Dear Prudence

As I said on my last post, I was able to do a photo shoot for my friends Juan and Brenna and their sweet daughter Prudence. It was such a blessing to get to meet Pru last Saturday night. Pru was born at 25 weeks old. She came out stubborn and a fighter, just like her Mama. Since her birth, her little life has been a rollar coaster ride for her family, but they're faith in God to take care of her has been amazing. It makes my heart smile when I think of how much they are leaning completely on God for everything. I can't wait to watch little Pru grow up, and be at least best friends with Curtis, if not his wife like we have joked our whole pregnancy. Here's a few photos from the her first full day of life.

Please pray for this sweet family as they rejoice over every milestone, weep for every setback and trust in the Lord ultimate to bring their daughter home with them.

Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play

Dear Prudence, greet the brand new day

The sun is up, the sky is blue

It's beautiful, and so are you

Dear Prudence, won't you come out to play?

Dear Prudence, open up your eyes

Dear Prudence, see the sunny skies

The wind is low, the birds will sing

That you are part of everything

Dear Prudence, won't you open up your eyes

Look around, round

Look around, round, round

30 Weeks and Happy Birthday!

This past week has been a whirlwind, but in such a good way! I'll have 2 more blogs coming in the next week or so from the weekend.

One of my very best friends gave birth on Friday to maybe the sweetest little baby I've ever met, a micropremie named Prudence. Mom is doing well, and was discharged a few days ago, but little Pru will be in the NICU for quite some time. I had the privilege of doing my first ever NICU photoshoot with this sweet little girl. The link to her mother's blog is here. Please pray for this sweet family that God will continue to strengthen Pru and make her well enough to come home.

Also, this weekend was our first baby shower back in my home town. That will be another blog coming soon. We were so blessed by the families I grew up, getting clothes, diapers, wipes, soap and shampoo, blankets, stuffed animals, books and so many other sweet gifts.

The other big thing that's happening this week is that it's my last day at work on Friday. I will still be volunteering at the CPC 2 days a week, but I will officially not be a floor nurse as of Friday once all my charting is done. I've had mixed feelings about it, because I truly will miss floor nursing, at least the patient care part, but I am looking forward to the new role God has given me as a mother. I feel very blessed that God has made a way for me to be a stay at home mama, and be able to raise our child rather than having someone else raise him. 

And this week, my mom has been here which has been so much fun! Her, Isaac and Christina have helped to make my 27th birthday such a wonderful one!! We went shopping on Monday and did girly things since Isaac was on duty : ) And then Christina made us pumpkin pancakes for my birthday breakfast. I got to spend the morning with Isaac which never happens but he actually slept at duty so he was awake on Tue morning. Mom and I went to the beach and had lunch and gelatto at one of my favorite little sandwiches places at the beach. And Isaac took me out for sushi for dinner and the only place we can find that has cooked options. It was such a great day! I felt so blessed to have my husband here, I missed him so much last year, so this year was definitely a blessing.

 How far along: 30 weeks tomorrow

Total weight gain/loss: 13lbs at the last visit, but my guess would be 15-17ish by now

Maternity clothes: Pretty much everything is maternity, although I do get excited when I find pre-maternity stuff that fits

Stretch marks: None so far.

Best moment this week: It's hard to choose cause there's been so many. Walking and sitting on the beach with mom, sushi with Isaac, girl time with Mom and Christina, meeting sweet little Pru and doing her photoshoot, the blessing of the shower, and praying with mom at Planned Parenthood.

Miss anything: Easily doing my toenails

Movement: He kicks, punches, flips, sometimes I really wonder what it is he's doing in there, but it's the most fascinating thing ever. Lately I wonder if he's gonna break my ribs or my hip, cause he's been moving over there a lot.

Food cravings:Still pasta, I could eat it for every meal. But it is fall, so I do crave all things pumpkin as well.

Anything making you queasy or sick: I haven't been sick in atleast 3 to 4 weeks, which is such a wonderful thing!

