Moving, Again

(This is me at 32 weeks)


We are in the middle of our 33rd week, which means we have just over six weeks until our due date. Time is flying! My job has been crazy, but now that one-week of training 75 staff is completed and school has started, my work is hopefully going to slow down.

We started our 6-week childbirth class last week. It definitely makes it feel a bit more real.

After a lot of debating over the last few months, we've decided to move 35 minutes to Reedley, where my job is, and where one of my Michael's offices is. He can work mostly from there, so it ends up being a much better commute for both of us. Reedley is a small, cute town, but it's 35 minutes from Fresno, and we hesitate to move and feel like we're "starting all over" again. We know it's not really starting over, as we will still get to see a lot of our Fresno friends, it will just take a bit more effort. Regardless, we feel at peace about the decision.

For the first time in our marriage we've had to make a decision that affects us as a family, and not just the two of us as a couple. Moving to Reedley means a lot less money on gas, but more importantly, a lot less time in the car with a brand new baby. It means we can save money, and our work time can be a bit more flexible. This also means we won't need nearly as much childcare, if any. We're hoping to make it work so one of us is always home with the baby. That's really the end goal here.

We put in our 30 day notice at our apartment complex, so at this point we have about 3 weeks to find a place in Reedley, pack, and move! We know it's a little crazy with how close we are to our due date, but we're trusting it will all work out. I'm excited to find a rental house and get the baby's room all set up. The nesting instinct has kicked in and I don't have an outlet for it right now!

Belly Update

If I'm not going to write much, at least I can post some pictures. Time is flying and I am officially into my third trimester, at 27 1/2 weeks. We are less than three months away from meeting our little girl! We are excited, but also realize there's still a lot to do. We finally went and registered at Babies R Us and Target, which at least helped us to begin thinking about what we need for the baby. We also signed up for Childbirth Education Classes, which start at the end of August.

In the meantime, we've been trying to continue enjoying our time together while it's just the two of us. We're very excited for this change in our lives, but I think also have those moments of feeling unprepared, uncertain, and even afraid of the birthing process!

If you're not on Facebook and want to see my photo album of my belly up to now, click here.

Here are a few of the highlights:

Me at 18 weeks



Me at 25 weeks:





Me at 27 weeks

Ultrasound Pictures

Here are a few of the pictures from yesterday's ultrasound.

Girl parts! You can see her legs and butt cheeks. The arrow points to the place that proves it really is a girl. :)


This one was taken while she was kicking and moving and stretching all over the place. She kept stretching her spine and kicking the walls.


This one is her profile with her arm. She kept trying to put her hand in her mouth, or at least so it seemed. She yawned here and also hiccuped. It was so fun to watch!

Baby News

I thought I was going to do a better job of keeping up on this, but I haven't.

Highlights recently:

-I felt nauseous until about 16 weeks. Then I had about a two week break, before it came back a bit. These days, I feel a lot better, with a subtle amount of nausea at certain times of the day or night, but overall, MUCH better than before. Of course, I did throw up this morning.

-At 16 weeks and 1 day I felt the first "bubbles," which is one of the many descriptions I had read of that first feeling of the baby moving. I was surprised to feel it so soon because I had read that you normally feel it between 16 and 20 weeks, but usually at least at 18. It started subtle, and slowly got more obvious.

-This last weekend I felt the first kick that was definitely more than just the "bubbles." I finally could feel the kicking from the outside and not just inside. Michael has been able to feel a few kicks so far, although usually by the time I feel the kicking and call him into the room the baby stops. :)

-We switched doctor offices and have now had two appointments at the new place. I'm MUCH happier with the new office. It wasn't that the last one was horrible, but this one is so much more friendly and helpful. It's a group, so there are two doctors and two nurse practitioners. It was recommended to me by a number of different friends from church and work, and I'm very glad I switched.

-As of yesterday, I've gained 21 pounds in 21 weeks!!! Yikes! I've been a bit paranoid about that, but for the most part my doctor(s) haven't seemed too concerned. I'm realizing I need to be more active in the evenings when I come home and not eat dinner and sit on the couch all night. I really haven't felt like I've been eating a ton, or using my pregnancy to eat like crazy, so, I blame it on a few things: When I got pregnant, I was in the best shape I've been in in years (I hadn't seen that low of a number on the scale since my freshmen year of college...I had been working out a lot); I got pregnant the same month I started my new, full-time job which has left me extra exhausted; I also got pregnant in the same month that I started eating desserts again after a year-long fast. So, I'm trying to keep active and be aware of my eating. Below is a picture of me today, followed by a picture of me at 5 or 6 weeks, to show the contrast.





