29 weeks

Today we are 29 weeks preggo!

We went for our 3D sonogram on Wednesday. The kids cames, Jess' mom was there, my dad was watching and listening via the web from Arkansas, and Jess' brother was watching and listening via the web from Chicago. Delaney was a little stinker and would not cooperate. She is a position where her bottom is low and she's got her legs completely extended directly in front of her body, her toes are in her eyes and her hands are folded in front of her face. She did not want to show us her face. I got up and literally jumped around and she didn't budge. The sonographer literally beat my stomach with her little sono tool and she didn't budge. We got to count 10 fingers and 10 toes. We saw her face in exactly one shot over the entire hour. She's got little chunky cheeks already. She has fat little thighs. She's perfect. We can't wait to meet her! Since I have GD she won't be delivered after 39 weeks so that only leaves 10 weeks left!!!!!!!

Any ideas?

Okay so as many of you may know I've been in the hospital twice in the past 4.5 weeks for bleeding and preterm labor. Every single time I've been hooked up to the big ole machine that tells you the baby's heart beat and contractions...I have little bleeps about every 7-15 minutes...they last about 15 seconds and it just feels like someone is pushing on my uterus. Well since this last little hospital visit I've been having these huge, painful, take my breath away uterine contraction type things. Since I've never had a baby before I'm not sure what the heck these things are. Jess didn't ever really have these types of things either. I'm not sure if they are contractions or round ligament pain or her moving or whatever. They have been occuring between 6:00-6:30 p.m.. They happen 3-9 times by 8:00p.m. and then they go away. This happens almost every single night. Anyone have any ideas? Do you think this is of concern? My doctor gave me vistaril and ambien to help me sleep during these episodes. She doesn't seem concerned at all. At what point do I call the doctor on call or do I just ignore them?

Melissa says it best!!!

You Can Forget My Taxes

by Melissa Etheridge

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An Academy Award-winning and Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter.

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Singer Melissa Etheridge rails against the passage of the gay-marriage ban in California—and she won't be paying the state a dime.

Okay. So Prop 8 passed. Alright, I get it. 51% of you think that I am a second class citizen. Alright then. So my wife, uh I mean, roommate? Girlfriend? Special lady friend? You are gonna have to help me here because I am not sure what to call her now. Anyways, she and I are not allowed the same right under the state constitution as any other citizen. Okay, so I am taking that to mean I do not have to pay my state taxes because I am not a full citizen. I mean that would just be wrong, to make someone pay taxes and not give them the same rights, sounds sort of like that taxation without representation thing from the history books.

Okay, cool I don't mean to get too personal here but there is a lot I can do with the extra half a million dollars that I will be keeping instead of handing it over to the state of California. Oh, and I am sure Ellen will be a little excited to keep her bazillion bucks that she pays in taxes too. Wow, come to think of it, there are quite a few of us fortunate gay folks that will be having some extra cash this year. What recession? We're gay! I am sure there will be a little box on the tax forms now single, married, divorced, gay, check here if you are gay, yeah, that's not so bad. Of course all of the waiters and hairdressers and UPS workers and gym teachers and such, they won't have to pay their taxes either.

Gay people are born everyday. You will never legislate that away.

Oh and too bad California, I know you were looking forward to the revenue from all of those extra marriages. I guess you will have to find some other way to get out of the budget trouble you are in.

…Really?

When did it become okay to legislate morality? I try to envision someone reading that legislation "eliminates the right" and then clicking yes. What goes through their mind? Was it the frightening commercial where the little girl comes home and says, "Hi mom, we learned about gays in class today" and then the mother gets that awful worried look and the scary music plays? Do they not know anyone who is gay? If they do, can they look them in the face and say "I believe you do not deserve the same rights as me"? Do they think that their children will never encounter a gay person? Do they think they will never have to explain the 20% of us who are gay and living and working side by side with all the citizens of California?

I got news for them, someday your child is going to come home and ask you what a gay person is. Gay people are born everyday. You will never legislate that away.

