Busy weekend

I tried to sit down and write 2 or 3 different times but kept getting interrupted. Michelle has noticed over the past few days that she is feeling pinching on the inside of her belly. Apparently those are the 'round ligaments' that are stretching to accommodate the growing baby. At this point, we are at 19 1/2 weeks and the baby has some pretty well-defined features. Among the highlights: the baby is around 6" long (close to 1/3 of of it's length at birth), the baby's brain is designating specialized areas for sensory perception, and (this is the one that gets me) if it's a girl, she has 6 MILLION eggs in her ovaries (anyone else wonder how they know?).

Here's a picture of what the baby (supposedly) looks like in the womb around 20 weeks. I happen to think it looks like the baby is doing the "Vogue" dance of Madonna fame....just using their legs instead of arms to frame their face :)

We finally have all of the pertinent boxes unpacked and will begin going through the garage this week (oh thrill). On a more fun note, we picked out the nursery colors yesterday and have chosen a theme! Stay tuned for sneak peeks as we work our way through putting up wall color and decorating!!

Last week we also made more 'big kid' purchases. We bought a formal dining table and a new couch for the front room. I'll do what I can to get pictures taken and posted this week...

Our photogenic youngster

The sonogram went off without a hitch! Definitely the coolest part of the pregnancy so far. Our sonographer was very helpful and thorough with what we were seeing. She pointed out all of the baby's internal organs, including kidneys and heart. The heart was pumping away at 147 beats per minute and we got to hear it again. I wish there were another word for it other than surreal, but that's all I can think of.... Baby was definitely mugging for the camera because at one point they crossed their hands and seemed to wave at us.

The sonographer told us that the baby currently weighs 12 oz. and is measuring normally in all other areas measured. They measure crazy things like abdominal diameter and the thickness of the nucha (I think I spelled that right...). The nucha is the area of skin behind the neck. This has become an increasingly used early indicator of Down's Syndrome and other chromosomal disorders. All of baby Madison's measurements seemed to be within range. And for those wondering, the baby's arms and legs do measure at a normal length....(that's for all you Matt haters who claim that I am unnaturally short and stubby)

Today, Rupel (Dr. Fischer's nurse) called to tell us that when the radiologist was reviewing all of the pictures taken of the baby, he/she did not see all 4 chambers of the heart clearly defined. This could be for any number of reasons, but most likely was due to the position of the baby when the picture of the heart was taken or because the sonographer did not get a real clear shot of the heart. Our money is on the latter, as the gal who did the ultrasound definitively identified the 4 chambers during the live ultrasound. We're thinking she just didn't get a real clear image of it. At any rate, we are going back for a 2nd sonogram (oh darn) sometime around 4 weeks from now. Nothing to worry about here, as this is fairly routine.

On to the good stuff. Pictures are below!! (if you can't see them too well and would like me to send them to you, give me a shout)

It's officially real for me

Last night as we were lying in bed, Michelle mentioned that the baby was moving around and she could feel it pretty well. In hopes that I could feel it, I put my hand on her belly. Unfortunately, I didn't notice anything. Michelle kept telling me when she could feel the baby, but still nothing. All of a sudden, there was a little bit of pressure and definitely movement underneath my hand. I wish there were another word for how it felt, but amazing seems to fit very well.

Hope you all had a great weekend. Michelle and I just hung around the house and did a lot more unpacking/cleaning. Tomorrow is the sonogram!!! I'll post pics as soon as we get them!

Odds and ends

We've both been working a lot this week, so I'm sorry that I haven't had a chance to post more. Michelle has today and Monday off because of Parent/Teacher conferences, so she's pretty stoked. We're hoping to get the house completely unpacked so we can concentrate on painting the dang thing. It feels so sterile now!!

I wanted to post something yesterday because it was the one-year anniversary of Jason "J-Mac" McElwain's outstanding accomplishment. For those that don't know, J-Mac was at the time an autistic high school senior. He had been a manager but his coach suited him up in the team's final home game. Needless to say, he got to play in the game. Read more about it here. If you want to see ESPN's bit on J-Mac, click here. What an amazing human being and a true inspiration. Way to go, Jason!

