Busy!

Baby Duimstra is doing well... she's kicking around all the time now. I love it! It's weird to think a little life and soul is living in me. And I have to raise her and teach her all about the world... what a scary and honorable job!!! At least I am blessed to have such a wonderful husband that I KNOW will be the best daddy ever. :) I really don't know how some people do it all by themselves.  

Here I am at 23 weeks.  I finally bought some maternity pants... 

And talk about busy! WHEW! These past few weeks have been a whirlwind! We are out of our house (I NEVER want to move again!), are looking for a new house, and are living with my parents in the meantime! It's all going quite well, it was just a little stressful moving/cleaning.  This is us, just about to leave our house for the last time...

In happy news, my new niece was born on February 8th - Kelsey Michelle - and she is SO precious. :) Makes me super excited to have a little girl of my own! What makes it great is that my sister Melissa and brother-in-law Bryan were here from Washington state to see her! Bryan flew back to WA on the 9th and my sister and the kiddos (Levi and Julia) came to stay with my parents until the 19th. It was a very busy household!!!

The next thing up is that my mom is having back surgery on Wednesday at Spectrum. She's been putting this off for a while now, but is now to the point that it definitely needs to be done. So the timing worked out well that we are living with them - I get to play nurse to my mom! :) Please pray that things go well and she recovers quickly.

Baby's gender and... we're moving!

Well well!  We got the news on what gender our baby is a couple of days ago!  We are having a little GIRL!!!  Here's a pic of her with her hand up by her face!  I think she is the cutest thing already. :)

Here are the most recent "baby bump" pics...

17 weeks.

18 weeks.

I definitely haven't "popped" yet.  I still look like I just ate too much (which may be the case!) but my sister says she did around 20 weeks, so that's what I'm planning on!  I don't think we'll have a very big baby though, either, since Justin weighed 6 pounds, 2 oz. when he was born, and I was 7 pounds 13 oz.

In other news, we are moving.  Yes, to add to the stress, we are adding MOVING on top of it.  In fact, the PODS are being set up outside as I type this!  (Portable storage units.)  We had discussed moving a couple weeks ago, and then suddenly last week found a family that is in need of a large house to rent.  They are wanting to be long-term renters, so this was an offer we couldn't pass up!  So, we have to be entirely moved out of our house by February 1st.  YIKES!!!  In the meantime while we are searching for a new house in the Hudsonville area, we will be living with my parents.  Good thing they have lots of room!!!

17 Weeks!

Today marks the 17th week!  At my last appointment at the end of December, the heart rate was in the 150's, still a sign of a girl...  we shall see if they are right and my intuition is right on January 20th!  That's the day we find out the gender!!!  We are so excited. :)

Here are some pictures that we've been taking of the "baby bump" every week.  There is not much change in the first few... but by week 16 you can see a little bit more of a bump!  We will add another one today!

16 weeks!

     15 weeks!

14 weeks!

     13 weeks!

13 weeks!

I'm 13 weeks today! I've already had a couple of Dr.'s visits so far, but at my appointment on November 25th, I got to hear the heartbeat for the first time! I've SEEN the hearbeat on the ultrasounds I've had, but that was the first time I HEARD it. :) Fun! The heart was beating at 172 bpm which the Dr. said is within "girl" range according to an old wives' tale. I'm still convinced it's a girl anyways... I've had several dreams and they've all been a girl. I've even had 2 before I found out I was pregnant that were girls and I named them what I want to name our girl if we have one! :) We're keeping the names hush hush though... that won't be revealed until the baby arrives. But once we find out the gender on January 20th, we will be telling that to the world!
I'm still in my regular clothes; no obvious sign of a baby bump yet. I can tell I'm getting rounder, but to the average Joe it just looks like I ate a few too many Christmas cookies. We bought a new camera last week (I broke our last one... opps!) so pics will be coming soon!

Expecting!

We are expecting!!! I (Stacy) found out on my birthday, October 11th. It was a bit of a surprise but we are so excited now that the news has sunk in. I'm a few days over 9 weeks along, and things are going great! The due date is June 22. :) We will most likely find out what gender we're having - we think it just makes it easier to plan that way. And if you know Justin at all, you'll know that he's a planner!!!

In the beginning...

Wow. Who knew we'd have a blog? Ha ha! :)