Excited for 2011 :)

It's hard to believe that it's New Year's Eve already.  In just a few short hours we will be sitting in front of the tv watching the ball drop as we enter another year.  New Year's Eve has always been one of my favorite holidays, but this year it is even more special.  2011 means a lot of milestones, and not just any milestones, but life changing milestones.  

I turn 26 this year, which means that I am leaving my mid 20's and approaching the dreaded 30.  While this of all my milestones is the least exciting, it's also another year of life that God has blessed me with and I am truly grateful for that.

This year Nathan and I celebrate our 2 year anniversary.  It's hard to believe how fast it has gone by already.  I guess time really does fly when you are having fun!

I get to celebrate my first mother's day this year, and Nathan gets to celebrate his first father's day.  Although little baby Wittman isn't due until after both of these days, we feel that they are worth celebrating anyway, and that is a really exciting thought.

I finally graduate from Duke this year.  I have been in school my entire life and as much as I love to learn, and as much as I am going to miss school, I am really ready to be done.  This is a huge one for me.  I will leave DUKE UNIVERSITY with a Masters Degree, and that is one of the greatest goals that I could hope to accomplish.

This year I also have commissioning interviews that I will hopefully pass in March.  If I pass this means getting through the first step of the ordination process and serving in a full time appointment somewhere (after maternity leave of course).

And of course, I saved the best for last... our baby.  It is hard to believe that in just a few short months we will be holding our baby.  I can't wait to find out what we are having and to start calling our baby by name instead of just "baby".  This is the most amazing gift I could ever ask for and I cannot wait to meet this amazing child that has been a part of me for the past few months.  We have a few names picked out.  Actually if I'm completely honest, I've had the girl name picked out since I was 7 years old.  If we have a girl her name will be Makayla, and yes the inspiration is from Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman.  Although, in the show it is spelled Michaela, but I like our way better.  If we have a boy the name will be Cameron Wesley.  You guessed it, Cameron after Cameron Indoor, and Wesley for John and Charles.  We don't have a middle name picked out for Makayla yet, but we have tossed around the idea of Grace as a middle name.

2011 is going to be a fantastic year.  I can't wait to see all the other joys that this year has in store for us.  God has blessed us and we have a lot to look forward to.  Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we go through this journey together.  It certainly is an exciting time and we can't wait to share it with all of you :)

Second Trimester!

A couple of weeks ago we entered the second trimester of our pregnancy!  This is exciting news for many reasons, one of which includes the fact that the risk of miscarriage drops dramatically and we are in line for a safe and healthy baby.  With the second trimester has come something new, something that I had forgotten existed.  It's this little thing called.... wait for it... energy.  Now, I am by no means bouncing off the walls, but I have had this unquenchable desire to clean and to decorate and to cook!  I thought that all of this nesting stuff happened later in pregnancy, but it seems to be here now.

On Black Friday this year we bought a crib even though we were really early in our pregnancy, because Target had a special deal where if you purchased the crib you got the matching changing table for free.  Of course, I'm not one to pass up a deal like that, so we made the purchase!  However, I have been letting the crib sit in the box for the past month, intentionally not opening it because I KNEW that I would get baby nursery fever and start wanting to decorate.   Well, this week it happened.  I bought the bedding that I wanted from Babies R' Us and yesterday Nathan and I put the crib together.  Originally my idea was to go with a blue and brown theme, and while that will still be present somewhat, we also don't know whether we are having a boy or a girl yet, and I would hate to go overboard with the blue and brown if we are having a girl.  So we picked something a little more neutral, a Noah's ark theme.  It still has the blue and the brown going on, and as I get further into decorating there will be more blue and brown touches here and there, but the overall idea is focused on Noah's Ark.

I love our crib because it is a convertible one, which means that it turns into a toddler bed and eventually into a full size bed.  The color is perfect with the bedding that we got.  I'll have to post an updated picture eventually that shows more of the nursery.  It's a very small room, though perfect for a baby, so it's going to take some work to make final arrangements.  The bumper pads have little animals on them.  After I took this picture I turned the front one around so that you could see the animals from the outside.  They were much too cute to hide inside the crib.

We won't find out what we are having until February and the suspense is killing me!  I want to know so bad!  Nathan and I both think that we are having a boy, but then again, there's really no telling, and in all honesty we would both be really happy no matter how everything turns out.  Having a baby is such a gift from God.  It's hard to believe how far we have come already, although we still have a long way to go.  The pregnancy process (morning sickness aside) has been a really cool and fun experience.  I can't wait to have baby showers and all of the fun things that come with pregnancy.   We are going to start working on a registry soon.  Most likely we will register at Target and at Babies R' Us.  Our only problem with finding out what we are having is that we don't want all pink gifts if it's a girl, or all blue gifts if it's a boy.  I hate the idea that girls have to be dressed in all pink.  Granted, I love pink.  But if I have a daughter I don't want to treat her like an oversized pepto bismol bottle.

