"....Is There Anybody in There...?!?!?!"

We can't wait to meet you!!!

Julia and Megan greet thier new brother or sister with giggles, hellos, and kisses...

Finally!!! We have the results back from our bloodtests and ultrasounds so that we can announce with much joy and anticipation that a new Thanksgiving Baby is on the way!! We have been waiting to make any official announcements until we could establish a heartbeat on an ultrasound as the risk of early miscarriage goes down from 30% to UNDER 5% once that heartbeat has been established! Last friday we were able to both see AND hear that beautiful sound!!

Pic from Our ultrasound at 8w1d

Here you can make out the head, to the far right, and the body to the left. If you look closely you can even see two little black spots that are the eyes. we were very easily able to watch the heart beating at this scan as well. The baby already has arms and legs, hands and feet, although too small and hard to see here. Baby is not quite an inch long yet. TINY yet amazing!!!

This is a picture I found on the internet of a baby at the same gestation ours was when our scan was done. It was also this picture that helped me see the head, body, and eyes on our own Little One. Once again, this is at 8 weeks gestation.

We are so very excited! It has been hard not to go around announcing it off the rooftops, we just had to wait until we were far enough along to detect the heartbeat.

Some quick facts so far:

**Estimated duedate is November 25th.

**Baby has been affectionatly nicknamed "ButterBall" in reflections of His/Her Thanksgiving duedate.

**We have the sweetest doctor. He and his wife had endured a loss at some point of time, so his heart is very tender towards us. He also ordered a scan for us at 5wks along although it was too early to detect a heartbeat, we COULD see a good intact sack with a yolksac inside, and although it didn't hold the confirmation of the heart beating, what we did see looked very good for that time along. And he put forth a good effort of reassuring us and ordered us to come back in 2 weeks to get the scan that you see up above. Both Joe and I feel very confident in his hands, which was a big thing I'd been praying about...you never know with military doctors where typically no ultrasounds are given unless "medically neccessary"...I'd been praying for a compassionate doctor and we've been given this as well as a very sweet and seemingly compassionate staff too!

**We go for our next appt in 2 weeks. It will be our 10wk appt, and rumor has it we will receive another scan then, but since our doc is on leave we're not quite sure what the new doc will do. I hope to look for a heartbeat on a doppler, but I do realize it will be early for that still. I think we had to be near 12-14wks before we could get a Hb on a doppler with the girls. I will be exstatic if we get another scan, but I'm taking it as it comes as well, completely happy with what we received last week for now. *grins*

**Sometime in July, if given a scan and a non-shy baby, we would be far enough along to know if boy or girl.

**If Boy, his name will most likely be Joseph James IV.

Girls names are in the air, but you're welcome to vote in a babyname poll I was playing around with, or offer other suggestions. All these names are so early in the preliminaries and would do good to not change before the next trimester sets in lol, although so far, we both really like them.

**Julia will gladly tell you "the baby will grow real real big and make mommy's tummy get really really REALLY BIG!!!" (her eyes get bigger each time she emphasizes the "really's" lol)

**When we asked the girls if they want a new brother or sister, these were thier replies:

Megan: "ummm...umm....ummmmm...I want a Baby brodder...."

Joe: you want a baby brother megan?"

Megan: "ummm...NO!!!"

Joe: oh you don't want a baby brother? do you want a baby sister then?"

Megan: "ummm...Noooooo...BaaBy CAREBEAR!!!!"

Joe: *laughs* "you want a baby carebear?"

Megan: "Yeah!!!!!" *BIG smiles* *eyes twinkle*

Joe turns to Julia: "Julia, do you want a baby brother or sister?"

Julia: "I want a baby brodder....no, *stutters*..a baaaaaby shistwer.."

Joe: "oh you want a baby sister?"

Julia: "uh hunh."

Joe: "What would you name her?"

Julia: "White"

Joe: "You'd name your new sister white?"

Julia: "yeeeeah."

Joe: "Okay, what would her middle name be?"

Julia: *long pause*..."Blue!!!"

Joe: "So her name will be Sister White Blue V*****?"

Julia: *half distracted at this point*....."nooooo....ummm....Baby Carebear!!!"

So, according to our girls we will have a baby carebear named Sister White Blue.

Think that would be a hyphenated name?