Baptized: Miranda Ann, Dec 21, 2008

(old: Vicky's baptism, 13 weeks old, 1981.

new: Miranda's baptism, 12 weeks old, 2008.)

The much-anticipated baptism for our great baby girl was yesterday! It all went very well. I was struck by the 'full-circle' nature of it all when my mom and I dressed Miranda in her pretty white baptism gown. It is the beautiful silk and lace gown I wore 27 years ago. But even more meaningful to me than her being in 'my' gown, was the neat moment of dressing her in the same room I put on my pretty white wedding dress just 5 years ago. Then, standing before the same altar where her daddy became my husband not too long ago, we vowed together to raise her to know the Lord and His love for her. To top it off her godfather is Brandon's best man Andrew, and her godmother my maid of honor, Jodi. It's amazing how much has stayed the same in all the things that have changed throughout the course of our marriage!

The morning, and well into the afternoon, was filled with family and friends that came to meet Miranda and celebrate this special day. Grandma had prepared a wonderful party in her honor. It was kind of surreal, actually. This is the way we marked big milestones while I was growing up. Now to gather together to celebrate my daughter's first big special day really made me feel 'all grown up'. Let's hope Miranda grows up always knowing how loved and cherished she is by this family, our friends, and most importantly our gracious God.

Very Thankful

Well it's Monday, that this particular Monday means 'get back to reality'. We had a fantastically fun Thanksgiving break. We ate (and ate well), played crazy games, watched cheesy Christmas movies, cooed at the baby, and laughed the entire long weekend away. I am seriouslly so grateful for my family! We have such a good time together. My little brother always has the best stories and most refreshing laugh; I wish I could hang out with him way more than I get to. My father keeps the room in stiches whether he means to or not; everyone should be so lucky to have someone as easy-going and fun loving as this man in their family. My mom and grandma effortlessly made amazing meals over and over this week, and Mom even squeezed in some laundry and plenty of kitchen clean up in between hanging out. When we started playing games mom and grandma were both laughing so hard no one could speak anymore! My grandpa quietly takes it all in and reminds us all to enjoy the moment; I don't know quite what it is about his personality, but his very presence makes people happy. My husband - my wonderful husband - actually enjoys being with my family and celebrates these times with me. He cracks everyone up with his wit and keeps everything running smoothly. Meanwhile my best friend was in town, and she lights up any room - my family was seriously sitting around anticipating her visit with excitement. It was like the joy arrived when she walked into the room. To top it all off...my beautiful daughter was smiley and flirty and happy and fun much to the enjoyment of all. I could go on another whole story of the delights of watching various family members holding and loving her. Papa Pete and Grandma (hers, my mom) really take the cake here - they just adore her and it's such a blessing to watch! But, I'll close this out, because that beautiful baby wants to be fed now! In sum - I'm thankful for family this year :-)

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone is having a nice Thanksgiving so far. Our first two hours of the holiday have been just peachy! My parents and grandparents are here for a few days, so it's a full happy house. My brother is still on his way some time today. I'm excited for a family filled weekend! Miranda's Godparents are in town too; what fun!

Well the other day wasn't a fluke, Miranda does sleep about 6 hours each night now. It's been really nice. She had her 2 month check up this week. She's 11 pounds exactly! What a big girl. 2 month check up though means lots of vaccines. She had 3 shots with 7 total vaccines in them. She's never cried quite so sharply as that! Just pure fear and shock in her eyes when those first two shots hit her. Poor little thing. But thankfully she was consoled before too long with some cuddles from mom. She didn't have any bad reactions; no fever or anything so that's all good. She did sleep a ton afterwards, either from the trauma or the tylenol!

We're doing our Thanksgiving meal tomorrow. So today is prep and cooking. Thankfully my family is smart enough to know I'm not going to prepare a big family meal. So mom and grandma came with 3 coolers of food and tons of supplies yesterday, ready to cook! Maybe we'll go to a movie today too, there are a lot of good ones out right now. Miranda's never been to the movie theater, we may need to experiment with that. She did great at the basketball game the other night, slept straight through it.

Have a happy turkey day everyone!

What just happened?

I woke to the familiar sounds of a hungry baby this morning, about 7:30. But I had one blaring questions in mind - what just happened? See, the unfamiliar thing about this morning, was I had been sleeping since 1 am. That's a long time! That's the longest I've slept since Miranda was born; it....was.....awesome! But here's the thing - I'm not 100% certain that she did sleep through the night. There's this little suspect notion in the back of my mind that we got up and did a feeding, and I just don't remember it at all. So, I'll still say that I slept through the night, but I'm not for sure that she did. I think so; she's been building up to an over-night sleep pattern. I just know it's very possible that I could, at this point, get up, feed, burp, change, rock, and put her back down and not really know about it. The mind gets a little fuzzy when you don't let it sleep for 7 weeks.

Anyway, here's the really cool thing about last night. Andy was fighting bed time with all she's worth. From 11pm to 1pm Brandon and I were passing off turns trying to get her to sleep. Typically, after her evening feeding, we lay her down, go to bed ourselves, and she falls asleep. It's a pretty easy pattern. But last night she kept getting up again, crying, wanting some cuddles. So, each of us would rock her to sleep, put her down, she'd wake up, we'd send the 'other parent' to start over. (wondering about the 'cool' part? getting there...) This was wearing me out, I really wanted to go to bed; at least for my new regular 2 hours of rest. So, I prayed in exhaustion, 'God, let this child sleep; I need some sleep.' I don't think I'd ever actually prayed that God would knock her out, we've just been going through the routine every day. But I prayed it, and meant it. So this morning when I woke up with the confusion of consecutive hours of sleep I knew God answered that prayer. As previously stated, I'm not sure if she slept through the night or I slept through the activity - but either way I felt good!

