Ahhhhh!!! Thanks!!!!!!

OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Thank you everyone!  I was sooooo surprised!  I thought Beth was just bringing me a little bag of clothes today... not a City Mini Stroller!!!!!!!!!!!!  AHHHHHHHH!!!

Cannot thank you all enough!!!!  Wowzers!  I'm still in awe!!!

My heart’s overflowing with

GRATEFULNESS,

BLESSINGS,

GRATITUDE,

THANKFULNESS,

and APPRECIATION

to the Lord for you!

  

LOVE YOU LADIES!!!!!!!!!  

37+5 update!

Wow!  I'm almost 38 weeks!  I cannot believe I'm considered full term right now.  Baby boy could come anytime.  It still does not feel real - at all.  I know we have baby stuff in the house.  I can feel him move all the time.  But when it comes to realizing that there will be a baby in the house... it still seems surreal.

How far along: 37 weeks, 5 days!

Total weight gain: Right around 30lbs.

Maternity clothes?  Yep.  I have a few favorite items that I just wear over and over.  I have one non-maternity, super big pair of sweats that I live in at home.  They are the kind of pants you can't leave the house in, but they are the only pair that work with my belly.

Sleep: Well... I do get some, when I'm not running back and forth to the bathroom.  It's becoming more and more difficult to get comfortable.  I LOVE being pregnant and would not trade it for anything, but I do admit I am looking forward to sleeping on my stomach again.  The advantage to sleeping on my side - baby moves a lot when I lay down.  Flipping over in the middle of the night is very interesting and takes a lot of effort.  Baby boy always starts moving after that.  Hehe.  I do love that.   I'm still crazy addicted to body pillow and my pregnancy wedge.  Cannot sleep without those things.  

Cravings:  HAMBURGERS!  All I want is some good beef.  I do not like beef!  At all!  I usually have a hamburger once, maybe twice, a year.  Doug is loving this side of me because I never cook beef.  But now, it's all I want.  Still don't have it all that often, but waaaaaay more often than normal.

Best moment this week:  Watching my belly move up and down.  It is amazing how it feels now.  It was just flips and kicks before and now my whole shirt will move up and down.  LOVE IT!!

Movement:  TONS!  Sometimes it almost feels like he is trying to get out!

Labor signs:  I don't think so.  My stomach gets really tight sometimes - maybe that is a braxton hicks contraction??  Who knows.  I was checked by my OB last week and I was a whooping 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced.  It really doesn't mean much except my body is getting ready for labor.  That is good to know.  After not trusting my body for so long, it's nice to know it is working!

Belly Button in or out?  In.

Weekly wisdom: From my favorite gal Hebrews, "Just an fyi for you: dogs eat baby socks."  This is something we are already painfully aware of.  Daisy has taken socks off TWO babies before.  TWO!  Went up and pulled those little socks off the baby and ran.  Could not have cared less about the baby... but the socks she wanted!  We are in trouble!

Milestones:  I was officially considered 'full term' this past Sunday.  ;)

Uncomfortable Moments:  Getting up.  Walking.  Sitting.  Not all the time, but there are times when I get up and make groaning noises.  Yep, I have an official 'getting up' noise.  I think it helps me get up.  Hehe.

Favorite Moments:  Sitting in the nursery this week when I had finally put all the stuff away.  I teared up and just took it all in.  I never thought that our spare room would have a crib in it.  It was such a calming moment.  Loved it.

Funny moment of the week:  Daisy is a very routine puppy.  She knows that when I grab some treats and say, "Let's go take a picture!" that it is belly picture time.  She runs over and sits in front of the sign now.  Hehe.  I've trained her well.

"Is is picture time mama?"

She loves the treats.  I love my belly. 

Maternity Pictures!

We originally were not going to have maternity pictures taken... and now I'm SO GLAD we did.  They make me tear up just looking at them!  Love love love!

"I prayed for this child, and the LORD granted my request."
1 Samuel 1:27

Intentions Anyone??

