Update

Today I am at home sick. I have Strep throat, but I think I have a cold on top of that as well. I opted for the shot of penicillin instead of doing the ten days of pills, I'm not sure I will do that again. I already have a hard time getting around, and now my hip hurts really bad. I hope that heals soon. I have had a fever off and on, and I'm trying my best not to have to take anymore medicine. So far I have managed fine, but a few more days of this and I know I will give in. I hope I will be able to go into work at least by tomorrow, but if things don't drastically change, then I will stay home another day.

I haven't posted in a while because Nick and I have been so busy. We have had a lot to do at work and a lot of church events we have planned or attended. Plus we started our birthing classes. We meet on Monday nights from 7:00 to 9:00. We have not learn a lot of new things, but I have gotten a lot of techniques that I can't wait to try to alleviate the pain of labor. It is our goal to have an all natural birth. We would love to not have to use any medications, but coming from someone who has never birth a baby, I will keep my options open just in case. We have seen many different birth videos and Nick has handled them very well. I can't wait to see how supportive Nick is going to be on the big day and how great of a dad he is going to be.

We did have a pregnancy scare. I went in for my 29 week appointment and the doctor said the baby was measuring at 31 weeks. The baby should not have been 2 weeks ahead, so he scheduled us an ultrasound to find out what was going on. The two things that could cause the measurements to be off is a "big" baby or too much fluid. We were praying for the baby to be big, because too much fluid could mean a problem with the baby. At the ultrasound they measured the fluid first and that came back perfect, which was a relief. They also measured the baby and he was measuring just 5 days bigger than an average size baby at this stage in my pregnancy. Nathan weighs over 4 pounds already, and if we continue at this rate we will have an 8 pound baby (hopefully no bigger, lol). So, why was I measuring 2 weeks bigger, the baby could have possible stretched my uterus. God has answered all of our prayers so far with this pregnancy and baby.

Nathan put on a show during the ultrasound. He has gotten so big, you can only view one body part at a time. She showed us his "its a boy" parts and he still most definitely a boy!!! She then was going to give a 3d view of his face, so we can get an idea of what he is going to look like. While zooming in, we notice something coming close to his face, the technician said it was his feet. Two seconds later one foot was in his mouth, then he switched and put his other foot in his mouth. The boy was eating his feet. It was the funniest thing we had ever seen. He then stuck his foot in his nose. Speaking of noses it looked like he going to have my nose and chubby cheeks.

We had our first baby shower on Sunday, November 14 at church. We had a lot of people join in on the celebration of Nathan. We got a lot of cute baby blankets, clothes, and toys. We even got his potty already and lots more. Can't wait to use everything and to see Nathan in all his cute little outfits. We are a little worried that Nathan will not fit in any of the newborn outfits. If he is born at 8 pounds or more, he will be too big for those outfits. Luckily we have other sizes as well. We can't wait to finally be parents. Can't wait to have a little one to fill our home with even more love.

Happy 10 years!!!!!

October 14, 2000 was an amazing day. The boy of my dreams FINALLY asked me to be his girlfriend. We went on our first date September 1, 2000, and it took him a month and a half to ask me. What was so funny is I don't think he would have ever asked me, had I not asked him if we were boyfriend and girlfriend. He has made the last 10 years of my life the best. We have had our ups and downs, but still going strong. Only the best is yet to come :) Nick thank you for being their for me the last 10 years of my life. God really blessed me when he gave me you!!!
Went to the doctor today, everything went good. Baby still measuring on target, heartbeat beating so beautifully!!!! While we were their we registered for our birthing classes. I hope it eases some anxiety we both might have about labor. I have been imagining the worse, like having the baby in the car, or baby being breached. Either way as long as the ending result is a healthy loving little boy, that's all that matters.

100 days left....

We are counting down, 100 days or less (hopefully less)!!! We are now in the double digits. Time sure has gone bye so fast. I am in the full swing of my 6 month and I am loving every bit of it!!!! Please continue to pray for us, we are nearing the more scary part "The delivery." I know God is going to protect me and Nathan. Praying for a safe delivery but most importantly a healthy baby.

No Diabetes for me!!!!

