3D/4D pictures

The sonographer was wonderful, and she took some fabulous 3D pictures. It is so incredible to actually see all her features.
In this pictures she has her right arm up by her face and her left hand under her chin. You can also see the umbilical cord under her chin and in between her arm and face. Amazing!!

In this picture, I think she looks just like her daddy. There is a baby picture of him for his birth announcement, and it looks like they have the same lips. It is pretty incredible.

Here she is looking down a little bit more.

"I'm not telling!" In this picture, she has both hands right in front of her mouth. You can also see her umbilical cord inbetween her arms.

These pictures are incredible. Technology is absolutely amazing. Don't forget to scroll down to see all the other pictures.

More Ultrasound pictures of her features

Here are some pictures of her little features.

It's a girl!! I know it is hard to tell, but this pictures shows that she is a little girl.

This is her arm and hand. She has all 10 fingers and toes. She like to keep her right hand up by her face.

This is her foot.
Here you can see her lower abdomen, legs and feet. You can also see the umbilical cord right above her abdomen.

The doctors say that everything looks great. All her features are developing well. Her hearts is pumping well and she is swallowing like she should be. We feel very blessed!

Ultrasound Pictures

Meet our little Girl. These were taken on December 30th and I am 19weeks and a few days pregnant.

She is kicking her legs up. Looks like we are going to have a little soccer player, just like mom and dad. It kind of looks like she is doing a bicycle kick...watch out Rudy!

Here her hand is up by her face.

This is a profile picture of her face.

Here is another profile of her face and body. You can see her umbilical cord right in front of her face.
This is a picture of her spine.

Sweet Noah

Sweet Noah Rathbone was born on December 15th, 2008. We all have been waiting for the arrival of this precious one for a very long time. Steven and I even had lunch with Megan and Dave the day before his arrival and talked about how we just couldn't wait for him to come. I had been looking forward to being Megan's nurse, and as you can imagine, was very excited when I got a text from her on Monday morning around 5:15 saying that her water broke. I headed into the hospital around 6:45, just a few minutes before my shift started, to assure that I would be assigned as her nurse (I was already working that day, so it was perfect). I felt so honored to be her nurse and to be a part of the delivery. Megan was fabulous and so courageous, and little Noah was born by c-section around 1 pm and weighed 6lbs. 6oz. Just perfect! He is absolutes adorible (as you can tell by the pictures), and mom and baby were able to go home today. I posted a few pictures of Noah, Mom, and Dad. What a precious new family!!
He is so perfect. Sweet little features, and a nose and lips that look just like his mom's. He is going to be so spoiled and so well loved!!
Doesn't he look perfect in her arms? She is such a natural!

Bringing Noah to see mom for the first time after the c/s.

Such a proud Daddy!! And awesome helper.

Christmas Tree

Here is our beautiful Christmas tree. This weekend Steven and I went and picked it out with the Prums. It was a lot of fun, and perfect weather because it was snowing lighty. It is now a tradition for the Lucks and the Prums to pick out our trees together, and I hope it continues.!




Here is a pic of Steven and Nate as they bring the Christmas trees to Nate's car. Look how cute they are with trees that match their height!





We went to Marshall Highschool, which we have done for the past 3years. We have loved our tree we have gotten from there each year.

16 Week Picture

This is 16weeks/ 4months. And, no, that is not a pillow under my dress.

Oh, How I Love Thanksiving

Oh, how I love Thanksgiving! Time with the Family, lots of good food, catching up with the Rices, and walking on the beach; doesn’t get much better than that. We have been going to the beach with the Rices, a family of 5 kids (actually 8, now that 3 are married) from Richmond, for the past 14years. This year, we went to Pine Island and stayed at a gorgeous house right across the street from the ocean. We had the traditional Thanksgiving meal, although we fried the turkey this year (delicious!) and the pumpkin pie and pecan pie were mysteriously missing. Actually, I burnt both, and they both were total disasters. I blamed it on the recipes, the ovens, and the hormones, although, I think I just need to go to Ashley Wood’s pie school (or just leave it up to her to cook next year…Ash, you better be home so I don’t make a fool out of myself again!!)
I love being at the beach, even when it is cold, and it seems like the baby does too. One reason is that the Rice girls were so excited about the pregnancy, and they talked to the baby, rubbed my belly, and doted on the baby the whole three days. He/She is going to miss all that attention! Also, I only got sick once while I was there, and I barely felt nauseous. I think I am just going to have to move to the beach full time. Watch out Sam and Dee, here I come!! Well, at least I will have to visit the beach a lot. I guess the baby planned his/her arrival well; perfect time to enjoy the summer! (Definitely takes after both Steven and me in that aspect)
I am 15weeks now, and thoroughly enjoying the second trimester. I have not been as nauseous and have only thrown up a few times this week (versus every day). Steven and I are starting to discuss names, although we are still very indecisive. I think we are going to wait until we find out the sex of the baby before we discuss it more seriously. The sex is distinguishable between 16-20weeks, so we could find out any day now. I am hoping to find a time were Steven can come to work with me so that we can find out together. (I have to fight my colleagues off because they all want to do a sonogram so that they can know if it is a boy or a girl).
I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving and have come out of your turkey comas by now. Again, I love Thanksgiving!!

