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!