Tenth Letter to My Little One

Okay, I have to be brutally honest about pregnancy! I have been sooo tired! I have, unfortunately, not written a letter for my pregnancy journal in months! Almost 3 months to be exact! My last letter was written in December. Nonetheless, I have finally written another letter for her (YES, it is a SHE, we found out at our second ultrasound in the last trimester)! See below:

3/21/13

My Little One,

You are a baby Girl! Our second ultrasound will forever be one of Mommy’s favorite moments in life. We got to see you move all over and were very pleased with how active you are! We didn’t care what your gender was, but finding out made everything seem so real for us. My plans for the future already started to solidify as I painted in a beautiful little girl! 

Mommy and Daddy plan to teach you so much about the world and I wanted to tell you a few lessons that I especially hope that you will learn from me.

1. Jesus loves you for you. He also has a plan for you. Trust him.
2. You can make the world a better place.
3. One can never go wrong with kindness, integrity, and being very clear about your expectations.
4. Never trust a man who is unkind to his mother.
5. You can be anything you want to be.
6. Dance like nobody's watching.
7. Love with passion.
8. Don’t be afraid of a broken heart.
9. Find an appropriate way to vent frustration, rather than speaking mean words.
10. A good book can change your life.
11. The world needs your point of view.
12. Nothing you tell me will ever make me want to stop hearing from you.
13. The world is full of mean girls, choose not to be one.
14. I’m on your side; especially on the days when it doesn’t feel like it.
15. Your body is not just yours. It’s a gift for your husband. I promise it’s worth waiting to unwrap together.
16. Marriage is an act of courage, commitment, and sacrifice. It’s also the most fun you’ll ever have with your best friend.
17. Be the friend you wish you had.
18. I will be your best friend. But I will be your mother more.
19. If it makes you feel uncomfortable, don’t do it, wear it or say it.

20. You will have to find a way to get along with people you don’t like.
21. Make mistakes. Learn from your mistakes.
22. Travel.
23. "It isn't what we say or think that defines us, but what we do."
24. Stand up for what you believe is right.
25. Your daddy has loved you better and longer than any boy ever will.
26. Be the kind of friend you want to have.
27. Dare to be different.
28. Life is fast, live slow.
29. Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty.
30. Do unto others as you'd have done to you.
31. You are not entitled to anything, it has to be earned.
32. Nothing will make me love you less.
33. Nothing will make me love you more.
34. You’re the most brave when you’re the most scared and keep going anyway.
35. Learn all that you can.
36. Dream big.
37. Apologizing takes strength. Be strong.
38. Find friends who become family.
39. If it looks too good to be true, then it probably is.
40. I will love whoever you choose to love.
41. You will always be my baby.
42. Life can change in an instant, never take what you have for granted.
43.  Trust your gut feeling.
44. Guardian angels and heaven are real.
45. You can always come home.
                                                      Love You Always,                                                             Mommy

What are the things you want to teach your child?

Please, no one tell me I am the only one that didn’t keep up with my pregnancy scrapbook as well as I had intended?!?! Life got ahead of me and now I am sooo close to having my little one. I am beginning to wonder if I will ever get my brain back?

Ninth Letter to My Little One

As you can easily see from the picture above... I am definitely SHOWING! We were lucky enough to snap a picture this time with both parents-to-be!

Below is another letter I have put in our baby’s pregnancy scrapbook. We had built up anticipation on finding out our gender’s (read more about that here). Read below to find out the results (you WILL be surprised)! 

12/17/12

My Little One,

Today we had a follow-up appointment with your doctor to discuss the ultrasound on 12/14. We felt so blessed to have seen you and to have gotten 3 very good pictures of you. At the beginning of our ultrasound, you had the hiccups and you had just eaten (your little belly was quite full)! You then became very active and danced around Mommy’s belly for the next half of the appointment. After all that dancing, you decided to take a nap. We got to see you yawn! You curled up into fetal position and stayed that way for the rest of the appointment. 

Unfortunately, we still do not know your gender! You moved around too much at the beginning of the appointment to see and then when you slowed down, the umbilical cord covered you up perfectly! Our lab tech. originally said you were a boy but then half-way through she guessed you were a girl. We were bummed out not to find out if we are having a girl or boy but are so happy to know that you are active and very healthy! We decided that God is reminding us that we do not always have control of everything and we must be patient! Our next ultrasound is in February (we plan to schedule it during our wedding anniversary) and we may find out your gender then! 

