Full of Grace

Well, I realize that I have slacked a lot on posting. 2 reasons can justify my tardiness: 1) things have been crazy with the end of school and 2) nothing exciting has been happening! Both of us continue to grow at an astronomical rate. My bellybutton is starting to pop out and is 3/4 of the way flat with the rest of my stomach. She kicks what seems like nonstop and has the hiccups at least twice a day.

The nursery construction is fully underway. Lee is spending today framing in a new closet for her and my diaper stacker (that matches the pattern) is in and I am so excited to see the finished product (Check Lee's facebook for nursery progress pictues).

This week is graduation week. The seniors have taken their finals and the teachers are all getting ready for the graduation ceremony tomorrow. My job has been to stuff the diplomas (put the actual diploma in the fancy leather case and put the plastic sheet over it and put into an envelope with their name on it). As I sat there and read each diploma, I was struck with the realization that every student who is graduating, that has their name written on that diploma, spelled a certain way, is that way because when their mom's were pregnant with them, they loved that name. As we are in the final stages of selecting a name for our daughter, I have realized why so many of my friends have chosen to not say the name they have chosen until he/she arrives. It has amazed me how opinionated people can be about a name (especially a name that the mom and dad think is perfect). Lee is also afraid of meeting her for the first time and deciding that she doesn't look at all like that name. Maybe we'll have one solidified by then and maybe not. But I have decided that, from now on, to not criticize anyone's selection for a name for their child (whether publically or privately) because those parents adored that name. My current favorite name, in Russian, means "full of grace". That is our prayer for this little one; that as she approaches a life outside of my belly, that whatever life hands her, she will be full of God's grace.

And now we know the rest of the story...

So, on my last post, I expressed my concern over my ginormous size at this stage of the game. Many of my students were predicting that my ultrasound would find two babies, instead of just one. People's eyes would bug out of their head when I told them how far along I was. It was as if they were saying "Wow! You're going to be a hippo by the time this baby arrives!"

So, on Tuesday, the ultrasound came and we found out that we are having a girl! You could have knocked us over with a feather at that news! Her sweet little face was just so precious. As you can see above, she enjoys sucking her thumb (which is what I did until I saw in 2nd grade). Near the end of the ultrasound, I mentioned that many people thought that there were 2 babies in my belly. She said that she was sure there was only 1, but that she was quite a big girl. She went on to say that she's currently weighing 15.2 ounces. At 20 weeks, most babies weigh 10.5 ounces. She's in the 94th percentile for weight. No wonder I'm huge!!

Now that we have a gender, we're ready to start the balls rolling! The registries have started and we're trying to change our pronoun usage from "it" or "he/him" to "she/her". Such an exciting time right now!!

I mean, seriously??

One of the hardest things for me this pregnancy has been that I honestly don't believe how big I am until I see these update pics. Like clockwork, Lee takes the picture, shows me in the review window and then I say "I don't look like that, do I??" To which he tries to be sensitive and typically says something like "The baby is growing nicely" or "You look beautifully pregnant".

All day Saturday, the Little One was preparing for prom. It started dancing promptly when I opened my eyes and put on a show for the rest of the day. At the After-Prom, the kids could sit around me and watch the kicks and jabs.

Tomorrow is the "Big" ultrasound. I am so excited for the baby to finally have a pronoun and soon, a name. Our last ultrasound was at 8 weeks, and I think we're in for a shock to see how much it has grown!

"Not enough time..."

One of mine and my brother's favorite lines from the show "Saved by the Bell" is when Jessie is trying to get into college and she's on caffeine pills and says "No time! There's never any time. I don't have time to study, I'll never get into Stanford...". My nesting instinct sings this almost daily about something new. This week it has been the fact that I don't have a diaper bag chosen yet and yesterday was that we don't have a crib picked out yet. It's like in my head, I know that we still have 20 (0r 22 or 23 weeks) left until the baby is here, but my hormones are saying "it all has to be done right now!". I spent over 5 hours the other day looking at diaper bags and trying to decide what style, color, size, etc that I want. Yestereday, I sobbed over not having a crib and then once I found one, they were "currently unavailable". Don't these people know that I have things I need to do for this baby and being "unavailable" just isn't gonna work for me! Come on Babies-R-Us! Get your production lines in gear!