31 1/2 Weeks(ish)

Man, I'm sorry I haven't updated in over a week and a half. We've had a crazy last few weeks. I got a new job and our evenings have been incredibly full this past week. We really covet your prayers for our friend, Navan. He was hiking on Friday and fell 800 feet when a false snow ledge gave way. He's still in critical condition and has a long road ahead of him but has done better than expected thus far. If you want to read more about his story you can go to http://navanpowers.com.

Nicole and I both had birthdays this past week. She turned 23 on Thursday. I turned . . . I turned . . . I turned th—. I can't even type it. Thirty, okay? I turned thirty on Tuesday. Apparently my mind has been pretty occupied because a week before my birthday, someone said something about me turning thirty in a week and I was absolutely convinced that I was still weeks and weeks away. I was not. I am now into my fourth decade of life. Seriously, though, things couldn't be better.

Nicole has felt this week like the Bun is really beginning to stretch her stomach. I guess it's not her favorite feeling. The Bun continues to be very active and likes to kick and squirm and test his/her limits within Nicole's belly. S/he is really starting to get cramped in there so you can understand the desire to test boundaries. I'm sure anyone who has already had kids just thought to themselves "Test boundaries? You haven't seen anything yet."

Our Bradley classes continue to go well and we both feel like we wouldn't be completely lost if the Bun was born today. That's a good feeling. I may have said this before but we've really connected with a couple of other couples in our classes. One couple, Eric and Gweneth, were ecstatic to learn that we'll be cloth diapering as well. We had a nice little chat about it on Monday.

In spite of our unbelievably busy week, all three of us have made it to Friday and have a three day weekend to look forward to. If you hear that we were in bed at 6 on a Friday night, it may be true. This week has been our fullest in a while.

The rate of physical growth slows down just a bit this week, but even though s/he doesn't get much longer, the Bun will gain a lot of weight the rest of the pregnancy. Fat continues accumulating. This layer of fat turns his/her skin from red to the rosy pink s/he will have as a newborn. Calcium, phosphorus and iron are being stored and his/her bones are growing and hardening. Our baby is 16.2 inches long and weighs 3.3 pounds. His/her brain enters another period of rapid growth, producing hundreds of billions of new nerve cells! Amazing! S/he may move to the rhythm of music. Studies with heart rates show that s/he also prefers some types of music to others — already! Lungs are the only major organ left to complete development. While we may be anxious to meet our little Bun, these last few weeks can be vital — with each day increasing our baby's ability to breathe on his/her own.

30 Weeks and Then Some

Hey, everyone! We have less than ten weeks left! That's incredible! Who could have known that time would fly by this quickly? We knew it would go fast but this is almost shocking. Things are going well for us. In fact, as I write this I am waiting to go meet Nicole at the doctor's office for an appointment. We continue to be surprised at how uneventful all of these appointments continue to be but, in this case, no news is good news. Nicole and the Bun both have been healthy and right where the should be each time we go in so there is very little for the doctors or nurses to do.

Our Bradley classes have also continued to go well. We really enjoy the other couples in the class as well as our instructor, Debbie. Last week I had the opportunity to wear the Empathy Belly and get a little, tiny bit of a taste of what it feels like to be pregnant. The worst part wasn't the weight but the strap that they cinched down over my diaphragm to simulate the baby pushing against Nicole's diaphragm. It made every breath so shallow. While the five minutes I spent in the Belly really weren't horrible, it was easy to see how difficult and uncomfortable it can be to be Nicole. I am so thankful for how strong she is and has been.

Nicole continues to feel pretty good and pretty healthy. She is also really looking forward to her upcoming showers in June. God has really blessed us, too, by allowing Nicole to work some extra hours over the past few weeks and now, at the perfect time, will be able to give up those extra hours because her bank has hired some new people. We have just felt as though God has really orchestrated some amazing things in our lives over the past six months.

