16 weeks came and went

16 weeks pregnant! Well, that's what it looked like at 16 weeks. I am 18 weeks tomorrow, so a little behind the times in posting. Feeling great though, and feeling the baby move more and more. I remembet this being such a scary time with Brooklyn, because it's normal to not feel him/her move for a day or so...but that is terrifying at the same time!

More pics and updates on what's been going on with us to come.

Sunny Weekend

We have been in desperate need of some SUN around here. So when we found out the forecast was going to be fantastic we decided to spend the whole weekend outside!

Friday night we had a great dinner with wonderful friends and then Saturday morning started off with a bang, pancakes and play time on the patio. I actually showered and blew dry my hair for the first time in... well a long time. So the day was off to a great start ;)

Then we headed over to my parents and went as a group down to old town sherwood for 'cruisin sherwood' the classic car show. There were blocks of old cars, booths, food and activities for kiddos. It was great people watching and a lot of fun to just meander in the sun. It was a great time. B did great in her stroller, she was totally content to just chill and take in the sights.

Then we came home for a nice long nap (yes, Brooklyn and myself) and then went to a 1st birthday party for Brooklyn's friend Ruby. Brooklyn has been on birthday overload. It started with the numerous celebrations for her dear tee-tee Bethany. She started thinking birthday's rock because where there is the birthday song, cake soon follows. Brooklyn loves to sing happy birthday. It's so precious, she'll start off "happy birthday to you" then it just turns to "happy to you, happy to you" and then says the persons name. Adorable. She seriously LOVES cake. She doesn't process sugar very well, so she doesn't get it very often, but when she does she fully freaks out she gets so excited.

Fantastic weekend with the two loves of my life and lot's of friends and family. I am a very blessed mama.

Dr Appt

Went to the dr this morning. Good news is baby is safe and sound! PTL! He/she was in there having a dance party :) Most precious sight in the world.

She did a comprehensive scan to make sure to find any tears of heavy bleeds near or in the placenta and couldn't find any. All looked great. However, my placenta is laying a little low (which is not uncommon this early- they generally don't rise up and away from the opening of the cervix until closer to 18-20 weeks) but the dr thought that I may have broken some capillaries while moving this weekend or perhaps it's just an old bleed from something else a while back. It really doesn't matter at this point, there's nothing they could do anyhow. Dr's orders were to take it easy, rest as much as possible and abstain from lifting or straining. The only problem is my tiny 25lb companion that needs to be lifted and held :) Thankfully she is awfully self sufficient these days!

Thank you all so much for the prayers, texts, visits and Meg's a special shout out to you for helping me out with B this morning. Love each and every one of you so much!

xoxo
Lauren and BF #2

Baby Scare

After a long weekend of packing/moving/un-packing, we woke up on Monday ready to get organizing. Our day was thrown into a complete tailspin. I was bleeding a very fair amount upon waking. I remained surprisingly calm, called the dr office and tried to figure out what to do. I swear, in all my histroy of pregnancies and scares during pregnancy I ALWAYS have the scariest days on holiday's or the weekend. That's how we ended up with a $350 ER bill when I was pregnant with Brooklyn.

Anyhow, went to the urgent care and waited for 2 hours with my very nervous husband. When we first arrived the check in nurse said that the clinic did not have and ultrasound machine, but they would listen for baby's heart beat on the doppler. When the dr finally came in she knew nothing! That was the most infuriating part. She was not a day over 25 and said she didn't even know why they told me to come to the clinic as there is nothing they can do for me. I finally burst into tears and explained what the nurse had said and she left the room to figure out if they did in fact at least have a doppler laying around somewhere.

She came back in with a nurse and the world's oldest doppler. They squeezed the gel on my uterus and then the doppler wouldn't turn on. The nurse said "uggh, I just had it working, I'll be right back". So, out she went, and then back in. The machine turned on and then turned right back off. Seriously, that's how old and decrepit this thing was! She popped the batteries out, gave it a good shake and it turned on. Would have thought we were struggling to change the channel with the remote. So, she listened, and listened and listened. I know the sound of a heart beat and the difference between that and the sound of blood flow. All I heard was my hb and blood flow. At this point tears are streaming down my cheeks as I lay there silently praying. Finally she stops and I said "what?" and the nurse said "yep, that was the baby's hb, your baby's still alive". RELIEF!

So, then we went through the myriad of questions and answers with the dr. I told her the only other bizarre symptom I have been having is that I woke up with what felt like a migraine. She then offered me a shot of morphine or a prescription of vicodin. At this point I am spent, emotionally and physically. I graciously declined the morphine and said I would try another Tylenol.

