Pregnancy

I was never one of those that enjoyed being pregnant which is one of the reasons why we pursued adopting. This pregnancy however, was the worst by far.  At nine weeks I started to get morning sickness that of course lasted all day.  By the end of the pregnancy I had such bad acid reflex that I was throwing up several times a day.   At one point I even threw up in my sleep.  I had lost the feeling in my fingers by the 7th month (still waiting for that to return).  I was swollen and VERY uncomfortable for the last 6 to 8 weeks.  I was going to the doctor 2x a week.  At 38 weeks they told me that the baby had flipped and I was going to need a C-Section.  With my boys I was induced at 41 weeks.  Needless to say I did not want a C-Section!  At 39 weeks and 1 day my water broke.  They did a quick ultrasound to check on the baby and she had flipped again!  Yeah, a natural birth.  Julianna Lisa was born 12 hours later.  We are so in love!

4th of July

The Baby Shower

 Polina and her cousin Charlotte

Julianna Lisa

 

I got something for Christmas that wasn't on my list!

In October of 2009 I started researching adoption.  I read, watched videos, requested info from several agencies, and made several phone calls.  I had a burning desire in my heart to adopt from Russia.   For many reasons my husband did not share my passion.  So in the Spring of 2010, as a compromise, we went to a fertility clinic to see if everything was still working.  At the time I was 38 so they recommended that we use some fertility drugs to boost our chances.  We never used the drugs but we did try to conceive on our own until December of 2010 when something changed my husband's heart and we decided to pursue our adoption plan.  We quit "trying" and put all of our focus on the adoption.  By December of 2011 we were home with our daughter.  Our family was complete...or so we thought.  Last December I noticed all the typical signs of starting but I never started.  So about a week later I thought I would take a test just to put my mind at ease.  Holy cow! It was positive!  How could this be?  I'm 42 for gods sakes!  I found out on Christmas Eve.  I was so stressed out I couldn't function.  I was one year way from having some freedom during the day.  We only have 5 chairs for our kitchen table.  We are out of bedrooms in our house!  So many things were going through my head.  I'm 14 weeks now and have had time to let this sink in.  I'm starting to get excited.  The baby is genetically healthy.  I'm exhausted and have horrible morning sickness.

Polina is doing well.  She has been enjoying square dancing with my parents.  She goes to gymnastics once a week.  She has preschool Monday-Thursday and most the time enjoys it.  She loves to play and rough house with her brothers and dad.  She also loves to scribble on paper, often asking what you would like from her kitchen.  Over the past several months Polina has been doing a lot of rocking, thumb sucking, and humming.  I don't know for sure why it has increase.  I finally took her for an OT evaluation today so we hopefully will know more next week.  Tomorrow Polina is scheduled for eye surgery.  She has strabismus and we have been patching for over a year so we are hoping this will help.

We'll I better get to sleep.