Placenta Brain

So I really have not had much to complain about during my pregnancy. There have been a few minor things. Yesterday I realized that I am currently suffering from what I hear is a common pregnancy malady: Baby steals your brain. Here is a conversation from yesterday to serve as an example:

Tim: "We need to put that carseat in the car soon. Probably in my car. Then it will be ready to go when we need it."

Rachel: "Well we'll have to take it back out if Baby doesn't come before we go to pick my parents up from the airport."

Tim (looks confused): "Why?"

Rachel: "It won't be comfortable with two people in the backseat and a carseat between them."

Tim (a little slowly to be understood): "We have two cars."

Rachel (even more slowly to show Tim he is being ridiculous): "We're going to take two cars to the airport?"

Tim simply looks at Rachel like she has lost her mind. Then it clicks to her: We could take the OTHER car to the airport!

Baby, come quickly.

39-week checkup

Things are still looking good for me and Baby. The doctor wants to see me on Monday if I don't go into labor before then. At that point, he will monitor the baby for a little while, check my fluid level (sounds like an oil change), do an exam, and decide what to do from there. It looks like the latest he'll let me go is January 12. We are hoping for sooner...much sooner...and natural. Induction scares me. :)

"Patiently" waiting - the 2 of us. :)

I received a phone call this morning from a co-worker: "How are you doing? You just kind of disappeared. I just wanted to make sure everything is okay." Well, everything is still okay. We are just waiting! I have been experiencing Braxton-Hicks contractions but nothing regular and consistent. Tim says we need to go for a long walk today. That sounds like a good idea.

We tried to coax Baby out yesterday with the incentives of presents and a monkey of his/her very own. It was to no avail. What are we going to do with a child that cannot be bribed? :)

I wanted to share a driving experience from Christmas Eve, but there is no way I could top Tim's eloquent post. Therefore, I will refer you to the link provided.

Merry Christmas a day late! Our celebration consisted of morning gift opening, talking to the family via telephone, and dining at the home of a family from church - where we actually did sit around the living room and sing Christmas carols! It's not just in the movies! :) It was a good day. I hope you all enjoyed your celebrations as well!

Happy Birthday, Tim *Edited*

Happy birthday, Tim! We have spent the majority of the day just relaxing. We did have a doctor's appointment, and there is nothing new to report. We're still just waiting. We are planning on heading out for a birthday dinner tonight and eating birthday fudge for dessert. Fun times! :) Enjoy some pictures of the birthday boy:

Addendum: It is now evening, and we have enjoyed our meal at Cool Hand Luke's (yummy steak). Here is a picture of Tim with his Birthday Fudge Mound. Mmmmmmm!

38 weeks

Things are still going well here. This week has been less eventful than last, which is good. It has been nice to have a little bit of a break. We don't even have any weekend plans! Woo-hoo! :)

There really isn't much to report. Soooooo - here is another picture update.

Update

We had another doctor's appointment yesterday, and everything still looks good! Baby didn't do anything crazy this week like flip upside-down, so that's good. :) We're making a little progress -I am now 50% effaced. Woo-hoo! Otherwise, no changes. Baby's head is still "a little high", and I have not started to dilate.

It is beginning to feel a little more like Christmas-time here. It has been "cold" (40's) and rainy for the past few days. It's great! :)

Progressive Dinner

Last night we had our progressive dinner for the youth group. We started off by decorating the youth room at the church, then headed to our house for salad, to another house for massive burritos, and a final house for delicious dessert. I learned that I am a very bad estimator when it comes to making food for large groups. Tim and I will be eating salad for every meal until it goes bad. At least we didn't host the dessert portion! :) Here are some pictures for your entertainment. Click the link above for more!

It's a pear tree. Obviously.

That is a massive burrito. Massive and delicious.

Weekend happenings

This weekend was full and exciting! The church hosted a baby shower, and Baby received lots of love in the form of gifts. We are blessed to have a church family that loves and cares for us. They truly are our family here in California! Here is a picture from the shower - this is a diaper "cake" that one of the ladies' daughters made. It's beautiful! Yes, I did take it apart though.



We enjoyed hosting a few people from the church for dinner on Saturday evening. We had a delicious meal and I learned an easy way to make garlic bread!

Sunday was my last day of work. Yay!!! I am officially on maternity leave until 12 weeks after Baby arrives!

