A Heart Full of Love

It would be a shame to not share how greatful I am to my Heavenly Father for these past few months.

Back in February, Lance and I decided that we want to start a family.  Well, we already were a family, but a bigger family, you know, with children.  We felt really good about the decision, but we wanted to have one last big vacation with just the two of us, so that's when we planned our Disney World vacation.

After we got home from Disney World I looked for a new doctor.  I really wanted a female, someone who could empathize with me, someone who has been there before and knows exactly what I'm going through.  I did not want a man who only knows what other women have told him.  I called around and found out that Dr. Alicia Jones was accepting new patients.  I immediately made an appointment, for May 17th.

I had to go to the doctor before trying for a baby because I was using an IUD as my form of birth control, and I wasn't about to take it out on my own.  Also, I heard it's good to get a physical and all that fun stuff before you get pregnant.  So all that fun stuff happened May 17th. 

It seemed immediate, the blessings we received just for trying to start a family.  I received a raise in June, and Lance received a very large raise in July (17%).

July 9th I took a pregnancy test and it was positive.  I was 5 weeks along.

Life does throw trials at you.  At the beginning of August, my family decided to move across the country to North Carolina, which they did, August 15.  It was really hard for me to accept because I wanted them there for my pregnancy.  I wanted them there to help take care of the baby next summer so I could go back to work.  I never really realized how much I had planned for them to constantly be in the picture though this whole journey.

Last week, Lance received a job offer from a very good company.  It would have been a pay cut, but he would get health benefits.  To me that seemed like the answer to all of my worries.  I could just stay home, or only work part time and not have to worry because his job would provide health benefits, whereas right now mine provides them and his does not.

When Lance told his current boss about the offer, he did NOT want Lance to leave.  And offered him another 14% raise.  How can you pass that up?  That's 33% in raises for Lance, just this year.  We thought about it, and decided we couldn't turn it down. 

I spoke to my bosses about possibilities of keeping health coverage while only working part time, and I feel comfortable with my options.  I'm hoping after the baby comes they'll let me work from home 100%, while keeping my current duties.  For those of you who speak DataWise, this means I do not want to go back to being a coder.  I enjoy all of my responsibilities (besides checking... still finding a replacement for that one) too much to let them go.  I don't think Dana and Donni want me to let them go anyway.  Dana said he valued me as an employee and he'd rather have me part time than not at all.

I still have 6 months to sort everything out, but I at least feel at peace with where we are at.  I'm due March 11, 2012.  But I think I will have the baby on St. Patrick's day.  :-)

On a side note, I'm 98% certain I'm having a boy.  His name will be Liam.  Still working on a middle name.  If I'm wrong and it is a girl, she'll be Lily.

I have not been sick at all, whatsoever.  No nausea, never thrown up.  I was extremely tired for the first 10 weeks, but that finally went away.  I have gained 4 pounds.  I get lightheaded if I don't eat every three hours.  I crave vegetables, fruit, and french fries.  I have an aversion to Miracle Whip, which makes me really sad since I used to like it better than Mayo.  My clothes are getting tighter and I've had to put away some of my clothes that were purchased to be fairly tight.  Lately I've been craving Dr. Pepper, but when offered it doesn't tempt me.  It's quite strange.  It sounds good, but then I smell it and realize it won't taste as good as it did when I was addicted, and it's not worth falling off the wagon and getting addicted again.  I haven't had any since January! 

At my last appointment we got to see the baby and its little flicker of a heart beat.  My next appointment is September 1st, and we're hoping to hear the heartbeat.  Because I've had so few symptoms I worry that baby isn't growing.  We'll see.