Focus on the CAN...

Well, for any of you that have been around my side of the family for any length of time, you know that we tend to have cancer battles pretty often. To cancer, I have lost my great grandparents, grandparents, great aunts and uncles, aunts and uncles... I have also watched my parents both take on their own daily fight with cancer... many of you may remember that after an 11 month fight with lung cancer, my father died just three weeks before I went into early labor with Hope Noelle. What a summer we had in 2006 loosing them both so close. Many of you know that my dad's sister, my Aunt AJ, died this past December after her own repeat battle with cancer and since then, his brother, my Uncle Buddy, has been having treatments for cancer. Buddy and I speak frequently and he is coming to a close on his treatments... it will be several more weeks post treatments before they can run tests and see what his levels are doing. We continue to ask for prayers that when this round is done he will be in remission.

Needless to say, with all that has gone on my fathers side of the family, we were very shocked today when my mothers brother, my uncle Allen, learned this afternoon that he also has cancer. We are still waiting on a cell type to come back but what we do know is that his is in the chest. It is NOT lung cancer but his tumor has presented in the chest. We are once again asking for prayers for a cancer that will go into remission and for the strength to once again start down this journey. We ask still for your prayers for Uncle Buddy and that he be healed once his treatments are over and we ask for prayers that Uncle Al be able to face his battle with courage and that the doctors are able to heal him.

As a family, we have learned that cancer is not a death notice, in fact, my mother has been several years with no cancer issues, Praise God. What we have learned instead, is not to focus on the cancer, but focus on the first half, the can... through that, we have learned to live each day as though it were the last you might be given and my prayer for you is that today, you do just that. Be thankful for your family, your health, and for answered prayers that may get overlooked in the big scheme of things... I am blessed with my family, my children, my friends, and my faith. With all of these things beside me, I know that no matter what, I can... we can... and we will get through anything. As always, thanks for keeping our family in your thoughts and prayers.

Thankful for Grandma's!

Thank goodness for Grandma's! Grandma Carleen (Nathan's mom) has been working on the nursery "pattern" for several weeks now... She has been busy making curtains and a baby quilt for her grandchild. The goal was something with some pink and green that wouldn't look like pepto-bismol threw up all over the room... needless to say, she did it and it looks awesome with the room color! Grandma Deborah (my mom) has been trying to find the perfect crib. The goal was to find a crib sturdy enough for CNB to jump up and down in and not break (good thing I bought Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow... should prove to be a fitting bed time story to teach her that's a "no no"!) She finally found it and we spent the afternoon getting it put together! Every little baby is spoiled rotten by their grandparents and CNB is no different... she has already gotten started!! Thanks Grandma's!

On a side note, CNB's room is not done yet, nothing is on the walls, rocking chair still is not here, gifts have not been put away... the list goes on but when we get it all done, I will post another picture so you can see it!

Docotor Days are here again....

I had my week 32 check up today and everything continues to look great. I am almost in the double digits for weight gain stopping just shy of 10 pounds... I am all the way up to 9 pounds now! My stomach growth was measured again today and growth was good, everything is in the normal range. CNB had a heart rate today of 133 and my blood pressure was 110/60, which is on the high side for me but still relatively low. I also found out that all of my numbers were great on my second glucose test so, no more glucose tests or worries about diabetes! Hooray for answered prayers! I am now going for check ups every two weeks which means we are getting close! It is hard to believe that week 33 will be starting on Monday! Babies at this point are typically around 4 pounds and about 18-19 inches long!

On the home front side, Nathan and I are still working on getting things ready for CNB's room. We have cleaned most of our stuff out and started moving her things in... the bed is down and the crib is in the garage waiting to be put together. Her dresser is up and some of her clothes are washed. Baby girl had her first shower this past weekend and got some great things so her room is starting to look like a baby's room. I will put up a picture once we get everything and get it situated.

In the mean time, we are very excited to still be pregnant and for things to be going as well as they are. I am still have bouts of swelling in my feet but ice packs are wonderful things!! As we have said before, thank you for your continued support and prayers!!

Thankful Tuesday....

One of my girlfriends (I am stealing from you here Mel) does something called a Thankful Thursday but I feel that today, I need to steal it and do a Thankful Tuesday. I know that over the course of this pregnancy we have told many of you "thank you" so many times for your unwavering support but many of you will never know the extent of what that really means.

Today, I feel the need to say a special thank you to my husband. As most of you know, we lost our first child, our daughter Hope Noelle, an hour after her birth. Needless to say, being pregnant after such a devastating blow is not easy. This pregnancy, being the longest one I have ever experienced, has become very hard on me mentally. I have so many fears going into this that I can not begin to share them all, nor would I want to. I will share though, that my main fear revolves around her health. Let me clarify here, we have not received any news that would make us think that she is having any problems... I am just having fears based off of prior experiences.

My husband has been a blessing these last few days in keeping me grounded while at the same time letting me express my fears, my dreams, my wishes... letting me cry while making me laugh... letting me know that it is alright to be scared while reminding me that no matter what happens, we will love her just as much as we love Hope. My fears stem from what most of the world fears, all of the unknowns. While there are some people who are great at accepting the unknown and trusting in what comes with it, I have learned that I am not one of those people. I am one who has had so much go wrong that I worry until I see reason not to instead of being a person who doesn't worry until they have a reason to. This is where I am thankful for my Nathan... we talked this weekend and after talking, I did not walk away thinking my husband thinks I have fallen off of my rocker... what I walked away with instead was knowing that I am still married to my best friend and that I could not ask the Lord for a better person to be standing beside me as we approach the unknowns that are before us.

We still ask for your prayers and support as we are just weeks away from meeting our little girl!! I know that this will be such an exciting time for us but it will also be a very emotional time as we start down the path to parenthood again, a path we were on not too long ago.

Glucose Test... GROSS!!!

That has to be the closest thing that I have ever seen to morning sickness... the one hour test was nothing but the three hour one, UGH! The glucose/sugar drink is about 3 times more concentrated than the drink for the one hour test and my stomach, nor C.N.B., did well with it. It was all I could do not to vomit! C.N.B. on the other hand, was on a sugar high and was all over the place kicking and flipping, which did nothing to help her mom's queasiness! I was pricked 5 times (another UGH!) and am sending up some heavy prayers that this test comes back good so that I won't have to add anything else to the plate!

If you can believe it, I will be starting week 31 on Monday! Nathan and I are so excited that she is still in there growing away... currently she should be around 3 to 3 1/2 pounds and is around 17 1/2 inches long. Her growth length should start to slow down and she should start putting on some "fat" and weight over the next month.

I have started "swelling" in my feet and ankles and one looks like I am walking around with a broken foot because of the size of it! Whatever it takes is what I keep telling myself when they start aching!! We are getting very excited and can not wait to meet her! Please continue to pray that we will be blessed with a healthy baby and no complications as we get closer to the end.