Seventeen to Nineteen Weeks

We had started counting down the days until our first ultrasound. Most people would be excited to find out the gender, but I kept telling Kyle I just wanted to know if our kiddo had arms and legs! And I'm serious, our very first ultrasound was so early that little Baby Hess had a heartbeat and looked like a caterpillar. Arms? Who knew. I was anxious about all the little parts, not just the gender ones.

Week 17

Thursday July 18, 2013 17 Weeks ?Days

We find out if the baby's a boy or girl on Monday. I'm counting down the days, I could not be more excited. I can't imagine waiting to find out until the baby was born. I mean, I know some people do that... they love the surprise. Kyle and I say there will be plenty of surprises with baby number one anyways. And I don't know if it's because I know our appointment is only four days away, but I wanna know!

So today I logged on to the Parents website to take their Gender Predictor Quiz just for giggles. There were questions I was not sure about, but I did my best...

Yep, they say it's a boy. You know, those wives tales that aren't accurate at all.

My prediction is that it's a boy. Kyle would love to have a boy and he's usually a pretty lucky guy. And I call most things "he." So "the kiddo" has been a "he" for the last few weeks.

Kyle says he things the baby is a girl. Mostly because he's seen a lot of cute little girls running around here at family camp. He thinks maybe it's God's way of preparing him to love a little girl.

Can't wait to find out.

PS. Weighing in at 164.4 lbs this week (I'd say it's an approximate gain of 10 pounds so far...). Blood pressure in check. Definitely 'showing' this week. Wishing I could eat sushi, a medium rare steak, cold lunch meat, and Chinese food that may have been out of a the refrigerator for a little longer than is safe. Rings still fit, no crazy swelling, but I think I'm noticing that in pictures I may already be looking a little more plump in the face - my plan: do arm exercises so my arms look Michelle Obama-buff even when my face gets puffy...

We'll see.

Still not feeling baby move yet, but remember I'm an 'amateur.'

We spent the week running camp and sneaking time away to plan for Christmas at Ute Trail. It's a wonderful time of the summer and full of really sweet moments. I think it's the weekend that we all realize we are, in fact, family. For me it was a neat time decorating the tree and hanging the lights knowing that the next time I decorate a tree for real Christmas we'll probably have our sweet baby in our arms. Made it extra special.

Since we were finding out the gender of Baby Hess the Monday after Sunday's Christmas, I crafted something up for the staff to be a part of. Being up at camp it would be hard for us to have a 'gender reveal' party on a Monday afternoon, so we did a little gender guessing at Ute Christmas.

So I got red and green Christmas lights and put them all in a big bowl. I got two pitchers (from the kitchen, lol) and used them as the place to vote. We had the staff guess the gender of the baby and sign their name on the bulb.

The sign explains it a bit better:

"Is Baby Hess a Boy or a Girl? Choose green for boy or red for girl... Write your name on the bulb &  place it in the appropriate pitcher to cast your vote! We'll put the bulbs back on the strand and hang them in Baby Hess' room when he or she is due this Christmas!"

The staff got so excited and they had their opinions on the gender for sure. Turns out there were TONS of votes for baby boy... mine included.

 

Then there were the lone few who guessed girl. Kyle was voting on girl too. He said with all the cute little girls at camp recently, he felt like the Lord was showing him how much he would love his own little girl.

I can't wait to string up the lights this Christmas. Putting each bulb back int he strand and remembering the people who loved our sweet baby even at only Seventeen Weeks.

Eighteen Weeks

It was time to find out about our sweet baby. The day of the ultrasound. I think I was excited for the entire day. Our appointment wasn't until after lunch and I couldn't wait! Kyle and I headed into the clinic in Lake City and I was so excited. And still a little nervous about whether our little baby was all there.

The lady who did the ultrasound was absolutely wonderful. She had an accent of sorts and her name was Gudrine and she asked us if the Medical Intern could sit in with us. I said 'yes!' remembering the day when I was an intern, and thinking about the limited amount of ultrasounds she must get to see in Lake City.

