We are going to have a baby!!!!

This is the adorable little baby:

(look at that cute profile picture! This picture was taken as the baby was in the process of turning over so only part of the body was caught in the picture )

Who is due to arrive:
February 7th

Which makes me:
14 weeks
and in the 2nd trimester
And we are:
already madly in love with the little one
so excited
studying parenting books
predicting that it is a boy
so happy
trying to be patient
having fun as we watch my belly grow
and so grateful.
Among a million other things!!

So here is the story:

After finishing my degree in April we finally felt it was the right time in May to add another member to our family! We stopped birth control and within about 1 1/2 weeks we were pregnant! Almost instantly we knew that I was pregnant and with every day that passed, that hunch was strengthened! :) We took a pregnancy test a couple days before my period was due and we got a faint positive so we decided to take another one a couple days later to see if we would get a stronger positive. 5 days later we took another test which was a comically positive test! I say comically because within 2 seconds of putting the test in the "sample" (haha) the line appeared super super dark and was at least 3 times darker than the control line! With that our suspicions were confirmed and we knew for sure I was pregnant!

(this was taken the day after we took the test and the line had already started to fade a lot!)

Everything looked perfect with the pregnancy from the very beginning! My hormone levels were perfect, we were able to see the little babies perfect heart beating right away and all that great stuff! At 7 weeks my morning sickness started full swing which was hard and from the beginning (before our positive test) I was EXHAUSTED! And by that I mean I would wake up at 10 (after 12 hours of sleep) only to get some food so I didn't throw up, go back to sleep at 11:30 for a couple hours, get up with a goal to be productive (usually not met), then go back to sleep around 5, wake up to try to have some dinner and go to bed at 10. That overwhelming exhaustion continued up until almost 11 weeks and I am still dragging constantly! From 7 weeks up until even today I have been really sick, but that is a sacrifice I am willing to make for this little adorable baby! I also have really bad headaches and a slew of other pregnancy "aliments" (or whatever you want to call them) but I think that would just be boring if I listed them all. :)
Then at 8 weeks and again at 9 1/2 weeks we got to see the baby again! It was so fun to see it's perfect little heartbeat, see the growth and even watch it move around all healthy and strong! And on top of that things continued to look perfect. Starting at 9 weeks I started to have a little baby bump which I know is crazy early but I think it's because I am short and petite. Here is a scrap book page I made of my belly at 9 weeks as well as a page I made of our ultrasound at 9 1/2 weeks

I have taken belly pictures almost every week, but I haven't had a chance to make them into scrap book pages because I am actually in Washington visiting family right now and I don't have my computer with all of my pictures and scrap booking program. As soon as I get back to Idaho and my computer, I will make them into cute scarp book pages! But I do have a belly picture I took at 11 weeks 4 days at my sisters reception in San Diego even though they haven't been put to a scarp book page (but I will do that when we get home):

It is so fun to watch my belly get bigger every week!

But the most exciting thing so far was going to our doctors appointment when I was 11 weeks 2 days! My parents were in town (it was the day we left for my sisters wedding in California) and so we brought them with us because we were going to see the baby the last time before we left for our 4 week vacation! We went in and saw the baby with it's (again) perfect heart beating and it was asleep. The tech told me to poke my tummy and when I did it woke the baby up who instantly started to kick it's little legs, touch it's face and move all around! It was SOOOO adorable to see it's face, arms, and legs moving around! The tech measured the baby and it actually measured 11 weeks 6 days!! I was so happy to see the baby so healthy and even measuring 4 days bigger! With every other ultrasound it measured right on my due date and so this was the first time it measured bigger! We also were able to record the entire ultrasound and it's SO fun to watch the baby move around whenever I want! :)

Here is the baby facing down all curled up which seems to be the babies favorite way to sleep! :)
And now facing up

(sorry more pictures from that ultrasound! The baby was showing off and being so cute they took 4 pictures for us rather than the normal 2!)

So when we met with the doctor after the ultrasound he said that I was officially out of the danger zone for first trimester miscarriage and that my risk of miscarriage is super low (less than 1%) and is the same from then until I deliver! He also said that he won't officially move my due date until our 20 week ultrasound because that is when it is the most accurate. Then we got to hear the babies heart beating via a doppler and it was so precious!! We kept hearing a swishing noise amid the quick heart beat and the doctor said it was the baby moving around which I thought was so cute! That was such a fun day and I am so glad that my parents were able to share that with us!! They had SO much fun watching their first grandbaby moving around and then hearing it's little heart beat! :)
We are going to the doctor again at 16 weeks for another normal check-up and will get to hear the heart beat another time which I am so excited for! You can never be too safe and flukes can happen, so we were wondering if people would still pray for us that things will continue to go as well as they have!

So needless to say we are SOOOOO excited and we can't wait to welcome this baby into the world and our family!