You Know You're Close When...

...the expiration date on your gallon of milk is later than your due date.  Come on out, Katie Witmer!

Getting Ready!

This nesting thing is not a joke! Many momma animals work hard to prepare special places for their babies and I've experienced first-hand that pregnant women really do have the same instincts! Since we knew that we were moving to Media for Andrew to take the fellowship at Penn I have been thinking about how we were going to decorate our little girl's nursery. I knew we had to get creative because 1. we are renting and didn't have the option of painting (the room is white) 2. we were given a wonderful white changing table (thank you, Brissetts!!) so we had to coordinate around that and 3. it is a very small space (don't get me wrong, we are so grateful that we even have a room for her but it is pretty small).

We found the bedding first and used those colors (dark pink, light pink and brown) to come up with the rest. I have a particular fondness for the color pink and for polka dots so I was so excited when we found the baskets for the changing table. To bring some color to the walls we went to a craft store and bought blank canvases, wooden letters, and paint to spell out KATIE above her crib. For the other wall we ordered a pink wall decal of a Bible verse (Zeph. 3:17) that we chose for her from Etsy.com.

This post wouldn't be complete without a sincere THANK YOU to everyone who has been so generous to us. This season of our lives has been marked with many feelings (joy, anxiety, anticipation, etc) but one of the biggest ones has been gratitude for the overwhelming kindness and generosity of our family and friends. Thank you particularly to my parents and Andrew's parents for all you've done to help put together the nursery. We think it all looks so cute and can't wait for the final, most exciting piece to arrive- our little girl!!

Mom and Leanne came for a visit (I'm just about at 38 weeks)!

Verse above the changing table

Our little craft project to bring some color to the walls

All ready for our little girl to arrive!

Is There a Doula in the House?

There has indeed been a doula in our house for the past two Saturday mornings.  Doulas are birth coaches who help guide women through labor and delivery (the word is from the ancient Greek for "woman's servant").  Heidi Weaver, who works as a doula in the Philadelphia area, has spent about four hours with us over the past couple weekends, helping us get ready for Katie's birth.  It's been really helpful to learn more about what to expect.  Maureen is hoping for a natural birth, and Heidi has given us lots of advice about how to make that more likely.  We're not going to have a doula with us in the hospital, as some of our friends have done, but we are really glad to have known Heidi and grateful for her help.  By the way, even though you may not be able to tell from the photo below, Maureen is only three weeks from her due date!

Pregnancy Pro and Con

Let me begin by saying that there are no real "cons" to being pregnant. I mean, who can complain when God chooses to intervene in your life by blessing you with one of life's greatest miracles? But pregnancy is 9 months filled with many physical and emotional changes. One minute you're ecstatic because you felt your little one move and the next you're crying because of the commercial you heard on the radio. Many of you have experienced these highs and lows but for those of you who haven't yet here is (from my experience) what you have to look forward to:

Cons-

• Aching back, legs and feet from lugging around the extra weight
• Dribbling toothpaste on your belly when you're brushing your teeth in the morning
• Feeling your child kick your ribs throughout the day
  
• A good night's sleep is almostly certainly interrupted by numerous trips to the bathroom
• Thinking about the labor- Will the pain be unbearable? Will everything go smoothly? How will I know it's time to go to the hospital?
  
• Random strangers coming up to you and sharing their stories (like the woman who told me that the epidural numbed her from the waist up instead of the waist down, or the woman who stopped me in the Target parking lot to tell me that the doctors didn't numb her enough and she felt the whole C-Section...not very encouraging)

Pros (and please take note that there are far more pros than cons)-

• Hearing your child's heartbeat for the first time. Amazing.
• You're always deserving of a good backrub
• You have an excuse to eat whatever you want (but honey, the baby needs this ice cream! It's calcium!)
• People treat you differently and are especially kind. Almost anyone will go out of their way to hold the door for you and today my hairdresser wouldn't accept my tip! She said that it was an early birthday present for Katie!
• Cute pregnancy clothes
  
• Seeing your family's and friends' excitement about your child. My little sister Leanne is constantly touching, kissing, taking pictures of, and talking to my belly! I love it!
  
• The first ultrasound where you can see her little hands and feet. I could not stop crying with joy.
• Feeling her move throughout the day
• Buying adorable little girl dresses
  
• Thinking about and praying about what she's going to be like, what she's going to look like, what she's going to be passionate about, etc.
  
• Nicer skin and thicker hair
  
• Feeling the constant love and support of family and friends through prayers, phone calls, emails, baby showers, etc.
• Thinking about the labor- we get to meet and hold our little girl for the first time!
  

Thanks for walking beside us through this joyous time. We are so grateful for you!

Katie's ultrasound- 19 weeks

28 weeks/ 6 1/2 months pregnant

36 weeks/ 8 months pregnant

Cousins in Virginia

Welcome to our blog!

Since we are a few weeks away (just about 3) from the arrival of our daughter we thought it was time to start a blog to keep everyone up to date on "what our Katie did" and is doing. It seems appropriate for this first entry to be about the beginning of this wonderful journey. Andrew and I had been praying about, talking about, and thinking a lot about when we wanted to start our family. We were thinking that since we are still living year to year, not knowing where/when/if Andrew will get a job as a professor it would be best to wait until we were settled.

But remember Isaiah 55:8-10? It says, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." So although we were surprised on that day in early March when we saw the little plus sign on the pregnancy test, this was not a surprise to God; He had better plans for us than we could have planned for or imagined. His ways are so good!

We knew about 4 weeks before we told anyone, so we had some time to plan how we wanted to share the news with our families. It was the first grand baby on my side (and I'm much less creative than my crafty husband) so I decided that I was going to tell my parents and sisters on the phone by asking them if they were ready to be grandparents or an aunt. Oh how I wish we could have done it in person! But we were still living 5 hours away and I couldn't wait any longer to share our big news...even 8 weeks was a stretch!

For Andrew's family he had the wonderful idea of using a photo of his two nephews who had just met and adding a third picture of an 8 week old fetus since we didn't have a sonogram picture yet. We posted the picture on our refrigerator and took a series of shots from a distance and then closer and closer (see below) to keep them guessing as to what was added to the picture. We sent it in a carefully crafted email entitled "Cousins in Virginia." As soon as we pressed send we called them and they opened it while we were on the phone. We interrupted his parents' dinner and his dad said something like, "This better be good!" They opened the attachments and at the second or third one Andrew's mom said, "Is Maureen on the phone?" She got it pretty quickly! Stephen and Emma and Tim and Amy (Andrew's brothers and their wives) also caught on right away. We then called Grandpa and Grandma Witmer. Grandma said, "What is that? Bread? A piece of cheese?!" "No," we laughed, "That's not cheese. That's our baby!"

It was great fun to tell everyone and it will be even more fun to introduce her to everyone!