As far as the Bun goes, s/he is about three pounds now! Every day that goes by means the Bun has a much better chance of survival if s/he is born today. In fact, if the Bun were born today s/he would not require a ventilator and would have about a 90% chance of survival! The Bun is surrounded by about a pint and a half of amniotic fluid. The amount of fluid will decrease as the Bun continues to grow (too bad for Nicole that she won't feel as those anything will be decreasing except her amount of sleep). S/he will spend a lot of time opening and closing his/her eyelids. S/he can follow light and may even reach towards light that s/he sees. The lanugo hair (meant to protect the Bun's skin) is starting to disappear. Toenails are in their final growth stage and bone marrow is now responsible for red blood cell production. Our little Bun can now produce tears, as well. Yes, even inside of the womb.

29 Weeks

Wow, we're getting so close! 75 days to go until the Bun's due date. Before that we have a major milestone. Nicole's shower is on June 5 and, if I am not mistaken, that will be the day that we announce to the world if the Bun is a boy or a girl. I am especially looking forward to that day so that I can stop this ridiculous s/he, him or her, blah blah blah nonsense. It's such a pain. Oh well.

We are all moved in and mostly settled in our new home. We are loving it. It's been great to have that space and to really have a place that feels like it will be home for a while—a place where we can raise the bun. I'm still working on getting up some more pictures for you all but it's a slow process. I'm sorry.

We had another great development last week: we started our Bradley method classes! For those of you who don't know, the Bradley method classes are like a Lamaze class. We have twelve weeks of learning about everything from pain management techniques to breast feeding. We really enjoy our instructor as well as the other couples in our class. I think we were both pleasantly surprised after our fist class at how much we enjoyed it. Feel free to ask about what we're learning, it'll be a good refresher for us.

You may also notice that the location for Nicole's pictures has changed. No more fireplace. Unfortunately, our new digs don't have a fireplace so we'll likely be taking the rest of these pictures in front of a blank wall. We'll see. Maybe we can take them on the front porch.

As far as the Bun goes, his/her head is growing bigger to accommodate the (enormous, I'm sure) brain, which is busy developing billions of neurons. The eyes can move in their sockets. The Bun may be able to follow a blinking light right now (I'm sure s/he can). As well as our baby's increasing sensitivity to changes in light, s/he may also be able to taste. In fact, our baby may already have preferences or dislikes for particular tastes at this stage. The Bun is also moving from side to side, but probably still is head up. In the next few weeks, s/he will move to the head down birthing position. At times Nicole may feel as if the Bun is performing somersaults for an olympic gold medal. The Bun may be performing fewer movements now because living conditions in the womb are becoming more cramped. The Bun is still, however, doing a lot of kicking and stretching. Some of our baby's kicks and punches could potentially take Nicole's breath away. The Bun hears things better from the vibrations all around, and can now distinguish real sounds and voices. We can now "teach" our baby in the womb by exposing him/her to music, literature, and simply talking to him/her. At this stage baby eyes are almost always blue and can distinguish bright sunlight or artificial light through the uterine wall. At week twenty nine, our baby measures about 11 inches from crown to rump, or a total length of about 15 inches from head to heel, and weighs about 2.5 pounds.

New House!!!

I know that this doesn't directly have to do with being pregnant and having a baby but it's a big part of what's going on in our lives right now. We've moved!! We moved on Saturday into a cute little two bedroom house in Lakewood. I've uploaded a few pictures of the house (check out that yard!) and will continue to let you see some more pictures as we get everything organized and our new home starts to look more like a new home instead of rooms full of boxes.

Thank you so much to our friends and family who helped us move! You made moving day, not only incredibly easy, but also very enjoyable.

We are so excited to have this new place to raise our little Bun and it is already feeling like home. If you haven't seen our new place yet we're excited for you to come see it soon! We have a couple of bedrooms now, too, so we'll have somewhere for you to sleep if you're coming from out of town.

Thanks, again, for reading, everyone. We're excited to get to share our lives with you.