He is in control

Tomorrow will mark 22 weeks for our kickboxing champion! Ilyana is doing great, she's kicking like crazy which is fun to feel and watch although not always pleasant to wake up to! She's about the size of a spaghetti squash and has now developed a sense of balance (lets hope she gets that from her dad, not me!). She also seems to really like apples, they've definitely been a craving of mine and she tends to go nuts whenever I eat one. On the baby front, everything really is going great.

As most of you know, along with expecting our little one, we are also in the process of building a house. Even though dates were continuing to be pushed back, we were holding on to hope that we would get into our house before Ilyana arrived or at least shortly afterwards. We received news today that they will not begin building until next April, estimating to be done by mid-July. This is definitely a bummer. As thrilled as we are with the benefits of the ROOTS program, it has definitely been a frustrating process. The big reason we're so behind is slacking on the builders part, not the city. After taking several months to get a document to the city, they then put off giving the city a timeline until the last minute, meaning our deed couldn't be processed through this months council meeting. Because they now won't have the deed until the end of November (after the next council meeting), they won't be able to start building until it warms up and the ground thaws. As disappointing as this is, there have been a couple of thoughts that have been helping me to stay positive that I'd like to share. 

1. James 4:13-15: 'Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”'
There are two things in these verses that really stuck out to me about our situation. First of all, life is short, in a year or two, will it really matter that we had to wait 5-6 extra months to get into our house? I doubt it. Also in this verse I saw a challenge from God, can we trust Him enough to give this up to Him and have peace in our hearts about a difficult and disappointing circumstance? We are not in control here, He is.

2. The city is highly involved in our house now. They have done a lot of extra work to push our builder in ways that we can't. They will also be holding our builder accountable for the timeline they gave them, so hopefully this means less delays.

3. As much of a bummer as it is to not be able to get into the house sooner, there is a silver lining. Before finding out this news, we were in a sort of awkward state of unknown as to where we would be when we have our baby. Now that we have this information, we can make the decisions necessary to figure that out and start preparing for her arrival. We can start setting up furniture and other necessary items in the next couple of months instead of having to wait until the last minute. In some ways, waiting until July, although not ideal, may be a blessing in disguise. We no longer will have to move in the winter and won't have juggle unpacking with either me being super pregnant or with caring for a newborn. Also, Jake will (hopefully) be working full time when we move in, which will definitely take off a large financial burden.

Basically what this all boils down to is this: We're definitely disappointed, but God is in control. He knows what He's doing and we are trusting in Him throughout this process, both with the good and the bad.

Information about Ilyana:

EDD: 2/27/15 (127 days)

How mom's feeling: like a punching bag ;)

How dad's feeling: Amazed at the feeling of Ily kicking.

Kicking queen

Here we are at 21 weeks and Ilyana is kicking up a storm. That is, when daddy's not trying to feel! She will be kicking like crazy but as soon as he puts his hand on my stomach she stops, and starts up again as soon as he gives up! So either she's very stubborn or is just calmed by daddy's presence! However, he did finally get to feel a couple of good kicks Saturday morning. He was pretty excited and thought "it felt really weird". It's been really neat to start to figure out her activity patterns and know about when to start expecting her kicks. They aren't hard enough to wake me up at night yet (I'm not complaining!), but during the day she usually kicks around 8:30 or 9, again around 12:30, for an extended period of time from around 4:30-6, and once more before bed around 9:15. I'll feel a couple of random kicks throughout the day as well, but for now, that seems to be her schedule. If she wants to keep that schedule once she's here I would be totally ok with that! Not so little Ilyana is now approximately 12.5 ounces and almost 11 inches long, about the size of a large carrot! Jenna was holding up a piece of paper the other night saying that it was 8x11 and I think my mouth literally fell open at the thought of our little baby girl being that big! Looking at my stomach, we can definitely tell she is growing though!
In other news, our house should finally be getting started this week. After contacting the city about the hold up in the process, they talked to our builder and told them that their eligibility to build in the program was being reconsidered. Very quickly, our builder 'magically' got the document from their bank that we've been waiting for. Our deed will be discussed at the city council meeting on Tuesday and after that our builder should begin building. From what I hear, the city is going to sit down with our builder to discuss the timeline of our house getting built to make sure that they are getting it done in a reasonable amount of time. It will definitely be cutting it close, but there is still a chance that we will be able to get into our house before Ilyana comes. Please pray that we can!

