Good News!

We got some good news today! Well, let me back up.  I called the Hospital and asked when the Doc would be back to give us our test results for finding out if Danny was also a carrier for cystic fibrosis; I found out he wasn't going to be back for ANOTHER week! I told Danny and he called and got SASSY lol we could not understand why another doctor couldn't just look at us and tell us!  So he called and left a threatening message, next thing you know a doc had looked at and he was NEGATIVE! Yay what a relief!  Oh my gosh I can breath so much easier!!!!

So my friend Emily lent me her Hypnobirthing book and i've been reading that, i'm about 1/3 of the way through, just absorbing all of the new ideas in it and thinking about the things that would hold me back from having a calm, wonderful birth.  Thinking about taking the class, and still thinking about my birth plan.  Not knowing if Danny will get to be there for the actual birth is still throwing me off! At least i'm not super fearful of pain, that's good! I have plenty of other ideals about things I need to work through. :)


Update 2/12/13 More Good News
I had the quad screen and everything came back negative!!! Because the two vessel chord thing was said to be a "soft defect marker" i'm so grateful that the quad screen looks good. :) 

I am feeling the baby every day now! Since Sunday, so glad! :)

Baby Rowan's First Sunday Outfit

Hehe, isn't it cute?! Mom and I found a pattern for baby Tom's online... but it turned out to be really difficult  the instructions were unclear and mixed in with a different pattern and some of the patterns were even wrong. So it took hours to make those little Tom's (thanks mom)  I also found a simple vest on Onesie pattern and she did that too and I sewed on the buttons (go me lol).  We need to find him some cute little black cords and a little hat! He'll be stylin' :D 

Mom's Skillz!

Mom has a few projects she's been wanting to do (baby stuff, dresses, skirts etc), she's going to help me make some things for the baby.  I think i'll post all of her awesome creations on this one post!

Here's a skirt she made for my little sister- paired with a lace top, jean jacket and belt she looks faaaaaabulous! The little goober didn't want me posting her pics, so I promised to cut her head off! :P It took my mom about 30 min to make! Pattern? Nope. Mamma's Gots Skillz =)

1/2 Point Ultrasound

Wow, what a day.  Spent the morning trying to figure out why I hadn't heard from the Hospital in GA about the cystic fibrosis results, I got an angry call from a nurse informing me that it was because the doctor was out of town.  She claimed to have told me this before... not true, I wouldn't have been waiting around by the phone if I knew that lady! ;p

This ultrasound was the 1/2 way one during the pregnancy where they look at all of his little organs and parts and make sure he's developing normally.  He had his little hands and arms up by his face so I couldn't see his face though...and he never moved them away!  After the ultrasound tech finished a doc looked at the photo's and came in to talk to me. He said the baby's cord is a two vessel cord instead of a three/ he has a single umbilical artery instead of two arteries. This happens in about 1% of pregnancy's. The doctor called it a "soft defect marker" :( He then proceeded to tell me that there were NO other signs of defects, specifically he's right where he should be growth wise and his heart and kidney's look good.The Doc also said that it will be easier for the cord to get wrapped around things or pinched in the womb in the third trimester just because it's smaller. He told me not to worry but said they'd keep a closer watch of him. Needless to say.... I'd had nightmares all night about the cystic fibrosis results and now i'm worried about this too... after that the doc told me that me having a minor heart problem (bicuspid aortic valve disease) can cause problems during pregnancy because of the increased blood volume.  Specifically heart failure.. so he told me what to look out for.  Then  I had my blood drawn to be tested for defects (routine in pregnancy if you choose to have it,  I did in light of recent information.)

  I'm not much worried about me as I am our little baby boy.  Danny did some research and felt pretty confident that the baby would be fine because everything else on his ultrasound looked fine, he had no other markers of any defects. I on the other hand am the worrying pregnant mommy.... :-{  I so wish Danny were here today. It was hard to call him and tell him that information, even if it turns out to be nothing.  I'd just sent him some of the shots from the ultrasound and he'd said "Our baby Rowan is going to be beast!"  Then I call and am like "well, he has a soft defect marker.."  Sigh, I just hope and pray everything turns out just fine and we get a perfectly healthy little baby boy.

Danny has been gone for a week now.  I miss him so much.  Especially on days like today! I find that when without him I have a bad day if I were with him i'd have only a bad moment... if that makes sense.  I'm realizing how much better we both handle things when we're together.  Stress, financial struggles, worrying about things... we just pick each other up, help one another gain perspective or recognize when one another just need a hug.  He received his orders the other day and it looks like he WILL get leave!!!  I hope everything turns out so that he can be here when Rowan comes! I know that heavenly father loves us and loves families so I just hope we can be together as a family for that special moment!

Prego Pic

 I had my first midwife appointment here today, up in Rexburg with Seasons Medical.  Mom went with me.  She spent a lot of time just talking to me, asking about my medical history, explaining her credentials and answering any questions- about an hour long visit.  I wasn't able to get an ultrasound but I will be tomorrow! YAY :D Even though I get to see him more than most women I always love seeing him happy and healthy and just moving around.

