Today she’s at Week 36 and is the size of a watermelon. It’s hard to believe something that big could fit inside a person. But when I look at my beautiful wife, it doesn’t seem so impossible. I think she’s ready to pop!

And I have to say, she looks amazing. If you took away that cute belly of hers, you couldn’t even tell she’s pregnant. She really has gained all the weight in the right places.

But the last week has been a bit rough on Jina. She’s got a pain in her lower back, on the right side, that kept her up all last Thursday night and caused her a lot of discomfort yesterday. We’re not sure what it is yet, either a UTI or maybe something else entirely. It doesn’t seem serious at all, just a very painful situation for Jina.

She’s taking antibiotics right now to hopefully help end this, but we’ll find out more from some tests soon.

We did an ultrasound yesterday and everything was great. She’s around 6 lbs right now and according to the ultrasound tech, “she’s ready.”

The images on the screen didn’t look so great this time, mostly because she’s so big now you can’t really get a full picture of her from the limited aspect of the ultrasound. But her heartbeat was strong and everything else checked out perfectly.

So if you could keep Jina in your prayers this week, that would be awesome. She’s getting to that “everything is uncomfortable” stage, and this extra bit of pain isn’t helping matters. But she’s still tough and I’m so proud of how great an attitude she has.

I’ll try to post a few ultrasound pics later, if any turn out good.

The anxiousness is mostly just excitement. Now that the baby’s room is painted, we have a few things to do yet, but the big stuff is out of the way. So whenever Lyla wants to show up, that’s just fine with me.

Something pretty awesome happened late last week. Up until then, whenever I felt Lyla move, it was mostly just little “pushes” from the inside. They were light, but felt more like little taps from the inside.

Well, on Friday I had my hand on Jina’s belly and suddenly I feel her leg (or something) move across my hand. So crazy. It’s one thing to feel a little push, but to actually get a sense of something moving across the inside of her abdomen was so weird and cool.

She’s also starting to get used to my voice a lot more we think. All will be quiet, but I’ll begin talking to her with my hand poking around Jina’s belly and suddenly she’ll start moving around. I love it!

Jina is starting to feel the drag of the final trimester. She’s been really tired this weekend and is up many times during the night needing the restroom.

She also found out from a lab test that she’s a bit anemic, so hopefully this new iron supplement will give her a bit more energy.

But Jina is doing awesome otherwise. I can’t tell you how amazing she’s been the entire time she’s been pregnant. She rarely complains no matter how tough things get. I’m just so impressed with her strength and will power. She’s still working hard and not making excuses when she probably could.

If anything, I could do a better job taking care of her. I think she’s doing so well, it’s sometimes hard to even realize I could be doing more.

So this week we’re going to try and get the crib built and the shelves that go in the closet put together. At least I hope we can get that done. The weekdays tend to be busy for me lately with working all day, then getting home and writing for Pop Critics in the afternoons and late evenings.

Thanks to you all for reading our blog and keeping up with how we’re doing. It’s been a lot of fun for me.

Here are some pictures from our latest ultrasound, with a pretty decent 3D shot! The last one is pretty cool with her arm wrapped up around her head.

That’s like three months and a few days. And the closer it gets, the longer the wait seems to get for some reason. I’m dying to see this little girl now.

Last night Jina was standing in the kitchen as we made dinner (hot dogs and fries!) and I bent over to give Lyla a kiss and say hello, and BOOM! she kicked right away. She hadn’t been moving for awhile before that, so I can only assume it was all me.

I just wish I could hold her in my arms already. 98 days is a long time!

So today we’re going for a Level 2 Ultrasound, which they scheduled for us because Lila’s head is a bit on the small side I guess. There is nothing to worry about, nothing alarming, this is just one of those things you have to go through sometimes. Obviously they could find something with this high level of an ultrasound, but I’m not worried.

Everything else about her is flawless and great. He brain looks perfect they said and everything else is right on.

I have some pictures to show you guys below, a few ultrasounds, a couple of Jina and one of me, with a sympathy belly.

Enjoy!

Hopefully we’ll have some high quality pictures to show you later!

It’s a girl!

Lyla Grace is her name, which I absolutely love, so I’m really excited.

The entire process of looking at every part of this little baby girl was so awesome, but the best part of everything was seeing Lyla let out a great, big YAWN!

It was so special to me. The ultrasound tech finally slowed down enough to show us what everything was, and when she paused for a second on the face, the mouth just opened wide and you could tell it was a big, sleepy yawn.

Which made a lot of sense really. It was around 3:30 in the afternoon, and that tends to be our nap time on the weekends, so she was probably ready for one. Like father/mother like daughter.

The appointment kind of dragged after that, and by the end, we were pretty tired and hungry. But it was great to pass on the news to our family and friends afterwards.

Am I excited about a girl? YES. I was thinking boy, and all the stuff we could do together, but now that it’s a girl, I’m thrilled.

It reminded me of a time about a year ago when I was at a Phoenix Suns game with some friends, and this father walked past us with a little, long-haired blonde girl who was about 6-7 years old. She was wearing a Steve Nash jersey and having a great time with her dad.

That made me want my own little girl so I can teach her all about her daddy’s favorite stuff, like sports, the Suns, comic books, yard work, Legos, etc.

So that moment over a year ago is happening now and I can’t wait.

Below are two images from the ultrasound for your enjoyment! The first one is the side view, and the next one has a little arm in it

We’ve been going there for about…a year and a half now, so being able to leave for good was nice.

So we got a new picture from the almighty ultrasound, and the kid is bigger now, and supposedly has little arms and leg stubs growing out. Last week the one I posted had something I thought was his head, but now I’m thinking it was the yolk that the little bugger feeds off, so who knows what I’m seeing now.

But this picture is better.

I’m pretty sure…the little round circle at the bottom attached to the embryo wall is the yolk, and the little peanut shape is our kid.

Judging from the size of the yolk and the kid’s head, he’s sure eating a lot. Reminds me of the pile of chicken wings I ate last night.

Anyways, here is the first shot, we’ll get some more next Tuesday and maybe we’ll get a few better quality images.

Enjoy!

(the little spot labled “1″ is where his head is located)

We saw the heartbeat, it was 140 beats per minute, which was strong the doc said. Probably means it’s a boy, he likely gets that from me.

The doc also turned on the speakers so we could hear it beating and that was pretty awesome. I still find it hard to believe that something so tiny has something beating inside it. I mean, what is it pumping? Blood? Through tiny veins?

It’s all absolutely amazing to me…

I’ll be scanning the pictures they gave us tomorrow at work and post them here ASAP.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers, this little guy is looking good!