29 weeks

It's time for a picture update! Here I am at 29 weeks...is it really possible that I only have 11 weeks to go?!?! Oh and look at my cute new plates! :)

A little support please...

So here's what I need some support on, and moral support is what I'm asking for. :) I have decided to start a little home-based business, if you will. What soon-to-be stay at home mommy wouldn't love to make a little extra money, right? Hence, this little business endeavor.

So, I have created another blog...my business blog. Quite frankly, I'm pretty nervous about this. I have no idea if this is anything people will go for or not and failure is a big fear of mine. I know, I know failure is how we build character but it's still scary. So, check out my blog and let me know what you think. Is this something people will be interested in? Here's the blog. www.sachetcafe.blogspot.com.

Thanks friends!!

27 weeks

According to my book this is the beginning of my 3rd trimester. However, according to my weekly emails, this is my final week of my 2nd trimester. Either way, March is approaching....fast....and I CANNOT wait! Yay! :)

NURSERY!!!

My parents just came over and helped Robert move the furniture back in the room and into place (I was there but obviously wasn't able to help move the furniture.) Anyway, the room is PERFECT!! We are absolutely thrilled with the painting! THANK YOU SO MUCH CHRISTY!!! You did a phenomenal job!! Here are some pictures of the room. (And like I said with the ultrasound pictures, if you want to see it in person I would more than happy to show it to you! You can appreciate all the colors and detail much better in person. :) We do have some accessories that we are going to add, such as an adorable light that looks like a lantern, but I couldn't wait to post these pictures!! So, I'll just have to post more later when we get those things up. Enjoy!

Sweet little man

Today we had another appointment with the specialist. Everything is looking good with our little man and the doctor said he doesn't see any reason for concern. Yay!! The nurse who did our ultrasound was having fun and spoiling us by switching to the 4D imaging. And we got some fantastic pictures of his face! Oh he's so sweet!! Here they are. (Keep in mind that we don't have a scanner so this is me taking a picture with our digital camera and putting them on our computer. The pictures are clearer in person...so if you'd like to see them, I'd be more than happy to show you! :) In some of the pictures you can see his little arm and fist right up by his face. Oh I just love him to pieces already!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

There are so many things I am thankful for this year! This is just one big thing I thought I'd share.

I am so thankful for the little guy growing big and strong inside me. I can't wait to meet him!! Happy Thanksgiving!!

Thank you!!

I just want to say a HUGE "Thank you" to you all for your help with our bedding situation!!! There are actually a couple ladies at church who said they can help us create our crib bedding, bless their hearts!! So thank you again for all your input!! I'm still lacking a crib skirt and sheets, so I appreciate your suggestions on checking out Etsy. That's a new website for me, so I'm having fun looking at all the different things I can get there. I'm confident that Collin's room will be Robert and I's little dream nursery!! (Because really, Collin won't care what his room looks like...I know this is all for me. :))

Help, please!

As you know, Robert and I have been looking for crib bedding. While we wanted something "outdoorsy" we have been unable to find exactly what we're looking for. So went a different direction. I found an airplane themed bedding that we both liked, but honestly we were still wanting that "outdoorsy" bedding. And as March quickly approaches, I'm getting more and more excited to get our bedding and get the painting done. So Sunday after small group, Robert and I went looking. Our first stop was Target. Although we didn't find anything in the baby section, we found exactly what we were looking for in the kid's bedding!! So after looking at it and dreaming about how we could decorate the room, we left empty handed and disappointed. We made our way over to Walmart because I had seen some bedding on their website that I thought looked cute and actually liked what we saw. So we purchased that bedding and took it over to my parents house because I wanted to wash it. (They have a front loader and it's so much easier on clothing than my washer.) While we were showing them the bedding, we also told them about finding exactly what we wanted in the kid's section at Target. This got my mom thinking. She suggested that we could have the bedding altered and essentially turned into crib bedding.

