The baby's gender is....

... still unknown! The baby was in the wrong position to determine the sex. The ultrasound technician said that the baby was tilted the wrong way and she could not get a view of in between the legs :( At the next appointment they will look again and hopefully the baby will be in a more inviting position :) Anyways, the technician measured the baby's vital organs (heart, kidneys, brain etc.) and everything looked great. We got to see the baby swallowing amniotic fluid (which was really cute) and the baby showed its hands and feet to us too. They did 2D and 3D ultrasound pictures. The 3D ultrasound pictures are cute but they are kind of creepy because you can really see the baby's skeletal structure. The baby is not storing fat yet. When we have our 3D/4D ultrasound done in the 3rd trimester it will look much different because the baby will be filled out. Anyways, if you look at the ultrasound pictures you can see the profile of the head, the hands, and there is one great one of a foot (you can see all 5 toes). Anyways, Lindy has gained 6 1/2 pounds, though she is not really showing yet. The doctor said she may not really start showing until 6 or 6 1/2 months (and she is 18 weeks, 5 days right now) because she is so tall. Anyways, the baby kicks all of the time! You can actually feel it kicking from the outside now. The baby kicks the most when Lindy is hungry. Well we will post again after our next appointment. We are happy to report that the baby is in great health :)

Love,

Lindy, Brian, Bear, and Addison?? or Austin?? (the baby)

CMC Hospital Tour

This evening we took our tour of Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte. Lindy's parents attended the Parent/Grandparent tour too. This hospital makes Gaston Memorial look like an ant hill. It is huge! Anyways, a few things to know about the hospital. Visitors must park in the Visitor's Parking Deck. It costs $3 to park in it. The main entrance to the hospital is only opened from 4:30am to 9:00pm. After these hours you must enter through the emergency room entrance. The Maternity Center is located on the 8th floor of the hospital. We will begin in a Labor/Delivery/Recovery room and spend about 2-3 hours in there after the baby arrives. After this we will move to a Postpartum room where we will stay for our remaining 48 hours. The baby will stay in our room :) Here are a few pictures we took at the hospital (actually Lindy's Dad took). If you enter through the main entrance you will recognize where we are standing in these pictures. We will post again Thursday when we have our big ultrasound!

Love,

Lindy, Brian, Bear, and Baby

Our baby is on the move!

Today at school, actually during Quantitative Analysis, our little teddy graham started moving! It is so reassuring to feel the baby move for the first time :) We get more and more excited about the baby everyday :) We will post again soon!

Love,

Lindy, Brian, Bear, and Baby

A little about the baby's development (compliments of Baby Gaga): "Don't be too shocked but... your baby is EVEN bigger than it was last week, not to mention getting cuter, and smarter every day! As you’ve come to expect, there’s no shortage of growth and development this week: your fantastic little bean stalk has added yet another half inch to their overall height-- making them nearly half a foot long! Their little limbs have reached (or are within one week of) their relative proportions, and will continue to grow evenly with the rest of the body after this week. Reactive listening has begun for your baby, even though their ears are not yet structurally complete or fully functional. Meanwhile, different parts of their astonishingly complex brain are developing to process your little one’s hearing and other senses, (you know, sight, smell, taste and touch). Mind boggling factoid of the week: if you’re going to have a little girl, her ovaries have already produced millions of primordial egg cells, which, within a few weeks, will develop into actual eggs!"