 Before we went to the midwife's office we stopped at a thrift store and looked at some baby things.... we found a lot of cute things, here's one of my favorite finds!
Adorable little boots, they reminded me of Daddy :) I got some other things too, a little Ralf Lauren sweater vest and some adorable button ups and cute pants.

 ---> Prego pic 21 weeks, I look goooofy!

Random Updates

It has been SO COLD here in Idaho! All you peeps posting things about how warm it is in GA or wherever you are are making me crazy! Haha it's been well below zero basically the whole time I've been here. I remember one afternoon while Danny was still here it got up to five degrees and we were like.. wow, this is nice! My siblings had school canceled one day because it was so cold!  And I think they had a snow day the day I arrived...

 Here's a little shot of my parents house!






Things have been boring.  And i'm sick so I don't feel like doing much anyway.  I have been organizing the baby things and found some fabric at Joanne's I want to use for the baby's quilt! I think I am going to do an elephant theme, so cute!  I won't get to do a whole lot of themed things while i'm here... I don't have a room for the baby.  All of his little things are with me in my old bedroom, we're pretty crowded.  I'd like to put together a nursery for him when we get back to Augusta though, we'll see!







Here's the elephant fabric I found. (Yeah.. it's sideways)  Still trying to decide what i'll pair with it. It's funny colors, tangerine, grey, and two shades of teal.  Kind of hard to match but we'll figure it out.  I think I want to do a T patterned quilt.  Something like the photo below...



       

Things have been both harder and easier than I thought they would be with Danny gone.  I'm just glad there are things to look forward to before he comes home.  Jacob comes home from his mission, Spencer's graduation, the baby... it's hard being back in my old bedroom, just like before I met Danny or while we were engaged. Feeling like i'm just waiting for the next year to pass so I can get on with my life.  That's a horrible thing to say, but it is how I feel sometimes.  Even to get a job.... I am having a baby in like 4 months, I still struggle with morning sickness and I doubt I will want to be on my feet for hours at a time and I will be at home with our baby when he comes so I just don't see the point in that. I hope to get busy making things or doing family history or something....maybe going to birthing classes? Visiting friends? It really has been nice to be around people all day though.  It was just Danny and I in Georgia... weeks sometimes went by without me even seeing anyone else.  I was alone a lot while he was a work so it has been really nice to have my family and friends around.

We have been discussing names again.  I just didn't feel like Daniel/Danny fit this little baby i'm carrying.  If I thought about "baby Daniel" it just didn't work for some reason. I don't know.  Danny is hard to discuss names with, he doesn't like hardly any.  So it gets frustrating to just hear "no, no, no, no..." when I show him a list of names I like.  We both loved the girl name we had picked out so much! We just want to love whatever we choose for this little baby boy and to feel like it's "him." Right now we're thinking about Rowan.  Rowan Chase or Rowan Daniel.  Danny had a friend pass away when he was about 14 named Chase in a rafting accident.  I think Chase followed  by  Tracy is kind of hard to say- Rowan Chase Tracy, but we're still thinking about both.  Annnnd any others....I can get him to consider...  yeahhhh :D

Back in Idaho/Goodbye Danny :(

The trip to Idaho was a rough one.  We were going to have to pay for a storage unit, as well as to park Danny's truck and trailer....we had planned on purchasing a twin bed for me when we got to Idaho but decided to just bring the trailer and park it on my parents land and haul the bed! Win win right?  We got a storage unit big enough to fit the truck inside of as well as all of our things to save money, thought we were set! Turns out that trailer REALLY cut down our gas mileage.  We couldn't go faster than 55 mph the whole way! We were getting 15 mpg when it was GOOD and 6 at the worst.  At one point after driving 15 hours and only getting 6 mpg, me crying and no more money (because gas has cost us 2x plus as much as we accounted for) we ditched the stupid thing 2 hrs away from Farmington New Mexico! Danny had to go back and get it later.  We stayed in Farmington for a few days and left Thursday morning for Idaho.... but the weather hit and we got stuck in Logan! Still with it taking us about 2x longer than it would have without a trailer! But we got here, safe and sound and that's all that matters.
 
 Here's a pic I took from the car while we crossed the Mississippi River,
 Danny woke me up so I could see it haha


While Danny was here we ran some errands in Idaho Falls, did a little shopping for baby, spent some time with friends and family, I showed Danny around BYU-I and we got to attend the temple while he was here too.  Then he left yesterday, Thursday the 17 (our 10 month anniversary) for SLC to catch a plane back to GA.  One day down. Roughly 264 days to go.  I miss him already, just trying to focus on preparing for our little baby boy's arrival. I feel like I'm doing ok but when I see him on skype or talk to him on the phone or go to bed alone my heart aches. I can't really grasp how long we will actually be apart ( basically the same amount of time as we have been married) or it breaks my heart! Anyway.... all of you Idaho friends, come hang out! :)

IT'S A BOY!

