New Year, New Post

A lot has happened since my last post (Christmas, New Years, another baby appointment, etc.), which means a lot of updating to do!

The holidays were very low key for us this year. Christmas Eve we made a nice Christmas feast filled with recipes from home, with our friends the Applegate's! We ate ourselves full and played board games. Then the morning of Christmas it was just Jake, Duke and I. A definite change from balancing 3 families like we were used to, but it was nice none the less. With waiting on packages from home and having to order most of our presents for each other off the internet, we didn't have too much to open the day of; but it did make for a nice drawn out Christmas. (We're still waiting on one final package from home! haha) Which lead smoothly into the New Year. Another great night with the Applegate's filled with food, poker, and nice cigars for our men. There is nothing better than bringing in the new year with great company!

Now on to the baby update:

We had our most recent baby appointment on January 5th. It was the first time since we had found out for sure what we were having, and I was definitely looking forward to seeing the change. It is truly mind boggling to me how much change can happen in just a few short weeks. At this appointment we were able to make out a clear image of his face, more detail in his spin, and overall see a huge change in his size. Also, Dr. Reu (Roy) assured us again that we were having a boy, by showing off his goods. (I think he is just as excited that we are having a boy as we are haha) Overall it was a great appointment!

Me at 22 1/2 weeks (the day of our last appointment)

Our beautiful little boy :) 

Another thing that has started happening since the new year is our little nugget has decided to start kicking like crazy! It was a really neat experience, because there had been times previously that I thought it might be him kicking, but was never totally sure. Then on 1/1/11, New Years day, he woke me up with 3 very strong, very apparent kicks. He has been kicking pretty regularly ever since, which if you ask me has its ups and downs. Its an amazing feeling to feel your little baby move in your belly, but when he is constantly using your bladder for soccer practice, thats a different story haha. Jake has even had the experience of feeling him kick. He was talking to baby with his face on my belly, when all of a sudden he decided to show his daddy he could kick. Kicked him straight on the cheek about 5-6 times! I was so happy Jake could finally feel what I feel all the time.

My bare belly at 24 weeks

24 weeks

To answer some questions that have been coming up:

We have settled on a name for our little boy. We had our top two names for either sex picked out shortly after we found out we were pregnant, and then once we found out the sex we moved from there. Deciding on his first name was easy, it was his middle that was giving us some problems. Luckily, God had a cool way of letting me know what it should be. I had been asking family and close friends for ideas on middle names, but had never asked Him. Once I did, he made it clear through reading the bible, and we are very happy with it! Now with all that said, we are planning on keeping his name a surprise until he is born. I feel like there is something special about announcing his name with his birth, so aside from immediate family and a select few, mums the word :) 

Another question that has been asked is if we are going to register for the baby, and if so where. Since I am not able to have a baby shower with everyone at home, we did decide that we would register at a few places that do ship most items to an APO address. So for all of those online shopper savy we have registered at amazon, and for those that are not we have also registered at Target. 

For Amazon:

- Go to http://www.amazon.com/babyregistry

-Search Bethany Smith or Jake Smith

-Click the Registry that shows:

Bethany Smith and Jake Smith's Baby Registry

APO, AE

May 8, 2011

 For Target:

-Go into the store and search Bethany Smith or Jake Smith with the state being Armed Forces- Europe
or
-Go to http://www.target.com/registry/baby/find
-Search Bethany Smith or Jake Smith with the state being Armed Forces- Europe
-Ours should be the only one to pop up!

Both of these registries have items that are unable to ship to APO directly so there are a few options:
1. Don't get that item haha
2. If its a Target item, go into the store and purchase it and then ship it on your own
3. If you order online you can ship it to yourself, and then reship it to us at:
                Jake and Bethany Smith
                D Co. 3-159 AVN
                CMR 416 Box 1666
                APO AE 09140

This is obviously our first baby, so if there is something that you think would be good to get us that isn't on the registry, by all means go for it! I just put things on there that I thought were cute or know we need.

Prayer Requests:
-That our little boy continues growing strong and healthy
-That Duke's neutering surgery goes well (Feb. 8th) and he calms down after it is done
-That Jake is able to finish putting together his WOFT packet before the next deadline to turn it in (March 14th)
-That I continue having an easy pregnancy and am able to continue to do my job around the house

Praises:
-That baby has started clearly kicking for me, so I know that he is doing alright in there
-That Duke is starting to learn more discipline (on his good days anyway)
-That Jake has made some headway on his packet as far as all of the physical stuff is concerned
-That I have had such an easy pregnancy so far, and am able to do most everything that I was able to do before I was pregnant

Hope everyone has a happy Wednesday!