That was all we needed to hear! We were off to Target to purchase the twin size bedding that we love!! Yay, sounds great right?! Unfortunately, the next day I took it to a lady here in town that has done all of my alterations. She's very good at what she does and so reasonably priced. However, when I asked her to convert the bedding into crib bedding, she said no. Talk about bursting my bubble!!! So I headed to another lady in town that my mom has used before and asked her if she could help me out. Yes, she can but only creating the comforter part. Apparently the bumper is what's such a big deal. So, here I am back at square one. We DO NOT want to give up yet because this bedding is just what we were looking for. Do you know anybody or know somebody that knows somebody that might be able to help us?

Here's a link to the bedding, if you're curious. It's even more cute in person because you can see a lot more detail on the scene part that doesn't show up online.
http://www.target.com/Woolrich-Bear-Bedding-Collection/dp/B000G5SR22/qid=1227129356/ref=br_1_10/185-7459919-0998424?ie=UTF8&node=4182801&frombrowse=1&rh=&page=1

24 weeks

Today is the start of my 24th week. Moving right along...

I'll post more later. Just wanted to share an updated belly pic :)

Trip to Dallas and a surprise bunny

We went to Dallas this weekend for a family friend's wedding, which was beautiful. We spent the weekend there with my parents and another couple and had a fun time together. The boys went to Dave and Busters and another similar arcade and had a great time while we ladies went shopping. While at the mall, we came across a Carter's store and I got a few outfits for Collin that are my current favorites!! (It would have been so easy to go overboard there, but I reminded myself that he's not going to get to wear these very much since babies grow so quickly.) In fact, if they made bedding with the same things on it, I would absolutely buy it. They are "forest friends" animals and EXACTLY what I was wanting for our bedding. Oh well. Since we were gone all weekend and Robert left Monday for a week long business trip to Houston, we didn't get a picture taken of my growing belly. Rest assured, though, it is certainly growing!

On a different note, I received the neatest gift in the mail the other day. When my mom was a junior in high school, my grandparents hosted a foreign exchange student from Germany. Over the years, Sylvia, my mom's foreign exchange sister, has stayed in contact with my mom, aunt and uncles. In fact, Sylvia was one of my mom's bridesmaids. Unfortunately, I have never met her but have heard lots about her. Well, she sent Robert, Collin and I a stuffed bunny that plays Mozart when you pull it's string. What's so neat about it is that if I play this song for him every night at bedtime while he is still in my womb and faithfully play it until he arrives, he was associate that bunny and song with sleep time. Apparently this really works, but only works if you start while your baby is in the womb. So Robert and I have been faithfully playing that for him every night when we go to bed. We even took it to Dallas with us this past weekend. :) It will be so intersting to see how he reacts to it once he's here with us. However, it's neat because Collin tends to be most active when I am ready to go to bed, but since we've been playing this song for him, he calms down. There was only one night when he just didn't "get it" and was kicking and moving up a storm. But that's ok. I'm not always tired when I typically go to bed so I can't expect him to be either. Thank you, Sylvia!! I'm excited to tell him about this special bunny and who it came from once he's here.

A little late

Sunday was the beginning of my 22nd week. I'm a little late posting this, but better late than never. Man, I'm getting huge!!

A new day

As you can see from my previous post, my candidates of choice did not win the election. All through this election I have found myself begging God to please show mercy on us and not allow Obama to win. This morning, God made it clear to me that He has shown us mercy in so many, many ways, which is evident alone in the fact that I am His child. But He pointed out that He has shown great mercy on us for the last 8 years by giving us a president who is a man of faith, and not just with his words. But a man who does his best to live out his faith and did his best to lead our country. And I believe he did a very good job at it! No, he's not perfect and I didn't necessarily agree with every decision that was made, but you know what, he's human! Unfortunately, as a nation we spat in God's face and said "Nope, we don't want You in our lives anymore." So, in my opinion, He has complied and given us exactly who we asked for.

