A Little More Real Now

Today was our second appointment with Dr. Reu (Roy) to see how the baby was doing. The first appointment was somewhat short and basic, so I didn't really expect this appointment to run any differently. I had heard that we would be able to hear the heartbeat today, so I was excited about that, but thats all I was expecting (Little did I know that Baby Smith wanted to show off for us). So we went into the examination room and I undressed bottom half down (thats another thing, they dont really care about covering up over here). I got semi comfortable on the table and Dr. Reu proceeded to show us how the baby was doing. 

His/Her head and Heart beat

He decided to show us the heartbeat first, and I think thats all he would have done had I not asked to hear it. Man, was that beat racing! We didn't get to hear it for long, but just enough to make an impact. He told us that it was beating at 147 beats per minute, and Jake went on to say that that was about 3 times as fast as his normal heart rate. It was definitely the first thing to kick in. To realize that there really is something in my belly, that has its own heart beat. I started to get a little emotional but was mostly able to keep it under control. Then he started showing us the arms, the leg, the head, and the whole body. Thats when baby Smith decided to show off. Our little lime sized baby decided it would be a great time to start moving all around for us! I couldn't believe it. I'm getting a little choked up just thinking about it. It was truly amazing to me. The first time we had met our nugget it was tiny and motionless, while this time it was 3 times the size and moving around like crazy. It really made me start to appreciate even more, this beautiful experience that has only just begun.

     Dear Baby Smith,

Thank you so much for coming into our lives. I am so excited to feel you continue growing, moving,  kick and hiccup in my belly which is your current home. I am even more excited for you to come out and meet your real home. There are so many people that are ready and willing to share their overflowing love for you. You are such a blessing and am so thankful for you every single day. I love you.

                                       Love, Mommy

Baby Watch:

-Our next appointment is in 3 weeks from now. November 15th. We are hoping to find out the sex at that appointment!

12/13 week baby bump

Prayer Requests:

-The Dr. said that the baby is doing just fine when it comes to health, so keep praying it stays that way

-That Duke's leg is fully healed so that we can start taking him out for regular exercise

-That Jake continues to move forward with his Warrent Officer Packet, and that he increases his physical condition

-That I am motivated to tackle our extra room and get things more squared away and livable

Praises:

-That our nugget is healthy and active! 

-That Duke is very responsive to training and is turning into a very good dog

-That Jake's ankle has mostly healed and that he passed his most recent PT test

-That "morning sickess" is 90% gone, and I am finally starting to have some more energy

Jake is still going to write a post about his two dirt bike experiences within the past couple weeks so stay tuned!

Love, Bethany

WURZBURG

Jake and I had the opportunity to go and visit the town Wurzburg a few weekends ago. We went specifically to see the Wurzburg Residenz. This elaborate building was originally for Prince-Bishop Johann Philipp Franz von Schonborn. It was a collaboration of distinguished designers from Austria, France, and Germany itself that built it from 1720-1780. When it was finally finished it had 300 rooms in total! Now Jake and I didn't get to tour all 300 rooms, but we did get to see our fine share.

The reason we weren't able to see all 300 rooms wasn't because we didn't want to but because they only had certain parts of the building open to walk around in. "On 16 March 1945, only a few weeks before the end of the Second World War, a devastating air raid destroyed 90 percent of the Würzburg old town. The Residenz was almost completely burnt out. From the attic the fire ate down through wooden ceilings and floors, and all the furnishings and wall panelling it had not been possible to store elsewhere were devoured by the flames." They decided to rebuild the majority of the building to show the beauty of the building to the public. With many of the original furnishings (saved from the fire because of where they were stored) they finally reopened the Residenz in 1987. It was amazing how accurately the were able to reconstruct the rooms that were open to see. In the main traveling hallways they also had small bio's and photos of some of the before and after. We weren't able to take pictures of that, but we did get some of the beautiful details. 

We had to be very sneaky and selective with what we took pictures of and where, because technically we weren't supposed to be taking pictures. (Hence Jakes head in one of the shots haha) After we toured the inside of the Residenz we continued our tour outside to the massive courtyard that accompanied the building.

It is truely amazing how well they were able to keep up the gardens to look like how they were originally designed. They sometimes change the types of flowers that are planted depending on the season, but overall, the shape and designs of the overall gardens stayed pretty much the same since 1774.

