Week 21

21 weeks

At 21 weeks Rylan is almost a pound in weight and about 12.2 inches long!! ( No wonder I'm getting bigger!) He swallows at least several ounces of amniotic fluid each day — not only for hydration and nutrition, but also to practice swallowing and digesting — skills he will need as soon as he arrives in my arms. The taste of the amniotic fluid differs from day to day depending on what I've eaten (spicy tacos, sweet carrots another). And that smorgasbord of tastes won't be lost on Rylan. That's because he has very developed taste buds already. In fact, researchers have noted that babies who were exposed to certain tastes in utero via the amniotic fluid were much more eager to eat foods with that same taste after birth. So if I want him to eat his broccoli later, I've got to eat mine now! Rylan still has a great deal of room in the womb - although like anyone who lives in one space for a long time, this tenant will soon begin to feel cramped. Until those uterine walls start closing in, however, there's plenty of space for twisting, turning, and even an occasional somersault ( that's what I was feeling last night!). He still sleeps about 12-14 hours a day and then he moves most of the other 10 hours of the day. It's a wonderful feeling though!

A few Christmas gifts for Rylan and Mommy

We got a stocking for his first Christmas next year!
I got a frame that will have all of his birth stats posted on it and a newborn picture.

Aunt Deb got this beautiful outfit & blanket for Rylan...it's adorable!

And the canvas photo was just awesome! It's approximately 24 x 24...and it's beautiful. I already have it hanging in Rylan's room!

Merry Christmas to Fellow Bloggers!

I wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. We hope that you all have a wonderful time with your families and friends over this holiday. We will be having a Christmas Eve service tonight and then heading to my parents house to stay with them. We'll get up on Christmas and cook our traditional "omelette & pancake breakfast", then open presents. We will leave on Thursday coming back to our home and spend Friday with just the THREE of us! (Me, Butch and Rylan!) and we'll open our gifts. Saturday we will head to Grandma Haynes' house and stay there until Sunday. So we'll be super busy between today and Sunday.

I know everyone will be just as busy as us, so just remember the real reason why we are celebrating. God manifested himself in the flesh to come and seek and save that which was lost, to die for our sins so we could have eternal life, and to give us the Greatest Gift of all - the Holy Ghost! Jesus is our Gift - and I'm so very thankful that I can know and have revelation of the true gift and reason for the season! Have a wonderful holiday and I'll be back around Sunday to start posting on the updates on baby Rylan and his development! He sure has been a kickin'!!! He must be excited about the holidays too!! Butch and I read him the Christmas story last night...very sweet moment! I wouldn't have traded it for being any where else in the world. God has truly blessed us this year and we won't ever forget it. Praise God! He is worthy!!!

19-20 weeks

Since I failed to write about the development and progress of our little man during week 19, I am just going to combine weeks 19 & 20 since Saturday will mark Week 20 - the halfway point!

Rylan's skin begins to thicken this week and will develop four layers. His sebaceous glands secrete a waxy substance called vernix caseosa and he will be born with this wax and it will look like paste. The vernix caseosa is crucial because it protects the fragile skin from the continuous immersion in amniotic fluid. Lanugo hairs secure the vernix caseosa in place and it is thick around the eyebrows. Scalp hair and toenails are beginning to form at this point. Hair can also be seen on the upper lip and eyebrows.

Rylan's development in pregnancy week 20: This week I'm carrying about 10.5 inches and 10.5 ounces of solid baby-miracle-goodness! His little delicates bones continue to ossify and toughen while his itsy bitsy finger and toe pads are finishing up. Our little monkey now has teeth buds, although they’re hidden beneath the gum line. And finally! His limbs have reached their relative proportions—no more alien baby! His cute pink lips are more defined, and might be helping out in a bit of prenatal thumb-sucking. What’s more, eyelashes and eyebrows are also visible. At this point, our little one really looks like a miniature baby—and I do mean miniature as our little swimmer currently weighs a mere eighth of his final birth weight. With half the pregnancy behind us, the most significant gains are yet to come!

