Kaitlyn Michele's Baby Updates

We just found out on Friday at Kaiser. After what seemed like an eternity while the ultrasound technician made every possible measurement of our baby, she gave us our five minutes of precious ultrasound viewing.

We checked out the baby's profile, made sure it had all of its legs, arms, hands, and feet and watched it wiggle around in the womb. We settled in for the moment we were both waiting for, and there were those "three white lines"... Baby Chen is definitely a girl! From this ultrasound and our last one (see Week 18), both confirmed that our baby is going to be a girl! You can check out all six cool ultrasound pictures on the download web page. Our baby girl now weighs approximately 14 ounces, is around 9 inches long from head to toe, and has a heart rate of 156. According to her current measurements baby's due date was estimated as January 5.

In other news: We got around to picking up our crib that was ordered a while back (it came in early), and while we were at Goore's, we also ordered a nice Dutailier glider (i.e. rocking chair) and ottoman, which once again Grandma & Grandpa Owyang generously paid for. Time to start working on the nursery!

Mom's been slow to get her belly to show some resemblance of being pregnent and patience is wearing thin. She's now in that frustrating in-between stage where her regular clothes are getting too tight to be comfortable, but her belly is not big enough to fill out those maternity clothes just yet. Just a matter of time before all those Old Navy and Gap Maternity shopping sprees begin.

Boy or girl? Boy or girl? Mom and Dad are tired of called Baby Chen 'it', instead of he or she. We need to know. And we want to find out now. None of this wait-for-Week-20-to-get-the-official-ultrasound-from-Kaiser stuff. So eager in anticipation, we scheduled an appointment with an ultrasound clinic called Sonotech, up in Roseville. It was pretty cool with the option of taping the session onto VCR (yes, we opted for it). We got to see our little one moving all around punching and kicking. Mom was excited to finally confirm that the fluttering that she's been feeling is definitely the baby and not her imagination. Oh and yes, we found out that Baby Chen is a... well, you'll find out in Week 20, unless you're a grandparent in which case we've already told you. =)

More good news: We also found out Mom's AFP tests came out negative! This means that the baby is NOT at a high risk for specific birth defects, including Down syndrome and neural tube defects.

Mom and Dad made a great recording of Baby's heart the other day and posted it on the download web page: http://www.geocities.com/darrinchen/baby_chen.htm. Now you can hear the chamber music of Baby Chen's little heart! Wow!

Mom's starting to show her tummy a wee bit now, but still fits into her regular clothes. Still no maternity stuff yet...