Sunday, April 19, 2009

Easter

Below is a picture from Easter weekend. I am about 21 weeks in this photo. My belly really shows in this sweater dress! I seem to be carrying this baby high, which is likely the reason why I am still able to wear most of my regular pants with only the help of a hairband. Yeah!

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

1 Pound!

Our baby girl is breaking a development milestone this week - she weighs one pound! She is about 8 inches long from her head to her bottom, so she's like a little doll right now. How cute is that?
Her grip is quite developed, too. Since there's nothing else to grab in utero, she may sometimes hold on tight to the umbilical cord. (Don't worry — it's tough enough to handle it.)
She is also sprouting more hair on top of her little head. Right now her hair has no pigment, so it's bright white. Scott & I both had light brown hair the first year of our lives, but then we both turned to white-blonde toeheads. So I expect that's what our baby girl's hair will do, but you never know!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Scott's 30th Birthday (and a bump pic)

Thought I'd post a few pictures from Scott's birthday party last weekend. (You can also see the baby bump!) Scott is going to be such a great dad... especially for a little girl. He's so patient, understanding, affectionate, sensitive and affirming - all qualities a little girl needs in her daddy! He treats me like a queen, so I know this little girl is going to be his princess.





Scott completing a detour on the Amazing Race


Matt completing the River Gets Wider roadblock


Shawna, me, Scott, Gretchen & Daniel


Mom, me & Karla


Scott needed a few attempts to get all the candles blown out

Monday, April 06, 2009

Baby Girl!

We are having a baby girl!!!! Scott and I are THRILLED!!!! Even though we both thought we were having a little boy, we were both secretly hoping we'd have a little girl. Not that a little boy wouldn't have been great, but we both wanted a little girl at some point. So now that we know we have a healthy little girl on the way, we feel so blessed!

So let me give you the play-by-play of last Friday, April 3. We had our sonogram at 8:45 AM. Driving to the appointment, I was nervous. (I later told Scott that I had the same nervous/excited feeling as when we were driving to our helicopter ride in Hawaii. I am a bit of a nervous flyer.) I just kept praying that we were having a healthy baby; I was anxious to know how our little one was developing. When we got into the ultrasound room, we immediately told the technician that we didn't want to know the sex of the baby. Instead, we had brought a birthday card (Scott's 30th was Friday) for her to write down the gender of our little one. We were going to open it together at dinner that evening. So right away, the technician started checking/measuring our baby. At first, Scott and I were so in awe to see our little baby that the seriousness of the moment didn't hit us. Then the technician measured our baby's head size, abdomen size (she has a bit of a big belly - healthy eater!) and femur length. The technician then showed us the two hemispheres of our baby's brain, the four chambers of the heart, and the spine. We also counted 10 fingers & 10 little toes. Seeing our baby was SO incredible. I don't know how anyone could deny there is a God after seeing a little baby developing. She was moving a ton during our sonogram. After a few minutes, we figured out why. She had the hiccups! It was so darn cute!!!

Here is our baby girl's fist picture! She is looking right at us; her head is on the right & abdomen on the left.




And for those of you that have trouble interpret ting sonogram pictures (like me), here is the picture with some helpful labeling. :)




So after the ultrasound, I told Scott that I thought we were having a girl. Just something about her movements & look made me think baby girl. But Scott was still unsure. So we left the appointment knowing we had a healthy little baby one the way, but not sure whether it was a son or daughter! We both had work to do that day, so we wanted to concentrate on getting our responsibilities done, and then we'd celebrate Scott's birthday & find out the exciting news! (Can you tell we're both first born children with a strong sense of responsibility?! Ha.) We took a break around noon to grab lunch together. I also grabbed the birthday card, and I 'suggested' to Scott that we open it now instead of waiting for dinner! I was too excited to wait. Scott was eager to open the card too, so he opened it in the parking lot in our car. He read the card and then looked at me with tears welling in his eyes and said, "we're having a baby girl!" I got a huge smile on my face and burst into tears of joy!! Scott says he wishes he had a picture of me at that moment because he's never seen me more radiant. I love that memory. We just hugged, cried and enjoyed the moment between the two of us for a while. I was SO glad we waited to enjoy that moment together versus in a small, dark room with a technician. :)

Then we started calling all our friends & family to share the good news. Everyone was SO excited! Our little girl is going to be spoiled rotten. :) We spent the rest of the day celebrating our baby girl and Scott's 30th birthday. What a fantastic day!