Today marks 31 more days until your "guess date"! I can't believe you'll be here so soon - just one more month!
I wonder if you'll be early or late? I guess we'll see soon enough. All I know is that your dad and I are beyond thrilled to finally meet you and see your little face and actually hold you! We're so excited!
This weekend you went to your first play. It was a musical and I think you really liked it.
You generally aren't much of a mover and shaker, but during the play, you were going crazy! You got especially wiggly during the tap dancing parts. I told your dad that maybe you'll be a thespian or a dancer one day :). Whatever you become, we can't wait to watch and see you grow!
The other day I was feeling particularly un-lovely. You're totally worth it, but some days I just feel gross being pregnant. I look haggard and tired and bloated. But, when I woke up, there was a note sitting on the kitchen counter waiting for me. It was from your dad and it was incredibly sweet and just what I needed right then.
I hope that one day God will bring you a husband who is as wonderful a man as your father is. I hope your future husband is someone who will love you unconditionally, be steadfast and loyal and a leader. I pray that he will love Jesus. I pray that he will love you with abandon and not be too cool to take you to plays and to have picnics in the park. I hope that he will call you out on your crap and challenge you to become a better person every day. I hope that he will be a hard worker and provide well for you and the family you will hopefully have one day - not because you will not be capable of providing for yourself or because you need him for that reason, but just because he loves you and wants to provide for you. I pray that he will make you laugh and be a good listener and that he will encourage you in your dreams - big and small. I hope he will love all the little things about you and will know you so well that he'll know what you need even before you know you need it. I hope he will be understanding of your faults. I pray that he will respect and honor your marriage and treat it as precious.
These are all things that I appreciate and love about your father and they are things that I am hoping and praying for you.
I know that one day your own "list" will probably have things on it that are different than the things on my own list for you and that's ok. I mostly just wanted you to know how much I love your daddy and how lucky you would be to have a man even a little bit like him.
Your dad gave you a rather fitting nickname recently.
Fern-ace. As in "furnace". It was just a play on words, but it's actually pretty accurate, because you've been heating me up like a little furnace these days.
Before I was pregnant I would sleep in sweats and t-shirts and could even comfortably fall asleep in a sweatshirt, but now....it's shorts and tank tops and it's almost December! I've even asked your dad to turn down the heat and open the windows on a few occasions, which is definitely saying something. Soon enough you'll learn about your daddy and his heat-miser ways. One day I'll have to tell you the story of how he turned off the breaker to our heat when we were first married. Yep. That's your dad. But, I sure do love him. In coldness or in warmth :). Love you Fern!
I found this quote from Charlotte's Web the other day and it got me thinking...
I hope this quote is true of you - our little Fern. I hope that you are a little fighter - trying to rid the world of injustice. I hope that you stand up for what is right. If you're anything like your daddy, I know you will. We are already praying for you that you will be kind and thoughtful and that you will love others. We pray that you will also grow to know and love Jesus.
I pray that we'll be able to teach you these things and that we'll be good examples for you...or at least not screw up too badly at this whole parenting thing :). We love you.
This weekend I started nesting. I finally found a dresser for your room and spent a lot of the weekend washing your teeny tiny clothes to put in it. It's pretty exciting to think that I'll actually get to put you in those teeny tiny clothes pretty soon!
I also went to a class to learn how to feed you. I'm a little nervous about breast feeding, but I'm hoping you'll be a natural. Either way I guess we'll figure it out together. The class was a little awkward, but at least now I'll (sort of) know what I'm doing when the time comes.
We also went to a family baby shower for you hosted by your Grandma Sally. It was lovely and you got lots of fun things. Lots of sparkly pink things that made your daddy (and ok...me too) cringe a little, but a lot of really nice things nonetheless. Your Grandma Sally did a very nice job.
The guests painted these little wooden dolls for you too. Hopefully you'll have fun playing with them when you're a little older. Maybe dad will even build you a dollhouse to play with them in. I always loved mine when I was younger, but I'm sure your dollhouse will be even cooler, because your daddy is pretty handy.
The little dolls in front are our little family: Daddy, Mommy, You and Marley. Dad has a beard right now and I think it's pretty handsome, so I made sure to include it :).
We can't wait for you to get here, but, we're doing our best to get ready while we wait!
This weekend you had your very first party! It was a baby shower hosted by my friends Becca, Lindsey, Jamie and Ashley (you're going to love them all by the way) in your honor!
