Our Baby Boy!

Well, here he is!!! At least, here he is at this point in the process! We had our 19 week ultrasound last Wednesday, and it far exceeded our expectations. We had no idea how long it would be or that it would be 4D. And we certainly didn't know if he would cooperate. Notice how freely I'm writing he? We have absolute, 3D confirmation that he is a boy, but we chose not to add that picture on here! But it was so wonderful. We saw all his toes and all his fingers, and he moved all around and showed off for us! It makes it feel even more real. And on top of that, Dan was able to feel him kick last night! It was just one little thump, but that was neat for both of us!

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We haven't heard any news back from the ultrasound, so we are assuming that everything looked normal. But one interesting thing is that he was measuring about a week ahead of where he should be with my due date. It would be odd if he's farther along since we know exactly when our procedure happened, so maybe he's just a big boy! Both Dan and I were pretty big babies! We'll see. So I guess I'll just refer to my due date now as the beginning of April!

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We continue to do well! Last weekend was really special because Dan was ordained as a Deacon at our church (First Baptist of Orlando). Dan's parents came and my mom flew down at the last minute (for 24 hours) to come to his ordination. It was such a special time, and we're both excited for him to serve in that way!

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And we're both looking forward to Thanksgiving! We'll be in Leesburg this year, so there will be more food than we can imagine! And on Friday, Dan has promised to go shopping with me for a little while! I never go when we're down here because I don't have my mom to go with me. So this year will be a first for us down here!

We wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for, and we hope that you do too!

Fun in SC! (And NC and GA!!!)

On Fridays, I work half a day at the counseling center and half a day at Dan's office. Today I finished my work here early, so I'm doing a little blogging! Things continue to go well here. We don't have any baby pictures to share this time, but we do have pictures from our recent travels. Early in October, we took a little trip to Savannah, so I'm including a couple of pictures from that trip. And last weekend, we went up to visit my family in SC/NC. My parents now live in Tryon, NC, but we spend a lot of our time still in SC! We have had a fun month of travel!

Here are some pictures from Savannah. We didn't take many.

Our first night at dinner!

The historic Savannah Trolley tour! (By the way, I like Savannah, but it has nothing on Charleston!)

The view from our hotel room!

Now here are our pictures from last weekend. Oh yeah, I also started feeling the baby move last weekend! I love those little flutters!

The view from my parents' deck!

Family picture (minus Chris, who was working)!



Dan and I with Megan, Dan's sister!

The kids with Happy and Snappy (aka Elvis and Jerry Lee), my parents' newest additions!

Ross, Zach, Heather, Me, Dan, and Megan at the North Greenville football game!

Sweet little Happy and Snappy!

It was a great weekend, and a great way to ring in turning 31, which I did on Monday!

Sorry for the delay...

Here are our latest baby pictures! These are from last Monday, the 15th, right before 15 weeks pregnant! And guess what? Our doctor says she's 90% sure that we're having a boy! We're so excited that Baby Rock cooperated and let us get a good shot! I didn't include those pictures! He was shy at first - all balled up as you can see in the picture above. But we took a break and Dan gave him a little pep talk, and he moved for us! The second picture is his little foot! Dan likes that one because he's already hoping he will be a great soccer player!

I've been feeling great! My first trimester was not bad at all, and now most of the little things I experienced are gone. I still get tired more quickly and go to bed around nine, but I feel really well overall. I'm showing just a little bit. I've already made the transition to maternity clothes. It may have been a little sooner than I needed to, but let's face it, I knew that would happen!

We've been doing well. Work has been busy for both of us. I have been facing a lot of challenges with hurting clients at work, and that has been quite draining for me. I would appreciate your prayers for wisdom and strength during this demanding time. One thing I pray is that my stress level won't get too high because I want to keep this baby boy safe and healthy!

We celebrated our third anniversary on October 9th! It's been a great and really fast 3 years! We were able to go to Savannah to celebrate. We stayed downtown in the historic district, and after a very rainy day and a half, we had really nice weather on the last day! After that, we went to visit with my brother, Ross, and his family and also went to see my grandparents! It was a very nice long weekend!

On Thursday, we're headed up to the mountain! Hooray!!!! We're going to visit with my parents and also with Dan's sister, Megan. She's a student at North Greenville, and it's their homecoming this weekend. We're really looking forward to it!

OK! That's all for now! So sorry that I'm not a frequent blogger!!!!

Latest Pictures!

