New Website

We now have a new website! It will be under construction for a while, but there are some pictures in the gallery and some information about our pregnancy. I will let you all know when Laney is born on that site, so make sure to go visit it and click on the Blake & Joey button at the top. The website is TheAlsmanFamily.com. Thanks!

4th of July Update

Today is Independence Day, 2006! We are now in our 33rd week of this pregnancy!!! I never would have believed this time would come, and would come so fast! It is a great feeling to know that Laney can be delivered at any time now and have excellent chances of being a very healthy baby girl! She has started to gain strength, and sometimes moves just a little more than is comfortable for Joey. In fact, you can actually SEE her moving inside Joey's belly if you look carefully! The heat and muscle cramps have started to make Joey a little miserable at times, but she is still extremely positive and excited about the pregnancy.
I still need to do some touch ups in the nursery, and the nursing chair is not ready yet, but besides that, it is basically finished! I have posted some pictures of the progress below. Other projects for this holiday have included relandscaping the yard (in muggy, 110 deree heat index weather), which I have also posted pictures of below. Take a look around and let us know you were here, we love reading all of your comments that have been left for us. Thanks for all of your continued support and care! ONLY 7+ weeks to go (or less)!!!

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... I thought I would add more pictures here, but I think I am out of space. Come visit our new website to find out more and see some newer pictures. TheAlsmanFamily.com

3rd Anniversary

Well, today is our 3rd wedding anniversary. I figured this was a pretty good time to update you on Laney and her nursery! Joey and Laney are doing fine, and get to start visitin Dr. Walker every 2 weeks now. We just got the stroller today, and will be putting some finally touches on the room. Here are some more pictures of the progress in Laney's nursery in the last week.

3 Big updates!

A lot has happened since the last post. One of the biggest changes is Bitty's name! It took a long time and a lot of funny conversations to find a name that we liked and that everyone else having a baby this year didn't also choose. We have decided on Laney Grace Alsman! Laney has been growing very quickly. Even though she has still been making her mom sick on occasion, she continues to stay right on track with her growth. We are entering the third trimester, so many of our fears are beginning to be put to rest. There is still a lot of growing to do before she is ready to be born though, so please continue to pray for her.

A few other major updates still need to be made! This saturday was the baby shower! There were many people that showed up to support Joey and Laney with their company and some very nice gifts! Also, Joey's dad, Ira, was in town to help me remodel Laney's nursery. We are 99% finished, with only touch-ups and very minor changes yet to be made. Please take a look at the pictures of the shower and the nursery below. We'd love to have your feedback on the new room and the new name! Thanks!

The Shower

The Cake

The Spread

The Gifts

Mommy with the Bouncer

Grandpa Ira, Mommy, & Daddy

Mimi, & Mommy

Grandpa Art & Mommy

Aunt Sydney, Mommy, & Aunt Alicia

Honorary Aunt Trisha, Mommy, & Aunt Brooke

The Nursery

She's got more stuff than I do, and she's not even born yet!

Working hard

Finished!

Letter to our daughter

Dear baby girl,

Our dreams have officially come true. We are unbelievably proud parents of you, our baby girl, our sweet pea. We are so excited to meet you and to get to know you even more. However we will be waiting patiently for the remainder of the 4o weeks. Of course, by waiting patiently, we mean we will be shopping, building, preparing, and talking about your arrival set for August 26th. This has been such an amazing experience, and you have done such an amazing job growing this far. We are just two of many people that pray for you each and every day. There are a lot of people that are almost as thrilled as we are for you to join our family. We love you so much, and can't wait to see you for the first time.

Lots of love, Mommy & Daddy

BITTY IS A GIRL!!!

Today we FINALLY found out that Bitty is a GIRL!!! We couldn't be happier! After her ultrasound, Joey went to the mall with Brooke and me to return a bunch of boy's clothes to Gymboree, and use the GymBucks she had been saving up to start buying pink everything! Here are bitty's new pictures! Isn't she adorable? :)

Unexpected Ultrasound

About 2 weeks ago, we had some concerns after finding out about low hormone levels. Joey had an appointment to look for Bitty's heartbeat today, so we were really nervous. When the doctor started looking, he had a lot of trouble trying to find Bitty's heart beat. Although he said he heard it at one point, he scheduled Joey for an immediate ultrasound to check things out more thoroughly. Thankfully, we saw Bitty right away, and a strong, consistent heartbeat (154 bpm). Apparently Bitty had the hiccups. That movement, along with the placenta interfering with the dopplar machine that listens for the heartbeat were the reasons the doctor had such a hard time finding it. When the ultrasound started, we could see Bitty moving all over the place, spinning, waving, and hiccupping! That was my first time seeing Bitty move! What an awesome thing! You can actually see all the individual bones in Bitty's hands, feet, legs, spine, ribs, etc., and the different chambers of the heart and lobes of the brain! If you look at the profile picture, you can plainly see the eyes, nose, lips, and chin. He played peekaboo for a minute, and then waved goodbye right at the end. My baby is already a genius! Here are the pictures.

