Finally, an Update! Covers the past 14 months or so of my life... VERY long and VERY picture heavy!!
There have been a ton of tremendous changes in my life over the past 14 months or so. One of the biggest (and first) things that happened during that period was my having gastric bypass surgery in October 2006. The day of surgery, I weighed about 330 pounds, down from my highest known weight of 350 pounds (though I'm sure it could have been more). I didn't weigh very often at my highest way a couple of reasons, the main two being that it was depressing to see how much I weighed and because I couldn't ever find a scale that would go up high enough for me to weigh (so I was only able to find out my weight at the Dr. office). At the time of surgery and the months/years prior, I was wearing women's plus size clothing, in anywhere from a size 24-28 pants/jeans, and a size 3X shirts, depending on the brand and style. At my very highest, I was very limited in the items that I could wear, because it was almost as if I was forcing myself into the few items of clothing that fit, because I couldn't find/afford anything in larger sizes! It's been a long, hard year, but very much worth every bit of it. I had to go back to the hospital (only as outpatient, thank god!) to get IV fluids pumped in me numerous times, as well as have 2 endoscopies (they stuck a tube down my throat into my stomach, threaded a camera down the tube to take a peek, then threaded a little balloon down the tube and blew it up in order to stretch out my esophagus opening where it healed too tightly!). I was MISERABLE for the first 6 months or so after surgery. I couldn't eat hardly anything (even the things that typical gastric bypass patients were able to eat), most of what I did eat came right back up, the SMELL of food kept me in an almost constantly nauseous state... I couldn't even dream of going out in public to eat because it depressed me! I definitely felt as if I had lost my best friend (food), and was sure that I had made the absolute worst mistake of my life with surgery. But now I'm a little over 14 months out from surgery, I can eat just about anything I want within moderation (even things that I shouldn't eat heh), I'm in the best health of my life, and not to sound cocky--I look pretty damn fantastic!!! I currently weigh around 190 pounds (not my all time lowest weight since surgery, but hey, I'm over 6 months pregnant!) and wear JUNIOR'S size 11-15 pants/jeans, and JUNIOR'S size M or L shirts--or at least I did before I started wearing maternity clothes. In maternity clothes, I wear mostly M shirts and pants/jeans, with the occasional L thrown in. I couldn't be happier to be the size I am now!
The following few pictures are just about every picture I have from before surgery. Almost every other picture I had was either purposely erased, or lost whenever my laptop was stolen a few months ago. These pics were taken at various times from December 2005-February 2006 or so.
Weight: varies. Somewhere between 320 and 350. Who knows?
These were taken with less then an hour to go before surgery; laying on the hospital bed, prepped and ready to go.
Weight: 330 pounds, give or take
About 2 months after surgery, was back in the hospital getting IV fluids forced down on me (not a one time occurrence!)
Weight: around 260 pounds
These pictures were all taken on or around October 3, 2007 (which was my one year mark out from surgery).
Weight: 190 pounds or so
--Down about 140 pounds from the date of surgery, and over 160 pounds lost from my highest known weight!!!--
The pictures below where I am wearing a pair of jeans and a brown shirt with turquoise flowers is the one outfit I saved from before surgery, just so that I could take pictures in it a year later. It was the outfit that I wore the most often, because I thought it fit me the best and I looked halfway decent in it. Unfortunately, just about every picture I have from before surgery was lost/deleted, so I don't have anything for you to compare with.
In the following pictures, I'm wearing a yellow shirt and jeans. The jeans are the same as in the previous few pics, but I changed into a shirt that was more form fitting, clinging to my figure and making the excessive size of the jeans more obvious.
The first picture below is from the day I married my ex-husband (May 28,2005), wearing my "dream" wedding dress. I ordered the dress online when I saw it, having to order the largest size possible (plus size 24), and when it arrived, it still wasn't large enough. My maid-of-honor's grandmother did alterations in numerous areas of the dress in order for it to fit properly. The photos following the one of my wedding day is me wearing the same dress one year out from surgery, which was about 28-29 months after the wedding.
