15 down, 25 to go

Pregnancy is not kind to my body. Everything is hard. Thank goodness for my dear family who helps me SO MUCH! Today is the 15 week mark for baby #2. That means that he/she is 4 inches tall already! It has been a long haul so far, but when I remember how bad it was 2 weeks ago, I realize that things are slooooowly getting better. Yay!

Now, on to cuter things:
 

Spaghetti night!

Every time I see Jay’s cute, sweet little self, I remember that all the yucky torture of pregnancy is totally worth it in the end!!!

In town with the Browns

We had a Brown family reunion last week!! It was fun to be all together again after 2 years without Brad. My sister Em and her family (Jesse, Steve, and Dan) flew in from Missouri, so we were all here! We stayed at my parents’ house and did a “stay-cation.” Even though I stayed home for many of the activities thanks to my pregnancy induced perma-nausea, I still got to see a little of the action. My family is so great…

 
…and good looking.

As usual, there were at least 3 or 4 cameras at every activity we did, so we have waaaay too many pictures. I think I put 27 pictures on this post, and believe me that’s only a fraction of the total! I think I have fewer wedding pictures.

For the first 2 days, we borrowed a boat. (I stayed home for all but about 2 hours of the boat-lake-beach action, and I did NOT get on the boat):

In order to avoid repeating a certain painful water wedgie experience, Jeff stayed in the boat and took awesome action pictures rather than risk a relapse. This one is Kyle’s sweet wipeout.

Kyle did get up on the wakeboard (and also on one ski) at last!

Two years in a suit and tie did not seem to crush Brad’s dangerous sense of adventure… He’d probably like me to say this is a trick, but it’s actually a very well-timed picture of the beginning of a big fall.

 
Proof that Brad survived the fall

 
Jesse got some wakeboard air! I’m glad Jeff took such intense action pictures because usually you can’t really enjoy these activities unless you’re in the boat!

 
They played volleyball

Dan the man

Mel took Jay swimming, and he LOVED it so much he tried to escape into the lake!

Jeff took Jay swimming too. Jay is a water baby!

This is where I hung out for a short while one afternoon. Everyone took turns on the boat so I got to see a few folks at a time. It was pleasant in the shade under those big trees, and we were wondering why nobody else at the lake beach had snagged our spot when…a CROW POOPED on Mom’s HAND!! It was disgusting!!! The only up side—it missed her clothes!

Jeff got in some practice holding two kids at once—Jay and Dan

 

Brad, Jeff, and Jesse played some serious Rock Band. They were intense. (and yes that’s me. in a picture)

 

Another day everyone went in to Seattle to Pike’s Place Market and they found this large plastic penguin.  I would definitely have gotten in this picture if I had been there.

Steve is cute

Another day everyone (not me or Jay) went on a boat ride to an island for a Northwestern adventure—Native dancing, open fire salmon roast, etc. Cool. Literally—can you believe it’s summer here?

They ate clams. Definitely glad I wasn’t there for that…

 

…but I am sad that I missed this. Clamlips

 
Here are some huge fishies roasting away. I did go out to eat with the family two other times! We ate at the Cheesecake Factory (I had mashed potatoes and Reese’s Cheescake) and at BJ’s Pizza. The car drives to and from these dinners nearly did me in, but the food was actually quite yummy, even to me!

Brad was the #1 photo-op of the week. I had to have my turn. My little brother is so grown up!! The best part of the week was on Sunday when he gave a talk in church. I took extra anti-puke medicine and toughed it out to get there by 9am. It was so worth it! I was amazed at how much I felt the Spirit by just sitting in the chapel after 6 weeks’ absence. Then Brad gave an amazing talk. Good day.

Lined up by height…on a slanted sidewalk. (Jay had to be restrained because all he wanted to do was run away). I wore a pair of Em’s jeans, which is why they’re rolled up. You may be wondering who took these pictures. Well, Brad knows this girl who lives in Utah, and she flew in this weekend just to take our family pictures! Can you believe that? She is so nice, Brad even took her on a few dates.

 
Auntie Mel and her nephews. According to Brad, the cutest little boy is in the middle… that went over well… have I mentioned that Brad rocks?

