Why "Tadpole"

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Many of you are probably wondering "why is the blog called "Tadpole Chronicles? And why does she refer to her baby as "Tadpole"?"

Well, you see, I knew a whole day before Andrew that I was pregnant. Since he had a certification test the following morning I decided to wait and tell him until afterward so he wouldn't be distracted. This means I had a whole day to keep our little one's life a secret! I only had God, Hoshi and the baby growing to talk to about it. During all my excitement, one thing I said to the baby is "you're no bigger than a little tadpole, and you basically look like one now too." I don't want to refer to our baby as "It," and saying "he/she" all the time takes up a whole breath and makes sentences complicated. So! Tadpole stuck as a name I could refer to our little one as.

So that's why I call our baby Tadpole. And since this blog is in relation to the baby and started because of the baby, I thus named it "Tadpole Chronicles."

Totally Blessed

Saturday, October 23, 2010

I have felt totally blessed this week. We have had some friends over the past two weeks bring us dinner since I start to feel really nauseated when food is cooked at around me, and then I don’t eat much. Friends brought over such a variety of delicious food that I ate with pleasure. Many have left left-overs that I can snack on during the day too. One of my friends told me she even researched what a pregnant woman should and shouldn’t eat before she went shopping for the food she brought us. It’s just amazing what friends have done for us, and we feel so loved. I think I have eaten the most this week than any other week this past month. I really wish I took pictures of all the food to share with you.

It was also fun because they didn’t just drop off the food and then go on their merry way, but stayed and had fellowship with us. Since I still haven’t been able to drive and get out of the house much, this has been well appreciated!

Oh! My sister also took my out to eat at the Jewel Box in Northgate. We had a fun sister time together, just sitting and relaxing and chatting. We also ended up splitting a salad because I saw a few people eating the house salad, and then I wanted to eat it too! And I couldn’t resist the desire to want to eat a salad from there either. I found it pretty funny.

Another blessing is that my cousin’s baby was born on Wednesday! I haven’t been able to see the little guy in person yet, but I have seen some adorable photos. I hope to meet little Roland soon. It’s fun knowing my little one will have another cousin near his/her age rang to play with. Of course all the other cousins who are old enough are welcome to babysit once Tadpole is born. ^_~

Pumpkin Fun

Friday, October 22, 2010

We came up with a clever way to hint to our friends on facebook that I’m pregnant. Last Sunday Andrew and I carved our pumpkins, but left Tadpoles and Hoshi’s whole since they’re so small. And yes we kept the seeds to make toasted pumpkin seeds in the oven. 

Collecting all the pumpkin seeds

Carving my owl

Andrew carving his haunted castle/house

When we were done we took a picture of me, Andrew, and Hoshi with the four pumpkins and made the caption say “Andrew and I went to the Pumpkin Patch and bought a pumpkin for each member of our family (including Hoshi).” Some people caught on to the cleverness and commented on the photo or my status inquiring about the 4^th pumpkin. Others sent me private messages to ask about it. But most either didn’t catch that there were four pumpkins or didn’t see the new picture. We concluded, along with a few of our other friends, that the idea was good, but a bit too clever. 

A pumpkin for each member of our family (including Hoshi)

So! A couple days later (on the start of week 13 – Thursday) I posted our first family photo as my profile picture. And that got people’s attention. ^_^

First family photo!

^_^

Tuesday, October 14, 2010

We saw our baby today! It was amazing. My eyes got a little teary when our lil Tadpole came up on the ultrasound screen, and it was hard to keep myself from laughing with delight. Andrew and I both had huge smiles on our face. We couldn’t keep our eyes off the screen and couldn’t help be in wonder of God’s little creation inside of me. I think what got me the most was the quick flicker of Tadpole’s little heart. It was recorded at going 158bpm during the ultrasound. And my goodness was our little one squirming around! Tadpole made is very difficult for the nurse and then a doctor to get him/her into a position where they could make the measurements they needed to. We were in the ultrasound room for an hour. This also means we were able to observe our little one’s activities for an hour. ^_^ And really get to look and know what Tadpole looks like right now. The toes are so itty bitty!

Right now Tadpole is 5.4cm from crown to rump. So small and tiny! (That’s about 2 inches) Oh I can’t wait to see our little one again, and then meet him/her in person! Just gotta wait until the end of April. ^_^

After our exciting event, a vampire got me! Okay so it was actually a lab technician who had a prenatal blood work order for me and had to take NINE vials of blood. Andrew rewarded me with a McDonald’s Happy Meal. I haven’t eaten from there in years! But they have Strawberry Shortcake toys right now… and I wanted one… Plus I was having a burger craving, but didn’t want a huge thing to eat. My tummy was happy afterwards, and I got Strawberry Shortcake. Maybe we’ll have to get another one so I can see if I can get Blueberry Muffin. Hehehe. Now the question is: is this a toy that will fit the gender of our child? We won’t know that for a few more months.

I’m extremely happy I now have a picture of our child, so whenever I feel so sick that I feel plain old sick and not pregnant, I just have to look at the picture and remember I have a little one growing in side of me. What a great thing to rejoice in! As long as Tadpole is doing well, then I’m fine with feeling sick.

