Nita's Visit/ Canadian Thanksgiving Weekend

I am SO behind on posting & we're getting ready to leave for Cali, so this will have to be a quick summary of recent events :-)

Nita came out to visit us over Canadian Thanksgiving weekend and she & Bill totally blessed us with baby Franks's new crib, a rocker/glider, and other knick knacks. Nita also arrived with a whole luggage of infant clothing from some friends and some very comfy maternity wear for me. This child doesn't have a clue how spoiled he already is :-) Daddy put the crib together all by himself, and now the little one's room is ready for final touches.

Our dear friends from Tyndale - Cynthia, Karina, and Sharon - planned a surprise baby shower for me and Paul. Paul was in on it but he thought it was a ladies only thing- only to find some of his buddies present, too! It was a fun evening of baby shower games, yummy foods, and the joy of friends celebrating this little life growing inside!

Finally, Nita helped me put together my first Thanksgiving meal! It was tough for her to sit and watch and direct me as I did the work, but the master chef directed well and we had quite the meal for the 3 of us. You'll see the before and after pictures in the slideshow below (it looks like we barley touched any of the dishes!).



It was a fast weekend but we sure did enjoy having family with us over the Thanksgiving holiday! Thanks, Nita! (I've told you all before that I've got the best in-laws on the planet).

Finally, some prego updates. As of yesterday, I am 29 weeks along. This photo was taken this week and yes, the belly is growing large!
The little guy is growing stronger every day (as I can tell from his kicks and squirms inside). He has hiccups that I can feel and I find myself staring at my belly more now just to see him move. Paul tells me that, at night while I sleep, he will reach over and feel my belly and the little one will move and kick for him. These are "their" moments (since I'm usually knocked out). I thought that was the sweetest thing ... already between daddy and his son.

Now we're off to Cali to see my family and enjoy a dual shower with my sister & bro-in-law. More to post later.

Love,
The Franks

A Very Early Morning Update

Since last weekend, I've been waking up between 3 and 4am pretty consistently and it's been a bit of a bump in the road. I must confess it makes the grumpies come out :-)

I wonder if I've hit the point where pregnancy has become just uncomfortable enough that I can't sleep through the night, or is it because my 7pm dinner is gone shortly after my 9:30pm bedtime & I'm hungry, or is it because I'm concerned that I'm sleeping on my side and not on my back, or what?

I suppose I'll go grab a bite to eat now (currently 4:41am EST) and try to get back to sleep before work. Thankfully, I've got a job with flexibility and very understanding co-workers. I'm open about my potential grumpiness and they're great about giving me space :-) Thank God for good people!

Anyway, under the fantastic news section, Paul finally got to feel Junior move! For the last month or so, I've been able to confidently say that it's the little guy moving around inside, and for the last couple of weeks, I've had Paul rushing over to feel my belly. Every time, though, was a negative response to a series of "Did you feel that? How 'bout that? Dya feel that?" I could feel the little jabs and flutters, but not Paul. Not yet.

Then on Monday night, while Junior performed his nightly somersaults as I relaxed into bed, I had Paul, yet again, reach over to feel. And viola! Success! Paul was thrilled and so was I. Now we look forward to SEEING Junior's movements these next few months.

More news and pictures to come at a more decent hour of the day. :D

Head over heels even while sleep deprived,
tinamarie

Past the 1/2 Way Marker: 21 Weeks Today!

Today, we hit the 21 week marker and we got to see the little guy at our sono appt this afternoon. He appears to be either stubborn or bashful because he, again, would not lay face up. He was on his side, which gave the technician good enough shots of his heart, but then he returned to his face down position, showing us his beautiful spine :-) The tech said he's about 28cm long.

Sorry that we didn't get any new photos to post today. Baby boy Franks moved quite a bit, waving his arms and squirming around, as we watched him. The tech joked how it was no error that he is a boy as it was quite obvious from the images on the screen. "You just can't mistake that," she said. Thrilled to see him again, his profile, his heart beating, his movements, I wished we could take that sonogram machine home.

I was a bit frazzled, a bit stressed before we arrived and seeing this little life inside me brought about a sense of awe and calm. There is so much I cannot control; but of those things I can, I entrust to the Lord.

Well, here is a picture of me at 20.5 weeks. I'm now officially past the "are you fat or pregnant?" phase :-)


Just a young lady loved by a handsome man, both blessed with a child and learning how to entrust all to the Lord of lords.
~tina marie

Baby Franks update & a Visit from the Joneses

Baby Boy Franks
All is well with baby Franks, according to our wonderful OB/Gyn. His heartbeat was strong and from the pics from our previous sonogram appt, all is well. My belly is growing beautifully (at least Paul and I think so :-) and we're so excited to meet this little guy. We get to see him again this Thursday at our follow-up sono appt since we still need good images of his heart and to check on that low-lying placenta. More info to come.

The JONES come to Toronto
Our dear friends, Emily & Rusty, spent the week with us this past week and Paul & I had such an enjoyable time! Paul & Rusty have been working on publishing a couple of papers and spent most of the daylight hours working on those philosophical matters :-) Emily and I spent much of our time catching up, talking baby (she's a labor and delivery nurse!), shopping, and doing some cooking.

