It's Getting Bigger

More aches and pains. Jill is starting to get scared about her belly is getting bigger. There is more back pain, swelling feet, heartburn, and many other symptoms of third trimester joys.

"What am I going to do, I still have 3 months, I don't think I am going to make it!" she whimpered with frustrations.

I still get in trouble with the baby emotions, but I think I am handling them better. Everyone knows that I am the lazy one in the family, so this next month I will need to pray for a miracle. I know I will need some sort of mind change to adjust and come through with the extra help I will need to give to Jill. I will let you know how the nursery is starting to look on the next blog.

Jill's thoughts: There are definitely more aches and pains. My first and second trimester were cake compared to my third. Heart burn and swelling are my favorite. I'm even wearing a back brace now because I'm way to front heavy!

Hector can have his off day too, when I swear he forgets that I'm pregnant and expects me to be able to do everything I could before I was pregnant. He'll say things like "You can pick that up, it's not too heavy" or "Why are you tired, we haven't been walking long?" But those insensitive days are few and far between. For the most part, he has been an incredibly supportive husband. And the bigger I get, the more supportive he gets. I think it makes it more real with each pound gained!

Training for the Marathon

We got an opportunity to babysit a 6 week old. Noah is the newest addition to the family out our church. Elli asked us if we would babysit so that she could go back and work this week. We got him for just one day. So it gave us an opportunity to be with a newborn. Noah was an easy baby but we could not keep him awake. Every time we tried to feed him he would fall asleep after an ounce of milk. We did learn a few things:

• Warming milk times
  
• Changing diapers
• Handling boo-boos
• Burping
• Putting him in the Car seat
• Packing a bag
• how long a bottle should be used
• Schedules
• an how hard it is to get anything done with a baby around
• Our house is not baby friendly lots of work to do
  

I am pretty sure that we have learned alot more than that and hope to get more training time. I have faith that God is going to prepare us for everything.

Jill's thoughts: Getting to take care of Noah has been great for us. Noah is the precious baby of our friends Ellie and Aaron, and he will be about 4 1/2 months old when Ben is born. So we get a little practice before the real thing! Ellie and I plan on Ben and Noah being best friends!

I can't beleive how long it's been since either one of us has spent much time with a new born. But it's been a lot of fun. My favorite part is seeing Hector interact with Noah. He's going to be a great dad. He's incredible with kids.

It said it in the book, a Soccer Ball!

Week 25 has come and today it is gone. Jill is experiencing pain and fatigue. She is also starting to experience more of what I call emotional heigteness. In the book what to expect when you are expecting, and yes I do read. It states that in week 25 and 26 her Uterus is the size of a soccer ball. So I guess that means he is going to be an athelete. Well the growth uses a lot of estrogen, and we all know what a large amount of estrogen will cause. Happy space for the baby and a lot of apologies from daddy. We still take alot of opportunties to listen to the baby's heartbeat and talk to him. November 6, is coming fast.

Jill's thoughts: If I didn't put my 2 cents in, this blog would be incredibly biased! But I do have to admit that I've been a tad emotional lately. Not mean, as much, as teary eyed, definitely needing a little extra TLC.

Hector for the most part is doing a great job of loving me through it. Every once in a while I want to punch him, but not often! :) The fact that he's reading up on where we're at in each stage of pregnancy is great, but when he uses it against me, it gets very annoying! Why can't he be one of those ignorant fathers who doesn't know anything! Then I can tell him it's not the hormones, it's him! :)

That's a Big Butterfly

"Come here, give me your hand" she excitedly requested

She took my hand and plunged it into her stomach.

"Can you feel that?" "Right there!" "How about that?" excited that I would be able to feel the baby kick.

"Um, no honey I can't the doctor said that we may not feel him kick until after week 24" I stated to her.

"I'm telling you, I can feel him" she continued to repeat to me as she tried to convince me that I could"

For a few weeks now Jill could feel little butterflies in her belly. She did not feel strong kicks but could feel the baby turning and fluttering around. With an eagerness to have more communication with the baby we invested in a baby monitor. No, not one of the ones you get at Babies R' Us, but a real one a doctor would use. We went to a website called www.babybeat.com and rented one for a few months. Was the price inexpensive? NO, NO, and NO, but for every time Jill wonders why the baby is not moving it has come right handy.

After I came home from the hospital, I got another one of Jill's feel this. I kept telling her I won't be able to but I sat up in the bed and leaned into her. Again, nothing.

"Wait, wait" she hushed me and....

There he was my first kick, I felt my little boy kick me like three times. What a rush I think I missed twenty minutes of the movie we were watching. It passes by so quick, and you have this desire to make him kick on command. I found out that they are not that obedient in the tummy.

