24 week visit

I went for my 24 week visit Tuesday. It is hard to believe I am six months pregnant already. It has gone by so quickly after the first trimester. Baby Jace was very active and his heart rate was 138-140. I am measuring correctly and have gained 9 pounds so far. I still am trying to fight off this respiratory/cold bug so she instructed me on what I could safely take and I feel that I may finally be rounding the corner to recovery. They drew blood to check for antibodies since I am a negative blood type. I go back in four weeks and they will administer the first Rhogam shot (to ensure my body behaves if Jace should be a positive blood type) and do my glucose screening test (to make sure I don't have gestational diabetes). After that I will begin going every two weeks and will schedule my 4D ultrasound--very excited about this! I find myself wishing I had a glass belly so I could see Jace developing and ensure he is safe. I also am very curious to see what he looks like. Will he look like Barrett or completely unique? I am so excited to meet the little guy! I'll keep you updated. Love you all and thank you so very much for your prayers!

So Proud.

I stressed and stressed awaiting bedtime last night and expected a choppy night of sleep myself with the transition to a big boy bed. Prayer works, folks! Barrett slept all through the night by himself in his very own big boy bed. Not a peep 'til morning. I know this is a trivial accomplishment/answer to prayer in the grand scheme of things, but I was so thankful for this little blessing. I had a little bit of trouble getting him down for his nap today, but after I laid with him for about five or ten minutes he drifted off to sleep and I was able to slip out of the room. He is doing so well. I made a ridiculously big deal out of how well he did, complete with cheering, so that he would know how proud I was and what a big boy he had been. We even went and bought him a prize for doing so well...his very own play tool box with a toy hammer ("knock, knock"), saw, and screw driver ("driver"). He was so tickled. I know this is not a one night or day transition, but I am hopeful and thankful for the progress thus far.

Big Boy Furniture

Barrett's big boy furniture came in today and looks great! We have been trying to play up the whole bit of him being a big boy now with his 2nd birthday fast approaching and needing to move the baby furniture to the nursery for baby Jace. We picked out sheets yesterday for the bed and it came today while he was playing at mother's day out. He was really excited to see it all in his room and helped me put the sheets on. He did NOT like the idea of sleeping in the big boy bed however. He screamed and screamed with big alligator tears streaming down his cheeks. It was so sad. I tried laying down with him to no avail. Finally after 20 minutes of screaming we took a break and went to pick up Briley from the vet. He fell asleep in the car and I deposited a sleeping Barrett into the big boy bed. Hopefully he will not be traumatized when he awakens and I will pray for a smoother transition tonight. We still have to paint the room and rearrange/add accessories. I'll post a pic of the final product when it is finished!

Change of plans

I was supposed to go back to my OB doctor today for my 4 week check-up, but woke up this morning to a sick child and cancelled my appointment. Barrett had a 102.9 fever, a junky cough, and was vomiting phlegm (sorry if you have a week stomach). I figured the new crud was viral, but took him to his pediatrician to make sure his ear infection had resolved. He said he felt that this was a new ailment of the viral variety. His left ear looked good, but the right ear was still a little red. It didn't have any fluid in it though so we are taking the wait and see approach as opposed to putting him on his third antibiotic in 2 months. If he is still running fever in 2 days or gets worse, we are to go back and have his ear rechecked. Please pray that this illness will be short-lived and his ear heals up. He has been playful today and is eating well, but is having difficulty sleeping due to the cough. He had a slight fever tonight when I put him down, but has not repeated the high temp from this morning after it broke. I go back to my OB next Tues. and will post an update afterwards. Thank you for all your prayers. Love you all!

He Has a Name!

After lots of searching, we have selected a name for our son:

JACE ADDISON TIPPS.

He will go by Jace (pronounced like Chase with a "J") which means "healer" or "God is my salvation." Addison will be after his father as it means "Adam's son." Hope you all like it as much as we do!

