This and That

Toby climbs in Nolan's lap every chance he gets. It used to be that he'd put his head and front two paws in Nolan's lap and then slowly sneak the back two up (just sure no one noticed). Now, when Nolan's in the recliner, Toby takes a running leap. He's still sneaky on the couch though. You can see how much Toby loves his Nolan. Such a different dog than the one we brought home six months ago!

My friend, Becca, asked me to make her a diaper bag for her son Israel. Here's the final product:

I'm excited to make a bag for Jace. I've had some really cute fabric for a boy's bag for a long time now and am excited to get to use it for myself! Here's the inside of Becca's bag (it's kind of hard to see, but there are a bunch of pockets):

Toby's been looking like a shaggy Muppet for a little while now, so yesterday he was taken in for some grooming! Of course, he was very nervous, but the girls at the groomers thought he was so sweet. Here he is with his long ears, tail and legs pre-grooming:
And here he is post grooming. Nolan thinks his ears make him look like a 6 year old girl with a bob hair cut

And finally, a belly picture! Here I am at 21 weeks along

We're less than 2 weeks away from finding out if Jace has cleft lip/cleft palate. Nolan and I both have a real peace about knowing that God is in control. I've done so much research online and have become so familiar with cleft palate/cleft lip. In my mind, he has it. But that's not to say I won't celebrate BIG TIME if he doesn't. Last week I was home sick one day and found a blog of a family who's 2 year old daughter has cleft lip and cleft palate. You can find their blog here. I spent the whole day reading all 2 years worth of posts. It began with watching a video of Adalynn's "first face." I cried tears of joy through the whole thing because of how beautiful she is. I loved being able to follow their journey through surgeries and what it takes to care for a child with CP.

Thank you so much for all the encouraging notes we've received! Please continue to pray for Jace--especially that this ultrasound we have coming up would reveal enough for our doctor to be conclusive about him either having it or not having it.

Introducing Jace John Nelson

We had our ultrasound last Wednesday. It was incredible to see the baby moving around and find out it's a boy! He was nice and cooperative while the technician took all his measurements, but once she was ready to get the picture shots, he put his arm over his head and fell asleep. When the tech tried waking him up (had me roll over, jiggled my tummy a lot, etc) he just curled up in a ball and rolled over with his back to us. I guess we have a good sleeper on our hands!

His heart and brain and limbs look like they're developing just fine. He size is right where it needs to be for how far along I am. But our doctor called the day after the ultrasound saying that when she took a look at it, they saw that he might have a small cleft lip/cleft palate, if one at all. So we're going back in for another ultrasound on October 5 to hopefully get a better look. She's thinking that a month of growth will help them see clearly if he has it or not. We're glad to hear that it isn't distinct enough or big enough for her to be conclusive at this time (from what I've read online, you can spot cleft lip as early as 16 weeks, and this ultrasound happened at 19 weeks). So we're hoping and praying that 1) if he has it, God might heal it before the next ultrasound or by time he's born, 2) he doesn't have it, or 3) if he does have it, we're praising God for medical advances and what they're able to do for this these days!

Cleft Lip/Cleft Palate is most common in boys, and 1 in 700 babies born in the US has it. So it's much more common than we thought it was. This in itself is a testimony to what a great job doctors are doing with it, in that you'd never realize how many people have had it.

If he does have it, we'll get set up with a team from Dornbechers up in Portland. Cleft lip is typically repaired when they are 10 weeks to 3 months old, and cleft palate repaired by 9 months old. So while it's so treatable, he could still have quite a first year of surgeries in store for him (and potentially many more surgeries ahead of him if it’s cleft palate).

All this made me REALLY want him to have a name already--to give him more of an identity. And I wanted his name to mean something, since he'll have so much to face at first. I started looking through names that meant things like strong, God heals, etc. Finally, we decided on "Jace" (which comes from Jason, but that won't be his name). Jace means healer, and on some websites, it also meant God is Sovereign. Both fit well we thought. Plus, Nolan loved that it's unique, since he likes names that he hasn't really heard before. So as of now, baby's name will be Jace John Nelson (Nolan’s middle name is John, it’s also his father and grandfather’s name).

We really have an incredible peace about the whole thing. I’m so thankful for a doctor who’s thorough and spotted this. From what I’ve read, not all doctor’s catch it. What a blessing to be able to know what we’re heading into and to be prepared for it! We're sad for the pain he could potentially face at such a young age, but at least he won't remember it as he gets older.

He'll be beautiful no matter what. And I'm just sure, if he does have cleft palate/lip, he'll be a much stronger person because of it.

Just A Little Update

We're so happy the major heat wave is over (although we really didn't suffer much, only being exposed to the heat as we walked from our air conditioned house to our air conditioned cars to our air conditioned offices). I'm also feeling affirmed in our choice not to go to Latvia as I'm still feeling pretty crummy in the evenings, and still throw up about 2-3 times a week.

On an exciting note--Nolan was able to go with me to my doctor's appointment today and we heard the baby's heartbeat again. The nurse commented that it was a much deeper tone than most babies, so it must be a boy. Nolan is saying that either gender, it has such a strong heart, it'll be a football player some day.

September 9 will be the day to find out whether we're having a boy or a girl. Hard to believe we're only five weeks away!

A-Slippin'-and-a-slidin' with the Steiner Kids!

My sister-in-law, Anna, is on a mission trip in Mexico, so we're watching the kids for the weekend to give my brother a break (especially since he goes to church early on Sundays!). Uncle Nolan thought that it might be fun if we got a slip-n-slide instead of just running through the sprinklers... so after trips to three stores, we finally found one! The boys were so excited to use it. We now know why the recommended age is 5 and up. It took quite a few tries before Josiah finally mastered what you're supposed to do, and Micah finally just figured out how to slide on his knees. They still loved it though!

Cami didn't feel like playing in the water. Instead she had fun with Toby's leash, looking at the flowers, and going up and down the step.

Josiah finally figured out how to run and slide!

Micah finally figured out how to at least slide on his knees!

Micah wanted his towel wrapped around his waist

We set up the crib we got for our baby in the guest room, hoping Cami might respond better to it than the pack and play at nap time. She didn't, so we let the boys take their nap in our room instead of listening to her cry. When I came upstairs later, they were cuddled up like this, sound asleep!

We had a fun afternoon, then we had a nice evening at church, came home and all three kids had a blast playing with Toby in the backyard. It's so nice to have them not be scared of him anymore!

He Passed!!!

Nolan finally received his results today from the exam he took in April to become a Professional Engineer! And, as I knew all along, he passed!

Our Exciting News

On Sunday, May 24, Nolan and I found out that we're going to have a baby!!! We're very excited. We immediately got on the computer and used the web cam to chat with my parents (which also meant calling Dan and Anna and their clan on speaker phone so Grandma could hear the reaction). That was followed by calls to Nolan's parents and all the other Nelsons.

Today I had our first ultrasound and was able to see the baby's heart beat. Turns out we're just at six weeks, so it's a blessing to be able to see the heart beat already. Our due date is officially set for February 1. I'm sure it'll go by quickly!

Dad took pictures of Tim's laptop as they chatted with us.

Wylie is always entertaining

Wylie decided to wake Jill up this morning by crashing against the blinds at our front door. She investigated and found that Wylie was very interested in the neighbor cat that was on our front porch.

Wylie sees a friend from Nolan Nelson on Vimeo.