Baby Update

For those of you who care about such things, I went to the doctor yesterday and the good news is that I'm 3 cm dilated and 70% effaced...looking back on 2 years ago on the blog, I realize this is about where I was with Kathryn a week before she was born. So maybe I'll be blessed with another short labor this time (hopefully not too short, though!) I will most likely be delivering at Lake Norman, which means 10 more miles of driving for us. So....we'll just have to leave a little more time so we don't have a highway baby. :)

"You have forsaken your first love." -Revelation 2:4

"Ever to be remembered is that best and brightest of hours,
when we first saw the Lord, lost our burdens,
received the roll of promise, rejoiced in full salvation,
and went on our way in peace.
It was springtime in our soul; the winter was past...

...Then the flowers appeared in our heart;
hope, love, peace, and patience sprung from the sod;
the hyacinth of repentance, the snowdrop of pure holiness,
the crocus of golden faith, the daffodil of early love,
all decked the garden of the soul.
The time for the singing of birds had come,
and we rejoiced with thanksgiving;
we magnified the holy name of our forgiving God, and our resolve was,

"Lord, I am Yours, wholly Yours;
all I am, and all I have, I would devote to You.
You have bought me with your blood-
let e spend myself and be spent in Your service.
In life and death let me be consecrated to You."

How have we kept this resolve?

Our espousal love burned with a holy flame of devotion to Jesus-
is it the same now? Might not Jesus justifiably say to us,
"I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love"?

Alas! We have done so little for our Master's glory.
Our winter has lasted all too long.
We are as cold as ice when we should feel a summer's glow
and bloom with sacred flowers...

...O alert us so that we may return to our first love,
and do our first works!
Send us a genial spring, O Sun of Righteousness."

C.H. Spurgeon
Morning and Evening

Waiting...

We're all getting pretty excited around here that Swan Baby #2 is only 3 weeks away from his/her due date! I think Nick and I are both feeling ready and excited to welcome this new little one into our family. I still have some light projects to fill my time with, but after getting the baby stuff down from the attic, I'm super excited to hold this little munchkin! I went to the hospital today to see Alicia Seaver (born yesterday), and I was newly struck by how much I love newborns. They are just so tiny and cute and snugly....I can't wait for my own! And Kathryn is getting excited, too. I think she really gets the concept and knows what's happening, even though I'm sure she's still in for a good bit of adjustment once Baby actually comes.

I had an ultrasound last week, in which they wanted to see the size...their guess is that this baby will be a little bigger than Kathryn was (6 lbs. 9 oz), somewhere a little over 7 lbs. So we'll see if they guessed rightly. The funny thing about the ultrasound pictures that we got is that the profile is totally different than Kathryn's, including what look like huge lips! It's a pretty funny picture, actually. So I'm curious to see what this baby looks like.

I'm still feeling good- actually, better than a few months ago. The other night I woke up with contractions, strong enough to go charge my camera battery just in case this was "it", but then they stopped. So it looks like it'll be a while yet. I go to the Doctor on Tuesday, so we'll see if I'm any further along.

Kathryn has been very into all the baby clothes...I got all our newborn girl clothes down and washed them, just in case, which ended up being quite a hassle...Lots of spit up stains that got much worse sitting in the attic. After Oxiclean and a few soaks, they are looking good as new again. :)

Looks like this baby will have some competition for his/her bouncy seat!

8 Months (or 9, depending on how you look at it)