Quick, before I get Sidetrack'd

Here we are at week 35…it’s hard to believe; the time seems to have passed quickly. Yesterday was the first of my weekly doctor visits; he said that everything is looking good (her heart rate, my vitals, etc). M has commented on how all of a sudden I seem to have a “ready to pop at any time” belly instead of just a regular pregnant belly. My belly is getting bigger and she has gotten lower (which helps my ability to breathe!), so I guess it’s all about when she wants to make her appearance now. I will try to remember to get M to take a belly picture this week to add to the collection.

For the most part I’m feeling pretty good. It doesn’t take a whole lot of activity for me to begin feeling tired, but, with rest breaks, I’m making it. (I’m not sure if I’m being more of a help or a hindrance to M right now when I try to help with the work on the house.) I have trouble staying comfortable when I sleep, but I hear that is just par for the course; at least I’m getting some sleep.

We finally got Little a bed and bedding this weekend (thanks grandparents!)! We will buy her wall paint today, and her Grandma and Papa John are coming tomorrow to work on painting. Once we get the painting done (walls and trim) we will be ready to assemble her bed and put her room together. It should all be finished by the time she arrives. We’ll post some pics once we get everything finished.

I hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July!

Here we are at week 31. All of a sudden around here it’s like, “oh my, only 9 weeks to go!” With the house and vacation, the last month has flown by.

We saw the doctor this morning and everything is looking good…her heart rate and movement are good and my blood pressure and weight are right where they should be. The doctor did comment on the fact that she is still sitting quite high (like I couldn’t tell!). We go back in 2 weeks for another standard visit.

A big “Thank You” to each of you who planned, participated in, and sent gifts to the shower on the 20th! I had a great time and Little received lots of good stuff. She is already well loved and blessed (as are her parents)!

To all of you concerned about Little’s room (including myself)…She will have a room and a bed by the time she gets here (barring any surprises in the next couple of weeks). We don’t have her bed yet, but we did order some pictures for her walls last night. I have a variety of paint samples to look at with M tonight, so hopefully we can get that taken care of in the next couple of days as well. There are a few beds we have found that we like, it is just a matter of deciding on one and going to make the purchase.

I am planning to quit work at the end of this month which should give me about 5 weeks to unpack boxes after the move and get Little’s stuff together and ready for her to use. It is exciting to be this close, but it is also a bit overwhelming when we think of all the things we still have to do.

Thank you, as always, for your continued prayers and words of concern and encouragement. We love you all!

Little and I had a doctor visit yesterday and everything is looking good. Doc says my blood pressure, weight, etc are good; the results from my glucose screening and hematocrit (blood iron test) were right on target as well. Little’s heart beat sounded nice and strong and her heart rate was right where it should be. When he measured my uterus it was measuring right at 28-29 weeks, so it appears that she is growing like she should. She is definitely active these days!

M and I went to our “From Pregnancy to Parenthood in One Day” class at the hospital on Saturday. It was quite informative (in some areas, borderline too much information) and provided us with more insight with which to make some labor and delivery decisions. Overall, I think we both learned a lot even though it was a very long day (8 hours in class), and M wasn’t real interested in the breastfeeding section.

As of right now, we are all set to close on the house this Friday! We won’t actually move until after vacation (which I am very much looking forward to…only 10 more days!!), but hopefully we can get some painting done before the furniture and appliances get there. It will be nice to be home owners, once again, and put behind us (for now at least) the days of apartment dwelling.

More pictures are coming soon. M is working on the belly pictures album again, but hopefully we will have it updated before too long. We will probably add some pics of the house as we get into it and start getting things accomplished.

For all of you who will be at the shower this weekend, I’m looking forward to seeing you! For those of you who won’t make it, you will be missed!

Thanks, as always, for your love and prayers!

Well, here we are, approaching the end of pregnancy week 24. It is hard to believe how fast the time seems to be passing! Little and I had a doctor’s visit on Tuesday and everything is looking good. Her heart rate was good and she is moving around a lot, so she seems to be getting along just fine. The doc said my blood pressure and weight are looking good. So, another visit down with no concerns or complications…just the way we like it. After my next visit at 28 weeks we start seeing the doctor more regularly (28 weeks, 31, 33, 35, and then weekly). I was telling M about the schedule Tuesday evening and his comment was, “When you look at it that way, there isn’t much time left.”

Sometime next week or the first week of May I have to go for my glucose test (the one where I drink the glucola stuff, wait an hour, and then have blood drawn). I am not looking forward to drinking that stuff after some of the descriptions I’ve heard from those of you who have experienced it, but, alas, we do what we have to do.