My Big Girl

Well, going to daycare this week went just fine. It was a little harder to leave her that first day than I expected. Everyone said it would be; but I thought I was tough. Turns out - no. It has been good to get back into the swing of things at work. It's a little overwhelming playing catch-up in a few areas, but even that's getting worked out very quickly. I do like being back with the youth, of course, they're fun!

Happy day - the grandparents, my parents, are here for the weekend. Silly little blizzard won't stop them! Miranda was very happy to see them, I think - it's hard to say. She burped, gurgled, smiled big, and pooped. I take that to mean she's happy! I know for sure Mom and Dad were excited to see her - that's easy to tell. We're all smiles around here. I'm working on catching this beautiful new smile of Andy's for some pictures. We pretty much live to see that wonderful moment around here.

Random note - I'm so excited that Thanksgiving is coming! Why you ask? Because my grandparents and brother and parents are all coming here for a few days - and my best friend is coming 'home' to Mitchell for a whole week. Party.

Miranda is getting so big. It's ridiculous. More than just her body growing, she's changed so much in her alertness and ability to pay attention to things. It's really amazing how big she seems. I actually have caught myself thinking nonsense things about her bigness. Like, our friends had a baby last week, and he's so tiny and new and wonderful. And I thought, Wow, remember when Miranda was that new. She'll be a big, older friend for this little guy. But - no, she's 1 month older than him; that's like the exact same age in 'real' life. I even saw some baby clothes in the closet that had the word 'baby' on it, and I thought, that's so childish and young for this big girl. Wrong again, she's a month old! I'm just obviously a little surprised at how big she seems and how much she knows already. But, I'm glad she's still my little baby :-)

Numbering Days

This is my last week on maternity leave, I start back to work on Monday. I've already been doing a couple things with my youth group - but just planning from home and going out in the evenings when Brandon is home with Andy. Anyway, next week the new routine starts and brings mixed emotions for me. I do want to go back to work. I enjoy my job and feel frustrated when I'm missing things or skipping opprotunities to be with the teens. So, it will be good to jump in again. On the other hand, it has been great to be home with my Miranda. I like the pace and rythem we've found in the past few weeks. The flexibility is nice, the company is great, and the option of napping in the afternoon is really helpful! I'm a bit concerned about the sleepy factor in heading back to the office.

I'm very lucky to not have worries about our babysitter. I know that's a stress for many new parents. But Miranda is going to stay with a very sweet friend of ours and her own little granddaughter. She offered her services when we were pregnant, and the plan has just come together beautifully. We went over to visit this morning and she rocked Andy to sleep like a pro. I think they'll get along very well. And Miranda will have a good friend in her 18-month-old granddaughter.

So, other moms out there, I need some advice. How do I store up enough milk for Miranda at the daycare? How much does she need on hand? And what's a good way to collect, store, transport, and use it? I have ideas on how to do each, but would love to hear what's worked for other working moms best. I might run over and feed her myself once during a daycare day - since our babysitter lives 2 blocks from the church and it would take me less time to do that than pump at work. The timing will be tricky though. Well, speaking of feeding issues, I've got a little girl begging for attention right now - gotta go!

One month check-up

Andy had her 1 month check-up yesterday. It's a couple days early for her actually being a month old, but that's alright. Everything looks really good. She's growing, seeing, hearing, eating, doing just fine! Her weight was 8 lbs 7 oz now; almost 2 whole pounds more than when she was born. She certainly looks and feels big to us every now and then. I can't believe some babies start at this size. That's huge.

She's starting to interact a little more. Not old enough to respond, or mimic, or laugh at our funny jokes yet. But, she'll stare you down and give you all manner of quizzical eyebrow looks.

3 Weeks Old

Week three of young Miranda's life is flying by. We've been busy with tons of little things. It's hard to say what fills up all my time, yet I know it's full! I've put in probably 5 hours of work this week, which should be nothing compared to a full 25 hr week; but somehow it's kept us hopping. Every little task certainly takes a little longer with kid in toe. (I tried to do some grocery shopping on my own the other day - it was tricky. Andy's car seat didn't fit well into the front of the cart, so I set it down in the main basket. This left very little room for groceries! You should have seen the poor little darling with boxes and bags and fruit pilled all around her. By the time I got to the counter I realized I didn't bring in any money because my wallet was in the diaper bag, which Idecided I didn't need for groceries. SoI lugged her back out to the car, then back in to pay, and back out again. Thankfully, I was at the 'hometown' store and they take your bags to the car for you; I've never been so grateful for that service until this week.)

I did develop/come-down with mastitis this week. It's an infection in the breast. Rather painful and annoying. Doc put me on antibiotics which are certainly helping things heal. The first day was bad though -as it comes with flu like symptoms. A restless night of chills and sweats is only made longer with feeding and rocking sessions every 3 hours. I'm already doing a lot better though; and can even feed her directly now instead of pumping to feed.

Daddy thinks our little girl is getting big, but we haven't had her weighed in about 2 weeks so I'm not sure. It's hard to tell when you look at someone everyday. Speaking of Daddy - Brandon is so good at his new role! He helps with every aspect of Miranda's care, even changes the extra stinky diapers without complaint. Now that I've been pumping so much he's taken over a few feedings too. He's a good daddy and has the magic touch to comfort his daughter to sooth her to sleep. There's some good daddy&me pictures on picasa; go check 'em out.

