Peanut's Indian Dance:

one thing great about this city is all the yummy places to eat and i've really grown to love the selection of ethnic food - from thai, to korean, to veitnamese, to ethiopian, to persian...you name it and we've got it (except a good russian restaurant with the tragic closing of cafe somavar). well, tuesday night i wasn't feeling up to cooking or leftovers so my baby-daddy and i went to have dinner at india palace. yum yum! i love me some indian food :) it was dee-lish. i guess peanut thought so too because as soon as we got home i felt a little dance going on in there (and no it wasn't something else!)...there were little feet flying everywhere! i can't wait until my ultrasound on april 11th to see if the place i've felt all the little flutters and kicks is where peanut's feet are. maybe i should have some indian food for lunch and we can sit back and watch the little one dance around!
here's my 16 week belly shot. i don't know if you can tell from the picture, but people can really tell now that i'm preggo. it's a funny thing to have someone ask you if you're pregnant. what if i said "no -- i've just put on a few pounds, okay"? maybe i should try that :) just kidding...i love to share the wonderful news and it makes my day to see someone smile because they see me and my little belly coming down the hall. little peanut is already making so many people happy and the little one is not even out in the world yet!

saturday we'll be 17 weeks along! woo hoo! peanut is about the size of an onion (although i don't really like that visual picture...it makes me think of an onion with a sweet baby smell). here are baby's other stats:

Baby is forming brown fat deposits under his or her skin, by the end of pregnancy this will account for 2-6% of their total body weight. This will help them maintain their body temperature when they are born. Your baby's circulatory system and urinary tract are now working. The baby is "breathing." That is, inhaling and exhaling amniotic fluid, which is great practice for breathing air. Development of the lungs, kidneys, and gastrointestinal system depends on this ability.

Your little bugaboo is a very playful creature! His first toy is the umbilical cord, which he constantly pulls and grabs. He also whiles away the time sucking his thumb, swallowing and blinking. Loud noises outside might actually cause the baby to startle.

Baby weighs about 4-5 ounces and is 6 and 1/4 inches long.
Eyes are more forward than on either side of the face now.
Baby's ears have started to pop from his head.

other fun things to go along with this are my forgetfulness, stuffy nose, and dry eyes thanks to the hormones. fun times :)

Homesick:

what an absolutely beautiful weekend we had! weather in the mid 80's and gorgeous sunshine :) we made sure our tillster got plenty of play time in at the doggie park and in her kiddie pool in the backyard this weekend. trish and i got in some good preggo-bonding time together, too, at the baby expo where we stocked up on freebies and together with our hubbies we had a great time with the new game the cartners introduced us to...settlers of catan.

with all that excitement here in memphis, i have to admit i got pretty homesick for "where the blueridge yawns its greatness..." back in clemson we would have been on the lake in nana and granddad's pontoon boat, or at the sailing club soaking up the rays with all the crazy lake friends and eating some yummy barbeque. or we could be playing with tilly in front of tillman hall on bowman field. (i actually checked Clemson's webcam today to make sure people were out there enjoying it for me!)

i miss our friends and family in the good ol' upstate and hope we can get over there for a visit soon :)

Turn that Frown Upside-Down:

okay, tonya...i hope you're much happier with my posting habits this week, so it's time to turn that frown...

upside-down!

sorry that the last one looks a little scary...but i know how you, trish and carla love my mad microsoft paint skills (flashback to the fuzzy teeth!)


have a great day everbody! i know we will in memphis it's going to be a beautiful day with temps in the 80's!

Peanut's Progress:

just in case you were wondering how our little peanut was doing...here are some quick facts from my doctor's website to fill you in:

Baby's Physical Development:
Baby weighs about 3 ounces and is 5 1/2 to 6 inches long. (then why have i gained so much weight??)
Baby can blink and swallow.
Baby can move eyes.
Ears have moved from neck to head.
Baby has his preliminary toenails. (awww...)
Baby empties bladder every 40-45 minutes. (and so does momma!)
Limb movements are becoming more coordinated. (unlike momma's!)
Baby's legs are longer than arms.

one website i get good info on said our little one was about the size of a rubber ducky right now!
we will be 16 weeks along on saturday...yipee! less than 3 weeks until we find out if we'll be seeing lots of pink or blue :)

March of Dimes:

hi there! i am hoping that some of you fine family and friends would be willing to support my fundraising efforts for the march of dimes walkamerica.

back in october a friend of mine went into preterm labor at about 6 months and lost her baby. this group has given her amazing support and in memory of her sweet cooper and in the hope of saving other babies, we are raising money and walking on april 28th.

please visit my fundraising page at www.walkamerica.org/cfinche to see what this is all about and think about donating whatever you can. even $5 or $10 is much appreciated.

here's a little note from the walkamerica website:

We've formed our WalkAmerica team to raise money to help all babies be born healthy. Please join us in this important endeavor. Simply sign up from this page.The money we raise helps fund research to find out why premature birth happens and what can be done to prevent it.

