"minnie" me

In honor of my childhood love for Minnie Mouse, Ellie was Minnie for her first Halloween. If I may say so myself, she was the cutest little girl dressed up in her little costume! I'm pretty sure she loved the Minnie ears, which I made for her :) And the suspenders were a great finishing touch...Great idea, Nick!

saturday mornings

I remember quite well Saturday mornings just a few months ago, when we would bring Ellie back to bed with us after her first morning bottle. She would just lay in between us, cuddle with us, and probably go back to sleep. What a sweet time!

This morning was much different...Ellie was climbing on top of us, climbing the pillows to look out the window, playing with my phone, crawling all over the bed...Then, finally, wearing herself out and cuddling up on my chest to go back to sleep. Just as sweet, but totally different from Saturday mornings this past Spring.

a mother's frustration

This is a first for me, and it will hopefully be a last. I'm writing today to vent an experience I just had as a mother...it was suffocating and more frustrating than maybe anything I've ever experienced.

It is by far the most frustrating thing in the world to me when a complete stranger feels the liberty to tell me how to take care of my daughter, or better...to tell me that I am not doing a good job taking care of her. Here's the story...

Ellie and I went on a walk (2 blocks away) to pick up a prescription at Walgreens. A lady who was driving by decided to yell and curse at me because Ellie didn't have shoes on. "It's cold as hell," she said. She continued to say that I should go home and put some shoes on her (with several other words that I will choose not to include). This continued for a few minutes while she was stopped in traffic. I can honestly say that I have never in my life wanted to hurt someone, or yell at them in response to something. That's not my nature. Today, I did. I actually told her to shut up! I mean, seriously, it's in the 70's today, and the sun is hot. Ellie hates more than anything else having something on her feet. She had pants and long sleeves on. Unless it's necessary (and today, it wasn't) I'm not putting shoes on her. It took everything I had to not go put a note on her car saying "In case you didn't know, hell is not cold. And you know nothing about me or my daughter."

Is it wrong to defend my daughter? and to defend my parenting skills? Ellie is my life. Besides my husband, there is nothing on this earth that is more important to me than her. How a complete stranger can judge be based on the fact that she didn't have shoes on, and she thinks 75 degrees is "cold as hell," I'm unsure.

I'm sorry she thinks it's cold outside. That's not my fault.

fall snapshots

I met a friend at Overton Park this morning to hang out, and I thought it would be a great opportunity to take some fall pictures of Ellie. Here are a few of my favorites...







There are more pictures on my facebook page if you want to see them all!

http://www.facebook.com/alunner

every day something new

Ellie is 6 1/2 months old now, and I can't believe it! Since she turned 6 months old, it seems like she accomplishes something new every day. Here are some highlights...

• 5 months, 3 weeks old: first tooth. Then she got her second tooth the next week! I think she's working on a third as we speak. She's been chewing on everything so hard, like she's trying to get it to come out! So far she has her bottom front teeth in.
• She began to sit up very tall all by herself, then the next day, she was "swimming," as we call it. She was trying to crawl, but it looked more like the breaststroke across the living room floor.

• This past weekend she figured out how to crawl for real! I think she was getting bored with being in the same place all the time, so she did something about it!

• Now she's pulling herself up, not only on small things around her like my leg and her lap, but also on the couch, the recliner, the door jam...everything!! When she pulls herself up and holds onto my or Nick's hands, she immediately starts taking steps toward us! She might be walking next... Now, when she wakes up from her nap, or in the mornings, I find her kneeling in her crib looking out into the hallway, waiting for me to come get her!
• Apparently, she's not as easy anymore for her teachers at Parent's Day Out...She is (I think) the only one that can successfully move around on her own, so she tries to "play" with the other kids and ends up crawling on top of them! They just lay there, and she keeps going! I think she's frustrated that she's the only one that can move around.

Since she started progressing so quickly over the past two weeks, we are forced to baby-proof the rest of the house. The living room was pretty safe, and that was fine because she just stayed in there all the time. But now, if I'm cooking in the kitchen or something, she will crawl out of the living room, through the dining room, down the hall to the kitchen! This means, she has to go past the computer desk full of cords, which is her favorite thing to play with!

Anyways, Ellie is not so little anymore, and she's so happy to be mobile and more interactive. It is so much fun!

We also went to Missouri this past weekend. Nick ran another half-marathon with his brother, so we waited in the 40 degree weather to watch Daddy run :) Here's Ellie all bundled up... Can you find her??

