It's a BOY!!!

and not much of a gummy bear anymore......(thank goodness)

yes it's true. We had the important fetal survey ultrasound this morning and found out that we are having a son! It was obvious as you will note from the ultrasound photos I'll include in this blog. It is amazing and hard to believe. Everything looked good during the exam. The technicians did not notice anything weird but we await the final word from the doc but it looks like the baby has all of the parts it is supposed to have and seems normal. I am so relieved. I guess it is a fear of most moms but I have always worried a lot b/c I have spent so many years in research labs working with chemicals, irradiating devices, and reagents far more intimidating than your average cleaning products. I always laugh at myself when I am shopping and I stay away from "harsh" chemicals and go for the natural organic vinegar-based cleaning products yet here I am going to work everyday in the same building as a gamma ray laser!!!!

In all seriousness I am very happy to see the baby looks good so far. I just want him to be healthy and happy-"normal" is a relative term anyway. So I guess now we wait another 18 or 20 weeks and then we'll have a real person to be worried about. During the exam the baby was moving and wiggling around alot-so much that the tech was never able to get a good image of his profile-so I guess we'll have to wait for that surprise. But we saw his heart with its 4 chambers and the vetricles in the brain, the arms and legs and fingers and toes, and spine and ribs and kidneys and stomach and eye sockets and nose and lips. We saw him open his mouth and cover his face with his arms and hands. We saw him stretch his head and neck back-it looked like he was doing backwards yoga stretches. It was really cool. the whole exam lasted about 45 minutes and we left the office with a few good images, although not as many as I would have liked. The appt was at 8am on monday so the technicians weren't exactly in the best moods but we all had fun anyway and it was so exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. Bill was there and my mom, Georgia, and Leah. I wish you could have all seen him too but I guess that will be possible in a few months. I am going to try to bug my doc to see if I can get some more pix.

So now that I have shared that great news. I want to tell you about the wonderful surprise party that Bill had for me on saturday. I got totally fooled!!! My mom took me shopping around lunch and then for a facial (apparently while the party was being prepared) then we showed up back at my house and there were balloons everywhere!! I was so surprised and amazed. He did such a good job with the help of Kelly and Georgia and my brother. It was a hawaiian theme and they decorated with flowers garland, pineapples, and leighs and served shishkabobs and fruit salad then a delicious icecream cake. the weather behaved and was quite nice (65 or so) all day even though it became cloudy. So many flowers and flowering trees are in bloom and the leaves unfurled on the trees last week so we had much color and greenery in the yard. I was completely overjoyed. The party was mostly my family and Bill's family, a few extended family (Mary, John & kids and Emm, Devin & kids) but Melanie and Ashton stopped by and Jeff & Caitlyn were there too. Over all it was wonderful and quite memorable for a 30th bday!!!

In addition to this excitement on thursday our band, the Lonely West had our last live show. We played a 2 band show at the Heidelberg in Ann Arbor, opening for a beef-cake rocker band called Ambertone. Apparently they have quite a following (lots of people came to the show) but they were quite the opposite of our music. We sound more like folk pop with a desert flare-not exactly the kind of band you would want opening for you if you sound like Creed. Despite the usual live gig mishaps (lost cords, horribly shitty vocal monitors, and forgotten lyrics) we had fun and pulled it off. I wore myself out pretty quickly and we had to finish our set 2 songs early but I was sort of amaze I made it that long. Sadly the band is dismantling over the next 2 months. In addition to the baby coming, my brother will be going off to the biostation for field research this summer and then is moving to Seattle with Kelly in August and Bill is hoping to start playing some music with his brother, Kevin this fall. I will probably get something new going sometime next winter but I hope to spend the fall trying to enjoy time with my child. Over the last year our band has written a bunch (12 or so) songs that we think are pretty good and unique so we will be spending 1 night a week during the next month in the stuido so we cna record the songs and make a CD! Of course we will get this out for all of you to hear whether you like it or not.

What else.....well the work trip to CA went very well It was a very hard long week for me b/c of all the walking around the city and the many meetings I had. always having to be ready to "perform" is very tiring. in the end though it was a very successful week. We set-up 4 collaboratins, one with the lab at Stanford, one with a new group from texas, one with an atomic probe imaging company from Madison, and one with NeuroPace (and they will be giving us DBS epilepsy electrodes to test-YEAH! mission accomplished). We are really excited about both opportunities. my seminars went well at MRS and Stanford and somehow I fit in 4 dinners with Ellen! She is working her ass off at Chemrisk lately so we were in the same boat at the end of long days and just met up in downtown and then figured out what to do for food together. Despite the fact that it had been raining for weeks in SF, it did not rain a drop the whole time I was there. It was sunny and cheerful the whole week. On the last day I was there I somehow fit in a short visit to china town and scored some lovely purses, pillow covers, and asian dishes. I'd been in a city with "real" shops for almost a week and I had not had time to shop so I was eager to get something.

I saw Beckie on friday. She took me to lunch for my bday and we celebrated her new job! I am so proud of her and happy for her. How awesome. She will be helping me put in my garden in a few weeks. Bill is going to turn over the soil and then we will be able to go buy little plants at Randazzos!!! I am only planning to do a few veggies this summer-ones that I know we will really eat. Otherwise I am sticking with perrenials and climbing flowers like morning glories and clematis-I just love the cascades of flowers.


Well I guess I shold wrap this up. I will post a few photos of our front yard from last week. all my tulips came back this year and the pear tree we planted the first year we moved in has bloomed. the grass is green and I am so happy to see it!!! Also you can view the new ultrasound photos of the baby and some photos from the party on saturday among other things.
at my photosite or go straight to baby photos at
billand sarah.org

Also I recently found this cool website that shows 3D ultrasound images of some babies at the 21-23 weeks stage I am at now. it is amazing. I wish we could have seen something more like this today. however what we saw today was pretty amazing anyway. I look forward to seeing this person for real in a few months!!!