Baby Mac's 13 week Picture

So here he/she is at 13 weeks! It's starting to seem more real now that it looks like a little person instead of a shrimp. I can't stop staring the picture wondering what he/she will look like.

At the appointment on Monday, the doctor said everything looks perfect. Heartbeat was 174 and the nuchal fold (a little pocket of fluid on the back of baby's neck) was 1.5. Anything less than 3.0 is considered low risk for Downs Syndrome. Now I'm just waiting for my blood test to come back, but they are fairly confident that my risk is low since I'm young, healthy and we have no family history of trisomy disorders, so hopefully the bloodwork will just serve to confirm.

Next appointment is Jan. 12. No ultrasound at that one, just bloodwork and an exam (fun...) The appointment after that is when we'll find out the gender (20 wks). We are looking into independent ultrasound places that will do a 3D/4D ultrasound as early as 16 wks to determine gender because I am not sure we can wait that long. A lot of my girlfriends who recently had babies have had them done and loved it, so I'm hoping we can schedule it for sometime in mid-Jan. The extra $80 is well worth saving four weeks of waiting!

Approaching 12 weeks....

Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year, and while Brad and I have been hard at work decorating, shopping and spending time with our friends & family, we can't help but think about how different Christmas will be next year with Baby Mac. Christmas is so magical for kids and it will be exciting to have a new reason to take pictures with Santa, look for reindeer on Christmas Eve and leave cookies by the fireplace (not that I'm expecting a lot out of next year since he/she will only be five months old).

I remember waking up at the crack of dawn (sorry mom and dad) and running in to see what Santa had left for us. After sizing up each of our piles and guessing what was in each package, we'd tear open our stockings, start on our rolls of Life Savers, play with our stocking presents and wait anxiously for the 'rents to wake up so we could get down to business with the big presents.

The best year was probably when mom and dad finally joined the modern world and bought us a Sega Genesis. I think we were the ONLY kids we knew that didn't have a video game system and being the consistent low-scorer in Super Mario Brothers did NOTHING to further a kid's coolness. Anyway, we were up to our elbows in wrapping paper and suddenly, the doorbell rang. You're probably wondering who the heck was out on Christmas morning in the snow and ice interrupting such an important event in a young child's life. It was the UPS man (surprisingly in pants, not the signature shorts)! With our Sega system! It was a Christmas miracle! While we've received many wonderful gifts from our families over the year, that was probably the most memorable Christmas for me.

Christmas has always been an important time to celebrate love, family and peace and adding kids into the mix further gives us a refreshing perspective. As adults, we get so caught up in getting done what has to be done and juggling schedules that we tend to lose sight of what's really important. So much of the true meaning of the season has been stripped away in favor of commercialism and fear of "political correctness". I can't wait for the opportunity to teach Baby Mac about the Christmas story and why Jesus is the "reason for the season" (Lynds, that's for you).

But my political views aside, we're most excited about the new traditions that we'll start as our own little family grows.

In other news, we're headed back to the doctor on Monday the 15th (we get to see Dr. Sternberg, who we LOVE!!) for the first trimester screening. We can't wait to see Baby Mac again.

Welcome! Only 31 weeks to go!!

Hello all! Welcome to our journey into parenthood. We're expecting our first child in late June, we're so excited, yet very nervous. My due date is June 24th, so I'm about 9 weeks right now. We've already been to the doctor and have Baby Mac's first picture. We also got to hear and see the heartbeat at 6 weeks, which was so exciting!

Check back later for more info!