I know when I grew up gay was a bad word. Homo, lezzie, faggot, dyke. Ignorance and fear ruled the day. There were so many "thems" back then. The blacks, the poor ... you know, "them". Then there was the immigrants. "Them.” Now the them is me.

I tell myself to take a breath, okay take another one, one of the thems made it to the top. Obama has been elected president. This crazy fearful insanity will end soon. This great state and this great country of ours will finally come to the understanding that there is no "them". We are one. We are united. What you do to someone else you do to yourself. That "judge not, lest ye yourself be judged" are truthful words and not Christian rhetoric.

Today the gay citizenry of this state will pick themselves up and dust themselves off and do what we have been doing for years. We will get back into it. We love this state, we love this country and we are not going to leave it. Even though we could be married in Mass. or Conn, Canada, Holland, Spain and a handful of other countries, this is our home. This is where we work and play and raise our families. We will not rest until we have the full rights of any other citizen. It is that simple, no fearful vote will ever stop us, that is not the American way.

Come to think of it, I should get a federal tax break too...

Melissa Etheridge is an Academy Award-winning and Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter.

Snowmen, Oh how I love them!

Jess ordered Peanut pink snowman robees yesterday! :) I'm so excited to get those little shoes in...not only are they cute but they'll help keep her socks on and feet warm. Today Children's Place emailed me with their new pjs. They have SNOWMEN pjs for babies. They even have a deal, 3 pjs for $30. I want the pink one in 0-3 month, the purple one in 3-6 month, and the white one in 12 month. How cool is that going to be! I'm so excited...just needed to share.
Here's the link to the page in which these adorable pjs are on.

http://www.childrensplace.com/webapp/wcs/stores/
servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&catalogId=1000
1&storeId=10001&productId=495142&styleId=72143&cate
goryIdsTree=72478%7C72477&categoryNameTree=sleepwe
ar%7Csleepwear&categoryName=seasonal

28 weeks!

We are 28 weeks pregnant today! Woohoo I'm done with my 7th month of pregnancy. We went to the doctor this week and were told that my placenta has moved but it not out of the "worry zone" yet. We're crossing our fingers that it continues to move up. Right now Peanut's little bum is just sitting right on top of it. She is very active in there...likes to kick...especially at night. She measured at 2.5 pounds at our appointment on November 4th. Next week is our big 4D sonogram! :)

All of our G Diapers are in now! :) I am so excited. We have two orange, cream, pink, green, and blue. We ordered them off of ebay, they came with lots of liners, and they were much cheaper. We also ordered a bag last week that is pink and green and got Peanut's name embroidered on it. She'll be able to use it to travel during her first year (trips planned to Mexico, Arkansas, Columbia, MO, Chicago, and maybe Colorado (Estes Park)). She'll also be able to use it for many years in the future. We are excited for her. We can't wait to hold her and cuddle her. We are just getting so anxious and excited!!!!!!

We are very excited about Obama being elected as our next president. We are saddened by Arizona and Florida choosing to vote for hate legislation. I am personally disappointed in my home state of Arkansas that now says gay people cannot adopt or be foster parents. I pray that Arkansas can open it's eyes and realize gay people are loving parents and great, caring foster parents. Jess and I are enraged at the passing of Prop 8. We got married in Ventura, CA on August 18th of this year. Ventura county was one of the many counties that passed a ban on gay marriage. We just don't understand how it affects anyone but us (all gay people). We pray that some how the lawyers can figure out a way to overturn it and if that can't happen we pray that part of the change that Obama promises will reflect in anti-hate and discrimination legislation.

Jess and I are currently in a Wide is God's Welcome bible study at church. It's purpose is to teach against the scripture that is used to justify hating gay people. We have a bible study of about 15 people, Jess and I are the only actual gay members. It is really exciting to be a part of this. We also ordered a daily devotional for our children and for us (the one for us is a gay and lesbian one). We are excited to grow our faith walk without discrimination and fear.

As I promised...