May 28, 2005
Weight: Somewhere between 320 and 350 pounds or so?
October 2007
Weight: Around 180 pounds
These photos are the most recent ones I have of myself, taken during November and December 2007.
The following 3 pics are of me and one of my best friends, BritBrit, taken one night out at the club.
These 2 pics are of me and my best friend in the whole wide world, Candace. She was my maid-of-honor at my wedding to Rick, and she happened to get knocked up at the same time I did--she's due only 2 months after me! If that doesn't show how good of friends we are, I don't know what would!!! LOL
Also during that time period, as most of you know, I decided to divorce my now-ex-husband, Rick, while he was deployed. That was a difficult, up and down road all its own. I had started having doubts in my marriage and being really unhappy well before he left the states, but when he was gone and I realized I was truly happier without him in my life, that pretty much finalized my decision.
Shortly after making up my mind about the divorce, a guy from my past came back into my life. He and I had an off and on romance for about 6 months before I realized how blind I was being, and that everything I believe was just another lie coming out of his mouth.
Also during the time I was in that relationship, I ended up developing a SEVERE drug addiction, to the point that my life depending on my getting high every day, or I couldn't function. After that relationship ended, the drug habit continued, and I also turned into a severe alcoholic. I was going out and getting drunk at least 3 or 4 times a week, more if at all possible, and it being at the point that I would go to sleep sometime around 6am, and when I would wake up around 3pm or so the next day, I was still drunk.
My life was on a severe downward spiral, and I was quickly destroying myself. I had given up my marriage thinking I would be happier once I moved on; once I moved on, I was screwed over and had my heart broken into a million pieces; I couldn't find anyone/anything to fill the emptiness/loneliness/neediness that I felt inside.
I moved out from my parents' house, because they didn't approve and wouldn't tolerate the late nights I was keeping, and pretty much told me that it needed to either stop, or I needed to find somewhere else to live. I was "enjoying" myself too much, and decided to leave. I moved in with a friend, and stayed there until a lot of drama happened, and moved on to another friend's house. I kept living with friends, moving on to somewhere else when either I overstayed my welcome at one location or couldn't/didn't want to deal with the situation there. I had nowhere I belonged, and felt like no one wanted me around. It was the worst feeling I've ever experienced (I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy!). I finally got relatively settled in with a girl I had met through some other friends, and we were getting along really well. I actually finally had my parents move my furniture and personal belongings to where I was staying (I had left everything in storage at their house until this point, because my living situation was so unstable and everchanging).
I started looking online for dates again. It had worked in the past (even if not in the long term), and I was hoping to find some happiness that way, since nothing else was working.
One of the guys that I matched up with online and began having regular conversations with was a guy named Chris. He had been screwed over numerous times and had his heart broken, so he was just looking for someone to become good friends with. He seemed like a good guy, and we began talking on a daily basis. After a couple of weeks of chatting online, we exchanged phone numbers. First it started out with us texting one another all day every day, every chance we got. After a few days, maybe a week, of that, we advanced to talking on the phone. The first time he called me, he completely threw me for a loop. I knew he was from Alabama, but his deep, southern boy drawl just attracted me like I didn't think possible. We would talk on the phone for hours at a time, about anything and everything, which was strange, because we both HATE talking on the phone, and try to keep conversations as short as possible. After a few days of chatting on the phone, we decided we were going to meet up, just as friends. The day we were to meet, we ended up deciding that instead of meeting as friends, both of us were hoping it could be a date instead. It had been quite a while since I had been on a date, and Chris had never been on a true date, so we assumed it would be awkward, to say the least.
