Declan is finally HERE!

As of 2:26pm on Monday, March 10th, Declan Kelsier Smith is officially on the outside... and we could not be more thrilled about it!

His timing couldn't have been more perfect; he came at exactly 39 weeks which happened to be the first day of daddy's spring break (just as I had been hoping and praying for), and my labor even started early in the morning, just like I'd been planning (for Evie's sake). He's already such an obedient child ;)

For about the last week I've been having more and more contractions. They seemed to be getting a little worse every day, but after my severe disappointment at my 38 week appointment (no progression from 37 weeks and stupid contractions all the time) I was trying not to hope. I did notice, however, over a couple of days, that I had started to lose some of my "baby sealant". That kind of got me excited... But I know it can still be weeks, so, blah.

Friday, we took Evie to the dino museum on a whim. I was feeling pent up /anxious and I think Evie was too, so we took a spontaneous family trip :) The whole time we were walking around the museum I was having some pretty good contractions that were a lot more "labor-like" in quality (...they hurt, lol). So, here I am thinking it's definitely coming, if not that day than maybe the next! Then we went home and nothing much more for the rest of the day.

SIGH

Saturday, the weather was fantastic (60's and sunny!) so we decided to take a walk to get us all out of the house. We walked all the way to campus and back (a huge feat for me at this point). I was so hoping for more contractions like the day before, but no... All that walking and I mostly just got INCREDIBLY sore (Oh! Remind me to tell the story of how I tried to run across the street at nearly 9 months pregnant... it was hilarious).

Sunday we didn't go to church. I was still sore from the day before and feeling pretty sick (did I mention I'd been sick for 8 weeks straight at this point?), Evie was coughing and had a runny nose, and I was just tired and out of it. Also, I had been having contractions all morning... They were regular and definitely the worst they had been yet (minus maybe the museum contractions). Once again, I was trying to convince my brain that this was nothing, but then I noticed some "show" and at that point all was lost. I tried to tell Karl that something might be coming, without committing to it since I hate to be wrong, haha, but looking back, maybe I could have been a little bit more firm with it, lol!

ALMOST 39 weeks :)

I spent a lot of the day trying to clean up a bit and get some last minute organizing/tidying done and I packed some stuff for Evie. There was a lot more I should have done, but I was half afraid to jinx it and then I was just tired and didn't want to over-do it, just to have it not be the real thing... So I think I skipped the dishes, didn't take the gross garbage out, and didn't pack a hospital bag, haha!

That night we watched some Walking Dead, I tried a couple labor inducing activities, I worked half-heartedly on some thank you cards, and went to bed WAY too late... Though, not nearly as late as Karl, but I digress 

Of course, by the time I fell asleep, the contractions I'd been having all day were nearly gone and I was starting to think I'd lose my mind if I had to go through this roller-coaster one more time.

At 3:45 Monday morning, Evie woke me up, and Karl was still on the computer... I told him to go to sleep, and went to take care of Evie and get her back in bed. I was feeling seriously irritated. I wasn't quite sure why, since I'm used to Evie getting me up in the middle of the night, and I was somehow not totally surprised Karl was still up (though he doesn't do that often, I'm sure he was thinking it was a great idea, seeing as it was the first day of his spring break). Anyway, I ended up lying down next to Evie to get her back down, and while there, I realized I was having contractions. 

Real ones... Painful ones...

They were about 7 minutes apart and they were very different in quality from the ones I'd been having before. 

This was finally IT, I just knew it!

I went back to bed with Karl and asked him if he was asleep yet. He wasn't, so I told him I was pretty sure I was in labor and that he should get as much sleep as possible ASAP. Which he did, WAY faster than I thought he would, considering I had just told him I was in labor. I tried to go back to sleep too. I figured that I must have been sleeping through contractions up until this point, so maybe I could do some relaxation stuff and get some more rest...

Hahahahaha... I'm funny.

