Belly Video!

So here's my first test of uploading a video from my new flip with no help from Derek. If you can see the video, then it worked! It's a very odd video, but I wanted to show how much this little guy moves in my belly. When he's awake, he is CONSTANTLY moving! It's not always punches, kicks, or strong movements, but a constant rolling motion. I'm holding the flip above my belly looking down, so I can still see the screen. Maybe it would show better if somebody else held the flip, but it was the best I could do. Listen carefully and you'll hear Katie sneeze at the end of the video.

I do love feeling Maverick move inside of me because it's reassuring that he's growing and thriving. Although, when you aren't feeling the best, or trying to sleep, you could probably do without all the movement!

Mom's Day Off

On Saturday we were all looking forward to a trip to the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, NC. Unfortunately, I started running a fever Friday night and it lasted All Day Long on Saturday. It was not fun! Dad got the boys loaded in the car, picked up Grandma, and headed to the museum without me on Saturday morning to be there when the museum opened at 10 a.m. They didn't get home until about 1:30 p.m. It was so weird to be all alone in the house for that long with no kids. I can't even remember if I've had this experience before.

The boys spent most of their time outside and I heard all about the bears that they got to see. I think Dad took them to parts of the museum that we've never been to before. Normally we do part of the inside, the barn yard animals, the butterfly house, the train, and then never make it past the dinosaurs before it's time to go.

Apparently they even got to see the wolves being fed. That was a real hit! I really hated that I missed out, but I was feeling rotten and really needed the rest. This being sick and gestating a baby is hard work. Too bad it takes a 101 fever for mom to get the day off. Hopefully I'll be feeling better soon.

Dad's Photo Studio

Dad had recently upgraded to a Nikon D90 camera and has also gotten some other lighting equipment. Don't ask me about all the details, because I don't know. His models are not always willing, but here's Brighton giving Dad a smile.

While Chandler was at AWANA, Dad had an hour or so to turn the nursery into a "studio" using the draperies out of our bedroom and his new lighting equipment. He also used the sun-shield out of my car as a make-shift reflector. I know he'd eventually like to get a professional version. I'm not sure when he took this picture, but I think it was Thursday when I was at my cooking exchange.

I think he did a great job, and used some editing software to touch it up some. I think he was only able to get shots of Chandler this time since Brighton fell off the chair he was sitting in and then was no longer in the mood to pose. Hopefully Dad will get in some more practice before his next subject comes along. At least this next one won't be able to run away (for a while at least!)

I think it was a compliment

I was thinking out loud (directed at Derek) at the dinner table and said that Chandler will be 4 1/2 when Maverick starts eating food. I mentioned that he would probably be able to feed him while I was busy getting dinner ready in the kitchen.

Chandler then blurted out, "but I can't feed Maverick. I don't have big boobs like mommy!"

I'm still in S-H-O-C-K!!

What can I say?? I was totally surprised on Sunday afternoon when I walked into my Mother-In-Law's house and everybody yelled "Surprise". That's right, my family and friends had gathered for a surprise baby shower just for me.

I couldn't have been more honored to have all these people gathered to help me celebrate this third little miracle growing inside me. I've always wanted a surprise party, but that's not something you can really ask for. It genuinely has to come as an idea from somebody else and I was certainly shocked. Of course, I cried. Here's the pretty cake that was made to celebrate Maverick's upcoming birth. It was a white layer cake with jam in the middle....YUM!

My MIL, Diane spent many hours (I'm sure) organizing this wonderful event. Making all the food, and coming up with great games to play. Here I am getting ready to play "pin the clothes on the baby".

I thought I would do well at this, but my baby sock ended up more at knee level than on the foot. Oh well! I had such a wonderful time at the party. Derek and the boys joined us after "quiet time" was over, so he was able to get a few pictures. I certainly wasn't prepared with a camera or anything!

Chandler enjoyed helping me open up some gifts. Since with both boys we were surprised, most baby things we have are gender neutral. Even though we know this is a boy, I'm still hesitant to cut tags off until I see it for myself :) I am excited to have some cute boy clothes and things though. I can't wait to meet this little guy. I know that many people have different opinions on showers for 2nd, 3rd, etc... babies, but to me the shower is about celebrating the new life about to be and also the mom for her 9 months of hard work. Every baby is special, and I certainly feel that way too after this wonderful surprise. Thank you Diane!

Hurry Spring!

