Baby face 

Baby thigh, knee, and foot 

Baby's hands folded 

Arm and hands 

Little feet 

Baby Profile

Little

My baby's first pictures

Ultrasounds are SOOOO cool! It was amazing to see that little person on the screen and realize that it is my baby and it is growing inside me!!! Wow, wow, wow!

Here he/she is (we're going to be surprised). No matter the gender this is one cute baby (although I am a bit biased!)

(The pics are coming in separate posts cause I'm still not sure how to do pictures on here very well!)

The Best Things in Life ARE Free

One great thing about being pregnant is that people like to offer you free things--lots of free things!

Number one is advice, which I am NOT resenting in the least. The farther along I get the more I realize how much I don't know. I've received so many good tips that it really helps me feel slightly less like a parenting moron! :)

In addition, in the past few days I have received offers for the following:
Maternity clothes to buy cheap, borrow, or outright have
A free copy of What To Expect in the First Year (follow-up to the ever popular What to Expect When You're Expecting)
An exersaucer! (This great play center for babies who can't quite walk yet, in case you don't know baby lingo)
A brand new around the head padding thing to keep your newborn's head from flopping around in the car seat
A cheap, only slightly used crib
A bassinet to borrow
A body pillow for me and my expanding belly

And this doesn't include the gifts I've already received even months before my first shower!

Thanks to all...I feel special! :)

P.S. Tomorrow is ultrasound day! First baby pictures here we come!!!

Link

Here's the link--it didn't show up on the previous post for some reason:

http://http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3185095&nav=0RcdYRbg

When somewhere, far away becomes here and now

Every day we hear of some new bombing or shooting in far off lands. I think we all feel a twinge of sadness, but don't let it affect us too much. It's far away...it's people we don't know and probably will never know. We just don't have the capacity to grieve for everyone.

And then you hear a report one day about a bombing in Egypt. One American is killed. You feel bad, knowing that there is a family mourning a little closer to home than somewhere else, far away.

Then you hear another report. That American was a young man from your state. He actually went to high school in your city--within walking distance of your church. He was a Christian and a missionary.

Then today, we went to church and talked to several of the young adults in our Tuesday night LifeStream group. Many of them knew the young man well. They remembered him as a popular guy who had a knack for making everyone feel accepted. He ran track with one of them. He came alongside another when he was just a freshman and was painfully shy.

And the report of some bombing somewhere far away, is now here, in your midst, affecting people you care about. It makes you realize that no matter where things like this happen, someone, somewhere, is touched, hurt, mourning. It makes me thankful for a God that sees it all and is there--whether far away, or right next door.


Here's a link to a local story about the young man killed in the Egypt blast. Pray for his family. We'd also ask that you pray for the young people in our LifeStream Bible study who knew him and who are also mourning his loss.

Baby Checkup--18 weeks

Had my 18 week checkup today. Here are the vitals:

Baby is measuring at exactly the right size.
Baby's heartrate is 156. The doctor found the heartbeat right away. Then we heard these swishing noises and he said that it was moving around while we were listening. I've got a live wire in there!
I have gained 2 pounds. I've been worried because I haven't gained anything to speak of yet, but I was told not to worry, especially since the baby is measuring right on track. Whew...good to know!

The baby has continued to flip and flop around every day for past several days...it's so fun to feel! We've got a soccer player or a ballerina on its way I think! :)

In other baby related news, I have a brand new cousin! Jacob Allen Hoffman was born to my Uncle Jim and Aunt Shana this morning. First pictures show that they have created cutie number 3 to join sisters Elizabeth and Rachel! :) Babies...they're the best!

My baby's high on Peach Iced Tea

Okay...so I'm feeling like a bad mom already and the baby is 5 months from actually being born...

Went out to dinner with girlfriends last night (beforehand they guided me through the strange and wonderful world of Babies R Us and helped me know what I need to register for! What a fun time!). I ordered a Peach Iced Tea. I'm allowed to have one serving of caffeine a day so I thought nothing of it. I also thought nothing of the fact that the waiter kept refilling my glass. Oops...more than one serving there.

Well, not only was I pretty wide awake until 2 am, baby was bouncing off the walls of my womb! I mentally apologized to the little one--I mean how do you let off steam when you're 5 1/2 inches long, hopped up on caffeine, and living in a space the size of a grapefruit. On the positive side, Daddy got to feel a definite kick last night for the first time. THAT was super cool.

But I still feel bad...need to watch that Peach Iced Tea intake, don't I, Little One?

By the way...as you can see, I keep forgetting that this baby, just because he/she is living inside me, can't actually read my thoughts. It is supposed to be able to hear my voice by next week so I'm going to have to start actually talking out loud to it! :)

I'm a bad, bad blogger

So sorry to anyone who was interested enough to check this blog in the last few months, only to find nothing new. I don't think I'm very good at this blogging thing!

Now that I'm finally feeling nearly normal at 18 weeks of pregnancy maybe I'll be more diligent. Maybe.

I can't believe I just saw that

On my way home from a special trip to Taco Bell to satisfy a pregnancy craving, I'm sitting at a stop light, minding my own business when I happen to notice something. A guy, two lanes over, with his window all the way down (it's only 25 degrees here today) seems to be picking his nose. Now, that's not all that unusual. I've probably done it before too (although it seemed kind of brazen to be doing it with your window down while sitting right beside other cars at a stoplight!) Then I did a double take. Not only was this 50ish man picking his nose right there for everyone to see...he was stopping to take a look at his find and then proceeding to stash his find in his mouth.

AGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!

Thankfully my craving for my soft tacos is mostly outweighing the disgust. So now that I've grossed you out I'm going to forget I saw this and try to enjoy my lunch!

Oh my.

It's a stinky, stinky world

I never realized how much the world stinks.

I don't mean figuratively as in "What's this world coming to?"

I mean it literally is P.U. stinky.

At least when you're pregnant. Ugh.

Inside stinks. Outside stinks. I stink. My dog stinks. Food stinks. My pillow stinks. Air freshener stinks. My hands stink when I wake up in the morning. My towels stink. Ugh. Everything stinks.

They say that your sense of smell is heightened so that you're naturally careful about avoiding things that would be bad for the baby if you breathed them in. Right now, according to that logic, it's bad to breathe, period. I hope this doesn't last all nine months. Blah.

So if I run into you somewhere and I suddenly back away with my fingers under my nose, don't be offended. It's not you...it's me. It's the stinky, stinky world of pregnancy. :)

Just for fun

Make your portrait in Japanese animation! :) Great way to waste time!

http://illustmaker.abi-station.com/index_en.shtml

First Trimester--Pregnant or Just a Long Bout of Flu?

The first trimester of pregnancy should just be called "Three months of Ick." Thankfully I am having more good days than bad now, but it sure does get tiring to constantly feel like you're coming down with the stomach flu. And the medicine my doctor mercifully gave me helps, but also acts as a sedative causing me to sleep most of my life away. Like I said--Three Long Months of Ick.

But, when I'm feeling the most sorry for myself, I try to remember that this feeling is part of creation and not destruction. Feeling sick means that the hormones are forming my little one just like they are supposed to. A lot of people around the world right now are feeling this same way--or worse--because they are fighting cancer or some other disease that is trying to destroy them. My feelings mean the opposite and I am immensely thankful for that. A blessing disguised.

In case anyone is keeping track, here are a few stats of Baby Detweiler's gestations thus far:

Age: 10 weeks
Development Status: About one inch long, maybe a quarter of an ounce in weight, and yet all Baby's vital organs are in place, its fingers and toes are there, its heart is beating and its brain is working. Wonder what a 10 week old unborn baby thinks about?
Checkups: Had first one two weeks ago and all is well so far. Uterus is sitting snugly on my bowels making #2's an every once in a while happening. Oh well. Next checkup is at 13 weeks--hoping to hear the heartbeat this time--it was too little to hear over my own and the gurgle of my intestines this time. Ewww...not something you really want to hear amplified.
Cravings: Fresh pineapple (NOT canned); pasta; orange sherbet; broccoli cheddar soup; olives; Greek salad (except I have to forgo my beloved feta cheese for now)
Smells that gross me out: Gideon, my dog (he needs a bath!); certain air fresheners; mingled food smells in the fridge; cigarette smoke
Weight Loss: 14 pounds (that's right--loss; guess that will turn its self around soon enough. Husband looked at my rear last night and said that all my cellulite curds are gone. We decided that the baby ate the curds and husband commented, "Good Baby!")

Well, that's it for now. I'm actually feeling hungry right now and WANT to eat so I better go take advantage of the feeling! :)

The pee that changed my life

Has peeing ever changed your life completely?

On New Year's Day (was that really only 18 days ago?) I peed on this plastic stick. Three minutes later life as I knew it was over and whole new one began.

Two pink lines.

Pregnant.

Wow.

Husband and I cried and laughed at the same time, checked and rechecked the instructions to make sure we'd done it right, and laughed and cried some more.

We shouldn't have been as surprised as we were...I mean we were working on it. But the fact that it pretty much took one month really surprised us...what with all the conventional wisdom that says the average fertile couple takes 4-6 months to get pregnant. Just call me Fertile Myrtle.

It was really hard to believe that I, Molly, was actually pregnant...something I've thought about and feared and hoped for and wondered about for much of my life. It became easier to believe last Tuesday when morning (hah...more like mourning) sickeness struck. I've pretty much been in bed or on the couch in front of the TV since then, feeling like I have a never-ending case of carsickness. Ugh.

I am enjoying the first day in the past 7 of feeling more normal than nauseated. Bless you, Lord, for small graces. May they continue!

In the meantime, until this stage hopefully passes and I start enjoying some of the cooler parts of a baby growing inside me I am finding encouragement in

Number one: My AWESOME husband who has been loving me, encouraging me, cooking, cleaning, walking the dog...basically doing everything but bathing me. What a guy!
Number two: Looking at the adorable teddy bear PJs and booties that I received from a friend as my very first baby gift.
Number three: Checking baby's progress on various websites. Baby is 7 weeks old tomorrow and looks kind of like this:


He or she is a little bigger than a raisin right now and has just started making its own blood type and cells. Baby is starting to move for the first time this week and has a heartbeat. Amazing, huh?

Yep, that was certainly one pee that changed my life forever.

Here goes nothing

My brother just started a blog and suggested that it would be something I would enjoy as well. So...here I am. Not sure what I have to say at this point, but I'll dip my toe in and see how the water is--and perhaps take a plunge.

One thing is for sure...this is starting out to be a very boring blog! Sigh.