Charlotte Jessee: Spending Christmas with Jesus

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I posted yesterday about a woman from our church who was recently diagnosed with cancer. Well, today, she is completely healed and cancer free... and is walking in the presence of our Lord. She passed away this morning at 3:40am. Please pray for her husband, Bill, and for their families as they mourn the loss of Char.

Appointment Update

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Here's a quick post to update about my appointment... even though there really is "nothing" to update! The appointment went well. Baby is measuring absolutely fine [proof to anyone who is questioning my pregnancy!]; his/her heart rate was 144, and is still head down. Good job, baby! I gained just under 1 lb. I have another appointment in two weeks, and then I start going in once a week! It's starting to get really, really close... it's kind of crazy! I'm very excited to meet our baby, as is Jake. I'm feeling pretty good 'nerves wise...' not really so much nervous yet, and I think doing a lot of reading has helped that. I've been scouring the library for books on breastfeeding, water birthing, 'natural' birth, etc. So, things are going well!



I'd like to take a quick moment before I close, though, to ask for prayer for Charlotte Jessee. Charlotte, and her husband Bill, are very active in our church and are such a wonderful, wonderful couple. I've always looked up to them and respected them very much. Charlotte was recently diagnosed with lung cancer and is now at home with hospice care. I would really appreciate it if you would be on your knees before the Lord for Char, Bill and their families. If you'd like to read more specific updates, you can go to the caringbridge.com website and type in "charlottejessee" to be taken to her page. Thank you so much.

[char and bill]

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