Oh, I'm only half pregnant.

Well folks, she's definitely showing. We took this photo yesterday to document the halfway mark. EmmaLee hit 20 weeks and 140 lbs. all on the same day (both significant progression points to her). She is now starting to feel the baby move fairly regularly. The first half has gone by wicked fast, so I'm starting to feel a little under prepared but lets hope the baby shower next week will help fix that.

I guess 1st year wasn't a waste!

For you to really understand what a week we had last week, you may want to read the previous post before this one.

So I officially finished my first year of dental school two days ago. For the last 8 weeks I have been working in a dental office as noted in a previous post. The idea of it was to help us apply what we had learned during the year, particularly in our introduction to dental practice course. It turns out that the most important knowlege I applied during my internship was actually from Microbiology and outside of the dental office.

A few weeks ago EmmaLee got a bug bite on the back of her knee while we were at home. We didn't really think anything about it at the time. However, 3 or 4 days after our ultrasound she noticed a rash around the area and I noticed another rash on her chest. Because of what I learned in Micro and the bug bite, I immediately suspected Lyme Disease. The picture above is EmmaLee's rash. Lyme disease has this very classic "Bull's Eye" appearance. It is spread by deer ticks which apparently are very prolific in the North East. We think it was one of the smaller ones (larva or nymph form) that got her.

Part of the reason that we didn't worry when she originally got the bug bite is because we han't been to a wooded area recently. We did go in the woods in Concord with my sister's family but EmmaLee remembers getting the bite before that. We're still puzzled about where the tick came from. Well, we got her to the doctor that day and got her on some antibiotics. It immediately started to clear up. The doctor said that due to the immediate intervention there was very little risk of any of the chronic effects of Lyme disease and that the baby would be fine.

Disclaimer: This post is not intended to be a pity party. We are actually doing really great and have a positive outlook about everything that is going on with us.

It's a......

So something you should know about EmmaLee - she's awful about waiting for surprises. A couple of years ago I told her I got her birthday present about 3 weeks before early and from then on the questions never stopped. It's a good thing I don't give in easily. Anyway, the point is that I was shocked when she said she didn't want to find out what we were having. Luckily I was able to convince her that we needed to. So for those who don't know, we're having a boy (the above ultrasound shows two thighs, a bum, and indicates his male-ness with an arrow)!!! EmmaLee says that she thinks every girl needs to have an older brother so we were glad to find out we're having a boy first. Unfortunately, the main purpose of this ultrasound is not to determine gender....

During this ultrasound they check all the major organs to make sure everything is okay. They looked at the baby's heart, brain, kidneys, spinal cord etc. These all looked normal but they noticed that the baby has a cleft lip. This is a 3D ultrasound showing the baby's face. You can see his head between the uterus on either side towards the top. You can see his eyes, nose and mouth. The cleft is on his left (your right). You can see the skull is not fully formed yet, but that is normal. The doctor said that she is pretty sure there is an opening on the palate as well. From our other ultrasound pictures it looks like the cleft in the palate is minor (to our untrained eyes), but we have another ultrasound on August 8th to take a better look. After that ultrasound we will start meeting with specialists. Despite all this, there is good news: the world leader in cleft lip/palate surgery is at Children's Hospital here in Boston. Also, clefts can be caused by many other disorders that can have negative effects but we had an amniocentesis performed to test for these other disorders and they were all negative. Our Father in Heaven really had a reason for us to be out here and we are definitely starting to understand that now. I'm sure we will have a handsome, strapping young lad in a few years down the road.

Here are a couple of other ultrasound shots that may help you visualize the cleft in the other ultrasound.

Here he is covering it with his hand like he is embarassed. He's cute already! The next one is a side view of the same thing.

Thanks Eddie Vedder!

This last weekend we got a visit from the McDowells (Bob's sister and family). They told us that they would come visit us while we were in Boston and they came through with their promise with a little help from Pearl Jam.

For those of you who don't know my brother in law Craig, he's a big Pearl Jam fan. They were just on an east coast only tour so he took advantage of the opportunity to see them and us all at once. They played a show in Hartford, CT and two in the Boston area. Craig took me to the Hartford show and one of the shows here for which I need to give a public thank you!

We had a really good time while they were here. We took them on the freedom trail, to the Boston Children's Museum, to Concord and Lexington and to Newport, Rhode Island to see the mansions and the North Atlantic. It was an eventful weekend but it was a lot of fun. It was really great to meet our niece Parker and to play with Zoie too. Thanks for the visit guys! More visitors are always welcome!