Mother's Day Testimony

I received a call yesterday from the media guy at our church. He said that he had heard that I had quite the testimony on becoming a mother and wanted to know if I would be willing to have them record my story on video so that they could share it at each of the four services on MOTHER'S DAY!!! How cool is that?!?? I hope I get a copy to keep for myself!! If I do...I'll try to post it on my blog so you all can see, or...those of you in the area just might have to attend Life Center, in Tacoma, on Mother's Day to see it for yourself.
I am so excited...SO NERVOUS!! I have never done anything like this before, and when I am nervous...I turn beat red!!! I hate it!! I don't even know where to begin with my story, what points to include and what to leave out. I'm sure they don't have an hours worth of video time...I'm really going to have think about this. I am such a nerd, I just know that I am going to have to make a bulleted list of points that I want to make sure to hit. Don't worry, I won't put it on 3X5 cards to use as they are recording, that would be stupid. I will probably make myself cue cards...I'M KIDDING!! Once I figure out what I want to say and what is better left unsaid, I will be fine.
Craig will be in the video too. His job is to sit pretty on my side, with his arm around me...and to hand me tissue should I need it.
I am so excited about our story being shared on Mother's Day. I never thought, in a million years, that I would be excited for Mother's Day. This is just the coolest way to start off all of my Mother's Day celebrations.
I would love to see you there!! Mark your calendars.

8th Grade Story...

So, I'm 25 weeks pregnant now. In my eyes, I think I definitely "look" pregnant. I mean...if you stare at my belly long enough, you can actually see Emily kicking around in there. Well, one of my colleagues came into my classroom today to tell me this hilarious story. It turns out that one of my students was talking with her and shared with her how he thought I was really starting to get fat...YES...he said "fat". I just about fell out of my seat laughing. I mean, it's not like I have been trying to hide this from my students at all. I am pretty open with them about the pregnancy if they ask. Some students are curious about her size and development, so I am happy to share with them. We have had short discussions of what they think her name should be. I am always telling them that they need to watch what they say around me because Emily can hear them.
I just think it is crazy that after months of talking about my pregnancy...he was clueless. I don't even have to be "teaching" in my class, apparently this kid just automatically zones out. I must sound like the Charlie Brown teacher to him when I talk. :)

24 Week Appointment

Well...I had my 24 week appointment this past Tuesday. It was the first time that I actually met the doctor. She was AMAZING!!! I loved her...loved her to pieces!!! This was the first appointment where she measured my belly. Afterwards, she used the doppler to listen to Emily's heartbeat. As we were listening, Emily gave a number of strong kicks. The doctor starting laughing. She said, "Whoa, you have a mover and shaker here. This one is going to be a handful" I really need to start looking into dancing classes...I think tap would be AWESOME!!! Just kidding...kind of.
Anyways, I have one more "monthly" visit to the doctor before my appointments move up to every other week. At me next appointment I will have the blood sugar test. I wonder what the sugary liquid tastes like? Hmmm....?
This past week I told Craig that I am actually starting to "feel" pregnant. I'm getting a bit uncomfortable now. My lower back is getting stiff, my feet need a good rubbing (I don't know if that is really the pregnancy...or just me liking a good foot rub)I am finding it more difficult to get a good night's sleep, etc. Don't get me wrong...I really do love being pregnant. The last couple of days, when Emily is kicking...you can actually "see" it when you look at my big belly. Craig was laughing when I pointed it out to him.
I just cannot wait to meet this little girl!! I want to hold her and love her and kiss her all over!!

What should Emily's middle name be?

I started a poll at the top of my blog. Craig and I are so confused about what Emily's middle name should be. Our first choice was Elizabeth...we LOVE that for the middle name. It flows so nicely with Emily, and we just love the meaning behind it...considering all we have been through in trying to get pregnant. Unfortunately, as we shared with friends and family, we quickly found out that "Emily Elizabeth" is the name of the character with "the big red dog: Clifford". I don't want Emily to be made fun of during her childhood years because she has the same name as the "girl with the big red dog". To add insult to injury...we actually have a big red dog. His name isn't Clifford, it is actually Luke. I just don't want Emily growing up hating her name. Maybe she won't. On the other hand, how many kids go around saying their full name? (Maybe a lot more than I think) In addition to that...her initials would be EEW, as in "yuck". Am I looking too much into this, or is this good to catch now rather than after Emily is here? It just stinks because I TRULY love the name Emily Elizabeth, but not at the risk of her being made fun of.
So, my next option was Nicole. I think is goes well with Emily (not as well as Elizabeth, but it goes well). The meaning of the Nicole is not all that special. The only reason I thought of it is because it is my own middle name, but what if that is a bad thing? What if she doesn't want to have the same middle name as her mother? This is hard!!

