3 months already!?

I can’t believe that we’re almost through the first trimester! I’m so thankful that we’ve come this far safely. I know that God is allowing us to have this baby because He has a special purpose for its life. I can't wait to see what He has in store. This week Baby is the size of a plum, although I'm not quite sure how I feel about all the food comparisons to my baby's size. One week, the baby was the size of a grape and I've had trouble eating grapes ever since. haha. Luckily, I don't eat a lot of plums, so this week isn't really an issue. :) The baby has doubled in size since our first ultrasound. I wish I could see him/her again, but I guess we'll have to patiently wait until December.

This post could potentially be VERY long, so I’ll try to just touch on the highlights of what's been going on over the past two weeks.

-We met with a midwife, as required by our insurance company, and decided to use one! We fell in love with the midwives we met and are thrilled to be taken care of by women who will be very hands on and attentive throughout the pregnancy and delivery. When talking to the midwives, I felt like they genuinely cared about me and our baby. Who wouldn't love that?

If you're like I was, and don't fully understand what a midwife does, this how they explaned it to me:
Midwives can do everything that a doctor can, except for surgeries. Because of this, they don't have an M.D. but do have more certification than a nurse. They DO still administer women who choose not to have a natural birth. That's the main misconception that Nick and I had when we met with them. I asked if they would still take care of me if I decided to get an epidural and they said, "Of course! We don't know why people wonder that, but we get asked that question a lot!"

-At the appointment we got to hear Baby’s sweet heartbeat again. The midwife told us not to be surprised if we couldn’t hear it because most people can’t at 11 weeks, but we did! She had a hard time hearing the heartbeat for longer than a second because the baby was moving around so much. I hope that this isn't an indication of what we’re in for! Ha.

-My morning sickness is slowly disappearing. I promised I wouldn’t complain, but I am SO glad that it’s almost over! I’m actually starting to enjoy food again and I look forward to eating now. My main aversion has been to ground beef. I’ve always been sensitive to meat and have had to inspect each bite carefully. If I get a piece of gristle in my burger, steak or chicken, it’s over and I can’t eat another bite. But, now that I’m pregnant, this aversion has been severely worse. I’ve been eating a lot like a vegetarian, which is working out great. Really sweet smells make me feel sick, like the candied nuts stand in the mall. YUCK!

-I finally understand pregnancy cravings! They are unsatisfiable unless you get exactly what you’re craving. The main thing I crave has been Chick-Fil-A Lemonade. My mouth is watering just thinking about it! Mmm...I love that sweet, tangy goodness! All of my life, I've hated mustard. I’m not picky (except for meat!) but, mustard is something I despise. Lately though, I've been craving mustard on a hot dog and ONLY on a hot dog. It is my new love. And luckily for me, Truett Cathy (the founder of Chick-Fil-A) has a restaurant here in town called Upscale Pizza. They have incredible hot dogs (with mustard!) AND Chick-Fil-A Lemonade. Need I say more? Thank you Mr. Cathy for making this pregnant woman happy!

-We have been working non-stop on the house, trying to get it ready for a third person. I know that after Baby gets here, our house will feel even smaller than it actually is. So, we’re trying to apply my mom’s favorite word to live by, “simplify.” It's now my favorite word. Our house already feels bigger. We decided that if we could make our house more useful and practical, we could live there longer. We've downsized our desk in the office/guest room because we finally learned how true it is that “the more space you have, the more clutter you collect.” We cleaned out our junk closet, spent $100 on plastic crates and have made major improvements! We've discovered that we really do have more space than we thought! We have started on the nursery. We’re going to try to get as much done before the new year as possible. December is Nick’s month off, so we will have plenty of time to get things done during the holidays. Even though we LOVE surprises, we are going to find out the sex of the baby. We do want to save a few surprises, so we aren't going to show pictures of the nursery until it’s completed. We're pretty excited about it! I think it's going to be a fun room.

-My incredible grandparents took me shopping for maternity clothes over the weekend. I don't know if I'll ever go back to regular pants because these are so comfortable. I had a blast and am so excited to have clothes that fit!

That's about all the updates I have for now! We are enjoying this time so much.

To have a little fun, I added a poll up top. I've enjoyed hearing people inadvertently refer to the baby as "he" or "she." It will be fun to see who is right! I have noticed that the majority of people are saying "he." I guess we'll find out soon enough! What do you think? (And for the record, as cliche' as it may be, we really DO just want a healthy baby. Especially after our miscarriage, we're grateful for whatever is in there!)

We're bakin' another Akin!

Well, I guess that I'm the one who's doing most of the bakin', but you know what I mean. :) Words cannot begin to express our excitement. As you know, our last pregnancy was such a roller coaster ride. Because of our experiences, we decided not to go in for an early ultrasound. Last time, all that did was make us worry. Even if we had gone in early again, and had seen that something was wrong, there wouldn't have been a thing the doctor could have done to fix it. So, we decided to wait and let the baby develop as much as possible and go in when we knew we should hear a heartbeat. We didn't want to risk hearing the doctor or ultrasound tech say, "Well, we don't hear a heartbeat. That could mean that something is wrong, or everything could be fine. Come in next week and we'll see if anything has changed." NO thank you! And, boy are we glad we waited! We were expecting to see a blob, but we saw a BABY! A real person, with a brain, a heartbeat, feet and arms! It was truly amazing. The Akins are leading revival this week at our home church, Harp's Crossing, and Nick was able to announce it last night to the congregation. After the announcement, they sang "I Stand in Awe of You." No song could have been more fitting. I am so in awe of

God and this miracle that He created! He is so good! We were ALL fearfully and wonderfully made!

Now, for the update on all things pregnancy related...

The baby's due date is May 10th. This put me at 10 weeks yesterday, which we knew by my calculations. The ultrasound tech measured the baby and he/she measured right at 10 weeks! Perfect! A May 10th baby means that I get to be huge on my April 30th birthday. Yay! :) What a great birthday present!

The heart was beating loudly at 169 bpm. Good and strong!

We put this baby in God's hands the minute we saw the plus sign on the pregnancy test, but there was still some worry and concern until we saw the baby for ourselves. But, deep down, I knew that everything was going to be okay because my symptoms have been in overdrive! The inaccurately called "morning" sickness has been "all day" sickness. I'm grateful for each bout of nausea though. For some reason, they say that the more morning sickness you have, the less likely you are to miscarry. So, as unpleasant as it has been, I thank God for it!

I AM showing! I actually started showing at 8 weeks! I don't know if it's just bloat or if it's from the baby, but there is no hiding it! I wore one of the loosest shirts I own the other night when we went shopping and the cashier called me "mama." So, it's definitely there! My pants don't fit well anymore, but I'm still not quite ready for maternity clothes.

Below are a couple of ultrasound pictures! The first one is a good full body shot. You can see arms and legs. It (I HATE calling it an "it!") looks like it's floating around in there! The second one is my favorite. I had NO idea that at 10 weeks, the baby would have feet! But, look at that tiny foot! Also in the second one, you can see the brain! Our kid is going to be so smart! :)

And thanks to my precious friend, Sybil McGhee for the lovely banner to match my blog! She did such a great job! I love it! Speaking of Sybil, the button on the right side of my blog for Thrifty Montgomery, is Sybil's blog! It's amazing and you should check it out! I've gotten so many great freebies because of it! Love you Sybil!