Our little baby is now 14 weeks and about the size of a lemon!

According to BabyCenter.com This week’s big developments: Your baby can now squint, frown, grimace, pee, and possibly suck his thumb!

Happy Birthday this weekend to inspiring mommy blogger Stephanie Nielson (Nie Nie)! We love you so much and wish you the happiest Birthday ever! To celebrate @sweettoothfairy is baking up yummy yummy’s!!

If you haven’t read Nie’s blog before, we can promise you’ll walk away feeling more love for your family, for life’s gifts, and for your faith than you ever thought possible. Now scoot over to the Sweet Tooth Fairy Bake Shop in Utah this Saturday, from 11am to 7pm. All proceeds from the sales of the VaNIElla Squared cupcakes will benefit the Nie Recovery.

I am now officially in my second trimester, and with 12 weeks under my belt I’m starting to realize that this is indeed happening. It’s a curious feeling to go from feeling like you’re finished, to finding out you’ll be welcoming a new little person into your life again. I’ve always loved babies so I’m excited, but I am not thrilled about the 24/7 flat on my butt, crazy nausea that I’m experiencing.

I’m definitely feeling down right now. HyperEmesis is no joke, it’s a really serious pregnancy disease that totally rocks your world out from under you. I’m living my life mostly from my bed, and clutching a bucket (we’ve bonded, my bucket and I). Thankfully I haven’t needed another extended hospital visit, I really am trying to keep hydrated. I’m not eating alot, sadly every smell of food is nasty to me (especially peanut butter! GROSS!). The result has been the loss of about 14 or so pounds (hubba hubba), but don’t worry I’m sure it will all pack back on in the coming weeks as baby gets bigger.

This morning Nathan awoke to find me laying on the bathroom floor, I just didn’t have enough energy after getting sick to make it back to bed. He sweetly picked me up and ushered me back to bed. I have an incredibly caring husband, and feel blessed everyday that he’s mine, I marvel at all he is doing to keep our lives moving forward while I’m so badly out of commission. If you see him on the street give him a high five.

What I wouldn’t give to have a cleaning lady right now, our home is falling down around us and there’s just not enough hours in a day for Nathan to do it all. Our family is in another city so it’s tough to drop their busy lives to come and clean our house! LOL! If anyone is feeling like a roadtrip, I’ve got several baskets full of laundry to fold that have been piling up on my couch for the past 3 weeks, and our floors need to be washed, and our bathrooms need to be cleaned, and so on…it’s never ending.

That’s the update from our neck of the woods this week. I’m not blogging as much because I don’t want to bore you all with tales of a sick preggo too much. If I can get on my feet again I’ll do some really fun things and blog those! Thanks so much to each of you who have commented, emailed and sent me energy vibes. XOXO - Daria

Tonight Noah and I saw a Revlon Lipstick commercial and he cutely says:

“Oh I understand! You can change your lips with those straws!”

HAHA it was so adorable, I couldn’t help but giggle.

Yes, it’s true. Nathan and I are expecting baby #5 at the end of December (and yes it was a BIG surprise to us). I’m still trying to wrap my head around the impending big belly, sleepless nights and all of that. After our miscarriage last fall I really thought that I was done, Really I just felt that was it, but this little person has other plans so I’m excited to meet him (or her).

Sadly I’ve been bedridden, hospital prone and severely dehydrated from a pregnancy condition called HyperEmesis Gravidarum. It’s actually quite a serious condition, there’s even a website you can check out at http://www.helpher.org which says:

“HG is a debilitating and potentially life-threatening pregnancy disease marked by rapid weight loss, malnutrition, and dehydration due to unrelenting nausea and/or vomiting with potential adverse consequences for the newborn(s).”

And it’s all true! I’ve been so sick, weak, tired, and losing weight rapidly. 12 pounds so far! This has caused me to need to pull back on alot of obligations over the past month or so, I’ve just had no choice. Thankfully I have an amazing family who have dropped their lives to rush to my aid and take care of me and my kiddos. I also have my Nathan who has been like a dream hubby, jumping in with both feet and taking care of all things children and housekeeping. I’m lucky to have such a great man, his Mom taught him well. Needless to say that the past 6-8 weeks or so have been trying and really tough to get through…sniff sniff. I’m hoping as I enter my 2nd trimester that my HyperEmesis will let up a bit and allow me to live a more normal existence but HyperEmesis tends to last the entire 9 months for me. In the meantime I spend most of my time in bed, in pjs, and catching up on every show on tv. ugggh! I miss feeling like me.

