Dear Baby...

I confess I sometimes have begun to think of you as 'Thumper"....  This is a direct result of listening to your beautiful heartbeat daily.  This morning I could feel the round, smooth edge of my uterus just below my belly button and it somehow made things even more real.  I know I've been carrying you around for three months now, but we waited for you for so long, with no promise of you ever being here... that it still feels like a dream most days.

At night, when I am getting ready to sleep, I lay with both hands over my stomach, directly over the spot I've just heard your precious heart beating, and I wait for the tiny bump that I know will happen one day soon.  An unmistakable nudge from deep inside that is your way of letting me know you're there, growing stronger and bigger each day.

There are many people waiting for your entrance into the big world.  Your Grandma Aven calls each day, asking about your progress and if I've felt you move yet, and if I am showing more than I was the day before.  Her excitement is contagious and reminds me of your brother's births so many years ago.  Your Grandparents in Alberta are also excited about the summer months and meeting their first grandchild face to face.  Your brothers and their girls are curious and anxious to meet you and get on with the business of being adult siblings.  Whether you are a girl or a boy, your young life will be filled with hockey, fishing, boating and music.

But mostly, mostly, it's your dad and me who think of you every day, every hour at times... and we wonder about you.  You fill our conversations, our text messages, our thoughts of the future.  Something so tiny and invisible has filled our world with endless possibilities.