Welcome Marcus Riley Yates

Well I figured it was about time to give an update seeing as it has been a long time since I last blogged. My life has been completely turned upside down since that time, but I must say, it has been the best crazy time I've ever had.

It all started on October 28th, 2008. I do the church newsletter for my home church and needed to get it done no later than the 29th so that they could be folded and mailed out. I hadn't been feeling all that great that day; I wasn't having any pain, but was just having some cramping and things but I wasn't really worried about it. Jacob and I went to the church around 8:00 p.m. that night so I could get started with the printing and copying of the newsletter which takes around 3 and 1/2 to 4 hours to do. My mom came by to visit and check and me and felt that I was showing some early signs of going into labor. I wasn't convinced as it was still almost 4 weeks until I was due. However, I called the doctor to please my mom and they told me to just monitor it and if I wasn't feeling better or things got worse, to come to the office tomorrow. Jacob and I left the church around 10:30 or so, with the newsletter not being finished, and went home to get some rest. I slept pretty good that night and when I got up the next morning I was feeling some better. I went to the church around 8:00 the next morning to finish the newsletter. While I was at the church, I once again started feeling funny but finished the newsletter anyway and went over to see my mom at her office. Mom was still convinced that I was going into labor but alas I still didn't believe it. One of her co-workers then came into the office and put her hand on my belly to feel the baby move and said "Kim you're having a contraction." I didn't realize it was a contraction because I had just assumed that there would be pain with the contractions and I wasn't having any pain at all. At that point, mom convinced me that we should go to the doctor just to make sure everything was ok. I agreed, but told her that I was going home to take a shower first. Jacob was working so we had to get a hold of him at the school and get everything all packed up "just in case." At this point, I still was not convinced that I was in labor and fully expected that we would be coming back home.

When we got to the doctor's office, he checked me and said that I was dialated two and he wanted to put me on the monitor to make sure that the baby was ok and to monitor my contractions. I was on the monitor for about 45 minutes and when he came back in he told me that my contractions were about five minutes apart and consistent but the baby was doing fine. He wanted me to check into the hospital so that they could monitor me for 24 hours just to make sure. One of the reasons was that the baby was still breech and if I did go into labor, they would need to do a C-section and didn't want me to fully dialate for no reason. So we went to the hospital to check in.

By the time I got into my room it was about 5:00 or so and the nurse came in to put in my IV and all that good stuff. She told me that they were just going to monitor me and that I would probably be going home tomorrow. She left the room and then in about 5 minutes, the on-call doctor came in to check me and said to me "You're having the baby. We're going to prep you for the C-section." I was shocked and to be honestly scared to death. I wasn't sure I was ready to have the baby.(This was taken just before I was carted out the room.)

However, I had no choice. Within about 15 or 20 minutes I was in the O.R. getting my spinal block. Everything happend extremely fast. At 6:14 p.m. Marcus Riley Yates was born. He was 7 pounds 6 ounces and was 20 inches long.

(These picture were taken not long after he was born)

He is such a good baby and both he and I are doing well. We appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers.

(Mom's Baby Boy!)

Things I can no longer do now that I am pregnant

See my feet

Easily shave my legs

Ride the rocket simulator at the Kennedy Space Center

Sleep throughout the night without getting up to go to the bathroom

Take Advil

Fit my regular clothes

Walk anywhere without getting out of breath

Paint my toenails

Sit for an extended period of time

Drink Mt. Dew (Oh how I miss you)

Stay awake through a whole movie

Race go-carts

Parasail

Eat all the seafood that I want

Fully enjoy chicken

Yet despite the fact that there are many things that I can no longer do that used to love doing, I really enjoy being pregnant! This has been the best seven months of my life!

Home again, Home Again

Greetings my fellow faithful readers. I must first apologize for the fact that I haven't posted in over two months. But to be honest, I've seriously not had the time. After moving back to Clintwood from Chicago we have been on the go non-stopped. First, Jacob had a class in Louisville while I was preparing for my classes at Liberty. We returned from Louisville on a Thursday night and left Sunday after church to go to the Southern Baptist Convention in Indianapolis, IN. We came back home on Thursday and then had a dear friend come stay with us from Friday to Tuesday. After his departure we finally started to unpack some boxes and I finished up preparing for my classes. We then headed off for 17 days to Lynchburg, VA where I was completing two of my final classes for my Masters degree. We returned to Clintwood on Saturday, celebrated our 2nd anniversary on Monday, left Tuesday for Abingdon where we spent the night at the Martha Washington Inn as our gift to one another, and then had our doctor's appointment yesterday. On top of that I am on the missions committee at our church and we are preparing for a team who will be coming to the area at the end of this month as well as planning our high school classes five year reunion. Trust me, this had been an EXTREMELY busy time for us. And unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be getting any less busy. I still have a six-week unit plan due for one of my classes by the first of August and next week Jacob and I will hopefully be traveling to see a couple of friends in NC. After returning from that trip we will be having our reunion on the 27th which is also the day that the mission team will be arriving in Clintwood. Then, in the second week of August we will be going to Daytona Beach for a week on Vacation with my family. So this seriously has been the longest, but most def. best summer of my life.