Pumpkin Patch

Monday, October 12, 2010

This weekend was family camp with our church family. Thank heavens I was able to get some nausea medication before we left for the weekend. It made the car ride so much better than I could have imagined it would be. Plus, one of the side effects if tiredness, so I fell asleep for most of the hour and a half drive. That definitely helped! Sadly I didn’t feel that well all weekend, so I missed out on over half the activities. I did however eat more than I have in a long while though! As I said last time, I eat so much more when I’m nowhere near the food being prepared.

After family camp though, Andrew and stopped by the Carleton Farm to visit their pumpkin patch. It was so much fun tromping through the patch looking for the perfect pumpkins for us. It had just rained though, so it was super muddy. We found a few very interesting pumpkins though. One even looked like a huge lemon or orange, and had a funky texture. Another totally looked like Bert’s head from Sesame Street. And there were some interesting colors too: white, green, yellow, orange, dark orange, bright orange, and then all the colors mixed up in different ways.

We to picked ones of the smaller variety, but not tiny. And we decided to get one pumpkin for each member of our family. Andrew picked a medium size one, I picked a medium-small one, and then me picked 2 small pumpkins; one for Tadpole and one for Hoshi. That is unless we end up having twins, then Hoshi’s pumpkin becomes Tadpole #2’s pumpkin. All our pumpkins cost us a grand total of… FOUR DOLLARS!!! It’s the cheapest pumpkin patch I’ve ever been to. And they had a great selection, a corn maze and hunted maze you could pay to do (we did not though), animals to look at and feed, a farm produce store, snack stop, and pumpkin launchers. After we bought our pumpkins and cleaned them up a bit (and ourselves!), we checked out the farm animals and produce store. And I was actually feeling hungry, so we hit up the snack shake too. All in all, it was a great family outing, and we both enjoyed ourselves. ^_^

I Need to Eat More

Thursday, October 7, 2010

I had my 2^nd doctor appointment yesterday for me and our little one. We had some test done that we’ll be getting the results for later in the week or next. But one main thing we discussed is the amount I’ve been eating and drinking as of late. Since my last doctor appointment, three weeks ago, I’ve lost 4.5 pounds. Not really a good thing, but semi-normal for many pregnant women during their first trimester. This doesn’t mean it’s healthy in any way though.

I need to be eating and drinking more. I’ve been doing my best at this, but it’s really hard when you get turned off by food that is prepared near you. Andrew and I think we’ll be asking our church family to help out in this area and see if we can have a few meals delivered during the week to see if that makes me eat more. I tend to eat a heck of a lot more if we eat out or at a function we’re attending. I need to be gaining weight right now and making sure Tadpole is getting the nutrition s/he needs to grow and be healthy.

Exciting!

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

It’s so exciting to tell people about Tadpole! We’ve had the joy of being able to call and tell family and friends about our little one and hear their excitement and encouragement. It’s been such a blessing and is making me feel so much better. Since I’ve been feeling sick for about a month now without anyone really knowing about Tadpole, it’s great to know I have a bigger support system that is praying and excited for us. And who are all now more understanding on why I haven’t been in contact much lately, and skipping out on activities.

So, thank you all for your love, excitement, encouragement, and support! I cannot wait for everyone else to find out! Of course we cannot call everyone; that would be just impossible. So we’re planning on doing something on Facebook (since the majority of people we won’t be able to call are on Facebook), so make people guess what’s up.

What’s been humorous is the number of people who were expecting Andrew and I to make this announcement sooner rather than later, when we personally weren’t planning on having children for a few years. I don’t think I have explained this yet on this blog, so here I go.

You see, Andrew and I had OUR plan of waiting a few years to expand our family. During our pre-marriage counseling we discussed our thoughts and feelings, and what we thought God was leading us towards for birth control and when to have children. We both felt that God wanted us to totally put our trust in Him for HIS timing on when we would start our family, and thus and put birth control in His hand. After all, our Heavenly Father is our creator and thus has the power to open and close wombs. I think the best example of this in the bible is with Leah and Rachel in Genesis 30:17-22. Of course there are other examples of God opening and closing wombs in the Bible, but Leah and Rachel full story when you read all of it shows God doing it again and again.

So that’s what we started to pray for before we were wed and after. We prayed that God would close my womb when He did not want us to have children, and to open my womb and make me fruitful when we wanted us to have children, so that our family would be expanded in HIS perfect timing and not ours. Of course WE still had our personal feeling and thoughts on the matter, but we both put God’s will first. When we discovered we were pregnant part of our reaction was “seriously, God? You want us to have children now? You really think we’re ready for this?” But of course since we put it in God’s hands I know we are ready for this little one.

That does not mean we won’t have hardships or trials during my pregnancy or after we meet our little one God is blessing us with, but it does mean we can get through it all with God. Some of you might think we’re crazy for putting this much in God’s hands. But I’d rather have Him be in charge since He can see the whole picture, when Andrew and I can only see a peephole size of it all. God knows what’s best for us and what is best for our little one, and we are doing our best to trust in Him as He takes us on this exciting adventure.