It's a....

From Erin:
Wes and I are very excited to introduce our daughter, Elise Noelle, to you today through this fuzzy ultrasound picture! We were both feeling anxious and excited as we went in for our ultrasound. We were delighted to see everything is progressing normally - Elise is 12 onces and registered as 20 weeks and 4 days versus the 20 weeks and 1 day that was previously calculated. With numbers that close, the due date officially stands as Sunday, November 18.

Elise was being a little stubborn during the ultrasound and did not want to show her head - camera shy like her mother, perhaps? My instinct has been that she will be more like Wes, enjoying the spotlight. I began feeling her move in the middle of my 18th week. She seemed very active in the morning and in the evening, so her inactivity during the ultrasound may be due less to shyness and more due to an afternoon nap she had planned! Regardless of her reasons, the ultrasound technician was unable to get a picture of the back of her brain, so at our next visit in 4 weeks, we get another ultrasound - lucky us!

From Wes:
So yesterday was quite the exciting day for us, and an especially exciting day for me. Unlike Erin, I don't have a small human growing inside of me, so the whole pregnancy has seemed a bit surreal...until I saw the computer screen yesterday. Even though, at first the whole room, machine and images all reminded me of the movie Aliens, I saw my daughter for the first time and she was moving around. I could see her move her hands and feet, turn her head, and at one point, it looked like she put her thumb in her mouth. In a moment, it became real to me that I am going to be a father to a beautiful baby girl. I was so overwhelmed (in a good way). Those of you who know me know I'm not much of a crier, and I didn't, but I came very close.

After the excitement, I had to return to my office and the monotony of work. The clocked ticked on forever as I couldn't stop thinking about what I just saw and how cool it was. I was finally able to leave, and my iPod in all its shuffle wisdom, "randomly" played, "Isn't She Lovely," written by the great Stevie Wonder. So, to end this rambling, I leave you with those lyrics that now mean much more to me.

Isn't She Lovely
Isn't she lovely
Isn't she wonderful
Isn't she precious
Less than one minute old
I never thought through love wed be
Making one as lovely as she
But isn't she lovely made from love

Isn't she pretty
Truly the angels best
Boy, I'm so happy
We have been heaven blessed
I can't believe what God has done
Through us he's given life to one
But isn't she lovely made from love

Isn't she lovely
Life and love are the same
Life is aisha (Elise)
The meaning of her name
Londie (Erin), it could have not been done
Without you who conceived the one
That's so very lovely made from love

I can only hope that Elise will love music as much as I do. Here's to my little superstar to be.

Three Weeks and Counting Until....

Actually, it is only two and a half weeks until Wes and I get to learn if we are having a boy or a girl! We're both very eager to have the mystery unveiled. While at this point we're hoping for a girl, have a girl name chosen out, and can't agree on a boy name, I have no doubt we'll be delighted if we get contrary news.

In the meantime, I'm trying my best to make predictions. My friend Kim Arnold mentioned to me something about the heart rate speed having a correlation to the sex of the baby. Well, after my doctor check-up this morning where the heart rate was counted, I went to work and hopped on the internet to do some research on the theory. While no scientific evidence supports the theory, it says that if the heart rate is above 140, you're having a girl and if it is below 140, you're having a boy. Any guesses about our baby's heart rate? That's right - 140 on the dot! So, I suppose we'll have to wait a little longer to know. But, if you care to post your personal predictions, we'd love to hear!

After the first blog, I received several requests for pictures on my progression, so Wes started taking some profile pictures. At this point, it feels a little rediculous, but I'm sure I'll enjoy looking back on these pictures when I'm in week 35! The first picture was taken at 14 weeks and the second this week (week 17).

The last two pictures are from the Simmons family vacation to Cape Cod & Boston to celebrate my brother Josh's graduation from graduate school! Congrats to him!

A Year of Change

Welcome friends and family to Wes and my blog! We've had several friends keep blogs through their pregnancy and really enjoyed getting to read about their journey. Many of the people who are most special to us are far away, so we're excited to share with you this way.

It all began when....

In February, Wes and I decided it was time to move to a new house. We can be rather impulsive decision makers, so we put our house for sale and, much to our surprise, it sold in two weeks! So, we found ourselves homeless. Luckily, we found our new home almost as quickly as we sold the last. The only catch was that we couldn't move in for a month. So, Wes, me, and our two dogs moved back into the Simmons household - and they thought they were emptynesters! They had a house full! But, it turned out to be a wonderful month - a great time for bonding with our parents.

Were you planning to have a baby?

This is the big question we keep encountering. Let's just say it was somewhere in between spontaneity and a plan. Remember, we make impulsive decisions - thus far these decisions have worked out for us, and I can't fathom that our new baby will be different!

So, how's pregnancy?

I'm wrapping up my 13th week of pregnancy. Wes is very happy that I can stay up for a whole day now (instead of taking two naps a day!) I don't think I was the best company there for awhile. In the last two weeks, the morning sickness and dizzyness has subsided, so as those who have gone before me say, I'm in the honeymoon trimester. We've visited the doctor's office twice so far and heard the baby's heartbeat both times. Baby is a squirmer for sure, so I'm predicting a little Wes - a ball of energy! Right now the baby is the size of a jumbo shrimp! Wes and I enjoy gettting our weekly updates of the baby's size and development from babycenter.com. We always laugh at the food item to which Baby is compared.