Talk about a heat wave

Today hit record temperatures in the Seattle area. While driving back home around 3 pm, the car registered 93* outside!!! We spent the morning at the University Ave street fair, and Bailey met several other dogs. He however did not like the heat- nor did I, as my hands swelled up like sausages and I had to take off all my rings.

After the street fair Reed & Bailey went to the Bellevue park to sit in the shade and play with other small dogs while I looked around at the mall for some more warm weather maternity clothes. While leaving the park Bailey took an unexpected "dip" in the water fountain- head first. Luckily Reed was standing right next to him and was able to grab him out of the water before he realized what happened. Although he was startled, the water helped to cool Bailey off a little bit. Below is a picture of him relaxing in front of the fan, trying to keep cool.

Below is a picture of me at 27 weeks, also trying to keep cool. It's amazing to think that in about 3 months baby Avery will be here. We are still working on the nursery and will be taking our first baby-prep class in a few weeks.

A Spring snow, a crib, and a growing belly.

For those of you that don't know, it snowed in the Puget Sound area on April 18th. Yes, April 18th...almost a month after Spring started. We actually got snow on the 20th as well. Here is a picture of the snow coming down. After it was all done we had over 3 inches. It was terrible.

We have been working hard on baby Avery's room. We painted it, put together a bookcase, hung some shelves, put some wall decorations on the wall, put together a crib, took apart and sent back a crib because a screw was loose, and put together another crib. Here is a picture of the crib: Also here is a picture of Christine at week 24:
Lastly, a picture of what happens when you leave a 14 lb dog outside without supervision for 60 minutes, may this be your lesson from us to you, we obviously didn't learn the first time.

How cool is this....

On Thursday Christine and I went to Siemens Ultrasound to get another look at baby Avery Baker. Thanks to our friends the Van Gorkoms, who told us about Siemens Ultrasound, we got some great 3D pictures of her. Siemens pays you a little bit of money to come in and get an ultrasound done so then if the pictures are good, they can use the shots in their marketing material. We saw her heart beating, the blood flowing through it, saw her hiccup and she saw her moving her legs around all over the place. Here are pictures of the baby:

Her right arm is on the left and her face is in the center. You can see her eyes, nose, and mouth.

This is another picture of her face also in this shot is the unbilical cord (it's across her chin) she was playing with it when she wasn't playing with her toes.

This one is of her left arm and her leg. Check our that calf muscle!

Lastly, a short clip of Avery moving her fingers and giving you a sneak peek of her little chin and mouth.

Over half way there!

Baby Avery has now grown to about 10 1/2 inches - or the length of a carrot. She is moving around quite a bit more - sometimes I can feel her in a few places at once.

Here's a little perspective on the growth to date. The picture below was taken at my sister's birthday party the end of January.

This picture was just taken at 21 weeks 3 days. What a difference a few months makes!

We've started getting the nursery ready for baby's arrival in August. Yeah- that is still a long ways away, but considering we're over halfway there, we wanted to get started now and take our time. The bedding and colors we are using to decorate are pink, brown and white. The replacement crib is scheduled to be delivered on April 25th - the first one we got had a problem with the slider on the drop side (the taken apart crib is in the closet of the picture).

This past weekend we (ok, really Reed) painted the nursery. See the "in process" picture below.

Tomatoes & flips

Today marks the beginning of 19 weeks gestation for baby Avery. She has grown to the size of a large heirloom tomato and is approximately 6 inches from head to bottom (not including limbs). I've read countless articles online and talked with other mothers to figure out what the first movements feel like. Well now I can say that I know for sure.

Baby girl is more active in the morning (when I first get to work and sit down to check email), and in the afternoon (after lunch, and in the car on the way home). I definitely know now that what I'm feeling is the baby moving around - not just stomach rumbles.

It's not so much of a "kick" as a "roll and press" or a "flip". I'm sure that will change in the coming weeks, as 18-22 weeks is a time of significant growth for babies. At 22 weeks she should be the size of a spaghetti squash- or 11 inches. That's almost double the length in 4 weeks!

Here is a link to the website that shows a baby's growth by week in relation to foods. It's helpful for those of us that are a bit more visual, and kind of fun. :)

A 90% percent chance...

Today was the day that we went in for the "big" ultrasound. I wasn't able to be at the ultrasound that Christine had a few weeks ago, so this was my first time seeing the baby moving it's arms and legs and opening and closing it's hand and mouth. Obviously it is really, really cool to see those things and is definitely a testament of God's awesome power.

The baby was in quite an active mood and the ultrasound tech wasn't able to get a straight on view, but she said with 90% confidence that it's a....

Girl!!!

151 beats/minute

We started taking profile or "belly" pictures a few weeks ago. This picture is from 15 weeks and 3 days along.

I am now 16 weeks 4 days, and had a great appointment yesterday. The baby's heart beat is strong and we are scheduled for the "big" ultrasound on Friday, March 14th. In less then two weeks we should know if we're shopping for pink or blue. :)