Aisle Twelve

Friday Night, June 29 I had been feeling a little crampy low in my stomach the night before.  I felt absolutely great on Friday. We went to bed at about midnight that night.  An hour and a half later I awoke and sat straight up in bed, my water was breaking.  Saturday, June 30 1:30 a.mm, I am in the bathroom as my water is breaking, Dad is frantically asking questions, is this really happening?  What do we do?  Do we go to the hospital?  I told him to call our doctor's office who advised us to yes, go to the hospital.  We packed the last minute things that needed to go in our bags I had waiting next to our beds and were off.  I was feeling no contractions and no pain.  I was just excited, excited, excited.  We drove in the darkness to the quiet hospital and checked in.  They checked me out and told me I was only a fingertip dilated.  That dialed down my excitement a little, this was clearly...

Just a few more weeks and you will be here!  I'm having a hard time sleeping at night; it's hard to get comfortable and I have a list running through my head constantly of what I want to have done before you get here.  Last night my list was a little bit more fun than the to-dos that I usually think about.  Last night I made a list of just some of the things I hope to teach you and your brother(s) and/or sister(s) before you grow up in the blink of an eye and the next thing I know I am standing in the door waving goodbye and sobbing as you leave the nest.  A lot of these things will be for when you are older so we won't talk about them for a while.  That's why I need a good check list to remind myself of how I want to raise you and hopefully it will be something you can look at in the future and think about. Things That Are Important to Know 1.  Have a good relationship with God.   Of course when you are little we will help you get this...

Hi.  It's mom again.  It's been a while since I last wrote but things have changed so much.  You and me specifically.  I am in my third trimester now and we are definitely getting bigger.  You keep growing and so does my belly.  I am feeling and seeing you flop and move and turn over in my belly.  Other people can feel you too.  Even though I know it's natural for you, I feel bad that you have to lay upside down in that tiny, cramped space in there.  I definitely can feel your foot.  It likes to pop out on my right side and I like to tickle it.  I can't wait to see that foot out here.  You get hiccups a lot.  It makes me feel bad that I can't do anything to help you, but it also makes me laugh to think of you in there hiccuping.  As for other things, I am all ready for you to be here.  We have your room all set up.  We had a baby shower for you where lots of nice people gave us nice thing...

Hi Pumpkin, it's Mom.  A lot has happened in the last couple of weeks.  We had your ultrasound a few weeks ago.  You were very stubborn, clearly you take after your father!  For most of the time, you were laying face down so we couldn't get a good look at your face.  After lots of coaxing, you finally turned and faced the camera.  You were just so cozy in your position you didn't want to move!  Everything measured perfectly.  You were already perfect to us.  Also, I have been feeling you moving all around in my belly. The first time I felt you move I was laying on the couch watching tv and just happened to have my hand on my belly.  Just then I felt something underneath my hand.  It was such a strange but great feeling.  I get so excited every time you move.  Dad has been able to feel you move a few times, but mostly right now, it's just me who can feel all the flips and turns and dancing you'...

 Hi Pumpkin.  This is Mom and Dad.  We call you Pumpkin because we first found out about you on Halloween morning.  Here's a little story of how you came to be.  Mom and Dad were very excited to become a mom and dad.  We wanted to start having a family soon after we got married.  But we soon discovered that it was much harder to make a family than we had thought.  It took us 21 LOOOONG months of trying hard and praying hard for you to come into our lives.  There were many times in those 21 months when we were afraid we might never be able to meet you.  It made us very sad.  But then on Halloween morning in 2011, we woke up and took a test that tells us if you were in my belly or not.  Before that morning, we had taken many, many tests and they all said no.  But on that wonderful Halloween morning, the test said YES!   We were so excited, we just had to tell people that you were there!  We ...