Thespacebar on thiskeyboardisbroken and it'sdrivingmecrazy!

2 weeks old

It's weird to think Miranda is already two weeks old. There are moments when everything is so new and different and I swear she just arrived here. But in other ways it's as if we've had her, and known her, and loved her forever. I think for the most part I feel like I've been at this motherhood thing for longer than two weeks; it definitely feels normal and natural in many ways. I thought it would be a harder adjustment - with the lack of sleep and tiny pink clothes in the laundry and that little person eating on me every 3 hours - but it all fell into place so smoothly that I can't remember life without these things.

We had house guests up until yesterday. Grandma (my mom), had been here since day 1, and for the weekend we had Papa Pete and Aunt Beth (B's sis) and her bf Tom. It was a super-fun weekend! But by yesterday evening the house was quiet and it was just the three of us. B was off of work today so we really got to settle into our family mode. It was nice, just being us, doing everything on our own. I think I expected my day to be so different with a baby - but it's really quite the same, just enhanced. We watched a movie, played the Wii, went to Walmart, did laundry and dishes and ate regular meals. It was a great relaxing day. Tomorrow is my first day all alone with my daughter while Brandon's at work. I think it'll go well. I do miss my mom though. She was such a huge help with everything, and it was fun just to get to hang out with her for so long. When does anyone get to just sit and chat and bum around with a parent for 2 whole weeks? I'm a lucky girl.

Baby's 1 week check up

Miranda is 10 days old now, so we just had our first check-up - as we were released from the hospital 1 week ago. Of course the big question is always weight gain in these first few days. I'm happy to report that our little girl is doing great!! She was born 6 lbs 10 oz, was down to 6 lbs 1 oz when we left the hospital last Thursday. Today she was already 7 lbs 2 ozs!! Can you believe that? She gained an entire pound in just this past week. I guess the breast feeding is working just fine. So that's our happy news for the day. Everything else looked great at the check-up too.

I'm going to start a new slideshow to track Andy's growth. My cousin used a special teddy bear to compare her son's growth every month. I loved these pictures, so I'm stealing her idea. We bought a very tall giraffe, named Jeffery, to take periodic pictures with. We'll start with every week (seeing as she can apparently grow a pound in one) and do every month after that. So - that's the stroy behind the Jeffery growth picture above.

First few family days

We brought Miranda home on Thursday morning! Since then we've been resting, eating, cuddling, crying, changing diapers, and watching tv. We've had our first bath (just sponge bath at this stage), our first walk outside, and our first overnight in the house. All things have gone really well. She's really a calm and happy baby so far! She mostly cries when she's messy or hungry, but is pretty easily comforted. I even clipped her nails today and pinched a bit of skin which bled a little. She yipped when it happened, gave me a very disappointed look, then got over it. Calm baby, right?!

I'm recovering pretty well. I actually feel really great, not sore or tired or anything for a while. But then I get up and move around too much, or too fast, or get up and sit down at a funny angle and I soon remember my incision pain and lack of ab muscles. Mom and Brandon have been awesome to take care of everything around the house from cooking to dishes to laundry to changing and comforting Andy and waiting on me hand and foot. So, I'm really grateful for both of them. Most of the day I'm enjoying my baby and feeling pretty good.

Our first night was a fun adventure. I think we were both geared up for a lot of work and frustration and no sleep - so it went way better than it could have. We were up for three different feeding sessions. Brandon helped get her up and changed and positioned for feeding. I would feed (obviously), which has been going a lot better than it was at the hospital, then we'd take turns on who rocked and sang and comforted her back to sleep. Once was a really quick one, the other two were 40-70 minutes each. She likes to be up after eating. She's peaceful, just looking around and hanging out, but awake for sure. Overall we got some sleep, and successfully fed and loved our little one. So, good night. She's actually been awake more today than yesterday - so I'm wondering if she'll sleep well tonight.

We go back to the hospital tomorrow morning to check her jaundice levels.

We had a couple visitors today, which is nice. If you want to come by and meet Andy, don't hesitate to call or stop by. There are a few sets of pictures on picasa. Click on the link on the right. We;ll add new albums as we take more pictures. Her face is already changing a bit from when she was born. How strange.

And then she came...

My little angel is sleeping soundly in grandma's arms, so I thought I'd take a moment to write out our birth story.

We came into the hospital about 9:00 p.m. on Sunday. We were scheduled to induce labor, hoping to have her on Mon afternoon or evening. I was actually already having pretty regular contractions when they got me hooked up to the monitors, so we just watched and timed them for a while. Around 1 am I took a half pill to speed things up a bit, since the contractions weren't really productive yet. That brought me up to about 5 minutes apart, and a pretty good level of contracting. I wasn't really in pain yet, just a big uncomfortable. B and I both slept on and off throughout the night. The nurse debated on whether or not to give me the second dose of the inducing stuff, to keep things progressing. I was doing fine, but wasn't getting any stronger or closer together - or more dialated in the process. So, about 7 am she gave me the rest of the pill.

That's when things started going poorly. I was totally overstimulated and had some contractions that didn't stop - not giving the baby a moment to rest. This stressed her out and her pulse rate dropped dangerously and often. Within moments there were 5 nurses buzzing around me and doing who knows what. It was scary. Brandon had been sleeping, but was up on his feet quickly. They gave me something by IV that stopped the contractions, but it was an muscle relaxant and it caused me to shake and spaz all throughout my body. That felt awful! Baby was still stressed, so a Dr came and broke my water and put in an internal monitor. It wasn't long before they were trying to decide if we should continue laboring like this or not. I was definitely feeling the contractions now, and they hurt. I got the epideral, which wasn't bad and helped relax me a lot. But, through monitoring and whatnot the baby was still dropping out on heart rate, and had pooped internally, and just was unhappy. So, to the c-section I was whisked.