That was not a little butterfly kick, That's a Big Butterfly kick.

God bless the tip taps from the inside.

Jill's thoughts: This was the coolest moment. I had been feeling him move for several weeks, but I had no one to share it with! When Hector finally felt Ben move, the look was priceless. The side of his face was attached to my belly for the next half hour. It's such a blessing to see my husband so excited about this baby.

Being Sick When She is Pregnant

As the steam from the water filled the bathroom, I lied on the base of the tub wondering what hour it would be for me to see the end. I called out to Jill multiple times, with the shower running, a closed door and a television volume cranked to 9000, she was unable to hear my calls of despair. The door slowly cracked open as not to allow any of the hot steam out, and a concerned voice came from the other side.

"Honneeey, are you o.k.? I don't think you should be in here long you are going to throw-up."

I expressed that I am going to be fine and that all I needed was a bottle of cold water. A few moments later I had a glass of water and then a feeling of nausea. I turned off the water and stepped out toward the porcelain God and began to give him his sacrifice of water and Angel food cake. Within the next 45 minutes I was rushed to the E.R. with a Fever of 103.5 and diagnosed with a new friend called cryptosporidium. Over the next few days Jill will be tested.

On June 28Th, Jill and I took a journey with the church youth group to a local lake water park. A parasite by the name of cryptosporidium crashed the party and we never even knew it. The parasite caused me a major case of fever, diarrhea, and dehydration. And as my visit in room 5029 prolonged, "crypto" pillaged the church youth group to the number of 30 plus. Thank the Lord that only two people went to the E.R., everyone else traveled only to small doctor visits and some Imodium kept them at home.

On our first evening in the hospital, Jill spent her journey sitting in an uncomfortable hospital chair from 11 pm to 4 am in the morning, jocking with the nurses and doctor's to pump me with meds to cure me of any current pain.

"Can we have an extra blanket, he's freezing to death," " His cramping is pretty excruciating, can you give him something," "When can he get something for the fever, the nurse just took his temperature and it is still over 102" she sincerely probed for results and made all symptoms worse than they were so that I would get the most attention.

Four a.m., the doctor walks back in with his arms crossed and with a sense of exhausted thoughts, "Well we are going to admit him into a private room on the fifth floor."

Jill only heard "private room", her back and the position of the baby were crying for relief. As the ceiling lights rushed over my eyes, the short flashes of lights come to slow darkness as a pass through the threshold of room 5029. Ruby my night nurse took care of me, as Michelle my P.T. set Jill up for the night.

"This is 100 times better than the E.R." she softly stated as she fell into a light sleep at this six o'clock hour.

"I'm sorry honey, is there anything you need" a voice of selfish concern came from the dark corner. I responded to her with a no and asked her to back to sleep as that was my intentions as well.

Jill's journey with crypto began the next day and my competition began with her mom. You see you can't beat the nurturing care of a mother and her sick child. Jill spent the next day wondering if she was a bad wife because she could not come to the hospital. Her mother fed her, loved on her, and came to her beck and call. We spoke on the phone and she built my spirits up at night to help me to sleep. The days slowly passed and crypto continued to hang around like an wanted guest.

I worried about the baby but we found out that the baby is in the clear and nothing could happen to him. It just made it tougher on Jill. I would feel the depression and Jill's need for attention and care in a few days.

Jill was settled in on the couch one evening and beginning to feel the nausea blues.

"Can you get me a Gatorade" she quietly asked

I went to the refrigerator and brought it back sat down and the next morning when I woke up I felt the wrath of "I'm busting my butt to take care of you and all I need is a little appreciation"

Extra estrogen and the extra stress was a terrible experience for Jill. I sat quietly on the couch and then followed her into the room to comfort her and we talked it out.

Crypto is still vacationing at our house but we are blessed to learn through this difficulty.

Jill's thoughts: My hormones may be a little crazy right now, but my husband, as do most men, makes a pitiful sick person. The combination of the two made for an interesting week together. The good news is, we still love each other!

On a brighter note, right before the Crypto scare, we received some great news - we're having a boy!!!! Hector and I were convinced we were having a girl, but God had a different plan. I really wanted a boy first so that he could be the big brother, but for some reason, I really thought I was having a girl. But as you'll see in the sonogram, we're pretty darn sure it's a boy. When we went in to have the sonogram, she told us, "well, those are definitely boy parts". Hector and I looked at each other in shock. It was a very surreal experience. "We're having a son". Hector and I neither one have much experience taking care of baby boys, so this is going to be a very interesting adventure - one we are THRILLED to begin. See the sonogram below that shows the details!