Her First Message to You as Harper

What’s up future friends and family! I know it’s been a while but mom’s been really busy and I’ve just been getting bigger so there hasn’t been much to say regarding development.

Well, if unless you’ve been living under a rock my mom and dad finally decided on my name! Harper! Pretty cool right? They’re still a few middle names up in the air but the first name is most important. Now I guess there will be some personalized items in my future. ;o)

On to a little info about me…I’ll be 28 wks tomorrow. This means I’m 7 months and mom’s in the 3rd trimester. Seems like I was a little embryo just yesterday….sigh. Funny with this aging process I’m getting FEWER wrinkles as I produce more fat! I’m sure some ladies in the outside world would love to ‘fill out’ their wrinkly skin for free like I can!
Speaking of body fat, I’m about 2-3% right now…once again, I’m sure some women could only dream of that! And speaking of dreaming, I’m doing a little bit of that these days too! I’m also opening my eyes these days too…utilizing my pretty eyelashes I have now. . It’s hard for me to tell with no mirror in here but I could possibly have a full head of hair at this point. But with the 2 blonde parents I have there may not be much up their either based on their baby pics!
From this week on, I’m also going to be more sensitive to sound, light, smell, and taste. I can now distinguish between ‘sweet and sour’….why do I want pork all of a sudden? MA! Chinese run! Now! J/k, she hasn’t had any cravings on my behalf.

Not that the following info is interesting, but here’s how ‘ma brain’ is doing:
It’s no longer smooth…it has grooves and canals making way.
My bone marrow is producing red blood cells.
My adrenal glands are producing androgen and estrogen. These hormones are going to stimulate mom’s milk production…hellooooo fun bags!!! I mean, they’re for my future nourishment…get your head outta the gutter people. ;o)

Other fun facts, I did double in weight over the last 4 weeks…mom felt a little better knowing 2 of those 4 lbs she gained was ME at her last appt. I’m a little over 2lbs now and over 14in long. By the way, she has an appt in two weeks, and then she’s going to need to start going to the doctor every other week after that! The end is upon us people!

Now, about mom….

Things are just starting to become a little more difficult. Her belly is finally affecting dressing and putting on shoes a bit. Crossfit is still going good, but getting more difficult. She’s going to start dropping the weight a little more and doing more substitutions. But, working out has made everything seem great so far and she’s felt really good throughout all of this. (Probably bc she doesn’t feel as guilty snacking a little extra or making that frozen yogurt run…)
It did seem like one day last week was the turning point of her belly feeling ‘heavy’ and having to pee more. She’s gotten up at least twice a night lately to run to the restroom. Luckily she doesn’t have too much of a problem falling back to sleep.
One amazing thing since my last update is that she can see me moving in her belly. Things are getting tight in here and I’m getting stronger so my movements are more pronounced now. Whenever I’m shifting around, the skin moves on the outside and the area feels hard when she touches it. She’ll just sit on the couch and look at her belly and not watch tv…for those of you who know her, I must be REALLY interesting to divert her attention! But, I’m only in here for so long so she better soak it up while she can!

She hasn’t craved any foods which I’m sure dad has been thankful for. No midnight Taco Bell runs right? She loves going to Yogurtville (which is nothing new) but she goes through a seedless watermelon a week though. I may have a pink tint to my skin when I come out! Haha

Oh, and my room is starting to make way from what I hear. There’s still things to add, and all my cute clothes need to actually get washed and put away, but at least it’s all in the room and it’s all MY stuff. No more mom and dad’s stuff in there! )

Well, I guess that’s it for now…hopefully you’ll see an update sooner rather than later. There is a party in my honor in a few weeks so maybe I’ll have some fun things to dish about after that! Louisiana, make way for Harper! She wants a shrimp poboy!

~Harper~

Sent from my iSac

Belly Post

And We Shall Call Her….

….middle name still to come. So stay tuned.

Week 22 Update From BN

Well hello there friends and family! Believe me, I’ve been meaning to send an update but we’ve all been really busy around here. (Me, growing…mom and dad, working and planning for ME). Plus, it’s always exciting to have a bunch to say too.