The moment we saw our little baby on the screen you could see the cutest little legs moving around and I honestly thought "oh baby has legs!" Gudrine said the baby had such 'healthy' legs with such 'shape' and of course I just knew we'd have a ten pound baby, lol. She talked baby talk to the monitor and pointed out the neatest little things. Like a little baby hand...

I hung on every medical word she said to the intern as my nerdy medical mind understood every word of it. The aorta? Really? "See how the bladder's black, that means the kidneys are working!" I was loving it. Little baby feet...

Then my mind turned to the gender. Were we looking at our little girl or little boy? Then she pointed it out. She said "three little lines" and Kyle and I both knew. I immediately looked at him, hoping he wasn't disappointed that it wasn't a boy. But he was just smiling. A big 'ole I'm-gonna-be-a-daddy smile. I think I was in shock, because I really did think it was a boy.

Kyle asked Gudrine "so is this one of those things where you say it's a girl but it comes out a boy? Like how sure are you?" She replied "well, let me put it this way, if it comes out a boy you're going to be severely disappointed in the size of his equipment." Then she giggled, and I almost lost it. I couldn't believe she said that and we laughed quite a bit.

Our sweet baby girl was perfect. She kept saying the word "perfect" and I couldn't have been more pleased. Out little baby was jumping around in my belly and it was so neat to see her on the screen, because I couldn't quite feel her in there yet. Oh and it was such a relief as they reviewed each part saying it was all there. And she was really cute...

So then it was time to decide how we were going to tell camp when we rolled back in. We thought about decorating Kyle's truck in pink balloons, but Lake City has a pretty limited selection of balloons and string it turns out.

So we headed to the new sweet shop in town to look for pink candy. Right about when we realized the best candies are not pink, Kyle spotted a jar behind the counter. With "It's a Girl!" pink bubble gum cigars! What are the odds?? Kyle wanted to buy all of them and I made some shocked comment about "all of them?!?" like it was a million dollars or something. Kyle just laughed at me.

We headed back to camp and ran around passing out pink bubble gum cigars and showing off our new baby 'pictures.' Sweet Kyle couldn't wait to tell the world so we took a picture as fast as possible and it was on facebook in minutes... I kind of love Kyle's expression...

It was a great day. It was Monday.

Then that Wednesday I felt the baby move. "They" say it feels like popcorn popping or like gas bubbles, lol. So maybe I felt that before and didn't realize it. But Wednesday morning I was sitting in the office at camp and it was like someone poked me in the stomach. But from the inside... it was the coolest thing in the world. Just one poke though.

I got poked again Thursday morning in the office.

Then on Friday night at the campfire when we were singing worship to Jesus she started just a kicking. And kept kicking. And I thought, well maybe she already likes campfires... and I thought maybe it's because she already loves Jesus :)

And then the weekend I didn't feel her again until Sunday morning. We had our staff worship time and we were singing a song I'd never heard before. It was Never Once by Matt Redman. And I thought about earlier in the summer when I could barely breathe because I was so sick. I thought about when I found out about tuberculosis. And then I thought about how blessed I was, to have the Lord, to have this incredible man sitting next to me singing to Lord with me... and then our little baby started kicking and dancing. And I kind of lost it. Lost it in the goodness and grace of the Lord.

God is so good.


For Week Eighteen I decided to take a picture in my poodle skirt again. I don't think I realized though how large I looked in a poodle skirt, lol. Ooops...

So then we tried again for better pics at the barn dance... and I saw them on the camera and had to coach myself back out of my room after "knowing" I looked HUGE! Funny looking back now, at least by belly looked tiny :)

Week Nineteen

It was my last full week at camp. I made sure to spend plenty of time with my hubby and all around camp actually. Since camp still had a few more weeks, it was bittersweet mostly for me. Because it was our last date night opportunity of the summer with Matt and Jennie we headed out to dinner with the Ravs. Matt offered to watch Baby Lizzie after dinner so Jennie, Kyle and I could play BINGO!

Week Nineteen we decided the bingo hall would be the perfect place for our weekly 'bump' picture.

It was a good week. No journaling in week nineteen, because honestly I spent every moment soaking up camp. And then I was at camp until right about twenty weeks...

Oh God is so good to us...