Baby Bump Update

Here is the 30-week baby bump shot...

I don't know if I can get away with calling it a "bump" anymore, as it's much larger than the word "bump" entails.

The "Alien" in my Belly
Callie definitely likes to move a lot, and it's a nice reminder to me that she's healthy and active.  She's still breech at this point, so sometimes I can literally feel her feet tap-dancing on my bladder.  Yipes! 

She's also to the size where we can see (not just feel) her movements in my belly.  It's so strange to look down and see a lump moving across my belly!  And often times you can look at me and see that Callie is mostly on my right side (that's where her head is).  I look lop-sided!  So weird, but so cool at the same time.

Moving, Moving, Moving
Speaking of moving, we moved out of our first house last weekend.  It was definitely bittersweet, but we're excited about making the new house our home.  I tried my hardest to not overdo it during the moving weekend, but it's really hard for someone with my organized, OCD tendancies to not step in and help...then add on top of that the "nesting" instinct and let's just say that I definitely overdid it. 

Luckily, my mother-in-law came to my rescue on Monday (Ben was at work) and made us dinner, did Eden's bath and bedtime routine, etc. so that I could just be on the couch with my feet up.  I'm feeling MUCH better now and have promised myself (and Callie) that I won't do that again.  I'm finding that I can unpack most rooms from a seated position, so that certainly helps.

In Good Health and Good Spirits (mostly)
I continue to be blessed with a healthy pregnancy.  My doctor says I'm right on track with weight gain, measurements, etc. and she's really happy with how my pregnancy is going.  I'm definitely more emotional during this final trimester (that's where the "mostly" part comes in), and it doesn't help that we moved out of our first home (lots of emotions tied into that one!).  But thankfully I have a husband who listens to what I say (through my tears) and truly cares enough to "baby me" when needed.  I am a very blessed woman!

Does Eden Understand?
We get this question a lot, and honestly, I have no idea if Eden knows what is coming.  What I do know is that Eden is a very bright little girl and she soaks in everything around her.  She knows where Callie is (in my tummy) and she will hug and kiss her--even on her own with no prompting at all!  And in the doctor's office the other day, she was looking at pictures of all of the babies and I asked her about Callie.  She came and pointed to my belly (and rubbed it) and then pointed to the pictures of the babies on the wall.  It seemed to me that she connected the dots that Callie is an actual baby and not just a lump in mommy's tummy! 

Either way, we know that Eden will be a great big sister.  She is always very loving to other babies--she loves kissing them, so we usually direct her to their toes. ;)  We know that there will be a lot of adjustment when Callie is born, and we know that Eden will have some jealousy over mommy and daddy's time, but we also know that God will guide us in working through all of it. 

Eden Recap: months 13-16 of life; months 6-9 home

Time for another catch-up post all about Eden!  

Physical/Medical
You’re a long and lean 19 ½ pounds and 31 ½ inches tall.  You have definitely sprouted some long legs that any woman would LOVE to have!  You have a total of 7 teeth now (you added 1 to the bottom) and you are cutting 2 more on the top. Your top 2 front teeth are growing in at different speeds, so we say that you’re the only kid who is cute enough to pull off the snaggletooth look. Heehee!

Temperament

You are such a happy little girl!  You love people, but you also love playing independently.  You are very smart—you love books and you have a very long attention span when you’re working on something like a puzzle or a game. 

Development

During this stage, you really became interested in pushing buttons, flipping switches, opening and closing doors, and putting things inside other things (like trash cans!).  You’ve become quite the helper!  It’s fun to watch you learn on/off and open/close…but we have to watch out for things disappearing into the trash!  

Like a lot of kiddos, you’ve also become very interested in electronics!  Touch-screen phones / tablets are definitely your favorite, but you also love remote controls.  Turns out you know exactly what you’re doing with those things, too!  Crazy!

You started walking in full effect at Thanksgiving (during your 14^th month).  Like most babies, you resembled a wobbly newborn foal when you first started, but once you found your balance, you were off and moving!  

