Washington Weekend

Dearest Munchkin,
This past weekend we traveled to Washington DC to tell the rest of our families about your upcoming arrival. It was an awesome surprise and everyone was totally over the moon with joy. We left on Friday afternoon and made excellent time on the drive. Your Grandma and Grandpa called a few times to make sure we were all traveling safely and that we were all buckled in. When we got to my cousin Amy's house, the whole gang was waiting for us and we were able to tell them everything about you within the first five minutes. I am pretty sure we didn't talk about anything else for the rest of the evening. It was overwhelming to feel all the love that our family already has for you. I spent a lot of time chatting with your Aunt Amber, who is just starting her career as a Labor & Delivery Nurse. She is just the kind of person we need on Team Baby Beale. She had loads of good advice and funny stories for me. I am 100% percent positive that I will be relying on her a lot during the next 6 months and beyond. Needless to say...I wish she lived closer or vice versa. Your Uncle Ross is very proud of us and can't wait to become an Uncle. Hopefully you can learn a lot of good life lessons from him. He always knows a little something about everything and is very wise. You can count on him to give you good advice. He has lots of interesting life experiences and is a great storyteller.
On Saturday, we meet up with your Aunt Kristi to tell her the news. Of course, she is also excited to become an Aunt for the third time! That afternoon, we started some mild investigation of baby furniture but decided we will need some time to really research what we will use. Your safety and comfort are the most important things to us, so we don't want to rush into anything. I already assigned your Dad the job of researching car seats and strollers. It was a good starting point and I am glad we took advantage of some of the stores in the DC area. Saturday night was your first official Cubs game and they won! You must be good luck. It was a great game and the rain held off until we left the stadium. Then we were in a complete down pour. Luckily, your Mom won't melt and we were home pretty quickly. It was a long day, but we had so much fun!
Sunday morning, we all had brunch together before we hit the road. There is never enough time together and I am always so sad to leave. My heart breaks a little when I think about how much I miss them and the laughter we share. I hope and pray that you will be as close with your siblings and cousins, as we are. It is an incredible bond we share. They are truly some of the most special people in my life and I can't wait for them to meet you.
Tomorrow afternoon we have our second ultrasound and sneak peek at you. How fun is that? You will truly look like a baby now! I will write again with all the details from the appointment.
I love you very much,
Mom

12 Weeks

Dearest Baby,
Today I am 12 weeks pregnant. We are 3/9 of the way through our pregnancy journey together. Today also marks the end of my first trimester and the beginning of a period of rapid physical growth for us. During the next few months, both you and I will be gaining a lot of weight! This past month has been very exciting because you are no longer a precious secret, but a tiny being that everyone already loves. We got to tell our family (the few remaining will find out tonight), our friends, our church family, and our co-workers. I am in heaven. It is so nice to share this joyful feeling with all of those who are close to our family. You have also started to expanded my waistline a little already. Most of clothes are now feeling snug but not too constricting. I have started to feel some "pressure" inside which means a lot more standing up and stretching happens during the day. Every time I look down, I hope to see more of my belly staring back at me. Next week, we will have our 12 week sonogram and get the result of all the genetic testing. I can't wait to see what you look like now. What a huge difference it will be from the 6 week ultrasound. You will look like a actual baby and we will get to hear your heart beating. I am sure it will be the sweetest sound I have ever heard. Speaking of looking different, here is my 12 week picture. (Please ignore my face since I seem to be stuck in teenage acne land these days!)

You can see that a little bump has started forming. Go Team Beale! We are headed to Washington DC this afternoon for a weekend of fun and laughs. You will also be attending your very first Cubs game and hopefully you will grow up to be as big of a fan as I am. The Cubs will teach you a lot of about patience and learning how to be a gracious winner and loser. I will write you again on Monday to give you the scoop on all your Aunt and Uncle's reaction to your arrival.

Until then, I love you,

Mom

Beale Surprise

Dearest Munchkin,
Today I received some pictures via email from when we told your Grandma and Pa-Pa Beale about your upcoming arrival. Look how thrilled they are! I will write more tomorrow (you will be 12 weeks old) before we jet off to Washington DC for the weekend. We can't wait to tell everyone up there about you. I am sure it will another joyous celebration and then finally everyone will know all about you!

Grandma Beale grinning proudly...

Pa-Pa looking confused as he figures it out!