Baby Bump

This past week, I have been in Carmel, California (about a 5 minute walk down the beach to the Pebble Beach PGA Golf Course) for a San Francisco Sales District meeting. I saw an otter, some seals and sea lions, and even a couple of whales! The most exciting thing I saw was in the car at the Evansville airport...Joey is starting to show! I noticed her baby bump has definitely grown since I left last weekend. While I was away, Joey bought a fetal heart monitor to listen for bitty's heart. It is not as good as the ones in the doctor's office, so we aren't always sure what we are hearing, but I know that we will really enjoy that little machine. We go in on March 23rd to get out next ultrasound, when we will be able to see if bitty is a boy or girl! I'll make sure to keep you up to date with the rest!

02/13/2006 Ultrasound

Dr. Walker wanted to check on Bitty again, so he scheduled Joey for another ultrasound. She just got out of it about an hour ago. Bitty was moving, hiccupping, and even flipped all the way over while the ultrasound was watching! Bitty's heart is still beating strong at about 152 bpm. Here are the latest images of bitty!!!

Baby Boom!

This post isn't about our pregnancy, but about our friends. Within the last week or so, Joey's friend Ericka (whom she knows through work), my old coworker Matt Rice, another one of my old coworkers' (Chad Seaton) brother, and soon to be our friends Tomelle and Troy are all proud parents to brand new babies! Ericka had Brooklyn, Matt had Gillian, Chad's new niece is named Olivia, and Troy & Tomelle's new son (the only boy of the boom) will be named Tucker. We are SO EXCITED for you guys. Congratulations on the new additions to your families!

Can you guess Bitty's sex?

So now that we are starting to get a little closer to when we will be able to find out, Joey and I wanted to start taking guesses on Bitty's sex. Leave comments or send an email to make your guesses. We will tally up the guesses and see who was right when we find out. I'll track it on the side like I did the names. So let us know... do you think Bitty will be a BOY or a GIRL???

Exciting update!

First things first! As of Tuesday, Joey can now feel Bitty moving!!! She has been feeling fluttering sensations in her belly. The first one was right after she poked around and tried to feel where Bitty was growing. I think it might have been a little annoying, because moments later Joey started to feel Bitty moving around for the first time! It is so cool!

This picture was the picture we put on the Christmas cards we sent out. This was the very first family photo, as Bitty was 1 week old here (well sort of, I guess Bitty wasn't born yet, but you get the picture). We didn't know it yet, but all of our family members were present for this picture, so it is pretty special for us. What a great Christmas present it was to find out about Bitty!!!

Send Us Names

Joey and I have been picking out names for Bitty and thought we could use a little input. We have a few that we like for both a boy namd and a girl name, but we are always changing our minds. We have a long time before the name is final and wanted to see if you all had any new names to share. To send us a name, just comment on this posting by clicking on the comment link on the lower right corner of this posting. If this post moves down off the page, you can always access it by clicking on "Send Us Names" under "Features" in the side bar. After we get some names, I'll post the most popular names on this stie. Thanks for your help!

BITTY HAS LIMBS!!!

We had our last ultrasound with Dr. Gentry's office today. It was a little bit sad and a little bit exciting to be leaving his care, but it is a great sign that things are going very very well. The nurse, Bea, even told us everything looked "perfect"! When we finally saw the ultrasound, we were so excited! BITTY HAS ARMS AND LEGS!!! Bitty even sort of has a tail where the spine extends beyond the hips. You can actually see the brain here too! If you look at Bitty's head (far right again) the dark spot is his brain (it takes up more of Bitty's head from another angle, but we didn't get that shot). The gray part going from Bitty's waist over to the side of the gestational sack is the umbilical cord, and if you look really closely, you can sort of make out part of the placenta (try looking for a faint line below Bitty's arms). We are so excited to finally be going to a NORMAL doctor. We are so excited it is ridiculous! As always, thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers. Joey has been really REALLY sick, so please pray for her comfort as well. She has actually lost almost 10 pounds because she can't keep anything down. Our next ultrasound isn't for a few more weeks now, but we will be back on the site to ask for your help with names and to guess the birth weight, date, and length.

2nd Ultrasound

Joey and I had a bit of a scare with some mild bleeding. So when our OB, Dr. Walker, asked us to come into his office for an unscheduled ultrasound after hearing about it, we were very worried. Thankfully, everything was just fine, and we were able to see another picture of our new family member!!! Meet Bitty (we couldn't keep calling our new baby an "it" could we?). Bitty is currently 1.26cm and has a heart that is beating at 156 bpm. Bitty is right on track in length and heart rate, and Joey is doing fine! We are SO EXCITED!!! The O.B. even told us that there is now less than a 5% chance of miscarriage! Thank the Lord for this miracle, and for all of your support and prayers.

2nd Ultrasound - 2

This image lets you see the yolk sack that is nurishing Bitty. It is near the feet to the left. Bitty's head is on the right and the heart is just about where the body starts to widen up again traveling left from the head and right from the arrow in the picture.

New Family Member!!!

I just wanted to share our exciting news with everyone!!! Today, Joey and I had our first ultrasound scan and we saw our child's heart beating!!! We are SO EXCITED!!! This is Baby Alsman's first picture! We will be sharing all of our news and ultrasound pictures with everyone on this blog. Thanks to everyone that prayed for us. 2005 was a very difficult year, as we worked through four miscarriages. This time, is different though. We actually watched our new baby's heart beating on the ultrasound screen. What an incredible feeling! We know that this is out of our hands. We have done everything in our power, and now it is up to God and his plan for this life. Thank you for all of your prayers, and please continue to pray for us and our new family member.