On another note, I hope someday our toddler is half this cute! Thanks for sharing, Amy.

Here's the link to the pictures of the house, pre-move. I'll take more once we're all settled!

Baby Madison is kicking!

Tonight as we were lying in bed watching the news, Michelle felt the baby kick for the very first time. I immediately placed my hand on her belly to see if I could feel it, but was not able to. That has to be so weird to feel something moving around inside of you!

For the first time since we bought the house, I was not excited about actually owning the house. This happened tonight, after I had been outside shoveling snow for an hour and somehow felt that I was no closer to seeing the asphalt beneath than when I began. The local meteorologists were saying that we only got around 4" of snow, but somehow it felt like a whole heck of a lot more to me. Bet I'll be sore tomorrow...

Michelle's students

Michelle came home today after a class field trip to Ernie Miller Park and told me that a handful of girls in her class really started noticing her belly and how it has swelled. Maybe this is the part where the fact that we're going to be parents starts to become real. Up until now it has seemed very surreal that in a little over 5 months we'll be responsible for a tiny baby.

Before I got home tonight, Michelle called to schedule the sonogram. It will be on February 19th at 4:45 in the afternoon. The gal on the phone told Michelle that she needed to have at least 36 oz. of liquid in her stomach and that the appointment will last around 90 minutes. Seems like a long time to ask a pregnant woman not to pee!!!

Schools must be full of germs

Man, I was getting ready to post something and I accidentally erased it all....guess I'll try to recap.

Michelle was feeling better Monday night and Tuesday, but today around noon she started getting a sore throat and had a couple sneezing attacks. She called it an early night and headed to bed with some Robitussin in hopes of kicking this cold without having to call Dr. Fischer. With all of those germs floating around in school, I think each child should go to school in their own little bubble....that would certainly solve the problem :)

There definitely must be something in the water at work. When Michelle gives birth in July, I will be the 7th person on my team at work to increase their family by 1 in the last year. There are only 26 total people on our team!! I thought it seemed like a lot of people were having babies, but I hadn't done the math until earlier today. Since last August, there have been 4 babies born and 3 are on the way, of the 4 already born --2 were boys and 2 were girls. Looks like if we play those odds, we're at 50/50....

Today marks week 17 of the pregnancy. According to www.babycenter.com the fetus is around 5 inches long and weighs about 5 ounces, or the size of a large onion.

Unrelated....but interesting. The window that is closest to my cube in the office building in which I work faces the chemical plant that exploded on Wednesday around 2:15. Our building is approximately 1 mile from the explosion site. Miraculously, there were no injuries or fatalities, but the thick black smoke and subsequent mini-explosions led to a very unproductive afternoon of standing at the window! The power did flicker twice right about the time of the initial explosion, but other than that, no damage done. Kudos to the KC emergency response teams for avoiding panic and restoring order fairly quickly.

Good news

The nurse at Dr. Fischer's office just called and let me know that Michelle's triple screen came back from the lab and it was just fine. I'm pretty sure the only things they were checking for were chromosome defects in the baby.

Also, I knew there was something else I wanted to add to the news about the doctor's visit, but every time I sat down to write, I had a little writer's block....so, apologies for the randomness of last night....guess I was more tired than I thought.

We received our referral to get our sonogram done. This is supposed to happen some time in week 18. The doctor again is trying to get us to have the sonographer tell us what the gender is. Granted, we have received several clues from Dr. Fischer, but all told, we feel as though if we were to find out during the ultrasound, that would somehow be more definitive than the little clues that our doctor is dropping....personal opinion I suppose.

More funny stuff from our 3rd visit--curiously, we asked what was the greatest number of people she had ever had in the room while she delivered a baby. Her answer was 32, but that didn't count the medical staff. WHAT?!?! Apparently the lady having the baby had 7 kids and they were all in the room, along with pretty much everyone else in the family I guess.

