A photo journal of my belly/thoughts

I have to do what in a couple of weeks? Ummmmm, I'm not sure about this any more!

Ok, well maybe I'm ready. Holding a baby right now would be much more fun than just holding my belly.

I'm sure Blair would rather be kissing our little girl right now, rather than my belly too.
We don't even know her, but we love her already.

It all started with a kiss.......

.......and four 1/2 years of learning to laugh at each other. When your giant beer belly is hanging out of a wife-beater, there's not much else to do, but laugh with each other. Blair is hoping that we never have to laugh at his.


Thank you Chet and Kat Hervey for the beautiful photos!
You are a blessing to our family.

belly pics

Well for those of you wondering how big the belly is now, here are some of the professional belly pictures Chet and Ket Hervey took the other night for us, so I can forever remember how much my belly can stretch without exploding!  

Thanksgiving Christmas

Everyone can't wait to meet little Avila! What are the people in the hospital waiting room going to think. At least they will know who everyone is! I didn't think I would need a t-shirt to explain who I am - it will be a little obvious. I'll be the one pushing.

Sea World at 36 weeks

The Hervey and Edwards 1st annual winter Sea World trip was a success. The only disappointment was that I didn't start having contractions on the way home. That would have made it the BEST trip to Sea World ever. But Avila decided to keep cooking and fattening up for her arrival.

It's not that I'm miserable or even uncomfortable...amazingly I still don't feel that pregnant unless I'm having a little Braxston Hicks here and there. It's just that now that we have all this beautiful stuff I'm just ready to get this show on the road! I just want to meet her and hold her. But we'll just keep waiting.

Here is my favorite Sea World Picture. Me, Blair and the cow of the Sea - the Manatee....See the similarities between me and the Sea cow. Lately I think me and the Sea cow have a lot more in common!

Here are some more fun pictures of us at Sea World

Can you believe that Blair fed a string ray! He's like a young Crocodile Hunter (Steve Erwin).
I passed on feeding the sting rays - actually I tried to feed them, but I got too scared and dropped the fish in the water. Petting and feeding Dolphins on the other hand was a whole different story. I would have jumped in and played with them if I wouldn't have been arrested or attacked by a trainer.
The boys ended a long day at Sea World with Budweiser free tastings (don't worry they didn't drink any Bud or Bud light)
we ended the day with hot chocolate and no contractions!


All together, it was a great trip.

2 baby showers in 2 days!

Grandma Nancy, Auntie Nadine, Grandma Patti and Papa Wolfe came out to visit us in Ventura so the ladies could go to the showers! It was such a blessing to have them all here!

We got so many beautiful baby clothes and necessities that we just can't wait to use them for Baby Avila!


Family Photo outside the practically finished house! Thank you photographer/grandma Patti for a lovely photo! Just imagine her there everyone!

Kat threw an amazing baby shower! Thank you to everyone who came! Wow, that baby is growing! Either that or someone needs to lay off the ice cream!

Little Avila Joy - 4 lbs give or take

For everyone trying to distinguish the black and gray blobs above.... this is a picture of her arm and fist to the left touching her nose. It's sort of like one of those hidden pictures. The longer you look at it the most you can see. Either way, I think she's a cutie already. But I'm her mom, I should think that!

We're still having a girl!

Blair over the last 3 weeks has learned what it is like to have a 10 year old girl in the house, so he had his fingers crossed that at todays ultrasound that we would discover we were actually having a boy, however Avila is still an Avila and not an Owen. So those of you who have girls remember to tell Blair all the good (not scary) things about having daughters!

They moved the due date up as well. It looks like we might get that tax return after all. The new date is New Year's eve. What a fun birthday to have, right? Either that or she just has a fat head and long legs, which screwed up the calculations. We will just have to wait and see the perfect date the Lord has planed for her birth. Right now she is 4 lbs. and 11oz. give or take. The Dr. thinks she will be an 8 pounder when she is born. So much for the 6 pounder I was hoping for. What's an extra couple of pounds, right - it's going to hurt no matter what. I have to admit when she said 8 pounds the words epidural ran through my mind and a smile crossed my face.

Pictures will be up soon, the scanner at home doesn't seem to be working so everyone will have to wait until tomorrow to see how cute she is.

Picture or no picture rest assured she has all her body parts, all her bones and limbs are where they should be, she has cute little lips and toes and everything else she should have as a newborn. I just can't wait to meet her and see her little face. Only a month and a 1/2 to wait - crazy huh!

Harvest festival at the Edwards house

The Harvest festival at church got canceled today because of torrential down pours this morning. The rain let up after one o'clock so Amy and I decided to have a mini harvest festival at our house. 6 kids, paint, balloons, and dart - I love that we both thought nothing of the chaos to come. We had so much fun, and from the looks of it so did our kids! Even Avila threw in a kick or two!


Don't be fooled, it started out calm and sweet.......

....but eventually every one got a little paint crazy!
It was a really fun evening. After all the kids got hosed off we all sat on the front porch and had dinner. The evening ended with a great wrestling competition where everyone ended up winners. The definition of winners being used here is that no onr got hurt! Who would have thought it had rained all night and morning that day.

Halloween

Well this was Maverick's last Halloween being the our only baby. I don't think he will be very disappointed to give the attention and the costumes to the new baby to come! At least the costume part, right!

We went trick-or-treating with Ariana (our new foster daughter), Nate & Lisa, and Maverick. It's amazing the change that has happened since I went trick-or-treating, or maybe it's because of neighborhood is filled with old people, but there were not that many house with their lights on passing out candy. Either way we came home with enough candy to make us all fat in a couple of weeks.
Halloween was fun at work too. I dressed as Ray our custodian at Brekke. He was stoked to be twins for the day! Kat decided to be a chicken. A laughed every time I sae her!

30 weeks Pregnant

Well, I know I haven't posted in a while, but there's not much to post about. Except for my belly growing more like a basketball every day; I don't seem to "feel" pregnant. This leads me to the topic I wanted to discuss....What is it supposed to feel like while you're pregnant? I get asked "how are you feeling?" at least once a day. Not a strange question in itself, but the look of pitty on the faces of the people asking always catches me off guard. My response is always..."fine" I'm not sure what people are expecting as an answer. I feel like I did before I was pregnant; maybe just a little larger. I'm waiting for the looks of pitty to make sense. I'm waiting to answer with a face of exhaustion that deserves the pittiful face of the person asking the quesion. I'm defeniatly not complaining here, just waiting for it all to make sense. I'm thrilled that I haven't FELT pregnant just yet.

Don't feel bad if you've already asked me how I'm feeling, but atleast for now know that I'm feeling just fine.

There are a few concerns that I have, only becuase they don't match the pregnancy book. I don't have much of an appetite and I don't feel baby kicks. I feel movement frequently, like little bits of rolling around in there and little flutters around my ribs, but that's about it. I'm guess it's just the baby's position. If she's still breech, then it would make sense in my head that the kicks are hitting my cushion and don't stand out to me as actual kicks like everyone talks about.

We see Dr. Green in one week, and knowing him he will say, "you're fine." He might even tell me to go eat more sushi and stop worrying so much!

The heart beat at 17 weeks

I forgot to post this when we recorded it.   Turn the volume way up!  Little Avie's heart is beating just the way it should.  At least that's what they tell me!

You can tell this video is old because my tummy looks nothing like this anymore.

My life as a spy

So I realized the other day that I am just as bad as any old lady who stays at home all day and spys on her neighbors. This all happened when we bought a house; all of a sudden I felt the desire to keep tabs on everyone. Now some of the "tab keeping" is because I actually sit and have conversations with some of them. Now others, it's not that easy...... they need to be watched and have conclusions drawn up about them. I tell people that I keep an eye on my neighbors because I'm pregnant and want to be sure that when my baby is older she will be safe, but the reality of it all is that my neighbors are more interesting than any TV show I watch. My favorite is the man who leaves his house every 30-45 minutes and is only gone for 5-10 minutes. Interesting right? Wouldn't you like to know what he's up to??? Blair isn't nearly as bad, but he does have a new neighbor that he is trying to guess if he is a pro surfer, a band guy, or a poser.

