Quick Appointment Update

Today I saw the nurse-midwife (Heather) at my OB office, and she is just as great as all the other doctors in the practice. Baby's heartbeat sounds wonderful, and I'm feeling very well. Seriously, I love being pregnant! She said starting today, they will measure my stomach every time I go in. I know lots of people have been telling me they can't believe how far along I am considering my size, so I am VERY EXCITED to tell you all that my belly is measuring exactly as it should! Yay! So there you have it. :)

We also briefly talked about the report from the high-risk dr., and she did not seem the least bit concerned about the baby's size. She said based on my size and family background and such, it did not surprise her. She said *hopefully* after the next time they do the extensive ultrasound to check the baby's size, I shouldn't have to go back to the specialist. Of course, that's not for sure, but that's what we'll pray for.

In case I don't post again before Thursday, I wish everyone a wonderful, safe, blessed, and joyful Christmas. We have so much to be thankful for, especially the gift of Jesus. If you need a reminder, go watch the movie "The Nativity Story" like we did the other day. It will get you in the Christmas spirit!

Baby Face

Today I went to my appointment at the high-risk doctor (perinatologist?) for an ultrasound to get a good spine measurement. Well, the spine looks great. They estimated Baby to be around 1 lb. 8 oz. and the heart rate about 138 bpm. AND we got a beautiful photo of baby's face! If you look at the picture on the left, you can see the eyes, nose, and mouth, and Baby almost looks like he/she is smiling! I got to see the baby open and close his/her mouth, which looked really neat. The doctor's only concern (if it is a concern) is that the baby is measuring small, in the 9th percentile to be exact. I'm going to try to explain this the best I can, so bear with me. "Measuring small" simply means that based on fetal averages, our baby is smaller than average, and it could mean a couple of things. One, baby could simply be small because of genetics. Considering the fact that Davey and I are not really large people, this could very well be the case. But, our baby's smaller size could be a sign of a problem if he/she does not continue to grow at a reasonable rate. For this reason, the doctor wants to measure the baby again in three weeks to check his/her growth. From what I understand, if the baby continues to stay around the same percentile, then this would indicate a steady growth rate and everything should be fine. There is a rare chance of more serious problems due to measuring small, but again this is rare. He (high-risk dr.) may want to do more regular checks from here on out to make sure that a steady rate of growth continues. We have been praising God for a great, smooth pregnancy so far, and we will continue to praise Him and ask that He help our child develop in a normal way.

What's neat is that as I type this, I can feel (and see!) the baby starting to wiggle around a bunch like he/she normally does late at night. It's just a great reminder that pregnancy is such a miracle. I admit, there is a small part of me that wants to worry, but if I truly believe in God, the Creator of Life, then I have to trust His Sovereignty to carry this baby as He has from the beginning.

Psalm 139: 13-16
"For you created my inmost being;
You knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

It's amazing how specific Scripture is about God's knowledge and care of an unborn child. The phrase "my frame was not hidden from you" has so much more meaning now. Every part of a baby is visible to God. And averages don't matter to Him. He knows exactly how Baby should be growing. There is so much that we can learn from advances in modern medicine, but sometimes we can know too much if you know what I mean, and this can cause us to want to worry. God may be using this early screening to help the doctor's know that there is a significant problem and He could save our child through it. On the other hand, Baby could be perfectly fine and God could simply be growing our faith. Whatever the reason, I hope that as you read this you are made more aware of how huge and wonderful God is.

Next appointments...
Dec. 22nd - regular OB check-up
Jan. 7th - baby growth check

Because I know everyone loves pictures, I scanned a few more to include in the blog. Don't feel bad if you can't tell what you're looking at. I had to ask about some of the pictures so they could point out what I was supposed to be looking for. Some are more obvious, however, like this great foot picture! Davey wondered when he saw this if Baby would have "Bloomfield toes" like me. :) According to him, we - my sister, me, and our cousins - all have similar looking toes.

The next picture is of the baby's profile. The forehead is on the right of the photo, and the chest is on the left side. I love the definition of the nose, lips, and chin! And here's a close-up profile picture (same angle as the previous one). We love this sweet little face already!

Mid-Pregnancy Ultrasound (take #2), among other things

We went last Tuesday for another ultrasound since Baby was too curled up last time to get a good picture and measurements. Well, they don't call it the fetal position for nothing, because that's how our kid likes to be. The rest of the day, particularly at night, Baby moves a LOT, but not to get his/her picture taken. We tried two times, once before we met with our OB for a regular appointment, and once afterward without any luck. There are no problems, but she wants to make sure to get a spine measurement and check all the vertebrae and such so she's sending us to the high-risk OB because their ultrasound equipment will be better. A part of me thinks that it is unnecessary, but then again as a doctor she wants to be able to say with certainty that everything looks fine, and she can't do that because Baby isn't in the right position. Again, there is nothing wrong, she just wants to get a better view.

