5 Months Pregnant: Is This Real Life?

Some days, I feel like any average pregnant woman, with the normal aches and annoyances of a typical pregnancy; all worth it, of course, because of the bundle of joy waiting at the end of 9 months.  And some days, I am washed over with disbelief in that I am actually pregnant, after all of the struggles and questioning what our path would actually be.  It just hits me: holy crap, there is a miracle baby growing in my belly!  A baby I often doubted would ever exist and that I sometimes take for granted when complaints of achy feet and sleepless nights overwhelm me.  

This little girl is a very real baby, one that I am nurturing and caring for as I write this.  She reminds me of her reality by punching me in the bladder regularly.  But I am so grateful for her proof of living inside me.  At 23 weeks, I wonder how her active ways will increase as she grows.  This leads me to wondering a lot of things about my precious little daughter.

In less than 4 months, I will meet the child that will forever change our lives.  What will she be like?  Will she take on my flair for the dramatic?  Will she be practical and responsible like her daddy?  Will she be blonde or brunette?  Will she inherit Grandpa's sense of humor?  Perhaps she'll be faithful and love the Lord like Grandma? Chances are, she will be completely unpredictable and full of surprises.  And she will be loved.  Our hearts already grow day by day as the reality of her existence grows stronger with each kick, each doctor's appointment, and each day that ticks away on the countdown.

We are truly blessed with our little miracle girl.  We can't wait to meet our princess, and while we wait, we will continue to be grateful for the journey that brought us this far.  We will cherish our final months as a family of two, awaiting our future as a family of three.  I will be grateful for the back pain, the swollen fingers, and the urgent need to pee every hour.  Nothing is quite as rewarding and exciting as the period of waiting for your biggest wish to come true.

23-Week Bumpie

Pregnancy Update: It's A Girl!

Ok, a lot has happened since my last post.  Pregnancy is crazy...a lot of changes happen; it feels like it's dragging one day and then it's going SO fast the next.  Over the last few weeks, I had my 18-week check-up and heard baby's heart beat again!  The doctor found the heartbeat pretty much immediately, so no panic like last time.  :)

I started taking bumpies to document my growing belly.  I'm always taking them myself, so my face isn't in most of them...I should probably have Ryan take a few going forward.  Here are just a couple.

19 Weeks 

21 Weeks

I am wondering how I am going to double (or more) in size as this belly seems pretty ridiculous already!!

My most favorite physical development over the last couple weeks is feeling baby move.  It's still very subtle, but getting stronger every day.  Yesterday, for the first time ever, I actually felt a kick from the outside! Insane!!!

My favorite pregnancy moment BY FAR has been our anatomy scan.  We went in on Monday, July 6th.  I was 20 weeks and some change.  We did want to know the gender, but we didn't want the focus of our attention to be on finding out.  Plus, we wanted to share that special moment just the two of us.  So we told our tech right away that we DO want to know, but we want her to write it down and seal it so we could open it later.  The ultrasound itself was so amazing!  It was so detailed and the tech scanned and measured baby from head to toe.  We could see the kidneys, the umbilical cord, the four chambers of the heart, the little toes and fingers...ah, so awesome!

Later that night, Ryan and I were home together and opened our envelope so we could stop calling baby "it" and start calling baby a "he" or "she."

A girl!  What was great about opening it later was that, no matter what our "preference" would have been, we just got to spend 30 minutes looking at a healthy baby during our ultrasound and regardless of the gender, we were so SO thrilled everything looked good and now we're just so excited to meet her!

We kept the secret to ourselves for 48 hours and then had our families, plus Brooke and Jack, over on Wednesday night for the big reveal.  It was a ton of fun and everyone seemed so excited to be welcoming a girl into the world in November.  It was super fun, the pictures say it all! :)

We're really just sooooo excited.  We can't wait to meet our little princess in November.  According to the ultrasound, little girl weighs 15 ounces, almost one pound already!  She was measuring a little ahead of schedule, so she'll probably be tall like her mommy and daddy.

I should probably wrap up this crazy long post, baby girl is kicking me in the bladder anyway! ;-)

June 2015 Recap

June was a fun month and it flew by soooo quickly!  We went to Omaha, I started teaching Summer School, I interviewed for a job and accepted it, we had family visiting and I took my sister to an OB appointment on her birthday to hear little babe's heartbeat!

Omaha

Breakfast after accepting a teaching job!

Lots of Work on the Nursery!

Fathers Day Fun

Family Time