Elle My Belle

More specifically, Elle Marie Rupprecht!

Phil and I have always known what our girl name would be if the Lord blessed us with a daughter.  We love the name Elle Marie, which just happens to be our own take on a family name.

ELLE
The name Ella Marie is prominent in my paternal grandmother’s family tree. It is my grandmother’s name and my great grandmother’s name. Having lived at our family farm in Milliken, Colorado, with all of the old photo albums, Bibles and antiques, has made me appreciate our family history. My grandmother is definitely the matriarch of our family, who I consider to be my stability growing up. She and my grandpa have always been a great example of a Godly couple, devoted to their faith and their marriage. They have been a positive example for me, and I am so thankful for that. I am proud to name my daughter after my grandmother (even though their names differ by one letterJ).

Also, the name Elle is somewhat of a combination between my grandma’s name and my own: Ella and Michele…makes Elle. Plus, saying “Phil, Michele, Rock and Elle” just flows so nicely off the tongue.

The meaning of Elle is "God's promise, ray of sun, shining light." After the flood, God made a promise that He would never flood the earth again. When a “ray of sun” or “shining light” breaks through the clouds, a rainbow is formed, as a reminder of God’s promise. To us, God’s promise means more than just not flooding the earth. God promises to never leave us or forsake us. He promises that nothing can separate us from His love, and nothing can take us from His hand. Even when we are faithless, God is faithful to those who belong to Him!

We pray that, as Elle’s parents, we would be faithful to our love for her and our love for the Lord. We hope to instill God’s love in her and be a rainbow of light in her life that she can always count on. And we pray that Elle will grow to be a shining light for others in her life.

If (or when) we fail, we know God will be there for her; to love her, guide her, forgive her, and offer her a seat beside Him in the kingdom of heaven.

E- Embrace the

L- Lord and

L- Love

E- Everlasting.

MARIE
My cousin Sarah and I both have the middle name Marie, after my grandmother. And since there is a long tradition of the women in my family carrying on the female names, we are going to do just that with our daughter’s middle name of Marie.

RUPPRECHT
Elle’s last name will be one of family honor too, because she is the first girl to carry the name, just like her brother was the first Rupprecht boy in the great-grandchild generation to carry on the name. All of Elle’s cousins have their daddy’s last names (their moms were Rupprechts). Elle can carry our name with pride until she…well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves (and stress out Daddy) by talking about boys and her wedding day.

Brains & Braun

Over the past two weeks, our little girl has been going through major brain development. She’s been adding surface area to her brain through wrinkles, groves, and indentations and she can now react to light! Evidently sight is the last sense to develop because my email this week said all five senses are now in working order (although she won’t smell for the first time until after birth when she can breathe air and not amniotic fluid)!

Our daughter is the size of a pineapple at 31 weeks (an increase from cucumber last week). All measurements are now by month, so she’s still in the 7^th month range of 15.2-16.4 inches for length and 2.5-3.8 pounds for weight. She’s also strong enough to grasp a finger now and I can’t wait to test that reflex! I’ve definitely found myself lying awake at night lately with a smile on my face trying to imagine what she’ll be like and trying to remember all of the wonderful things (and tough things) about having a newborn. I’m sure it will be different with a toddler in the house this time around, but I’m so excited to hold my little girl, sing to her, teach her to smile, have skin-to-skin contact, snuggle…the list goes on and on. I’m sure we’ll be exhausted from lack of sleep and being parents to a newborn AND toddler, but I welcome that challenge for all the joy that accompanies it!

