Letters to Bug-Week 15

12/18/16

Hey Bug! 

Today was a fun day! Your dad and I couldn't go any longer without seeing you, so we did another elective ultrasound. This time we got to see you looking like a little frog with your feet moving around just as if you were a little frog kiddo. We also got to see you waving and hand being by your face! We were able to take video and loved every minute! We also got to hear the wonderful sound of that heartbeat! It is so much fun and I can't wait till I can see you every single day! Oh do I look forward to the day when I get to see you every single day and can't imagine a day that I wouldn't want to look at your beautiful little face!

We are at a weird point in pregnancy. Not a lot is happening on the outside or for the world to see, but there is still tons happening on the inside that nobody even realizes! From the outside, it's kind of a boring point in time. After the scares in the beginning, I will totally take calm and boring! But on the inside, you have so much happening and it amazes me every day to think about the amount of work your little body is doing to prepare for the outside world!

According to the apps, you are about the size of an apple or a navel orange. You are about 4 inches bag and weighing in at 2 1/2 ounces! Your growth is astounding to me. Every week, I am amazed to see how much you have grown from the week before! They say that you are starting to get hiccups, all your limbs and joints are moving, and your body is becoming proportional! It is so funny to think that just a few weeks ago your head made up half if not more of your body, and now it accounts for a third or less! Just 6 to 7 weeks ago, you didn't even have arms or legs, and now your legs are longer than your arms and their accounting for a good portion of your body! 

Love you little Bug, 

Love, 

Mommy

Letters to Bug-Week 14

12/11/16

Hola Bug!!!

I have been spending a lot of time lately dreaming about you and thinking about you and thinking about our future. Our family loves to travel and once you come, there will be no exception. Our goal is to see the world and we can't wait to share that with you! We have already talked about how fun it will be to get you a passport and how you will have that passport for five years. If you get a passport when you are just a baby, I don't even know how they can use it for identification when you are 3, 4, or 5 years old!! The rules are silly. We have put a lot of our traveling on hold for these last couple of years working on adding you to our family, but we hope that we are able start our travels again!!!! 

This was another week of just hanging out and relaxing. Sleep is starting to get a bit harder but overall I am LOVING every Single minute of every single day with you. Even the times when I'm not feeling 100% or sleep is hard to come by, I am so thankful for it. Because every little thing that reminds me that you are with me, is a blessing for me. I may not feel this way if things were really rough or difficult, but I am grateful for all the symptoms right now. Especially because we are in a weird place where it feels like it has been forever since we have seen you and yet that is a good thing because it means things are going well! I love having you in my tummy and knowing you are safe and taken care of in there. This world is a crazy world bug, but I can keep you safe in my belly right now!

According to the apps, you are about 3.3 inches long, where about 1.5 ounces, or a roughly the size of a peach or beet! It says that you may begin sucking your thumb this week and I love envisioning that picture of you! It also says that your kidneys, liver, and spleen are pretty much fully functioning. But they still need to grow big, as does the rest of you! It also says that your body is now becoming covered with hair that you may or may not have when you were born. Apparently this hair is to help you stay warm and protected, and if you are anything like your mama, you may need two or three layers to stay warm!

The apps also say that hunger may become a big thing for me. But so far appetite is not really a thing for me. I continue to remind myself to only eat the things that are good for you, and to make wise choices with my eating decisions! If you want a hint at how much I love you, I have given up caffeine which means no more White mochas or caffeinated sodas for me! I did this at the beginning of my pregnancy so that you could have the best environment possible when you joined! I am very happy to say that we have officially made it three months with very minimal caffeine! It is hard to give up chocolate so I still sneak some of that here and there! Maybe my appetite will pick up in the coming weeks, but for now I just keep focusing on staying healthy for you! In case you haven't figured it out, I kind of love you a lot!

Love always, 

Mommy

Letters to Bug-Week 13

Happy second trimester bug!

We did it, we made it to second trimester. Well depending on how you count days! Sometime this week, we will officially be in second trimester by all standards! But to me, today is the day. Today is even more special because it is my birthday! And I can't think of a better way to spend it then thinking about you!!! 

Not much is really happening this last week, which is fantastic! Let's keep it that way! I still have some gagging and occasionally morning sickness, but it is getting better. Honestly, it is not really that bad and I am thankful for a pretty quiet and so far easy pregnancy. The biggest thing I have really had to deal with, is the anxiety. Which anxiety is just part of our life and I continue to choose trusting in God over the fear of anxiety! 

According to the apps, you are about the size of a lemon. You are starting to develop fingerprints and your veins and arteries can be seen through your still clear skin! You gained about an inch over the last week and measure in at about 3 inches long! You have such rapid growth right now that it is amazing! You have almost doubled in weight as well, weighing almost an entire ounce!!!! They say that your vocal chords are also starting to come in. I am sure that you will make good use of them in a few months!