Information about Ilyana:
EDD: Feb. 27th (130 days)

How mom's feeling: Besides some back pain (looking forward to the chiropractor this week!), doing great!

How dad's feeling: Super excited to have felt her kick!

Bows or Bowties?

20 weeks marks halfway! Today we got to see our perfect, healthy baby and find out that it's a... GIRL! Jake and I are both ecstatic! Miss Ilyana Noel is right on track to make her debut around February 27th. It was so neat to be able to see how much she has grown since our last ultrasound and see her little heart beating. My favorite part was getting to see her little fingers and toes! So cute! During the ultrasound she was very busy playing with the umbilical cord, swallowing amniotic fluid (yuck!), and playing hide and seek with the ultrasound tech. She's already stubborn ;) Everything is looking great and we are eager to meet our sweet baby girl!
To announce the exciting news to the grandparents, we gave them little pumpkins with bows on them, here are some pictures of some of their reactions (my mom was out of town and the pictures of my dad didn't turn out):

Information about Ilyana:
EDD: Feb. 27th (140 days)

How mom's feeling: Great! So excited to meet our little girl!

How dad's feeling: Giddy with excitement that he can have a little daddy's girl :)

Exciting news!

We are celebrating 19 weeks with some exciting news! Last night, my hand was able to feel the baby move! I was coming back to bed after a middle of the night snack and had my hand resting on my stomach as I was falling back to sleep and felt a little kick! At first I thought maybe it was just a trick of the mind, but then I felt it again several more times. It was so neat! After several tries today, Jake was able to feel a little kick this evening too! In equally exciting news, we will be finding out gender THIS FRIDAY! Everyone can look forward to seeing the announcement sometime that evening after Jake has gotten off work and we've had a chance to announce to all the soon to be grandparents. So now is the time to start calculating your guess, will our little peanut be a boy or a girl? If you'd like to check out our answers to some of the gender wives tales, feel free to take a look at last weeks post.

Besides that exciting news, not a whole lot has been going on this week. My hips have been a bit sore so we're praying that that would subside soon. My stomach has definitely been growing a lot these past few weeks too which is fun. I'll try to remember to snap a picture tomorrow (I'm already in my pj's for the night). It's no wonder my stomach is getting big though, our little peanut is already about 8.7 ounces and 10 inches long (we can start measuring from head to toe instead of head to rump now)! 

Information about Peanut:

EDD: Feb. 27th (146 days)

How mom's feeling: Painful hips, but really excited about everything!

How dad's feeling: Really excited to find out the gender (we both are guessing girl)!

Old Wives Tales

Here we are at 18 weeks and our little peanut is the size of a green pepper! There really isn't very much going on in the baby world this week. Little peanut has been kicking more and more often, it feels like we might be having a little break dancer to follow in daddy's footsteps! Besides that, we are looking forward to finding out the gender and also really excited about all the friends this little one will be having! So many babies!
In other news, we are hoping that our house will be getting started soon. After hearing the same thing from our builder for months, Jake contacted the ROOTS program coordinator at the city and they are going to be putting some pressure on our builder. If you have the chance to pray for this process, we would really appreciate it. It would be really helpful if we could be in our house before the baby comes.
Since I seem to be lacking a little bit on content this week, I thought it might be fun to post a couple of old wives tales about gender so everyone can start calculating their guess! Have fun!

Information about Peanut:

EDD: Feb 27th (152 days)

How mom's feeling: Great! Enjoying being a full time wife!

How dad's feeling: More excited everyday!