I am starting to gather up a list of intentions to pray for while I'm in labor.  If you would like me to pray for a specific intention, person, etc.... please let me know!  Either leave me a comment here or shoot me an email.  My email is in my profile on here.

Only three weeks left until my due date!!!!!!!!

It's all ok.

My car is back in the shop.  Looks like a good $1000 in repairs.

My phone has decided to self-destruct.  It refuses to charge.

My husband is stressed to the max with school stuff, home stuff, etc.

But... it's all ok.  It will be ok.

When the car guy called me today, I just took in a big sigh and said a little prayer.  I thanked God for all my blessings.  Even among the unpleasant call... there are SO MANY blessings all around me.

I just need to stop and think about them more often.  To really be truly thankful for all that I have.

The day I posted the August stuff... some blankets arrived in the mail.  You gals were right... no need to buy blankets!  And... thanks for all the prayers... they are working.

While August was filled with unpleasantness... at the same time, there was so much good stuff.  SO MUCH!

So this post will focus on that!

I got to hang out with this blogger!

I touched a goat!  Maybe I should add that to the unpleasant August post!

I got to hang out with my cute godson.  :)

I HAD TWO BABY SHOWERS!!!!!!!!!!

Which means I got to hang out with my BFF!

And play baby BINGO!

We (well, Doug) put up a crib in our house!  A BABY CRIB!!!

I got to see my dad do 'Grandpa' stuff.  He's in the plaid helping my FIL put up the Pack-N-Play.

My mom and dad came to visit!  I hadn't seen them in a long time.  It was so fun and I had missed them so much that when they were going to leave I started to cry and stomp my feet like a three year old.  They stayed one extra day. Hehe.  ;)  Three year old behavior totally worked!

I watched my belly grow.

And most of all... I spent lots of time hanging out with these two cuties.

See... It's all ok!

We Grew!

On a lighter note from my last post... 

Looks like Beth and I grew a little bit over the past two weeks.  :o)

Hard Times. Dang Garage.

I didn't post a single thing all of August.

It was a mixed month.  There were some really great times (I'll post about the good stuff later in the week) and there were some well... really horrible times.  Nothing life threatening.  I'm fine.  The baby is doing great.  Doug is good.  Doug's parents are good.  My parents are still hanging in there - mom's using a walker now due to a broken foot and my dad is sporting not one, but two canes.  But all in all - everyone is OK.

But it was still one of the hardest months we've had as a married couple.  We are getting along great... it's not that.  It was just one of those months that we wanted to put behind us and never see again.  I thought we had done that.

Until yesterday.  Welcome September.

I got a call from Doug who was at work about an hour away from our house.  I asked him what he was doing and he said, "Standing next to my dead car."

I held it together while he told me his plan.  Luckily, his parents live in the town where he works and help was on the way.  I hung up the phone, took a deep breath and then just started crying... and screaming... and yelling... and crying.  I didn't stop for a long time.

It should not have been such a big deal.  It was a car.  It would be fixed and he would drive it again.  No problem.  But it all just added up to everything that happened in August and it was overwhelming to me.

To put it mildly, August sucked. 

We started the month with high hopes.

We were having a few *minor* home repairs done.  I considered it part of the 'nesting' process.  We wanted it all done before Doug headed back to school in the fall.  We needed to get the trim on our house painted.  We got paint on sale and found some great guys to scale to the very top of our house to do the job!  Yippee!

They were also going to fix up a little rotted wood on the front of the garage.

They did paint.  It looks great.  But they couldn't fix the garage.  Why???

Well... that little spot of rotted wood that had just appeared, was actually an entire frame of our garage that was rotted.  ROTTED to the freakin' core!  

What was going to be a few hundred dollar repair, ended up costing several upon several thousands and thousands of dollars and then some.  The damage was probably there for years and had finally made it's way to the surface.  There was no way we could have known it was there.  We had to bring in a structural engineer.  The garage had to be re-framed.  Siding taking down.  Garage door down.  New frame.

