Up Coming Ultrasound and PUPPS....

For those who have followed along with me or heard my prayer requests, you know that I have become sadly familiar with intense itching. It has been diagnosed at Eczema but we can't really dig deep into the cause until after this pregnancy. I've been blessed with the ability to manage most flares through cream from my Dermatologist. However, on Friday last week I had what I call a flare up, but this one looked and felt different. My belly was incredibly itchy this time and it has never been before. I know better that to truly scratch as I told Henry, 'Think I have just enough marks on my belly, thank you very much". At night when I had a chance to examine my belly I noticed it looked like I was covered with Chicken Pox. 'What on earth is this!" I sighed and showed Henry. We had no idea and decided to do the best job managing it we could. I thought perhaps I reacted to Vitamin E oil I had tried that afternoon. Tuesday has come along and the rash and itch is still there. I went to see my doctor this morning to get his thoughts and his diagnosis was one I was hoping to avoid. He said it looks just like PUPPS. What is PUPPS you ask? It's a pregnancy symptom that happens to a lucky few. The belly, and sometimes legs/arms are covered in an itchy rash. There is very little they can do, and not much in the way of testing to find out for sure. The part I knew about and was disappointed about is that it disappears on it's own......after the baby is born. Baby will be unaffected, but I've got a ways to go yet and I was hoping I was sneak through the rest of my pregnancy without crazy itching and having my poor belly covered in hives. It's so superficial, but a pregnant lady, not much of your body is familiar or even yours, and we tend to love on our belly's as the proof of the amazing and huge work we're doing. So having that part of me marred is a little disappointing. However, I had my poor me moment with my sister, mom, and husband, and I am focusing on the health of my family, which I am so grateful to God! Besides, I'm used to being itchy now right!

My view at 20 weeks....it's awesome :)

20 weeks

On the horizon we have our Ultrasound next week and I couldn't be happier! Henry is going to come it with me and we can't wait to see Baby Roo and how he/she grown since the first viewing. My doctor told me this morning that Baby Roo is already a little stubborn. Roo does not want to be found when it's time for the dopplar. And when baby was found, there was a massive amount of wiggling to sneak away. It's been amusing seeing the differences between our babies. Zoey was a kicker! Always kicking and stopped at night to sleep and started wiggling right away, very true to her character. Baby Roo has been wiggly but much less so, there are fewer moments in the day and most when I lay down at night for about 20 minutes and then it's quiet for the night. When Roo logged into my Left side I couldn't for the life of me get him/her to move. I have no idea how a baby floating in fluid hangs on like that but I'm so enamored with Roo's personality.

Wore Daddy right out with all the blocks

Not sure why, but it's her new favorite spot!

After a long day of playing and healing

She saw Marshmallows in the The Lorax and she became obsessed!

Cozy coffee table

Zoey's hand is healing beautifully and I think very soon she can start playing in the dirt and on the playground again! She's been a trooper and minus some challenging days overcoming the emotional aspect of her accident, we've all landed on our feet and have been enjoying as much time together possible. Paint is going on the walls this week so we are seeing a slow wrap to this enormous project. We will be so happy to have this finished and not feel the draw of our time and energy. Until then, I will keep you updated once the colors are up!

God, Love, and Prayer...

I realized I haven't updated on the Blog how things went with my Dermatologist appointment. It went well. Our Doctor was compassionate and determined to see me healed. As he was assessing my condition he did say he hadn't seen a case this severe in quite sometime. I suppose that was some what validating in a weird way. It meant that I wasn't being a baby about it but that it's truly a challenge. He prescribed some pregnancy safe steroid creams for me to stop the reaction. After a couple days I did notice a big improvement in how I was feeling. I have felt better than I have in months. It's not completely gone and I have the odd minor minor flare up but I'm not complaining as it's such an improvement in my quality of life these last few weeks. The next step is to get to an allergist to find out what the trigger is for me and hopefully for Zoey as well.

