That's My Boy!

At 24 weeks, our baby is about the size of a papaya.

It has been over a month and a half since our last blog post and life continues to move forward at an incredible pace. The two biggest things that have happened is that Meg and I now know the gender of our baby and we have become homeowners.

At our 16 week doctors appointment, Meggan and I were told to come to the 20 week appointment knowing whether or not we wanted to know the gender of our baby. According to most of our baby books, doctors can determine the sex of the baby at around 18-20 weeks. The decision to find out our baby's gender was simple. We wanted to know! Meggan and I are both (for the most part) planners, and we wanted to begin planning the birth of our kid. At the 20 week appointment, we spent about an hour with the ultra sound technician as she studied, measured, and took pictures of our baby. The appointment was surreal. We were filled with a lot of excitement and and a little of anxiety. With every measurement and visual we were reassured of the health of our baby. Eyes...check, nose...check, 2 hands...check, 2 feet...check, 10 fingers...check, 10 toes...check...and so on and so forth. The final thing our technician needed to determine was the gender of our baby. Finally, after nearly an hour of looking at our baby tumble around...then sleep...then tumble around...then sleep in Meg's belly, we were told that we were having a baby boy. According to the technician she always tries to confirm the gender to herself at least 3 times before telling the expecting parents. She also informed us that she has, thus far, has a 100% success rate in accurately determining the gender. We were, and still are, very happy to know that we are having a healthy baby boy. After the meeting with the technician, we meet with the doctor to go over the pictures and confirm with us that the baby was looking good and looked completely healthy. What an exciting and relieving day. Meggan's next appointment (her 24 week appointment) is later this week. See our baby's first pictures below:

Baby's Two Feet (next to each other)

Baby Sleeping

Baby Hand and Leg

Baby Spine Long

Baby Waving

Our other big news was that we closed on our new house on July 31st. We are still getting settled in and there is still work to be done, but it is a relief to know that we have a nice house, in a nice neighborhood to bring our new baby boy home to. More on the house (with pictures) hopefully in the next blog.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that with all the joy and excitement in our lives recently we have also experienced a lot of loss this summer. Meggan and I have lost 3 grandparents this summer. Each of them were wonderful people who brought much joy to those around them. Even during this sorrow, funerals bring together family and I am reminded of how excited I am to start our new family.

With all the change in our lives, I figured I would end with this:

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 - "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;"