Silver Lining

There are a lot of not-so-good things happening right now, but for this post I am ignoring all of them and giving you only good things. Here is my top 10.

1. Tom and I have been married for 3 wonderful years (as of Sunday.) We celebrated by going to Tucanos and eating lots of delicious meat and grilled pineapple. Mmmmm... my favorite is the garlic sirloin and beef brisket.
   
2. I have been given a lot of flowers recently: one from a friend, one from relatives, and one for helping with a play at school.
3. My mom bought me 2 new shirts, and a friend gave me a new shirt. Before, I only had 2 maternity shirts. Now I have a total of 5 shirts that actually fit my belly.
   
4. Tom and I have a delicious chewy chocolate chip cookie recipe that we made again.
   
5. I can wear contacts again. The infection in my eyeballs is gone.
   
6. I can still exercise. I am not on bed rest.
   
7. I can still go to work, and I like my job. Overall, it makes me feel fulfilled and successful.
   
8. School ends this week.
9. The weather started to warm up, and Tom has been walking me to school in the morning. We went on a walk yesterday and saw the most beautiful rainbows. We could see two of them, and one stretched all the way across the sky.
   
10. I successfully cut my toenails the other day. (You would not believe how difficult that can be.)
    

I was pushing it a little with number 10, but there it is.

Quit playin' games with my heart...

EDIT: I killed the video that was here cause it apparently plays random ads whether you want it to or not. No real big loss, I should think.

So, there's been a purposefully distinct lack of posts on our blog lately. It mostly has to do with the fact that the all consuming issue in our lives has been one that's not too fun to talk about. So, let me just get right down to it. After our first ultrasound, the doctor found a collection of fluid on the back of our son's neck called a cystic hygroma. This, we've mentioned before. This caused our OB to refer us to a perinatologist (fancy word for a guy with a better ultrasound machine and a little bit more of a specific knowledge on fetal developmental problems). Shortly after our last blog post, we had our visit with the specialist to which he determined that in addition to the cystic hygroma, our baby seemed to have some heart issues, what looked to be a smaller heart chamber than normal. He posited that the two symptoms were caused by something called Noonan's Syndrome. This caused the perinatologist to refer us to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City where we would have to receive a fetal echocardiogram (fancy words for an ultrasound that specifically focuses on the baby's heart). About two weeks later, we're up in Salt Lake where we receive the news of why our baby's heart chamber was smaller than normal. It's something called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Essentialy, the tissue of the heart is growing more rapidly than normal, causing the walls of the heart to be thicker than usual. Thus, the chambers of the heart are smaller than normal. Worst case scenario: The tissue continues to grow at a more than regular rate, thereby closing off one (or more) of the chambers of his heart. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, we were told, is consistent with Noonan's Syndrome, though at this time it is only the best guess the doctors have. This is the latest report.

So. How are we doing? We are doing well, so long as we don't have to talk about what's going on for any extended period of time. Otherwise, it has been extremely hard on us for a number of reasons (not all of which I care to mention here). We're trying very, VERY hard to put our trust in God at this point. There's really nothing we can do but hope and pray for the best, so that is what we do. We're scheduled to head back up to Salt Lake for genetic counseling to see if either of us are carriers of Noonan's, as well as another appointment for a fetal echocardiogram. Additionally, our delivery location has been moved up to the University of Utah/Primary Children's in case our son needs to go to the ICU shortly after birth (quite likely). I'll reiterate: We're trying very, VERY hard to put our trust in God at this point.

My employment situation has been up and down a lot lately. I could seriously write another blog post solely dedicated to what's happened in the last month on this front, but I'll spare you the details. Suffice it to say, due to the medical issues that our baby faces, we've decided that it would be much better for us to stay in Utah despite its lack of educationally-related job opportunities lately. It just seemed like a better decision to stay close to our family and close to doctors that already understand our current situation. So, keep your fingers crossed that something shows up in the area.

On the matter of our garden, our cucumbers died. :( Not all of them, but the ones we transplanted outside took a beating when Utah decided to snow on us one more time. We have a few more indoors, but they're quickly outgrowing their starter homes. The rest of our plants we're hoping to more successfully transplant this Mother's Day weekend. We'll keep you posted on how that turns out.

It's A BOY!

I didn't realize how much I really thought it was a girl until I found out that it was a boy. I'm liking the idea more and more as I get used to it, though. He was moving around all over the place when we were having the ultrasound.

Here he is waving to us.
And here is his cute little foot.


There is a problem with him retaining fluid on the back of his neck. This could be a lot of things. It might not be a big deal and go away on it's own, it might require some surgery when he's born, or it might be an indicator that he has a chromosomal disorder like Down Syndrome. We're going to the paranatologist (doctor with more specialized training and equipment) at the hospital on Wednesday. We pray that everything will be well. I hope for a healthy baby, and I'm scared, but at the same time I know that whatever happens will be the will of God.

