Soooo... we're getting closer and closer to the 3rd trimester. 24 weeks now and our boy is moving around a lot. Gilbert painted the nursery yesterday and we like the way it came out. Now we just need to start buying the furniture. My mom is making the valance for the nursery along with a couple of small pillowcases for the glider. Our friend Bill is working on some more artwork for Matthew's room and we're really excited to see how that will turn out.

We went to the prayer meeting on Wednesday and they prayed over Matthew. It was amazing to feel him moving around so much during worship and while they were praying for him. It always amazes me how much love we are surrounded by in our Southlands family.


I can't believe how fast the last month has gone and I'm already dreading how quickly his childhood is going to go. Only 3 1/2 more months before our boy gets here =).

The tummy this week:

Hi, everyone!

I'm 23 weeks now and in my sixth month. Matthew is now about a foot long and he weighs just over 1 lb. I had my monthly appointment yesterday and I got to hear his heart beat again. Gilbert wasn't able to go with me because he had to work late. Everything is looking good. He measured right on target at the ultrasound we had a couple of weeks ago and at the time he weighed about 1 lb. He's been moving around a lot, although I think he's changed positions because the movements haven't felt as strong as they had been. The doctor said that that's normal since they tend to change positions a lot. I got a list of pediatricians that my doctor recommends so I guess I get to go interview some doctors. We've scheduled our 4D ultrasound for the middle of next month so hopefully we'll get some good pictures of our boy's face. I've gained a grand total of 4 lbs. back so far (2 last month, 2 this month). According to the books I've been reading the average is 1 lb. per week but I've managed to gain only half of that. The doctor says everything looks good there, too. The weight I've gained is all pregnancy (baby, water, placenta, breasts, etc...).

We celebrated Gilbert's first Father's Day with our families at Gilbert's uncle's house. Gilbert got a book called "Me and My Dad" to read to the baby and an iCrib. The iCrib attaches to the crib and we can hook the iPod up to it. We were going to put it on a registry, but Gilbert's mom got it for him instead. The baby also decided that Father's Day would be a good time to let Daddy feel him moving around, so Gilbert got to feel some strong movements that day, too.

Here is this weeks picture of the tummy:



Here are some more of Matthew's clothes. I know some people were wondering if we'd put anything him other than the rocker clothes I posted before, so I thought I'd share the rest of his wardrobe =).

His grandma (Gilbert's mom) got him this set. It says "Pimp My Stroller" and it came with some cute socks:








His other grandma (my mom) got him this right after we told her we were expecting. It says "Rub My Belly For Good Luck".


Daddy likes this one:


I bought the next two as soon as I knew for sure that he was a boy.






We like lions, so we've been buying things here and there. He has a small collection of lions already.



Ok, that was a long post. I hope everyone is doing well!

Here's the newest picture of the tummy:



I will be starting my 6th month next week. It's amazing how fast this is all going. The baby moves around a lot and I've noticed he reacts a lot to my moods. If I'm nervous or excited he tends to be a lot more active that day and then he'll be pretty quiet for the next day or two. He still moves, but a little bit less. Gilbert's taking a couple of days off in a couple of weeks to paint the nursery. I'm starting to get tired again. Part of it is the heat. I've never done well with the heat and I'm a little concerned how the heat will affect me this summer. I'll be spending a lot of time in my parents' pool. We have an association pool but I'd rather go swimming in the privacy of my parents' pool.

We've chosen the nursery furniture. We're going with something different than we had initially planned on. We've also chosen our stroller. We'll probably be registering in the next few weeks and I know Gilbert is looking forward to playing with the registry gun.

Well, I think that's about it. We have another appointment a week from today and I think we'll just listen to the heart beat and I'll probably get measured. Hope everyone is doing well!

Gilbert and I went to prayer last night and I wore a shirt that said "IT'S A BOY" to let everyone know the outcome of yesterday's ultrasound. The baby moves a lot when he hears music and last night during worship was the most I've ever felt him move. He's definitely getting stronger and sometimes it surprises me how hard he can kick. I know it'll only get harder. Here is the tummy at 21 weeks.



I started buying baby clothes before I got pregnant and I used some of these clothes to tell Gilbert about the baby. We've been buying clothes here and there. When we see something we really like we buy it just in case we never see it again. We took our chances and bought a lot of "boy friendly" clothes, but if the baby had been a girl I would have tried to put them on her anyway. Here are some of the clothes we have for our rocker baby =)















This one was given to us by our friend Sammy when we first announced our pregnancy. She didn't know that Gilbert likes Led Zeppelin but she was in Hot Topic and thought she had to get this for us.







Forever 21 makes baby clothes now!!! I found this cute little hoodie at Forever 21 and I had to get it for the baby. I've included a close up of the design on the front and a shot of the back.







My friend Valerie is pregnant right now, too and she's having her little boy early next month. She gave us this t-shirt yesterday.



My friend Valerie's mom, Margie, gave us this t-shirt yesterday. She bought it hoping that the baby would turn out to be a boy. She said she took one look at it and thought, "This is definitely their kid."









The baby has some more clothes. A few Dodgers onesies, some with lions on them, and we even have one that says "Future Jedi Master". Needless to say, we're excited about our little one and we think he'll be the coolest dressed kid around.

Matthew Ezekiel

It's a BOY!!!

I only have one picture from the ultrasound to post and it's not the best picture, but we got a clear shot of "the goods". He was being shy at first but I moved around a little bit and we got him to cooperate. We're excited to know for sure and now we can start planning! This is a picture of our little boy's face. It's a hard to tell but if you look closely you can see his eyes and his nose.



The nursery will be animated Star Wars and it will be based off of this artwork:



We are going to have curtains made out of this fabric:

He's going to be a rocker baby =). As I've mentioned before, his name will be Matthew Ezekiel.


We'll be doing a 4D ultrasound some time next month so we'll hopefully get some good pictures of his face then. I'll post an updated tummy picture later.

Halfway there! I am 20 weeks pregnant now! I've been feeling all kinds of movement and the other night Gilbert felt the baby move for the first time. It wasn't an actual kick, but he definitely felt movement. We're excited to see the baby again next week, and of course we're excited to (hopefully) find out the sex. The ultrasound technician is going to video tape the ultrasound for us, too.

I've given in to maternity pants. I've been trying to hold off on buying new pants for as long as possible. I was able to do it for a while because all of my pants that were too big from the weight loss made room for my growing tummy. In the last couple of weeks, though, regular pants have just gotten too uncomfortable. I wore my maternity pants for the first time today and apparently they make me look more pregnant. I got a lot of comments today about the sudden change in my tummy. Here are a couple pictures. I took them within a couple minutes of each other, but for some reason they look different. Here they are: