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!

Vegas with the Hovis'

We spent a wonderful weekend in Vegas with my parents over superbowl weekend. Caleb and I road tripped this time because we calculated that a 6 hour car ride was nothing compared to an hour drive to the airport + a 2 hour flight to either LA or San Francisco + a 2 hour lay-over before taking us back to Vegas where we would have to rent a car anyway. It felt much better just to drive there and pick my parents up at the airport. I can't wait until the airline industry starts making money again so we can find some direct flights. My parents are now officially professional travelors and we had the great privilage of staying at one of their resorts with them. We stayed just off the strip begind the MGM and had great rooms.

We toured many of the major casino/hotels and had a great time walking around and shopping at all the stores that house $3,000 purses. Mom and Dad graciously helped our baby from being

born with weird creases when they bought me some new maternity closes. Casey also had them bring down some of her maternity clothes...so nice to be able to share. (and so nice to be comfortable again!)

One of the many highlights was seeing the Cirque show, Misteire. It was so amazing! I highly recommend that show to anyone visiting Vegas.

Baby is doing great and it was wonderful to be able to show off my growing belly to my parents who otherwise would only be able to experience my pregnancy in pictures. I hope they will continue to be able to experience various stages of this pregnancy with Caleb and I and this was certainly a fun way to do it!

My parents had to fly out early Sunday afternoon but thankfully Caleb and I were given permission by the front desk to check out later in order to stay and watch the superbowl at the hotel! I think that deal was hingent on our willingness to sit in their bars and buy their food but Caleb and I oppted to watch in our room and order pizza instead...thankfully they didn't seem to miss us at the bar! We watched all the agonizing details of the game through the 3rd quarter and decided we'd seen enough and headed for home. Unfortunately our Cardinals picked it up in the 4th quarter when we had less than stellar radio reception. We did jump out of the car and into a sports bar in the middle of nowhere just in time to see the Card's 4th quarter comeback...which was immediately followed by the Steelers 4th quarter comback...so we got on the road again. Not the best way to end the game...for us or the Cardinals, but oh well, Caleb and I have only been their #1 fans for this playoff season anyway! Maybe next year, guys!

Mom and Dad, thank you so much for a great time this weekend and for your incredible love and support! You are already the greatest grandparents in the world to those beautiful girls of ours and I am so thrilled to see you love our baby as well!

We have a heartbeat!

Well, about two weeks ago, we got to hear baby's heart beat. I am approaching 14 weeks and it was around 12 that we got to hear our little one's beating heart. It was a little scary at first...Caleb and I were very hopeful that we would hear that unmistakable, wonderful sound immediately. However, it was like a minute in to the nurse's search that she informed us that if we didn't hear it (not to worry!) we'd just go ahead and do an ultrasound again. NOT TO WORRY!? You gotta be kidding me, Lady! Caleb and I both started praying and I for one was thinking "lady, you better find that heartbeat because I don't think my frazzled emotions can take that kind of walk to the ultrasound room". Thankfully within another minute or so (or 2 hours if you were Caleb or me) our wonderful nurse found the little guy hiding down low! Baby's heartbeat was one of the coolest sounds I have ever heard! When she first found it I burst out laughing (all that nervous energy) and she had to find it all over again, except this time without all the dramatics. We had what we needed: confirmation that our child has a heart and it is beating just perfectly. What a wonderful day that was. Last I heard baby's facial features were well underway to forming and he/she was about the size of a peach. On Wednesday I should get all my new email updates (which seems to be all the reading I have time for these days). One of these days I am going to finish all the baby type books that I have started but until then I am very thankful for several very parsimonious paragraphs via email that give me cute little snippets about baby Field's progress without all the details about all the things that could go wrong this week.

Caleb and I are doing well and certainly full of expectation about all that parenting will bring. We have not gotten any farther on the nursery project because we are still using the baby's room as a staging area for all the stuff we plan on getting rid of at this year's church rummage sale...so that we can then fill it back up with other people's old stuff that we acquire from this year's church rummage sale that hopefully will look better and be more useful to our child that our old stuff.

We also have wonderful friend's who have graciously taken Shep for us over the last two weekends that Caleb and I have been out of town. Unfortunately they have noticed some "acting out" behaviors in our dog that seem to symbolize Shep's distaste for our recent life changes. Hopefully he will get used to the idea that he is slipping in the priority scale a wee bit as our attentions are taken away from his every whim. Actually, I am pretty sure that Shep has no idea that I am pregnant (or at least he is not letting on) so he must just hate the fact that we keep going out of town without him. Not to worry, Shep, with a little one on the way, our traveling days may be good and over for a while. I can't help but think how well this baby thing is going to work out for Shep...Caleb and I will both be working more from home and he will have a little buddy to play with...we'll just have to keep a closer eye on all our pillows and valuables until the dog realizes that we are on his side!

this week's adventures...

Okay, I am NOT complaining, but I have to say; I feel like I have been in the middle of some kind of weird social experiment the last couple of days. It really is true that people get so excited about pregnancy that they completely lose their ability to filter their thoughts before they commit them to words. For instance, no less than two people (in two days) have told me that they can see my pregnancy...in my face! And I don't think they were talking about my glow. And then a counter clerk at Sprouts told me that I look "5 months pregnant". Of course I said thank you and I am definately not trying to hide pregnancy...in fact, I am constantly negotiating the fine line between wanting to flaunt it (by wearing maternity clothes whether I need them or not) and still trying to hide the fact that I am pregnant from my clients. But still, who wants to hear that their face is the first to show? And I am a little concerned about what I might look like when I am 9 mo. pregnant if I am already looking 5...has anyone ever looked 11 months pregnant?...I guess we might find out! That over-zealous clerk even told me that she predicts I am having a boy (Caleb was all to happy to hear that) because when SHE was pregnant with HER son, she showed "all over" but only showed in her tummy with her girl. THANKS. So I really love being pregnant, and aside from trying not to turn "eating for two" into "eating for two linebackers" the comments really don't bother me...it is just amazing to me that people make them. Anyway so much for the social experiment. Honestly I don't think I have gained very many actual pounds. (I will find out tomorrow at my appointment). Here are some pictures so you can see for yourself. PLEASE, someone who loves me-let me know if I really need to tone down the quesadilla consumption. Until then, I will assume that my new friend was just misguided. She also called me beautiful....maybe after she realized what had come out moments earlier!

So that's that. I really am showing. I do think more than usual for 11 weeks. I just got my fit pregnancy update for the start of my 11th week so here are all the new nuggets I have since learned about our little one. He has a noggin that still makes up for 50% of his body mass and his liver and kidneys are starting to work. Apparently "work" means that he now pees...The miracle of this whole thing is so amazing, and yucky...I'll spare you the details. I am learning so much about pregnancy...and they call me a pregnancy "specialist"...I just figured out that I have a lot to learn in my chosen trade. My hope is that my own pregnancy and parenting experience will make me a much better pregnancy counselor, but so far it just seems to make me more emotional! Speaking of babies...I have had some amazing work stories in the last two weeks and extra opportunities to hold beautiful newborns. One even made me start hoping for a girl!

Caleb is still on a wee bit of a health kick-which is great and fully supported by his wife of course-except he tends to be a bit extreme when he sets his mind to something. I'm not sure if you knew that, Becky! So far, I have seen calorie-counters, colon cleansers, at least 8 different "healthy" teas, and a few new recipies that I don't think we will be recommending including his Kei Lime/Avocado pie which although is "all natural health food" still has approximately 4,000 calories in it. We decided that all those calories are "good fats" that are really only good for you if you are a vegan who doesn't eat enough protein and walks to work everyday. It has been quite entertaining for me and several friends as we watch my husband shed a few pounds. In Caleb's defence, he has never told me that my face is fat! And come to think of it, I have heard not one person comment on his fat face in recent days...hmmm... maybe there is something to avocado pie after all.

Fields holiday at home

We have had a great holiday! It was quiet as we stayed in the SW so I could be on call for work and Caleb could help out with our Christmas services at church. We spent what hopefully will be the only Christmas for some time without family present. Thankfully we have great friends in AZ who allow us to crash their parties as long as Caleb is willing to make his famous cheesecake. Aside from having a great time with our friends, we also got a very important lesson about not planning too many holiday parties into one day! As of yet, we had not learned this lesson since the sides of our families live too far away (when we are in the NW) to travel to both in one day. So I am sure that many of you can relate when I say that I am thankful to learn, before baby comes, that planning for our personal Christmas at home and two different parties for the same day is just a little taxing. It wouldn't have been so bad except we left the first party a little late to get to the second party...and on the way I remembered that I was supposed to bring a veggie tray to the second party. Which I completely forgot about since baby is not yet craving broccoli and of course there are no grocery stores open on Christmas. Thankfully, we were quickly forgiven and I blamed the whole thing on "pregnancy brain." So aside from working and playing this Christmas and New Year, we made time for a little "nesting." Here is just a quick update since the last post about the growing Fields family this holiday season.