And Ellie, of course, had lots of fun playing with her cousins Iris and Milo. They were so excited that we got to stay with them for 3 days. They LOVE when Ellie comes to visit :)

Out to dinner

I just had to share this quick happiness with you...

So Nick and I were going to walk over to Fino's to get some dinner and bring it back home, but once we got there, we decided to eat there. Well, we didn't have anything for Ellie, but luckily they had a baby high chair for her to sit in. Then, this happened...

I guess she was worn out from a long week at school! Then she went to her first football game tonight with Daddy, while I went downtown with my sister (which was really fun) then came home by myself, painted my nails, and watched a chick flick! It was a fun night :)

first day of school

Sorry for not posting in a while...it's been crazy with Nick starting back to school, I started in-service the week after, and today was my first real day (with kids) back at Parent's Day Out. Which, consequently, means it was Ellie's first day of school! I can't believe it! In a week, she will be 5 months old, and she's already going to school! Last week, she spent a little time in the nursery while I worked in my classroom, but for the most part, she still stayed with me. So today was her first day to stay in the nursery all day long! Let me just say, it was SOO hard to walk past the nursery and not go pick her up and play with her for a while! She looked so sad in there, which makes me sad. I know she likes the teachers, because she smiles at them all the time. But I think she just misses Mommy and Daddy! This was pretty evident when she reached out for both of us while Nick was holding her after school today. She was so happy to see us both! Seriously, she is the sweetest little girl in the world. She is my favorite! :)

So of course Grandma K had to come see her on her first day of school...


And here are some new things she's doing...She's started sitting up by herself...sort of...

Ellie loves spending time with Grandma K. Last time we went over to her house, we played piano together. It was so much fun! :)
She loves eating food! She has started eating baby food, and so far she likes squash, apples, pears, sweet potatoes, bananas, and LOVES carrots! If she's not eating or sleeping, she is rolling all over the floor. It's crazy to think that she used to lay still on a small blanket on the floor that was not much longer than she is. Recently we upgraded to a twin-sized comforter on the floor, but even that won't contain her any longer! She twists and rolls and turns all over the entire living room floor. I'm still not quite sure how she ends up in some places. Her new favorite spot is under the foot rest on Daddy's recliner. Somehow she always ends up there (close to Daddy).

She is so wonderful. We can't get enough of her every day. We are so blessed to have such an amazing little girl in our lives every day! I can't believe she's almost 5 months old!!!

4 months (and a lot of pictures)

HAPPY 4 MONTHS, ELLIE!

Ellie is officially 4 months old! It's so crazy to think that she was inside of me for more than twice as long as she's been in this world, but these 4 months have felt like a lot longer than that! She is such a sweet addition to our family! My mom and sister Kristi came over for dinner this week and brought a fun little cake to help celebrate Ellie's first 4 months!!

So she had her 4 month checkup this week, and Nick got to go since he's home for the summer. (Just a sidenote, Ellie and I are both really sad that Nick goes back to work next week. This means summer is over, and we don't get to hang out together every day, all day anymore!) She was 17 pounds and 26 inches, which is a lot bigger than the 8 lbs, 6 oz, 22 inches she was when she was born! Just in the past couple weeks, she has started rolling over from back to front ALL the time, sleeping on her tummy more, and starting to roll from front to back now too. She used to hate being on her stomach, so tummy time was always a frustration for her, but now she is much more comfortable on her tummy. She also LOVES standing up! Granted, she needs a lot of support for stabilization, but she can hold her own weight pretty well! She looks so old when she's standing up!

At her 4 month checkup, the doctor told us to start giving her some semi-solid food, which is good because we had tried some applesauce and rice cereal a couple times already. She likes applesauce and really lies sweet potatoes, so far. We'll see what else she likes as we try more things. This is what happened the first time we gave her some rice cereal...

We went to the Memphis Redbirds game last night and had lots of fun with the camera, so here are a few shots of our beautiful little girl...


until next time...

best lookin' room in the house

After 3 months, we have finally finished decorating Ellie's room! All the wall decor, stuffed animals, etc. have been sitting on the floor in Ellie's room. So here's pictures of Ellie's new and improved nursery--which, by the way, is the best looking room in our apartment!

her crib with personalized artwork (done by me)

pictures and creatures from "Where the Wild Things Are," which was the theme of my first baby shower! The girls who planned it did a great job, and game me all of these decorations from the shower. What a cute idea! :)

the library and stuffed animal loft

It's finally finished! For a while, I was wishing we could change her bedding to something more girly, but now that we have everything decorated, I like it so much more! I think she will too, once she realized how amazing it is! :)

finally!

