Is she pregnant?

Sorry for our failure to take a picture last week. I am not sure why it seems hard to get that done some weeks. This week has been an exciting one for us. I finally got to feel our little passenger kicking. Melissa woke me up early one morning and told me touch her belly. She was kicking up a storm and gave me the chance to feel her kicking quite a few times.

Melissa is still feeling good. So, no news is probably good news in that respect. For those of you who do not know Melissa is substitute teaching right now which means she is at a different school most days. At almost six months pregnant, she has gotten a kick out of hearing middle and high school students whispering about whether or not they think she is pregnant, pretty much every day. It usually goes something like this, "Is she pregnant?" Then another student responds, "I don't know. Ask her." They rarely ask, which is probably the safer choice on their part, but we do find it funny that they really can't tell.

Well, that is all we have for you this week.

...Still a Girl

Well, another week another pound or five, as Melissa would say. No, really, she's the one that said that. I'm not dumb enough to say that about my pregnant wife. Our little passenger continues to move around only enough for her mother to feel her. Our little girl has been so jumpy lately that she has even startled Melissa into laughter. Melissa has noticed that she definitely moves around the most in the middle of the night.

Our little passenger weighs 1 lb and 1 oz as of last Friday. We actually had another ultrasound. Melissa's amniotic fluid was a tiny bit low at our 20 week ultrasound so they had us come back to check on it last Friday. Thankfully, everything was right on track when we went back on Friday. One great thing about having to go back was getting to see our little girl again! She was sitting (or floating?) with her little ankles crossed at one point causing a reaction of "awes" from the ultrasound techs and Melissa. They were also able to confirm again that we are indeed still having a girl! In fact, what the tech said was, "it's still a girl," to which I thought, "Was there a chance that was going to change in the last two weeks?" Still, reassuring to know that they didn't make a mistake the first time around.

Here is our prayer this week for our daughter comes from 1 John 5:18, "...that they keep your word and that your love will be perfected in them."

What's In A Name?

We are in week 22 with our little passenger. Things are going well. Melissa is busy working and drinking lots and lots and LOTS of water. I am working on finishing up grad school, Margot (our newfoundland) has been figuring out ways to escape from our yard (4 times actually), and last, but certainly not least, our little girl is busy growing! She should be almost 1 lb by now. Melissa said her movements used to always feel like gentle prodding but have begun to feel more like sharp jabs and pokes (I think she's going to be a black belt). Melissa doesn't mind though. We are both looking forward to me being able to feel our little passenger's movements as well. Melissa thinks she has felt her movement on the outside but is not quite sure.

We have known we are having a little girl for a week and a half and and she is already developing a cute wardrobe thanks to excited family and friends. Our name discussions are also progressing nicely. We have not made any decisions, but we are making headway. Our lack of a decision may be for the best since we are planning to keep her name a secret until she is born. I don't think it will be easy for us (meaning Melissa) to keep it a secret once we have made our decision. I'm a vault. I'll lock it down.

Her grandparents and us are praying a verse over our little passenger each week. The verse for this week is 2 Peter 3:18.
"But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen."

Pink Lady Cake!

We are having a little girl! We had our 20 week ultrasound on Friday and she was not lady-like enough to keep it from us. We were just happy she didn't keep her legs crossed the whole time. It was April Fool's day, after all. We were both surprised. For whatever reason, we both had it in our heads that the passenger would be a boy. We were both all smiles that day. After the appointment we had fun celebrating together and soaking in the news over lunch and some baby girl clothing shopping (Melissa had more fun with the shopping than I did).

We decided to tell our families all together today. Yesterday Melissa spent most of the day making a cake from scratch. The cake is called Pink Lady cake and it turned out the perfect shade of pink for our big reveal! Here are some pictures and video (if we can get it to upload) from the cake cutting!

Bettin' Time

We are almost at the half way mark! It's hard to believe. Time has started to feel like it's flying by the last few weeks. Melissa is feeling great. Her congestion is gone! We started using a humidifier at night and she wonders if that has gotten rid of it, but she is not willing to test her theory. Melissa really has zero complaints as of now. She is feeling good and enjoying being pregnant. She has her energy back, as you can see in the above photo.

As Melissa wrote above, she feels the little passenger moving each day! We read that the baby is starting to be able to tell the differences between morning, afternoon and night. She has noticed that the baby tends to move most in the late afternoon and evening.

We are counting down the days to finding out the passenger's sex. Anyone want to place bets on it? You have pretty good odds. We will actually be finding out on April Fool's Day. We hope the passenger doesn't realize that and play its first joke on us. Melissa had a dream recently that the technician told us the passenger was a girl and she replied, "No. I really think it is a boy. Can you check again?" I asked her to please refrain from living this dream out in real life. Needless to say Melissa thinks it's a boy, in which case we're going to call it Wesley Snipes (you know, passenger 57).

Thank you for reading and keeping up with how we are doing on this adventure and thank you for any and all prayers you offered up on our behalf.

Man, I ain't no Wesley Snipes...(scene continues)...Wesley Snipes, Passenger Fitty-Seven!

Boy or Girl?

We're Prepared

We have had a pretty good week. We remembered Melissa's brother this week as it has been two years since he passed away. It is still difficult to believe he is really gone. It makes us sad that our children will not get to know him. He was a such a special part of the family.

We had our third visit with the midwife last Friday. Things are still looking good, and we got to hear the passenger's heartbeat again. Melissa is feeling pretty good. She definitely feels that she has her energy back, which she is thankful for. Her only complaint is nasal congestion, which apparently is a pregnancy symptom and not cold related in her case. She read that if you get congested it probably will not subside till the baby is born... I guess we will need to stock up on Kleenex.

The most exciting thing that happened this week was probably Melissa feeling the baby move for the first time. She sneezed and then felt the passenger pushing back a little. She has now felt the baby move quite a few times and always tells me. I unfortunately will not get to feel the baby for another couple months probably.

We're continuing to prepare for the baby. I got a gun this week...a shotgun. So, if we have a girl, we're set.

Well that is about it for now. We hope to post a picture every week from here on out. We will do our best, so stay tuned.

S/he's gonna be a soccer player!