12 weeks

This is 12weeks. I know it looks so funny, but there you go. And yes, that is a rubber band holding my pants together :)

The Pregnancy 0-14weeks

I have a lot of catching up to do on what has happened so far in the pregnancy, so I will try to not make this entry too long.

How I found out: I had been really tired and a little emotional (although Steven might say A LOT emotional), but I had attributed all those feelings to our recent move. Then, one Thursday at my weekly Pilate's class (OK, so my attendance more monthly, but that doesn't matter) I had a feeling like I could throw up. Knowing it wasn't from some odd Pilate's move, I was a little confused, but again, attributed it to the move and just being exhausted. Well, the next day when I woke up, I felt the same way, so I decided to take a pregnancy test. Having spent way to many minutes of my life watching just one line show up in the past, I decided to go back to bed. About 30mins late I woke back up and walked into the bathroom, and what did my sleepy eyes see, but 2 lines!! I thought I was imagining things, so I stumbled into the car and went to the Rite Aid to get a second test. Being that I look about 14 y.o., especially with my sweatpants on, I got some very mean looks at the store. Guess I am going to have to get used to that. Well, this time, the pregnancy test said PREGNANT, so I knew it was right, but it was still hard to believe!

Telling Steven: I know it is hard to believe, but I didn't tell Steven that day. We were going back to Charlottesville for a wedding and then for his parent's anniversary party. I wasn't ready to tell anyone yet, so I didn't want Steven to be processing all of this while he was spending all night with his parents and all day with his brothers. I figured it would be a little easier on him to find out after all the big events. Not that the news would be hard on him, but just that it is a lot to process while you are trying to hang out with several people who are asking about your life. Anyway, I told him after his parent's anniversary party. We were in the car, and I had him stop so I could give him a gift. Steven had just bought a new car, so he wanted a journal to write down all the blessing we had experienced every 1 thousand miles that he had driven. So I have him a journal, a pen, and then had wrapped the pregnancy tests. When he openned them, at first he thought they were thermometers, then negative pregnancy tests, then he saw the positive pregnancy test. He was very excited. A little overwhelmed, but mostly excited.

Morning Sickness and the ER: Things have been OK so far in the pregnancy, minus the constant exhaustion and the morning sickness (although, I don't know why they call it that b/c it goes far beyond the morning). I have been throwing up every morning and sometimes in the afternoon, but I have gotten kind of used to it. Steven is very sweet and always feels bad for me, although there is really nothing that makes it better. I had some drama at about week 11 when I got a 24hour bug and with that and the pregnancy, I got too dehydrated. I woke up at 4 one morning, went into the bathroom, and then passed out. I hit my head on the floor, which is what woke Steven up. He came and found me, and then took me to the ER (I truly hate that place). I spent 8hours in the ER, getting IV fluids. It took awhile to get me rehydrated because I had gotten so low. I tried to go back to work 2 days later, but after throwing up 2x, my doctor, who was working on the floor that day, sent me home. I spent all 3 days on the couch trying to rehydrate. Since then, things have been much better. I have much more energy, have been cooking, and I actually didn't throw up this weekend! I am hoping that 2nd trimester proved to be much better than the first.

Pregnancy Callendar: I am now 14weeks pregnant. My due date is May 23rd. The baby is about the size of a fist at this stage, so it is getting much bigger. I am showing a little bit more, although it just looks like I have eaten too much (which, by the way, my appetite is huge!!! I love it!!!). I am going to post a picture of my belly at 12weeks. I will try to post every 4weeks so you can see the progression.

Pictures of the house

the living room

The dining room

Another picture of the living room/study

The Kitchen

Another picture of the Kitchen

Our new townhome

On September 1st, with the help of both sets of parents, Steven and I moved into a townhouse. We loved Peachtree and were sad to move, but we were beginning to out grow our one bedroom, one bathroom apartment. We searched for a long time, and had a hard time finding something because Steven really wanted a dog, and there are few places that allow dogs (especially big ones) and aren't huge apartment buildings. When we had just about given up, we found this townhouse in a community where we had searched before. It was right within our price range, and after a few days of praying, decided to sign the lease for a year.
It is a 3 bedroom 4 bathroom 3 level townhouse (quite a jump from our one bedroom!). It has a basement, although honestly, we only use it for a storage area and for the laundry room, we mostly live on the top 2 floors. We had originally set up the 3 bedrooms upstairs as a master bedroom, guest bedroom and study/studio, but after we found out I was pregnant, that third bedroom is now going to be the nursery. Thanks to our saving grace, my mom, we were able to clear the studio of all the junk so that I could gradually fill it with baby stuff. Crazy!!
We have really loved the new place, although we know that we can only afford to stay here for one year. We are going to try to enjoy it as much as we can for this year. And, our search for a new place shouldn't be as hard because, much to Steven's chagrin, we will not be getting a dog. The litter that we were going to get one from one had 2 males, and with a new baby on the way, I really wanted a female. Oh well, I guess we will have to look into that after the baby comes.
I will post some pictures of the house soon!!

Bet you never thought....

I never thought I would be a blogger, and honestly, for a long time, I didn't even know what what a blog was. But, I have desided to venture out of my comfort zone and try something new. With family and friends all over the world, I thought this would be a good way to keep everyone updated about what is going on in the Steven and Emily Luck family. I tend to be bad at sending out pictures and that sort of thing, so I thought this might help me do that. I guess we will see!! Enjoy