Premature birth is the #1 cause of newborn death and the biggest threat to babies' health today. Can you think of anything more important than the health of our babies? If you can't join us, please donate to our team from this page. It's fast, easy and secure. The March of Dimes mission is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality.

Ooo Baby, Baby!

well, i hope most of you have heard by now...but let me just get down to the most exciting news we have to share...we're having a baby! yippee! chris and i just couldn't possibly be more excited to welcome a little one into our home sometime around september 8th :) we're already absolutely totally in love of this little one, even with the nausea that kept both of us on our toes for a few weeks of the first trimester and my growing frustration with finding pants that fit in the morning! my little pooch that has popped out now that i'm 15 weeks along just makes us both smile every time we notice it.

these past few weeks have just been the most fun ever as we have gotten to shock our friends and family with the good news. i'll still never get over the look on dad's face when he realized the picture in the frame he was holding was an ultrasound of his first grandchild or mom shouting, "i can't believe you told me after parisian's has closed for the night"! we also got to share the news with "uncle" casey and "aunt" sara, grandmother, julie, scott and natalie in person...they were sooo excited! it's been so fun to tell jeannie, steve, "aunt" MOH (katy!), "uncle" craig and "aunt" marla over the phone, though I wish I could have seen their faces! of course everyone at work has been a lot of fun, too. there's no shortage of baby name suggestions, coworkers pooching out their bellies when they see me coming and i just know that any day now they are going to start tracking my belly size! the ladies in the neighborhood were so excited about our news...i think they are so thrilled for us to finally join the "parents" club :)

so far things are just wonderful! i was actually pregnant in kuwait, but we had no idea! our little one is going to come out loving humus, pita, shwarma and 4-wheelin'! we started to suspect we would have an exciting late christmas present around new years, but we didn't know for sure until we drove by rite-aide on our way home from the airport back in memphis to pick up a test :)

we had our first doctor's appointment at 6 1/2 weeks where we got to see a picture of our little peanut and see the little heart flutter about 135 beats per minute...what a special moment that was! our next appointment at 10 1/2 weeks was amazing as we got to listen to peanut's little heart beat at 180 beats per minute using the doppler. i had no idea i would ever look so forward to going to the doctor. the most recent time i got to check in with our sweet pea was last wednesday, at 14 1/2 weeks along. unfortunately, chris couldn't come...but i got to hear peanut's heart beat at 150 beats per minute and dr. cole said everything sounded perfect. i had gained 6 lbs in the last month...goodness gracious! i've never seen a scale climb that high for me, but i'm more than happy to watch those numbers soar as long as it means the new love of my life is healthy and growing just like a baby should. besides...there are two of us on that scale now :) our next appointment is april 11th and we'll hopefully find out if we're having a little miss or a little mr...i can't wait!

it's been extra exciting for us as the whole thing starts to really become real to us as i have felt baby's first few little flutters and people have started to notice my little belly. i could first tell my stomach was bigger about 10 or 11 weeks, but it took until about 14 weeks for others to notice the difference.

yesterday was chris' birthday. happy 28th b'day, schmoop-a-loomp!! we had a great time going to see a movie together, having dinner with friends on saturday, lunch with church friends on sunday, and playing at the park with tilly. everything we do these days seems to just have this special happiness surrounding it knowing that we're a mommy and daddy now and that in just a few short months our lives will be forever changed. please keep all three of us in your prayers as chris and i prepare to be parents and our little one grows and develops and prepares for the life God has in store for him or her.

here we are at 12 weeks.....

here we are at 14 weeks......

happy birthday also to jabob (march 12th) and crazy tonya (march 17th)!! can you believe it's been a year since our shrimp boil party that almost didn't boil?? fun times!!