Natalie Hunsaker and Family

Doomsday Milestones

2012-04-27T23:41:00.002-05:00

Pregnancy One:
Everything going as usual.
24 weeks, 0 days: water broke with Brynn. Matt was out of town on business when I called him with the news.
Delivered at 25 weeks after 1 wk of hospitalization.

Pregnancy Two:
Everything going as usual. Planning a move to Utah.
24 weeks, 3 days: high-risk clinic caught my dilating/thinning cervix and admitted me for 2 months of hospital bed rest right away. Matt was out of town on business when I called him with the news. Move to Utah postponed.
Delivered at 37 weeks--which is full term--after roughly 2 months of hospital bed rest and 1 month of at-home bed rest.
After the move, we closed on our house.

Pregnancy Three:
12 weeks: Cerclage placed.
Everything going as usual. Planning a move to another city.
24 weeks: Cervix measuring at 4 cm, which is .6 cm LONGER than last handful of visits (anything over three 3 cm long is good--it is the opposite of being "effaced," which means "short" or "thin" cervix). It looked so good, in fact, that the high risk clinic graduated me and I only need to be watched by my regular OB from that point on.
24 weeks and 3 days: No surprises.
26 weeks and 3 days: Matt headed out of town on business. We both held our breath.
27 weeks and 0 days: Matt returned from his business trip without surprises.

Which brings me to TODAY, where Pregnancy Three is still going strong:
At 27 weeks and 1 day, we just closed on our new house. We are starting to move (gradually and as stress-free as possible); but so far, we still have no surprises.

So now, we've passed ALL of our doomsday anniversaries and I'm still going strong. I credit it, in part of course, to the cerclage. But mostly, I thank greensmoothiegirl.com and her 12-Steps to Whole Foods recommendations. I have been more energetic and happy than I have ever been--even compared to when I am not pregnant; my insomnia has almost disappeared; my regular migraines are completely gone; AND I have made it through two rounds of family sickness without becoming sick myself (which is a first for me for the last 8 years).

Now, I'm just concentrating on hitting 28 weeks ... then 32 ...

Anyone want to raise your bets for a full 40 weeks and a healthy 8 lb baby boy? I am! Hooray!

BIG Catch Up

2012-03-16T23:24:00.004-05:00

I have some more exciting news in gigantic blob-like fashion since updates are few and far between for me these days. For those of you who are still hanging in here with me and have sent emails wondering what is going on at our house:

1) Brynn is doing well post surgery. Since the procedure, she still had a lot of puking but she didn't need her meds for constipation. A few months later, we were able to wean her off amitriptyline (a big whew!). Afterwards, we started her on a new smoothie diet via the G-tube (courtesy of GreenSmoothieGirl.com) and we are pleased to report that she is going on 4 weeks of being completely puke free! Double yay for good health as a result of good nutrition! Due to this upturn, we've also been weaning her off of her Zantac (she's been on this since shortly after coming home from the NICU) and in a couple weeks we expect her to be completely med free for the first time ever! HOORAY!

2) Heidi is 16.5 months old and has a vocabulary of somewhere around 150 words including "bakugan ball" and "basketball" as clear as a bell. I imagine she's not far from speaking in true sentences, but I'm still hesitant to accept, "It's a BABY!" as a real sentence since I don't think she really knows she's saying three separate words. Either way, she's a chatter box. But for wherever she may be "ahead" in language, she is surely "behind" in walking. Our little squirt is more than capable, but is absolutely too cautious to want to walk indepedently. She prefers knee walking (which she knows isn't as fast as crawling, but her thumb is free for sucking, you see). Silly girl...if I ever get the motivation, I'll upload the video of her first independent walk--some 2 minutes of walking all over the upstairs bedrooms, turning corners, stopping, starting, etc., with no balance problems whatsoever. But would she do it again the next day (or anytime since for that matter)? Nope.

3) My pregnancy is going well; but it always does until 24 weeks so I'm not getting my hopes up just yet. I'm currently 21 weeks and counting down until April 5th when I reach that nail-biting milestone. However, I'm doing everything I can to do better this time--including doing greensmoothiegirl.com myself. I'm optimistic it's helping my pregnancy because after adjusting to the better nutrition, I started sleeping like a log (I'm an especially bad insomniac when pregnant), had WAY more energy (used to need a nap every day with the girls, but now I never need one), completely stopped getting migraines (also a pregnancy gift for me), and--best of all--noticed far fewer contractions. Maybe, just maybe, I can help my body do what my body needs to do by feeding it really, really well. Combining the diet changes with the weekly shots in the rear, the cerclage, and making sure I don't overdo it, really gives me hope that I can have a "normal" pregnancy. Oh yes...did I mention? IT'S A BOY! The Hunsaker name WILL GO ON (for those of you who don't know, Matt is the only boy with 7 sisters)!

4) My first Isaiah painting got accepted into the LDS Church's 9th International Art Show--one of under 200 accepted with over 1100 entries. I was delighted to see my own piece hanging in a real live gallery (who would have thought?). I was doubly delighted to see it right next to Walter Rane's piece. I love Walter Rane. So I officially feel like a Big Whig, even though by every measure of the word, I am still a total no-name! Ha! Yay for my first glimpse of real exposure.

More coming later. Some day. No promises on a timeline here. We are in the process of buying a house, managing a bunch of new diet routines, raising two great little hoodlums, planning the next painting, staying pregnant, and getting ready to move. I still have really high intentions of doing some sort of political rant, but the more I write and try to hunt down my sources, the more I realize I know very little and am only parroting other people. I am mostly investing a great deal of time educating myself before I open my fat mouth via the computer keyboard for the whole world to read. Or maybe I'm just being a chicken and stalling...

Three Big Announcements from a Slacker

2012-01-11T23:41:00.004-06:00

Blog slacker? I suppose. I'm about 1/2 way done with the promised political articles. I'm being very thorough. In the meantime, I have some big announcements to make.

1) We just bought one of these:

2) Because we found out we're having one of these:

3) Which is why I'm going into surgery tomorrow (yay for cerclages) at one of these:

WHAAAAAAAAAAAO. I know. I was shocked, too. I didn't figure it out until I was 8 weeks (I'm 12 weeks tomorrow). But I'm just plain excited now. Well, and scared, too. I really hope this pregnancy goes well.

2011Res: Technically, it's not 2011 anymore, but I'll do one last one for old time sakes. To Matt: I LOVE that you are amazingly detail oriented for all the little to-dos of buying a new van. To my girls: today I savored Heidi doing all in her power to reach light switches and say "OFF!"--even when I'm trying to do my make up. And Brynn got me good when her new bedtime stalling tactic was to scratch Daddy's back (he didn't mind AT ALL). Dear Mr H: today I finished sorting the laundry AND delivering it to our rooms even though I was exhausted because I love you (and because I know you're out of underwear).