And yet, He has given the church one of the greatest invitations yet. He has, yet again, given us the opportunity to go to bat for Him and fight for what He is all about. We have been challenged to stop sitting idly by as our nation turns farther and farther from Him. I am more than ready to step up to this challenge and fight for Him!

I was so encouraged and challenged this morning in the few minutes with Him before I started my day. Hebrews 4:12, 16 "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any tow-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of thoughts and intents of the heart....Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need"

So while the elections didn't turn out how I prayed they would, God gave me something even greater. He reignited a deep passion for Him. I am asking you if you will fight with me for God. And if you will help me along this journey and keep me accountable as I strive to finish this race strong for Him.

Tomorrow

Well tomorrow is the big day. Go vote!

Update

Yesterday we visited with the specialist. Robert and I were excited about this visit because we were having another ultrasound but yet not excited because the doctor is very "different", if you know what I mean. He's terribly difficult to read, especially when he's explaining things to you or asking questions. Luckily, before we saw him a nurse did our ultrasound. She was great!! She told us everything she was looking at and why, which was completely different from our first visit with the doctor. As she was looking, she was telling us that everything was looking great and that we had a beautiful baby. *Hehe, we liked hearing that but really how beautiful can a baby be on an ultrasound? Don't get me wrong, Robert and I already think he's beautiful but certainly she was just saying that to be nice.* So after she had looked over everything, taken measurements, certainly confirmed Collin is in fact a boy, and told us that we were right on schedule for our projected due date she said that the doctor would be in to do an ultrasound and visit with us.

So he came in and we did another ultrasound. Like our last visit, he didn't talk the entire time he was looking around which I found rather annoying. Could you at least say something about our baby?! He finished up and told us that overall Collin's kidneys were looking good. However, his collecting system was dilated a bit, not to the point of concern but it was a little dilated. The collecting system is where his kidney is connected to his ureter (sp?). Now, he went on to tell us that he has a theory that boys always have dilated collecting systems because of progesterone. He also said that if they had taken an ultrasound of my kidneys when I first found out I was pregnant that my collecting system would be dilated because of the increase in progesterone. As you can imagine, he's telling us all this and Robert and I are just listening trying to figure out is this a problem? should we be concerned? or is he just throwing out all this doctor jargin and getting us worked up for nothing? All the while, he is looking at us as if we should be saying something or like we are receiving terrible news and should reacting a certain way, while we are simply trying to process what exactly he's telling us.

Therefore, I point blank asked him, Is he ok? Should we be worried about this? He said no, everything is looking good and that telling us about this dilation is going to cause us more worry than is probably necessary. Ok, thanks mister! However, he does want to see us back in 5 weeks to make sure that it hasn't become worse. If it doesn't change or gets worse throughout the remainder of my pregnancy, Collin will need to have an ultrasound right after he is born to see how his kidney's look and then we'll go from there. If the dilation improves, that's great. Nothing more will need to happen. I say all this to say, overall Collin looks good. He has two arms, two legs, 10 fingers and 10 toes. His heart looks good. His brain looks good. Everything is working properly. But he has a slight dilation of his collecting system, which the doctor is expecting to not be an issue. Overall, we have a healthy little guy who likes to move and grove inside his momma's belly. If you think about, though, please keep us in your prayers, specifically that this dilation is indeed nothing to worry about and goes away on it's own.

21 weeks

Week 21. We had lunch with our small group today which was so nice because it has been way too long since we've all been together! The only thing is, is that Robert and I are the only ones waiting on our little guy to arrive. Everybody else was there with their babies. Needless-to-say, Robert and I left there saying to each other, "We're very ready for Collin to be here with us!" "Is it March yet?" Just a little longer and then we can snuggle with our little one.

We go to the specialist tomorrow for our follow up appointment. Everything should go well and this should be our last appointment with him. Although our doctor did say not to worry if he decides to see us again. I guess he likes to follow his patients pretty close, even if he doesn't see anything abnormal. He just likes to make sure everything stays normal. I must admit, as long as everything still looks good tomorrow, I wouldn't mind going back again because that means we'll have another ultrasound and see our little guy growing!!

