Olive Elizabeth

Many of you have heard our good news but I thought I would share a little more on the blog.  Joel and I are having a little girl who is supposed to arrive on July 4th!  We are so excited, we are slowly preparing for Olive to be here and can't wait to hold her in our arms!

Most people have asked us if we were trying for a baby and the answer is no, but it wouldn't have been much longer so it was a very happy surprise.  We just thought it would be after we left China but the timing has actually worked out since we are moving at the end of March (more on that in a later post), which gives us time to be home with family and friends when we welcome Olive into the world.

When we found out I was pregnant I took an at home pregnancy test that was positive but it wasn't the easiest thing.  The pregnancy test we took was all in Chinese, even though the lady at the pharmacy told us there was english!  So what normally takes one minute to find out took us over an hour of google translate and other internet searches to figure out what the darn thing said.  Needless to say, you can imagine how anxious we were trying to interpret it and find out if we were having a baby or not.  We finally figured out that two lines means positive.  Finding out was great but it really didn't sink in until a few weeks later when we went to the doctor to confirm it and saw a little bean on the ultra sound and heard her heart beat for the first time.

Anyone read Chinese?

The timing of finding out we were pregnant was perfect, it was just a few weeks before we flew home to visit family for Christmas so we were able to tell a lot of our family and friends in person.  It was fun to be able to see peoples reactions.  Mostly it was shock and then excitement, pretty much the same reaction we had.  Unfortunately I had horrible morning sickness for the first few months (they really should call it all day sickness!) so I didn't feel great while I was home but I am feeling good now and have a lot of my energy back.  The funniest thing about keeping the secret for a few weeks was that my dad traveled to China for work and was able to fly home with me (Joel followed a few days later).  I was so sick, even on the plane but somehow managed to hide it!  He had no idea!  Lol.

Just a few weeks ago Joel and I found out that we were having a girl and it came as a surprise.  I had everyone tell me they thought it would be a boy, we had even started referring to the baby as "he".  I was super excited right away, visions of a pink nursery in my head, but Joel's first reaction was... "Oh crap!  She is never allowed to date!"  Lol.  I told him I thought we had plenty of time until we had to deal with that.  We were lucky though that it was a girl because I had already decided on a name (with Joel's approval of course!)  and if it would have been a boy we were sort of at a loss.  The name comes from my dad's side of the family.  My grandma Cooper had done some of our family genealogy a few years back and I had seen the name on a list in her house and it stuck with me.  Olive was my grandfather's aunt.  There are a few coincidences that we learned after choosing the name that I thought were a bit erie... First was that our Olive is due July 4th and her namesake was born on July 2nd.  Also, the elder Olive's mother's name was Elizabeth and we had already chosen Elizabeth as a middle name before learning that.  Crazy!   Here is a little info on her if anyone is interested...

Olive May Cooper was born on July 2, 1881 in Mount Pleasant Vicksburg Kansas.  She was the daughter of James Samuel Cooper and Elizabeth Jane Paine Cooper.  She died August 15, 1962 at the age of 81 Years, 1 month and 13 days.  On March 25,1903 she married James Samuel Dunstan.  Olive's father was born in Middlesex , England in the shadows of Buckingham and came to Pa to eventually marry Elizabeth and then went west.

I have also been feeling tons of movement.  I swear she will be a dancer!  It is constant and even more active at night.  Joel has been able to feel her a lot.  He has even developed a daddy-daughter morse code.  He taps on my belly and she responds with a few kicks.  It is really funny.  She is getting so big that every once and a while we can now feel parts of her pressed up against my skin.  The first time this happened it was very freaky!  Now I love it!  So cool to feel an arm or a leg moving around.  

Here are a few pics of my growing belly:

3 months- not much there yet.

about 4 months- starting to show! 

About 5 months, definitely a baby in there!

5 1/2 months, growing everyday!

So now we just wait!  I will try to update with a few bump pics in the coming months.  Keeps us in your thoughts and prayer that our move goes smoothly in a few weeks.  We will be back in CO before we know it!