our year, as told in our Christmas letter:
The year 2004 has been the most eventful year for our family to date. We have had emotional ups and downs galore.
First, we welcomed our sweet son Jeremiah into our hearts and lives in January. Jerry began working at Fed-Ex in June. Then Jenn’s Grampa came to know the Lord and then went to be with Him in July. In September, Jenn’s sister left her parents’ house to live with her birth mother, we bought our own house, in October we moved in, and in December, on Jenn’s Birthday no less, we found out we are expecting our second miracle, due in August! The Lord has done so much for our little family…From the five of us to all of you - we hope your new year is full of miracles and wonders of God’s love and kindness. (the five being Jerry, Jenn, Jeremiah, Baby Bean & KC.)

yes, it’s been quite the year.

jeremiah is the cutest thing. do you think he’ll get a complex by hearing how cute he is all the time? i hope not…i don’t think i could stop telling him. ;D
today he said “DONE” loud and clear along with signing all done (his version is a bit over the top - the normal all done punctuated with waving both arms around in circles!) when he was finished with lunch. it was so cute!
guess who got his diaper off through his jammies last night? yup and he takes his diaper off all the time now - and i’m over it. he takes it off as soon as i put it on! sigh.
he is feeling much better now. no more vomiting and no more diarrhea! yay! he’s been eating normally today as well. i’m so thankful he’s feeling better.
as for me, i vomited yesterday morning, and have felt really nauseaus since, but i think i’m getting better. i really don’t think it’s morning sickness, but i don’t think i had the full-blown thing jeremiah did either. thank the Lord!

just so you know, i put up an expectnet game. game name is baby-bean. i am also going to be adding stuff to bean’s website soon. maybe a preggo pic? also i’m trying to adopt some graphic adoptions for it, so if you know of any places that have pregnancy adoptions, lemme know!

are you doing anything special tonight? we aren’t doing anything. but we usually don’t. jerry works until about 10:30, but we’ll probably still just go right to bed tonight. i think the new year is cool and all, but i’ve never been into staying up until midnight. i guess since i need my sleep more than the next person.

happy new year everyone! God bless you and yours!

this post will be a mish-mesh of different things. so plan on some babble. (hey, it’s what i advertise, isn’t it??)
jeremiah has been doing some fun new things lately. well, some things are fun…some things are plain…annoying.
what, you ask?
well, finding himself has got to be the most annoying. i just ignore it during changes and get his clean diaper on as fast as possible. washing his hands after, of course. but it’s driving me nuts not to do anything. sigh. to make matters worse, he thinks he’s the funniest thing to do it. it’s hard not to giggle at a toddler who’s giggling.
along those lines, he is taking his diapers off now. so we have to have pants on him if we want his diapers to stay on. lol. this is not as annoying, because it’s very cute. get back to me in about a month - i’m sure it will be annoying then.
i keep telling him he’s going to get nose wrinkles from how often he makes his ornery face! it’s so adorable too. i’m sure there are a few pics of him with that face, but seeing it in person is just heavenly.
he is doing this funny dance thing. he goes around in circles, with his right arm up next to his ear. he does another new dance by going forward and doing a little hop. today was the first time i saw that one, actually.
for the longest time, we thought he was saying dad about everything. i finally figured out he is saying ‘dat’ for that. he will point at something and say ‘dat’. depending on whether it sounds like a question or not, he either means ‘what’s that?’ or ‘i want that.’
he is still not 100% but he’s getting better. he is still quite cranky. he won’t sleep for long tho he’s a grumpy tired boy all the time. and i’m afraid i might have what he and jerry have. i almost vomited this morning but i held it in. i really don’t think it’s morning sickness because i was feeling ok, other than nausea and queasiness, before today. of course i didn’t get any sleep last night either so that could come into effect…i really hope i don’t have what they have. i don’t have the energy for it. i also have a sore throat.
i need to start getting some preggo pics taken. it’s a pretty scary sight tho. hehe.
i have been having the feeling that i’m pregnant with a dark-headed blue-eyed girl. we all know how wrong i was about jeremiah, so i don’t want to say too much. but she sure is cute.
my milk is drying up a little i think. my breasts never feel as full as they once did. i know this is normal but it makes me a little sad. i hope jeremiah doesn’t get upset if my milk completely dries up! hopefully if it happens it will be a slow, one day at a time sort of thing. that won’t be as traumatic for him.
did i ever mention that peoplepc refunded our money!? praise the Lord!!
i am rethinking jeremiah’s birthday party once again. i want it to be fun yet cheap as possible. i think i might just go with primary color plates and stuff, and then make some farm decorations. i also would like to make jeremiah’s invitations myself somehow. maybe i’ll use my brother and sil’s printer as ours won’t print nicely. i want jeremiah to be in it somehow. maybe in overalls and a plaid shirt? we need a farmer’s hat too.
i hope that i get the ultrasound before his party! it would be cool to be able to show his baby sibling’s pic off at his party, wouldn’t it?
oh wow i still haven’t gotten jeremiah’s 11mo pics taken. sigh! it’s been a busy month!!!
i’m glad you guys like the new layout! i am going to add even more pics to it (there are one for each month of his life right now). i want one with great grampa, one with kc, one with his uncles, etc. the ones that are up right now (note: you have to refresh to see them all) are after the 18th of each month, so he was officially a month older. does that make sense? hope so.
i can’t believe we’re heading into the new year.
well, that’s it for now. God bless!!

