Tuesday, January 29th
Well, no one has made an
appearance yet. We are still waiting... sometimes
patiently. She's not "late" until February 8th. So,
we have a few more days to enjoy the pregnancy. In the
meantime, both Chris and I are doing well and we're looking
forward to meeting the little one.
Friday, January 11th
Here they are, the last of the
ultrasound images! You can kind of tell from the images
that she's getting pretty cramped in there. I've included
two of the 3-D images of her face and one regular ultrasound
image of her foot. Enjoy!
Thursday, January 10th
Another good visit this morning.
This time, they did another ultrasound and sure enough, she's
still in there. She slept through the visit. They
wanted to see her moving, but like me, she likes to sleep late.
(Let's hope that holds true once she's out, too.) I'll try
to have the pictures posted later today or tomorrow, but it may
be a while since we moved the office around and don't have the
scanner hooked up yet. (I'll let my tech guy do it when he
gets home from work. He's pretty good.) She's
measuring at about 6 1/2 pounds. She's head down, just
like she should be. As for me, I'm still not feeling any
contractions. So, like they told me at the last visit, it
could be three days or three weeks before she shows up. I
guess we'll just have to wait for her.
Friday, December 28th
First, Happy Birthday to
Michele! (Whoo hoo!)
Secondly, we're at 36 weeks...nine
months! Only 4 weeks (or so) to go. Our visit today
went well. Things are starting to change like they are
supposed to. No contractions yet, but starting to dilate
ever so slightly. They are going to do an ultrasound in
another two weeks, so it'll be great to compare her 7 month
pictures with the new ones.
The nursery is almost complete.
She's got clothes, diapers, and a place to sleep, so I think we
are either ready, or just blissfully unaware of what we're
getting into.
Thursday, December 6th
Eight months along! Wow! The end of January seems
both so near, and so far. We won't have more pictures for
a few more weeks. I know I got spoiled early on by being
able to take a peek at her so often. I'm betting the next
picture will be the last ultrasound picture... all of them after
that will be taken by cameras rather than ultrasounds.
She seems to be doing just fine. She's been spending
her days kicking and squirming and sleeping. Come to think
of it, that's how I've been spending a lot of my days as well.
If she's on time, we've got seven more weeks to go. We'll
keep you posted!
Thursday, November 1st
We start our third trimester
today! We are at 28 weeks... or 7 months. It seems
like a long time since an update and new picture, but I don't
think today's will disappoint. She's still in there
kicking away. They figured she weighs about 2 1/2 pounds
now. Our doctor's office has an ultrasound machines that
does 3-D imagining. It's amazing what they can do and see.
It makes me say very obvious things like, "Look! She's got
a face!" We got a good "perfectly normal" report for
today. Every thing looks like it's right on track for both
her and for me. She still looks like she's got clubbed
feet, so it's nice to know that ahead of time and not be
surprised by it when she's born. Our next visit where we
get a picture of her isn't for another 8 weeks, so these will
have to do until then. The first view is the regular
ultrasound image. She's got her face turned towards us a
bit. Her head is on the right side of the screen.
You can actually see some of the definition in the facial
features. It kind of looks like she's pointing at us.
The second view is the 3-D one. That's the view that took
my breath away. Enjoy!
Thursday, October 4th
Today marks 24 weeks... or 6 months. All still appears
to be going well. We are getting to the point where we can
feel her kicking as well as seeing her squirm. It's weird
and exciting to watch your own belly moving from the inside.
Ok, mostly weird.
Below is a model of a 24 week fetus.
Logically, we know she's in there growing, but it's always a
little shocking to be able to visualize the progress and realize
how big she's getting. The next appointment is a few weeks
away, but we'll keep you posted when it rolls around.
Wednesday, September
19th
First of all,
Happy
Birthday
to Christian.
Secondly, happy "Talk Like A Pirate Day."
We aaaaarrrrgh about 22 weeks (5 1/2 months). We had
another pretty good report from the doctor's. We asked
them to double check and make sure she's still a girl, and sure
enough, she still is. Her heart rate was at 150, which is
right where it's supposed to be. The little fluttery
sensations I was feeling have turned more into thumps. I
think she's practicing roundhouse kicks or gymnastics in there.
The great thing about this stage is that now that I can feel her
kicking me on a regular basis, I know she's doing fine.
Chris even felt her moving around, but she's pretty wily and
uncooperative sometimes.
We will be keeping an eye on her feet in future visits.
They were turned kind of funny this time as well as last time.
They haven't officially diagnosed her with club feet, but that's
what it's starting to look like. The doctor may want to do
some more specific imaging to take a look at her feet and see
just what it is we'll be dealing with. The good news is
that this won't affect the pregnancy, and it's not
life-threatening. She may need braces after she's born or
surgery, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
For now, all is well. In the spirit of "Talk Like a
Pirate Day" she says "hello".
