Picture updates...more to come!

 Birthday Party with the Gerber side on December 3rd

 She LOVES Elmo, if you can't tell!

 at 20 weeks

 Some of my amazing friends sent me flowers the day before my biopsy!

Having nurses as friends makes for some awesome support!

 Gerber Christmas December 19th

 Birthday Party with the McCulloh side December 20th

She thinks she is so big on her new chair!

 Hidding her eyes for her next surprise!

 Does it get any better than this?!

 I love shoes!

 YAY! I did it!

 Daddy's note to Bryn before he left for work on her birthday!

 The Birthday Girl is awake!

 The Birthday Girls' dinner request!



The problem with not posting often is that I feel like I could write a book by the time I do! Now that things have calmed down...well as far as my health goes, I am taking advantage of sitting around the house in PJs all day! :) I had appointments everyday in Champaign, Mahomet or St. Louis 8 weekdays straight. It was extremely exhausting and it truly took me this past week to recovery physically, mentally and emotionally. I have always felt extremely blessed that I get to stay home with Brynlee and only work 2 nights a month, but those 2 weeks took it to a whole new level. There is no way I would have been able to work through that, I literally couldn't stay awake for more that 3 hours at a time.

I know that God puts trials in our lives for a reason and not only did my relationship grow with Him, but it also did with Brynlee and Andrew. There are days when I took being a mom for granted. I would get annoyed that Brynlee wanted me to read the same book 1,000 times a day. But right now I would read the same book 1,000,000 times a day. Anything to have her sitting close so that I can cuddle her. I know that I will go back to taking her for granted eventually but I hope that when I come back and read this that the reality will hit once again that we never know what or when something is going to happen. And Andrew....WOW! I never thought I could love him anymore than I did, but he was 100% MY ROCK. There were numerous times a day that he would just hold me while I cried hysterically. I saw his eyes well up numerous times but he never let me see him cry. I always said I could never live without him and I truly believed it, but now I KNOW it! I am such a better person because of him.

Oh and at our ultrasound I was pretty down in the dumps, just extremely overwhelmed at everything going on....we asked the tech to put the gender in an envelope because we weren't sure when we were going to look. She told us she going down to the gender parts and if we really didn't want to know we shouldn't look. But we kept looking...well we both saw our 'lil man's parts and Andrew's face was priceless! I don't know if I have ever seen a smile that big! I know how bad he wanted a boy and I was so worried that if it was a girl he would be bummed. He would reassure me that Brynlee is everything he dreamed of and another girl would do the same. When we told Brynlee she was going to have a brother she said, "NOOOO, THITHOR!" haha but what makes it even more sweet is that she used to sleep with a girl baby doll and ever since that day she put the girl back in the toy box and took out a boy and now sleeps with him! She never ceases to amaze me at how much she understands!

Through all the craziness I never posted that I am going to be an aunt again too! Andrew's sister Rochelle (who was my maid of honor in our wedding) is expecting on our anniversary...June 7th! Just 5 weeks and 3 days after us! I am ecstatic! They are going to be amazing parents and I have already really enjoyed sharing this experience with her and as our bumps get bigger, I am sure it will get even better! They will hopefully find out the gender in the next couple of weeks!

We had a very busy weekend with the Lanz Christmas, the Fehr Christmas and our immediate Gerber family Christmas on Monday. Yesterday we celebrated Brynlee's birthday with my family and today my little love bug turns 2! I can't believe another year has flown by! She is such a talker...a few of my favorites
-mommy I howd you
-what is this for
-happy bertday to you
This morning I asked her what she wanted for breakfast and she said, "burger and fries"
And my very favorite....."I no want it, santa wap, he scarwee."

I will share pictures tomorrow!

Answered Prayers!

God is SO GREAT! After all the worry, we got great news that this mass is an abscess from a pill getting stuck in my throat over a month ago! Some advice....take more than 1 drink of water when taking Tylenol! :) Thanks to all who were praying! God has once again shown His everlasting love!

