Head's DOWN!

I can't believe we have already made it 35 weeks with this little "bun" in my oven. The last couple have seemed a little slower, I think because I am starting to feel pretty uncomfortable. Sleeping, and eating, and breathing are all getting a little harder. I know the next couple of weeks are going to fly though. Michael and I celebrated our anniversary last night because the 23rd we are celebrating his dad's 50th birthday, and we were both saying how crazy it is that Luke is going to be here so soon!!!

We had an ultrasound yesterday to check on all of Luke's measurements since I was measuring a little small, and everything looks fantastic. He is head down (thank you Jesus), weighs approximately 5 1/2 pounds, and even has a tiny bit of hair. :) I'm thinking it's brown but who knows. I can't even tell you how relieved I am that he is head down. After they said I was measuring small I was worried that he was laying sideways since that can make your fundal height measure short, but praise Jesus the first thing we saw was a big ole noggin when she placed the wand on my belly!

We are headed to celebrate Christmas with Michael's family. My family's off to Telluride to hit the slopes. My big ole belly wouldn't make it there this year. Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas celebrating the birth of our Savior Jesus!

lemonade by paula warren...

I got the neatest gift from one of Michael's best friend's moms for the shower and I have been meaning to post some pictures of it. Paula Warren is an interior decorator and has quite a knack for creatively painting things. She recently started a home design and finishing business. I'll let the chair speak for itself but she paints all sorts of things (chairs, lamps, tables, book shelves, paper towel and napkin holders, coat racks, etc). For our wedding present we got the coolest broom (and because of it I love to sweep). Her website is "currently under construction" but has the essential information to get in touch with her.

http://www.makelemonade.biz/

Lemonade.Paula@gmail.com

Playing "House"

I got the stroller that matches Luke's car seat this weekend and after wrestling with it and Michael not reading the directions we figured out how to snap the car seat in. The rest of the night I wouldn't sit still because I was too busy strolling around with my "baby." I told Michael this is what little girls dream of when they are playing "house." He laughed but he too will learn one day if a little girl is in the plan for us. :)

I had another appointment today. It seems like I'm always in that office these days. I have another one in two weeks and then we start going every week until little Lukester is here! :) She scheduled me to have one more ultrasound in the next week or so!! I wonder how big he's gotten? We will see. I am measuring a little small so the doctor said he may already be dropping! This is all becoming quite the reality.

Really we couldn't be more ready. The nursery is almost 100% complete, and boy are our hearts ready to love on this baby! I asked Michael the other night if he missed Luke when I was away from him. He kind of brushed it off, but I know he does.

Showered with Love...

I had been looking forward to Sunday for so long and now it's already come and gone. Ten wonderful women from the Woodlands (both my friend's moms and Michael's) gave the sweetest baby shower for me and Luke (well Michael too although he wasn't really invited). I was excited about all of the gear but more than that it was just so sweet how many friends of mine, my mom's, and Kellie's that came to love on us. I don't think we are going to be needing much of anything else! :)

I didn't get emotional at the shower (although my eyes do look a little red in all of the pictures), but the Lord has certainly been doing a work on my heart lately. I feel as though I could just burst with love at any minute. I have always considered myself a sensitive and emotional girl (not ready to call myself a woman just yet) but this baby making thing brings on a whole new meaning to those words. I just feel so honored that the Lord has chosen Michael and me to raise one of His precious children. I just can't wait to meet him.



Our apartment looks like we had a baby gear explosion. Now I'm in even more serious nesting mode. I'm trying to take it easy because I have been alot more physically tired but there's just so much I want to do. I will put up a picuture of the finished nursery hopefully after this weekend. For now, look at the explosion that occured.


The swing was one of my favorite presents. I can't hardly stand waiting to have little Luke sit in it. For the time being I have a stand-in. :) I want his name to be Lovey. Another sweet thing the hostesses did was ask everyone to bring a book to start Luke's library. I loved that!

We're getting ready for our little Cowboy!

Happy belated Thanksgiving. Hope everyone had a great holiday. This Thanksgiving caught me off guard a little. I have been thinking the holidays were a long way off because Luke's arrival seems forever away, but it's NOT! I just logged into the blog and it said 59 days till your due date and I think my heart skipped a beat.

