Catching Up

Wow it has been 3yrs since I have written a blog, I think I forgot I had one of these! So today's post is dedicated to hitting the highlights of the last 3yrs. I want to get back on track with blogging, I find it sort of therapeutic and at this stage of my life I actually have interesting things to write about. 

HIGHLIGHTS:
* September 17, 2011 at 9:47pm: Sadie Lynn Fortune made her grand entrance all on her own weighing in at 7lbs 2oz and 20in long. 
       *She has been so much fun to watch grow. She is definitely one of a kind with her personality. She is the perfect mix of both families. Her obsession is with superheroes, she loves them and knows way too much about them and the stories that go along with them for a 3yr old! She is way too smart, loving, down right hilarious, and just the most adorable kid you will ever meet!

* 2012*
     * We celebrated many of Sadie's firsts, we both ended up with new jobs that we loved!
*2013*
     *This was the start of a very hard 2yrs
  * I had to make the decision to stop doing massage therapy due to a nasty Ganglion Cyst on my right radial joint that will never completely go away. This did open up the opportunity to find my true calling which is nursing. 
   * I obtained my CNA and began attending school to knock out some pre requisites for Nursing School. I also started my first CNA job at a nursing home after making the move to Statesville.
    *At the beginning of the year we got devastating news about Scott's 10yr old cousin Nicholas. Within a few months he was diagnosed with a rare disease called Aplastic Anemia. He had 2 brain bleeds, many complications, many accomplishments, and a bone marrow transplant. By the end of 2013 he was able to enjoy a few weeks at home which included Christmas with the family. 
  * In November we found out we were pregnant with baby #2 and announced it to the family over our Thanksgiving get togethers. 
 * At the beginning of December I woke up to severe cramping and bleeding, after a trip to the doctor we learned I was having a miscarriage. We were devastated. I was only 7wks along but we were already so very attached and in love with this baby. The whole ordeal was not over until the week before Christmas, I almost ended up having to have surgery. It is still hard for me to grasp why or that I even went through something so tragic. 
*2014*
    *This year started off with the hopes of great things.
   * I began making arrangements to do online courses and take a leave of absence from work to help take care of Nicholas while his parents had to go back to work. He ended up back in the hospital, in what they hoped would be a short stay.
  *In the beginning of February I began sitting with him in the hospital during the day, I loved every minute of my time spent with him.
  *February12, Sadie had her first surgery, she had her adenoids removed. This was the best thing to happen to her!
   * After that things with Nicolas began to go down hill and on February 21 surrounded by all of his family he passed away. Next to my miscarriage, this was the worst day of my life. It was so hard to see such a sweet young boy fight for his life and watch the life slip from his eyes.  I am so thankful that he is now healed, no longer fighting, and in the presence of our Lord! I miss that kid more and more everyday!
  *That began a year of very sad firsts for the Fortune side of the family.
 * In May we finally received some good news for a change, we got pregnant with baby #3 due to arrive end of January 2015!  This pregnancy has been completely different from Sadie's and has gone by quickly and thank God there have been no complications whatsoever! Oh and it is another girl!!! Quinn Reese Fortune is going to be very spoiled, and Scott actually could not be more excited about a house full of girls! Sadie is also extremely excited and cannot wait to meet her little sister!
  * In October, Scott was blessed with an amazing job at a marketing company in Charlotte, he absolutely loves it! 
*2015
  *It just started but already Scott has been promoted and we have made the decision to move to Charlotte once our lease is up in March. 
 *Currently we are waiting the arrival of miss Quinn and preparing for a wedding! Not ours of course but my little sister's! Yep somewhere in those years she found the love of her life, who just happened to already be one of our great friends! Her and Swain  will be getting married on the 30th, which means Quinn needs to hurry up!

That is our last 3yrs in a nutshell. It has been a crazy ride but I know God has had us in His hands the whole time and I cannot wait to see where He takes us next! I also plan to share this crazy ride with all of you so stay tuned!!
   

