Starting to feel a little pregnant?!

For those of you who know me pretty well, you know that if you offered me any kind of junk food, I'd gladly accept it & snarf it down, whether or not I had a full stomach. Well, last night my stomach felt really full--I didn't even eat an entire 2 pieces of pizza at craft night (what is the world coming to?!)! I came home around 8:00pm & did not eat one single thing the rest of the night. I wasn't starving when I woke up this morning. I had a bowl of cereal & a slice of banana bread for breakfast, although it feels like I've eaten a bowling ball. There is one of my favorite kinds of ice cream sitting in the freezer, there is Easter candy in my cupboard. I have potato chips in another cabinet...not one single food item--either healthy or unhealthy--sounds appealing to me right now! I do not feel nauseated or sick when I think about food, but I just have absolutely no desire for anything. I'll force myself to eat (especially tonight at my parents' house to celebrate Bryn's birthday a little after the fact...don't want them to get suspicious!) for the baby's sake, but I am SO not hungry!

And how is this for sweet...a gal from church called this morning b/c she had heard from one of my friends at craft night that I am expecting again. She was calling to offer to let me borrow her maternity clothes so I could have some "new" clothes to wear (seeing how I was in my old ones a year ago right now!). I thought that was so very kind of her. I told her I will wait til after my ultrasound just to make sure things are really going o.k., but if they are, I will gladly take her up on her offer! She & I have never really talked much before, so that's why it was extra touching that she made such an effort to do something nice for me! (Not to mention she's got all the current stylish maternity clothes, unlike me, where I have clothes from 5 years ago, some of which are looking a tad outdated!) It's kind of nice because I've always loaned out my maternity clothes to my friends--it's so expensive to purchase maternity clothes when you really don't wear them for very long--so now someone else is returning the favor! Just had to share!

A plan for telling the family!

Well, I've decided to host a Mother's Day lunch at our house. By then I'll have had my ultrasound & hopefully that will show a growing baby so we can proceed with telling the news. I came up with the latter half of a poem in my mind while I was taking a shower this morning (my only few moments of peace away from the kids...if I'm lucky!). So I then had to figure out how I was going to start the darn thing. I am in a hurry because there's a ladies craft night at church tonight & I want to be able to do the finishing touches there. I did manage to come up with a cheesy poem which I will share with you & you can laugh at it!!:) I printed out enough copies for my family & I plan to cut them out (the poems, not my family) & place them on some cardstock & stamp the edges in a flowery mother's day design or something. (Basically I'm just winging it, as always!) Here's the poem, and as an extra note, when you read about Samuel & Summer, those are my brother's kids!

On Mother's Day
We take time to remember,
How our mothers have been there for us,
In any kind of weather

The meals, the clothes,
The love & care,
Mothers can do it all,
Even more than their share.

And on this day,
We as mothers think of our children, too
The special gifts,
From God to you.

Samuel, Nathan
Megan & Summer,
Joshua...and surprise!
There's one other!

It wasn't planned or expected,
It really shouldn't be,
But God decided to bless us
With a special gift under the Christmas tree.

Baby Jones is due 12/25/06

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Thursday, April 27

This is way too early to probably even say it with confidence, but I'm pretty sure we're having another boy! I'm basing my reasoning on the fact that with all my boy pregnancies, I've never had a real craving...it's life as usual, eating salty, sweet, etc. With Megan, before I even knew I was pregnant, I had a craving for cucumbers dipped in Italian dressing. I can't stand cucumbers! And later in that pregnancy I craved wild rice as well, another food I typically am not too fond of. Truth be told, I kind of would like another girl, just to even things out & so that Megan could have a sister...but little boys are awesome too, so I will be thrilled no matter what! Bryn's brother says if we have just one more, we could have our own hockey team! Hmmmm...just kidding, we're DONE after this one!!!:)

Funny how every time you learn you're expecting a baby, it's exciting & you are so happy...yet the other kids somehow seem to just KNOW there's something going on & they act up & are all ornery & make you wonder what you've gotten yourself into by adding one more member to the family! Joshua is FINALLY starting to teethe--he's over 9 months old & not a single pearly white showing up yet--so he's been really crabby lately & not sleeping as well. Megan's doing pretty well--we're in the midst of potty training (we call it "M&M Time" which is so much more appealing to her than "do you want to sit on the potty?"--she gets an M&M just for sitting down & trying to go) & she is really getting the hang of it! And Nathan sways between being my sweet little guy & Mr. Mini-Teenager with an attitude. But I love them all, in spite of the difficulties at times!

