Anyone got any good ideas about how to rock a baby still in utero to sleep? LOL....I long for the days when he/she would stop moving whenever I layed down. Now he/she just keeps going at it until they have had their fill of fun kicking mommy and making her go pee! And man does my back ever hurt these days! You should see my belly - it looks like one of those Dirigibles the Spongmonkeys sing about. I dread to see what it is going to look like here in a few months! I am going to be large, if not in charge, lol ;)

I have had some whacky emotions lately. I worry too much I guess, I know that no matter what me and my child will always be taken care of. That's all I need to know :) I can't wait for the Ultra Sound to find out what this baby is! I am so excited. Danny thinks there is so much blue in this, but most of it looks primarily yellow to me, save the garnish at the top of the crib set and the lines interwoven with just as many-if not MORE - yellow lines in it. Isn't it adorable? I think so. I think it goes for a boy or a girl. Frankly I can't stand pink. Oh dear, have I made a feminine fau pax? I don't care! I hate it! LOL.

Well I am going to finish up my midnight snack (Cinnamon Toast Crunch - I try to eat sugar cereal when I am craving something sweet... lt is fortified with vitamins and minerals...but still tasty :p) and I am going to see if little Rebecca Lynn or Caleb Grant will let me go the heck back to sleep! Thanks for stoppin by once again. :)

Hello again. Danny here. Things are not quite as dire as Kristie let on in the previous posts. Must be preggo hormones. Of course making $1,100 in house payments a month isn't the easiest thing I've ever done. Anyway, let's talk about what we're here to talk about.

We bought some things for the nursery. We won't know if we are having a boy or a girl until March 17th but we just can't help ourselves. We are just so excited. We bought a Diaper Genie, socket plugs, a tiny grooming kit, a little Lord's prayer doll, a baby monitor to match the nursery decor, a set of three Avent bottles, a set of three playtex bottles, a set of three bottles that I can't remember the brand, a set of six Gerber bottles and a crib set called Sun, Moon & Stars. You can see it here. We also bought a mobile to match. We're gonna get border and a crib skirt later. We can't find the window valance though. It wasn't at Babies R Us and it's out of stock at Amazon.com. I suppose we'll make do with something. I know there's an awful lot of blue in this particular Nursery theme and we don't yet know if we are going to have a son or a daughter. This is what we plan. If it's going to be a girl we will place the border along the top of the wall and paint the walls all yellow and if we are having a boy we'll place the border along the middle of the wall and paint below it yellow and above it blue. I think that will work. That's it. That's all I gotta say for today.

Hello world. Not a whole lot to report today, was worried for a bit because I did not feel the baby move for a while. Finally, today in church he started his "womb wiggle" again, or she, that is. We still do not know what the baby is yet. I am praying in earnest that my child can and will grow up here. I like it here and I don't want to have to leave. It would be bad for me but it would be worse for my husband. He already feels like he has failed everyone in the world. He told me yesterday that he feels like he has failed his unborn child already. I feel for him; a man should never have to feel that way. He makes a sufficient amount of money, but when I am not working that money goes to bills that I normally pay. Just figuring up one house payment, the cost of food and utilities comes out to seventeen hundred dollars a month. And we have two house payments. So it is often a choice of what we need and what we can do without... many people don't realize that. When I was working I paid all of the utilities - I mean ALL of them - gas, electric, water, phone, cable, trash, car insurance, and I bought ALL of the groceries. All Danny had to worry about were the house payments. Things were easier then. I have been trying in earnest to find a job where I can make some kind of money... anything. I can't seem to find anything that I could actually make it to if I could actually get hired. After all, my transportation got mangled when I did. And I can't go back to Waffle House. My hip and pelvis hurt so bad some days that I can barely stand.

I am supposed to call that lawyer tomorrow; he said he has an appt. with an insurance adjuster tomorrow. I MAYBE might be getting something. I am praying for it, so I can bring this to rights and take Danny's mind off of his worries for just a little while. Sometimes he snaps and yells at me lately, when he never did before, and I know it is because of the stress-but he doesn't realize how badly it upsets me. I love him and when he feels badly so do I.

