Early Mornings....

A very crazy thing happened this morning: I woke up at 6:30 am and couldn't fall back to sleep! I guess my body really is changing a lot. Hopefully this will not become habit :) I know once the baby's here, I'll be up at all crazy hours of the night, but I think it's a little early to be getting ready for that! Maybe I'll make good use of my time and go to a few yard sales to look for baby stuff :)

Baby Bump - 1st Trimester

8 Weeks
10 Weeks

12 Weeks

13 Weeks
(I think I really started to show more this week)

Doctor's Visit: Update

Today, we had our follow up visit from last week. We got to see a lot more of the baby and the cysts today.

First, the fun part: the baby! The baby is doing great. We got to see him/ her moving around so much! We also heard the heart beat again, 170 (last week it was 160). The one great thing about having these cysts is that we get to see the baby a lot! Today, we actually got a few 3-D pictures....FOR FREE!! As of today, the baby is 5 cm long from crown to rump.

Now, the not so fun part: the cysts. We got to look at the cysts a lot more today than we did last week and also got to ask a lot more questions. There are a lot of cysts on both of Laura's ovaries. Also, her ovaries are so enlarged that they're practically touching each other. The technician doing the ultrasound had to look for a few minutes to figure out where one ovary ended and the next one began. They measured several of the bigger cysts (there's a lot of them that are big) and they were 4cm, 5cm, and 6cm in diameter. I wish we had some pictures of the cysts to show you, but we don't. Our doctor contacted a specialist in Roanoke to see what we need to do. As of right now, it's just a waiting and monitoring game. I'll go back in 2 weeks for another ultrasound to look at the cysts (and the baby!!) again. Keep praying that they'll shrink. The good news is that Laura is not in much pain at all. Occasionally, she'll have some small pains, but not bad enough to need to take pain killers. Everyone at the office was really surprised that Laura's not in pain. One lady said she was surprised Laura was even walking! The other good news is that Laura will be able to go back to work! So, even while Laura has the cysts, God is still blessing!

Here's some of the pictures of the baby from today:

This next one is taken from overhead.

It's like you're looking down at the top of the baby's head:

These next two pictures are the 3-D ones. You can't see the

facial features too good in these. We decided that the arms look

like a Mii person (on the Wii):

Showing off his/ her muscles:

Prayer Request

After our visit to the doctor Tuesday, we learned that all women get a cyst on their ovary at the beginning of their pregnancy. Normally, the cyst shrinks away. In some cases, as in Laura's, the the cyst instead grows and can sometimes even invite "brothers and cousins " (as the doctor put it). From what the doctor showed us with her fingers, a normal cyst is about the size of a nickel. Laura's is about the size of an apple or orange (not sure if it's like a sphere or flat, she just showed us with her fingers). There are also multiple cysts. Therefore, the doctor told Laura to take a week off of work to rest and relax. She will go back Wednesday next week for another ultrasound to look at the cysts again. If the cysts continue to grow, she may have to have surgery to remove them. Of course, the doctor said they try to avoid surgery if possible during pregnancy. So, the prayer request is that the cysts shrink and Laura will not have to have surgery. Thanks for praying!!

Baby's first photo shoot!

The following two pictures are of Baby VanWingerden!!
Tenative arrival date: November 29, 2009
These photo's are of the Baby at 11 weeks. Baby VanWingerden is now 3.6 cm long!