Due Date

Today is my due date! When I woke up this morning and looked at my phone I had an alert telling me that our baby was due today. I looked over at the crib to see our baby boy waking up and smiled to myself. He will be three weeks old tomorrow already! The time has gone by fast; maybe because the days and nights tend to mush together. Honestly though, he has been such a good baby. For the most part only crying when he's being changed or when he's hungry. He sleeps well, like his mother I am told, and is just the cutest thing we have ever seen. Seriously.

This past week finally brought some nice weather after over a week of cold and rain. We took Charles on his first trip to the Park on Tuesday. This trip was made even more wonderful because our good friends from Norway, Helene and Ketil, are here with their two kids and they, along with Ashley, met us at the Park for the afternoon. It was heavenly. Walking through our favorite park with our new little boy, talking with friends and enjoying the warm fall weather.. it doesn't get much better than that. Chris and I went back again on Wednesday before he had to be back at church.

If you couldn't tell already, I really love the park. I think Charles likes it too, although both times he slept through most of it. Oh well, he will come to appreciate afternoons in the park eventually!

I really love this picture of him. It makes me chuckle.

It has been fun getting to know our baby boy over the past few weeks. Granted, he doesn't do a whole lot more than sleep and eat, but he is becoming more and more alert. His facial expressions, while awake and asleep, are pretty funny. I just can't get enough of him. Even his little farts are cute! I love every little thing about him and we continue to praise God for the gift of our son and for his health and safe arrival. God is truly awesome.

My most favorite time with him is after I nurse and he falls asleep in my arms. He's so tiny and smells so good and I love how he snuggles his little head under my chin. Be still my beating heart! Sometimes I don't want to put him down. I love my Moby Wrap- I can carry him around and get things done at the same time. It's also great for trips to the park when we don't want to bring the stroller.

Chris was holding Charles while I was finishing something so I could then feed him. He was a little fussy and Chris was kissing his face when Charles got hold of his nose and started sucking on it! Poor kid, he must have been hungrier than we thought.. no milk in there baby boy! haha. It was super cute and we both got a good laugh from it.

Without Further Ado...

... I would like to introduce you to our baby boy, Charles Gabriel

It was love at first sight..

We are so thankful to God for our beautiful, healthy little boy. Every time I look at him I am in awe at this little miracle that God has given us. We continually praise Him for all that He has done and all that He will do for our family. He truly is our Provider and Creator. We have so much love in our hearts for Charles, to the point of overflowing. He is just so precious and perfect! We know that God was with him as he grew and developed inside me, knitting him together into the little baby we hold in our arms now and we trust fully that God will continue to be with him as he grows up.

I just can't get enough of my little boy. I love looking at him and holding him and kissing him. I can't believe he is finally here! It's crazy how such a tiny little thing can cause so much joy and love in our hearts. We loved him before he was born and now that he is here it's amazing how much more love we feel. Thank you Jesus for our little boy. Please give us the strength, patience, wisdom and love to raise him into the man you want him to be.

My cup runneth over!

Big Blessings, Tiny Clothes

As my last day of bedrest approaches I am filled with a mixture of feelings. I am so happy that this part is almost over. I am excited and anxious for the arrival of our little baby- I can't believe that it is almost here! It's crazy to think how much love we have for our baby already and he/she hasn't even been born yet. 

I am also overwhelmed and so very thankful for how our God has been faithful to us throughout this time, and the whole pregnancy. We have been so encouraged by the cards, gifts, generosity, prayers and words of encouragement we have received from our family, friends, people at church (here and back home), and people who don't even know us. God truly is our Provider and has proved Himself over and over again. It brings me to tears thinking about how just a few weeks ago we were worrying about our baby and the future- what was going to happen and how we were going to make it. But our Lord knew the whole time and He has been with us and will continue to be with us. I have learned to trust Him more and He has given me peace in my heart and even though I still worry about our baby and will it be ok and how are we going to make it with me not working I can  confidently place these worries at His feet and know that He will take care of us- that God is holding us in His hands and that that is the best place for us to be. 

The past two weeks I have been on more of a 'partial' bedrest. I haven't been confined to the couch all day which has been great. We have started to get our apartment ready for the baby and this afternoon I washed all the baby clothes, blankets, booties, hats and other teeny tiny cute baby stuff. 

