Our Pearl(s)

Today I had to go for more bloodwork just to check that my hormone levels are continuing to go in the right direction and boy were they. My HCG level, the pregnancy hormone, had gone from 97 last Thursday to 724 today. The nurse told me everything looked beautiful. It was so exciting and reassuring to hear her say that. She also told me they were going to go ahead and schedule my first sonogram for August 4th, two weeks from today. That is a few days earlier than we previously thought so we were really excited! We are quickly nearing the end of week 4 and the beginning of week 5 so I thought I would write a little bit about the development of the baby(s) that has been happening this past week. Right now our baby(s) is about the size of a letter "o" on this page. That tiny little pearl as my mother is referring to it is already beginning to develop layers of cells that are called germ layers which develop into the babies organs. Pretty amazing that all that is happening in something so tiny. As for me I have really just been sleepy in the afternoons and evenings, more hungry than normal & occassionally a little queasy. Other than that I really am feeling good!

The last few days we have just continued to celebrate with family and friends. Mom and I made our first trip to a baby store, Madeline's Room, and they were having a sale that day and we both ended up winning door prizes. We each bought a book for the baby(s). Mom picked one out that was shaped like a cupcake and called "I love you more than..." and I picked out a book from the same series called "You're My Little Love Bug." They both have a place to insert the babies photo and they light up and play music. They are really sweet. The last line of the one I bought says, "But most of all what you are is God's sweetest gift of love!" I just loved that because that is exactly how I feel about this baby(s). Saturday I broke a cardinal rule of pregnancy and I cut my hair off, well I cut off about 5 inches which was a lot to me. I had decided I was only going to cut it off if I wasn't pregnant but I just couldn't resist. It feels so much better in this hot weather. Saturday evening I got to go to my first baby shower as an expectant mommy and it was so much fun. Sunday we got to announce to our Sunday School class our news although most of them already knew it was still very exciting to share that huge answer to prayers. Sunday afternoon we went to lunch with my parent's life group and when we walked in they all started to cheer- it still amazes me how many people are just as excited as we are about this miracle. After lunch my mom and Shelly and I went to see Mamma Mia. It was a lot of fun to see all the costumes and the dancing and hear the Abba music! When I got home I read the two new books to our precious little pearl(s), something I have dreamed of doing for a long time. While I felt a little silly reading out loud with no one visible in the room, it was a really sweet moment with my pearl(s).