22 weeks

Well, it's only taken us 5 months to decide that creating a blog would allow us to share all the updates on Baby Menke with all of you who are near and far. By creating this blog, we can post pictures and give you updates about the baby's progress and growth. Plus you can share all of your comments with us. We hope that you'll like being able to stay in touch this way. It can be a new adventure for all of us.

Last week we had the big ultrasound. This was the appointment where they would tell you the baby's gender if you wanted to know. Just to bother some of you (specifically the aunts-to-be), we don't want to know - really we just want to have the doctor's words - "It's a boy!" or "It's a girl!" - mean something and we're looking forward to the surprise. But it appears that baby didn't want to show anything off anyway, kept his/her legs together the whole time - so modest already :)

The ultrasound was really quite amazing. It's incredible what all you're able to see - we were able to see each of the four chambers of baby's heart, the valves going into and out of the heart, the veins in the umbilical cord, the stomach, the bladder, the kidneys, and the brain. Everything looks good at this point - the doctor kept saying "look at that perfect little X" - apparently the baby is perfect already. Would you have expected anything less with us as parents :)

What made us laugh, however, was the technician's first comment - your baby has really long legs! We exchanged a look because neither of us has long legs, but then after she looked at everything on the baby, it just appears that our baby is a little bigger than expected for its age. Everything was measuring between a week and three weeks bigger than expected. Plus most babies at this point are 12 ounces, well Baby Menke is already a pound. So at this point, it looks like we might have a big baby. This is typically the last ultrasound before the baby is born, but the doctor wants to monitor the baby's growth, so we'll have another one in 8 weeks. I guess this is my punishment for being big myself as a baby -

What amazed me the most during the ultrasound was how big the baby was. Even though I get weekly updates on the baby's size, in my mind the baby was still just a little peanut. So when the technician had the ultrasound wand all the way upto my ribs and I learned that from head to butt the baby is probably about as long as a banana, I understood why I'm popping out as much as I am. So hold a banana up to your stomach and add another few inches for legs and you can imagine the size of Baby Menke!

It's amazing how fast this first half of the pregnancy has gone. I guess there's a reason that God gives you a little over 9 months to prepare. We've been amazed by what all there is to think about and all the things that are out there to buy. We've been working on picking out the bedroom furniture and we're hoping to register tonight at both Babies 'R Us and Target, but stay tuned as I don't know if we'll get it all done in one night. We'll probably be asking lots of questions - What's this for? Do we really need this? The baby is going to do what? We've been very thankful for our friends who have been letting us experience their first few months as new parents as we learn little bits and pieces from them. I guess there are advantages to being one of the last in the group to have kids.

With each day, the pregnancy becomes more real (and with each pair of pants I can no longer button!) and we're anxiously looking forward to what our life will be like after the baby is born. We are looking forward to seeing and hearing from you soon. Take a look at the pictures of both baby and mama and let us know what you think! We'll be updating the blog as we have more details, so check back every once in a while and see how baby and mama grow!

Much love to all of you,
Aaron and Mandy