Pregnancy.... (The first trimester perspective)

***Let me first start by saying, this is going to be brutally honest so if you are looking for the rose colored glass version of pregnancy then this is definitely not your post!

Ahhh pregnancy.... if there was any feasible way to avoid your luxuries I would be the first in line. I will preface by saying that while my first pregnancy was certainly brutal at times this one takes the cake! After finding out at the end of June that we were expecting #2 I was elated and nervous all at the same time. So excited to meet this new little life and add a playmate to our sweet little family, but nervous because pregnancy and the early months of infancy were anything but kind to us the last go round. But none the less we were thrilled.

By 5 1/2 weeks pregnant though, I began to feel the unwelcome all day nausea accompanied by extreme fatigue. The kind of fatigue that comes with running a marathon (well who am I kidding, I've never done that but you catch my drift).

Just three days later I found myself vomiting morning, noon and night and praying that I could just survive the day. The weeks that followed we did not leave the house AT ALL and I cried for the better part of most of those days truly wishing I could just die. By the end of the 8th week I had dropped 8 pounds in one week and found myself severely dehydrated. One call to the OB and I was told to head on to the ER to receive fluids. I prayed that relief would come from the additional fluids but even after IV fluids and IV Zofran and Phenergren still NO RELIEF. I was so deflated I told Zak that if I survived this we would not be having any more biological children. I just could not do this again. It literally felt like being dropped in hell.

There truly is nothing else quite like it. And to make matters worse, trying to care for a toddler while you are vomiting is near to impossible. Many days Will would come put his arms around me while I was throwing up and say, "all done Momma all done." As if to say, please make it stop. If only son, if only.

Almost like a miracle though my symptoms began to subside after about a month and a half. I had fully anticipated the sickness to last til 14-16 weeks but the Lord in all his graciousness poured out his mercy and made the misery taper off at about 12 weeks! I believe the Lord knew that if He desired for us to add any more kiddos to this household the crazy train had better stop and fast!

I am so so thankful to be 18 weeks and feeling as good as could be expected for pregnancy. With the exception of afternoon heartburn and a bit more tired than usual I am as good as new! Those early weeks we were blessed beyond measure with all the support of family and friends bringing meals, watching Will and just loving on us as a family. We couldn't be more grateful! We find out tomorrow whether this little peanut is a boy or girl and I can hardly wait. I am quite confident it's a little Misses but we'll just have to wait and see! Here's to hoping the 2nd half of this pregnancy is uneventful!

Happy Birthday Zak!!! (The forgotten post)

*I came across this birthday post for Zak (His birthday was September 16th yikes!!!) that I thought I had posted but it never made it past the draft file. Sorry hubby, better late than never!

It seems unfitting that there is only one day of the year designated to celebrate the life of my wonderful husband and very best friend! We have shared so much life these past 6 years; two pregnancies, one toddler, first apartment, first house, first cat, first dog, several jobs and a slew of life experiences. I can confidently say that I can't imagine walking through life with a better man. We are truly blessed to have him as husband and daddy. Thanks for loving us so well and always providing the strength, security and stability to our home. We love you so much Zak! Happy Birthday!

Will's 2nd Birthday Party!

My sweet little man just celebrated his 2nd birthday a week and a half ago at Pullen Park. After Will's first birthday party I learned that my child prefers his family and just a couple of his best buddies. So this year, we had the grandparents, aunts and uncle and cousins and two of his best buddies. I have to say, it was so nice to have some milder weather (especially pregnant) but the morning was still filled with off and on drizzle (hence the TERRIBLE hair day I was having).

I did a Choo Choo train theme for his party since he is absolutely over the moon for trains these days. Side note- we also got Will a train table set as our birthday/Christmas gift which he is obsessed with!

We were soo thrilled that Bampa was able to make it to the birthday party even though he's working out of town for several months. It clearly made Will's day. And of course, Pop (My Dad) and Will are always thick as thieves.

Sweet Jack and Gerry were kind enough to come and celebrate as two of Will's closest buddies and Miss Kennedy was best dressed as always!

My beautiful niece Lucy who Will is absolutely in love with.

Such a sweet picture of the boys paired with their Daddy's who have been buddies since kindergarten.

Seems not even worth saying, but Will LOVED the cupcake! Last year he was not wild about his first go at birthday cake but oh how a year changes things!

All in all, what a fun day we had! Pizza. Cake. Rides. Presents. What more could a sweet little boy want. Happy Birthday sweet Will, your Momma and Daddy could not possibly love you any more! Stay tuned- Will's Two Year post coming next week after we have his two year check up. Our doctor is in high demand but very soon I'll be posting pictures and stats of my growing little monkey!

Coming in April....

I am super late on posting this as its old news now, but we are thrilled to announce that we are expecting baby Shipman #2 to arrive April 2nd!!! Definitely a pregnancy post coming later this week. I'm 12 weeks today and finally coming out of the terrible first trimester of sickness Praise Jesus! I can't wait to meet this sassy little thing!

Life Lately...

I fully recognize that I have been a fair weather/ MIA blogger. The truth is...lately I have felt a huge lack of motivation with just about everything. Will got a terrible cold...then Zak and I got his terrible cold (on our kid-less vacation)...then both the Grandma's got it and Mrs. Shipman's has now turned into Pneumonia! All in all we just aren't operating on all cylinders at our house. Last week I led worship for Kid Week (aka VBS) for our church. BTW- When did VBS turn into a night time thing?!?! It's the craziest thing! I know I know, year round schools conflict with morning VBS but those kiddos were about to pass out by 8:00pm and so was I! As a result, I ate out EVERY night last week as though I had the metabolism of a 16 year old boy without a care in the world... and then Monday morning hit and I weighed in.