We are L-O-V-I-N-G this weather! Friday was beautiful, and Saturday's not too bad either. Chandler was all ready this morning to put on a T-shirt and shorts. We opted for just the T-shirt with pants. I know this weather is just a tease and it's going to cool back off, but we are so ready for Spring in more ways than one.

Here's Chandler being an airplane on the swings. I think the boys would stay outside all day long if we'd let them. They played outside most of the morning and we took a walk around Lake Lynn after lunch. Well actually Chandler rode his bike and Brighton rode a tricycle for part of the time and walked the other part. He is very indecisive as to what he wants to do. I'm ready to be out in the yard more often. Chandler is ready to plant another garden and I can't wait to spruce up the yard with some colorful flowers. Please get here soon Spring. We are READY!

Brighton's Swimming Lessons

Brighton and I have been taking swimming lessons through Raleigh Parks and Rec at the Millbrook Pool. We have 8 lessons scheduled and we meet on Monday and Wednesday mornings for 4 weeks. This past week the instructor had to cancel on Wednesday, so we'll hopefully get a make-up lesson scheduled soon.

Luckily Dad was able to come to one of the lessons to take some pictures, otherwise we probably wouldn't have any proof of this. He did take some video too on the Flip, but I still haven't figured out how to put videos on the blog. I'm sure it's simple, just haven't taken the time yet....hopefully soon.

Brighton's class is small (only 3 kids) so that is great. Brighton loves to practice blowing bubbles as seen here:

This class is seen as more of a "water immersion" class, meaning that the students aren't expected to swim independently, but they should be used to the water and willing to go to another parent or the teacher without hesitation. Brighton easily does this and often tells me, "Me do myself" when we are practicing kicking. In other words, he wants me to let go of him so he can swim! We are not there yet, but hopefully soon.

I've actually looked into hiring a private swim instructor to come to our backyard pool this summer for lessons. If another family joins us, it should be affordable, and not much more expensive than lessons through Raleigh Parks and Rec. Yeah! We will have two little fish soon!

You'll catch more flies with honey than vinegar...

The boys had dentist appointments today. After some discussion with my MOPS group it was brought to my attention that we would be charged for Brighton's visit. I was under the impression that visits with this particular practice were free until age 3.

Brighton has actually already been seen twice by this dentist and both times were free, so I just assumed this visit would be too. Since he doesn't turn 3 until almost the end of this year we opted to not add him to our dental plan until 2012. I certainly wasn't about to pay for a dental cleaning on my two-year-old without dental coverage. I explained the "mis-communication" to the dental hygienist when when she called Brighton back. They went ahead with a normal cleaning for Chandler and he did great. No cavities!

When the dentist came to check Chandler's teeth, I explained that Brighton was supposed to be seen today, but I hadn't added him to our dental plan yet since he's not yet three. The dentist understood, and agreed to take a quick look at Brighton's teeth....no charge! This is what I expected would happen. So as you can see we have two happy boys with their toothbrushes and bouncy balls with great looking teeth. It pays to be nice and ask for what you want!

Maverick's Baby Bed

Things have changed slightly since Chandler and Brighton were born. We have always kept the boys in our room for at least the first three months (for Brighton it was 6!) to facilitate nursing. They would sleep in a pack'n'play bassinet next to our bed. At the start of this pregnancy I declared that I could not manage another pregnancy in our 14 + year old queen size mattress. We needed a new one. While we were at it, why not upgrade to King size?

Well we did, and as Derek says, we are now bed-snobs and MUST have a King. How did we ever do without? Needless to say, fitting the pack'n'play next to the King size bed in our room would be rather snug. We decided to get a small bassinet that would go in the bed with us instead. Here's the boys posing as us with their "baby brother"

We are very happy with the new bed and it will surely come in handy for the few trips that we plan on taking this summer. Obviously it is much smaller to pack than the huge pack'n'play. Thank you Mimi and Granddaddy Bob!

Here the boys are checking on the sleeping baby. How cute! We decided to make a few adjustments to the baby bed after testing out the features. The light on the side works great, but the sound and the vibration are not ideal. The sound is WAY TOO loud even on the lowest setting. Did they even test this out on a baby? The baby's head will be only inches away from this unit. Why did they think it needed to be at mosh-pit level? Also, the vibration doesn't really vibrate the bed, but the frame. It is also very loud.

Luckily, we were able to remove the sound and vibration unit from the pack'n'play and attach it to the new baby bed with no problems. The best of both worlds! Now all we need is our baby...

