Our baby boy

First, the proof that he is indeed a boy! As you can see, he is not at all shy about this!

Now, for some more fun pics! It was tough to get some of these pics, he was having fun with somersaults and all sorts of other gymnastics! :-)

Side profile of the baby

Is he sucking his thumb? :-)

Tibia and Fibula

Another side profile

Top-down shot of the brain

Drum roll please...

Well, the people had spoken a resounding "girl". In fact, ~75% of those who participated said "girl" and only ~25% said "boy". And a few funny jokesters said we were having twins and quadruplets. So what did we find out?

It's a boy!!! The Bryn Mawr Hospital Radiology nurses performed a full ultrasound test, checking everything from head to toe. Our baby boy is well and healthy! He weighs close to 1 lb, is about 20 weeks along, and has very long arms and legs (maybe he will be tall, unlike his father!). He was very active today; Rebecca has been feeling him tumble around more often these days. Rebecca has been feeling better lately, and we are both so excited to start calling our baby "he" and not "it" :-).

We have plenty of ultrasound pictures that we will be putting up very soon. Come back soon for the pictures!!

Any guesses?

Rebecca is now in the 20th week! Although she's feeling better than she was during the first trimester, she's still waiting for this supposed second trimester burst of energy :-). One exciting piece of news is that for a couple of weeks now, she has been able to feel the baby move -- she says it feels like popcorn popping. Here are some recent pictures; the bump is more visible! Lot of people have been asking us whether we think the baby is a boy or a girl. Well, what do you think? Leave your vote as a comment on this blog, we'd love to hear what you guys think. If the baby cooperates, we will be finding out the gender on Friday (March 30th), so come back soon to find out!! Thanks so much for your continued prayers.

The Bulge

We are 15 weeks in and Rebecca is now starting to show! Meghan and Jon (Rebecca's sister and her husband) are here visiting this weekend. We used their incredible Canon Rebel XT digital camera to take these pictures of "The Bulge". More pictures to come!

End of the first trimester

We have reached the end of the first thirteen weeks! We decided awhile ago that we wanted to give birth at The Birth Center (http://thebirthcenter.org/) in Bryn Mawr, PA. A birth center provides out-of-hospital, holistic midwifery care and TBC is one of the oldest and most established in the country. They are also located just across the street from the Bryn Mawr Hospital in case of emergency.

We just had our 13 week appointment at TBC. They said that Rebecca is healthy and progressing well and that the baby is also right where he/she needs to be! Holly, one of the midwives, used a doppler instrument so that we could hear the consistent heart rate: around 160 beats per minute. We could also hear how active our little baby was, moving around all over the place in there!

We will go back for another check-up after 17 weeks, and then for an ultrasound at 20 weeks to find out the gender of the baby. We'll keep you updated with more info and pictures soon!

Picture of our "peanut"

Yes, we are really pregnant -- and here is the proof! The first ultrasound picture of our baby! The little peanut is only about 1 inch long right now. The head, brain, torso, spinal cord, arms, and legs are all visible in this picture. The baby's heart is beating at 163 bpm, which is in the healthy range.

Thank you all for your love, prayers, and excitement! Please come back to this blog every now and then, we'll be posting new baby news. Please also feel free to leave your comments for us, we'd love to hear from you!