Ultrasound Photos and Explanation

Sorry, this is the best scanning job I could do. I know they're small. The first is of the profile and the 2nd is a split one (one of each arm and hand) and the last is another split one w/ the little toes on the left and the feet on the right. Use your imagination if you have to.

Just to explain a little about what I mentioned in my previous post about needing to have a f/u ultrasound to monitor something. The baby has a cyst in the left ventricle of his brain that is very small and I guess semi-common. It doesn't affect the brain development or anything really. I guess some adults have had these cysts their whole life and there are no side affects. Almost always they resolve themselves by 24-28 weeks (or the third trimester), though. So the doctor is just going to monitor it. Every thing else in the brain and all the other organs, etc. looked normal and good, thankfully. He said in his almost 30 years of being a doctor he has seen these cysts before and has never had them be a problem. They are called choroid plexus cysts. You can find both scary and reassuring stuff about them on the internet. I guess the real concern is a link between these cysts and Trisome 18 (which is fatal). From what I've learned, one of these cysts along with abnormal findings in an ultrasound and advanced maternal age are reason for concern and an amniocentesis. The doctor says the chance of this baby having the Trisome 18 (chromosome disorder) w/ only an isolated cyst, and everything else looking good on the ultrasound, is very low. I don't even remember the risk, something less than 1% I think, meaning a 99% chance of a healthy baby. About the same that any person has of having a baby w/ a problem. Very, very rarely the ultrasound is clean and the baby ends up still having the chromosome disorder with the only sign being these cysts. The only thing that is 100% is an amnio., but there are risks to the baby in that procedure by itself and it wouldn't change anything that we'd do. It really does sound like the likelihood of a healthy baby is far greater than there being a problem in our situation, so in the meantime, I'll cling to that and have faith (and worry a little because it's what I do best). We're grateful that everything else looked so good and really feel okay about things and happy. At the beginning of the pregnancy Mark gave me a couple priesthood blessings that were neat and we all know that those hold up more than science even, if it's meant to be. Maybe if you could please, just keep the baby in your prayers. Thanks!

TODAY was THE DAY!

I don't have much time to post as we are on our way to a Science Fair at the school, but for those who I haven't talked to already today and are wondering, we did have our ultrasound. I was SO ANXIOUS/EXCITED about it I hardly slept last night. This baby was by far the wiggliest on ultrasound of any baby so far. The technician kept calling the baby a "stinker" because it was hard for her to get measurements w/ the baby moving around so much. The baby had the cutest profile ever! We even got to see a big yawn and it was just precious! Anyway, most everything checked out good. There is one thing they are going to monitor (by doing an ultrasound again in 4 weeks) and I'll post more about that soon. I'll also ask Mark to scan in the cute ultrasound pictures and post some of those.

Well, enough of referring to the baby as "the baby". We're going to have a BOY! It was very apparent to the tech and to us even. We're happy! Ella took the news pretty good. The expression on her face was classic. A few minutes later she said, "Four brothers, I'd be frustrated if I had 5 brothers!" Pretty cute and she still seems excited. John was quick to share some of the perks of being the only girl w/ her, such as never having to share her room. We've decided well just always stick together, meaning Ella and I.

Anyway, we're happy and I'll post more later.

A little bit of everything

One of Ella just being cute.

I like this picture!Mark made another car that John raced in a different division.

Cooper's car is in the lead!

Coop showing his car to the audience.

Cooper's pinewood derby car

We took the kids to see John's play last Friday night.

Another picture of John before a show.

Ella and Seth being silly w/ stickers on their forehead.

I feel like this past week or so we have been going like crazy! We go through stages where we take lots of pictures and then we'll not take any for a long time. Well, we're in a picture stage, so I just thought I'd share some of our recent pictures. Tonight John has a cast party and that is it as far as the Music Theater of Idaho goes! We are so excited! He is cast in A Christmas Carol in December, so we'll have to see if we've all recovered by then. John has gotten quite behind on his school work and on piano. It's been hard for him to get everything done. I'm looking forward to a normal routine now, just regular busy. Cooper had pinewood derby this last weekend, and had a lot of fun. He won about half of his races and seemed pleased w/ his thunderbolt race car. John has a big science project due on Thursday (which he's know about for a month, but has been too busy to do anything about) so Mark and him are going to be busy working on that this week. Thursday is also our 20 week ultrasound, so we're very excited for that. I can hardly wait. I just hope everything is healthy and well, I always worry so much. I guess that's not all that uncommon. Hopefully we'll be able to see if we're getting a girl or boy baby. Mark always says he doesn't care as long as it's either of those two. I've been gone all morning on R.S. visits. It's always fun to see new babies and to get to know the new sisters. I now have a messy house to straighten and tons of laundry (the weekend always seems to do that to me no matter how hard I try to stay caught up). I've also got to make a main dish and a dessert for the cast party tonight, it's supposed to be at a park and the weather isn't exactly nice. I'm sure ready for it to really be Spring. Well, I'll post a few of our misc. pictures.

