Dear Belly / Baby Making Adventures

 (That is my sad attempt at making a cute sign. ;) I am not a scapbooker.)
It was however a free font that I got when I registered with Lettering Delights! I love free stuff. :)

(11.3.10)
Yup! We are expecting!! :) We are so excited! Well, I was so excited, and then I got the whole morning sickness thing plus a cold plus a cough and for three weeks I stayed in bed and slept every spare minute I had. During that time, I wasn't so excited. But now that I'm starting to feel better, I'm getting a little more excited again! :)

This pregnancy has been so different, so I've decided to do a Dear Belly letter, just like I do for the boys. Just so I can remember all the weird little things. :)

We both think it will be a girl. And really, more than anything we are hoping it will be a girl. :) Then our little family will be complete! (Until further notice I suppose.) :) So far we can't come up with any girl names though. With both Hunter and Jackson we had a million girl names and no boy names. With this one, we are struggling. I like Lilly. and I really love Lilly Mae, but Neil's sister is taking Mae... guess we were a little too late. I also want to keep the middle name as a family name, like Hunter and Jackson have, and I really like Joyce - after my dad's mom. We were so close when I was really little, before I moved to Texas. They would always babysit me, and I have so many fond memories with her. She was the greatest! She always had a beautiful garden, made the best Christmas cookies that she would fill all of her kitchen drawers with, and I remember sitting on the living room floor watching M.A.S.H. with her and Grandpa and playing with her little sand picture thing and her fake grapes. :) Anyway, so there is a lot of sentiment there, and I don't know that anyone in the family has used her name, so I like it. :) I just have to convince Neil to like it too. ;) So, with Joyce I like Mya Joyce. hum. Maybe not. Anyway, I don't know. We haven't even tried to think of boy names. :)

My eating habits have been super weird! Usually they say to eat crackers and bread to beat morning sickness. But anything dry makes me super sick! And anything moist makes me sick thinking about it. It's been tough. I can eat most things now, but at the beginning I lived off shakes. Then I could start eating cheerios for breakfast, and instant breakfast drinks. Sandwiches really took a while, as did everything else. I can't even remember anymore. I'm not so much a fun of a lot of spices or seasonings. Just plain and simple and wet. :) I also sat by the toilet every day for most of the first 2 months. Mostly in the morning because of my cough. I would get such a bad cough attack and it would make me gag and there was no stopping it after that. :{

Anyway, I also seemed to get a belly really fast! I'm sure people notice it, though it isn't big enough for people to ask about it, so I'm still safe I guess. :) We don't really want to tell anyone until at least when we know what it is. I'm not sure when that will be. But we have told a couple of people already. By the time we told, some of them had already assumed. So much for a surprise. haha. :)

Writing about it helps. It was definitely unexpected, which I think is partially why it's been hard. But as we talk about it more, and talk to the boys about it, it seems more real and seems easier. When we first found out, we'd ask Hunter and Jackson if they wanted a little baby brother or sister and they would get really excited and cheer/clap/say "Yeah!!". It was cute! Now sometimes Hunter will pat my belly and give it kisses. The other night he put his ear to my belly and acted like they were having a conversation. It was cute. :) I can't wait until he can feel her moving in there! :)

Nov. 15: We went to the doctor and met Dr. Gammet today. He was very nice and kind. When I told him I've been getting a lot more headaches recently, his solution was for Daddy to give me more back rubs! Yeah! :) I'm glad he was there to hear that. ;)  We also heard your heart beat! The doctor also could hear you pushing back when he pushed on you! :) So cute! It makes me feel like you already have a little personality! I can't wait to meet you.
 