This past week Davey and I have thoroughly enjoyed our Thanksgiving break. We spent time with our families, caught up on fun things, spent lots of time in our pajamas, and just enjoyed being home. I've had a funny idea for a maternity shirt design for a little while and decided to use my extra time to make it happen. With my belly getting a little rounder all the time, people are now more prone to touching it. So far it hasn't bothered me a bit, but I keep joking with people that I'm going to charge them to rub it! Out of this came the t-shirt idea...














I found a website where I could put this design on a maternity t-shirt and actually sell it! I haven't set it up to sell it yet, but probably will. Who knows if the idea will take off.

I have also been working on some canvas paintings for the nursery and finally finished them today. The animals are wooden and came already painted (I'm not that good), but I painted the background, polka dots (Davey's idea), and words. I think they turned out beautifully and will look great in the room.

And, as promised, here are pictures of our tree and house.

Christmas decorations!

Oh Christmas Tree

Davey has been itching to go get a Christmas tree this weekend! He even called Lowe's to find out when their shipment would be coming in. I love Christmas, but I've never met a bigger Christmas fanatic than Davey. And I mean that in every good way possible.

Yesterday afternoon we headed out to find the "perfect tree." Davey said that we could take Rudy, but I HAD to put his Christmas bandana on first (see what I mean about Christmas fanatic?). Roo's favorite place to ride is the front seat with me, but I told him he'd better enjoy it now since there wouldn't be too many more times he'd be able to fit before my growing belly would push him out of the way.

After some good searching, we found our tree for 2008. We would go cut one down for the truly authentic tree-finding experience, but the kind of trees we like (frasier firs) only grow in North Carolina. Yeah, NOT driving that far, sorry.

I'll post some pictures of the decorated tree when we finish it. Right now it's sitting in a bucket of water in the garage. I was too tired last night to put it up with Davey, but since I'm on Thanksgiving break all week, we decided to do it Monday instead.

A little baby update: Baby Akin has been rolling and moving around a lot! I absolutely love feeling it. I'm told it won't feel as good when those kicks are directed into my ribs and Baby's rolls make me feel queasy, but I'm enjoying it for now.

Based on averages, Baby is about 8 inches long and weighing in at close to a pound now! (The picture to the left is from the "What to Expect When You're Expecting" website and will give you an approximate idea.) My little bump is growing slowly, and a week or so ago two of my students commented on it. One elementary student said, "Is there a baby in there?" and one of my middle school students said quite incredulously while staring at my belly, "That baby's getting BIG." Their realizations were so cute!

Trimester 2 has proven to be by the books as far as the "smooth-sailing" trimester. I'm enjoying having my appetite back as well as much more energy than before. The moodiness still happens (sorry honey!), but it's usually brief. I'm reminding myself daily to REALLY enjoy this part of pregnancy, because I know I might not feel this great for the whole time.

We go tomorrow morning for our second ultrasound, and hopefully Baby will not be doing crunches and will stretch out a little for a better picture. I was told to eat a big breakfast about an hour before, so where do you think we're going? That's right, Chick-fil-A. Check back soon for ultrasound take 2.

Last Saturday, we went to Babies 'R' Us and Target to register for baby stuff. It took a while and we were pretty tired afterward, but it as SO fun too! I still have a few things to put on there that I need to ask other moms about and research online, but for the most part we're done with the biggest part of it. That's all for now!

Some More FAQs

For those of you who have followed this blog since I started it in July, you may remember that I posted answers to the most common questions everyone had been asking me. Well, I figured that I would do it again with the latest FAQs.

1. WHEN IS THE BABY DUE? The end of March (Mar. 29th, 2009)

2. HOW AM I FEELING? So far the second trimester has been fantastic and I am really feeling like myself again. My appetite has increased, I don't feel at all queasy, and food is not so strange anymore.

3. ARE WE HAVING A BOY OR GIRL? We are stickin' to the "old-fashioned" way and will find out when Baby makes his or her entrance into the world. It will be the biggest and best surprise of our life! (Sidenote: People's reactions to this crack me up every time I tell someone. They either think it's great, or they think we're crazy. Most people think it's really cool though...they just couldn't wait to know if it were them, or so they tell me.)