Tim and I went to a doctor's appointment yesterday, and everything is still looking great with the baby. His or her head is down - still "floating" though, so we're waiting for the little one to drop. I am not dilated at all yet either. I went on a walk today as part of my new housewife routine - maybe that will help Baby along. :)

We had lunch yesterday with some pastors from the area and their wives. We really enjoyed being able to spend time with them. This is the same group that Tim meets with for breakfast once a month, but these lunches only happen about twice a year. It was a special treat.

This Friday is our annual youth group Progressive Dinner. We will be meeting in the youth room to decorate for Christmas, hosting them at our house for salad, moving to another house for Mexican food, and ending at a third house for dessert. This is usually one of our bigger youth events. I'm looking forward to it!

December?!

Baby is due one month from tomorrow! It's hard to believe time has gone so quickly. We are anxious to meet the little one, and we look forward to his or her arrival more and more as the days pass. I have definitely been nesting. Example: I decided a few days ago to attempt to make my own baby wipes. If we're going to go with cloth diapers, it only makes sense to use cloth wipes too, right? So I cut up an old fleece blanket into 8x8 squares and am sewing around the edges to give a little character and keep the wipes from fraying. I'm not sure how well fleece will do as wipes. I've read that flannel is best, but fleece is what I had available. I've tested them out as face wipes and they work as that! :)

We had a great Thanksgiving. Tim and I enjoyed a meal at the house and just relaxed all day...actually, all weekend! It was nice.

We are in the middle of decorating for Christmas. :) I put up the nativity scenes last night, and we need to do the tree at some point today.

Tim started a blog of his own yesterday. Check it out - there is also a link to it to the right under "Blogs I Follow".

We don't really have much going on here until the weekend. The church is hosting a baby shower for us on Saturday afternoon. Then Saturday evening, we are having a few people from church over for dinner. It will be a "thank you" dinner for the worship team that leads music once a month at the church. Tim is going to grill chicken for that dinner. Mmmmm!

Baby's Room

2 posts in one day! I'm on a roll!

We rearranged the furniture in the baby's room, so I wanted to post some pictures of the finished product. :)

Here's Tim, finishing up the border:

The guest room corner:

That's a Curious George growth chart on the wall by the door. :)

Baby's stuffed animals above the closet:

Baby stuff! Yay!

We're getting excited. :)

Rainy Day!

It's raining! I love it.

I got my favorite early-morning phone call at 5:15 today. "Would you like to be on call today?" Why of course I would like to stay home and clean my house on this rainy day! And I know you won't call me in, because I worked yesterday and saw that there are at least 2 patients on our floor that are being discharged this morning...so yes, yes, I will stay home and clean for 5 dollars an hour. And then at 7:00 tonight I will go eat pie. Lots of pie.

:)

Things are going well here. Baby continues to grow stronger and kick harder each day. He or she is now big enough to push on my ribs and pelvis at the same time. :) I continue to get more uncomfortable as the days pass, but I am encouraged that I will be able to go off work earlier than I originally thought! The date still isn't finalized, but I'll take my doctor the paperwork at my next appointment - December 9th.

Tim and I were able to put the border up in the baby's room this weekend. The room is coming together slowly. I'll post pictures when it is officially ready!

Tonight we have a pie and praise fellowship at the church. This is a yearly tradition the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Tim and the worship team are leading the songs. I wish I could post a clip of the special music they did on Sunday, by the way. It sounded especially beautiful.

Swiffer Wet Jet

Cleaning the house during pregnancy has proven to be a challenge - especially mopping. This could be due to the fact that I am under the impression that "Mom's way is best". My mom cleaned our floors on her hands and knees with a bucket full of soapy water. I have tried several different mops, but they just don't work as well as Mom's way!

Imagine my surprise when Tim and I went home in October and I learned that Mom had bought a Swiffer. I was a little disappointed, actually. How could anything compare to good old hands and knees?

Well, "Mom's way is best". So last week I bought a Swiffer. I swept and then mopped our floors for the first time in...awhile...and they have never looked better. It didn't hurt my back...or knees...or belly... Ahhhhh!!!

Yesterday I dropped an egg on the floor while making breakfast. It was so easy to clean up. I was almost excited about it!

So this Swiffer is my new best friend. I will probably have really clean floors from now on. Yay, Swiffer!