Let’s see, I guess I’ll let you know about my cute little self first.

Since it’s been about 4 weeks since I updated everyone, there’s been a few changes. Everything is still in place, mainly getting more distinct and developed. Now, brace yourselves….I look like a big wrinkly red prune (but in the form of a baby). Pretty sexy right? A few weeks ago I started getting this ‘cheese’ like white stuff covering my skin called vernix caseosa. I thought I’d be getting ‘cuter’ every day but that isn’t exactly what I had in mind! Haha. But, it serves a purpose (as everything does) and it’s protecting my skin from the amniotic fluid around me. I’ll shed this stuff near my grand entrance (or ‘exit’ rather) but there may be a little left to wipe off after. Sponge bath pampering in my future? Sounds great and relaxing but from what I know what I should do upon arriving in this world I may just scream my head off. I’ll be naked and cold ok? Give a baby a break! It’s bad enough what I got to squeeze through to get out of here!

Anyhoo, I weigh nearly a pound now! I’m also about a foot in length too. I was compared to a carrot a week ago and now it’s a spaghetti squash….which I shouldn’t talk about too much bc spaghetti is mom’s fav. I hear that stomach growling woman! Speaking of ears, this week my inner ear has developed so I have a sense of balance. My eyes still don’t have pigment, but my eyelids, eyebrows, lips are all fully developed. I can blink too. My fingernails are also growing too and I probably have some hair on my head. Which, from what I gather should be pretty blonde unless God has some sort of crazy plan for me. Helloooo my dad’s name IS Whitey! I also have some tiny tooth buds growing under my gums. I’m sure those are going to feel great when they come out. My pancreas is also developing so I am starting to produce hormones…dad just can’t wait to live with two females I’m sure!

So I mentioned before that I am very wrinkly right now. It’s funny how that happens…start out wrinkly, then have none, then try to prevent them, and then you have them all over again (everywhere)…..skin is weird. But, the current wrinkles are to make way for my fat to come….I’m not sure what to make of that. I don’t have any clothing in here and I’ll enter the world scared and naked…I’m sure people are gonna take pictures, I just hope my butt won’t look big. ;o).

So, mom has been doing great. She was struggling with sleep a few weeks ago but lately she’s been sleeping pretty well from being tired from running around so much. She surrounds herself with all of the spare pillows on the bed and wakes up with some aching hips sometimes. And of course having to wee wee always comes into play. (At least she can go to a bathroom, I swim around in mine….TMI? Sorry). But, she’s been steadily getting bigger and they plan on taking pics every wkd of the belly growth for all to see. Ya know…those lovely looking black leotard shots…haha. They’ll be on the blog.

She’s still working out pretty well but in a month or so she’s gonna have to progressively cut back on the heavy lifting at crossfit. She’s going to be off balance even more so she’ll have to make adjustments. Don’t worry though, she’s watching out on what she’s doing and taking her time. Speaking of working out, i thoroughly enjoyed Monday’s WOD and I was squirming up a storm afterwards! Dad and MiMi got to feel me practice some of my ninja moves! It was great for everyone. My kicks are definitely felt more (and more often) as I’m gaining my sense of touch now and dad’s loving the fact that he can feel them. He actually saw one jab pop through once too. He gives mommy’s belly a kiss to tell me ‘hello’…I think it’s awesome and mom likes it too. I’m sure she’d kiss me too but she cant bend over like that…only I can do that.

Well, I guess that’s about it for updates. Hope you all enjoyed reading. I’m gonna go suck my thumb some more.

~BN~

Sent from my iSac

Baby’s First Pics

Click a pic to Biggie Size

7 weeks
13 weeks
17 weeks

18 Week Update (Delayed 2 Weeks in the Interest of Keeping a Secret)

Hola from the cute future Nelson. . I’m a little late on my reporting. I’m not very keen on using email so I need help from mom and she’s been busy. So, here’s the recent fun facts and tribulations that have taken place over the last 3 weeks. I’ll talk about the warden first this time bc I’ve got a lot to cover on myself.

