It's a...

...GIRL!!!

We went back to the doctor today and got lots of super exciting news! 


1. It's a girl!  We actually found out at the last appointment that they thought it was a girl, but we didn't want to tell anyone yet, because at that point it was so early that she was only 70-80% sure, not to mention that the little lady modestly had her legs crossed and bent.  Today, Grace said it is definitely a girl!  As you can see from the photo, I insisted on buying a little something to celebrate.  :)


2. The baby and I keep measuring 5 days too big, so the doctor changed my due date to Oct. 12th.  That makes me 16 weeks 3 days today!


3. The subchorionic hemorrhage (the bleeding) has reabsorbed so much that Grace said I can have a "normal" pregnancy now and I can even start exercising!  I need to get this body back in shape...at least, once I get through my finals in the next week.  Praise God for this healing!


Things are really getting fun now in this pregnancy.  I've been feeling the baby move for the last week, and the nausea is about 75% gone.  I'm still pretty tired, but not unbearably so.  And now we can get serious about picking baby names!      

Finley has an announcement...

We're expecting!  

There is another little Dennison due around Oct. 17th and we're super excited!

Here's the baby bump at 13 1/2 weeks, and I'm now 15 weeks.  Let's just say things happen a lot faster the second time around!  I didn't look like that with Finley until 18 weeks!

This pregnancy hasn't been a cake walk so far, and I'm very tempted not to share the story on the blog just for privacy's sake, but I'm going to do it as a testimony to the prayers and support we've received.  We had a scare very early on in the pregnancy and were worried something was seriously wrong.  When we went to the doctor, we found out that I had a subchorionic hemorrhage, which is basically a bunch of blood in the uterus.  Doctors don't really know why this happens during some pregnancies, and they don't have a lot of answers, but it does put the baby at greater risk for miscarriage and sometimes preterm labor.  So I was put on bed rest for a month, i.e., no doing anything except going to the bathroom or taking a quick shower, which was hard for all of us, particularly Finley.  He didn't understand why Mommy was stuck laying in bed or on the couch all the time and couldn't pick him up or take him out play.  However, once the baby got bigger and the SCH got smaller, I was taken off bed rest and given the restrictions of no exercise and no lifting, which is still what's going on now.  Let's just say Finley is much happier with this arrangement!
The SCH isn't completely gone yet, but we're so thankful that the baby seems to be doing great and the SCH is gradually resolving.  The reason I want to share all this is because we have felt so blessed by the prayers, encouragement, and support we've received from the people we told during this time.  It was a leap of faith to tell anyone we were pregnant because of the increased risks, and I'm honestly still nervous to announce it now, but I also know we got through that scariest part because of all those prayers.  We would still appreciate any prayers you can spare for healing for the SCH and continued growth and health of the baby.  We thank God everyday for this new little one and Finley!
       

Happy 2nd Birthday Finley!

A week and a half ago, our little man turned 2!  We had a great time celebrating his birthday with gifts when he woke up in the morning, and then a birthday party with a few friends in the afternoon.  It was a great, low-key day.  Finley's big gift from us was a scooter, and he also got a puzzle and some books.  His birthday cake this year was a Lego cake, because this kiddo loves to build with his blocks!  Finley actually tasted a couple of bites of cake this year, but was much more fond of the veggie chips and blue potato chips we had at his party.  (Any sort of chips are a huge treat for him, because they're crunchy, salty, and not normally allowed.  Honestly, we could have just given him a few chips and called it a day and he would have been happy!) 

It's hard to believe it's been two whole years since this:

Happy birthday, Finley!  We love you so much, and we can't wait to see what joys the next year brings!

Now on to the photos....   

Here is the link to Finley's birthday video.  Click here.

Videos!

I'm trying to catch up on videos, so here are a couple to get us started.  The first link is to the videos from Langkawi.  If you've already seen the video I posted previously of breakfast in Langkawi, skip over the first couple of minutes.  There are new clips during the second half of the video.  :)  Click here for the Langkawi video.

If you only have time for one video today, check this one out.  It is Finley helping me read his current favorite book, We're Going on a Bear Hunt.  At the end, he has a little fun pretending to make calls on the phone we use to buzz people into our apartment.  It's pretty cute.  Click here for the Bear Hunt/phone video.

I promise I will post about Finley's birthday soon!  You can blame it being late on all the school work I've been doing.

Photos from Langkawi

So, I should probably be doing school work or baking a birthday cake right now, but I'm taking a quick break to post these photos from Langkawi instead. We had a great trip, and were so excited that we were able to go. It was probably one of the most carefree trips we've taken, because the biggest thing that went wrong was one flight got delayed by less than an hour. Other than that, no problems! (And that is rare for travel in an unknown place!) The weather in Langkawi was great- about 90 degrees and sunny- and the people were very friendly.

These first few photos are of our trip on the cable car up to the top of the mountains. It was an extremely steep ride, but the views were amazing!

In the cable car

View of the islands from the top

Walking between two lookout points (we held on tight to Finley!)

Finley is going to kill me for this when he's older, but it was too funny not to take a photo. This is at one of the lookout areas, where he absolutely insisted we put him on top of whatever that cylinder is, then proceeded to poop, in the position pictured.

Beautiful views

Our only family picture from the whole trip, thanks to another tourist

At the bottom of the cable car, there was a little "Oriental Village" with shops, restaurants, ponds, and playgrounds. We tried to help Finley feed these ducks some of his crackers, but he ate them instead.

Nate got ice cream and gave Finley a little taste

We spent most of our time at the beach and pool while in Langkawi, and Finley was very happy about that! He loved to throw his little basketball in the pool. He attracted some attention from others while there and made some new friends, and one woman even told me with her heavy accent, "Your kid is d*** cute!" I was kind of like, "Oh, uh, thanks!"

Stopping to swing on the way to the beach

Chasing some birds on the way to the beach

A considerable amount of time was spent saying, "Don't eat the sand/seashells!"

We bought Finley some sunglasses, because he's finally getting interested in them. At this point, he'll only wear them for a few minutes at a time, but they're so stinkin' cute.

The little restaurant where we had breakfast every morning

Finley being silly while waiting for his eggs (less that $1 USD) at breakfast. Nate and I enjoyed yummy banana pancakes (less than $2 USD).

View of the pool from our room (it was right there!)

If you look through those trees, you can see how close our room was to the beach

These next several photos are from an outing to the Wildlife Center. It wasn't particularly nice, but they sure had a random assortment of animals, most of whom we were allowed to feed. Finley loved it, so we were glad we went!

Throwing food to the flamingos

This one's blurry, but I had to include it because it shows Finley talking/shouting at the birds, which was hilarious.

We got up close and personal with these little birdies. Finley wasn't quite ready to let them sit on his hand, so he held mine out for them.

Finley throwing food at the birds

Finley was pretty interested in the ostriches. I didn't let him get too close, because I've heard they can be a bit vicious, and I didn't want him to be bitten! (Not to mention, they were surrounded by tons of flies.)

The look on Finley's face here is too funny. He's not sure he can trust that monkey.

It was such a wonderful trip, and I'm really glad we were able to go! Finley learned lots of fun new words and phrases, such as "momocycle", Langkawi, mango lassi, and "swimsoup". It was so fun to have a week of full-on Daddy Time, because we don't usually get that. We've really been missing him this week while he's been gone to the States for a conference, and we can't wait until he comes home Saturday night!