So, today I am waiting to hear back from my dr office to find out what they want me to do. I had a partial placental tear with miss Brooklyn when she was 12 weeks and I am thinking that may be the case this time. BUT I am not a dr or God, so I am speculating at this point. I am terrified they are going to put me on modified bed rest again...because I don't see how that would be possible.

The bleeding has slowed considerably, but still have the tiniest bit of spotting. So please pray with me for this little life as well as my physical healthy. I will update more later.

We don't wonder "why us?" anymore when incidents like this happen, we choose to view it as an opportunity to draw near to the Lord and rest in His wisdom and powerful hands. Everything happens for a reason, and we must trust that His ways are always better than ours.

Life's a Ball when you're a toddler

Brooklyn is becoming more fun every day. With that of course comes the challenges of her developing opinions,throwing tantrums and all around challenging authority. Overall, we have an amazing time together on a daily basis. We went to a "princess" themed birthday part last weekend where she had a blast playing with the bigger girls. She LOVED the cupcakes. When we got home she was on a complete sugar high chasing Hurley around in circles. Poor guy was not amused :)



Here she is being a goof ball in her princess dress, which she LOVED.

She is starting to love the girly girl things. She is completely and utterly obsessed with her babies. My nickname for her when she has all 10 of them out is Nadia Souleman or Octomom. She wraps them all up and then lines them up on the couch and feeds them their "baby bottles" or picks them up and hushes them while bouncing them up and down. It is hysterical.

A few weeks ago we went to open gym at a gymnastics academy with Kristin and Kali. The girls LOVED this place. She had a blast on the long trampoline. I see some expensive gymnastics/dance classes in our very near future. Better start watering the money tree.

I am posting this to satisfy curiosity. Most people when they hear about my MTHFR clotting condition are curious what the regime is for keeping this baby healthy and growing. I simply give myself a daily injection of blood thinner called lovenox.


Amazing to think this little needle filled with medicine is the "magic formula" that allows me to keep a pregnancy. It still blows my mind. So, each night I take one of these bad boys out, find an un-bruised section of my abdomen and inject.
I am 13 weeks today, and here is my little belly. This is how you look when you are pregnant at 13 weeks for the 6th time. I am NOT complaining, I am just clarifying that most people would not show this much this early (even with their second).
I am just so very grateful for this little babe.

There is a WHOLE lot going on in our lives right now. We are moving this coming weekend. In addition to this big change, Hurley is being picked up on Thursday to go live with a wonderful family. We agonized over this decision for months on end. Ultimately we realized that as difficult as it would be for me (since caring for him primarily falls on me) to have him at this town house with no yard, it's not fair to him either. We are going to have a baby and toddler soon, Matt is going to be back in school full time and without a yard to at least let him go wander in it was going to be a daily grind. I don't want that, and I don't want that for him. So, I have been crying for the past few days because I am going to miss him terribly. Brooklyn is going to miss him so much. She loves her "bubba dog". The family he is going to has two kids, ages 10 and 3, the husband works from home 3 days a week and they live on a 1/3 of an acre. He is going to be in heaven once he's adjusted. Here's the "God" part of it. When I was asking them all of my questions, one of my main ones was "what kind of dog were you guys looking to get" because they had been talking about a dog for years, but the husband just hadn't been on board. The only kind of dog they really, really wanted was, yup, a chocolate lab. Tear. The husband said to me "so when Jen (the wife) called me and said there was a chocolate lab that needs to be adopted, I said "when God calls do you take a message" ". Meaning, he knew it was God's way of saying, take him, he's meant to be with you. I loved and appreciated that.

12 week dr appointment

As most of you know, yesterday was our big 12 week ultrasound appointment to look more closely at baby. I am so appreciative for all your prayers over the last several weeks. I have truly felt peaceful, but there have been those moments where fear grips me, and the doubts creep in. I pray, get myself together, and think about how God has brought me through the "worst" before, and He and He alone could do it again.

Anyhow, the appointment went fantastic. Baby's heart rate was a strong 167 bpm, he/she is measuring about 5 days ahead, and the nuchal fold (the fluid behind the baby's neck) was measuring right in the normal range. There are many things such as the nuchal fold and nasal bone that can indicate a problem with the baby (we are far more educated on these matters than we would like to be) so "normal" is music to our ears. The baby was in there dancing around just like miss Brooklyn was at 12 weeks. What a beautiful sight.

Next appointment is in 4 weeks! Time is already flying by. Yikes.