My Love-Hate relationship

Most people know that we use a professional photographer to take pictures of our boys at 3, 6, 9, & 12 months. She is WONDERFUL and we love her. Unfortunately we can't afford for her to take all the family photos we would like.

In the past we have gone to Glamour Shots to get maternity photos done. I have generally been pleased with the results, but they can also start to get pricey. The other reason I decided against them this year is the time that Glamour Shots takes. A makeover for me is fun, but keeping the boys entertained and well behaved for that long would be a trying experience.

I decided to settle on Portrait Innovations. I can get a package for $9.95 and I really just wanted to have a few pictures that I could put in our scrapbooks. If you get a wallet size picture from us in the mail, enjoy it. I will only have about 30 more to pass out!

Anyways, I showed up to the studio this morning dressed and ready to go. Who knew they would have a problem with me showing my belly since nobody told me. I was told I could reschedule or cover up somehow. Since I had only brought one shirt, I used a white satin sheet and did the best I could to cover up and "be more modest". After spending probably 10 minutes with me and the boys we were finished.

Needless to say the images were O.K. but not great. I guess for $9.95 you can't ask for much. There wasn't a single one of the three of us that was really even O.K. The boys either looked ridiculous, deer in the headlights, or had eyes closed. Ultimately I settled on this image:

Even though you can't see Brighton's face, it's still cute. It will still capture this time in our lives. I had hoped to get the free cards with this image and then one of me and Chandler and one of me and Brighton. Of course even though we have done this with the $9.95 special before for some reason today the associate said we could only have a single image card. I wasn't about to spend $14.99 more to get two more images that were only so-so anyways, so we declined.

I did however get this image of just me:

This was one of the best images of me and we have always gotten a maternity shot of just mom, so I couldn't resist. I know that you certainly get what you pay for, but I ALWAYS end up leaving that studio frustrated and wondering if it was even worth the $9.95. I guess it is, but when you are used to the quality that a real professional photographer can produce nobody else comes even close.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here's a quick picture we were able to take before heading to church yesterday morning. It's not the easiest to get the boys to smile on cue. We hope you all have a wonderful day shared with the ones you love. Happy Valentine's Day!

Fortune Cookie Traditions...

What is your fortune cookie tradition? Some people always add the words, "...in bed" to the end of their fortune. Some people just read them as is. Other people (like Brighton) eat them before anybody realizes what has happened....Oops!

Anyways, in my family I always like to say what the fortune is about before opening it. I can remember doing this with my parents when I was around ten years old and they had just purchased a piece of land at a lake where they thought they might build a house one day. All of our fortunes made it seem like the land purchase was wise investment, and it was, even if that dream house never came to fruition.
Well, tonight we were treated to a dinner out by Grandma. An early day Valentine's gift I suppose. After the meal was finished, I declared my fortune was about the car-ride to the birthing center (on birth day of course!)

Here's my fortune:

Avert misunderstanding by calm, poise, and balance.

I'm going to take this as a good one.....what do you think?!?

I Love Hypnobabies!

So for some reason I can't find a picture on this computer of my Hypnobabies class that I took in January of 2007. Instead here's a cute picture of two sleeping boys (Derek and Brighton).

As many of you know I use self-hynosis for my birthing times. I can happily report that with both of my previous pregnancies I have used this and have not felt any pain. Definitely pressure, but no "pain". Of course I plan to use this technique again, but it does take some practice. I had planned to start listening to my hypnosis tapes in January, but here it is mid-February and I'm finally getting started.

Well, better late than never! Lucky for me, it's come back to me already. I've only listened 3 times to my tapes and all but the first time, I was able to easily slip into the hypnotic state that I will use for my birthing time. I guess it's like riding a bike in that once you've learned, you don't forget....even if you are a little rusty.

I've always joked with Derek that he could never be hypnotized because he doesn't want to do it. This is something that you have to allow your body to do. You have complete control over yourself during self-hypnosis, but you can direct your body into feeling (or NOT feeling) different sensations. I Choose not to feel any pain and it certainly works.

The funny thing, to me at least, is that while listening to my tapes I'm awake but my eyes are closed and I'm just listening to them. When they first start, I am consciously hearing every word the speaker is saying to me, but during the tapes, I obviously drift in and out of "conscious awareness" I listen to them on my Ipod and the second time I was consciously aware that I was ending the session soon, and the next thing I knew ZZ Top was blasting in my ears! I have consciously heard every word in the script that is being read to me, but it's like I only consciously hear different parts of it each time I listen.

