Christmas and New Year's Eve

So, one last quick post for this year... as promised, I just wanted to share some of our photos from Christmas. As it turns out, it seems I took hardly any pictures. I was terribly ill both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. While I usually have a few hours each day where I can get around and take care of basic needs, about one or two days a week I am completely laid up. It just happened to fall on Christmas this year. 

It could have been worse - I remember our first Christmas just a few months after we were married. We had just found out a couple of days earlier that I was pregnant, when I started bleeding on Christmas Eve. When I started having horrible cramping on Christmas Day in the evening, we called my OB's answering service and they told us to go to the ER (duh - we had no clue there's nothing they could do for us). We sat in a cold ER waiting room for hours, where all the chairs were set up theater-style to face the television screens, which were blaring the "Jerry Springer Show", so we chose to sit in a windowsill off to the side instead. People who kept coming in after us were called back before us because it was more serious - one guy still had a knife stuck in him! I think it was from a family gathering of all things. We finally got called back, just to be told they could do nothing to stop a miscarriage. It was a very bizarre experience, especially for me who had only been in the US for a few months and did not even know such television shows existed.

Recent pictures

Boy oh boy, has this last week been an interesting one! The "morning sickness"/NVP/hyperemesis roller coaster has had me clutching on for dear life as it seems. While it's been a general downturn for the worse (as in, MUCH worse), with me being mostly out of commission and incredibly miserable, there have been a few windows of feeling functional. I read on another blog where a mom recommended eating at least 11 g of complex protein every two hours. While I knew protein helped me, I now have an exact figure I can shoot for. Will someone please leave a comment telling me that ice-cream is a nutrient-dense, high protein snack? Thank you. I also like the "minimal activity" part... at the beginning of this pregnancy,  I was still running with my husband, but have since had to stop because of the nausea and was feeling bad about that. When all else fails, lying down on the sofa always makes me feel a little better (the same cannot be said of my chores and other obligations).

John's 7th Birthday

Hard to imagine that my baby boy just turned SEVEN. Wow, time sure flies! 

 Solomon (3) holding John (a few days old)

The big news of the day...

... is that we are expecting again! Predictable, huh?

We have actually known for several weeks (I am about 8 weeks along). For those of you who suspected something was up when I mentioned a triple stroller some time back - that was not a tip-off. I bought the stroller right before finding out the big news. In fact, I promptly turned around and sold it again (at a profit) because at over 50 lbs, it was too much of a behemoth to haul in and out of the van while pregnant. I will be looking into buying a trusted Graco double stroller as soon as I feel up to it.

Miriam gets baptized

It's hard to believe, but our little baby girl is growing up SO fast. Seems like just yesterday that I was a mom to all boys, until our sweet little girl came into our life. 

Thing 1 or Thing 2?

Little Anna still sleeps in our bed. I love dressing her in cozy little jammies because she spends much of the night snuggled up to me - so much better than a teddy bear! :)

 

Dear Michael Smith...

(if you are not Michael Smith, this post will be of no interest to you)

Several weeks ago, you mailed my husband a package with a Bible, a sermon transcript, and a long letter. Thank you for mailing these. 

Anna turns 1

Our sweet little Christmas baby is turning one today. Wow, time flies too fast! Of course, the birthday started out great for me, who got to wake up with the little sweetie snuggled by my side cooing and smiling. 

All I eat is vitamins...

... all I drink is juice.

Well, not quite. That's a line from a Patch the Pirate song that came to mind when I sat down to write this post.

I often am asked what kind of prenatal vitamins and/or other supplements I take, or if I can recommend any certain brands.

Happy December!

December 1st, the day the kids have been waiting for with eager anticipation! As we do every year, the kids each got a little chocolate advent calendar. It's a countdown of sorts, with one little treat per day, until the 24th.