Good news, I don't have Gestational Diabetes. I passed my glucose tolerance test, but barely! Had a good check-up, blood work looked good, still measuring on target! The bad thing about my appointment is I had to get a shot. My blood type is RH Negative and because of this I have to get a shot with each pregnancy around this time, or after any miscarriages or deliveries. If the baby has the same blood type (RH negative) then I do not have to get another shot after delivering him, but if he does not then I will. The bad thing about the shot is I had to get it in my butt. I knew I was getting a shot I just did not know where. The nurse said, alright pull down your pants, I said, “what, where is this shot going?” She said, “Sorry, its going in your butt.” I said nervously, “Ok, how far do I need to pull my pants down, lol.” Nick was just a laughing at me, but he did hold my hand. He has been so good to me, throughout this pregnancy. He goes with me to every appointment; he asks the doctor more questions than I do. I keep joking with him that I need to make him go get me something at 2 or 3 in the morning!!! Just so he can have the full effect of meeting my cravings in my time of needs and wants.

We are slowly checking off our list of things to do. We are about to sign up for our first childbirth class!!! We would have taken the class this month, but we missed the cutoff time. But they offer another one next month, so we will sign up for that one. We know that the baby will be added to Nick’s health insurance policy and I will be added if I no longer work. We have registered at Target and Babies R’ Us!!!

One of the biggest things left to decide is to find Nathan a pediatrician. They tell you to pick one before the baby is born (obviously) but how do you know where to start? I can’t even name one pediatrician in Nash County and I’m supposed to pick one for my baby. It’s a little overwhelming.

Things have been really good the last few weeks. My only complaint is back pain. Nathan must be sitting on my back. My back hurts so badly at night, I can barely move. I have even had some back spasms. The doctor recommended some things to help with the pain and to hopefully prevent my back from hurting in the first place. Please pray that I will take better care of my back and it will stop hurting. Nathan is starting move more and more everyday, well at least I am starting to feel him so much more than before. I love, love, love it!!! When I don’t feel him during the day I get a little worried, but he always makes his presents right in the nick of time. I can’t wait until others can feel him, especially Nick. Every time Nathan is kicking I call Nick over to feel him and Nathan immediately stops. I think he knows and is playing with us. Nick has put his head on my stomach and heard Nathan wiggling around and a few little kicks, but only a few times. Nothing is sweeter, than to share these moments with Nick!!!

I start going to the doctor every two weeks now. I can’t believe how quick this pregnancy has gone bye. We are nearing the mark of 100 days left. Can’t wait :)

We are estactic to introduce you too.....

Nick and I have spent the last few weeks trying to nail down a name for our precious baby boy. We have kept joking with people who would ask if we picked out a name that we had his last name picked out. We have thought of names off and on the past two years. Working in the school system, we come across a lot of different names. Some that I adore others we can’t even pronounce. We agreed on names that we would never name our child, either because we completely disliked the name or we associate it with a kid that got on our ever lasting nerves. We knew we wanted a name that is known but not highly popular.

I asked Nick to begin with, if we have a boy, do you want him to be a Junior. He said he did not. I was not crazy either about having a Junior, but if that is what Nick wanted then I would honor that for him. We knew we both wanted to absolutely love our babies’ name. Its funny because we had picked out so many “boy” names and only one or two girl names. I knew we were going to have a little boy, so I really did not even bother looking at girl names. It was in my gut. One name constantly came to mind every time I would think of baby names, even before Nick and I had even talked about having kids. We had one student out of 800 students at Nashville Elementary school that had this particular first name. Every time I would check out a book to this little boy, it would put a smile on my face. Nick has already taught over a 1000 kids and he never taught a student with this name.

So after, we found out that we were having a boy. We went to a list of names we had picked out and was trying different combinations. Nothing really sounded that great to us. We picked out some first names we will most likely name our future kids. But we kept coming back to the same name. One night we were thinking of names and I said well, lets look up what this particular name means. Our mouths dropped when we found out what the name we were falling in love with meant. “Gift from God,” how much perfect could this name get. God always reveals His will, you just have to be looking for it to see it. He knew we would lose two babies long before Nick and I even met. He knew the name of the first child we would bring into our home, long before the thought of kids entered out minds. We know this baby and any baby is a gift from God, but Nick and I know first hand how special and true it really is. So we proudly introduce to you, Nathan Wayne Finch!!!! Nathan meaning “Gift from God,” and Wayne is from my dads side of the family. Wayne is my dads and oldest brothers’ middle name. We can not wait to bring home Nathan and to be his Mommy and Daddy. I get teary eyed just thinking that God picked Nathan to be our son. God does not make mistakes and everyday I find that to be truer. Thank you God for blessing us with Nathan, we can only hope that Nathan will grow up to be a blessing to you in return.

Over the hump!!!