You love going up the stairs, but haven’t quite mastered going down, so we still keep the baby gates up.  You can easily navigate smaller steps (out the door, off the deck, etc.) and it’s fun to see your independence and drive!  You’re a total trooper, so when you fall down you just get right back up and keep going.  The only exception to that (i.e., when you cry) is if you truly hurt yourself—which isn’t very often. 

Stepping up…

Stepping down…

Taking off…

Communication

You are quite the chatterbox these days!  We are just dying to know what you’re talking about, but we enjoy having conversations with you nonetheless.  Some of your most common words/phrases are “mama,” “daddy” (pronounced “dah-dee” with emphasis on the “dee”), “uh-oh” (pronounced breathy like “huh-hoh”), and “go go go” (usually said at the TV during a football game or to the dogs when they are in your way).  Your other chatter is in a language we can’t interpret yet (heehee!).  It’s so stinkin’ cute to hear you talk, though!

You sign a few things to us regarding food.  You ask “please” (by rubbing your tummy—close enough!) when you want a snack, you tell us you’re “all done” (both hands waving in the air) when you’re finished with a meal, and we’re still working on “thank you” (it looks a lot like blowing a kiss, so you get kind of confused by it). 

You wave to people a lot (hi and bye).  You know the motion for “touchdown!”  You give people “fives” if they ask.  You still love to make sounds with your mouth…clicking with your tongue, motorboat with your lips, etc.  And you still love to clap your hands!

Food

You are quite the snacker!  Just like your mama, you need a morning snack and an afternoon snack.  Favorite snacks include goldfish, fig newtons, pretzels, animal crackers, cheese, and mini-marshmallows.  Although you’re not picky, some of your favorite foods include cheese ravioli or tortellini, edamame (soybeans), waffle fries (from Chick-fil-A), and any kind of fruit (blackberries and mandarin oranges are your current favorite fruits).

You drink everything from a straw now.  You drink whole milk in the morning, water throughout the day (mommy’s water bottle is a favorite for that!), then diluted orange juice (or what we call H2Orange) at dinner.  Daddy makes smoothies frequently (just fruit and juice) and you LOVE those! 

Sharing your snacks with the dogs…caught in the act!

Sleep

You sleep about 12 hours at night, with a 2-3 hour nap right after lunch every day.  You go down very easily—one of us will just hold you with your head on our shoulder and hum/sing for about 30 seconds, then we lay you on your tummy in your crib and quickly close the door to your room.  You take about 5-10 minutes (sometimes a bit longer) to get settled, but then you fall asleep.  It’s fun for us to watch you “get settled” via the video monitor.  You’ll gather all of your blankets (and sometimes your little pillow) and bury your head in them with your little booty up in the air, you’ll toss and turn until your “nest” is just right, then you fall asleep.  You usually fall asleep on your side on top of all of your blankets, so we’ll cover you up before we go to bed.

Current “Loves”

You are quite an adrenaline junkie!  You LOVE spinning, jumping, swinging, climbing, and anything going fast.  It’s fun to watch and listen to you squeal with delight!  It makes your mama kind of nervous, but daddy loves it!  

Climbing on the table at Debra’s house…

You LOVE upbeat music on tv or movies (Sid the Science Kid, Veggie Tales Princess and the Pop Star, I’ve Got a Dream from Tangled, etc.).  You stand in the middle of the living room and dance, twirl, clap, and sing to the music.  Very cute!

You absolutely LOVE being outside!  Thankfully we live in a climate where you can spend plenty of time in the great outdoors.  It is definitely part of your daily routine to play in the yard—you explore, play with the dogs, walk around with your arms up and chatting about who-knows-what.  It is seriously too cute!

You LOVE your stuffed animals and your baby doll.  It’s so sweet for us to watch you give them hugs and kisses without our prodding.  Hopefully you’ve picked that up from being in such a loving family.

Tucking Pooh in...

Giving Pooh a hug...

You LOVE for your Daddy to “get” you.  You will go into another room and call for him.  When he comes to “get” you, you will squeal and dive into a pillow (or one of the dog beds on the floor) and wait for him to tickle you.

You LOVE all things Elmo.  Because of generous family members, you now have an Elmo chair, Elmo slippers, and an Elmo remote control.  If we pass by the Elmo toys at Target, you just have to stop and play with them (luckily you don’t throw a fit when we don’t purchase them!).