This little baby is our whole world already...Butch and I can not wait to hold him in our arms, cuddle him, smell him, and feel him. Little Rylan is the best thing that could have ever happened in our lives! He is such a miracle and we won't ever forget that! I know there will be nights when we haven't had sleep and we're both up trying to soothe our baby boy, not knowing what he wants or possibly needs....but I can't tell you how much I look forward to that. Does that sound crazy?? Maybe....but he will be our little man to soothe, comfort, provide for, love, and cherish. God's precious gift.....

Rylan Jude

We are completely positive about our little boy's name!! We've been hashing it around, but the other night something really great happened that confirmed the name. We were talking about how we really liked this combination and Butch said "well let's go read the Book of Jude in the New Testament". We had two middle names picked out, so he wanted to see what Jude had to say. Well come to find out Jude is a defender of the faith and once we saw that we were completely decided on the name. Butch and I will have Rylan Jude as a reminder of what God's given us and what God wants from us in return. He wants us to be a defender of the faith!

I have not told many people this, but Butch asked me to testify about it at our church in Centreville a couple of weeks ago. He asked me to testify about a miracle God had performed in my life. Well my miracle is Rylan Jude. Butch and I had been trying to conceive for about a year and a half off and on and nothing was happening. I was crying at night wanting a child so bad! Butch and I had prayed ever since we'd been married that God would grant us the ability to have children, so I knew that God had heard all those prayers. Well in July Butch preached a sermon about the angel that would come and trouble the waters and people would get in to the pool to be healed. Butch felt that an angel was there in our service and he was troubling the waters for healing or miracles to happen. I was on the piano playing and praying and Butch had drug our baptismal tub over to the altar area ( it didnt have water in it) and he was pleading with people that needed a miracle from God to come and get in the tub and pray for their miracle. Well no one came, so I felt a urge in the Holy Ghost to go step in the tub and pray for my miracle, which was a baby. I stepped over into that trough and began praying and bawling my eyes out...I was asking for the little baby I knew He was going to give me. Well the next month, August, I got pregnant with my little miracle. God is so good and I won't ever forget what He's done for me! I will be a constant defender of the faith!

So In Love....

The more I think about seeing my little boy on that ultrasound yesterday, the more I fall in love with him. I was already in love with the baby I had growing inside me, but when I saw him yesterday and was introduced to the fact that he was in deed a HE, I had to wrap my thoughts around the idea that "Oh my goodness....I have a little boy!!" The baby was no longer, "the baby", it was "HE". It was an awesome feeling....and today all I can think about is that I am so in love! I would do anything for my little boy!

To answer the main question on everyone's mind - we do not have a clue what we're going to name him! I know we still have plenty of time, but I want to personalize my conversations with him and be able to call him by name instead of "he" or "him". Is that crazy?? Well if anyone has good suggestions, let me know! We're all ears! =)

IT'S A BOY!

I can not begin to describe to you the feelings and emotions I felt today as I watched our child rubbing his eyes, yawning, kicking and playing with his hands. We thankfully have it all on a VHS tape so that we can watch it anytime we want! I was just in awe of this little being that has grown to 7 inches long and weighs 1/2 lb. God is amazing! I am just in awe of the realization of how much our little baby boy has grown and what all he can do! We are so very excited to be having a boy. Yes, I will admit, I had my hopes up for a girl, but God has a better plan and knows what is best for us! I'm extremely happy and just so thankful that our little boy is healthy and growing just like he needs to be. The ultrasound tech said that he looked great and she didn't see any abnormalities or anything wrong! So we are thanking God for that miracle too. Now it's on to the name game........that's the hardest part!

Today is the Day!!!

Well of course I am psyched about our ultrasound this afternoon! I am so excited to finally find out what we are having...if our little one cooperates! The last two days the baby has been moving more than ever. I felt five punches/kicks from the outside, but Butch wasn't here to feel it! He keeps saying that in a month he'll be able to feel them all the time....but I hate that I'm getting to feel the movement and he doesn't. It's very sad! But on a more happier note - hopefully in about 3 1/2 hours we will know whether our first child will be wearing skirts and pigtails or overalls and a cap....haha. We are leaning more toward the skirts and pigtails....but our intuition could be completely wrong. It's up to God and what He wants for our lives. So we'll be happy with whatever God gives us. The baby is a miracle in itself! I'll let everyone know this evening some time whenever we get back home....so keep checking in!

