1/4 of the way down!

Well it's been a little over 10 weeks now. Although I haven't been feeling as nauseous as I did during weeks 7-8, I still have trouble finding food to be that appealing or appetizing. At least it's been settling a little better in my belly.

At about this week, baby bean is the size of a kumquat, about 1 1/4 inches or so long. Most of his critical development has finished, and now it's just him growing into his body, which seems so amazing to me that at only 10 weeks he's a person! His hands and feet are no longer webbed, but instead, tiny nails are forming on individual fingers and toes. He's also growing little peach-fuzz hair on his body. However, if he comes out anything like his father, it'll be a lot more than "fuzz". :)

Little Buddy

The other day I forgot to mention that Rich and I bought baby bean's first cuddly buddy! We found it in one of the many cute shops in Carmel. There were so many precious baby items, it was so hard to pick on one thing! But alas, we settled on a little fluffy dog (of course!). He is the softest little thing, and we can't wait to give it to baby bean.

So, a little late posting this entry, but oh well. Better late than never...

Last Friday was my first prenatal appointment at Shadelands Kaiser. I ended up meeting with one of the midwives, Katharine Aldrich, who turned out to be very comfortable to be around and reassuring through the whole examination. She gave me what I assumed to be the usual prenatal physical exam and then at the end, my first ultrasound. It actually caught me off guard to suddenly see baby bean appear on the monitor; I guess I had no idea what to expect. All of a sudden I was seeing a glimpse of the wonderful miracle growing inside of me. He looked like all the pictures you see of babies at nine weeks, but of course when it's your little baby you're seeing, it feels like you've never seen anything so amazing. It truly was an awe-stopping moment, and I can't help but give praise to God, Creator of all.

Another praise to God I have to give is the fact that my yucky nausea has been waning. For the past couple of weeks I was having such a hard time eating food or finding foods that settled well in my stomach. Every day was such a pain to get through, and it made me so sad that I couldn't eat everything that I used to! Well, a couple days ago I forgot to take my prenatal vitamin and realized I felt so much better that day. I asked my midwife about it and she assured me that I could ease off on them until my 2nd trimester, as long as I took a folic acid supplement in place of the multivitamin. I think it's made a huge difference, proven this weekend on our little trip to Carmel and Monterey with our friends Peter & Melissa:

Our favorite breakfast/lunch place in Carmel is Carmel Belle, hands down! Not only is their food the freshest and tastiest food around, the place is dog friendly, so I always get to eye people's cute pets while enjoying my food :)

No food shown below, but we got to eat at our favorite dinner place in Monterey- Bistro Moulin- with our friends Peter & Melissa who are expecting their first baby in May!

......And more Carmel Belle below....

Thank you Jesus for letting me enjoy this wonderful food!

It's a bean!

Well, it was two Mondays ago that Rich and I finally got the courage to buy a pregnancy test and take it! Sure enough, just two minutes later we were staring wide eyed at a test that clearly read "pregnant". It took a little while for the reality of it all to sink it, but shortly after we realized there was nothing to do but praise God for this incredible blessing of becoming parents and having a little "bean" of our own. :) Yay!