We're Having A Little ...............................

That's right! We're about to enter the grand new world of dresses and bows and oh, so much pink stuff! I can't wait! Honestly I would have been just as excited about a little boy too. It would have been fun for Austin to have a little brother, but I'm just as excited to do all the girly stuff too!

Our ultrasound was wonderful. She's healthy as can be. Cute little round head. Got all her brain, which is a good thing! Good pumping heart! Both kidneys! And the all so important 10 fingers and 10 toes! Our dr has a beautiful new ultrasound machine and you could (well, I could at least!) really see what the tech was looking at. It was so neat to see her cute little cerebellum and the ventricles or the brain and watch her heart beat in real time. This technology is amazing! Yes, I'm still an uber-nerd even in motherhood!

Isn't she just the cutest little Skeletor ever??

And look at that perfectly round little noggin'!


This one is kinda hard to tell what you're looking at, but she's sucking on her hand.


She was really active the whole ultrasound. I had a bag of skittles right before hand, in hopes that she would be enough of an exhibitionist to tell the gender. But I may have overdone the skittles cuz she was bouncing around a bunch. It's so weird to see kicks on the screen but only be able to feel about 1/2 of them. It won't be long though until I feel every kick and wiggle!

At one point she even reached down and grabbed her foot. You can see it in this pic.


That's a hand holding a foot. You can even see her big toe!

We can't wait to meet our little princess! What a fun new adventure!! I'm so looking forward to seeing Brian as big time mushy daddy too! All wrapped around a sweet little finger! But if she's anything like me, we need to start praying about the teenage years now!

Also, we have no final decision yet on her name, but hopefully we will figure it out soon. We just need to "live" with our few last choices a little bit before pulling the trigger. I can't wait to start calling her by her name though instead of calling her baby girl or munchkin! We'll announce it when we have it figured out.

Stuck

Austin has to get his blood drawn every 2 months to check his thyroid levels so we can make sure he has the right dosage of medication. So far they've drawn his blood by sticking his heel and squeezing out enough blood for the 3 tests. It takes forever, but he usually does okay other than the actual poke.

This time they attempted to find a vein in his arm. They failed. Lots. At one point they actually got his vein and got some blood but then he moved and they lost the vein.

So they tried the other arm. And failed.

Watching someone dig around in your child's arm with a butterfly needle trying to find a vein is an experience that I hope I don't ever have to repeat.

So then they just did his heel and it went really quickly. Should have just started with that! Unfortunately he was pretty ticked by this point and screamed the entire time his foot was being squeezed.

But my cutie pie survived. Of course as soon as they finished, he was all smiles again! And he sported his bandages like a trooper.


Hopefully next time he gets stuck, it will go better!

Well Baby? Check!

Austin had his 6 month Well Baby Checkup today. He didn't cry at anyone in a white coat today! And he only cried for about 1 minute when he got his shots. Maybe less. Such a trooper! He's meeting all his milestones good - she wasn't too concerned about his lack of motivation to roll much. He finally rolled from back to front on Monday. I told him he had to do it before his appt so he just snuck it in! Only did it once though, so no video. And he's at least a month or two ahead in his pincer grasping technique. So we'll take that!

Size wise, he's doing good - 25% for weight, 75% for height & 25% for head circumference. He dropped in % in weight some, from about 30-35% to 25%, so we're going to bump up nursing a bit, but she said to go ahead with solids too. Nothing to be concerned about though. I mean, do these thighs look like the thighs of a child that needs to be concerned about his weight??


I can assure you, he did not get those from his daddy!

Now his sense of humor, he did get from his daddy! (Hey, you can never have too many clothes-stuck-on-the-head photos, right?)

White Coat Syndrome

Austin had his 4 month checkup today and all is good! He's 25.75" tall (75% still). He weighed in at 14lb 3oz (35%). He was 50% last time, so he's down a little bit, percentage-wise, but the dr wasn't too concerned, since he's eating good. And he still has a little noggin - 25%. And he's meeting all his milestones just fine!

Poor little guy has "White Coat Syndrome" already. He's got a good memory from the last time he was there at 2 months and got shots. He started crying when the nurse weighed him and then again when she measured his head. And all the dr said was "Hi!" before he burst into tears. And he never cries for anyone so he must have known what was in store for him at the end of the visit. There was a good amount of crying and a lot of hugging his snuggly blanket (Have I mentioned how much he loves his snuggly blanket from Auntie Suz?) but he made it through.

I don't have the heart to tell him that he has to go get blood drawn next week to check his thyroid levels.