31 weeks

So we're now just over 31 weeks. Only 61 days until our due date. I can hardly believe it! Here's what babycenter.com says about our baby girl this week:

From this week on, your baby will continue to gain around ½ pound a week until shortly before birth (even though it may feel like a whole lot more with every step you take). Other highlights this week:Due to increasing space constraints, your baby's arms and legs stay drawn up close to the body now, known as the fetal position (oh, so that's where that name came from!). Plus, your baby can now process information from all five senses—so she'll be all set to smell the pureed peas, taste them, feel them as she mashes them into her hair, hear you crack up and then see the flash as you grab the camera to snap picture after picture.By now, your baby's lungs are the only system not fully mature. And by mature, we're not saying that the rest of your baby's systems are mature enough to be out past 10 PM with the neighborhood hooligan, just that her lungs need a little bit more time to bake before they can kick it in the outside world. Your baby weighs about 3½ pounds and measures a little over 16 inches.

Like A Virgin: Blogging For The Very First Time

Well, here it is. My very first blog attempt on our family site. Not much fanfare, but I am posting from my mobile phone so it feels moderately high-tech. I can see how I could get used to this though so hopefully I'll be a more regular participant in opening the windows of our lives to our friends. By the way, this is me taking a break from work!

30 Weeks!

Sorry to those of you who've been checking back for updates. It's been a shamefully long time since I've posted. Mostly it's just that I've been hot and tired and haven't felt like sitting in our apartment to do anything (we don't have A/C). But today is much cooler, plus we're 30 weeks now, so I knew I really had to get some updated pictures on here.

Much has happened in the three weeks since my last post.

1. Jeremy accepted a full-time position at our church as the Interim Coordinator for Congregational Care at the downtown campus. We had also been pursuing a youth pastor position in his hometown in Wisconsin, but the farther we got in the process with them the more unsettled we felt about it. It would have been really great to be near his family, but this job itself just didn't feel like a good fit for us right now. So after much prayer we turned that position down and accepted the job at Bethlehem. Jeremy has already started in his new role part-time and will soon be fully transitioned in. I am praising God for His provision because it seems like a really great fit for Jeremy at this time.

2. As a result of Jeremy finding a full-time job, I will be leaving my job at the end of August to stay home full-time. We found an apartment in northeast Minneapolis that we will be moving into on September 1st. It has been a huge blessing living with my parents for the past year and a half, but we are excited now to have our own place again. Assuming baby girl doesn't come too early, I should have several weeks at home to get us unpacked and settled, and to rest up for the sleepless nights to come! It will be bittersweet to leave the job that I love at my church, but I am so excited to be home with our baby and be able to focus on managing our home.

3. Speaking of baby, we are now well into the third trimester and only have 10 weeks to go until our due date! It's hard to believe we're already on the home stretch. I'm still feeling quite well, all things considered, but I'm definitely more tired again and experiencing things like heartburn, shortness of breath, multiple trips to the bathroom in the middle of the night, and at times a belly that feels like it is so stretched it will probably burst at any moment. And I'm still trying to get a handle on how far I stick out now. The other day I walked across the room to give Jeremy a hug and I misjudged where my belly ends and just plowed into him. It felt kinda like bumper cars...or bumper bellies. :)

Enjoy the 30-week pictures...

6 Months

Sunday we crossed the six-month mark! We are so thankful that the Lord has sustained our little girl's life thus far and we're praying everything continues to go well for the remaining three months.

Not a whole lot has changed since my last post, except the fact that I can no longer eat right before bed and I can no longer eat quite so much in one sitting or I'll get indigestion. Oh, and I did wake up with a bad leg cramp one day last week so now I'm trying to stretch each day to keep that from happening again. But other than that things are going really well. We're getting more and more excited to meet her and hug her and kiss her and ponder who she looks like, etc.

My next doctor appointment is a week from Thursday so I'll be sure to post an update after that.

25 Weeks

Here's the 25-week belly (pictures courtesy of my sister Angela). We had another doctor appointment on Monday and everything is still looking great! Our baby girl is measuring right on track and they estimate that she now weighs 1 lb. 11 oz. I also passed the gestational diabetes test so we're glad for that. Next appointment is on July 31st and then I start going back every two weeks. We also start birthing classes soon. Now it's really starting to feel like baby will be here before we know it.