Unbelievable!

There's a baby in there! Today Mike and I had a 3-D Ultrasound done of our baby boy and the experience brought me to tears. We were able to see him move and wriggle and kick as if he was laying right in front of us. He even got the hiccups and we watched his little belly jerk every 5 seconds. It was absolutely amazing! One of the most incredible things was that when we started the ultrasound, I was laying on the ultrasound bed and I had my hand over my forehead watching the screen. As soon as little Landon's face popped up, he had the same arm over his forehead and he didn't move it the whole time we watched him. It was like he was mimicking my moves! It was by far the most amazing thing I have ever seen.

The ultrasound tech said that everything looks great and that he is already 3 pounds and 10 ounces! No wonder I've been so uncomfortable lately! He is supposed to grow a 1/2 pound every week for the next 8 weeks so that gives us almost an 8 pound baby! WOW! She also took measurements of his head and large bones and seemed to discover that our due date may be off by a week or so and that the ultrasound machine suggested his due date to be around June 28th! But we're not going to get our hopes up yet (as we are both impatiently awaiting his arrival) and we'll wait until we're back in the states and see what our OB says.

It was an incredible day and we are so excited to come back to the states to show all the pictures we have from our session. Praise God for the little man that grows inside me everyday!

Surprise!!!

Well, Saturday evening I was surprised for only the third time in my whole life. (The first being when Mike proposed and the second being when we found out we were pregnant) My good friend Audrey threw me a surprise baby shower! Many of my friends were there including our Gringa staffers and women from the church. I would have posted a pic of when I first arrived, but I didn't feel like posting a picture of me crying. Imagine that...me crying! So below are several pictures taken from the baby shower courtesy of audrey and jen. They had it planned down to a "T."

The pregos!!!! Carmen Dilia and I. She, however, is about to pop and is due to have her baby on April 26th. She is so lucky! Only one more week of waiting...


A view of the decorations and of all the wonderful women who attended!


Part of the Decorations. A little table with a picture of Mike and I and little party favor's with babies in a basket.

The absolutely BEAUTIFUL cake. They don't mess around when it comes to cakes in the Dominican Republic.

Me standing with the decorations that were hand-crafted by a good friend, Vanessa! She is so super talented. She also hand-made a scrapbook for people to sign their names and write a little note to me.

A pic of me with Marisol and Yessica. These are the ladies that I cook up in the kitchen with when there are teams here. Marisol already calls herself ABUELA which means Grandma. So when my mom can't be around, Landon will have someone to spoil him rotten!

The women of G.O. Ministries!

A game that was played where one woman is the mom and the other is a baby. It was a contest to see who could make the best baby outfit out of toilet paper!

The WINNERS!

The next game played was to see who could guess how big my belly was without measuring first. So they passed a roll of toilet paper around and they had to cut a piece off that they thought was the right width. Three people got it right on the mark!

Opening gifts. These women were so generous and got the CUTEST stuff ever!

Me with my "bathtub 'o fun." All the gifts that they graciously gave to me.

It was absolutely a blast sharing this time with all of these women. Most of them I won't be able to see for FOUR MONTHS until we return to the Dominican with our little guy. It was a very special time of celebration and fellowship. I will never forget how much this baby shower meant to me and to our expanding family!

28 weeks, whew!!!

All is well in the Dominican Republic as our stay here is coming to an end. The pregnancy is going much smoother and I only get sick about once every two weeks. I still have nausea but mostly if I don't eat every two hours. We will be having another doctor's appointment, our last in the DR, on Monday or Tuesday and will update after that as well.

Our baby boy is on another growth spurt, shooting up half an inch this week to measure about 14 inches from head to toe. He weighs roughly 2 1/2 pounds, and will gain approximately half a pound each week for the next 10 weeks. I can't believe that there is even going to be enough room in my tummy for a baby to gain all that weight! Landon has continually gotten more and more active and Mike and I thouroughly enjoy watching the little soccer game that goes on in my tummy (now that we can actually SEE him kicking and moving everywhere). The little guy has found my ribs as well as my bladder and I try to talk him into moving into a new position so that mommy is a little more comfortable. He doesn't always listen! Typical Braisted boy. :)

24 weeks and counting...

I know I probably say this every time, but I can't believe it's been 4 weeks already! I am officially 6 months pregnant which seems just totally insane since I found out I was pregnant when I was only 2 weeks along. At times, I feel like it has been forever and times I can't believe that we have less than four months left.

We had another Dominican doctor's appointment today. It went great! Another good bill of health for baby Landon. It was so crazy, that just 5 weeks ago, Dr. Gonell only had to go a short distance on my stomach to see Landon in full. Today, he had to go from the bottom of my stomach all the way to my ribs to get a full shot. He has grown SO much in such a short time. I've only gained about 3-5 pounds (3 on the scale in the doctor's office, 5 on the baggage scale at the airport!). But I think that I had lost some "extra baggage" since the food I eat here is all natural. I'll have to watch myself back in the states.

Landon is approximately 8 inches long and weighs a pound. The heart was beating perfectly and he said that I am in perfect health as well. He took a femur measurement and said that we are right on track for 24 weeks. Landon has been a bundle of movement, especially in the last two weeks. Not only has Mike been able to feel him move, but you can see him kicking around just by staring at my stomach. Pretty amazing. The other night, from 4-6:30am, I couldn't sleep a wink because he was kicking and somersaulting all over the place. I just couldn't help but laugh thinking about what a little baby can do in there for 2 1/2 hours. Praise Jesus for all His provisions and protection. The only thing I am needing some prayer for is MAJOR heart burn. I'm doing what I can to limit it, but I guess it's just a natural part of pregnancy.

20 Weeks

You guessed it...I've finished my 20th week of pregnancy! I'm halfway there!!!! All is great. Baby boy Braisted is approximately 7 inches from head to rump and weighs almost a pound. Wow, you would think he was bigger than a pound judging by my belly. I don't think these pictures do it any justice. There are days that I feel like a WHALE! But I am feeling much better. I am still getting sick although it spans about every three days. Which is much better than 3-4 times a day. Overall I am still feeling completely exhausted but my health is good and I feel great. This month, Landon (yep that's his new name) will make leaps and bounds in growth, so the next 24 week pic should be a pretty good difference. We'll keep you posted...thanks for your prayers!

1st "Belly Pic"

Well, I promised many of you updated belly pics to see the progress going on on a physical level. I think I'm quite brave for doing this for all of you, but here is the first. This is me at 17 weeks. From now on, it will be on the "month markers." So look for another belly pick in 3 weeks for the 5 month marker.

There really is a baby in there!

Body Pic of Landon at 15 weeks!



Doctor says, "It's DEFINITELY a boy!"



Landon's cute little face (the arrow points to his nose)!



A tiny foot stickin' up in the air! He's definitely going to be a soccer player like his parents!

We couldn't have been more excited to see Landon on an ultrasound at 15 weeks. He was so much bigger and looked like a little form of what he'll look like when he's born. It was so amazing to see such a little body that had all his fingers and toes and every vertebra in his spine. God is so amazing!

Welcome to Landon's Page!

This is where the new phase of our family began. Above is a six week ultrasound of our little guy done back in November 2006. We couldn't have been more excited than when we saw this little being floating around inside of me. We have always known that we wanted a family, but God knew when the right time was. As much of a surprise as it was to find out we had conceived, we couldn't have been more thrilled!