Introducing Baby Donatini

We are 20 weeks and everything is going very smoothly. Today we found out that we are having a girl. She will be named Chloe Faith. Here is her best shot!

Thank you!

You are all so sweet. I will definately keep the blog up, but just won't be writing very often. I'll make sure to put special announcements on there like the baby's gender and the delivery. Thank you for all of your encouraging words over these years. I love reading all the comments!

Goodbye

Well fellow bloggers and readers, after much consideration I have decided to exit the blogging world. I will keep up with reading blogs, but things are just too hectic around here to maintain a blog. Adding a third child means even less time at the computer.

By the way, the baby is doing well. We are three months now and his/her heartbeat sounds great. Just pray that the poor child gets named before he/she enters this world. We can not come up with a name. Hopefully once we find out the gender we might have an easier time naming our child. It is odd because we named Mya and Sara before they were conceived. I am not sure why this one is so hard to name.

The family is doing great. Dan's job continues to go well and the girls are healthy. Mya will go to preschool next year. She is so excited! Sara's language continues to develop with leaps and bounds. She is quite the talker, especially on the phone. I am staying busy with the kids and with part time work here and there. I just finished editing and typing a book that my mom wrote and it comes out tomorrow. I am also doing some workshops on special needs topics. And I will be supervising student teachers for AU next year as well as coordinating one more year of MOPS.

Thanks to all of you for reading my blog these past three years. It has been fun!

Calendar

Mya and I have been talking about getting a calendar for her so she can start learning about days of the week, numbers, and predicting when an event is going to come. We have tried a couple places in town to find a calendar, but haven't found the exact one that we want. So I decided to make my own on the computer. That way I can put actual photos of people on days when she is going to see them or have a birthday party or things like that. I was working on the calendar this morning and she asked me a very serious question. She looked at me with those big blue eyes and said, "Mommy, are we going far, far away in a distant land to go get me a calendar?" Oh so cute! Luckily I was able to surprise her and show her the calendar I was making. No need to go to a distant land to find it. We just walked to the printer in the kitchen and printed it out. Ta da!

Relief!

This weekend my digestive system finally decided how to work again. I still ate 6 meals a day with tons of calories, but I didn't hit starvation mode and I didn't crave fast food near as much. Finally I get some relief from the guilt that I have been carrying for eating such bad food. Today I craved oranges. That is a good sign! I still haven't gotten motivated to get some exercise yet, so hopefully with the weather clearing up I will feel up to doing that. My belly has popped out a little bit and I am nearing the end of the first trimester. Yes! Good times ahead!

Totally Different Pregnancy

Either I have a really bad memory or my other pregnancies were totally different than this pregnancy. I had one week of bad nausea and now I am just plain hungry ALL the time. I don't remember being this hungry ever. I feel like the baby is taking everything from me when I eat and there is nothing left for me. I am talking about severe hunger. If I don't stay on top of it by snacking all day, then it is miserable. And of course all I want to eat is fast food. What a shock to my system. And I am not exercising. The other night I ordered a pizza at 11:30 pm because I was so hungry and had to have a Papa John's pizza. I know exactly what I want and I just go for it when I get the urge. But I am not gaining weight with grace. I have no energy, feel grouchy, and just plain unattractive. I am eagerly waiting for the second trimester to come (only 4 weeks away) when I get to feel really good. There is something about that second trimester that makes everything feel great. I am usually not a complainer, but boy am I struggling with this pregnancy. Maybe it is different because I have two toddlers to chase after when I just want to lay on the couch and relax. But aside from all the negatives, I am forever grateful that the baby is doing well. It is all worth it in the end!

Decorations

Today I fell victim, once again, to the "silent house" epidemic that we have going on here. They were ONLY silent for two minutes! They were in the basement and I was at the top of the stairs cooking dinner. They managed to get the large laundry detergent bottle off of the top of the washer, open it up, and smear it all over the place. Mya claims she was just decorating the basement. How can I fault her for wanting to decorate?