As promised, here are some ultrasound pictures. Just so you know, ultrasound is where they send sound waves through the belly and the waves bounce back like sonar revealing bone, skin and tissue. (Grandma Euthene, a mammogram on the other hand (although unrelated) is an x-ray of womans breast looking for cancer usually!)

This is where Aubrey Ann got the nickname Peanut.

This pictures isn’t very clear, but you can see an overall shape.

Here you can see her head and shoulders.

Another picture showing upper body detail.

Here you can see Aubrey Ann’s face. She has her head tilted down slightly but is looking towards you.

Here you can clearly see her head, neck, shoulders, eye sockets, mouth and even nose!

And finally here is what Superman would see, notice anything odd about that picture?

That’s all for now, I hope you like our pictures!

Brandon and I have started getting a few things together for the nursery. We have decided not to go overboard and skip the painting process as we like the color of the walls and how it contrasts with all of our pink! It has been fun to go shopping and try to find some bargains. I am going to be hand-making some of the nursery accessories, so I am excited about that. We have just purchased the fabric for the curtains and the canopy. Everything is pink and super-girly. We just can’t seem to help ourselves!

I can’t believe that this Sunday (the 27th of January) I will officially begin my third trimester. It seems like I have been waiting for so long, yet it could never come soon enough. Aubrey Ann feels as real to me now as if I were holding her in my arms. I cherish every kick, poke, and squirm. She is such a joy. Knowing how I feel about her now makes me all the more excited for the day I will really hold her in my arms. I can’t imagine loving her more, yet I know that I will.

For months I really didn’t feel inspired to decorate the nursery, but all the sudden those nesting instincts have kicked in. Money is about as tight as my pre-maternity clothes, but we are having fun searching for bargains and doing things ourselves.

As soon as we have a little more finished we will post some pictures.  You guys can let us know what you think!

I am getting so excited about Aubrey Ann coming that I can hardly sleep at night. I think about her all night long! I am so looking forward to being a mom. It is scary, but so exciting at the same time.

I have spent so much time in prayer asking God to give us direction, and to lead us in all of our parenting choices. I want Aubrey Ann to feel Christ’s love for her through Brandon and I from the very beginning. I know that it is in Christ that Brandon and I will find the wisdom and ability to be the parents God intends us to be. I want Aubrey Ann to grow up in a home that is overflowing with God’s word and His love for our family.

I thought that this would be a good place to post some prayer requests for those of you who are praying for Brandon and I. Please pray that God directs us to the people and books or seminars that we need to be in contact with. Also, that God would reveal His Word to us through scripture, and that we should be changed because of all that we read. Pray that our walk with Him grows closer day by day, and that we would not waste opportunities to grow closer to Him in our daily life. Also pray for our finances, that God would give us exactly what we need, and help us to be satisfied with whatever we receive. And last but definitely not least, pray that God keeps our marriage strong throughout all the changes parenting will bring, helping us to remember that it is our most important relationship on earth.

I was talking with Meme Sandra yesterday about parenthood and as we were talking I was reminded of a story that I heard Dr. James Dobson tell about his father. Dr. Dobson said that from the earliest he could remember that he remembers walking by his Dad’s room at the same time everyday to find his father on his knees in prayer. Dr. Dobson said that that image had such a profound affect on him that it inspired him through all his years of ministry. He still gets choked up when talking about seeing his father on his knees. To read more by Dr. Dobson visit Family.org.

As the mother to a daughter, I realize that Aubrey Ann will look to me as an example of faith, and as an example of what a woman should be. I don’t want to disappoint her, or worse yet disappoint Christ.

Thank you for you prayers. We need them more than anything else!

Ever since I have gotten pregnant I have learned about this new thing call “Belly Etiquette”. Who would have thought that a pregnant belly would draw such attention that etiquette would be necessary? But it certainly does.

Now, I have been lucky enough to be surrounded by many people who have already learned some belly etiquette. Women who have had children, are typically aware of the need to use caution when approaching the belly subject. Women who have been pregnant within the last 5 or so years seem to posses the greatest sense of necessity to be kind to pregnant women and their bellies. I particularly enjoy the comments I get from women who have given birth within the last year. My friend Joanna, who gave birth to her son Benjamin just nine or so months ago displayed very good belly etiquette upon seeing me for the first time in several weeks. She didn’t gasp, or drop her jaw. She simply laughed, commented on how cute she thought my belly was and asked if she could touch it. This is a sign of a well-trained belly expert.

So, I have decided to give some instruction to all who read about exactly what, and what is not, appropriate to say to pregnant women about their bellies. Who knows, maybe this will save me (and other pregnant women alike) from a few awkward moments as my belly gets larger.