We had a wonderful last Thanksgiving without Luke (although I wish he were here already). It is my grandparent's 65 anniversary on December 4th, so all 50 or so relatives on my dad's side of the family were here to celebrate. We had a great time and Saturday night was really special (when we had the anniversary celebration.)

Michael and I have been busy getting Luke's room ready. I love being in there so much I eat my cereal sitting in the rocker every morning. :) Kellie (Michael's mom) came and stenciled a verse on the wall and it looks awesome! I have always heard mother's have a nesting instinct and that it kicks in towards the end of pregnancy, this thing is serious y'all. I am washing blankets and sheets, scrubbing the bathtub. I even bought a few boxes of diapers the other day and Michael thought I was crazy. It's not too early - I told him. He's going to be here so soon.

I have a doctor's appointment Thursday (32 weeks) and although they say babies generally turn head down between 32-36 weeks I am really hoping Luke decides to turn earlier rather than later. I am pretty sure he's laying sideways right now, so at least he doesn't have to make a 180. But, it would just put my heart at ease if he were in the correct position so we don't even have to worry about what to do if he's breech.

I Love Ice Cream!

I have good news. My tests for gestational diabetes and preeclampsia both came back normal!! Yay. I have been worried but the nurse called two days ago and said everything came back negative. After being told I had a little sugar in my urine (sorry if that's gross) at my 24 week appointment I have been trying to be good about the amount of sugar I've been eating just in case. But now I can eat TCBY chocolate yogurt with reese's peanut butter cups with no regrets!! :) So thank you for your prayers!

I've been meaning to post pictures from Halloween. I got one of the expanding belly. (I'll do that when I get home). Michael's medical school has a party each year with a costume contest. Last year he and his friends went all out and were the whole "Karate Kid" crew and won the contest.
This year they one up-ed that and did American Gladiators. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, but it was pretty hilarious. And they won again!! Not only do they get bragging rights, but $400! My costume was a "Pregnant Soccer Mom." Why didn't I win?? Surprisingly most people got it without asking. Next year we'll have a little pumpkin to dress up! I am oh so ready!

We've made it 29 weeks today! Time is just flying by. Next week we're going to celebrate because 30 seems like quite a milestone. My celebration will be including ice cream for sure! Have I told you I've been craving ice cream? :) Don't worry though- I won't let this get out of control.

An oldie but a goodie...

It's been a while since I've posted. Michael told me the other day that I should post something new, but I guess I've just felt like there's nothing too exciting to post about.

Things are still going smooth as can be. Luke's kicking like crazy. This morning at church I swear he was trying to push his way out of my side. He hasn't figured out yet that punching and kicking is not going to get him out any earlier. If nothing else, he's certainly making it known that he is starting to feel cramped.

I have a regular doctors appointment on Tuesday (I really look forward to those)! They are doing some routine testing for gestational diabetes. Although not a huge issue, I have a been a little nervous about it, so if you could pray that those tests would come back negative I would greatly appreciate it!! " The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them." Psalm 34:17

Other than that, we have begun turning "Michael's study" into a nursery over the past few weeks. Part of me was sad to see the huge (and I mean huge) desk go after seeing Michael spend all those hours sitting there, but we are beginning a new chapter and I can't wait! We assembled the crib (gracias Mom and Dad) and thanks to my sweet TriDelt friends in New York, we already have the cutest cowboy bedding all set and ready. Michael seems to think the hog head that currently resides in there goes perfectly with the theme and should stay when Luke comes. I am having second thoughts.

Here is an ultrasound picture from the appointment where we found out it was a BOY. He's grown quite a bit since this but I finally got this one formatted so you could actually see it. How cute is that big yawn and the roundest little head you've ever seen?

Baby Moon!

The last couple of weeks have been crazy with travel for us and I have been meaning to post pictures from our "baby moon," so finally here they are. We got plane vouchers on our way home from a trip this summer so of course Michael couldn't wait to plan a trip to the "waves" before Luke arrives. We found this quaint little town just North of Puerto Vallarta called Sayulita. Michael researched the heck out of places in the area, and decided this one had the best "swell." It takes about an hour to get there from the PV airport on one of the city buses. This is a must if you make the trip- the crazy things you see on those buses are priceless.