Now for the house…we have looked at about 15 houses over the last couple of weeks and have 4 or 5 more that we will see tomorrow. The first one we found that we really liked received multiple offers the day we went back for a second tour, so that one is out of the running unless something happens with all of the current offers. We found a couple on Tuesday that we liked; one already had a contract on it but the contract was in jeopardy of falling through so we looked at it anyway. The other has a nice flow and is a good size; it also has a huge backyard with an enormous oak tree (fortunately at the back edge of the yard where the house isn’t in too much danger from roots or branches). M really likes the oak tree! We made an offer on that one, but now it looks like the owner’s job transfer may not go through as quickly as he was originally told and the house might come off the market. Thus, we will be continuing to look the next few days and will rescind our offer on the oak tree house if we find something that we like better.

You know, house hunting can be fun, but after a while the houses begin to run together in your mind. There is also the little issue of time that we are having to deal with in this case. Oh well, it will all work out like it should in due time. We trust that God is at work and will provide!

We finally got the ultrasound and belly pictures ready for the world to see!

We have some 2-D ultrasound pictures (standard ultrasound) and some 4-D ultrasound pictures (these appear blurrier and are more golden in color). The 4-D ones are a little harder to tell what is going on; it might help to know that all of these are in a vertical orientation with Little’s face toward the right of the picture.

The first belly picture (in the blue shirt) was taken on March 21st at 20 weeks; the second picture (in the striped shirt) was taken on April 11 at 23 weeks. We plan to take new pictures each week so you can see how big Little’s “house” is getting.

Little must be getting bigger and stronger, because her movements sure are growing! It is such a cool sensation to feel those tiny little hands and feet (and head and elbows and knees, probably) bumping into my belly. Over the last several days there have been occasions when she has made a strong enough movement that it could be felt on the outside of my belly. They are still few and far between, so, unfortunately, M has not been able to feel her yet. I’m sure it won’t be too long before he’ll be able to feel it anytime he wants; I’m just having trouble waiting for that first time. It is amazing to think that we are down to just a few months before we get to meet our precious little girl!

Sorry I’m a day late (though, hopefully, not a dollar short); I know that many of you have been anxiously awaiting the boy/girl announcement. So here goes…Oh, first let me say thanks for the many happy birthday wishes yesterday!

Alright, so you want to know what the baby is? It’s a girl! Boy is it nice to be able to refer to the baby as “her” as opposed to “the baby” or “it”. It does, however, mean that we might have to take back the cute pirate onsie that M picked out for the baby a few weeks ago. I’m still debating about the onsie because, although it is trimmed in blue and pirate themed, it is the first thing we bought for her.

The ultrasound tech and the doc both said that everything looked good on the ultrasound. We saw 2 hands with 4 fingers and a thumb (per hand that is), 2 long skinny feet with 5 toes each, 2 eyes and 2 ears (doesn’t look like she is going to have Webb ears, she will be glad of that one day), the bones in her arms and legs, the chambers of her heart and the arch of her aorta, all of her ribs and vertebrae, the perfectly formed little nostrils and nasal bones (ruling out cleft palate), the dark areas that are her kidneys and bladder, and in some of the pictures we have you can see where the plates of her skull are coming together and the “dark matter” that is her brain. They say she weighs about 12 ounces now.

The whole process was amazing (as those of you who have experienced it can attest), and M and I really enjoyed seeing her and knowing that everything looks just like it should. It is amazing to think of how God has knitted our precious little girl together in His image and like no other person He has ever created. It really makes me stop in awe and wonder when I think of the intricacies of the human body and how each one is created uniquely and for God’s own purpose.

I hope to get some “belly” pictures posted before too long, and if we can scan the ultrasound pics I’ll put some of those up as well.

Thanks for caring about us and the baby!

We are approaching the close of week 18 of the pregnancy. It’s hard to believe we are almost half-way there! I’m enjoying the second trimester more than the first for several reasons: (1) no more sickness (2) my belly is beginning to show which makes the whole thing a little more real for both me and M (3) only 1 week, 3 days until the ultrasound!

For the last few weeks I’ve been able to feel some sporadic movements; the first several days I wasn’t sure if it was really the baby or not, but within the last couple of weeks they have become a little stronger and more regular. I can’t wait until M is able to feel it as well. It is so cool to think about the tiny life moving around in there and how God created this baby specifically for our family. What a glorious God we serve!

On the ultrasound note…our appointment is set for 1:00 on Monday, March 20th. As most of you have already heard, I think this is the coolest birthday present ever! I will be sure to post something later that day so that everyone will know (don’t worry Moms and N – We’ll give you a call).

Thank you all for your prayers, encouragement, and interest as we are experiencing so many new things!