Leaving My Comfort Zone

For those of you who don't know already, we are having a boy! We had the ultrasound on the 24th and Baby K wasn't shy at all. Before we went into the doctor's office, I made sure that I had a little talk with him. We got to see all of his organs and he was very healthy. Everything is working great. He has such a cute little nose! I'm thinking that he has my nose and his dad's lips. Nice combo. I'm so excited to see what he looks like, but I can wait the 19 weeks.

Here is a picture of what he looks like. Handsome, hunh?

Ever since we found out that he's a boy, we've been buying a ton of stuff for him. We went to D.I. and bought 20 books and 10 outfits. We got all of that for $30. I want to make sure that he has his own library. I also looked into cloth diapers. I spent all day on Saturday researching it. It's so different from what I'm used to, but I've heard some good things about it. One benefit is that I will save tons of money! I'm all about saving money. I will admit that I was so intimidated about cloth diapering when I looked into it. There are so many different options and styles. It's nothing like it was a long time ago.

Look at how cute that diaper is! We bought about a dozen prefolds (those are the kind of diapers that first come to mind what you think about cloth diapers...you can pin them up or you can fold them and put them in diaper covers) and 3 pockets. The one that you see above is a pocket diaper. We've spent about $60 bucks on diapers so far. We own 15 and we need to have about 36 so that we don't have to wash diapers everyday. In the end, we'll probably spend about $120. Not too shabby. And they are reusable.

I also looked into some DIY projects, like toys and such. I want to make him a crane mobile using some scrapbook paper. I also saw a really cool pattern for baby blocks and a baby rattle. I went out and bought some red and black fabric so that I can make the blocks. The blocks might look something like the one below.

This little boy is already loved so much. He's going to be spoiled! His grandmas are already looking into buying him some stuff. He has also pretty much taken control of my body. He loves to kick as hard as he can. Or he decides that he wants to push his head against my stomach and just hold it there. It's a comfort to feel him, but sometimes I have to fight him a little bit. I've already had to use my "discipline" voice to get him to move from a certain spot. But, as long as he's okay, I'm okay.

Kidney Stones, Gas Pains, and Loratab

Alright, so some of you may know that I ended up in the hospital two Sundays ago (on the 13th), but you may not know why. I woke up that morning having to pee and it hurt REALLY bad. I had been noticing that pattern. If I have to go to the bathroom early in the morning my bladder will wake me up and let me know. Usually once I go then I'm all good. BUT not this time. I went and then got back in bed. The pain was horrible. I was tossing and turning, trying to go to sleep, and it just was not working. I tried to stand up and I couldn't even do that. So I woke Andrew up. He asked me if I wanted to call my doctor and I told him no. I thought maybe I had really bad gas. My gas usually comes and goes, though. This pain wasn't going anywhere. I finally gave in and he called the doctor. I was crying up a storm when he called my doctor, and I tried to talk on the phone to him. I think he could tell from my voice that I was in pain, and he told me to head to the E.R.

I got to the E.R. and OF COURSE my pain would start to go away after I got there. So annoying. Mainly they observed me. My doctor even "checked" me. Talk about annoying. I mean...I'm used to the one type of exam, but not when they decide to go up the other way. There should be no going up there...there should only be going DOWN. They sent me home after about 3-4 hours. I rested and then I went to church.

Fast forward 4 days. I had been doing great the whole week and all of a sudden on Thursday the pain came back. Excruciating pain! I was just sitting at the school grading papers (thank goodness school was out) and it hit me hard. I thought that I was having contractions or something. I've never felt pains like that. Period pains don't compare. I got in the car and tried to drive myself...while in a ton of pain. I had tried to call Andrew several times because I really didn't know what to do. (Yeah...his phone was on silent and he was asleep.) I drove to Subway because I told Andrew that I was going to pick up some food and I was starving. Shoot, I was in pain but I still gotta eat. After I got my food, I called the women's clinic and they told me to come in.

Went there and they sent me to the E.R. AGAIN. This time my pain didn't try to hide. About darn time. They did an ultrasound on my back and side and the guy found that I had a blockage in my kidney. (They actually found something! I was so happy because it seems like I always have mystery diseases that don't show up on anything for people to see.) I stayed at the E.R. for a while. They pumped some fluids into me and sent me home with some painkillers.

Now what? I have to wait til I pass something the size of a darn pebble so that the pain will go away. YAY! On the plus side, because I've been in so much pain I've been getting super spoiled. The ladies in my ward have been making dinner for me and Andrew. We're going to have a week's worth of leftovers! Awesome!

Oh my gosh, get it out!

I'm sitting here watching "One Born Every Minute" and it's pretty much like Baby Story or Birth Day. This woman on here was SCREAMING. Shoot, she was scaring me. Do I really have to do that in five months? I hope I'm not yelling so that the whole labor and delivery floor hears me. She was even telling the nurse, "Don't breathe in my face." I really shouldn't be watching this show because I can see myself going into labor and saying, "You might think that the baby's about to come out of my hoo-hah, but you got another thing coming!" Especially after watching all of these shows. Maybe my labor will be easy...maybe...Right now I'm set on no epidural, but then again, I like the drugs! Drugs make you feel good inside. They were invented for a reason. It's so funny because the lady on this show was trying to push out the baby and she screamed, "Oh my gosh! The BURNING RING OF FIRE!" I have no idea what that is, but it makes me nervous. Wait, let me google it. Alright, so it's basically a burning, stinging pain. I've never experienced that down there before. I guess we'll see how that goes. You best believe I'm going to tell y'all all about it after the labor in August. Pray for me!

Are you in there, little fetus?

"Are you in there, little fetus? In 9 months, will you come greet us? I will buy you some Adidas." 
                                                                  -Phoebe from Friends

It is still SO weird to think that there is a baby in my stomach! At this very moment, the kiddo's kicking me. We bought a prenatal listener about three weeks ago and it finally came in. Trust me, I've been making sure that I'm getting my money's worth. I don't listen to the baby all the time, but enough to keep me happy. Today I decided to listen for the heartbeat because I had a bit of a hard day. I've been able to find the heartbeat very easily. The baby is right below my belly button. (It's so weird because four weeks ago s/he was very low on the right side of my stomach.) I got to listen for a good 20 seconds and then the baby moved! S/he likes playing hide-n-seek. ("Now you see me, now you don't." We got ourselves a Houdini.) I'm thinking that the baby just moved deeper into my stomach because I press the monitor against my stomach a lot more in order to hear the heartbeat.

Pregnancy is...interesting. Once I hit 6 weeks, I was sick for about 10 weeks straight. I just started feeling better last week. I can finally eat meat again! YAY! I went for a week without meat because it made me feel so sick. (And you all know that I love me some meat.) Another interesting thing about pregnancy is hard my stomach feels. People have been asking me to post pictures, but I have to wait til the bump moves up some more. Until then, just use your imagination. I'm still really tiny. The only thing that's changed a ton are the girls up top. And when I say changed, I mean CHANGED. It's pretty darn awesome. I just have to get used to how heavy they feel. Something else that I didn't really expect...the GAS. Oh boy, I could have a passing gas contest with Andrew now. Whoo...that stuff comes out of nowhere. And it comes when I least expect it--like church and in the classroom. Hopefully Andrew doesn't think that our apartment has turned into a free gas zone.

I'm almost to the halfway mark! Time is going by so fast!