It still makes me sick.  It all had to be paid in cash.  We were lucky we had it.

However, letting that money go has come at a really high cost.

You see, it was my maternity leave money.  It was all the money we had saved so I could be off work for several months and be home with the baby.

NONE of my maternity leave is paid.  UGH!  And now all the money we had saved, that we needed for me to stay home, is gone - spent on the very much needed, but ugh repair of the freakin' garage.

That dang garage.

At the very same time of the garage repair, we had an electrician at our house for repairs.  We had carpet people.  And my car was getting lots of work done and it was in the shop.

Dang August.

Now I stew everyday in a big ball of stress.

I found out this week that I have to pay all my insurance premiums while I'm off on my unpaid maternity leave.  I was thinking it would be a few hundred dollars.  Silly me.  Think again - it will be several thousand of dollars.  Which we don't have because of that dang garage.   That on top of not getting paid for several months, makes me feel like I can't breathe.

I'm trying not to stress.  Not to think about all the stuff we still need for the baby.  I've been searching for items at thrift stores, finding great deals at garage sales and selling a ton of stuff too.

I'm really trying to sort out wants from real needs for the baby and our lives in general.  But it's hard.

I want so much to buy great baby gifts for all my friends.  I had some all ready to purchase and I couldn't do it.  I'm in a bible study that is costing money for the next several months.  I never thought that doing a bible study would be stressful, but hitting the 'purchase' button and signing up was hard to do.  My phone is on a quick spiral downhill and I was hoping for a new camera to take pictures of our little miracle.  And heck... this girl wants a baby jogger city mini stroller!

But those are my wants.  They are not needs right now.  In the end, I know that it will all be fine.  Everyone goes through this, we are not unique.   Things could be much much much worse.  That is not lost on me.  I know that despite that dang garage and August, we are still very very blessed.

But right now, it's just scary.  I know we will make it, just haven't figured out the plan.  I like a plan.  So today, it's overwhelming and I needed to vent.  I'm trying to just trust that God will provide... and I know He will.  But it still feels overwhelming.  I don't know how to relinquish it all over to Him.  I know I need to.

I/we need some prayers.  So if you could spare some, they would be greatly appreciated.

I came across this on FB the other day... it's true.  Easier said than done... but I'm working on it.   Thanks for the prayers ladies.

The best of times... and the notsogood

I had an appointment today with my OB.  Love her!  She is fantastic.  It was a jammed packed appointment... Gestational Diabetes testing, lab work, ultrasound and the visit with my OB.

I had been a little worried about the GD testing.  I knew I'd pass, for I regularly check my blood sugar.  It's always normal, so I was not worried.  I WAS worried about taking the actual test.  My body cannot handle a whole bunch of sugar well.  Especially highly concentrated sugar in a little bottle.  But I have had sweets before, so I thought it *might* go ok and I didn't want to refuse the testing.  I had talked about it with my OB and since there is a family history of diabetes and GD, I decided to give it a go.

Boy, was I wrong about it going ok.

I chugged the drink like a champ, squinting the entire time.  That stuff is nasty.  Granted, I never drink anything sweet like that, since I'm a water, tea, milk gal.  I had my ultrasound right after.

I LOVE ultrasounds.  LOVE THEM!  I never want them to end, for I could stare at the screen forever. However, a few minutes into the scan and I started thinking... 'I hope this ends soon, I don't feel so good.'  But I pushed those thoughts aside and concentrated on that sweet baby on the screen.

We oooohed and ahhhhed at baby boy and then, all of the sudden, the u/s tech (who was wonderful!) told Doug to grab the trash can and quick.  She hoisted me up and said that she thought I didn't feel well.  She was right.  I was pale (well, I'm always pale) and shaky and could not hold it in.

Bye bye glucose drink.

Oh well.  It's not the end of the world.  My OB said I do not have to repeat the testing, unless something happens.  Whoot!  I will just continue occasionally testing my blood sugar at home.

