Pregnancy Woes

I read a friend's blog today entitled "Warning - Vent Alert" and I decided to join in her fun. There are two things that have been driving me crazy lately:
1. leg cramps
2. emotional basket case hormones

A good night's sleep is something that I have had to try to forget about. I roll over multiple times each night, rolling my body pillow with me and I am still not comfortable. My calves are cramping regularly now and I have woken up almost crying in pain (and scaring my dear husband) while clutching my calf muscle. When that isn't happening, my hips hurt a lot which leads to more adjusting and rolling over. Ugh. No fun.

I have been proud that my hormonal balance has been rather stable - until now. This week we found out a friend was pregnant, but suffered a miscarriage only three days after getting the pregnancy confirmation. She and I had talked a lot about trying to conceive and I was so excited for her to join me in being pregnant. While I would naturally expect to be saddened at their loss, I have found myself distraught over it. I practically cried through our entire church service this morning. I was so embarrassed, but I can't seem to control it. I am even tearing up at tv commercials these days. Ugh. No fun.

To add a slight bit of positivity, we are traveling to Midland this weekend for my sister's bridal shower. I am so excited to see my mom, one sister (too bad the other can't come) and my grandparents (maybe both sets, I don't know yet), Ryan's cousin and her husband and many family friends. I am really looking forward to it!

Half Way There

Today we are at 20 1/2 weeks along in this pregnancy, so we are half-way there. It is bitter-sweet to be half way. Part of me has really enjoyed pregnancy (for all the suffering that is soon to come, there have been perks so far - like lots of guilt-free eating). It is fun to watch my belly grow, to hear the heartbeat, and just to talk and dream about having a child. But, to get that child, we must continue on and bring him into the world, so onward into the second half of pregnancy we go.

Here is the picture of the belly progression. In the picture, I don't think my belly looks too much bigger, but it is definitely taking more shape and becoming firmer.

I also have lost the ability to see my feet when I am standing straight. My socks are a little harder to put on and I love it that Ryan always helps me up from the couch or a chair. He is so kind to me. I still get looks everywhere I go. People first look at my belly and then to my eyes. At least now I know they aren't wondering "Pregnant or not?" There is no denying it is a pregnant belly. I am having no sickness and barely any swelling in my hands. I have enough energy for most tasks, but require weekend naps pretty regularly. All in all, I feel great!

We went to the doctor for our 20 week appointment today. All is well. My doctor went over the untrasound and Ben is fitting perfectly into the "normal" stage of everything. The due date remains the same, March 19th. She recommended a pediatrician and since we don't really know anyone here really well, I am just going to go on her recommendation. I really like her and she knows these doctors, so I find more comfort in that. Ben's heart rate was 150 bmp which is right about where we have been from the beginning.

The only thing that is bothering me now is whether or not I am feeling him move. The nurse and doctor asked at my 16 week appointment and I said no, then the untrasound tech asked at our 18 week untrasound and I said I wasn't sure. Now, today, the nurse and doctor asked as if they were expecting me to say yes - like it wasn't really a yes or no question, but that I would instead confirm that I was indeed feeling him move. I just don't know if I feel him or not. Even as the nurse used the doppler to listen the the heartbeat, she said he was moving all over the place and looked up with a smile and said, "Do you feel that?" "NO!" I felt nothing. I wasn't bothered by it until now. But even now, I know it is still just at the beginning of the time I might feel him, so I will not be too nervous about it. I kinda think I feel him, so I will just keep trying to feel that feeling :)

Other than that, we are glad to be home from Dallas and back in the swing of things here. Today is a super windy day and reminds us that we are indeed in Kansas! The temperatures go back and forth a lot. One day will feel like a middle-of-Dallas-winter day and the next will be a nice fall day. Hopefully, neither of us get sick with all the tempermental weather.

Here is a picture of me just goofing around today in the bright sunshine and gusty wind. I don't know that I like taking pictures of myself so much though, but hopefully all you who are missing out on seeing us in person will enjoy.

New & Improved

Welcome to the new look of Pizza & Ice Cream. Thank you, Lisa for introducing me to the wonderful world of free blog backgrounds. It just gives me one more thing to waste my time doing online. I love it!

Ben's Grammy (Ryan's mom) has requested more pregnancy belly pictures. I generally take blog pictures when Ryan is gone, but I will make an effort to show off my belly more often since I know Grammy isn't the only one wondering about my belly.

Here, Ryan and I are comparing our bellies
(Ryan is pushing his out for the pic.)
This is my best effort at a Halloween costume.

