24 week pictures

Thanks to Grandma Leman and Aunt Divya for the adorable clothes......

Yesterday we went to Hua Xi hospital to check out the facilities. They have two private rooms that would be great if we could get them for the labor and delivery, but it is kind of hit and miss on their availability. We are praying that one of them will be available when I go into labor.

Tomorrow we are going to check out another hospital in town which is primarily a Mother's and Children's hospital. Supposedly the rooms are more comfortable. We would appreciate your prayers as we decide on which hospital to deliver at.

We have been checking out various baby stores around town. We are having a horrible time finding newborn clothes. We can't find onsies in any size, and they don't really have newborn sleepers like we Americans dress our babies in. Interesting huh?!?! I'm not exactly sure what they dress their newborns in...maybe they just swaddle them. I'll have to ask my Chinese friend who recently had a baby.

23 weeks

Here's my 23 week picture.

Nothing too new here. We sent our living room curtains in to be drycleaned a few weeks ago. After we got them back and were hanging them up, I noticed that they had shrunk nearly a foot. So now we have ridiculous looking curtains in our living room :) We can't move the curtain rod because of the window, so we are trying to think of a different solution. At least we have clean curtains now though.

Jenny is staying at our house this weekend. She had lasEK surgery done on her eyes on Friday. She felt fine all day Friday and Saturday morning, but by Saturday afternoon her eyes had really started hurting. Hopefully she only has one more day of pain. Nate also wants to get his eyes done. He may be able to have the lasIK surgery which involves a lot less pain. It is so cheap to get the eye surgeries done here. LasEk- total of $500, and LasIk total of $450.

22 weeks, and it's a .............................

..............................GIRL!!!!! We had our detailed sonogram on the 3rd. We are very excited to have a girl, although I have to admit that I was convinced that we were having a boy. I can't believe that I am already 22 weeks into my pregnancy...how time is flying. I have been able to feel her kicking on a regular basis for about a month now. Nate loves feeling her kicking. Today was the first time we were able to watch from the outside. It was so funny watching my belly pop out when she was moving around. My belly isn't that big yet, so I was surprised that we could already see the movement. I can still get away without looking pregnant, but I love to show my belly off. :) I am glad though that I can still hide it, because Chinese people have a very different idea about what is okay and not okay for pregnant women to participate in. For instance, no swimming, bike riding, physical labor of any sort, no exercise, etc. I often have to explain to my Chinese friends that Americans do things a little differently, so it's okay that I go swimming or mop my own floors etc. :)

Nate's parents were here for the past two weeks. They helped us find the perfect stroller. We spent a whole afternoon a store trying to pick out the perfect stroller/car seat. Thanks mom and dad for your help!!!

Here is the link to see my most recent sonogram pictures. I was disappointed that the pictures weren't clearer, but at least you can see baby bun a little. http://cedarville.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2028165&l=747cc&id=141303528

fun times with family

Nate's family was just here visiting. I met Nate in Beijing on June 28th. We then waited at the Starbucks in the airport for his family to arrive. We spent a few days in Beijing seeing the sites. We had a ton of fun, although it rained on us almost the whole time. Our last day in Beijing was hot and sunny, so we spent the afternoon at the hotel pool before going to the airport.

We had fun going to different places in Chengdu. We had a few really hot and humid days, but the weather was pretty good other than that.

Here is a list of everything we did....

-Beijing-

*Great Wall

*Tianamen Square

*Forbidden City

*Starbucks

*HuTong Tours

*Yummy Chinese food at various restaurants

-Chengdu-

*Panda Reserve

*McDonalds

*park with a lake

*Floraland

*downtown Chengdu (which included hours of stroller shopping for baby bun)

*an afternoon at the pool

*eating at Peter's Tex Mex

*Pizza Hut

*lots of Chinese dumplings and noodles

*travel by bus, taxi, bikes, foot, rickshaws, and hired drivers.

*lots of yahtzee and cards

*Starbucks

*IKEA

*night market in Xipu

*trying to BBQ (which didn't work)

*walking the dogs

I posted a lot of pics at this link...http://cedarville.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2028784&l=7f05b&id=141303528