33 (and a half) weeks

We just got back from our second-to-last childbirth class. Tonight's focus was technology. Tim commented that tonight was actually interesting. :)

There really is not much to report here. Things are still going well, and I have very few complaints. My belly is still growing, so here are some pictures for you. :)

Video Scavenger Hunt

The video scavenger hunt today was a lot of fun. We ended up only being able to have 2 teams. (We were hoping for 3.) It was guys against girls, so that made it fun. I was the videographer for the guys' team. One of the challenges was to make up a song about their youth pastor, an elephant, and a monkey. Here is what our team came up with:

By the way...the girls' team won. However, I cannot transfer their footage to the computer to share. Sad. :(

32 weeks, tomorrow!

Wow...it's not far away now...I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed...

Our childbirth class this week wasn't quite as weird as last. We learned some useful things about how to deal with pain during birth. Next Monday is "video night". Tim won't be able to go, so I'm debating whether to go or not. I saw 2 deliveries during nursing school. I should be set. :) We have another checkup with the doctor on Monday. Fun times!

This Saturday we have a video scavenger hunt with the youth group. I'm looking forward to that. It seems like it has been awhile since we've had a group activity. Hopefully there will be a good turnout!

I had another dream this week that the baby was born and we still didn't want to know the sex of it. Just to clarify: We do eventually want to know whether our baby is a boy or a girl. I have had several of these dreams now, and they are rather disturbing!

We had a fun experience a few nights ago. I was laying down, feeling my belly, and I realized there was a hard spot just below my ribs - I'm pretty sure it was the head. After feeling around for a little bit, we were able to actually feel where Baby started and ended. That's so cool. There's really a little person in there!

Trunk or Treat - Click here for more pictures

Our Trunk or Treat night went really well. We got home about 45 minutes ago, and I am still a little bit wired. There were many people from the church who helped out, and we ended up having more kids come through than I expected. I know there were at least 150, but Tim has a more accurate number. The littler kids really seemed to enjoy the carnival games, and parents stuck around for quite awhile so they could play and get candy. Here are a few pictures to highlight the evening. Click the title to see more!Tim was a cowboy and I was a magician. I had a stuffed rabbit under my hat that I would pull out. I'm an amazing magician. :)

Our trunk or treat trunks - apparently we were supposed to decorate them! :)

The bounce house - if you look to the left you can see our "bouncers". The Incredible Hulk intimidated the kids a little bit. :)

Rocket scientist whose rocket apparently blew up in his face :)

Indiana Jones and The Robot

Appointment and Class Update

There is nothing new to report from my doctor's appointment Monday. Everything still looks good!

Our first childbirth class went alright. It was odd when she dimmed the lights and had us do some relaxation exercises. I can't say that I really intend to use visualization during labor, but I guess you never know until you're there!

Friday night is our Trunk or Treat. Ours is a little different than the one Pam explained on her blog, if you read that. The main difference is that we aren't decorating our cars - we are dressing up ourselves though! The Trunk or Treat is intended to be an outreach to the community during the trick or treat hours. Our main attraction will really be a bounce house, but we will also have carnival games, a photo booth, and cars with open trunks from which we will hand out candy. I'm excited to see how this turns out. It's impossible to know how many people will show up. Tim and a team of people from the church have been working really hard on the details for a few months now. We will be handing out little cards about the church with the candy, and we plan to follow-up with people at their houses afterwards to deliver the pictures taken at the photo booth. Pray for us this Friday!

That's it for us right now!

New Diapers, Pastors Appreciation, & Big Ole Belly

I made it back from the womens' retreat. It was a really great weekend. I especially enjoyed hanging out with the women from our church and getting to know them better. Retreat is just a special time of bonding that you can't get anywhere else. It was a lot of fun.

Tim enjoyed his eating this week. He'll probably do more in the week ahead.

Here are some pictures to show what is new in our lives!

First, we have Da Monkey and Buckeye Bear

modeling new baby diapers that arrived in the mail this week. We have been talking about the possiblity of using cloth diapers for the baby, so I ordered a few to test out. These are BumGenius diapers, and they look really great. They are one-size fits all, so Baby could wear them until he/she is potty trained. I like how they look on the animals. :) We'll wash them a few times and see how absorbant they are. I told Tim the only thing I don't like about these is that we don't have a baby to try them out on yet!

Next, we have Tim with his stack of cards. This month is pastors appreciation. The people of the church have given many cards and gifts to show their appreciation for Tim's hard work.

Finally, we have Big Ole Belly. 30 and a half weeks along! We have a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning and start our childbirth classes tomorrow night. I'll keep you posted if anything interesting happens!