So I don't have a picture of it, but Ellie rolled over for the first time yesterday!! She has been rolling on to her side a lot lately, trying so very hard to make it all the way over. Last night, she prevailed! Supposedly it's easier to roll from tummy to back, but since Ellie doesn't like laying on her tummy very much, I knew she would just have to try harder to turn from back to front first. SHE DID IT! And to make it better, it happened at Grandma K's house! She was ecstatic! She couldn't think about anything else. Her granddaughter rolled over for the first time, and she got to see it! She couldn't be more proud of little Ellie, and neither could we :)

Since I don't have a picture of her rolling over, this will have to suffice...I think it's my new favorite picture of sweet Ellie! Oh, and by the way, Ellie has slept through the night for a week straight now! In fact, she even slept until 7:30 or 8:00 several days this week! Incredible for a 3 month old, if I may say so myself!

3 years and 3 months

This past week, Nick and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary, which is crazy to think about! In a way, it doesn't seem like it's already been 3 years, but then again...we do have an almost-3-month-old daughter! Our relationship has changed so much in the past three years. I almost feel like the past 3 months have been full of more change than most of the past 3 years altogether. Having a child has forced us to grow so much both individually and as a couple. We are working together toward a new purpose...we have a family! It's such a wonderful feeling. And I see a whole new side of my husband that I'd never seen before...when I see him with his daughter. He is so in love with her, and it makes me love him even more.

So on our actual anniversary, which was this past Wednesday, June 16, we cooked dinner at home. Ellie actually slept through our entire dinner, so it was just the two of us. Nick made homemade bread, which is a new endeavor of his, and it was wonderful! I think it was the second time we have eaten dinner at the dining room table since Ellie was born.

My mom (Grandma K) was amazing to give us money to go out to dinner yesterday and celebrate. She also volunteered to babysit, of course! So Ellie spent the night with Grandma K while we went to Collierville for a night out. It was so nice to get away from the "big city" for a night and return to some familiar places where I grew up. We had dinner at Red Robin, then went to the town square for chocolate malts at Mensi's Dairy Bar, listened to bluegrass bands play on the square, and finally to the movies to see Robin Hood.

We really enjoyed just walking around together, holding hands, dinner & a movie...almost like when we were dating over 3 years ago. The funny thing is, we both decided that parts of the evening would have been better with Ellie! She is such a part of our life now that it's weird--almost abnormal-- to be Ellie-less, even though we've only had her for 3 short months. We are a family now, after 3 years of marriage. What a great time it has been so far! I can't wait to see how much more we change and grow as our family changes.

Oh, and Happy Father's Day, babe!

this is how i roll...

So Ellie is obviously not crawling yet. I mean, seriously, she's just 12 weeks old. What do you expect? This, however, does not mean she is not mobile. Ellie loves to lay on a blanket on the living room floor. Lately, I have noticed that she will constantly be shifting positions or actually leaving the blanket surface altogether, but I haven't watched her do it, so I had no idea how she could change positions so drastically.

Tonight, I decided to watch. She arches her back, plants her feet, and pushes.

She started out on the blanket...rotated about 90 degrees and ended up in the middle of the floor...in the course of about 30 seconds! Impressive, right?

the dads in my life

So I didn't mention my dad's visit to Memphis a few weeks ago. I must mention it, as it was such an amazing and special time! It had been a year and a half since I'd seen Dad, so it was great to see him. It was even more special, though, for him to be able to meet Ellie. She is his first grandchild! Even though he was hoping for a boy, I think he is so happy that she is a girl. It seemed like Dad was completely enamored with Ellie. When he would hold her, he just stared at her and smiled. It almost made me cry just watching him with her. I obviously don't remember what Dad was like with me when I was a baby, but I'd like to think it was like this....so sweet! I love my Dad so much, and I miss him. Hopefully we will be able to take a trip out to Cali next summer to visit! Seeing how much he loves Ellie reminds me of how much I love him. I can't wait for her to love her Grandpa too. I know she will!!

After Dad went home to California, it made me think a lot about Nick's relationship with Ellie. The father/daughter bond is such a special bond that no one can replace. Nick loves Ellie so much, and I can already see how much she loves him. She just stares at him and smiles. I wouldn't mind if she grows up to be Daddy's little girl. I love watching them together. Nick is off for the summer, so we are enjoying spending so much time together as a family.

