Doctor Appointment Tomorrow!

Well, not a whole lot has changed. (Other than my rather bulgy belly!)

Tomorrow I have my second appointment at the doctor's office but it will be my first time to meet my doctor. The first time we went, we just saw the nurse and had some time to learn about how our appointments will go, which hospital we will be at for the delivery and stuff like that. It was fun and exciting but I think tomorrow will be a little more exciting! I am a little nervous though. Like I said, I think I'm probably gaining a little too rapidly. I'm curious to hear what she has to say about it. We are supposed to be able to hear the heartbeat so that's something I'm super excited about! AND right now I'm at 12 weeks so according to my online source, my baby is now about the size of a lime! So maybe I can update again later this week about how it goes tomorrow.

Hormones and such!

It's been fun and interesting being pregnant but also stressful a few times. Right at about 7 weeks, I had some spotting and it made me kind of nervous so I called the doctor's office and it just happened to be after hours but the nurse was so helpful and quick to call me back. She ordered some blood work done to see if they could figure out why I was having the issues and after she got the results with no major red flags she wanted me to have an ultrasound. My sister, Angela, just happened to be in town that day so I went to the imaging place with her and Zach and drank a crazy amount of water so they could do it. I was about to wet my pants when they finally called me back. It was so amazing to see that little baby the size of a blueberry hanging out in my tummy! We could see its heart beating and then we even got to hear the heartbeat which was so reassuring. I cried while I took it all in. I knew it was real before that but to see/hear my baby was just incredible. So it was good to know the baby was still there and had a heartbeat. Everything happened on Friday so they told me I wouldn't hear anything else until Monday and the nurse would try to let me know what was going on to cause the spotting.

Sure enough, I got a call from her Monday telling me that they found out that my progesterone level was too low. She said it was at 12.03 and needed to be at 20. She prescribed some progesterone and told me to take it once a day for a week and then we would have to do more blood work to see if the level was where it needed to be. She said if it wasn't up to 20, then I would have to go to twice a day with the progesterone "to get me through my first trimester". I don't think she meant to scare me but that didn't sound like no big deal. Up until that Friday, miscarriage hadn't crossed my mind. But since the spotting and lots of testing, I had just decided that I knew I trusted God and I knew He had a good plan for us even though I wasn't sure what that was. I went home after picking up my stuff from the pharmacy and googled progesterone. As I read up on it I began to realize that too low of progesterone levels is a common cause for miscarriage. But still I kept telling God that I trusted Him and I did what I was told. I also asked for a lot of prayer! Our prayer was that in a week when I was supposed to go for more blood work that my level would be over 20. A week went by and I was faithful to take the hormone, I had more tests done and found out that my level was over 29! What an answered prayer and a huge relief! Actually it was far over my prayer and that's so like God to do more than I could have asked or imagined! I still have to take the stuff until my 12 week check up but I'm thankful to know I'm where I'm supposed to be! God is so good and I'm so glad I can trust Him.

If you're reading this I just want to ask you to please keep praying for my little one! It keeps getting bigger! (Well according to everything I'm reading!) Right now its the size of a grape! :)

I'm pregnant!

So obviously a LOT has happened since I last blogged. I'm not very good at it.

But Becky suggested I blog about being pregnant so I can document it well

so I think I'll give it a try. Again. :)

We found out we are expecting on July 5th! It was super exciting and really

crazy all at the same time! It was pretty cool because we were in Ruidoso, NM with Zach's whole family when we found out so we were able to tell all of them at the same time. That was fun and I think the best part was that no one believed Zach when he said it because he's been joking about that for almost as long as we've been married! We drove to Borger that same day and told my parents and my older sister. Angela's response was probably the funniest to me because I just showed her my test and she asked if it was hers! It took a minute to convince her that it was really my test! Speaking of tests, a couple of minutes after we found out, we snuck into Zach's parents' room and showed them the test and Andy's first response after asking what it was, was, "Ew, didn't she pee on that?" HAHA!

Those first few days were so much fun to spread the news! And I felt really good, I couldn't even tell I was pregnant! Then we made it back to Lubbock and got back to the real world and things changed a little. That next week wasn't quite as care-free.