Everything happened really quickly from then. They put Brandon in scrubs, disconnected all my machines, rolled me through the hall and into the elevator, and in minutes had me in the operating room. I stayed awake throughout the process, and Brandon held my hand and watched the whole thing over the curtain. (Gross, B) Not much to say about the c-section - it was quick and awkward, a little scary, but the nurses and drs were really reassuring. Within about 20 minutes of being in the room they lifted a wiggly little body over the curtain for 2 seconds. This was apparently my baby! I was pretty out of it, but Brandon watched the Dr clean her up from across the room. Dr, baby, and Brandon left for the nursery and I was left lying there to be stitched back up. This was really the only bad part of the process, because I was alone up there for about an hour, and then another 1/2 hour in post op recovery. They wouldn't let Brandon or my parents come see me, nor had I even met the baby yet. So, we all waiting, not so patiently through this time. Brandon was in the nursery with his yet unnammed daughter, and my parents were peering through the window, anxiously waiting a chance to meet her and see how I was doing.

Eventually, I came down, they brought her out of the nursery, we all got to hug and cry and smile together in our long-term recovery room. We named her Miranda Ann, as you already know, but we've been calling her Andy. I'm doing really well with recovery, I feel great actually - considering the circumstances. Miranda is very heathly and passing every test they give her. She's content and happy as a baby so far. Sleeping a lot, of course. Not a stellar nurser yet, but we'll keep working on it.

Brandon says this is way too long now, and I have to get back to my sweetie. Thanks for reading, thanks for caring!

Miranda Ann is Here!

Miranda Ann was born on Monday, September 29, 2008 at 9:18 a.m. You can view pictures of HERE.

God takes care of even the impatient

We just got back from our Dr's visit. We've been going quite frequently in these last weeks of pregnancy. This was by far my favorite visit though! Having just written about impatience this morning, I'm happy to tell you, we have a plan. Everything is happier with a plan! Our Dr. said the baby is looking good, I'm feeling good, my plecenta is apparently ready to be done with it's job and fully 'mature', which puts things in a bit of a time frame crunch, and he's leaving town in a few days. So, add it all up and it spells: inducing on Monday! There's always the chance that I'll go into labor on my own between now and late Sunday night, but if not, we'll take a pill to start the process. This makes me very happy, because the waiting and guessing is just stressful. Plus, I think it'll be really sweet if we do go until then and this girl comes on the 29th! My b-day is a 29, so is 2 of my cousins, and my mom and aunt are 9ths. We are fans of having girls on these dates, apparently! I can't believe I was just complaining about having to wait, now I'm a little freaked out that my baby girl will be here within 3 days - God always throws me funny curve balls like that!

I'm not patient

My husband knows how un-patient I can be when waiting for something big and good. Just ask him sometime about the weeks and months before our engagement. I was awfully unpatient waiting for that beautiful ring to appear from his pocket. These days, I'm waiting for a beautiful baby to appear in our lives. I don't think I've gotten any better at waiting in the past 5 years of marriage.

I haven't even reached my due date yet and I'm slightly upset that this baby hasn't arrived. I'm having a constant internal conversation with her about why today would be a great day to be born. Pretty sure she neither hears me, nor cares about my opinion on the matter. It's unnerving to plan your day and week with such a big quesiton mark of when all the plans will change. I think I've already mentally checked out of work and house chores and any plans, just assuming that at some point soon we'll drop everything and have a whole new plan involving hospitals and pink blankies. It's hard to think about, or want to do, anything else then meet this baby. Oh, the waiting. I couldn't even sleep last night while hoping every little teasing uterine contraction would develop into something more than the false labor my belly is so fond of these days.

I did have a really good time yesterday evening watching 'The Office' premiere with some friends. I didn't want to go into labor before that event, because I knew it would be fun. But now - I've little to look forward to other than baby time, and the anticipation has sure set in quickly since last night! I know, I'm pitiful, but thanks for listening to me whine (in type). Watch for news on the (hopefully soon-arriving) little one!

Best Baby Shower ever!

Sorry I didn't write sooner, my baby shower was 6 days ago, but it's really taken that long just to unpack the bags and put the nursery together!

We had such a marvelous weekend home in Bismarck! The baby shower was just perfect. All the decorations were beautiful - everything was either purple or safari animal themed (like our nursery)! Lisa made a great cake, and Kristie made these adorable decorations out of rolled up diapers and baby socks.

We played the 'guess the turd' game with melted candy bars in diapers - gross and fun. I didn't do very well, I think I only had 5 or 6 out of the 10. One of my friends came over from the Grand Forks area, and it was great to catch up with her. One of Mom's friends (whom I'm quite fond of as well) came with her little girl from MN. I think all the other guests were Bismarck natives. It was fun to see everyone at once!

In the midst of all the incredible gifts we got, Brandon actually won for best gift. He surprised me by flying in my best friend Jodi from Oregon for the entire weekend. Everyone knew about it but me, I was entirely oblivious! She came walking into the backyard with the guys on Thursday night. B said he was going to hang out with the boys (which is totally normal and non-suspicious), and actually went to the airport to pick up Jodi! I was so surprised, and delighted. So, all weekend was made extra special to hang out with her, and my mom, and friends at the house.

