Something New

I just wanted to say that Cooper's kicks have become jabs! It happened for the first time Sunday night after a little fried chicken from Canes. On our way home, out of nowhere, he just dug some sharp part of his body into my side. Whooo! It hurt! I was so surprised. I really didn't ever imagine that feeling him move would hurt. Until now I had just been feeling some rolling, and softer movements. But goodness gracious - he either doesn't like Canes, or was completely satisfied and stretching out for his nap. It's kinda shocking when he does that out of no where. Amazing, but shocking. He's just getting so big! I can't wait to meet this little man. I kinda think that as we get closer to November 25th, we may be able to see some hand/footprints pushing on my belly. That will be cool!

I just wanted to give an update. Like I said, he'll do what becomes the norm, and then out of nowhere he'll surprise me with a new little trick. What a joy!

Some Belly Pictures

These are from Friday, August 18th - 26 weeks pregnant.

"A Good Hurt"

Well here is another picture of our precious little baby boy. We had the 4D ultrasound done on Friday and came away with several pictures and a DVD video of the session. In case you can't tell, this is Cooper's face. You can see his eyes, nose, mouth and little chubby cheeks. (The tech said they were really chubby.) I think he looks to have T's nose! Yea!

Anyway, I just wanted to share this picture with y'all. It's amazing that this little baby is growing in my belly with only a few more months before he will be introduced to the world.

I wanted to make one more comment. The title of this blog is "A Good Hurt" and I can thank our worship leader for this. Last night at church I evidently had a look of "I'm in pain" when Cody walked in the door. He laughed at my posture and facial expression and I said, "I hurt." He directly followed with, "It's a good hurt though." For some reason that really made me stop and think. It's not just a good hurt; it's an amazing, wonderful, exciting, blessing of a hurt. I am thankful for these pregnancy pains because it means that we have a baby on the way. A baby that the Lord has graciously blessed us with. A baby that He is knitting daily. A baby only He knows everything about. Even if I have to endure some irritating back pain and what not, it's all worth it. The Lord is teaching me and growing me through this and that makes me excited and honored. I'm just excited about the three months to come and I'm so ready for November to be here so we can meet our long-legged son. The Lord is amazing and I am so incredibly thankful for how He works and for what he's doing in our lives and within our family.

Baby Check-up, Month 6

I had my 6 month check up yesterday! Everything went very well. I'll post the stats like last month.

Weight at 5 months: 142 lbs.
Weight at 6 months: 145 lbs.
Belly Measurement: 26.5 cm (right on track)
Baby's Heart Rate: 133 bpm (a lot lower than last month, but she said it was just fine. I also had been watching my sugar intake for a couple of days because I thought I was going to have to have my gestational diabetes test and I didn't want anything to "skew" it.)

Other updates would be...

I am having my gestational diabetes test in 3 weeks, so pray that goes well. I have to drink a really big sugar loaded drink - yuck!

I stopped going to the physical therapist because it's just too expensive. Goodness! The back problems I was having then have gotten a lot better, but I have since acquired a nice sciatica pinch that is managing to impair my every move. I'm going to go have a cheaper prenatal massage to see if it helps.

I will be going to the cardiologist next week on the 24th...so no news on that yet.

Other than that everything has been absolutely wonderful. I'm enjoying every kick and movement. It amazes me how stinkin' active he is throughout most of the day. He was on a "move around like crazy for a couple of days, take a day off, move around like crazy for a couple of days, take a day off" routine, but now he just moves around like crazy. It makes me happy.

Y'all, I may be the only one who gets a kick out of it, but I seriously can't wait to see the legs on this child. My mom and grandma are here visiting and we watched the ultrasound video again and there is a point where the tech just sat in one spot on my belly and we watched him for a bit. My mom even says that those are some long legs. I told T that the doctors are going to say, "Good grief! Look at those legs!" when he comes out.

Amazing

I just want to say that it really does amaze me how this baby is changing. He will go along for a week or two just doing the normal stuff - kicking at the predicted times, rollin' around when he and I are both hungry, etc. And then, literally, one day I will wake up and he's decided to do something new. Until now, little Cooper has stayed very low in my belly. I hadn't felt his body or felt him kick anywhere above my belly button. But for the past couple of days I've been noticing him kick in completely different spots. I just knew that he had obviously changed positions and didn't think too much of it. But last night, right before we went to sleep, I was laying on my side and I felt him completely shift his body forward, so I rolled over on my back and goodness! There was an enormous lump where he was on the left side of my belly, pretty high up, above my belly button. It really was amazing - and slightly uncomfortable; not bad, just felt strange. I grabbed T to show him and he, of course, was in awe. He started talking to him and rubbed my belly and Cooper slowly moved back. It was pretty cool how the baby responded to him.

Anyway, all that to say that the baby has totally moved up in my belly! He's obviously growing and definitely getting stronger (he's a wiggle worm through most of the day now). I keep telling T that he's going to come out with the longest legs ever! He thinks I'm silly because I also keep insisting that you can totally tell on the ultrasound video that he's got looooong legs. I mean, think about it. Does this child have any other option since his parents are both 80% legs? I don't think so.