4. HAVE YOU FELT THE BABY MOVE? I have been feeling Baby move for about 3 weeks now. At first it was just a little "poke," but now I feel it more often, much stronger than before, and in more areas of my belly. Davey has been ecstatic because he's been able to feel the movement too. We sat on the couch the other day and actually watched my belly move! This has been my favorite part of being pregnant so far. It makes it all feel a little more real.

Mid-Pregnancy Ultrasound (take #1)

Yesterday Davey and I went to the doctor's office to get to see our little one on a sonogram! The first thing we told the lady when we went it was that we're NOT finding out Baby Akin's gender. At our first ultrasound (around 8 wks) she told us to warn her when we came back for this ultrasound because she's used to spilling the news. So before I got any warm goopy gel on me, I made sure to tell her. Well, the first thing she said when she got the picture up was, "Wow. This baby's really curled up!" In fact, Baby decided to be so comfy and snuggled up that we have to have another ultrasound at our next appointment in 2 weeks. If you look at the picture, you can see based on the "head" and "leg" labels that he/she is pretty much in a crunch position. She (u/s tech) said "This baby's making me look bad" because she couldn't get all the measurements she needed! While we got to watch the fuzzy black and white image, she was able to measure Baby's leg bones, arm bones, head, kidneys, bladder, stomach, and would have gotten the spine measurement and checked out a couple other things if they had been visible. We poked, prodded, switched positions, but no luck. She said it was a good thing we weren't hoping to find out the sex because she couldn't have given us a conclusive answer anyway. Leave it to our kid. :) Based on the view she did get, however, she said everything looks great and is developing exactly like it should. Baby now weighs about 9 oz and measures about 6 in. head to butt. His/her heart rate, also in the normal range, was 158 bpm.

So, check back the week of Thanksgiving for Take #2, and hopefully we'll get a better picture!

Halloween Fun

Following our tradition from the last two years, we celebrated Halloween by carving pumpkins and setting them out for trick-or-treaters to see.  Davey's pumpkin, if you can guess, is the Ghostbusters pumpkin.  

I found the stencil online, traced it on, and he carved it out.  My "Boo" design was from a little carving kit I bought at the grocery store last year.   Who knew $4.oo for a little kit could yield so much fun?

And last but not least, I figured I'd put a picture of me on here with my new little growing "bump."  It's not very big yet, but I'm VERY proud of it at almost 19 weeks!  We go for our mid-pregnancy ultrasound this coming Thursday (11.6.08), and we get to see how much baby has grown!  I'm so excited to see an ultrasound where Baby looks like, well, a baby and not a peanut or gummy bear.  If you've checked out the link on our blog entitled "How Big is Baby?" you probably have noticed that they compare the size of the baby every week to various produce.  Well, my mother-in-law was laughing the other day saying that she's ready to move out of the vegetable section!  (I think this was after I posted about Baby being the approximate size of an onion.)  I happily informed her that I thought we were about up to a mango.  That was good news! :)

One More Thing...

I knew I was forgetting something while posting at 10:00 pm last night! Last Thursday, besides wearing maternity jeans for the first time and feeling the baby move, I had my first official pregnancy craving! That morning, I just had to have a Chick-Fil-A sweet tea and chicken minis! For all the friends and family who don't have Chick-Fil-A, those are little chicken nuggets tucked in dinner rolls, like mini chicken biscuits. Oh yeah, with honey butter on top too! They taste so good! Since then the craving hasn't come back, and I hope it doesn't come too often because that is not the healthiest thing to crave. But anyway, it was all delicious and well worth it.

An Eventful Week

Well, it finally happened. I was laying in bed Thursday night, and I felt a little "poke" in my lower stomach. I wasn't exactly sure at that time if it was the baby, but sure enough, I've felt it several times since then. It usually happens only when I'm very still. I'm so excited because I've been waiting for this to happen! The other night, right after I got on the phone with Davey, I felt it again. He was so excited too and joked that maybe the baby knew it was him. :)

Another big thing has taken place in the clothes department. I wore a pair of maternity jeans on Thursday night for the first time, and they're so comfy! Everyone seems to tell me they put on maternity clothes probably too early when they were pregnant, so I've been patiently waiting until I really needed to. I'm amazed how in the last few weeks the maternity pants that were too way big before now either fit perfectly or are very close. Barely anyone believes me that I'm showing, but that's proof enough for me.

Friday night, Davey and I celebrated my birthday by going to see the Broadway play "Wicked." (It's sort of the prequel story to the Wizard of Oz, and it's about the wicked witch of the west and Glenda, the good witch, when they were in school. There's a lot more to it than just that, but you get the idea.) It was a late birthday celebration because that's when we could get tickets. Before the show we went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory - yum! The play was fantastic, and we would definitely see it again! Maybe next time we go to NYC - Davey's favorite place in the world.