That night (May 19, 2007 by the way!), I went and picked him up (his car was non-running at the time, and some of the guys he worked with were trying to get it back in running order--which never happened!), and we decided to go see a movie (we saw "The Invisible"), followed by dinner (we ate at Boston's). When we got into the movie theater, I put the armrest up between the seats, and sat relatively close to him. A little ways into the movie, I scooted over and closed the distance between us, and put my hand on his thigh and my head on his shoulder. About 5 minutes after doing that, I tilted my head to look up at him, he looked down at me, and we had our first kiss. Let me tell you, it was the most amazing sensation I have ever felt/experienced in my life. You see in movies and read in books about first kisses that make you see/feel fireworks and feel a "spark" with the person and all that junk? Yeah, that's what happened with us. We felt a connection from the moment our lips kissed the first time. Well, obviously, there were MANY kisses to follow that night; how could we not repeat something like that? After the movie we went to dinner, and he came home with me to watch movies. We sat up all night getting to know one another better, and both developed VERY strong feelings for each other. The next day, Chris and I went to Rabbit Fest (a carnival/fair type thing that one of the towns near us puts on every May) with my then roommates. When we got home, he officially asked me to be his girlfriend, and of course I said yes. He spent the night again that night, and every night since--he practically moved in the day we met if you think about it!
These are just a few pictures I've taken of Chris over the past 7 months or so since we've been together.
Shortly after meeting, we both had the same strong feelings for one another, and the "I Love You's" came flowing out of our mouths. Chris told me that he wanted to marry me quite quickly after we became a couple, and we began to consider ourselves engaged, introducing each other as "fiance/fiancee" to our friends, and began to try and make decisions/plans.
These are just a few pictures of us from the time we became a couple back in May up until recently.
A little over a month after meeting, it was time for Chris to take his block leave for the summer, and asked me to go home with him, so that I could meet his family, and they could get to know the woman he planned to marry. We moved from one friend's house to another the day before leaving for Alabama (where he was born and raised), and made the 750 mile trip. We stayed in Alabama for about 2 weeks, and the entire time, I was absolutely miserable. I was constantly nauseated and exhausted, I was feeling extremely anti-social, and had no motivation to do very much of anything. I got to know most of his family pretty well (he has a grandmother, father, step-mom, one brother, two step-brothers, one step-sister, a niece, and a nephew) during the brief periods of time that I felt like doing anything other then laying in bed sleeping or kneeling over the toilet. According to Chris, his family liked me very much, they just wished that they could have spent more time getting to know me instead of me being extremely anti-social.
We left early one morning to head back to Texas and everything was going smoothly right up until about 20 miles inside the Texas border that night. We had a blow out on one of the tires, and it was about 8 p.m. on a Sunday night, so of course there was nowhere to get it fixed until the next day. We stayed at a hotel overnight, and got up for breakfast fairly early the next morning. We went to eat at Waffle House (it was my first time) and were sitting at a booth, enjoying our breakfast, when something happened that would forever change our lives. Chris and I both smoke, I have since I was about 16 (over 6 years now), and he lit up a cigarette while I was finishing my breakfast. Somehow, he managed to blow smoke in my face as I was chewing on a bite of waffle, and it made me sicker to my stomach then I had ever been in my life. Right then, everything just kinda hit me at once. Cigarette smoke was making me nauseous, as had alot of smells and food the past couple of weeks; I had been exhausted with no energy to do anything; my breasts were hurting (I had just assumed it was my nipples that were hurting, as I have them pierced, and they give me problems on occasion); I had been peeing QUITE often compared to normal; and a few other random symptoms I had been having. It dawned on me all of a sudden: I could be pregnant! I made a comment to Chris expressing my thoughts, and his face lit up. He asked if we could go buy a test and find out, and I told him sure, we'd get one while we were at Wal-Mart getting the tire replaced. We headed to Wal-Mart after my stomach settled down, turned our car into the Tire/Lube center, and went walking around the store to get a few items we needed, including a pregnancy test. I didn't need to use the bathroom before we left, so we just took the test with us, and I planned to take it the next time we stopped. About an hour after getting back on the road, it hit me that it was time to stop at a bathroom, and took the test in with me. Literally, the moment I was through peeing on the stick, a positive sign had already appeared. I quickly pulled up my underwear, pulled down my skirt, and literally RAN out of the gas station back to the car to tell Chris. He was ECSTATIC when I told him, and couldn't believe that I was making him a dad (in the past, I had been told it would be extremely difficult for me to become pregnant and/or carry a baby full term, and had previously suffered numerous miscarriages; Chris had been told in the past that it would be extremely difficult for him to every get someone pregnant, and even with medical assistance it might not happen). Needless to say, both of us were extremely shocked, ecstatic, and overwhelmed with the information we had just discovered! We continued our trip back to Texas and made it back without any other incidents, and got settled into our new apartment with friends.
