20 Weeks!

On Monday we had our 20 week ultrasound. Halfway there…can you believe it!? The ultrasound went very well and baby Brown seems to be healthy and growing at the right pace.  We got to see the little heart fluttering away, the hands and feet moving about and even a nice close up of the face. It truly is a miracle and we just feel so blessed. Baby Brown is about the size of a small cantaloupe this week and rapidly growing. We held strong in our decision to not find out the gender and we honestly have no idea what it will be (I promise mom!). We can’t wait to meet him/her in about 20 more weeks.

Despite the fact that I was sick with a cold all last week, I am generally feeling much better and seem to have a lot more energy. Still taking it easy and enjoying the simple pace of life for the moment. I also started feeling little baby kicks last week and it’s simply amazing; the kicks seem to be increasing with each passing day and I am absolutely loving it. Derek is looking forward to being able to feel the kicks on the outside one day soon.

 

Picture of the Week

Taken from the crags on the eastern edge of Edinburgh while hiking with college housemate, Blaine Lee, who was visiting us as he traveled parts of Europe.

 

A day at the zoo

We’ve lived here over 2 years now and have never made it to the Edinburgh zoo. But since my good friend Lisa is visiting we decided it was time (she never went when she lived here either). We got together with our friend Sarah and her wee boy, Aaron, and we all spent a day at the zoo! I have to say that I was very impressed, who would have thought that Edinburgh, Scotland would have such a great zoo?!

To see the rest of the pics go to our flickr page

 

16 weeks

Today we had an appointment with our midwife. It was the second time meeting with her and we weren’t quite sure what to expect. She took my blood pressure, went over previous blood tests, measured the womb area AND we got to hear the heartbeat for the first time! We thought this might be the case but we weren’t quite sure as we had received mixed info from friends.  Our midwife warned us that sometimes it can be hard to find, so if she can’t find it right away, it’s nothing to worry about. But the second she put that doppler on my tummy, we instantly heard the wee heart pounding away. It was simply incredible and just so reassuring to know that our baby is living and moving and doing everything it should be doing!

We also got a new due date of about 4 days earlier than we originally thought. Our due date is now March 18th, 2010 which puts us nearly 17 weeks along now.

 

Picture of the week

To welcome the beauty of Autumn, and our last one in Scotland, we present to you a picture from Princes St. gardens (taken yesterday).

Here are a few other pics I snapped yesterday: http://www.flickr.com/photos/beingthebrowns/sets/72157622499251134/

 

Turkish meatballs & Gypsy salad

Our friend Rebecca has started learning how to make middle eastern cuisine and in the process she has started a great blog where she posts all of her recipes. Derek and I have been enjoying this a lot because we have been able to try some new recipes! Thanks Rebecca.

Last night we tried two of the recipes, Turkish meatballs with Gypsy salad together in pittas with some yogurt sauce. We highly recommend it.

Here are the meatballs before we cooked them

Gypsy salad

and the finished product

 

Pregnancy Interview

With the upcoming arrival of baby Brown, we have been getting lots of questions from loved ones, so we thought it would be fun to do a pregnancy interview to help answer all your questions!

Q: When are you due?

A: March 22nd, 2010

Q: How far along does that make you?

A: 14 weeks

Q: Katie, how have you been feeling?

A: It hasn’t been the easiest 14 weeks but I know I have certainly had it easier than a lot of women. I tend to get sicker as the days go on and it really hits hard in the evenings and therefore have not been sleeping well. But the past couple days have seen a bit of relief so I have hope that the ‘morning sickness’ is beginning to fade!

Q: Are you going to find out if it’s a boy or a girl?

A: Most definitely not. This is something that is really important to us and feel this is one of life’s great secrets so we want to embrace that.

Q: Will you have the baby in Scotland?

A: Yes, the baby will be born in Edinburgh at the local hospital, but sadly it will not be a British citizen, just plain old American.

Q: Katie, will you go back to work after the baby is born?

A: No. The maternity leave here is 6+ months long and we are hoping to be back in the States before the baby is 6 months old!

Q: Do you have names picked out?

A: Yes, we do have names (both first and middle) picked out for both a boy and a girl, but you will have to wait until baby Brown reveals him/herself to the world to find out!

Q: What have you enjoyed about being pregnant so far?

A: Umm…not much so far, though the fact that there is a child growing inside of me is a pretty amazing thing. I look forward to when pregnancy is enjoyable. That does happen, right?

Derek’s answer: watching my wife inhale food like a trash compactor.

Q: Derek, how have you enjoyed the process?

A: Well, I feel fairly worthless since Katie is the one who is sick all the time and suffering. That said, I’m enjoying all the extra eating we are doing!

Feel free to pose any questions if you have them.

We conclude this post with a pic of Katie at 14 weeks.

 

Visitors

For the past 5 days we had some great visitors from the States! Jeremy & Katy Kidwell came to Edinburgh to visit because Jeremy is starting his PhD in January (same programme as Derek) and they wanted to check out the city before moving over. We knew Jeremy and Katy from when we lived in Vancouver but never really got to know them too well as they started during our last year there. It was great to get to know them and we are really looking forward to their move over!

We were very excited to take them to the Saturday Farmer’s Market and ended up having the best day!!

We were able to introduce them to a number of places here as well as some of our friends. We also introduced them to one of our favourite restaurants in town, First Coast, which we think they enjoyed just as much. Between these introductions and their own fair amount of exploring, we’re pretty sure the Kidwells will be ready for Edinburgh in January.

 

Our ‘year of travel’ continues…our most exciting trip yet!

Although we have taken several journeys this year, including a 1,200 mile trip to Rome, a 1,750 mile trip to Athens, and a few small excursions around Britain, our most exciting journey was the 2.8 mile one we took this past Thursday. Our destination was the Leith Community Treatment Centre, where we went for our first ultrasound. That’s right, we are having a baby! The estimated day of arrival is March 22, 2010. We are elated, to say the least.

We will obviously be posting more information on our blog as things continue to develop, but for now you can also check out a few more pics of Katie on our Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/beingthebrowns/sets/72157622152877856/

 

Conference in Aberdeen

I’ve just returned from a couple of days at King’s College in Aberdeen for the annual British New Testament Conference (BNTC). This was the second time I’ve had the opportunity to attend the conference, which I’ve grown quite fond of during our time here. As opposed to the circus that is the annual SBL conference (~5,000 people in attendance), the BNTC has a much more intimate and cordial feel to it. Since in all likelihood this will be the last BNTC I will be able to attend, I presented a paper on Paul’s references to Satan in his two letters to the Corinthians. Although presenting to an audience of this caliber and in a room reminiscent of a parliament was intimidating, I think the presentation went well. I also enjoyed traveling to and from the conference with a few of my colleagues here, all of whom are top notch guys and scholars. Here are a few pics from the trip.

King’s College

Delivering my paper. Note the enthusiasm on the face of the woman chairing the session.

The wonderful book display (almost all were 50% off).

David Parker delivering his stimulating and entertaining plenary lecture on textual variants.

Parker is one of the world’s most renown experts on NT textual criticism.

The campus was beautiful (when it finally stopped raining).

Excellent venue for a conference.

Edinburgh’s own Dr. Helen Bond delivering the final plenary on Josephus’ characterization of Herod.

Colleagues (clockwise from L): Sean, Mike, and Mark.