On Nov. 6th, we get to go for our mid-pregnancy ultrasound. If we were going to find out Baby's gender, this would be the time...but we're still going to be surprised at the end. My father-in-law is still trying to convince me otherwise. Sorry, Mr. David! You'll just have to wait along with us! It will be neat to see how much he or she has grown. If we get a picture, I'll definitely put it on here. So keep checking back!

Baby's Heartbeat

Today Davey picked me up at work to go to our routine OB check-up.  We ended up waiting an hour, but I guess that was because the doctor was running late.  But it was worth it because we finally got to hear our baby's heartbeat!  It was such a beautiful swish-swish-swish sound, at least that's how we would describe it.  The rest of the time we talked to the doctor about different questions we had.  She was wonderful and really excited for us.  The practice has several doctors, and I will see all of them at some point during the pregnancy so they can all get to know me as their patient.  This was the first time we had seen this doctor, and we liked her so much, Davey told her, "I hope it's you who gets to deliver our baby!"  All the doctors are on a rotating schedule for deliveries, so there's no telling who will be there for delivery time.  Good thing they're all great!

So, after hearing Baby's beautiful little heartbeat (and eating dinner), we went to Sam's Club to get our membership cards and look around.  We didn't buy much, but we did get an idea on how much we can save on diapers among other things.  This will definitely come in handy soon!

Well, that's all for this post.  It's late. I'm tired.  The end.

Drum roll please...

Everyone has been wondering when I'm going to "look" pregnant. The truth is, I can still wear my regular pants (though they are getting harder to button), and only Davey and I can tell that my stomach has rounded out. Nobody would know I was pregnant unless I told them. Baby is growing quite a bit, but my stomach is not showing it much to the outside world. Currently, at 17 weeks, Baby's crown to rump (aka head to butt) should be the approx. size of an onion (around 5 inches). Last week it was an avocado, which I much prefer to the onion, so fortunately this is only a size reference! I know, I'm silly.

Well, tonight I looked back at my "baseline" belly shot that Davey and I took after we found out I was pregnant and compared it to the belly picture I took today at 17 weeks. The proof is in the pictures! Despite the fact that no one else can tell through clothes, there is a *little* bump there. :) A lot of people don't believe me, but you can now see it in the photos. And no, I was NOT sticking it out either! Haha, I actually made a point not to.

It might be a while before I post more belly shots (seeing that it's not growing at a considerable rate quite yet), but I thought everyone would enjoy this. It's proof! There really is an onion, I mean, a BABY in there!

The New Crib and A Surprise Baby Shower!

THE NEW CRIB
We ventured to Babies 'R' Us late Thursday night and barely made it in time to buy the crib we had picked out. The sales people were really nice, and they helped us load it in the car, which was a tight squeeze. I kept saying it would fit and it did, fortunately for me. Well, we decided to put it together the next night (Friday, my birthday!) since it was already so late.

Well, I haven't really been feeling that great all week, due to some sinus stuff, but Friday morning I woke up feeling worse. I came down with a little stomach bug (according to the OB nurse) and was running a low-grade fever. She said not to go to work, so I spent my birthday in bed drinking lots of fluids and sleeping. Fortunately, I could take some medicine to help me feel better and bring the fever down. By the evening, I felt ok enough to assist with assembling the crib. It was actually very easy to put together, which was nice. Afterward, Davey moved the shelves around in the nursery while I sat on the floor and dictated :). He was very patient as we tried different things, and we ended up with a different layout than we originally had planned on. As usual, things look better in real life than in a picture, but this will work for now. We turned the shelves diagonally in the corners, and it looks really good. This also opens up the rest of the room for other pieces to be added later. It's really the best use of this space, and we are very excited! Can you tell we're enjoying this?

A SURPRISE BABY SHOWER
A week ago, we were so blessed by the church in Mooresville, NC when they threw us a surprise baby shower! Of course, I wasn't there, but Davey was able to experience the fun of getting gifts and opening them, which he LOVES to do. To all our dear friends who were so generous and loving to do this for us, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. It means so much! Thank you for all the gift cards which will definitely come in handy. Here are a couple pictures of some of the baby clothes we received (you can see them all draped on the crib in the other photo of the room). By the way, to make any of the pictures larger, I think you just have to click once or twice on them. We feel so blessed to have people that love us so much! Thank you again!
And one more picture of my dear husband with the diaper bag we received. When he told me about it, his exact words were..."I never thought I'd get so excited about a diaper bag!" I thought it deserved to be on here. :)

Milk cartons and bath time

I just couldn't resist. Rudy and I have been having some fun the last few days (more fun for me...you'll see why), and I just had to share the laughs. Soon I will be videoing our baby, but for now it is still very fun to video the dog.

