Baby J at 18 Weeks

Yesterday afternoon, we had our "big ultrasound" at 17 weeks and 5 days. Isaac and I were so excited as we drove to the ultrasound. We arrived and were taken right back to the u/s room. We held our breath for a moment while we waited to see Baby J and his heartbeat. And it was amazing... his little heart was so perfect and was beating at about 150 beats per minute. This is one of THE most amazing things I've ever seen in my life! Granted, we got to see his heart beat at 8 and 12 weeks as well, but seeing it never gets old! God is such an amazing creator!

We are SURE he's a BOY! (To preserve my sweet babe's modesty, I won't post pictures that prove his gender. He'll thank me for that later!) We were initially told he was a boy at about 12 weeks, but many people were skeptical they could tell that early. Well, they were right, and we're thrilled to start thinking about boy names.

Here are 3 good profile pictures of our baby:
We got to see him move around and suck his thumb. We also saw the 4 chambers of his heart, his
cerebellum and skull, and his arm and leg bones. Ultrasounds are such a wonderful gift! He weighs about 8 ounces now, so he has quite a bit more "baking" to do.

I also wanted to post my favorite picture from the ultrasound (besides the above profile pics). Sing with me now!

"I'm a Tar Heel born, and a Tar Heel bred..."

Presenting our sweet Tar Heel:
We were tickled when we saw the u/s tech typing "Go Heels!" on this picture of Baby J's feet. I can't wait to kiss those little baby feet this summer. Is this not the sweetest baby you've ever seen? : ) Isaac and I are quite taken with him.

Thanks for sharing this joy with us! We'll keep you posted. In the meantime, grow baby grow.

Sinus Infection Strikes Again!

Seriously? Is it possible to be sick for 2 weeks straight? I thought, hoped, prayed that I would be well by now. But I started feeling pretty sick again last night in Lowes's Home Improvement as Isaac and I were trying to pick out paint colors for our bathrooms. Isaac mentioned putting me to bed early, and I concurred and turned out my light at 9:30 last night. I woke up in pretty bad pain in my sinus area (plus my teeth and throat are sore too), and it was tough to go back to sleep. I made the decision at 2:30 am that I would not be going to work today. And I've made an appt to see my family dr. this afternoon. I hope I can get some medicine to get rid of this illness for GOOD.

Please pray for me to get well, and for Isaac as well. He isn't feeling well either, but has a super busy week at work... so he's pushing through. I am going to the big u/s this afternoon though so I can apologize to baby J for being ill over the past 2 weeks!

Hugs everyone.

Hello!

Hi all. This blog entry will be a little random. But hey, my bloggie friends out there understand, right? : )

We spent the weekend with my dad and step mom celebrating his 71st birthday. We took him to a Clefhanger's concert (UNC male acapella group) in Charlotte. The concert was really good, and I think he enjoyed it as well. I made him an apple pie which seems to be his favorite thing in the entire world, seriously. He doesn't want gifts, clothes, cars. etc. He just wants pie. That suits me just fine! I should have taken a picture of it because it turned out really well. I did the lattice pattern on the top which I think it really pretty. I'm just glad I got to spend some good time with him on his birthday. By the way for those of you that don't know my dad, he looks more like 61 than 71. That's good for me because I expect him to be around a LONG time.

We go for our "big" ultrasound this Thursday where they will do the anatomy scan and make sure our little guy is doing well. I'll almost be 18 weeks and we'll do a double-check on his gender too. People have freaked me out that it was too early to tell at our last u/s, so we're going to check one more time. I'll keep you posted and hope to have some pictures for you too. I'm going to drink a regular coke before I go in the hopes of encouraging some movement. The little guy was pretty sleepy at our last u/s so we didn't get to see him move that much. I did some hip shaking to try to get him to move and you could tell he was a little startled. He was still pretty sweet though. But of course, I'm not biased! : )

My second awful cold in the last month is almost gone. I feel so much better than last week. I'm still wheezing a little since I am still pretty congested in my chest. So that has meant no running in the past week and a half. Hopefully I'll do okay in the Krispy Kreme Challenge I'm running in 2 weeks (4 miles). That race deserves a blog in itself, so stay tuned.

Guess I should finish getting ready for work. Hope you all have a great day!

Verse for the day: "You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you." (Isaiah 26:3)

101st Post and going back to work...

I am finally joining the land of the living. I am going to attempt a day back at work. I have to make it till noon because I have a big meeting. But I have to say I'll be glad to see people! I haven't been out since Saturday. So look out world, here I come!

