Diary of An Aunt

Here they are .... 6 weeks to go!

UPDATE

Diana and the baby are 29 weeks along.

I have no other news because I've been really bad about calling my sister.

To be rectified shortly.

Check out the ultrasound picture!!!
Reuben's blog

SOOOOO CUTE and definitely a girl.

The proud parents-to-be at their front door.

My sister cooking us dinner, isn't she glowing?

The boys at the grill.


MMM ... delicious steak, potatoes and broccoli.

The ultrasound ... Diana and Mike went in for their first ultrasound and everything is fine. The little girl was moving around in there and they got to see lots of angles. They printed off 7 pictures and I should be gettting a copy of one of them any day now. I can't wait to see the little girl.

Ok, I'm calling "it" a girl because that's what I want them to have. But they don't know and didn't find out on this visit.

Apparently, your bladder is meant to be very full for the ultrasound because that pushes the uterus up higher so you can get a better view. I won't go into details but it sounded like an adventure!!

It was so wonderful to hang out with Mike and Dee this weekend, as well as the rest of the family. On Friday night, we headed over to Mom & Dad's with Karin & Josh. We had kabobs for dinner and spent the evening grocery shopping and at the driving range.

On Sat. morning, we drove out to Fitroy Harbour with Karin & Josh and met the rest of the family along with Johanna VanDyk and her kids, who were there for an hour or so. We all went swimming which was fun cause the water was nice and warm but there were tons of people there so not a lot of room to swim around and there was also a lot of seaweed that kept swirling around us. We played catch and looked after little Caleigh.

Around 1:30pm the guys all headed out to Edgewood golf course where they managed to spend the next 6 hours. At about 3:15 the clouds started rolling in, so we decided to pack it in and head out. We ended up going to WalMart where Diana and I bought fabric for Karin to make me an apron and Diana some curtains for their baby room.

We had a nice meal, although late cause of the guys, of hams and hots and then watched Glory Road (well, the kids did anyway). It was a decent movie.

Diana and Karin went maternity clothes shopping on Friday together. They found that Thyme maternity was very expensive but that Baby Gap was having a great sale and Diana found 2 t-shirts and a cardigan. They look very nice on her! She definitely has a pregnant belly now and looks great!!!

She says that the baby usually moves in the afternoons and evenings. You can't feel him from the outside yet but I put my ear up to her belly and I could hear him moving around. It was so cool!!! Very amazing!! I can't wait to meet the little one but it still seems a little surreal that an actual living person will be coming out of there. Craziness!

Diana is having an ultrasound this afternoon, so if I get to talk to her tonight then I will post about it tomorrow.

Diana and Mike are coming tonight and I can't wait to see my sister with a pregnant belly. It's going to be soooo cool!

We are planning on taking it easy at the beach on Sat. I can't wait.

I'll let you know how everything goes.

'It's' moving! (It sounds weird calling Diana's baby an it, so that's why I put 'it' in quotation marks.) Anyway, I talked to Diana last night and she is starting to feel the baby move. She is 17 weeks along today. Her ultrasound is scheduled for July 31. We are all excited to hear the results.

Diana sent Karin and I a picture of herself as we haven't seen her since the beginning of June and we didn't want to miss the in between stages. I guess this is the only time in her life that she's not offended if I say that she looks chubby:) Anyway, she definitely looks pregnant. It's so exciting!!!

It sounds like everything is going well. A few more weeks and she will be half way through her pregnancy. Right now, the baby should be about 4 inches long, the size of an avocado. WOW!

Today, baby will be 15 weeks along. At 18 weeks, Diana will go for her first ultrasound. Very exciting! Diana should be able to feel the baby start moving very soon. Apparently, they have finally picked a boy name and a girl name, so they are all set for the baby to come. But it's still a long way away!

Diana has returned to work as her tendonitis has improved. We are very thankful for that.

There's not much other baby news to pass along.

oh and Jay and Veronica, I would love to make half the blog blue and half pink but I don't know how. Any ideas?

