Baby Bump

This past week, I have been in Carmel, California (about a 5 minute walk down the beach to the Pebble Beach PGA Golf Course) for a San Francisco Sales District meeting. I saw an otter, some seals and sea lions, and even a couple of whales! The most exciting thing I saw was in the car at the Evansville airport...Joey is starting to show! I noticed her baby bump has definitely grown since I left last weekend. While I was away, Joey bought a fetal heart monitor to listen for bitty's heart. It is not as good as the ones in the doctor's office, so we aren't always sure what we are hearing, but I know that we will really enjoy that little machine. We go in on March 23rd to get out next ultrasound, when we will be able to see if bitty is a boy or girl! I'll make sure to keep you up to date with the rest!

02/13/2006 Ultrasound

Dr. Walker wanted to check on Bitty again, so he scheduled Joey for another ultrasound. She just got out of it about an hour ago. Bitty was moving, hiccupping, and even flipped all the way over while the ultrasound was watching! Bitty's heart is still beating strong at about 152 bpm. Here are the latest images of bitty!!!

Baby Boom!

This post isn't about our pregnancy, but about our friends. Within the last week or so, Joey's friend Ericka (whom she knows through work), my old coworker Matt Rice, another one of my old coworkers' (Chad Seaton) brother, and soon to be our friends Tomelle and Troy are all proud parents to brand new babies! Ericka had Brooklyn, Matt had Gillian, Chad's new niece is named Olivia, and Troy & Tomelle's new son (the only boy of the boom) will be named Tucker. We are SO EXCITED for you guys. Congratulations on the new additions to your families!

Can you guess Bitty's sex?

So now that we are starting to get a little closer to when we will be able to find out, Joey and I wanted to start taking guesses on Bitty's sex. Leave comments or send an email to make your guesses. We will tally up the guesses and see who was right when we find out. I'll track it on the side like I did the names. So let us know... do you think Bitty will be a BOY or a GIRL???

Exciting update!

First things first! As of Tuesday, Joey can now feel Bitty moving!!! She has been feeling fluttering sensations in her belly. The first one was right after she poked around and tried to feel where Bitty was growing. I think it might have been a little annoying, because moments later Joey started to feel Bitty moving around for the first time! It is so cool!

This picture was the picture we put on the Christmas cards we sent out. This was the very first family photo, as Bitty was 1 week old here (well sort of, I guess Bitty wasn't born yet, but you get the picture). We didn't know it yet, but all of our family members were present for this picture, so it is pretty special for us. What a great Christmas present it was to find out about Bitty!!!

Send Us Names

Joey and I have been picking out names for Bitty and thought we could use a little input. We have a few that we like for both a boy namd and a girl name, but we are always changing our minds. We have a long time before the name is final and wanted to see if you all had any new names to share. To send us a name, just comment on this posting by clicking on the comment link on the lower right corner of this posting. If this post moves down off the page, you can always access it by clicking on "Send Us Names" under "Features" in the side bar. After we get some names, I'll post the most popular names on this stie. Thanks for your help!

BITTY HAS LIMBS!!!

We had our last ultrasound with Dr. Gentry's office today. It was a little bit sad and a little bit exciting to be leaving his care, but it is a great sign that things are going very very well. The nurse, Bea, even told us everything looked "perfect"! When we finally saw the ultrasound, we were so excited! BITTY HAS ARMS AND LEGS!!! Bitty even sort of has a tail where the spine extends beyond the hips. You can actually see the brain here too! If you look at Bitty's head (far right again) the dark spot is his brain (it takes up more of Bitty's head from another angle, but we didn't get that shot). The gray part going from Bitty's waist over to the side of the gestational sack is the umbilical cord, and if you look really closely, you can sort of make out part of the placenta (try looking for a faint line below Bitty's arms). We are so excited to finally be going to a NORMAL doctor. We are so excited it is ridiculous! As always, thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers. Joey has been really REALLY sick, so please pray for her comfort as well. She has actually lost almost 10 pounds because she can't keep anything down. Our next ultrasound isn't for a few more weeks now, but we will be back on the site to ask for your help with names and to guess the birth weight, date, and length.

2nd Ultrasound

Joey and I had a bit of a scare with some mild bleeding. So when our OB, Dr. Walker, asked us to come into his office for an unscheduled ultrasound after hearing about it, we were very worried. Thankfully, everything was just fine, and we were able to see another picture of our new family member!!! Meet Bitty (we couldn't keep calling our new baby an "it" could we?). Bitty is currently 1.26cm and has a heart that is beating at 156 bpm. Bitty is right on track in length and heart rate, and Joey is doing fine! We are SO EXCITED!!! The O.B. even told us that there is now less than a 5% chance of miscarriage! Thank the Lord for this miracle, and for all of your support and prayers.

2nd Ultrasound - 2

This image lets you see the yolk sack that is nurishing Bitty. It is near the feet to the left. Bitty's head is on the right and the heart is just about where the body starts to widen up again traveling left from the head and right from the arrow in the picture.

New Family Member!!!

I just wanted to share our exciting news with everyone!!! Today, Joey and I had our first ultrasound scan and we saw our child's heart beating!!! We are SO EXCITED!!! This is Baby Alsman's first picture! We will be sharing all of our news and ultrasound pictures with everyone on this blog. Thanks to everyone that prayed for us. 2005 was a very difficult year, as we worked through four miscarriages. This time, is different though. We actually watched our new baby's heart beating on the ultrasound screen. What an incredible feeling! We know that this is out of our hands. We have done everything in our power, and now it is up to God and his plan for this life. Thank you for all of your prayers, and please continue to pray for us and our new family member.