Here goes nothin'

I've been hesitating to post pictures of me and my belly online...just because I don't want the whole world to see. However, I've had some requests from people who don't live close and figure it's safe on the blog because it's only open to people who've been invited.

Here is a picture of me at 16 weeks and then 18 weeks, which is what I'm at now.

I feel like I'm growing every day. Though that may be an exaggeration, I'm certainly getting bigger quickly! It takes getting used to having a belly. Of course, Andrew is loving it!

Telling Grandpa & Grandma

Way back in January, this is how we told my parents we were pregnant. They were over at our place and I told Dad I had a question about painting the spare room and asked them to come upstairs. We had painted this on the wall and when my Mom walked in she read it and just kind of looked at it in a very confused sort of way. She looked at me, looked at the wall, then back at me and finally clicked in. Dad heard her excited congratulations before he even got in the room to read the wall. It was priceless :) I took this picture and kept forgetting to post it.

Carson Jeffery

Carson Jeffery was born on Thursday, April 9 at 7:54 pm. I'm very excited to share my birthday with our precious nephew!

Back to Reality.

Today was my first day back to work in two weeks....5:30am came quickly! I had a great March Break though and felt refreshed and energized at the end of it. Mom, Rach & I had a blast in NYC on my first weekend off. We saw Chicago on Broadway, did lots of walking and tourist "stuff" and just has some fun girl time. Then last week Andrew & I spent some much needed time hanging out and having couple time. We went to Playdium and out for dinner one night, picked the color for the baby's room, and just chilled. It was wonderful :)

I'm four months pregnant now and today we had our second midwife appointment. Nothing too new except that this baby is definately growing! I feel like I grow every day (though I hope that's an exaggeration). I definately have a bump now and it's getting difficult to where some of my clothes. I bought a couple of maternity outfits at Macy's while we were in New York, but they're for summer. I just want winter to be over because a lot of my spring/summer stuff is looser-fitting style anyways.

In other baby news, we are still waiting for baby Turner to arrive. Lindsay isn't due until April 11th, but considering she had Kara 3 months early and had some complications earlier on in this pregnancy, we definately thought she would have had this one by now. She's getting rather anxious, and I'd sure like to meet this little one too :) Maybe on my birthday (though I know Linds would hate to hear me say that I hope she holds off that long).

Baby Date

This morning Andrew & I had a "baby date"...we sat and looked at my stomach (and poked and prodded it) for a good half hour. Corny some might say, but it was a good time. Andrew's sweet and likes to talk to the baby already. I'm feeling so lucky to have a hubby is so interested and excited.

Apparently the baby is about the size of a large naval orange right now. Today when I was in Sobeys I walked by the oranges and couldn't help but smile. My belly is growing, though Andrew wishes deserately that it would grow much quicker. He can't wait for me to be a "real preggo" as he calls it. He just wants me to be fat...as I'm realizing many other people are eagerly anticipating as well. Jerks.

This Friday my mom, Rachel and I are heading to NYC for a few days and I'm extremely excited about it. We're staying right in Manhattan, within walking distance to Times Square, Central Park, and the like. It should be an absolute blast!

One month later.

Wow, haven't posted in ages. Life has been so busy! I'm now 12.5 weeks and the news has been out for awhile. Our parents were all very excited and we've had awesome support from everyone we've told. One of my favorite "telling" stories was when we told Jeff & Lindsay. I took Kara in the other room and played with her for awhile and tried to teach her to say, "I'm going to have a cousin." Then we went in the other room and she whispered it so quietly, but she still did a stellar job. It was pretty adorable.

My gr. 7's are also very excited and ask me about the baby often, as do the youth group. It's neat to have so many interested people.

We had our first mid-wife appt. this week and it went really well. Our mid-wife was awesome and we're really happy with deciding to go this route. The highlight was hearing the baby's heartbeat! Our mid-wife first prepped us for if we couldn't hear it, saying it wouldn't necessarily mean something bad, etc. Then she explained that she may not be able to find it right away and that we shouldn't panic. Then she put the thing on my stomach and we heard it loud and clear right away! It was incredible! It's beating at about 160 bpm right now. It was just an amazing thing to hear and really made this baby real to me. So exciting!

I've been feeling much better and haven't had nearly as much nausea over the last two weeks, so I think I'm on the upswing. *Fingers crossed*

I know I need to keep this up to date more, not just for people who will be reading it, but for my own memories of this time in our lives.

Can we keep a secret?

So, we found out we were pregnant at only 2 weeks!! Which makes us a few weeks earlier than we had originally been told. I'm now just over 8 weeks along, so my due date is approx. September 15. It's starting to kill Andrew not being able to tell people and we're really struggling with when the right time is. I want to share the news so badly, yet I know that it would be extremely difficult if something were to happen to the baby and we had to face everyone knowing. I was searching online looking for "the answer" and realizing that it's really just what is right for us.

We're heading to Simcoe this weekend for Andrew's great-grandma's birthday party, so we're trying to decide whether we should tell this weekend. No decisions made yet.

I was out with my Redeemer girls last night and the subject of babies ALWAYS comes up when we're out, so that was tough. Andrew told me he half expected me to come home and tell him that I'd caved and told them...but I didn't!

We were up late last night talking about names...so many to choose from! It's fun and exciting though...and definately not something we're stressed about. There are just so many things to think about and learn and look forward to.

We went to a midwifery information session last week in Guelph and were really impressed, so we've decided to take that route. They offer a lot of choice and work a lot out of relationship, which I think will be a really good experience. They are so open to questions and are all about educating the parents and giving them the choice. My first appt. is at the beginning of March and we're really excited about it.

I think that's about all that's new for now.