Felt like now would be a good time to write about how this pregnancy has been so far. While writing this I am one day shy of 21 weeks. It's hard to comprehend the fact that half of my pregnancy has come and gone. I will have this little boy in my arms in less than 4 months. As excited as we are, we are now trying to grasp the fact that we will be parents. Nick and I have been through so much in the last almost 2 years its like we are waiting for something else bad to happen (well at least I am). It’s hard to get overly excited about the upcoming birth of our baby, because I can't see myself that far in the future. We have gotten excited before only to have two miscarriages back to back.

Our hope is that we can afford for me to be a stay-at-home mom. Most people probably take this opportunity for granted, but we have a different perspective on how precious a baby is. I can’t imagine leaving my baby 5 days a week for someone else to care for and missing all those precious first memories. It would break my heart to come pick up my child and hear someone else say, “He said his first word today.” If I’m not able to be the one to stay will our baby, I hope my mom would be the one who would watch my baby while I work.

While we are trying to work out all the details, I feel like I’m kind of getting “cold feet” about the whole full-time mom. Work (career) is all I’ve even known. I use to babysit and clean houses when I was 12 or 13 and then got my first real job at Hardees as the biscuit maker, when I was 14. I worked all through high school and college. I have only been without a job for maybe 6 months in all those years. I was raised to have good work ethics and put my all into whatever I was doing whether I liked the job or not. I finally have a job that I can see myself doing until I retire and it scares me to leave it.

Nashville Elementary is my home away from home. And although I do get frustrated sometimes, I feel like I make a difference most days. I have some close relationships with many of my co-workers. Many of them don’t even know how much they have helped me get through all the heart ache of losing our two precious babies. I feel like God sent me to Nashville, because he knew I would need the support I got from my co-workers, many who have gone through their own heart aches of losing their children.

After losing our second baby, all I wanted to do was quit working. I hated every morning I had to get up and go to work and put on a happy face and pretend everything was alright. Nick told me over and over that I could stop working if that’s what I needed to do. I’m glad I stuck with it, because I do think it helped me cope with everything. Gave my mind something else to think about and helped me not to slip into a depression. Which is what I think I was very close to happening?

I know if I am able to stay home, that is what I need to do. It is what I want to do. It’s just so much is changing and to be honest I am scared to death of all the changes. I mean its one thing to have your first baby, and not having much experience with newborns. It’s another to give up a part of your life that you are sure of and know what to expect. Sorry this post is kind of a downer. I did not mean for everything to sound so negative. I am truly happy and would not trade any of this for the world. I just need some extra prayers to help ease my mind of all the changes Nick and I are about to face. Ready or not here we come!!!!

IT'S A BOY!!!

Nick and I are so excited to be parents to a precious little boy. Today was just the best day, I did not have to report to work at my usual time of 7am. I got to sleep in til 9:30 and it was great. The best part was waking up and getting ready to go to our ultrasound appointment. The big ultrasound appointment where we would get to find out the sex of the baby. Nick and I prayed last night that the baby would "show" himself. "Boy", does God answer prayers, one of the first shots we got was the "potty shot" and you could tell it was ALL BOY. The ultrasound lasted about 20 minutes and we got to see every part of this baby. The Heart looked perfect and was beating at the usual 152 beats per minute. Doctor said everything looks "perfect," Baby Boy Finch looks like he is developing like he should, exactly what Nick and I wanted to hear and see.

This ultrasound was the best. We got to see how much the baby has changed over the last almost 17 weeks. The first ultrasound we got, it did not look anything like a baby, just a round clump. The second ultrasound, was more baby like, but still hard to tell what was the head and other body parts. This ultrasound there was no doubting what you were seeing. The best part of all the ultrasounds is seeing the little baby's heart beating, so precious.

I absolutely loved seeing the baby move. Even though I tried to get him reved up before we went by drinking orange juice, he still was not moving all that much. He looked like he was swimming, he was kicking his legs and hands. So happy we got some video clips, we will cherish them forever.

Well, since I'm working this summer, and not having much to do at work. I have had a lot of time to search online for various things I would want for the nursery. Prior to finding out the gender, I was looking up bedding for a boy or girl. I picked my favorite for either sex, and now all I got to do is order the bedding. Why am I rushing this: I need to go ahead a pick a color to paint the babies room. Nick and I are going out of town this weekend to celebrate our 5 year Anniversary (Yeah!!!) and my mom is going to paint the room. We had already primed the room prior to conceiving again. Perfect opportunity that I can not pass up. So the room is going to be key lime green. It should be bright and we are excited to finally see that room get some color.

So like I said this week has been awesome and its not over yet. Looking forward to a nice romantic anniversary to Myrtle Beach. Maybe even do some shopping for our "Little boy", or as my mother-in-law says "Little Man" (based on his ultrasound pics, lol).