What's worse is his family thinks I dislike them now. I never thought I was hurting anyone when I was ranting and raving and carrying on... that was never my intention anyway. If they really knew me they would realize that I am the kind of person who would never want to hurt ANYONE - emotionally or otherwise... on purpose. Especially the people that I care deeply about. And they are some of those people. All I ever wanted to do was support my husband. I worry for him. For his health, emotionally, physically, psychologically. I am not a strong person. I can be the one he leans on...but if he goes out of his mind I will have no one to lean on in return. I told him again tonight that I swear to stand by him no matter what decision he makes. And I'll say it again; I swear to stand by him no matter what decision he makes. I know that he will do the right thing. I know that he will always take care of me and my child. I may not post for a while... there is just nothing happy to report these days. We can't enjoy this time like we should. It's unfortunate for us... but even more unfortunate for our child. I never wanted Danny to feel like he was failing him/her...and I never wanted to fail him/her either... but I have. So please God, if you're in, hear our pleas.

I removed the last post per request from my sister-in-law. I read her email and I agree with her; what I did was wrong. I am worried too and I don't know how to deal with this, but this wasn't the right way. I am entitled to my feelings, I know, but this was the wrong way to express them. I want my mother-in-law to know that I do appreciate everything she has done for me, she has been closer to a mother than anyone I have ever known, save my own. I spoke in anger and I should have never done that. I also want to apologize to my neice, she should never have to read anything so hateful. I love her dearly and I never ever want to upset her. We are in such a hard spot right now but it is not fair for everyone else to have to suffer for it. Bottom line is Danny loves his family, and I love them dearly. And I apologize from the bottom of my heart.

Hello once again. Danny here. We had an appoinment with the doctor yesterday. Everything seems to be just fine. We heard thr heart beat. That's really all that was done. Kristie got weighed, she lost a pound but that's perfectly normal for this stage of gestation and her blood pressure was up just a hair. The doctor didn't seem to be to awfully concerned about it so we aren't either. We have another ultrasound & regular appointment scheduled for March 17th.

That's all the news for today.

Well I went to my doctor yesterday and all is well! We heard the heartbeat VERY clearly. That was exciting. Sounded like ponies galloping in my belly :) The visit didn't last very long at all and my husband was a bit put out by it I think, because of the simple fact that he took off work an hour early to take me there and we didn't get seen until five-thirty, nearly an hour and a half after my appt. was supposed to take place. I explained to him that a short visit at this stage was a good thing; It meant that everything was progressing smoothly. The next visit should be a bit longer...because.. I AM GETTING AN ULTRASOUND! I am so excited about this, I don't know why, I have had one already. But this is like the VERY FIRST PHOTO of your child. I mean you can clearly tell that the baby is human by now.. and we might be able to tell if we are having a little Rebecca Lynn or a little Caleb Grant- if the baby is in a cooperative posistion, of course. I am so excited about that- that I could nearly bounce out of my chair. Danny (my husband) keeps saying that all we are going to get is a photo of butt cheeks. That would be ok too...lol... at least we might get to see what the baby is if it is mooning us.

The doctor asked if I would like to do a Spina Bifida and/or Down Syndrome test on the baby. I really didn't know if I should or not because of the simple fact that this is only the second time I have ever done this.. and the first time I did it I did do the test because I was unsure of the medical history of the father. He made up my mind for me though when he asked if I would terminate the pregnancy if the baby had Spina Bifida or Down Syndrome. I, of course, said HELL NO. Then he said the test would be really unneccessary and that it would pose more risk than help as I am overweight and it would make an amniocentesis difficult. It doesn't matter to me; I have felt this baby kick now. I could be giving birth to an alien and it wouldn't make one bit of difference. This is my child. This is my future. My hopes and dreams.