I mentioned we made a trip to Dallas this week for our friends' funeral. We were also able to see some friends from church and came home with some gifts: some clothes, an almost-new breast pump, and some other little baby stuff. Thanks so much to all our wonderful friends for thinking of us.

Ben's closet now has some clothes!

Goodies for Ben.

Medela Advanced Backpack Style
Now, I just have to figure out how to use this thing.

This is how we spent Halloween night. World Impact had a Halloween party for neighborhood kids at the new ministry house. We served hot chocolate, hot apple cider, and nachos. We had three games for the kids to play and of course they received lots of candy. We also raffled off a kid's bike and a $50 Wal-Mart gift card for the adults. We met lots of new neighbors and are hopeful some of them will come around more and get involved in our church plant in this new neighborhood.

I Love Pumpkin Carving

World Impact is having a Halloween party at the new ministry house. The purpose is to meet new families in the neighborhood. Before the party, all the staff is gathering this Thursday to carve pumpkins. I love carving pumpkins.

Sadly though, we have to travel to Dallas to attend a funeral of a friend and former co-worker. That means we will miss the carving party. So, we immediately went to buy pumpkins and had our own carving party - a tradition in our family.

Enjoy the pictures from our fun.

Ready, Set, GO

The World Series was on...we wouldn't dare miss it!

My Pumpkin

Ryan's Pumpkin


Ta-Da - I tried a more 'non-traditional' approach and Ryan made the Houston Astros Star!

Project Update

The time we have between now and Ben's arrival is getting shorter. That is making me want to get all the little house projects done as soon as possible. I actually created my first ever "Honey Do" list. Don't worry though, I created an "Amber Do" list as well. We worked on a couple of those this weekend.

Honey Do:

1. Replace all the tan (ugly) light switches and plate covers. I am not a fan of the tan color, especially since we painted our walls a lovely beige and the trim white. So, Ryan is replacing them all throughout the house. Thanks, honey.


2. Move the numbers on the front of our house. A few years ago, some missionaries that lived here before us added on another living room and a lovely kitchen and pantry/laundry room. When doing this, they made another front door into the newer side of the house. That means there are two front doors on our house. It greatly confuses the mailman and probably many other people. The house numbers were beside the original door, the one we don't use. So, Ryan moved them to maybe make things a little easier. Enjoy my lovely additions to the picture of our house. (No, the new numbers aren't really that big and spaced-out. I didn't get an after picture, so I added the numbers in Print Shop.)


Amber Do:

1. Clean vertical blinds. I really don't like vertical blinds, but we have some and I am not installing french doors anytime soon, so I will live with them. They were so dirty and have been bothering me for quite some time. This weekend, I washed them! Enjoy my nasty picture of the top of the blinds. They are right next to the stove, so I think all the dust was baked on. I had to use 409 to get it off.
I am the oldest of three girls. My dad always said I was the son he never had. That translates to mean I went everywhere and did everything with him. I went fishing with him, learned my way around a tool box, and gleaned from him a "I will try to fix anything" attitude. I of course love this about myself, but I know it causes problems for my dear husband. Ryan even bought me my own hammer and screwdriver set so we don't have to share.

I tell you this to preface this picture:
So, you might be wondering why I would tell about my great talents (that word might be a stretch) at fixing things and then show a picture of Ryan.

Here is the story...Our oven light hasn't worked since we moved in and niether has the light in the refrigerator. I replaced the light in the frig - yeah, I can see my food. I thought the oven light would be just as simple. There were two little screws that I took out and expected to then see the light bulb. I pulled on it a little and POP! Sparks flew. I screamed. Ryan came running.

Everyone was fine. Ryan gently told me that I should have turned off the breaker before attempting this (after giving me a hug and making sure I was ok). I don't know what I was thinking. Actually, I do. I was thinking that replacing the oven lightbulb would be just like replacing any other lightbulb. Unscrew old one, screw in new one. No need to turn off the power for something so easy.

So, after my big mistake, Ryan had to take apart the oven to completely remove the wires that went to the oven light because they are useless now that they blew. I know, I know, many of you are rolling your eyes and wishing I would think twice before putting myself and Ben at risk. Sorry! I feel pretty stupid and will be more careful from now on. And, I still don't have an oven light.

It's A...

Boy!

We are thrilled to announce that we are expecting Benjamin Ryan around March 19, 2009. We had a wonderful experience with the sono tech. She was so nice and made sure we saw everything! The room was fabulous too. There was a huge, flat screen TV mounted on the wall opposite the bed, so I could see everything perfectly. We have attached pictures, so enjoy. They are labeled, but I will try to give a little detail to help you see if you aren't used to looking at these. We took pictures of the pictures, of course, so they aren't extremely clear, but you should get the idea.

