Chapter 20

Today my thoughts were turned to my friend, Ashley who is such a great girl. She is so sweet, and has recently been through a lot. My heart aches for her because her pregnancy isn't going as smoothly as one would hope. She has tons more doctors appointments, tons more testing, and more of everything that is not so fun about being pregnant! I feel for her, since my three pregnancies were all great, and I didn't have any complications. We conceived easily, I carried all of them to term, even gaining over 40 pounds with each of them, labored fine, and delivered without any problems. It is not fun to see your friend not have a good experience, through no fault of her own. She has a really fun toddler that I got to watch today. Emma is so sweet, and adorable and busy, and just down right wonderful. She played perfectly well with Celeste (they are about 2 weeks apart in age), and she loved being in dress-up clothes the most! I wanted to take her picture, but I forgot throughout the day, but I will the next time I get her. She was so cute and she is really talking- her and Celeste had their own conversations all day. I am pretty sure she is Celeste's first girl friend, and I love that! My prayers are with Ashley and for the upcoming months of pregnancy with her twins to be. I pray for the best and know that some things are a "means to an end", and that "this too shall pass". For now, I hope she knows she has so many people that care about her.

Just for fun,
here is a picture of me with each of my pregnancies...
Laugh out loud, go ahead- I am huge, I know!! Alex was born in March, and was my first, so I was more swollen with him than with the girls. (I weighed 192 the day I delivered him!!) Leah was a July baby, and I was ready for her to arrive! (I like my hair best in that one), and though my face doesn't look that big, I did gain 40 pounds! Oh, and she was only 6 1/2 pounds! Celeste is a November girl, and I had just had my hair highlighted, by myself, actually, (not a great idea, just ask Katie!), and I was ready to be done! With her, I gained the most - 44 pounds and she was barely 6 pounds- I so want to know why and where did the rest go? Let me rephrase that, I do know where it went, but how?! I have never lined these up this way before, but I can really tell the difference in my belly with Alex versus the girls! Too funny, and before you comment on my immodesty, I wanted these taken so that I can look at them later and think, "I can't believe my stomach stretched that much!" Seriously, it is amazing and by far one of Heavenly Father's greatest miracles!