15 weeks

Yay, well things are turning around and I have to say I am actually starting to think about the pregnancy more and enjoying that is it is on my mind.  I swear I think about the pregnancy at least every 5 minutes, and it is a fun thought.  Although I can’t feel the baby yet, I am aware that it is there (feeling a little rounder in the tummy) and it does feel like a little companion throughout the day.  I am finding myself thinking to or even sometimes talking to my baby and telling it how loved it is!  I am surprised how much love I already feel for a small bulge in my tummy.

We are so pleased that taking the prednisone has helped so much.  Of course there is a bit of fear in the back of both of our minds as to whether I will be able to continue tapering off of it, but for now I am down from 60 mg to 40 mg and have continued to improve.  I went from barely being able to take enough steps to get food/water, etc to walking 4000 steps yesterday and being out of my normal chair setup for almost the whole day (only about a 30 min break where I sat down in my setup).  So far I am feeling good that we are over the worst of it and if not smooth from here out, we know what it takes to get there.

Although I enjoy feeling well, of course the best part is that if my disease is better, than the outcome of the pregnancy is likely to be better, so we know that this improvement is good for everyone.  On a more selfish level, I love getting out of the house and seeing friends/family and it means so much to me to be able to do this from time to time.  I also was able to work 6.5+ hours each day last week, and feel like I was doing more quality work and this fills me with a sense of accomplishment and purpose. 

Well now that we are less than 6 months away from parenthood we are starting to think more about prepping the house for this big change.  We, like most people who move into a big house with more space than furniture, never got rid of much and it is time to purge things that we don’t use or don’t meet our needs.  We had our wonderful friends Chris and Mo and Jared and Becky come over as well as my Dad for some serious heavy lifting to get computers/monitors/tvs and big desks/furniture out of the house.  After the 2 carloads to the dump and 3 to Goodwill/Salvation Army we now have a pretty empty office to work with and a lot more open storage space in the garage.  We were so grateful for the help and I feel a weight lifted off my shoulders to have taken the first step towards getting the house ready.  We have a lot left to do, but if we do a little every week or two, I know we’ll be ready in no time.

In that same vein, I am feeling a little more nesty.  Of course, feeling better means I can also act more on these feelings, but I find myself waking up in the morning with my mind buzzing about thinking of all the things we need to do or look into.  I don’t feel a sense of stress about getting ready (at least not yet), but I feel an excitement and energy that makes me more interested in scanning the web for the right file cabinet than reading my book or watching tv. 

Lastly I have been reading the pregnancy/birth book that our hospital provides everyone.  It is actually a pretty impressive resource and I have learned a lot already.  Although I have so much more to learn, it is fun to start covering all the bases.  Again, the feeling of moving forward a little now makes me feel more prepared for the baby to come in 6 months.

We will probably find out the sex on the 24^th, but we may wait and find out in a dyed cake the following Sunday (pink inside means girl, etc.).  Obviously we’ll keep you all posted as soon as we know.  We can’t wait to know the gender of our little one and then start the fun process of naming it!  Although for those of you wanting to buy little pink dresses or blue  getups, we will prefer to have mostly gender neutral clothing and toys (although there will be plenty of time for that shopping later, and soon I will start working on a registry for the necessities).