he's back

tk has resumed blogging. check it out: http://timknipp.wordpress.com/

28.5

march madness

champs

http://www.rec.ubc.ca/awards/halloffame/winner.cfm?winnerid=1882

hello third trimester

28 weeks. we have entered the third trimester. i am excited. i have no doubt the next three months will bring uncomfortable moments - and moments when i think "really, i will get bigger than this?!" - but i am so thankful for the way the pregnancy continues to progress. and that baby and i continue to be healthy. and in three months we will get to hold, kiss and care for a precious gift.

in other news: WE HAVE A CHAMPION IN OUR MIDST.

yes it's true. tim knipp. intramural champion. tim's regent futsal/indoor soccer team won the championship on tuesday. tim may have scored a few times... in the end the team was awarded championship tee-shirts, had their picture taken in the goal and will have their team name permanently engraved on a large silver trophy (which is in some case on the University of British Columbia's campus). tim said the game was pretty intense. i didn't go - it started at 9. probably for the best as the team went out and celebrated afterwards. bud, faith and i are so proud.

well that's about it for now. third trimester photos coming soon :)

ELLIS IS HOME!!!

check out brooke's blog for details :)

faith - our dog, the ultimate sports fan

march madness. it is hard to know who loves the tournament more - tim or faith. well actually, it's not that hard to know - i think faith loves it more, hands down.

the greatest gift cbs sports could give faith (and tim) is to have the games online for those of us who don't have a television. and yesterday when i returned home from work faith and tim were watching basketball. faith, inches away from the screen. moving around in fits of excitment. tim often needing to tell her to sit down or moving her away from the screen, as she was totally blocking his view.

and this morning as we turned on the computer to listen to some music (and check when Michigan plays) faith immediately took up her position next to the computer. i think she was quite disappointed when she realized basketball was not on yet. so now she lays-down and waits. taking a mid-morning nap. preparing for the excitement of the day.

march is a good month for faith.

27 weeks

27 weeks. crazy. and yet i do feel like i have been pregnant for a while. :)

as excited as we are to meet baby bud we are thankful he/she is perfectly content inside of me at the moment. watching gabe and brooke's journey has taught me much - and i will not take for granted the baby growing and developing inside of me. i believe the Lord saved both brooke and ellis by having ellis born when she was, but i watch them and am reminded of God's goodness to them and to us (by the baby still growing in me).

we had an appointment with the midwife yesterday, which turned out to be very timely. i did not feel well on the way to the appointment and continued to feel light headed as we sat in the waiting room. the midwife was totally great. she had me put my feet up and lay back on the couch and gave me some cold water to drink. she told us how it is not uncommon for pregnant women to feel light headed after eating, especially after breakfast. she suggested that if i wake up in the middle of the night to roll over or go to the bathroom to also have some protein to eat. by the end of the appointment i was feeling much better.

my blood tests came back clear, my blood pressure is great and the baby's heartbeat is strong. all very good things. we will go back in three weeks.

last night i went to bed at 8:00 and had cheese in the middle of the night. i am trying to take good care of myself, but honestly it was difficult going to bed knowing american idol would be on at 9... sad but true.

today has been ok so far. i still feel tired. i didn't sleep all that well. and i am wondering if this is what the next 3 months will feel like... baby bud is totally worth it. and i know the next three months will fly. but for today i need to remember:

the Lord is good, His love endures forever. a truth repeated throughout Scripture. a good mantra for the day. He is good. He will take care of us. He will take care of you. His love reaches farther and higher, longer and deeper than i/we can imagine. He is good and His love endures forever.

any third trimester stories or encouragements appreciated. :)

registry explained

so for the sake of making things simple - i can explain some things here about the registry. for those of you totally uninterested ignore this post :)

stina asked about the big things for the baby - here is the deal. we have some bigger things listed (stroller, bedding, maybe that's it...) at Along Comes a Baby (a local store in bellingham - you can also see this registry online). (sidenote: what's great about along comes a baby is you can buy things there and have them shipped to the store for free and my mom or i can go pick them up there - nice for avoiding shipping costs. they also have some nicer things, which for a few items we wanted to put more money into). my sweet parents bought us a crib, which we ordered this weekend!! i love it. and i am over the moon thankful for the gift. when they told us that is what they wanted to get us i definately cried.

the pack-n-play i wanted neither store had - so i created a small registry on amazon.com.

oh and we have been given and collected some things already. the mosers graciously offered for us to borrow their infant car-seat, which is in great shape (thanks drew and bekah!!). we found a lovely rocking chair off of craigslist for free. way to go tim. and i am not planning on pumping or using formula or bottles if i can avoid it. but we do have a breastpump and a few bottles if necessary (again, thanks to bekah for giving me her never/barely/maybe-once-been-used, still in the box pump). and finally - we just don't have a lot of space and want to try to keep things simple.

but... i also didn't register for clothes, toys or books - i would love for people to pick these things out for us.

so that's the deal with the registry. i am also open for suggestions for additions or changes. i trust all of your opinions and would welcome any help.

weekend fun

we spent yesterday registering. it was a really fun day. we went with my parents and sister and jacob. defense and jacob went to the mall while we registered at babies-r-us, but then we all joined up after for lunch.

my sweet mom wanted to get a picture of us picking out a monitor - it really wasn't as hard as it looks - by the look on tim's face you would think the monitors were going to jump off the shelf and he had to use the gun to shoot them.
chipotle!!
and two pics of me at 26.5 weeks.

we had a great weekend with my family, always love being with them! this week tim is on reading break. he is looking forward to a bit of down time. we also have an appointment with our midwife on wednesday, which i always love.