Jay loves Grama Meri—she always knows the best snacks! In this case it’s watermelon.

Yo-ho, yo-ho, a pirate’s life for Jay! He plucked off Grama’s clip on earrings, so she let him try them on. I think he still looks like a BOY.

My siblings are the best! I think we all look really different and un-related in this picture for some reason. All 5 of us have different hair colors! How did that happen?

Ok, we look more alike now

I’m not sure I’ll ever have as many kids as my Mom did! Phew

Brad is Back!!!

He’s been in Portugal for the past 2 years, and it was SO GOOD to give him a nice, BIG hug!! more later once I have pictures…

My Monkeys Were Stolen!

When I was working on the latest post, I noticed that my monkey background was GONE!! So I used my very limited blogging skills and revamped our look. It took me forever! Luckily, Jeff brought me our laptop this weekend so I can lounge on the couch while I am online. I still have no idea where my monkeys went!

While I languish on the couch…

 
…Jay gets cuter!

The title to this post sounds like it should be in a Robert Frost poem to me. I’m feeling pretty UN-creative these days, so that’s about as interesting as this post will get, except for the pictures. Here’s what’s been going on around here:

1. Jay and I are still living with my family (a 3 hour drive from where Jeff is teaching summer school), and Jeff still visits us on the weekends. Jeff has one week left of teaching summer school, and then…hopefully he gets a full-time teaching job somewhere….anywhere…
2. I am still a rollercoaster of everything: emotions, food aversions, barfing, and the whole glorious package that is early pregnancy.
3. Yesterday, baby and I reached the 12 week mark, and to celebrate, I took my 3rd trip to the ER for 3 more liters of IV juice. Things just suddenly got out of control again and I heaved every 45 minutes all night. That’s all the details I will give. It was awful, and it is really hard to mention it in my light-hearted writing style.
4. I realized that in the last 5 Sundays, I’ve been to church zero times and to the ER 3 times!! Something is wrong with that picture. BUT, they did the little doppler heartbeat jelly rolly machine on my wizened tummy and Jr’s heart is just a-thumping away in there. Somehow I didn’t vomit him up, even during my all-night puke-a-thon! Relief.
5. Enough about my patheticness, except let me use it to emphasize the AWESOMENESS of my Mom and sister Mel. They have taken over 99.9999% of Jay care (I contribute the occasional nighty-night kiss). Dirty diapers, meals, entertainment, baby-proofing, you name it—they do it!!! Also: Mom is a champion at dreaming up and preparing  random bland foods for me to nibble. I am SO thankful for my sweet patient family. They rock! (Jeff takes over on the weekends except when he spends hours on end in the ER with me.)
6. How I feel emotionally: all over the place. I have teared up in nearly every movie I’ve watched—from Narnia to Star Trek to Disney cartoons. Pathetic but what can I do? I feel helpless and sort of guilty/sad/bummed that I can’t take care of myself and Jay at the moment.It’s still hard to ask for help, even though that’s why I’m here! I miss Jeff during the week. I’m anxious for him to get a real job so we know where we’ll be living for the next few years. Even though I see Jay all day, I don’t get to interact with him that much because I’m  so stationary. It makes me feel like an observer more than a participator, when I’m used to being the center of Jay’s life. What can I say, I’m selfish!
7. Jay loves loves loves his Grama Meri and Aunt Mel! He loves playing with them. He is really good at walking now, and he just figured out how to climb on to the couch by himself. He also now loves raw sugar snap pea pods.

On to the pictures (Jeff took most of these, of course):

 
Jay LOVES going outside on trails!

 
Nature boy

Jeff took this sequence of  PB-Jay:

 

 
That’s my boy.

I took these next 3 pictures. From the couch.
Uncle Kyle is FUN! One day last week it was just Kyle, Jay and I at home, and Kyle made Jay lunch. It was so cute-he’s a good “Unc”

 
Piano-climbing with Grama

 
Story time with Mel.

Boy in a Bun

 
Jay is big enough to fill up 36 buns, (he finally moved into size 3 Huggies this week!!), but we think he’s cuter than anything you can buy at Costco…

Proof:
 
Jay loves loves loves it when his Uncle Kyle plays the piano!