Overdue :/

This was 2days before I was 40wks

    

     Well our due date has come and gone. Sunday, September 11 was our due date and after how the past few weeks have been it was pretty depressing having that  Needless to say these past few weeks I have been miserable. I have had contractions daily, been extremely hormonal, gone through big energy spurts and days with absolutely no energy, & many sleepless nights.
      I can say though that I am very thankful for the doctors that I have. They have done everything in their power to help get my labor going and given me advice on things I can do on my own to help but unfortunately none of it has worked. However they are being really nice and inducing me at 41wks and 1day instead of making me wait the normal 42wks. So if Sadie doesn't make her entrance on her own this weekend, I am being induced on Monday morning the 19th at 7:00am.
      We went to the doctor Wednesday to talk about the induction and see if I had made any progress. She said that I have made a little progress not much though. Also that she doesn't think I will have to be induced, she thinks that since Sadie is so low that I will go on my own before Monday. However if I do make it to Monday they will only have to give me a small dose of Pitocin and maybe break my water if it doesn't break on its own. She said that since I am so far progressed on my own that my body won't need a lot of help and that it shouldn't take very long!
      We are both very excited to meet our little girl, we are a little nervous but mostly just ready for her to be here in our arms.
      In other updates God has truely shown how He provides and that His plans are perfect. We were getting very worried because Scott is still only at Jersey Mike's and with all I had been going through there were many days when he had to stay home with me so things financially were getting scary. So right before my last trip to the hospital God proved faithful, we recieved a check from the school that Scott had attended that covers our bills for the next 3months. That plus the hours he is able to get at Jersey Mike's are going to take care of us until I go back to work. We had been getting discouraged about Scott not finding another job until recently with all the days he has had to stay home with me. We realized that at any other job he would not have that flexability and a boss who was understanding of our situation. We know that there is another job with better pay and benefits out there for him but right now this is a blessing and we are very thanksful for it. He is able to stay home with me if needed and once Sadie arrives he will be able to take some time off to get to spend with her. All in all God is proving faithful in all areas of our lives even in the little things.
      The next time I post will be after Sadie's arrival. I will have plenty of pictures to post I am sure!

Maternity Pictures

On August 18th my younger sister Chelsea Eckmann took us out to the park to do some maternity pictures. She did a fabulous job and we had a lot of fun. She is going to be a very successful photographer one day. So I decided to upload and share some of our favorites. I hope you enjoy them we sure did!

Waiting for Sadie

           Well now that everything is done we are just waiting on our precious little girl to make her arrival. Her room is done, we have the craddle set up in our room & ready, her swing is put together, and we even accomplished the daunting task of getting the carseat put in! Now we just need Sadie!

          Since my last post pregnancy has been rather interesting. I had to stop working on the 13th I was so uncomfortable and working was making everything worse. So eventhough Scott doesn't have another job yet we made the decision for me to stop and trust that God will provide. Tuesday the 16th I had gotten a massage from a friend at work and she opened up my hips for me which allowed Sadie to drop more and made me a little more comfortable. She also worked on the labor inducing points to help get things going some. Between that and not working I was starting to enjoy my pregnancy again and not be so miserable, until Sunday night. That night I experienced my first real contractions and they were AWFUL!!! The worst part was the horrible back pain that stuck around hours after they had stopped that I could not get any relief from until I was finally able to fall asleep. After that I decided that I was going to do everything in my power to get labor going and get this over with. I started walking as often as I could, doing stretches, eating sour & spicy foods, working my labor inducing points, and everything else I could think of. After Sunday night I had some Braxton Hicks contractions randomly throughout the week and kept dropping but no major activity, until yesterday. I had a doctors appointment yesterday at 11:30am she said everything looked great and that it could be any day now. I think that she made Sadie really mad when she was feeling my stomach and making sure she was still head down though. About an hour after I left I started having more Braxton Hicks contractions they were no big deal until about 6:00pm then they started getting more intense to the point where it was feeling like I couldn't breathe. No pain with them though they were definately not like the ones I had Sunday night. At about 8:30pm I had one with pain and called my doctor. She said that I needed to take a bath and drink some water to see if they stop and if the ones with pain developed a pattern of lasting a minute to a 1.5 mintues and being 5min apart to come on in. They never developed a pattern though. However they did keep me from getting any sleep last night.