I couldn't help but post this picture...it's so cute! You can see how comfortable she is with her daddy :) She already is Daddy's little girl!

First trip to Missouri

So it's been a while since my last post. Mostly because Nick is now home for the summer, and we've been enjoying hanging out as a family! So there's lots to catch up on...

We took our first trip out of town so Ellie could meet more of her Missouri family. That was so much fun! Ellie met great-grandparents, an uncle, aunts, great-aunts, great-uncles, cousins, 2nd cousins, and old friends. It was a busy but really great trip~ I think my favorite part of the trip--and if I can speak for Ellie, her favorite part too-- was getting to hang out at Nick's brother's house. This is why...Ellie's almost-5-year-old cousin Iris became obsessed with baby Ellie. The entire time we were there, about 3 days, Iris just sat next to Ellie and watched her. It was adorable! Iris helped pick out Ellie's clothes, gave us a ponytail holder to give Ellie her first ponytail, and loved on her so much. Ellie just smiled and smiled every time Iris came close! I can't wait until they're a little older...they will be best friends!


We also went to a Cardinal's game while we were there! It was my first and obviously Ellie's first, too! It was so much fun! :) Nick and I have spent the past two summers at the Redbirds stadium in Memphis, so it was really fun to finally get to see a "big league" game!

Now we are home and enjoying some stress-free time as a family. Ellie is 11 weeks old now, which is crazy! She's starting to learn how to roll over. Well, she's trying really hard, that is! She will pull her arms around, then her legs, but never at the same time yet. I guess she's just not coordinated enough yet, but soon! She also loves sitting up all the time. She can't do it on her own yet, but with a little help, she's sitting up just fine! I think our little Ellie is going to be pretty independent. She loves cuddling and being held by mommy and daddy, but she also needs her alone time. She's a lot like me...I love cuddling and being close to Nick, but everybody needs some quiet time too. I can't wait to see how she continues to grow into her own personality!

24 years and 6 weeks

So this is a big week for the Unnerstall household. Monday, Ellie was 6 weeks old. Friday, I turned 24 years old. And tomorrow is my first Mother's Day! This week has been so much fun as Ellie has developed more personality. She's awake more during the day, especially the late afternoon/early evening. One of my favorite things is watching Nick lay on the living room floor with her. The other day, you could tell she was trying so hard to roll over towards her Daddy. She even had her arm wrapped around his as they laid there together. SO cute! She is also most definitely trying to "find her voice," as a baby development chart calls it. She makes lots of different kinds of noises other than crying, which is fun and entertaining.

As I mentioned, yesterday was my birthday. Nick and I wanted to spend some quality time together, and since Ellie is over 6 weeks old now, we figured it was time for her to spend some quality time with Grandma K (my mom). It was a very hard decision whether to just leave her there for a few hours, or to let her have a sleepover. In the end, Grandma K's secret wish to have a sleepover was fulfilled! It was really nice to have the quality time with Nick, but it was hard to leave her for so long. I realized last night that it had been a while since Nick and I had held hands...Usually, one of us is holding a baby, carrying the car seat, or pushing a stroller...this makes it kind of difficult to hold hands. I enjoyed being able to hold his hand last night...quite a bit! We ate dinner at home, went shopping for Ellie, and got ice cream at Cold Stone. Then this morning, we had breakfast with friends (Sarah and Joseph, who are great by the way) and then we all went to the farmers' market. My favorite part of the morning, however, was the fact that I got to ride on the Vespa! I was probably 4 months pregnant last time I rode on it. I was getting too big, and it made me nervous at that point. And now we can only do it when we are Ellie-less. It really was the perfect morning with my husband! But we were both glad to get Ellie back. She did have a great time with Grandma K though. Apparently she was smiling and laughing a lot :) Did I mention that she started smiling this week? It is SO sweet. It's always the best when she smiles because we pick her up or play with her. She's finally starting to interact with us!

Anyways, this has been really long, but I feel like a lot happened this week! I probably forgot a lot too, but I remembered the important things...

a free pass

I'll start with a story, then explain... Last night, Nick had to host the induction ceremony for a math honors society at his school. I helped set up all the food for the reception afterwards, and there was a lot of food left over at the end. Naturally, I'm trying to send all the cookies, chips, and soda home with the high school boys that helped clean up afterwards. No one would take the cookies! Surprising, right? Well, one of the boys told me that I could just eat them, and I told him that I shouldn't eat that many cookies. His response...I'm a new mom, no one would say anything if I did eat that many cookies. So apparently I get a free pass to eat whatever I want, since I'm a new mom.

