17 weeks!

Ok, so after thinking to myself ....'I look hardly different at all' J took this picture last night and I nearly had a fit!!! In 2 weeks I've got a belly!!! Ok it's not huge but I thought that you really couldn't tell but you can! Yesterday at school I was getting some very inquisitive looks from some of the girls in one class. They didn't say anything but I'm sure they were guessing. I'm sure after Christmas they'll have no doubt! I haven't kept it a secret at school but I'm also not shouting it from the rooftops!!

Before I go into any other baby details, I thought that you might like to know that J and I have just taken our level 3 Dutch test! We both felt we did very badly and I especially thought that I'd failed but J got 92%!!!! and I just passed with 72%!! I think I nearly collapsed with shock! I have decided that although Dutch is important to learn, I won't be carrying on with the next level of the course. I found out I was pregnant the first lesson of level 3 and have struggled with tiredness and concentration all the way though. I decided that I want to focus on learning things around the pregnancy and have my mind consumed by that for a while. J will still be studying so I can learn from him. Having the baby here on one hand will be a great experience but on the other hand I'm finding pretty overwhelming too. I have to constantly remind myself (and have others remind me - thanks Wendy!) that God is completely in control. We are convinced that this is His timing so I have to trust that He will organise things around it being the right timing. I panic and fear so quickly but I have to remember to give it to God and trust that the best will happen whatever that might be! The Dutch are very assertive and us English not so. I get easily discouraged and forget my needs are as important as the next persons. Wendy gave me this passage from 2 Timothy 1v7: "For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline". It's something that I'll be reminding myself of a lot over the next few months, I'm sure.

So here's this weeks link, there doesn't seem to be a huge amount of info on it this week but you can at least see a picture!

http://www.babycentre.co.uk/pregnancy/fetaldevelopment/17weeks/

J & I want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a healthy and special New Year. May 2007 bring you blessings beyond your wildest dreams and may you have a deep sense of how much you are loved by us but mainly by our Lord God.................. He came as a child for YOU you know! He died on the cross for YOU you know and even now he is rooting for you, loving you and forgiving you daily!

16 weeks!

Just in case you didn't know what it looks like, I thought that I'd put a picture of Amersfoort on here today.

Happy Birthday PJ!!!
It's PJ's 16th week birthday today! http://www.babycentre.co.uk/pregnancy/fetaldevelopment/16weeks/

15 weeks!

To begin with I should say Happy Sinterklaas to you! On the 5th December it was 'Sinterklaas'. A prezzy day for all the children where they put their shoes next to the chimney or door and Sinterklaas and his helper 'Schwarz Piet' (Black Pete) come and fill them with gifts and sweets it they are good & coal or twiggs if they have been bad! This is their main day here and although Christmas is getting more popular they exchange gifts on the 5th. As soon as Sinterklaas is finished out come all the Christmas decorations! We actually have some this year so we're feeling festive which is fab!

Next I'm going to put the 15 week link up. I always seem to leave this to the end and then forget to put it on until later!http://www.babycentre.co.uk/pregnancy/fetaldevelopment/15weeks/

We had our next midwife appointment on Monday afternoon. A 10 minute appointment that we made last 30! I have so many questions there's no way that I can fit it in in 10 mins!! (sorry to all the patient families waiting outside when we left!) It was awesome, we got to hear the babies heartbeat! I tried to put all the horse running analogies to one side and think of something else the sound reminded me of. So here goes......... you know when you watch a film and some one throws a Frisbee and they show it in slow motion then put a whooshing sound effect over it, well I think it sounded like that.... whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!!! You with me? If you have no idea what I'm talking about then stick the horse running sound! J and I found it so awesome to think that the little heartbeat was doubly as fast but in perfect time with my heartbeat! Wow I have not only a baby in there but a live one!!!! God is soooo awesome (be nice to invent pregnancy without the morning sickness but we can't have everything!). The midwife also took my blood pressure which is ok but on the low side. So why did that all take half an hour.....because I had to ask about the birth over here. It's more than normal to have the baby at home with no medication! Pray for me, this is a big decision for me where and with what! The midwives are very experienced and trained and thy keep a very close watch, if there is any chance of a complication at all then they will send you to the hospital which is never further than 10 mins away. She reassured me that they will never deny you meds. if you really need them but you can't have them at home. They want to you to do it naturally as long as you can and then they will intervene. I am thinking a lot about this whole area at the mo (maybe a little too much) but all the meds. have side effects that sound horrible. Everyone i have spoken to here says that it's actually amazing how much strength you have without realising it. We have a good friend here that was due yesterday so I'm waiting to hear all her gorey details (of course keeping in mind that every one's different!)
I'm beginning to get bigger. I'm still in my own clothes but I can definitely tell the difference in myself. I can't suck in the bulge there any more! Nauseousness is hanging around - it seems to still come in waves.

Happy 14th week!Birthday PJ!!