18 weeks

At 18 weeks pregnant, our baby is hitting the height chart at five and a half inches long (remember, that's crown to rump) and weighs about five ounces. And now for the skill of the week (drum roll please…): The art of the yawn has been mastered (someone's sleepy!). In fact, we might catch a glimpse of that adorable yawn at our ultrasound this month. We'll also catch a glimpse of all the fetal movement the baby's doing — twists, rolls, kicks, and punches. I have definitely been feeling the movements the baby is making. It's so precious and I can't wait til it happens more often!

The baby's nervous system is maturing rapidly at this time. Nerves, now covered with a substance called myelin (which speeds messages from nerve cell to nerve cell), are forming more complex connections. And those in the brain are further specializing into the ones that serve the senses of touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing. Talking about hearing, the baby's is growing more acute, making our little one more conscious of sounds that come from inside my body (which means we could both be listening to each other hiccup — a skill that the baby has by now).

As much as I want the baby here in my arms right now, I believe I'm going to miss being pregnant. The one thing that I enjoy more than anything is feeling the baby move. Butch has not been able to feel the movement from the outside yet, but I am feeling the baby kick and roll around inside. It's an awesome experience! We also listen to the heartbeat pretty regularly. It's so neat to be listening to this rapidly beating heart and when I start talking the beating gets strong and loud. So I know the baby is hearing me!!

I have felt so great since I dove into the second trimester. I have more energy and I'm not sick at all! The only problem I really have is the round ligament pains, but that has to happen in order for the baby to get bigger. They are real quick and sharp, but over in a matter of a few seconds. So needless to say, the pregnancy is still going great. We are very anxious for our ultrasound this coming Thursday. We've been counting down the days (just like our friends and family!!) I'm just hoping the baby will give us the money shot so we will be able to see what we need to see in order to determine a gender!!!!! =) I'll keep you posted...as always.

Week 17

17 weeks

How big is our baby at 17 weeks pregnant? About five inches long and more than three and a half ounces — the size of your open hand. Body fat (baby's, that is) is beginning to form and will continue to accumulate through the end of pregnancy. By the time our baby is born, body fat will make up about two-thirds of his or her weight. Our baby is almost certainly listening up by now. In fact, loud noises — the dog barking, the doorbell ringing — will actually startle the baby (and also get him or her used to such noises; for instance, fetuses who regularly hear a dog barking will become babies who sleep right through a dog's outbursts). Your baby's eyes (which have fortunately finished their migration to the front of his or her head) are making small side-to-side movements and can even perceive some light, though the eyelids are still sealed. And since practice makes perfect, our baby is sharpening his or her sucking and swallowing skills in preparation for that first (and second…and third) suckle for feeding. In fact, most of the survival reflexes that our baby will have at birth are being perfected in utero right now. It's amazing at how much the baby has already developed. I'll keep you posted!!

Thanksgiving in Gatlinburg

Butch and I went to Gatlinburg for Thanksgiving week. On Monday we left and drove about halfway and stayed in a hotel overnight. Then on Tuesday we got up and headed to Gatlinburg. We had a great time. It was very cold up there, but so beautiful. From our room at the resort, we had a beautiful view of the mountains! This trip was our last until the baby is born. The traveling was really uncomfortable for me. The baby must have not liked it either because he/she was constantly moving!! I took it that the baby was not comfortable sitting in a chair and being cramped up for long hours! Even though we split our trip on the way to Gatlinburg; on our way back we went straight to my grandmothers for Thanksgiving....and the drive was 6 1/2 hours!! But we technically were on the road for about 8 hours because of stopping periodically for the restroom breaks and lunch break. It was the longest trip ever! We had a really great time being alone with one another. We talked a lot of names and plans. Of course we were constantly thinking of DEC. 11th! We are so anxious to find out whether we're having a girl or boy!!! I'm so ready for the suspense to be over with and I can know!! I told Butch last night that once we find out the gender that "it's on like a chicken bone" as far as getting the nursery decorated and finished! I am ready to know pink or blues??