We even taught them how to play Settlers of Catan and spent 2 nights playing until about 3am! Sadly, Paul and I were poor hosts as we beat them 7 games straight. We will have to set up a re-match for a Jones redemption :-)

How quickly the week flew by as we enjoyed each other's company and cooking. Rusty made us his infamous pasta and we indulged in great food like apple pie, black bean burritos, and mozzarella & tomato sandwiches to name a few. Great company, great food, great conversation makes for a relaxing weekend with wonderful friends.

Here are some photos of our final days touring parts of Toronto with our other friends, Hugh & Cheryl. The Royal Ontario Museum is holding the Dead Sea Scrolls so we decided to check them out; pretty cool to see. The 1st pic is of Rusty, Hugh, Paul and a bust of some guy I can't remember :-) We trekked through Toronto and visited a pub called Sin & Redemption, then had dinner at a Vietnamese resto before checking out a bookstore with a really good philosophy section and hanging out at the Hunter's pad for a bit. Then are a couple pics from Niagara Falls.

We are having a ...

Here's a picture of the goods :-) The sonogram technician asked, "Do you see the turtle sticking its head out?"

And immediately, Paul raised his hands up like our Sooners just scored a touchdown against the Longhorns. This is a picture of Paul after we stepped out of the sonogram office. He was all smiles.

As of yesterday, I am 19 weeks along with a due date of January 7, 2010. The sonogram technician spent about an hour measuring his bones, internal organs and so on. Paul got to stay in the entire time and watch as the sonogram technician took all the measurements. We tried to video tape the monitor but were told that we could not because of their insurance compliance. Oh well :-)

Peanut moved quite a bit & so did the sono tech, so most of what Paul could see simply looked like a big bunch of black and white blobs. However, Paul was able to immediately see the spine & arms, the heart beating, and the brain.

At one point, Paul gasped because he saw the little guy open his mouth while moving his hand toward it. It looked like the little guy wanted to suck his thumb! Here's the picture taken after that moment. Can you see his hand, mouth & lips, and little nub of a nose?


The little guy was being a bit uncooperative with the position he was in. He was facing my back, and was laying with one arm alongside his head and the other next to/ across his body. The picture on the right looks like he's flexing, while the one on the left looks like he's just hanging out and lounging.

In this one, you can see his little body and head - chin, nose, eyes, and brain. His heartbeat was a strong 154 beats per minute.


The sonogram tech didn't get all of the measurements she needed, which means we get to come back to finish up in the next week or so. We are all for it, since we thought this may be our final sonogram until closer to his birth date.

We have one prayer request that we would like to ask of you. We're hoping the placenta will move up as this little one (and my uterus) continues to grow in the next 4-5 months. Typically, the sonogram techs like to see the placenta at least 2cm away from the cervical opening, and yesterday, mine measured at about 1cm away (considered a "low-lying placenta"). She told us that 99.9% of the time, the placenta moves as the uterus grows, so for now, there is no need to worry. All is well. Our next sonogram appointment will tell us if we'll need continued monitoring.

Paul and I feel so blessed to have such a gift! It's really exciting and we're thanking God for it all. We'll keep you posted.

Snips, snails and puppy dog tails!

Friday can't get here fast enough

I have no pictures to share yet, but I'm so impatient for Friday! We will see Peanut for our 18 week sonogram and we are going to {hopefully} find out if Peanut should have a girl or boy name! I'm hoping the kiddo will cooperate and spread 'em :-)

I'll be 19 weeks along by Friday, which is great because I'll be that much farther into the pregnancy, which means more growth is happening with kiddo!

My sister & bro-in-love got to see their little one today and they have decided to wait to find out th gender. At least we'll get to see new pictures soon!

So, I will keep you all posted with new pictures and an update this weekend.

PS. A prayer request, if you remember us. We've just reduced the price on our home in Norman, OK and hope that buyers will make offers before the end of this month. This is our 2nd summer attempt at selling this home. Thanks for your prayers!

Stratford Festival - Macbeth

On Saturday, our friends Dean & Karina, took us to the Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario where we enjoyed Macbeth at the Festival Theatre. Colm Feore, known to us as President Taylor's husband in 24, played the lead role of Macbeth, and he was fantastic!

The play was "modernized" and set in Africa, however, I wasn't too impressed with this artistic license. It was odd seeing the random African outfits when the characters were referring to "thanes" and "earls." Nevertheless, the actors and the theatre itself were amazing! I think Shakespeare would have been pleased with their performance :-)


The Festival Theatre was also surrounded by beautiful gardens. I decided to refrain from photographing all of the pretty flowers, well, because they're just flowers. Think of a beautiful garden outside of a theater, and there, that's what we saw! LOL!


Then we headed for a bite to eat. After waiting with the after-theater crowd, we finally found ourselves seated at an Italian/ Mediterranean resto called Felini's. Great food! Good service! And our dessert was yumbo! See my creme brulee above. Overall, our day in Stratford was a wonderful first-time experience and a perfect way to bring Paul's birthday week to a close. Paul and I think we may come back to watch West Side Story before the theater season curtain falls.

Ciao for now!