Sorry it took so long to finally post the pictures of the crib and such...but we had to take a slight detour to the hospital this afternoon because I started bleeding again. Dang it all to heck! I bled, quit, and dried up. I cramped, kept cramping, and then kept cramping. They treated me for preterm labor, sent me home with strict instructions to take it easy and lay low until my appointment on the 4th. I'm just so thrilled they let me come home.

Let the Blessings Flow!

My mom came through and realized that I was getting very anxious about not having a crib so she sent me money and Jess and I bought the crib last night. We also set it up last night and put all the crib sheets and stuff on there. :) We are so very blessed with the family we have...ALL of them are just so great and provide us with everything from support and phone calls checking on us to money for cribs to dinner every Sunday night.

Photobucket is having issues...I'll post the pictures later.

26 weeks, 1 day

We've made it two weeks past the initial bleeding episode! That's always good news. We now have the nursery pretty much put together. We are waiting till the end of November to get the crib and changing table from my mom. Jess' dad should be retiring at the end of the year so we are hoping that he'll do a nice mural in our nursery for us once he has retired. It's okay if it's not done before she is here since she'll be sleeping in our room for the first few months. We have three baby showers planned over the next three months! Craziness I know. I hoping that somewhere in those baby showers we are blessed with the huge baby gate we need, the high chair, and the pack and play.
As for my health I am doing well. I have contractions for a few days and then they go away. I'm having some pretty severe pain at the top of my belly, right where my rib cage comes together. I'm sure it's just my expanding belly. I've decided the true miracle of birth isn't the baby (although babies are miracles too). The miracle is a woman's ability to completely forget about her experiences as a pregnant woman, her experiences in labor, and her experiences in delivery. I am getting quite bored and annoyed with all the rest...moving from the couch to the bed to the couch to the bed. If I'm good and rest all the time I am able to go to Julia's soccer practices and the girls parent-teacher conferences and crib scouting and cooking. So I guess it's worth it to rest all the time if I get to do normal people stuff sometimes.
All of our size small G diapers have now come in. We have two orange, one pink, one light blue, one green, and one creme. They are super duper cute and we are excited to use them on her little bottom.

Let Go, Let God

I first heard that statement from my mom when I was going through some really bad times in college. I feel like it's become my motto through the years. I teach our children what it means to live that statement. I've told Jess to Let Go, Let God. Well now that I'm facing some pretty scary things I feel like it has once again come to the forefront of my thinking.
We went in for a sonogram on Tuesday morning to check my placenta and Peanut. Well Peanut was in there sucking her thumb with her other arm wrapped around above her little noggin. She was just kicked back and relaxed. She is weight in at about 1 pound 1 oz. Her head and legs are measuring right on track. Every other measurement is about 1 week behind...they said she looks tall and skinny. LOL. My placenta is less than 1 centimeter away from my cervix. I guess this makes it "marginal placenta previa" or low lying placenta. There is still hope that in 3 weeks my placenta will move completely out of the way, but even the doctor is really cautious about that. It's moved less than 1/2 a cm in the past 6 weeks and we need it to move at LEAST 2 cm in the next 3 weeks. Jess is absolutely terrified...her job as a NICU nurse just became extremely personal so she is dealing with a lot of those issues and fears. I am pretty relaxed. I have Let Go and Let God. I know that I am doing a darn good job of protecting Peanut. She's doing GREAT and seems completely unaffected by everything going on with me. If she is to be born early I know she will be okay...but I am going to do my best to keep her in there cookin for a few more months. We will get through this...she will get through this...I have faith.

Bed Rest, Part I

Many of you may be wondering why I put part 1. Well chances are within the next few weeks I will be in the hospital again because of bleeding and be released once again on bed rest. That is IF i have any type of placenta previa. We think from what the doctor said at the hospital that I have marginal placenta previa. Everyone needs to believe that my placenta will move before I bleed again.
Being on best rest is not one of my favorite things in the world. I am not the type of person that can "just sit" or "just lay". Right now I can see at least three or four things I need to do around this house. Luckily our house is fairly clean and most of the things are already done. Jess is trying really hard to make sure everything is done so that I don't have the temptation to get up and do. All I know is...
I am NOT delivering this baby before it's safe.