             My hope is that we can have this baby sometime this weekend that would be fantastic because I don't know how many more days I can handle like yesterday!

Nursery

 Well we are all ready for Sadie to make her arrival. The nursery is completely finished and everything is organized. Now all we need is a baby! My mom and I spent many hours decorating and organizing this room with the help of some others it is finally finished and perfect! There is a lot of love and meaning behind everything in this room which makes it so much more special.

this is the diaper holder that Scott's Grandma made for her

This is her crib that my Papa Chuck bought for her and the comforter was also made by Scott's Grandma. We really like the crib because it converts into a Day Bed, a Toddler Bed, and a Twin Bed. So it will stay with her for a long time.



The curtain and the decorations/seat on the chest were both done by my mom. The chest was my hope chest and we are now using it as her toy box and one day it can be her hope chest too!



This is my favorite verse and it is above Sadie's crib. It is Jeremiah 29:11. If there is one thing I want her to know it is that God has a special plan for her and that it is a perfect plan!

Changing table and a Diaper Genie that we are very thankful for!

This is by far the most meaningful piece in her room. My Mawmaw passed away 7years ago and I miss her so much and would give anything for her to be here with us now. This dresser was made for my Mawmaw by her dad when she was born. She actually slept in one of the drawers. Since then it has been painted & repainted and used by all 3 of her kids and by most of her grandkids. My mom had the dresser and repainted it and decorated it for us to use in Sadie's room. Now eventhough Mawmaw can't be a physical part of all of this she is still here and part of Sadie's life in this way.

Getting Closer :)

me at 34wks

scott wearing the pregnancy belly in our childbirth prep class

comparing bellies at childbirth prep class

 
    Well I feel just horrible! I haven't updated since May, sorry to all of you who have been waiting!
   So since May a lot has happend. We found out that they found a small fibroid in my uterus so that's why they have been doing so many ultrasounds to keep a check on it. So far everything is fine it hasn't grown much and they don't think it will effect me or Sadie at all. They said that it may cause a few problems after delivery for me but nothing major just more recovery time involved. On our last ultrasound which was July 13, the lady said that Sadie was about 4 1/2 lbs., very long and had a full head of hair. Yes, she has so much hair already that you could see it on the ultrasound! It was the coolest thing ever! Mom went with me to that one which was very special. We were able to see Sadie yawn, play with her toes and rub her eyes. It was so sweet! The ultrasound lady said that if she goes to her due date that she will be around 9lbs. So she is gonna be big and I am not sure how I feel about that! But I do know that I am soo ready for her to be here!
   As far as pregnancy right now, I am over it! I have had a lot of intense back pain lately and tightness in my belly from her not having anymore room. I know that it could be worse and that I have been blessed to be able to enjoy the majority of my pregnancy, but I swear these last few weeks may be the death of me! She is so big and and I am just to small. I don't really sleep much anymore because I can't get/stay comfortable. Also the heat is awful! I can't wear my rings anymore which makes me very sad, I feel naked without them on. And my feet pretty much swell as soon as I go outside which sucks! But I am going to tough out all this hard stuff because I know that it will all be worth it when I get to hold my sweet little girl in my arms! :)
   We have finally started on the nursery. We have it all painted and 2 of the pieces of furniture ready to move in soon. I can't wait to get all the furniture moved in so we can put the wall decorations up and get everything organized and ready for her arrival! this is how we painted the walls in the nursery     

