24 weeks

My life is counted in weeks lately. How many weeks along I am, how many weeks Mitch has been gone, how many more weeks till I see him, and how many more weeks till the baby comes.

Pregnancy has gotten much more manageable for me after I hit week 18. The heart burn has kicked in now so I sleep with a bunch of pillows to keep me propped up, but I'd take that over the continuous nausea.

Lessons I've learned lately:
-Having your husband gone while you are pregnant makes you overly emotional.
-Everyone seems to have a vocalized opinion about you and your baby, regardless of if they know you or whether that opinion is very nice or not.
-Your brain dives into further mush as pregnancy continues. I really miss my old brain.
-Feeling your baby move frequently is fascinating and reassuring.

The last 24 weeks have been quite the journey. I am grateful for all that I have learned.

Road Trip

I'm driving down to Houston with Mitch this week. He is going to be doing an internship there for the rest of the summer. I'll fly back on Sunday and then be one lonely gal while he is gone! Good thing my little sister is moving in with me while he is gone. We will be stretching the drive across the whole week so we can take a detour to Bentonville, Arkansas and see Mitch's sister. I'm pretty lucky to get a long drive with Mitch to myself, even if we will have to stop every two hours when my legs go numb under my belly.

P.S. We are having a BOY!!! Or as my mom would say, "a little Mitch man." We cannot wait!

Image here

Pregnancy Journal

Pregnancy has been quite a challenge for me so far. In fact I feel like the marathon I ran last year was a piece of cake now. I don't intend to make this a complaint in any form about being pregnant--on the contrary, I know by the end it will be the most rewarding thing I have done. I am so blessed to be a woman and to be able to carry this child, and my heart aches for those who may not be able to experience pregnancy in this life. But I wanted to document things that I have experienced thus far in my pregnancy. And to be honest, most of it has been really bad, but some small bits of it are so amazing that it makes it all worth it. (A marathon was that way too--a lot of pain but rewarding.)

When I first started getting really sick, I kept asking "how do women do this more than once?" Many moms would respond to me, "you will forget by the next child and that is why you keep having them."  And I can see how it is true, I'm starting to forget some things I experienced in my first few weeks. I think God blessed us with the ability to forget so that we can keep doing hard things. But as a keepsake to look back on when my little sister goes through pregnancy and asks what mine was like, or when my children ask me, I want to be able to write down some things for them to know. So for the next 4.5 months I'll try and post different stories so that I don't forget them. I hope you enjoy them as well, but if not--well, tough beans.

I'll be 20 weeks on Thursday, and we are finding out the gender on Friday--just before Mitch leaves for Houston. I cannot wait. But the last few weeks have been really busy and rushed and when people started asking me if I had felt the baby yet, I sadly realized I hadn't. The doctor warned me it would be so light at first, maybe gas bubbles or tiny nudges. And I was worried that maybe I'd been to busy to sit and feel. But this morning was amazing. I usually get up at 6:20 now so I can hurry and get ready and eat something, and then have about 45 min- 1 hour of rest before I go to work. (Mornings are tough with nausea so I need the rest). This morning as I rested on the couch, I kept thinking "aw man, I'm having little gas bubbles in my stomach that make it hard for me to fall asleep." And then I realized--wait..these gas bubbles feel a little different! And then I noticed just to the left of my belly button these tiny little nudges. In that moment I had the most overwhelming feeling of love. What a miracle it is to be experiencing the gift of creating life. This moment is one of those small moments that makes months of throwing up and aching all worth it. (Mitch--I hope you are reading this so you can remind me of it when times get tough again!)

Daddy Knows Best

In light of Father's Day coming up and the fact that my dad's birthday is just a few days away, I thought I'd relay a good pregnancy story.

A common anti-nausea pill that doctors give to pregnant women dealing with morning sickness is Zofran. The doctor warned me of the side effects, one of which is headaches. I've learned that in pregnancy, you often get rid of one symptom by receiving something else. You just have to decide what you can live with that day.  While the Zofran tended to settle my stomach, I could expect bad headaches for the next day or two. So I chose to take the Zofran only when I really needed to be sick-free for the day. Naturally on a vacation in Hawaii, I had a few days of wanting to be sick-free so I could enjoy our vacation. One night, I went to bed with a minor headache. I hoped that it would fade away while I slept but to my dismay it got worse and worse. Combine the headache (at this point a migraine) with the nausea and I was up all night throwing up and grimacing at the pain in my head every time I had to move. I would try to eat something so I could take some Tylenol but I couldn't keep anything down. Poor Mitch was desperate to help me but we both didn't know what to do. He went out of the room to tell family we wouldn't be going to the morning activities and my dad told him to go straight down to the little convenience store and get me some diet coke (we had to settle for pepsi). Miraculously, the soda was able to settle my stomach and the caffeine helped soften the edge of my migraine so that I was able to fall asleep.

It was something simple and though I felt at the edge of death that night--I really wasn't. It is just one small example of the numerous occasions that my dad has known what is best. He is a generous caretaker and I am so blessed to call him Dad.

Happy Birthday Daddy! I love you!

(P.S. As you can probably tell from the story, the other hero in my life is Mitch. I'll save him for another day though.)

Growing

I know I'm not super big yet, but I'm obviously pregnant at this point which is fun. I've been really bad at taking pictures of myself --mostly because being nauseous all the time makes you feel less than pretty most of the time. But I'm almost 18 weeks and its been a week since I've thrown up (I still feel like throwing up a lot--but its a step in the right direction!) so I'm thinking I need to start putting the make-up on again and accept the picture taking! (I won't post a picture for every single week though)

We find out baby's gender on June 7th! What will it be?

Ko Olina

Mitch and I just got back from Hawaii with both our parents, and my sister and her friend. It was a much needed trip after rough finals for Mitch and months of sickness for me. I was really nervous about being too sick while I was there. But as a tender mercy I was able to do mostly everything we had planned (which isn't a whole lot more than relaxing anyway). I only had a couple really rough nights there and the sickness piled up again as soon as we headed back home. Hawaii is just plain good for the soul. I cannot wait to go back someday! 

B. McClellan

Pardon my long absence from posting. My best friends lately have been the couch and the bathroom. 

Mitch needs an award for being the best husband. He has taken the best care of me while I've been so sick. But I'm happy to finally announce, after a 12-week check-up and a healthy heart beat, that Baby McClellan will be making an entrance around Oct. 25!!