Exciting news!

As some of you know, Robert and I have been seriously looking for a car for the last few months. However, we have wanted to be wise in our decision and not live above our means, especially with our little guy coming. So, we have been a little picky and haven't budged from our price range which has made finding what we're looking for a little difficult. God provided for us though, and yesterday we bought a 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo 4X4!! Woo-hoo!!! This is very exciting for us because it moves us one step closer to being prepared for Collin to join us! Thank you God for helping us to be patient and wait for You to show us which vehicle to buy!!

On a different note, we have slightly changed Collin's name. Just the spelling of his name, that is. Most of you know my family and how we all love to tease each other, all in good fun. Well, my dad and grandpa have especially been teasing us about Collin's name and calling him colon. Not good! So we were all at lunch yesterday for my mom's birthday and Collin came up. We were talking about the spelling and how Robert and I had decided to spell it with only one 'l'. Unfortunately, this just convinced my dad and grandpa all the more to call him colon. So after much thought and consideration, we have decided to spell his name with two "l's" so as not to cause confusion that his name is Collin and NOT colon!! Ahh, gotta love family! :)

Halfway there....20 weeks!!!

That's right...I'm halfway there!!! YAY!!! One exciting thing happened last night. I was sitting in our recliner just lounging and Colin was moving like crazy. So I put my hand on my belly to see if I could feel him from the outside and I most definitely did. So then I though, "Hmm, I wonder if I can see him kick yet?" So I lifted my shirt and just watched my belly for a little bit. Sure enough, I saw, and definitely felt, the little guy kick!! That was so cool!!!

19 weeks and getting bigger

Well, I'm 19 weeks along now, technically 19 1/2 but hey who's counting. Although it may not look like it from the picture, I'm certainly getting bigger and bigger and things are becoming more difficult and uncomfortable for me to do. Simply putting my shoes and socks on is VERY uncomfortable and I'm sure it's only going to get worse!! While I can't get away from wearing socks, I have found my most favorite, comfortable pair of shoes and, Praise the Lord, they are slip ons!!

18 weeks and a nursery!

Well, Sunday I began my 18th week. Yay!! Things have been going well so far. I'm feeling good and I'm feeling Colin move!! Oh man do I love that!! I have even felt him on the outside a couple times. That's a new development...within the last day or so. Unfortunately, I'm not feeling Colin move enough to know when he's most active or what gets him moving around so Robert hasn't felt him yet. Poor guy. He's so excited to feel him. During the day when I talk to him on the phone he's constantly asking "Have you felt Colin?" and when he comes home from work it's "Have you felt Colin?" Needless-to-say, I am very, very excited for him to feel Colin moving around!

We have accomplished so much at our house within the last week! I love it! All of you who know me know I love organization. I mean love it!! So I have very anxious to start preparing our home for Colin to join us. Last week my mom came over and helped me completely and totally reorganize our kitchen. Oh boy was that a ton of work!! Much more time consuming than I had imagined!! But, it was very much worth it! We now have an official linen closet, which I had been using as our pantry because our kitchen does not have one. Our office is now Colin's room and our guest room has converted into a guest room/office. I'm so happy with the changes!! We even bought a crib, changing table, and swing which we have all set up in his room. Luckily, we already had a dresser that will work just fine for our little guy! No painting has been done in the nursery yet, but we still have time for that. It's just so fun to have his room set up. I find myself going in there and looking at the furniture and clothes we have thus far and daydreaming about our little guy! :)

Anyway, here are some pictures of my growing belly and our nursery thus far. Hope you enjoy them!