Lots to talk about

Most of you know that our sister-in-law went through a devastating loss this past week. There are just no words to describe how badly my heart hurts for Jeni, Aaron, Becky and the rest of the Young family. I stayed at there house a lot growing up and Kim would say the same thing everytime I walked in....Andrew, Brynlee and I stayed at Kim and Becky's house with Aaron, Jeni and the girls back in May and once again he said the same thing....I'm not sure how appropriate it would be to quote him so I will just leave it at that! :) Most of our conversations with him were repeated everytime we were together because I just couldn't help but laugh and Kim definitely LOVED making people laugh! I will never forget his laugh and I am so grateful to have known him. Please keep their family in your thoughts and prayers, we have all suffered a loss at some point and it is impossible to get through them alone!

So...this week has been VERY eventful and VERY emotional. I had a regular prenatal appointment Friday which led me to the hospital! Well to start things off, a few weeks ago I had the MOST AWFUL heartburn I have ever had and it lasted 2 weeks with no relief. I was in so much pain, I could hardly eat and laying down was unthought of. I slept in a chair for 2 weeks. Well, I started to have a little chest pain last Wednesday, but it only hurt when I would take a deep breath....I honestly thought my back needed an adjustment because most the pain was in my upper right back. Friday at the appointment I mentioned it to her and by her face, I knew she was concerned. She told me she thought it was a Pulmonary Embolism (blood clot in my lung) and I needed to get to radiology over at the hospital right away. She dopplered the baby's heartbeat while she was on the phone with radiology and that's all that appointment consisted of. Of course I was completely freaking out, numerous people die from these daily...and to make matters worse I had Brynlee with me. I rushed over to the hospital and prayed the entire way and constantly looking back at Brynlee reminding her how much I love her. (She kept saying "mommy, I sorry, I wuv you." Poor thing thinks when someone cries it's her fault!) Andrew met us at the hospital. I had a CT scan, which was freaking me out because babies not supposed to be exposed to radiation. They put drapes over me to do the best to protect the baby. We waited there for the results. My Dr. actually called me there after she talked to the radiologist and said there was no embolism! But there is an enlarged lymph node or mass. Now the question is, how do we take care of it?! Is it worth putting a 19 week pregnant woman under radiation again?! So my Dr. talked to the pulmonologist (lung specialist) on Monday. And later that afternoon gave me a call too. This mass now turned into an esophageal rupture, a fungal or viral infection, or...the most dreaded word ever.....LYMPHOMA. Everytime I even think it, my eyes well up with tears. And now it needs to be biopsied. Because of being pregnant everything gets super tricky from here on out. Carle cannot do the biopsy because they do not that the equipment needed to get that deep in my chest without causing more problems for me or the baby. He referred us to Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. We go tomorrow. I am scared out of my mind. I have cried constantly. I have no idea how long it will take to get results but I am begging and pleading for your prayers. I am not only pregnant but I am the mother of a very special and perfect little girl and a wife to the most amazing man. I have an amazing Dr who has called everyday and today when I met with the High Risk OB, came in just to give me a hug and see how I was doing.  I know this is all a part of God's Plan and I know that He is in control. He will take care of us but I keep questioning everything. I know I have to stay positive but...I guess it's human nature.

Pregnancy Stats
Weight gain this month: 2 lbs
Total weight gain: 6 lbs (yikes...with Brynlee I was still at 0!)

Baby's Heartrate: (I didn't get at the appointment because we were in such a hurry I am sure it was higher that usual because mine was through the roof...usually for me it's 135bpm and occaionally jumps to 145bpm)

I started wearing maternity pants on Thanksgiving, my jeans were getting a little too uncomfortable after getting washed!

Oh...And our one piece of good news this week.....we have a very healthy, extremely active and stubborn little BOY growing in this belly! After everything that is going on we couldn't wait on the gender. I need everything positive I can get to hold onto for the procedure tomorrow!

Bryner Bug

Through the excitement of pregnancy I realized I have forgotten to share with you how big our little girl is getting!

On September 24th, I was taking a nap because I had worked the night before so when Andrew put Brynlee down for a nap...I heard her fussing so I kind of woke up, but then she got quiet and within the next minute Andrew came up and said "did you get her out of her crib?" Of course I had not, so that was the beginning of our 21 month old's journey into the toddler bed! She was so young it was hard to tell her she had to stay in bed and for her to understand it so after a night of closing our door and her knocking and screaming, "mommy, daddy, peas!" We started to shut her door instead. It took a couple nights of her crying for 45 minutes to get that she had to go to bed, but we only found her on the floor once.