In the list of amazing gifts though - we have a lot of homemade things. Apparently my entire family and circle of friends are very crafty and talented! In our nursery is currently: the pictures my Dad drew (you can see below), two crocheted blankets from Lisa in Bismarck, one gorgeous quilt with baby safari animals from Aunt Lisa, a great shelf for above the changing table that my Grandpa built, a homemade ceramic piggy bank from Irene, and 4 totally cute paintings of baby animals that Aunt Beth painted! All that on top of really nice baby gifts and all the hundreds of things we had registered for at Target. This is one crazy lucky kid - and I get to be the crazy lucky mommy!!

Click HERE to see all the pictures!

Slideshow update

We decided to put up pics every 2 weeks in the final stretch here, instead of 4. Seeing as the baby grows about 1/2 lbs every week, and Mom even more than that. Our little peanut isn't so little anymore - about 5 lbs these days.

Visitors and plans

We've had 2 sets of visitors this week, and we didn't let either of them rest. Coming to the Vetter home is more like short term mission work than vacation, apparently. My parents were down last weekend, and we kept Dad hopping with all sorts of Mr. Fix-it projects. The biggest was putting up lattice/fencing all around the back deck so animals stop hanging out there and driving the dog (and hence us) crazy. He also fixed things around the house, and hung fabulous new art in the nursery. Check it out in the pictures, all Papa Pete originals! Mom and I did all the baby's laundry and organized clothes into sizes and accessibility. Quite productive!


This week Brandon's Dad came down. He has not stopped working on the bushes and flowers and general landscaping all around the house. He's seriously been out there for 6-7 hours every day. They've torn out all the old weeds and overgrown shrubs and planted pretty new things. Now he's got the edging rubber stuff in, and is starting to lay down a bunch of red mulch. You can see how much I understand all this, I'm probably not using the right words. But, it looks great!

So that's been our house guests and house projects. We're hoping Beth might make it down sometime too. And of course all the parents will be back when baby comes! The rest of our week has been full of plans for the beginning of school at DWU, and beginning of edu programming at my church. I'm eager to start confirmation and Bible Study and Sunday School and finally get to know all the students. Brandon's glad kids are trickling back to campus with sports teams this week, and everyone next week. This place will be hoping again!

Our next big plans are to go to Bismarck for a baby shower my Aunt Kristie and good family friend Lisa are hosting for us! I'm a little nervous about this, since it's during my 37th week of pregnancy. I keep hearing stories of all these women having their babies 2 or more weeks early, and that freaks me out. But, I know, and Brandon tells me daily, that the majority of people go to that 40th week or over - so it SHOULD be fine. The shower will be great, I'm excited for that. It was super fun to register and pick out all the adorable baby things in the nursery dept. We're going with a safari theme of baby African animals - so cute. Our registry is at http://www.target.com/ if you want to see. If you're in the Bismarck area, come to the shower on Saturday, Sept 13th at 2 p.m. at First Lutheran Church across from Bismarck High School!

After that I guess our plans involve having a baby and learning what to do with her. That should be enough to keep us busy for awhile! I hope YOUR plans are to come visit said baby!

Brandon's home with chicken nuggets, so I say goodbye. :-) Vicky

Baby Update

I'm so sorry, I haven't actually given any baby news in a long while. As if you people are reading this blog to find out what B and I are doing - yeah right - get to the kid! Here's all the baby/pregnancy news fit to print.

We did a very 'unofficial' ultrasound with a nurse at our home clinic. We played around for about 1/2 hour - it was awesome! We saw some images of the baby's face, and for just a moment a perfect little foot with 5 tiny toes. What fun! The kid was squirming and moving hands and legs constantly; which I guess I already knew because I can feel it all the time now. Just recently we actually reached a stage where you can see the movements by just looking at my belly. That's kind of creepy. Anyway, the point of the story - having seen no 'man parts' we believe this baby is a girl! So I'll finally stop saying 'it' and call her she, which is so much better! We've been calling her a girl for a couple weeks now, and even buying a few girly things, so we're getting pretty excited about baby-girl world.

I'm still feeling really good - this whole pregnancy has gone just beautifully. I'm bigger now, as you can see from the 28 week picture, and growing regularly. So, I do have some discomfort with her pushing against my ribs, and just in general getting heavy to carry around. My feet and hands swell up every now and then, but not to unbearable amounts. I guess I'm a little nervous to see how the next 9 weeks go, knowing that she'll gain 1/2 pound every week from here on out. I guess that means I'll about double in belly size. She's roughly 3 lbs right now. People say I don't look 30 weeks pregnant yet, I'm too small. I feel big, though! It may be that I'm carrying her really high - in my ribs. In the next few weeks she's supposed to move down lower and 'get into position'. We'll see.

I had a blood glucose test about 3 weeks ago, and failed. So I had to do the 3 hour version of the test last week. Which meant I went to the clinic at 9 in the morning, not allowed to eat breakfast. They drew my blood, waited an hour for the results, had me drink the sugary soda thing then drew my blood every hour for 3 hours. So, all told, I couldn't eat or drink anything until 1:00 that afternoon. That's like torture for a pregnant woman! In the end they said my body is NOT processing sugar appropriately. So, I've been put on a minimum sugar and low-carb diet until the end of the pregnancy. They said my levels aren't quite at 'gestational diabetes' classification, but it's a similiar idea to that. So that kind of stinks for us. I really like bread in all it's forms, and sweets a lot! But, it's been going ok this week to back off them all.