17 weeks....movin along

Well, only 3 short weeks and I'll be half way there!! Surprisingly, it doesn't feel like it's taking too long to get to March. Although get me around these newborn babies and I'll act as if 5 months is an eternity to wait for Colin! :)

Little Update

Well since my last post some exciting things have happened. I'm convinced that I have felt Colin move. It hasn't been a lot or very strong, but I really believe it's him. The best way for me to describe it is like popcorn popping. I don't really associate with the 'butterfly' feeling, but maybe I'm just not there yet or something. My doctor doesn't think I'm feeling him, but you know what...it's my body and my baby and I'm just going to believe that it's him.

We have picked out bedding. I wasn't able to find the 'outdoorsy/woodland' theme I was wanting, but we found a cute set! Here's a link to look at it if you want. http://www.babysupermall.com/main/products/coc/coc1035-114.html

Anyways, that's about it for now. Hope you all have a great Thursday....almost the weekend!!

Specialist Appointment

Our appointment today went very well. Before we began the ultrasound, Dr. Fumia was talking to us about why we were there and was saying that he did not feel that Robert's kidney problems are genetic. So this was very good news!! And the problem Robert did have with his kidney, which was a blocked kidney, can be easily detected on an ultrasound. So when we did the ultrasound, he didn't find anything to be concerned about. He does want to see us back in 6 weeks just to make sure that everything still looks good. And then at that point if everything is still good, we won't need to come back again. So this was very good news for us!!

We did decide to find out what we're having and my intuitions were confirmed....IT'S A BOY!! He did say that sometime it can be a little deceiving at times this early in pregnancy, but he is quite confident that it's a boy. He was even able to get a picture of him right between his legs, and I don't know how anybody could question that it's a boy because you can see his little wee-wee. We also decided on a name. Colin Robert Strong. That's our boy! So we are very excited about this!! I can't wait to start decorating! I was thinking that I'd like to go neutral, which we still may do, but I'd really like to find some 'outdoorsy' bedding. What I'm thinking with that is something with bears and other outdoor animals....not so much teddy bears though. So if any of you happen to find something 'outdoorsy' I'd love to know about it. :)

15 weeks!

Here we are....starting week 15. In my opinion, I don't think it looks much different from my 10th week. (We were slacking and didn't get pictures taken between then and now. Oops!) I'm thinking, though, that I definitely lost weight when we were in California, particularly during our days of hiking. That hike up to the waterfall was so intense! Or, maybe I'm just leveling out for a while?? Either way, here's my baby and I! :)

Decisions....

OK, so I know I said that my next post would have some pictures from our trip to California, but I obviously haven't made that happen yet. Robert and I are in a bit a dilemma, though. We had another appointment today, just a regular check up. No ultrasound, we just listened to the heartbeat, which was 152. However, as we were talking with our doctor about our specialist appointment on Monday (15th), she told us that at that appointment they can tell us whether we are having a boy or a girl. Here's the problem...we don't know if we want to find out or wait until he/she is born. Before we were even pregnant, we always said that we wanted to be surprised and didn't want to find out the sex of our baby and have continued to say that up to this point of our pregnancy. But now we are having second thoughts. Major second thoughts. So, I'm asking you all....what do you think we should do> Find out or be surprised....