This video is a little long, so don't feel like you have to watch the whole thing. It's pretty cute though! This one's entitled, "Rudy Running with the Milk Jug."


Since Davey's coming home tomorrow (hooray!), I decided to give Rudy a bath so he'd be nice and clean for daddy. Rudy has always tolerated baths, however, he does not prefer the water. In fact, he knows as soon as I start the water and take his collar off that, yes, it is time again. He doesn't run away or hide, he just gets a knowingly sad look on his face like, "not again."
Then he goes and curiously looks in the bathtub every time. I don't quite know what he is thinking, but he always does it. Just look at those curious little ears! Just for fun, I added a few bubbles this time. Oh, now that's just pitiful!
Get it OFF, mom!



Soon, it was all over and he could shake to his little heart's delight. He has to dry off fully in his kennel though because being wet makes him go crazy. He'll run around the house at full speed like he's nuts.

Well, that's all for now!

Stripes

Davey's on the road again, and I'm here at home with Rudy. He's been traveling a lot lately, so I try to keep myself busy with things so I don't dwell on it too much. Today I felt really good and had a whole Saturday off. I decided it was time to paint the lines in the nursery. They turned out great! Only a few minor touch-ups will be necessary. It only took a few hours, and most of that was getting the tape perfect. Here are some pictures to show the progress and then the final result.
Tape...

Paint...

and Finish!...

Now that the walls are done, the next step will be to order the crib. I can't wait!

Painting the Nursery

So, we decided, after I called my doctor to make sure I could paint, that we would tackle the fun job of painting. We are a good painting team, Davey's with his mad rolling skills and me with my trimming skills, so we figured we just might be able to finish it all in one evening. It took about 7 hours to paint 2 good coats, with dinner and part of the presidential debate in between.



(left) This is a picture in the evening before it was all the way done (you can still see the blue around the top)









(right) And this was taken in the morning once everything had dried.






Here's the cute little night light!






We're happy with the way it turned out. The next project will be taping and painting the horizontal stripes around the room. That's going to be a lot more complicated, so it might be awhile.

Oh, I almost forgot the funniest part of the evening...
To say that Davey dislikes trimming is a BIG understatement. I did everything on the lower part of the room, but because I don't need to be up on a ladder, he was going to have to trim around the ceiling. Well, apparently he'd been dreading it all day (as he told me later). He finally came up to me and said, "I'll make you a deal [I'm thinking "Oh great, what now"]. If you'll trim the ceiling, I'll stand by you on the ladder the WHOLE time and make SURE you don't fall. Please?" How could I resist? At one point while I was painting, I asked him if he was bored just standing there, to which he replied quite convincingly that no, he wasn't. He was still glad he didn't have to do it!

Shopping Fun!

Yesterday was a day of firsts...first purchase for the nursery, first time picking out paint colors, and first baby clothes! We headed to Babies 'R' Us yesterday afternoon and bought some wall hangings that matched our bedding set that we've chosen. They had the most colors in them to match, but were a lot cheaper than the whole bedding set. As you can see, they perfectly match the existing blue in that room, but in the case that we have a girl, we'd prefer a more neutral color. So, off to Lowe's we go...

After talking to the ladies in the paint section, we had a few different paint design ideas for the room. Some of the ideas we tossed around were: paint an accent wall with a neat design where the crib will go; paint two-tone vertical stripes around the whole room (Davey's favorite...but too much work), or horizontal stripes of varying widths around the middle of room, about the height of a chair rail. As of now, the last one (horizontal stripes) is winning out. Then came the fun of choosing paint colors. And here were the options...

You never knew there were so many shades of "tan," did you? This morning, in the natural light of that room, we quickly narrowed them down. We wanted a soft neutral because the rest of the room is going to have a lot of color. The stripes around the room will be in white, which will match the trim. I can picture it in my head, but don't have a way to show it on here. Don't worry, when we finish it, I will post pictures! Anyway, our final choice was "Vanilla Steam" (the lightest color on the swatch shown below).

I love this whale! He's so cute. The bedding set we've chosen is "Alphabet Soup," and has all these pictures in it. I'm so excited to plan a room from scratch. It's going to be a fun work in progress.

To celebrate making it through the first trimester (at least that was MY excuse), and to take advantage of a buy one get one 50% off sale, we chose our first two baby outfits. Buying these totally made my day!

