Week 11 - letters to our baby

We wanted a creative way to keep a pregnancy journal as well as photos along the way.  We came up with doing a weekly photoshoot and journaling all in one, and printing a book of all the pages when our baby finally comes.  This one may or may not make it in the book - brent played photographer and I really didn't have the light set up right.  Also, I'm not really showing anything but bloatedness and I don't know that I want to have the memory of THAT!  But I think it's cute with the journal entry and I'm excited to add more pages to this book!

B&B Summer Adventure #7 - the BIGGEST one of ALL!

It's true!  Much to our surprise, a tiny baby Allred is on its way.  

Our first reaction?  SHOCK.  Followed closely by a calming "this will be OK" feeling.  Now we're excited.  We found out on July 31st - the day we were supposed to leave for a 3 day music festival on a farm outside Portland.  Needless to say, I did not feel like packing up and leaving right after I got the news.  4 home pregnancy tests later and a quick trip to the Group Health laboratory confirmed that YES, WE ARE PREGNANT!  Today was our first appointment with a midwife.  The appointment was great and I love our midwives.  I am super happy with our choice of having a midwife catch our baby and can't wait until we can take a tour of our birthing center (Family Beginnings on Capitol Hill).  At our appointment, our midwife spent a lot of time discussing how we're feeling emotionally, how we'll feel in the next couple of months, how our relationship is doing.  I really love the personal relationships we're building there.  And the finale to the appointment - getting to here our little baby's heartbeat for the first time and seeing him/her with an ultrasound.  The heartbeat was loud and clear - a solid 170 bpm. Unfortunately, the new ultrasound machine was not turning on for us (just my luck!) and we got the dinosaur-aged one.  Which means no printed-out picture.  But we could clearly see our little one's cute little body (HUGE head) and a fluttering heart and it helped me to relax about this some.  So far everything looks perfect and we're hoping it stays that way.  

I am halfway through my 10th week and our due date is March 27, 2010.    I am super nervous to tell work - as they do require us to commit to teaching for a full year when signing our contract which I already signed.  I know I can't lose my job because I'm pregnant and I'm sure people will be excited for us.  It's just a little stressful deciding when and how to tell.

Overall, we are incredibly happy and getting used to this idea of being parents.  I am feeling pretty good - the morning sickness seamed to hit its peak in the beginning of last week and I've felt a little better everyday.  My waist size has already changed drastically however, and Im not sure how long I'll be able to keep this from work.  My pants are barely fitting today.  It's all bloat, I'm sure, but it looks like I'm about 5 months along sometimes.  There is a clear little bump even when I suck in lately and that I'll attribute to all my insides shifting around making room for a growing baby.
Here is a belly pic I took last week:

I feel much much bigger than that today.

B&B Summer Adventure 6- camping at Deception Pass

We've had a crazy summer and haven't had a chance to go camping until now - the very last weekend of August. We were lucky to find an open spot at Deception Pass State Park on Whidbey Island. It's an awesome campground because you are nestled between Cranberry lake and the ocean. Katie and Rob stayed a night with us up there. The best part of the trip? Finding this awesome natural sea-saw!!

Loni

Today, our friends/neighbors had to put their sweet dog down. It broke my heart. Loni is as much a part of their family as Shelby is ours. Shelby and Loni were never friends - more like nemesis sharing a common fence. Their favorite activity to do together: run up and down on opposite sides of the fence - emitting vicious snarls and barks. This has been a game for them for the past year and half. When I get home, Shelby was staring through the fence at their open back door - the one Loni usually makes her entrance from. My heart goes out to them. Us couples with no children tend to attach ourselves to our dogs as if they'll be with us forever. I heard somewhere that dogs have short lifespans because they don't have to waste any time figuring life out. They know how to love and be happy from the minute they're on this earth. I've already shed my tears for Loni - she will be missed by many.

Wedding

Katie and Rob's wedding was GORGEOUS!  They've been engaged for over a year and a half (due to not having much time to plan while she's in med school) so we've been anticipating the wedding for awhile.  It was so fun to be her matron of honor - although the three days before the wedding were BUSY!  Congrats to the best couple I know!

 

Katie was lucky to find a fantastic photographer - their wedding photos turned out so well

the whole wedding party

Rob's sister (Stacie), Me, Katie, and Katie's sister (Kyla)

priceless.

Happy Birthday, Brent!!

Brent is 25! His birthday fell on one of the hottest days Seattle has ever seen (nearly 100 degrees!) We spent the day at the beach with friends - getting some sun and building a pretty sweet sand castle. Happy birthday, Love!

B&B Summer Adventure 5 - VEGAS!

We had an exhausting, hot, and incredibly fun weekend celebrating 2 of our best friends getting married later this month.  Vegas is a different world, for sure. But definitely had something for everyone.  The girls (there were 8 of us) stayed at the Mirage and the boys (8 of them) stayed at the Westin.  Our pool was infinitely better than theirs so we were able to sneak them in for pool time every day.  I'm still a little unclear on what all the boys did in our 3 days there, but us girls enjoyed shopping, eating, tanning,  dancing, & roller coasters!   Not sure I could handle Vegas every weekend - but glad we had the opportunity to go and decided it's best experienced in a LARGE group of crazy girls!