Say cheese

So our little one finally cooperated today (after much coaxing) and we were able to see his face. That was a very surreal moment. We thought we would share our little cutie with you. There are several more pictures in the ultrasound section of the web album.

Realizations about pregnancy

So now that I am almost getting into the home stretch with this pregnancy (11 to 14 weeks left, depending on when I deliver) I am starting to realize some things about pregnancy that didn't make as much sense before.

• Weight is a completely irrelevant issue right now (thank you Lord!)
• Where in the past it would make you pee your pants if you saw lumps rolling across your abdomen, right now it's endearing.
• When pregnant women hold their tummies, they're just checking to make sure nothing has ruptured.
• The going to the bathroom thing wouldn't be so instantaneously important or frequent but for the fact that you have someone in there who waits until your bladder hits that magical amount of critical mass and then decides to do a canon ball directly onto it.
• I no longer own my liver, it has become my child's favorite play thing.
• While a normal person maybe OK with the temperature in a room being slightly elevated, right now, the portable heat generator I'm carrying keeps me constantly warm (I was always cold before, but Mike is loving my constant need for fans and AC as long as I don't make him too cold).
• Pregnant women waddle because that is the most comfortable way to walk so as to stretch the torso for extra space.
• Things that fall on the floor, stay on the floor. There is no lady-like way to bend over and pick things up while pregnant. In not too long there will just be no way to bend.
• Unfortunately for Mike, the sense of sympathy for the husband at this time is something that has to be coaxed to come forward.
• I have come to look at breathing normally as a luxury I will not have for the next several months.
• Athletic endeavors of any kind would be perfectly fine for pregnant women. However they are squelched by three of the previous issues- the portable heat generator, the feeling of something popping out, and the not breathing normally.
• God's interesting sense of humor allows the belly button to pop out just about the time you can no longer bend over to check that it's still intact. How convenient.
• As if the aforementioned items don't make sleeping interesting enough, random charlie horses make a whole other challenge.

Don't get me wrong, I actually love being pregnant. This is such an amazing time. I'm constantly amazed by the way God has designed my body to work to create a person! There are still times that it is hard to wrap my mind around and it doesn't seem real- and then he rolls over sending a wave across my tummy. It's just that I can finally understand why some women are so miserable at the end of their pregnancy that the thought of labor is actually a relief. We won't discuss the labor thing now though. I still haven't quite reached that point. I may be a little uncomfortable, but labor still just sounds painful.

It's a....

If you can't tell what it is from that shot I'll end your suffering. We're having a boy!! He will be Michael John Chynoweth. He'll be the 4th generation of Michaels in the family (his father, grandfather and great grandfather are all Michael - or Larry, Curly and Moe as we call them) and John is his other grandfather's name. It seemed fitting for a good family name. From what we can tell and what we are told, he's doing well. We had a little bit of a scare a few weeks ago. Results from all our tests came back normal, but they told us they found a small cyst in his brain. Anytime someone says the word cyst, particularly in relation to your child's brain, it is unnerving. They said that it most likely was nothing but that we could schedule with a perinatologist to make sure. The earliest appointment we could get was two weeks later and we anxiously watched them take many more measurements. The nice part was watching little Michael do end-over-end flips and grab his toes to pull them up next to his ears. Finally the doctor came in and explained that the cyst is perfectly harmless. It's a choroid plexus cyst and is about 5mmx8mm. That's about the size of a pencil eraser. He said it was not on both sides of the brain, which is a good sign, that all the other organs were perfectly normal, which would not be the case if this were a problem, and that my quad screen was normal, which would typically be abnormal if this were an issue. All those things combined to mean that this should disappear on its own in a few more weeks. We'll go back in one more time to make sure that everything is fine with it, but we don't have any reason to worry (I think it's really funny for them to say that to first time parents!! If it's not this, we're gonna find something else to freak us out!).

So here we are now at 24 weeks. Things are moving along much faster now. We're doing more work on little Michael's room and we ordered his baby furniture this weekend. We also had the opportunity to go on a camping trip this weekend. Apparently people think it's crazy to go camping 6 months pregnant, but we had a blast!! Mike and our friends took very good care of me and we had a wonderful time. This is me camping and pregnant. There's also a belly by week sequence of shots in the photo album on the side as well as ultrasound pictures of Michael. We started the belly pictures at week nine when my pants started getting a little tight.

In other news Mike's brother, sister-in-law and our niece moved back from Columbia and were in town for a while, which gave crazy Uncle Mike time to get his niece all riled up. They're heading up to Jacksonville where she's from to continue the job hunt, but we're hoping to be seeing more of them now.

Things with Mike's mom's breast cancer treatment are looking promising, yet still tiring. The cancer has responded very well to the chemo and all of her tests so far have indicated that there's no sign of spread and small chance of recurrence. She finished her 4th round of chemo a few weeks ago, which was supposed to be her last and a nice mental barrier to reach. However her doctor came back with some research and indicated that he thought that 2 more rounds would be very beneficial. She had her 5th round last week and has had a rough week since. She'll finish up in July and should be able to move on to surgery in August. Please continue to pray for her mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually. And pray for the rest of the family to be able to minister to her in the best ways possible.

We know so many of you are praying for us, little Michael and our family and we so greatly appreciate it! We'll continue to keep you updated as we go along.