You still LOVE to play inside the dog kennels.  You take a toy or a snack into one of the kennels and pull the door closed.  Too funny!

With your baby doll…

With a snack (banana)…

You’ve only been sick a couple of times, but you LOVE taking medicine from a medicine dropper.  It certainly makes it easy for us to administer the medication, but it’s kind of quirky that you love the dropper so much!

You LOVE books!  You will bring us a book, turn around to sit in our lap, and wait for the story to begin!  You have certain go-to books: The Little Red Hen (you love the repetition and rhyming in it), The Jolly Barnyard (you love seeing all of the animals and waiting for us to make the animal noises), The Baby Animal Sounds book (you love to push the button that corresponds with the animal on the page).

You LOVE the movie Tangled.  You get very involved in the movie and will dance and sing along with the songs, clap when good things happen, etc.  It’s a bit of an obsession, really. J

You still LOVE your pacifier. We now only make it available to you during nap time, night time, or car seat time, and you don’t seem to mind that it’s not always there.  Maybe that means it won’t be too hard to wean you from it completely one day…

You absolutely LOVE your grandparents!  You get to see Grandma every Thursday evening while mommy and daddy go to small group.  And you get to see Grandpa most every week as well.  Nina lives further away, but you love talking to her on the phone and seeing her when she comes to visit. 

Some Firsts

You had some “firsts” during this time of your life…

First Halloween:

First Thanksgiving:

First Christmas as a Huss:

First family wedding (your Uncle Josh married Aunt Katy):

First Texans home game (and playing on the field after the game):

We love you, sweet girl (our “little bird” or “little lovie”)!  You bring so much JOY to our lives! 

Baby Bump Update

Here is the 25-week baby bump shot...

 

Yep, I definitely "popped!"

Feeling Good, but Big

I continue to count my blessings with how well I've felt throughout my pregnancy.  Lately I've been feeling more of the uncomfortable things that come along with my belly being big.  Things like not being able to bend down easily (I have to go sideways now) to pick something up or tie my shoes; things like the stretching that my skin is doing in order to expand with Callie (luckily no stretchmarks...yet); things like the fact that my belly button is disappearing and it seems like I can actually feel it going away (stretching).  But seriously, I'll take these things any day because I know of the miracle that God is doing in my womb right now.  And I know that many women want this feeling, but can't have it.  So I definitely count it all as a blessing!

Health Stuff

- I survived my glucose test!  Don't have the results yet, but I'm happy to have that test behind me (although, it wasn't as bad as I had worked it up in my mind to be--thankfully)! 

- Cal continues to be active and move around a lot.  Ben can finally feel the movements now, so he's happy about that!  We have another ultrasound this week--pumped to see how she's progressing! 

- I also start my prenatal yoga class this week and I'm super pumped about that!  I loved yoga for the few years that I took, and am happy to get back into it--especially now that I need to be in tip-top shape for labor!  I'm interested to see the poses that we'll be doing now that bellies are more of an obstacle. ;)

A Connection

Throughout my pregnancy, I've felt a more emotional connection to Eden's birthmother (and all birthmothers).  I can't even fathom the painful decisions that a birthmother has to encounter, but now that I'm experiencing a pregnancy of my own, I feel more connected to what they feel as their child is growing in their womb.  As we started the education portion of our own adoption journey, I began to truly respect birthmothers.  That respect is now at an entire new level. 

Happy Referral-versary to Us!

One year ago today, our lives were forever changed by this little face...

On December 22, 2010, we got the call that every adoptive parent longs for, dreams about, and prays for--our referral call!  And ours came just in time for Christmas!

We were completely elated--and shocked--that we got the call when we did.  If you've followed our story, you know that it was because we were open to a child with an infectious disease (specifically HIV) that we got matched with precious Edeneku.  And you also know the miracle that God worked in her little body to completely free her from ANY disease! 

NOTE: you can click on the "Our Journey to Eden" tab to the right if you want to get the whole story.

These were the pictures that sustained us until we got to see her for the first time in person on March 15th. 

Sweet baby girl, we love you SO much and can't imagine our lives without you!!

