Bump Watch: 18 Weeks

It's time for the weekly "bump watch" picture!

I'm pretty sure the skirt I'm wearing (a lovely, comfortable fold-over jersey skirt from Old Navy) accentuates the bump a bit -- you can tell where the fold comes down at the top of the skirt... But I'm definitely a bit bigger than I was last week! Slow but steady progress! :)

Exciting pregnancy news for this week -- I'm about 99% sure I felt the baby move for the first time! I started feeling odd fluttery sensations a few days ago, and then today at work, I felt a pretty distinct little thump. It's incredibly strange, but also incredibly exciting... A miraculous work really is going on in my womb!

And here's the weekly baby-as-produce update from BabyCenter.com --

Head to rump, your baby is about 5 1/2 inches long (about the length of a bell pepper) and he weighs almost 7 ounces. He's busy flexing his arms and legs — movements that you'll start noticing more and more in the weeks ahead. His blood vessels are visible through his thin skin, and his ears are now in their final position, although they're still standing out from his head a bit. A protective covering of myelin is beginning to form around his nerves, a process that will continue for a year after he's born. If you're having a girl, her uterus and fallopian tubes are formed and in place. If you're having a boy, his genitals are noticeable now, but he may hide them from you during an ultrasound.

So our baby has grown from a turnip to a bell pepper... :) Note that according to TheBump.com, our baby is the size of a sweet potato. That's big! Hard to believe that there's a 5-1/2 inch little baby in there...

Two weeks left until our big ultrasound!

Matt and Carrie Naylor!!

On August 8, Matt Naylor and Carrie Andersen tied the knot! This beautiful couple are part of our small group, so we were thrilled to be invited to share in their wedding celebrations. And an added bonus? Everyone from our married couples' small group, plus Erik and Erin (and baby Luke) decided to come as well! So it was a really fun weekend reunion, on top of the wedding itself -- we're so glad we could make the trip out!

Matt and Carrie both graduated from Berkeley (Matt's currently a grad student at Princeton), so they got married at the church they went to in college. It was such a beautiful, God-honoring, relaxed, Californian wedding... :)


Steven and Hilary in our pew, with Andrea, Erin and Luke in the background


The Beeson kids as ringbearer and flower girl!


Carrie on the arm of her proud father


I loved the bridesmaids' dresses!


Exchanging rings


The kiss!


Mr. and Mrs. Naylor!
(You can sort of tell here -- they wore matching New Balance sneakers!)


Instead of a receiving line, Carrie and Matt personally greeted and released each aisle


We stopped on the walk to the reception for some West Coast bubble tea!
(And Weston P. '06, with his fiancee Emily, were at the wedding!)


The reception tables -- I'm pretty sure Carrie handwrote all the cards!


Me playing with baby Luke, trying to get him to smile and look at the camera...


Small group photo!
No more photos of the reception, because I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to get the lighting right... High, dark wooden ceilings, so my normal bounce flash tricks were out. Made me glad that I wasn't the official photographer for the day -- I'm still very much an amateur!

Because it was David's first time in California (not counting a couple layovers at LAX), we decided to go sight-seeing the next day. Hilary and Steven, who went to Stanford for undergrad, were our San Francisco tour guides -- we hit up Fisherman's Wharf, Golden Gate Bridge, Ghiradelli Square, and, of course, the sea lions at Pier 39... Good times!


The Nielsens, with Luke showing East Coast pride!


Keddies and Nielsens, with the Golden Gate Bridge (and fog) in the background


Luke found Hilary hilarious :)


David and me, with San Francisco in the background


Yummy!


Sea lions!!

It was such a fun weekend -- thanks, Matt and Carrie, for inviting us to share in your joy! Hopefully, the next time we come out to California, it'll be for longer than 28 hours... We had such a good time during our short stay this time around!


For the complete set of photos from the weekend, check out this SmugMug gallery.

Bump Watch: 17 Weeks

OK, so we've got a number of posts to catch up on -- in the past two weeks, we've been to a wedding out in California, and we've moved to a new apartment! So be on the lookout for photos and posts to commemorate these events...

But for now, we wanted to start a "Bump Watch" feature here on the blog -- because I think I'm finally starting to show a little! David and I have been able to see a difference for a few weeks now (check out this photo from our cruise, taken at 13 weeks), but we're starting to get comments from others, which is terribly exciting... :)

I know, it's still very small, but (to our eyes, at least) I'm clearly pregnant!

And here's the weekly update on the baby, from BabyCenter.com:

Your baby's skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone, and the umbilical cord — her lifeline to the placenta — is growing stronger and thicker. Your baby weighs 5 ounces now (about as much as a turnip), and she's around 5 inches long from head to bottom. She can move her joints, and her sweat glands are starting to develop.

It's funny how pregnancy books and websites compare the developing baby to something in the produce aisle... We've gone from a poppy seed, to a blueberry, to a lime, and now, apparently, to a turnip. I guess that's one way to remind me to eat my fruits and veggies!

And nope, the use of the "she" pronoun above doesn't mean anything specific for our baby. But we should be finding out the gender in about three weeks, at our 20-week ultrasound!

Alright, back to unpacking and settling in I go... At least we've got the internet and our camera gear set up in our new place. We clearly have our priorities straight. :)