Babies, babies, babies and more

Well, Lindy's sister, Kristen, had her first OB appointment today. They gave her the due date of September 8th. How exciting! Kristen goes for her first ultrasound on January 29th! Lindy and Kristen went to Walmart and bought some matching baby Christmas clothes for next Christmas (of course, in different sizes, but Christmas clothes can go for either sex). On January 25th we are taking the Parent/Grandparent tour of CMC! We will take some pics if they let us. We love pictures! We are most excited about January 31st when we get to see our baby for the 2nd time and we get to learn the sex! Anyways, we are back at school and Lindy's hormones have been a little wacky. She through a fit in the school bookstore about the price of a textbook :), well there is actually more to it. Brian needed the book "Charlotte Temple" which is not actually a textbook, it is a tiny short novel. The suggested retail printed on the back of the book under the UPC said "$10.95" Now if we go to Books-A-Million they always sell their books like 20% off the suggested retail. Well at the Barnes and Noble Bookstore on UNC Charlotte's campus things are not like this! Instead of paying the over-priced suggested retail of $10.95 the school is selling the book for $14! Lindy asked the manager why they were charging so much over the suggested retail price and the manager responded "Well we have to mark the prices up. It is our policy with the University". Lindy said "So you mark the books up 40%???!" This is ridiculous. Textbooks are over-priced before they add their "small" mark-up (sarcasm here). Well we ordered our books from half.com and as for "Charlotte Temple" we rented it for free from the library :) Now, we have discussed important pregnancy dates, hormone outrages on campus, now we should discuss being pregnant! Lindy is 4 months pregnant, not showing yet and has not gained any weight (this will probably change in another month). People ask "Are you really pregnant?" Well you do not have to look pregnant to feel pregnant :) The Motherhood store sells an awesome "sleep bra" for only $11.95 and it makes sleeping slightly more comfortable. Our favorite pregnancy book is Jenny McCarthy's Belly Laughs. It adds humor to what the pregnancy books have to say. Well we will write again after our hospital tour (and hopefully have a few pics).

Love,

Lindy, Brian, Bear, and Baby

It is 2008!

We spent New Year's Eve with Kristen and Justin after Brian got off of work. Kristen and Lindy toasted with Welch's Grape Juice since they are both preggers! Yay! We watched the ball drop in Time Square on TV and ate pizza. Cujo and Odie (Kristen and Justin's dogs) kept Brian company on the couch. Cujo was offering midnight kisses too :) Anyways, we go back to school on Wednesday to finish our last semester!! It is hard to believe we have been there for four years. Well we will post again soon!

Love,

Lindy, Brian, and Bear

P.S. Kristen and Justin started their own Blog Spot page, so check it out! http://therumfelts.blogspot.com

AND Keith and Brooke now have a Blog Spot page you can check out too: http://brookeandkeith.blogspot.com

Happy Holidays!

We had a wonderful Christmas! We spent Christmas Eve with Brian's family and Christmas Day with Lindy's family. Brian had a chance to hang out with his brother, Keith, who is in the AirForce, who was home for the holidays as well. We took a one day trip down to GA to visit Brian's Aunt/Uncle and it was a lot of fun. We don't see them as often as we would like, so we were glad we got to see them for that short period of time :)

We had our own little Christmas at home with our babies too. Bear was very excited about his new bed that his Grandma/pa bought him :) unfortunately, he had to share with Annabell:




Bear also opened a big dog bone: (which is now almost completely gone!)



Well, we hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We hope you have a great New Year too! We will post again soon!

Love,

Lindy, Brian, and Bear

Our Little Teddy Graham!

Today we saw our new OBGYN, Dr. Kelley Rouse. She is wonderful! She was very nice and the office is brand new and very up-to-date. The office staff were all very friendly and it was a great experience. She gave us a book called "Your Pregnancy and Birth" which explains everything in great detail about pregnancy and child birth. Today (at 12 1/2 weeks) the baby's heart rate was 165 (at 8 1/2 weeks it was 180), so we are right where we should be :). We go back in two weeks to fill out some paper work, sign up for a tour at the hospital, etc. with the nurse. Our next OB appointment is January 31st and we will be having an ultrasound and finding out the sex of the baby! We highly recommend Northcross OBGYN! We will post again soon!

Love,

Lindy, Brian, and Bear

Next Appointment: January 7th for paper work with the nurse; January 31st for ultrasound to determine the gender!

P.S. The 12 week baby pic at the top is not ours, it is just to give you an idea of what our little teddy graham is looking like :)