Peace

17 weeks already! Isn't that crazy! I apologize for the late post, you would think with the extra time on my hands I would be better about getting it done. Last Tuesday was my last day of work, what a bittersweet day! We shared some gifts and had a delicious Culvers lunch to celebrate! If anyone is looking for a sentimental but fun gift idea for young kids, I ended up getting them cute little personalized books that had their names, their siblings names, and my name in the story. They loved them! As much as I miss the kiddos, not working has been wonderful in so many ways. Physically, I'm able to get things such as cooking, cleaning, and shopping done while still being able to rest when I'm not feeling well. Jake especially enjoys the home cooked meals! Emotionally, I feel so much peace from knowing that I have the time to get everything done. We're having some friends over for supper Saturday night, if I were still working I would feel so stressed thinking about having to get all the cooking and cleaning done before they come. Now I'm able to just relax and get it done throughout the week! Most importantly though, I have been feeling spiritually at peace. I've been getting out and walking for an hour every morning, while I walk it is so calming to the spirit to be able to just pray and listen to worship music. It's really just a great way to start off my day with my eyes on God!
In baby news, we will be finding out whether little peanut is a boy or girl on October 10th! WOOHOO! We're so excited (if you can't tell)! In other baby news, our little one can hear now! It's so adorable to watch Jake talk to them. He's going to be such a sweet daddy! Little peanut is now 5 inches and 5 ounces, and the bones are starting to harden. I said it before, but I'm just so amazed at how quickly they grow!
Finally I wanted to tell you a little bit about something that has finally been giving me some relief as far as sickness and headaches go. My friend Carrie suggested I try out essential oils and gave me some samples to try. I can not even express to you how happy I am with them. What I've found works for me is ginger oil for morning sickness and peppermint oil for headaches. I have never had anything give such instant relief like the essential oils do. I definitely recommend giving them a try, they have oils for almost any sort of ailment! If you'd like to learn more, feel free to contact Carrie at carrie.kearney12@gmail.com

Information about peanut:
EDD: Feb. 27th (157 days)

How mom's feeling: Great! Thankful to be able to take afternoon naps!

How dad's feeling: Loving all the home cooked meals! Having fun talking to little peanut!

2nd trimester symptoms

16 weeks is here and wow is our baby getting big! Our little peanut is now 4.5 inches and weighing about 3.5 ounces. Also, their little heart is now pumping 25 quarts of blood every day. I've been continuing to feel them move most everyday, which is really neat! Along with headaches, I've started to experience another 2nd trimester symptom, round ligament pain. Here is WebMD's description of round ligament pain: Several thick ligaments surround and support your womb (uterus) as it grows during pregnancy. One of them is called the round ligament. The round ligament connects the front part of the womb to your groin, the area where your legs attach to your pelvis. The round ligament normally tightens and relaxes slowly. As your baby and womb grow, the round ligament stretches. That makes it more likely to become strained. Sudden movements can cause the ligament to tighten quickly, like a rubber band snapping. This causes a sudden and quick jabbing feeling. For the past week or so I've been experiencing this once or twice a day, however I had no idea what was going on! I was getting a little concerned but decided to wait to ask my doctor at my next appointment (on Monday). However, I happened upon a segment on round ligament pain as I was reading what was going on with our baby this week and it described my symptoms perfectly. This week I also visited a chiropractor to see if he could help relieve some of my headaches. I'm feeling very hopeful that it will help. He explained that there are occipital nerves that connect to the back of the neck (my headaches often start with, and are the worst, behind my right eye and at the base of my skull), as he was adjusting me he noticed that I have some large knots right around the area that the nerves are, explaining a large reason why I get these headaches so often. Since getting adjusted it has definitely helped some, and I'm confident that with a few more adjustments it should relieve the situation even more.

Information about peanut:

EDD: February 27th (167 days)

How mom's feeling: Excited about our growing baby!

How dad's feeling: Wishing he could feel the baby! (It makes my heart so happy to see him talking to our little one!)