Well, I figured that it is time for an update. It has been a little over 2 months since my last blog, so I have a lot to catch you up on. I will try to keep it to a minimum, but I will inform you just the same. As we get closer to the due date (June 27th) I will try to do a better job of keeping you informed of what is going on.
We traveled to the US for a 2 month furlough on March 10th. This was my first trip back to the states since moving to Brazil. Jennifer has only gone back once for a couple of weeks not long after we arrived here. So, this trip was very special for both of us. We traveled to Colorado, Missouri & Texas. While in Colorado we had 2 wonderful baby showers. Because Jenn was between 6 and 7 months pregnant I did most of the traveling to our supporting churches. Furlough was a lot of work, but a lot of fun too. We had a great time eating the American cuisine we both missed so much!
When we were in the states we were blessed with 2 beneficial doctors appointments to let us know that amidst the travel both Jennifer and baby were doing well. We are very appreciative of the doctors that saw us. Since our health insurance is only in Brazil we were expecting to have to pay quite a bit for each of these visits. Thanks to the docs' generous hearts we didn't have to pay for either one of them!
Throughout the furlough we could tell that changes were taking place and that our baby girl was growing a lot. The last of the 2 doc visits was in Dallas about 3 days before we headed back to Brazil. At that point the baby was sitting upright with her legs crossed - just chillin' and occasionally kickin'!
After we had returned to Brazil we had an appointment with Jennifer's OB. The baby's heartbeat was loud and clear. A couple of days later we had our 6th ultrasound! Brazilians are big on ultrasounds! In this ultrasound we could see that the baby had grown quite a bit. She is getting a little plump! She has now turned head-down and is preparing herself for her entrance into this world. We had this ultrasound about 9 days ago. At that point she was right at 5lbs. From this point on she will average gaining about a half a pound per week. During this stage of developement her body is concentrating on putting on weight (in the form of fat). She is already taking after her dad!
Since arriving back in Brazil we have been trying to get the baby's room all set up. You can see in the pictures below some of the progress that we have made. We have decided on a butterfly theme. I spent a few days transforming our sea-green office into a white, candy green & princess pink nursery. We painted butterflies on the wall and hung some from the ceiling. I hope our little one enjoys her room as much as we enjoyed putting it together for her.
I will post again real soon. Stay tuned for updated pictures of Jennifer in her pregnant suit!
