November Highlights

What an amazing month it's been! Just to recap, we found out that not only are we having a healthy baby, but it's a boy! God is so good!

I'm starting to feel Chase move around more, and I'm definitely starting to look more pregnant by the day. You can see my belly poking out and scrunched up in the picture with me sitting in the lounge chair; surprisingly, those are still my normal jeans (thank God for low-rise jeans!). I'm still in normal pants and can button them without any problem, but I'm having to switch to larger shirts. On Thanksgiving morning, Tim felt Chase move for the first time. I told him to put his hand on my belly just in time for him to feel Chase scrape his feet and legs across my belly....he must have been doing gymnastics that morning!

My parents, Tim, and I went down to Nags Head last weekend. It was cold down there, but still a nice get-away. Mom and I did some shopping and had fun "ooohing and aaaahing" over all of the baby clothes. We had fun just lounging around the cottage too (the pictures are of us in the lounge chairs on the porch of the cottage).

We had a nice Thanksgiving....spent Thursday with Tim's family and Friday with mine. We have so much to be thankful for. Today, we're going to get our Christmas tree and decorate the house. I'm sure it will be an exciting Christmas season for the "3 of us" (well, "4 of us" counting Dexter).

"B" is for......

"B" is for Blessing....a baby is such a blessing from God.
"B" is for Beautiful....a baby is one of God's many beautiful creations.
"B" is for Breeden....I'm thankful God gave me my husband so that I can be a Breeden and we can breed little Breedens together (ha, ha!).
"B" is for Butterflies....I'm starting to feel movement in my belly; it feels like butterflies fluttering around (what an incredible feeling!).
"B" is for Blue....bring on the blue, because IT'S A BOY!!!!

Praise God, my doctor's appointment at EVMS went really well today. The doctors (who were the same folks who dealt with Connor when we found out he had spina bifida) had nothing but wonderful news for us today! My ultrasound lasted for about an hour. The EVMS ultrasound tech had a very thorough look at the baby; she took measurements of just about every part of the baby's body, including the head, spine, legs, arms, heart, kidneys, etc. Everything looked normal and healthy! Plus, Tim and I got to find out that we are having a baby boy!

We have already picked out a name for our little one: Chase Luke Breeden. "Chase" is of English and Old French origin; it means "huntsman." We hope our "Chase" will be a hunter for Christ as he faces the world. "Luke" is of Greek origin; most of you already know that Luke was a first-century Christian who was often referred to as the "beloved physician." Luke wrote one of the four Gospel accounts of the life of Christ. Something else that Tim and I realized when picking out this name is that Chase will have the same initials as his big brother in Heaven, Connor Liam Breeden. On a lighter note, Chase is already living up to his name because he was wiggling all around during the ultrasound and "chasing" the ultrasound probe. He kept looking up at the probe like, "What is going on out there? Why does this thing keep on poking at me?"

With all of that said, we are thrilled to announce that Chase is a healthy boy who is due to make his debut into the world on April 22nd, 2009. This will be the first boy on the Sneed side of the family! We ask for all of you to continue to lift this precious little boy up in your prayers as we all journey through these next few months together.

My next doctor's appointment is back with my regular OB/GYN (Dr. O'Connell & Dr. Yonker) on December 10th for my 5 month check-up. I'll keep you posted on how things go then!

Giving Thanks

My last posting was right after Halloween, and here we are just a couple weeks away from Thanksgiving. Tim and I have so much to be thankful for right now.....today, we found out that the results from the quad screening are NORMAL!!! Praise God!!! This means that we have a HEALTHY baby! I had faith that everything would be ok with this baby long before finding out the quad screening results, but the human side of me still worried as Tim and I anxiously waited to hear the results. I feel so blessed and relieved to know that everything is ok after a long week of waiting.

The posted pictures were taken today, which puts me at 17 weeks. We saw Dr. O'Connell today for my 4-month check-up. She told us the great news that the test results were normal and we got to listen to the baby's heartbeat; it was beating in the 150-range. I had my blood pressure and weight checked. Much to my surprise, I had only gained 2 pounds since the first trimester......so, we fixed that by going to El Burrito (a Mexican restaurant on the way home to Smithfield) after our doctor's appt.

Next Tuesday, I go to EVMS at Riverside Hospital for an ultrasound. Since the quad screening results are normal, Tim and I won't have to go through genetic counseling like we did with the last pregnancy. This should be a FUN visit that should further confirm that we have a healthy baby. Plus, we should be able to confirm the sex of the baby at that time.....we're still thinking boy, but Tuesday will reveal the official results......stay tuned!

15-1/2 Weeks Along on Halloween

Here Tim and I are in front of our house on Halloween. You can't really see just how much my belly is starting to poke out in this picture, but I can assure you it's there! Wow....here we are in November already! Tim and I had a nice, relaxing Halloween night. I carved our pumpkin Thursday night and last night we handed out candy to about 30 trick-or-treaters. Once 8:00 rolled around, the porch light was off and I was asleep on the couch by 9:00....I'm not much of a night owl these days; however, I do feel more energetic than I did in the first trimester. Plus, the nausea is gradually starting to go away....yay! Baby is steadily growing and is around 5" long right now. I go for the quad screening this Wednesday, Nov. 5th. I probably won't get the test results until about a week after, so I'm trying to keep the faith and not get overly anxious during these next few weeks. Your prayers are very much appreciated for a healthy baby and a sane mommy during these next few weeks!