Nov. 17th: Today we were over at Grandma Kerstin's and I was looking through her genealogy book for girl names. I found one, Emaline (Em-a-line). I really like that. It's not too far back in the family. Grandma said that she was a very strong woman. That when she had eight children and was pregnant with their ninth, her husband was called on a mission to the southern states. She was also the RS President at this time. Every week she would get everyone dressed and have the older boys hitch up the horses and she would take all the kids to yw's (maybe she meant RS) every week. I think just being 'alone' to take care of 8 kids with one on the way would be hard enough! Let alone all the other responsibilities she must have carried. :)

tonight: I felt you!! :) I have been wearing this tummy sleeve all day today, which is kind of tight, and well, thinking about that and what the doctor said about you pushing back when being pushed, I realized that that 'pressure' feeling, or whatever it is is you! :) And when I stood up and made my stomach muscles go a certain way I could totally feel you in the middle! Daddy could feel you too! you hard nubby thing in there. ;) Pushing on you, you even moved up toward my belly button a bit. How fun! I remember this same feeling with the boys and their pregnancies, but I never realized it was you pushing back. I think we'll have a lot of fun in the next couple of months. Hopefully this doesn't mean that you'll be wilder and crazier than your older brothers.

p.s. Dad doesn't really like the name Emaline at all. I guess maybe she wait and find out what you are first. ;) Other names I like, Lily or Lilly (I can't decide), Mae - which I've loved for forever (and those two together), Mia, and I don't remember what your dad likes.

Dec 2: I'm starting to feel you moving around and pushing in there. Last night as I was trying to go to bed you seemed to be a little more active. So fun! :)

Mid Dec (16): I am starting to feel you more. At the beginning of the month it was a lot more, but I still feel you. My belly is getting so huge!! The other day I looked down and was like, "WO! I'm pregnant!" We are pretty sure that this will be the last time, which in a way makes me sad. I'm so busy with the boys and life that I feel like I haven't been able to just sit back and enjoy the fun things about being pregnant. It's going by so quickly!! We find out what you are on Jan 12th! And I can't believe it's already less than a month away!!! It's all gone by so quickly!! I think if Neil got a super good job that paid lots of money so we wouldn't have to worry about that stress, then perhaps I might want more kids. ;) But we'll see. ;) I'm getting more excited, and I am feeling WAY better than I had been. And right now I just want all the good pregnancy stuff... and hope it doesn't all go by too quickly. (Though still quick enough).

1/18/11 - Little Sister is getting really wiggly. Not as much as I remember the boys being (which I'm happy about), but it's pretty consistent that she moves at night, and is finally getting strong enough that I can feel her with my hand. Dad felt her the other night once, but he's too impatient to really wait for it. ;)

We had our ultrasound appointment last Wednesday! Everything looks great! :)  When she showed us that it was a girl I almost started to cry!! lol. I've been so excited and anxious for it to be a girl, that it was almost a huge relief as well to finally know for sure. :) We are really are really excited! :) We had Hunter and Jackson with us and they did great. We left Jackson in his car seat so Neil wouldn't have to chase him around, and Hunter did awesome! It was fun to show him the different parts of the baby, though I'm sure it all just looked weird to him. The office is in a new building now, and was WAY better than where we went last year with Jackson. They had a big TV up in the corner that you could see everything on, which made it a lot easier for all of us to see. :) I just can't believe how much detail little babies have when they're still so little!! Love it! :)

Turns out the baby is a bit bigger/further along than thought. My new due date is May 18th! :) I'm totally fine with it being sooner. ;) Hopefully everything keeps going well! We're so excited to have you little girl! :)

One more thing, now that we know it's a girl we're looking even more at girl names. Neil really likes Mabel, which is growing on me. Plus we can call her Mae, which I've liked since we were trying to find names for Hunter. :) But I'm still not totally set on it. Maybe I'll tell Neil he can pick that for the first name if I can pick the middle name! Then I'd pick my grandma's name, Joyce. I really like that name but Neil doesn't. (Plus then she's have another option of going by MJ. And I'm probably way more partial towards it since I really loved my grandma.) Why is it so hard to find names?! :)