34 weeks

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I figured it was time for another update; it's been too long. I had a huge mental list of all the things I was going to write about, but now as I sit down with the computer, all the thoughts drain out of me! Hopefully once I start writing, things will just "come" to me...

I suppose I can start writing about the baby. I'm now in the middle of my 34th week... which basically means that I'm 2 1/2 weeks away from being 'full term' and I have some 40-odd days until my 'due date.' Did you know only 2-5% of babies are born on their due date? So I keep telling myself that I have approximately two more weeks to go than I do because I know a lot of first time moms go over their due date by as much as two weeks. The baby will come when s/he is good and ready, right? :]

At my last appointment, my midwife gave me a new prescription for some anti-nausea medication to try. We figured that maybe it would help for me to take it consistently rather than just taking it when I thought I needed it [I was just trying to conserve what I had leftover from what I was given in Kenya!]. She gave me a prescription for 90 pills to test it out, but when I got to the Target pharmacy, they informed me that my insurance would only let me have 20 at a time. They said I would have to come back every three days or so to refill. Okay, I can deal with that. So when I went back in a few days later to refill the medication, they told me that apparently I could only have 20 pills every 30 days, per my insurance. My insurance had to send in some paperwork to be filled out by my midwife... which was filled out and faxed to them over a week ago. And here I am, still without the medication and as nauseous as ever! The pharmacist gave me 8 pills to 'tide me over until we got it figured out' last week... I think they felt bad for me... but when you have to take the medication every 4 hours, 8 pills doesn't last very long! I'm hoping and praying that they will get it all figured out soon. It didn't necessarily take away the nausea completely for me, but it at least took the edge off of it for me so that it was more tolerable.

I started feeling Braxtion Hicks contrations last week, too! I was SO curious about "what they felt like" and wondered if I would know when I was having one... well, my curiosity has been fulfilled and they can definitely just go away now! I guess it's good that my body is preparing itself for the 'real deal' but these have not been fun, especially with the back pain I've been having lately... in all honesty, I've never had pain like this in my back before! Rolling over in bed or even being touched made me cry. I like to think that I have somewhat of a high tolerance for pain, so this was really freaking me out... I could barely 'go' [in bathroom terms] because my back just ached so bad. How was I gonna push a baby out?! Thankfully, the pain started decreasing last night... and it's not as bad now as it was earlier this week, but it's definitely still there and I'm a little slow goin'.

I have an appointment today with my midwife... I'll probably post a short update again after that :] But for now... here's the most recent belly picture! I think it has even popped a little bit more since this picture was taken last week.

[33w2d]

Jake has been absolutely fantastic with taking care of me... he's so helpful, and I'm so thankful to have him! He is very encouraging and supportive and I appreciate him so much.

I had my 24th birthday on Sunday. It was a decent day, besides not feeling well. We slept in... didn't go to church because I wasn't feeling well... I went dress shopping for my brother in law's wedding in June, stopped at the library and found some books to read, went to Dunn Bro's coffee and got a Vanilla Iced Nirvana [my new favorite coffee!!], watched a movie, and went to Applebee's in the evening with Jake, Andy and Katie for 1/2 priced appetizers. It was a relaxing day and we didn't really "do" anything, but that was definitely okay with me. I like low-key things anyways.

This year we aren't traveling anywhere far for Christmas... we're spending Christmas Eve with my parents and then Christmas day at my grandparent's house. We also plan to go visit Joe, Jake's dad, who is in a rehab center recovering from a surgery that he had a few weeks ago. He's doing well, but I'm sure he is beyond bored!

During the not-so-often occasions when I've been feeling well enough, between the back pain, contractions and nausea, I've been trying to do some Christmas baking... so far I've managed to finish a big batch of Oreo truffles, oreo cookies dipped in chocolate, peanut butter cups, and some fudge... except the fudge hasn't really hardened yet, so I'm afraid it's beyond repair. I think I'm going to see if I can 'fix' it somehow...

I'm not really sure what else to write about... we have definitely been staying busy, though. I'll update again later after my appointment, or sometime this week.

SNOW // baby blanket project

I spent the day at my grandma's house yesterday. She made me, as well as the other 'older' cousins, a blanket for my high school graduation in 2005... and I decided that I wanted to make one like it for our little one who will be joining us sometime in the near future. These are the 5 different flannel fabrics I started out with:

Since I hadn't ever made this kind of blanket before, I wasn't really sure on what colors to get... I thought I had a pretty colorful bunch, but I know for next time that I should probably pick more solids. At least I got my favorite colors: teal, green and brown! I wasn't expecting to see the patterns of the fabric but I figured more of the color would show through. Oh well, I still absolutely love the finished product! I think it took about 5 hours to complete. The blanket is 38" x 40", and it's not the most 'square' thing you'd ever see [two sides are a little lopsided], but it's hard because the fabric stretches and when you sew diagonally, things just get stretched out of place. But anyways, here's a few pictures!

