We've Met Our New Doctor!

Hey, all. So we finally had the chance to meet our new doctor on Wednesday. Our appointment was one of the longest ones that we've had but we really didn't do that much. Nicole got to drink a really cool looking orange drink that she thought was disgusting. She had to drink this special orange drink so that they could test for gestational diabetes. Good news!! No diabetes for Nicole. All of her blood work came back well within the normal ranges for a woman who is 27.5 weeks pregnant. There is even more good news. That blood test was the last one Nicole will have to take during her pregnancy (barring something out of the ordinary happening).

Our new doctor, Dr. Moody, measured Nicole's abdomen and we found out that her abdomen should grow 1 cm every week that she's pregnant (+/- 3 cm is the normal range). She measured 26 cm so everything there is looking great as well.

We're really looking forward to moving tomorrow. Well, maybe not the actual moving part but the living in the new house part we're really looking forward to. Nicole is excited to have some good nesting opportunities. We'll make sure and put some pictures of the new house up on the blog sometime in the next week.

Our little Bun's brain continues its rapid growth. His/her response to sound grows more consistent toward the end of the seventh month, when the network of nerves to the ear is complete. Our baby's hearing continues to develop, s/he may start to recognize our voices. Lungs continue to grow and prepare for functioning outside of the womb. Each day in the womb greatly increases survival rates! S/he also continues to take small breaths and although s/he's only breathing in water and not air, it's still good practice for when s/he's born. Eyelids are now open more. Our baby can distinguish between light and dark. Our Bun's little retinas have formed. Our baby will grow over an inch this week alone! The average size for a Bun like ours is now 14.4 inches (36.6cm) and 1.9 pounds (875gm).

We're Under 100 Days!

Well, we're down to 96 days. That seems crazy! Well, I think it seems crazy. Nicole may think that it should be more like four days. Actually, that's not true. Nicole has been great. She continues to feel pretty good. She also has begun to "forget" to take her prenatal vitamins every morning and night. She takes them most of the time, just not all of the time.

We are looking forward to our appointment next week because we'll get to meet our new doctor for the first time. We also get to watch some videos when we go because we have to kill some time because Nicole is going to be tested for diabetes while we're there. That's normal, if you don't know. Pregnant women can develop gestational diabetes during their pregnancy. No big deal.

Other than that we're doing well. We have found a new little house that we are hoping to move into on May 1. We will be finding out later this week if we get the place for sure. It would be an amazing blessing. It's an adorable little two bedroom house with a basement and a yard that would cost us less than we were paying for our one bedroom apartment. Please pray for us! We think it would be great.

As far as the Bun goes, s/he has been doing well. Still moving around, especially when it's quiet. At long last, our little swimmer can see the womb! Our miracle’s little eyelids have finally separated (they were fused closed previously) and s/he is probably having his/her first moments of sight as you read this (or maybe it already happened while you were brushing your teeth or watching Oprah or something). In addition to seeing his/her little studio in Nicole's belly, s/he has recently acquired the ability to say “yes” and “no” in rudimentary sign language as s/he can now move his/her head back and forth. This is also the time where our little superstar’s head hair is starting to grow! A cute little cowlick or two may be springing into position right now, getting ready for years of cute-but-stubborn bed-head (taking after me, of course). Also, his/her toenails have grown in and our little raisin continues to slowly pile up fat beneath his/her still-loose skin. Most importantly, brain tissue and neurons are all developing at a rapid pace, increasing his/her (genius-level?, of course) brain activity and will continue to function at accelerated levels for the first seven to eight years of childhood!

UPDATE: We just found out that we will be moving into the house we were hoping for on May 1st! Thanks so much for praying, everyone. We really appreciate you all being on this journey with us!

24 1/2 Weeks!

Well, this week has been pretty uneventful for the three of us. Nicole has started to beat me at every single game that we play. I've come to the realization that it's not fair. It's two on one. Nicole has her normal game-playing ability that is already very good plus the game-playing ability of a 24.5 week old fetus. How am I supposed to compete with that? I'm not getting any game-playing help from the Bun. It's an outrage! Just kidding. Except for the whole Nicole constantly beating me at games part. That part is true.

Nicole continues to feel pretty good. In fact, most nights this week she has either slept through the night or been able to fall back asleep quickly after getting up. That is such good news because it really makes her days better and she doesn't get tired nearly as quickly.

The Bun has been pretty active. In fact on Sunday, s/he was kicking Nicole so hard in church that you could see Nicole's stomach moving on the outside. That was pretty exciting.

This is another big week for our miracle growing baby! Just take a look at the checklist for this week: 1) ears: done; 2) fingernails: done; 3) (if we have a boy) testicles: taking their 3-4 day trip from the abdominal wall to the scrotum; and 4) lungs walls: secreting “surfactant." What’s that? Well, surfactant is sort of what it sounds like: a surface-activated fat whose main purpose is to assist our Bun's little lungs during inflation (as in, filling with air, not getting more expensive). Just in case you’re curious, our submerged baby is still breathing in amniotic fluid, preparing and rehearsing the lungs for an oxygen-filled life outside the womb. By the end of this week, our child will be weighing around 2 lbs and measure about 14 inches long. Our little Bun may even be a little more plump, but isn't anywhere near his/her full baby-fatted cute-self. Most of the “filling out” is coming up in that long awaited (and slightly dreaded?) third trimester. Woo-hoo! We're getting ready!

23 1/2 Weeks

Hey, all! Hopefully things are going as well for you all as they are for us. We've had a couple of pretty good weeks lately. Our doctor's appointment for last week was canceled and so we had to reschedule for this week. The appointment went really well. We went over the results of our ultrasound and everything is looking good. The Bun looks very healthy and also remarkably symmetrical, according to our RN.

The one thing that has been a bump in the road to the Bun's arrival has to do with our doctor. Dr. Calderwood, our doctor, is pregnant and due early this month. We found out at our appointment that she was no longer going to be seeing patients and that we would need to choose a new doctor. We will meet Dr. Moody for the first time in 3 1/2 weeks. I think that we'd both admit to all of you that the situation isn't ideal, but neither of us are stressing out over it.

The Bun has continued to be active in Nicole's belly and s/he is getting closer every day to being here. I am anxious and ask Nicole once in a while if s/he can get here sooner. Fortunately for me, Nicole is smart enough to let me know that I don't really want the Bun here yet. S/he's not ready. That's what Nicole keeps telling me.

Our Bun can now hear and react to sounds from the outside world. Sounds from our alarm clock, a thunder roll, or that darned car honking across the intersection can actually jar his/her little ears enough to elicit a kick or violent bout of squirming. Of course this also means that his/her little ears are picking up the sounds of our voices and those near us. I am especially happy because lower frequencies (like my voice) are better at making it through Nicole's abdomen and to the Bun's ears than higher frequencies (like Nicole's voice). I just have to have a little advantage since the Bun gets to hear Nicole's voice all the time. Our baby's tiny taste buds are still growing and his/her bones are continuing to ossify, his/her tiny veins are visible through his/her translucent yet, wrinkly, skin. (Think of it this way: s/he has been swimming in the equivalent of a long hot bath for the past 23 weeks, so you can’t blame him/her for being a little prune-like.)