Progress report

This photo was taken in Mito, Japan, back in the days when we were hoping to get pregnant.  We thought the name of the store was funny.  Little did we know that at the time, Arianne was already preganant...

And here's Arianne!  

Baby Girl is getting bigger in there!

This photo was taken at 18 weeks.

And here's the latest: Arianne is now at 22 weeks.

It's a GIRL!!!

Today we found out for sure: we're having a baby girl!  

We're overjoyed and thank God for answering our prayers that the ultrasound would show a healthy, growing baby.

We got a bunch of photos, but we'll just give you these three.  Out of modesty, we'll save the photo which shows the evidence that she's a girl for family members eyes' only.  ;-)

Now it's time to start getting girlie stuff for her. Stay tuned for a name choice.

Breakdancing Bamboo

Last Wednesday, Arianne & I went to our 2nd baby doctor appointment.  The nurse came in and put a microphone (?) up to Arianne's belly.  She had to poke around awhile, but we heard it: shwoom, shwoom, shwoom, mixed in with Bang! Biff! Pow!  The nurse explained that those regular shwooms we heard were the baby's healthy heartbeat.  The other noises were an active baby moving around.  

Then the nurse told us that there are lots of wives' tales about how to tell if the baby is a boy or girl (she really said "wise tales").  She said that in her experience the way to tell is to see how     active the baby is: 

• active babies tend to be boys
  
• calm babies tend to be girls.  
  

In other words, she was predicting that all of the bangs, biffs, and pows indicated we're having a boy.  But she wouldn't let us quote her on that!

Arianne asked if we could have another ultrasound.  Dr. Goff looked at his watch, checked his schedule, but then said he would do one.  Today's picture comes from that ultrasound.  We saw a growing, very active 8.9 cm baby!  This baby is moving a lot.  Unfortunately, when Dr. Goff took the picture, the baby turned his head the other way.  

So does this mean our active baby is a boy?  I told my Dad what the nurse said about active babies being boys.  Dad just laughed and said, "The nurse doesn't know how many active girls are in the Gillham family!"  So we'll see...

Keep praying for us!

Happy Baby, Baby! Part 2

Arianne had her first baby doctor appointment today...and we’re having a baby! Ok, we already knew that, but it was good to hear the Dr. say so.

She had an ultrasound, and we could totally see baby Bamboo. We could see his face and arm and legs and umbilical cord. (I’m going to call the baby “he” just because I don’t like saying “it,” but it was too early to determine the sex.) And then while we were watching him, he moved around. I think he’s like his mommy and doesn’t like to be disturbed while he’s sleeping! :-)

Right now Bamboo is about 3.5 cm long, which means he's been growing 10 weeks and 4 days.

Amazing!!! I was just so amazed to see a living, moving baby inside Arianne. It was an exciting, humbling, awesome moment.

Happy Baby, Baby!

On July 4, we found out that we're going to be parents!  We decided to rename that day Dependents Day.  :-)

Because of this picture and because we don't yet know the gender, we like to call him/her "Bamboo."  Of course we're still negotiating what Bamboo's real name will be.

Join us in praying for a healthy Bamboo & Arianne, an easy pregnancy, and lots of joy along the way.

Happy Anniversary, Baby!

It's hard to believe, but we've been married a year already.  We celebrated by going back to where it all began . . . under the cherry blossoms . . . next to the umi . . . in Japan!  

Click on "Greg & Arianne Gillham's Photos" to see all the pics!

Green thumb

Check it out! We have landscaping! After some winter planting, lots of watering, and a long wait, we have May flowers. They look pretty good, if I do say so myself.
-Greg

Passover Seder

Greg and i went to a Passover Seder with Mark and Kelly. It was a great experieince. Thanks guys.

Francis Joseph Henry Leng a.k.a. Grandpa

Many of you may know that my Grandpa (my mother's father) passed away on Thursday 8th May, 2008. He was dearly loved and is greatly missed. I love you Grandpa, Arianne.
Here he is with my brother and my niece.

Jazzmin Desma Smith

My one and only niece was born 01/10/08. By brother, the hippie apparently, and his wife named their beautiful daughter Jazzmin Desma Smith. Here are some pictures of the angel :)

They call her Jazz or Jazzy for short. It has grown on me :)

Blogging newbies

We've never blogged before, but we're getting on the train now. We can't promise frequent entries, funny comments, or theological discussions. We just want to have a place to keep our families up-to-date. So come back and read, but be patient with us, ok?