1) Sonia and the baby are both healthy (God is gracious) and rounding the metaphorical Third Base headed towards Home Plate. All of the medical visits have turned out well so we are, of course, truly grateful. Sonia has been incredible through pain, nausea, inconvenience, medical scares (all is well, don't worry), disturbed sleep, deprivation of things she really likes to eat and do, general pregnancy discomfort, being an active 3-year old's mom while being pregnant, lots of stuff Sonia has never mentioned but endured nonetheless, etc., etc., etc., but has come through all of it with a great attitude, in classic Sonia fashion. Pablo and Gabriel have also been through a lot and have shown us deep amounts of grace and support.
2) Betty is exploding into motherhood. I've never seen her like I've seen her in the last few months, steadily increasing in mommyness. She's super-protective of our kid (as she should be), gathering all of the nuts and twigs that her nesting instinct will allow, reading a ton of stuff about babies and such, and cooing at a lot of tiny mostly pastel-colored, uber-cute, girly baby clothes. Betty is already a spectacular mommy!
3) Our baby girl still does not have an official name (mostly because I can't make up my mind) but we've narrowed it down to a couple of choices. She is lovingly know as "Baby Cousin X" in Pablo and Sonia's household for now so that Gabriel can talk to "Tia Betty and Tio Alvaro's baby in Mommy's panza" (btw, Gabriel has pledged to take good care of the baby as her big boy cousin, you'll be glad to know). Betty is quite firm about her name preference...I'm the holdup. More on this coming soon.
4) We have a new baby countdown gadget on the right-hand side of the blog so you can see from time to time how close we are to the expected due date, Sept. 4. If you are viewing this via RSS feed, you'll have to go to the blog itself to see it. Right now it says:
Baby Launch Counter
The countdown to Sept. 4 (the predicted birth date of our daughter): is 74% complete. 200 days, 9 hrs, 18 mins, 7 secs completed, 70 days, 13 hrs, 41 mins, 53 secs remaining.Yeah, we know that no kid comes right on time, but it's in the ballpark. 74%!
Thanks as always for journeying and praying for us. We believe that ultimately, God is in control of all, including both Sonia and our baby girl's well-being and safety, so we appreciate you praying for them both. We're right around the corner from our kid being ex-utero, being part of all of our (you being a part of our) lives, seeing you for the first time, playing peek-a-boo, growing like mad, running around with your kids, laughing at your best silly little-kid jokes, eating your popsicles, etc..
I'm getting ahead of myself, you say? Maybe, but time flies when you're having fun.
-Alvaro