Pregnant thought of the day

My belly button is a lot shallower than it used to be. What happens when I am no longer an innie but I'm not yet an outie? Am I a flatie?

Let it begin... again!

So here's the short version of the last week of our life:

Though we "as the individuals known henceforth as Paul Edward and Jessica Joyce Mays Caspers" were "approved" for our loan, FHA refused to sign off on it for a lack of comparable sales in the area. After much "we might be able to work something out" on Wednesday afternoon we just said we're done. So we are waiting on our declination letter to get our earnest money back on the first house, but for all practical purposes that is OVER! We are both excited to be done with a five month long process that resulted in nothing but frustration. We did learn a lot of valuable lessons and we know that the Lord's sovereign wisdom will always win out for us. So that chapter is closed and new one has opened! We met with a real estate agent on Wednesday night who is familiar with the area and related to some people from our church and she will be helping us from now on. We like her very much and I think she's really going to be on the ball to get us a house. She found a bank for us and today I spoke with the loan officer about prequalification so hopefully that is going as well. We have a number of deadlines working on us now: our lot lease will expire in May, the tax credit for first time homebuyers ends in April, and baby more Caspers will be here this summer. Please pray that this process will go smoothly and we can have some housing answers soon.

Yes, in the middle of this we also found out that we have a healthy baby boy!!


I can't believe I'm getting yet another man in my life

It's... very obviously... a boy!

On Saturday all my family and in-laws gathered at my parents house to find out the gender of the baby! We all voted on if we thought it was a boy or girl and I think the vote came out 8 to 9 girl, though I'm not sure baby niece Laura actually voted for another girl (maybe she wants to be the only one). My dad grilled us up some lunch and after some socializing and chasing the nephews around the house, we gathered in front of my dad's very nice large tv to watch the ultrasound dvd. We again saw all the sweet miraculous parts of our baby and apparently right at the end the people who were still watching got a glimpse of a little something revealing too! Paul immediately started saying he knew what he was because he had seen "it". So I opened the envelope that the ultrasound tech send and the picture you see is what we found! "It's a boy" We are all so excited to finally know and after the party ended my mom, sister, Paul and I went to Belk and bought some way cute little boy stuff. My sister-in-law also gave me a bag of boy stuff so now I can't wait to get into the nursery and hang all his cute little things up! I think I am still in a little bit of shock since this just makes it even more real now. Now we just need to settle on a name so that I can really start calling him something!

It's a.... baby!

We had THE ultrasound today at our prenatal visit! This is me waiting in to go in. If I look uncomfortable it's because I have to go the bathroom really bad, but you need a full bladder for the ultrasound. I definitely have a baby bump now and am having to choose my clothes very carefully. The ultrasound technician was great and she explained everything about what we could see on the baby. Everything is the right size and in the right place which was our prayer for this visit! She says though she can't guarantee anything at this point, it looks like we have a healthy baby. I was so thrilled to hear that, I felt like jumping off the table and praising the Lord for his handiwork with our beautiful baby! For those of you who are freaking out wanting to know the baby's gender... I don't know yet! The photographic proof is sealed up in an envelope waiting to be opened on Saturday when the grandparents, great-grands, aunts, uncles, and cousins have assembled to hear the news. Until then we are waiting and reveling in our healthy baby and all his/her beautiful photos. Here are some of the best and what you are looking at:


Baby has two arms and two legs and bone measurements rule out drawfism and giantism.




Aunt Manthy says that these face pictures are creepy looking. I think it's because you can only see the baby's eye sockets and not it's actual eyes, though it does have them!


How adorable is that!?
All ten fingers are accounted for and though the toes are very small, we're pretty sure all ten are there.


The leg of a champion athlete!


Which way to the gun show?


"hm, this thumb would make a good thing to suck"


In other news, I have now gained five pounds so I'm doing good and can eat pretty freely and all my stuff looks good. The baby's heart rate was 159 and like I said, everything on baby looks great. We didn't have a picture of it but a zoomed in scan of the heart shows each chamber beating perfectly! Who could ask for a better birthday present!?

Stay tuned for new house news to hopefully come in the next few days!

Who is that poking me?

This weekend I am at a girls conference with the youth girls from our church in Montgomery and sitting in our first session tonight I felt that little feeling I have been waiting for! At first I just thought I felt something poke me just below my belly button and then after a minute I felt it a bunch more. I just burst out laughing in the middle of the session because I knew exactly what it was. The baby kicked for a little bit longer and then went still when I got up to more to the next session. He/she even scared me by hitting me kind of hard one time. Maybe it's a little girl and she is just super excited about being at a girls conference.... The speaker was very good! Laying here in bed I feel it everynow and then. It almost feels like a muscle twitch and it kind of tickles just a little bit. Mommy says that you get used to it after a while but I think it is definitely going to keep me up for a while tonight! Yay for my little kickboxer!

The stomach bug has our family in a headlock

In two years of marriage Paul has seen me suffer through the stomach bug a couple of times now. I think it's probably just one of the joys of working with little kids. So early Thursday morning after a nice round of food removal I asked Paul when I was going to get to see him throw up. Well I only had to wait 48 hours. Paul officially has it to and since I am pretty sure I gave it to him, I'm hoping I can't get it back since it took an extra harsh toll on my pregnant body. I'm still not feeling fabulous but better each day. I hope Paul gets to feeling better soon because with only one couch to lay on, it's hard for both of us to be puny at once. Plus we are going to have to miss church tomorrow which is no good cause it's a day Paul really needs to be at work. I guess it's good though that we didn't try moving this weekend cause that would not have happened in our current condition. Pray we will feel better soon and that the house will close next week!!!