jeremiah is still not feeling the best. took him to the dr yesterday and she confirmed that he has a virus. not much you can do about it. we’re keeping him hydrated and giving him extra love. he sure is ultra-sensitive and extra-tired (tho he doesn’t want to sleep, he wants to be grumpy).
like the new layout? i will be making more side pics too, throughout every one of his months! i love it! what do you think?
i am still feeling ok, except i am having food aversions. tonight jerry had chicken and stuffing and gravy and i about vomited sitting next to him. i still haven’t eaten anything because nothing here sounds good. i may have to make a run for the bell while jerry is still here….i think i will.
ttyl!!! God bless!

first, little man is still not feeling his best, so keep him in your prayers. if he’s not better by tomorrow i will be calling his dr.
jerry is finished with the gallery! you can click here to see it. and it’s all in working order, so you can leave comments and rate each individual photo if you’d like. the un and pw are the same as the photo albums.
God bless and let me know what you think!

taken from sarah
A) First, recommend to me:

1. a movie.
2. a book.
3. a musical artist, song, or album.

B) Ask me three questions. Ask me anything you want.

C) Now go to your blog (if you have one), copy and paste this, and allow everyone to ask you the same.

jeremiah ended up feeling ok for the Christmas celebration at my folks’. tho by the time we got to opening presents he was pretty tired and not very interested in doing it. LOL. but oh well!!
merry Christmas everyone, and happy birthday to Jesus!
this morning jeremiah got up earlier than we’d like, and was still tired, so we got him back to sleep. he slept in between the two of us in bed. when i finally got up to go to the bathroom again and looked at the time, it was 10:30! so he still hasn’t seen his gifts yet! we decided not to wrap them, since last night he didn’t even try to unwrap any. i just stuck them under the tree…
also wanted to let you know i started up a new expectnet game! the game name is baby-bean.
well, gonna take little man downstairs to see what surprises await!!!
God bless, and may your day be wonderful! never forget what the day is all about!!

jeremiah started vomiting last night (before 2 am because he woke me up screaming at 2 am). it was all over his bed and him - stinky, horrible smelling stuff. i got him out, put him in the bath and got clean jammies on him. we stayed up for a few minutes, i gave him some pedialyte and a soda cracker. then we lay down to nurse. as soon as his mouth open he vomited again! anyway, he did it four times, and i had to change both of our clothes each time. this morning, i thought he was better, since he hadn’t done it all night. we nursed and then he vomited the breastmilk (nothing else seemed to be left in his system).
racking my brain, the only thing i can think of is the old milk he found. he found a bottle from the previous night that had some formula still in it and drank a few sips before i caught him. i feel like such a horrible mama for this! why didn’t i just take it downstairs so he couldn’t find it?!!?
but how long should it last in his system, for him to continue to vomit??
his dr office is of course closed. there’s an emergency number but i don’t think this constitutes and emergency. do you?
just looked up different things and am going to try to keep him hydrated. he’s pretty miserable - poor baby. and we are going to my parents’ to celebrate Christmas today too. like he’ll have fun. sigh.
please pray for him.

i love white Christmases, but i hate it when i still need to finish up shopping and get snowed in! even if jerry didn’t have to take the van, i still would not have ventured out today. sigh. tomorrow, when my fam will be celebrating together, some people will be without their gifts, because jenn is such a procrastinator!
anyway, this is going on where i am. wasn’t it last week it still seemed like fall??

for those of you expecting our Christmas card, hold tight. i haven’t sent it out yet, but it might get there by new years. but here is the picture that will accompany the letter, to brighten your day today:

i don’t want to jinx myself, but i am feeling great. except for feeling exceptionally tired (jeremiah and i took a nearly 3 hour nap together!) and a little nauseaus/queasy, i am feeling great. i also have a headache now and then, and get really winded quickly. no major cravings yet either, except for dark chocolate (thankfully i have a lot around hehe) and ice water. oh and mexican, a lot more than usual. but not like with jeremiah - i HAD to have whatever i was craving with him, and this time i’m dealing. with jeremiah i was always craving burgers and icees. sometimes taco bell. mainly lots of meat things.

