Feeling Fine

We did the Doppler yesterday. Basically it is an ultrasound, but they take more extreme measurements and look at the blood flow really thoroughly from all possible places. Everything turned out completely normal. The baby was estimated to be 5 lbs. 12 oz. yesterday. If so, it will probably be around 7 1/2 pounds when born...going by that estimate yesterday and projected weight gains. Who knows. It will be interesting to have a smaller baby. And you never know about delivery. Eissa, even though big, was out in just 9 minutes of pushing (and that included shoulders getting stuck). This baby, if that 7 1/2 pounds is right, will be 2 lbs. 6 oz. smaller...will be nice if it actually feels that way coming out. :-) You never know...we'll be praying for that though for sure.

It was so great to see the baby again though...chubby cheeks, poochy lips and all. The baby yawned, or looked like it yawned...opened its mouth anyway. It was moving all around and making all kinds of fun expressions. It was so cute. Can't wait to meet the little smushy thing. Ahh, I just wanted to smooch his/her face already. Oh, and another God gift was that both ultrasounds this week was attended by radiologists who spoke English. That was nice (for me). The one yesterday was getting up to leave and said, "Are you sure you don't want to know the sex...it would be so easy to see." We laughed and of course said...no.

My blood work results showed that I continue to be anemic (this is a norm. for me even when not pregnant)...and even worse than before. The one doctor here in Anapolis even wanted me to go see a hematologist. We are getting a couple other opinions to see what might be best. I'll keep you posted on that. Other than that, no abnormal results.

What was the cause of that pain that knocked me out for 2 days? No idea. Was it something that because of your prayers I was just healed of and there were no findings? Was it just part of my body's way of getting ready for labor? When I was pregnant with Eissa and about this far along I had that super horrible migraine that knocked me out for 5 days...I was told that it was probably related to hormonal changes and my body getting ready somehow. I don't necessarily like these "getting ready" stages. :-) Ha ha ha. Nothing like this or the migraine happened with the first 2. Let's all pray that nothing else happens this time before delivery. At least when I had the migraine Joel wasn't even working at the time, so I just stayed in bed. I can't really afford (not money wise, but just time and circumstance wise) to be down and out now. :-)

Anyhoo, it's back to the normal routine. The kids have been going to Portuguese class without me. I didn't like the idea at first, but knew it was so good for them...and I couldn't really take care of them that well while I was in such pain anyway. So, they went. I will stay home today...I've missed the rest of the week, what's one more day. Plus, Hadley's birthday party is tomorrow and I'm going to get ready for that. I will return to Port. class on Monday.

We have another full weekend. We will be going to a birthday party/churrasco tonight, having Hadley's birthday party tomorrow, and are supposed to have another churrasco here on Sunday. Whew!

Here are some pictures from last weekend's churrasco here at the house.

This was early on in the night...others arrived later. But, these are some of the students at Asas.
And their wives.
Ricardo grilling up a storm. Although a Brazilian Bar-B-Q involves a grill and skewers, it is a little different than American. The 2 big differences to me are: 1) it involves a LOT of salt and 2) there is no bar-b-q sauce. :-) It's still very yummy, just in a very different way. My favorite part of churrasco though is that they grill provolone cheese balls on sticks...Mmmmmmmm!

Being served some meat. You don't just cook up the meat and serve it all at one time. It just comes out as cooked and you grab some here and there.

This is a little blurry but it was really funny.


The men...and Eissa.
Chatting on a full tummy.
Hadley was the only little girl playing with a bunch of little boys (Eissa played with them some), but of course she didn't mind. Pedro, the tallest guy, is super great to our kiddos. At one point Hadley wanted to put her Cinderella dress on. The rule is that she can't wear it outside, but I let her, just for a little while. She wanted to let everyone see it I'm sure. It was really cute. She spun around for Pedro and Pedro oohed and ahhed. She just smiled and it was really cute.