It is never good etiquette to:

Make beeping noises as the pregnant woman backs up.

Tape a sign on her back that says “wide load” and watch as people snicker.

To ask “What have you been eating?” and watch as the woman recalls the ice cream sundae she had the night before.

To use the “F” word (and I don’t mean the cuss word, I mean the word with three letters that has an “a” in the middle and ends in “t”) when describing any part of the pregnant body.

To use adjectives like, large, enormous, gigantic, huge, or very big. Big, is ok. Pregnant women are sensitive, but not out of touch with reality.

And of course it is never good etiquette to refer to the pregnant woman as looking like any animal, particularly those of a larger breed. Steer (pun intended) clear of comparing her to a cow, moose, elephant, hippo, or any other large mammal.

Now, for those of you who are thinking, “What in the world will I say to the next pregnant woman I see, as Mari Jo has enlightened me to a whole new world of belly etiquette,” have no fear, as I have provided you with a few choice phrases that always go over well with pregnant women.

It is always good belly etiquette to:

Refer to the belly as cute or simply give it a nice rub (at least I like that!)

Tell the pregnant woman that she looks good for how far along she is (just make sure you are aware of how far along she is before saying that).

Ignore the belly, and comment on her nice shirt.

Compliment her on her skin, hair, nails, etc.

Tell her she is glowing.

These are all appropriate ways to handle the ever sensitive belly subject. I am confident that all of you are now very well educated on belly etiquette and therefore I have no problem posting my latest belly photo for all to see. I am confident that all of you will use this lesson in etiquette to impress all of your pregnant friends and family.

Here I am at 15 weeks

22 weeks, finally showing

23 weeks showing a bit more…

And Finally….25 weeks, looking pregnant for sure!

Really, I have enjoyed sharing my few encounters with people who posses little, or no belly etiquette with some of my friends who are pregnant, or new mommies. It always makes for a good laugh!

As Mari Jo was falling asleep she said, “It feels like there are two squirrels in my belly right now.” Then about 30 seconds later she said, “I think they’re fighting over a nut.” Then fell asleep.

I think my laughing is going to wake her up!

I just love how everyday we get to experience a little “clue” as to what our little Aubrey Ann will someday be like. Well, just the other day we had a very special glimpse into who God is making in my womb.

Brandon came home from work for lunch and wanted to spend a few minutes with his girls. He leaned down to my belly and started talking. Well, Aubrey Ann is already proving to be a Daddy’s girl cause she started kicking, like she usually does, just about every time Brandon talks to her. Well, this time was a little different.

Brandon started telling her a story about what he was going to do for her first birthday. He started describing how he was going to make her a cake and let her eat it all. He went on and on, and I just couldn’t stop giggling because it seemed like every time Brandon said the words “first birthday”, Aubrey Ann gave me a nice big kick! Pretty soon Brandon started saying those magic words just to see if he could get a rise out of her, and sure enough, just about every time he said it we both felt a good kick!

I am not exactly positive what this says about our little girl, but I like to speculate that she has already developed a sweet tooth like her Mama.

Or maybe she already knows how many people love her and just can’t wait to come out and have a big party with everyone invited. Or maybe she just loves her Daddy and his voice as much as I do and would be excited no matter what he said to her. All I know is that I feel like I know her already. She is our little night-owl, Daddy’s girl, who loves to take midday naps. She is starting to sound like a perfect mixture of me and her Daddy!

We love you baby girl!

If you read Mari Jo’s post about nesting, then you are familiar with what this has meant for me. Basically the bed is split up into 4 parts. Me, being bigger than Mari Jo used to get 2 parts of the bed, sometimes even 3 parts. Now everything has changed.

Just to help put this in perspective, I’ve made two little graphics that depict exactly what has happened.

Before the Nesting…

(click for bigger picture)

After the Nesting…

(click for bigger picture)
As you can see, this “motherly instinct” has increased Mari Jo’s sleeping time, but reduced my bed size!

Oh, in her defense she says, “I can’t help it, I’m sleeping for two!”

Oh well, I’d rather be sleeping close to her anyways, just don’t tell Mari Jo or she’ll use it against me!

For the last couple of weeks our little Aubrey Ann has decided to start me on the long process of getting ready for motherhood. She is sleepy all day, then it seems like around 10:00pm or so, she wakes up and gets to kickin’! Once she settles down, I fall asleep. But she is right back at it again in just a couple of hours. She wakes me up about three times a night with her kicks. Now, I know she is only 11 or so inches long, but it feels like she is popping a bag of popcorn in my belly. I swear this girl must take after Brandon, because she is all arms and legs.

