From the Beginning to Today

Hi everyone. This is the first post and we have 19 weeks and 1 day of catching up to do. I am going to start from the beginning and work our way up to date.

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3/22/08 - Let us start with this question. Who can say no to a night of karaoke, friends and drinking at the bar inside the Roswell Bowling Alley. Not us! We have put thought into all the nights around the date of conception and this one just sticks out. We always have a blast with all of our friends when we go out for karaoke. Who would have known that this night would deliver a gift to last a lifetime.

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4/23/08 - I will start out by saying I remember this night vividly. I may never forget it. I was at my part time job working and I am pretty darn sure it was between 8 and 8:30 pm when my cell phone rang. It was Sara calling to not only say hello but to add "um sweetie I have something to tell you. I took a home pregnancy test". The exact set of words that came out of my mouth were "Are you freaking serious!". Sara said, "yes it shows positive. I am pregnant."

That news threw both of us for a loop. We were very excited but we were both very scared at the same time. It was the start of our long....long wait for Claire.

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5/19/08 - Claire's first picture. You really cannot see much. If you look to the right side of the black hole you will see little "+". That is her.....the bean. Sara and I gave her this nickname for the first few months. We were dying to know what "the bean" was.

Sara goes to the doctor every week. Every week they take a urine and blood sample, take Sara's blood pressure and listen for Claire's heartbeat. I guess this is a good time to tell everyone the list of medications Sara is on. Sara has to give herself shots of blood thinners every day. They also have her taking prenatal vitamins, folic acid, DHA, and baby aspirin.

6/12/08 - The second ultrasound pic we have. She still looks like a bean. You can barely see her. Look closely. She is in there.

6/19/08 - Today was the first visit to the Perinatal specialist. We went and visited Dr. Lopez. He was very nice. We were very excited and I had devised a plan that would try and get them to tell us the sex. HAHA! Jackpot. Sara thought it was way to early. That is why she is still having a hard time believing it even today. Here are some pictures just one week later:

This one is Claire's side profile of her whole body. You can see her head, stomach, and legs. You can even see her bones starting to be defined.

This one is of little Claire's foot.

This is a picture of Claire's head. You can really see her cheek and jaw bones.

Look she is waving.

Just a few days after these pictures Sara felt her first flutters. It is no wonder she did because during the ultrasound Claire was moving around a lot. She was kicking her legs and waving her arms. It was very very cool. I had said to the doctor that "I wished we knew what we were having because I was tired of calling her the bean". The doctor then zoomed in from her bottom and said that he would give us a 95% chance of it being a girl. He said he did not suggest that we go buy a lot of pink (to late) but it looked like we were having a girl.

7/3/08 - Here are the next set of ultrasound pictures. You can see she has grown quite a bit. I think that the biggest change is she is becoming more defined.

You can really see her ribs and head. If you look close you can see her ear.

This picture is of her sleeping. She is sleeping with her arms and legs straight out. They had to wake her up this day.

8/6/08 - Sara called me freaking out. She said that the baby just did a somersault under her belly button. Sara has felt a lot of flutter but she said that she had not felt anything like that. I cannot wait until her movements are strong enough so I can feel them. It should be soon.

8/7/08 - Sara's most up to date weekly doctors visit. Claire's heart rate is at 157 bpm. The nurse said she sounded like galloping horses because she was moving so much. Up till now Sara has gained 8 pounds and up to 132. I just noticed tonight while we were doing this that her belly button is TOTALLY different. She's gonna have an outtie!