The Keene Family

I take everything I said about being in between in the last posting back... Tonight at a party, someone said to me, "Hey, I think I have those jeans too! I love them!" Let's just keep in mind this person is thin, hip, and stylish. My response was, "Really? You own maternity jeans?" Because I was wearing my new Maternal American maternity jeans! She laughed and laughed... I told her she made my year.

It's a textbook-perfect occurence in the lives of all pregnant women, and it's happening to me: nothing fits right. Thanks to Tanya and Emrie, I have some maternity clothes to wear on loan. Too bad they don't fit yet! Pre-pregnancy pants work with a Bella band, but maternity pants work better... but only the below-belly band ones, because the other kind are too big. Some of my regular shirts are getting too short (thank goodness it's winter and I wear mostly sweaters) but the maternity shirts look ridiculously long and large. This weekend we went to a Young Life leader retreat in Ocean Shores. (It snowed on Sunday on the ocean... weird.) One of the seminars we went to was on parenting, and we liked it. The presenters were Dave and Kelli Pritchard, who wrote a book called Going Public . They have eight children, so they certainly have some experience in the parenting realm!

I went to Jen's baby shower last night, and we helped design scrapbook pages for the first month of Baby Shuck's life... what a great idea! I think I might start doing that for myself since I already have a scrapbook and will need to fill it. I'm so excited that my dad (Grandpa Cole) is going to build a stand for the Moses basket my parents got us of my Amazon wish list. It will be a special gift, and a very useful one. It turns out, my mom used a Moses basket with me, too; that's how I went to all those baseball and basketball games my brothers were playing in when I was born. I think it's fun that I wanted to use one for our baby as well. This week I wore an outfit with a new top and Jim said, "Hey, you look a little pregnant!" It was a compliment. Most people still can't tell, but of course he can. Even though the baby can't hear him, he speaks encouraging words into my belly button (he says the sound travels better that way).

It is nice to pass that first trimester milestone. I'm supposed to start gained a pound per week and lots of inches, so that will be interesting. Thanks to my god-daughter, Aly , for the adorable "happy second trimester" present! :) Right now I'm 127 pounds and still have that stylish 30 inch waist that looks like I ate too much over the holidays... it will look more like a baby belly soon! At least it means that, for now, most of my tops still fit. Here are our 13-week pictures. If you'd like to quickly compare with the 9-week pics, click here . (Sure enough, there's a change!)

Today we heard the heart beat at my check-up appointment. There it was, whooshing along at 160 beats per minute. We think ultrasounds are much cooler, but it was still nice to hear. I also registered for all of our childbirth and newborn classes. We are taking a seven-week Preparation for Childbirth, Breastfeeding, and Infant CPR and Safety. After the baby arrives, we're also signed up for You and Your New Baby and Infant Massage (which was free with my package deal... and I've heard it's pretty interesting). I pre-registered at the hospital, too. For those of you who are thinking, "Becky is so type-A," both the nurse and my midwife told me to do those things today! My midwife recommended two books: Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn, and The BirthPartner , both by Penny Simkin. She's a renowned birth doula from the Seattle area. Since I'm committed to natural child birth (yes, that's right!), I'm interested in getting lots of strategies to h...

Lots of things happened this last week. Most importantly is that everyone knows that a baby is on the way! We mailed our announcements on Wednesday. Since our announcement, we have found out two more couples we know are pregnant - which means a total of nine couples in addition to us. It's the year of the baby! I also went maternity shopping with Jen to Village Maternity and to Bump, two boutiques in Seattle. I got a great pair of maternity jeans that should last the whole pregnancy. Apparently I am a little ahead of schedule in the expanding waistline department; although I haven't gained any more weight, I added another inch to my waist! On New Year's Day, we had our annual brunch with the Jones, Skagens, and Shucks - four pregnant women in one room! Here's a picture of the four of us. We are (from left to right) 12 weeks, 24 weeks, 28 weeks, and 40 weeks pregnant. (You read that correctly - Megan was due January 2nd and is patiently awaiting their new arrival as I wr...