Fantastic Vacation...prepare for a lot of reading

Although we've been back for a little over a week, I'm just now writing about our wonderful vacation. As I mentioned before, Robert and I headed out to California for about 8 days. We had an amazing time!! Saw a ton while we were there! In fact, we drove over 1500 miles just within California! Crazy!!
Our first day there, we headed toward the Sequoia National Forest. On our way there, we made a little pit stop in Bakersfield and saw a friend from college. It was great to be able to catch up with him and hear what he's been up to the last couple of years! He's a fantastic guy and is serving the Lord in every way he can. After our lunch, we finished our drive to our cabin just outside the Sequoia National Forest. It was so cute!! By the time we made it there, though, it was about 4:30 so we didn't have too much time to do much sightseeing our first day. However, we wanted to do some. So we headed back down the mountain towards the forest. Just a little way from our cabin we saw a bear!!! It was awesome! This was the first time I had seen a bear in real life, so I was quite excited. We have pictures, but I'm not at home right now so I'll have to post them later. After our little encounter, we made our way into the forest. The trees were absolutely breathtaking! But our pictures don't do the trees justice. We decided to do a little hike into the forest, about a mile in, and when we made it to our destination we saw a baby bear!! I was very nervous seeing this one because Robert had just finished telling me that the only time to be nervous when seeing a bear is when there are babies because the mommas will do whatever it takes to protect them. Eek! Needless-to-say, we didn't take any pictures because I was freaking out and dragging Robert down the trail. And then, when we were almost to the trail head, we saw ANOTHER bear! Three bears in one day! This bear did have a tracking collar on, though. Our first day was quite eventful!
The next day, we woke up very early and headed out towards Yosemite. There were a few more milestones in the forest we stopped and checked out, but we were really excited to make it to Yosemite. It took longer to get there than we had anticipated and it was about 5:00 when we made it to our bed and breakfast. This time, we decided to just relax, get a good nights sleep, and get up early the next day and check out Yosemite. (Side note, the b&b was fantastic! I will definitely stay at one again.) The next day when we headed into Yosemite, we were blown away! Seriously one of the most beautiful places on earth!! We saw some major tourist spots, like Glacier Point and Half Dome, and then decided to do a hike up to some waterfalls. Although the hike was very much worth the effort, it was one of the most difficult things I've done. It was straight up and quite difficult terrain. We stopped A LOT! Poor Robert. But he was very patient with me!! I told him it was the baby's fault because I was already lacking energy. :) Like I said, though, it was very much worth the effort! We did, though, crash that night!
Then we headed to the coast. We went to Monterey and checked out the aquarium. It was very nice. The only problem was that there were so many people! It was very difficult to see the exhibits. The next day, we went on a whale watching tour. It was wonderful!! But it was SO cold!! We did see 2 whales! A momma and baby humpback. The was very, very big!! Our camera died on the boat, though, so we didn't get too many pictures. After that, we hit the road and drove down the coast towards Santa Barbara. Without a doubt, that was some of the most beautiful coast I have even seen. God's handy work at it's best! Unfortunately, because our camera died, we don't have any pictures of the coast. :( It was a looong drive, but we finally made it to Santa Barbara.
Santa Barbara was so cute! That night I had the best fetticini alfredo I have ever had! We walked around the town a little and then went back to our hotel. I was so excited to spend the next day on the beach.
While we enjoyed our time on the beach, it wasn't quite what I was expecting. The beaches were covered in kelp, which was covered in flies. So that was a little disappointing. But we were able to find some beach with not too much kelp and spent the day. For lunch, we had the infamous In and Out burger. It was good!
After our day in Santa Barbara, we were going to meet up with Brian and Shannon Moore and little Sadie. We were meeting them for dinner so we decided to head towards LA and check out some of the beaches around there. We found some great ones!!! So we spent about an hour on the beach. Robert did some body surfing while I read my book. That's my perfect day right there! There were a lot of surfers out and it was so fun to watch them do there thing!
So we met up with Brian and Shannon and met Sadie...what a cutie! We went to dinner and then headed to their church for the championship volleyball games. We had a good time watching them play and meeting some of the people in their church. They've got some great people there!! It was so nice to be able to meet up with Brian and Shannon! And Robert definately enjoyed playing some basketball with Brian.
Overall, we had such a great trip. By the time we made it home, though, we were very tired! We enjoyed California so much that we would really like to live there someday. It's a great compromise for us. I love the beach, Robert loves the mountains. Perfect!! I'll wrap this up for now. And I'll post a few pictures of the highlights when I get home. Thanks for bearing with me through this ridiculously long post!

