Seven months today and I’m officially in the third trimester! People in my class are starting to comment on how big I’m getting. I did have a fellow prego classmate but she recently had her baby so now I’m the only one left to be picked on. As I have promised, here’s this month’s belly picture:

I’ve outgrown the rest of my regular shirts and am now outgrowing my fat t-shirts. Soon, I’m going to have to purchase some moo-moos in order to feel comfortable at all.

Caleb is now 2 - 2 1/4 pounds and looks like a Chinese cabbage. Yep. Didn’t know what that was either. Here’s an example:

Nothing much in the way of development besides building up brain neurons and baby fat. He’s got eyelashes now and is regularly opening and closing his eyes.

Hopefully we’ll be able to see some of that on Saturday when we have our 3D ultrasound. I can’t wait! Don’t worry, we’ll post lots of pictures. I’ve been drinking like crazy in order for the pictures to come out clear. So stop by the blog sometime Saturday afternoon; we should hopefully have them up by then.

We have a doctor’s appointment next Tuesday. They’re going to start happening every two weeks now that it’s getting close. I feel like we should be signing up for those childbirth classes but I’m just not feeling it. From what I’ve heard, they’re pretty boring and tell you basically what all the books do. I don’t know, I might regret it come D-day but I’m not seeing Andy and me in one of those classes unless they can entice me with chocolate cake.

Okay, with some gentle persuasion from Andy, I gave in and decided to update on nursery improvements. I think everyone remembers what it looked like pre-baby:

Since then, Andy and his aunt painted it and the furniture has arrived. I was able to put a few of my sewing creations in there although I don’t think I’ll be able to use the bumper or the mobile. The crib is kind of an awkward shape. the bumper sits too high and can’t tie around the posts when it’s almost to the top of the rail and the mobile only fits crib sides that are 2″. As you can see, the sides are way thicker. I may have to persuade Andy to hang it from the ceiling.

The dresser looks great. All it needs is a changing pad on it. If you look closely, you can see our wireless internet gadgets squeezed under there. Unfortunately, the only cable hookup is in this room so that will have to stay.

For another project, I copied some pictures out of my first addition Peter and Wendy book (for those of you who don’t know, that book is very special to me and is probably one of the few things I would rescue from the house if it were on fire) and framed them. Here they are framed…:

… and here is what they actually look like since I couldn’t get a good picture of them in their frames:

That’s all we have so far. We’re mainly waiting on the rocker to come in so we can finalize where everything will be laid out in the room. Once that’s finished, we can hang up the shadow boxes and the beautiful letters my sister-in-law painted for Caleb. I guess I will be keeping everyone updated now, thanks to Andy.

I can’t believe this is my last 2nd trimester week! I’m already feeling the anticipation starting to build up inside me.

Caleb can now open his eyes. I’ve heard that if you shine a flashlight on your belly the baby can see the light shining through. I’m not sure I want to put him through that. Think about spending your entire existence in darkness and then all of a sudden having a bright light blinding you for a few minutes. I can’t imagine that to be a pleasant experience. I’ll let the doctors be the first to do all those mean things to him at delivery.

He can also recognize Andy’s and my voice although it may be hard to hear with all that vernix and amniotic fluid in the way. His brain is very active, developing at a faster pace than before. He’s almost 2 pounds and about the size of a head of cauliflower.

I just got my glucose test results back and it looks like I’m diabetes-free!! Not that I was losing sleep over this, but I have a friend who has gestational diabetes with her second child but never had it with her first. She is also about my size and doesn’t’ eat junk all the time. So I guess it’s pretty random who gets it. Upon realizing that, I began to grow a little more worried. But alas! I’m free and clear for this pregnancy!

The hiccups are still a regular occurrence and even a bit stronger than before. My Mother-in-Law actually got to feel him in the middle of one of his bouts the other day. He’s doing weird things to my belly. If I ever get the chance, I need to make a video of the various contortions and spasms that go on in there.

He’s also got a pretty solid schedule down pat. As soon as I get up in the morning and start moving or talking, he wakes right up and starts jumping around. I think he’s going to be a morning person for sure. that’s his most active time of the day. At night, he’s a little more laid back until I lay down. For some reason he loves to roll around when I’m on my back. I guess he has more room in that position.

Our nursery furniture has arrived and is set up in the room. Although I love it, we can’t complete the nursery until we get a few more things (like a mattress and a rocker) so we can move stuff around to make sure it all fits. This one thing is driving me crazy. I even set up the crib skirt and bumper in a mattress-less crib just to try to see what it looks like, but it’s just not cutting it. I guess I need to have a little more patience until we can get everything in there.

I was looking through the weekly Michael’s ad when I saw Christmas decorations on sale. Christmas decorations! Gracious, it’s not even October and they’re already thinking about Christmas?! Every time I see, hear or even think anything christmas I am reminded that sometime around then, I will be going into labor and giving birth. That’s enough to put looking at christmas decorations into a whole new light for me.