Click here if you want to see the original referral post.

Updated Baby Bump

We did an impromptu maternity photo shoot at my family's farm in Louisiana over Thanksgiving break (my youngest sister is a photographer).  Here is one of our favorite shots...

 

OK, so that's obviously just a joke.  What can I say?  We're a bit "different."  heehee!

Here is the real 20 week baby bump shot...

 

"Bean" has a Name!
At our 20-week ultrasound, we found out that we're having another GIRL!  She's measuring a bit petite (which I certainly don't mind!!) and is healthy.  Her name is Callie Jeanne Huss.  The first name is a variation of Ben's sports hero, Cal Ripken Jr.  The middle name is Ben's grandmother's name.  We'll likely call her all kinds of nicknames...Cal, Callie Jeanne, CJ, Callie, Callie Bean...the options are endless!  We are super-excited to have another little girl around the house sometime in late April!

A Gymnast, Perhaps?
I'm now 22 weeks along and Miss Callie seems to be a little gymnast!  She keeps me up at night sometimes with her acrobatics.  And we're pretty sure that she's not a fan of loud movie theater sounds (maybe the bass?).  We went on a date the other night and she didn't calm down until the movie was over.  I hope the poor thing wasn't scared that entire time!  I did my best to muffle the sounds (piling coats on top of my belly, etc.), but I'm not sure that helped at all.  It's such a weird feeling, but I'm counting it as one of the many blessings of this pregnancy--there is LIFE inside my womb--how cool is that?!

Stretching and Growing
I'm starting to feel the pains of my muscles stretching, and I'm sure the lovely stretch marks on my skin won't be too far away. ;)  My doctor says I'm right on track with weight gain, etc. so that's good.  Sometimes I feel like my weight gain has got to be crazy, but then she weighs me and it's not much at all.  Whew!  I'm blessed to have a hubby who constantly tells me how beautiful my growing body is (and he actually means it!).  Again, I'm counting my blessings. 

And how is Eden?
I'm way overdue for an Eden blog post, so that's next on tap.  She's doing GREAT!  We are incredibly blessed with our baby girl--who is growing up right before our eyes!  Stay tuned...

The Baby Bump

This is for all of my out-of-town girlfriends and sisters...

The 15 week baby bump (supposedly Bean is the size of an apple this week)

 

Funny Story
On Sunday afternoon, as I was trying to take a snooze (nap while Eden's napping, right?!), Bean decided to get the hiccups and keep me awake.  At first I thought I was just feeling my own pulse (you know how you can sometimes feel it in weird places).  Then I realized it couldn't be my pulse unless something was really wrong with me--teehee!  I knew it was too early for me to feel any sort of kicking, etc. from Bean, so I checked the all-knowing internet to see what it could be.  Sure enough, it mentioned that I could likely feel jerking movements if Bean got the hiccups.  Mystery solved, but it still kept me awake.  Just felt too weird for me to sleep...but it was really cool to feel the baby!

My Health
I continue to feel very blessed that I have had an uneventful pregnancy thus far.  Due to my crazy aversion (read: fear) of needles, I'm glad I haven't had to be poked any more than what a "normal" pregnant woman has to be.  I am dreading the glucose test (can't remember when that will take place, but I'm dreading it nonetheless).  I'm not really dreading it because I'm worried about the results.  It's the idea of downing a nasty "beverage" in a short amount of time that has me completely grossed out.  You see, I don't drink many beverages other than water, so even the idea of having to drink a soda would gross me out.  I just keep reminding myself of the millions of other pregnant women who survive it...so I'm sure I will, too. ;)

An Amazing Realization
Maternity pants are freekin' awesome!  I've just started wearing them (thanks to friends who are letting me borrow their maternity wardrobe--I'm so blessed!) and they have changed my life.  All I can think of is how awesome this Thanksgiving meal will be now that I'll be wearing "stretchy pants" like this!  (But unlike Joey on "Friends," I'm wearing them for legitimate reasons.)  Oh, and it's been a great self-esteem boost to be wearing pants two sizes smaller than my normal pants.  Thank you to the makers of maternity gear for sizing them like that!