I'm pretty proud of it. I think it looks really good, but maybe I'm biased. :] It does need to be washed a few more times so that it unravels a bit more and gives it a better 'chenille' look, but it's super soft and cuddly now... and smells delicious. I can't wait until I have a little baby to wrap up inside of it!

We got dumped on today with a bunch of snow... this is what I woke up to this morning:

It's pretty, it's fun to play in... but then dogs pee in it, and it gets muddy and slushy, and you have to scrape it off your car, and you have to drive in it , and you get lakes in your shoes from the melted stuff... so, it's not the most fun thing. I don't mind it... until I have to do something in it that doesn't involve making and throwing white balls, sticking carrots into it or sliding around on it on some mechanical contraption.

Oh well; today was a good day to make a pumpkin cheesecake and to throw a roast into the crock pot... the roast is currently starting to fall apart in all of it's juicy glory. Mmm.

Between that, some garlic red mashed potatoes and an oriental salad... I think we'll be having a feast tonight. Top it off with some of the pumpkin cheesecake, a squirt of whipped cream and some caramel drizzled on top... I think I might have to post a photo of the finished product later.

I think it's time to cuddle on the couch with MY blanket [made with love by grandma] with something warm to drink...

27 Weeks.

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It's been just over three weeks since we returned to the States. Re-adjusting seems to be going well. There are things here and there that make us miss Kenya so much, but there are also things that we are enjoying about being home. We don't regret our decision to leave early, but it was a very hard one.

Jake is doing well with work at the Dubbe's. The Dubbe's are a great family to work with/for, and Jake really seems to be enjoying being back there. They have a lot of sod jobs this week since it's supposed to be nice out, and from what I hear, a few of them are quiet large! [on a side note, please continue to pray for Adam Dubbe as he recovers; and for his wife, Abri, and 6 month old son, Evan, for strength, encouragement and understanding]

I've been trying to keep myself busy doing small things; there isn't much to 'do' around here when you don't live in your own house, have a car, and live an hour away from your family... but we are so blessed to have a place to stay! I've been doing some crocheting, and also my mom gave me a sewing machine that someone had given to her... so I've been playing around with that, trying to figure things out. Hopefully I can start sewing some little baby things soon! I did a little extra cooking/baking this week also. As hard as it is for me to rest without feeling lazy, I've been trying to kind of take it easy... and "rest up while I can."

My midwife called me last week and said that all of my test came back negative for parasites/eggs/etc. So, that's good that I don't have little bugs running around my system... but it does make us wonder what was really going on and causing the excruciating stomach pain. We decided not to take further action/do anymore testing as of right now, because the pains/symptoms are decreasing... but if I'm still having problems at my next appointment, my midwife wants to refer me to an infectious disease doctor. I'm still having a lot of nausea, especially in the evenings. And the headaches! The headaches have definitely returned. When my midwife asked if I had any headaches/migraines, I said yes, but that they seemed to significantly decrease when I got pregnant. As I was thinking about it later on in the week, the reason they probably were decreasing was because we were in Africa... higher altitude, better weather, less 'weather changes,' etc. Now that we're back in MN, I've probably had more 'headache days' than 'non-headache days.' So far no migraines... but enough of a headache to put me in kind of a hazy mental state.

It's hard to believe I will be beginning the third trimester next week... and in exactly 10 weeks, I will be considered "full term." Time is really flying by. I feel like there is a lot that I need to do, since we haven't really done... anything... but then again, I think it's silly to stress about because babies don't require much "stuff" anyways. There's quite a bit of research I want to do on various topics, though.

I think that's all for now... here's the most recent 'belly picture.' Still not exactly looking 'pregnant' [at least to the untrained eye!], but the bump is a little more pronounced now.

27 weeks, 1 day

God ALWAYS provides.

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I'm sorry that there hasn't been an update recently. We made it home on October 9th. We didn't have any problems during travel, so that was a huge blessing. We did have some fun going through customs coming back into the States, but it wasn't a huge problem. Since we had been on a farm, they had to bleach/disinfect all of our shoes. Took a really long time, but hey, it was one less thing for us to do when we got home, right? Everyone who was on the plane seemed sick, so for the first couple of days of being back home, I was battling a really bad head cold and ear pain. I guess that will happen after being on planes for 16+ hours with a bunch of sick people! After a while it all simmered down to just being a cough, which I'm still dealing with, but I'm feeling better in that sense.