Jake and I really enjoyed our trip to the Wurzburg Residenz. The entire town of Wurzburg seems to have a lot of history behind it, and soon we'd like to go back and just explore the town itself. We'll probably wait until Duke can come with us though :)


Baby Watch:
-We have our next doctors appointment on Monday, October 25th. We are supposed to be able to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time!
-This Sunday will end my first Trimester, because I will be 12 weeks.
-We will hopefully find out the sex of the baby at week 16, so just a little over a month more :)


Prayer Requests:
-For our nugget to continue to grow healthily
-For Dukes leg to continue healing strong, so that we don't have to get surgery to heal it
-For Jake to train hard this week, his body to absorb it, and for him to do well on his PT test on Friday, the 22nd.
-For my headaches to become a little less frequent so that I am more capable of doing stuff around the house and such.


Praises:
-That we haven't had any complications with the baby this far
-That Duke seems to be healing well, and is picking up new training tricks such as down (lay down) and stay
-That Jake has been busy working on the aircraft itself rather than doing petty other small jobs
-That my "morning sickness" has 95% gone away, and I am able to do more than I was while I was feeling sick


Jake is going to be posting a blog soon about our experience at the dirt bike track this past weekend, so watch for it!

Love,
Bethany

There is Something Growing in my Belly!

That is right everyone, meet the newest addition to our little family, Baby Smith! 

Jake and I found out we were pregnant just a little over a month ago, and you can better believe we were  beyond excited! We had decided even before we got married, that after we tied the knot, we were going to leave it in God's hands for when He wanted to provide us with the AMAZING gift of a baby. (A.k.a. no birth control) And let me tell you, this was OBVIOUSLY His plan. Since I've been in Germany, as most of you know, Jake as been in the field for 90% of the time. (Which leaves little possibility for this to even occur) He left for the his first field training exercise on August 2nd, and not to get into too much detail, but there was no possibility of us being pregnant at that point. But while he was away (for almost a month) he was able to come back for one night to deal with some paperwork that I couldn't do without him. ONE night! And thats all it took :) Shortly after he came back from the field we found out we were expecting!

As I mentioned before, this was definitely left  to God's planning, not our own. I'm sure a lot of you might be thinking "Wow they were only married for a few months when they got pregnant" "What about spending some one on one time before starting a family?" "What about traveling Europe?" etc. etc. etc. Well we've definitely thought about those things as well, but I look at it this way. We decided we were going to leave it up to Him, He decided we were ready for this gift, so we have one of two ways to respond: Graciously accept it, be more than thrilled and start planning for our little bundle, or worry and complain about the would've, could've, should've. I'm sure you can tell which one we chose ;)

Jake and I had our first doctors appointment today with the gyno I think we are going to use, Dr. Roy. He is based out of a hospital in Rothenburg which is roughly 45 minutes from here. When I first met him, I noticed that he was very nice, spoke relatively good English, and overall seemed to have his head on straight. So I think we have a keeper. Today was the first day that we got to actually see our little nugget! Dr. Roy was able to show us where our baby's head was, how long the body was, and their heartbeat! It was such a neat feeling to actually be seeing the tiny thing inside of me that has been making its presence known SO apparently to me in these past weeks. Unfortunately I haven't gotten out of the morning sickness curse that pregnant woman get, but with me it seems to be even worse. So I have renamed this aweful thing to "All day pregnancy sickness that doesn't even let me throw up but just makes me feel like I really want to ALL day long" I feel like that is more appropriate haha. The sickness mixed with the mood swings, constant feeling of needing to pee, wanting to nap 24/7, and random food cravings every now and I again, our nugget has made it clear that I am in the full swing of this whole pregnancy thing :) 

I know that there are going to be many positives and negatives along this 40 week road, but I also know that the positives WAY out weigh the negatives. Besides, I'm already 1/4 of the way there! All I can ask from you is your constant prayers for our little Baby Smith, that he or she will grow healthy and strong so they can come out and meet all of you!

Things to watch for:

-I will be having another doctors appointment in 3 weeks, where we will hopefully be able to hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time! Then 2-3 weeks after that we will be able to find out if they are going to be a girl or a boy! 

-I will start posting belly pictures every so often so that its like you are here with Jake and I seeing our little bundle grow!

Prayer Requests:
-That little Smith continues to be healthy and strong
-That Duke continues to be well behaved but learns to walk on his leash more easily
-That Jake is able to get everything that he needs for his WOFT packet so that he can move forward to what he really wants to do
-That I start feeling better and less tired, to be able to finish up the last touches of putting our house together


Praises:
-That God has blessed us with a precious little baby on the way
-That Duke has more or less become potty trained, and that his leg that was hurting him is healed
-That Jake was put on a task for the next few weeks that will have him working on the helicopters again rather than doing other random things like he had been doing this past week
-That I get to learn to be a Mommy and carry our baby for the next 7 months

Jake and I couldn't be more excited to tell the world about the start of this next adventure in our life, we hope you're excited too!

Love,
Bethany