Our first baby

Well, with all this talk about the new baby, I figured I shouldn't leave our first kid out. He's got red hair, weighs about 30 lbs., and his favorite thing to do (besides snuggle with his mommy) is run up and down the yard with an empty milk jug.  Sometimes we call him our "red-headed step-child," but he answers better to "Rudy."  We adopted him from Petsmart a couple of months after we got married.  He is my constant sidekick when Davey travels, and I would go crazy without him!  Of course, he makes me go crazy from time to time, but what dog doesn't?  

We have told Rudy that he is going to be a big brother, but I don't think he quite gets it yet.  He hasn't changed since I've been pregnant, so I doubt he senses anything different.  I've heard some dogs do.  He already loves to lay on the couch and put his head on my stomach.  In fact, on days where I feel a bit yucky, this is what we do pretty much all evening!  He's laying peacefully beside me right now as a write this.

Hopefully, Rudy will easily adjust to having a new baby.  So far he loves little kids and the one time he saw a baby, he seemed to be very perceptive of the fact that he needed to be gentle.  He actually stopped short in his tracks and became calm.  My hope is to have our kids playing in the yard with Rudy so he can protect them if necessary.  Since he's only 2 and 1/2 now, we should have many years together.

I've posted a video below (a new thing for me), and I hope you enjoy watching Rudy chase bubbles in our kitchen.  It's pretty entertaining!

Flippin' Out (in a good way)

I've gotta get two posts up in one day here since I'm very overdue in updating this thing! Last Wednesday (9/3/08) Davey picked me up at work again for my OB check-up. The doctor said my blood work all came back fine and told me my blood type. Come to find out it's something like my philosophy in life: "be positive" (sorry. couldn't resist!) The rest of the appoinment we discussed what tests I was going to have done and when, and then had a routine heartbeat check for the baby. When the picture showed up on the screen, our little acrobat did some kind of crazy flip! It was so neat to see Baby move! We laughed about it and on the way home jokingly hypothesized what he/she could have been doing. Davey's theory? "Maybe he was doing bootcamp class" (which is a workout class he used to do at the gym). My theory was that maybe Baby Akin is a girl and she was doing gymnastics. Regardless, seeing our baby move made this whole thing seem a little more real. I smile every time I think of it.

I love getting updates from different websites (whattoexpect.com, babycenter.com, thebump.com) about what changes are taking place with Baby each week. Check the link on the right side of the page to see how big Baby is this week. It says that from crown to rump (aka head to butt) Baby is about 1.6 in., or the size of a lime. However, I have never seen a lime that small, but maybe you have. Regardless, it's incredible to think of the miracle taking place inside of me as fingers and toes are visible, that precious little heart is working so hard, and even hair follices and fingernail beds are beginning to form. It amazes us everyday.

Camping trip to Black Rock Mtn. State Park

Over Labor Day weekend, we drove up to northeast GA with some friends of ours, Kurt and Shelah, to camp for 2 nights and enjoy the great outdoors. Lately I've been experiencing some queasiness in the evenings, and I was a little apprehensive about being sick in a tent in the woods! Also, I knew that I couldn't make it through the night without a pit stop, but Davey and Shelah both rescued me different times by walking with me down the hill to the bathroom in the dark. Overall I felt great the whole time...until I got home on Monday night!

The drive took about 2 and 1/2 hours, and fortunately we didn't hit any of the weekend construction traffic that everyone in Atlanta had been warned about. When we got to the park and I checked in, the staff said that they advised us to keep all food, even toothpaste, in our car because of the bears and raccoons! Apparently they will smell anything and then come after the food. It was inconvenient to have to drag everything up to the campsite for every meal and then take it all back, but I guess that's better than finding a bear in your tent in the middle of the night.

The weather was pretty nice the whole time we were there. The first night could have been a few degrees cooler, but it definitely wasn't as hot and humid as it has been earlier this month. The GA heat is the reason we don't camp in the summer anyway. We like to stick to fall and spring.

After sleeping in and breakfastthe next morning, we decided to go hiking. Davey and I had hiked at this park before, but we forgot which trail had the great lookout point. Come to find out it wasn't the one we chose. We got halfway through the trail and came to a point where we crossed a road. Davey and Kurt decided to walk back up the road to the car and then come get us girls. We laid in the grass and talked while enjoying the breeze. I think a few people driving by thought we were stranded, but when we smiled and waved instead of looking desperate they probably figured we were alright. After about 35 min. the guys finally arrived and we contemplated our next adventure: find a place to swim!