I ended up in bed for probably a half hour worth of contractions and decided it was pointless. So, I got up, got myself ready between contractions, cleaned some more, got things ready, watched some early morning news show, and just worked through my contractions one at a time by myself.

At this point I was feeling very content, happy, and excited that it was finally happening, but still pretty relaxed. I was totally feeling all "earth-mother-y" and connecting with my baby and all that junk, as I worked through my contractions. 

I seriously felt like I was totally going to kick this labor things' butt.

Once again... HAHAHAHA.

By about 6am the contractions were starting to get tougher, so I finally attempted to wake Karl for some support, let my mom know this was probably it, and I texted my doula.

Anyway, when Karl got up he informed me that our car was on empty as of the night before, so I sent him out to get gas while I tried to print off our birth plan (which I'd planned to go over at our 39 week appointment, scheduled for 11:40 that day, lol), and get everything ready that I needed to take with us to the hospital. Yeah, we're awesome at being prepared ;) I must also mention that I had planned to pre-register at the hospital that day too... lol.

At 7am I finally called the doula and she headed down, and not too long after, we told my mom to come and we got Evie up. Poor thing was super cranky about being woken up! She was standing on her bed crying and moaning and groaning when I went in there, but as soon as Karl told her she was going to Grandmama's for the day because we were going to the hospital to get baby brother out, she perked right up! I asked if she wanted to get dressed and she said "yes!" and jumped right out of bed (definitely uncharacteristic of her, haha). Quickest mood turn-around she's ever had, I'm pretty sure.

Speaking of Evie, she was super cute while I was having contractions; everytime she noticed I was having one she would run over, hug me, and say "mommy needs hugs!" Not the most comfortable sometimes, but I loved it ;)

Stacey, our doula, arrived at around 8ish and my parents and Soni came not long after that. It was a little bit of a circus in our house with everybody here and Evie trying to grab some last minute toys to take with her, but it was fun... lol. Before they left, Karl and my dad gave me a blessing. I really don't remember what Karl said, except I do remember him saying that I would be able to ask for what I needed, which really stuck out to me at the time.

We worked through a bunch more contractions while Karl, my mom, and Stacey somehow got talking about vampire babies and Breaking Dawn, lol! 

I have to say, I really liked being able to have Karl physically support me more this time around. Being able to hug him or have him holding me during contractions was so nice. 

Anyway, at around 10ish, I was sitting on the couch leaning forward and hugging Karl during a contraction when I just started crying, for no good reason. I mean, it really hurt, but I was handling it just fine. I wasn't crying about the pain.

That's the point when we decided to make the trek to the hospital.

I bawled after every single contraction I had in the car, which was weird, because in between crying and contracting, my mood was totally fine! And, may I just say, contractions in the car stink.

We got to the hospital (where I had yet to register...) at around 10:30 ish and after a couple questions that I was not super in the mood to answer (lol... I was still crying between contractions), they brought me straight back to a labor room, got me a nurse and started getting everything set up! No triage for me, thank heavens, they decided I looked like I was in pretty active labor, lol!

Good ol' room 121

 Also, the room they brought me to just happened to be room 121... Which is where I had Evie! I thought it was pretty cool ;) Of all the rooms!

Since I hadn't registered, unfortunately, I got to sit there in bed for about a half hour, answering about a million questions while I was hooked up to the monitors to get a baseline and make sure baby was handling everything ok. I thought it was really interesting that I had been having intense contractions very close together, but the longer she asked me questions I literally watched as my contractions petered out. I've heard of that happening in all the natural birth books, but It was really interesting to experience it first hand. I wasn't quite sure whether I should be grateful for the break in contractions or incredibly annoyed at having my progress slowed down!! Either way, next time I'm going to be sure to register WAY ahead of time, lol.

Answering questions between contractions... Notice my hair is still in good shape at this point, lol.

