Look at that happy dad. He's so charming and funny. I've recently come to know that some people like to hear what dad's take is on the experience. OK well, hi everyone. It's me, the belly shot photographer. It's kind of cool watching my wife's body go through these changes. Even though they're expected changes, it's still neet to see. Steph wants me to conversate with her belly a lot and I do my best to oblidge. But everytime I try to talk, Steph ends up having fits of laughter. Dad's voice will only be associated with laughter at this rate. That might put me at a disadvantage down the line somewhere. I'm just glad that the baby gets to hear me, that way we won't be total strangers when we eventually see eachother. I try to do as much as I can for my pregnant wife. Seeing her get bigger makes me attentive and obedient, but proud at the same time. I wasn't sure how Steph would be through the pregnancy, but she's been a lot calmer and normal than I expected. So everythings going even better than I expected.

Good News

Today I went for the first part of the newest form of genetic testing they do on babies now (by new, I mean insurance didn't pay for it last year and they do this year!!). They gather an odds ratio on the babies chances of having neural tube defects or down syndrome through visual markers on the baby (thus the new pictures) and through testing certain proteins in the blood. Using just the visual part of the test, the doctor felt that things look really good. All of the things they wanted to see were there (including 2 arms and 2 legs - which was a beautiful thing for me to see) and the markers that would indicate a problem were as minimal as possible. While this is not 100%, things at this point look good, so this has been a wonderful day. I got to hear the heart beat again, a good strong 160 BPM, and I also got to see the baby moving around. Apparently we woke the baby up with the prodding and poking of the ultrasound. He/She started kicking and stretching and then flipped over, it was so cool, I wish Dan had been there, he's currently in Colorado. Also, I was wrong about the end of the first trimester date, we are into the second trimester now, I can breath a little easier. I am also losing confidence that it's a girl. Looking at it today on the ultrasound I don't get the same feeling. I have no idea, so, we'll just leave it at, I don't know what this baby is and I will be ecstatic which ever we get. Once Dan gets back I'll put up another belly picture, I know we're overdue. Thank you so much for all of your love and support.

Latest Pictures

I didn't think we were going to get to see the

baby again until the 20th week, but ....

A bet

OK, I think it's a bit delayed but, apparently moody and emotional have arrived. I got a little cranky this past weekend. I'm not sure if it was just a bit of a hot topic for me or if I'm really getting moody. We'll see, but I definitely get cranky when I'm hungry... sorry everyone and I am now crying over the end of homeward bound. Yeah, umm, ok this should be interesting. I guess Dan has had it pretty easy up until now. So, now for the title of this post. I think this baby is going to be a girl. I've been occasionally calling it she and I had a very vivid dream about "her" the other night. I dreamed that she was born at 20 weeks at a full term weight, hight, and development with big blue eyes. However, since she was born early I didn't have anything. Anyway, it was a funny/odd dream. All I know is I need to be careful because I've really started thinking of the baby as a girl and if it's not, we might have some problems, I guess we'll find out in 9 weeks.

P.S. The Chinese lunar calender says it's a boy!!!!!