Finally.

I've got a lot of blog posts that have been brewing for the last month but haven't been written yet because of finals and projects and sickness and such. And I'm not writing them tonight, either, because I'm reveling in the fact that I don't have anything I have to do right now (WAHOO for graduation!).

But I did want to make an important announcement here:

Today I did not have to take any anti-nausea medication.

Yes.

Second trimester appears to be here and loving life. And I am loving the second trimester so far. Never been this far before, but I think it may be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

Update

They found the heartbeat right off. I mean RIGHT off. (Baby is definitely a show-off.)

If you felt a large gust of near-gale force wind this morning around 9:30, that was us breathing a huge sigh of relief.

Thank you for the prayers! It means a lot.

Insomnia; or, Flashbacks.

Tomorrow morning I go in for my 12 week appointment. I'll be hearing Baby's heartbeat on a Doppler.

Tonight I can't sleep.

Never mind that we've already seen Baby's strong little heartbeat, severely lessening chances of miscarriage. Never mind that I've been consistently sick for the past seven and a half weeks. Never mind that I haven't had any symptoms of anything other than normally progressing pregnancy. Never mind that my pregnancy symptoms are pretty much textbook pregnancy symptoms so far, something that never happened the other two times.

All I can think about, as I pray over and over again, "Please let them find the heartbeat right off," is that exactly 39 weeks ago, the exact same prayer was going through my mind the night before my last 12 week appointment. I was pretty confident that everything was fine, but I really didn't want to have to deal with the suspense and false panic if they couldn't find it right off.

And then the next morning they couldn't find the heartbeat with the Doppler. No big deal, I thought, plenty of people say they couldn't find the heartbeat right off. They took me downstairs just to check with the ancient sonogram machine. Couldn't find a heartbeat. But no big deal, because really, when I say ancient I mean you could barely even tell there was a uterus in that image. So they sent me to the hospital to check on the fancy new machine. No big deal, because I get to see my baby.

And then they couldn't find a heartbeat there.

And then it was a very big deal.

Both Shallow Man and I have a very good feeling about this pregnancy. We're confident that it's going to work out. But that isn't making the flashbacks go away so I can sleep yet.

Tonight, 39 weeks later, I'm praying the same prayer and just hoping that tomorrow will be a good day, with no further sense of deja vu.

Please, PLEASE, let them find the heartbeat right off this time.

Dear, sweet child . . .

I know I always jokingly say that doing homework makes me sick to my stomach.

But I really need to get this done today.

So please, let's establish some boundaries right now:

Stop taking me so literally!

Or at the very least hold off on the sickness until after my major project is finished.

Thank you.

And now for something best of all; or, "!!!!!"

So I don't have the energy at this point to write a long post.

But if a picture is worth a thousand words, I think a

one . . .



two . . .



or three . . .



thousand word post would definitely be long enough, right?

Short story: Our surprise little miracle Baby Nib or Shallow Jr. is scheduled to arrive in October. We got the sonogram this morning and saw our little one and heard the heartbeat for the first time ever and I have to say it's kind of addicting and completely over-the-top amazing and we couldn't be more thrilled. We are thanking our Heavenly Father daily, hourly, and more for this blessing.


The other good news is that the crippling morning sickness I've been suffering with for the last month or so (I may or may not have lost about 10 pounds in that time) is responding VERY well to the new prescription they gave me (after the last prescription made it about ten times worse). I may even make it back to class for the last few weeks of my last semester!

Now for something more light-hearted.

So I read blogs.

Lots of blogs.

Blogs of friends and family, yeah.

But mostly blogs of people I do not know and will never meet.

And I'm okay with that.

Because many of these people are hilarious.

And sometimes they have posts like this.

And then I just have to share.

(And I also wonder why I never thought of that.)


Hmmm.

Maybe it's time to find some cabbage. . . .

Heavy heart

I don't think I ever truly understood what it felt like to mourn with those that mourned until I had my miscarriages. I always felt deeply for people when they had trials or tragedies and would sympathize with them, talk with them and even, I hope, help make their way a little easier to bear. But it was sympathy and not empathy.

Since I have begun blogging, albeit irregularly, about our infertility struggles and the heartache of the miscarriages, I have come across the amazing network of blogs and communities of women and couples who are struggling, too. I am not a central player in any of this; I tend to lurk and read blogs without commenting most of the time. One of these days when I'm more organized I will get around to putting up a list of some of these blogs that have inspired and helped me.

When I hear about any of these wonderful people getting that positive test, or getting chosen for adoption, I cheer for them. When they find out the flavor of their baby, I start thinking thoughts of pink or blue. When they post pictures of their miracles, I coo and sigh and melt and post comments with wayyy too many exclamation points.

And then there are those other days. Days when someone gets one more negative test. Days when suddenly it's too hard for someone to put on a hopeful face and they need to vent or cry or scream in frustration. Days when the Clomid didn't work, or a new round of shots failed, or the doctors just don't know what to try next.

Or days of loss, like today. Days when I find out that one of these amazing couples has been unchosen for adoption. And then the loss seems as unbearable to me as if it had been my own. I'm weeping as I type this, because my heart aches for this couple (who most likely had no idea I was even reading their blog). I can't lift the burden for them. I can't make it better. All I can do for them is mourn as they mourn.

Please, keep Josh and Savannah in your prayers.