IT'S A GIRL!!!

John and I had the pleasure of doing the 3D ultrasound session at Prenatal Peek. I initially wasn't going to do one of these ultrasounds but our stubborn little baby didn't want to reveal itself to be boy or girl. Johnathon and I were anxious to know before Christmas, so we decided to do the 3D ultrasound and are proud to say we are having a BABY GIRL. It was not what Johnathon or I were expecting. For some reason, him and I thought it was a baby boy for sure, but our intuition was wrong. We are very excited to be having a little Muchow girl. We got some very nice pictures of our baby girl and would love to share them with our friends and family. Here are a few. . . .

This is a side view of baby girl. She

was once again being stubborn and would

only show us half her face. At times she

even covered her face with her hands.

Side view of baby girl with her arm and thigh in view

This is my favorite.

Baby girl is resting her hand on her

face. This is one of Johnathon's favorites.

This one might be a little hard for you to decipher.

This is an image of her right arm, leg and foot.

Here is another one of hand and foot.

The ultrasound tech highlighted them

with arrows .

Here is one of baby girl covering her face and

giving us the peace sign.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Halfway done. . . 20 weeks. . .Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to our friends and families! We are at 20 weeks and have chugged along to another milestone. . . baby and I are halfway done with the pregnancy. WooHoo!! We are now measuring baby from head to toe. No more crown to rump business. So baby weighs approximately 10 ounces and is 10 inches from head to toe. . . . we are saying about the size of a banana!! Baby is getting big and so am I. Right after my 18^th week, baby decided to make an appearance and my belly popped out rather quickly. Baby is starting to make meconium in its digestive tract. This is the black, gooey, sticky substance that accumulates in their bowels. I am feeling baby move around. No kicks or jabs in the ribs. . . .too soon for that. But I can feel baby making turns, twists and swim around in there. 

A frustrating 18 weeks. . . .

Friday was a frustrating day. Our ultrasound was Friday afternoon before leaving for Minnesota. We wanted to find out the sex of the baby, in hopes that we could buy something special gender specific in Minnesota. Well that ended up not to be the case. To start I had to drink two glasses of water an hour before the ultrasound so the bladder would rise higher than the uterus, making it easier to visualize the baby. If anyone knows me. . . . they would know that I have a small bladder and can’t hold much liquid for a long period of time. So this made the ultrasound VERY uncomfortable. The lady was poking and prodding on my abdomen while I had to hold a very full bladder! When we started the procedure the ultrasound tech asked if we wanted to know the sex of baby, we said of course. She then began to do the normal measurements needed for the second trimester to make sure baby is growing as it needs to be. She said she wanted to get the boring measurements out of the way. So she measured the circumference of baby’s head, the femur bone, the stomach, kidneys, bladder, and spine. While doing all this she kept calling baby a boy, in my head I kept thinking she knows something and isn’t telling us yet. Everyone I’ve talked to has said this baby is boy. . . . that is what their predictions have been. . . . so I thought, “Oh this is a done deal, this baby is boy, woohoo.” Well. . . . at the end of the 45 minute measurement exam she looks for baby’s sex parts. At first she says she thinks she sees a scrotum, but this STUBBORN baby wouldn’t open its legs wide enough to really for sure show anything. . . . so she concluded the procedure by saying it might be a girl and couldn’t definitively tell us if it was boy or girl. . . . HOW FRUSTRATING!! I walked away very frustrated but glad that she gave me a handful of photos of the baby and the reassurance that baby is measuring where it needs to be. At the time of the procedure baby was measuring to have a due date of May 10^th. . . . and my estimated calculated due date is May 7^th. So I don’t have exciting boy or girl news to share but I do have some pretty awesome pictures to share.

Face View of Baby

John says baby looks like the terminator in this photo.

What you see is not the eye of baby. It is the lens in the eye.

The baby actually keeps its eyes closed.

Here is picture of baby's right leg. You can see the bone structure and you can see that baby has some "chunky" thighs. Makes me nervous, I hope baby doesn't get "too" big.

This picture is a little blurry but it is of baby's spine.

We had the privilege to go to Minnesota with two of our favorite people, Michael and Debbie. We went to the Mall of America and shopped until we dropped, saw a play called The Servant of Two Masters, and went to the Minnesota Vikings vs. Chicago Bears game. My favorite part of the whole trip was the snow!! We woke up Sunday morning to it snowing. It was the coolest experience. I had never done that before. It really put John and me into the Christmas spirit. It was a great way to end the weekend!!