That might be all the baby news I have right now. My dad is making some picture for the nursery, which I'm really excited about. He's got all the skills of an artist! I think Beth is going to do some art work too, which will be awesome! She's in Peru right now, so keep her in your prayers. Also, on a side note, please lift up my good friend Amber and her boyfriend Eric in your prayers. Eric was recently diagnosed with leukemia and has been in the hospital all week with problems.

The Rock - ROCKS again!

We're back from a wonderful week of camp out in the hills. 56 middle school campers, and nearly 0 disciplinary problems. Can you believe it? It was such an amazing group of kids, I was extremely impressed. It also probably helped that we had a world-class staff of great counselors to keep them entertained, happy, and growing all week long. I swear I laugh more during one week of camp than most other months altogether!

Some of the highlights from our week:
*The outfits counselors wore to play Rock Band.
*The new variation of 'electricity' that includes tossing a cup of water at your competitor.
*The really well-behaved, involved, enthusiastic campers!
*The fact that very few, if any, kids said the sessions were too long and boring.
*The communion service on Thursday night with lots of genuine commitments and repentance.
*Teaching a whole group of campers how to play Samari / 'Waa'.
*Scaring the pants off the group in the cave. I didn't go, but I saw the footage and heard the stories.
*Playing with the three little boys that came with counselor parents.
*The best moment: when the counselors attacked the entire camp with garbage pails of water and the hose, while all the campers had their heads down and eyes closed, innocently playing a game! Both Ju-cos were with the campers, getting soaked, even though they had foreknowledge of the plan - that's dedication!

Now we're home, doing laundry and sleeping. I napped twice already today - long naps too. I feel fully pregnant and huge now, and get worn out fairly quickly. We've got a week to recover and prepare, then it's back out to the same place for high school camp. I hope that one goes just as well!

Africa Pictures and random update

Here are some of the picture from Brandon's trip to Tanzania. We're still working on putting some video together. Follow this link http://picasaweb.google.com/vbvetter it's the first album, called Tanzania 08.

I started my job this month at Trinity. It's been going pretty well. Like with any new job I've got a lot of people, and programs, and computer files to keep straight. There's lots of information gathering at this time. But, overall, it's been going really well. I like my co-workers and am getting along with them. I've met a few people from the church, and everyone's been so welcoming and nice. I really like this congregation, actually. I haven't hung out with many youth yet, but have at least met a few. I'm eager to get started with that. We actually have meetings this coming week with both high school and confirmation groups - so things are starting up!

Brandon has nicely recovered from his jet leg, and a weekend of Annual Conference. So, the house is happy and normal once again! This weekend we're actually out in the Black Hills with my family, just to hang out and take in the trees.

Vicky

Brandon back in America!

Sorry, I didn't get on earilier to say that Brandon and the entire team did indeed arrive safely home earlier this week. I've only gotten some stories as they come trickling out; but lots of good pictures. Everyone is doing well, and it sounds like the trip overall was a big success. B's gone again now, for Annual Conference. But, he's in the country and only out of a couple of days - so I can handle it. Eventually we'll post the Africe pictures and I'll share that link with y'all.

I started my new job this week! It went really well. There's a huge learning curve, of course - it'll take a while for me to know what's going on and learn who's who. But, this week I figured out a few organizational things in the office, started getting a feel for the programs in place and what's been tried before. Best of all, we had VBS all week - so I got to hang out with lots of great moms and volunteers and about 30 sweet kids every evening. It was really fun, and quite a successful event. I was with the 4 yr. olds mostly. I'm so impressed when they answer questions about the Bible or theology correctly. It's amazing how much they can understand and remember so young! Overall I'm really excited to be in the church and glad to finally get going on the job.

Garage Sale Queen!

Do you know a Garage Sale Queen? I'm sure glad I do! She goes by many names, but I call her 'Mom'. And this past week she dominated the Bis-Man Garage Sale kingdom. In the process the Vetter family nursury went from 0% stocked, to 80-85% done! Check out the pictures, we made a major haul! It filled my SUV, and we had to leave the big piece, a changing table, back with Grandpa for some reinforcements.

We got big things, like crib, swing, blanket sets, bouncy chair and we got teeny-tiny things like newborn onesies and socks that barely fit two adult fingers. Overall we had 70+ items of clothing in a range of sizes to grow into and out of. Here's the amazing part...are you ready? We wrote down everything we saw laid out in the living room and estimated the cost of each item when bought new (with some internet search help). A conservative estimate puts us as $1300 of supplies, we spent LESS than 20% of that!

It was amazing to set everything up in the room that will be our nursury soon. It finally started looking like one today! I just keep thinking about all these great things and how right now they're clothes on the shelf or a cute toy on the floor - but before long they'll wrap around our baby and be drooled on and played with and washed a hundred times. These are my baby's things! How amazing is that!

Thanks for everything, Mom and Dad! I had a great week at home, and am very grateful to be this much more prepared for the little one's arrival!

Brandon in Africa

Brandon is in Tanzania - and many have asked how things are going. I'll give you the update on the few things I've heard, but I'll make him blog and show pictures later so you get it first hand. The highlights I know are what I receive in a text message when I wake up and he's finishing a day for work (8 hr difference). We've talked for a few minutes here and there too.

The first week they worked hard at Huruma Orphanage, where the main task was digging a latrine. They got it down to ten feet deep, but needed to stop there for lack of ladders or means of getting out of a 10 ft hole. The goal is to be 30 feet deep, but they won't personally dig much beyond 15 as armatures. They'll leave money for Zachariah to hire it out. Problem is, knowing Zachariah, he's going to try to keep working on it himself because it needs to get done. That's not good work for a man his age or build.