There really is something to the idea of nesting. Not that we have a choice. I mentioned in my last post that we have to purge our tiny house of a lot of very important accumulations so that we can use one of our three bedrooms as a nursery. It is astounding how many things you can fill up every available space with until you realize you started out with a purpose for that space in the first place. So here we are...one success ready for publication: We have somehow combined our, once separate two extra rooms, which consisted of an office and a guest room, into one room...which now looks very much like a dorm room. Here is a picture so you can see our handy work with a shoe horn!

We have also found time to be active over the last several weeks! It is a wonderful 70 degrees in Mesa now that we've gotten past our two weeks of actual winter (lows of 35 and highs of 60). I know this sounds like bragging since most of the people reading this are still getting plumitted with snow and ice in the NW, but I promise it will sound nothing like bragging when I am 9 months pregnant this July and it's 120 degrees outside! You can laugh then...

So we are back to our routine of hiking, biking and walking. We decided we could really use an overhall in our activity level since I continue to crave quesadillas (not a pregnancy craving, I have craved these for years) and Caleb has decided that it just isn't cool to have a bigger belly than your pregnant wife! Here are some pictures of our recent conquests: Caleb and Shep even climbed Superstition Mountain on the day after Chistmas, a feat only attained by shear will-power and determination! We were very proud of his 3,700 ft elevation gain that afternoon! I didn't go (thank you, Lord!) mostly because I had to work. Not that I would have attempted anything of the sort...even 9 weeks pregnant...geez guys.

Lastly according to the millions of email updates I am getting from every pregnancy magazine in the world, Baby Fields now has a strong enough neck to lift his/her head up off his/her chest, is still around the size of a shrimp, has facial features, arms and legs, and has started developing the "private" parts (which we are very much hoping he/she does not choose to keep private 10 weeks from now). Speaking of he/she and how annoying it is to keep doing that....Our niece, Isabelle is now firmly convinced that we have a baby girl in here. Of course, she is a girl and has a baby sister, so her spectrom of experience is somewhat limited. I am very excited to find out!

Hope you all had a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

From the beginning...

Here's how our wonderful story begins: We've been trying to have a baby for a couple of years; but month after month, no pregnancy. We spoke with doctors, got poked and prodded, timed, counted, scheduled, etc. Then we counted some more, checked our calendar, used ovulation kits, took pregnancy tests...and time after time were met with disappointment.

In June, a friend (who is also trying to have a baby) and I decided it was time to enlist the help of our Lord...not that I hadn't been praying my socks off already; but we decided to step it up a notch by praying and fasting together for six months while expecting God to perform a miracle in our bodies. We gave up the pregnancy no-no's (including our beloved coffee) and got on our knees. We prayed with expectation for months hoping that God would answer our prayers by December 2008 (since we were firmly committed to drinking a glass of wine and cup of coffee at the same time if we were not pregnant by Jan. 1). Caleb and I had wonderfully relaxing vacations to Portland and Hawaii in August and October...but no pregnancy.

As Thanksgiving approached, I started a new fertility drug and continued to pray. We drove to Newport with some friends and spent the four-day holiday on a 32-foot sailboat with eight on board. Yes, we all slept on-board and shared one motor home-style bathroom. Even more than praying for pregnancy on that trip, I prayed that my dreaded period would not start while we were on that boat. Strangely, it didn't, but Caleb and I knew better than to hope upon hope that we were finally pregnant. We waited until we had been safely on land and back home for several days before braving the pregnancy test. Finally, on December 2, I mustered my courage once again. I had gotten used to waiting patiently for disappointment, but have learned (again) that all things are possible with Christ! We were pregnant, and decidedly so! We hugged, we cried, we laughed, we freaked out, we called everyone we knew....and so on. Then I pulled out my trusty pregnancy wheel and calculated my due date as August 4! What a great day! Our God is so faithful (and the fertility drugs are alright, too)!

So, I am, at the start of this blog, 8 weeks pregnant. We've already had two ultrasounds; (probably because I am irrationally nervous and fairly persuasive). And we are completely overjoyed! We have started the daunting task of purging our tiny 1100 sf home so that we can squeeze in a nursery (decorated in blue if my husband's and father's dreams come true). We have also run up a huge phone bill connecting with everyone we know to share our good tidings! We are loving every minute of this baby thing (since we don't have a baby yet and I have yet to experience anything really even approaching morning sickness). Life is good.

I hope to update this blog with pictures weekly for all who live too far away for me to request that you rub my tummy every day! So far, we have a "fuzzy jelly-bean" like ultrasound photo which we've decided bear a striking resemblance to Caleb! Sorry Caleb.

Enjoy the blog!