When they first checked me at the hospital, I was at 5cm and nearly completely effaced. I had been  2cm and 70% a week before, and I'd like to think that I'd had some progress over that that week, but either way, I had dilated somewhere around 2 or 3 centimeters and done a little effacing in the 6 hours I'd been laboring so far. I will admit, I was a little disappointed with the progress I had made! With the way I was feeling, I was sure I'd be around 8cm! They checked me again like 30 minutes later and I was still a 5.

THAT really made me mad, because things started getting VERY intense as soon as they left me alone to get back to my laboring!

When they finally let me get up out of the bed (which was a horrible place to labor!!), the nurse, Lori (who was fantastic, by the way, total opposite of the last time around!) offered to get a birth ball for me and we tried that for a bit. It was a little awkward, and I don't think it worked quite as well as I would have liked, but I think that may be because it was kind of short! I don't think it was a good height for me.

After awhile of that, Stacey had me try standing and doing the "slow dance" thing with Karl, which I liked a lot, if only because it was one of the few times I could really be in close contact with him during the whole labor. Next time we do this I really want to work with Karl before hand so I can have him more involved. I think it really helped!

I really shouldn't have been frustrated about my progress, (this is why they tell you not to do cervical checks...) because things really WERE picking up speed. About an hour after they last checked, the midwife came in to check me again and I was at a 9 with a "bulgy bag"! 4 centimeters in about an hour and a half, when those first 2-3 took 6 hours!!

The midwife told us that we should break my water and I'd be pushing in no time!

I was hesitant to let her break my water at that point; it was something I had really debated all through my pregnancy, since that was when everything fell apart with Evie's birth. The midwife had said the exact same thing then too...

However, the promise of being able to get on with things was just too much for me and I agreed. The midwife "suited up" in prep for delivering this baby, and broke my water.

Now, this is how it was supposed to have gone: midwife breaks water, this causes baby's head to move down, engage more fully and put better pressure on the cervix, and therefore help to dilate that last centimeter much faster. And, when you get to a 10, theoretically, you're "ready" to push.

Sounds like a great plan, right?

This is what ACTUALLY happened: midwife broke my water, checked me, and I was suddenly at 8cm rather than 9... Baby's head did not engage when she broke my water because it was in the wrong position, and it had been my bag of waters that had been doing all the pushing on my cervix.

And I stayed at an 8 for more than an hour. 

The contractions were still super intense and I was still very much in transition (I even ended up throwing up a few times because it was so intense) but I wasn't making any progress. They made me stand up for a bit, labor in a "side lying" position for awhile, and then switched me to my other side, hoping to make baby move into the right position. Meanwhile, the midwife was getting more and more anxious and antsy.

Turns out, she had another patient about to deliver down at UVRMC, and she'd chosen to stay with me and broke my water because she thought I would go first... And then I stalled instead, completely ruining the plan.

This is the point where I started to feel a ton of pressure... And not from the baby. I swear, all I kept hearing was: "Do you feel like pushing?", "Let me know when you feel like pushing." or "Does it feel like he's moved down yet? Feeling any pressure?"

Why yes, yes I was. -_-

After waiting only about 20 minutes after breaking my water, the midwife started telling us she needed to start me on some pitocin. She told us that my contractions just weren't strong enough (HA, I say!), and the pitocin would make me finish dilating. I was NOT happy. At this point the contractions were so bad; I felt like I was breaking. I could barely handle the contractions as it was, so the thought of making them ANY harder was enough to make me want to just die.

After awhile of trying to passively put it off, Karl, who I could tell was getting a little angry at the midwife's attitude, finally told her that we really didn't want the pitocin and firmly asked if it was possible to wait an hour or so. This was one of my favorite parts of this labor; I loved how assertive he was on my behalf, even with an authority figure ;) She agreed, reluctantly, but we had to do an internal monitor  for me and baby and before she left she basically told us that if I didn't get the pitocin I'd be getting a c-section. She kept throwing out comments like "I'm just not happy with the way baby looks", but would tell us anything more definite than that.

