Hello Third Trimester!

Dear Sweet Baby Noah,

It has been a couple of busy weeks! We've been continuing to prepare for your arrival. The past week went by slowly for me, for some reason. I am so excited for you arrive and there are days that I feel restless with anticipation. All the same, I am looking forward to this last stint of pregnancy and all the great things that we have yet to experience.

On Thursday, Auntie Kendra, Auntie Kristi, and I created a registry for you at Target. It was fun! It has a lot of essentials on it because we have been given lots of clothes and some of the bigger items, but we're still working on buying blankets, bath stuff, diapers, wipes, etc. Today, I am going to create a registry at Babies R Us. I have had several people ask us whether or not we have a registry and we have a couple baby showers coming up. I thought having a couple registries might be the easiest way to give people gift ideas, when they ask.

I also created a countdown calendar for you. It started yesterday, the first day of the third trimester, and goes to your due date. Each day shows how many days until your expected arrival. At the end of the day I color in the square and write in any special occurrences of the day.

Last night, I counted your kicks for the first time. I will count them every night, at roughly the same time, until you arrive. I have to sit or lay down until I feel you move 10 times. It should never take more than two hours and my chart should show a pattern that I feel those 10 kicks within roughly the same amount of time every night. Last night it took between 20-30 minutes. You were going crazy about an hour after I got done counting though so maybe I'll do it a little later tonight. You really seem like a night person and you certainly don't like mornings! (Just like both your parents).

We head back to the doctor again on Wednesday. During this visit we'll make sure I don't have gestational diabetes and get a schedule for birthing classes.

We're continuing to work on your nursery and we'll put pictures up once we have things underway.

We are so thankful for you and are very excited to bring you home. We continue to pray that God will help us to be the parents you deserve and that we will be faithful to seek Him for guidance and direction as we raise you. We love you, baby Noah!