Gah!  I wrote this post a few days ago then started messing with the pics before I published it and suddenly the whole post disappeared! So here we go again!

Here's a picture of our very very obvious little man!  The doctor wasn't able to see his gender the week before (I don't know why...) so we ended up paying to see him again at a fetal imaging place.  It was 90$ :( but I just wanted Danny to be able to see what the sex was before he left! As soon as the tech saw him on the screen she said "Oh, pretty active must be a boy." Then a few min later sure enough it was very obvious he was a little man. We got a little video of him that's about 30 min long.  It was really awesome for us to see our little man moving around! We were so sure it was a girl it was quite a surprise for us to find out it was a boy. it made me feel pretty non-intuitive for sure! Even now a couple weeks and a lot of boy clothes later i'm still wrapping my brain around it!

To tell our families we had them all gather around the computer and get on skype and held up this little picture.  I put the baseball cap on so that even though the photo would be too hard to see the sex from the skype camera it would give them a clue!

I have been trying to call the hospital to find out of Danny's test as a carrier for cystic fibrosis came back (I was positive) but because it's Martin Luther King weekend they weren't in their offices.

We were able to get a lot of baby boy clothes from Danny's mom as well as a cradle and a few other items so that was really nice.  We also had a 100$ gift card from his Dad that we got for Christmas so we were able to go do some baby shopping together, it was so fun! A lot of the clothes were on clearance so we were able to stretch it! I got a little baby compartment organizer too that was 11$ on clearance that is going to be nice for me in this cramped space. WE also bought our  first package of diapers together... I couldn't help it! Danny just looked so adorable browsing the baby diapers section. :) I hope our little man is just like him.   Danny's mom also gave me a box of clothes and blankets that had belonged to Danny as a baby and his Dad as a baby too! So that was really neat to have.

We haven't decided on a name.  We were thinking Daniel_____Tracy but when I think "baby Daniel" it just doesn't seem to fit.  I like Lucas Daniel Tracy  but Danny isn't a fan.  So we'll keep looking.... he's just so picky! I think we will probably do Daniel as the middle name.

Oh! I almost forgot but I think* I may have felt him move for the first time the other day! :D So exciting! I'm not sure but... I think so!  I will know as I start feeling them more! 

Argyle Army Wreath

                  

I made this for Danny's Mother for Christmas.  It's out of his old uniform, a little bit of her boy while he's Deployed.

Pretty simple to make! Just wrap colored yarn around wreath form, glue every now and then.  I did a tuft of square fabric bunches all glued together on one side then cut out diamonds to go around the edge.  I used the wrong side of the fabric for every other diamond.  Then I criss crossed teh same yarn around the wreath, glueing every now and then to give it the argyle patterned look. And I LOVE it!

Updates

2012 in Review:

2012: Newly engaged, more surgery, MARRIAGE!!!, moving to Augusta (two thumbs down), started our lives together, health problems, Grandma Shipton passed away, news came of an upcomming deployment, one of Danny's friends was killed in Afganistsan, another of his friends from home also passed away and we found out we were PREGANT.  It's been ahellofayear. So much joy, sorrow, ends, and new beginnings.  I don't know if i'm a better person this year than last year.... I'd like to think so. I'd like to think I have more faith in my God and a stronger testimony.  I feel though that i've just taken what I know and am and applied it to the new situations i've faced in my personal and married life. Last night I picked up my journal and read my first entry of 2012.  It was of course about how excited I was to soon be Danny's wife, how much I missed him, and how I couldn't wait to be with him.  It's strange to me to remember what I looked forward to last year in light of what is in the year to come. How things have changed! It's very difficult knowing that we will spend the majority of 2013 across the world from one another.  I continue to pray for strenth in the year to come. I like the quote from the movie Emma (not sure if this actually came from Emma Smith or was something the movie added to her dialog) but it says once at the beginning that "Strength isn't something you have, it's soemthing you find." At the end of the film it says "Strength isn't soemthing you have, it's soomething God helps you find."  I hope I can find it with His help.  This year will also bring us one of the greatest joy's life can bring, our new baby :)

On our way home from Christmas in FL Danny shared some info that made me realize we needed to be out of our apartment about a week earlier than we had planned. So the 'plan' is to be out of our apartment on January 5th. ya.. that's in 4 days. We're nowhere near ready... doesn't help that everything has been closed for the Holiday.

Had our last baby appointment in Augutsa the 27th that little stink was turned sideways!  Much to modest to show us what was going on between those little legs! The sex of our little one remains a mystery... hopefully we will see on the 3rd!  After the appointment the doc told us I had tested positive as a carrier for Cystic Fibrosis.  They ordered a blood test for Danny as well.  1 in 29 white America's is a carrier.  If Danny comes back positive our baby will have a 1 in 4 chance of having the disease.   We wont find out  for another 2 weeks ish.