36 Weeks

Today we made it to 36 weeks! It is hard to believe that soon we will meet our baby. We noticed yesterday that she has definitely "dropped" and is closer to being born. According to one source when the baby drops in the first pregnancy it is usually born between 2 and 4 more weeks. So, we should be meeting our baby between mid and late June - right on schedule! I am predicting that she will be born on June 18th.

BabyCenter.com says that our baby is still gaining weight. She is probably about 6 pounds and a little less than 19 inches long. At the end of this week she will be considered full-term. That is going to be a pretty amazing feat.

Jennifer is doing pretty well. She has been battling a cold, but is quite the trooper. I am amazed at how well she is doing. She is going to be such a great mommy!

Well, that is it for now. I will continue to post as often as I can. I am glad that I have finally been able to make this blog halfway decent with links and stuff (notice on your left). Feel free to browse.

Pregnant Suit

As promised, here are a couple of pictures of Jennifer wearing her "pregnant suit". Isn't she just so precious!? The first picture is of Jennifer painting a shelf for the baby's room. The second is of Jennifer standing next to the baby's crib after it was delivered. Enjoy!

Catching you up

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!

A OK!

Hello everyone! Sorry it has taken so long to get back on the writing wagon. We are doing pretty well. You can see that the baby is growing more and more with each passing week. We will hit the 6 month mark on Tuesday.

We are in the states now so we have been overwhelmed with registering for a couple of baby showers that we will have while here. Jennifer and I both think that registering for stuff that our baby girl will play with and use is much more fun than when we registered for our wedding showers. I think that is especially true for registering for a little girl. Everything is so cute and cuddly. With all the pink that will be floating around I sure hope there wasn't a mistake in the ultrasound!

Anyway, the baby is good. We had an ultrasound about 2 weeks ago to check her heart. The doctor told us that she gets an A++! We are happy to know that all is well with her. Please keep praying for an uneventful pregnancy - especially since we are in the states and our doctor is in Brazil.

Updates

There are a few new things to update you on:

1. Place of birth - We had been in "bad" standing with the Brazilian government concerning our visas since last October. We had hope that everything would work out and that we would be permitted to stay in Brazil, but we really didn't know what to expect. Being in transition like that with a baby on the way is pretty stressful. We literally had no idea what country our little girl was to be born in. Well, we are now in "good" standing with the Brazilian government and are permitted to stay in Porto Alegre. So, our first baby will be born in Brazil.
   
2. A new sensation - While we were sitting at the Federal Police last week waiting to be talked to Jennifer said that she was feeling the baby move. She has felt the baby more over the last couple of weeks. This typically occurs when Jennifer is lying down to go to sleep at night. This time, since I was awake, I reached over and put my hand on her belly. She repositioned my hand just in time to get a little kick! It was awesome! It was something that I don't know how to describe for those of you who haven't experienced this before. At first, you are thinking "this is kind of creepy". You begin to think of the movie "Alien". Then your mind is settled on the precious life that is right there and how you are having your first experience communicating. It is unreal!
   
3. "Can you hear me now?" - The doctor told us the other day that we are at a point in the pregnancy where I may be able to hear the baby's heartbeat by placing my ear against Jennifer's abdomen. I feel very previledge that I am the only one who can experience this (Jennifer hasn't been able to touch her ear to her stomach in quite some time and I don't think she will allow lines to form for this one).
   
4. Welcome to the party! - We learned yesterday that Jennifer's brother and his wife are expecting their first child too! How cool is that! Jennifer's parents will get their first two grandbabies 2 months apart (June and August 2006).
   
5. Name game - We have spent a lot of time discussing name options for our little girl. We have been favoring one, but still are not sure. We want to wait until the baby is born before we give her a name. We want to look at her and feel that the name chosen is the right fit. The name we are favoring has a really cool meaning - so it just might be the one to stick (Jennifer is 90% sure and I am 95% sure). We will just have to wait and see.

Watching in Amazement

After numerous viewings of the ultrasound video that we recently required it is really starting to hit me that we are having a little girl! Without a doubt, seeing our baby flip and turn about and make spacelike movements is the coolest thing I have ever seen. She looks tall. Her arms and legs are really long when she stretches out. Because the ultrasound is a type of x-ray you can clearly see her bones. It is easy to recognize all her fingers and toes. You can see the two bones in each of her forearms. Everything about this precious baby is wonderful. There are a few moments when she pokes her face up to the TV screen as if to say "hello!" At one point you can see one of her little ears! We have seen her open and close her mouth and make a grip with her little fists. I think the neatest thing we have seen her do is cross her legs at her ankles. Jennifer and I both cross our legs at our ankles when we sleep on our backs and when we are sitting. To see our baby do the same thing is amazing! During the ultrasound the doctor points out her kidneys, bladder, stomach, and heart; all of which are functioning perfectly. I am literally swept away by the awesome power of our Creator and the delicacy of our baby girl. I am really excited about being a father to this little person; helping her become who she will be in the future. I pray that God will give Jennifer and me patience,wisdom, strength and love. I know we have the latter for sure!

