Baby Luke - 21 weeks

Luke was so active during the ultrasound today; he was really putting on a show! Towards the end, the doctor captured him sticking out his tongue and yawning. Too cute!

We are so thankful he is growing healthy and pregnancy is going smooth to date.

The doctor said he had a big foot print.

I'm just about 21 weeks already! I can't begin to describe how fast this pregnancy is going. So fast, that I just don't get a chance to update the blog as often as I want to about this time with Luke in my womb. Another factor to that is that I don't see the doctor as often as I did with the boys and ultrasounds are a lot fewer. But as with the boys, I'm trying to enjoy every week of pregnancy with our sweet baby Luke!

The past several weeks, he has become much stronger. The past week or so, I've started to feel him with my hand through the skin even. He doesn't seem to move as much as the boys, but I know that is only because he has a whole lot of room compared to what they had! Each time I go in to check his heart rate, he's moving all over the place and the doctor is having to chase him to capture his heart rate! He seems to be doing great! And as I mentioned above, he was putting on a show today!

I've been feeling very well too these past several months. My tummy is growing drastically, but hardly any discomfort as I did with the boys. I know this is because my tummy was already stretched out from last year and it's different with one baby vs two inside. Just this past week or so, I've noticed the size of my tummy is causing a little difficulty in maneuvering, but only slightly. I'm still easily able to roll on the floor with the boys, crawl on my hands and knees, etc. I tend to have a lot of energy in the mornings and start to fade some in the mid-late afternoon.

I've had a whole lot more crazy cravings during this pregnancy! I craved healthy things with the boys like fruit, milk, eggs and peanut butter... but... with Luke... it's hamburgers, chicken salad made with LOTS of mustard and dill relish, as well as pickles and tarter sauce! The other week I woke up at midnight and couldn't go to sleep for an hour because I NEEDED tarter sauce... yeah... how lame! Luckily for Jason and myself, you can't go get tarter sauce at midnight anywhere and I wasn't in the mood to make it in the middle of the night! Later that week though, Jason took me out to get fried catfish; my 'excuse' for eating a pound of tarter sauce (exaggeration, don't worry!). The first thing I asked the waiter before ordering my water... Do you have tarter sauce? He said yes and asked why, if they were out last time we came. I said no, but that I was pregnancy and craving it. He was such a good sport and brought me out lots of tarter sauce and lemons for my fish. I have no idea how the fish was, but the condiments were excellent!

As the weeks go, I feel my bond with Luke growing stronger! Of course a mother has a bond with her child as soon as she knows he's growing in her womb, but their is something that happens as you begin to feel your little one moving inside you. Your awareness grows as well as your heart!

The past couple of weeks, I've been teaching the boys about 'babies'. Because we don't have any babies around and they have zero dolls, I decided to go out and buy a little doll to help teach them the 'idea' of babies. I dressed it in a little boy onesie, show them how to rock it, sign it, give it hugs and kisses and how to be gentle. The first couple of days they thought it was great fun to grab the doll, bang it and throw it around. But, then it began to sink in and and now they find it great fun to rock the baby and give it hugs and kisses. They love to point out the eyes, nose and mouth and tell me 'endal' (gentle). Gavin will sign 'baby' by shrugging his shoulders, tilting his head to the side, rocking back and forth and saying, 'day-dee, day-dee'. It's so cute! The other day at church, they were fascinated by the baby behind us. They kept looking, smiling and petting their air while saying, 'endal'! They were quite fascinated by a tiny baby at the doctor's today too.

Thank you Lord for our sweet Luke!