Diana is now just over 12 weeks along. That's just past the 3 month mark. YAY!!!

What's going on now is that she has tendonitis in her right wrist. They went on vacation for a week. This was the first time she had been off work at Tim Hortons for that long and when she got back, her wrist immediately started hurting. So my theory is that now that her wrist knows what it feels like not to be pouring a billion cups of coffee a day, it's like "No more coffee pouring!!!" I talked to her on Thursday and she was going to keep seeing how it was going before she took any more time off. But I think it's pretty dangerous to pour coffee with your left hand if you're not left-handed. Her mother-in-law has given her a brace to use. Hopefully this helps a bit.

That's all the news for now. I don't know much more about the baby except that, so far so good.

Until next time .... adieu.

We looked at a book this past weekend while Mike and Dee were over that explained the development of the baby in great detail with very graphic pictures. I didn't really like the pictures. At first we thought that's what the baby looked like but then we realized it was an inside look, depending on if they were talking about the nervous system, the skeleton or the organs. The pictures, generally, didn't have the skin layer on top of everything so the babies looked pretty freaky. I mean, you'd look freaky too if you didn't have skin. Anyway, once we realized that it wasn't so bad. And it's pretty amazing that already at Day 75, little Jim-Bob/Sally-Jo already has all it's organs, they just need to develop and get bigger over the next 7 months.

I talked to Dee last night. She went to the Doctor's for the first time yesterday. She got to hear the baby's heartbeat!:) She says that she wants to listen to it all the time now. I would too. She also found out that her due date should be December 26. A Christmas baby or maybe a New Year's baby! I'm so thankful that everything is alright. Praise the Lord!

2 weekends ago we, Reuben and I, went to visit Diana, Mike and Jim-Bob(Reuben's name for their baby). It was the Victoria Day weekend. The weather was rainy and cold but we still had a good time. We left Reuben's work at 3 and arrived in Arthur at 9pm. It was a long drive but we enjoyed looking at the Ontario countryside and evaluating the houses and properties along the way. One of our hobbies, is to look at houses and argue whether we like them or not and why. It usually ends up in a fairly friendly argument.

We had a few gifts for the newly expecting couple. Karin had already bought 2 peices of flannel and sewed them together to make Diana's first receiving blanket. I bought her the book "The Mother of All Pregnancy Books", which is Canadian and is supposed to be really good. I read the first 3 chapters before we even got there:) I also got Diana a journal so that she could write down her thoughts and maybe some helpful hints for her sisters!:)

While there we went to St. Jacob's market which was quite interesting. We drooled over the handmade furniture.

All in all a nice visit. We hope to see them in Ottawa this weekend!

I'm not allowed to post this yet because not everyone knows. But I will start today and update it every week.
My sister, Diana and her husband surprised us with a visit from their home in Arthur this past weekend. They arrived on Sat morning just before my mom came over to pick Karin and I up to go out for lunch for Mother's Day. We though they had just come down for Mother's Day and for something to do.
So we went out for lunch, we went to a ballet performance for some girls in our church, we went out for dinner.
On Sunday, Diana and Mike said they wanted to head back home right after lunch so they could see his mom for Mother's Day. And just after lunch we were waiting for Richard's girlfriend Emma to come over before they left. Just before she arrived, Diana seemed anxious to get going so I was trying to move things along for them when all of a sudden she says, "We have some news. We are going to have a baby!!". I was totally shocked and ecstatic and we all jumped up and gave them huge hugs with tears in our eyes.

And then they left to go home.

I have always been a little bit sad that Diana and Mike live so far away but now that they are going to have a baby, the distance seems even farther. I would like to be able to see them more often during this time and after the baby is born. I don't want to miss anything. I think we will try to visit more often than we would have before. We are actually going this weekend, yay!

Getting married is one thing but having a baby is a whole new thing. It seems like our family is going to have exciting times for many years to come.

I hope that you will pray with me for Diana and Mike as they make this journey. That everything will be well for all of them.