Back in the swing of things

I guess this is the golden week because i finally feel like i am back into my groove. I have been nesting like crazy which i am sure Ryan enjoys because i hate to clean and organize but lately i cant stop. I really need to watch the activity level though because i am definitely feeling a hard days work! I had my very first Braxton Hicks contractions the other day while grocery shopping. It was not at all what i expected, it didn't hurt and only felt very strange as my belly became rock hard then relaxed and so on. It only lasted for about 10 minutes but i am still an awe of all of these things.

I had my OGTT but don't expect the results for another week or so due to language barrier and me not wanting to drive all of the way back to the hospital for a piece of paper! I am worried i will admit because i don't want another GD diagnosis. I don't understand it all as i have no signs nor symptoms of it. I check my blood sugar all of the time and i am certainly not gaining weight. My total for entire pregnancy as of this date is only 8 pounds and i am nearing week 29!!!! If anything i just cant seem to get the weight to come. I know, i know all of you moms are thinking "oh honey don't worry it will come and then you will wish it didn't," but for me i worry that i am not giving my baby what it needs. I eat well and make sure to include plenty of veggies and fruits but there just isn't much room in there!!!

The baby has started a new thing, it enjoys nestling up into the right side of my rib cage early in the morning with the occasional punch or kick to the ribs for good measure. My side becomes like a rock and this new spot it enjoys is painful but i am not able to get the baby to move no matter what i do so my best option is to lay back down until he/she picks a new spot. Baby P is pretty fickle having some very active days where i become a bouncing mass of belly for hours to other days where it only makes its appearance here and there.

We are getting ready to move and we are very excited about it. March 1st we should be able to get going. It will be so nice to be back amongst friends again and i have to say that the pool is certainly calling my name! Also with this will come the sharing of a driver who is a great guy. Our friends have offered to share his services and we are grateful for this opportunity. It really has changed things for me as now i can make a phone call and not have to hope and pray a driver (who speaks no English) shows up and doesn't try to rip me off. Saleem is wonderful, speaks great English, and knows the city like the back of his hand. He is definitely irreplaceable and now i know why Bec and Justin love him so much!

Moving into a new place also gives us the chance to make a house a home so to speak. We have been living in fully furnished places since we got here and when it is someone else's stuff it just never feels quite like your own, but now we will have to buy the furniture and decorate it and to me that will help it feel like ours! I cant wait to get the crib and baby stuff set up, it almost feels like it is coming so fast now!!!

So this seems to be an up week, and i needed an up week!!! We have one month until we move and a little over 2 months before we have a baby....WOW, now that is scary!!!!

I have also had many requests for a new belly shot so i will enclose those as well!!!!

Here we go again

Today we got all of our blood work back from the OB and happily everything came back normal...well everything but my darn Glucose challenge test. I am so sick and tired of the Glucose challenge test, i have never once passed one of these tests and now i have to go back on Thursday for my OGTT to confirm Gestational diabetes or not. Back in the beginning of my pregnancy my IVF clinic diagnosed me with GD because of the OGTT and yet i was testing my blood sugar daily and never exceeded the normal levels so my OB at the Hospital told me not to worry and to just check weekly. I have enjoyed not worrying so much about the GD as i have struggled with being able to eat at all while in India and so any form of food restrictions was a nightmare. Now that i am in the 3rd trimester i finally gained weight but it has been a battle for me to put on the pounds which is funny because prior to pregnancy i could gain 5 pounds without even trying and now i lose weight unless i try really hard!

I guess all i can do is give it up to God and to not worry about it...Thursday is the big day so wish me luck!!!!

What now

I haven't written much since i have been back in India because quite honestly my attitude stinks right now. I don't want to be here and i am tired of so many aspects, but at the same time i have so very much to be thankful for. I am here with my loving husband, we are pregnant with our miracle baby from God, we have a job...the list goes on and on. I guess it just feels like we have two lives to live, one is on hold back in the US and right now this is the one we are living but i miss so much of the other one. I know this "darkness" will soon pass, as i normally experience it to some degree every time we return, i just wish it would hurry up.

India is fairly nice right now, the weather has been perfect, between 70 and 80, and i am enjoying it while it lasts. Soon "winter" will be over (which cracks me up because coming from SD this is certainly NOT winter) and then the heat of summer will take over and if it is anything like last year i am going to be roasting in the 90+ weather when i am 9 months pregnant!

Ryan and i went baby shopping and that helped make all of this feel a little more like home. We are considering moving to the other side of town, although it will take me much further from the hospital but it would be nice to be near friends again. We will see as we are still on a lease and require 3 months notice so i am not sure what we will decide. We finally got our new washer hooked up and i was excited to be able to do our own laundry again until we realized that our water is backing up and overflowing. Ryan says it is not the sewage line but i am at my wits end. I am not used to dealing with possible raw sewage overflowing in my driveway and the germaphobe in me has had enough...If the problem is not resolved quickly i am moving out!

Most of our friends are already on block off back in the US and Bec will be heading back this week so Ryan and i will be solo for the next 3 weeks or so. Its not so bad when everyone is here, but it gets a bit harder when everyone is back home.

As i said earlier, i haven't written because my attitude stinks right now, maybe i am a little depressed who knows. I know that it will all pass and everything will be just fine as it always has been. I just have to get used to being back again and that takes time.

I am truly grateful for how close this has brought Ryan and i together, and if anything it is all worth it for the love we feel. If it wasn't for our faith in God in following his guidance to India we wouldn't be 3 months away from giving birth to our miracle baby...sometimes it is easy to forget how amazing this whole experience has been, how God brought us to this point in our life. So on days like today when i am feeling blue i just have to turn to God and thank him because this was all part of his plan and it only gets better!