Yesterday was our appointment to find out what the baby was going to be and the verdict is in.....Its going to be a boy! =) I have felt all along that I was having a boy so to me, it wasn't that big of a surprise, but it was nice to have my mom sister, and in-laws there as we received the big news! Now Jacob and I must get serious about choosing a name for him. But this also means I can now start decorating my baby's room!! Being pregnant has been one of the greatest things I've ever experienced. Although I have been sick and tired, I've never in my life been happier. I'm now feeling the baby move more regularly, and you can now DEFINITELY tell that I am pregnant. God is good and I'm so thankful for this gift that he has entrusted to Jacob and I. Please pray for us that we may be strong and that God keeps the three of us safe. Also pray that Jacob is able to find a job and that I will be able to complete everything I need to in order to finish my degree.

Who knows how long it will be before I post again but I will try to post some pictures of our lil man soon as well as of my big belly!

I'm Back....

It seems like it has been forever since I last blogged and well, it has been! It is been an incredibly busy time as Jacob and I are planning to move back to Virginia and it's the end of the semester in school. I was in Virginia for about a week doing some work for my classes and delivering a load of stuff to our new house and then Jacob came down to deliver a load as well. We came back to Illinois last Wednesday and since then I've been working frantically to finish my last two assignments for class, one of which took me a total of at least 24 hours. We are now in the process of packing and getting rid of all our stuff and trying to tie up any loose ends we have here. It has just been a crazy time and I still have about a week of packing, etc. left. We are hoping to be gone from here at the beginning of next week but it may be the middle of the week.
We will for sure be gone by Thursday as my sister Kristin will be graduating from high school next Friday, as Salutatorian I might add, just like her big sister!

Leaving Illinois is bittersweet for me. I am COMPLETELY looking forward to being back in the south and away from the city life, but at the same time, I've made some amazing friends here and I am really going to miss them. These people have really made an impact on me and I see them like family, since they have been that way since we moved here. It is going to be hard saying goodbye to them. Also, it is going to be quite an adjustment living near family again. It has been five years since I've lived in Clintwood and it is going to be strange having to share my husband with his family. I've enjoyed the past two years of having only one another to depend on and I'm really sad to see that part of our life go. Don't get me wrong, I love Jacob's family and I appreciate everything they do for us, but I really feel a little unsure about how this whole thing is going to work.

In baby news, we are officially at the end of our first trimester! YAY! We have a doctor's appointment on Saturday and we think we will probably get to hear the baby's heartbeat this time! I am anxious about this appointment meaning I'm both excited and scared. I guess it is always natural to expect the worse and I know I really have no reason to think there is something wrong but I guess that is always in the back of a mother's mind. I am so excited about becoming a mother, it is what I've always wanted, and I jut want my baby to be happy and healthy. Since I've missed a couple of weeks of the baby development stuff, I'm just going to start with this week, which is week twelve.

"Your baby weights between 1/3 and 1/2 ounce and crown-to-rum length is almost 2 1/2 inches. The size of the baby has almost doubled in the past 3 weeks.

By the end of 12 weeks, your uterus is too large to remain completely in your pelvis. You may be able to feel it at this point (I have been telling Jacob this but I don't think he believes me but it won't be long before I will be starting to show!!!). The skeletal system now has centers of bone formation. Fingers and toes have separated, and nails are growing. Scattered rudiments of hair appear on the body. The digest system is capable of producing contractions that push food through the bowels. The pituitary glad is beginning to make many hormones. The fetal nervous system has developed further. Your baby is moving inside your uterus, but your probably won't feel it for a while yet." (Your Pregnancy week by week, 6th edition, Glade B. Curtis & Judith Schuler).

Well, this will be my last post until we get back to Clintwood. Today is the last day we have Internet access and I'm going to be crazy busy packing. But I will definitely update soon to let everyone know how the appointment goes and if it works out the way I want, hopefully we will have a video with the baby's heartbeat to show!

Keep us in your prayers this week.

The Ramblings of a Pregnant Woman

It has been such a long time since I blogged, that I do not know where to begin. Last week was a rough week for me as I started having some pregnancy complications. By Wednesday, I was really worried and decided to call my doctor. She wanted to see me immediately, which freaked me out even more, so we went in for another check-up/ultrasound. I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life. Praise God however, the baby was fine. He/she had pretty much doubled in size and his/her heart rate was 186. The did another exam and everything looked fine. The doctor believed that the complications might be occurring because of the exam but told me that I had to take it easy and rest. So, for the last week, I've pretty much been doing nothing but laying around in the bed and watching tv. Although as good as that sounds, I have so much I need to be doing that I'm beginning to get frustrated. My parents are coming up this weekend in order to help us do some packing since I'm not allowed to lift anything, and then I'm going home on Monday in order to do some observations for school. I only have 2 and 1/2 weeks left of classes but I have so much homework it is just overwhelming. My house is a mess but frankly, I just have no desire to clean it. I think I need some powerboost from comcast! That being said, if anyone is interesting in helping a friend in need, I could use a maid =) j/k





On another note, I had previously posted a rant about my Praxis exam that I took in March. Well I now must officially eat my words and take it back because I got my scores back and did MUCH better than what I was expecting. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I was 3 points from scoring a perfect score. So I guess the ETS people know what they are doing after all.