  I also had a family & close friends baby shower a few weeks ago and that was fun! We got a good bit of nice stuff and I was very thankful for everything we got. I have 2 more showers coming up one for work and another at church for all of our church family & people who couldn't make it to my first one. I am very excited!
    We do have a little bit of good news from Scott as far as a job. He had looked into a few places and they just didn't work out. But, he called Schwan's today and his boss will find out tomorrow if he can hire him back. The guy in charge of that depot didn't want to let him go in the first place and has been hoping that Scott would come back after the 6months was up. So tomorrow we will hopefully find out if he has his job back! It's not what we were wanting but it is better than nothing and it will make things a lot easier on both of us. And once he starts working I will be able to go on maternity leave which will also be better for all involved. I will be able to relax and get things done around the house and he won't have to feel bad and hear me complain all the time haha!
     Our next appointment is on Friday. I am hoping that they will give me good news and tell me that she will be here before her due date! If anything major comes out of the appointment I will do my best to update then.

Kicking Away

 My baby belly on Easter!

                                      Lower right corner she is sticking out her tongue :P

Sadie's beautiful face with her momma's nose :)

Well we have had some ups and downs lately. On May 13th we had to go back for another ultrasound because they were concerned about something they saw on the last ultrasound. Which sent me into a complete meltdown thinking that something could be wrong but, all the worrying was for nothing. Everything was fine. We are both still measuring right on track. Sadie is now about 1.5lbs and very healthy and active. Her kicks and other movements are becoming very powerful. So powerful in fact that Scott was finally able to feel her kicking with his hand this past Tuesday night. It was so cute. His reaction was priceless! I love seeing him react to her.

Our next up and down also happend this past Tuesday. Monday I had started having some swelling in my ankles and calves while I was at work, which I didn't like but wasn't too concerned about. But on Tuesday the swelling started up again as soon as I got to work and it was also in my feet this time, which made it uncomfortable to walk almost. On my break I sat with my feet elevated but it didn't help and I had also started getting a bad headache and had some cramps and just feeling funny in general. So I called my doctor and she wanted me to go to the ER and get evaluated just to be safe. Well that sent me into another meltdown I cried for a good hour until we got to the hospital. Once we got there they checked me for pre-eclampsia and everything came out normal. While they were running tests they had me hooked up to the contraction monitor to make sure I wasn't having any. Well Scott figured out that if I laughed the numbers went up and made it a game to see how high he could get the numbers to go. It was annoying at first but it really calmed me down and got my mind off things. But after about an hour in the OB ER they said that everything was fine and I had just overworked myself. That was good news but then there was bad news. The nurse said since I am already having that trouble that more than likely my doctor is going to make me cut back on my hours soon and not let me work till 40wks. Which most people would be thanking God at that point but not me.

At this point I am still the one bringing in the most money which pays our bills so hearing that was scary. Scott has been trying very hard at finding a job but nothing has come up yet. It is very scary for both of us because with my job I don't get maternity leave which sucks but it comes with it and I knew that before choosing this field. So it is now buckle down time for the both of us right now our main goal is getting him a job. And may I just say that I am VERY proud of how hard he is working to get that done. We have both been praying about it and we know that God is in control and has an amazing plan for us.

Aside from our first scared trip to the hospital my pregnancy is still very enjoyable. I love getting to feel her move on a regular basis. It is kind of weird to think that in a few short months I will be seeing her move instead of feeling her move. Don't get me wrong I am very much looking forward to her being here already but I think that the transition will be a little surreal. I am growing everyday it feels like and my belly button has started to disappear which is funny. I also can no longer see my feet when I am standing if I look straight down, I have to lean over to see them.

Our next doctor appointment is on June 9th. At that appoinment I will be having the routine blood work again. They will be checking for gestational diabetes again(I hate that test). They will also be evaluating me as far as what they will allow me to do work and activity wise. So prayers please that everything goes well and that I am not put on bed rest anytime soon, because I think that would drive me and everyone else crazy!