17 1/2 weeks

Well here I am, almost at the end of February, man, scratch that, beginning of March! I want you to know that I had great intentions to update the blog for the past three or so weeks, but isn't it amazing how those days and weeks just fly by....in some ways.

At 17 weeks, it still feels like the pregnancy is inching by...not because its awful! In fact, I love it! And I think Caleb loves it too, except I have noticed a few times so far where my hormonal, emotional thing has gotten the best of me. But anyway, I think the main reason that pregnancy seems to be inching along is because we still have 2 weeks until we find out if we are having a boy or a girl. Doesn't it seem like we should have found out by now?!

Don't worry, I tried. I had a very enlightening conversation with our OB after I begged her to do the ultrasound at 15 weeks rather than 19. My thinking: I know you can tell earlier than 19, why not take a peak...her thinking: we are not actually doing this expensive medial procedure so that you and your husband can choose colors for the nursery; we are doing them to view your baby's organs after they have developed to a certain point: 19 weeks. So apparently there are real medical reasons for placing that ultrasound just out of our reach for another couple weeks. And I guess they are more important. So I promise, two weeks from now, we will post the big news: many prayers please on March 11 that all is well with baby. The medical stuff is still a little nerve wracking for me but I am also very confident that all is great.

While we wait, Caleb and I have puchaced a few things that we are really excited about. On Valentines day, Caleb and I and another couple braved a huge crowd at the REI garage sale in hopes of finding a cheap baby backpack. We got up at 4:00 AM to sit in line with hundreds of other outdoorsy people all ready to compete for cheap, used gear (that is, we got up at 4 to get in line; many slept in tents overnight but we are just not that hard-core). If you have never been competitive shopping, let me tell you that you can't really go into it with one thing that you want to buy. It will almost never be there. The tricky thing about this sale is that REI is very sneaky. They cover all the merchandise so that you can't spend your 4 hours in line scouting out the land and planning your strategy. You have to be surprised with everyone else. So after 4 hours of cell phone Scrabble, we put our lawn chairs back in the car and lined up for the big game. At first, it wasn't looking good...didn't see a backpack anywhere. Then, like a light from Heaven, there was a metal frame sticking out of a big cardboard box. I had to wait awhile for the employee guarding the box to "release" the items inside, but thankfully, I was patient enough to desearve his grace and that employee handed it dirctly to me. There was hardly any pushing or shoving! So for an extra 4.5 hours of our lives, we bought a like-new baby pack that would have cost us $160 for about $3o. You gotta love competitive shopping!

We also have been utilizing the wonderful world of craigslist to find less expensive baby furnature. We are very excited about our new furnature in the nursery. What do you think? Boy or girl, we are doing Noah's ark as the theme...because we found this cool toy. Hey, whatever inspires you.

One of the coolest things that has happened in the last two weeks is that little Fields has started making his presence known. He has been moving a bit which took awhile to diagnose since it is easy to pass off the first movements as gas or something. Pretty sure though that we can be confident that there is actually movement and that it will only increase from here on out! I am sure that soon enough the little girggles will turn into full on grappling with my organs. what fun!