On the weekend they went on safari. The highlights I heard about there were the white monkeys with blue balls - also known as blue-scrotum monkeys, apparently. The elephant they watched push down a tree with it's trunk (look for footage on that later) and lots of good giraffes, lions, elephants, etc. Sounds like they had lots of luck finding the 'good stuff'.' They're with our same driver from last year - who is an excellent tour guide and really funny, nice man - so I know they're having a good time whenever they're travelling, and especially on safari.

This week they're in the small village of Minjingu, and a neighboring village. In Minjingu is the preschool we helped clean up and clear out last year. They have been doing improvements and final touches there. I guess Robbie and Amy built 2 picnic tables from scratch! Cha was painting some original art work on the walls, which is incredible I'm sure. Everyone else was running chicken wire along the fences to keep out the goats (always a concern), and once again dealing with the bats. They 'smoked out' the bats, literally with a flaming paint roller on a long stick. They were trying to find the opening to close it up - Brandon was standing guard to watch for the bats' exit. I guess they came flying straight towards him, he tried to duck out of the way, but tripped on a rock and fell and rolled and made everyone laugh at him for what seemed to be a big over-reaction to a few bats flying overhead!

In the second village they're constructing a new preschool building. Some were laying brick, some clearing land - like cutting down trees with machetes, some picking rocks and mowing the grounds. All in all, it sounds like they've stayed busy. They've also found time for fun. I've heard of at least one volleyball game, that they lost. They taught some local kids the basics of baseball with a stick and fruit from the ground. I guess that was a neat evening because there were about 8 kids around when they started playing, then about 15, eventually over 30 kids joking around with our team and learning this new sport.

They'll finish work in the villages tomorrow, go back to the main city, work again at the orphanage, attend a real African church on Sunday, and head home. From my time they begin travels on Sunday around 1pm, they'll arrive in Sioux Falls about 7:00pm on Monday. Please keep the team in your prayers, and ask God to bless the projects they're working on and the people they're with.

I heart Kentucky!

Brandon and I reached 'our old Kentucky home' a day late because of some airplane problems, but we're sure glad to be here now! We've just had a fantastic weekend with all the wedding festivities, and getting to see the whole church community. The wedding was absolutely beautiful, and the couple thought of so many romantic details to make things very special. It was extra fun for us because every time we turned around there was another youth, parent, church friend or whoever ready for a hug and catch-up conversations. We've actually already seen just about everyone I wanted to connect with in these past two and half days. We even caught 2 families from different towns that came in for the wedding too. It's so exciting to be back and reconnect with all these important relationships and people. It's different having a 'spiritual friendship' or even just history in a faith community than other more basic relationships. I feel so close to these guys, especially all my old youth, because of the things we talked about, learned together, and been through in the past. It's not like a reunion of college friends, or hometown acquaintances, there's a lot of depth and love shared around here. I like it!

Kansas City

Brandon and I were off on a grand weekend adventure the last few days. We drove down to Kansas City for an anniversary weekend. B had bought tickets to 'Wicked' a couple months back. It was a great show! It's so funny and witty, and was crazy-well performed. Other than the big show on our actual anniversary, we just bummed around the city. I was impressed by how 'modern' of a big city KC seemed to be, at least the parts we were in. Lots of things were new or recently updated and very well designed and kept up. We went to the zoo, to a mega-church B keeps tabs on, and plenty of restaurants and wandering around. Our hotel was really fancy. We kept joking about the room which was advertised as 'contemporary hip'. It pretty well lived up to that description. When we first walked into the lobby we were offered free champagne by the desk hosts; and outstanding hospitality like that continued all weekend.

It was a long drive back and we both started to get a little overwhelmed thinking of everything that needs to be done this week before the next great adventures. In short: I finish my last day at the colony on Thursday (I told my students about the pregnancy and not coming back today). Brandon is organizing a hundred last details for Africa as well as doing class with the team this week. We're both getting ready for the Kentucky trip, which starts Thurs. Brandon is packing for the longer 2 weeks in Tanzania. And, just other miscellaneous things that come along with preparing for those trips and deadlines. So, it's busy - but we're looking forward to everything coming up!

Ultrasound!

We had an ultrasound done this week. It was really fun! It's so neat to see this little baby swimming around in there. He/She is so active - always moving arms and hands. I'm surprised I don't feel it more yet; Brandon keeps telling me to count my blessings because it won't be long before I feel every little move.

They took measurements on everything, and each thing kept popping up at 18 weeks and zero days, which was exactly that day of my pregnancy. I don't know how they measure the femur size to a particular day - but that's what the machine said! The only thing that measured different was the circumference of the head, which clocked it at 18 weeks and 5 days. I had to thank my husband for passing on big-head genes. 5 whole days bigger than it should be - I'm not concerned. Let's just hope his crazy-big brain comes with that package!

It was too early to tell the gender. I was bummed about that, because I thought we would find out. So, we'll have to wait and see. It's possible our doctor can do an unofficial ultrasound at the clinic on one of our next visits. But, that's just our plan, not his. We might just have to wonder and guess until October. That seems like forever away! As fast as the end of the school year has come, it still seems like the pregnancy moves super slow. I'm not even half way there yet. Maybe that's good, because our house isn't even a 1/4 of the way ready to welcome of baby. We've put off all the shopping and rearranging rooms and whatnot until summer. But, college graduation is today, I'm done in two weeks, then it's Kentucky trip, Brandon to Africa, I start my new job, and hello summer!