Mom’s been doing pretty good, but she’s tired A LOT. She’s doesn’t have mood swings that much but I think bc she’s tired she gets a little more annoyed having to get things done when crawling in bed seems like the best thing in the world sometimes. She’s been eating fruits and veggies galore…considering the amount of watermelon she ate over the last few days I may come out red. (I’m not kidding). Which of course reminds me of dad, he made pickled watermelon rinds…weird.

Fun stuff: She can feel me do my ‘wiggle wiggle wiggle dance’ sometimes. Now that I can hear, I heard a song like that so that’s what I do while mom is at red lights…I do my wiggle dance. I also practice my moves while she’s laying around. I get bored while she’s not moving so when she stops I wanna have fun. Like I said on my last update…’full ninja’ baby! Wait, I’m the baby….I’m confused now.

Speaking of confused, mom is confused ALL the time. She thinks she’s getting dumber by the day and is pretty forgetful. What kind of pregnant lady forgets as to why she went in the kitchen??? Um, make your toast lady! I’m growing up in here! Who forgets they went in the kitchen to make breakfast? I’m scared for my future….

Anywho, she’s been feeling ok though (minus this past wkd – no more prenatal vitamins and coffee on empty stomach). We don’t want to relive that stuff again lady. Interesting fact though, she did read today that her uterus is the size of a cantaloupe. Hence, the ‘Buddha belly’. It’s not exactly a ‘bump’ yet, but she describes it as ‘fat man belly’. Maybe next time she sees my future grandpa they can have a belly comparison….oooooo. )

Now on to me. I’m not completely at fault about that belly, just the hunger. Which, that leads to….oh nevermind. Talking about food just makes the tummy growl. I’m 18 wks young now and I am about the size of a mango. I’m about 8oz according to the last doc visit but he forgot to mention my length. The websites say 6 inches so I’ll go with that…head to booty that is.

More fun facts:
I’ve started growing eye lashes and eyebrows.
I’ve started getting some finger prints.
I’ve got two layers of skin – dermis and epidermis…those will come in handy when I fall down after I start getting mobile.
My bones have hardened into the form of a bone instead of rubbery cartilage. They saw a leg bone on the last ultrasound…pretty crazy.
I should be sucking my thumb now although I haven’t done it publicly yet.
I react to loud noises and get scared…which means I will kick with my new leg bones. Mom, go watch tv in the other room when dad’s watching sports. Especially if any of his teams are losing. Thanks.

So, we had a doctor visit last week. It was with the mean guy who wiggled me around last time bc I wasn’t cooperating so I decided to this time (Not for his sake, mom didn’t like it so i stayed put for her). He did further testing checking my anatomy and making sure I’m good to go. My folks were SUPER anxious to get to this appointment bc they were going to find out what’s going on ‘down below’. Well as I did with this email, the doc took his dear sweet time looking at my head (I got some brains growing) down through my body (kidneys, heart, etc doing their thing) then down to my legs. Which brings me too….(drumroll please)…not having a wiener. I’m a girl! More fun facts about my development, at this stage I have developed my own uterus, tubes, and vagina. (although I can’t compare to the cantaloupe around me). But, more importantly, things are going great so far. Mom’s thrilled, dad’s nervous…bc he knows nothing about girls. (I think he’s learned alot from mom, but he’s got more things coming to him…I can guarantee that). He’s going to be the dad cleaning his gun when future dates come to the front door just like grandpa did for mom….awwwww.

Hope all of you are just as excited as the Nelson fam are about all of the recent developments. Maybe next time I’ll have a name? We’ll see….

Till next time,
~BN~

Sent from my iSac

15 Week Update from Baby Nelson

Hola from my round pool that I play in every day…it’s been a few weeks so I figured all of you are wondering what I’m up to nowadays.