In October, Andrew took a week off of work just so we could spend some time as a family. He is SO SO SO busy with work in the summer and winter that he needed a break from it and some time to recharge to prepare for all the furnace calls. Well, Brynlee had only gotten her paci in the car or in bed since she was 12 months, but "super" dad let her get away with EVERYTHING while he was off. She would go up to her room and get the paci off her bed and come back downstairs like nothing had happened. Andrew would just laugh. Even when we ran to the store once she started to whine and he just popped it in her mouth. I know he just wanted to be the good guy and he doesn't spend near as much time with her as I do so I just kept telling how miserable he was going to make my week when he went back to work. Sooooo the Monday that he went back to work she cried for her paci CONSTANTLY, so mommy having to be the bad guy decided the paci was done. And she hasn't had it since. She really never even asked for it at bedtime. She did have 2 really tough nights of falling asleep, but the worst was the first car ride. She cried the whole way to Bloomington....I definitely wanted to scream and I may have even cried a little too, but that was that.

Now the last and final piece to our baby becoming a toddler in potty training! My mom continues to tell me that I was potty trained at 22 months! Brynlee will be 2 next month and we haven't even started. I feel like we have had so many changes in the past couple months and I DON'T WANT MY LITTLE GIRL TO GROW UP! Obviously with a baby on the way, we definitely want to do it soon, but a couple more weeks in diapers won't hurt!

Clarification

Apparently some people thought by me saying we are wanting to foster and adopt soon meant before the baby comes. That is NOT AT ALL THE CASE. With having a baby, soon to me is 18 months -2 years... that's when I hope to START the fostering prep. It all starts with 9 weeks of classes and 2-6 months to get licensed so I definitely want things to be settled in our home before that and then having more kids on top of that...it will take some time to get ready. I guess everyone's soon is different, I just assumed everyone would know I wasn't going to throw my family into that kind of craziness! And these are just our thoughts right now. Things can and probably will change and some point. After all..."If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans" He has much bigger plans for us and it will all be in His timing! Sorry for the confusion!

Picture updates!

12 Weeks

This is our little peanut at 12 weeks 1 day! Waving, rolling, kicking and punching!

15 weeks

16 weeks

Brynlee was helping take the picture this week!

I also want a little advice! In the beginning we definitely thought "no way" on finding out the gender. Now we think this will be our last child (we want to do foster care and adopt soon)....SO we are now thinking we might find out! I need your opinion! I could care less about planning, after having 1 there really isn't much "planning", everything we have is gender neutral. If anyone has a special reason on why you found out or didn't find out the gender let me know! I am curious! Thanks!

Ministry and More

I just wanted to thank all of those that donated money to Ministry and More! We were able to buy $1,030 worth of food! You are amazing people!

What we bought:
32 bags of pancake mix (each bag makes 270 pancakes)
30 bottles of syrup
30 (huge) cans of drink mix
32 bottles of ketchup
30 bags of chips
30 packages of cheese and peanut butter crackers
30 boxes of goldfish
30 boxes of animal crackers
36 boxes of cereal
30 boxes of mac 'n cheese
30 bags of pasta noodles
30 jars of pasta sauce
60 jars of peanut butter and jelly

The list was off the top of my head so I hope I didn't forget anything! We gave the pantry the left over money...$75!

15 Weeks

I had an appointment Friday, nothing crazy going on. She checked our peanut's heartbeat and we scheduled more appointments....Triple Screen this week, my next appointment with her in 4 weeks and our sono in 4 weeks! Everyday this week Brynlee has brought me the doppler saying..."Mommy, baby, peas" so we have gone a little overboard with checking this baby's heartbeat, but that's okay, I don't mind! I was able to tell Dr. Hendrichs exactly where he or she was! Andrew has been busy with work and hasn't been able to go to the appointments with me so I am excited for him to get to go to our next sono. This baby's heartbeat is extremely low. Usually runs in the high 120's-mid 130's. Brynlee's was always high 150's-160's. I am excited to compare this pregnancy with the last and see how it turns out! :) I have been feeling okay, I am still getting sick occasionally but once I get sick, I usually feel better! I have already gained 4lbs and it totally freaks me out....I gained 42lbs with Brynlee and really don't want to gain more than that this time! :) I haven't been able to work out since I've been so sick so that's my plan for today, go sign up at the rec center! I think it will make me feel much better, and maybe even help me to be a better mom! My patience have been slim to none lately and I need a reason to get out of the house! Hopefully I get a picture up this week!

