Christmas and such

Well, I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas!

Our first Christmas as a married couple was completely wonderful, although somewhat exhausting (who knew the combination of having a million places to go, stress of traveling, and being pregnant could make you so tired?!?!). I was ready for bed by 6pm! I cannot imagine what next year will be like with a 9ish month old baby in tow, even though I can't wait to find out! Even so, all I could think about this Christmas was Max and how blessed we are to be looking forward to his birth and the years to come. I just love our family so very much, and I can't wait to see what this new addition will hold for all of us :)

I just thought I would share some pictures from our first Christmas as "The Brown's"...enjoy!

All of my siblings, plus Nick and Chelsea on Christmas Eve at my parents'

Me and Max in front of the Christmas tree at my parents'

snow! Max's "first Christmas" was definitely a white one! This picture was taken at Granny's

December 17th Ultrasound

We are so very thankful that even though this pregnancy hasn't exactly been completely normal (but then again, what pregnancy IS normal?) God has really been watching over us and baby Max.

Our second ultrasound of many was on Friday, and we will be having one every 4 weeks from now until Max is born to keep track of his weight gain and development (if you are out of the loop you can catch up here).

The really good news? He is still perfect :) Right now he weighs about 1lb 10oz and is right on track with development. His estimated weight puts him in the 65th percentile for his "age", which is amazing. I couldn't be happier! It was really interesting to see how much he has changed over the past 6 weeks or so, even to the untrained eye. It was also neat to see him move on the ultrasound and be able to really feel him move at the same time.

I love that sweet little boy already...more than I ever imagined I could.

The next time I go to the doctor will be January 13th, and I will be having another ultrasound, along with my glucose tolerance screening. In the mean time, keep praying that baby Max keeps up the growing, and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

23 Week OB Appointment

I just got back from the doctor, and everything is great :)

After our ultrasound I was pretty worried about the umbilical cord abnormalities they found, despite Dr. Taavon assuring me everything was going to be fine. So I came back today with lots of questions (of course). He explained to me that they were worried about Max being smaller than average (which he is not right now), but he also said that from his experience this is not usually the case. Almost all of these babies are born with no complications and their weight and development is within normal ranges. Thank God! During the last appointment he had also mentioned to me that I would likely be induced early, around 38-39 weeks, so I asked him about that as well. He told me that we would keep an eye on Max to see if he should be delivered earlier than my due date, but that his main concern was that I should be delivered BY my due date. He said that hopefully I can go into labor by then on my own, which would allow me to use less medication during the delivery (definitely my preference).

The really awesome thing about today is that I really was not nervous going into my appointment. Now that I can feel Max moving around a lot more I am much more certain that they will be able to find his heartbeat and that everything is okay.