You, Me, and Baby Make Three

The word's out officially: we're expecting our first Baby Guillory in February! Nich and I are very excited and anticipate this new chapter in our journey together. It has been so fun to gradually share this happy news with family and friends. We found out at the end of June ourselves, shared with our immediate family members and close friends a couple weeks later, told our larger circle of friends a few weeks ago, and have now made it public! Can I just say how thoroughly impressed I am at how good people are at keeping secrets?! Not a peep!

As of tomorrow, I will be 14 weeks along. Our little baby is now about the size of a lemon, roughly 3.4 inches and 1.5 ounces. He or she can suck his/her thumb and wiggle his/her toes!

I had a fairly easy first trimester. I was exhausted all the time, heightened by the fact that I traveled to and from Korea in the first month and then chaperoned a week-long youth conference in the second. I won't be doing that again! The nausea was an all-day affair but never got so bad that anything actually re-surfaced. We were thrilled to hear Baby's nice, strong heartbeat in Week 11, and we're looking forward to our next appointment in a couple weeks.

At this point, I rarely feel queasy, unless I don't feed myself quickly enough after I start feeling hungry. I haven't gained any weight yet; I've actually lost a few pounds. This will probably be the only time in my life that I'll worry about losing weight. After asking me some questions, the OB wasn't worried about it, so I'm trying not to either.

I haven't been nearly as anxious about this entire process as I had always anticipated that I would be. It seems like those stereotypically high-stress events don't stress me out as much as most people. My friend Kristy was saying recently how amazed she was at how laid-back I was at my wedding - I think I eventually just get to a point where I realize that I don't have to control everything, certain things are out of my hands, and to focus on the important elements. With this baby, I came to the realization early on that I have NO CLUE about what I'm doing, but God does, so I've just got to trust Him.

One of the best things about expecting for Nich and me is the incredible honor and privilege we know it is to be allowed to partner with God in creating this new little life. It is so awe-inspiring and wonderful in the truest sense of that word. We are so thankful for this baby already and grateful for this time in our life together.

It has also been incredibly fun to chat at length with some dear friends who are recently mommies and daddies themselves and to learn so much that we didn't know. We are thankful for the many prayers that are being said over this baby's health. Our most frequent prayer is that he or she will grow and grow and grow, that his or her little heart will keep beating strongly, and that Baby will always know how dearly he or she is loved by us and the Lord.

Nich and I have been keeping a journal for several weeks now filled with letters to our baby. It has been a good reflection tool for us, and we look forward to sharing those letters some day with our child. We've also been reading a lot to inform ourselves, and as I said before, keeping in touch with new parents whose opinions we respect and trust greatly.

I will end this post with a few humorous vignettes.

1. When the PA found the baby's heartbeat, Nich looked at where the "wand" was and said, "Huh. So this whole time I've been talking to her belly button, it was really too high up."

2. We have decided that the best way to ward off strangers trying to touch my belly is to make a bunch of t-shirts that say, "No touchee." Frankly, if anyone I'm not close to tries to touch my belly, not to mention lift my shirt and touch my bare belly, I will probably punch them.

3. Several friends have expressed a desire for a boy or a girl, depending on which little boy/girl they want our baby to marry. Nich said something about a shotgun.


4. I received a coupon in my email for a free "Udder Cover" and had to call Nich at work to "ask" him if I could buy one - just to get his reaction to the name. Even funnier, there's another brand out there called "Hooter Hiders." Where do people come up with these names?!