I was planning on going to work after my appointment.  Instead, Doug and I ran and got some great food and spent the day resting.  The shaky feeling from the drink didn't go away for a long time.  But... hours later, I'm feeling much better and not planning on drinking any sugar anytime soon!

Now... for the good stuff!

Baby Boy is doing great!  He weighs 3 pounds and has a little bit of hair!  He was in a great position during the scan (pre-puking!), so we were able to really get a good look at him.  Oh, how I love that baby!  I just started crying when I saw his sweet face.

Here is he!

The Six of Us

Who would have thought...

Three gals with a compound of fertility issues...

All pregnant at the same time...

Together in the same place...

I love this picture of the SIX of us!!

Praise the Lord!!

Me, Beth and Marie!

27 week update!

Twenty-seven weeks!  How did that happen??!!  I cannot believe I'm almost to the third trimester already!  Crazy!

I saw this on another blog and thought it would be an easy way for an update.  I have a ton of posts in the draft category, but none of them have made it to the blog.  I'll do better.  :)  But for the meantime...

How far along: 27 weeks!

Total weight gain: Right under 15 pounds as of my last appointment.  I'm guessing it's gone up in the last two weeks!

Maternity clothes?  Yep, yep and yep.  I LOVE maternity clothes.  Seriously, they are the most comfortable clothes ever - so far, anyway.  If I would have known about that stretchy fabric in my heavier days, I would have been set!

I have a pair of non-maternity shorts I've been wearing around the house that have been soooo comfy.  I put them on last night and took them off immediately.  They were suddenly tight - OVERNIGHT!  I was going to wear a pair of carpi's that weren't maternity yesterday.  They still fit!  I put them on and Doug laughed and said I looked like a little old man who had his pants up to high.  So, mostly everything I wear now is maternity.  I don't want to look like a little old man after all.

Sleep: Pretty good, but I'm getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, which has always annoyed me, pregnant or not.  I hate getting out of bed!  I love sleep.  I sleep in a pillow cocoon these days.  We just got a new bed and it is do die for.  It's a king, sleep number with memory foam.  It moves up and down to adjust to how we want to sleep and it has been heavenly!  Pair that with a boppy pregnancy wedge (cannot live without that thing), a sleep number chambered body pillow, a snoogle maternity pillow and some regular pillows and I have to be comfortable.

Cravings: Today I woke up and my first thought was, "Mmmmm... Root Beer!"  Yep, I wanted root beer at 5:30am.  I didn't go get any and probably won't have any.  I don't even like soda!  But it's what I wanted.  I've wanted to go to Fra.zolli's for cheap crappy Italian food.  Haven't done that either.  Daily, I want anything with cheese.  And brownie batter.  I want brownie batter! I maybe have indulged a little with some brownie batter.  No brownies... but maybe the batter.  Maybe.  :)

Best moment this week: Getting the future nursery cleaned out!  Whoot!!!  It formally held everything we didn't know what to do with and the CAT!  We cleaned and cleaned and rearranged the entire house to get ready for baby.  Don't worry, we didn't get rid of the cat... just moved him to a new location.

It took almost 5 days and involved 5 rooms, many trips to the good.will and lots of stuff from the 80's that is no longer in this house!  Now, the walls are scrubbed, the baseboards cleaned and we are ready to paint.  Yay!  Such a huge relief to have the huge 'clean out the entire house to make room for tiny baby' project well underway!

Movement: Yep and I LOVE IT!!!  Baby boy is wiggling all around lately.  It's amazing how much it has picked up in the last few weeks.  I love it when my stomach goes up and down with little kicks.  It is the weirdest and most awesome thing ever.

Labor signs: Nope!  All is good.

Belly Button in or out?  In.

Weekly wisdom: From my favorite gal Hebrews, "Today, I learned that an important feature of the Snugabunny bouncy seat is that it's machine washable."  One of the many reasons I love Hebrews.

Milestones: We are THREE months out from the due date.  THREE MONTHS!!