I always welcome her little kicks because it lets me know she is there, and Brandon has enjoyed talking to her and feeling a little kick on his mouth! But lately it doesn’t feel like one, sweet, little baby inside, it feels like she has invited a friend over to my abdomen and they have decided to wrestle. Or maybe they are having a baby tap dance contest.

Her sleep cycle is making me a bit nervous, but to quote my friend Joanna as she posted on her blog for her son Benjamin, “Sleep is so overrated”. I hope I feel that way someday!

So lately I have come up with a new way to sleep that I think keeps me asleep for a little longer that usual. Brandon and I have endearingly called it “Nesting”. I take pillows and place them on both sides of my body, then I tuck them under my knees, my lower back, and my belly. So essentially, I am in a pillow cocoon by the time I am ready to sleep.

Brandon is none to excited about this “nesting” and thinks it is a ploy to get more bed room. He is mistaken, I am just laying claim to what is rightfully mine, besides Aubrey Ann needs her room too!

I always knew I would learn a thing or two from Aubrey Ann about motherhood, I just didn’t think it would start so soon!

We love you baby girl, keep it kickin’!

For the last 3 weeks or so Brandon and I have been awaiting a truly exciting event. This event marks a very important point in our pregnancy, if not our entire lives. This event can, and will be a symbol of even greater things to come, a foreshadowing if you will. What could be so important? You guessed it, we are waiting for the day that my belly button will stick out.

Why would anyone be so excited about trading in a perfectly normal innie, for a stretched, itchy, even embarrassing outie? Well, let me tell you, there are several reasons that Brandon and I awake each morning ringing our hands in wait for my belly button to say hello.

First, pregnant bellies are somewhat slow-growing bellies. Sure they might grow faster than a person on a “Krispy Kreme” diet, but if you see it everyday, it tends to get a bit slow growing. So now Brandon and I are waiting for something new to happen, something to show what progress has been made. I have spent six months growing a little person, don’t you think it is time for my belly button to stick out? I mean every time I’ve grown a person before….oh….wait….well, never mind.

Point number two: The Belly (notice I call it ‘The Belly’ and not ‘my belly’? That is because it has taken on a life force of it’s own and therefore deserves to be called by it’s own name, hence ‘The Belly’) has become an important source of much needed comedic relief in our household. Suddenly, things that I do that are not so funny (such as standing, bending over, and ah yes, even dressing) are now goofy, awkward, and even hilarious.

Shirts getting stuck on my head (yes it happens to everyone, including me) were once a minor annoyance, a small pebble in the road of life. But now, these common occurrences are just plain funny. I would like to think that all this laughter in my household is due to my finely tuned sense of humor and wit. But, I can only take credit where credit is due, and I am afraid that all the credit belongs to The Belly. So, we figure, that when the belly button pops, The Belly will become even more funny, and we can always use more funny.

Lastly, we are both quite excited about seeing our Aubrey Ann, and we both have a funny feeling that she has something to do with The Belly. So we sort of look at the belly button as a timer, even one of those meat thermometers that pops out when the meat has hit a certain temperature. Maybe it is the same with baby peanut, as soon as my turkey timer pops, it’s a signal that she’s done and can come out of my “Mommy oven” any time.

Somehow I get the feeling that this turkey timer is going to pop well before Thanksgiving, but oh well. The truth of the matter is, the belly button is going to pop sometime, so we might as well celebrate it’s arrival.

So in honor of this very special event, we have placed a poll to the left of your screen asking you when you believe my belly button will make it’s debut. The weeks range from just a week or so away to never. If you put never, you are really nice, but you have obviously never witnessed the magnificence that is The Belly, and therefore have clouded judgment. So vote, and if your really brave, leave a comment at the end of the message by clicking on “Leave a Comment!” and state why you chose the week that you did. I will make a post and tell everyone when the big day comes!

* I must end this post with a warning, or rather an apology. There are many posts in this blog that will be quite serious, and perhaps I should provide some type of warning for those of us who might not be too sure which posts to take seriously, and which to simply ignore. That being said, this is a rather silly post, and should be given no credence what so ever.

**Do not come up to me and ask to see my belly button. I will not show it to you, it could be dangerous as I’ve heard they can poke your eye out! Besides, when was the last time someone asked you to lift your shirt and expose your belly button? Come on, that is just private!

The last 3 hours were spent putting the finishing touches on the website. Surprisingly though, I didn’t do it alone. Mari Jo was extremely excited to get the header logo finished and the baby hand and foot up there. I must say, it looks really good.

It feels a little different building a website and knowing that in a few years the person you built it for will be reading it, and hopefully posting to it!

We also added a cool little countdown timer to show exactly how many days, hours and minutes are left until blast off. As of this post, there are 121 days, 3 hours and 23 minutes until we get to see our little girl for the first time. I can hardly wait.

See you soon little girl!