Wow- I'm shocked!  I figured for sure that Walt would post the pics today... guess I was wrong.  Here are the first pictures of our little one.  My favorite is the one that says "Hi Family" on it, because you can see the little umbilical cord!  Oh, and side note- the picture that says "Hi Evan" was made especially for our friend who is a little creeped out by sonogram pictures... Evan is not our baby name choice (sorry, Evan!).  Haha!

 

 

 

 

Okay, a quick baby update before I go to bed...  I'm sure Walt will post more tomorrow, probably with pictures...

We went to the doctor today, and were absolutely thrilled to get a great report.  We got to see our baby & his/her heartbeat (Walt got to see it better than I did, actually), we got a handful of our baby's first pics (which have to be scanned before I can post them), and I got an official due date.  We are expecting baby to arrive around July 5th!  A firecracker baby, as my dad says.   The doc was very pleased, and she said that everything looks normal and wonderful. 

Keep praying for our li'l miracle as he/she makes his/her way into our world. 

Here's what's happening this week-

Your pregnancy: 8 weeks

 

How your baby's growing:

New this week: Webbed fingers and toes are poking out from your baby's hands and feet, his eyelids practically cover his eyes, breathing tubes extend from his throat to the branches of his developing lungs, and his "tail" is just about gone. In his brain, nerve cells are branching out to connect with one another, forming primitive neural pathways. You may be daydreaming about your baby as one sex or the other, but the external genitals still haven't developed enough to reveal whether you're having a boy or a girl. Either way, your baby — about the size of a kidney bean — is constantly moving and shifting, though you still can't feel it.

This is getting really old....ALREADY.  We are getting ready to go to Indiana for Thanksgiving and I'm really looking forward to that but I can't wait for us to get back so we can go to our next appointment with the doctor on the following Tuesday.  I guess I'm probably going to be in this impatient state until we know if it's a boy or girl.  I know, we still have 6-8 weeks to find that out but I want to start buying stuff and planning to buy stuff and planning to plan to buy stuff.  It's just really frustrating sitting here doing nothing.  Oh well, it's not like I have a choice in the matter.

Okay, so I'm wondering...

When you tell someone that you're expecting, is "Were you trying?" a valid question??????  Personally, I think it takes a lot of audacity to ask someone this question.  And what does it matter?  Or, why do you think it's your business?  And what is your response- if you were trying, congratulations... if you weren't, I'm sorry?? Seriously!! 

For the record, no- we weren't trying, just practicing...

I guess it's my turn to contribute something to this blog.. haha!  This has been an emotional roller coaster so far... first, finding out that a little one was on the way, then worrying that maybe I was wrong, then finding out I was definitely right, then finding out that things are not as far along as we'd thought, and now, waiting, waiting, waiting to get through the riskiest part of the pregnancy.  Once I'm well past the 4 weeks mark (and we really don't know where I am at this point, but I'd bet I'm past it), the miscarriage risk decreases significantly- praise God!  I'm so paranoid right now, because I don't want to do anything to jeopardize the life of this little one.  Few women are fully aware that they're pregnant at this early stage, and so, understandably, they go on living their lives the same old way.  I, however, have the benefit of knowing what's going on inside my body right now, and so I have to act accordingly.  Not that I have bad habits to give up, necessarily, but I just have to be aware of my surroundings & not put ANYTHING inside my body that could potentially harm our baby.  It's a huge responsibility and very scary at times.  On top of this, we have the emotions and excitement of all of our family & friends... don't get me wrong, we're excited, too... but I just have this huge fear of something happening.  Then what?!  I definitely understand why some people wait until they're past the first trimester before they start telling people.  I don't think I could handle that, though!! I was about to burst! 

My biggest "problem" right now is that the devil is trying to throw all kinds of crap at my brain.  He is trying so hard to fill me with fear and doubt.  And, so, I am begging God to guard my heart and mind against it all.  I have to remind myself of a few things.  First, God revealed my pregnancy to at least three people before He revealed it to me.  So, I've had people praying about it since before I knew that it was happening!  There are so many people standing in the gap for me and holding us & our wee one before God.  Second, the doctor said that if she had any reason to doubt that this was a perfectly normal, healthy pregnancy, she would've ordered blood work to verify hormone levels... and she didn't!  She said that everything looks great and she fully expects to see me back on the 27th and get some great pics of our little peanut.  Above everything else, I know that God is the Creator and He is the giver of life... even now, as this little one is in my womb, God knows him or her, and his or her life is precious to God. 

I hate waiting!  Patience is not my thing.  I hate that life feels so crazy and unfamiliar right now... but, then, God often takes us out of our comfort zones for His purposes.  I think that I'll feel TONS better, emotionally, after the next appointment because we'll get to SEE our baby.  Yay.  Warm fuzzies.

We had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday to verify our findings.  It was a little frustrating because even though they confirmed that Melinda is prego, they did not see the embryo sac yet.  The Dr said that she is not as far along as we thought.  She is probably only about 4 weeks.  I guess the sack doesn't start forming until 6-8 weeks?  Anyways, we have another appt on the 27th of Nov and should have pictures then. 

Now we are pretty much in the wait state which is kind of difficult.  We've already started looking at baby stuff.  Furniture, strollers, toys, clothes, etc.   I told Melinda that we didn't need to start buying a lot of stuff until we knew exactly what was going on.  By that I mean, a more definite due date, whether it's a boy or girl, those kinds of things.  It's hard though.  There are some really cool things out.  Where was this stuff when I was a kid? LOL  I guess right now I need to put all my focus and time into getting the condo finished and on the market.

Ok, first off, this is very weird for me.  I'm not a journal keeper, writer or blogger in any sense of the imagination.  However, I think I'm going to try it out for a while.

 Well, a week ago today was Melinda's Bday.  We were getting ready for work and got a call from David saying that Kristi was on her way to the hospital for delivery of Abby!  So we started off the day with excitement.  At some point in the morning, I guess Melinda thought she was pregnant and tried a home pregnancy test.  Somehow the test was messed up and so at lunch she told me about it and she wanted to go the store to get another one.  Well, at some point that afternoon she called me over to her office.  When I got there she pulled out the test and it was positive.

I can't really remember the timing exactly but somewhere during that same time I got a call from David saying that Abby was born and everyone was doing well. 

 

 So we had a pretty exciting day, to say the least. 

 Ok so, I'm not one for showing an extreme amount of emotions.  This whole pregnancy thing for me was very mixed emotions.  I was/am excited that I'm going to be a daddy, however it wasn't in my perfect little time plan.  I wanted to have the condo sold and be in a house before we started trying to have kids.  I had figured some time around spring we would start trying.  Our timing isn't always God's timing so I accepted the fact that we were going to be parents.  Over the weekend I really started to take it to heart and have become more excited.  For example, I had to be the first to buy something...LOL  So I went and bought some Disney baby stuff late Saturday night after everyone had gone to bed.  Thank goodness because we told some people Sunday and they bought something and brought it to us Sunday night.