Davey and I didn't have bathing suits with us, and Kurt and Shelah had left theirs back up at the campsite and didn't feel like going all the way back up there. So, it was off to Walmart we went. I guess we just missed bathing suit season, so Shelah and I ended up with shorts and tanktops. The boys, however, had some fun trying on way too small boys swim trunks! I believe Kurt's was Transformers and Davey's pick was Batman. This was quite entertaining, let me tell you! They finally ended up with some other shorts, and we headed off to "Rabun Beach."

Little did we know that Lake Rabun would be so beautiful! Sorry I forgot to take pictures, but just imagine a lake with mountains surrounding it, and incredibly gorgeous lake houses, or shall we say, lake mansions. We seriously considered showing up at one of the immaculate lake houses and crashing someone's Labor Day party. Instead we settled for the public beach, which was small but still very nice. After lunch at a shaded picnic table, we ventured down to the water. We never really "swam," but just being in the water was nice. It definitely cooled us off after hiking earlier.

That evening we worked to keep our fire going so I could cook "hobos" on the fire. They consist of hamburger meat, potatoes, carrots, and spices wrapped in foil pockets. It took awhile to get the fire right, but we finally enjoyed our dinner and relaxed around the campfire while roasting marshmallows and eating s'mores. Our dog Rudy was so tired he just slept in my lap all evening. Seeing a 30 lb. dog squashed up on my small lap was pretty funny, but he just wouldn't budge.

This will probably be our last camping trip until Baby gets here, but hopefully someday we'll be able to pick up camping again. We hope so!

Baby's First Picture

You're looking at our "little peanut." Yesterday (Wed, Aug. 20th) we went to the doctor for our first ultrasound and were able to see our baby's tiny heart, beating at 183 bpm (beats per min). Fast is normal if you didn't know. We thought we would hear the heartbeat on the machine, but the ultrasound tech said they don't typically do this since it's a lot of power output on the baby that's not really necessary. Baby measured at 8 weeks, 3 days, putting the estimated due date at March 29th (6 days later than previously thought).

It was very neat to see the tiny heart beating, and it reminded me of God's amazing hand in this whole pregnancy. We praise Him every day for this miracle!

The new weird and crazy pregnant me

"Just to warn you, you're going to get weird." These were the recent words of my 5-months-pregnant friend. I laughed along with her while she told me of her recent weirdness (including putting shoes in the fridge), and wondered when all that would start for me. Well, the fun has begun! I might not be refrigerating footwear, but a few of the strange changes have to do with what normally goes in the fridge..FOOD.

Anyone who knows me knows I like to eat. While I try to eat mostly healthy stuff, I also have a crazy metabolism that makes me capable of burning up anything (I know, you're yelling at me. Sorry, but you can thank genetics). So, now with Baby on board, I find myself getting hungry even more frequently. And if I don't eat, that's the only time I get queasy. It's now a common sight to see me walking between classes pushing my music cart, guitar on my back, with a handful of pretzels, fruit snacks, a granola bar, or anything else I can grab quickly to keep myself going. Okay, so that's pretty normal as far as pregnant women go. But it gets more interesting.

I can be absolutely starving, and I will look at food and find it gross! Sometimes it's mind over matter to make myself eat. And some things I just can't eat at all. Things I've always liked are now just weird. I can't figure out if it's the smells, or just the thought of eating it. I don't know! The other day I was with my sister, her husband, and my dad in Athens. We walked into a restaurant which I had been to before, and my first thought was "uh, I don't know if I'm going to be able to eat anything here." I ordered anyway, attempted to eat a few bites of my dinner, then had to admit defeat. My appetite was just gone! I made a sandwich later (thanks, Amy!) which helped fill me up. But of course, I was hungry again before bed. The foods I have been enjoying with no problem have been fruit, potato salad, raisin bran, and yogurt. And snacky stuff like I eat between classes has been serving me well too.

Since last year, I have increased my water intake. Because of this, I usually frequent the ladies' room a good bit anyway. But it really hit me that I am definitely pregnant when the other day, while out with a friend, I went 4 times in a 3 and 1/2 hr. period, and she didn't go at all! Kind of breaks up the flow of conversation, you know?

Davey says I'm more emotional now. His words were, "you can cry at the drop of a hat." I will admit, it is comical to find yourself with a lump in your throat at an insurance commercial. [You know, the one where one person helps another, and someone sees it and then helps someone else, and so on? Isn't that nice?]