Super Bowl Ads

What ever happened to the Super Bowl commercials being a respite from an otherwise terrible game? I was more interested in watching Rex Grossman throw up on himself on the biggest stage in the world, than I was in the next Bud Light commercial. Now...granted Bud Light did have the best spots (according to critics) during the Annual AFC-win-a-thon, but they should, having purchased 10 of the 2.6 MILLION dollar spots. That's just like the thought where people buy 30 raffle tickets for a shot at $1,000 (but usually end up with nothing to show for it).

I was asked several times today what my favorite commercial was and much to my chagrine, I couldn't pick just one. Usually I can single out that one extra-special advertisement that makes me chuckle for days--not this year. I do have 2 favorites, but both for different reasons. If I'm in one of those oh-so-rare sarcastic moods, than I'm going with the FedEx Ground commercial starring Harry, Eileen, Joy, Bob and of course, Mr. Turkeyneck. My other fave was the Sierra Mist 'beard combover'. The guys' shorts slay me.

Just a little sidenote for today...Michelle is feeling better finally. Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers. Also, while watching TV tonight, she said she might have felt a little movement in her belly (she couldn't decide if it was the baby kicking, or the tacos talking back to her....guess we'll wait and see!)

Thoughts and prayers

It is with great sadness I write this entry. Jennifer Ireland, who was mentioned in the first post on this site has passed away. You can find a link to her husband's blog where he mentions it below. Jennifer, please know that we are thinking and praying for your family in this time of overwhelming emotion. I cannot even begin to imagine what her husband is going through. Please pray for the family of Jennifer Ireland and all others who have lost someone all too soon.

Yesterday at the doctor....

We had our routine appointment with Dr. Fischer yesterday. It went very well. The baby is healthy and his/her little heart is pitter-pattering along between 140 and 150 beats per minute! The doctor told us that most of the time little girls' hearts beat considerably faster than boys, so that (among other things) has led her to the conclusion that we'll have a baby girl. Michelle feels like it's a little girl too, so we'll just have to see!!

Also at the doctor Michelle had her blood drawn and the blood will be sent to the lab to check for chromosome disorders. We should hear back from Dr. Fischer's office by the middle of next week.

Michelle has come down with a little stomach flu last night and for the better part of today, so we're nursing her back to health. Hopefully she'll be feeling better for the Super Bowl! GO COLTS!!

We're cuddled up in our PJ's tonight getting ready for a little ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK against some Aggies.

Phil says....

Early spring is on the way! Apparently it was cloudy in Punxsutawney this morning because ol' Phil climbed out of his hole and did not see his shadow....you can see his official prognosis here.

What I really want to know is if anyone ever checks this little guy's work...shouldn't the real 'holiday' occur 6 weeks after he "writes" his prediction down?

16 weeks and a day

This is obviously the first entry in (what I hope will be) many, many posts over the years. Most of you already know that Michelle and I are expecting our first child in July -- July 18th to be exact. Our 3rd trip to the Dr. will be tomorrow at 4:30. Not long after that, we'll get to see the first pictures of our little one, via sonogram. This is supposed to occur sometime between the 18th and 20th weeks. We look forward to that.

For those reading this and unaware, we've also recently changed addresses. We made our first big kid purchase and upgraded from a 1-bedroom apartment to a spacious 3 bedroom/2 bath duplex. We are very excited that our new baby will have their own room. For those interested, we're not quite sure what color the nursery will end up being, as we are not going to find out what gender the baby is until the day (s)he is born.

I don't want to bore anyone with a novel for my first post, but I did want to pass along a couple things that have gotten me thinking over the past 2 days. I received this link from my good friend, Jim and it really hit home with me. Take some time, read the story, and watch the video. Let it sink in, it truly is powerful.

The other thing that I would like to share is a young woman's battle against cancer, chronicled by her husband. She has been going toe-to-toe with colon cancer over the past 13 months, and according to her husband's most recent post last night, the cancer will win the war. If you have a few minutes, read this one as well. The world that we live in is one where violence, sex, and drugs rule primetime television and the internet breeds more of the same. For once, let's read something that is good for your soul and hopefully humbling at the same time. God Bless and LiveStrong Jennifer Ireland!