The theme was your name: Fern...of course :).
These were pom-pom bouquets. Favors for your guests to take home.
This is Becca's house. It's so pretty. I'm sure you'll be spending lots of time hanging out here with your buddy-to-be Bennett and his little sibling who will be arriving just a few months after you!
Everyone guessed your birthday. I think you'll be a little late, but I hope not - I'm so anxious to meet you!
Yummy brunch food: french toast, blueberry muffins, scones, egg casserole and so much more....
Homemade gingerale made by Chris.
Homemade hot cocoa bar.
Kira, Baby Pearl and Ashley.
Presents for you.
You are spoiled already!
Opening presents with friends.
Everyone finger knitted you garlands for your nursery.
I can't wait to read you this book. "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" reminds me of your daddy. He's never full either!
Look how big you're getting!
This is your Auntie Lisa.
All of my favorite people who threw you your first fabulous party!
James, Ash, Lindsey & Becca.
You are becoming quite the wiggle worm. In the past two weeks you've started moving like crazy....well, like crazy for you anyway. You haven't been a big mover or shaker until now. It's nice knowing your A-OK in your cozy camping spot. You even got the hiccups. It made my whole belly shake. It happened while your dad and I were up in Canada for a marriage retreat at Barnabas. I like to think you were just really fond of the "Barna-buns" I was eating :). In reality, I read that it's because you're practicing breathing/swallowing with the amniotic fluid which leads to hiccups.
My belly is getting bigger by the day, which means you are growing and we are happy about that! Here's a photo of dad and I at Barnabas...our last vacation without you as part of our family. We can't wait to take you there one day. You're going to love swimming and eating ice cream from the General Store!
This is me and my cousin Danielle. She's pregnant too...with your cousin Harlow. You guys will probably be great friends. Harlow is due any day now, so she'll be a little older than you, but we wanted to make sure we got a couple of pictures of our matching jumbo bellies before you guys got here.
I can't believe how big my belly has gotten! You are definitely doing your job and growing up a storm!
I wanted to introduce you to your first pet. Meet Marley. She was our first baby.
She had silly floppy ears as a puppy.
She loved your daddy from the start.
They even sort of look like each other.
Here we are before moving our of our first apartment we all shared together.
She was pretty cute, but probably not as cute as you'll be :).
Now she's a big dog.
We like to think she'll be a good babysitter and that you guys will be good friends. Once you get big enough to play fetch, she'll probably never leave you alone - she loves playing fetch. Can't wait for you two to meet!
I've decided to start using your name now. It's more fun than just saying "Dear Baby".
Today you went to your first football game at OSU. I can't wait for you to go to many more. We went with Grandma Sally and Grandpa Mike and Uncle Cory and his girlfriend Leah (we're pretty sure she'll be sticking around for awhile...we like her).
Hopefully you didn't mind the noise of the crowd and all of your dad's yelling. Something you should know about him is that he gets VERY excited about sports. Sometimes lots of yelling ensues. I'm hoping you'll be used to it by the time you get here, because I'm sure there will be lots more of it to come for many years.
I wonder if you'll be interested in sports? I'm sure your dad would love to teach you all the rules of football and whatever other sport you happen to be interested in. I think he'd really like that. If not, I'm sure you'll find other fun things to do together, but either way I'm sure we'll be making visits to OSU. It's a fun nostalgic place for us and where we started our married life together. We can't wait to share it with you.
Monday night, your dad felt you move for the first time, it only took 24 weeks :). You were a super sneaky little thing and every time he'd come over to feel you move you'd go into hiding, but finally he caught you. His response to feeling you move was:
"It doesn't really feel like a person. It kind of feels like you're digesting a burrito"
I'm sure you'll be much cuter than a burrito though :). The students in my class are very interested in talking about you and they want to feel you move. They try to get you to move and talk to my belly saying,
"Wake up Fren! Wake up Frenny!"
I rather like the nickname "Frenny". Maybe it'll stick :).
The other day one of the little boys in my class came up and rubbed my belly and sang the ABC's to you to try to get you to move and then he said:
"Teacher...how come she never moves!?"
You just like to do things in your own timing I think. Perhaps I detect a stubborn streak in your future? I suppose we'll see....
Here's something you should probably know about me right now. I am terrible at writing letters. Well, I'm actually pretty decent at it when I finally get around to it, but I'm a terrible procrastinator. Hopefully you don't get that from me. If you do, I'm sorry.
