The Peculiar Ways of Pregnancy

 We traced Tavin on a day I was feeling much better and wanted to be in the sun. He did all the art work-hair and coloring of the clothes. He wanted his guy to have stripes.

 My happy boy and his chalk masterpiece

A rose Daniel Brought home for me one day-It made me so happy and smelt so good! More on Dan to come in a different post...

I promise that this post will be a lot lighter that the last:)
I wonder what makes pregnant women crave certain things? And why does our sense of smell heighten during these nine months? What makes some things absolutely repulsive to us and other things so comforting? How strange are the ways of pregnancy!

Mystery baby #3 makes me crave:

EGGS: Scrambled, hard boiled, fryed, on a sandwich, as a burrito-I love eggs right now McDonald's sausage and egg McMuffins are Heaven to me on Saturday mornings....I won't tell you how many I ate last Saturday:) I remember craving eggs when pregnant with Katie as well.
PIZZA: It is like Ive never had it before! Pizza has a whole new wonderful flavor that I can't get enough of. We eat it at least 2 times a week.
NACHOS: Has to have cheddar cheese on them with salsa, and olives-yum yum
CHEDDAR CHEESE: Speaking of cheddar cheese, I love it-I eat apple slices wrapped up in a slice of cheddar cheese all the time. And I eat it on Tuna Sandwiches
TUNA: I know prego's aren't supposed to have tuna-well I think we aren't so I try and space out when I have a tuna sandwich-but oh I like it a lot-even more than usual.
SOFT PRETZELS: Luckily we have a shop that sells these close to our house-I just took the kids there for lunch today actually-after I picked them up from preschool. Tavin after we finished eating and were back in the car: "Mom, that was a really yummy lunch!" Yes Tavin, yes it was:)
PEANUT BUTTER AND HONEY/JELLY SANDWICHES: And of course with all of my children thus far, I eat a lot of peanut butter and honey or peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!

I know these things don't sound so healthy....but don't worry! We order our bountiful basket that comes with fruit and veggies in it-yeah I ate 90% of the fruit that came with it last time all by my good old self:) This baby is going to love fruit.

Smells:
Everything smells to me- I can even smell myself-and for this reason-I take 2 showers a day:) One in the morning and one at night. OK so it isn't always because I smell bad, it also helps with the sickness to have the water running on my belly. I just sit and pretend it is warm rain....seems like a good thing to picture right!

I also change deodorant quite frequently as well because after using one for a certain amount of time( couple of days) it smells really bad to me. Same thing with gum-I have to change the brand I chew every few days cause the flavor goes from good and helpful to yucky and nasty.

Even my toilet paper has a smell to it--I know -weird observation-but when I was blowing my nose the other day, I smelt a slight hint of fragrance to it-not bad though. Later on I said: "Dan did you know our toilet paper has a fragrance to it? I didn't know they did that until I smelt it today." Dan-takes a square and sniffs it....."Kendra-I don't smell a thing." Next time you blow your nose-smell your toilet paper and see if you smell any kind of fragrance-I KNOW I smell something:)

Repulsive/Comforting:
I find the look and smell of certain meats very repulsive and usually end up gagging....my dad took us to this nice restaurant the last time we visited and they serve all different kinds of meat on skewers to your table-Dan loved it! I felt so bad-but had a hard time every time the meat came anywhere near me:) I stuck with my role and salad which were very delicious.

Car rides make me want to gag as well-I just don't like them right now-it makes me sick to drive and I avoid long trips to places as much as possible.

Things that I used to love with a passion make me want to puke....I have no idea what this is all about -but I haven't couponed or shopped ever since I got pregnant...Dan had a cow the other day when he realized I haven't spent any of my own money. I have over 200 something dollars now-this is VERY rare for me-first time ever since we have been married that I haven't spent all my allotted money in the first week of having it:) He keeps asking me-what are you going to do with all that?

But things are looking us-I started to get the urge this week to go out and shop-even cut coupons for the first time in three months-These are really good signs that my sickness is coming to an end! :)

The thought of fall is very comforting and makes me really happy. I saw a bag of fall colored M&M's the other day at the store and bought them because just the look of fall on the bag made me so excited! I know a little strange-but the thought of colorful leaves, and cool breezes, sweats and hoodies,hot chocolate, and Halloween-just make me feel good.

The sun also is very comforting to me-I spend a lot of afternoons sitting in the shade of our apple tree-it makes me feel better.

I told you my Pregnancies are strange!

Working On: Being Thankful For My Sickness

For those of you that haven't heard the latest news in our family yet, I am pregnant and child(ren) #3 is in route-am I loving pregnancy? Not so much-there are some women-I happen to be friends with a few of them-who love everything about being pregnant-who might experience nausea maybe one time in their pregnancy and don't gain weightt anywhere other than their belly.....well that is definitely not me.

Pregnancy makes my skin oily and acne prone, I can't seem to poop right(sorry I know probably a little too much info.) and sleep is a nice thought. I did not expect to feel so upset about my body....I was diligent for 2 years in getting my body healthy and in shape and now I struggle as I feel my muscles deteriorate and slowly turn to flab. Feeling pretty-a thing of the past.  I stated to Daniel the other day that it would be very convenient if I could just be put to sleep until the 9 months is at an end-just wake me up when it is time to push:)

Sickness and depression have been my constant and faithful companions these past couple weeks and still threaten to linger a little longer. I have come to the conclusion that I am a wimp-whose weakness is long term sickness-I envy those who do it without complaints-please forgive me for mine.

Yet amongst my struggling-I can't help put be amazed at the love my God has for me. He has blessed me so much in the last three months and has opened my eyes to things I would have never realized without his help. I have met and talked to NUMEROUS women-some with whom I associate with on a weekly basis, and others whom I have never talked to before who would give anything to trade me for my pain and sickness just to have the opportunity to have a child.

One woman can get pregnant but has not been able to carry it past three months. Another woman has kidney problems and high blood pressure-the two kids she was able to have lead to preclampsia, weeks of being bed ridden, and time in the NICU for both babies. Her doctor has told her that she cannot have anymore children without it being a serious risk to her life.

Another woman cannot have children at all and the baby her and her husband were able to adopt, shortly died of sickness.I have talked to women who take one to two years to get pregnant when it has taken only 2 months each time to get pregnant with each of my children.My heart aches for these women who want so badly to fulfill their maternal role in life-to nurture and love children of their own.  I know that these women were sent to tell me their stories to open my eyes to the fact that I am extremely blessed for the gift I have been given to have risk free and uncomplicated pregnancies that have resulted in some of the greatest blessings I could have ever asked for-my children. For this, I can be thankful in my sickness.