The city itself is a little rugged and less touristy than I was expecting but very fun. The only stipulation I gave Michael was there must be a pool wherever we stay because I wasn't surfing with him and was imagining sitting beside a pool being served virgin daiquiri's while he was catching waves. Lo and behold we get to the spot and there is no pool in site. Michael wasn't completely to blame since the website clearly showed pictures of numerous pools. I kindly informed the staff at Villa Amor that their website was very misleading and was not too happy about it. They may not have realized they were dealing with a hormonal pregnant woman. We had a great time and I finally had Michael take a couple of pictures of my baby bump.

Pictures of Luke

Can you see him? The left side of the picture is his head, you can see his eyes and even his eventual teeth. His little hand is up next to his right eye and on the left side you can see his other elbow and he's relaxing with his hand behind his head. The other pictures aren't cooperating but I will try to get those up too.

It's a.....

BOY!!!

That's right, Luke W. should be making his entrance into the world in mid-late January. The long awaited ultrasound was great. I was so excited I couldn't sleep Wednesday night and had butterflies in my stomach all morning. I don't know why the butterflies because it's not like we had anything to be nervous about.

First we had the regular doctors visit that went fine. She just checked Luke's heartbeat and asked how I was and we were on our way (pretty much). We had to go to a different location where they have a better ultrasound machine and wait over an hour to even be seen. :( They did all kinds of measurements and finally got down between the legs and in a very nonchalant voice she said "you're going to have a....... little boy," and I couldn't hold the tears back.

All I could think of was how Awesome our God is watching Him perform this miracle inside my body by forming our baby so perfectly. The Doctor said all of the measurements looked "great," and both the technician and the doctor confirmed he's got the boy parts. Michael even thought he saw "something" before the technician could get it out. Luke did a little yawning for us towards the end of the appointment as if we were boring him or something. We might have a little rascal on our hands! :)

Bring on the rascall though-We already love him so much. Here are some pictures from dinner with our families sharing the news.

No news just yet!

Yesterday Michael was finally able to come to a doctors appointments with me! Of course it was the most uneventful appointment I've had, but I was glad he got to meet the Dr. and hear the heartbeat (in person). Last time I called him so he could hear it because he was stuck in traffic on his way there.

I had this little ray of hope that we might get to find out the sex, but that was quickly squashed when they put us in a room that didn't even have an ultrasound machine. We go back for the "big" ultrasound on September 6 where they will check out all of the organs and give us the verdict on the sex. I can hardly stand it anymore. Four more weeks.

Happy Birthday to my MOM!

I just looked at my post and realized I can't have a post on my mom's birthday without mentioning her special day! Mom, you are the best. Thank you for all of the sacrifices you have made in your life for the three of us girls. Thank you for teaching me what a great mom should look like. I am so glad I have you to walk with me through becoming a mommy! We love you and appreciate you more than you'll ever know!

Hooray for Michael!

So I'm still getting used to this whole blogging thing but I really like it! Nothing new to report about the baby these days except that he/she is growing like crazy and is about the size of a lemon. I have a doctor's appointment in two weeks, but we probably won't find out the sex for another 6 weeks. We can't wait!



I thought it'd be fun to take a tally of everyone's guesses. Michael and I are divided on what we think it is so our guesses won't help.



Other big news in the Merrick household is that Michael found out he did really well on his board exam that he took back in June, so my man is going to be a doctor!! I am so proud of him and we are so relieved to have that hurdle behind us. Praise the Lord for walking us through it. We would be lost without Him. Now Michael is in the midst of delivering babies on his first rotation and is going to be a pro by the time Baby Merrick is here! I will post a picture of him in his doctor garb as soon as he'll let me snap one. (Did I already say I'm proud?)

Other than that, my morning/all day sickness has started to subside! Woo hoo! Here we come second trimester.

Talk to ya soon!

The Big News....

As Michael likes to put it..."The Merrick factory is in production." Our little one is due January 24th and we could not be more excited!! We can't wait to become parents and experience God's love in a whole new way. At this appointment, (1o weeks) we couldn't see much but hearing the precious little heartbeat was enough to bring me to tears. (although that "little" heartbeat didn't sound so little at 170bpm). And all I could think of was what a miracle God is performing right here before our eyes. We can't wait for the changes that this little life will bring - and wanted all of you to share in our joy. We will keep you posted on the latest happenings in the Merrick household right here so stay tuned.

Love ya'll!

Michael, Kim, and Baby

This is us fishing last weekend. (Michael's newest hobby)