Hmmm....what do you all think? If you have another suggestion, feel free to click on the comments link below this post and share it. Thanks for the input!!!

New York: FRIDAY

Craig and I slept in pretty late…it was much needed. I think the stress of Tuesday and trying to squeeze everything in really caught up with us. We knew that our check out time was at noon, so we were in no hurry. When we finally did get up, we packed our bags and checked them in so we could cross two more things off our list before heading home. Craig wanted me to see the entrance to the Natural History Museum and I wanted to walk through the St. Patrick’s Cathedral…which by the way was STUNNING!!! The detail in the building was insane beautiful. The statues…amazing!!! One thing that I found interesting was that there were only a few statues of Jesus, each one of them was of Him broken…from the death of the cross. There were more statues of Mary than of Jesus. Regardless…it was simply breath taking.
Back to the hotel…it was FINALLY time to head off to the airport to come home…HOME SWEET HOME!!! Don’t get me wrong…New York definitely has its amazing qualities, however with the whole hospital incident, it made it really hard for me to enjoy the rest of the trip. I was so stressed out and worried that I was going to over do it again that I couldn’t truly enjoy New York. It was hard being away from home, away from my doctors, away from family, when the incident happened. So, it goes without saying that I couldn’t wait to come home!!!

New York: THURSDAY

Finally, we were going to get to see the Statue of Liberty. It was breath taking!!! Honestly though, for some reason, I thought it was going to be bigger…but that didn’t take away from its awesomeness. Afterwards we visited the Financial District where we saw Ground Zero. There were a few memorials set up around the area, but most of the view for Ground Zero was blocked as they were doing construction work.
Due to the loss of one day of sight-seeing, we felt that we had to squeeze in a lot in one day…so it off to the subway to head to Rockefeller Center and then straight to the Empire State Building, while still having enough time to go to our Broadway show at 8…which by the way was the BEST!!! Even though the show was sold out, they managed to bring in two chairs for Craig and I and, believe it or not, the seats were great!!! Craig and I loved the show, WICKED, and so did Emily. No joke…during every single song, Emily danced through each one, from beginning to end. As soon as the song was over, so was her dancing. After THE BEST SHOW EVER, we walked back to the hotel, stopping at a diner across the street to share a dessert.

New York: WEDNESDAY

Considering the day before, I agreed to spend half of the day in bed as Craig ventured out to do more sight-seeing in NY. He chose destinations that I didn’t mind missing at all…the Jerry Seinfeld diner, and the Natural History Museum. SNOOZE!!! Craig came to get me by dinner time…we stopped by a pizza place (I know…but the pizza is just so good!!), and we finished the evening by shopping around Madison Square. Once the stores all closed, we began walking back to the hotel, stopping at, what ended up being, another great Irish Pub: McGee’s Pub.