Have you started to show yet: Yes, I definitely have a bump.

Gender: IT'S A BOY!!!

Labor Signs: None

Symptoms: Just exhaustion lately and a little heartburn.

Belly button in or out: It's pretty much even with my skin, although when he's kicking, it looks like he's trying to kick it out, so maybe by next week, it will be out.

Wedding rings on or off: On

Happy or Moody most of the time: Today I'm very happy :)

Looking forward to: My last day of work on Friday and Jess and Ben coming up here hopefully sometime soon.

27 Weeks :)

Curtis is 27 weeks old this week! I cannot believe how quickly the time is flying by. It seems like just yesterday I was telling Isaac that he was gonna be a Daddy, and now we have about 3 months left before we get to meet our sweet little baby :)

The past few weeks have been really good for the most part. Other than a day here and there, my nausea is gone so that has made life much more liveable. I've actually started feeling much more like a person lately, able to do my normal things like cook, clean, do dishes and projects around the house, it's been pretty awesome.

We had our monthly prenatal appt today, which is always fun. I love the way Portsmith is doing things with turning the appts into classes. It helps to get a lot of questions answered and makes me feel like the Dr. really cares rather than my first 2 appts that lasted about 5 mins. Curtis is doing well, heart rate in the 130s, I just love hearing that little sound every month. And sometime in the next week, I get to do my wonderful gestational diabetes test, that should be fun. I was going to do it today, but the girl who was assigned to bring snacks for the class brought donuts, and what pregnant lady can say no to a donut? I sure couldn't, so I opted out of the test today.

Life for us is obviously changing pretty quickly. Last week, I went down to one day a week at work, which has been amazing. I think that is contributing some to my feeling much better since I'm able to rest a little more and have less nights where I'm only getting 4-6hrs of sleep. With this little bit of extra free time, I'm hoping to start doing more photography soon. I just bought a new lens and in a few weeks plan on getting some new editing software since my last computer computer completely died, so hopefully by Oct, I will be starting that up some, so if anyone in the Hampton Roads area wants pictures and knows someone who does, I'll do anything except for weddings. Another potentially big thing is Isaac takes his E6 exam tomorrow. It was a surprise b/c he wasn't suppose to be up for advancement until the Spring, (or so he thought), but if he passes it, it will be such a huge answer to prayer, so I'm pretty excited about that as well!

 How far along: 27 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: 13lbs total

Maternity clothes: I'm mostly in maternity clothes now except for tank tops.I officially cleaned out all my pre-baby clothes accept for the tank tops.

Stretch marks: None so far.

Best moment this week: Getting to spend so much time with Isaac since we had the holiday this weekend. We never get to spend 3 whole days together, so they were absolutely lovely.

Miss anything: Bending over easily. Being able to pick up Peaches when I need to if she's being stubborn. And sleeping past 6:30.

Movement: He kicks, punches, flips, sometimes I really wonder what it is he's doing in there, but it's the most fascinating thing ever.

Food cravings: I'm back to craving pasta and pizza. I could probably eat pasta every night of the week if I didn't think I'd gain 50lbs.

Anything making you queasy or sick: Dog food probably does, but Isaac has been wonderful and puts Peaches food out in the AM so I don't even have to think about it.

Have you started to show yet: Yes, I definitely have a bump.

Gender: IT'S A BOY!!!

Labor Signs: None

Symptoms: Heartburn has gotten pretty bad at times, hopefully it'll remain just here and there, not constant like women talk about, and dizzy spells, those have not been fun.

Belly button in or out: in for now but I'm giving it another 2weeks or so

Wedding rings on or off: On

Happy or Moody most of the time: Today I'm very happy :)

Looking forward to: Our first baby shower at the end of the month and getting to see family and friends :)

Here's a few of my favorite maternity pictures. Our shoot was so much fun! I was really excited to get to do the paint pictures, we want to do that again when we have a few kids to paint.