Sophia's Pricey! This comes as no surprise to those who have children, and honestly we had prepared ourselves, but Sophia is going to be a costly bundle of joy. I've been in the process of finding out what the medical bills should be so that we can budget for the expense and just bringing Sophia into the world is more than one month's non-mortgage bills. That's before the anesthesiolgist's fee (and no we're not going to try to save money but not getting an epidural for mommy)! We are also trading in the celica :( for a more family friendly vehicle. If only I could go back and tell my 23-year-old self to go with the Civic I originally had my eye on when a certain flashy red car with bucket seats became and option. :)
Of course we will try to save money where we can and show Sophia that her parents are not complete spendthrifts. We will use cloth diapers, breastfeed, make our own baby food and try not to pay retail for baby clothes. We also know that at the end of the day, every penny that we spend on Sophia instead of ourselves will be worth it because she will add so much joy to our family.
2007-11-21 (19 weeks)
Sophia Pictures! As promised, today I have uploaded Sophia's ultrasound pictures. Just go to the photo album to see them. If you click on the picture, it will show the picture in a larger view. They aren't as good as the originals, but I hope that they will be satisfactory for now.
The attached picture here is of another 20 week old girl. You can see a bigger picture by going to: http://www.i-am-pregnant.com/pregnancy/calendar/week/20
Dean and I have much to give thanks for come Thursday. We couldn't be happier!
2007-11-20 (19 weeks)
Sophia's first gifts Now that we know that we are having a little girl, we can start focusing on coming up with a middle name for Sophia. Right now we are toying with Sophia Belle Adia (Wisdom Beauty Gift). Dean came up with that one, and I like the way Belle Adia sounds.
We aren't locked into that name quite yet though, so I'll ask everyone once again to share ideas. We are trying to stay away from any middle names that end in "a" and are trying to stick with one or two syllables. Grace is already taken by one of our friends' daughters, as is Marie (too bad, they both sound very well). Michelle is my middle name, so we probably won't use that one either.
We also have our first pink gift thanks to Krissy and Marvin. Apparently, Krissy saw a cute pink onesie right after she heard the news and was driven by the excitement of the moment to bestow Sophia with her first gender specific gift. We are truly lucky to have such wonderful friends. Grammie and Papa also delivered the Forshee cradle to us this weekend. Sophia will get to add her name to the list of family members who have slept in the handmade cradle. Dean and I are honored to continue in this tradition.
I know I promised to get some ultrasound photos uploaded today, but I forgot to bring them with me today. I will get them on here soon though!
2007-11-19 (19 weeks)
Drum Roll Please! It's a...
Wait for it...
It's a girl!
More than that, she's a healthy little girl. It was so amazing to watch the ultrasound on the little t.v. screen as the sonographer checked out the different parts of Sophia. We got to see the chambers of her heart as they pumped blood. We saw her arms and hands (they were opening and closing) and her legs and feet (so cute!). We saw her brain, which Dean was able to recognize from his neurology classes, and we saw her spine. We saw her stomach, her umbilical cord, her face and her profile. Of course, we also saw what makes her a girl and the sonographer was a little cheeky when Dean asked her if she was sure that our baby is a girl. ("Well, I can see that your baby has labia, so I'm pretty sure she's a girl.")
The whole thing was so exciting and emotional. Dean was there holding my hand the whole time as we watched our little Sophia take shape on the t.v. screen. I admit that I did tear up a bit just watching her move around. Sophia was wiggling all over the place while we were doing the ultrasound. It was one of the best experiences I've had yet- and I didn't even have to drink a gallon of water to fill my bladder! :)