Now, I'll have to get Derek to read me a few scripts for practice. It's especially funny to me that I can "not consciously hear" what he is reading to me although I AM PAYING ATTENTION and not sleeping, like he sometimes claims.

I definitely recommend Hypnobabies to any mom that wants to have more control over her birth and especially when trying to have a non-medicated birth.

Getting ready for baby!

So this is what our "laundry room" looked like last weekend. It was a constant load washer, load dryer, re-load washer, empty dryer, fold and put away. Since the nursery was finally painted and I was able to get to the dresser I wanted to get some clothes put in there. I decided to only wash clothes three months and younger since I don't have the space for anything else.

They grow so fast! Well, at least Chandler and Brighton did. I'll be packing up these clothes before I know it and getting down the next batch from the attic to wash and get ready for summer.

My only problem now is lack of hangers to hang up the nicer outfits on.

How to tell.....

How to tell that Daddy has helped Brighton use the potty

Exhibit A:

Please tell me that other daddies out there don't bother re-snapping onesies or tucking them in for that matter. Maybe it's a guy thing....

Looking Back.....

So here's the birth story of my first son, Chandler. Just know this is a long one! I finally got around to starting my Hypnosis tapes this past weekend. It had me remembering about how easy and smooth my births have been so far. I can only hope we continue this pattern!

Like every Monday night before and during my pregnancy I went to belly dancing class. I got home around 9:45 p.m. and jokingly said to Derek that I’d wake him up around midnight, “that it would be time to go”. We went to bed around 10 p.m. and I fell asleep fast. The full moon was that night and I remember looking at it before going to sleep. I actually woke up just after midnight and went to the bathroom like normal but when I got back into bed I just couldn’t get comfortable. My stomach was feeling funny and to me this meant hunger. I got back up and ate a leftover cinnamon roll from breakfast. Hunger satisfied, I got back into bed. It seemed like I couldn’t go fifteen or twenty minutes without having to move around. I just couldn’t settle. Looking back this was probably the start of my birthing waves. Tossing and turning, Derek was getting no sleep either, so I decided to get up and sit in the Nursery and read Harry Potter. As I sat in my glider thinking about my baby and trying to read Harry Potter I could no longer focus on the words because my waves were coming closer and closer together. I still hadn’t realized that my waves had started because I would feel my belly and it didn’t seem to be getting tighter during a wave to me. I thought I just didn’t feel well.

It was now around 3 a.m. and my midwives had told me that if I just couldn’t sleep that it would be safe to take one Tylenol P.M. I took it with a glass of water but still couldn’t settle in the bed. I began looking through my books reading about signs of early labor, trying to determine if that was what was going on. I guess I should mention that my due date was Wednesday (now only one day away). That’s when Derek told me that the midwives had said that if I couldn’t sleep that I should call them. We made the call around 3:30 a.m. and just said that we thought the birth might be starting. The midwife suggested taking a warm bath and trying to relax because my water hadn’t broken, and maybe my waves would stop.

We ran the water for the tub and I got in, but couldn’t relax because our tub is the bottom of a shower and not contoured very well. Derek would go and get towels to put in the tub to help me get in a more reclined position. After half an hour or so, I gave up on the tub idea. It just wasn’t working out. I was using the bathroom frequently now, so I just sat on the toilet. I was so tired and just wanted to go back to sleep. At least sitting on the toilet meant I wasn’t standing. Just after 4 a.m. my mucus plug came out and that’s when I realized that this was really it. My body was preparing to have a baby. The uncomfortableness that I kept feeling from time to time was my birthing waves. I had Derek bring a small CD player into our bathroom so I could listen to “This is your Birthing Day”. We called the midwife again around 4:45 a.m. and told her that the baby was coming, but in my opinion, not anytime soon. I remember saying that things weren’t very intense. She said to call again in one hour unless things changed. I stayed in the bathroom for most of the time either sitting on the toilet or standing over the sink swaying back and forth a little during the waves. It was close to 5:30 a.m. now and I had Derek call my dad to have him go to pick up my grandmother who lives in Nashville, NC. She lives about an hour away from our home and I wanted her to be there for the birth. I told my dad to bring her back to his house so that way when it was time to go to the Birth Center she would be closer. We also called Diane to let her know that we might be calling her at work today to make the trip to the Birthing Center. Some time went by and we called the midwife again. I wanted Derek to make the call because my waves were so frequent now that having a phone conversation would break my concentration during a wave. I kept going to my special place with my baby to relax through the waves, but talking on the phone was the best way that my midwife could tell how things were progressing with me. I still had the opinion that things weren’t that intense, but my midwife suggested that we come on to the Birthing Center so that she could check me. The drive was about 45 minutes and if we waited too much longer we would be facing heavy rush hour traffic on I-40, the main highway through the Raleigh/Durham area.

