36 Weeks & Counting!

Here are pics from today...at 36 1/2 weeks, but guess what? We had a GOOD report at the doc's this Friday! Baby has dropped, she is definitely "head down" and in position, and I am dilated 2 cm! Other great and encouraging news to share: doc believes baby will be small (maybe even under 7 lbs!!), and believes that 38 weeks may be a reality for going into labor! Yea!!! That would be right around Thanksgiving! And, we know - no "holding our breath" on that projection - but the thought of delivering early, possibly having a small baby, and maybe avoiding a December birthday are all exciting things to hear! So, we'll just continue to wait and see!!

Also today, our church had a lovely shower for us - some really sweet women gathered to pray for us, for the baby, and to bless us with gifts. It was really precious and I felt truly showered (and encouraged!) by a wonderful group of women so close to us here in Maplewood. Don't have any pictures from tonight...and I still need to get pictures up from Heidi's shower!

Stay tuned for more exciting updates...another doc appt in the middle of this week!

Today has been a mix of emotions. For starters, we had our second appt with the new doctor earlier this morning. We are still a bit unsettled about our feelings for our doctor, though we feel overall she knows what she's doing...it's more a personality preference. We were pleasantly surprised that she took a few quick moments to check the size of the cyst - and it has gone down in size slightly! We learned that if it had grown in size instead, there is a risk of it twisting and eventually cutting off blood circulation and there are consequences to that situation that I'm still not sure I understand! Anyway, we got a 5 second glimpse of our little baby again, this time looking like it was waving at us as if to say, "Hello!!" (We know - we have quite an imagination about this baby who is not aware, but what new parents don't?) The doc did give us one little picture, where the baby totally looks like an alien: it's mostly just the head with hollow eyes and a skinny spine going up to its head. Kinda funny to us!

Later in the day, we received our first fun little baby items (besides the little robe that Lori picked up for us from a local "free" store - shown in the left of the pic below - thanks Lori!). David's parents found some cute little burping clothes, and receiving blanket and some onesies - all unisex of course! Hard for us to believe that our baby will likely be smaller than those first outfits!

A Little Peanut!

May 7th

This day was rather eventful for us. We headed to my OB/GYN of 8 years for the first prenatal exam and to verify pregnancy. Much to our dismay, we discovered by the end of the appointment that we definitely could not use this doctor through our current health insurance. Super bummer that I have to find someone totally new for such an important time! The amazing thing that happened that completely blessed us was a surprise ultrasound! We were told that our doctor bills for that separately (and we were planning to have it done somewhere else), until we were in the room with her when we learned that she always does an ultrasound on the first baby visit to check for a heartbeat! Yea!! So, we weren't expecting it, but we got to see our little peanut-shape child! And, we got to see the little racing heart! Truly amazing - clearly a little tiny piece of life there!! There we were, at maybe 7 or 8 weeks of pregnancy, only knowing we were pregnant for 2 1/2 of those, and not expecting to see our little one! One of the biggest blessings for me was when the doctor showed us the different between her moving the wand-thingy and the baby moving around. What a funny joy to see that! :) And, we fully expected them to determine that the baby wasn't quite as old at 7-8 weeks, but the baby's size showed up closer to the 8 week mark...which is just crazy to internalize that already we were 2 months along!

We celebrated afterwards by stopping at one of our fav places: Bread Co.

Later that night, Becky attended the first of a 6+ month series of free classes offered at the Pregnancy Resource Center. We are awarded points for attendance, doing "homework," going to church (and taking notes :] ), and even bringing the father along! Once we accumulate 6 consecutive weeks, we get our points, and get to go "shopping" at their shop for diapers, bottles, blankets, even cribs, pack-n-plays, and almost anything you can imagine for a new mommy or baby! Fun, helpful, and hopefully an opportunity to meet some other women going through the same stage in life!