Sick at home... again

Hi all. Since I'm home sick today (I was also sick for 2 weeks over Christmas), I thought I'd write on my blog. I started feeling under the weather again in the middle of the night on Saturday. I think I kept Isaac up most of the night with my coughing. But since my sweet niece and nephew Maia and Alex were over for a sleep over, I was stuck in our bedroom. Here's a great picture of the sleepover. We made pizzas and rice krispy treats, and then Isaac set up our camping tent for them to sleep/play in. Alex ended up sleeping in it, and Maia was in the guestroom (also known as Julie's bedroom). She thought the tent was too hot.


Maia (age 7) and Alex (Age 5) are such amazing kids. As we were talking, I said to them, "Hey, you kids are teaching us how to be good parents!" And it's true. We've learned so much from being around their family over the years. We are so fortunate to live about a mile away from them. We watched Ice Age 3 (where baby Peaches, the wooly mammoth is born at the very end of the movie) and read some books. We tried watching E.T., but it was a little intense for our young Alex. And on Sunday morning, Isaac made us all pancakes and bacon. YUM. Kevin picked them up about 9 so we could go to church... but since I didn't get much sleep the night before, I stayed home and went back to bed. I'm pretty sure God understands. One more picture from our sleepover:

I'm grateful to have a husband that enjoys spending our Saturday evening entertaining and playing with our niece and nephew, and sharing a week of our summer each year with our niece Haley. These kiddos truly have added such richness and joy to our lives. We love you kiddos. Now to get Drew and Lily back on the East coast so we can see them more!

Belated Washington, DC Pictures

I'm finally uploading a couple pictures from our trip to Washington, DC at the end of December, 2009. Isaac and I spent a couple days there together. It was so nice to have some good time together without all the craziness of the holiday season. It was quite cold during our trip, so we're all bundled up. This picture was taken on New Year's Eve outside the White House. We'd been sight seeing most of the day, and the rain held off till after we took this picture.


At the end of the trip, Kathleen and her fiance Scott joined us for our last day in DC. It was great to spend some time with them too. And we got to celebrate their engagement at the Old Ebbitt Grill in downtown DC, 2 blocks from the White House (also right down the street from our hotel).


The star of the DC trip was definitely Tai Shan, the baby panda born at the National Zoo about 5 years ago. Isaac knows how much I love pandas and so we went back to visit the pandas again. Tai Shan is going back to China shortly since the US has an agreement with China to return any pandas born in the US. so of course we had to say goodbye! We got to see Tai Shaun and his mom and dad a lot this day--probably over an hour of viewing time.


(I managed to get out of the gift shop with only a panda ornament, although my sweet husband was prepared to indulge me with more goodies.)

And I'll wrap up the blog with a great picture of my handsome hubby. This was taken at the American History Museum. What a fabulous time we had... and baby also got to go on his first trip to DC--even though I'm not sure he'll remember it! ; )

Happy Monday all!

Haiti

My heart is completely breaking for the people in Haiti. What an awful tragedy, and that country has been struggling for such a long time.

Kathleen's fiance Scott is a commander in the Navy. He commands a helicopter squadron and has been deployed to Haiti to help out with the relief efforts. He flew a helicopter to the USS Carl Vinson on Wednesday since helicopters can't fly that far. And he arrived in Haiti on Thursday. Well, actually the Carl Vinson (a HUGE aircraft carrier) will be his home, but his primary job will be to fly supplies and aid from the ship to Haiti. The aircraft carrier can purify huge quantities of water, and apparently that is one of the things Haiti needs most right now.

We don't know how long he will be gone. He's excited to be able to help out. But of course it makes me sad for Kathleen. He was deployed in about a 4 hour period so he didn't even have time to say goodbye in person. : ( He is supposed to get transferred to the Pentagon in May or June, so my thought is he will at least be back by then, if not sooner.

I'm glad the US can assist the people on Haiti in this desperate time of need. Literally, after the earthquake happened, the US Navy was on it's way in less than 12 hours to help. That's pretty good if you ask me.

It's been pretty neat to hear about Scott's adventures in the Navy. Just a week before Christmas, he and a teammate rescued 2 people that had gone down in a small plane crash. Although fairly banged up (broken bones, etc.), the people were just fine. He was able to fly them out and get them to a hospital. Wow. How about being able to write that down for yearly/life accomplishments!?

So, for now we're praying for Haiti, for Scott, and for Kathleen. Please keep them in your prayers if you have an opportunity. Happy Friday all!