Dear Baby Hyde

Baby Boy Hyde,
I write this in the first week of knowing that you are a boy. In my heart I knew you were going to be a boy, even though all those silly old wives tales pointed to girl. Once the doctor said officially that you were a boy, my heart filled with such joy to find out who you are.

After we found out you were a boy, Mommy and Daddy went to your MeMa and PePaw's house to share with them, your Nunna, your Tio Joe and Tia Jess, and Auntie Kayleen and Uncle Sean the joy of our hearts that you are YOU. Now, some people may argue that Joe and Jess, and Kayleen and Sean aren't REALLY your Aunts and Uncles, but you are just so loved by so many amazing people that it only seems fitting that they are your Aunts and Uncles. And yes, Cheyanne and Shelby and any future children from our best friends will be your cousins. You'll learn to love them as much as your "real" cousins.

Anyways, back to the real letter to you little nugget. Sorry, your mama gets on tangents and just kind of goes off on them a lot. You'll learn to live with it and love it, just like daddy does.

So, we sent your family on a Disney scavenger hunt around MeMa and PePaw's house which then ended with everyone coming to the porch to find out that you were a boy. And I have to link the video of everyone's reactions and joy. Your mama couldn't quite pop a popper and hold a phone at the same time, so we had to improvise and put the phone in my pocket which didn't work out great, but it worked.

After this amazing moment came lots of phone calls to your great grandpa, your other grandparents and aunts and uncles and your MeMa's closest friends. Everyone shared in the joy of knowing you're a boy with us and it was magical.

This week has been full of emotions for me little nugget. I loved you since the moment I knew you were in there, but knowing you're a boy and knowing I actually have a SON and that you are growing safely inside of me makes me love you more than you'll ever know. Something about knowing you are my son and the amazing things that will come from your life just brings me to tears (which isn't very hard with pregnancy hormones and since I am exactly like your MeMa).

Something else you should know about your Mama now is that I will force you to take a lot of pictures. Now when you're an infant you won't really have much of a choice, but as you get older, I am sorry but we will all be wearing matching Christmas Pajama's Christmas Eve, along with any other siblings that you may have, I will make you pose in silly ways for Disney pictures, and it will be crazy. But you will get use to it. Just like your daddy has. Anyways, the point being, I made your daddy carve a pumpkin for me yesterday so that we could announce to the world that you are a boy. And I'd say it's my favorite Halloween memory with your Daddy by far.

I would say your Daddy did a good job carving out the pumpkin. And of course Mama did the blue pumpkin on the inside since it meant not having to touch pumpkin guts!

Baby boy, I am so in love with you. My prayer for you today is that you continue to grow strong (judging by the kicks you keep giving me I think you're doing good!) and that when you are born that you are prepared for a LOT of love from a LOT of people, but none more than your Mama and Daddy and your savior Jesus Christ. For it is because of His grace that you have been given to us.

Now, please stay cooking in Mommy's belly, but man, we can not WAIT to meet you.


XOXO
Mama Hyde

(PS for everyone else reading this, here's a few more pictures from our Gender Reveal Shoot)

17 Weeks

I'm still in amazement that I'm pregnant. I still am in shock that I'm pregnant. By the time I really am like "holy cow I'm pregnant" I think I'll be in the delivery room!

The morning sickness (all day sickness) is gone and I couldn't be more happy to be back to my semi-regular self! Those first 14 or so weeks were really rough. I was so afraid I wasn't getting little nugget enough food. I was worried I wasn't getting MYSELF enough food. But we've made it through.

At 13 weeks we had our genetic testing done. This was a blood test and an ultrasound. When they did the ultrasound, I was amazed at the details you could see of Baby Hyde. We could see the spine, the brain, all 4 chambers of the heart, the stomach, bladder, and obviously the arms, legs, hands, and feet. The tech thought they could tell what sex the baby was, but since it was so early she wasn't 100% sure, and even from looking at our ultrasound pictures and when we were there, we couldn't really tell either. Although, how would we?? We don't look at ultrasounds for a living!!

So the blood work test came back great. My risk of whatever things they were testing for were about 1 in 700 before going in to have the tests done based on my age, but after the testing, it's now at less than 1 in 10,000 so we are very grateful. We will love this nugget whether it has 4 arms, 6 toes, has a disability, or is a "Picture Perfect" baby (whatever that is), but it's just a sigh of relief knowing baby is doing well in there!

So today I'm at 17 weeks and everything that my apps are saying will start happening this week have been happening for the past week or so. They say I'll start having round ligament pains (which surprise I've had for weeks), crazy dreams (welcome to my every night) and I could even start to feel the baby move.