I have been letting the baby listen to MOZART FOR MOTHERS as much as possible... at least twenty to fourty minutes a day. He/She seems to really enjoy it; every time I put the headphones on my belly he/she does the "womb wiggle"...a series of light kicks and punches to let me know he/she hears it and is going to be born with the rythym.... if not raised with it...lol.

I wish that Danny was enjoying this pregnancy more. I know that he has a lot of stress right now and that really upsets me. I wish there was something that I could do to help ease the stress... A job...answering phones... filing stuff.. anything that is easy enough for me to handle and at least paid a little bit. I have finally faced the fact that I cannot go to back to work at the Waffle House right now because it takes me three hours just to clean the living room up..when before (even when the house was a total wreck) I could go through here and clean the whole house in just three hours. I am worried that I will never be the same... Am I going to be able to properly care for this baby? I am stressed too... I just try not to show it as much. One of us has to be strong I know, I am just getting tired. I don't want to have to be strong anymore. I want to be able to just sit back and relax and enjoy this time to the fullest. I can't deny that I am scared to death about not only this, but other aspects of our lives as well. Hopefully God will look out for us once more and things will be alright again...at least for a little while. I am sorry that I have rambled... I usually try to keep these posts light-hearted, but that is just not the mood I am in today. So no animal-fat salutations as an ending today. Just as a request for you to keep our new family in your thoughts and prayers.

Hello World. First time you've heard from the father, isn't it? Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Danny. I'm gonna be a father for the very first time and I am extremely excited about that fact. There's so many things going on in our lives right now that it's kind of difficult to really enjoy this blessing as it should be enjoyed. We have so many other stresses in our lives. But hey, this is not the forum for complaining. We are here to celebrate the arrival of a new life. My son or daughter. It feels so strange saying that.

Kristie has been a little afraid of using this blog. She says that she fears that her pregnancy may still be in jeopardy. She's had three pregnancies go wrong in the past but none has reached near to the seventeen weeks, almost eighteen, that she is at now. The baby has been kicking at her forever. With a baby that strong at that stage of gestation I'm sure he or she is gonna be just perfect. Of course my baby is gonna be perfect. How could it be otherwise. Kristie is going to continue to post here more & more as the pregnancy progresses and her fears subside. In the meantime I'll be dropping in from time to time let you know how things are going from my frame of mind.

Now, onto a little technical update. We were using BlogBuddy to post to blogger.com but it really didn't work half the time so I found a fabulous little program called Wbloggar. That's what I'm using at the moment. It's so cool. I've been working on looking for an alternate program and setting it up all night. Just thought I'd tell you that. It has nothing to do with the baby but I like to ramble on & on.

Well, I reckon that's it for my first post. And I make this solemn vow to you, dear reader, that in signing off there will never be any mention of chicken grease or any other type of animal fats in my closing salutations. Thank you for caring enough about us to check out this page.

Well I know that Dan has worked hard on this and I haven't kept it up like I should. The truth is, I am still nervous about this whole situation. I am scared that something terrible is going to happen to rip my dream away from me. Last night I had a big scare, I had a little bit of bleeding and some pretty severe pain in my left side. It went to the ER and it turned out to be nothing. But still, it scared me quite a bit. I know that Dan didn't think we needed to go, and he was probably right, but when I heard the doctor say *Everything looks fine*... my heart rose back up in my chest.

I am feeling the baby move more and more every day, his/her little legs are belting away from the inside and getting stronger and stronger. I can't wait for the Dad-To-Be to feel the baby kick for the very first time. I know that he will be thrilled. I am so happy that we are going to get to see this little munchkin. We already love him/her SO much... I don't know what life would be like without him/her now.

Well I go back to the doctor Monday and hopefully he will schedule my next sonogram then, for we are dying to know what this baby is. I want to know if it is a boy or a girl SO badly... I don't know why... it's very important to me. I never got the joy of knowing before hand with Dylan, even though I knew he was a boy deep down in my heart, I was still waiting for a surprise, lol.

Well I am going to go and see if I can rustle up some breakfast. I will write more tomorrow - PROMISE. Love, Peace, & Chicken Grease.