We are excited to announce that we are pregnant!  Our due date is October 29th and we’ll be posting updates here so folks can choose to follow along or not. 🙂

We’ve included all the updates from when we first found out until the most recent happenings with Baby Brandt in this post and we’ll keep adding new posts as we wander through these very new experiences.

We are celebrating a lot but Erin won’t mind if you have some champagne for her!

Love & hugs,

Erin & Matt

March 6, 2013

We just got the results of the blood test back this morning and, as if we didn’t already know, we are pregnant.  The guesstimated due date is November 13th and I’m sure the baby will let us know if that date works for them.

your baby’s the size of an appleseed!

March 20, 2013

We have an update on our baby adventure!

Today I had an initial appointment with a nurse in the Ob/Gyn department, during which we were going to talk about the pregnancy timeline and setting up future appointments as well as completing the basic blood tests.

Based on my last period the nurse had an estimate that we are 8 weeks along and she knew that one of the doctors had a cancellation.  They wanted me to have our first ultrasound today!  So we wrapped up the….

(Dinner break – so hungry!)

PS – Stella (our cat) knows something is up.  Her favorite perch recently has been Erin’s belly!

April 8, 2013

We had a health & wellness checkup today and the first step in the screening for genetic abnormalities (another blood test!).

Matt came with me this time because I can’t seem to get a detailed description of what is going to happen at these appointments and I didn’t want him to miss out!

I got an “A+” for healthy and then the family doctor we were seeing attempted to listen to the heart beat of Baby Brandt with a handheld monitor but with no luck.  So he decided to do an ultrasound to get a look at the baby.  He wasn’t having much luck with that either so went to get an OB doctor from across the hall who would be more of an expert using the ultrasound.

At my first appointment at 7 weeks the OB discovered that I have a inverted uterus or in medical speak:

So not too big of a deal but was possibly the cause for why the OB doctor that came in was also struggling to see Baby Brandt.  She also sad that the ultrasound machine had a crappy picture. 😀  She wanted me to get dressed and come over to her office and she would use their much newer and fancier machine.

Matt helped me get the goo off my belly and I redressed for the move next door. (The hospital we are in is small but is home to an OB clinic, internal medicine doctors, and the family practitioner section as well as a lab – at this point I’ve been in evvvvery area).

Dr. Shin (the OB doctor from this visit) decided to do a transvaginal ultrasound instead of the regular on-the-belly-one and I think she was nervous that she hadn’t been able to see the baby and didn’t want to mess around.

And then…!!!  Matt got to see his baby for the first time!  Baby Brandt was kicking up a storm.  Measurements are good and Dr. Shin was able to count fingers on one tiny hand…there were five! 😀  We heard the heart beat and Dr. Shin was cheering as much as we were!

A hectic visit but with only happy news!

I’ve attached the latest sonogram, which is in two parts.  In the first attachment (Baby Brandt 10 wks), the first image is where our little rock climber (Matt is convinced that is what it is doing!) is fully extended. Dr. Shin measured Baby Brandt at 4.13cm, which is right on for 10 and 1/2 weeks.  The second image shows a leg, the torso, and the head…the head is facing down.

In the second attachment (Baby Brandt2 10 wks) the first image shows Baby B really tucking and the second image is where you can see tiny fingers and toes, which show up as bright white.  There is also a darker mass in the head in all the images, which is Baby B’s brain!!!

So much excitement and positive news!

Next week we go to Palo Alto (just up the road, where Standford’s campus is) to the hospital, for the NT Ultrasound where they measure the baby’s neck.  This is the second step in the screening for genetic abnormalities.

Lots more to do and learn.  We’ll continue to keep y’all posted with the latest updates!

Love & hugs,

Erin, Matt, Baby Brandt & Stella