In the mean time, I have Spring Break so we're going to do some nesting.

Growth

So this week was a pretty good camera week. We took a lot of pictures for a lot of different ocassions, but these were some of the better ones.

Above, you'll see our good friend Julie got herself a pretty fine man of a husband this weekend. We were able to attend her sealing, which was wonderful. The man who performed their sealing gave a few simple words of advice. Return to the temple often. Follow the brethren. Pretty sound advice in my book. We wish them the best in their new marriage!

Our indoor seeds have started sprouting! As of this writing, we have five cucumbers and five cherry tomatoes coming out of their little dirt homes. In addition, a few of our onions have broken dirt outside in our boxes. We're so excited to have a garden. We feel that, in conjunction with our baby, everything seems to be growing around us! We're still waiting on our various peppers to pop up. You'll probably get more pictures as we get more and more excited about our growing vegetables.

Lovetta's dad had his birthday this last Sunday. Her mom is a pro when it comes to cake decorating and this shot was probably the cutest we had of the birthday cake. They're doing a lot of gardening as well, so the cake had a fun garden theme to it. Above you'll see a closeup of a little rabbit nibbling on something sweet.

And this is the obligatory belly shot for this week. These are my babies. I love them both! :D

Growing

Tom and I have one more reason to be excited for warm weather: gardens. I've been sick of the cold since just after Christmas, but now that we've started our own garden I'm more anxious than ever for the danger of frost to pass. This is our first time gardening on our own. Tom built two 4 ft by 4ft boxes that we're planning to fill with dirt and start planting in tomorrow. We want to grow salsa, so we want tomatoes, tomatillos, onions, bell peppers, banana peppers, jalapeno peppers, cilantro, and basil. And we're also growing sugar snap peas, green beans, cucumbers and carrots. That's the plan anyway. Like I said, it's our first time, so if anything grows we'll be ecstatic, and if something doesn't grow we'll learn from our mistakes.

In other news, I totally have a baby belly. Some days I like it, and other days I have to remind myself over and over that I'm supposed to be gaining weight. I knew that would be a little hard, and it is; especially when people around me are trying to loose weight. The doctor told me that my growth is normal. That makes me feel good. Other people keep telling me that my body will never be the same again. It's for a good cause. Tom is sweet and likes my baby belly all the time. That makes it all a lot easier.
Now that you've seen a picture, what do you think "it" is? Boy or girl?

CONFIRMED

So this post has been a long time coming. We kind of hinted at it way back when we weren't 100% sure that we were pregnant. But now we've been to doctors and heard a heartbeat and whatnot so we figured it was time to let the cat out of the bag (if you didn't already know anyway). So, yeah. BABIES! YAY! Well, baby, as far as we know. Just one. Don't know the gender yet; that will be a post for another day.

As far as life for us in the last month that I've been slacking? (Yes, the delay is my fault.) Not too shabby. Still looking for a more permanent work solution. The BYU Teacher Fair is coming up in less than 2 weeks, so I've started to do some research of the schools that will be participating so I can figure out who I want to go talk to. As far as Lovetta's concerned that means anyone that will hire me. I'm quite hopeful I'll be able to find something this year. Things are looking up much more than they were last year, so keep your fingers crossed with me.

Lovetta survived Parent-Teacher Conferences not too long ago. Everything seemed to go quite well as far as she was able to tell. That's always a plus. No one likes to be confronted with an angry parent :( Especially if you thought everything was going well with the student! No drama there, though.

Not much else from the last month that I can remember as being too terribly important. You can expect lots more updates here in the near future as Baby takes over our blog (and, subsequently, our lives). Stay tuned, and I promise I'll be better about posting more frequently. Lovetta's already got me pinned into the commitment pattern.

New Year's Day

My mom told me that looking at family pictures does more to put you in a good mood than chocolate or alcohol. New Year's Day was my birthday, the perfect day to try to be in a good mood. It makes perfect sense, therefore, that my family and I decided to go take pictures. We went to Discovery Park and a few other places. Look closely and you'll spot my favorite gloves. Tom makes fun of me for them all the time, but I know they secretly make him love me.

It was a cold but relaxing day. I love my family.

Here is a picture of some grapes outside our house. I think it's cool how they froze in the snow.

I also should mention that Tom is an excellent gift-giver. He knew what I wanted even when I didn't. It was nice to have a birthday present separate from Christmas. For Christmas he got me a popcorn-maker (also known as a microwave), and for my birthday he got me a new sports bra, which I had been needing for quite a while. I'm sure that wasn't very easy for him to shop for. :)