29 weeks

We had a checkup last Monday afternoon that I never posted about. Tim was able to go to this one with me, since he didn't have to work that day. I still get a kick over the fact that he was able to go to this one - it was the first "negative" appointment I have had to date. My weight was up quite a bit from last month, so the doctor gave me a little lecture about cutting out fats and sugars. Bye-bye Pepsi. :( I must say that I deserved this lecture after our visit to Ohio. There was a lot of good food there! :)

I have done much better this week. I have been tracking my calorie intake off and on prior to these changes, but I never really realized how many unnecessary calories I was taking in! So - I have been able to stay in the recommended ranges this week and actually ended up losing 2 pounds. While losing weight is not my goal, it's good to be back on track!

Everything looked good with Baby at the appointment. He or she was kicking away the whole time. We are now in our third trimester, which means our appointments increase to every 2 weeks. I have never been so excited to go to the doctor before!

Dreams about Baby are in abundance. I had a dream that we had a boy. He was born early, so we planned to hide him in our car for a week so people wouldn't know we had found out the sex of the baby! Dad D apparently had a dream that included the sex and name of the baby - which he won't share until the baby's born. I guess he wants to see if he's right. Tim had a dream we had a very smart baby girl. As a newborn, she called Tim "Papa" and knew Drew's name. Pretty amazing!

Well, this week is full of fun stuff for both of us. I get to go out of town for the weekend. Our women's retreat is Thursday through Saturday. Tim gets to eat. He has a pastors' breakfast this morning, Golden Years Fellowship Friday, Men's breakfast Saturday, and Pastors' appreciation potluck Sunday. As he put it, this is not a very healthy week for pastors.

Ohio Trip

We are back from Ohio! We got in last night around midnight our time - 3 am Ohio time. Tim had a very good idea when he said we should come back in time to have a recovery day before heading back to work. We are going to need it!

Ohio was great. It went way too quickly though. We were able to see pretty much all of our family while we were there. I think we only missed one niece on the Farley side. My 2 brothers and their families who live close enough to drive to Ohio were able to visit for a day or two as well. Josh and his family weren't able to come. Hopefully we will be able to work something out for after the baby is born!

My mom did an excellent job with the baby shower while we were there. The dinner was delicious, the decorations were beautiful - she's good at that kind of thing! One of the games we played was predicting the baby's sex, birthday, length, and weight. My personal favorite prediction was by 2 1/2 year-old Gabriel: "It's a girl! Birth date: Friday. Length: 6 inches. Weight: Kinda heavy." Anyone who was not at the shower is welcome to join in that game! Just leave a comment or send an e-mail with your guesses!

Mom Farley made a delicious Thanksgiving dinner Saturday. It was very yummy. There were even football games on TV to make it feel like actual Thanksgiving. However, the temperature in the high 70's reminded us that it wasn't really November yet.

Here are some pictures from the trip:

Spending time with friends: Tim, Rachel, Brian, Janine, Rick, Heather, and Dawn took the picture.




At the shower - under one of the beautiufl signs Rachel M. made




With one of many gifts - this one was handcrafted by Aunt Diane. Isn't it beautiful? There were many other beautiful gifts - unfortunately, all the pictures are on Mom's camera and I can't post them unless she sends me copies! (Hint, hint)




With Baby's jungle dirt. Rather than cake, Mom made my favorite dessert and topped it with jungle creatures.

27 weeks

We're finishing up the second trimester already?! Where has the time gone?

Rachel's belly is still growing:

Though Tim's seems to have stayed the same:

5 More Days...and a story about a hungry man.

We're counting down to our trip to Ohio! We are very excited. Woo-hoo!

I had an interesting day at work on Monday. I took care of 3 very easy, compliant, non-needy men who made my day very relaxing. It was a nurse's dream. Then at 6:00 one of them was being discharged and needed oxygen set up for his home. Of course the case managers who normally handle those details are off at 5:00. My charge nurse helped me get all the details ironed out, and I was trying to get his discharge instructions ready for him. As I was working on this, I received a phone call from a patient's wife, who was distressed about a situation with her husband. I talked to her for a few minutes and then went down to talk to my patient. To make a long story short, the man started throwing a fit about the diet he was on and the fact that a surgeon had not come to talk to him yet. My explanations about the necessity of that diet for his condition and about the doctor being in surgery and then at his office all day were not satisfactory. It was a long, busy last hour of work trying to get him happy again and get my other patient discharged. Fortunately, the doctor arrived around 7 and sent my hungry man home. He was very happy after finding out he could go home and told me I was a sweet girl. :)

So yesterday at work, I was sitting at the nurse's station doing some charting. A volunteer came up and asked which one was Rachel and presented me with this:

Needless to say, I was very surprised to read the card and find it was from my hungry man. :) I have never received flowers from a patient before. It was kinda cool!