So about a week or so ago, I was trying to figure out if I was feeling the baby move or if it was just gas. I figured it was way too early to feel any movement/kicks/punches yet so it must just be gas or that I'm hungry. I ignored the feelings and kept moving on with my days. Until Sunday. Sunday was a very long day of singing on our worship team (but totally worth it because I got to spend my whole morning with some amazing musicians, friends, and people who have such amazing hearts for the Lord) and during the last service (being at church for almost 6 hours at this point) I started having that feeling again in my lower left side of my stomach. I just rubbed it a little bit to hopefully move whatever "gas bubble" was in there out of the way. I finished the service, still felt really tight and awkward, but still just shook it off.

It wasn't until I got home and took a nap that I realized it actually was the baby. I woke up after a very short nap (I usually sleep for hours) and put my hand on that part of my stomach and felt 3 little kicks/punches! I think that was the moment I realized "wow, there's actually something growing inside of me."

Little nugget, Mommy and Daddy love you so much! We are so thrilled you are growing the way you should be, your heart rate has been perfect, and we just can't wait to meet you in 23 or so weeks!!

*Also, we find out if Nugget is a Boy or Girl in just a few weeks and we can't WAIT to know who you are. As the scripture says, "For this child we have prayed." and we have certainly been praying for this child for a long long time. God has placed this child in our care to raise it to know Him and love Him, and we think we know this child we have prayed for and the name God has given us, but we'll have official answers in just a few short weeks!!! Either way, this child is loved beyond measure and I know will do great things.

Xoxo

Mama Hyde and Baby Hyde

Journaling The Bible Part Three: Leviticus

It's a good thing that my God is a God of forgiveness, because the first trimester of this pregnancy had me DOWN and I fell off of the wagon of reading my bible daily/regularly. At this rate, I have to read 6-7 chapters a day to reach the end of the bible by the time Baby Hyde arrives (if baby comes exactly on their due date). That scares me to be honest. It's so much easier to just throw on the T.V. and watch Netflix or catch up on the reality shows I forgot started up 3 weeks ago. It would be so much easier if I was just reading the bible. But God knows that I wouldn't remember as much of his word or really dig into it as much if I was just reading it. God knows that I don't learn that way. I have to be engaged in it. I have to take notes. Every Sunday I have my bible and a piece of paper ready to go for the sermon, ready to soak up as much knowledge as I can. So why would I do any differently when I'm at home studying?

Let me just say, Leviticus has been HARD. I came back from a 2 month or so break from reading and journaling and I have to jump into Leviticus. I think God was trying to teach me patience through this book, amongst other things. Genesis and Exodus were, relatively speaking, a breeze to read. The history of the people of Genesis kept my attention, were somewhat familiar stories (Adam and Eve, Noah, Joseph, etc.) and was definitely more of what I was "looking for" to start my bible journey. Exodus was all about Moses and again, familiar stories and then the building of the Tabernacle.

Leviticus on the other hand was a LOT of the same things repeated over and over. Now, I know that may sound bad, but I'm not lying. Go ahead and go read Leviticus 1-10 and you'll see what I'm saying. It was really cool to read about the different types of offerings that the Levites had to do in the Tabernacle and exactly how they had to do each type (burnt offering, sin offering, peace offering, guilt offering, and or ordination offering). Some of these details are very precise. You can only use certain animals, if you don't have those animals you can use certain types of grain. Some offerings you have to eat the animal (but only certain parts of course), other offerings you aren't allowed to eat it. It really was quite interesting to see that the Levites actually did all of these offerings and exactly as God has said to do them. Blood had to be spilt on certain area's of the Tabernacle, they could only burn certain pieces of the animal, don't spill blood on your clothes or they must be washed and will be unclean for a certain period of time. I'm certainly glad I'm not Jewish in the time of the Levites though, that is for sure.

At church on Sunday, I was still really struggling with Leviticus. I had written most of this blog post about a week or so ago, but had two chapters left and just couldn't get myself to read it. I felt discouraged knowing that these were all the old laws of Moses and didn't really apply (we'll let that one be debated). But then like God made it happen for a reason (duh, thanks God), our Producer for our worship service on Sunday morning read a devotional to us about Hebrews 10 preaching this verse; "¹⁰ For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time." He then started talking about how the sacrifice of Jesus now covered all of us and we wouldn't have to make sacrifices like in the Old Testament. It was like God knew not only that I needed the reminder that Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice for ME, but it was also that clarifying moment I needed as I finished up Leviticus and all the sacrifices that I knew were no longer applicable to our lives because of Jesus just kind of all hit me like a rock. 

So I encourage you today, if you are reading through Leviticus as a study with your bible study or as part of a sermon series, or you're encouraged to read it because of this blog post (although I find that last one highly unlikely), I really encourage you to read Hebrews 10 when you get discouraged like I was. To read it when you look down at your tattoo and know that in Leviticus it tells you not to have tattoos. When you see the sin you're committed, big or small, and remember that Jesus paid that ultimate sacrifice and you are no longer bound by that sin. Sin no longer has control over you. And you no longer have to sacrifice live stock, oils, breads, and go through all those processes, so let's just take a second to thank the Lord for that!!!

ONTO NUMBERS!

Love and blessings,
Amanda