MIA

I've been posting more on our family blog than here. If you want to see what I've posted there and don't have the link, here you go:

http://bandcjewkesfamily.blogspot.com/

I'll be back here. I just haven't had a whole lot of time to do both lately.

Happy Birthday, America!!!!!

I just can't say how proud I am to be an American! I'm so grateful for all the men and women who have sacrificed their lives, time, families, etc to protect our freedom. It brings a tear to my eye. The song by Toby Keith, American Soldier, comes to mind. God bless America and its people.

Feeling better

I started having a good day here and there. I've worked myself up to two good days this past weekend. Today, not quite as good. But, that's ok. I'm making progress and it's for the best cause I can think of.

I'm noticing that there are some changes in my body. My stomach pokes out more, but doesn't seem as wide. It's odd to me. My OB appointment went very well. She told me that I'm out of the woods and I don't have to go back for another month! After going every other week for so long, this is going to be interesting and maybe a little nerve wracking. She told me that I could gain up to 15 pounds. Eek. After losing 40, gaining 15 of it back and then losing 10 pounds since I found out I'm pregnant, I don't really want to gain 15 pounds. She said I could maintain. I'll be happy with that. When I weighed this morning, I'd lost .4 of a pound. I'm totally ok with that.

I enjoyed being able to eat this past weekend. A little more food has started to appeal to me. Not today, but it was nice to want hamburger stroganoff yesterday.

I quit my job over the weekend. I'm surprised I lasted as long as I did and so was Bryant. It's been very difficult being sick, but the fact that the computer made me sicker, it was almost impossible. I was always stressed out. I felt much better after quitting, too. I felt a great weight lifted off of me. I was surprised that it took me only 6 months to get as stressed out with this job as I got in my job with the Church took me 3 1/2 years to get to that point. Well, it's over. All I have to do is take my computer, pager and badge down to Draper and I am not going to worry about it ever again.

I wonder when I'll start to feel the baby. I know that he's dancing around in there. That's what he was doing on Friday when my OB did an ultrasound. Bryant said it was like he was saying, "Look at me, I'm on TV!" As my friend Cece said, he's a show off already! :) Now, I can enjoy my pregnancy and not worry about work stressing me out so much.

It's good to be FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Thoughts

I haven't been complaining about my morning sickness or other discomforts of pregnancy. I'm just stating what I'm experiencing. I had a few days of reprieve this past week, at least until Thursday afternoon. It came back with a vengeance. What do I have to say about that? At least I know that the baby's ok. :)

According to my pregnancy calendar, the baby is now a fetus. That's a relief! I've also been wondering if I have to actually be 13 weeks pregnant before I reach the second trimester. I don't know if I truly understand how that works. My pregnancy calendar listed 3 different ways of figuring it out. According to the Developmental way, I'll start the second trimester on June 9. I'm all for that. It means that I have a week from Tuesday! That's at 12 weeks, starting my 13th week.

We braved Wal Mart downtown early this afternoon so that we could get me some grits. I've been craving grits. It's the only place I knew for sure that I had seen them out here. We went ahead and got our water from there, too. While Bryant was filling up our water jugs, I went and looked at baby stuff for the first time. I really enjoyed it, at least until a bunch of people started crowding me. Then, I had to show Bryant. It's really starting to feel like it's real and I'm keeping up the positve thoughts about delivering the baby and bringing him/her home in December.

I'm having the weirdest dreams. I guess that's normal. I already had weird dreams, but now they've reached a new level. And I'm trying to convince myself to quit looking at the toilet paper every time I go to the bathroom. I wore myself out pushing the buggy with 15 gallons of water and all the other groceries all over the store.

Gatorade has become my new best friend. Water doesn't sit well on my stomach. But, the Gatorade works really well. At least I'm staying hydrated. I was so excited that we found the blue Glacier kind in powder today. It's much cheaper than buying the bottles.

I'm quite content and happy. Even though I've had to give in and eat meat occasionally. I already had a hard time staying away from eggs and cheese, so I was allowing myself one day I could have stuff with eggs or cheese. Now, it's pretty much all the time. Boiled eggs have been good to me. And we had lasagna today. It was the 5 cheese kind that I found at Wal Mart. It was the best stuff! I'll have to get that again.