Provision

I had the opportunity to teach the junior high AWANA lesson this past Sunday. We were studying Adam and Eve, and the kids took turns reading from Genesis 2 and 3 as I illustrated the scene on the white board and explained what was going on. One thing that struck me during the lesson was in Genesis 3:21 - "And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them." Adam and Eve had just caused the entrance of sin into the world. God had to punish their disobedience. Yet in the midst of this, He made them garments of clothing. He took care of them. He provided. Not because they deserved it, but because He is God.

God provides for us in various ways, and I wonder how many times I just allow His provision to go by unnoticed...or to think in some way that I deserved it.

God has provided for us during this pregnancy in many ways:

1 - We actually are pregnant! He could have said "no" or "wait awhile", but He allowed this pregnancy at this time.

2 - We have been given many of the large baby items we need - for free! Through a move of Susan's neighbors and a visit from Tim's parents, we were given a stroller, baby carrier, several carseats, rocking chair, changing table, swing, high chair, bouncer, bassinet, baby clothes, sheets, stuffed animals, etc.

3 - I have been provided with everyday clothing! The pastor's wife at Mom and Dad Farley's church gave me her maternity clothes, and Heather loaned me hers. I have only had to purchase 2 pairs of capris and a few t-shirts!

4 - I have been provided with work clothes! Just as I am beginning to outgrow my scrubs, they are having a scrub sale at work. People are supposed to bring in their old scrubs and sell them for 5 dollars apiece. A friend of mine asked me to take some clothing in for her - but told me to go through it first and take out anything I could use. Now I am set for the rest of the pregnancy!

5 - We have had good health for Mom, Dad, and Baby. There has not been a discouraging doctor's visit yet!

God is good. All the time.

My prayer is that when life gets rough (as it is bound to)...when it's hard to see His provision...when it's difficult to praise Him...that we would still realize and be able to say, "God is good. All the time".

25 weeks

Look at Baby! My e-mail update states that "Head to heels, your baby now measures about 13 1/2 inches. Her weight — a pound and a half — isn't much more than an average rutabaga." Not knowing what a rutabaga was, I did an image search on Google. Pretty!

24 weeks

Maybe I don't want to be pregnant for the rest of my life. Being able to eat just about anything I wanted to was fun while it lasted. I have new respect for those who live with heartburn (I feel you, Dad). It took about 4 days of having it to realize what it actually was. :) Now I'm learning what triggers it and how valuable it is to keep milk stocked in the fridge!!!

My belly button is disappearing, and it is becoming difficult (and painful) to bend over. What will the next 16 weeks bring? :)

The doctor's appointment Wednesday was fine. He measured my abdomen and said I am right on track. He has not mentioned anything about my weight gain, but I have been watching that myself and am happy to say that it is staying on track as well.

We had an all-church picnic yesterday. It was a lot of fun. Tim was in charge of games for the kids, and he had them playing Capture the Flag using water ballons rather than tagging each other out. I enjoyed watching from the shade. :) It was nice to just spend some time with everyone.

AWANA is going well - we had 12 junior highers last week, and everyone came again this week. They're a great group of kids, and we really enjoy working with them. The high school group is going well. We have a movie night planned at our house this Saturday for all of them. Woo!

We are looking forward to our trip to Ohio in just 3 weeks. Time is sure going quickly. We are excited to see everyone again! We miss you guys.

Finished Baby Quilts

The baby quilts I have been working on are finished. Bring on the baby! I don't claim to be an expert quilter, but it was fun.

The purple quilt is machine pieced. The quilting is done by hand - except the border, which is machine quilted - which happens to be very difficult! This was my first attempt at machine quilting, and I definitely need more practice.

