Pregnancy X Files

The other day, RT was able to feel the baby move for the first time. What an awesome moment! I said to him "Isn't that amazing?!" He replied "Ya, but I can't stop thinking about that movie scene where the alien pops out of the guys stomach."

Funny he should say that because I thought of the exact same thing the first time I felt the baby move about six weeks ago. It got me thinking about all the wierd things that come along with pregnancy. Now I know that every woman is different and every pregnancy is different, so I thought I would put together a brief list of the wierdness that I have experienced so far. If not for your reading enjoyment, then just so I can look back on these memories fondly when they are in the DISTANT past.

1. HEART BURN!!!!! Oh my! I have never experienced anything like it. It is a daily occurance. And every time I think it can't get any worse, it does. This is the number one cause of sleepless nights for me now.

2. Crazy, sometimes boardering on psychotic, dreams. I have never had such vivid dreams before. I wouldn't mind if they weren't always so disturbing. I've taken to praying for good dreams at night because I wake up so often feeling emotionally exhausted after these nightmares. Some of them are truely straight out of the X Files. Fortunately this has turned into a faith promoting experience because the prayers do work.

3. Light headed and dizzy spells. Sometimes I feel like I'm on drugs when I get these.

4.Hair. This is by far the wierdest and grossest one. (Please don't read this one if you have a weak stomach.) My leg hair hardly grows, and my armpit hair has disappeared all together. Not that this is a bad thing. It's just that other parts of my body(which shall remain unnamed for your sanity) seem to be growing fur!!!!! SICK!!!!!!!!!

5. No wait! Maybe this is the wierdest one. Yesterday, RT and I went bowling with our good friends Joseph and Ashley. We only go a few times a year, but it's often enough that everyone involved knows that I suck at bowling. I will always have the lowest score: it is a given. If I break 80 I feel like I've had a good game. I figured yesterday would be no exception, but some how I bowled the game of my life! I scored 126!! What in the world happened? Perhaps my body finally figured out the hand-eye coordination thing. Although, that's unlikely considering I seem to be significantly less coorinated now than ever. So I suppose this one will have to be resigned to the Pregnancy X Files.

Ha Ha Ha

While I was in Washington Missouri serving with J. Dowdle and we went over to a friends house to check up on her, and I can't remember her name, or the name of her son. But we were over one evening and I can see him pulling out his new toy, a new and clean toilet plungger. He wanted to show us his new trick. He pulled up his shirt showing his belly, and slammed his toilet plungger to himself and it stuck! Then he wiggled and moved! Dowdle and I just about lost it!

The other night while my brother in law and his family where over, his daughter found our never used toilet plungger and was making a lot of noise with it as it fell to the ground several times. So I picked it up and carried it as we walked them out. I had the bowl against my stomach and felt a tug as I pulled it away. In a flash, my mind was taken back to Washington.

I quickly pulled my shirt over my head and started to do just what my younger friend had done. I found that it is just as fun as it looks! And like I did then, Jennifer lost it!

My First Mother's Day as a Mother. . .Almost.

Since finding out that we are having a boy one week ago, this pregnancy has taken on a new dimention for me. I am no longer just pregnant. I am carrying a son! I don't know if I could truely explain why that is so much more significant to me than it was a week ago. It just is. It's more real, and more emotional now.

And with that change, Mother's Day has taken on a new dimention as well. Yesterday was a day of much contemplation, lots of happy tears, and incredible love and appreciation for my sweet husband!

At about 630am I found my RT wide awake in bed. He saw that my eyes were open and asked if I was awake and ready for my Mother's Day surprise yet. I smiled when he told me he had been awake since 4am waiting for me to wake up. We cuddled for a few minutes, then he gave me a card that he had made himself. I can only say it is a treasure, and that it got the water works started in a big way.

Here it is...

Double click on the images to enlarge.

After the tears stopped enough for me to see again, RT sent me on a scavenger hunt through the house. He used to do this in our apartment, but it's much more fun in our big house. It starts with a single drawing of some object or location in the house. once I find that object or location, there is another drawing waiting for me. And at the end of the hunt is a gift. This is way fun! The best part about it is that RT always get me awesome gifts. This time it was a video camera so we can record all the amazing events that are in our near future. RT and I have an agreement that he can film our son's birth as long as it is G rated. I would love to have all the emotions of our son's first moments preserved, but I already know there are other things that I don't want preserved for posterity.

I know many mother's have mixed feeling about Mother's Day. I probably will too in a few years. But for now I am basking in the glow of being a mother-to-be. And I am truely grateful that I get to share it with my best friend and amazing husband RT.

I know what that thing is!

A tall puddle of warm jell was placed on that soft and tender spot, with a towel tucked in below to keep the mess contained. With the magic wand that allows us to see into the future and the present at the same time we were given the gift of sight. We beheld a world of blackness, though light is beginning to grow in this small world. It was small, cramped, and surrounded by water, a thick water. We had waited weeks for this moment, and now we were here. We were slightly nervous, and yet overwhelmed with excitement! What are we going to see, how is this going to change our lives, who would like to be in this circle of insight?
Slowly this magic wand found images and took measurements that to us were interesting, but we didn't know why we really needed them. This wand pushed hard, and tried to move this creature, but it was stubborn, and wouldn't move, so the wand moved on. We saw parts and pieces, moving and idle, we saw familiar shapes, and wondered what others might be. I had a hope that we would see a jewel, if not two while we were exploring this world. As we saw the wand move to the area where we believed these jewels might be, I moved to the edge of my seat. There came a spot where I thought the jewels should be, and they weren't there. I was in the process of convincing myself that though the jewels weren't there, it would be okay, and wonderful still, a beautiful world. But then, with a quick adjustment with the wand, there they were, in plain sight, without question, the jewels, the family jewels! Oh my! I shook my fist in the air, hoot 'n hollered, shouted and was near to dancing! Jennifer, it's a boy! We're going to have a son!!!!!

At 19 weeks down, we are way excited.!