This brings me to thank you for your prayers. Henry and I have been amazed and humbled by the love and prayers from so many. We truly believe it's impacted our lives positively. Prayer is one of those areas that we strive to improve and strengthen in our lives and to pass that on to our children. This week we had the pleasure of attending a speaking event at The Gate where Dr Jeyseelan and his amazing wife Lizy (I hope I'm spelling that right!). They talked about their ministry in India and the amazing experiences they have had and what they hope to achieve in the future. I was so captivated by what they had to share and touched by their faith and sincerity. As they finished, they told the congregation that they would be praying for anyone who needed or wanted them too. I'm not sure why, but I've very very rarely taken advantage of these offerings. But as I sat there listening to the music, I was overwhelmed and I felt God tugging at me and telling me to go. In my quiet time of prayer, I have felt a strong sense that God has a plan for restoration and healing for me and I knew in that moment that God was asking me to act in faith and allow Dr Jey and his wife pray for me. Henry came with me, since by this point I knew I wouldn't be able to speak clearly through the tears. I'd like to blame pregnancy on this one, but I know that rather when you feel God moving you, it touches you deeply. As we approached the front, Henry spoke for me until I could squeak a few words out myself. We spoke quickly to them about the trials and deep pain that we've been dealing with and said we were praying for healing, restoration, and peace. As they laid their hands on me and prayed with urgency and faith I felt a quiet calm slowly come over me. I felt God assure me of his presence and his plan for us. I felt a renewed certainty of his love for me and my family.  After they hugged us and we thanked them we gathered our things and Zoey and headed home quickly. I normally would have stayed to visit but I felt I needed to take a moment to process it all. I am so grateful for the kind words and prayers of Dr Jeyseelan and Lizy, they will truly resonate with me for many years to come.

In regards to life in general, we are so excited for Summer to be here! Summer holidays for me means a great deal. It means having my evenings with my family, it means that I am not at my computer for hours during the day and I get to focus entirely on Zoey. It also means we can go visit Henry at the shop and see friends during the week, even have people over on, oh, a Tuesday! There are many amazing aspects of my job but the hours truly take their toll on our family as a whole. Sometimes I get fooled into thinking I'm the only one who feels the effects of the nights, but I realize that Henry and Zoey miss me just as much as I miss them and we revel in the additional time together. We will be kicking off our summer with a trip to a family friends cabin. It will be Zoey's first time there and we are so very excited for that time.

I am at 13 weeks in this pregnancy and I am continually feeling better and more like myself. I am still exhausted by 8:30 at night and the familiar pregnancy congestion has set in, I sound like I have a perpetual cold which is exactly what happened while pregnant with Zoey. While it's unpleasant, it's so unbelievably worth it. Even though I know it's going to be exhausting and challenging, we are already so excited to meet Baby Roo. Zoey is already prancing around talking about Baby! Although, last night Henry was telling Zoey that babies do not go in the microwave or on the stove (in her play kitchen). I think I felt some teeny panicked kicks and squirms during that conversation ;)

Finally, I got a call to set up my first Prenatal appointment with our OBgyn. I'm so excited already, mostly just because we couldn't love our Doctor any more so I'm looking forward to catching up with him.


It's going to be an amazing summer! And I'm hoping to record as much of it as I can!

Baby On the Move!

I've been trying to upload videos and it's just not working! So I am very sorry about that and I will keep trying!

Zoey is crawling all over the place! She is stunning! Over the holiday she really started to move and it was amazing. We really think she is going to be walking anytime now. She pulls up on everything and she wants to move even more. The little girlie gets so frustrated when she can't sit down on her own. She'll be standing and turns her head and half cries. So we are trying to help her realize she can sit down on her own and she'll survive. I'll hold my hand out and she holds on tight and plunks down. I want her to know that no matter what mommy and daddy are there for her and while we know she can do stuff on her own, we are right there for her, always.

It's daunting watching her grow up. It gives me so much joy but it all happens so fast that sometimes I just want to hold on to those moments. She sleeps so well in her crib now for naps that sometimes I'll cheat and just hold her. I've been struggling with feeling a little anxious about the whole weaning process...but I have resolved to give myself a break in that area. We have decided to continue at least to a year, it's healthy for her, and since it's working so well why not?



Work is going pretty well actually! I was anxious about how teaching and prepping was going to go after the holidays. Zoey is napping well for me and I'm getting a lot of work done and class is going great! My sister is coming over after she finishes work to watch her until Henry can get home which is awesome! So I feel like things are going well that way. I'm definitely tired at the end of the day and I'm always very much looking forward to the weekend. The Christmas holiday was fantastic and it was a holiday that for once when it ended it wasn't with grief it was with a feeling of, "Wow, what a great holiday!". We got a lot of things done and just enjoyed hanging out and Henry really enjoyed spending time with Zoey. It was lovely :)

Finally we are looking into some allergy issues with Zoey. Shes had a consistent runny nose for months and she also has the tell tale signs of red rimmed eyes and dry scabs behind the ears. I'm taking her this week to talk to the doctor and start talking about a plan. We've been using the humidifier, saline drops, Tide Free, no smoking, cleaned carpets, etc. So we will figure this one out :)