Flyin High

First of all, THANK YOU to all of the friends and famly that prayed for me today while Ella and I flew to Atlanta.  I was very nervous about this flight, since James wouldn't be there to take care of Ella in case I got sick.  I woke up this morning feeling pretty bad, and I finally decided to take a double dose of my Zofran.  You can either take 4mg every 4 hours or you can take 8 mg every 6 hours.  James made the executive decision to have me take the high dose, and I had a much better day today. 

We took a wheelchair to the plane, since I wanted to rest as much as possible.  Ella and I flew AirTran, and I love this airline.  The people are helpful and friendly, and the flight attendants are so accommodating.  I really appreciate all of their help today.  Ella was also a perfect little angel on the flight.  Usually she gets antsy and wants to get down on the floor and run all over the place, but today, she just sat quietly on my lap, read books, and ate animal crackers.  She smiled and cuddled, and even let me get up to go to the bathroom, while the flight attendants watched her.  That's a HUGE deal, since she usually gets hysterical if her parents go somewhere she can't see them.  But not today.  She just read her book and hung out until I got back.  Praise the Lord!!!

Now I'm at my parents' house, and I'm going to get a shower and go to bed.  Tomorrow we've got cousins coming over to play with her, and then on Wednesday, James will be here.  Thanks again for all of your prayers.  Please keep praying for me...I'm not out of the woods yet.

Checkin' In

Hi again.  I feel like I should warn you that I have no idea where this post is going.  I just realized that it's been awhile since I wrote anything, so I figured I should put something up on the blog.  I guess I'll update you on how everyone is doing at our house...

James is very tired.  He's been having to play super-daddy every day, since I'm out of commission.  He adores his little girl, and he loves to play with her, but it wears him out quickly.  He took her out of the house all morning and all afternoon today, since I had a very rough day and needed rest.  She loved the attention, but he's just DONE.  So I advised him to sit on the couch and play Call of Duty for a few hours tonight.  He put on his headphones, picked up his PS3 controller, and checked out.  Poor guy.

Ella is doing pretty well, but she's definitely feeling a lack of hands-on playtime from her mommy.  She's so used to having me down on the floor with her or reading books in the rocking chair during the day, and I know that she's confused to see me lying on the couch.  She keeps coming over and trying to pull me off the couch, like it's a game of hide-and-go-seek or something.  Poor baby.  Thankfully, she and I are headed to my parents' house for a week tomorrow, with James to follow us on Wednesday, so she will get lots of attention while we're there.  Hopefully she will let people play with her and not go into "I don't know who you are and I want my mommy" mode.  I guess we'll see.

And how am I?  Well, I'm sick.  Really sick.  I had a BAD afternoon, and if that keeps happening, I'm going to talk to my doctor about putting me on the Zofran pump rather than the pills.  Right now, I'm dealing with extreme nausea, vomiting, severe headaches, stomach cramps, dizziness, and other things.  There are some good moments when I feel almost normal...but they are fleeting and rare.  Hopefully this won't last 70% of my pregnancy like it did last time, but I'm not going to get too hopeful and set myself up for frustration and disappointment.  Mentally, it's just better for me to be prepared, and then I can be pleasantly surprised if it is better than I expect. 

Okay, well I would write more, but I need to go throw up.  See ya.

Blessedly Sick

Weird title, I know.  But that's just how it is these days. 

I'm sure you've all heard by now our wonderful news that I'm pregnant with baby number two, and we're very excited!!!  However, this comes with a catch...I'm pregnant.  And when I get pregnant, I get a little monster called "hyperemesis gravidarum."  Those of you who were here when I was pregnant with Ella will remember that I got this beast of a medical condition, which is defined as, “debilitating and potentially life-threatening pregnancy disease marked by rapid weight loss, malnutrition, and dehydration due to unrelenting nausea and/or vomiting.”  (You can read about it at http://helpher.org/ if you are interested.)  Last time, I had to be hospitalized to get it under control, and I had been hoping that wouldn't happen this time. 

Well, I wasn't so lucky...and last Saturday, I ended up in the emergency room at Barnes Hospital with pretty bad dehydration.  They pumped me with not one but TWO liters of IV fluid, and I felt well enough to go back home.  Thankfully, my body responds to a medication called Zofran, which was developed to help chemotherapy patients deal with nausea, and is safe during pregnancy, so I am taking that every 4 hours, all day.  This medicine has side effects of its own which aren't fun, but they're better than constant debilitating nausea, so I'm really thankful to have it. 

So that's why you haven't heard from me in awhile.  I'm currently seven and a half weeks along with little peanut, so I've got a long way to go!  I'm due a few weeks after we move to Savannah this summer, so this will be a Georgia-born kid.  Love it.

Here's a picture of little peanut from the ER sonogram machine, at a little over 6 weeks along...

Here's a closeup...

I'm scheduled to go to the OB's office for the first time on Wednesday, so hopefully we'll have more pictures to share!