We are completely thrilled. Thank you for all the many emails and facebook comments! Your excitement fueled our excitement which made this day that much more wonderful. We love you!
This is a view from below, looking up at the bum and through the legs. The arrow is pointing to the guarantee (cross our fingers, right Jill?) that it is a boy. I joked with the tech about coming back to find her if she was wrong and she offered her disclaimer, but then said, she was so sure it was a boy. We both think this picture is pretty convincing.

The bright white lines are the bones in the arm. From left to right you see the elbow to wrist and then the curled fingers. The hand is just above the head.

Here are both arms. The picture on the left is pretty much the same as the one above. In the picture on the right, the elbow is at the top of the picture, then the arm comes down and the fingers are closer to the bottom of the picture. The arm and hand are on top of his head.

Ben was not participating very well and would barely move enough for her to take the measurement of his head. So, this face picture is really not very good. The face is on the right side of the picture. I will leave it up to you to decide if you see it or not. In motion, we definitely saw it, but this picture just isn't very good.

The foot is the rectangular bit just below the typed words. The ankle is to the left and then follow it right to the toes.

As soon as we left the doctor's office, we went straight to Babies R Us. We exhausted ourselves registering for all the goodies that Ben will need. We are home for dinner and then will go to Super Target to finish off the registering process.My disclaimer:
I know I said I didn't like yellow or green, just pink or blue. Well, some of you have taken me quite literally and I would like to clear that up a little. I just like things that look like boys stuff, not gender neutral. When in doubt, stick to the registry!

Projects

I don't blog about my wonderful husband near enough. So, I am going to brag on him a little and THEN let him read the blog. He is sitting right in front of me now, but will have no clue I am writing about him. Actually, I just took a picture. See, that is me working on the blog (with the sunshine coming through the blinds on my computer) and him at his desk typing away. Ha. He didn't even ask me what I was taking a picture of.


And, this is what he is working on. He just handed me this paper (picture below). He has created a 16 session mini-curriculum that will be a starting point for people that are interested in the 16 class curriculum that he teaches for World Impact. I know, that may be a bit confusing. He teaches classes for Christ the Victor Leadership School here in Wichita. It is pretty intense. It is watered down seminary-level training. It takes a little over two years to complete the program. He has created this watered down version of the Leadership School for people that are new Christians or for whatever reason don't have a good Biblical foundation. This curriculum would only take 16 weeks. Then, the student would hopefully be ready for the Leadership School.


He has been working a lot on creating all kinds of stuff for the Leadership School. It actually only started just before we moved here and just got its new name this week. (Christ the Victor is the name of the church plant movement that is beginning here in Wichita through World Impact. We attend Christ the Victor Church, the newest church plant.)

Below is a picture of the New Student Packet he created to give to students interested in taking classes. He created the logo and everything. TUMI that you see in the logos stands for The Urban Ministry Institute of which Christ the Victor Leadership School is a satellite campus. Make sense? This has been a great fit for Ryan. He has really enjoyed working on all this stuff and is a fabulous teacher. I am taking the class that he is currently teaching.


Onto other Ryan stuff. You might remember that our garbage disposal didn't work. There was one attached to the sink and a seemingly useless switch by the sink, but nothing worked. World Impact bought us a new garbage disposal and this is Ryan installing it. I am so happy to have a working garbage disposal - the small joys in life. Especially being pregnant, my tolerance for nasty, mushy food sitting in the sink trap is just not very high. So, now I can grind it up. Thanks, honey.


You didn't think I would actually dedicate a whole blog to Ryan, did you? I tried, but I have something to share too. I attended a baby shower yesterday afternoon for a girl that I really don't know. But, she is on staff here. I saw a baby sock bouquet somewhere a while back and have been wanting to try it. So, I did.

Here are my materials:
Adorable, tiny girl socks
Floral tape
Floral wire
Greenery
Flower vase and Wire cutters (not pictured)


You role up the socks, wrap the bottoms to look like flower buds and then attach them to the floral wire that is wrapped in floral tape.


Then, after much more work than you might think, you have a baby sock bouquet. It was lots of fun to see the final product. At the shower, some other ladies told me about a diaper 3-tier cake. I googled it and found that some sell for over $100. Whew. I can't wait for an excuse to try my hand at that.


That is all for now. Remember, the gender sono is Monday. I will post later that evening, probably.