I went to the Dr., and was told I would be considered an extremely high risk pregnancy because of my history, and informed that if I wanted to carry this baby to term and deliver a healthy baby, I would need to take a lot of precautions for the full 9 months. I was told to take it VERY easy, meaning not to lift over 10 pounds at any time, get plenty of rest, don't work, monitor what I ate carefully, stay on top of my vitamins, and numerous other stipulations, the most important being to NOT ALLOW MYSELF TO BECOME STRESSED OUT. My first trimester, I lost over 30lbs from uncontrollable morning (noon and night too!) sickness. I couldn't keep anything down, no matter how hard I tried! The living situation we were in quickly became stressful due to a number of factors, and Chris and I decided to begin exploring other options. We were still trying to scrape by on a single e-4's paycheck, and I wasn't working, so our options were extremely limited. We ended up moving in with my parents. It isn't the ideal situation to say the least, but it's what worked, and still is working, for us. My parents absolutely adore Chris (they met him the weekend after he and I met and became a couple and loved him instantly!) and are thrilled for us to be together. They were ecstatic to find out that they were going to be grandparents, and have been helping out tremendously. Chris will actually be deploying to Iraq for his second tour of duty within 2 weeks after our baby is born, so living with my parents has its definite advantages; they'll be helping me out ALOT during the first year!!!
At this point, I still hadn't gotten divorced from Rick yet. Although I got the paperwork together and filed everything at the courthouse, with him still being deployed, it was pretty much a waiting game to get everything back from him. Finally, I got everything back, scheduled my court date, appeared in front of the judge, and my divorce was granted. I was finally free to move on and do as I pleased!
Shortly after my divorce was finalized, Chris and I got married. On September 14, 2007, I became Melanie G. Carter, when we had a small, quiet, and quick ceremony at the Bell County Courthouse. We decided that what mattered the most was that we became husband and wife, not the details behind it. I mean hell, I had the $10,000 dream wedding the first time around, and look how that turned out. The size, price, and details of the ceremony couldn't matter less. The only people present at the ceremony were Chris and I, the Justice of the Peace, and my parents. We plan on having a more formal ceremony and renewing our vows sometime a few years from now.
So that is what is going on in my life these days. I've lost over 160 pounds from my highest weight (over 140 in the past 14 months since surgery), and that is even including the weight I've gained back due to pregnancy since my first trimester! I'm VERY happily married to a amazing guy that treats me wonderfully; I'm a little over 6 months (28 weeks today) pregnant with a little girl--her name will be Aurora Belle--due the first part of March; Chris will be deploying shortly after she's born, but it's something we'll make it through, because although it will be a long, hard year (or 15 months as the case may be), we love each other enough to make it through anything!
Well, that's been my life for the past 14 months or so... If you read all of that? Well, my god... Highest praise to you--give yourself a HUGE pat on the back!
The 9 Week Ultrasound
The 19/20 Week Ultrasound
The 24 Week Ultrasound
Week 13
Week 17
Week 21
Week 22
Week 23
Week 24
Week 27
The cats in the pics are our 2 Siamese kittens. Their names are Simon (he's mine!) and Chip (he's Chris'!). The night we moved in with my parents, we saw a little Siamese kitten (he would later become Simon) sitting at the end of our driveway (mind you, our driveway is a mile long gravel road LOL), and noticed that his left eye was all gunked up and infected, so we decided to bring him inside, planning to put antibiotic drops in his eye, feed him really well, and then decide whether to keep him inside or let him back outside. The next night, my grandmother found a second Siamese kitten (this one is Chip!), and this kitten's right eye was infected. We brought him inside with the same intentions. We took them to the vet, and got drops for their eyes and got them checked out. We found out that Simon didn't/doesn't have an eye in his left eye socket at all, and Chip probably will lose vision in his right eye eventually. He gave us drops and instructions on how to use them, and that's all there was to it. That was way back in the beginning of August. Since then, Simon and Chip have become like children to Chris and I. We love them and they love us; they are the most loving and playful kittens ever!
