The Holy Grail of Pregnancy

**14weeks**

So today I am officially in the 2nd trimester, YAY!!!!!! There are several reasons for the excitement actually. The big one is that most sources say that the chance of a miscarriage drops significantly to less than 5% after the 13th week, which helps put my worrying mind at ease. The other reason to be excited is that supposedly my morning sickness should decrease, my energy should increase, and basically everything is just supposed to be so much better during this part of the pregnancy. I'll have to wait and see. I have still been getting sick periodically, I still have to take a mid morning nap, and the digestion issues that come along with pregnancy are not being kind. But all in all I am just thrilled to be this far along! I am scheduled to go back to the OB on August 26th for my 16week checkup. Not really sure what all they will be checking, but hopefully I'll get to hear a heartbeat again. There was also an optional test to check for downs syndrome and cerebral palsy, but I have decided to decline. After talking it over with Patrick and my mother, I decided that no matter what the outcome of the test was, I would not terminate my pregnancy, and therefore don't want to put my child at risk during an amniocentesis, which has a 1/200 rate of miscarriage, just to find out. Patrick and I have no history of any of these disorders in our family, we aren't over 35 years old, and we are keeping the baby no matter what, so what would be the point. On a lighter note, we are hoping that our 20 week appointment will be scheduled for the day after our 2 year wedding anniversary, since this would be the day that we would have the anatomy scan to find out the gender of our baby. We are still in the mind set that we don't care if it is a boy or a girl, but would really like to start calling our child by name. :)I just hope that our little Sam or Benji will cooperate and not be modest like their mommy. lol

4 weeks 1 day..........13 week 1 day picture(no baby belly just pudgy)


Daddy is still healing well from his surgery. He actually had his first physical therapy appointment today, and the therapist was happy with his ability to move the arm by himself. He has a list of exercises that he is supposed to work on, and hopefully in another few weeks he will be able to use it a little bit more. First they will work on the range of motion then later they will start adding weight so that he can try to regain his strength. I told you my daddy was tough.

Last night Patrick and I met with our Realtor. We had a list of 7 houses to see, but 4 of them sold last week. So we went to see the other three. The first two were very nice, but not what we were looking for. The third house was one we saw a couple of weeks ago, that we still are in love with. We are seriously considering putting in an offer, but are really scared. We are the kind of people that like to think on things for a long time to make sure that we are making the right decision. It took us a year to buy a tv we knew we wanted, and 9 months to buy my car that we had picked out 9 months prior to that. So putting an offer in on a house that we just found a couple of weeks ago is really really scary! We are just hoping that if this is supposed to work out it will, and if not that God will pull the plug quick.

The house

My favorite part of the house


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Dear God,
Thank you so much for everything you do for us. Thank you for keeping our baby healthy and for letting us get to the second trimester. Please continue to care for us and to keep us strong. Please continue to help Patrick to do well at work. Thank you for taking care of my daddy, and for helping him and my mother through this entire ordeal. Please help him to continue to do well in his therapy and to heal so that he can get back to farming, which is something he enjoys immensely. Please help Patrick and me to make the right decisions about buying a house. Please help this process be painless and as easy as possible. Please help us to find a good home for our family, especially our precious baby. Thank you so much for the births of Tabitha Gail Lankford (Sara's daughter) and Landon Michael Thorne (Nicole's son). Thank you for taking care of my friends during their labors and now while they are at home learning to take care of their new blessings. Thank you for making these babies be born healthy, and please continue to bless them and to watch over them. Thank you for everything you do.
AMEN
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