Well, here we are at the third trimester now! We are counting down the weeks until baby girl arrives! I still can't believe I'm pregnant. It's the most amazing journey and blessing that I don't take for granted.

After announcing our pregnancy in mid December, my nausea began to subside, my bloating disappeared (thank goodness! what people were seeing was definitely not a baby bump ;)), and I started to feel more human and less like a hormonal monster.

I remember being so eager to feel the baby move inside of me, just to know for certain that she was alive and doing well. Until you feel the baby, you have to wait a month until your next appointment to hear the heartbeat through the doppler. That's a long time to wait!

God continued to teach me to rest in His plan and not to assume the worst. If the worst happens, then we'll deal with it. But there's no point in causing yourself to worry when you can't control the circumstance/outcome. God truly has blessed me with a smooth pregnancy, and I'm ever so grateful. Just throughout my pregnancy alone, I know several people who have lost a baby, gone into premature labor too early for the baby to survive, and those whose baby was diagnosed with conditions that will most likely send the baby to Heaven before birth.

My heart breaks for these families, but also so grateful that Jesus takes care of our babies - even if we don't get to take care of them for long.

At 17.5 weeks, I started to feel her move for sure for the first time! It went from basically nothing to feeling her ALL THE TIME!

I love laying down with my hand on my lower stomach, just feeling her move. Jon has likewise enjoyed feeling her kicks and twists.

On January 23rd, our world was changed.

We had our anatomy ultrasound, and found out our baby’s gender! As I was laying down during the ultrasound, I fought my legs from shaking the entire time. I was so nervous and excited! Nervous, because I wanted so badly for our baby to be healthy, with nothing that seemed abnormal. Excited, because we were crazy eager to find out if we were having a boy or a girl!

Turns out, there's no doubt about it (says the nurse and midwife)...

We are having a precious baby GIRL!!!!!! And Praise the Lord, everything looked healthy and strong!

It was absolutely amazing to see her moving around on the ultrasound. I’ve fallen so much more in love with her now that I’ve seen her. It’s so real! I have a baby inside of me! I keep staring at her ultrasound photos (several of them in 3D!), and it just blows my mind.

Here’s now we told my family:

Jon bought chocolate glazed donuts from Krispy Kreme and had them fill it with pink icing!

We met at Lauren and Jason’s apartment at night since that was easiest for everyone (Lauren is my sister, and she just had a baby the month before). It was a quick ordeal since some had school and studying, but it was so special to tell them in person (with Bethany on FaceTime)!

We had everyone close their eyes (so they didn’t see any remnant of pink icing on the donut), and when we told them to GO!, they took a big bite of the donut to see what color was inside! Watch the video below!

We’ve since put together the baby’s room (basically a guest room) and started registering at Target and Amazon. It’s pretty overwhelming! But I’m loving how the room is coming together. Sometimes I just walk in there and sit in the glider chair, imaging what life will be like with baby girl. <3

Valentine's Day 2018 - when I came home from teaching, Jon already had the tripod set up with the camera in the backyard so that we could take some portraits. I'm so grateful for him being intentional with photos, and I treasure these!