26 weeks

today i am 26 weeks along. about 3 months to go.

i have been feeling pretty good. i have realized in the past week the need for me to be intentional about not pushing myself too much. balancing can be hard for me, especially as someone who loves to be with people. but i am confident the closer we get to june the more i need to be intentional to care for myself and the baby.

this week the baby is almost 2 pounds and is around 14 inches long (head to toe). his/her eyeslids will begin to open - they were fussed shut while the development of the eye occurred. the baby's hearing is almost fully developed and the movement continues to increase.

with the added movement and the knowledge that the baby can hear us - tim and i have been talking to the baby more and more. also on monday i feel like a switch was flipped and my attachment hormones are now on full blast - as more than ever before i feel connected to the baby and can feel my love for him/her growing more than ever before.

this weekend we are going with my parents to register. i am very excited. tim is happy for me. we both, however, are excited about chipotle for lunch!! we have to drive about an hour to the closest babies-r-us in washington and only 2 minutes away from the store is a chipotle. yum!! we will also register at a local place in bellingham - along comes a baby. and we plan to order the crib this weekend. so lots of things to look forward to over the weekend. faith of course is just thrilled to be going to bellingham - which, in her eyes, is the happiest place on earth.

annie!

mom, defense and i went to see annie last night in downtown vancouver. it was wonderful!! we had such a fun evening. we went out to dinner at a cute italian place not too far from our house with tk. and then tk drove us downtown. it worked out so well for him to take us!! we were incredibly thankful for him to take us and pick us up - that way we didn't have to deal with the mess of parking downtown (as downtown vancouver is not a convenient place to park).

here are some pics to enjoy. mom and me.
our driver :)
defense and mom with the center of performing arts in the background.
sisters.
the show was fantastic. we had great seats. i loved every moment. and it was incredibly special to share it with my mom and sister. probably more than any other people i have watched annie over and over again with them. they had to deal with my annie performances and my need to be dressed like annie on a daily basis. i LOVED annie growing up!!

another fun part about the night was there were hundreds of girls in fancy dresses at the show. annie continues to be a favorite among "little girls."

also as we were walking into the theatre the woman who handed me my program said, "wow it looks like you are ready to pop. i wonder if the baby will come tonight at the show?!" i just smiled. little does she know i have four months to go...

thank you

thank you all for your thoughts, prayers and comments!! it is so good to hear stories of other pregnant women fainting - just helps normalize the whole experience.

i went to see the midwife yesterday- my measurements and blood pressure were great. we also listened to the baby's heartbeat for an extended period of time, which was so nice. the heartbeat was strong and normal. this morning i went in for some blood tests to check all of that out - the results should be back in the next few days.

the baby has continued to move a lot and i now enjoy watching my belly move. the other night tim and i were in bed just watching my belly move about in awe. it is a crazy, cool thing.

again, thank you so much.

scary

yesterday on the way to work i nearly passed out while driving. i was getting on the highway and very quickly began to feel like i was going to pass out. thankfully i made it off the highway and on to a side street before anything happened. it came on so quickly. i sat in my car for 45 min trying to decide what to do and ended up going to work. after i got to work i realized i should not have come. and with the advice of our prenatal worker and my midwife went home. my sweet friend at work, soledad, drove me home. she didn't want me to have to drive myself, and then she took the skytrain back to work. i ended up sleeping all afternoon and going to bed early.

today i feel better. i am at work now. i have an appointment to go in and see the midwife this afternoon just to have everything checked out.

when i spoke with the midwife yesterday she told me right now my body is making a lot more blood in preparation for the third trimester - so that could have been it. i also found out today from my supervisor that a bug has been going around where people are getting a fever and are lightheaded for 24 hours, which i also could have caught. so who knows. thankfully yesterday the baby was very active. i think it was his/her way of saying, "it's ok mama, i am ok. don't worry about me."

the whole thing really shook me up. i pretty much cried my way through the whole morning, but i am doing better today. tim took great care of me yesterday afternoon and i was so appreciative of my friend for taking me home. it was also a relief to hear other stories of friends who also had near-fainting spells while pregnant.

i am just so thankful the baby and i are ok. hopefully it was a one time deal. but with my sensitive body who knows... it all makes me think of the timeless amy grant song, "angels watching over me, every move i make." a childhood classic.

sunday morning walk around our neighborhood