We had our doctor’s appointment today. Everything was perfect; the baby was even showing off to the doctor by moving around while he was measuring me. The heart rate was a lovely 142 bpm. Our next appointment is in three weeks and after that we’ll be going every two weeks. Yikes. That’s a big reality check for what’s to come.

Yesterday, I took the infamous glucose test to see if I have gestational diabetes. If I do end up having it, I’ll find out in a few days. I sure hope it’s negative, I’m just not ready to give up my sugar for three and a half months.

Developmentally, he’s well on his way. His finger and foot prints are finished and he’s putting on more fat. The nerve connections in his ears are increasing so he’s able to react more to sounds he hears. This week, he’s between 1 1/2 to 2 pounds and is about the length of an English cucumber.

He’s been getting the hiccups like crazy now. It seems like every time I eat something it sets him off. I don’t think he likes them too much because when he gets them, he starts squirming around like he’s trying to get comfortable The poor thing, he tends to get them three to four times a day now. But even with all that uncomfortableness, he’s exercising his lungs, which is a very good thing.

This weekend was spent transitioning the spare room to a nursery. Andy and I cleaned out the whole closet and moved everything to the office. I wish I had before pictures; I’m still amazed we were able to get everything out of there. Here’s one half of the closet with our growing collection of baby clothes:

Andy is finishing up the painting as I type this. I’ve decided to wait until it’s complete to take pictures because I’ll be tempted to photograph every little improvement and nobody wants to put up with that. So hopefully in a week or two (depending on when the furniture comes) we’ll have a beautiful completed nursery to display to the world.

Though I often feel the victim, I saw today the joy that can only be experienced in the deliverance of God.  Once might hope that God could grant some supernatural joy at all times.  But even that would have a different and distinct quality than the joy of deliverance that I found in my heart and soul today.  I found the beauty and majesty of God within this pain.  And I sure didn’t see it coming.

To joy in suffering seems at first a paradoxical bit of nonsense.  How does one rejoice in the darkness of pain and suffering?  I would be a fool to claim even a small crumb of consistency in practicing this truth, but as I have suffered in emotional physical ways in the past year, my eyes are opening more and more to His holy intentions for the seemingly endless and painful trials we face.

Many of you know the recent health hardships I personally have been dealing with.  Physical pain that has passed it’s torch to emotional pain.  It’s been difficult.  And yet somehow today I see the majestic beauty within it.  The distinct, unique, overwhelming beauty of God that can only be seen and only exists within the framework of pain.  It is not nonsense and it is not meaningless.  And it is certainly not cliché.  I don’t believe that everything happens for a reason.  That’s too arbitrary, too comfort driven.  I believe our pains and our sufferings, our trials and joys, exist to glorify God to the fullest.  God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him, in the midst of loss.  In the midst of suffering.  He can be uniquely praised, uniquely worshiped, sincerely worshipped, in the deepest of valleys and darkest of nights.

I am starting to see the grace within suffering.  The blessing that it can be.  The reminder that God has not let me alone, he has not given me over to death.   Yet he lets us suffer, let’s us fall into trials to the praise of His glory and for the building of qualities that are incapable to develop outside of pain and trial.  And what a beautiful, lovely, wonderful joy I have found in this place where once only tears fell.

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.”
James 1:2-3

Today is 25 weeks. I sure don’t feel like I’ve been pregnant that long. It’s kind of wierd knowing in less than 15 weeks (hopefully) we’ll have our little boy home with us.

Now that he’s pretty much developed, all Caleb needs to do is fatten up. And that’s exactly what’s started this week. Baby fat. As that happens, his wrinkled, little old man appearence will begin to plump up and smooth out. His hands are now fully formed and he can grasp anything in his reach; which isn’t much. An umbilicord here, a big toe there. You’d think he’d get bored of the same scenery for his entire short existence.

I think this week’s vegetable wins the most random, unused produce award: the lovely rutabega. And no Mom, you can’t use Dad’s “special vegetabe stew surprise” for this week’s recipe.

I’m convinced the baby went through a dramatic growth spurt within the past couple of days. From everything I’ve heard, babies tend to get pretty sleepy and inactive when they’re going through a growth spurt. Well, the last couple of days, he’s been really lazy. to the point where I would have to drink some juice and eat some sugar to get him to move. He was also lying really low to where I would only feel kicks below my belly button. Well, last night, all that changed. He apparently finished his growth spurt and decided to stretch out and do some gymnastics. I’m telling you, it’s like he turned into a beast or something. All of a sudden he was way up above my belly button almost to my ribs kicking the bejeebies out of me. Today was the same; he was moving around so much he was shaking me. Not enough that my classmates noticed, but I sure did. It’s a pretty wierd feeling having something jolt you so hard your body shakes from the impact.

