Surprise, surprise; or, he's here!

I don't have time (or energy) for a full post right now, but just wanted to let you all know that our little guy decided to make an early entrance (or it was decided for him after my blood pressure was dangerously high at my 36-week checkup). He arrived at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday night via c-section and is, quite simply, perfect. No complications for baby or for me so far. I'll share the full story later, but for now, here are my 1000 words:


Yeah, you just WISH your toes were that cute. :)

Another brief restrospective; or, PICTURES!

Again, a wonderful comparison of then and now:

This time last year I was almost done with the week of limbo between finding out there was no heartbeat and actually miscarrying.

Today we went in for our follow-up ultrasound. It's still a boy, he's still healthy (and they could see everything they needed to; this time he was much more cooperative), and we are still thrilled.

But because my time is limited these days and I need to get back to studying, I won't take the time now to write down all my happy thoughts. Instead, I'll leave you with these. Consider this your 2,000 word post. :)

Profile (love the lips!):


Face (he has British cheeks):

It's a . . .

Baby was curled up, face down, just like a potato bug, and we weren't sure we were going to be able to find out the flavor at first. (In fact, we're going to need to get a second ultrasound in a few more weeks since that position meant the technician couldn't get as detailed a view of the heart as she wanted. She said not to worry, because everything she could see looked great and healthy, but they're interested in more detail right now. So we're going to have to go in and see our little one again. Oh, darn. :) How will we ever handle that?)

So we took a little break so I could poke around and see if we could get baby to wake up or shift position a bit. Mostly what I got for my pains was a half-hearted little kick to the bladder ("Leave me alone, Mom! Five more minutes.") But then baby rolled to the side for a moment or two, just long enough to get a little peek at . . .

Technician: And see there? That's between the legs.

Me: (thinking: But that's a . . .)

*pause*

Me: We're having a boy?

Yep, that's right -- it's a boy! This actually came as a pretty big surprise to us, since we've both felt pretty strongly from the beginning, and even before that, that this baby was a girl. We had even had a prompting about what her name was supposed to be. This meant that we hadn't really seriously thought about boys' names this time around.

We're very excited to be getting a little boy (I have three adorable nephews and love them all to bits. Although this does mean that my one little niece is going to be even more outnumbered now). But I am panicking just a bit because I have no idea what we're going to call him. And if we can't come up with a more viable option soon, he may just end up being Axel Danger or Commander Awesome. And while that's a name that, once you're an adult, means nobody will mess with you, EVER, you still have to survive to adulthood with that name.

So, welcome to our family, little guy. We love you more than you can imagine, and we can't wait to meet you. And I promise we'll figure out a better moniker than just "hey, you there, boy" by the time you make your grand appearance.


Baby boy celebrated the big reveal by doing a lengthy Rockettes impression last night, so Shallow Man got to feel a lot of real kicking, which he hasn't really been able to do up till now. So much fun!

Finally.

I've got a lot of blog posts that have been brewing for the last month but haven't been written yet because of finals and projects and sickness and such. And I'm not writing them tonight, either, because I'm reveling in the fact that I don't have anything I have to do right now (WAHOO for graduation!).

But I did want to make an important announcement here:

Today I did not have to take any anti-nausea medication.

Yes.

Second trimester appears to be here and loving life. And I am loving the second trimester so far. Never been this far before, but I think it may be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

Update

They found the heartbeat right off. I mean RIGHT off. (Baby is definitely a show-off.)

If you felt a large gust of near-gale force wind this morning around 9:30, that was us breathing a huge sigh of relief.

Thank you for the prayers! It means a lot.

And now for something best of all; or, "!!!!!"

So I don't have the energy at this point to write a long post.

But if a picture is worth a thousand words, I think a

one . . .



two . . .



or three . . .



thousand word post would definitely be long enough, right?

Short story: Our surprise little miracle Baby Nib or Shallow Jr. is scheduled to arrive in October. We got the sonogram this morning and saw our little one and heard the heartbeat for the first time ever and I have to say it's kind of addicting and completely over-the-top amazing and we couldn't be more thrilled. We are thanking our Heavenly Father daily, hourly, and more for this blessing.


The other good news is that the crippling morning sickness I've been suffering with for the last month or so (I may or may not have lost about 10 pounds in that time) is responding VERY well to the new prescription they gave me (after the last prescription made it about ten times worse). I may even make it back to class for the last few weeks of my last semester!