Oh, Elevator Lady...

This last weekend, I stood as a matron of honor next to my best friend as she was married. It was a wonderful weekend! Now 22-weeks along, I definitely had the first weekend with the most comments about my obviously pregnant belly so far. Most of the comments were nice. Then there was the elevator lady. If she blinked at all while we were together, I missed it. Wide-eyed, she said, "You STILL have FOUR months to go?! WOW..." Lovely. I had to laugh to myself though, as I have slightly looked forward to collecting these little stories as my belly grows. Sweet Naomi can get as big and healthy as she wants and I'm going to be the last one to rush her on out, no matter the comments. :)

My precious baby girl...

My cheeks are sore from smiling. :) We had our ultrasound this morning and it could not have gone better. Three-vessel cord. Four-chamber heart. Zipper-like spine. Two functioning kidneys. Perfectly-divided cerebrum. No cord around the neck. I heard all of the phrases that any pregnant, labor and delivery nurse would want to hear!

This is my favorite 3-D picture of her beautiful profile. My manager (Gail) at work said, "You bring that picture to your delivery and you will be amazed at the likeness you will see." It's hard to really imagine from this what she'll look like, but I'm sure Gail is right.

We laughed about this one with the ultrasound technician because a lot of people request to not have prints of the pictures directly of the face. They tend to look a little skeletal because of the technology and any space that is filled with fluid comes up as black on an ultrasound scan. But I think this picture is amazing. If you look really close, it can almost look like she's smiling at us!

The tech didn't say a thing. She just froze the screen and typed out what it says at the bottom. Although we had the gender test done in December, we were really waiting for this confirmation! We couldn't be more happy of the Lord's choice to start our family with a wonderful little girl.

And according to this picture, she might just be signing up for sports early! The tech kept saying, "She is busy!" It's a little hard to tell, as it was difficult to capture her being still, but the two arrows on the right are pointing to her fists up by her face. Looks like she's getting ready to do her daily Tae-Bo. You go, girl!

For the name announcement, we will share what we're thinking, but keep in mind we still have 20 weeks to go! Anything can happen and we are still leaving room for possible change. But we're 98% sure, so whether you like it or not, tell us you like it. The season to gather opinions is over. :) We really love Naomi Suzanne Yeamans. Naomi means "beautiful and pleasant," while Suzanne means "lily." My middle name is Suzanne, along with it being the first name of my mother. So unless something else comes along out of the blue, Naomi it will be.

We give all glory to the Creator for her perfect little body and thank Him for His goodness to us and her every day!

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights..."

James 1:17

So Curious...

There are those people who fall in love, get married, and everyone has a fairly clear picture in their mind of what their children are going to look like. Grant and I are just not those people. We have received multiple comments from friends and family echoing the same thought - "I just cannot imagine what your kids are going to look like!" Tomorrow we have our 20-week ultrasound, which we are thrilled about, and maybe we'll get a better glimpse of her sweet little profile and whose nose she's going to end up with. But until August, all we can really do is look at the above two pictures and wonder...

Now That's a Belly!!!

So - I posted the 17-week picture late, we skipped the 18-week pic cause we forgot, and tada!! Here's what we get for waiting two weeks... I think I actually look pregnant here!

And I'm heading to bed now, because I'm actually attending my first MOPS get together in the morning to celebrate that I officially look sort of like a mom. :) That's right. I am going to a "Mothers of Preschoolers" get together. Ha! Honestly, it's just an excuse for any mother, whether they have a fetus or an early school-age child, to get together and have some social time. I know a handful of girls that attend and with being a night-shifter, I really need to step up my social life a bit. The occasional coffee dates with the owls and the bats just aren't cutting it anymore.

Wow. MOPS meetings and pregnancy jeans. Life is 'a changin!

Oh, and please keep Grant in your prayers this weekend - he leaves in a few hours to make the long drive to New York for his latte art competition! He is so excited and has poured some really beautiful designs lately. He is getting so good! Pray for safety on the road and a fun time competing... I told him if he wins the $2500 grand prize, the baby will have some really nice furniture from her daddy!

Today's Appointment!

Had an appointment with one of my potential midwives today, Charlotte. She's so great. A true comparison to the wonderful, Southern Paula Deen :), who prays over the room after every delivery she attends. The other midwives that could end up being at my delivery are Christina (a sweet, freckled lady whose strawberry hair Grant would love), Joyce (a very practical, kind woman), or Ginny (the quiet, extremely knowledgeable midwife who sometimes does the nurse's jobs before they can blink). All four would be incredible options. I would probably have the option of asking one in particular to attend my delivery, but I truly do not think I could choose. I am trusting that whoever is on call when this baby makes her entry is just the person for the job. It is so amazing to work with these women every day and know them so well for this journey of my own pregnancy.

My appointment was pretty routine with nothing much to report, except that my baby was sure loving her game of hide 'n seek with Charlotte. We sat there forever before Charlotte found her heartbeat; I was thankful to be in this profession where that didn't freak me out. She appeared alright, clocking in at a mild 146 beats per minute, before she promptly disappeared again! Other than that, all is well. We are scheduled for our official ultrasound the morning of March 12th and we are blessed that my parents will randomly be in town that weekend to attend! So exciting... Stay tuned for the confirmation of whether this is a girl or not! And we think we are decided on a name, which we will reveal after we know the sex for sure!

Not That Impressive...

So here I am. Like I said, not that impressive. We have hardly taken any pictures prior to this because of the lack of anything to look at. And, sorry, but you won't be seeing any pictures posted of me with my shirt hiked up over my exposed belly - just not one of those girls - even if it was skinny and tan! Despite the lack of much of a bump showing above, I personally feel like I have one! You all just might have to wait a bit longer to see it. Until then, squint real hard.

Tonight was the first Bradley class for Grant and I to attend. The Bradley method is an approach to labor and childbirth that largely focuses on the goal of having a natural childbirth with as few interventions as possible. We have a fun, talkative group, and we both learned several new things. The topic for tonight's class was nutrition, so we celebrated afterward with a trip to Steak 'n Shake to have a burger, fries, and a cookies 'n cream milkshake. Lol... We really do look forward to attending these classes together over the next 8 weeks. I look forward to being the student and not the teacher of the class, while Grant is excited to learn about what his role will be in coaching me through labor. I could tell from tonight that he is going to be absolutely perfect and just what I need. I am so thankful for such a supportive, caring husband.

Off to do homework. Oh, to be pregnant and in graduate school...

Our Little Sweet Potato

Yawning, hiccuping, rolling, twisting, kicking, punching, sucking and swallowing - these are the activities of our sweet little veggie right now. The bump.com has a fun portion of its website where it compares the size of the baby to a fruit or vegetable each week. I won't be 18-weeks until Friday, but the edible option to compare her to today is an onion. Just couldn't do that do my little darlin'. A sweet potato sounded so much... well, sweeter.

Two weekends ago, I had such a wonderful time, as I got to spend a couple of days in Kansas City with my family. Well, I should clarify that 99% of this time was with my mother. The reason for the trip was to shop. And shop did we ever! Let's just say there was a woman on the loose who was smashing those winter sales into pieces... to protect her identity, we will simply call her Mimi. :) We had such a blast, dreaming about decking this little girl out in pink and butt ruffles. But girly wardrobe or not, I believe she'll be the cutest potato this side of heaven!