Lilypie First Birthday tickers

Lilypie First Birthday tickers

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Growing Girls (and boys)!

Yesterday was Jonathan's brother and his wife's baby shower for their little man due to arrive the first week of April, it's almost time for us to meet him!  We had a great time visiting with friends and family that we don't get to see often.  If you look back from the last family gathering you can see the babies have definitely made themselves known in the last couple of months and we have all (Katie and their son, Evie and I, Storie and her son) grown!


We all had a wedding shower to attend today for another relative starting a fun new adventure in May!

Nothing much new for me and Evie, still growing and definitely wiggling, she's quite the squirmer.  I still don't think I'm feeling her when I'm not paying attention to it, it's still mostly the "flutters", but I'm sure soon enough she will make herself known regularly!  I think I felt her pokes today, of course I was sitting still in church again...she doesn't sit still any better than either of her parents do....and I thought I felt a poke so I put my hand down to see and sort of pressed back and it seemed like she poked back again as if to say "Hey!  That's my space!"  It's the strangest thing!
I was gifted several more Mommy gifts this week for which I am incredibly thankful!  The first was maternity clothes from one of my classmates, for those of you who have never been maternity shopping it's like wedding shopping, just for the simple added word the cost will double or triple!  The next was an aloe plant from another classmate for my very sensitive skin that has been made more sensitive by pregnancy and it has eased the itching/inflammation immensely!  And lastly a book from one of Jonathan's cousins called "Nine Months to a Miracle", I haven't read much of it but from what I've read so far I highly recommend it to any other pregnant women.  It discusses the miracle of conception, through to the miracle of birth and all the anxieties and excitements that accompany that time.  I have mentioned it before, but I will never understand women saying that the baby is just "another part of the mother" as if it's an appendage.  Did you know that from the time of conception....from the very minute that the sperm joins the egg that baby has an entirely separate DNA from the mother?  Her DNA would have looked exactly like a grown adult's DNA, with the same numbers of chromosomes, simply a different combo.  Evie is 1/2 me and 1/2 Jonathan, her genetic makeup is unlike any other living thing on this planet, what an incredible thought.  She is uniquely herself, but shares DNA with each of her grandparents as well as her Aunts and Uncles. I hope I never cease to be amazed by the Lord's work in creating a little one!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Maternity clothes...and the rest of the update

There are some modern inventions that I could do without, this week I am feeling VERY thankful for whoever came up with maternity clothes though!  Now that Evie and I are both growing at a much quicker rate maternity clothes are becoming a necessity and they are so comfortable I'm not sure why I waited so long to take advantage of them.
So here's the rest of the update....our daughter is amazing!  She passed everything with flying colors, ultrasounds are incredible, we could see everything....not that we knew what everything was that we were seeing, but the ultrasound tech was wonderful and explained it all.  You could see her little heart and 4 distinct chambers, they measured her brain, her legs, her arms, her head size, her kidneys, bladder, placenta, umbilical cord (which had 3 vessels - the right amount), it was amazing.  The funniest thing was to see how she "performed" for everything, she showed out every part they needed to measure but she wouldn't show male/female parts.  She turned every time they got close to being able to tell, they had me turning on my left side...then my back...then my right side...then my back without any luck, she did NOT want to "show out" for that.  At one point when they almost could tell she had her legs crossed!!!  After they finally said "girl" we both were quite proud...and told her she better continue to be prim and proper and not "show out".
I know there are people who consider a child at this point simply another "body part" of the mom since she can't live apart from me, and it's not a "real person" yet, but I can guarantee that she is indeed her own person and she is fully a person.  She moves entirely apart from me...and she's already a Daddy's girl.  She is as "real" and human as I am, I may not be able to tell you what color eyes she has or what color hair, or even if she has much hair, and I realize she is very easy to "handle" right now since she is so contained and there are no diapers, no feeding, no crying, or any of the more challenging aspects of being new parents, but she is our daughter and not just another body part of me.
And since it's been far too long since I've posted an update of belly growth...here it is.  I'm not sure strangers would dare to ask my due date yet, but it has passed the point of simply looking like I ate too much over the holidays.
Thanks again for all of the prayers, we have been so excited to continue to get updates that are "boring".  Our little girl is growing wonderfully and doing great, and she is such a wiggle worm, this continues to be the best adventure the Lord has ever put either of us on!

Monday, February 7, 2011

Pink!!!!

Here is the very first photo shoot of Evonne Whitley Anderson...."Evie" is what we'll call her!  She is Evonne after several wonderful women in her life, Evelyn is my mother's middle name, it's also Jonathan's Aunt's name and my great Aunt was Evelyn as well....Von is Jonathan's Aunt on his other side, and Whittaker is the maiden name of Jonathan's Grandma Sarah, so we have Evonne (Evelyn + Von) Whitley (a cute variation of Whittaker)...Evie!  They are five incredible women who we hope and pray Evie takes after!
And here is her photo shoot, thanks so much to everyone for the prayers, we got a wonderful report on her and me that I will post details about later in the week, we wanted to get the photos posted though because she is so cute!!!
This one shows where I had just asked about thumb sucking because it didn't look like she was....this is her profile and her moving her hand up to suck on a finger...not a thumb sucker

Head to almost toes...you can't quite see the bottom of her legs, she's measuring tall still like her parents!


She's waving to the camera!  This is where even the woman that was doing the ultrasound was impressed! She said "Wow...look at that!  She's waving at the camera! That shows great brain development with her hand wide open moving like that!"  And yes...five fingers on each hand, which we were also excited about, although it is incredibly comforting to hear the professional saying your kid is smart!

And the last picture that shows she's a girl....well, we asked her to show out just for today, just this one time for the camera and we try to be family friendly on here plus her Daddy might not like it if I show her off....so you'll just have to trust us! :)

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

"Fluttering"....maybe?

After sitting still for a few minutes in church Sunday I felt what may have been the baby!  For those of you who haven't been pregnant that may sound weird...because surely you can distinguish a baby moving from any other feeling, and maybe some women can...but I don't think it's something you recognize at first!  It's not as if I've ever felt a baby in my uterus before...I'm not sure I would describe it as a "flutter" although I can understand that description, sometimes it just felt like a little teeny pulsing and a couple of times I thought it felt like a "wave" not as in Reepicheep is waving to me, but as in the ocean has waves...
Either way, it was very exciting, and reminds me that the time is fast approaching when I will definitely feel the baby move and know that's what it is!
For those of you who have been pregnant, what did you think it felt like the first time?  And how long after that was the baby daddy first able to feel it?  Jonathan is curious about that one...
Short update....we're hoping to have clear pictures on Monday!  And to know pink or blue!  Of course, it may be like many ultrasounds done a little early on and we will still just know there's only one heartbeat and that's it.
Please pray for another great update with "nothing exciting"!