Last Friday, I had my 30 week ‘routine’ doctor appointment (after the previous 28 week ‘unique’ appointment with ultrasound and glucose test). Most everything was just right…my weight hadn’t increased (not even one pound), the baby’s heart rate was 135 bpm, and my blood pressure was 110/70. But when the doctor measured my tummy, it measured 27 cm at the 30 week appointment, so I was 3 cm smaller than my number of weeks pregnant. That is technically in the ‘normal’ range, but the doctor started to ask me if I was having any abnormal symptoms of pregnancy (she rattled of a long list, of which none were occurring). The doctor still seemed concerned, so she recommended another growth ultrasound at our next doctor appointment in 2 weeks. So next week we’ll get to see our daughter again and re-check all of her measurements and, I assume, my amniotic fluid level. It will be nice to have another ultrasound, but it was also a little disheartening for the appointment to take a less than ‘normal’ turn. As always, we’ll be praying for our daughter’s health and development, and my health and amniotic fluid levels. We’ll see what God has in store for us at our appointment next week!

On a different note, we spent the weekend up at Jim and Sandi’s mountain house and really enjoyed our time. Our kids got to go on their first Jeep ride (which was VERY bumpy for Rock and me…along with our daughter in my belly!) and Sandi and I painted some of the nursery decorations, which was fun too!

28-Week SUCCESS!

My 28-week doctor appointment last Thursday was a huge SUCCESS! All of our daughter’s measurements, along with mine, were perfect for this stage in my pregnancy!

When we arrived at the doctor’s office, I drank the glucose mixture (much like a potent Hawaiian Punch drink), received the timer set for one hour (which is when they draw your blood and test it) and then we went straight back for our ultrasound! As we passed the scale, I weighed in and had only gained one pound since my last appointment…SUCCESS! In our ultrasound, we got to see our baby girl again and got a ton of photos from the ultrasound tech! The baby’s heart rate was 133 bpm, she measured perfect for her due date (they estimated her to be 2 lbs 8 ounces), and she’s head down. She’s in the 39^th percentile based on the measurements taken. Everything with our baby girl was a SUCCESS!

As for my amniotic fluid level, the normal range is between 10 and 20 AFI and I was at 19 AFI!!! With my previous pregnancy, I was significantly below 10 AFI at this point, so we definitely considered that an answer to prayer and another huge SUCCESS! At 28 weeks pregnant, my belly was measuring 26 cm, which is in the normal range of +/- 3 cm from the number of weeks you are pregnant. My glucose results were perfect, meaning no gestational diabetes, and my iron levels were just right. Going forward, my doctor appointments will be every two weeks…and then once a week toward the end! The doctors didn’t see anything at this point that was a cause for concern or anything that should require an early induction, like Rock’s pregnancy. So we are praying the good news continues and I can carry this baby to her due date (rather than just full-term at 37 weeks). All in all, the entire appointment was a HUGE SUCCESS!!!

Thank you God for all of the answers to our prayers! I was (and still am) completely amazed and thrilled at your love and provision for my daughter and me.

Just a few days after my appointment, I entered the seventh month of my pregnancy (at 29-weeks along). During the seventh month, our baby will range in length from 15.2-16.4 inches and weigh in the range of 2.5-3.8 pounds. She’s now the size of an acorn squash and will triple in weight by her due date, so I have been feeling a lot stronger movements from her as she runs out of room in my tummy! I continue to walk indoors on a treadmill during my lunch break at work and have really enjoyed watching the Olympics to pass the time while on the machine! Hopefully it will pay off to keep me and our baby girl healthy, and keep the scale from increasing too much more.

Third trimester...here I come!

I can’t believe the third trimester milestone is already here! On one hand, I feel like I’ve been pregnant for a long time (probably because I started showing so early), but for the most part I’m shocked that I only have 12 weeks left…give or take a few weeks!

Our daughter is the size of an eggplant now and continues to practice her breathing techniques while she puts on weight. By medical standards, the 28^th week of a pregnancy marks another milestone, an important milestone, stating if a baby is born at this point, she has a high likelihood of surviving. That’s always a relief.

Evidently Braxton Hicks contractions might become more intense during the third trimester, but I never felt any with Rock, and haven’t felt any during this pregnancy yet either. We’ll see what develops in the coming weeks…