God has really been showing us "who's boss" [He is, in case you're wondering]... He's just been blessing us in huge, huge ways that just leave us breathless, with our jaws on the floor. Here are a few of the ways, so we can praise the Lord together:

-we are living with friends who are taking care of us financially [groceries, rent, etc] until we are able to 'get our feet on the ground.'
-we were blessed with a car that cost us very little to buy, and a few friends put time and money into repairing it with Jake and making it drivable.
-Jake has a job; he is going to return to working at the Dubbe's farm on Wednesday. We are very blessed by this family!
-an anonymous angel sent us a letter in the mail along with quite a large financial gift. Although we don't know who this person is, God knows, and we pray that He will generously bless them for being such a blessing to us.

We serve a really big God! 

I had an appointment with a midwife today. Although nothing was 'figured out' as to why I've been feeling so miserable, it was reassuring to know that the baby is growing as he or she should be. My blood pressure and weight were fine. She had me do the 1 hour gestational diabetes test today, and I passed 'with flying colors,' they said. Supposedly it has to be under 140, and I was at 91. Yayy. The baby's heart rate was 140. She wants me to have an ultrasound done sometime this week; although I wouldn't have normally wanted one at this point in the pregnancy, since they [the doctors in Kenya ] didn't 'do' everything she [the midwife] would have liked them to do/check for, she asked me to have another one. She asked if we wanted to know the gender early, and I said no; she laughed and said we 'might have to look away at this ultrasound because it might be blatantly obvious.' So hopefully we won't 'accidentally find out' what we're having, but it's obviously not the end of the world if we do.

As for me being sick... I'm still having a lot of 'pain' and we're not really sure why. I was in tears on Saturday night because it was so terrible. It just does not seem normal! It seems to be intestinal but sometimes it feels like it could be in my stomach. It comes and goes no matter the activity, what I eat or don't eat, etc. It seems to be worse in the evenings, through the night and sometimes in the morning. The midwife wanted me to give some stool samples to be tested in the lab; she said it's possible that there are eggs or parasites or... something... going on inside of me making me sick. So, I... uh... get to... *whispers* collect some poo... and take it to the lab to get tested. If I test negative for all that, then we'll just take it from there and try to figure out what's going on. I'm still really nauseous a lot, but the pain is what bothers me the most. My appetite seems to be better... but maybe it's because we have access to a refrigerator here and it's easier/possible for me to just grab an apple or milk or something. I was looking through a pamphlet that I got today about eating, and my eyes bugged out at what a typical day of meals should look like for a pregnant woman... still not getting anything close to that, but at least I'm able to get down more than 500 calories per day now.

I think that's all on "us" for now... we'll keep you updated as we find things out. Please just continue to pray for us as we re-adjust to being back here [dealing with re-entry culture shock, etc], as Jake starts his job, ad as I try and grow a baby. We really do appreciate all of your prayers, support and encouragement. Thank you.

We think about Kenya often and hope that you will continue to join us in praying for those we left behind, specifically Eric, Juli and Sarah... and the four student leaders, Mike, Vitalis, Philister and Jonny. Please pray for them as they continue to invest into the students that are there, and that the Lord would renew them and give them strength as this is the point in the year when everyone gets very tired and is worn out. Also, please continue to pray for the students. Graduation weekend is quickly approaching [November 28th]!

We'll update as we are able. Praise the Lord for providing for our needs.

hard decision...

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Some of you may have received this e-mail. I wanted to post it on our blog as well so that we could try to let everyone know as best as we could. 

Dear family and friends,

Some of you have been able to keep up with our blog and are aware of the fact that Laura has been struggling with some pregnancy and health issues for the past couple of months. We've been to the doctor several times and have tried some different medications to see if they would help, but we have not noticed any significant change. In talking with Eric and Juli, communicating with a doctor from back home/church, and visiting with a missionary counselor, and also after a lot of prayer, we have decided that it would be in the best interest of Laura's and the baby's health that we return to the States sooner than we had originally planned. Our time in Kenya has brought us through many different experiences… growing, learning and being challenged in various ways. But that doesn’t mean that our early departure will be easy. We have grown to love the ministry, the friends we work with and others we have made, and the students who are in the program. This was a very hard decision for us to make.

The tickets have been changed and we will be returning to the States next Friday, October 8th. We would appreciate your prayers during this time. Our comfort has been the fact that God is God, no matter what happens… He is our Constant, our Rock and our Support. We cling to those promises.

For those who are financial monthly supporters, you can discontinue your support, unless you'd like it to go towards the general fund for Camp Jabez. If anything does get sent in specifically for us, it will be put aside and the giver will be contacted to make sure they are aware that we are home and will be asked if they'd like it to go towards the general fund or to be disregarded.

If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail us. We won't have phone access for a while. Thank you for walking in this journey with us. We will update you as we are able. 

In Christ Alone,

Jake, Laura and baby