A Taste of Fall

This weekend ended up being beautiful! The air is crisp and cool, reminding me that fall is just around the corner. I am so excited for Sunday afternoon football games, being able to turn off the AC let the fresh air spill inside, the leaves changing colors...fall is my favorite time of the year :)

We had a busy weekend: on Saturday we went up to Lake James with our doctor and his family. Blake and I photographed his entire family-8 adults and 8 children, including three sets of twins! While it was somewhat challenging working with toddler attention spans (of course I am referring to the children, not the adults :)), they are a beautiful family and we thoroughly enjoyed our time with them. When we got back from the lake, I found my knitting bag opened on the living room floor and balls of sock yarn strewn around. Oh, and there was a bite out of one of yarn bags I had from Knitting Off Broadway! Tanner was the obvious culprit...the bite gave it away. The minute I came in and spotted the bag, he flew onto the couch, ears back, and braced himself. I had to laugh...he didn't ruin anything in my bag. It seemed as though he was just letting me know, "Mom, I could have done it if I wanted to!"

Quick baby update! Today we are 14 weeks pregnant and have our next doctor appointment this Friday. The baby is 3 1/2 inches long and weighs 1.5 ounces, roughly the size of a lemon. Heartrate is still around 160 bpm. Knowing that at our upcoming ultrasounds we could find out whether we are having a boy or girl is tempting at times, but we are going to wait and find out once baby makes his/her debut! I'll update more after our appt. on Friday :)

End of the First Trimester

I am so glad to have made it to this point! It's so exciting to see my body changing and watch the baby growing. On Saturday we had another ultrasound. It was amazing as always...I could see the baby's tiny finger bones and his/her little legs and feet! We could even see the stomach and jaw bone. Baby was sucking his/her thumb...a habit I had forever :)

On Sunday afternoon my mom did a few pictures for Blake and I to mark the end of the first trimester...Here are a few of those along with some ultrasound pictures, I treasure these...

Tiny Toes

Blake and I have been so blessed to have a doctor who really cares about us. Our first OB appt. is on Thursday, but yesterday our doctor stopped by my office and asked if we would like another ultrasound. Of course I said yes! So he told us to come by the office later in the day. It has been so neat to see the way the baby is developing and how quickly things change!

While the pictures don't show it, as he moved the ultrasound probe over my stomach we could clearly see facial features like eyes and the little nose. We could also see the cutest tiny toes and the bottom of a foot. At the beginning of the scan, baby was just laying there, but all of a sudden he/she started jumping around! It was the coolest thing I've ever seen! Blake and I were both stunned and laughing out loud. I can't wait until we can feel those kicks and acrobatics.

The baby's heart rate was 160, which is very strong. It has gone up slightly from 157 last week. As far as size goes, baby is a little over 1 inch long and weight 1/4 oz. I think I had better go order some Pizza King to help baby grow! (Pizza King has been my craving for the past few weeks, I literally have them on speed dial...who would have thought!)

August Already?!

I can hardly believe today is August 1. This summer has gone by so fast and I know August will fly as well with all the birthdays and back to school for Blake and my brothers. We have so many August birthdays in our family...Gavin turns 3 today, Alex turns 11, Phil turns 23, Ryan turns 31, Aaron will be 19, Grandma Mary turns 79, Adam will be 29, and Emerson will celebrate her 1st birthday at the end of the month. That means lots of cake for me to eat :)

Blake and I did some work in the nursery this week. To utilize space, we purchased a closet system for the baby and Blake put the entire thing together himself. (I cheered him on and handed him parts!) We also took our first trip to Babies R Us together and decided that Blake will be responsible for selecting a girl's 'coming home' outfit and I will select a boy's outfit. We will bring both to the hospital and use whichever is appropriate. We enjoyed looking at the tiny clothes, but we will need to wait until the winter clothes come out to select our outfits.

Blake has been so supportive and kind to me (as he always is!) He does sweet things every day, but on two separate occasions this week he took me on a date and brought me home beautiful roses. I appreciate him so much. He puts such great effort into our marriage, school, and work...he really deserves praise for the amazing job that he does as a husband and provider.

The terrible nausea I was experiencing has decreased a lot this week. I'm still very uncomfortable and exhausted, but I began worrying when I wasn't feeling as terrible as I had been. (Crazy-I felt bad for feeling good...if that makes sense!) The girls in L&D were so sweet, they used a fetal doppler to find the baby's heartrate for me this morning. At first, we couldn't find it, all we could pick up was my slow heart rate. But then we heard it loud and clear, hiding under my pubic bone was the little peanut with the same heart rate as last week-157. Blake and I are ordering our doppler today and I think it will greatly help when I begin to worry. I know that I must have faith and trust God's timing, but it is a struggle for me. There are parts of my work that expose me to things that most women and certainly most pregnant women never see. There is no safe date, or point where I will feel like we are out of the woods. That won't happen until the baby is here and then I'm sure I'll have a whole new set of worries! However, I need to be reminded to enjoy every single moment and to be thankful for this amazing gift. As I begin to see visible changes in my body I am in awe, this is the greatest thing that has ever happened to us and I feel so fortunate.