The dog that you see in the pictures is actually the same dog that was in the first few pictures at the very beginning of this post. She was only a couple of months old then, and now she's 2 years old! When we got her 2 years ago, she weighed around 8 pounds; now she's around 75 pounds or so! She's a Boxer/Sharpei mix, and the sweetest, most lovable dog in the world. She definitely has a puppy mentality and attitude though; she still acts like she's only a few months old, and thinks she's an 8 pound lapdog! LOL... She's an inside dog, and gets along very well with our other dog (Llasa Apso mix) and cats (we have 3 others inside in addition to Simon and Chip)!
The following few pictures are just about every picture I have from before surgery. Almost every other picture I had was either purposely erased, or lost whenever my laptop was stolen a few months ago. These pics were taken at various times from December 2005-February 2006 or so.
Weight: varies. Somewhere between 320 and 350. Who knows?
These were taken with less then an hour to go before surgery; laying on the hospital bed, prepped and ready to go.
Weight: 330 pounds, give or take
About 2 months after surgery, was back in the hospital getting IV fluids forced down on me (not a one time occurrence!)
Weight: around 260 pounds
These pictures were all taken on or around October 3, 2007 (which was my one year mark out from surgery).
Weight: 190 pounds or so
--Down about 140 pounds from the date of surgery, and over 160 pounds lost from my highest known weight!!!--
The pictures below where I am wearing a pair of jeans and a brown shirt with turquoise flowers is the one outfit I saved from before surgery, just so that I could take pictures in it a year later. It was the outfit that I wore the most often, because I thought it fit me the best and I looked halfway decent in it. Unfortunately, just about every picture I have from before surgery was lost/deleted, so I don't have anything for you to compare with.
In the following pictures, I'm wearing a yellow shirt and jeans. The jeans are the same as in the previous few pics, but I changed into a shirt that was more form fitting, clinging to my figure and making the excessive size of the jeans more obvious.
The first picture below is from the day I married my ex-husband (May 28,2005), wearing my "dream" wedding dress. I ordered the dress online when I saw it, having to order the largest size possible (plus size 24), and when it arrived, it still wasn't large enough. My maid-of-honor's grandmother did alterations in numerous areas of the dress in order for it to fit properly. The photos following the one of my wedding day is me wearing the same dress one year out from surgery, which was about 28-29 months after the wedding.
May 28, 2005
Weight: Somewhere between 320 and 350 pounds or so?
October 2007
Weight: Around 180 pounds
These photos are the most recent ones I have of myself, taken during November and December 2007.
The following 3 pics are of me and one of my best friends, BritBrit, taken one night out at the club.
These 2 pics are of me and my best friend in the whole wide world, Candace. She was my maid-of-honor at my wedding to Rick, and she happened to get knocked up at the same time I did--she's due only 2 months after me! If that doesn't show how good of friends we are, I don't know what would!!! LOL
Also during that time period, as most of you know, I decided to divorce my now-ex-husband, Rick, while he was deployed. That was a difficult, up and down road all its own. I had started having doubts in my marriage and being really unhappy well before he left the states, but when he was gone and I realized I was truly happier without him in my life, that pretty much finalized my decision.
Shortly after making up my mind about the divorce, a guy from my past came back into my life. He and I had an off and on romance for about 6 months before I realized how blind I was being, and that everything I believe was just another lie coming out of his mouth.