Yeesh... Talk about pressure. I was stressed enough about the lack of progress on my own, but I'm super sensitive to other people's attitudes and emotions, and hers was REALLY not helping. Then throw in some threats of c-sections and my baby's health being on the line, and you've got me falling apart...

Anyway, on our own, we labored on. I kind of gave up mentally after awhile, I just laid there with my eyes closed, completely out of it between the super intense contractions (once the internal monitor was in, I had proof of how hard they were!). During contractions I begged for someone to help me and told everyone I couldn't do it. I was so tired!

Finally the midwife came back, and after about an hour and a half I had still made no progress.

The midwife at this point told us that we basically had to try the pitocin, and that's when I lost it. The midwife asked if I wanted drugs, and over the course of a few more super intense contractions (with no end in sight), I convinced my "team" that I needed an epidural. Unfortunately, the anesthesiologist had two patients ahead of me.

I was so mad.

They offered to give me a half dose of fentanyl in my IV, which I accepted. The nurse asked if I was feeling it yet, and all I could say was: "It still hurts! Why does it still hurt!?" To which she responded "Oh, it's just to take the edge off, it won't stop it from hurting, just help you relax a little."

 I was DOUBLE mad.

I felt so betrayed... lol. I was promised pain relief if I just gave into the drugs that I was trying so hard to avoid, and I didn't feel any better!!! It just made me feel a little sleepy...

She checked me right before she left to make sure I wasn't about to push, and since it didn't look like I wasn't going anywhere, the nurse and midwife both left to take care of some final prep while I waited for the epidural.

I suppose the drugs must have done something, because after a contraction or two, the doula finally convinced me to try getting on all fours and leaning against the head of the bed. She was really hoping to move me to a position to get baby where he needed to be, and hopefully I would be able to push before the anesthesiologist got there.

I'm so glad my awesome little team was still rooting for me and still trying to help me get that baby here with out the epidural, even though I had completely shut down mentally!

After being in that position for a couple contractions, I was feeling like pushing, FINALLY. I didn't even tell anyone, and when the midwife and everyone came back (right about then) I just started pushing. They moved me back to my side, and less than 10 minutes later, Declan was here!!!! 10 1/2 hours of labor, 4 of them at the hospital, he was finally here!!

Born at 2:26 pm, and weighing 6 pounds, 15 ounces, and 20 inches ;)

I am so thankful we had Stacey there, and that the anesthesiologist took so long!! I can't be sure, but I really think that had I gotten the epidural, I wouldn't have been able to move the right way to get him into the right position, so I would have ended up with the pitocin to get me to dilate. But, since he wasn't in the right position, I can see me still not dilating, and ending up with a distressed baby and quite possibly that c-section that had been hanging over my head...

I will say that I'm sure the midwife did have my baby's health and safety in mind, and I really liked her during our prenatal appointments, but I'm incredibly disappointed with how our birth went. It really wasn't the experience I had hoped for.

Evie's birth was so hard and, even though it was an incredible and empowering experience in the end, both Karl and I had some left over feelings that I was really hoping to heal/resolve with this birth. That didn't end up happening, and I'm so sad about it. Instead, this birth was much harder than Evie's and I feel like I've been left with a whole new, and much bigger, set of issues to deal with. It wasn't as empowering of an experience either.

On the bright side, I'm no longer afraid of the pushing stage, lol. It was hard, but so quick after the hours of pain, and I didn't need stitches!! Recovery this time around has been a million times better!

I am so glad to have him here and he is worth every minute of that labor experience; he is absolutely amazing! I love how from the minute he arrived, he belonged. From the first moment I saw him, I felt so strongly that he is and always has been mine and that he is such an important part of our family. It sounds so silly when I say it, but it's true, lol.

Welcome to our family Declan!!!