My only real complaint about pregnancy so far is having to take those prenatal vitamins. They are seriously the most ginormous disgusting pills in the world, and you have to go through it every single day.  I am glad that they make things like that to help keep you and the baby healthy during pregnancy.  But my goodness, with all the technology in the world it seems like they could do SOMETHING to make those things less disgusting!

Anyway, I am looking forward to more decorating and more preparations, and most of all meeting our baby! It's becoming more and more real every day :)

Pregnancy Brain: a SERIOUS condition

When people talk about symptoms of pregnancy, there are a few that always get mentioned such as morning sickness, fatigue, achiness in awful places, and the list goes on.  But there is one that nobody mentioned to me... or maybe they did, and I just forgot, which would make sense in light of what I am about to share with you.

Being pregnant is a wonderful thing, in the sense that you are sharing in the creation of an actual human being.  It's exciting, and amazing.  However, pregnancy isn't always a stroll through the park.  Sometimes you just feel like crap.  But in the midst of all these crazy symptoms, there is one that I am having a hard time dealing with... Pregnancy Brain.

This is obviously not a technical term, but it's what I am choosing to call it.  I have been so forgetful, about everything.  I never used to be the kind of person to forget things or to miss deadlines, but I seriously forget everything now.  I forgot where I parked my car at school on Tuesday.  I forgot that I had references due for commissioning.  I even forgot my last name when I was ordering something online earlier today, and instead typed in my maiden name, which my credit card quickly objected to.

The most serious of offenses in the case of Pregnancy Brain has been the water bottle debacle.  It is now a running joke that every time I go to Wal-Mart or Target and buy a bottle of water to drink in the car on the way home, I leave it sitting on the counter, only to be chased after by someone in the store yelling at me and saying, "HEY!  You forgot this!"  Last night I was in Wal-Mart getting some things for Bible Study, and of course I ran into Holly Hockett.  Thank goodness she was behind me in line, because once again, I purchased a bottle of water, and left it sitting there.  I walked out the door to be chased down by Madison and Tony (who are Holly's niece and her son) handing me a bag with water in it.

I get confused easily, and I forget things all the time.  As we are approaching the 10 week mark in our pregnancy very soon, and our baby is growing into the size of a healthy little lime, the symptoms of pregnancy that I have experienced are waning somewhat.  But my forgetfulness, alas, has remained strong.  Yesterday I walked out of the house with slippers on my feet instead of my shoes.  Maybe it will get better soon, and if it doesn't maybe I won't remember ever having a mind in the first place ... *sigh*

Hello World: Meet Baby Wittman

Today we officially met our baby.  For a while we thought that there was a chance that we might be having twins.  Twins run in our family a lot and there were some other indications early on that pointed to the fact that twins were a possibility.  However, we got the confirmation today that there is one!  Although we would have been happy with whatever God chose to bless us with, I have to say I was a tad relieved to know that we get more of an opportunity to be eased into this parenthood thing instead of hitting the ground running with two at once.

The appointment was amazing, and having the opportunity to see our baby up on the screen was the most amazing thing I have ever experienced in my life.  Up until this point, it hasn't really seemed real.  I mean, I knew the morning sickness was real, and I knew that I felt pregnant, but I hadn't had the chance to see this amazing life that was growing inside of me.

We are very early on in our pregnancy, only two months to be exact, but the doctor sounded very optimistic and said that our baby looked wonderful.  I tend to believe that "wonderful" doesn't do justice to our baby.  Only 8 weeks old in the womb, and already our kid is PERFECT.  The heartbeat was 158 beats per minute, which is perfect, and baby measured the exact length that they are supposed to be for this stage in our pregnancy.  I am so excited to watch our baby grow!

It will be a while before we find out whether we are having a boy or a girl, but I already feel so attached.  It was amazing to hear and SEE the heartbeat from my baby while we were at the doctor today.  It was the most magical sound I have ever heard in my life.  I would give anything just to bottle that moment and carry it with me forever.  I cried like a baby.

I am so excited that we are in the last month of the first trimester.  That means that we are nearing the end of morning sickness, and nearing the end of the rough part of the pregnancy and moving into the fun part.  I can start shopping for baby things, decorating the nursery and getting ready for Baby Wittman to join us.  The next 7 months are going to be amazing... and I can't wait for the lifetime with our baby that follows :)  God is pretty amazing, huh?  :)