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! :)