Also during the time I was in that relationship, I ended up developing a SEVERE drug addiction, to the point that my life depending on my getting high every day, or I couldn't function. After that relationship ended, the drug habit continued, and I also turned into a severe alcoholic. I was going out and getting drunk at least 3 or 4 times a week, more if at all possible, and it being at the point that I would go to sleep sometime around 6am, and when I would wake up around 3pm or so the next day, I was still drunk.
My life was on a severe downward spiral, and I was quickly destroying myself. I had given up my marriage thinking I would be happier once I moved on; once I moved on, I was screwed over and had my heart broken into a million pieces; I couldn't find anyone/anything to fill the emptiness/loneliness/neediness that I felt inside.
I moved out from my parents' house, because they didn't approve and wouldn't tolerate the late nights I was keeping, and pretty much told me that it needed to either stop, or I needed to find somewhere else to live. I was "enjoying" myself too much, and decided to leave. I moved in with a friend, and stayed there until a lot of drama happened, and moved on to another friend's house. I kept living with friends, moving on to somewhere else when either I overstayed my welcome at one location or couldn't/didn't want to deal with the situation there. I had nowhere I belonged, and felt like no one wanted me around. It was the worst feeling I've ever experienced (I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy!). I finally got relatively settled in with a girl I had met through some other friends, and we were getting along really well. I actually finally had my parents move my furniture and personal belongings to where I was staying (I had left everything in storage at their house until this point, because my living situation was so unstable and everchanging).
I started looking online for dates again. It had worked in the past (even if not in the long term), and I was hoping to find some happiness that way, since nothing else was working.
One of the guys that I matched up with online and began having regular conversations with was a guy named Chris. He had been screwed over numerous times and had his heart broken, so he was just looking for someone to become good friends with. He seemed like a good guy, and we began talking on a daily basis. After a couple of weeks of chatting online, we exchanged phone numbers. First it started out with us texting one another all day every day, every chance we got. After a few days, maybe a week, of that, we advanced to talking on the phone. The first time he called me, he completely threw me for a loop. I knew he was from Alabama, but his deep, southern boy drawl just attracted me like I didn't think possible. We would talk on the phone for hours at a time, about anything and everything, which was strange, because we both HATE talking on the phone, and try to keep conversations as short as possible. After a few days of chatting on the phone, we decided we were going to meet up, just as friends. The day we were to meet, we ended up deciding that instead of meeting as friends, both of us were hoping it could be a date instead. It had been quite a while since I had been on a date, and Chris had never been on a true date, so we assumed it would be awkward, to say the least.
That night (May 19, 2007 by the way!), I went and picked him up (his car was non-running at the time, and some of the guys he worked with were trying to get it back in running order--which never happened!), and we decided to go see a movie (we saw "The Invisible"), followed by dinner (we ate at Boston's). When we got into the movie theater, I put the armrest up between the seats, and sat relatively close to him. A little ways into the movie, I scooted over and closed the distance between us, and put my hand on his thigh and my head on his shoulder. About 5 minutes after doing that, I tilted my head to look up at him, he looked down at me, and we had our first kiss. Let me tell you, it was the most amazing sensation I have ever felt/experienced in my life. You see in movies and read in books about first kisses that make you see/feel fireworks and feel a "spark" with the person and all that junk? Yeah, that's what happened with us. We felt a connection from the moment our lips kissed the first time. Well, obviously, there were MANY kisses to follow that night; how could we not repeat something like that? After the movie we went to dinner, and he came home with me to watch movies. We sat up all night getting to know one another better, and both developed VERY strong feelings for each other. The next day, Chris and I went to Rabbit Fest (a carnival/fair type thing that one of the towns near us puts on every May) with my then roommates. When we got home, he officially asked me to be his girlfriend, and of course I said yes. He spent the night again that night, and every night since--he practically moved in the day we met if you think about it!
These are just a few pictures I've taken of Chris over the past 7 months or so since we've been together.