My waves were coming every 2-3 minutes now with little break between them. By this point I was usually standing over the sink swaying and singing my baby’s birth song. I like to sing, so low drawn out Oohhhhhs came as a comfort to me. Derek was busy packing the car with the pile of stuff I had collected in the Nursery. Unfortunately I was in no position to help him because I was deeply relaxed in my hypnosis. I had moved the camera and the camcorder out of the glider in the Nursery so I could read earlier that night and therefore, they did not make the trip to the Birthing Center with us.

It was just after 6 a.m. when we finally were ready to leave. It took me two or three waves to get from our bathroom to the car because I would stop during them and sway. I remember when we got to I-540 (one of the two main highways we needed to travel to get to the Birth Center) the traffic was heavy and I felt like I was part of the “rat race” to get to work. I felt special because I was going to have my baby amidst this sea of people living their everyday lives. During the car ride my waves were the most intense. They were back-to-back and had little break between them. Derek was now making calls, informing our parents that they better head to the Birthing Center now. I was singing my birthing song almost continuously during the car ride. I do remember Derek pointing out the full moon to me and saying, “there’s your moon, sweetheart.” (I always thought my baby would come with the full moon) I was listening to different tracks of my hypnosis on my I-Pod during the car ride. Once again, looking back I was going through transformation during this time, but didn’t know it.

We got to the Birthing Center just after 7 a.m. and the midwife had me give a urine sample and I clearly needed to be drinking more. My midwife then checked me and said, “good gracious girl! You are completely dilated!” I had no idea I would be that far along. She asked me if I wanted to try getting in the tub and I said yes. I had hoped for a water birth. My bag of waters was still intact and it most likely broke sometime in the tub because I never felt it. I was in the tub by 7:30 a.m. and didn’t feel like pushing yet. Partly because I didn’t know what that felt like and partly because none of my family had arrived yet. I wanted them to be here, especially my grandmother.

Between 8:15 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. all of my family arrived to the Birth Center. Now I could finally begin pushing. I was still singing my birth song with each wave, but it was not as frequently as in the car because I was complete. In the tub I tried a few different positions for pushing. At first I was on my back, but when the baby was really starting to move down I turned to my left side. The midwives were having trouble finding the baby’s heartbeat when I was on my back and thought the baby may be getting stressed. This worried Derek a little, but I was not scared. I was very peaceful on the inside even if onlookers wouldn’t have thought so. I was in my special place with my baby, but I knew my baby would be leaving my body soon. For the final pushes I was on my left side. My family was called into the room because I wanted them to all witness the birth. One push and the head was out. The cord was around my baby’s head two times! The cord ended up being on the longer side, almost 4 feet long! With the next push my baby came out and the midwife gently placed this small miracle on my chest. I couldn’t believe my baby was here. I was in awe as I gently rubbed my baby’s body, stroking his arms, back, and head. Everybody wanted to know what we had, boy or girl? To my surprise we had a little boy. I had thought we were having a boy all along, but everybody else had said it looked like I would have a girl. As I cuddled my son on my chest, Derek cut the cord and then the midwives took my son to the bassinet to dry him off. My placenta came out easily within minutes of delivery. We had been concerned about the umbilical cord having only one artery, and indeed it had only one instead of the normal two. My son was healthy and thriving. He was so alert. His eyes were wide open and have been since birth. He was so calm and peaceful and I am so thankful that I got to bring him into the world just like I wanted; naturally, with no pain, no drugs, and my family surrounding me with love and support.

My Summertime Gig

If I used facebook (which I don't) this could be my status:

Lindsay is excited to get fresh, local produce delivered to my door from The Produce Box! Feast on this New Years Resolution idea... enjoy the tastes of the NC growing season while supporting our local farms. Check out www.theproducebox.com to reserve your spot for the 2011 season.

Thank you!

Here's an example of a box from last summer. Yum, yum! I'm a neighborhood coordinator for The Produce Box and we absolutely love it. My boys are especially excited to try anything that comes off the farm truck. We love all the fresh produce and also supporting our local farms.