FEEL the joy!

Hyperemesis Gravidarum

Sounds pretty serious, huh? That’s what I have right now. It means that I can’t stop puking without medical intervention. Joy. Things got pretty horrible again by last Sunday night—by then I was waking up every hour to hurl. By 3am I felt closer to DEATH than I’ve ever felt before, and I woke Jeff up with my moaning. He drove me to the ER. They stuck an IV in me AGAIN and I got 3 liters of fluids this time.

I got back to the White home around 7am and right when I walked in the door, all of the smells (dog, etc.) just hit me like a wall and nearly put me under again. That’s when Jeff called my mom and told her he would be driving me up to stay with her for the next few weeks. (well he did ask nicely) So Jeff quickly packed a laundry basket full of clothes for Jay and I, and we were on the road in no time.

Jeff is living and working in Grandview from Tuesday-Friday, and then he will drive up here (3hrs) for the weekends to be with us. I must aknowledge the huge sacrifice it was for him to be away from Jay and I for 4 days each week. He misses us. We miss him. But I think he’d rather have a living wife than a puking skeleton, so we’re dealing with the separation.

Now my Mommy is taking care of me and Jay (she rocks) and I have more magic Zofran medicine and I haven’t barfed since Sunday. Eating is HARD, but my Mom is a wizard at finding the right foods to tempt me—my little baby-pooch is returning! Mom cheerfully changes poopy diapers and feeds Jay yummy food and plays with him. He loves her. So do I!!!

Jay does miss the dogs Zeke and Toby, though…

…so we dug out my old huge stuffed dog. He calls it “Zeee!” and he climbs all over it and pulls its ears and tail (just like he does with the real doggies).

Amazing Grape

Dear faithful viewers: aren’t you grateful that I’m using today’s nausea-free hour to update this blog? I call it a nausea-free hour, but that isn’t entirely accurate…so I think my creativity will suffer. I had my first ultrasound this week, even though I was only 8 weeks along at the time, and they even gave me a picture!!!

I’m glad she labeled the baby blob because I can rarely tell what’s what in ultrasound pictures. I heard the little one’s heart beating and I saw the teeeeeny tiny pinpoint of the heart pumping away on the screen. Even though the levels of my nausea left me with little doubt that things are going just fine in there, it was still reassuring to SEE it and HEAR it.

I called this post Amazing Grape because it’s pretty amazing that this baby manages to grow at all with my no-food menu! I have been subsisting on white grape juice, apple juice, Carnation Instant breakfast mixed with soy milk, and the very occasional Wheat Chex. All of these things look/taste about the same going in as going out, so they are on my “safe” list.

You may be wondering what happened to the magic Zofran anti-puke medicine that I got at the hospital last week. Well, for some reason I have been barfing it up before it can start working right. Bummer! I call my mom every other day with my pathetic-ness and she reminds me that this won’t last forever. One of my few comforts.

As for Jeff and Jay, they are being so patient with my stay-in-bed- most-of-the-day scheme. Jay plays happily all over the house, and he loves tackling the dogs. Jeff takes good care of him.

Jeff got a summer job this week!!! He will be working as a “math expert” at a summer school for the month of July. The program called to offer Jeff’s dad the job, but he will be gone a lot this month, so Jeff went on over to apply, and randomly walked in on the training. He answered a complicated question like the genius he is, and they hired him on the spot! The school only meets Tues-Fri, so that is nice for Jeff’s invalid wife—I only have 4 days a week to fend for myself and care for Jay. Another random perk from this job--they are all high-tech, so each teacher was given an iPad!

Jeff’s latest photographic prowess:

Mt. Adams

Mt. St. Helens

The opening to Ape Cave, a huge 1.5 mile long lava tunnel near Mt. St. Helens. Jeff and His Dad visited it last weekend.

Dan in the Ape Cave tunnel!

OK, I usually try to make a nice conclusion to each post, but my barf-free hour is nearly up so I’ll just say adios, amigos!

PS Happy Independence Day!!!