Last Sonogram Before the Birth

This is a good profile pic.
He seems to like putting his arm
in front of his face like that.

This one and the next 3 are face shots.

Another face shot

And another face shot

Only 5 weeks left to go and we are attempting to finish everything before the arrival of Liam Thomas Newton. He weighs 4lbs 7ozs (don't ask how they got the scale in there to know that) and seems to be where he needs to be on height, body size, noggin size, etc...

The Decision

We have been struggling with the decision: whether to go natural-ish or to go c-section. We had a tough, scary time delivering Alex the usual way. I won't go into the gory details, but we were apparently close to losing one or both. In the end, we had around 5 or 6 nurses, a midwife, the doctor, the anesthesiologist, and a tech or two in the room for the delivery. It ended up being an emergency situation, and very close to being an emergency c-section. Jenn ended up with a stage 4 (let’s just say it’s a medical procedure that the mention of makes even seasoned nurses shudder).

We have had several conversations and done research on this. Jenn has been practically guaranteed another stage 4 if we try to deliver the usual way due to her bone structure and weakend tissue from the previous stage 4. So today we made the decision to go with a c-section this time around. Given all of the variables, it just seems like the best route to increase our odds of having a healthy and happy baby and mother. It is certainly not ideal, but it seems to be our best bet.

Here is the good news. We will know within the next 48 hours the day Liam will be born. That really brings it home that we are, indeed, having a baby in the very near future. It also means that we will not go through the “Groundhog Day Effect”. Here is a shortish description of the “Groundhog Day Effect”…

“Groundhog Day Effect”
This is the feeling you get when every day is apparently the same coupled with a feeling that every morning your life should have changed drastically at some point in the night. This relates to the movie “Groundhog Day” with Bill Murray, where he has to relive the same day over and over again until one day, after a life changing outlook altering moment, he wakes up and his whole life has changed for the better. This is also the feeling me and Jenn had while waiting for labor to start with Alex. Every night we would go to bed thinking “this is it, this will be the night, tomorrow we will be parents and our whole lives will have changed.” Every morning we would wake up to our alarm clocks, and go get ready for work as usual. This was amplified by the fact that Alex was overdue by over a week.

We will let you all know the date as soon as we know. In the meantime, we still have a lot to do around the house to finish getting ready. Wish us luck!

3lbs 2ozs and Growing

 

Here is the latest sonogram picture. The little guy would not move his arm from in front of his face, so it was hard to get a good profile picture. He's not even born yet and he's already not cooperating. We did get confirmation, he is a he. The evidence was pretty much indisputable (he's hung like a 3 month old).

This pregnancy has been much different. Liam hasn't punched mommy yet for getting poked at (like a Mr. Alex did at one point during a sonogram). He does get the hiccups and other cool stuff like that. A few nights ago, I swear we felt his hand.

Jenn looks great. She is all belly. I know she doesn't think so, but she is very cute when she is pregnant.

We are busy preparing for Liam's arrival. Our good friends (and boy do we have some good friends) lent/returned a bunch of baby stuff. We still have to make another run out to Canton to get more from some other friends. You guys rock! Also on the agenda is getting the house in order. We have to move our living room downstairs to the basement. Unfortunately it is not quite finished. So we have spent 3 of our past 4 weekends working on the house. Once again, great friends and great family have been invaluable. We're trying desperately to get everything done before St. Patty's. The only thing left really is the basement and some cleanup both inside and out.

We hope to see you all St. Patty's. If not, you will be missed and we'll have to catch up with you later. For those in the know, once Liam arrives we'll be up to our necks in newborn related busy work such as changing diapers, feedings, laundry, washing dishes, and occasionally getting urinated on (apparently in thanks? for all of our efforts).

Not Much to Report

Well, Jenn had a regular check-up and everything is still going well. The heart rate is around 140, Jenn's blood pressure is excellent, and the baby is active.

We are in the fun "alien" stage. That's where you can actually see hands and feet pressing out Jenn's belly. Jenn's appetite has increased as well. She is after all eating for two. She does look so cute. She is all belly (even though she'll vehemently disagree and make several comments about her backside being too big). I think she looks great though, and so does everyone else in the world. I'm starting to worry that our house is full of trick mirrors that only react to estrogen and pull some kind of circus fun house affect to make objects appear larger than they really are. I just don't see what she is talking about.

We have another sonogram on March 10th. It will be nice to see the baby again. Not too much longer and we have to start going to the doctor every two weeks. Both of us are so excited. We just can't wait to see what this baby looks like, and what kind of personality he is going to have. Alex is such a wonderful kid, we just can't imagine how this one is going to turn out.

Until then, we just try to make it day by day and keep our fingers crossed that everything turns out alright in the end.

Twig and Berries, It's a Boy!

It’s (semi) official, it's a boy! We went today for another sonogram. Jenn and I were both fairly confident we were having a girl this time. The heart rate was up; she is carrying low, all signs pointed to us having a girl. So we were both surprised to see his little twig and berries, clear as day.

Everything looks good so far. The baby looks healthy and presumably happy. Because as we all know, babies are always happy… Yeah. That’s it. All smiles and giggles. I digress.

The edumacated guesstimated weight is 10 ounces, and it looks like we are a bit further along than we had originally thought. The due date will probably end up being earlier in May. That’s good. Hopefully we will be on schedule, and Jenn will recover enough to have Alex’s birthday party after the delivery.

Say hello to little Liam Thomas Newton. Keep your fingers crossed and the well wishing flowing. Oh, and notice that it looks like he’s got his finger in his nose on the first picture. The sonogram tech (nurse, whatever she was she was great) could not get a good profile shot. The little bugger wouldn’t roll over for us. Of course, he was all over the place when she needed him to be still for the measurements… He’s already not cooperating.