 

My Little Monster

This is a present Evie got for her birthday:

She thought it was cool to look at when she opened it, but to be honest, she didn't really "get" it the first time I tried to use it for bath time; she wanted her OLD towel... Silly girl!

It has since, however, become a necessity of her bath time routine, and even a play thing any other time she feels like it ;)

She has two "games" she likes to play with it. The first happens every night after her bath. I get her out, wrap her up in her towel with the hood on her head, and then we look in the mirror... And I have to say "AAHHHH!! AAAHHH! It's a BLUE MONSTER!!" and then she pulls the hood off and I then act relieved and say, "OH! It's just Evie! I thought there was a monster in my house!!" THEN we have to go find daddy and scare him too.


She gets such a kick out of it EVERY TIME we do it... Which is nearly every night! I think it's incredibly cute that she's so into tricking us, it's hilarious ;)

This is her other game:

She realized at some point that her towel could double as a cape/superhero mask... And Super-Monster Girl was born, haha! She loves to "fly" all over the house (sound effects and "flying arms included) and catch bad guys with daddy, who she makes wear a batman mask. It's so cute... I love that she likes what she likes and doesn't care what anyone thinks!

I love this little goof-ball/monster/superhero!

34-35 Weeks... Birthday, Big belly, Ultrasound, Baby Shower, and More!

35 week belly! I don't think the picture really does my enormousness justice ;)

 Today I am 35 weeks pregnant, and it also happens to be my birthday!
26 years ago I was born four days after my mommy's February birthday, even though I was supposed to have been a March baby too ;) I have been celebrating all day with tons of contractions and cramping... Annnd I'm starting to get pretty nervous about the state of my preparedness for this child!

About a week ago we had our VERY LAST ultrasound (#5!) which went really well, as far as baby is concerned... Karl had to work and so my mom and Amaia (who just turned 6!) came with us. Evie was pretty good for most of it, but as we were trying to leave she threw an epic tantrum all the way out of the hospital and into the car and part of the way home... She's been doing that fairly regularly these days--I think it's because she's been skipping her naps :/

As for baby, he was measuring only about 2 days ahead this time around, but all his little body parts are looking perfect and he's not behind on his growth. The estimate is that he was weighing in at about 5 lbs 3 oz as of a week ago! He's currently head down (like he has been this whole pregnancy, good boy!), which is fantastic news.

We couldn't get a very good picture of his face this visit, however; silly monkey had one foot and a hand in front of his face! This is the best pic we could get :)

 

Saturday I had my first baby shower, thrown for me by my loverly visiting teachers, Carmen Cole & Amy Bingham :) Only about half the people I invited ended up being able to come (it was a little bit short notice, and for some reason lots of people were gone doing fun things that day!), but I actually thought it was the perfect amount of guests for my comfort level. It was a lot less awkward when I could kind of talk to everyone instead of worrying about all the people I couldn't get to or was leaving out.

Carmen did, however, have everyone play a baby shower "game" where everyone went around the circle and gave me a compliment and some parenting advice. I will admit, I was not super comfortable with sitting there making person after person say something nice about me while everyone listened... Just not sure what to do with myself! But, I did really appreciate all the kind things that people said. I'd been having a rough week, and an especially rough morning, so once I moved beyond the slightly awkward feeling, it really was a blessing to hear those things :)

And here are some beautiful pictures of that event, which I stole from Carmen:

And now for some symptom complaints ;) In the last couple weeks I've started to itch terribly... And I'm so scared it's going to turn into the nightmarish PUPPP I had with Evie! With her it started earlier, but it felt so similar to this! I'm just hoping I can have this baby before it gets to the same point it did with Evie (I was basically clawing the skin off of my entire body).