New York: TUESDAY

POSSIBLE TMI ALERT:
Craig and I woke up early this morning in hopes of beating the crowds for a viewing of the Statue of Liberty. We got all dressed up and ready to head out, We stopped by our Hotel’s café and had two bowls of oatmeal for breakfast. Before heading out on our venture, I decided to use the Hotel restroom. Upon using the restroom, I noticed a little bit of blood on my underwear. I freaked out!!! WHAT THE HECK?!?! I rushed out to find Craig waiting for me in the lobby. I gestured to him that we needed to go to our room immediately. When we got in the elevator, I told him that I was spotting and I didn’t know what to do. We went to our room, I used the restroom again, and the blood was definitely red (new blood) so I knew something had to be wrong.
Craig is always so good in these situations…always strong and extremely sensible. Me, on the other hand, I just freak out as though it is the end of the world. I just started crying on the bed because I couldn’t think of what to do. Yes…I know…you go to the hospital!!! But we were all the way in New York, away from my own OB/GYN and away from all of the hospital staff that I knew from having worked at St. Joes for a number of years. Our fear was that we would get some ER doc who knew extremely little about pregnant cases and that they wouldn’t know how to properly take care of me. With Craig’s quick thinking, I ended up calling my OB/GYN and using their “on call” system. Unfortunately they refused to page my dr. saying that the only thing I could do, considering my circumstances, was to go to the ER. Craig then decided to call my insurance to see if there was any OB/GYN near our hotel that would accept our insurance. They gave us a list of numbers, however, none of them wanted to accept new patients. THANKS A LOT!! So we were left with only one option now, to go to the ER.
We quickly headed back to the lobby and requested the bellman to fetch us a taxi car. We told him to take us to the Lennox Hospital (Craig found the name of the best hospital in area using his iPhone). The taxi driver dropped us off at the ER entrance. As Craig paid the driver, I ran inside to get the paper work started. To our surprise, as soon as they heard that I was 22 weeks pregnant with bleeding; they immediately fetched a wheel chair and took me straight up to labor and delivery. You would think that this would be a good thing, and it really was…but at the same time, IT TOTALLY FREAKED ME OUT!!!! I just lost it as she rushed me through the doors. It was as though the doctors were waiting for me. As soon as we entered L&D, a doctor came right up to me, asking me a bunch of questions. They sent Craig back downstairs to get me registered as a patient while another nurse helped me into a room and gave me the beautiful hospital gown to put on. When I was all dressed and ready, she quickly hooked me up to a machine so as to hear Emily’s heartbeat…and there it was, loud and clear. As we waited for the doctor, another nurse came in and asked me a bunch of the typical questions: Did you fall? Did you have any cramping/pain? Etc.
When the doctor finally arrived, she first did an ultrasound to see Emily and the placenta. Everything looked great. Emily was moving around as though nothing was wrong. That was relieving to see. The doctor then said that she would do a “speculum” exam to see if she could find the cause of the bleeding. Before going forward with the exam, she said that in most cases they can’t find a cause…however, as soon as she started the examination…BINGO. She had found the cause of the bleeding, and apparently it was still bleeding. Without going into too much detail, there was an issue with my cervix. Fortunately, it was not at the opening of the cervix…it was on the side. Because of this, the doctor was not concerned at all. She used some “silver nitrate” to cauterize the bleeding and basically sent me on my way. She said that I didn’t need any bed rest and that I could continue on with our vacation. So…off we went, with every intention to take it slow and easy.
We decided to take advantage of the subway system from here on out, and do as little walking as we could. We headed down towards “China Town”, “Little Italy”, and “Soho”. While there, we ate at the best restaurant in NY, Shopsins. Craig had actually watched a documentary about the restaurant/hole in the wall. The food was SO GOOD!!! Later, we went back to the hotel with enough time to get ready for our Broadway show and dinner. Then…I went to the restroom as it was as though I was in the middle of a heavy period. I yelled out to Craig, “We have to go back to the hospital! I’m bleeding again, and it’s a lot worse now!!!” I couldn’t help but freak out again. This was so much worse than earlier in the day. We rushed back down to the lobby. I’m sobbing while Craig is trying so hard to be strong. The bellman hailed a cab and we told him to take us to the Lennox Hospital. I couldn’t stop crying the whole drive to the hospital. When the cab driver finally came to a stop, it didn’t look like the same hospital. Craig asked him, “Is this the Lennox Hospital?” “Yes, yes it is”, he said. So Craig paid the driver, while jumped out and ran inside. IT WAS NOT THE SAME HOSPITAL. Do we stay? Do we go? My bleeding is worse; did we really have a choice? I went to check in. The man only asked for my name. He then directed me to sit down and wait for them to call my name. I told him that I was 22 weeks pregnant with heavy bleeding; he again told me to sit down and wait to be called. That was all I needed, I told Craig that we had to find the right hospital, besides…all of my patient information was already in the system at the other hospital, and the nurses and doctors already knew my situation. We quickly hopped into another cab, and told him to get us to the Lennox Hospital. Now this guy was no joke…he knew we meant business and he wasted no time at all. I immediately reached for my seat belt and let the man do his thing. I couldn’t even watch him driving, IT WAS INSANE…but he got us to the right hospital lickity slit. We ran inside, and just like old times, up I went to the labor and delivery floor in a wheel chair. Thank you Lord…all of the same staff from earlier was still there. They were so nice, so helpful, and so quick to tend to me. Granted I couldn’t get a room right away, but they did everything in their power to move people on their way to make room for me.
Once I was settled back into my old bed with a fresh new hospital gown, the same doctor came in and got straight to business…with another “speculum” exam. I’m not even kidding, as quickly as the exam started she was out of her seat and rushed to the door to call out for another doctor. Talk about FREAKING OUT!!!! What’s with the rush? And as though that was the worst of it, she left the curtain open, along with the door as she called out for the other doctor. GIVE ME SOME SORT OF DIGNITY HERE!!! There I was, in all my glory, for the world to see. I begged Craig to cover me up. The second doctor came in, and together they assessed the problem and attempted to get it under control…which they did, though not as quickly and as painless as before. Whatever they did down there ended up causing so much cramping for me, it was horrible. Again, however, the doctors were still not concerned about the bleeding, more specifically it was the area of bleeding that supposedly caused no threat. Once they were sure that the bleeding was stopped, they let me rest for awhile before getting dressed and going about my way. Once more, they said that I didn’t need bed rest, that I would be fine.
It was too late to go to our Broadway show, so we agreed to go to our hotel. As I rested, Craig headed out to try and get the Gershwin Theater to allow us to use our show tickets on another day (which they did) and to get dinner to bring back to our room. Regardless of the doctors saying that I was going to be fine, with all of the stress of the day, Craig and I both agreed that it would be in our best interest if I spent, at the very least, half of the day tomorrow in bed.

