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

Sixth Letter to My Little One

In this letter, we chose to discuss a song that was "stuck" in our heads. The moment we heard this song, we knew that it described our journey to get our firstborn child. At the time, we had no idea that we were so close to finding out we were, indeed, pregnant!

Isn't it amazing how easily a song can become your theme song for that particular period of time?!?!?

*Update on 10/17/13: I didn't realize how much this song would come to mean to me. I played this song for the duration of my pregnancy. It was also my song of choice while I was in labor. To this day, I can't hear this song without crying! How has music impacted your life?

11/8/12

My Little One,

Prior to finding out we were expecting you, your father and I had picked out a song for you. We had heard it at a friend’s wedding for the first time (well, the first time we actually listened to the words, it is also played in the Twilight movie series) and felt like it summed up our feelings for you. At the time, we had been undergoing several tests to find out if we could have children. We were also speaking with the doctors about starting medication that would increase our chance of pregnancy. We had no idea when we heard the song that we would be blessed with the news that you would come into existence a mere few weeks later!

CHRISTINA PERRI - A THOUSAND YEARS

Heart beats fast
Colors and promises
How to be brave
How can I love when I'm afraid to fall
But watching you stand alone
All of my doubt suddenly goes away somehow
One step closer

I have died every day waiting for you
Darlin' don't be afraid
I have loved you for aThousand years
I'll love you for aThousand more

Time stands still
beauty in all she is
I will be brave
I will not let anything
Take away what's standing in front of me

Every breath, Every hour has come to this
One step closer
I have died everyday
Waiting for you
Darlin' don't be afraid
I have loved you for aThousand years
I'll love you for a Thousand more

And all along
I believed I would find you
Time has brought
Your heart to me
I have loved you for a Thousand years
I'll love you for aThousand more
One step closer
One step closer

I have died everyday
Waiting for you
Darlin' don't be afraid,
I have loved you for aThousand years
I'll love you for aThousand more
And all along I believedI would find you
Time has brought Your heart to me
I have loved you for aThousand years
I'll love you for a Thousand more
                                                                                                       

Love You Always,

Mommy and Daddy