I love looking at the little onesies, hats and socks and imagining our baby wearing them!

We still have a lot to do before the baby gets here but I feel better knowing that the clothes have been washed and can be put away and that after tomorrow I can go full force into preparation and cleaning. woohoo!

I am now 32 weeks and three days pregnant. Do you know what that means?? Well, it means a few things actually.. It means that I have a week and four days left of bedrest. That's right, less than two weeks! woohoo! It also means that this baby is going to arrive in eight weeks or less. Wow. That is really soon! I am so excited!

I noticed something the other day when I was reading a friend's blog, but first let me back up.. 

She has a list on the sidebar of couples she knows who are expecting babies- if you read her blog too you know what I am talking about. Even before we got pregnant I remember seeing her list and thinking 'I hope some day Chris and my names will be on that list..' Well, I was really excited when I saw our names on there after we announced we were having a baby. At that time though there were a lot of other couples ahead of us on the list. I mean, we still had months to go.. Then, I was reading her blog the other day and glanced over to the right column where the list is and what did I see? There is only one couple ahead of us on the list now! One couple! I mean, I know that it's soon, but it's little things like that that kind of hit me ya know? 

Being on bedrest has been hard for a lot of reasons but one of them is that I haven't been able to do a whole lot of preparation for the baby. This is not good when you are nesting. I want to clean, get things organized, and  go shopping and I'm stuck here on the couch.  The day is fast approaching and I want to prepare. I am really looking forward to September 12th- otherwise known as my first day of freedom. To celebrate, Chris and I are going to Perkins for breakfast. This is a really special thing for us because although back home we would have four or five Perkins Restaurants to pick from, here in New York there is only one. It's in Staten Island and we have to pay $11.00 in tolls just to get there. You can see why we don't ever go there. BUT, this is a special day and therefore we will be eating at Perkins. Yeah! After that we are headed to Baby's R Us to get some things we'll need before the baby comes, most importantly a car seat. 

I did get some good news at my appointment last Thursday. My doctor put me on a less strict bedrest- I am now able to go to church and can do some walking but nothing more than around the block. It was really good to go to church yesterday and worship and have fellowship with people. And in less than two weeks I can go back to normal life. Ahh.. the taste of freedom. Not to mention I will be that much closer to meeting our sweet little baby. 

Speaking of Baby- I have made two more onesies in the last week and at the request of my mom I thought I would share them with you:

Counting Down The Days..

I will be 31 weeks on Saturday which means that I have only three weeks left of bedrest! I like the sound of that. I have been going to the doctor weekly and so far things look good. I haven't progressed and the baby seems to be doing just fine too.  I admit, this whole bedrest thing is getting pretty old though. I am so thankful to have my two old friends back, Lorelai and Rory Gilmore, to keep me company but I am halfway through the 5th season already so I'm not sure what I'm going to do when I am finished. It's been fun to watch it with Chris though. Generally, The Gilmore Girls is not a show that he would chose to watch but he has been such a good sport and I think he's actually getting into it. If we watch something together and he's missed a few episodes leading up to it he'll ask me what's going on or why is this happening and I'll have to catch him up on what he's missed. He's so great. He's getting so excited for the arrival of our baby (me too of course). 

I have been doing other things to keep me busy too. As I said in a previous post, my friend Ashley came over earlier this week and we did some knitting. I don't know if I was more patient this time or if it's the nesting but I took to it much better than the last attempt. I even learned how to pearl! 

My sister was here last weekend too. She had planned a while ago to come for a visit and be here for, and help out with, my shower. I was bummed that she would come and we wouldn't get to go out and do the things we had wanted to, but she was great. It was so nice to have her here to keep me company and help with some things. We watched movies, did our nails, talked about life, read (I FINALLY finished To The Lighthouse!!) and had good sister bonding. Also, she ran errands for me, washed dishes, made me spaghetti and was all around great. Oh, did I mention she even vacuumed our rug?? Thanks for all the help Betz :) we both really appreciate it.

Did I mention my baby shower was this weekend? Wow, baby showers mean babies, and our is on the way! I am so excited to meet our precious little one. The doctor thinks the baby will most likely come early although some women have gone all the way up to their due date so who knows. I'll tell you what I do know- I love this baby already and I just get giddy thinking about the fact that it will be here soon. 

