A Baby Story

So this Summer we left for Ghana on May 18th - about a week after we got there I started to wonder/suspect that I was pregnant. It was a bit of a scary thought being in Africa and all and I knew that I needed some questions answered real quick. Luckily, for our first week and half there was a group of nurses from BYU staying next door to us. I pulled the head nurse aside and quickly asked what I would hypothetically need to do if I did happen to be pregnant. She immediately told me to immediately get off the malaria medication I was currently using, doxycyclene, and pick up some "baby safe" pills called Larium.

I did as she said and about a week and half later I pulled out the pregnancy test I had luckily brought with us on a whim as we packed up or apartment, and sure enough... POSITIVE!

I was nervous knowing that I didn't have much access to medical help if anything went wrong - I worried about getting malaria or some other sickness and what it might do to our baby - but with a lot of prayers and faith I didn't come down with a single illness while there. MIRACLE! But really, other than being quite nauseous with the normal morning sickness and pregnancy symptoms, I was the ONLY one who didn't come down with anything while we were there.

We feel so grateful and blessed to have a healthy baby so far and know that God's hand was in this pregnancy 100%. We thank Him everyday for everything He's given us and everything He's done for us.

When we got home some our first tasks were getting everything set up and ready for me to see a doctor. Since I was already 17 weeks along when we got off the plane in Utah I was getting pretty anxious to make sure everything was okay. We weren't able to get me into a doctor for another 2 1/2 weeks after that, which was a little discouraging, but somewhat expected - and you better believe I was thrilled to walk into that office last Thursday, the 19th, to see that doctor.

He gave us our first quick ultrasound, told us it was a girl and that everything looked great and sent us on our way. WAHOO!!! It felt good to know it was all going to be alright, and especially good to know that if anything from here on out does go wrong, we have a doctor and quick trip to the hospital to get it all checked out.

So life is good! We are so excited to be having a baby girl!

On Tuesday, the 14th, we were scheduled for our 20 weeks scan and Spencer got to go in again and get a better look at our daughter. I loved watching AND feeling her do flips in my stomach while the ultrasound tech did all the fun measurements. She made sure to let us know that she is in fact a girl and even waved to us on camera.

Here are some of the more recent shots we got of her. We already think she's adorable (even if the ultrasound pictures make her look like she has weird things coming our of her head).
We thought she was chewing on her hand at first

Then we caught her waving to us and the tech made sure we noticed that all 5 fingers are, in fact, present. YAY! :)

Then she went back to resting.

As we got in the car to leave Spencer said, "I wanna hold her NOW!"

I smiled and enjoyed the thought of Spencer being completely wrapped around her finger when she's born. And upon mentioning that our baby needs to cook a little bit longer, but that he would be able to hold our friend's baby really soon he frowned and said, "But I don't want to hold THEIR baby! I want OUR baby! It's not the same!"

He's going to be such a great daddy! I can't wait... hopefully the next 191/2 weeks go fast ;)