Our 4th Prenatal Visit

Okay folks, 4 more weeks have gone by and here we are at our 4th prenatal visit. So how did things go? Well, everything went great. It was nothing different to report except we did opt to have the 3 screen or tri-screen blood test done. This is what it is. The test measures the levels of up to four substances in your blood: AFP, hCG, uE3, and inhibin A. Having abnormal levels of these substances in your blood is associated with an increased likelihood of carrying a baby with Down syndrome. Thanks BabyCenter.com. This screen isn't mandatory, but they most at least offer it. Me and Phil had decided from the start to have this done. The test does more times than not comes back with a bad reading when actually there's no problems, and visa versa. But when it comes back good, more times than likely it is. Understand? Either way, you'd just go and have a more detailed screen done. We are not worried, not thinking about it, leaving it in God's Hands. Screens take 1 1/2 weeks. Will keep you posted on that.

Outside of that, it was business as usual. We got the joy of hearing Our Lil' Monkey's heart beat and it was strong. Video? Of course I took a video :) Check it out below.

So what's on the horizon? Well, this Friday is our Big Ultrasound! This is where they do a more detailed ultrasound looking and measuring the baby's head, legs, arms, body length and basically everything and then, hopefully if the baby cooperates, you will be able to know the sex of the baby. Excited!! So, if you haven't done our gender poll, do it!!

http://channersfirstbaby.blogspot.com/2009/03/baby-gender-poll.html

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Peace Out Folks
Chris C.

Baby Gender Poll

Chris and I decided we were have just way too much fun trying to figure out what the baby was going to be on our own. We wanted to find a way to make sure all of you could join the fun also. So we have created a baby gender poll so we can all pitch in and vote for the baby's sex.

So what do you think we will be having, a boy or a girl? We have our own ideas but we want to hear from you. We will close the poll and give the final results on the morning of our 20 week ultrasound. We don't know the date of the appointment yet but as soon as we do we will let you know. To give you an estimate, we will be at 20 weeks on May 6, so any time around then.

To make this even more exciting Chris and I have decided to make this a nice little contest. The prize to be won will be your very own, creatively designed T-Shirt with the baby's name, our name, your name and something cute like.

To enter the contest you must:

1. Choose your gender on the poll to the right and hit vote. If you want, you can see the current results of all the votes submitted so far.

2. Make a comment on this post telling us what gender you choose and what you would like the baby to be named with that gender. We have some names chosen but we are curious to know what you think and still open for ideas.

3. We are opening this fun contest to family and friends. It's just easier and will help cut down on random strangers voting.

4. And that is it.

On the day of the ultrasound when we find out the gender we will close the voting and chose a winner. We will chose a winner out of the correct votes. For instance, if it is a girl all the people who voted for a girl will be put in a hat and the winner drawn. (We will video tape it so it is fair :) ) If you chose boy, then you will not be included in the drawing. And it if is going to be a boy then it will be reversed.

Sound Good!!! I hope so, enjoy, have fun and Good Luck!!!!

Peace Out,
Philippa Channer

Our 3rd Prenatal Visit

We are in the 2nd trimester and about 4 weeks ago we had our 2nd prenatal visit. Well, what felt like the longest 4 weeks in our lives finally came and we had our 3rd prenatal visit. We were all excited like kids waiting for Christmas. We had all our documents in order, like Phil always has. We had all the questions we wanted to ask. I mean, we had 4 weeks to think about them. Plus, every day we are watching the Discovery Health channel and baby stuff, so we always seem to have questions there and all we do then is write them down. And we were off. Appointment was at 9am.

So we got there, checked in, and waited to see the doctor. While waiting, we are racking our brains for other questions we might have missed or just thought of. Also, we are playing with the kids in the waiting room. Cute. Finally, we are in! I wait in the room while Phil goes off and does her vitals and stuff and comes back. The doctor...or wait, she was a Nurse Practitioner, comes in and we were like, wait a second, you're not the person we have been seeing! I guess people are allowed to have a day off too. But this NP was pretty down to earth and cool. She was lively and made us feel very comfortable and when we brought out our note pad with many questions, she just sat back and said shoot let's hear the questions. She likes questions :) All in all, we got all our questions answered and we were good.

Finally she said the words we have been waiting for for like 4 weeks, LET'S HEAR THAT BABY'S HEART BEAT. YYYEEESSSSS!!!! Finally :)

So she pulls out her Doppler, squeezes the cold gel on Phil's stomach and we were off. At first nothing. She reassures us that sometimes when the baby is positioned in a certain way, it's sometimes difficult to hear off the back. But then, there was the very familiar and welcoming sound we have come to just love, our baby's heart beat. There it was, thumping away interrupted by whooshes and knocks and cracks. I just thought that it was the Doppler, but the NP said, wow you have an active baby. All those the sounds along with the heart beat was the sound of our little one moving around. I guess he didn't care to be bothered. And I say he, because well we don't know yet, and I refuse to say it.

I took a video which I hope you can hear the NP as she explains the different sounds you hear from the Doppler. You'll hear the baby's heart, the baby's movement, and she showed us the difference between the baby's heart beat and Phil's heart beat which you heard through the placenta.

So, the next prenatal visit is in *sigh* another 4 weeks and very shortly after that we'll have the longer more detailed ultrasound to measure the baby and see what we are having. EXCITED!!!

In the mean time, take our poll. What do you think we are having? Boy or Girl?

Ok, here is the video. Enjoy.

Peace Out Folks
Chris C