Well, I promised that I would try to provide my readers with information about the baby's development from the book I am reading and we are now in the middle of week nine:





"The crown-to-rump length of the embryo is 1 to 1 1/4 inches. This is close to the size of a medium green olive.

Your baby's arms and legs are longer. Hands are flexed at the wrist...Fingers are longer, and the tips are slightly enlarged where touch pads are developing. The feet may be long enough to meet in front of the torso. The head is more erect, and the neck is more developed. The eyelids almost cover the eyes...external ears are evident and the baby now moves its body and limbs." Curtis, Glade & Schuler, Judith. Your Pregnancy week by week. 6th Edition

That was something that we got to see on the ultrasound for the first time: we got to see our baby move! It was pretty miraculous to be honest, and if I hadn't been so relieved that the baby's heart was beating and everything looked ok, I might have cried!

Well I'm off to do some homework and perhaps even a little house cleaning! Until next time...

Our first appointment

I've decided that instead of trying to tell each individual what's going on with baby Yates, it would be easier to keep everyone updated via my blog! So that is what I plan to do. Yesterday, Jacob and I had our first doctor's appointment. I was unsure of what to expect, but I just assumed that very little would be done on our first visit. However, I was so excited when the nurse told me that the first thing they were going to do would be the ultrasound. It was so exciting (and a little scary) to see our baby's little heart beating. Everything showed up great. We could see the spine, and his/her little arms and legs! The nurse said everything looked good and the heart beat was strong. This, for me, was such exciting news and it has made it very real! We also got our very first baby picture. Because it is in PDF format though, I can't post it but I'm still working on it and if I can figure it out, I will most certainly post it for everyone to see!

Our due date is going to be November 22 which is a little earlier that I first thought, but I'm not complaining one bit. Infact, that seems like so far away, although I'm sure it will fly by! So that means that right now, we are 7 1/2 weeks along. I thought it would be interesting to, every week, post a little from the book that I bought, "Your Pregnancy week by week" which provides information about what is happening to the baby and to me. So below, is a little bit from the book about the growth of the baby!

Size

The baby goes through an incredible growth spurt this week. At the beginning of the 7th week, the crown-to-rump length is 0.16 to 0.2 inches. This is about the size of a BB pellet. By the end of the week, it has more than doubled in size, to about 1/2 inch. This means it is about the size of a pinto bean! =)

Development

Leg buds are beginning to appear as short fins. Arm buds have grown longers; they have divided into a hand segmenet and an arm-shoulder segment. The heart bulges from the body. By this time, it has divided into right and left chambers. The cerebral hemispheres, which make up the brain, are also growing (we got to see this on the ultrasound)! Eyes and nostrils are developing.

Intestines are developing and the appendix is present. The pancreas, which produces insulin, is also present.

It is so amazing to me all the changes taking place every day! We are so excited about this birth and we just ask that everyone pray for us and for a baby! I'm going to leave you guys with a list of girls names that I've picked out (even though Jacob doesn't like them). Let me know what they think.

Khloe

Addison

Emma

Adilea

Brooke

Alyssa

Ainslie

Haven

Jada

Jenna

Kenzie

Kinsley

Kylie

Lexi

Let me know what you think!

WARNING: RANT BELOW

So Saturday I had to take my certification test, the Praxis II. For the past 2 months, I've been studying furiously in order to freshen up on my Literature, Grammar, etc. I had even created this nice little flashcard book with literature words and their definitions, Literary Periods, Authors and their famous works, and any thing else that I thought might be tested via the practice book. I had memorized the literary periods and the major authors who wrote and what they wrote; literary and grammatical terms; and had even read the major summaries of works which I was unfamiliar with or had not read. I had taken 2 practices tests, one which was a former test that ETS had retired, and on both of the tests, I scored in the top 89th percentile, meaning that I easily passed the Virginia standards. Although I don't think I was overly confident, I did feel well prepared and wasn't very worried or stressed over the test. Maybe I should have been.

The test was insane. There were ZERO questions on any literature earlier than like the 17th c. There weren't any questions even on SHAKESPEARE!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? Most of the questions were about authors and works of which I have never even heard of. Keep in mind, this test is supposed to determine if you are qualified to teach English Literature at the secondary level. There were very few questions about any of the terms that I had studied, which were recommended by the study guide book. In the other 2 tests I had taken, I was able to finish both in about 1 hour and 15 minutes. This test took me 1 hour 50 minutes. I was so frustrated by the time I left...GRRR....Although I won't know my score until the middle of April, but it isn't looking good. I guess I'll just have to wait and see and take it again.