Second Trimester

Finally i have popped! I must say that the pregnant shape is by far my favorite one. I have always had issues with my own body, but this body i LOVE. I finally stopped losing weight and actually gained 10 pounds in the last 5 weeks, i am very happy about this because before the scale kept going the wrong way! Ryan is amazing and i must say i think he truly loves me the more and more pregnant i look. It is really refreshing to have a husband who thinks i get sexier the rounder i get. He has been so very supportive through all of this and he goes that extra mile to make me feel good about myself each and every day. Thank God for amazing husbands!!!!

Ringing in the New Year

What an amazing year 2009 was for us. So many things to be thankful for, and so many amazing blessings from God! Ryan and i have found a friendship and deeper level of love in our marriage that i honestly never thought possible. We have learned to be a team and to cheer each other on, and i believe we will only continue to grow together. Our amazing miracle baby is growing bigger and stronger every day. I enjoy endless kicks, punches, twists and rolls...and of course the occasional hiccups! I don't know why God blessed me with this miracle because i certainly didn't deserve it, but he is awesome and his love for us is infinite and i only hope that our miracle baby shows many Gods great love for us all as well as his amazing power!

As we begin 2010 i can honestly say that i did not bother with a New Years resolution. My only goal for this year is to grow nearer to God and my husband, and to be the best Mom that i can be. If i can do those things my family will be strong and happy and it will be all we need!

We are getting ready to head back to India, and for both of us it is bittersweet. It is hard to say goodbye to our lives here in the US. We have family and friends that mean the world to us, Dogs that we consider our children and a home in our own little piece of heaven that we miss a lot. Normally we are in India between 2-4 months and then we come home, but this time it will be 6 months. I am truly having heartache over this because even though my home is wherever Ryan is my heart longs for SD. Yes Ryan i said it, i miss SD and i want to be there!

I love waking up to our sweet puppy giving kisses, or the beautiful Black Hills and all of its calm. I love being near my wonderful parents, and spending time with them whenever i can. I love seeing my sister Kris at my leisure and catching the Rush games. I love spending time with Sarah and her amazing family and feeling like i am where i belong. It breaks my heart that our baby wont get to spend as much time with all of these people as he/she deserves to. With Ryan's Mom being only a 5-6 hour drive away as well it is just very hard to accept that our baby will not get to make these bonds with all of these great people early on in his/her life. I know that God brought us to India with a great purpose and that when it is time to move on from India God will open that door as well, but right now he is asking us to stay put and so i know that he has more planned for us and who am i to argue! It will be nice to get back to our friends in India and i only hope that with added transportation i can spend more time with Bec and their new baby girl. I have missed her since we moved apart and i hope to get to see her much more in the future!

I can honestly say that 2009 was an amazing year, and 2010 can only get better because so much is going to happen. It is hard to believe that in a little over 3 months we will be holding our baby. I cant wait to meet Baby P, i cant wait to hold him/her close and look in his/her eyes! All i can say is....Thank you God, Thank you so very much!

Life at 30

I would have to say that all of the time leading up to my 30th Birthday and my anxiety over starting a new decade was not only wrong but completely off base! If you ask me now, i would tell you that my life started at 30. Before 2009 rolled in i wasn't living my life, i was making mistakes, stuck in the past and drifted far from God. 2009, my 30th year of life all of that changed...

I rediscovered my faith in a whole new conviction. My marriage was renewed and an amazing love rekindled with my husband. We were blessed with our miracle child in our pregnancy. I rediscovered the importance of family and true friendship. I have a home i love in the beautiful Black Hills, and two wonderful dogs that i miss constantly when in India. We are blessed with Ryan's career and the list goes on and on.

Tomorrow i turn 31 and i have to say i am looking forward to this year. After all of the great things that happened last year and with our baby on the way i just know that this year can only be better. I cant wait for all of the adventures that Ryan and i have to share in the years to come as our family of two will be a plus one!!!!

Political or not

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/12/07/senate-confront-abortion-health-care-debate/

I don't normally publicly speak about politics, because just as my beliefs and convictions are strong, so are everyone else's and who am i to tell anyone what to do...With that being said now it seems someone wants to tell me what to do and believe through the use of my tax dollars. Also being clear that this isn't speaking of women who are in physical danger, or been raped, but only of women choosing abortion as birth control....

Well that is exactly why i have to vent about the latest hit on humanity and total disappointment. I do not approve of abortion for moral and religious reasons, but i also do not feel that it is my place to tell other women what to do with their bodies, that being said i am APPALLED that Obama wishes to make it the tax payers responsibility to pay for other peoples abortions....ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!!!!! Much of the nation is pro life and now they are talking about forcing ME to pay for someone else's abortion, something i find morally wrong and am completely opposed to....The big abortion argument has always been personal choice, to allow women to make their own decisions. By using tax payers money it would be forcing me to financially support something that i absolutely disapprove of and so now "your" body would become my problem. NO NO NO NO!!!!

I have an idea, how about offering coverage or support to the hundreds of thousands of infertile couples across the country who nearly have to bankrupt themselves in the pursuit of carrying a precious baby....Lets get our priorities straight!!!!

My thoughts...If you are too irresponsible to put a condom on or use birth control and you feel that giving this innocent child to a family who will love and adore it is not for you then why don't YOU pay for your own irresponsibility...IT IS NOT MY JOB TO FACILITATE SUCH THINGS and you can bet i will be writing letters to my congressmen.