The Sunday night after we found out is when my nausea set in. It was weird to me because I really thought it would maybe be "morning sickness" and I would just eat a few crackers before I got out of bed in the mornings but I was wrong. In the beginning, I felt pretty bad from basically 7 or 8 in the evening, up until sometime after lunch the next day and start all over again a few hours later. Finally I started figuring out that a lot of my problem was an empty stomach. Even though food was the last thing that I want when I don't feel good that seems to always help. I'm still working at it. I've learned when to snack and what to snack on for the most part but I still make mistakes and a lot of evenings I spend at least a little time throwing a pity party for myself and making sure Zach gets to be a part of it! :) I know I'm blessed because it could be a lot worse than getting too hungry!

Speaking of Zach, he's been amazing. He lets me cry every time I don't feel good or have a little breakdown or pretty much for any reason. (And trust me, I've found plenty of opportunities!) Sometimes I cry because I feel like I've been crying too much. Ridiculous, right? I know! But Zach has been so sweet and encouraging and just such an awesome husband. What a blessing he is! He's never been much of a cook in our home but he's been offering to try to make things or do ANYTHING that will make me feel better! I'm kind of spoiled by how well he treats me!

Ok, this is already a lot longer than I expected so I'm going to finish this post before it gets too boring! There's more coming!

A few thoughts

I think I've said this before but I love Fridays! I only have to work until noon and then I get the rest of the day to goof off! So that's my plan for today. I went in a little early to get my work done so I could get off early to hang out with Zach before he has to go to work. I feel bad for him today because he has to go in at 1 and close the store. That usually means getting home around 9:30 but tonight they've changed the hours so that he'll get home around 11:30 PM! No one needs to shop that late at a Christian book store! Oh well, needless to say he's not very excited about tonight.

While he's busy working, I plan on hanging out with Lissa this afternoon and Lindsey suggested doing something together tonight since Kuhrt has to close too! I'm excited because I love getting to spend time with my good friends!!

The whole reason I sat down to write this blog is because of what God's laid on my heart the last few days. I read Colossians 4:5-6 this week and it really stuck out to me. This is the New Living Translation:

Live wisely among those who are not Christians, and make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be gracious and effective so that you will have the right answer for everyone.

I get the opportunity to hang out with lots of people every day and a good number of the people I hang out with don't know Jesus. My heart has been broken for them for a long time and I'm continually praying for their salvation. So I wrote these verses down as my VOTD (verse of the day) for the last fews days so that I can have them on the top of my mind all day. The thing that I can't get out of my head is that is says to do all of that so that 'you will have the right answer for everyone'. Well then that must mean that people are asking questions. I'm obviously called to live my life different and set apart for the Lord but it made me stop and think, How many people are actually asking me questions? Jesus gave His life to save me. How could ever think that my life should be about anything different? But I'm not sure how much the people around me see that.

Kind of a long blog for me but that's what I've been thinking about this week.

Coupons!

Today as we were catching up at church, Lissa told that she would show me how she likes to coupon since I've been asking for a lesson! So I was very excited!

We headed to my apartment with our husbands (in the FREEZING weather) for some tortilla soup by the fire, which was awesome! (Both the fire and the soup.) After we cleaned up a little bit, we headed to her house and the fun began! It was a lot of looking through ads, checking online and clipping but the end was so worth it!

I had a lot of fun and even saved some money at the same time! We found lots of good deals but my favorite was the Olay body wash for $2.99 that came with a FREE 20.2 oz bottle of Olay quench lotion that usually costs $7.99!!

Also something to blog about, my Thanksgiving was AWESOME! It was so good to hang out with family that we rarely get to spend much time with! We are so blessed and I'm very thankful for such a wonderful weekend.

I'm back!

Or I'll try to be back to blogging! After some encouragement and a little blog refresher course from my wonderful mother-in-law, I think I might be able to get into the swing of things!

I think sometimes I get a little intimidated by blogging because all of the blogs that I love are always fun and deep and meaningful! Or at least full of pictures! So maybe I should change the title to my blog to Shanna's Not Always Very Exciting and Quite Average Blog! We'll see!

For now I'll keep this one simple. Tonight Zach has to close at work so my evening will consist of cereal for dinner, possibly a little work out and then hopefully The Office!

Plugs EVERYWHERE!!

Last night Zach went to the sleep study place and stayed the night so they could watch him and try to figure out why it's been so hard for him to get any sleep.  I want to blog more on this subject and others but here's a quick picture just for your enjoyment! He looks so cute with all his cords!! :)