I always thought that the whole nesting thing didn't happen until later, but a few weeks ago I cleaned up the living room, dining room, and kitchen unconsciously while on the phone with a friend. When I hung up, I looked around puzzled and wondered, "did I just do all that?" It was great! I can't say that lasted very long, but my cleaning was one of the first things that set Davey off thinking I might be pregnant. (By the way, he's the one who prompted me to take the pregnancy test. I thought it was too early, but he INSISTED.)

My tired brain can't think of anything else at the moment, but I'm sure I'll think of more things later. Bye!

Frequently Asked Questions

I wanted to take this opportunity to answer some of the burning questions on your mind about our pregnancy. So, happy reading!

1. WAS THIS PREGNANCY PLANNED? This summer after a lot of long talks, lots of prayer, and tons of deliberating and thinking, we decided to begin the journey into parenthood...we just didn't know it would happen the first month! (so, yes, baby was planned) God always knows what He is doing.

2. WHAT IS THE DUE DATE? March 29th, 2009 **This has changed as of 8.21.08**

3. ARE WE EXCITED? Totally! Davey was smiling the rest of the day when we found out. :)

4. AM I SICK YET? Thankfully, not much at all. My symptoms have been mild so far. Most days I'm just hungry and any queasy feelings are quickly remedied by food!

5. AM I (SARAH) GETTING MOODY? I will answer for Davey...yes.

6. ARE YOU GOING TO FIND OUT BABY'S GENDER? Ahh, the big question on everyone's mind. Drumroll please. . . . . . .we're leaning toward not finding out.

7. ANY OTHER QUESTIONS? Send me them, and I will post.

First OB appointment

Sorry for the delay in the post. We've had a very busy week! We were gone all day Sunday celebrating Davey's 27th birthday, and when we returned home, we realized our air conditioning was not working. With the temperature pushing the upper 90s during August, this was NOT a good time for it to happen. I'll spare you the ridiculous long details of repair guys not doing what they say and just tell you that it FINALLY got fixed Tuesday (2 days later!). Monday evening it was 87 degrees in our house!!! Thankfully we have a wonderful brother and sister-in-law who live 4 houses down who let us sleep over there to get through it all. Thanks Nick and Julie!

So, now to the good stuff. Tuesday afternoon Davey picked me up from work at 3:15 for our first prenatal appointment. The nurse was checking my blood pressure and such and also did a pregnancy test (but she didn't say that's what she was doing.) She just said, "well, pregnancy test came back positive." At which I laughed and said, "It's a good thing! Otherwise I shouldn't be here!" She laughed at that. She gave me my EDD (estimated due date) of March 23rd, a day earlier than my other doctor's office had said. No big deal, since chances are Baby won't be coming on his/her exact date anyway. "End of March" is good enough for me.

After a ton of paperwork about past health info - including the question "Is the father of the baby involved/uninvolved?" which I jokingly asked Davey and he gave me a "duh" look - we met the nurse practioner, Sunny, who we both loved. Everyone there at the office was positive, friendly, and very supportive of us. We didn't get the feeling like we were just "one more baby," but rather that they were concerned about our individual pregnancy. She made it clear that we could call anytime, night or day, with any concern, and that they were here for us. It was nice to know we had that support.

We get to go in two weeks (Aug. 20th) to hear Baby's heartbeat, and in a month (Sept. 3rd) for the next OB appointment. We're going to check to see if Davey can bring some recording equipment to record Baby's heartbeat. Wouldn't that be cool? We'll let you know how it goes!

First Week of School

The kids are back from summer break at the school where I work as the Fine Arts Coordinator (and music therapist). I didn't know how tired I might be, but so far I've been feeling great. Calm before the storm? Of sickness and fatigue that is. Maybe I'll be one of those really lucky pregnant women who doesn't get sick. For some reason I have a feeling that isn't going to happen. Wishful thinking doesn't hurt though!
I ordered a pregnancy workout dvd for the cold winter months when we (me and Rudy) can no longer take our brisk evening walks. Hopefully it will get here soon.
Davey and I have worked hard to clean out our office (soon-to-be nursery) and it looks amazing! For those of you who have stayed in our guest room, you will now have a desk, dresser, and bookshelf instead of a papasan chair and ironing board (which really should have been put away all the time instead of staying out :) The empty little office will now be mostly empty for a while until furniture and baby stuff starts accumulating. We(correction "Davey")will be painting it sometime this fall when we get a chance to pick a color.
No other new news yet. I'll update after our appointment on Tuesday.

just gettin' started

So, we are 6 weeks pregnant and very excited. It all doesn't seem real yet. I can't wait until our first prenatal appointment next week on Tuesday, Aug. 5th. We'll update soon after that! (P.S. The picture is kinda fuzzy, but it really was positive! You might have to click on it to zoom in.)