Another visit

This past Wednesday we had another doctor's appointment and did another ultrasound. Everything went great! It was amazing how much our baby had changed in just 2 weeks! He/she actually looked like a little human...very exciting! In fact, we even saw the baby move...a lot! He/She was kicking and jumping and moving all over the place. At one point, it even looked like he/she waved at us! I know that's not really the case, but hey it was still incredible! This time the heartbeat was 171...our little one is plugging right along. I was encouraged about the cyst situation. After our last visit when she pointed it out to me, I was able to clearly see it on our ultrasound pictures. This time, even during the ultrasound, I couldn't see it. And she didn't say anything more about it, so I'm assuming that's a good sign. One thing she did mention, though, is that because Robert was born with a defective kidney and has since had one removed, she is going to send me to a fetal ultrasound specialist around 20 weeks. This is because one of the possible causes of a malfunctioning kidney can be detected on an ultrasound, if you know exactly what to look for. So simply as a precautionary measure she is going to send us to the specialist. But overall, the visit was great! We go back in four weeks for another check up only this time we won't do an ultrasound. We will just hear the heartbeat through my abdomen.

On a different note, Robert and I are heading to California on Tuesday for our last big vacation before our little bambino arrives. We are super excited about this trip and have a lot planned! We are flying out and then renting a car and driving all over the place. We're going to the Sequoia National Forest, Yosemite National Park, Monterey to visit a huge aquarium and possibly do a whale watching boat tour, spending time at the beach in Santa Barbara, and rounding out the trip with a visit with my high school youth pastor and wife and their little girl, who now pastor a church in California. We are very much looking forward to this trip and know it will be a fun and memorable one for us!

New Clothes

This past Friday I was forced to break down and buy some new clothes. I simply don't have any more pants/capris that fit me. They are uncomfortably tight. And my belly is growing quickly! It was so odd to be buying maternity clothes this early, especially when the ladies checking me out at the cash register felt it is necessary to tell me that they were 5-6 months pregnant before they had to wear maternity clothes. To me it's weird enough to already be showing a little, but hey what can you do. My doctor has reassured me that it is completely fine to be showing because I am smaller framed and will just show earlier. Anyways, that's enough rambling about that. Here are a couple more pictures of me and our growing baby. The first one is me at 9 weeks and the second is at 10 weeks. We go to the doctor again on Wednesday and will do another ultrasound so we'll have more pictures of our little one growing! I'm so excited!!

Pictures

Here are some pictures that we have been taking since we found out I'm pregnant. You can't really see that I'm pregnant, but in week 7 and 8 you can begin to see a baby bump taking shape. I also took some pictures of our ultrasound pictures the other day. I hope you enjoy these!!

First Ultrasound

Well, we had our first appointment today and did an ultrasound. We saw our baby and heard his/her heartbeat. It was absolutely amazing!! Everything appears to being going smoothly with the baby. The heartbeat was a strong 165bpm. According to the baby's measurements, I am right on schedule to have the baby on March 8, 2009, or sometime around then. She did notice a small cyst on my right ovary which she told me is completely normal and nothing to worry about. In fact, she told me that when she was pregnant with her second child, she had a cyst on her ovary that was 11cm big. Mine, however, is only 4cm. She said that it will go away, but that we do need to keep an eye on it to ensure that it does go away naturally. We have another appointment in 2 weeks and will do another ultrasound to check on the cyst and the baby. Overall, everything is going well with the baby. I just can't get over how amazing this miracle is!!

Here comes Baby Strong

That's right! The time has arrived for Robert and I to become parents! We are so excited about this new adventure God has blessed us with. I was scheduled to have my first visit on July 23, but received a phone call that day at about 1:30 stating that my doctor was called in to do an emergency c-section. So we had to reschedule for July 29. We were very disappointed, but hey it happens. So we are praying everything works out for tomorrow morning. I am 8 weeks along and feeling decently well. My main complaints are that I get tired out very easy and I have been nausous. However, I don't want to complain too much because I know a lot of women have it a lot worse than I do. I just wanted to share this exciting news with you all. I will continue to post pictures and updates. If you think about it, please keep us in your prayers. They are much appreciated!!