Baby Whetham at 9 weeks

Today Melinda, Joe, and Baby Whetham had their first doctor's appointment together! We headed over to the Millcreek Women's Center, which is adjacent to St. Mark's Hospital (in a suburb of Salt Lake City), where Baby Whetham will be born in a few short months.

The appointment went well --no ultrasound yet; that will take place in about three weeks. Melinda is nine weeks along and anxious for the first trimester to be finished. Baby Whetham's due date right now is set for Sept. 29 --within days of his or her dad's birthday if all goes according to plan (we may find out if the due date will be pushed up by a couple weeks at our next appointment. Stay posted!) Melinda has NOT been feeling well, but countless friends and relatives assure her that this part will soon be through and will be forgotten when Baby Whetham arrives. Melinda did get some anti-nausea medication which she is excited about. Maybe this will be the secret to getting through the work day with a few less trips to the bathroom? One can hope. ;-)

Preparations for Baby Whetham are forging ahead back at the house. We have a room cleared out for the nursery and have picked up a few items for Baby Whetham's room. Grandpa and Grandma Rogers bought a cute sleeper and towel with ducks on it when they visited Utah in January for the Sundance Film Festival. And the great thing about living in Utah --home to the nation's largest families --is there is no shortage of great deals to be found on Craigslist. We snagged a barely used Rainforest Jumperoo (that our cat is terrified of) and a great carrier for hiking. Yes, yes, we are trying not to get carried away as we know we've got some time to prepare. But a great deal is a great deal, no?

Melinda and Joe are reading up on pregnancy, childbirth and newborn care as much as possible in their free time. Melinda's boss, who has a 1-year-old and a 5-year-old, sent her home from work with a backpack load of books today. Great reading on top of several other books we are checking out to find out exactly how Baby Whetham is developing (we think it is funny that each book uses a different fruit to describe the baby's size --some say he or she is the size of a "large grape" others use "a large raspberry" as their descriptor). Since journalists are terribly nosy people, a couple other co-workers of Melinda's have figured out the "secret" that becomes less of a secret everyday. Most have young kids of their own though, so it has been nice to get advice for making it through these first twelve weeks (the ginger industry should thank newspaper gals for their glowing endorsements).

That is where we are at in getting ready for the newest member of our family. We promise to try to make these blog entries more entertaining in the future. One thing about the first trimester of pregnancy --Melinda has found the creative spark in her writing has pretty much gone down the drain along with all her energy. :-) Friends tell her this will pass; I hope they are right. Until the next entry...