Shortly after meeting, we both had the same strong feelings for one another, and the "I Love You's" came flowing out of our mouths. Chris told me that he wanted to marry me quite quickly after we became a couple, and we began to consider ourselves engaged, introducing each other as "fiance/fiancee" to our friends, and began to try and make decisions/plans.
These are just a few pictures of us from the time we became a couple back in May up until recently.
A little over a month after meeting, it was time for Chris to take his block leave for the summer, and asked me to go home with him, so that I could meet his family, and they could get to know the woman he planned to marry. We moved from one friend's house to another the day before leaving for Alabama (where he was born and raised), and made the 750 mile trip. We stayed in Alabama for about 2 weeks, and the entire time, I was absolutely miserable. I was constantly nauseated and exhausted, I was feeling extremely anti-social, and had no motivation to do very much of anything. I got to know most of his family pretty well (he has a grandmother, father, step-mom, one brother, two step-brothers, one step-sister, a niece, and a nephew) during the brief periods of time that I felt like doing anything other then laying in bed sleeping or kneeling over the toilet. According to Chris, his family liked me very much, they just wished that they could have spent more time getting to know me instead of me being extremely anti-social.
We left early one morning to head back to Texas and everything was going smoothly right up until about 20 miles inside the Texas border that night. We had a blow out on one of the tires, and it was about 8 p.m. on a Sunday night, so of course there was nowhere to get it fixed until the next day. We stayed at a hotel overnight, and got up for breakfast fairly early the next morning. We went to eat at Waffle House (it was my first time) and were sitting at a booth, enjoying our breakfast, when something happened that would forever change our lives. Chris and I both smoke, I have since I was about 16 (over 6 years now), and he lit up a cigarette while I was finishing my breakfast. Somehow, he managed to blow smoke in my face as I was chewing on a bite of waffle, and it made me sicker to my stomach then I had ever been in my life. Right then, everything just kinda hit me at once. Cigarette smoke was making me nauseous, as had alot of smells and food the past couple of weeks; I had been exhausted with no energy to do anything; my breasts were hurting (I had just assumed it was my nipples that were hurting, as I have them pierced, and they give me problems on occasion); I had been peeing QUITE often compared to normal; and a few other random symptoms I had been having. It dawned on me all of a sudden: I could be pregnant! I made a comment to Chris expressing my thoughts, and his face lit up. He asked if we could go buy a test and find out, and I told him sure, we'd get one while we were at Wal-Mart getting the tire replaced. We headed to Wal-Mart after my stomach settled down, turned our car into the Tire/Lube center, and went walking around the store to get a few items we needed, including a pregnancy test. I didn't need to use the bathroom before we left, so we just took the test with us, and I planned to take it the next time we stopped. About an hour after getting back on the road, it hit me that it was time to stop at a bathroom, and took the test in with me. Literally, the moment I was through peeing on the stick, a positive sign had already appeared. I quickly pulled up my underwear, pulled down my skirt, and literally RAN out of the gas station back to the car to tell Chris. He was ECSTATIC when I told him, and couldn't believe that I was making him a dad (in the past, I had been told it would be extremely difficult for me to become pregnant and/or carry a baby full term, and had previously suffered numerous miscarriages; Chris had been told in the past that it would be extremely difficult for him to every get someone pregnant, and even with medical assistance it might not happen). Needless to say, both of us were extremely shocked, ecstatic, and overwhelmed with the information we had just discovered! We continued our trip back to Texas and made it back without any other incidents, and got settled into our new apartment with friends.