I've been asked a few times now if you can see a bump yet! Hmmmmm well, as the pic shows..... no you can't yet. I've been assured a few times that I'll 'pop out' soon! Morning sickness went away for a few days but is still now hanging around. It's definitely not as bad as some people get it but it still pretty much sucks!!!

I have my next Midwife appointment on Monday so I'll probably have more to write about next week. This week just seems to be a week of tonne of information coming through the post from all the places I've registered with. Great, but it's all in Dutch! I've had to book my anti-natal classes already and the 'Kraamzorg'. This is the person that comes to your house for about a week afterward to take care of mother and baby. She's there to help with everything from bathing the baby to breastfeeding, from cooking to cleaning! It's one part of the 'Dutch way' that I'm looking forward to. There's still a lot of things that I think I'm supposed to have arranged by now but haven't. I'll find out on Monday I think.

Here is what the baby looks like now at 14 weeks http://www.babycentre.co.uk/pregnancy/fetaldevelopment/14weeks/

PJ is 13 weeks old!!

So, another week has passed. I'm not really sure what to write in this one...... my size hasn't changed, my morning sickness although less is still there and I'm still tired a lot of the time. But I guess the biggest thing is that it's not a secret any more! I have even told the head teacher at school, so we're free to talk about it everywhere now...... although that too feels a tad weird, like I'm betraying someone!

We have been overwhelmed by all the messages we've had from people with Congratulations! The email is definitely a wonderful invention. Thanks for all your support and prayers.

I am continuing to go to the gym which we have been going to for the last year. They have been great there and have given me a lot of advice. Today there seemed to be a conspiracy ..... all the employees, at different times said that they were going to speak to me in Dutch from now on! Something tells me they know how hard I find it and have decided it would really help me..... I think it will!
J has also told his work now and had really positive comments back. We praise God that he's put us here amongst such great people. It would be tough with out a support network around us. Our home group from Church has been especially fab! We have some friends that are having a baby sometime in the next few weeks and they have been great with telling us what we need to do and when.

We are still trying to figure out what would be the best plan for living arrangements and are having a chat with someone about mortgages on Monday!

Oh yeah, here is the link from Babycentre.co.uk about the status of little pj...... http://www.babycentre.co.uk/pregnancy/fetaldevelopment/13weeks/

Week 12!

Well, we've reached week 12! I thought that I'd put a link in here with a picture of what the baby looks like now! http://www.babycentre.co.uk/pregnancy/fetaldevelopment/12weeks/ I hope it works!
By the way we are calling the baby PJ for now. 'P' has been the name J's called me since we've been married and 'J' is.... well, J! PJ's collection of teddies is slowly growing to a nice size.. Welcome to the family: Fudge, Davey D Duck and Micheal Angelo (ask J!!)
I'm still getting 'morning' sickness and I'm very tired but I'm very much hoping that it'll start subsiding soon - I nearly fell asleep at the dinner table the other day and that's totally not like me! I don't know if anyone else has experienced this but my eyesight is getting worse. It was actually the first thing that I noticed before I knew I was pregnant but I didn't realise that it could be effected. I'm still not showing, but I can safely say that I notice a difference in myself.
There still seems to be a few people that we have to tell too.... we were so excited to do it all at once that I spent too long on the computer and got a migraine - silly me!!
This is such an exciting time and fab to be able to watch and feel the changes little by little. :-)

Echo.....

It's a brand new season in the Sweeting family life!
We are going to be parents!!! I am 11 weeks pregnant so on the 31t May (approx) next year we'll have a new addition to our family!
We're both very excited although a little apprehensive. God is giving us a huge blessing and responsibility and we want to make him proud!
We went for our first 'echo' yesterday (see the picture) and saw the little jelly bean jumping around.... it seems very active! It's only 4.2cm long (an inch and a half!)!Seeing it there was awesome and has reasured both of us that everything is ok and that this is actually happening! I have to say I half expected the midwife to tell me that I'd just had a sickness bug and I wasn't pregnant at all! Silly I know, but I'm not showing at all so I needed the reasurance... as if throwing up isn't enough. As I'm coming to the end of the 3 months I'm very much hoping that the 'allday' sickness is subsiding... not the most glamorous part of being pregnant but at least theres a good reason for spending so much time peering over the toilet and walking around like a zombee!
With having a new baby comes the new questions of where to live and what to do. We're living in Holland right now and we'd really like to be able to stay here for longer. We really enjoy being here and have made some fab friends. Amersfoort is a beatiful town and our Dutch is coming on (slowly but surely!) We can't stay in our current flat unless the baby wants to share a room with the washing machine, have no window and have an access door to the outside corridor! So now comes the decision of whether to rent somewhere else or jump in and invest in a new house. We like the idea of the latter but thats up to God. We will take the steps and he can open or close the doors!
So there is it! A new website and a big bit of news! Hopefully (if I'm as organised as I hope I'll be) I'll keep you posted on all the developments on here so keep checking the site!

Our first blog!

We're the Sweetings!!!!
We're here and we're blogging...... but not tonight