Since I last wrote you a letter a lot of things have happened. First of all we found out that you're a girl! We couldn't have been more surprised. Take a look if you don't believe me...
I have no idea why I was so convinced you were going to be a boy. Apparently my motherly intuition was way off. But, we're very excited to have a little girl. We've even picked out a name for you.... well, that is unless you show up and most decidedly look like it's not going to suit you. We'll most likely name you Fern. I think it's a cute name that will grow with you well. I also like that it's unique and quite uncommon (it hasn't been in the top 1,000 names since 1961!), but it's still classic. Hopefully you'll like it as much as we do. Fern was my great grandma's name, although I never knew her, I still think it's nice to have a connection.
Currently you've been cooking for 19 weeks and I'm so excited to be to the halfway point. That means I get to meet you soon! I made your dad take my first real "belly photo" of you today since you really started to grow this week and my belly just popped. I even had to go buy a belly band to keep my pants up now!
Dad says that I look like a hippy from the 60's in this picture, but the 70's would be more accurate. 70's fashion has made a bit of a comback this summer in case you were wondering. I asked him if he wanted to say anything else to you in this letter and he said,
"I don't know what to say! I'll talk to her when she gets here."
That answer is very much like him. I can't wait to see you guys together. I think you'll have so much fun with your daddy - he's a pretty great guy.
Tonight your dad and I looked at pictures online to see what you look like now and I maybe for sure cried. I think dad had a little tear glistening in his eye too, but I doubt he'd admit it :). It's crazy to think that you're practically a real person now! I mean...you've been a real person for awhile, but you've even got fingernails now and you're the size of a fig...almost a lime.
I'll bet you've got pretty cute fingernails by now :). I keep thinking that my tummy has started growing a bit by now, but I think dad thinks I'm crazy. Maybe in a few more weeks he'll start noticing it too.
This week was really busy and exciting for us. We announced to all of our friends that you are going to be joining our little family in January!
One of my friends from work named Dana is also having a baby less than a week before you are due so we decided to announce our news at the same time by wearing t-shirts as our announcements.
We also shared our news on Facebook. You don't know what that is yet, but everyone was very excited about you.
Today we went back to the hospital to get another photo taken of you and to make sure you were safe and sound in your nesting spot.
I can hardly believe how much you've grown in just a week! The doctor said that things look ok and that you seem to be healthy, so we are very relieved about that.
We've been praying for you before bed too. We pray that you'll love Jesus and not get into too much trouble and maybe, possibly (pretty please?!) sleep through the night. We're really hoping that sleeping through the night thing works out for us :).
You still look more like a sea monkey than a human baby, but you have a heart beat and your dad and I got to hear it at your appointment. I officially have two heartbeats!
Our appointment was actually quite terrible, because we had a really rude doctor. She wanted us to do all these tests on you to make sure you were healthy, but we declined and she was mad about it. We're going to love you no matter what, so we didn't feel like we needed the tests. She also seemed to think there was a little something strange about my uterus, so we have another ultrasound to check things out next week. I'm kind of worried about it, but I'm trying not to think about it too much. We're thinking of having you at home or at a birthing center instead of at a hospital, but we haven't decided yet. For now I'm glad that you are healthy and cozy in your new little temporary home :).
I figured you might want to know how you came to be one day, so I decided to start writing it all down for you. Well....I mean....I'm not planning on telling you exactly how you came to be, because that's not a conversation I want to have until you're at least five, but I wanted you to know how we got to this point of deciding to become your parents.
In November of 2010 your dad and I had been married for almost 3 years and decided that while we loved your little fur sibling Marley we were kind of ready for a real-live human baby. We waited and waited....
Then, six months later you finally showed up!
It was kind of strange, but I just knew I was pregnant. I woke up one morning and took a Dollar Tree pregnancy test and when that second little pink line appeared I went to go tell your dad. I had always thought I might tell him I was pregnant in a cute and creative way, but I was just too excited for that. The conversation went a little something like this:
Me: "Ummmm....I just took this test and I think it says I'm pregnant. I can't really tell though. It's hard to read."
Dad: (previously in a gape-mouthed sleep pops straight up off of his pillow and out of his dreamy state) "Well...I'm awake now!"
Me: "What does it say?"
Dad: (carefully inspects the directions on the box) I think that means we're pregnant.
Me: "Really? Like, really pregnant?"
Dad: "Yeah."
From that moment on we knew that our lives would be forever changed and we couldn't be more excited about this.