Not sure why I'm putting this on my blog, but I decided it was about time I admitted it. My name is Michelle Edwards and I am a neighborhood spy. Maybe I need to watch a little more TV.

Lots of elastic!

Funny thing happened the day after my visit to the E.R. - my pants stopped fitting. How does that happen over night? One day they were a little tight and the other day I couldn't zip them. Amazing! So Kat and I HAD to go shopping, And for those of you who know Kat you know that she HATES to go shopping, so I was very thankful for her sacrifice!

While we were at Gap Maternity Kat seemed to have gain a little weight. Personally I think it may have been the small coffee from Starbucks that put her over the edge, but who am I to judge?
Seriously who is the pregnant one here? So I had to show her what's up!
Gap Maternity was fun and as you can see we enjoyed the fake prego belly. It was crazy to see what I will look like in just a few months! Wait 'till Blair see's this picture. Too bad I didn't send it to him while he was in Alaska and didn't know any better.

Mission accomplished for those of you who were worried. New pants with LOTS of elastic. I'm a little nervous I could get used to all this. I think I'm in love with the elastic waist!

My trip to the E.R. in Napa

So I like to think that I'm a pretty relaxed, no stress person, but when the cramping hit the 9 hour mark; non-affected by Tylenol I thought got a little worried.......well I guess I'm starting in the middle and for those of you like Kat who will want to know all the exciting details of the day I should start at the beginning.

Well, I left to go shopping around 9:30 this morning with my mom, grandma, and aunt. The cramping started around 10am and just continued to get worse. I just thought it was because we had walked around Baby's R Us 5 times with my grandma determined to buy anything and everything. I figured it was my bodies way of saying...GET OUT OF HERE.

But nothing seemed to make the cramps go away...food, rest, water. They just stayed the same. By 4pm they had gotten so bad that I called Dr. Green who convinced me to take a Tylenol (I was determined not to take any medicine this whole pregnancy) and wait and hour. No change.

So at 7:30 my mom and I drove to Napa E.R. and prepared for my worst fear......complications with the baby while Blair was in the middle of no where in Alaska with no cell service.

I walked into the E.R., told them I was almost 21 weeks pregnant and was having cramps. You would be amazed how fast I was wheeled in to maternity and hooked up to every monitor made. I think it took all of 5 minutes from the time I walked in until the time I got hooked up to the machines. They checked for contractions, the heart, we had another sonogram (still has girl parts) and I got to experience the dialated/not dialated exam.

End result......baby is growing as is my tummy. Everything is fine and great. The baby had been laying across my belly (hip to hip) and this morning moved to a breech position and caused my belly muscles to stretch quickly; at least this is the Dr.'s best idea. No wonder i woke up thinking my belly grew over night; even my mom made a comment this morning that I "looked" pregnant.

Praise the Lord for this answer to prayer!

It's a GIRL!

Here is Avila's first official blog picture! I'm sure there will be many more to come! this is our favorite from the sonogram. If you can't make out the image on the right is her little face and on the left is her arm and hand! The sonogram went perfectly. 2 arms, 2 legs, 1 head.....all the essentials are where they should be!

It was the most amazing experience to watch her little heart beating in her body on the monitor! It amazes me that in 18 weeks this little life has formed in me!

We find out Tuesday

We have our first sonogram on Tuesday morning! I can't believe it! None of it seems real yet. Every time I tell people I'm pregnant I still feel like I lying. It's so weird! I can't wait to have a real picture of our little Avila or Liam! I should be the picture posted by the end of the week!

Please pray for our appointment that the baby looks healthy and is growing the way it should. With this being the first one, I'm constantly wondering...should I have felt that pain, should I be getting bigger, should I...well you know how it goes. Pray that already I would give this little one over to the Lord fully; trusting Him to take take care of this little life inside me.

To eat or not to eat sushi - that is the question.

