Fluttering

Well, it is official...I am 99.9% positive that I have felt her move! Yesterday I felt fluttering and was apprehensive to call it baby movement...even tho all of the books say that is what it feels like when your baby moves. But then I felt it again and was like, I think that was baby movement. Then today I felt it again off and on throughout the day and am almost totally sure it was little Delia Ann moving around in there. Woo hoo!!! I am so excited. I went to the library and got four books to read aloud to her. The books all say she can hear us now. I got three little books and one longer book that is more for me because I thought it looked good (I love juvenile fiction) and I will share it with her. One of my most favorite memories is of my mom reading aloud to us at the breakfast table. She read stuff like Black Beauty, The Secret Garden, Heidi, The Black Stallion (i think). All books that were far too difficult for us to read on our own, but fabulous stories that we were blessed to hear. We would sit at the table eating our Malt-O-Meal and she would read. I hope to carry this on for my kids. Thanks mom!!!

Worse than a kid on Christmas Eve!!!

Well, I was advised to drink caffeine and eat some sugar before our ultra sound so that the baby wouldn't be curled up sleeping. So, I did just that...this led to having to pee a million times :) and being really excited on top of already being excited! We got to the doctor and they called me almost immediately...what the heck? Chris wasn't even there yet!!! They weighed me and I expressed my concern over feeling like a heifer lately and the nurse assured me I was gaining weight at an ok rate and that while the dr. is nice, he isn't THAT nice and he would definitely tell me if I were porking out too quickly! :) So that is good. We get into the ultra sound room and Chris arrives and then the tech comes in and tells us that the Dr. just had to leave to delivery a baby!!!!! So she could do the U/S and tell us the sex, but that she couldn't tell us anything else because she isn't a doctor and we would have to come back later when he was back. :( So she spread the gel on my belly and went to town. We saw little Lima Bean and it was waving and punching and putting its butt in the air (like it just didn't care!) and while saw femurs, arms, the spine, butt cheeks, little feet, a cute profile shot, fat cheeks...it would not make its private parts public. :( I was so sad. I almost cried. I don't know why it is important to me to know the gender. It helps me visualize who this child will be so that when I talk to it, pray for it, think about it...to know it isn't some ambiguous being...but a baby with a gender. My baby with a gender and a name! So we went and ate lunch and I drank a huge sugary Cherry Coke and at 3:45 we went back. This time we waited in the office for 30 minutes of sheer agony until we were called. Off to the U/S room we went, the dr. came in and assured us he would do his best to get this baby to flip around and show us who it is! He wasn't kidding. He pressed, poked, prodded. Took pictures, measured the head, the abdomen, the back, etc. The heartbeat was strong, the fluid was clear, the baby is healthy and gave the dr. nothing to complain about. He was able to get a shot between the legs but there was some amniotic fluid there. His final conclusion was that he would be willing to bet money in Vegas that this is a girl...he is 90% sure it is a girl, but since it wasn't the "money shot", he couldn't say 100% for sure. He told us not to paint the room pink yet. haha. Not a problem, there is no room to paint, and even if there were, there is no money to buy pink paint. But until next month when the sonographer does us the favor of looking again or the 3rd trimester when the dr. looks again, this baby is gonna be Delia Ann to all of us. If it turns out to be a boy, no problem, I will love it all the same. But I am going to the library to get some books to read to her and now I feel like I can talk to her and pray a little more specifically...but at the same time, Jesus knows if this is truly a girl or a boy and he since he is our great intercessor...if I am praying specific things about a "girl" then he will translate it for me. :) Isn't he just too kind! But for now, I am excited about it being a girl. I wanted a girl this time around. Mainly because this baby is due so close to the 4th of July that I can just see my middle school boy wanting to have parties with other boys and blowing their thumbs off or something crazy that boys do since they are missing the other leg of the x and got the y chromosome! haha. A girl will just want a slumber party, a trip to the lake, etc. I do feel a little sorry for this child that they will have a summer birthday and friends will be out of town. But we'll see. Maybe she can have two parties...one in May before school gets out and then just a family party in July. If we move to Montana or Wyoming, maybe we can do some fun tradition like Yellowstone or Glacier National Monument. If she takes after me, she will prefer going to see bears than having a bunch of gossiping drama queens over. :) So, I have told some people that I had a dream it was a girl and like the dream I had about the birthing tub and Chris...perhaps Jesus is talking to me in my sleep!!! :) At any rate, we are so excited and we love the name. Delia which comes from the Hebrew name Odilia and means "I will praise the Lord" and Ann in the Hebrew origin means "grace of God". I should feel her move in the next week or two. I thought maybe last night and this morning...but we ate Mexican to celebrate...so maybe it was the frijoles moving around. haha!!! I will keep you posted!!!

So tired.

Well, I haven't been sleeping all that well. I am hot, then I am cold, then I am hot again. I can't seem to figure out how to sleep on my side without cutting off the circulation to my hands. So my hands fall asleep and hurt and wake me up. I had bursitis in my right shoulder several years back and now between the 5 degree weather and the sleeping on my arm wrong my shoulder hurts so bad I want to cry. It hurts to raise my arm to write on the board and it hurts to shift my car. Tack onto this that I am not sure what has happened with me but I spend more time sad than happy. People scold me and tell me I should be happy...this is a happy time in my life. And I KNOW I should be happy, but I feel so sad a lot of the time and then when people tell me to be happy I feel guilt on top of that for not feeling happier. I am trying to take it day by day but sometimes that is super hard. I feel huge and fat like a whale. I hate what is happening to my body every time I see myself in the mirror. I just feel so gross. I am also struggling to stay warm once I get cold. Like today at school, I am freezing cold. Almost shivering. :( And because of all of the above, I am so tired. I feel like I haven't slept when I wake up. *sigh*

On a happier note, we find out the sex of the baby in one week. In fact, in EXACTLY one week, I should be about to lay back on the table with goop squirted onto my ever expanding belly and they should be showing me little Lima Bean Wooten and letting us know if LB is a "he" or a "she". When I think about this, I get soooooooooooooooooo excited!!! Then I can start calling LB by its name!!! Although if it is a girl, I might keep Lima Bean as her nickname. :) I have grown fond of the name Lima Bean.

Work is going alright. I have a mound of papers to grade and I am behind in two of the three books I have assigned. A Wrinkle in Time (two chapters behind) and Treasure Island (8 pages behind) and Rifles for Watie (I am actually ahead in that book). Again, all of this work I am doing for the first time for nothing. I mean don't get me wrong, I have gotten to read some really good books that I would not have gotten to read otherwise, but it makes me sad that this isn't prep for next year as I hope to not be working next year. However, with the economy, I am not sure if that will be an option. So we'll see. They are putting an addition onto the building right behind my classroom so it is sort of noisy all day long in my room. It is quite the distraction to the boys especially who look at all of the heavy equipment and the noise. I will be glad when it is done.

Chris is going strong at his job. Although I am already worrying about what will happen when this job ends as it is only supposed to be for 3-4 months. *sigh* then we have at least 3 or 4 months until the baby is born and we are ready to move. But it is all in God's hands, so I guess I will try to rest in that fact.

Nothing else is new really. Just my body changing and my emotions are fluctuating (not so much moody...I am either fine or sad...two modes right now) and the rest of the world carrying on around me.

I hope all of you are well and write to me to let me know how you are.

Love ya!