Patiently Waiting (or trying to!)

I feel like the countdown to baby has really started now.  In many ways, I can't believe we are so close to the end!  As the days go by, I am more and more excited to meet our little girl!  I just cannot wait to see what she looks like, and to feel her squirm around in my arms and not just in my belly.  We have a huge "to do" list that we are slowly making progress on, and hope to complete it before the baby is born.  But I think if I could have her out now, I'd be okay with leaving the list unfinished, which is really saying something for me!  But she is not quite ready to be out, and of course I don't want her to be here early.  I've taken care of my fair share of premature infants, and I would rather be able to take our girl home from the hospital with us!  Until she is ready to be born, I will just enjoy feeling her move!  I cannot get enough of her kicks and wiggles!  Watching my belly move around on its own is thrilling, albeit just a little odd.  So far none of her movements hurt, although I do feel rather short of breath a lot of the time and have difficulty bending over.  Greg laughs at me every single day when I invariably drop one of my vitamins on the floor (guess the swelling in my hands has made me extra-clumsy!) and he has to pick it up for me, or there would be quite the collection of tablets down there!  Greg really enjoys being able to see her move from his spot sitting next to me on the couch, rather than having to sit with his hand on my belly and patiently wait for her to move to connect with her.  Even though I feel like I've been pregnant forever, I'm not sure I will ever get used to feeling the baby move inside me!  Such a strange experience!


A few weeks ago we had our final (probably) formal sonogram.  I was 29 weeks and 3 days along at the time, and she had grown quite a bit since the last sonogram!  This time we had some different family members accompany us... my grandmother is in town visiting my parents for a while, so it was wonderful to have her there, and I think she really enjoyed it as well!  Our little girl will be her first great-grandchild!  So Lilly had her Great-Grandma, Nana, Aunt Emily and Aunt Elisabeth in addition to Mommy and Daddy there to peak at her!  We've had a crowd every time!

Although I continually get comments about just how "huge" I am, we were relieved to find that Lilly is growing right on schedule and only slightly big for her age, being in the 60th per centile.   Here is the best profile shot we could get, as she was acting a bit shy during the sono and gave us a hard time!  Guess we interrupted a nap or something :-)

Her estimated weight at this point is 3lbs 8oz.  She will be gaining 0.5-1 lb every week until she is born!  Yikes!  Can't wait to find out how much she weighs when she is born!  Here is a shot of her looking towards the "camera," with her hand in the air above her chest.

And here is a little tiny foot!!  Psalm 139 becomes so vividly real when looking at these tiny yet perfectly complete and perfectly formed toes.  Praise the Lord for our healthy girl!

And again, Greg has made a little clip from her sonogram video... and I will share with you his description of this performance... "Starts off with the cute girl doing a sucking motion, then an amazing shot of her heart, then a pretty cool picture of the spine, then a profile shot of her, then finally a foot."

We were able to spend time with some friends over the past few weeks, friends we don't get to see often because of busy schedules, but friends we really enjoy and very much respect as parents.  It was such a blessing to see them with their little ones, three in one family and two in another, and hear some of the challenges but mostly the overwhelming joys that come with parenting.  One thing that stuck out to me during our conversations was just how becoming a parent changes and challenges the relationship between husband and wife.  Greg and I are spoiled with our time alone now, and just love doing anything and everything together, especially just curling up on the couch and watching a movie.  We are so looking forward to becoming a family of three, but sometimes I forget just how much will change.  Spending some time with other couples our age, but who have already started the parenting journey, was a good reminder that we will need to become more intentional about our relationship and making sure we maintain good communication.  As one of our friends said, "communication becomes a huge challenge when there is a crying baby in the room!"  Seems so obvious, yet something you don't really think to prepare for ahead of time!  We are used to the biggest interruption to our conversations being our cell phones and our kitty (who can be very persistent in her quest for petting, but is typically pretty quiet!).  Again, I am reminded to be thankful that we are not left to walk through life alone, but the Lord has given us a community to enjoy... from spouse to friends to family to church body.  I hope I can remember to accept help and to be thankful for other people's input, advice, and assistance as we go through this huge change in our life!


We are now 8 weeks exactly until Lilly's official due date, which is Tuesday, May 10.  Greg thinks she will come on my birthday, Sunday, May 8 (which also happens to be Mother's Day!), but I'm hoping she will come even a few days earlier than that.  We'll see!  I have really been wanting to write about the baby's name, and just how significant a choice it is to me, but so far I have not been emotionally read to do that yet.  Perhaps sometime soon it will be the right time for me to put those feelings, thoughts, emotions, hopes and memories into words.  Until then, we are counting down the days until we get to meet our Lilly face to face!