Here's another box example. I think this one was later in the summer or early fall. I'd like to give a special thank you to "Nanny" who watches the boys while I do my deliveries. It certainly makes it much easier for me (and them) to get it done quickly. I know this year will be a little tricky with my new delivery partner (Maverick) so we'll see how it goes. Hopefully he'll be a great car sleeper!

Here's to a great 2011 season!

Cravings...

So when you are pregnant, everybody wants to know what you are craving. Well, I almost always could go for a big plate of pickle chips and a Coke/Pepsi.

My absolute favorite place to get them is Lynnwood Grill. Unfortunately, my eating out budget is very tight, so I haven't had them often. I've had to settle for something else. Enter Nutella:

One of my favorite foods is Reese's PB cups (regular size, not snack or jumbo). I've been making my own creations with Skippy PB, Nutella, and Ritz crackers. Hopefully it's a little more nutritious than Reese's and the boys enjoy them too.

On a somewhat related note, I'm now part of a cooking exchange with 5 other moms where we make freezer meals and then swap them once a month. When I was making one of my meals last month, I had to cook 6 lbs of ground beef. I had gotten my electric frying pan very hot and when the raw meat hit the pan, that smell was unmistakable. Sizzling beef reminded me of Kanki. Now there's a place I haven't eaten at in at least a year. Yummmm.....I could go for some Kanki right now.

I especially like pouring whatever that cream sauce is they give you for "seafood" all over my rice.

Mom's New Do

This afternoon I had an appointment to get a haircut. I don't get my hair cut very often, so this was a real treat. I had my last cut in April 2010, so I figured why not now? I usually grow it out long enough to donate the minimum 10" to Locks of Love. This time I was a little short of that, but the hairdresser assured me they could still use my donation for purposes other than wig creation and would send it off for me.

As most of you know my hair is naturally curly. Once the hairdresser was finished she asked if I'd like my hair blown straight just for fun. I said sure, and here's the final product:

I'm very happy with the result, although looking in the mirror I do a double take. It doesn't really look like me, but it's nice for a change. I'll be back to curly again when I wash my hair, mainly because it's easier....just wash and go! Also, we don't own a hairdryer and I don't have the time or patience to straighten it. At least the option is there if I ever want to.

Here's a 31 week belly pic....if you are interested.

Bedside Manner

Today was our followup visit to check on the status of Maverick's kidney. This time I hoped that the boys would be able to join us so they could see their baby brother. Our appointment was at Rex and Mimi, Grandma, and Nanny joined us and the boys. I was excited to be able to see Maverick in 3-D and of course make sure his kidney wouldn't require further treatment.

Unfortunately when I saw the technician that called my name, my heart sunk. It was the same B*tch that we saw when I was having bleeding early on in the pregnancy. I knew this appointment was off to a bad start. When I asked her if my family could join us in the room she rolled her eyes and asked, "well, how many of them are there?" This in comparison to the technician that had called the mother back just before me who graciously allowed FIVE children to come back with no problems at all. Her next comment was that the room was very small and they would all need to stand in the corner. Whatever.....at least she let them come back.

She did not engage us or the boys at all and didn't point out any body parts or anything about the baby. I just don't understand why you have a job like this where you interact with the public if you don't have a decent bedside manner. When we had seen her in the fall I could have guessed that maybe she was just having a bad day. Seems like all her days are bad if you ask me....

Anyways, the good news is that the kidneys looked great and no further action is needed. PRAISE the Lord!! We were thrilled to get that news.

Here's a picture of my sweet little guy's profile. Notice his fist up near his lips and his foot at the bottom of the screen. He always seems to have his feet and hands up by his face!

The technician asked if we knew the gender of the baby and I replied that we were told it was a boy. Grandma joked and asked if she could check to see if that was still the case. The technician moved the scanner to that area, looked for all of 2 seconds, and said that, "no, I can't see it". I guess we are just hoping they got it right at 20 weeks or we sure will be in for a shock on birth-day!

Here's one more picture of this sweet face. The foot is still right below his chin. The technician gave us very few pictures and didn't show the baby in 4-D (3-D with movement) at all. She basically would turn on the 3-D, snap a picture and turn it immediately off. She acted like we were lucky to get any pictures at all and that she wasn't guaranteeing anything. Unfortunately, I'm doubting they charge by the minute since we spent all of 10 minutes for the entire scan. At least that way we could save some money.

All in all, I'm overjoyed that we got to see Maverick and that he's healthy. I couldn't ask for more, although having a nicer technician would have made this experience more enjoyable and memorable for the family. Thanks for all the prayers and healing this little guy in utero.