Anyway, I feel my self starting to ramble. Just wanted to share my thoughts on how amazing it is to watch our little girl. Can't wait to see her up close and personal. Just 4.5 more months!

It's a ...

Well, after our ultra sound today we feel with certainty that we are having a little girl! We had a video made so we can watch it over and over to make sure! We are surprised because we both thought that we were having a boy. I really don't think that either one of us could be happier though. It has been a good day for us. We really needed it too with all the anxiety and frustration that we have had over our visa troubles. Jennifer and I are releaved to be having a girl in Brazil for a couple of reasons that I said I would share in an earlier blog.

1. It is rare for baby boys to be circumcised in Brazil. It is a big ordeal trying to find someone like a Rabbi to perform the procedure. Most Brazilians think that it is cruel and unnecissary. That little difference of opinion has led to some interesting conversations :).
   
2. Having a baby in Brazil means that the child will have duel citizenship. Our daughter will be a Brazilian American. Pretty crazy. Boys automatically are registered with the government and must serve in the military when they turn 18 years old. If we had a boy we would have to go through a nightmare of paperwork and maintain it to get him out of having to serve in the Brazilian Armed Forces. This would be the case even if we moved back to the US!

We would have been happy either way, but we really kind of wanted to start our family with a girl. She won't have a big brother to chase away the punks that want a date, but I'm sure that I can put on an intimidating face if I need to ;).

Anyway, we are pumped! We are thinking about names and wondering about how to decorate her room. It is a lot of fun. By the way, no names will be revealed until our precious gift from God arrives. We want to make sure that her name fits her face. We don't want to name her "Julia" if she looks like a "Molly". You know what I mean? So, stay tuned for updates. She is really growing. I will try to post some pictures of Jennifer soon so that you can see some evidence.

Tchau

18 Weeks

Well, it has been a while since I last blogged. There really hasn't been a whole lot to report. Today Jennifer completes the 18th week of pregnancy. We should be able to tell if the baby is a boy or a girl by now. We have an appointment to find out tomorrow! We are both really anxious to discover the sex of our baby. We hope that there is full cooperation. Stay tuned to find out what we are having...

Here is another excerpt from babycenter.com. It is pretty interesting information.

Head to bottom, your baby is approximately 5 1/2 inches long (about the length of a large sweet potato) and she weighs almost 7 ounces. She's busy flexing her arms and legs — movements that you'll likely start noticing more and more. Her blood vessels are visible through her thin skin and her ears are now in position and stand out from her head. Myelin (a protective covering) is beginning to form around her nerves, a process that will continue for a year after she's born. If you're having a girl, her uterus and Fallopian tubes are formed and in place. If your baby is a boy, his genitals are noticeable, though he may hide them from you during an ultrasound.

-He better not!

Baby's first picture!

Here is a picture from our last ultrasound. Just click on the thumbnail and you can clearly see the baby.

This picture is mainly focused on the little guy's head. It is a profile of the right side. You can see his little nose, mouth, chin, cheek, eye, and ear.

Even though we don't know the sex of the baby I am referring to him as a "he" in this blog. It sounds better than using "baby" or "it" so much. I will be sure to post more pictures as we get them.

Enjoy!

Ultrasound #2

Tuesday we had our 2nd ultrasound. The first ultrasound was pretty big because that was how we discovered we are pregnant. This one's purpose was to make sure that the baby is growing normally and that the spinal column is fine. In the United States I think that it is pretty typical to have just 1 or 2 ultrasounds. Brazil does things a little differently. This was the 2nd of maybe 5 or 6 ultrasounds. Healthcare isn't nearly as expensive, so it allows us to do more things like this.

I have seen several ultrasounds on tv and in the movies, but nothing can compare to seeing your unborn child moving around in your wife's tummy. We could clearly see the baby's little nose (looks like mine), ears, arms and legs. We could see the baby's spine and brain and it's powerful heart. Everything looked perfect! Even though it is too early to know the sex of the baby (just finished the 1st trimester) we thought it looked an awful lot like a boy. The doc did say that little boys and little girls look the same at this point. We will probably find out if the baby is a boy or a girl in about 6 weeks.

One of the coolest parts of the ultrasound was when the baby woke up, rolled over, and stretched it's little legs! He/she really got active and started moving around quite a lot. It was pretty amazing. Jennifer can't feel the baby moving around inside her just yet, but this baby looks like it will give her plenty of chances in the near future. He/she has grown to be about the size of a lime (5cm from head to bottom). Speaking of bottom; the baby turned at one point and practically mooned us! It is a natural!

Jennifer is starting to show a little and is looking so cute. I think she is the most beautiful pregnant woman I have ever seen! (Hope you read this sweety!) She is finding that her clothes are tighter with each passing day. Needless to say, she has hit a few online stores looking for a new maturnity wardrobe. She is feeling pretty good; not quite as nauseated but is still pretty tired. I think that she is excited to be moving into the 2nd trimester where things will be easier and she will feel better. We do feel blessed that she hasn't been nearly as miserable as some women do.

Well, this is all for now. I will continue to keep you "posted".

-Tchau