Keeping on growing and doing your thing and I will be here loving you and in amazement at everything that happens daily!!!

Love you, 

Mommy

Letters to Bug-Week 12

11/27/2016

Helloooooo Bug!!!!! You may not realize it, but today is a pretty spectacular turning point! We have reached week 12! At this point in time, I can breathe a little easier. We know that we have passed quite a few milestones and are at a point where maybe the anxiety can go down just a couple notches. We know you have a heartbeat, you're moving around, and you are still with us! Somehow, overnight, things feel a little bit better. It is hard to explain because it is really an arbitrary number, but here we are.

This week was full of excitement and joy! On Tuesday we had our last appointment of first trimester with the doctor and we got to meet our doctor. While I have not been happy with the clinic itself, I really do like the doctor. He pulled out a portable ultrasound machine and we got to see you dancing around. We also got to hear the heartbeat for the very first time. To hear your little heartbeat is something quite remarkable and I just can't even believe it. The flutter of your heart is a sound that is unique and precious and so absolutely amazing. The other part that was really cool, is the doctor used the Doppler machine with the ultrasound machine and we could not only see you kicking, but we could also hear it. Such a neat thing!

On Wednesday, we announced to the world that we were expecting you. It was so much fun to tell everybody and to see the out pour and excitement. Everybody has been waiting for you and praying for you and thinking about you and sending good vibes and here we are. People can't wait to meet you and are looking forward to seeing you in June!

of love 

On Friday, your dad and I had a really cool appointment and got to see you on a jumbo screen and have a real ultrasound. The portable one from Tuesday was cool but it was really hard to read and see and we couldn't really get any good pictures of you. But this one gave us not only fantastic pictures of you, but also a video. We also got to hear your hear your heart beating at about 170 bpm! You really are doing a lot of work in there! You look like you're having a great time jumping around and moving and going all over the place! It was so cool to sit and just watch you do your thing inside and be a part of your world for just a few minutes.

According to the apps you are somewhere between a lime and a plum! About 2 inches long and weighing in at a whopping half an ounce! It says that your intestines are currently in the end of the umbilical cord but are moving into your stomach and that your kidney and liver are starting to function. It also says that there is rapid brain growth happening and that the nerves and synapses are starting to connect and fire. That little brain is in there working hard! It also says that you are developing reflexes and then if we poke my stomach, you will move. I wish I could see this! So much is happening in your tiny world and I am so glad it stays with me! 

Love you little Bug,

Mommy

Letters to Bug-Week 11

11/20/2016

Hiya bug!

I am so glad you took my letter to heart last week and gave us a calm week this week! Although I must admit, with absolutely nothing happening and the fact that I won't see you for another nine weeks, gives me a whole different kind of anxiety. But I feel like this anxiety is more normal anxiety and just more about not knowing and excitement for you.

We had a pretty exciting day today. Your dad and I have spent years waiting for you and preparing for you and thinking about how we wanted to tell the world when God gave us you. The problem is, that was so much time to think about, we couldn't pick just one way! So your dad and I spent the day preparing and taking different pictures that we could use for your announcement to the world that you are here! But then we liked all the pictures so very much, that we kept them all and are going to post all the pictures this week! We had fun thinking about how our life is going to change with you in it and all of the little things that will be different. We will be setting the table with an extra plate spot for you, we will have to pack an extra bag when we travel and go on trips, and the dogs are going to have to get used to not being quite the center of attention they think they are. It was such a fun thing to think about and do and we are so excited to have you! Welcome to our family little bug, and after this week, welcome to our bigger family because everybody will know about you!

According to the apps, you are the size of a lime! I feel like you grew exponentially over this week! It says that you are about an inch and a half long and that almost everything is fully formed. Your teeth buds are starting to come in and I can already imagine that amazing little smile and seeing those teeth come through!

 It also makes me envision the future with visits from the tooth fairy and excitement over a trip to the dentist and hopefully no cavities! The app also says that your hands can now form fists and you can put them by your face. I can't even begin to think of how cute this must look!

We have a regular doctors appointment scheduled for this week, and I am hoping that we will get a little sneak peek at you! I really loved seeing you, but I am not going to lie bug, I like when things are quiet more. So maybe we will see you or maybe we won't, but either way I am excited.

Love you my sweet June bug,

Love, 

mommy

Letters to Bug-Week 10

11/13/2016

Well hello my little bug,

Apparently the skill you are learning this week is independence. We must start working on listening to mommy better, because last week I told you no more anxiety. But it appears that you have your own agenda already! On Wednesday we had a bit of a scare and the only Silver lining to having scares is we get extra ultrasounds to see you. But I do have to admit, this was probably one of the coolest ultrasounds because in just over a week you have gone from a glow worm to a baby! Last week we saw your tiny little hand waving and what look like you body surfing, but this week, you look like a tiny human baby! Two legs and two arms and a had a body!!! It was absolutely amazing to see you at only 9 1/2 weeks big and there is no doubt, you are a fully developed human, and looking fully there!

