Your Heart is My Home

I've got to tell you, I've never felt so happy about losing. Charlotte and I couldn't be more proud. Here are the ultrasound pictures of Alyse Lenore Allen:


It's very obviously a girl. Fortunately, we were able to see right away. Also, the arrow is very helpful.


Here is a regular ultrasound image of the face.


And here's her little foot...


This is very clearly a 3D image.


This is a 3D image of her profile.


And here is an incredible picture of our daughter. Not that you won't be able to tell, but she has her left hand over her left eye.




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For Posterity's Sake...

Charlotte and I are due at the doctor's office in a few hours for the big ultrasound, the one that reveals the baby's big secret. Reflecting upon some of my final thoughts while our son or daughter, whom has erstwhile been referred to by me as simply "Baby", is still "genderless," I have one final confession to make:

I think it's a boy.

While early in the pregnancy, we were so excited about having a baby, the sex really didn't matter. Then, around the third or fourth month, Charlotte and I really started to lean towards wanting a girl as a first child. Recently, however, I've really started to feel like maybe it is a boy. I don't know, just an overtly reasonless gut feeling.

But just as everything between Charlotte and I has to be a competition, I thought this would be a great way to record the ulimate of all competitions. If history maintains its consistency, the winner shall be me. If it has a trick up its sleeve, as it has so very few times in the past, it will be Charlotte. Only time will tell.

Drew vs. Charlotte.

Boy vs. Girl.

Chief vs. McLoud.

What do you think, sirs?

25 Weeks!

Baby Journal

Interestingly, I was at Walden Books just browsing around when I happened upon this baby journal in the baby section. Although I'm not much of a baby book aficionado, I felt this one was extremely sharp—it really asks the right questions and deals with aspects of the baby's life that I think are very important. Also, in this day and age, it's becoming increasingly harder to find a baby journal that doesn't have a huge commercial theme to it (e.g., SpongeBob, Where's Waldo, McDonalds, Desperate Housewives, and—of course—the much-too-much overused Curious George line). Also, it seemed neat the "author's" name is Amy Allen. You can see something of it at http://www.humblebumbles.com/.

Big Girls Are Best

We're almost at twenty-four weeks which is told to be around the time when the higher processes of the baby's hearing become fully developed. Ergo, we've started reading to the baby every night. The first book officially read to our baby was The First of Octember! by the late great Dr. Suess. The Crime & Punishment reading (followed by other Dostoevsky works, time permitting) is scheduled to commence for the beginning of the 28th week.

Also, the fact that Charlotte's belly is larger than my head speaks volumes of its enormity.

One Step Closer to Knowing...

We had our monthly appointment with the doctor today. He is different from other baby doctors in that he makes folks wait 26 weeks before getting the ultrasound that reveals the sex of the baby. So the only time we've been able to see our son or daughter was the first ultrasound at about 10 weeks. Every month, the good doctor uses one of those doppler-type devices so that we may hear the baby's heartbeat. Charlotte and I have been fairly certain we have an extremely active child and this notion was confirmed when the doctor had to repeatedly move his instrument to hear the heartbeat, so much was the baby was moving around.

In related news, we'll finally know whether we'll be having a son or a daughter on October 28 at 1:00. Finally, we'll be able to do away with this "he or she" nonsense.

22 Weeks!