Wednesday, April 26

Finally heard back from the doctor's office & I now have an ultrasound set up for May 11th so that we can date the pregnancy. It's at 8:45am & then I meet with my OB at 9:15. Looking forward to it!:)

Tuesday, April 25th

Hurray for growing pains! I have officially begun to feel some stretching going on in my lower right abdomen. Why it's predominately on my right side with each pregnancy is beyond me, but I am thrilled to be feeling it! For now it gives me comfort that at this exact moment, my little one is just fine & growing away!

I also stumbled across my pregnancy journal from my last 2 pregnancies & I was happy to see that shortly after learning I was pregnant with Josh, that I had written, "I really don't feel pregnant." Cuz that's how I feel right now--I keep checking the pregnancy test (yes, I kept it!) to make sure it really does have 2 lines on it. I am never one of those people who takes a million pregnancy tests--once it shows a positive, I know it means I'm pregnant. But I have a hard time truly believing I'm pregnant half the time, so I keep the test for a while to "double check!"

I am pretty sure I'm catching a cold, which is a bummer. I don't care so much if I get sick, but I never look forward to all the kids getting sick!

Tomorrow is Bryn's birthday & the kids & I will be baking a cake & decorating the house for his arrival home from work. When he gets up tomorrow morning he'll find 2 mylar balloons tied to his chair (I had to get 2 so each of the older ones could have one), one that really is a birthday balloon & the other is a Tigger & Pooh balloon...I probably should've gotten 2 of the same design. Nathan & I also picked out a special donut to surprise Daddy with. We had a blast going to different stores & purchasing a few things to celebrate the day tomorrow!

Off to bed for now!

Saturday, April 22

I'm thinking I'll have to give my OB a call this week. It's driving me nuts not knowing how far along I am. I really hope they'll suggest I come in for an ultrasound in a couple of weeks so we can date this pregnancy & I can have some solid dates in my mind. I also want to make sure it's o.k. for me to keep nursing Joshua. I would assume it is--I haven't ever had a high-risk pregnancy--but better safe than sorry.

Don't feel the least bit pregnant yet. DH claims he knew all along...because there were 3 nights where I fell asleep right away. Wow, he's good cuz even I didn't catch on to that!;) He must've had some sort of feeling about it though because I'm the one who is still feeling shocked & it didn't seem to faze him at all!

I've told a lot of people about our newest pregnancy. So far they all smile & say congrats...and then mention how busy I'll be, as if I hadn't already thought about that. Hopefully the pregnancy works out because I'll have a lot of people to "untell" if it ends in miscarriage. The people who so far don't know are mostly family members. I have a feeling I'm going to get a less than enthusiastic response from some people, but oh well, I can't do anything about how they respond. For now I'm still working on a unique way to share the news, but will try to refrain from saying anything until I hit the 12 week mark & have heard the heartbeat.

Here we go again!

Found out this morning that we're expecting baby #4! This wasn't exactly "planned," but we'll take what God gives us!

We'd been discussing possibly having another baby, but not starting to try for one until this fall. Since I'm currently nursing our almost-9-month-old baby, I guess it threw my cycle off a bit which is how we ended up getting pregnant at a time I thought was safe.

I'm still waiting for things to fully sink in. As far as I can figure, this is going to be a Christmas baby. And when he/she is born, I'll have 4 children ages 5 & under. Wow. Life is going to be hectic!

Right now I do not feel the least bit pregnant. With my other kids, I always was very tired in the evenings. Maybe these days I just don't have time to be tired. In fact, I've had some insomnia going on, which seems really weird to me!

I'm hoping & praying that this pregnancy works out. I've had one loss in the past at 12 weeks & until I pass that milestone & hear the heartbeat, I have a hard time relaxing & enjoying things.