To update you on how the pregnancy is going: Morning sickness stopped around week 14. That is probably the biggest hurdle I have faced thus far with being pregnant. I feel you move regularly now and many of our family members have also felt you move! I try to regularly talk to you and play you music (mostly classical but you also listen to Mommy’s music on her frequent car trips to see clients)!  We love these moments with you!

I am still not in maternity clothes, even though we are just at half-way through the pregnancy. Your doctor was quite surprised when I showed up in my regular jeans but reminded me this will not last much longer as you will be doubling in size in the next few weeks!  I am hungry all the time but not craving anything in particular. Most of our friends say that Mommy is still hardly showing. I am trying to eat very healthy (lots and lots of fruits and veggies) and still workout regularly (some days are harder than others depending on my energy levels). One of the many joys of being pregnant though is that Uncle Josh and Daddy generally give Mommy first dibs on seconds (sometimes even thirds)! 

                                                     Love You Always,
                                                             

                                                    Mommy and Daddy

How real did your ultrasound make things for you?!?!

Eighth Letter to My Little One

In our next letter, we share the news of a poll we conducted in anticipation of possibly finding out the gender at our first ultrasound. We spoke with family and friends to get their guess and tallied their results. We also created a picture with the results to share via Facebook (keep scrolling after the letter to see). 

12/12/12

My Little One,

Your father and I are so excited to see you on the ultrasound on 12/14/12. We may even be lucky enough to find out your gender at this appointment! Mommy can already feel you moving around and sometimes Daddy can, too. Mommy plays classical music to you most nights! Maggie and Wes (our puppies) will lay on Mommy’s belly and we believe that they can hear you. Sometimes, they like this and sometimes it seems to catch them by surprise!

This week, we took a vote from our family as to whether they think you are a boy or girl. Although none of us knows for sure, it is fun to take a stab at who you may become! Here are the results: 

Girl		Boy
Aunt Brittany		Great Grandpa Butch
Grandma Claudia		Shauna
Cousin Madison		Great Aunt Toni
Great Grandma Carol		Great Uncle Wade
Great Grandpa Greg		Cousin McKenzie
Grandpa Daryll		Cousin Samantha
Aunt Angela		Uncle Glenn
Uncle Kevin		Tanelle
Cousin Miles		Stephanie
Uncle Jason		Grandma Lori
Justin		Sister Mags
Grandpa Neil		Uncle Josh
Aunt Josie
Heather
Mommy
Daddy
Brother Wes
17	to	12

As of now, the votes are in, predicting you to be a girl!

Love You Always,

Mommy and Daddy

We took this poll and posted to following picture to Facebook and asked everyone for their vote:

Posting on Facebook gave us many additional votes on the gender and made it fun for us as we anticipated our ultrasound!

What fun ways have you come up with as you anticipate finding out the gender of your little one?

Seventh Letter to My Little One

During pregnancy, you never get tired of hearing your baby's heartbeat! Although, you will get tired of feeling like you live at the doctor's office. I think I averaged about 2.5 hours for each and every appointment I had. Sometimes, it is so difficult to sit in the waiting room for a long period of time just to for a brief check-up with your doctor. It was always worth the wait in the end though! Here is the letter I wrote for our little this time:

11/15/12

My Little One,

Today is your daddy’s birthday! We made our 14 week check-up for today and got to listen to your heartbeat again, which is now at 144 heartbeats per minute. That was one of the best birthday presents your father could have asked for you. You are quite a gift already to us!

Mommy and Daddy spent the rest of the Daddy’s birthday together. Daddy wanted a lasagna dinner with cake, so Mommy made this for me. What Daddy didn’t know was that Mommy had planned a surprise and we had all of our friends over to eat this dinner with us. Your Uncle Josh is living with us at the time and he was a part of this party as well!

We set up our next appointments with the Doctor and next month we will get to have our first ultrasound. We are so excited to see what you look like and we may even be lucky enough to find out if you are a girl or a boy, what a Christmas gift that would be to us! 

Love You Always,

Mommy and Daddy