jeremiah has been doing some pretty cool things. yesterday, he sang a scale. i’m not kidding. i was rocking him to sleep and he started singing the scale, from bottom to top, perfectly on key, ‘ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah’. i was shocked. i have a musical genius on my hands! of course i sing to him all the time - have since he was in the womb, and we have music playing all the time. he loves music and i couldn’t be happier about it! i hope he wants to sing with me in church some day!!
today, while watching sesame street, big bird was counting. and jeremiah wagged his finger along with him ‘one, two…’ just like he does when we count together. he is SO CUTE!
he is going to be SUCH a great big brother. he is the sweetest, most fun boy ever, and he’ll have such fun with his little sibling. we still keep telling him he’s gonna be a big brother, and he still looks at us like we’re nuts. LOL. i am putting his hand on my belly already. he doesn’t know what to think of that.
i’m thinking about sleeping arrangements now. if a boy or a girl, bean will be sleeping in our room in the bassinette for at least the first few months. but after that is where the trouble comes in. if a girl, she’ll be in her room. if a boy, he’ll be in jeremiah’s (the boys’) room. but in what? jeremiah’s crib? is he old enough for a toddler bed yet, or should we be hunting thrift stores for a second crib? any suggestions?

My Baby/My Body, about 7 weeks along:
My Baby:
Baby’s crown to rump measurement is about 0.56 to 0.8 inches (14 to 20mm).
Baby’s face has a recognizable shape with eyelids and the tip of a nose with formed nostrils, though his head is still very large compared to the rest of his body.
All major organs are now formed and in place, though they still need to mature.
A tongue has already formed. The ears are forming both internally and externally.
The arms and legs extend forward and shoulders, elbows, hips and knees are detectable. Knees and elbows have begun to form on the limbs. Tiny fingers and toes are starting to appear at the tips of your baby’s developing limbs and the arms may be slightly flexed at the elbows and wrists. All major organs are in place.
Baby is moving around a lot, moving his legs and flexing his spine, but you are unable to feel it at this point.
Baby’s genitals have begun development, though they are still difficult to identify.
My Body:
You may feel some cramping as your uterus expands. You are still not showing, but you may have noticed that some of your clothes are beginning to feel tight.
Due to the hormones associated with pregnancy, the follicles in the ovaries stop maturing. Your uterus has begun to swell and its lining has thickened considerably.
You may have cravings for certain foods and find others completely unappealing. The smell of cigarette smoke and the taste of alcohol may make you nauseous.
Some women experience sciatic nerve pain which is an occasional severe pain in the buttocks, back or side of the legs. If you experience sciatic nerve pain, lying on your opposite side may relieve the pressure on the nerve.

well i need to get the boy a bottle and rock him - he is very tired. i wonder if my tiredness is rubbing off on him?
love to all! and merry Christmas!