I Love you,

Mom

Fortunant

Dearest Child,
Today I got a fortune cookie and inside it was this message: "There is plenty of promise & hope floating around you." I couldn't have said it better myself. You are always with me.
I love you,
Mom

What A Weekend

Dearest Babe-

What a wonderful weekend for our families! By now, most everyone of our family and friends know that you will be joining our family. The only people still left in the dark are the Washington DC crowd (Uncle Ross, Aunt Amber, Aunt Kristi, and favorite Caster cousins). We will be visiting them weekend after next and then the secret is officially out! It is so exciting to be able to talk about you and share all of the joy we have kept to ourselves. I don't think I have stopped smiling since Thursday night. I can think of a few other family members that have the same silly grin! Allow me to walk you through the chain of events this past weekend, starting with Thursday evening. Your Grandma and Grandpa Lumsden arrived in Raleigh (long story) after 11 PM. I was pretty overtired and emotional by that point. We greeted them with this sign:

I think your Grandma was pretty dazed and shocked. Of course, we all shared lots of tears and hugs. It was truly a magical moment that I will never forget. Within the first five minutes, your Grandma was already upset about being far away from you and missing the special moments of your life. Here are some more photos of the sign:

This last one shows your Grandma on the phone telling Aunt Diane the good news! She couldn't even wait for the picture to be taken to talk to her.

Friday morning got off to a bang when your Grandma and Grandpa Wilkin found out about you. We knew surprising my Dad was going to be a challenge, but your Dad and I came up with a great idea. We sent a giant chocolate fortune cookie with a message inside. It read "Congratulations, Grandma and Grandpa Wilkin. We are having a baby!". Here are the pictures (Many thanks to Grandpa's assistant who took the photos for us) and check out the look of shock on his face!

He immediately called and was speechless. It was great. You will soon find out that Grandpa Wilkin is never at a loss for words. So we really pulled off a feat. Then Friday evening, we meet for dinner with Grandma and Pa-Pa Beale. We held up the same sign (slightly modified of course) in the restaurant. I think it took a moment to register because they are already Grandparents. But after they figured it out, they too were overjoyed. We don't have any photos from that surprise, just video which we can watch together someday.

On Saturday I received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from Grandma & Grandpa Wilkin.

Saturday night, we went to a Greensboro Grasshoppers game and we were able to tell a large group of our friends. Everyone was so excited and you will have so many people who love you! It is sometimes overwhelming to think about how much love you are already getting from our family and friends. Sunday meant more of our church family finding out and more tears of joy. Oh, how they will cherish you. Our church is a wonderful place to raise a child and I am so looking forward to it. I know I probably left out a lot of detail from the weekend, but I wanted to get the basics down before I forget. I will write more in detail later this week. Until then sweetie pie....

I love you,
Mom

10 Week Checkup

Dearest Munchkin,
This morning I had my first checkup with Doctor Davis. I was feeling really tired and a little apprehensive this morning (nothing you did, just a rough night's sleep due to a pinched nerve). My appointment didn't get off to the greatest start when I dropped my urine sample all over the bathroom floor! My favorite nurse Anna, assured me that I wasn't the first person to do this and we all had a good laugh. But I didn't think it was all that funny, maybe it will be tomorrow. Then Doctor Davis talked to us about how and when we will see him. I will come in at the end of month for a genetic screen ultrasound at 12 weeks followed by a check up at 16 weeks. Next comes another ultrasound around 18-20 weeks to make sure you are developing the way you should be. So I will get to see you three times before you are born! How lucky am I? Following are monthly visits, then every two weeks, and finally weekly trips to the office. It all seems so far away now, but I am sure the next six months will fly by. Doctor Davis did his exam (which was really quick!) and tried to hear your heartbeat with the Doppler. It wasn't very clear today, but it will grow stronger everyday. Next time we see you, we should have no trouble hearing you. Finally, I went off to the lab to give some more blood which will be used in conjunction with the 12 week ultrasound.
In other exciting news, your Grandma and Grandpa Lumsden arrive this Thursday night and I have been bursting with excitement. This is going to be so much fun to see the look on their faces when we tell them about you. This week, you will start to become public knowledge and I can't wait! I see my circle girls tomorrow evening and I am sure they will so excited to learn about you. (Although some might have to fake their surprise....you know who you are...). I am sure I will have a great letter to write after this weekend!
Love,
Mom