-And the most exciting update: We had our ultrasound yesterday! We were able to take a DVD and have most of the ultrasound recorded, so we have our own copy of our baby moving, kicking, swallowing, and even yawning! It was incredible!! And of course, we wanted to find out the gender...I wanted to wait to post this until I had the pictures and video uploaded, but in the meantime, I won't keep you in suspense.

It's a Girl! MANY people guessed boy, including most of our family, but alas, a Chapman girl is on her way, and we couldn't be more excited! For the last few years we have always thought we'd really want a boy first, but over the past few months we've imagined the idea of a girl, to the point that we could think of plenty of girl names, and no boy names! And, every time I picture Michael holding a baby, I've been picturing a girl. So for us, this fits. It just feels "right." We are SUPER excited and can't wait to meet our baby girl! I'll try to post pictures of the ultrasound soon. They are much more exciting than the 8 week picture of a "blob." :)

"Is this your first?"

I have been asked this question a lot recently, as people find out we're pregnant. I never really know how to answer.

Yes, this will be the first child I give birth to.

Yes, this is the first time I've made it through the first trimester.

No, this is not my first pregnancy, but hopefully it will be the first to go full-term.

Usually I just say "yes," but I've always been pretty open about our previous loss, so depending on the person and the mood and situation, I sometimes go into a little more detail. I never want to make anyone uncomfortable for asking, but, it's always a bit weird for me to just flat out say "yes, this is my first."

I just don't know...is it too much to go into detail? Or, do I simply say "yes" and bite my tongue?

First Trimester!

It's true, we are pregnant!

It's been a long road. After a miscarriage two years ago, "trying," having to put "trying" on hold due to traveling, school, unemployment, etc., and most recently, 12 more months of "trying"...

We finally took a pregnancy test that was positive!

We are so thankful and trust God's Perfect timing in this. We have a lot to figure out over the next 6 months, but again, we trust God's timing.

Some Highlights Up To Now:

-We took the pregnancy test when I was at about 4 1/2 weeks. We were both very surprised, (after a year of wanting a positive test you start to not let your hopes get too high) but it also helped explain why I had been falling asleep on the couch every night at 8:00 that week (I blamed it on starting a new job)! We decided to go out that night and celebrate, just the two of us. We bought a little baby outfit and just spent the next couple of weeks enjoying this little secret between the two of us.

-We slowly started telling family and a few friends, and I eventually told my work (hard not to as I was fighting quite a bit of nausea).

-We had an ultrasound (picture above) at 8 weeks, and were able to see the heartbeat. This was the first emotional hurdle for me, as we never saw an ultrasound in our first pregnancy. I was definitely emotional as we drove away after the ultrasound...so thankful to see a heartbeat and a healthy baby. I had definitely been "holding my breath" until I saw that heartbeat!

-The second emotional hurdle for me was waking up the day after 10 1/2 weeks, when we had miscarried before. I looked at the calendar and was so thankful to have made it through that day.

-The first few weeks after we took the test, I experienced quite a bit of heartburn, but luckily that faded, as the nausea hasn't yet. I feel "morning sickness" all day, but it's actually the worst for me at night. I finally changed toothpaste because anything peppermint was making me sick, and with brushing my teeth and my gagging, it was a terrible combination! We've been reminding ourselves all along that if I'm feeling sick, that's a good sign. It's been hard not to compare this pregnancy with my first, and I've definitely felt MUCH more nausea, heartburn, fatigue, and overall symptoms this time around.

-We are due October 13, and we couldn't be more excited! We feel so blessed and are so thankful. Not a day goes by that we don't thank God for this blessing. It's hard not to get overwhelmed with all that could happen in the future, but I guess that's what being a parent is about: for the rest of our lives we'll be worried about something to do with our child, and in turn, trusting the Lord in it all!

Bye-Bye Outrageous Interest Rates!

Today marks a significant day for us.

We paid off our credit card!!!!

For the past few years we have tried, on and off, to use Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University philosophy of using cash and not credit cards to get out of debt.

It's been tough to do when we've both been in graduate school, and then long bouts of unemployment and uncertainty, raising support for Rwanda, and moving A LOT.

But, in January I started a job full-time and we vowed to keep our budget as tight as it had been before, so any extra income could go straight to our credit card. In less than 4 months we paid off over $8800 in credit card debt! We are so thankful! Our only debt we have left, since we don't own a house, is our multiple school loans. These loans make our credit card debt look like chump change, but we are focused and ready. It will take a lot longer than a few months, but for us, the stress of school loans is much less in comparison to the outrageous "minimum payments" and interest added to having a credit card.

Regardless of what the future holds, we can move forward with a lot less guilt and stress knowing we are becoming more financially responsible and stable.