Baby "El"

Our mid-way ultrasound was yesterday... so we brought all 4 big brothers along to see their new baby.  They had a blast- at least Scott and Blaise did.  Michael seemed pretty interested too, though I doubt he knew what he was really looking at and Daniel, well, he was happy and smiley the whole time :)

This baby, due on Michael's 3rd birthday, July 24th, has been nicknamed baby El.  This is short for elephant.  When we first find out we are expecting we take a little trip to our local Hallmark and pick out a TY stuffed animal for the baby.  I prefer to find out the gender when the baby is born, and this way we have something gender neutral to call the baby until he is born.  I think it really helps the boys connect with the baby as a real person sooner too.  Anyway, the stuffed animal we found this time in Hallmark was an elephant, it's very cute, I promise and will probably be featured in the birth announcement in July.  It's also fun to see the boys grow up with their first stuffed animals.  Michael is very attached to his "Michael Moose".  Daniel was a chipmunk, so he has Chip and Dale- you should have seen the boy get all excited when he saw Chip and Dale in Disney World, first on TV in a little cartoon and then again lifesize.  Priceless.  Yes, he recognized them, because they've been his snuggle buddies since the day he was born.

Back to Baby El.  While the gender is still a mystery, this little one is quite healthy and kicking around like crazy.  I feel him often now and it makes me smile.  Here are a few of the pictures from yesterday.  The standard profile shot, a thumbs up from baby, and check out that bicep- the big boys got a kick out of that.

Also, in case you want to join the fun and guess the gender and all that good stuff ahead of time, I did set up another baby pool.



Finally, I have an important prayer request... we also found out yesterday that I have placenta previa.  This means that the placenta is very low and is covering my cervix.  In most cases as the baby grows the placenta will grow with my uterus and move up and out of the way.  If it doesn't this could mean complications, mainly that a natural birth would be completely out of the question.   We will have another ultrasound in a couple of months to check on this... so please pray that it moves up and we can move forward with our plans for another natural birth.   You might also pray for me to be at peace about the whole thing and not spend the next few months worrying about something I have no control over.  :)  You may or may not know that one of my favorite parts of pregnancy is the actual birth (yes, I'm weird, but that's another post), so this is kind of very important to me.