13 weeks to go!

We're now 6 & 3/4 months pregnant!
All in all, it seems to go by pretty quickly and I can't believe I'm going to do this, but here it is...the first official belly picture!

Everything has been going great for us so far. Harrison is moving around more than ever but I haven't figured out his patterns yet. I think he still has enough space to not always bump me, but I know that window of time is about to close. We're officially in the 3rd trimester and his growth is supposed to get pretty rapid over these last few weeks. We'll find out in about a week how he's doing and how big he is at our next appointment. According to all the books, he should be somewhere around 2 lbs. and ready for some major growth spurts.

I could tell we entered the 3rd trimester by some very significant changes. All of a sudden, my blood sugar went wacky--I was feeling dizzy at work every day right around the same time. Come to find out, I need to eat 5 small meals a day instead of the normal 3 to keep all my levels in check. All that rapid growth means Harrison needs more food from me, so now I just have to snack every few hours (easier said than done). Also, that infamous belly button pop has started to happen. I still have an 'innie' but now you can see a belly button bump through all my shirts. The foot swelling thing is still happening but now it runs on a schedule. When I'm working all day or out and about running errands, I'll come home to find my feet like puffy sausages, only to slowly go back to a state of normal after a few hours of relaxing.

I still cannot believe we are so close to the end...or should I say beginning for Harrison. It's a little scary to think about, so I try not to dwell on that coming day. I just know that God has us in his hands and we're along for the ride. May it be a sweet journey of a quick delivery and a blessed epidural!

Harrison Update...

Before everything went haywire in our house, we had our six month sonogram.

It was a short sonogram but the doctor had a chance to point some interesting things out. He said everything looked great and normal which is a major blessing. We saw Harrison's hand opening and closing. We have a picture of the top of his head. He's got his fist directly in front of his forehead as though he's thinking hard. I would upload it, but its at home and I'm at work. Didn't plan this very well!

We got see a very clear image of his foot and leg and the heartbeat was pounding away.

All in all, it was a great visit. Next month, Steph gets to do the glucose test. From what I understand it's a lot like drinking extremely concentrated Tang. If it's good enough for the astronauts, it's good enough for my son.

We'll keep you updated!

When it rains... everything gets hot and rusty!

So, miracle of miracles, our hot water heater is putting massive amounts of rust into our hot water. What a blessing that is. It looks like we've been able to turn water to wine, though it tastes like crap. $912 dollars later we've purchased an energy saver 40 gallon bohemoth. Install is this Saturday between 9 and 11. Until then its lukewarm showers.

I'd do the install myself but... I'm not that talented.

The other super awesome blessing is the AC unit is no longer functioning properly. A copper pipe was bent and collapsed on itself by the builder 16 years ago. It's caused our AC unit to work 3 times harder than it has to. Luckily we got a nice guy to fix it and he'll be out at 8 on Saturday morning to remedy the problem. If this works, then we're good to go. If the quick fix doesn't hold like we want it to then we have $6000 leaving our pockets to get a completely new unit.

On top of all of this we're trying to finish the remodeling in two bathrooms, finish sealing the wood on the new fence, and get the baby's room ready to go. Ah the thrills of being a home owner.

And as a final note: please don't tell us that it only gets harder or that this is the trend of buying homes... I, for one, don't care to hear it. We know.

I guess the best thing to do is remind myself of James 1:2-3 : Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.

We're all loaded up on perseverence, thanks.