18 Weeks!

I am 18 weeks today! Yay! I had a doctor's appointment this past Wednesday and got to hear the baby's heart beat again. The sweetest sound ever! And we set up an appointment to find out gender! September 11th! I am sososososo excited!

Next Wednesday we are going to tour Baptist's labor and delivery unit and then the following Monday we are going to tour Centennial Women's hospital. So we should know where we are delivering pretty soon. I would like to take childbirth classes at the same hospital we have the baby. At first this pregnancy seemed to be creeping by so slowly. Now I feel like it has really picked up momentum and is going by pretty fast!

Oh, I felt the baby move! It is obviously very subtle, but it is such a great feeling! The baby is now about 5.5 inches and weighs just over 5 ounces. Considering I was reading about the baby when it was just the size of a poppy seed, that seems huge! Oh, and my uterus is the size of a cantaloupe. Average weight gain for this week is 10-13 lbs. I am right at 10 lbs so I am hoping if I continue to eat a healthy diet I can avoid gaining something dreadful like 60 lbs! My diet is pretty good, but I have got to get more active. Before I was pregnant, I worked out all the time! Jogged, walked, aerobics, light weights. The first trimester I felt great, but I was exhausted! I definitely didn't have the energy to work out. Now I feel like I have more energy, but it's just so hard to get back into the routine. Plus if I am going to do any exercise, it needs to be in the am. After a full day of work now way can I muster up the energy to do it. I will set a goal to start next week.

Not a whole lot else going on. Richard is still plugging away at school trying to finish. We love our new apartment. There is so much more room and it just feels so much more open.

I am anxious to see what happens with the dossiers on Monday. I am saying a prayer that something wonderful happens and they aren't sent back. I am also saying a prayer for all the families who are waiting to bring their children home.

I hope everyone has a great Labor Day.


Oh, and one last thing…. GGGOOO OBamba!!!!

16 weeks and hard decisions.

Tomorrow I am 16 weeks! 4 months, wow! I have to post a belly picture soon. I have really popped! Still feeling great with the exception of a few bad headaches. Other than that, so far so good.

We are moved in! We started moving things Thursday afternoon and had everything done by Sunday. Everything. From organized drawers to curtains hung! I love it. It seems so much bigger. Definitely much more open. We were able to turn the guest bedroom into a bedroom/office. So Richard now has a quiet place to go and work while he is at home. And of course we have baby-baby's room set up. I have more to do in there like pictures, rugs, etc, but I will wait until we find out if our little one will pee standing up or sitting down :)

So it looks like we are officially staying in Nashville for at least the next two years. Richard is taking a position at Vanderbilt so now all he has to do is graduate :) We are shooting for late October. It would have been really nice to move back home to Memphis. He had a great interview with ST. Jude and they really liked him. Vanderbilt just seemed to be the better fit for many different reasons. And 3 hours isn't so far, right? Plus we both really love Nashville and wouldn't mind staying indefinitely.

This week we officially withdrew from CHI's Vietnam program. It's something he and I have been talking about doing since April. We just needed a lot of time to think about it to make sure 100% it is what we wanted to do. We still plan on adopting. No question there; just where and with whom we aren't sure of. Right now it looks like we would adopt from Ethiopia, but we will of course have to evaluate all the programs that are out there in about a year. I have a lot more to say regarding withdrawing from CHI and my feelings on officially leaving the VN program but I will write about that later.

Oh! I want to say congratulations to my bestie Samantha! She and her family have started the process of adopting a little girl from Ethiopia! YAY!!! I am sosososos excited for her! This is something she has wanted to do forever and I am so happy they have officially started! Her 2 year old daughter, Emerson will make an awesome big sister! I couldn't be more excited for all three of them!