I went to the Dr., and was told I would be considered an extremely high risk pregnancy because of my history, and informed that if I wanted to carry this baby to term and deliver a healthy baby, I would need to take a lot of precautions for the full 9 months. I was told to take it VERY easy, meaning not to lift over 10 pounds at any time, get plenty of rest, don't work, monitor what I ate carefully, stay on top of my vitamins, and numerous other stipulations, the most important being to NOT ALLOW MYSELF TO BECOME STRESSED OUT. My first trimester, I lost over 30lbs from uncontrollable morning (noon and night too!) sickness. I couldn't keep anything down, no matter how hard I tried! The living situation we were in quickly became stressful due to a number of factors, and Chris and I decided to begin exploring other options. We were still trying to scrape by on a single e-4's paycheck, and I wasn't working, so our options were extremely limited. We ended up moving in with my parents. It isn't the ideal situation to say the least, but it's what worked, and still is working, for us. My parents absolutely adore Chris (they met him the weekend after he and I met and became a couple and loved him instantly!) and are thrilled for us to be together. They were ecstatic to find out that they were going to be grandparents, and have been helping out tremendously. Chris will actually be deploying to Iraq for his second tour of duty within 2 weeks after our baby is born, so living with my parents has its definite advantages; they'll be helping me out ALOT during the first year!!!
At this point, I still hadn't gotten divorced from Rick yet. Although I got the paperwork together and filed everything at the courthouse, with him still being deployed, it was pretty much a waiting game to get everything back from him. Finally, I got everything back, scheduled my court date, appeared in front of the judge, and my divorce was granted. I was finally free to move on and do as I pleased!
Shortly after my divorce was finalized, Chris and I got married. On September 14, 2007, I became Melanie G. Carter, when we had a small, quiet, and quick ceremony at the Bell County Courthouse. We decided that what mattered the most was that we became husband and wife, not the details behind it. I mean hell, I had the $10,000 dream wedding the first time around, and look how that turned out. The size, price, and details of the ceremony couldn't matter less. The only people present at the ceremony were Chris and I, the Justice of the Peace, and my parents. We plan on having a more formal ceremony and renewing our vows sometime a few years from now.
So that is what is going on in my life these days. I've lost over 160 pounds from my highest weight (over 140 in the past 14 months since surgery), and that is even including the weight I've gained back due to pregnancy since my first trimester! I'm VERY happily married to a amazing guy that treats me wonderfully; I'm a little over 6 months (28 weeks today) pregnant with a little girl--her name will be Aurora Belle--due the first part of March; Chris will be deploying shortly after she's born, but it's something we'll make it through, because although it will be a long, hard year (or 15 months as the case may be), we love each other enough to make it through anything!
Well, that's been my life for the past 14 months or so... If you read all of that? Well, my god... Highest praise to you--give yourself a HUGE pat on the back!
The 9 Week Ultrasound
The 19/20 Week Ultrasound
The 24 Week Ultrasound
Week 13
Week 17
Week 21
Week 22
Week 23
Week 24
Week 27
The cats in the pics are our 2 Siamese kittens. Their names are Simon (he's mine!) and Chip (he's Chris'!). The night we moved in with my parents, we saw a little Siamese kitten (he would later become Simon) sitting at the end of our driveway (mind you, our driveway is a mile long gravel road LOL), and noticed that his left eye was all gunked up and infected, so we decided to bring him inside, planning to put antibiotic drops in his eye, feed him really well, and then decide whether to keep him inside or let him back outside. The next night, my grandmother found a second Siamese kitten (this one is Chip!), and this kitten's right eye was infected. We brought him inside with the same intentions. We took them to the vet, and got drops for their eyes and got them checked out. We found out that Simon didn't/doesn't have an eye in his left eye socket at all, and Chip probably will lose vision in his right eye eventually. He gave us drops and instructions on how to use them, and that's all there was to it. That was way back in the beginning of August. Since then, Simon and Chip have become like children to Chris and I. We love them and they love us; they are the most loving and playful kittens ever!
The dog that you see in the pictures is actually the same dog that was in the first few pictures at the very beginning of this post. She was only a couple of months old then, and now she's 2 years old! When we got her 2 years ago, she weighed around 8 pounds; now she's around 75 pounds or so! She's a Boxer/Sharpei mix, and the sweetest, most lovable dog in the world. She definitely has a puppy mentality and attitude though; she still acts like she's only a few months old, and thinks she's an 8 pound lapdog! LOL... She's an inside dog, and gets along very well with our other dog (Llasa Apso mix) and cats (we have 3 others inside in addition to Simon and Chip)!