The Baby's Room

Due to popular demand (well, the request of one of our mothers), we thought we would post some pictures showing how we are fitting the baby's items into our new house. We put the pictures into a web album for you to look at. Enjoy!

37 Weeks Tomorrow!

We had our first doctor's appointment in 5 weeks today. I had gotten a little nervous that it was so long between appointments at this stage of my pregnancy, but things seem to be progressing right on schedule. The baby's heartbeat was in the 130s, lower than it had been at our previous appointments...apparently that is natural given I only have a few weeks left. The doctor asked if I have been feeling any contractions since our last appointment...I didn't think I had. After closer examination, it appears as if my body is preparing for child birth and I may have had a few mild Braxton Hicks contractions without knowing it. Can labor be that easy too?! :)

Fashion Show

Diaper bags: functional for her, but stylish for him:

Scientific gender prediction

In conversations, we found that many people believe our previous methods for predicting the gender of our baby flimsy and prone to error. Laura's coworkers used this as an opportunity to provide us with a foolproof prediction method. We put it to the test and captured it on video. Here are the results. Enjoy!

Profile: Starting to drop

Well, the baby is getting so big that Laura's belly is starting to droop down a little bit, instead of just sticking straight out. With that in mind, we figured it was time for another update on how Laura's looking:

Active Weekend

Bean was quite active this past weekend. Not only was Bean kicking/punching its mommy dearest, but was pressing so hard that Owen could see my belly move! I was able to feel Bean's extremities through my belly...I think I felt a foot and a knee move across my belly at one time or another. I wanted to grab a hold of Bean's little foot, but didn't want to disrupt a baby at play. I'm looking forward to May when I can hold this little one and see all its body parts that have bumping up against me this past weekend (and I'm sure the weekends to come).

Necklace Prediction

One of my co-workers has had some success in the past being able to predict the sex and number of children a person is going to have by tapping & hanging a necklace over a the person's wedding hand. Yesterday she gave it a try on me, and the results are...4 children in total, first 2 are girls, second 2 are boys. She showed more skeptical co-workers today at lunch and the results were the same. Another co-worker wanted to give it a try and see if it would yield the same results, and the necklace continued to say 4 children, first 2 being girls, second 2 being boys. So, if the necklace is right, we will be welcoming a daughter to our family in just a few short months!

Only 88 days to go!

I need to pay attention to the countdown. The plan was for a wonderful "t-minus 100 days until the due date" post, but that's gone down the tubes. I guess that just under three months will be good enough.

"Bean"

Owen has been enjoying my nickname for the baby this past weekend. I've come to call it "Bean". I know this might sound a little odd, but there is a story behind it. When I was young, my Grandma Bongers would always throw a jelly bean in the bottom of our ice cream cones. I would then sit on the back porch with my cousins and we would guess which color she had given us (I always hoped for red), but we would never find out until we finished the cone.

I now find my self in a similar situation. Everyone is guessing if we are having a boy or girl. We will just have to wait the 9 months to find out what color we will bring the baby home in...blue or pink (this time I don't have a preference)! So, there you have it, Bean Yaklin. :)

For Cyndi:

You wanted a new post on the blog, with a picture. Here you go.