Today was also a big week because we bought ornaments to celebrate your arrival in our family. Ornaments are a very special thing to me, and every year we buy an ornament for whoever lives in our house. Well, whoever lives in our house and wants an ornament! This year our ornament got to include you! We were so excited to pick out our ornament because we have been looking forward to this for three long Christmases! Every year that we have been praying for you to join our family, I have longingly looked at the ornaments and hoped that one day we would be buying one. Will guess what bug, this week we did it!!!! 

You are still a daily thought on my mind, and I can't ever think that I could love you anymore, but every day I do. Every day I think about you and my heart just continues to grow and grow and grow. I can't even imagine what God's love is like for us, but if it is anything near my love for you, it is absolutely amazing. But the thing is bug, I know God's love for me, and you, and your dad, and everybody on this planet is even greater than my love for you. I can't even comprehend a love like that but I know a little closer to how much God loves us. So just know that God loves you so much and I can only show you a fraction of how much you are loved by him. 

This week, the apps say that you are the size of a kumquat. Here is a little known fact, my absolute favorite word and fruit is kumquat. I don't know when it started, but I love saying that your brother Chase's name is quat, and then I will say come quat. It is a funny little joke in our family and so this week has extra fun meaning for me. But realistically speaking, I don't actually like the flavor of kumquats but I love the joke behind it. The apps go on to say that you are a little over an inch big and it's still only about a quarter of an ounce! But apparently the most crucial development is already done! Your tissue and organs and systems are in place. You are learning to swallow and you are kicking and moving around. You are for sure moving around, we saw that! They also say that you are growing tiny little fingernails and toenails. And that your arms and legs can now bend. How cool is all of this! Every little piece comes together at just precisely the right time and place. Watching the developments happen through the app for you is further proof that God has a perfect plan. I mean, let's be real, if I was developing a baby, I will probably forget to make your limbs bend because I wouldn't even think of such small details. But God cares about every detail in your body and put everything exactly where it supposed to be.

If you haven't figured it out bug, I love you so much! Until next week,

Love,

Mommy

Letters to Bug-Week 9

11/6/16

Hello little bug!

This week has been quite a week of up-and-down! You definitely know how to make me worry already about you! Last weekend we had to have some blood tests drawn and doctors are weird. You will learn that quickly, but they speak and use of weird terms and don't really give full answers and tend to just kind of say… let's wait and see. And one never really knows what that means. So anyways, we got a blood test done and the doctor wasn't sure about your numbers and said that maybe it would be best to just come in for an ultrasound. Well bug, your mama was a nervous wreck all week. Because of course the numbers and everything came through on Sunday and they could not get us in until Thursday. Little bug, the anxiety I feel and the worry I feel for you is so great and so vast and I know that if I did not have God to rely on, I don't know how it would make it through the day.

I would say that Tuesday was the worst day for me, the anxiety got absolutely horrible and I think I did end up making myself feel physically ill from it. But Thursday came around, and we got to see you on that ultrasound. You were there, body surfing or something, and we got to see those movements. We also got to see the start of your little arms and what looked like a little wave at us. It's like you were saying, chill mom I'm right here and I'm just fine. It was what this mama's heart needed. But anytime you feel like you would like to get those numbers higher to stop making the doctors make mama worried, I would be totally fine. We also got to see your little hands and what looked like you covering your face, apparently you're a bit camera shy. 

Even with all the anxiety and worry, it has been a fantastic week. Because quite honestly, every week I have with you is absolutely amazing and fantastic. Every day I wake up so grateful and blessed to have you in our lives and to be your mom. I can't even begin to describe the emotions and the feelings that come with being your mom and having you in my stomach growing day after day. I love you my sweet little bug and I hope that you always know that. I may not always get things right as your mom, but I can definitely say that I will always love you and if you grow up feeling loved, I will consider that a victory.

According to the apps, you are about the size of a cherry. 

Apparently there are some pretty big cherries out there, because you are about an inch big. You still weigh less than an ounce, but you have all of your essential body parts! And we got to see quite a few of those with your little arms and hands and feet. 

And I'm pretty sure that primitive tail you had before is gone, I did not see any evidence of that this week! It also says that your eyes are already formed but that your eyelids will stay closed until sometime in second or third tri to protect them! 

It is so cool to think about the fact that you now have eyes and all the things that those eyes will see in your lifetime. I can't wait to see your eyes and to be able to just look at you and have that time together.

 That is it for today little bug. No more anxiety and worry!

Love, 

Mommy