So that’s my big news, there’s a little baby on the way but I’m not quite in the excited phase right now. I’m more in the bitter, resentful because I’m so ill phase. Maybe some bloggy friends encouragement will give me the boost I need!

***We still haven’t heard a word about the progress of Little Misses adoption. Nothing from them in well over 12 weeks! They haven’t replied to our messages in any way. It’s crazy. We’re not pushing things at this point and just seeing what comes, but I have nothing at all to report on that front.

Our Little Miss isn’t home with us quite yet, but thanks to my “Wonder” sis-in-law Liz she has a gorgeous girly room to come home to! I commissioned my talented sis to create an original quilt for Little Misses room (little did I know that she would plan much much more!!). Liz not only created a drool worthy quilt with such stunning details I can hardly stop looking at it, but she also added all of the finishing touches for me including drapery, pillowcases, bedskirt, and three darling little accent birds! The entire ensemble is created with Darla Fabrics from Tanya Whelan’s line, I’m such a fan of Tanya and when I saw the Darla Fabric I knew it had to find a home in my sweetie’s new room.

I can’t take credit for any of it!! LOL! The only thing I did was pick fabric and let Liz’s imagination flow, and boy did it. I’m not sure I can ever properly convey how totally blessed I feel to have a haven for our Little Miss to come home to. Liz is truly one of a kind, and I totally scored in the sister-in-law department. I doubt that many people would give so willingly of their time and talents, but she did this all while expecting a new baby of her own later this month. Liz I can’t rave enough or thank you enough!

**This quilt is a One of a Kind creation for my little one, but Liz has designed a baby blanket version that she is giving away on her blog! That’s right GIVING AWAY!!!! Scoot on over to her blog for full details of how you can win your very own Lizzy Anne Quilt (+ patterns from Tanya Whelan herself too!!)

My sister in law Nicole is absolutely in love with these gorgeous Pincushion Rings from Grosgrain Blog. She works so hard, is such a good Mommy, and has so many creative talents. I am aiming to win a ring for her! (yes I’d love one for myself, but Nicole needs this even more!!)

Here’s the Giveaway where you can enter and lower her chances. LOL!!

I know that so many of our family and friends are waiting for any news from us regarding the adoption of Little Miss, and when she will finally be home with us full time. To this I must sadly report that I still have no news, no idea of when this might happen. Her case workers are bogged down right now and we haven’t heard a whisper of anything for 5 or so weeks. In the meantime, I’ve heard from her foster mom that she weeps at night looking at our family picture and calls for me.

Originally we thought she would be home with us in February, then March, then we were told in April. Now as May looms near and nary a word is getting through it’s getting tough (understatement) to stay positive. My hope is that they will just call us up and tell us to go get her, but I have no clue what will happen or when.

Thanks to each of you for your support and prayers for Little Miss and our family. Once she is finally home we will have a huge cyber-homecoming party for all of you to attend!! LOL! But for now, I am trying to keep busy and not get too emotional about not having her here. We’ll definitely have a story to tell once this is settled, there’s no question of that. Keep the Faith, I’m leaning on you guys to keep me postive. XO - Daria

This is too funny not to post! We were playing music this morning while he is getting ready for school. Suddenly Copacabana by Barry Manillow comes on over the speakers, and Joshy starts grooving to it.

Then he says “Hey Mom, this song was in Madagascar 2 when they are all on the plane!” dance moves continue…”This song never gets old!!!!”

Tonight I attended a Mix & Mingle event at our local Chamber of Commerce. It was really well attended and I was able to network with so many new faces regarding my new Business Boost venture in the city, as well as Boutique Cafe.

The coolest part of the evening had to be when they were drawing door prizes, and I won a free conference room at the Galt Museum! It’s a gorgeous facility, and since I’m coordinating monthly speakers in our area, it couldn’t have gone to a gal who needs this prize more!! Yay, thanks Lady Luck for helping my biz card stick to the fingers of the person drawing. LOL!!