Cute new pics & sweet hook-ups

Yesterday I had my 'formal ultrasound' - my OB refers his patients to the OB department at OU to have this done, for some reason, so I wasn't with my regular doctor. But as it turned out, that led to kind of a sweet turn of events......
This ultrasound was the one in which all the limbs and organs are measured to make sure everything is developing nicely. I got to see the bloodflow from the heart through the major blood vessels to the organs, which was pretty cool (though also kind of funny-looking, since that function on the U/S uses the same technology as the news people use on their weather radars!), and I got to see kidneys and abdominal organs and all the little vertebrae in the spine. It'll take a little while for the actual results to trickle down to me because the doctor has to go through all the images the tech took and make sure that everything's ok and there aren't any abnormalities. So I'll probably find out when I have my next regular OB appointment. But the tech said that everything looked great and that they don't let people leave the clinic if there's even a little suspicion of any significant problems, so I feel pretty good about things :)


Our tiny baby's getting all fat and round! Much like myself, oddly....
The head is on the right of the picture, and you can see its right eye, nose and mouth. Its eyes are finally on the front of its head instead of the sides, and it has little eyelids that are fully formed but can't open for another couple of weeks. Its hand is up beside its head, and its round belly is the other large circular shape in the picture!






The head's on the left now (we woke it up when we started ultrasounding, and it would *not*lie still for the whole rest of the appointment! Whenever it moves now, I can see the outside of my belly getting poked outwards - it's hilarious!), and this is more of a profile shot. Its right arm is down by the side of its belly and its left arm was just moving out of view - it's that vertical shape suspended in the middle of nowhere :) The little pile on top of its belly is some umbilical cord, and one of its folded-up legs is just disappearing off the right hand edge of the picture.


Once the tech had gotten all her measurements and views that she needed, she realised she had a little extra time before the next appointment. So she switched over to the 3D-4D function and we got to play with that for a while, which was super-sweet! I've been trying to find somewhere that Mark can sneak me in so we can get some 3D pictures without having to pay $150 for it ... so I was pretty happy when the tech gave me some for free. She did say that I wasn't supposed to tell anyone she'd done it and that she'd deny it was her if anyone found out - but hey, I'll take what I can get! The first one is pretty much the same view as the profile shot up there except that it tucked its hand up behind its head so a cross-section of the elbow is pointing at you, and the second one is my favourite ever. We're going to have the most beautiful baby of all time :)

The Big Fat Belly

Here's a picture of the BFB until I have
some cute ultrasounds to show off!

Half Way

Actually, a little more than half way; I'm officially in week 21 now. I don't have any new ultrasounds to put up here, but I'm scheduled for one in a week or so so check back in then. I'm starting to feel my stomach being pushed up into my lungs now, which is appreciated by neither lungs nor stomach! Meals have now turned into a decision between satisfying my giant appetite and keeping food intake to a minimum so as not to compromise my ability to breathe....! The top of my uterus is about 2 fingers above my somewhat distorted belly button, making me officially huge like a barn :) I actually had to ask Mark for help putting my shoes on the other day because we had just eaten and I couldn't reach past my large stomach to get to my own feet .... sad! I have vowed never to resort to one of those go-go-gadget-arm/ reach-and-grab tools that old people use to pick things up off the floor, but I'm wondering whether I'll be able to make it through another 19 weeks of getting fat without using one!

We had a great Christmas and new year ... we spent the 24th/25th and 31st/1st at home in T-town, but did do some travelling while Mark was off rotations. We got to spend some time interviewing at a residency program in the south of Texas (read: Mexico), and went back to Oklahoma City to visit our small group leaders from church there ... but the most memorable trip was to Illinois to see Grandmama Crouch. She had a fall just before Christmas and broke her hip, and we weren't sure that she would even make it through surgery (being 99 years old tends not to be an advantage when undergoing surgery). But she came through remarkably well and we were able to visit her at the nursing home she is now staying at. She is an absolute inspiration to us - a pillar of faith who can recite Psalm after Psalm even when she can't quite remember who it is she's reciting them to. Of course, the fact that she is blind and has over 20 grandchildren and even great-great-grandchildren doesn't help her keep people straight...! She was still excited that she'd be gaining another great-grandchild, though.

This is an old photo of Grandmama and Grandpapa when he was still alive ... I found it at Mark's Uncle Jim's house where we stayed for the couple days we were there, and it nearly made me weep! I definitely wish I had been able to know Grandpapa.

While we were there, Mark was able to feel the baby kick for the first time - the look on his face was priceless :) I've been able to feel it moving around in there for 4 or 5 weeks now, but we weren't expecting him to be able to feel it for another few. So that was a fun surprise ... the baby seems to be awake (or at least active) for a greater part of the day now. I didn't used to feel any movement till around lunch time, but over the last week or so it's been moving around sporadically all day. My BabyCenter update for week 21 said that by now the baby weighs 3/4 of a pound and is about the length of a carrot (Which apparently is 10 1/2 inches, which may mean that I was gypped into buying midget carrots at Walmart...). Its eyelids are now developing, and it can hear my voice and things going on outside. Its bones are getting more solid and limbs are getting more proportionate, and it's starting to fatten up in preparation for looking cute in May :)

We still haven't decided on names for sure ... there are several boys' names that we're considering (Levi, Samuel, Isaac, Micah, Asher, Jack, Zachary) but girls' names are proving more elusive. My favourites are Sophie and Anna; others on the list are Rachel, Rebekah, Leah and Elizabeth. Grandmama's middle name is Elizabeth, as is my Aunt Libba's real name, so that's a fairly strong contestant. We're open to suggestions!