Quick Update

I thought I would update in case there is anyone out there wondering how I'm doing. :)

I'm 10 weeks today. We've had a total of 3 ultrasounds and each time, the baby's heartbeat went up. It started at 115, then was 136 and the last one on the 20th, it was 175! We're so happy! The doctor thinks that the baby is doing perfect and that, with my history of early losses and how well the baby is doing now, I have a 99% chance of having a full-term baby. He was so impressed, that after our appointment and ultrasound on June 4, he's going to release me back to my regular OB. That's such a relief to me! I didn't like having to see a high risk doctor. I know it's because of my previous losses and I want to do everything I can to have this baby. My OB is 3 miles away and we wanted to have the baby at LDS Hospital, since it's about 2 miles away instead of driving all the way to Murray when it can take forever to get there, depending on the time of day.

I've struggled with morning sickness and haven't been on the computer much. Actually, it turned into all day sickness, with it being worst at nights. It still is worse at night, but it's not nearly as bad. I'm really grateful for the reprieve. I'm still wiped out. In fact, I'm going to bed right now. :)

I think I'm ready

Since we've told all our parents and grandparents, and things are going really great this time, I think I'm ready to blog about how we're getting the best Christmas present ever! I'm pregnant and we're due just before Christmas!

Last Thursday, we went to my RE's office for an ultrasound. I had been praying that we'd see the heartbeat (even though it was still kind of early, 6weeks 2days) and that the baby would be measuring ahead. Guess what!?! We got to see and hear the precious heartbeat - 115bpm, which is very good. And the baby was measuring 6weeks 5days - 3 days ahead!

We feel very optimistic this time around. We've never made it this far. The farthest we've gotten was with the first one. We thought we were over 7 weeks, but the ultrasound showed that the baby hadn't developed much over 5. To see and hear the heartbeat made me bawl like a baby. We're so happy. This one is going to make it.

My due date, according to my chart or cycle, was December 22. But with the baby measuring ahead, it's now December 19. That will give us a little more time to have the baby and get home by Christmas. lol But, I expect the baby will come when he or she's ready. Bryant joked that we've put in our order with the stork and asked for a boy, but either will do nicely. I have a feeling he's a boy, but I am not sure. I really don't care. I just want a healthy baby to hold in my arms come December.

I'm supposed to be working, but I'm struggling with that. I've had a lot of nausea and fatigue. Combine that with pregnancy brain and I'm in a lot of trouble. I can't think of or remember anything lately. I feel like if I just stayed in bed, I'd be doing good.

Today, I'm 7weeks 2 days. Less than 5 weeks until I'm in the 2nd trimester. I'm seeing a maternal fetal medicine doctor. I have another appointment with him and an ultrasound tomorrow. I'm excited to see what he says.

This is going to be a crazy week. Josh is getting married on Friday. Mandy, his fiance, is getting her endowment in the Provo Temple tomorrow and G&G Duerden are supposed to be staying with us Wednesday night. No house cleaning got done over the weekend. Can anyone come help? Between the smell of the dishes and the super tiredness, I can't get anything done anymore. And I'm so happy for all of it!

This is what we all need

Just think, we could be free of disease without medicine. Medicine just relieves symptoms and often causes other problems. What if there was a simple way to solve most of your health problems with food? Would you change? What Americans are eating today is killing them. I want to share my knowledge with everyone, but this is the best I can do for now. For the time being, check out this petition. It's a step in the right direction. Obama's health care "plan" is not the way to go. It's all wrong. We just need to take care of ourselves by eating the right foods and exercising.



I'm the first to admit that the sadness and irritation I've felt this last month and a half have been because I started eating junk food again to soothe my emotional pain. Once I cut it out again, I'm feeling much better. Read The China Study, ask me for more info, or do something. We don't have to suffer. It's our own choice. I'd rather live a long and healthy life than die early from eating processed, dead food. The health problems I created for myself by eating poorly all went away when I eat right(except the RA, I still don't know what to do with autoimmune diseases. They are tricky. I just know to stay away from milk!).

Check it out. I'm through with my sermon. :)