The blue quilt is machine pieced, and all of the quilting is done by hand. This one has more quilting detail and took much longer to do. I actually began this as a gift for a nephew about 4 years ago. The quilt kept getting down-sized, until it became suitable only for a newborn. :)

If you click on the pictures, you will be able to see more detail - and mistakes. :)

23 weeks

We are getting to know a little bit more about Baby's personality. He or she is a typical little baby who loves to kick and do flips in the middle of the night - specifically between midnight and six am. He or she is also a trickster and likes to lay still whenever Daddy tries to say hi!

I have been trying to play the guitar more now that they say the baby is able to hear. A friend at work was telling me how her baby girl responds to the songs she sang when she was pregnant. I think it would be really neat if Tim and I are able to play music and see it have a calming effect on the baby once he or she is born. That's my little experiment.

We finished our registries at Babies R Us and Target. I'm enjoying just looking at baby stuff. We haven't really bought anything, but I love to just go browse...and I'm not usually a shopper...

I'm finishing up a girl baby quilt. I've had a boy one ready for awhile now, so Baby will have something handmade from me when he or she arrives. :) We are still trying to organize the house a little better to make space for this baby. :)

AWANA (our children's program) starts up at church tonight. We are switching from Wednesday nights to Sundays this year, so it will be interesting to see how many kids come to it. Tim and I are working with the junior highers again. High school youth group will continue to meet on Wednesday nights.

That's about it with us!

Our Little Thumper - 21 Weeks

Tim got to feel the baby move!

Baby must have thought we needed to get up for work this morning. He/she was moving around at about 5:20, and I realized that I could actually feel the movements with my hand. Tim was partially awake, so I put his hand on my belly and he was able to feel a little thump. Pretty cool!!! It's so neat to actually feel that little life moving around in there. :)

Tim thinks the baby is a girl because she doesn't kick very hard.

Cal?

Baby and I had our first dialogue yesterday. I was sitting at the kitchen table, working on a craft for the baby. Baby was thumping quite a bit. Here is what happened:

Me: "Hi Baby! How are you?"
Baby: *Thump*
Me: "Baby, are you a boy or a girl?"
Baby: nothing
Me: "Are you a boy?"
Baby: nothing
Me: "Are you a girl?"
Baby: nothing
Me: "Baby, Momma is talking to you. You need to answer. Now let's try this again. Are you a boy?"
Baby: *Thump*
Me: "Oh yeah? Are you a girl?"
Baby: nothing

I shared with Tim that we're having a boy, and he told me our conversation didn't mean a thing.

I guess we'll find out in a couple months, huh?

20 weeks

We're halfway there!!! That's amazing to think about. Time has gone quickly so far. In a way, I hope it keeps going quickly. At the same time, I just want to enjoy these next few months of having a little one growing inside of me, of having Tim all to myself, and of being able to sleep whenever I want. :-)

We are still keeping baby names to ourselves at this point. The main reason is that we want the option of changing the name up until we actually meet Baby. We had debated about telling everyone we had decided on California Sequoia regardless of the sex of the baby. It's a neutral name that could be shortened to Cal for a boy or Cali for a girl. But...we thought some might take that seriously.

Nothing terribly interesting happened at the doctor's appointment Thursday. He just poked my belly a little bit and listened to the baby's heartbeat. The next appointment is September 10. I'm not sure if we'll have another ultrasound before the baby is born - I forgot to ask about that.

19 Weeks

Today was "the big" ultrasound. We were good though, and we walked away still oblivious to whether our baby is a boy or a girl. Tim has consistently said he does not want to know until the baby is born. I waver back and forth on how I feel about it. I want to go shopping for pink or blue. Yet I think labor would be a little easier mentally if we were still wondering "boy or girl". So here we are, still wondering. :-)

The doctor said everything looks perfect with the baby. He did say the baby is a little big right now - he estimated 12 ounces. I did a little research and found that at 19 weeks the baby should be about 10.5 ounces and should reach 12 ounces at 21 weeks. Perhaps our due date is off a little bit? Or perhaps Baby is just big? Time will tell.


We were able to count 4 fingers and a thumb on each hand. Two legs, two feet, two arms. 4 chambers in the heart.

I have a doctor's appointment Thursday. I'll keep you posted if anything exciting happens there.

Home From Camp (Click for pictures)

We're home! We spent a week of camp up at Lopez Canyon with our youth. I was a counselor for 3 of our high school girls plus 2 girls from another church. We had a fun time. The week was not without drama, but that is to be expected when a large number of teens are in a small area with eachother for a week. :-) I had the opportunity to lead cabin devotions every night, which was difficult for me...but a growing experience nonetheless. It was great getting to know the girls better! I am glad to be home to my own bed and shower though.