Being pregnant and not being able to eat certain things is a very stressful thing. There are books that say don't eat pretty much anything unless it grows on a tree - well not that extreme, but sometimes it feels like it. My favorite is don't each lunch meant. Seriously, lunch meat. If I've grown up eating lunch meat, what will really happen to me or the baby if I eat it?

There are certain ones I understand - like cut back on caffeine - the saddest one of all!

So I ask my Dr. (who will remain nameless in case people would like to disagree with him) what should I really not eat or drink. I expect him to parrot what the books say, but he responds "stay away from alcohol and drugs." That's it? What about death by lunch meat? What about telling me the dangers of my favorite sushi restaurant? What about the effect of my beloved Coffee Bean? Nope. Nothing. Apparently he is really relaxed on the whole food dangers thing.

So, in honor of my Dr. (who still will remain nameless) Kat and I celebrated at Marina Sushi in Ventura - my FAVORITE sushi restaurant. I felt a little guilty after eating it though - even though I took most of the raw fish off. So I decide for the baby and my own piece of mind I may stay clear from sushi for the rest of the pregnancy. But, man it was good!

15 Weeks

Although I (as well as Kat) have been convinced for the last 3 months that we were having a girl I have been swayed by the opinions of everyone who said since I wasn't sick in my first trimester I MUST be having a boy. So this has increased my desire for Blair and I to decide on a boys name. I know we still have many more months to go, but if you know me I don't like leaving stuff until the very last minute. I don't want to be sitting in the delivery room going back and forth between names. While Blair and I were trying to narrow it down between the 3 names we somehow ended up adding a 4th option. Liam (pronounced Lee-um). I am currently a big fan of the name Liam and Blair remains strong with the name Owen. Cole (my former favorite name) and Wesley are just sitting in the back up name pile. SO the voting pole has been deleted and changed so that all four name have an even shot. Please cast your new vote.

14 weeks

I guess i thought I would hit the beginning of the 2nd trimester and something amazing would happen.  I think I expected to have fireworks go off (well I guess they sort of did around that time) and I would FEEL different and I would KNOW that something big is happening becausethere would just be this overwhelming sense of just BEING pregnant.  but the reality of it all is that life is still normal.  I actually don't think I would want it any other way.

The Lord has been gracious to give me weekly reminders of the AMAZING miracle that is happening right now with our little baby.   My favorite and more recent one was last Friday (the 4th of July) when Blair and I were at the Ventura street fair.  We passed by the Crisis Pregnancy Center's booth and we able to look at plastic full size replica of how big our baby is right now.  i had still been picturing this little bean looking baby in my belly, but wow it was amazing to see how big the baby is right now.  The baby is was bigger than my cell phone.  No wonder my belly is starting to grow!

This is this amazing little life growing inside me.  It's crazy to think about.  I think that both Blair and I were amazed to see how much of a little baby it was.  I know that sounds strange, but it's not a bean anymore ladies and gentlemen!  It's not a bean!

12 weeks and growing

Here's what is going on this week!

I'm almost at the end of my first trimester! Our baby's now approaching 3 inches long and weighs about half an ounce. But that teeny body sure has a lot of remarkable detail! This week, our little guy's or girl's face continues to take shape, with his nose and chin becoming more refined. And he's now got -- count 'em -- 10 fingernails and toenails decorating his mini digits. As our baby's muscles start to bulk up, he's getting busy stretching and kicking, although he's still too teeny for you to take notice. But if you touch your tummy, and could see his response, he'd probably be wriggling!

Napa - 11 weeks pregnant and sick

Stephen's wedding was a lot of fun. Don't worry I'm not drinking any wine in this picture, just lemonade.

Napa was so hot! Living in Ventura for so long made me forget what dry 98 degree heat felt like. Napa was the first time I understood what morning sickness felt like. I was pathetic! Tired, sick, and more tired and sick!

The wedding was beautiful. The heat had gone died by then. Everything was perfect.My bridesmaid dress was a different story though. I hadn't tried it on in 3 weeks and then I put it on the day of the wedding and I notice I have developed a little pooch. The dress fit a little funny, but I think I was the only one who noticed, or at least I would like to think that.