Well, you guys may not be quite as enthralled with seeing lots of pictures of our baby as we are, but we're going to share anyway! I had my first real doctor's appointment yesterday, and not only did I get to have an unexpected ultrasound, but I also got to see one in 4D! It was so cool. The baby was moving around, and it was so much fun to see! One thing we're not quite sure of, though: why is our baby resting in a great big ear in the top picture???!!! It really looks that way, doesn't it?

Things are going well here. I'm feeling a little better but I'm still very tired. I'm hoping that subsides in the next couple of weeks, as I hear things are usually a little better in the second trimester. We can't wait to find out the sex of the baby. If we're lucky, we'll find out at our next appointment in 4 weeks. That will be a little early, but it's possible!

We are trying to prepare Alli, our furbaby, for the new arrival. We have talked to her a lot about baby Rock, but she doesn't seem interested right now. She will be confused when I have a great big belly and she can't cuddle up to me in the same way! I know, I know, we're a little bit crazy. I know things will change with her in big ways when the baby comes!

Well, I don't really know what else to post right now. Nothing too exciting is going on in our every day lives! Enjoy the pictures!

Baby Pictures!

We got to have another ultrasound today! We feel really blessed that, at nine weeks, we've already gotten to see the baby twice! We hope that trend continues! Last time, the baby just looked like a blob, but today "he" looked like a gummy bear! The heartbeat is strong, and it's so good to hear that little sound! Today we officially graduated from the Center for Reproductive Medicine, and I see my OBGYN for the first time in two weeks! They gave me this great tote bag full of cool stuff, including a teddy bear! I joked that I guess you get stuff like that when you pay so much for your baby! Actually, we were blessed and could have had to pay a lot more!

I'm doing well overall. I've definitely had some times when I felt yucky, but I know it could be worse. I'm definitely tired all the time! Dan asks sometimes how I know I'm tired from pregnancy because it's normal for me to be tired! But believe me, I know! We're just so excited to be having a baby! It gets a little more real every day!

That's the big stuff in our lives. We had a fun time with Dan's family celebrating his sister, Megan's birthday on Sunday. She's getting to bond a lot with my parents now that she's attending NGU! She gets homesick for down here, and when she's at my parent's house, I get homesick for there! But I'm so glad she has a home away from home!

Well, that's about it for now!

Great Update!

We saw our baby today! It was so wonderful! It has taken the reality of being pregnant to a whole new level! To be honest, at first, when the doctor said he saw the heartbeat, I thought I did too, but I wasn't even actually looking at the baby. Our sweet baby looked more like a blob, but then again, he is only 8 mm long! But we got to hear the heartbeat, and it was beautiful and strong! Hooray! For the record, I am six weeks, five days today, and my due date is April 10!

On a different note, we had a really fun, albeit busy and tiring, weekend! We went to Birmingham to our friend Chad's wedding. Dan was in the wedding, so he was busy, but I was also able to keep busy visiting with friends! We stayed with our friends, Anne and George Lawton. It was so great to catch up with them! And I also got to visit with my friend Deanna and her husband, Adam, and their baby, Reese! It was so refreshing to be with all of these friends!

Dan's sister headed off to college today! She's going to North Greenville University, where my dad works. I think she's both nervous and excited! But I think she will love it up there! We are definitely praying for her!

If we get a scanned copy of our baby picture that will look good on here, we'll post that soon! Thanks for your prayers, everyone!

GREAT NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, you know that 0%/100% thing I wrote about in the last post - about whether our IUI would work? Well, looks like God gave us the 100%! We found out Monday that I'm pregnant!!!! We're so excited! I had a blood test on Monday and again on Wednesday, and everything looks good! It's very early, of course. We just had the procedure a little over two weeks ago, but we're staying positive. And we're way too excited to keep it a secret (besides, how could we when almost everyone knew about the IUI?). So we're letting people know so that they can praise God with us and pray for a healthy and successful pregnancy.

I don't have an official due date yet, but it should be some time in the beginning of April. I have an ultrasound scheduled for August 20th, so we should know more at that time. I can't wait to see that little heartbeat! After over two years of waiting, it's sooo exciting!

Well, we do thank you for your prayers. We know that they made all the difference. We rejoice and praise God for his goodness to us. It's really very overwhelming! We'll keep you posted.

PS: We had a great trip to see my parents last week. It is so beautiful up there, and it was very relaxing. We'll post some pictures soon!