Our Little Ear of Corn

The OB appointment this month was special because of the little heartbeat again (145 bpm), but other than that there is nothing to report. All is looking well, and we get closer and closer to meeting our little one everyday. It's been so exciting feeling her move around. We can feel her kick on the outside too which is getting stronger each day.

24 weeks

See the big picture

How your baby's growing:

Your baby's growing steadily, having gained about 4 ounces since last week. That puts him at just over a pound. Since he's almost a foot long (picture an ear of corn), he cuts a pretty lean figure at this point, but his body is filling out proportionally and he'll soon start to plump up. His brain is also growing quickly now, and his taste buds are continuing to develop. His lungs are developing "branches" of the respiratory "tree" as well as cells that produce surfactant, a substance that will help his air sacs inflate once he hits the outside world. His skin is still thin and translucent, but that will start to change soon.

Peter's 1/2 b-day

Peter was born the day after Christmas so growing up he got to celebrate his 1/2 birthday in June. It has been fun to carry on this tradition. We had a very nice dinner at The Captain's Cabin in Temecula. Tracy is not a mushroom fan, but we had stuffed mushrooms for an appetizer, and she liked them very much.

After dinner we went to see UP in 3-D. We had a good time, and really enjoyed the movie. The story was not at all what we were expecting. it was romantic, and action packed. Tracy cried at least twice, but that gave us the opportunity to cuddle. :)

Fathers Day '09

This year for Father's Day we decided to give them pictures with us from the wedding.

Great pic with Pop and Peter.

Tracy and her dad.

We had a great time celebrating Father's Day with Pop in the morning and at church, and with Dad Z at their house in the afternoon.

Happy Father's Day you two!

Fun With Family

Monday the 15th Hope and her girls (Abigail and Alice) came down for an overnight visit. They helped me decorate a cake for dessert, and we had a lot of fun playing games with them. When Peter got home, I got dinner ready while game time continued. I think Disney Bingo was the favorite.

Alice is there in the background. She and Hope helped decorate the cake too. Clearly I need to get the camera out more.

Abigail loves her toothbrush. She was so excited to come out and demonstrate how it works.

Tuesday, after Peter left for work, the rest of us went for a walk. (Did I remember to bring the camera?) I even took Molly and Jispy. We all went to the park near our house, and the girls had fun playing on the playground. We have a little spike that we twist into the ground to anchor the dogs so we don't have to hold onto them the whole time. It was a very relaxing morning.

For lunch Peter was able to meet us at Sharkey's for Pizza and a buffet. We had a great visit, and hope they all come again soon.

Saturday was Alice's b-day, so we packed up Molly and headed north. Here she is opening her card from us with a gift card to Build-A-Bear. Now she can get more outfits for her kitty that she built recently.

Alice loves kitties so Hope found this great cake idea. All week Alice was saying she was having a poop cake. It was very cute.

We loved visiting everyone in Fillmore. We stayed the night up there and were able to give Pop his Father's day gift in the morning. Hope and the girls came over too with their gifts for him. Spring and Brian have been working diligently on their home, and making improvements, etc. It is coming along very nicely. For church, went on to One At A Time church and are so bummed to have forgotten to bring in the camera once again. Levi came too and I'm sure it was special for Pop to have both his sons there for Father's Day. They also had about 15 or so visitors from Texas, who are on a missions trip to help out in Downtown L.A. for the week. It was a great service, and nice to have such a full house for the Lord's day.

After Church we went to Tracy's parent's house to celebrate Father's Day and her mom's b-day with them. We had a blast playing in the pool with the niece and nephew.

Even Grandma Pat got in, which is very rare.

Tracy showing off her baby belly.

Jon and Steph brought these water guns for the "kids" to play with in the pool. We all had a blast using them.

Mom and Dad Z in the jacuzzi.

Mom and Grandma Pat. Just thought this was a cute shot of them with their hats on.

Mom loves Stargate SG-1, so this year we got her season 6.

It was a very fun but exhausting weekend.

Even Molly would agree with that. She slept most of the way home. That doesn't look like a comfortable position to me, but when I took the jar of honey away, she looked sad, so I put it back.

June 5th, Ultrasound

Today we went for our ultrasound appointment. We were so excited to see if our baby would let us see his/her gender. If you're not familiar with how these things go, they lay you down on the table, and put this goop on your tummy and then smear it around with this instrument that they press into your tummy. As they do that, precious little images of the baby appear on the screen. After they took several measurement of the head and brain, legs and arms etc., she asked if we wanted to find out the gender. YES, of course. After a moment of silent anticipation, she said, "it's a girl". Peter asked her how certain she was, hoping for a percentage. She said she'd bet on it. "All I see between the legs are lines". There was nothing to indicate that it might be a boy. It was difficult for us to see what she seemd to be so sure of. We are very excited to be having a little girl.To the right is her head. It looks like she's blowing bubbles, but those are her fingers, just to the left of her little nose. You can clearly see her spine in this shot, and that little nob on top of her belly, looks like either her knee, or maybe her little toes. Tough to tell. The sound on this machine wasn't working, or hooked up, but the heartbeat was 145. The technician said all looked well and that we should come back in 6 weeks to be sure she is growing at a normal rate.

Check the side for continued growth of our little one.

19 weeks, 5 days

We went to the OB today for our monthly visit. She let us hear the heartbeat again, which is always our favorite prat. She also mentioned that I need to be sure I'm getting enough water. We had a one liter bottle with us, and I said I tried to drink one or two of them a day. To that she said, unless we wanted to end up in the hospital at 24 weeks with early contractions, you better drink about a gallon a day. WHOA! I was having a hard time getting in just 8 glasses, now she wants me to drink 16. YIKES!

Your pregnancy: 19 weeks

See the big picture

How your baby's growing:

Your baby's sensory development is exploding! Her brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. Some research suggests that she may be able to hear your voice now, so don't be shy about reading aloud, talking to her, or singing a happy tune if the mood strikes you.

Your baby weighs about 8 1/2 ounces and measures 6 inches, head to bottom — about the size of a large heirloom tomato. Her arms and legs are in the right proportions to each other and the rest of her body now. Her kidneys continue to make urine and the hair on her scalp is sprouting. A waxy protective coating called the vernix caseosa is forming on her skin to prevent it from pickling in the amniotic fluid.

See what your baby looks like this week.

Mother's Day

We decided to surprise Mom Holladay this year, so we packed up our beagle, Molly, and headed out for downtown L.A. to join them for church. Pop surprised her too by sending one of church his members out to buy her some lovely yellow roses. His message was really good too, about living up to our full potential. We can't fully live for God until we surrender our entire life to Him. It was a good challenge. It is difficult for us to let go of things. There always seems to be so much in this life that we tend to hold onto. It was a good reminder. Tracy finished off by singing "I surrender All".

After church we all went back to Mom and Pop's house for dinner. We had a great time!