Hello, My Name Is...

Well, folks, I think we have a winner. After much deliberation and scouring through the name book, we decided to go with a name that we had talked about since before Kendall was pregnant. Our daughter will be able to rest assured that we did our due diligence in picking a name for her. So, without further ado... Our daughter's name will be Eden Faithe Neely.

Jeff was talking to his mom on the phone the other night, telling her the plans for the baby's name, when he learned of a very interesting coincidence. A close friend of Jeff's mom is going to have a granddaughter who is going to be named Eden Hope. How funny, huh? Actually, that was one of the initial possibilities for us as well.

Oh, and I should probably let you know in advance that we are not planning to use a nickname for our daughter. So, we are asking that people resist the impulse to call her Edie, E, Den, Edenio, Edenarino, Eden Sweden, Eden Eden Whatchu Be Needin', or any other derivation. I know... I'm having fun just thinking of the possibilities, but please, it's simply Eden.

In other news, Kendall recently had a three-hour glucose tolerance test and passed all four of her blood draws. That means she is in the clear for gestational diabetes. We also went to the second level-two ultrasound last week. Everything turned out fine there. The small choroid plexus cyst that showed up at the first ultrasound has disappeared now, so we were relieved about that. Also, the baby is still a girl, so as far as we know we won't have to spend countless hours returning pink outfits and such. We have one more 3D/4D ultrasound this weekend to catch if she's a he before the big day, but given that we've had four different people confirm the gender at this point, we're feeling pretty safe.

One last piece of good news, Jeff passed his oral defense and is now officially a Ph.D. candidate. He has some changes to his dissertation proposal to make, which was to be expected, but otherwise things look to be full speed ahead for completing his degree by August of next year.

That's the news for now. We should have new baby pictures sometime next week. Best to all.

Life is Coming Fast

A friend of mine recently posted a status update on his Facebook page. It said, "Life is coming fast." That line has seemed very appropriate to me recently. These are very exciting times, but the times they are a changin'. It's hard to believe that in approximately three months we will be Mommy, Daddy, and baby too (and Henry).

Kendall and baby are coming along fine. Jeff is able to feel the baby kick pretty regularly now. We are scheduled to go back for the second level two ultrasound next Thursday. Kendall also has to get some blood drawn to test for gestational diabetes, which is all pretty standard. We will also be signing up with the hospital in the next couple of weeks to put them on notice that we will be needing their services on or about the date of Dec. 16. I guess they want to try to process your paperwork in advance so there's not as much wrangling over insurance, etc. once you get there.

In other news, Jeff recently finished taking his qualifying exams and submitting his dissertation proposal. He has an oral defense on Sept. 29. If all goes well then, he will be a candidate and ABD. He has applied to a few jobs starting in August 2010, but he hasn't heard anything yet. It's still very early. The wheels of academia tend to turn fairly slowly. He also celebrated his 32nd birthday this week. Kendall got him a surfing DVD, the Shaun White Road Trip snowboarding video game for Wii, and a CD of Led Zeppelin songs set as lullaby tunes. How cute!

We are also planning on taking a "babymoon" next weekend. That is, it's our one last out of town getaway as just the two of us before the baby comes. We are going to Cocoa Beach for a couple of nights. Jeff is hoping to sneak in a little surfing if the waves cooperate, but mostly we are just looking forward to spending time together and relaxing.

We hope you all are doing well. That's the news for now.

Pregnancy Progression

So, this post is a bit overdue (no pun intended, hopefully). Kendall is staying busy at work and, of course, preparing for the baby. Jeff is in the middle of taking his qualifying exams and has been swamped with studying and preparing his dissertation proposal. But I know, I know... you people expect some content! Gotcha. So, here's the latest.

The pictures above show Kendall's pregnancy progression at 14 weeks, 16 weeks, 19 weeks, and 23 weeks. Kendall is now 26 weeks along, so she has 14 weeks to go. Hopefully, we'll have some more photos coming before long (Jeff finishes his exams on Sept. 16 so maybe he can be a little more attentive to the blog after that). Kendall regularly feels the baby kick these days, and Jeff finally got to feel her kick one night last week, which was very exciting! For a while there it seemed like every time he would put his hand on Kendall's belly, the baby would settle down. He's not sure if she was thinking, "Oh, here comes daddy; I better settle down lest I get in trouble," or "Oh, there's daddy; his hand and voice are so calming to me."

Things are moving right along as well with the midwives' office. The baby's heartbeat has dropped to between 130 and 140. Originally it was in the 150's. The midwives assure us that this is all right on track and normal. We've also signed up for some classes: Preparing for Childbirth, Newborn Care, and Breastfeeding. Jeff thinks he can help out with the first two, but isn't sure how much good he'll be at the last one. We also have a car seat class scheduled for early in November.

So preparations are going well. People continue to bless us with things on the registry and other items, all of which we are very grateful for. We'd also like to send out our congratulations and best wishes to Kendall's cousin, Carman, and her husband Ken, who just recently had their third daughter together! We hope mom and baby are doing well.

That's the news for now. We'll try to file our copy a little more quickly next time. God bless you all!