My mom looked lovely as usual. My grandma is on her left and her husbands mom is on the right. Good thing for the baby, he or she has great genes!

My dad and Stephen were a sight to see as well. This is a picture from the day before the wedding. Stephen and Megan got married on an amazing golf course in Napa under and oak tree. The setting was perfect!

Week 9 - not much change

Not much change, but there's no complaints about that.

There are a few things that make me sick; the smell of raw meat ( no matter what the date is I swear it's gone rancid); this has got to be the worst. Actually after thinking about raw meat I don't think I want to go on about things that make me sick.

I haven't really craved too many things either; tangerine juice from Trader Joes, cherries, and sour dough english muffins are about the only things I can't live without. I would live on those three foods right now if I could!

There's also the issue of psyco chic and the weeping woman. These are two personalites that I have developed. I would say it's rare for them to surface, but every once in a while it's hard to hold them back. Pray for Blair that these alter egos would stay clear from our home.

Well that's all for now. I saw the doctor last week and he said everything is good. In 3 weeks I go back and we get to listen to the heart beat (Lord willing)! I am SO excited for that appointment!

What happens the 6th week? A lot!

Get ready for a growth spurt! By the end of this week our baby will have tripled in size -- to about 1/8 inch long (around the size of a bean). And her heart is now beating with a regular rhythm. It's still too faint to be picked up by my doctor's stethoscope, but if I have a sonogram at some point over the next few weeks it will probably be visible as a tiny, pulsing dot in the middle of her mini body. Fun fact: From now until birth, our baby's heart will beat about 150 times a minute -- twice the average adult rate. Her basic facial features will also start to take shape at this time, including an opening for her mouth and the beginnings of her eyes and ears. This week her brain is developing into distinct regions, and the beginnings of her stomach and lungs are starting to appear as well. All this and just the size of a bean.......wow! Amazing!

1st food craving

Blair swears that crazy food craving are a joke, and so some extent I am not a full believer just yet, but Monday night I got a little obsessed over popcorn. It all started when I swore the house smelled like popcorn. I kept asking Blair, "are you SURE you don't smell popcorn?" It was making me so hungry. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. I begged Blair to just make me some popcorn. I had to have it! After making fun of me for a while he finally gave in and made me some popcorn to feed my desires. Lucky for him we had some in the pantry. And let me tell you, I don't think popcorn has ever tasted so good!

CJ

Most of you know C.J., Blair and I's 10 year old foster son, so this story will be even funnier.

So a couple of days ago we decided to tell C.J. that I was pregnant. We were sitting at dinner and Blair said C.J. Michelle and I are going to have a baby. He was shocked of course and kept starring at my tummy. His first questions was, "right now" and Blair said no, not until January. His next statement confused us a bit, he said "You are going to have hundreds of Babies!" To which a QUICKLY responded..."no honey, I'm only having one right now, some people have twins, but I'm probably just having one." But he remained dedicated to his answer, "no you are going to have hundreds!" Finally we got an answer out of him.....he explained in Sex Ed. - 5th grade public school -that he learned that women have hundreds of eggs and that's how the get pregnant. He apparently wasn't listening to the whole lesson in school. It made for a good laugh and a brief explanation of why I'm not having hundreds of kids! He still isn't convinced, but I think he understoof a little better.

Oh, the joys of doing foster care!

5 Weeks

Well, we are officially 5 weeks pregnant. I don't really FEEL pregnant yet. I'm a little tired (maybe becuase I'm trying to quit drinking so much coffee) and I'm a little sore (maybe becuase my beloved pillow is in Napa), but other than that I feel the same.

I am not complaining however because I would love to skip right over all the sickness and food cravings! I'm sure the best of the morning sickness is yet to come.

I will try to keep everyone posted as new things develop.

Keep praying for the the baby to continue to grow strong and healty.

We're pregnant!

Wow, our family is quickly growing from 2 to 4 in the matter of months. Most of you probally know Blair and I started doing foster care in February. Although we have been through our ups and downs with it, we have really come to enjoy our ministry. We have learned a lot of different things about being parents right in time for this new baby to come along!