Well, I’m 15 weeks old as of tomorrow. Time seems to be flying by! I hope my future parents realize this and get a move on to setting up a pretty sweet bed for me. (A DRY one will be nice). All I do now is float around in amniotic fluid! Not only do I float around in fluid, I’m now starting to breathe it in…let’s talk about me for a bit:

I’m probably the size of an apple or an orange… 4 in-4 1/2 in. I am getting huge! (At least the warden thinks this is big). My legs are now getting longer than my arms and all of my joints are now fully functional. I am so about to get into full ninja-mode up in here! My eyes still don’t open but if you shine a light on the outside, I should react to it. My skin is paper thin and has tiny little hairs all over it…just when I thought I was looking ‘more human’. It even has a name…’lanugo’. Whatever. But, that should all be gone by the time I make my grand entrance and I should be as ‘smooth as a baby’s bottom’… Haha…I crack myself up sometimes! I’m developing taste buds and scalp patterns, but I’m still bald on top. (sexy mental picture, I know).

The warden just keeps expanding. (At least that’s what I HEAR…quit the complaining lady!). But, from what I gather she’s still trying to keep it healthy and get her crossfit on so she can bring it all back together when I quit taking over her body. I’m poking out a little now in the front so she’s starting to actually look a little prego. I keep practicing some acrobatics but she’s not sure if she’s feeling it or not. Like I mentioned earlier, full ninja is coming soon so maybe in my next report she’ll feel me. She did hear my heartbeat Monday and everything is good…*smile.

On a more interesting note, the folks are going back to the other doc that was poking at me last time (bastard) in two weeks so I have some time to figure out those hand gestures I told you guys about last time. This time he’s gonna see what I got going on ‘down there’. I can’t see anything yet (hello fused-shut eyes), but I’m sure it’s pretty amazing since it’s such a big deal. The warden is counting down the days. I guess my next email will be pretty interesting!

Well, that’s it for now….till next time!

~BN~

Sent from my sac.

You’ve Got Mail

So Little Baby Nelson (LBN) has taken to sending out updates to a select group of lucky recipients every couple weeks. One was sent one out at 10 weeks, and again at 12 weeks. Will there be one next week at the 14 week mark?? Only time will tell. More importantly, how is LBN doing it?? Mini iPhone?? If so, how does it stay charged?? So many questions.

Click to read the first two installments.

Getting You Caught Up

First of all…I lied. If you scroll back just two short posts, you’ll see that I said I was going to keep this blog going even after all the hoopla surrounding the wedding ended…well that was a year and a half ago. Maybe I haven’t blogged because there just hasn’t been anything exciting to blog about. We’ve just been living the suburban dream…get up, go to work, pay the bills, squeeze all the fun we can out of our free time, rinse, repeat. Well that formula has certainly been turned on its ear a bit with the news that we will be welcoming our first lil’ un’ into this crazy world on (or near) July 4, 2012. Lesli is currently in her 12th week (and doing great), and we will be using this blog to once again keep everyone in the loop of our progress with pics, videos, stories, and whatever else we can cook up. So please check in periodically even if you are facebook friends with us as we will be posting some things on here that aren’t very likely to be on facebook.

Also, a few quick administrative details, I’ve left the links at the top for the time being. You can still read “About Us,” and the “Registry Info” is still there as it will likely be needed between now and July 4th, but I wasn’t really sure what to do with our “Guest Book.” Everything in there is wedding related, and now we’ve kind of moved on to a new chapter. Should I leave them?? Should I delete all of them for a new batch of comments?? Am I overthinking this?? Feel free to voice your opinons on these matters, and any other opinions you may have while you’re at it.  Welcome back.

Pictures, Pictures, and More Pictures

It would probably take you about 5 hours to sit down and go through all of these, so please pace yourselves. Some of you may have even seen all of these before, but I still figured I would consolidate them all into one location.

-Engagement Slideshow

-Bridal Slideshow

-Honeymoon Pics

-“Behind the Scenes” Pics

-Some of the wedding pics on our photographer’s blog. There is also a link in this blog post to the Bridal and Engagement photos on the same blog.