Lots to Update and Gender Poll

Wow! So much has happened since my last post! I can't believe I am so far behind, and I am just going to stop promising to be better because it's been so hard to keep up! ha! Hopefully there are some readers still out there!

Well, I thought I needed to post on here, seeing as how my due date is TOMORROW! Where did the time go? How did that happen? Who knows! In a way, this is good to me. I haven't been anxious about labor and haven't been feeling totally DONE when it wasn't time. On the flipside, I just recently started the nesting process last week! This is something that with the other kids happened a few times before the end but not so much at the last minute! lol! Since we haven't found out the gender yet, we are still sort of solidifying names too, which has stressed me out as well!

Anyway, I haven't talked much about this pregnancy on here, and I think most of it is because we have been super preoccupied with other things going on in life right now. I would really like to document in detail on here about everything, but I will give ya'll the short(ER) version for now. :)

About a third of the way into this pregnancy I decided to get an allergy test done. I was curious to start on the road of getting answers again for why my asthma and eczema were so bad recently. Now, for those of you that know me, you know that I have lived with severe asthma, eczema, and allergies for ever and was always in and out of the hospital for asthma until high school and a few times even recently. So, getting answers has not been easy. However I started seeing a chiropractor a few years ago when I was pregnant with Rebekah. Since then, I have really been striving to do things more naturally and find ways to go around being on medicine all the time. I thought that taking the allergy test might be a little more conclusive since I hadn't had one in years.

After finding that I am, in fact, allergic to almost everything they tested me for, I sought out a nutritionist thinking I needed to have a diet plan since I was pregnant and nursing at the time. I knew if I had to stay away from most everything it would be hard to get the vitamins and nutrients that I need for my babies! Little did I know that the nutritionist I would meet would be what she was!

Here is where I will condense the last several months and say that after meeting with Dr. Perkins, I found the most hope from any "doctor" that I've had EVER. We talked about my symptoms and what I was experiencing, and I went back that week to have a full nutritional exam done. She let me know that our bodies are made to heal themselves from the inside out. We sometimes just have to encourage them! The general root of all the problems I am having boils down to toxicity, immune, and digestive issues. The idea is that if we can treat all of that, then my body will start learning how to function the way it was designed to do and the symptoms of skin and allergy stuff will go awaway!

So, I have been seeing Dr. P on a weekly basis for the most part and I've been taking whole food supplements and staying away from Gluten, Dairy, Wheat, Nuts, and Corn. And let me just say that it is one of the hardest things I've ever done! Food is such a comfort thing to me and it's just been really hard to stay on task - and it was esp hard during Thanksgiving and Christmas! However, I know that it works because I've seen results. Slow and steady, but real results! It's also been a challenge because things have gotten worse before they've gotten better. And it's a cycle that keeps happening and probably will keep happening until my body figures it all out. I went to the ER with a crazy skin infection (bacterial AND viral) and had to be treated for a few hours there to get it back under control. And just this past week it's been trying to come back, so I've been on medication again. It's nice to have medicine when I need it, but so frustrating when I am trying to come off of it! Please pray for patience as I know that for now, I have such confirmation that this is going to be the answer I've been looking for and need to stick with!

I will try to keep ya'll updated, but it is so neat because doctors have told me all of my life that there is no "cure" for everything I have going on and that I'll have to be on medication all my life to combat my symptoms. Now I know that they've been WRONG! Frustrating and exciting all at the same time! :)

Another thing going on is J's recent career change. He's always had a love for anything military related. We have had several on and off discussions about him going into the military over the 5 years we've been married, but nothing has ever been seriously decided on about it....until now. :) For the past several months, lots of praying, researching, talking to other people who have served in the military, and more praying has been done on the matter. And after careful consideration we decided that J would join the Army. He swore in a few weeks ago, and is now waiting to go to basic training soon. So, we have been getting our hearts and minds (and the apartment!) ready for what's to come. I have a feeling things are going to be moving fast and furious before we know it! But God is faithful and has provided lots of peace and reassurance about His will and provision over us.

So, please keep us in your prayers. J will get a few weeks off to be with me as soon as I have this precious baby of ours and then will only work a little while longer before training starts. Please pray for this transition for our family as well as for our overall health. As a sidenote, Rebekah has been dealing a little with some asthma-like symptoms over the past few months and we are desparately praying that she would be healed from it! Also please be praying that labor and delivery with baby #3 would go smoothly and that my team of people (as well as J and I) will have wisdom and know exactly what to do during the entire thing! I am so excited about it, and I just know there will be a great story to tell!

I am going to put a poll up to see if you can guess what we're having! Bekah has gotten tired of us asking what she thinks but for a long time has said she thinks it's a girl. J and I are voting girl but don't really care either way and the majority of the family are voting boy (except my sister and maybe one or two others!) Both Nana (my mom) and Granna (J's mom) think boy.

What do you think?

Hopefully my next post will be the reveal! :)