A belly

There's the belly at 21 weeks. She is growing growing growing! Friday night I could see her moving around and poking her little limbs out. This whole pregnancy thing is pretty cool I must say.

More about the baby

If you haven't noticed this baby takes up a lot of my thoughts! I'm just so enraptured by her and the fact that she's inside of me. I love it. Here's some awesome pictures, I'm sure she'll love me posting pictures of her little privates! During the ultrasound today she was SO shy with her little face. She kept turning it away from the ultra sound so we couldn't get a good profile. She finally turned just right only to stick her little arm in front of her face. So naughty already! But oh so cute. She was not nearly as shy about other parts... let's just say we have plenty of good shots to let us know she is DEFINITELY a girl. All of a sudden this pregnancy seems like it's going to take forever. I am so excited to meet our little baby girl.


On a totally different note, I can't forget to write about my little second graders. My naughty, yet adorable second graders. I have days where I come home just wishing spanking was allowed in school. Other days I come home feeling so refreshed and fulfilled. It's such a roller coaster. Even if I come home not loving them so much, the next day they will greet me with big hugs, smiles, and compliments about how cute I dress. They also LOVE to poke my belly. They are on constant belly watch and are not shy to let me know when, "Mrs. Romney you really look pregnant today," or on better days, "Mrs. Romney I can't even tell there's a baby in your tummy." They are so excited and ask me almost everyday if I will please bring her back when she's born in March. I totally will! It's been such a good experience being with them. It's been emotionally draining a well. Most of them come from such broken homes where either mom or dad, or sometimes both have left their lives. A lot of them talk about being home alone or with a sibling until 5 or 6 at night. Some of them come to school in the same clothes from the day before. I wish I could take them all home with me. I guess that's the hardest part, watching them walk right back into a home where they really shouldn't be. I have to learn to let go of the job, but it's so hard when I love them SO much.

Other then baby growing and teaching life is pretty normal. Grant is running our business like a champ and Texas has officially cooled off which I LOVE. We move into our new house in just over a week and I'm thrilled! I still don't really believe it's real, and I probably won't until we're sleeping there!

Traumatic

The last couple days have been a bit traumatic, but there was a wonderful, beautiful light at the end. Let me start from the beginning. I went to school on Friday just like normal. The day was fine, but at about 1:30 I felt this sharp stabbing pain in my left side straight through my back, within a minute I was on the floor rolling and screaming in pain. My mentor teacher Marnie took control and had the kids go out for recess and she knelt next to me and let me grip her hand. The next 20 minutes were filled with the most excruciating pain I have ever felt in my entire life. It felt like someone was sticking a knife straight through my side through my back and moving it around. I could barley breath and I was drenched in sweat. They proceeded to call 911 and informed me to hold on for just a few minutes and the paramedics would be there. I literally thought I was dying and I was freaking out about what would happen to my baby. Marnie called Grant and told her what was going on and that he should hurry up here quickly. At won't point I lost feeling in my hands and feet, the paramedics later informed me that this happens when your body goes into shock because of such a high amount of pain. I kept wishing I would just pass out so I wouldn't feel the pain anymore. Well in the ambulance I remember hearing the paramedic call the hospital and fill them in on what was happening. They asked if they could give me anything for the pain, but the hospital said to wait especially since I was pregnant. I about died! 20 more minutes of this pain seemed like a lifetime. They kept asking me what is your pain scale and all I could do was hold up 10 fingers I couldn't get any words out. Marnie came in the ambulance with me and waited in the emergency room until Grant got there holding my hand the entire time. We got to the hospital and they informed me they would run some tests. The minute Grant walked through the door I started bawling, I was so scared, I didn't know what was happening to me or my baby. They finally started me on morphine, but because the pain was so high it took 3 doses to even lower the pain at all. After a lot of tests and A LOT of waiting in a hospital room the ultrasound technician finally came to check on the baby. I was so nervous, but Grant kept reassuring me that it would all work out. She instantly showed us the baby and saw the heartbeat, I cried some more. My baby was ok. After about 30 minutes of checking my kidneys through the ultrasound she said ok lets check all the stats on the baby, and asked if we knew the gender yet? We said we would find out in 2 weeks. She said ok good because I'm not allowed to tell you. Now I don't know if it was the sad, pathetic puppy dog eyes I was giving her or the fact that every time she pushed the ultrasound tool on my stomach I cried out in pain and she felt guilty, but she said if we promised not to tell anyone at the hospital she would tell us the gender. No brainer right? Yes Please! We asked her if it was too early to tell, she said she already knew.

It's a GIRL!!!! I beautiful, precious, miracle of a girl. Grant and I just looked at each other with this look of complete satisfaction and excitement. I still can't believe it, I can call my baby a she instead of an it!

At about 6:00 pm the doctor came in to talk to me. He said there was an 80% chance I had kidney stones. The only way to know 100% would be to give a cat scan but they can't do that while you're pregnant so there was no way of knowing. He gave me the option of staying in the hospital for another day or going home with a heavy dose of pain meds. He said the only reason to stay in the hospital would be to manage the pain because it would be pretty intense until the stone passed. I figured I'd rather be in pain in my own bed. While I was waiting to be discharged I asked the nurse if I was a wuss or if kidney stones are really this painful. She informed that a lot of women have said it's worse then child birth. I sighed a sigh of relief at that. While I know that child birth won't be easy, especially since I plan on going au natural, it was comforting to know I could make it through extreme pain.

Today has been A LOT better, I think the stone has worked it's way out and I've avoided taking any pain meds all day. And on a brighter note, I've spent the day bonding with the little sweetie in my stomach. This morning Grant and I had a little chat with her, and today I've thought about her ALL day long. It all seems so real now, I got a little choked up thinking about her first steps, first day of school, first date, first heartbreak, and all the firsts in her life. She is a real person and she is all Grants and mine. Life is good and hopefully I'm now kidney stone free thank goodness!