do you have any questions for me? if i didn’t mention something you’d like to know, i just probably forgot to.
thia asked, “how did you tell jerry?” well, this one is easy. he was home when i took the first test. the faint line was still pretty clear to me - i was pregnant. but i was still nervous about it - i’ve heard of false positives before, tho they’re very rare.
after i took it, i tried to take a nap. who was i kidding?! i couldn’t sleep! i called mom to ask her to buy the digital test. then i pulled jerry into our room to pray with me. i needed prayer because my head was already so high in the clouds, i was afraid what would happen if the test was wrong. his prayer really helped me. he also prayed, that if the test WAS positive and we really were pregnant, that the Lord would appropriately provide for our family, because he knew it would be more financially difficult for us.
well, not long after that, mom came, and i took the test. (first i had to figure it out - those ‘clear blue EASY’ tests are not so easy when your hands are shaking and you’re a nervous wreck!) and it finally blinked, then i did it, then waited for the blinking and then…it said PREGNANT. i jumped up and down - mom was the nearest person, so she was the first to hear the confirmation. ‘i’m pregnant!’ i screamed. ‘it’s positive!’ and she had to see it. then jerry and jeremiah came in and i yelled the same to them, and i cupped jeremiah’s face in my hands and said ‘you’re gonna be a big brother!’ and he looked at me like i was crazy, tho smiled a little since i was so happy. i kissed jerry and said ‘we’re having another baby!’ all the while, i’m jumping up and down, excited as can be.
so, thia, that’s how jerry found out.
after that, i called my dad, then called everyone else i’ve ever met in my life (not really), saying ‘guess what i got for my birthday??’ hehe!!
something i’m sure everyone is wondering about, because i’m still working it out with myself, is my plan to nurse jeremiah. my plan at the moment is to continue nursing him as often, but nursing him LESS than i have. like the big nursing sessions we have, i want to cut them down to even shorter lengths. he only gets breastmilk as a comfort and as a supplement now anyway, since he eats big-boy meals. he nurses from 5-8 times per day, but most of those times are 5 minute sessions. why do i want to do this now? for one thing, my milk supply is already dwindling. my breasts never feel as full anymore. for another, during the second trimester it becomes more dangerous for the baby to have the uterus contract (which the uterus causes). third, i don’t want jeremiah to be nursing and then all the sudden there be nothing for him, and be cut off completely without any warning. that would be devestating. this way, he will still be able to get some from me, but it will be little enough that it won’t be harmful. perhaps when the baby comes, i will do tandem nursing (both the newborn and jeremiah). it will probably help jeremiah not feel so jealous if he knows that special thing is still for him. he will always be my baby boy so i don’t want to wean him, per se, but i guess in essence i will be doing just that, just very very very slowly. please pray about this with me, because it was always my wish to let him wean himself. i am willing to hear helfpul advice about this subject, but please keep the judgmental comments to yourself. i only want to do what’s best for both of my babies.
i know i mentioned this before, but the planned names are josiah benjamin and jalia annemarie. joyana elizabeth is still in the talks, but she will probably be daughter #2 as of yet. do you think it’s strange to have your baby’s names picked out so far in advance? am i koo-koo? lol.
i had my phone interview with the dr’s office today. according to THEIR calculations i’m due august 9, and they say i’m 7 weeks! wow. i guess i have really really low hcg levels, since i didn’t get a positive response until saturday, ya know? and they told me i WILL be getting the first ultrasound to tell how old the baby really is. isn’t that cool?? can’t wait to see the little swirl of the heartbeat, or hear the heartbeat for that matter! the whole thing is so exciting and i can’t believe i’m doing it all over again!
whatever i am pregnant with, i can’t help but hope for a little girl. jeremiah will be a great big brother to either gender, but i think he would have lots of fun with a little girl. and think about how it will teach him to treat other women - how to treat his future wife. ok so i’m making a big deal out of it - it IS a big deal. but i admit that there is that part of me who wants to pick out girly clothes and put ribbons and bows in her hair (and i know my mom is probably just dying to do the same thing, especially when she had such a tomboyish daughter! LOL). i think even my dad would like a girl this time. i KNOW jerry wants one. but like i said, either way, Lord, we’ll be thrilled!!!
i was thinking that if the baby is a girl (and only then) i want to have another baby shower, but i want to have it AFTER she’s born, so everyone can see her. i have acquired quite the little girl’s clothes collection from garage sales and stuff, so the baby wouldn’t go naked or anything. lol. actually, aunt natalie (my brother jay’s wife) wants to buy her coming home outfit.
ok i’m getting carried away…what if the baby is a boy??
i am calling the baby ‘bean’. like it? i called unborn jeremiah babyj until i knew his gender. but i think baby2 just sounds so informal or something. babybean sounds cuter.
well physically i am still feeling the same, only a little less nausea, and i’m now constipated. blech. i just need to drink lots more water. i am so thirsty all the time, i don’t see how i’m not drinking enough! i am still feeling the fluttery feeling. but i’m also having some crampy feelings. i don’t remember that with jeremiah, but i’ll have to look back in the archives to see if i felt that with him. they aren’t painful cramps, just obvious ones. and nope, no bleeding at all yet. i never had any with jeremiah, so i’m hoping none will show up this time…
have a great day!!
love,

my dear friend lost her baby. i am devestated for her and now so scared for my own baby. she was only a week or so farther along than me. please pray for her as i can’t imagine the pain she’s feeling. i love you julie.
as for me…
feeling: nauseaus, exhausted, weak, joint pain, hormonal, hungry, thirsty, bladder-full, a little dizzy. also, i felt the baby flutter in church yesterday!!!!! i know it seems early, but i’m positive that is what i felt. thankfully, no constipation and no vomiting yet - those were the two biggest horrible things with my pregnancy w/ mi-mi.
wearing: my maternity pants! yes, already, because i had felt bloated before and wasn’t fitting well in my pants.
emotionally: worried about the baby’s health, thankful that i am pregnant and not crazy (i had been wondering on thursday, after the neg tests, if i needed to see a dr because of how hormonal i have been feeling. seriously feeling inadequate, and overall CRAZY. on top of that, the bloated feeling, the frequent peeing, the hunger, the thirst were making me think i should start my period if i wasn’t pregnant.)

jan. 7 is my first prenatal appt. i also got onto my insurance’s ‘healthy babies’ program! not sure of all that is offered with it, but i’m excited about it.
i recalculated my due date at another site, with a 30 day cycle. according to it, i should be due august 17. wouldn’t it be cool to have the baby august 18? my bday, kc’s bday and jeremiah’s bday are already on the 18…i don’t know, most of the sites say 11th or 12th. strange. one just said the 9th. can’t wait to know for sure!

thank you so much for all the congrats! i really appreciated all of them. it was fun to surprise you all!! please continue to pray for the baby and me. health and safety.
God bless!