What I hate most about pregnancy...

For me, pregnancy is wonderful, for the most part. I feel fine, I don't seem to get too moody, and I'm not uncomfortable. But, for those of you women out there that are jealous of these things, don't be. While pregnant with Pear I experienced Cholestasis of Pregnancy which is a condition that few women experience while pregnant. The pregnancy hormones are somehow too much for my body to handle and this leads to a malfunctioning liver. The liver can't process fatty foods and other hard things for the liver to process which, therefore, leads to bile acids being leaked into the bloodstream which causes SEVERE itching. This therefore can lead to loss of appetite, loss of sleep and therefore, loss of weight. Not fun. There is a 90% chance of this unfortunate disease reoccurring in future pregnancies. Since I am aware of this, I am on a low-fat diet with this pregnancy. This is what I hate about pregnancy. My diet consists of non-fat milk, (I am a huge milk fan and enjoy whole milk under normal circumstances,) lots of chicken and very, very little red meat, (this is also a big deal as I love red meat!) lots of fruit and vegetables, a kale smoothie several times a week, NO DESSERT (this is extremely hard as I LOVE chocolate,) cold cereal fortunately has close to no fat and I have it at least once a day. I don't get to enjoy butter on anything. Bread is no longer a tasty side item. Sandwiches aren't very good as I don't like mustard and mayonnaise is off limits. I do however enjoy a french dip sandwich but I am limited as to how many of these I can have as they are made with roast beef. Cheese is off limits, (I also love cheese.) One of my favorite things to eat, Pizza, is out of the question! I also have to take a lot of supplements: SAMe to promote healthy liver function, Prenatal vitamin to make sure little Jovie gets the nutrition she needs, Calcium/Magnesium to prevent leg cramps, Acidopholus or Probiotics, to aid digestion and D-Mannose to prevent UTI.

But...all of this to say, it's not that bad. Jovie is well worth it. And I only have four months left!

These are a few items I've made in the past that I temporarily cannot enjoy:

Why Pear loves her Daddy...

Stephen is such a fun dad! Pear and I are so blessed to have him. Pear and I patiently wait, everyday, for him to come home from work so that we can get our kiss and hug and then Stephen usually will take Pear and play for a little bit while I finish preparing dinner. Here is a glimpse of why we love him...

Finally Finished with the Rental!

Well, after much hard work, we are finally finished remodeling the rental unit. Stephen has put so much time and effort into the place and it looks great! Now it's time to work on our part of the house. I can't wait! I have paint picked out and we will probably start as soon as Stephen is rested and ready to get back to work!We hope to have a renter for the lower unit soon. Here are some pictures of the finished product.

We're having a girl!

Well, we had our first ultrasound last week. It looks as though we are having another wonderful, healthy, little girl. Stephen, Pear and I are thrilled! I think it will be perfect. Pear is going to have a playmate and best friend for life. And I don't have to buy a thing because I already have all of the girl clothes that I need.

Her name is Jovie Blythe Backholm. The reason? Because we like it. For the record, Pear is named Pear Zinovia because we like the name as well. It has nothing to do with the movie Princess Diaries! I have had people ask me if it's because of the Ginovian Pear?! No. Her middle name is Zinovia after her great-great-grandmother. Her first name is Pear because we like it.

I have attached a couple of pictures of Jovie. Can you decipher them?

A day at the Hobby Farm

Pear and I decided to drive down to my parents' for the afternoon. Pear absolutely loves to go to Mammy and Pappy's house. I'm not sure which she prefers: the goats, the chickens, the bunnies, the dog, the cat, the peacocks, the horses, the kids or the toys. She likes them all! Today, Piper rode Mac while we were there and Pear just had to get on him with her. So here is a picture of her first horse ride. What do you think of Pear's outfit? That's what you get for not changing the diaper before you leave the house. She had to borrow Libbi's clothes.

Animal sounds and more...

Pear has been reciting her animal sounds for a few weeks now and I finally got it on video. She has been talking a lot more over the last couple of days and she said her first sentence today. At lunch I gave her some cheese, she ate it all and said "more, more, more," she then paused and said "more cheese." She also can count to three. And she will tell you how old she is as well as hold the one finger up.

Stephen and I enjoy Pear so much. We can't wait to have another one to enjoy! By the way, we only have 5 months to go!

Our Scaredy-Cat and her new toy

Pear has been needing some new toys for a while now and I finally I found a great deal on this Little Tikes slide/fort on craigslist so we picked it up a week ago. It is the perfect size and Pear has a blast on it however, once she climbs up the steps, she's stuck on it until Stephen or I can rescue her. She doesn't think that she can crawl down the stairs or go down the slide by herself. She is such a little scaredy-cat! I have helped her go down so many times now. I would think she'd get the hang of it but if I leave her in her room, I eventually hear her little voice saying "help, help, help," which sounds more like "hep, hep, hep." Nonetheless it was well worth the $30 I paid for it as it has already provided hours of entertainment and I'm sure it will provide even more once she figures out that going down the slide doesn't hurt too bad.