Thoughts of You

Dear little one,

Your daddy and I woke up early yesterday to clean the church. I’ll tell you one thing: people sure fill up those garbage cans each week! It was a fun way to kick off the day.

Your mommy also had a chance to run over to a yard sale that was a fundraiser for the Davis County Children’s Justice Center. She bought two bikes! You won’t believe it, but your mommy put both those bikes in the back seat of her tiny Nissan Sentra.

Anyhow, I want you to know how excited your daddy and mommy both are for you to join our family. It seems like our lives have switched pace really quickly, if not almost overnight. We’ve had to change some plans and make room for other plans (but don’t worry, we are very happy about those changes). We are so excited to get your nursery looking its very best this coming summer.

How do you feel about camouflage? You should know that camo is your mom’s favorite, so if you get tired of wearing it, just be patient. When you learn to talk you can tell her to get you something else to wear.

In the mean time, your daddy has been busy in the front yard, trying to get rid of the lawn that grows in our flower bed. In fact, the grass in the flower bed grows much better than the real front lawn! Your daddy worked hard all day, he shoveled out the grass, weeds and even some dirt to smooth that area out. Then he put down some landscaping fabric that he sells at work. It already looks so much better, even though he’s not done yet.

You’ll see what I mean soon enough. He’s still debating putting in landscaping rock or perhaps some wood bark. Then, when we are ready to plant flowers or whatever, we can just clear a spot and cute a hole in the fabric and plant the flowers. I’m sure someday you will help mommy pick the flowers to that you want to have grow there, perhaps snap dragons or something else really fun like that.

Your mother has had to go clothes shopping. She already has what some people call a “baby bump” and her pants got too tight. She is so excited to show you this world you are coming to. She even has started to collect a few things for you to wear when you get here. She cleared off a lot of book shelves and cleaned out the front closet- that way your toys will be in the front room for when she has company.

Pretty soon daddy and a few of your uncles will move some furniture out of a room upstairs. If things work out, daddy will have someone put carpet in the guest bedroom, that way, when you get older, it can become your bedroom. Your nursery walls are a very dark and scary blue, green and red color right now, so daddy will have to use primer and then some light grey-blue to calm that color. He will paint your nursery and also the guest bedroom.

Another project mommy is getting ready for daddy to work on is the kitchen. It’s a kind of crazy color right now, and we’re both sorry about that. Mommy will make sure that there are cupboard doors on the bottom level in the kitchen, so when you start to explore the house you won’t get buried in a pile of pots and pans. Maybe when you get a little older you can help daddy and mommy paint the kitchen a nicer color.

Well, right now mommy has to go and take care of dinner!

Seeing Blue

For a number of reasons, Tyler and I have been keeping a wonderful secret. Earlier this year, I had a terrible run of kidney stones that took a number of weeks to pass. It seemed that no matter how many gallons of water I drank, I never got to feeling better.

Well after about a month of not feeling well, and looking at a calendar I knew there could be another cause. On a hunch, Tyler and I went to the dollar store to buy a home pregnancy test. The following morning, we got our answer. From that moment, our lives changed.

I cannot even begin to express the delight we both felt, the tears of joy and surprise that came to us both, nor the prayer of gratitude we expressed that morning. All I can tell you is that it was truly a miracle. From there, I became antsy and totally crazy with news that I couldn’t share. We started talking names, settling on a couple different ones for girls and finding one we both loved for a boy.

Above is our first ultrasound 2-15-11

The following Monday I made a phone call to my doctor to schedule my first appointment. Tyler was able to take off work and be there for the first ultrasound at our 8 week appointment. We could see the little heart beating furiously and the doctor told us things were going well. I was lucky to have only mild morning sickness so really we were both on cloud 9. 

Above is an ultrasound from 3-15-11

My next appointment I went to alone. My doctor was able to freeze an image of the little one waving hello. It was in that appointment that I started to really get excited. I could see the arms and legs and spine of the little one and during the ultrasound, the little one began to flail around a little. That was the first time I’d ever seen anything like that in my life.

Clearly this is the one of the foot 3-24-11

A week later I had an ultrasound as part of a free study I’m participating in. In that ultrasound, the technician froze on an image of the baby’s foot. Also, she took a profile shot of the baby.

Here the baby lies on its head 3-24-11

For week 16’s appointment, I was able to learn that we are having a baby boy! In all three angles that we looked at, it was clear I was seeing blue! 

Here's one image from 4-12-11

I realize that, to many of you, this is the first you’ve heard of our news. I just want to share how excited Tyler and I are for our little one. In the future blog posts, I think I will write my posts addressed to the baby, since a friend of mine did that with her blog and it has turned out to be a really cute blog.