Ministry and More in DESPARATE NEED

Our church works hand in hand with the food pantry, Ministry and More, in Bloomington. They provide food for 30 families. Right now the shelves are EMPTY...NO FOOD!! A group of us from church are doing whatever we can to get the word out so that these families can have something to eat. The pantrys' goal was to get enough food from our church to provide meals through Christmas. This was not the case this year so we are begging and pledging that if you find it in your heart to give....any dollar amount....we will be making a trip to Aldi and Sams on Saturday and taking it straight over to the pantry. If anyone is interested in helping provide the less fortunate with a few meals PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE contact Andrew or myself. Absolutely any dollar amount will be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Pregnancy Details

Well I have had a million texts, emails or messages the last week asking all the questions that go along with pregnancy SO I will answer them here instead of typing it a million times! Obviously after miscarrying at 7 weeks in May, I wanted to wait as long as I could this time to announce the big news. I am 13 weeks now and FINALLY starting to feel a little better! My pregnancy with Brynlee was similar but SO different (if that makes any sense). With Brynlee I, for lack of a better word....puked everyday for 7 weeks. It was always in the middle of a meal that I would get sick and run to the bathroom. This time.....some days I would pray to puke because I felt so crappy. I have only puked a few times but I was hovered over the toilet thinking it was coming numerous times a day....I learned that I love puking over gagging and dry heaving....at least with Brynlee I would get a few minutes of relief. Maybe it's worse because I have a toddler running around, which I don't doubt. When I preg with Brynlee I lived on Benadryl.....I worked full time and would sleep all day and all night (if I was off). And this time I rarely got a nap. With Brynlee I started to feel better around 13 weeks and I starting to feel better once again....PRAISE GOD THAT THE PLACENTA HAS TAKEN OVER! YAY! I did learn a lot about Brynlee during the sick phase....anytime I was hovered over the toilet she would pat my back and say...."mommy ok, ok mommy?" Such a motherly instinct already!

I didn't start taking pictures until last week because of my fear of having to go through my pictures once again and delete each weeks pregnancy pic. And it is definitely true that you "pop" WAY earlier with the subsequent pregnancies. I am definitely showing and as my mom says...I have quite the tummy. I am actually measuring what I did at 20 weeks with Brynlee! Brynlee also knows that there is a baby in my tummy and she always wants to lift my shirt to "look for it" she peeks in my belly button and says..."hi baby". When we ask if she wants a brother or a sister she says..."thithor" and when we ask if she wants a sister or a brother she says...."budor" now she just walks around the house saying "thithor, budor, thithor, budor". Once again we will NOT be finding out the gender. I thought for sure I would want a boy this time, but I don't....not that I am dying for a girl again, I just don't care. I think that was another positive of losing one, I realized how much it doesn't matter! We just want to share the joy of God and life with another child!

I had a sono at 7 weeks and everything looked great! The little peanut had a heartrate of 118 (at that point it should be above 100). And my cervix was closed...all good signs for a girl fearing another miscarriage. But I wasn't content. I had my second Dr. appt at 10 weeks and we got to hear the heartbeat. It was so soothing and definitely calmed my nerves....a little! I was anxious for our 12 week sono and once again, everything looked great! The little peanut was flipping around, kicking, and throwing punches already! I felt some movement for the first time last week and I feel it most nights when I am laying in bed! I also bought a doppler and I think I check the heartbeat pretty much everyday. It is usually in the 130's but by the end of the poking during the sono last week it was 163! I am due April 30th but will DEFINITELY have a repeat section...I have seen WAY TOO many things go wrong with a VBAC and I am not willing to put my child or myself at risk. Plus I thought the csection was a piece of cake! So I will be sectioned between 38 and 39 weeks!

I think that's all for now! Maybe I will be updating the blog a little better now that we have something going on! :)

Trick or Treat?