Complete and Utter Exhaustion

Well, I have not posted in quite some time. The last week and a half has proven to be one of sheer exhaustion for me. With my body working hard to form another it just can't quite recover like it used to.

We finished laying our hardwoods. I shouldn't say we as I really had nothing to do with it minus the cleaning up aftewards. Adam and his fabulous family (parents and brother) layed our hardwoods. They are gorgeous and have made such a difference in the house! I love them. After that I cleaned for a couple of days. My son is allergic to dust apparently and had a runny nose nonstop during the process. The Monday after we were finished it stopped running and I thought "we are through this." Wrong. He became very fussy and unable to sleep. Not typical of my child usually. Then he got a fever. He had broken a tooth, but it seemed to be lingering a bit longer than usual. Off to the pediatrician we went. The doctor looked in his ears and said "ouch!" He had a "severe double ear infection." Bless him. I felt like a heel for not taking him sooner; however, the last two times we have been we were told it was a virus and he would get over it. He is still on anitbiotics, but feeling much better.

My uncle, 52 yr. old, has been battling cancer for the past 2 and a half years. He did well for a lot longer than expected, but the cancer finally caught up to him and began to overtake his body. Wednesday we got a call from my mother saying that he would not make it longer than a week and possibly no longer than 24 hours. He was under hospice care and they manged to keep him comfortable and he was ready to go. He was an amazing Christian man who embodied the purpose driven life. He truly put Christ first and his love for Christ was evident. He went back and forth to Scotland on missions the last 18 years and was very involved in his church at home. He never missed a service until the Sunday before his death and they brought the church service to his home. He sat on the front porch and the church filled their yard and the streets of the neighborhood. Can you imagine the power in that! A true picture of what the church really should be. He knew where he was going and embraced heaven as his home. He showed such courage throughout the entirety of his illness and "yea though [he] walked through the valley of the shadow of death" he feared not. He passed away Saturday afternoon. We went to the services Sunday--a packed church--and though all there grieved--it was also a celebration of his life, the end of his pain, and his true homegoing. It was very powerful. There was a graveside service Monday morning. They played amazing grace on the bagpipes for the final goodbye. Please pray for his wife, Jeanie, and his children, Clif and Curtis, over the course of the next year when they enter your mind.

I typically work during the day every other weekend at the hospital, but recently with all of the full time positions filled there have been no openings to fill and I have had to get creative and make some sacrifices--namely sleep--to get my hours in. Last Friday and Saturday I worked 7pm-3am (or 4 or 5am). Adam watched Bear during the day Sat. and Sunday morning so I could sleep. Sleep was not had. I had been up 24 hours by the time I tried to sleep on Saturday and I guess I was too tired to sleep. Crazy, but anyone who has worked nights or been that tired understands. So after a day of tossing and turning I managed to get about 3 or 4 hours of broken sleep before I went to work to do it all over again. Sunday morning I was able to get about 4 hours of sleep before we had to get up and travel to my uncle's funeral in east Tennesee.

Meanwhile, I had gotten sick. No voice, lots of congestion, a productive cough, and a fever. Sunday night we are sleeping and I wake up coughing for two hours and have fever and chills. Then I finally get back to sleep and the alarm in the unihabited room next door at the hotel begins blaring. It doesn't stop because there is no one there to turn it off. I called the front desk and they did not come in a timely fashion. Their mistake! Anyone who knows Adam knows he does not wake up well. He gets out of bed, throws on his clothes and goes down to the front desk to make sure the problem is resolved. Lets just say they got right on it! Problem solved, but we only had an hour before we had to get up. We stopped in Gadsden on the way back home so I could go to the doctor. I am now on antibiotics and a decongestant and am slowly beginning to feel better. I am just exhausted, physically and emotionally. Sorry for the venting. Try to sneak me into your prayers as well if you remember. I am going to take a nap while Barrett naps to replace my sleep that will be lost working this evening. Night Night!