Long overdue update!

Well we are overdue for an update that's for sure!

Lets see, we are now 21 weeks pregnant. (Ticker at top of page of off by 5 days but hey who is counting? Ok Eileen is!)

We thought by now to be nausea free. We are happy to report, we are much better, but we are...not nausea free yet... but hopefully on the way? Usually by 17-20 weeks its gone, and we were hoping to stop taking Zofran for the nausea. Each time we tried to stop, the nausea was there like an old friend waiting to attack! Eileen is trying again and this is her 3rd day without Zofran. Nauseated but not unbearable. Feeling a lot more energy and just able to cope with the days like a normal person again.

We decided to celebrate with a little camping trip. We headed up to Clear Lake, CA last week. Well, it was HOT. 104 in the day and not much cooler by night! Hard to get by, so we only stayed 2 nights. Still the kids LOVED it.

The summer looks light for us until end of August when Dad McIntyre comes for a visit, and then its off to Oregon for labor day where we will celebrate on the beach Vincent's Mom and Dad's 50th anniversary year.

In September Vincent and Eileen are hoping to plan a getaway to Kauai for 5 days if they can wrangle up helpful sitters to watch the kids. We are excited as we have never done anything liek this before, we are really hoping it works out!

October will be a great month with Vincent's brother's ordination to the diaconate in Berkeley. He will be ordained in June 2010 in Alabama which we will also attend with the family. Please keep him in your prayers.

Time will fly by and our 4th little one will arrive in December. Eileen's family is hoping to come for Christmas and the little one should be just 2 weeks old then, so hopefully we can have a Christmas baptism.

Monica, Vincent's sister who lives in the area is expecting her 1st baby shortly after us, hopefully soemtime in January we will meet that new little one.

Usually we give a little update on the past but there is so much happening coming up we wanted to share with you the details.

We ask for prayers for our dear friends the Kingsleys who are expecting a baby, about 6 weeks ahead of us. Many complcations have been seen via ultrasound and amnio including trisomy 18. We beg you to pray for this baby's life if there can be a miracle and for the dear parents whom we love so much that they be given the grace and courage they need in this extremly difficult time.

Heartbeat and some welcome relief

Of all the weeks dealing with the HG this has been the most blessed. It had its many moments of oh no oh no... but with nausea passing within hours and getting some relief. Ive been so amazingly blessed this week to have some beautiful experiences that really helped lift me out of the nausea and the blues that come with it:)

First and most amazing, my first visit with my dear midwife, and a healthy heartbeat strong and fast was heard. I really can't tell you why after this being our 4th you woudl think I would be use to it, but sinerly I wanted to cry. I was so relieved to know that little one is so far ok. After going through monthes of feeling so poorly it just lifts you up so much to know the reason why and that its worth it.

We were blessed to visit with an old and dear friend this week, Marie from Canada. Short but sweet on one of her layovers, a few hours but wonderful. Marie works for Air Canada and Ive been so happy to have a little touch of home a few times a year.

Susan and Chris our dear friends who moved to Denver last year were here and renting a beach house. I didnt think I could manage getting the kids out and spending the day but I was blessed with a terrific day yesterday and we really enjoyed our visit and the beach. Soon teh nausea will be on its way out, perhaps only 4 or 5 weeks left and I get so elated at this point when I can see the light at the end! Next stop, prepping for dear Amy's wedding, her bachelorette, her shower and then the big weekend! I can't wait, we are so happy for them.

Vincent and I are both thinking lately to arrange sitters and get off on our own for 4-5 days but it wasnt exactly in our planning, so we will see, you may be hearing about a possible aloha trip soon, hint hint.

Long lost blogger here. Usually we dont like to go too long without saying something but as most of you know the last 3 monthes has been a whirlwind.

Lets see 2 car accidents, getting pregnant, great visit from Mom McIntyre, Easter time, looking for a new rental home, finding new rental home, moving into new rental home, fixing up new rental home...all amidst the hardest part of pregnancy for us. I won't bore you with more details, all that I can say is that deciding to go on the chemo drug for nausea has really eased a lot of the hyperemesis. Now I can say Im a regular all the time nauseated Mama instead of a constantly throwing up. Ok enough said. Too much info. But please, please read about Hyperemesis Gravidarum.

My camera software was also not working for the longest time, so here are a few ah er... not so recent, recent shots? Yes Easter time. New home shots coming soon.

The boys...well they have falled in love with collecting slugs at the new house there is one shot of that here, and Therese dancing in her swimmers on our porch.

Well we are trucking right along in our pregnancy. Mama is counting down the weeks. For those of you who don't know, Eileen always gets pretty sick until about the 22 week, you can read on Hyperemesis Gravidarum. It's not as bad for her, but its the closest description to what she goes through with each of her pregnancies.

Because of the realities of her daily work with the 3 kids keeping her busy, we decided to try going on a chemo drug called Zofran and it has been 2 weeks now on the drug. It takes about 60 percent of it away which is really really wonderful. Still Eileen has a hard time through the day, but at least the food she does eat stay inside!

She was away on retreat this weekend, and I daddy got the pleasure of seeing just what her days are like, Wow!

Last bit of news, we moved into a 3 bedroom rental home with a yard last week and the kids are loving digging in the dirt and picking lemons off the tree.

We're pregnant!

Well we wanted to share with you our exciting news. We are about 5 weeks pregnant. This will be #4 for us.

Its hard to find a flattering photo of our new child, but I do think its fascinating. This is a week 4 shot that is quite amazing.

Days of Summer are here

Just thought we would drop a little note with some recent pictures of the kids.

Just enjoyed a very nice visit from Anna and God daughter Katie.