21 Weeks! Papers and Photos

As Thanksgiving break ends and I go back to school, and David goes back to work, David and I have been reminiscing on all that we have to be grateful for. Though our circumstances are far from perfect, we feel extremely blessed for all that we have.

David has submitted 3 job applications as of this morning (yay!) and will be getting the rest submitted as soon as possible. That is all I will say for now, I am not sure how much he is comfortable with me sharing, even though only a selective audience can read this anyways :-P

My semester is winding down, but hitting its climax at the same time. I will be glad to be done!

On top of school work, I have some paid photography gigs that remain incomplete until I get the edited photos to my clients, which really should be done this week. It is taking me a while because I am still learning how to use the editing software. David is a whiz at photoshop, but I feel so lost! I am trying to learn how to use Lightroom, but I feel just as lost there! So many buttons!

Thanksgiving!

David and I enjoyed eating Thanksgiving dinner with my parents and Stephanie at their house. Dinner was so delicious! Thanksgiving is definitely totally awesome when you're pregnant (at least in the second trimester). I ate two whole plates of awesomeness! And then dessert! That is WAY more than I usually eat.

Then, David took a nap, and I nearly completed an entire puzzle by myself before he woke up. And we skipped out for the evening so that David could finish working on his website back at home.

By the way, you should go check out his website, it looks so awesome! www.davidpaulknox.net

David has been looking for a new job lately. His current job has some... less than desirable things going on. We've got his website and resume done, now it just comes down to cover letters and submitting applications, which we're planning to have all submitted by the time we go to bed tonight. Cover letters take a while though, since they're so important. They're the first thing recruiters look at, and you have to tailor it to the company and the position you're applying for. We've got 8 jobs that we plan to apply for, so it is going to take a while! We're really excited and feel very peaceful about the idea of finding another job though. Feeling peace in such a turbulent time is very reassuring that God is with us. Logically, we should be scared, but we are not. We feel confident that God will take care of our needs and that He will guide us to where he wants us.

On another note, I have only 2 more weeks of school left! 2-15 page papers, a presentation, and a test, and then I'll be done with my first semester of grad school! I have a lot to do before I can begin the celebrations. I am looking forward to seeing family for Christmas and New Years, and being able to focus my energies on preparing for baby's arrival. It has been tough to try to keep myself focused on school when all I want to do is nest. Now I just need to bunker down and get these last two weeks out of the way! :)

20 Weeks!

19 Weeks! (and David's birthday!)

This last week has been pretty eventful! We found out that we're having a boy, and we celebrated David's birthday! (Now I'm wishing we'd taken more pictures for his birthday. Oh well!)

I've been craving salad. Lots and lots of salad. And just about anything I can get my hands on, really. I've never been so insanely hungry in my entire life! I eat and stuff myself, and then I'm starving again 2 hours later. That little boy must be growing fast these days to be wanting so much food!

We've also been looking into moving into a 2 bedroom apartment so I can indulge in some nesting. I've been itching to get a place ready for our little baby, but there simply isn't room enough in our tiny one bedroom apartment, not even for a crib. Our lease ends mid-march, which is simply too close to my due date for comfort. We're hoping to move sometime in January, far enough away from the possible time that our baby could be joining the outside world.

We plan to put in the deposit this next Saturday to reserve a nice 2 bedroom, first floor apartment. This depends, however, on David's job. Things have been rocky, to say the least. David is unsure about the financial health of the company, which means that our financial health is in jeopardy as well, unless we can find another job quickly. We're just biding our time until at least one of their games gets published. Having even one published title can make all the difference for David when he starts applying for another job. We've been getting things ready to begin applying. We had to buy a new domain for his webpage, and we'll be polishing up his website and resume.

It is stressful to know that we've got a baby on the way, and that his job is unstable. However, we both feel at peace with the idea of being unemployed in the near future, despite what is to come. We've got a lot of family and friends that love us and will help us through the hard times. We'll see what the next week or two brings...

It's a boy!!

We had our mid-pregnancy sonogram last night! We found out that we are having a BOY!! DEFINITELY a boy!

It was so fun to see our baby! He was curled up in a ball really tightly, but we got to see his heart, his hands, his feet, his tiny little ribs, legs and arm bones, and his head. We didn't get to see the spine, so we get to/have to do another sonogram in 4 weeks to make sure the baby doesn't have spina bifida. He's in the 55th percentile, and right on target for dates! Other than not being able to see the spine, everything looks good! He's got enough amniotic fluid to swim around in, and the placenta is in a good place. It's sitting right on top, which limits the kicks that I'll be feeling early on. Because it's right in the middle on the top, I only feel his little nudges on either side. He's breach right now, which doesn't mean much since it's so early.

I loved being able to see my baby and feel it at the same time! He was punching his arms up over his head. I've always wondered what he was using to poke me with... I got to see it that time! It was so cool!

I love our baby boy <3

18 Weeks!

This week has been full of pokes, nudges, and swirly motions in my belly. The baby has grown SO much in the last week! Every morning I would wake up and feel that my uterus had shifted up an inch closer to my belly button. Now it is only about an inch below my belly button! It is really neat to feel the baby move. It is interesting to see when the baby is most active. It seems that the baby likes to move around a lot while I am eating. Almost as if it is celebrating the fact that mom is nourishing the two of us! I have been SOOO hungry all the time! The baby also likes music. It hasn't happened enough yet to know if the baby has a favorite song or genre, but I'll be keeping tabs on those kinds of things because it's fun!

We find out on Thursday if the baby is a boy or a girl! We are super excited to know so that we can begin to plan for it!

17 Weeks!

This week I've had more energy, but baby brain still pervades! Luckily nothing awful has happened due to said baby brain, but it sure makes focusing on homework more difficult than normal! Heartburn and restless nights of sleep don't help either.

The baby is a size of an onion, and I'm so excited that the baby is growing so quickly! Every morning I feel my baby bump and it gets bigger by the day! I've been feeling distinct "taps" from inside me, usually in sets of 3. Baby likes to tap me while I'm driving. Baby must take after me-- as a kid, I couldn't sleep in the car! I look forward to feeling stronger and stronger kicks as the baby gets bigger and stronger. Not because I want to be kicked, because I hear some women get quite sore ribs and pelvis from their baby's kicks, but because it means that the baby is growing and is getting bigger and stronger :)

My love for our baby grows immensely by the day. It really is quite incredible the bond that I have with our little onion. Early on I had a hard time understanding how women could feel so attached to something so little and something almost as abstract as a mere thought. But as the baby is making itself known to me, I feel how excited this little being is to come to our family. We are just as excited to welcome it!