Back up about a month or so... whenever I would comment on trying not eating junk food all the time during my pregnancy, people would always tell me it's okay...after all, I'm eating for two! I hate that idea! During pregnancy, you're really only supposed to eat an extra 300-600 calories each day, and it should probably be healthy, right? And now that I'm not pregnant anymore, I'm trying to lose weight, like most new moms. Granted, I have quite a head start on that since I was sick most of my pregnancy and didn't gain that much weight. Regardless, I don't think being a new mom gives me a free pass to eat junk food all the time. This doesn't mean I don't want to...I never craved anything when I was pregnant, but now I'm craving chocolate like crazy!! So please, if you catch me downing a chocolate candy bar, please stop me! Just because I'm a new mom does not mean it's okay!

always looking forward

So I've realized something huge about myself since Ellie joined us four short weeks ago. (By the way, she'll be a month old tomorrow!!) All my life, I've always looked forward to the next phase in life. This may have been partially because I have an older sister, so I was always ready to do what she was doing. In high school, I was ready for college. In college, I was ready to find "the one," and be engaged. Once I knew Nick was it, I was ready to be engaged, and then eventually married. When we got married, I was ready to have a kid, and so on.

So my realization is that the future has been my idol my entire life. I look forward so earnestly to the next phase of life, not even knowing what it will look like, so much that it is an idol in my life. Now that we have Ellie, I don't so much look forward to the future, as I am enjoying my current phase. I didn't realize, however, how much I am content with life now until I realized that I have always struggled with looking forward to the future. I'm not sure that I was ever content with my present. God has blessed me more than I could have ever imagined...in every phase of life, and I never stopped to appreciate it because I was ready for my next step.

All that being said...as I always looked forward to the future, I had expectations for what that would look like. Those expectations don't always turn out to be accurate. Like when I got pregnant, I thought I would feel different; I thought life should feel different now, but it didn't. Then I thought becoming a mother would make me feel different, like I would become a different person, or my identity would change. It hasn't, which I guess is good. Ellie should not define me, which is I guess what I expected to happen if I thought I would feel different. My identity should be in Christ alone, not in my status as a wife, mother, daughter, etc. Although I love being all of those things, first and foremost, I am a child of God.
In this phase of life, Ellie is the biggest change. She is the reason for this new chapter in our lives. She will be a month old tomorrow, and I can't believe it! She is growing so much! Last night, Nick just laid on the couch next to Ellie for a few minutes, and it was precious! He loves her so much, and it makes me love him more when I see the way he looks at her. She is ours. God somehow fashioned the perfect baby for us when we did nothing to deserve it.

I think about 1 John 4:19 now when I think about my love for Ellie (and for others), which says, "We love because He first loved us." But the verse before it says: "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear...the one who fears is not made perfect in love." So I know that whatever the future holds, whether it meets my expectations or challenges them, I will not be afraid of what it holds. I won't anticipate the future; instead, I will be content with the present and appreciate what we have now. I will love God, and I will love Nick, and I will love Ellie...forever and today.

unbelievably amazing...

March 22, 2010, at 7:02 PM, our lives changed forever, and it is the best change I've experienced in quite some time...possibly ever. Having a baby truly does change everything. It changes the way I see my husband, how I love my husband, how he loves me, how we love our new baby girl, and how I love God. God has changed our lives through the life of our sweet little Elizabeth "Ellie" Louise.

So the boring stuff first...it was a pretty normal delivery. The nurses and my doctor were actually impressed with how much I seemed like a "pro," although I'm not sure how that's possible considering I've never done it before. Waiting to find out if we had a boy or girl was the best decision we made. It really was fun to find out after a long day of waiting, knowing the baby was on her way :) It was even more fun making Nick's parents wait until Baby Ellie came back into the room to find out she was a girl! Ellie was upstairs getting cleaned up when Nick's parents arrived from Missouri, and we made them wait until Ellie got back before we told them she was a girl...it was a long hour! Anyways, it wasn't real until we got home with her that we're parents, and we'll have Ellie with us from now on! How exciting!

Now on to how our lives truly changed that night... My relationship with Nick is different, but so much better! I didn't really expect it to change so drastically and quickly, but I feel like it has. Seeing him with our baby is the best feeling ever. He's already such a great dad! It's hard to describe how our relationship has changed. I guess it's because there is another dimension to our relationship, so there is another dimension to our love. There's more to care about, more to love.

