Thursday

Thursday has the promise of being a big day for us. I have my big ultrasound Thursday morning to find out if we are having, first and foremost, a healthy baby, and secondly, if we are having a boy or a girl. I've always really looked forward to ultrasound day because I think seeing everything on the monitor is just so amazing. Going into this week, I was really bummed because Edward had orders to fly to Ft. Lewis, Washington yesterday until February 1st, missing the ultrasound. He loves the ultrasounds, especially being a doctor. He actually understands them and can read them. When I was pregnant with Luke, Edward would have me stop in about once a week from weeks for awhile to try and figure out if it was a boy or girl...here, his clinic has no ultrasound machine, a MAJOR bummer for me. On top of him missing the ultrasound, the wilderness course he's doing doesn't allow for cell phone use, so I wasn't going to have contact with him until February 1. Some might have said, "Schedule your ultrasound for when he gets back," but that's not how they work. 20 week ultrasounds are to be done usually between 18-20 weeks, and if there's any question about size of the baby (as there has been every time with my kids because they are usually really large), doctors want the ultrasound done closer to 18 weeks to get an accurate size reading of the baby. Why? That allows them to adjust my due date if the baby is measuring extremely large, as my babies have. So, my ultrasound is scheduled for 18 weeks, 1 day, this Thursday. With Luke, I had my ultrasound at 17 weeks 5 days, and he was measuring 20 weeks 2 days, a large difference, so they moved my due date up. Theory there is that if I go over my "new" due date they can go ahead and induce labor knowing I'm already having a big baby instead of waiting another two weeks or so where the baby gains 1/2 pound the last four weeks or so. Luke was born early at 37 weeks 1 day and weighed 8 lbs. 5 oz, so a VERY large baby for that early and a very large baby for me when I'm not that big (if he'd gone another three weeks and gained another pound and a half, he would have been a 10 lb baby!). On the first ultrasound done at 11 weeks, this baby was already measuring 10 days larger, so we expect to have another big baby. Yes, if you're wondering my dates are correct...hello, Edward's a doctor, and we know how this works. We just joke I grow babies big and fast.

Anyways, back to the ultrasound...God has really watched out for us, and Edward's orders for the course he's taking got changed at the end of last week. Some brainiac realized they were flying the guys up there to sit over MLK Day weekend, when they could just fly them up over that weekend and start the course next Tuesday. So, they are. Edward is here all this week and will be here for the ultrasound.

Please pray we have a healthy baby who is developing all organs and limbs. They look at all internal organs to make sure everything is deveoping and functioning correctly. It's amazing this little wand that moves around over your stomach can detect all of that. And, if we are lucky and baby is cooperating, we should be able to find out if we are having a boy or girl. When I was pregnant with Madison, my doctor told me to have a lot of caffine right before my appt. to get the baby awake and moving around. I had a Coke and a candy bar before that one and before Luke, and with both kids, no problems determining the baby's sex. I'll do the same on Thursday, despite my appt. being at 8:00 AM (that's Mountain Time, so don't call here at 8:30 Eastern asking us because we'll just be getting up).

Some people have asked what we want to have, and we really don't care. We didn't care for either Madison or Luke, and we still don't. A lot of people didn't understand us wanting a third baby telling us all sorts of things such as, "You already have a boy," (yeah, that didn't make sense to us) or "it's just another baby." That's not at all why we want three kids. We've always said we wanted three, maybe four kids, and we both agree three is our number before ALL sanity is lost. We're very excited to find out who is going to be joining and completing our family. Will we have two girls and a boy, or will we have two boys and a girl? Am I going to be going to a lot of football games or playing a lot more princess (because let's face it, if you know Luke, he's already got the build for a football center). No matter what, Edward and I are both just excited to round out our family. We have all of the bins of baby clothes out (because he thought he'd already be gone on his trip) so I can sort through the pinks or blues to keep one set of stuff and give away the other set of stuff (don't worry, we'll be REALLY sure of the baby's sex before we get rid of anything!). We have our names picked out and have had them since before I was even pregnant...and, if you don't know them right now, it's because you haven't asked :) We've told anyone who wants to know; it's no secret. Now, you'll just have to wait until Thursday when we can name our boy or girl :) We even have boy and girl bedding bought because we live so far away from any baby stores (over three hours) that when we were in Phoenix and San Diego, we looked and picked out our bedding. We even bought both sets knowing we'd take one back, but the good thing is that we bought them at Babies R Us, and while we don't have one in Yuma, we can return things to Toys R Us, which we do have...plus, they were both on sale, and if you know me, that's a requirement :)

In all of this, we are very excited for Thursday, as if you couldn't tell my reading this. The ultrasound marks the approximate halfway point of my pregnancy, which is awesome for me (halfway to the point where I'll be able to eat again and get rid of this awful acid reflux) and marks the last big baby ultrasound we should ever need (unless God has some really big surprise in store for us in the coming years!). Just the other day, Edward commented that when we left Yuma we'd be almost out of diapers...WOW, what a thought! Our family, almost complete, and hopefully Thursday will provide a good report and a name for our boy or girl to be.

So, Thursday morning, as most of you take a mid-morning break, say a quick prayer for us and for baby, and hopefully, I'll be able to post about a healthy, and probably big, baby.