Friday, September 7th
Happy
Birthday
to both Gwen and Jessi!
Thursday, September
6th
Today we are at the half-way
point. 140 days down, 140 days to go! This brings us
up to 5 months... or 20 weeks.
Below is another image for a
size reference. The model is of a 5 month fetus.
Friday, August 31st
It's a
Girl!
Wednesday, August 29th
We are almost to five months!
For our 19 week visit, we learned a few things about this little
baby... like which pronouns we should be using. It's all
very exciting. I'm sure we'll have the tech check again at
our next appointment make sure there are no surprises. In
the image below, the profile is getting a bit easier to see.
His/Her hand is right by the face, so the four little white dots
by the chin are the fingertips. I think (and am hoping)
that the heel of the hand is by the nose... either that or we're
looking at a pretty big nose. There was a lot of
wiggling and dancing (on the baby's part) during the ultrasound
today. We got to hear the heartbeat again, and it was nice
and strong. I've started feeling little fluttery kicks
every once in a while now too. Usually at the end of the
day when I get home from classes. Granted I felt the first
kick while I was doing dishes one day (it happens). I've taken
it as a sign that the baby obviously wants me to avoid
housework. I can deal with that.
Oh? Those pronouns?
You want to know if this is a little Chris or a little Betsy?
I'll post that in a day or two so we can make some phone calls
to Grandmas and Grandpas and aunts and uncles. We won't
keep you hanging for too long!
Friday, August 3rd
Today we got to stay local for
our appointment. They started us off with an ultrasound.
Again, all looks good. Previously they'd shown us the
heart beat, and but today the tech turned up the audio and let
us hear it. It was pretty amazing. 149 beats per
minute. (I think both mine and Chris' were probably close
to that before the appointment.) They peeked at all the
parts, but couldn't distinguish boy from girl yet... it's still
a little too early. Our next visit is in four weeks, so I'm
sure by that time it'll be much easier to tell pieces and parts.
The skeletal system is ossifying (more bone, less cartilage).
The ultrasound picked up a lot of the bony images. As the
tech was looking around we could see spinal cord and ribs.
At one point, the baby kind of waved hello and we could see the
bones in the hands and fingers... all pretty awe inspiring.
I've included two views below. In the top one, you can see
the skull. It kind of looks like a little tiny bony alien.
His/her hands are up next to the face. In the lower image,
there's less skull action going on, but not much detail to the
face. You can see the ear sticking up a little bit.
Again, the arms are about in the same position. It kind of
reminds me of Charlie Brown for some reason. (Think it
would be in poor taste to Photoshop a little striped shirt?)
For the very last picture, I took a picture of a 4 month
model fetus just for a size reference.
Friday, July 20th
Ok, so no doctor's visit for a while, but we do have some
anatomical models at Heartland that are kind of neat. I
took a picture with the camera phone, so it's a bit blurry, but
it's the size of a three month fetus. We are actually a
little beyond that. For a frame of reference, there is
also my very exciting finger.
Friday, July 13th
Today's visit to the doctor's brought more good news. I
could watch on the ultrasound screen as the baby was wiggling
around, and it looked as if he/she was sucking his/her thumb.
The good news is that everything is going well. The better
news is that we're pretty much done with the first trimester.
The not-as-good news is that our specialist released us into the
care of our regular doctor... so the new pictures every two
weeks is at an end. It was nice to have that visual
reassurance. So, I'm not sure when the next update will
be, but we'll keep you informed. Again, in the picture,
the head is on the left side. There is a hand in front of
the mouth, and the feet kind of disappear off on the right side
(the tech was funny today, she found and pointed out both legs
and both arms... I guess to reassure me?) It's still too
early to tell if it's a boy or a girl.
Friday, June 29th
Our visit to the doctor's today showed us that everything is
still looking good and proceeding right on track. We are
starting to think this might actually work! The ultrasound
below shows the baby (now technically graduated to "fetus") at
10 weeks. His/her head is down towards the bottom-left, and the
rest of him (her?) is all scrunched up in the well, fetal
position, with feet over the belly on the right side of the
image.
Friday, June 15th
This visit was
encouraging. We've made it to two months. The baby has a good fast heartbeat. The head of the baby is down
towards the bottom of the image. The feet are up towards the
top. The white line in the center is the flash of the
heartbeat as picked up by the ultrasound. At this point, the
baby is about the size of a cherry. We think the lab
tech must have been pretty excited. She labeled the image with
two exclamation points. BABY!!
June 1st.
This visit
confirmed that we were six weeks pregnant. The size of the baby at this point is about
the size of a grain of rice. Our ultrasound showed that
everything looked good. We were even fortunate enough to have
the heartbeat visible, even though it was very early.