Also, ever since I started itching, I've gotten some new stretch marks! I was doing perfectly well just reusing the old ones, but they just started popping up where ever I scratched :( It's not too bad, I just have them on the top half of my belly now (the old ones were mostly below my belly button), rather than new ones all over my body, so I guess I should be thankful. I'm just irritated that, if not for the itching, I might not have had to get ANY new ones. Buuuuut, that's just the joy of having a momma's body :)

I have had quite a bit of cramping and contractions starting the past few days. I always have lots of contractions, but it's definitely gotten a lot more intense the past little while! With Evie I did this for about two weeks before she finally decided to be born... So we'll see what happens. I'm worried it's just going to get worse and worse over the next 5 weeks, but I'll still go all the way to my due date and just be miserable, lol! I DO want to keep this baby in as long as he needs to be in, but I would really appreciate it if my body would cut me a break, at least for a couple more weeks!!

Like I said, I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens... Luckily we're getting close ;)

Starting after my appointment next Tuesday I get to be seen weekly from now on!! Only 5 weeks to go; we're getting there slowly but surely!

Rabilolees & Diddy-los

An outfit of her own creation ;)

Evie is pretty articulate for a kid her age. She can pronounce words like "yellow" and "snake" very clearly. She has a fairly large vocabulary that includes words like "comfortable" and "frustrated", and she uses 7-10, or more, word sentences regularly.

Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that she's the size of your average 18 month old, you might not believe she's just over 2. Then again, when in public, people tend ask if she's talking yet at all, seeing as she refuses to talk around people... lol. 

Anyway with being so grown up all ready, she doesn't have a lot of cute, funny baby words like a lot of kids (for example, "pisghetti" and that sort of thing), so that's why I have such a special place in m heart for "Rabilolees" and "Diddy-los"

Rabilolees, also known as "raviolis", are one of Evie's favorite things to eat (read: one of the only things she'll eat). She is such a picky eater! Her diet generally consists of quesadillas on corn tortillas, black beans & cheese, pizza/bread sticks, pasta with alfredo sauce, and ravioli's with red sauce :) I'm glad she likes them so much, because I love it every time I hear her say "rabilolees"!

Diddy-los are what she calls videos. She's been in a phase where she LOVES to watch youtube videos; most especially Frozen videos, but she also loves toddler videos like this one:

 I love my little goof-ball to death! I really wish she'd stop trying to grow up so quickly!! I guess I just have to enjoy the rabilolees and diddy-los while they last ;)

"Do You Want to Build a Snowman?"

We got a surprise visit from Christer and Myrna today! 

They were down this way for job interview stuff and decided to drop by and pay us a visit :) Evie was super happy to see them; I think she's finally getting to the point where we see them enough and she remembers them enough in between visits that she doesn't have to do the "warm up" thing every time (THANKFULLY). She was also tired from waking up at 7am and not having taken a nap of any kind (they got here around 3pm), so she was very giddy in addition to just being happy to see them ;)

Anyway, she showed them all the fun stuff in her room and they even turned off the lights and had a "dance party" with her little bear nightlight thing (which she uses as a rave/disco/party light, lol) and my phone. She thought Christer's dancing was absolutely hilarious (again, she was tired), and she ran around in circles (I mean, danced) for ages! She really liked dancing to the "fox song" and songs from "Frozen" especially.

After all the dancing she was pretty worn out, but somehow they still managed to convince her to the park and go sledding! Poor thing hasn't been to the park in a couple months, so she was super excited, plus we haven't had a chance to go sledding at all this winter, so it was quite the event for her!

They ended up sledding, playing on the frozen playground, and we even built a snowman! This was especially awesome because Evie's been obsessed with the movie "Frozen" for the past few days and she very much wanted to build a snowman :) On the way to the park she was telling Christer: "Snow everywhere! Kinda-ta like the ice movie!"

She had so much fun today, and in true Evie style, didn't want to leave even though she was soaking and it was freezing! 

