20 weeks

Our baby is now the size of a cantaloupe--and if I stand with a lack of good posture, I even look pregnant!

This is the baby's newly painted (and window-ed) room.

This past weekend we enjoyed our family reunion back at my parents house in Kettle Falls. Most fun this year was the number of cousins who were able to attend. Here Tom, Amy, Me, Liz, Taylor, Claire, Casey, Molly, Padric and Grady just before the Thompsons had to head back to Oregon.

And a little later Jenny, Amy, Tom, Molly, Me, Holly, Beth, Casey, Grady, Padric and Becky. We were missing a few Westside cousins--Tim, Joe, Gordy and Kate, as well as Karey.

The baby Kicks!

Today was a very exciting day for us. We have heard lots of different messages about when a baby can be felt both from the inside and the outside. I have been wondering if I have been feeling the baby for a few weeks especially when I get into bed at night and when I wear a seatbelt in certain cars--both seem to put a different pressure on the baby and produce little "bumps." Today, after being up and moving around for a couple of hours, I lay down on the couch next to Betty and immediately felt one of these little kicks. Betty put her hand on my belly and sure enough, the baby kicked enough for her to feel it from the outside. We agreed that it is definitely the baby, not gas! This made us very excited for our midwife appointment on Monday and even more excited for our ultrasound appointment coming up in about two and a half weeks! Even though we are almost halfway there, this pregnancy and the eventual product of it, still seem very theoretical. In the morning, I don't look pregnant at all and even in the evenings, I can still suck my stomach in. At the same time, we know that the baby can already hear us talking (and that it does like when Betty talks to it, perhaps because she leans in close and it gets louder). I also suddenly have some nesting instincts--yesterday I washed the stair railings and today I organized all of our closets--things I have never done before. I also want to work on the nursery, which was a surprise to me.

Almost 18 weeks

From some angles, I almost look pregnant now, though I still need to arrange my clothing to make it obvious!

Betty was ever so lucky to get to help with this project!

Mom and she spent a whole day insulating the livingroom floor--from underneath.

Too bad for me--I can't crawl on my stomach any longer...

We also took Mom Geocaching--we're tryign to get them hooked--and Mom found three of the four we logged!