It wasn't pretty. Not terrible, but certainly up a couple pounds. That is not the direction I was hoping for. We are hoping to get pregnant with baby number two this summer/early fall and I still am fighting the last 10 pounds I gained with Will with an additional 25 to lose! Isn't it amazing how time flies when you set a weight loss goal. The weeks fly by without the smallest budge to the scale and panic sets in. Sorry for the level of honestly but quite frankly, it's where I'm at.

But I digress... after last week I am trying to jump-start my lack luster enthusiasm for exercising, cooking healthy, doing 8 million loads of laundry. blogging, taking pictures of my Tasmanian devil toddler and keeping some order to this household. I find myself getting motivated for a few days and then just diving off the wagon to eat yet another meal at Chick fil a simply because it's easy. Zak's garden is producing boat loads so I am setting out to try and plan our meals around what is ready.

The other battle of my life is that Will has over night turned into the pickiest eater. He will NOT try new things and is boycotting all vegetables which makes me feel like the worlds worst mom. I haven't decided yet what my plan of action will be. Do I starve the kid until he decides that we really mean business or do I disguise vegetables in things he already likes. At this point, I am open to someone moving in and handling this for me. My sweet Will has the willpower of his Daddy and is not very easy to break! Pray for me!

Time to go move laundry.... I'll try to do better and post some sort of a life update soon!

Summertime at its finest!

My little gardener! I could just eat him up!

Running

Me and Dad post-race!

This post is long overdo...Just over 2 months ago, one of my Mom friends at the Y invited me to join this 5k training program that was meeting twice a week at Womble Park in Holly Springs. I was super excited and jumped right in. I had actually downloaded the C25K (couch to 5k) free app a few weeks prior and was well in to week 3 of training.

To say I am NOT a runner is the understatement of the year. I have never been very athletic and certainly had never run any substantial amount at any given time in my life. But, this was one goal I really wanted to check off the bucket list- training and completing a 5k.

That first week I could barely do the short 60 second of running with 90 seconds of walking in between. It seemed so very hard, my lungs were screaming out for air while my legs were begging me to stop. The next few weeks we gradually increased in difficulty and I felt myself improving by leaps and bounds. I found that the challenge would alternate from lunge capacity to my legs feeling like I was dragging bricks. None the less, I kept showing up each week faithfully completing the two group runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays and then I would make sure to get in my 3rd independent run on the weekend.

By week 5 we had worked up to 8 minutes of running with 5 minutes of walking. AT the end of that 5th week we were suppose to complete a final run of 20 minutes of consecutive running with no walking built in. When I realized that I was thinking, "there is absolutely NO WAY that I can do that! I will have to walk." The kind women that were leading our group told us to hold off on the 20 minute run that weekend. They understood the mental challenges of completing this first long run and wanted us to have the support of the group. The plan was to run together on Tuesday and then head out to celebrate over frozen yogurt.

I have to confess, the night before I was so nervous about the following days run and so much self doubt as to whether I would be able to complete it or not. The next day I prayed on the way to the park and the Lord showed up! It was by the grace of God but I completed the 20 minutes feeling stronger than I ever had. I could not possibly begin to explain the excitement I had knowing that this was the first day of my entire 29 years that I could EVER recall being able to run for 20 minutes straight!

From there things got soo much easier and each week leading up to our race I was able to run further and further without getting winded and continuing to push myself. I should have mentioned in the beginning though that I was and still am the worlds slowest runner. But even with that truth I was ok. My goal was to simply complete the upcoming race without walking even if that meant coming in last place!

Me and my buddy Melissa post-race!

We all signed up and got registered for "Run the Quay" an annual 5k run put on by the Fuquay Chamber of Commerce. The course took us through the historic old neighborhoods in the downtown area. The night before the race I could not sleep. I literally stayed awake until 4am!!! I was so nervous battling the discouraging thoughts that I would not be able to complete the race even though in my heart I new I was ready. I had been disciplined about the training and was as prepared as I could be. The next morning I woke up with only a few hours a sleep and headed out with the plan of meeting Zak and Will there once the race began.

We took off about 8:00am and Praise the Lord I completed the whole thing. And it was HARD!!! Lots of big hills and the last half mile of the race was completely up hill. But once I saw Zak and Will and the rest of my family cheering me on I just kept pushing harder. My Dad finished wayy ahead of me and came back and ran the last 1/8 of a mile with me encouraging me that I could do it. When I crossed that finish line I just felt like crying. It was such a rush of emotions! I was exhausted, excited, thrilled and so very very proud of myself! I completed the race in just over 42 minutes.

Needless to say, I've caught the running bug! I love it now. I even started training for a 10k! Nothing makes me feel as strong as completing a hard run. And while I haven't noticed major changes in the scale I have noticed significant changes in inches lost from both my legs and mid-section which has been very encouraging. If you've always thought you could never complete a 5k or grow to love running I would challenge you that you can! If I can do it you DEFINITELY can!

*** Side note- Some of you may have read on the blog back in September my Dad had a silent stroke followed by a seizure. It scared us all pretty bad because to look at my Dad he looks healthy as a horse. I asked Dad even before I started training with these women if he would want to train for a race to do together as he had previously been a pretty good runner. He eagerly agreed

and I think was looking forward to having the motivation to get out and exercise. Dad did soo great in the race and I was so proud. He ran just over a 10 minute mile which was awesome for having only trained for a month!

*** Second side note- Hilarious me, did not think to ask until about a month into our running schedule why all these women we were running with had their school aged kids running along side. Little did I know, but Melissa, Linda and I had joined a homeschooling running group! Dingy me. Hahah I still laugh about it. That's why these kids weren't in school! No I am not planning on homeschooling as that is the obvious next question! Definitely don't think I'm cut out for that, but I so appreciated them letting us train with their group!