Today, our sweet baby girl is 3 weeks old (which is nuts, by the way). She is already growing and changing so much every day! She loves to cuddle, which makes us both so happy. We're convinced babies know exactly what's going on, and it is possible for them to smile. Ellie smiles a lot...it's often followed by a frown, but she's just figuring everything out, so it's okay! She has a beautiful smile! Life hasn't changed a whole lot for us; we just have another person enjoying life with us...We only missed one week of church through all of this; we went to the zoo last week for the first time as a family; we have been to community group each week; we go on walks to the store or around the block... Ellie does great living life with us so far :)

So Nick (Daddy) went back to work today after being off for three wonderful weeks with us. We miss him...a lot, but we look forward to this summer when we will all three be together all day, every day. We look forward to living life with Ellie from now on. We are so thankful for her and what she has already given to us by being here with us. God has truly blessed us with the best thing...a beautiful daughter.

39 weeks and still counting...

So today marks 39 weeks of pregnancy, and I am happy there is an end drawing near. We cannot wait to meet our little baby. Nick and I find ourselves staying up late in bed talking every night now, which is not typical for us. It really has been a sweet time for us, and I have truly enjoyed the last few weeks of "just us" time. Last night, our pastor came over to pray for us and give us some last-minute advice. It was so encouraging to hear his perspective and to be reminded that our marriage should always come first, before kids. I know it will be difficult to not be focused on our little baby all the time, but I want to remember my husband first.

So I can't help but record this happy moment...Last weekend, we went to purchase our last "big" thing for the baby, which was the car seat and stroller. Sadly, both Babies R Us stores did not have it in. Seriously, I was very disappointed. I was probably pretty crabby for a while. They told me to check back Tuesday afternoon to see if they got it in this week, so I called at 3:00, just as they instructed. No one was answering the phone...it just kept ringing. So as I not-so-patiently waited, I decided to check out our registry to see what else we needed to buy still. Much to my surprise, the car seat and stroller had just been purchased off our registry! We couldn't figure out who would have done this, since we'd had all our showers, and at least no one in Memphis could have purchased it since they didn't have it in the stores. Well, today, the answer came...My aunt and uncle from California bought it, and it came in the mail today! What a blessing! Last Saturday, I was stressed out and frustrated because I had been so excited about getting it. But since they were out of stock, we had to wait, which ended up being the best thing for us! Now we will have much more money to spend on other things for the baby. What a lesson in God's timing!

On another note, I am sitting on the couch, where I have been most of the past two days...trying so hard to follow doctor's orders. My blood pressure has been up the past 2 times I went to the doctor, so she insisted that I really try to do bed rest this week. So far, not much is happening with the baby, but there is an end soon regardless. If we do not have the pleasure of meeting Baby Unnerstall before the due date (next Thursday), we will meet him or her by the following Monday. Hallelujah! I can't wait! I'm not sure I have anticipated anything quite this much in my life! I know this is probably dumb, but I have an ultrasound scheduled for tomorrow, and I can't wait to see our baby! I know it will be soon enough that we will see him or her face to face, but the chance of seeing how the baby is doing now is quite exciting!

Oh, and my husband doesn't know this yet, but I think we've finally decided on names...thanks to our late night chat yesterday. :)

Waiting on baby

So I've been waiting for the "perfect" idea to help me start blogging again (even though I only blogged once ever), and it has yet to come. So here I go...

This past weekend, I had some hopes that we were possibly going to meet our little baby very soon...Apparently, I was just really sick, which caused some cramping/possible contractions for some 3+ hours in the middle of the night Saturday. Through this whole experience though, I do believe Nick and I are ready to have our baby with us...and soon!

I was reading a friend's blog today, and she is waiting for her husband to come home from Afghanistan this month, which I could never even begin to imagine how that would feel. I wouldn't have been able to let Nick leave to begin with. Can I also mention that she had a baby in January that her husband has yet to meet? It made me think how much being at the end of this pregnancy feels like our baby has been away for a long time, and we are waiting for him/her to return to us. And I know that we love this baby so much, and we have not even met each other yet! I can't imagine how much we can love our baby once he or she is here. But I'm also reminded that we love because God first loved us, and I am thankful for His love in all times that He gives us...even the ones where we are throwing up every 8-10 minutes for hours on end. But let's hope that was a random bad night, and that's not what real labor will be like for me.