Tim was counselor to 4 guys from our church plus 2 from another church. He also had the opportunity to lead morning devotions for the other staff and counselors. He did a good job, as always. :-)

In baby news: We are now 19 weeks along. Apparently Baby is not a Barbie doll. According to my e-mail updates, "her arms and legs are in the right proportions to each other and the rest of her body now". That's encouraging. Monday is our ultrasound. We are very excited about that!

Just wanted to let you know we survived the week. More to come after our ultrasound!

Back to the routine

Well, our visitors left Sunday morning. It has been quiet around the house...possibly too quiet...having family visit makes me miss them even more.

I felt Baby move! I wasn't sure if I was really feeling anything at first, but it has been happening more and more the past few days. I don't know how to describe it either. I've heard "butterfly wings" "bubbles" "tumbling" "fluttering". None of those really describe it. Help me out here, moms. How would you describe your experience? I guess everyone is different, but I'm curious.

We leave for camp Monday. I thik Tim and I will both be high school counselors again. Tim will also be leading morning devotionals for the staff. It should be a good time of bonding with our high schoolers - and several of the college students who will be there helping with music and crafts.

That's about it here!

17 Weeks

Baby can sweat! My e-mail source states that our baby is developing sweat glands this week. His or her skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone. I haven't felt the baby move yet (that I know of) but hope to soon! I'm excited about that!

We had another doctor's appointment today, and everything checked out okay. Hailey went along and was able to hear her little cousin's heart beat. We will have an ultrasound August 11 and another checkup August 14.

Here are a few more pictures - my growing belly, Baby's new crib and changing table, and the rocker that Tim has claimed for himself - I guess he's going to be doing the midnight baby rocking. :-)

The visiting Farleys

We have enjoyed the last few days with our visitors, and we still have a few more to go! We have been to the beach, a historical courthouse, shopping downtown, out on the pier, to a Danish town, and just hanging out around the house. We shopped for and bought a crib and unloaded many baby items to decorate our guest room (pictures to come). Today we are looking forward to seeing elephant seals, touring a castle, going to a farmers' market, and eating the best pizza in the world. Tomorrow will be a sunset on the beach, and Saturday we will go see the sequoias!

Here are a few pictures of our visitors enjoying themselves. Some of these scenes should look familiar to Mom and Dad DeArmon and to Cathy and Jen! Substitute your faces here!

Half Dome Video

Here's a little video to show the last leg of our journey to Half Dome with the youth group. Enjoy!

16 Weeks

2 days and counting. We're expecting visitors from Ohio on Saturday! Mom and Dad Farley and Niece Hailey will spend about a week with us. We're excited to see them and show them around a little bit. It will be nice to be with family again! It has been awhile.

Nothing overly exciting is happening right now with the pregnancy. Someone sent me some flair on Facebook that read "I'm making a human - what did you do today". I thought that was funny. I've added a ticker to the top of this site, so it will give updates of what's happening with Baby every week or so. It's amazing what you can find on the Internet.

I was supposed to work today, but they called me off due to low census. I got to spend the majority of the day at home on the computer instead. I have been working on editing our video from vacation and Yosemite, and I was able to finish both today. I've had difficulty actually being able to burn a disc though. That will probably be tomorrow's project.

That's enough computer for the day!

Parenting

Tim and I have been reading a book that was recommended by one of our pastor friends: Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp. Right now I am about a quarter of the way through the book, and I have found myself getting overwhelmed at the complexity of parenting. This is going to be hard! It's a lot of responsibility. It's scary.

Here's an excerpt to illustrate:

"What your children need is spiritual nurture. They need to be taught the ways of God. They need to be instructed in the character of God so that they can learn a proper fear of God. They need to understand that all of life rushes toward the day when we shall stand before God and give account. They need to learn about the pervasive effects of the fall on the human condition. They need to understand the subtleties of the malignancy of their own hearts. They need to know the dangers of trusting in themselves. They need answers to the great problems of life. They need to understand the difference between presuppositional thinking and empiricism. In short, they need nurturing instruction."

What a tremendous responsibility.

If anyone is looking for a helpful book on parenting with a Biblical perspective that will really make you think, this is a good one. :-)

Yosemite Half Dome Adventure

We made it back from Yosemite safely! Everyone seemed to have a good time. Enjoy the slideshow. For more pictures, click on the title above.