Thirty-Three Weeks

We went in for a thirty-three week ultrasound today. Apparently, the baby is doing very well; they estimate her to be almost five pounds, which is about two weeks ahead of schedule, and a full pound more than Jessica weighed when she was born at thirty-seven weeks.

We also scheduled her delivery via C-section. If everything goes as planned, she'll be born on January 26, 2010, around 3:00 in the afternoon.

We can't wait to meet her!

It's a...!

We went in for the Littlest Burdett's twenty-week ultrasound this afternoon; that's the one where, among other things, they might be able to tell the sex of the squirming little baby. And boy, did she squirm! She wriggled around and flailed her arms and kicked her legs, and oh does she have a heartbeat! A hundred beats a minute at least.

Can you guess what they think she will be?

Forty-Percent Through

Today Anna had her sixteen-week appointment with her doctor. Everything appears to be going just fine; they baby has a good, strong heartbeat, though it was a bit hard to keep track of. This baby squirms around a lot, just like Jessica did.

Sixteen weeks behind us; twenty-four more to go: Anna is now 40% of the way through this pregnancy. On September 16 we'll go in for the twenty-week ultrasound, and we may then learn the sex of this baby!

The First Picture of the Littlest Burdett

Today's ultrasound went very well; we heard a very firm (and fast) heartbeat, saw four distinct limbs wiggling about, and saw the Littlest Burdett squirm around as though trying to avoid the camera. It was awe-inspiring and beautiful.

The picture doesn't really do justice to the experience; when you see it live, the ultrasound really presents a picture of a tiny little human being rolling around in Mommy's belly. But here's the picture anyway:

--Chris

Anticipation

Tomorrow, Friday, July 17th, we go to Anna's OB/GYN for her first ultrasound. It is both something to be excited about and something to be nervous about.

Fortunately, for this particular procedure, Anna is required to have a full bladder; they suggest drinking 32 ounces of water an hour before the appointment. This means that mostly what we'll be thinking about is how quickly it can be over so she can get to the bathroom.

We will post a picture of the ultrasound picture tomorrow; simply for nostalgia's sake, here is what Jessica's first ultrasound looked like, almost exactly three years ago:

--Chris

Six Weeks Along

As I write this, my wife Anna, who is sleeping in the bed beside me, is six weeks pregnant with our second child. Our two-year-and-four-months-old daughter, Jessica, is sleeping down the hall in her "big girl room," the room we moved her into so that the room adjacent to ours could be her little brother's or sister's when that time comes. Jessica does not know that in a little over seven months she will become a big sister; no one besides Anna and me knows it, and we won't begin telling people for another six weeks.

We are excited about this new addition to our family, but also a tad nervous. It's easy to forget all the little stresses and sources of worry that inevitably accompany a pregnancy, but when you're pregnant again--or your wife is--they all come tumbling back.

Anna's pregnancy with Jessica was not the smoothest--there were a couple of trips to the emergency room, a night in the hospital around 27 weeks, a condition called placenta previa to deal with, gestational diabetes, and the unexpected delivery by C-section exactly three weeks before the due date. But it gave us our beautiful daughter, and it was all worth it.

Nonetheless, we hope that this one will go a little more smoothly.

--Chris