A Long Overdue Update and Some Exciting News!!

I've been completely MIA from my blog.  Alot has happened in the past few months and unfortunately, my blog always ends up taking the back seat when the rest of my life is crazy.  Which is really unfortunate, because that is when I have the most to talk about.  Then, by the time I have a chance to even think about posting an update, so much has happened, that I have no idea where to begin.

Before my disappearance, you may have noticed I was posting more pictures that I had taken for friends and family members.  So many people were passing my name along and asking me to take their pictures, I decided to go ahead and officially start up a photography business.  The plan was already in place to start up one eventually, but I hadn't planned on starting one quite yet.  It all happened really fast, and was keeping my extremely busy. Especially for the month of October, when I was offering a special that was pretty much half of what I would normally charge.  It was great for building up my portfolio, getting more experience and getting my name out there, but it sure was alot of work!  It was really great to make some extra money too, even if it was all going towards paying for my equipment.  You gotta start somewhere though!  Not only was I super busy with the sessions, but I was also working really hard to get my website up and running, all of my forms and documents complete, along with all of my paperwork for starting a new business and getting your taxes set up.  That was quite a project in itself.

Joe and I have also been working on baby number #2.  I have referenced here and there that we were hoping to add another member to our family some time in the near future.  We actually started "trying" during the summer. We were very lucky when we decided we wanted to get pregnant with the munchkin.  It only took us the first month and even though I knew that wasn't typical, I was really hoping the same thing would happen for us again this time. I was even naive enough to plan out exactly when I wanted the baby's birthday to be and start the process exactly 10 mos before that.  As if all of the stars were going to align and fall into place perfectly not only once, but twice.

Things didn't go exactly as we had hoped.  After the first month, I decided to try to pay attention to when I might be ovulating.  I was using Baby Center's Ovulation Calculater.  You know, super scientific stuff. That didn't seem to be doing much good either, but I wasn't quite ready to start with the ovulation test kits and all that stuff.  We decided that we would wait till we had been trying for atleast 6 months before we started going there.

Then in October, we had a little bump in the road when I somehow ended up getting.... wait for it...  Toxic Shock Syndrome!  I am not quite sure how it happened.  I have a theory and it does involve a tampon, but if I knew for sure how it had happened then most likely it wouldn't have happened in the first place.  I won't go into all of the details, but luckily, I was aware of it and was already concerned about the possibility, so when the symptoms came on, I took them seriously.

I woke up that morning with an achy feeling all over my body.  Almost like I was getting the flu.  My muscles were really sore and my whole body was exhausted and tender.  I went to work, hoping things would get better.  Around lunch time, I started getting all itchy and then realized I was breaking out in hives or some kind of rash on my stomach and my arms.  I started to get a headache.  As I was leaving work to pick up the munchkin, I started feeling even worse.  I called my sister and told her to look up the symptoms of toxic shock syndrome.  She googled it while I was on the phone.  Sure enough, they were very similar to what was going on with me.  I hadn't developed a fever yet, which was one of the big ones, so I decided to not get too freaked out yet.  Of course, that was easier said then done.

After we got home, I headed straight for the couch.  Luckily Joe didn't have class that night, so he took over with dinner and everything else while I laid around.  I was so exhausted and couldn't do anything.  Then I started to feel really hot and I had Joe take my temperature.  Sure enough I was developing a fever.  I officially started freaking out.  We called my dad and he came up to hang out while the munchkin was sleeping so that Joe could take me to the ER. Anyway, long story short, it was too early for any of the tests to prove that I did, in fact, have TSS, but they did show that it wasn't anything else that they tested for, including the flu.  I was showing all of the developing signs and luckily it was so early that if I did in fact have it, it hadn't spread to my organs and started causing them to fail yet.  The ER doc gave me a prescription for some really strong antibiotics specifically for TSS and sent me home. I started on them right away and for the next few days I was pretty much a zombie.  It was awful!

I started feeling much better after a couple of days.  I hate taking antibiotics though, and for good reason.  They always seem to cause another problem somewhere else, and if your not careful, they can almost start a domino effect, causing you to have to take meds for something else, and so on.  As much as I hate taking them though, there are instances where they are necessary.  I would consider TSS to be one of those times. Instead of heading back to a doctor for more meds for another problem, I just doubled up on my probiotics and yogurt and crossed my fingers.  After about a week, everything seemed to be back to normal.  Whew.

Ofcourse, all of this took place while I was ovulating, so we had no hopes for getting pregnant that month either. As we were nearing the end of October, and the halloween parties that would take place that weekend, I woke up on a Friday morning and something told me to take a test.  I wasn't sure why.  I wasn't late yet, but for some reason I had a really strong feeling that I should take one.  So I headed into the bathroom, unwrapped a test and took it.  Within a few seconds, a second line appeared.

I was pregnant!

I ran over to wake up Joe.  I shook him around and said, "Joe!  Joe, we're pregnant!"  His eyes flew open.  "What?! Are you sure?  How??"  He was pretty surprised too.  And I am still not quite sure how it happened.  Obviously I was ovulating much earlier then the Baby Center predicted.

November has been kind of a fog.  Just like when I was pregnant with the munchkin, my first trimester is proving to be just as exhausting.  I am very fortunate to not have any morning sickness or nausea, but the simple task of keeping my eyes open is proving to be extremely difficult.  Atleast when I was pregnant with the munchkin, I could come home and take a nap whenever I wanted.  You just can't do this when you are pregnant with a toddler.  And with Joe going to school in the evenings, it makes it even more impossible to catch some zzzz's.  Hopefully in a couple of weeks, I will get some energy back, as I enter my second trimester.

I will be 10 weeks along this Thursday and my due date is July 5th!  I realize that many people choose to wait atleast 12 or 13 weeks before they announce their pregnancy.  I have already told my closest friends and family and these people read my blog.  And for everyone else that reads my blog, well if anything were to happen, I'd be talking about that here too.   If you have been reading my blog for a long time, then you may know that my first pregnancy ended in a miscarriage.  It was a very dark and sad time for me, and having the love and support of those around me was what I needed the most.  Its a very personal decision, but for me, it doesn't make sense to keep everything top secret until after the first trimester.

We had our first ultrasound last Wednesday.  Our little nugget had a heart rate of 182 and everything looked wonderful.

I originally started this blog (even though it has gone in many different directions as well) to journal my life as a mother.  So that my children could one day look back and see, from their mother's point of view, how much they were loved and how life unfolded for them and our family in the beginning.  I am so excited to start the next chapter!