Introducing...The Champ!

Today we went for our 4D super-high-tech ultrasound of the baby...currently being affectionately referred to as "The Champ". We have a live-action DVD about 25-30 minutes long, in which you can see her kick and play and push at us, but it was way too large of a file to post. Jim and I are not tech-savvy enough to freeze the images from the DVD, so I have just scanned some of the 30+ paper images they printed for us. The quality isn't quite as good, but you'll get the gist. (Oh, we got another very clear picture, and the Champ is definitely a girl!!)

I was on call the night before this picture was taken, so ignore the dark circles , please. Here's a sneak peak of what my 30-week pregnant belly looks like. Can I possible get any bigger?!?! I guess I shouldn't ask that, because of course I can--we've got 10 more weeks to go!

When we first got to the office, our little one was once again camera shy (remember how hard it was to determine her gender!). She wanted to keep her hands up in front of her face and push the ultrasound probe out of the way....she was playing peek-a-boo with us. Here is one of the first glimpses we got:

The ultrasonographer kept trying to encourage her to move, and at first she just got grumpy (furrowed brow, pouty lips and all): Then she actually stuck her tongue out at us:
Jim very kindly started pleading with my stomach to smile, and she obeyed...Yeah Champ!
She quickly grew tired of these tricks; after all, she had been up on call all night last night, too. So, she soon fell back into a contented sleep. Those arms and hands stayed up hear her head the whole time!
That's our Champ!! The ultrasonographer said that the picture distorts some of the anatomy--the nose isn't likely to be quite that big, the eyes aren't always closed, and there is fat and tissue on her arms (in fact, they are already quite chubby) despite their bony appearance in some pictures. Jim thinks she looks like me--esp. the grumpy expressions. I, however, can pull some photos out of his baby album that are strikingly similar as well. I guess we'll just have to wait and see!!!

Thanks to all of you for your love and support, and we'll talk to you soon!
Elizabeth and Jim

Exciting News from the Driscolls!

Hi, all!

We hope our first blog entry finds all of you doing well.

Though this entry is a little late, I wanted to officially share our good news with everyone...

Jim and I are expecting a baby! We could not be more excited about our impending new arrival. I am somewhere around 20 weeks pregnant as of this weekend. That puts the due date in late Jan/early Feb. We feel pretty certain that the official due date is Feb 2 (yes, Groundhog’s Day, and Jim finds that SO FUNNY since “our song” is “I’ve Got You Babe” by Sonny and Cher, and that is the song that plays on Bill Murray’s radio every morning at 6:00 a.m. in the movie “Groundhog Day”.) But, we have apparently created the monster child—the baby measured 5 days bigger than expected on my 8-week ultrasound and 9-12 days bigger on my 18-week ultrasound, so my physician moved my due date up to Jan 28th, just to give me the benefit of the doubt. For you medically-minded folks who are worried—my blood sugars have been just fine thus far, and they don’t officially test for gestational diabetes for 2 more months—I think this baby just takes more after Jim than myself.

We also have a very modest, or else a quite stubborn, child on our hands. On the 18-week ultrasound, we scanned for about 45 minutes trying to get a clear view of the gender (normally the ultrasound takes like 5-10 minutes!), but this little one was having no part of that. Despite being very active, the baby kept its knees glued tightly together, and every time we came close to getting a view, the baby put its hands between its legs to block our shot. It was really frustrating. Thankfully, I have connections, and I had an OB resident friend of mine grab an ultrasound machine and an unused room on Thursday, and we got some much better views…Jim and I are expecting a LITTLE GIRL!! As for names, we may never decide. We have narrowed the field down to about 7 or 8 names, but they can be grouped in 30 good combinations, so heaven only knows what we will settle on! Most importantly, everything appeared healthy on the ultrasound.

Pregnancy has treated me well so far. I have been very fortunate to not feel sick, or even too tired, through the process. This week the leg cramps set in, however. I woke up Thursday morning howling with a Charley Horse in my left calf that lasted at least 5 minutes. No one warned me about the leg cramps!! The soreness lasted until today—it was so bad Friday that I used the sonosite at work to make sure I didn’t have a DVT!! But, if that is the worse symptom I’ve had so far, I truly cannot complain. I’m sure I’ll pay the price with future pregnancies!

Our love to each of you, and we’ll talk to you soon!
Elizabeth and Jim