Benjamin's 4th Birthday

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009 was Ben's 4th birthday. Daddy took a vacation day that day so we were able to have the birthday party on his actual birthday, which was a lot of fun for Benjamin.

He had a Star Wars theme to his party, though we weren't able to find much in the way of Star Wars party decorations (without going to an expensive store), so we just used my Star Wars things as decorations, most of which are R2-D2. :)

We weren't able to spend a lot of money on gifts for him, but he enjoyed everything he received. I made him an ABC book using pictures of toys and objects around the house, which he loves the most I think. Another favorite toy of his is a plastic fishing pole he got from his uncle & aunt Dan & Becky. The pole has gotten a bit broken, but he still loves it and carries it around almost the entire day! I even had to tell him he couldn't sleep with it!

Here are some pictures from the day:

Birthday Preview

Tomorrow is Benjamin's 4th birthday (and party)! I spent the kids' naptime today decorating Ben's cake. He's having a Star Wars theme this year (it was a close run between Spiderman again or Star Wars, but the R2-D2 cake won out!) and I made him a R2-D2 cake. The cake always makes up pretty thin, and since there will be several of us eating the cake I made a second, round, cake to go under R2. I'm not 100% happy with the way it came out, but I'm sure it'll taste just fine. ;) Here are some pictures:

OB appointment

Tuesday, February 3rd I had another OB appointment. It was pretty much routine. This time, even the med student was able to find the heartbeat because the baby (whom we know is Peter now) has very little room to move around!

I've been feeling it, and the ultrasound on Monday confirmed it, that Peter's head is toward my upper right side and his feet are down toward my lower left, at an angle with his head facing up. Every so often, he must stretch his head up because I can feel it pushing against my side. It feels strange, but I love it because it reminds me that he is there and moving around well.

Today (2-4-09) I felt what I describe as the first real kick. It didn't feel like flutters or gas like I've been feeling for several weeks now, it felt like a real all-out kick. He still has his feet at the bottom, which will be interesting should he end up kicking my bladder!

Here are some Baby Bump pictures, taken today at 19 weeks 4 days:

20-Week Ultrasound

Today, we had the 20-week ultrasound (we're 19 weeks & 2 days pregnant, in the 20th week). The lady who did the ultrasound this time was the same one who did the ultrasound when we were 11 weeks pregnant. She remembered us from last time, which I thought was really neat. She told me that she was going to do a lot more measuring this time, but when she was done, she'd turn the monitor so that we could see better.

It was so amazing, as it always is, to see our little baby moving and growing and living inside me. We got to see the baby's heart beating, and the ultrasound tech pointed out all four chambers of the heart. She showed us just about every little millimeter of our baby, and pointed out features like the legs, knees, arms, hands, head, eyes, etc. Toward the end, the baby started to wake up and squirm a little, but it was still difficult to see the gender 100%. She came in from below the baby, to see between the legs, and was sort of nudging the baby with the ultrasound wand to get the baby to move it's legs a little for a clearer view, but the baby didn't want to move! She zoomed in and pointed out the area between the legs. She and I both agreed it looks like a little boy! :) She was pretty sure that what we were seeing between the baby's legs wasn't the cord. I remembered a similar view of our daughter Anna and her ultrasound view didn't look like this one. I'm 98% sure we're having a little boy. Which seems right, because I've been feeling like it was a boy almost from the start. In fact, the past few weeks, I've caught myself referring to the baby as "he" without stopping to think about it and then I think, "Well, we don't know yet, it might not be a 'he'!"

We got four pictures this time! One of my favorites is of his tiny little feet, which look like they'll be pretty long by the time he's born. The ultrasound tech was trying to get a cute picture of his face, but every time she'd zoom out, we'd see that his arm was right across his face. So, she had to go a little further to avoid the arm. So, the pictures of his face look more like a skull than a face, but it's still cute to see.

Here are the pictures:









We're excited to learn we're having a boy (we would have been happy with a girl too) and now we can start calling him by his name: Peter. We look forward to his birth-day and trust that God will help him grow big and strong...just not quite as big as his big brother who weighed in at 10 lbs at birth!!