New York: MONDAY

Who needs an alarm clock in NY when you have hundreds of taxi cars *honking* at each other early in the morning? I have no idea what time we actually woke up, but when we did we were ready to hit the streets of NY. Day one, we really didn't have a schedule for the day. We just decided to hit the pavement and what we would run into. First things first, we found a Starbucks for a quick "on-the-go" breakfast, and what do you know...Central Park was just across the street. Hand in hand, we walked over to Central Park and took in all of the scenery. I had no idea how large the park actually was. I don’t even know if we made it half way into the park…though we walked around for a couple of hours. While in the park, we ran into an outdoor auditorium where a high school band was playing, we found the “Friends” fountain (the one in their opening credits), we also found a castle, a couple of restaurants, some playgrounds, etc. This park has just about everything. Unfortunately we couldn’t the find the ice skating rink, but my legs were already starting to get tired and we had much of the day in front of us. We found an edge to the park and decided to walk around the neighborhood…it was then that this extreme feeling of having to go “pee” suddenly hit me. CRAP…we were nowhere near a clean restroom. So…it was time to step up the walking. Craig and I picked up the pace…I have no idea how far, or how long, we had to walk before we were able to find a “clean” public restroom. It just so happened to be the very Starbucks that we started our day with.
From Starbucks, we found our favorite pizza place: Amadeus Pizza…so good!!! We continued walking around and found ourselves in the middle of Times Square. WOW!!! It was just amazing, dramatic!! While in Times Square, we walked in and out of each of the different stores. We were stopped by a man selling tickets to a comedy show later that day…so we thought, “Why not? Let’s do it!” We finished up at Times Square and MY FEET WERE KILLING ME!!!
With the time change, our day was quickly slipping away. We still needed to find somewhere to have dinner before we headed out for the Comedy show. As we headed back towards our hotel we came across an Irish Pub…perfect!! We found a small table near the window and ordered our dinner, and then it was off to the Comedy show. Because our feet were killing us and our legs were getting sore, we attempted to use the New York subway system. It was exactly how I imagined it to be…dirty, stinky, dark, yet extremely convenient. The comedy show was OK, a bit crass, but there were a couple comedians that we were pretty great…others a bit awkward, making you question whether you should laugh or not.
After the comedy show, we went straight to the hotel to try and catch up on some more sleep. Our plan for tomorrow was to wake up EARLY (6:30AM…which is 3:30AM Seattle time) so that we could be in front of the crowd to view the Statue of Liberty. Little did we know, Emily had other plans for us.

New York: SUNDAY

Not much to tell about this day. Our plane was supposed to leave at 3PM, but kept on getting delayed. We finally boarded the plane at 6PM, which gives us an arrival time of 2:30AM (considering the time change in New York). We arrived at our hotel a little after 3 in the morning and went straight to bed!!