The shower was great. It was so nice to get out of the house (and not just to go to the doctor) and see some friends, and of course to get some cute things for the baby. My friend Christa did the planning- it was so cute, with daisies on the table and a clothes line strung with cute onesies and bibs. 

This Makes Four..

Thanks for the scraps mom :)

Trying To Be Creative

My doctor confirmed on Friday that I indeed will need to be on bedrest for the next six weeks. Six weeks from now I will be  34 weeks pregnant, at that point I'm not sure what will happen- maybe partial bedrest? The goal is to get to 34 weeks. 

So... I have a lot of time on my hands. Time that can not be used for cleaning or preparing a space for the baby, no shopping or crib hunting, no cooking or going to the park. So what am I going to do with all this time? Well, my dear friend Rachel sent me the complete series of Gilmore Girls, Friends and Alias. I have finished the first season of Gilmore Girls already. My mom is sending me a book that I have wanted to read for a while and my other very good friend Ashley brought over a stack of books for me to read too- some of which I think are on The List. And, when she gets back from California we are going to tackle knitting again. Or should I say.. I will tackle knitting again. You see, Ashley is amazingly talented when it comes to sewing and knitting. You should check out here etsy shop Roses Are Blue

With all this time on my hands I thought that I too should let my creative juices flow. Or at least try. About a month ago I bought some plain white onsies with the idea of sewing cute little patches on them. I had some scrap fabric and a few clothing items that I didn't wear anymore but liked the pattern so had kept. When I had the idea I felt very ambitious and excited about my new project, and then with work and church things it kind of got pushed to the side and I wondered it I would ever actually get to it. Well, here I am. 

I used two belts and an old shirt for the fabric. To be honest, I don't really have a lot of experience in this. I don't know the proper stitch to use. I just kind of winged it. 

But I like how they turned out. I think this one is my favorite. I especially like the button.
This one was actually my first. It's a little rough. Don't judge me.
All in all, I'm pretty pleased with my creative juices. We don't know what we are having and my initial intentions were to make them all 'gender neutral'. But the butterfly was just too darn cute to pass up, plus I have a lot of pink scraps. If we have a boy I'll just have to give the girly ones away. Or keep them in case we have a girl next.

I had bought a pack of four onsises to begin with but now I'm on a roll. I had my mother in law pick me up another pack at Target last night so I can keep going. Now I just need some more scraps of fabric. 

Baby Bump Update

I'm sorry it's been so long since I have posted.. and even longer since I have shown a picture of my growing belly. I really have no excuse so I'm not going to try and give one. Please just accept my sincere apologies. 

I am 21 weeks already! What?! I have passed the halfway mark and it's feeling good. My belly is growing, Baby is moving and my ankles are disappearing. It's truly wonderful!

As far as the pregnancy itself goes, things have been pretty smooth so far and we are praising God for it. Sure there have been a few other glitches like having to cancel my flight home due to doctors orders because I am at a higher risk for blood clots and have to give myself a shot everyday of a blood thinner. Or like four trips to the doctor in one week including a visit to the ER because of a terrible UTI/kidney infection. (Let me just say, UTI's are not fun. They are even more not fun when you are pregnant.) But honestly I am not complaining. Really, I'm not, because God has been so Faithful through all of it and we have been amazed at how He has provided for us. Our little baby is healthy and growing strong and we just cant wait to meet him/her!

Speaking of him or her.. here's a picture at 16 weeks. 

We have our 20 week ultrasound appointment on Tuesday. It's always exciting to see our Baby moving around in my belly. So cool! We actually had scheduled this early at 18.5 weeks but the baby was still a bit small and was moving around a lot making it hard to take the measurements. So, we are coming back to try again. I love seeing our little baby. 

18 weeks.

Another exciting thing we are looking forward to this week is a visit from my parents. Since I was unable to come home this summer and visit they are taking a trip out here to see us. They have never come for a New York summer but it's still pretty nice in June so I am hoping for beautiful weather while they are here. July and August can get pretty miserable with the heat and humidity -something I am not looking forward to experiencing while huge at 6 and 7 months pregnant. It will be so fun to have them here.. there will be trips to the park, cafes, museums and possibly a show. Oh yes.. and shopping :) Right mom?! 

19 & 20 weeks

For Mom and Dad

To anyone else who might see this, enjoy, but I wanted to especially share this video with my parents so they could see our little one. 