Uncomfortable Moments:  Getting up.  Sometimes it feels like my stomach is gonna hit the floor.  Little bit of an ouch!

Favorite Moments:  Finally 'looking' pregnant and just about everything else too.  I'm trying to cherish every single moment right now.  Even when I'm uncomfortable or running to the bathroom again, I remind myself that I never thought I'd be where I am.  :)

For your viewing pleasure, a 27 week belly shot:

Hello anxiety and 2am...

It's 2:30 am and I am wide awake.  Anxiety seems to be going around the blogosphere lately and it has hit at the Hauser house.

I've always had some issues with anxiety.  I get so nervous about all the unknowns in life.  I worry about everything.  I have no control over things and it drives me crazy.  I fret.  I feel sick.  I cannot sleep.

That is where I am tonight.

It started about me worrying about a work situation that has left me with a pit in my stomach.

It escalated into me worrying about my job, our finances, our health and health expenses, our parents health, baby boy's health, Doug's long commute to his work, providing for our baby, being a good mother, etc., etc.

It quickly got out of control.

I glanced at the clock... 2am.  I tried to go back to sleep, but it didn't work.

I thought I'd look at what was up on my phone - oh my trusty iPh.one.

I saw this...

Thank goodness for Fr. Larry.  "When I fear, I will trust in you." Psalm 56:3.  I needed to hear that.  I need to cast all my anxieties on Him.  He is the only one that can take any of this away right now.  I don't know why it is so hard to trust, to turn it over to Him, but it is.  

But I will try.  I'm heading back to bed and will pray and hopefully get a little more sleep before work.  

If you could all spare a prayer for me as well, I'd really appreciate it.  

My new favorite thing

Doug has started reading to our baby boy.

It is something I always dreamed about. He is one great children's book reader. I have seen him captivate tons of little ones while he reads to them. He changes voices and is so animated. It is the sweetest thing -- ever.

Finally, it's our little one he is reading to. And I love it.

That would be my green belly.  :)

SEEING BLUE!!!!

IT'S A BEAUTIFUL BABY BOY!!!

Dad update and Belly

Thanks again for all your prayers.

My dad finally turned a corner and is finally home from the hospital.

The verdict?  Really really bad vertigo.  Phew.  They tested everything they could think of and couldn't find a thing - which is good and bad.  They started the vertigo medicine and he started to get better... so that is the diagnosis.  While the doctor was in the room on Tuesday, my dad fell over.  No sense of balance at all.  Poor guy.  Breaks my heart to 'hear' him hurting.  I didn't see it... but I can imagine it and I do not like it!!  The doctor ordered him off work for a week.  He loves his job and needs to retire, but just won't.  Men.  :)

When I talked with him this morning, he said he hadn't fallen today.  That's an improvement, so we will take that!

I sent him a big motorcycle balloon since my parents banned me from coming to the hospital.  Dang parents didn't want me to take off work, drive, worry, etc.  I figured I'd be better help to them once they got home, so I stayed put and didn't add me arriving to their stress list.  Anyway... the motorcycle balloon.  It was HARD to order.  The gift shop lady did not understand I wanted a 'get well' balloon that didn't look girly.  She said she'd send an "It's a BOY!" balloon to him.  I was like... "Ummm... he's a 67 year old man... he didn't have a baby!"  I had to repeat that about 5 times.  So it was either 'It's a Boy!' or a giant motorcycle.  Motorcycle is was and he loved it!  He always wanted a real motorcycle (this was new information to me and my mom!) and now he has this!  Hehe.  Please continue to keep him in your prayers... he's got a long way to go.  Starting with basic walking and all.

A bad pic, but you get the idea.  :)

And to keep me busy this week... I took bump pics!  Here's the latest!  We have an ultrasound next Wednesday (5/9)... any guesses on the gender???  

Getting a little bit bigger!  I gotta work on my posture and get a hair cut!

"What's in there mama?"

Daisy was over the photo shoot and decided to put her head in the corner.  

Hahahaha! Silly puppy!