:::mandy dawson:::

Dan and I have been busy hanging out during his last two weeks off from school, and that has kept me from regular postings.  No worries, though, he starts family practice on Monday, and our lives will go back to business as usual.  We have seriously laughed and carried on more in the past two weeks than I can remember us doing in a long time.  I've been calling Dan "Fun Dan".  Haha.  Like old times. 

Dan laughs at me 'cause I remember seasons like this for ages and I'll say something like, "Remember how much fun we had the summer before medical school?".  Dan always retorts with, "Oh, you mean the Summer of Paradise?"  So, I guess we just had two more weeks of paradise.  LOL.

Now, on to a way more important update.....

We are having a baby!

Haha.  Just a little joke.

We had the level II ultrasound Tuesday, and it was like nothing we've ever experienced before.  As the time grew nearer, we began to feel much intrepidation knowing that we would have such a close look at the baby, we'd come away with either good or bad news.  The tech couldn't tell us anything except what she was looking at, but as she began to take the first measurements of the baby's head, arm bones, belly and leg bones, we were seeing the measurements were a few days ahead.  We looked at the baby's brain and saw two hemishpheres with the cerebellum measuring well.  We saw the baby's heart with all four chambers and both valves functioning properly.  We saw the diaphram, 2 lungs, stomach with fluid in it, bladder with fluid, kidneys were perfect, mouth was perfect and no sign of cleft palatte, spinal cord and vertebraes looked perfect with no markers for spina bifida.  The umbilical cord inserted into the belly with the other end right in the middle of the placenta.  The placenta is anterior and above the baby which explains why I hadn't felt any movement.  Also, the baby was sitting cross legged all the way in the bottom of my uterus.  Now, I know why my bladder has been so sore.  The baby's little feet are  just kicking and kicking.

I asked Dan to give the baby a name since we are team green, so I can have something other then "the baby" or "it" to say.  Dan hates "it" a lot, so he came up with hopskotch or Charlie, and I liked Charlie.  So, for now, we are fondly refering to our baby as Charlie.  I have a few friends who have named their own baby's Charlie, which I didn't think of until after wards.  I hope that it's not hurtful that we are using the name, too.  This won't be the baby's name when he/she is born, but for now, I think it's adorable.  It also means "strong and full grown" according to one of my friend's who looked it up in her book.

Oh, cute story--during the ultrasound, I looked over at Dan who was breathing really heavy and asked if he was okay.  He said yes.  But, when the tech left the room to get the doctor, I asked again, and he said "That was the most exhillerating experience of my life!  My blood pressure was through the roof!"  We laughed.  Then, Dan told me he felt God's presence with us and a strong sense that the Holy Spirit loves our baby, which of course, we know is so true!

God loves you, baby Charlie, and we do, too!