With that, I do find comfort that he’s growing healthy and strong. Every kick and roll makes me smile knowing that he’s doing fine in there. It’s so wierd to worry and care so much about something that you have never seen before. Andy and I are always saying how we can’t wait to meet him. It’s neat to be able to make out little feet from the outside and try to imagine what kind of acrobatics he’s doing in there, but the real reward will come when we can actually see those little feet and meet him for the first time.

Today we visited Baby’s-R-Us once more, and at Briana’s urging finally picked out a crib and dresser and ordered them;  very nice, dark cherry wood, and we’ll have them within 7-14 days.  Bri insisted we order them early due to the fear that they wouldn’t be in stock or available soon.  I told her they would surely be available immediately and sure enough they were.  I was right! (I get to be right once every 7-14 days….)  I’m glad we ordered them though…every little purchase like this, every preparation, makes it all the more real.  Here are some pics of the purchases…

Now we have to get the room ready and paint it (I’ll be doing that to prevent pregnant-paint-mommy-syndrome…very scary).  The crib is convertible, meaning it will be able to become a regular bed once that day comes.  Because of this, we also had to order the rails for it as well as a guardrail, because if we wait it might be out of stock by then.

I completely remember having a guardrail as a kid.  My dad made me one.  I was terrified of falling out of bed at night. One time, in the middle of the night, I somehow fell off and got all wrapped up in my sheets, and was left screaming for help from the floor of my room.  Luckily my pops saved me from under the covers.  Phew.  Remembering that guardrail had me thinking of a common Christian misconception though.

A lot of the time people on the outside of Christianity look at things like God’s precepts/commands as rules and regulations that those inside must “follow” in order to be seen as righteous in God’s eyes.  They don’t realize that God’s commands and precepts are truly just like guardrails on a bed.  They’re there for a purpose, and the purpose is not to make people jump through hoops, but to protect us.  Christ alone is our righteousness, not our obedience to rules.

God gives us his word and the wisdom and truth within it as a “guardrail” for our lives.  He knows the things that will make us fall out of our beds and get twisted up in the sheets that would destroy us.  It may seem like a silly metaphor but it’s an appropriate one.  God knows what’s ultimately best for us, and a Christian’s obedience is a reflection of their faith in Christ and comes through an understanding of God’s ultimate control and sovereignty.  That his “guardrails,” his Biblical precepts and commands, keep us from self-destructive lives in which we fail to glorify Him.  What’s amazing is that those times we still manage to jump over them and fall out of bed (which I all too often do), He’s there to comfort us and rescue us in the middle of the night, just like my Father did when I was a little dude…twisted up in my dinosaur sheets.

One of our favorite artists, Bebo Norman, recently released a song entitled “Britney” which I thought was worth posting on here.  Of the song, Bebo says “‘Britney’ is a song about what our culture says and does to young women these days. It’s about the lies we tell them about fame and money and what’s beautiful and what will give them life. It’s an apology for those lies. But more than that, it’s an invitation to the truth about a God who is bigger than the pain this world so often leaves them in.”

The song exclaims the tragedy that breaks my heart on a daily basis.  Maybe it’s such a core issue for me because I have a little sister that I want to see grow up with a focus on what’s really important and not our culture’s distorted perceptions of what makes you a woman.  But more than that, I think it’s such a big issue in my heart because it’s such a big issue.  Girls are growing up to believe there is no option but the lies of society.  That fleeting beauty and sex are somehow all they are worth.  It makes me sick to my stomach.  You can listen to Bebo’s song above, and check out his MySpace page by clicking here.  He has a new album coming out soon that is sure to be good…

We’re six months! Yahoo! Our baby is now 15 inches long and a pound and a half (like an ear of corn). He’s getting his sense of balance and can tell if he’s up side-down or right side-up. Since last week he had a big growth spurt, gaining about 4 ounces. I, on the other hand, am still gaining about a pound a week. Here’s the belly and I today:

I’m carrying ridiculously low and I’m convinced It’ll be dragging on the ground by 40 weeks.

I can no longer slouch; I’m hungry all the time now, often waking up before dawn literally in pain from hunger; My back kills me at night and on top of that, I’ve got a healthy dose of heartburn. But all those wonderful symptoms aside, I’m really amazed by it all. Last night I was lying down feeling him move around and I could make out actual body parts sliding under my hand. Well, almost; it was either a head or a butt, but cute and fun to experience nonetheless.

School’s been going rather well. The commute is easy and very scenic. My main complaint is sitting in one room for six hours straight. We all get a little stir crazy in there. But my professors are wonderful and the workload is definitely going to be much lighter this semester. I start my internship tomorrow. I am so excited because I’m in a first grade class. I’ve been dying to work with the little kids since I started school.

You may have noticed that the Holloblog looks a little different…that’s because it is.  We have been changing some things around (including a new color scheme) and will be tweaking it to make it better in the days to come.  We want to add a nice photo section soon and make everything easy to use, and read.  Stay tuned!