This whole week has just gotten away from me. We had 2 sick men in the house, along with 3 extra houseguests, 2 being little kids. Our permanent house guest got sick on Wednesday, followed by Brandon who got it really bad. He was entirely down for a day and half, and now just taking things as slowly as possible. It's a pretty busy week on campus, so there was a lot he couldn't get out of. Meanwhile I didn't sleep with him up puking all night, then couldn't do my afterschool naps with the little ones running around, so things have been on the crazy side. It was actually really helpful to have the other mom here, because she was a cleaning and cooking saint! I would have been in big trouble without her. It was fun to hang out with the kiddies too!

Well, the weekend should reestablish normalicy; although our busy May isn't exactly going to have a normal schedule. Should be fun though!

More Snow?!?

So just when everything was getting green and pretty and springy, we get hit with a second April snowstorm. Blizzard is maybe more accurate; I'm not sure what they're officially calling it yet. I do know our schools closed down around 10:00 this morning and it took me over twice the normal time to drive home from the colony. Seriously, it's April 25, did Mother Nature miss that memo?

Not that I'm complaining - unexpected three day weekend! Poor Brandon had to teach a class at 2:00, and they just announced they're closing down campus at 3:00. So close.

Winter Wonder Land - in April

You wouldn't believe the snow around here, unless you live in any state touching SD, then you probably got hit too. We've had 9 inches this weekend! On Friday it was blowing around so badly they actually cancelled school; which doesn't happen often in Mitchell. I always have to laugh because if KY got 9 inches of snow, they'd be closed for week at least!

Jack enjoys it, he bounds around like a bunny, falling into all the deep drifts. We took him out for his regular walk, but half way through Brandon couldn't resist the nice prestine field filled with a foot of fresh snow. He and Jack took off running through it, I wish I had a video camera - they looked pretty funny. You can't really run through that deep, it's more like giant steps and bounds.

Getting the Word Out

We've had a lot of fun letting everyone in on the baby news! We told some close friends right away, parents and siblings soon after, but waited until a couple months in to really spread it around.

For those we don't see, like out-of-town friends, we made a little video. We set it up to look like just a video of Jack, our husky-lab, showing off some tricks (not that he knows any). So, turns out a lot of friends, with actual lives, didn't watch it. One even called us later and said "I wasn't going to take the time to watch some dumb dog video!" another e-mailed us back just catching up on regular news and sharing some good news of their own and casually mentioned 'cute video, you guys need some kids.' She obviously didn't watch it! So, jokes on them, because the end of the video was the news - Jack has no tricks, but Vicky has a bun in the oven! You can watch that if you want...



With that news out we were free to talk about it around town. Brandon decided to mention it during 'joys and concerns' in his weekly chapel service at the college. Seeing as it's both a huge joy and simultaneously extremely concerning and scary - this seemed appropriate. So, he says "We wanted to share with you all, and ask for your prayers to be added to ours, because my wife Vicky is 12 months pregnant." Well, instantly all the women in the room start whispering and gesturing to him "12 WEEKS, 12 weeks, not months." Brandon recovers nicely with "oh, yeah, that's right, 12 weeks - I don't think we're gestating an elephant!"

Sicky Vicky : Healthy Baby

The flu, or something like it, has been going around the colony. Our students are dropping like flies. Sunday morning, it hit me. Brandon was gone, doing a church service out of town. So I, alone, sick, and pregnant was not a happy girl! After lots of throwing up, crying, and talking to my mom on the phone I got through the morning. It was a couple days of yuckiness though; quite the double whammy of fatigue with flu and normal 1st trimester tiredness. I was out of school for 3 days, but it was only a 3-day week, so I had 4 freebies to fully recover.

The good part of all this is we went to the doctor on Tuesday. I was dehydrated, so they hooked me up with some fluids - always helpful. And just before the appointment I noticed some bleeding when I went to the bathroom. Of course, a sick, emotional, pregnant lady doesn't handle that well! I was pretty scared, and just sure this sickness was messing with the baby - although Brandon and the dr kept assuring me it wasn't. But, to appease me the doc set us up with an early ultrasound at the hospital. It was rough sitting around the next three hours in waiting rooms - but it was just incredible to see that tiny baby inside! He/She was 4 cm small at the time, but already moving around and everything. We could watch the blood flow, see where the hands were going to grow out of the little flipper beginnings, and clearly tell head from tail. Pretty exciting stuff! I can't wait until our next one when she/he's much bigger and more obviously baby looking.

Telling the Parents

Thanks to my good friend and college roomie we had a great plan for revealing the pregnancy to my (V) Mom and Dad. They came down for the weekend just to visit. We attempted a nice dinner, that absolutely fell apart in a series of errors. But, we didn't mind too much, because we had this big secret to share. After dinner we sat down to play Hoopla, a Cranium type game. I was up with a drawing task - draw the person on this card. Well instead of drawing for that clue, I drew this picture you see. Well my parents, being such games, weren't thinking beyond the game. So while my hands were shaking and I was trying to look casual, they're guessing 'obstetrician, gynecologist...surrogate mother'... So finally I draw a big arrow pointing to myself. Mom stares at the picture dumb-founded, Dad looks up and says "you're not, are you?!" It was pretty funny!

New Blog

Hey all,

We thought we'd start a blog to share any fun pregnancy stories and pics as we go through this new adventure. It's already been a really interesting time; but we don't get to talk to so many friends regularly - so maybe this will be a good way to keep in contact, all be it one-sided. It'll be your job to catch us up on your lives! Thanks for being part of ours!

V+B