Bebe

We had a wonderful, wonderful morning today! Last night was an adventure - we have had some very severe weather this past week, but everyone is okay. I had to drive home from a church meeting in an extremely severe storm, which was definitely one of the scariest drives of my life, and we had no power last night and sat huddled in the bathroom while sirens went off. We are so thankful that we are okay, and this time no one seems to have been seriously injured or killed in Central Arkansas.

But this morning, it was just plain goodness.

I had appointment to have a nuchal translucency scan done, which is just a fancy ultrasound that looks for some genetic problems (like what we lost Violet to last year). Everything looked PERFECT! In fact, baby is measuring a week ahead (which is normal for all my babies - they just leap ahead at this point, but I am certain of my dates from earlier ultrasounds). Unfortunately, the pictures I got were very blurry - here is baby with his or her head on the left and leg sticking up on the right

Bummer about the quality of the picture, but this morning is was very fun to see! The doctor kept bouncing the ultrasound wand on top of my belly to try to get baby into position, and baby kept putting his hand over his face (or her hand over her face??) like "this is all just too much" ha ha!

Getting past this 11 week part, now further along than any pregnancies we have lost, and seeing everything in detail this morning - heart, brain, umbilical cord, hands and feet, facial bones, etc. - was so, so reassuring. I feel for the first time like we are really going to make it this time, like in just six months we will have a brand new baby to cherish. Praise God!!

I have been feeling better, which I am also so thankful for. I am having a little trouble with my asthma, but other than that I'm over that virus I had last week. I am still queasy (I have never been queasy past 10-11 weeks) but it's getting more manageable.

The children and I are headed to California tomorrow (yes, me + three small children across the country on airplanes, alone). I'm very excited about seeing my mom and brother and sister-in-law and most of all my new baby nephew!! I need to start packing... our dryer died yesterday, which means I might also have to make a run to the laundromat tonight for a load - that's one thing about our weather right now: no clotheslines!