Hopefully Myrna and Christer will live closer someday so they can come play more often :)

Jokes

Evie' s current favorite joke (she thinks she's hilarious, btw): she randomly says whatever word happens to come to her mind preceded by "peanut butter"

For example: "peanut butter daddy!" *hysterical giggling* "peanut butter car!" *more giggling* "peanut butter POTTY!" *falls on the floor because she's so overwhelmed by her own hilariousness*

That girl...

Christmas 2013

Hello 3rd trimester! Hello Baby!

Getting bigger! Can't believe we still have a ways to grow!!

I'm 28 weeks today; we've made it to our last trimester! YAY! So excited that we're getting closer!

In the last week or so baby has been moving a TON, suddenly lots of elbows and knees I think ;) I think he must've had a growth spurt, because it's been really hard to feel him from the outside up until this point, and it's been mostly random little kicks. These days he feels like he's wiggling all over the place! Karl's kind of felt him a couple of times in the past little while, but he REALLY felt him last night for the first time.

It's also been really weird because movements I feel super well from the inside can't be felt from the outside, but some that I can't feel at all are very obvious from the outside. I blame my anterior placenta... It really is annoying some times.

I did my glucose test at my prenatal appointment this week and PASSED! THANK HEAVENS!! I am still anemic, though unfortunately, so I've got to get on top of that better :/ I also finally got my results back about the whole infection thing, and they were negative! Yay!

The other awesome thing about today was that we got to go to our fourth ultrasound and see the babe!

Perfect little profile :) Little arm under his chin. Love that little nosey and those lips!

Evie and Karl came, and while I was getting checked in they were running around the lobby. The old lady at the information desk came up to them and Karl was sure they were in trouble, but instead she gave Evie a cute little baby doll... I'm glad people think she's so cute, I don't think she'd get away with most of her antics otherwise! When I asked her where she got the dolly she told me that Grandma Janice (Karl's grandma) had given it to her, which I thought was funny and cute.

Evie was also SUPER talkative today (maybe because she slept in??), she kept running around saying "I wanna see the doctor!" She got tired of waiting in the lobby and tried to go back all by herself, and was terribly mad when I wouldn't let her. When we got back to the room and during the ultrasound she talked the whole entire time. She kept saying things like, "Mommy sick, got hurt, doctor help her feel better!" and she was really enjoying seeing baby brother up on the screen.

Speaking of baby brother, he is doing really well! Fluid was good and there were no signs of any problems caused by the fall yesterday, thank goodness! He's also growing really well (which is one of the things they were worried about last time), he's measuring a week and four days ahead and supposedly weighs about three pounds, three ounces at this point. I knew he'd been doing some growing recently!

All his little body parts are measuring well and looking good still, and his echogenic bowel is almost completely gone, which is great!

After the tech checked everything, she said, "let me just change over to the other machine really quick". I figured that must mean just a machine with a different frequency or something (ok, I had no idea what she meant, but I just trusted she knew what she needed to do), but suddenly, THIS picture came up on the screen:

All cuddled up :) 3D pic... A little weird, but cool all at the same time, lol ;)

I didn't know they DID 3D ultrasounds at maternal fetal medicine, and since I wasn't planning to spend 80 bucks to get an elective one, I didn't think I'd be getting one. We were surprised, but it was pretty cool! Karl thinks baby looks pretty alien-ish but I think he looks WAY more like a baby than in his alien-demon-skeletor pic... That was pretty creepy looking.

Another side note, we saw a different maternal fetal specialist today, and when came in to check us out, she informed us that she had been the one who had done our ultrasound with Evie. She thought it was kind of cool to see her now on the outside, running around and chattering up a storm!

While I thought this was going to be our final ultrasound this pregnancy, apparently we still get to go in one more time to follow up, just in case, at 34 weeks. I guess I'm happy we get another chance to see him, especially since there aren't any major concerns at this point, but I do feel like I've spent an awful lot of time at maternal fetal medicine! Oh well, I'm just going to be glad I get to see him so often :)