I would call it a treat! Brynlee will be a Big Sis in April!

Time for a good post! :)

Miss Brynlee Drew! Even saying her name makes me smile! :) Updates since July, again sorry for the delay!

 Our little firecracker

 She is always cheesin'

And yes! This is the same outfit she wore last year at 6 months!

 We were SO excited to have Madie stay with us when Mason was born! We had a lot of fun with some crafts for her new brother!

 She is ALWAYS wanting to do 'silly' faces now!

So sweet and yes I totally 'dig' him!

 They couldn't get any cuter!

Brynlee looks VERY unsure!

 Brynlee loves "fwides"

I love that they love each other!

....as some of you remember she had to get her head glued at the beginning of June. Well, they told us not to get it wet for a week and it would fall off in 7-10 days. LIARS! It must have been super glue because I had to use baby oil (thanks to the advice from Jenna Bahler) after 6 1/2 weeks! I was SO thankful to get it off, it was so dirty and absolutely disgusting!! The night I got it off, she was flipping around on the couch and nailed her head on the end table....she had a goose egg at least an inch off her face! Luckily it went down by morning! Then not even a week later she was running outside after 'trying' to put on shoes (that were too small to say the least) and she tore up her nose! WOW this child is accident prone! I can't wait to see what's next!

 2 of Brynlee's favorite things....wearing her "suit" and wearing my shoes! Andrew had a TON of pics with her in other people's shoes on his phone and it crashed! STUPID smart phones!

We went on our first vacation with the Gerber side since Brynlee was born. Brynlee had never spent that much time with her cousins on that side so it was a lot of fun to watch the bond! 

 Brynlee still struggles to say Aniya, but she always talks about "Aweeda" now (also known as Alia)

 Getting ready for her FIRST boat ride!

 AND indulge in all the yummy snacks! Needless to say, she didn't eat meals well at all!

We also embarked on the good ole Fairbury Fair! Brynlee LOVED IT!

 In the zone!

 Picking her duck which won the "turtur" that she now sleeps with, hopefully it's clean!

 Diaper cakes I made for 2 of my co-workers that are both expecting TWIN GIRLS! 

 Swimming at Uncle Mark's last week

 This cracks me up, a 3 year old soaking up the rays!

Brynlee only gets the paci in the car and in bed. Apparently she was too tired to take it out while she took a drink!

Brynlee is getting so big and so smart! I can't believe all the things she picks up on! Sometimes she calls me Mommy, sometimes hunny, and sometimes Caree. She knows most of our families names. My parents are Meme and Papa. Andrew's parents are gma and peepa. She has a really tough time with Krystal so I cut it down to KJ, Trevin is Tev, Madie is Maudie or something, Mason is CC, I have no idea why but the best part is when she says it she throws her hands in the air and screams it! Ro(Rochelle), Jen (Jeni), Jess (Jessica), Tim is occasional Tin, Aarnon (Aaron), Rynan (Ryan), Aweeda (Alia), she hasn't figured out Aniya. Tanner has always been Uncle T to Madie so we planned on keeping it. Well I guess Brynlee doesn't like it! The other day we were at Mom and Dads and she said "Where Tenner?" She has been putting sentences together for a couple weeks and it just boggles my mind! Some of her favorites....NO, MINE, gink (drink), food, eat, Coco (cookie), Cuder (color), more, peas (please), tank you (hopefully you get that one), fwide (slide), wing (swing), book, boak (boat), truck, car, choo choo, duck, shower, potty, baby, toys, walk, outside, bike, and of course names! My point is she is growing too fast and getting a very large vocabulary! She still struggles with I love you, she mumbles something when we say it, but I can't quite make it out.

AND I think I am going to make people very jealous here, so I apologize in advance but she loves sleep even more than me! She goes to bed about 8:30 and sleeps til 10! Then takes a 3 hour nap from 12-3.

And more good news! I have ALWAYS wanted a turtle, I don't know why but I have. Well a co-worker of mine had a turtle lay eggs and they hatched this week! We get to go over there next week to pick ours out!YAY! I am totally like a kid in a candy store when it comes to this turtle, I talk about it all the time! :)

Sorry this is the longest post EVER, but I am so glad to have the blog officially updated! YAY!