I wish we lived closer so that I could take you with me to an ultrasound appointment- it's so cool to see our baby moving around in my belly. I guess this will have to do for now. 

Say hello to your grandson or granddaughter!

(This was taken last saturday at 16 weeks)

Come Again?

It has started. The comments from strangers about the size of my belly has already started. 

Personally, I didn't even think I was showing that much. The following situation leaves me to come to the following conclusions.. 

Either I am bigger than I actually perceive myself to be or young hipster guys employed at H&M know nothing about pregnancy or how to speak to a pregnant woman. It could be both, but I am leaning toward the latter. 

As I approached the counter to purchase my items at H&M today in the slightly humid weather I was looking a bit flushed and rubbing my belly. (I like rubbing my belly, pregnant women do this often, plus I was feeling pretty uncomfortable due to the fact that I really had to use the bathroom)

The young guy behind the counter comments to me: "are you due soon?"

Me: "no I have a ways to go, I'm only four months"

Stupid guy: "Oh really? I would have guessed like six months"

Me: (trying to maintain friendliness) "Haha, no.. not quite"

Doesn't know when to quit kid: "Wow, you're big. (chuckle) Fat baby!"

Me: (gathering my things and vowing never to come to this H&M again) courtesy laugh 

Yea... not really something a pregnant woman wants to hear. I was about to tell him this too but I had no time. I needed to find a bathroom ASAP.

Seriously. Add some more mousse to your faux-hawk, go check yourself out in those too-tight-for-men jeans and leave the pregnancy comments to someone who might actually know what they are talking about. 

Is this what I have to look forward to for the next five months? 

Ten to Fifteen

The picture on the left was taken at ten weeks, the one on the right at fifteen.

I thought I would finally share some belly pictures (for Bini and my parents especially), even though there isn't quite a 'baby' belly yet. But it's getting there.. oh yes.. it is definitely getting there. 

It may not be a cute baby bump yet, but there is definitely some growth. I kind of feel as though it just looks like I am getting really paunchy in the midsection. I have heard that this 'fat' stage can last until twenty weeks... I guess I'll have to wait it out. 

Due to some medical reasons with me I have to go to the doctor to check on the Baby every three weeks. So far everything is fine and God has been showing us His love and provision again and again. He is SO GOOD! It's been nice to see Baby Weaver so often too. Two weeks ago we were able to hear the heartbeat for the first time and Baby was moving and wiggling around. At one point it was upside down and pumping it's little legs up and down like some pilates move. We get to see our little one again on Saturday at 16 weeks. I can't wait! See you soon little baby in my growing belly!

I like to rub it. Hello baby in there :)

Sleep

They say that you get tired easily when you are pregnant. They say that it's because all your energy is going toward developing the little baby that is rapidly growing in your tummy. Could it also be that I am tired because I'm not getting a full night's rest due to waking up every two hours to pee???

Secrets Are Fun Part II (AKA: The Big Announcement)

I recently posted a really fun secret. So, in the theme of secrets, I guess it's time I share another one. After all, secrets are even more fun when you get to share them right? 

Well, I have been keeping a certain secret for a while and let me tell you- it's a fun one! But it sure has been hard to keep- I am just bursting inside waiting to share it with you all! 

You might be wondering what the above picture of a fig has to do with the secret I am about to share- well it is definitely related. I will explain later..

First, I would like to share a few more related photos. Maybe they will help you figure out what this secret is all about. You see, I have been keeping this for almost two months and in that time I have been purchasing things that I didn't really purchase before. Let's see if this will give you an idea... 

Any guesses so far? How about now...

This is fun, no? 

I am guessing that by now you must know what my secret is.

I'M PREGNANT!! Yep, it's true, Chris and I are having a BABY! The secret is out!

I am 11 weeks today and our baby is about the size of a FIG this week! (I told you I would explain how that first photo was related to the secret) 

This sonogram was taken at about 9 weeks. At that time our baby was the size of a grape. We were able to see the heartbeat and Baby was even wiggling around! It was so amazing!
Here is a close up. 
We are so excited about our little miracle growing inside me. My due date is October 24th and we just can't wait to meet our little baby. It will be fun to see more pictures of how our baby is developing and of course of my growing belly. (No bump yet- but when it comes I will definitely begin posting!) 

So there you have it folks, now you know our big secret. :)