie)
  cracker
  nana=banana
  chuch=church
  bug
  airplane (usually leaves out the "r")
  
  
• He will say "mo-nin" if you say "Good morning" to him.  When he sees me through a mirror, he will say, "I see you!"  He says, "Bye Bye" or "See ya!" 
• He likes to wave and say "bye bye" when he wants me to go away from what he is doing, or when he's about to try to escape from me!
• He loves trucks and points every truck out when we are on the road.  He will say, "big truck" when we see an 18-wheeler.
• He likes to give high fives and say "Yah!" and fist pumps and says "Doo!"
• He still loves to drink his milk and his eating habits vary.  But we can usually count on bologna, chicken nuggets, and some fruits and veggies.  He always drinks his milk!
• He sleeps around 11-13 hours a night, and takes a 2 1/2-3 hour nap every afternoon!
• He just got two new bottom teeth, so he's at 14!

Happy 20 months Little Man! We are so amazed and proud of all that you can do and how much joy and love you bring us every second of the day!!