Oliver!

John in the middle with the Artful Dodger to his right and Oliver to his left.

In past posts I have made mention of John being in the play, Oliver. Well last Friday was opening night and it has been so fun to watch! There were 3 performances last weekend and there are 3 more this weekend (and 4 school performances during the week). Mark and I have been switching off going since it's quite expensive to take the family to each performance. We are taking the kids this weekend though. I was lucky enough to be able to go on opening night. John plays two parts, one of the workhouse kids and one of the pick-pockets in Fagin's Gang. He did such a good job! He knew all of the songs and knew all of the dance steps really well. I was so proud of him up there, he looked like he was having the time of his life. I couldn't help but get a little emotional looking at him up on the stage. It seems like not too long ago he was my little baby, and now he's (partially) grown up and trying new things. Mark said that one night after rehearsals the director said that John was the most polite one of the entire cast. As a mother that made me feel more happy than if he was the lead of the whole show. Overall if has been a good experience for him, just extremely time consuming. I feel it has been worth the sacrifices though. He's made some good friends that he'll miss not seeing when the show is over. I couldn't close this post about Oliver without thanking Mark for his support in picking up John at all hours of the night and even sleeping in the van with him one night when he had to be back for practice at 4:45 a.m. I was lucky enough to take the driving shifts that were at more reasonable hours. John couldn't have done it without Dad! Thank you also to all of our family who have tickets to come and see a performance this weekend. We appreciate your love and support and we hope you'll enjoy the show! How couldn't you enjoy watching over 100 kids who have each worked so hard!?

Better Late Than Never, I guess

Some of the Gunnerson cousins on the tramp.

Ella in her Easter dress.

Sethy finding an egg by the little windmill.

Coop w/ all of his eggs.

John w/ Grandma Gunnerson behind him.

Grandma Bishop and Becca.

Cooper with Ella, Becca, Celeste and Jonah.

John and Eden looking cute.

I really like this one of Seth for some reason.

Ella looking for an egg.

I'm not doing well at keeping up w/ our blog, but I haven't completely given up yet. I am still struggling to feel good most of the time. The pregnancy sickness has gotten some better, so I'm grateful for that. This pregnancy reminds me of my pregnancy w/ Cooper in some ways. I really struggle w/ breathlessness and feel so weak a lot of the time. I felt that way when I was pregnant w/ him and thankfully it went away after he was born. Of course it is all worth it though.

I thought I would post some pictures from our Easter. We had a nice weekend. We were able to see my mom and grandma on that Friday and then we went to Bishop's house on Saturday for a dinner and Easter egg hunt in the yard. The kids had fun and got plenty of candy. On Sunday we had a really nice Sacrament Meeting, the speakers did a wonderful job. In the afternoon we headed to Gunnerson's place for another yummy dinner and Easter egg hunt in the yard. We enjoyed seeing so much family. For Easter we gave each of the kids candy, of course, and a book. Overall, it was an enjoyable weekend.

Other than that, things haven't been too unusual, busy like normal. John's play he's in begins April 11th, so practices are every evening for a few hours sometimes. He's exhausted (and so are we) but he's loving it and we're excited to watch him put all of the songs he's learned and all of the dance moves he's memorized into action. We had a nice Spring Break. I wasn't feeling too great, so we were pretty low key. We went out to lunch a few times and rented videos and stuff like that. Cooper and Ella had little sleepovers at cousins/friends houses and John had Oliver practice as much as two times a day for a couple of the days of Spring Break. Amy called and wanted to end our Spring Break w/ a bang, so we met her and her kids at Carl's Jr. and had the kids play for a couple of hours. Pretty fun!

Well, I'll upload some of these pictures and hopefully I'll post again before a months time.