Belly Progress

The belly is getting a little bit bigger.

Tonight we had our first meeting with a Bradley Birth educator named Emily. She went over nutrition and exercises. She also helped us to start thinking about what kind of birth we want to have and how to give ourselves the best chance to achieve it.

In other big news... While the little bugger has been dancing on my bladder for the past week, Stephen felt a kick for the first time tonight. I told him to come feel my stomach because I felt a few strong kicks in a row and he felt a big kick right away. There were a couple more soft kicks he couldn't feel then the baby went to sleep. I'm sure there will be many more kicks to come. Stephen says "It was cool, but a little bizarre". He is looking forward to feeling more kicks. I will try to post again after our appointment with the midwife next week.

I'm not fat! I'm pregnant!

As promised. Here is the first belly shot. Even though there isn't much there, the baby was estimated to be 12oz, which is on the big side for his age. I haven't been able to button my pants for a while and have been getting by by wrapping hair ties between the button and the buttonhole. Soon I'll be able to wear maternity clothes, but for now they pretty much just fall down.

The pregnancy is going very well so far. I am planning to start prenatal yoga this week and we will soon be registering for childbirth classes.

We toured our birthing center this week as well and it seems like it will be a very nice place to have a baby and hang out for a day or so. You can take a virtual tour at http://www.valleymed.org/Our_Services/Childbirth/Birth_Center.htm

More belly pics soon!

Buddy's First Present

Our Ultrasound

This morning we had our first ultrasound. It was very exciting to see our little Buddy, as we are calling him for the time being, squirming around. He is very active! Oh yeah... It's a boy! Everything seems to be in working order. He has ten fingers and ten toes. Seeing the heart beating was especially neat.

Below are all of the ultrasound photos except for the "it's a boy one". We thought that might be an invasion of his privacy. The pictures are a little small and Stephen says that it's much easier to tell what things are when they are moving around.

Re-siding

We started the process of residing our house. We only got to two walls of the house before it got too cold and wet outside.

Our old siding was icky and lots of gaps for stuff to get behind it.

There was even a tiny bit of rotten wood underneath the siding that had to be replaced.

We house wrapped and flashed the heck out of our little house.

Then we started putting up the siding. It is Hardi plank which is made out of fibers and cement so it is a little tricky to work with, but we got the hang of it after a while.

French Door

We installed some french doors in our living room. It was quite the adventure. I bought the doors used at a great price, but they were practically slabs. The first step was to build a door frame and hang the doors.

There was a lot of cutting and chiseling and perhaps a it of swearing as well.

Lots of measuring and remeasuring.


The next step was to remove the window and the part of the wall where the door was going. That was the easy part. Then we had to install the door. That part was not so easy, but it worked out and we are very happy it.

Planter part 2

We actually finished up the planter some time ago, but I am just getting around to updating. I've never been the best for keeping up with things. Here are some pictures of the mostly finished product.

Gracie's Vacation

While we went Santa Barbara for the 4th Gracie went on her own vacation. She went to Philomath, Oregon with my friends and their doggies. Where the heck is Philomath you ask. I'm not really sure, but Wikipedia knows.

Here are some pictures.