Baby News!

We've been relatively quiet about our baby. It's been a long road getting here; 5 years of trying and suffering many things of many doctors in Utah and Connecticut. Through the miracle of In Vitro, our baby has been growing in Emilee since the end of March. While things were a little touch-and-go at the beginning, Baby has been a constant reminder of God's love for us since.

With In Vitro, you start getting pictures of your baby earlier than most people . . . A LOT earlier:

This photo, taken March 28th, shows our baby (plus one) at 3 days after conception. We're not sure which of the two is our baby, since both were transferred back that afternoon and only one has grown, but we're happy either way.

At 7 weeks, 5 days, Baby was little more than a nugget with a heartbeat, but oh, what a blessing it was to hear that heartbeat!

At 12 weeks (June 6), Baby was beginning to show a lot more features. The doctor complimented Baby's nose bone and said everything was looking good.

These pictures were taken today (almost 24 weeks) and Baby has some beautiful bones. Here are presented a spine, a leg, an arm and a view of the back of Baby's head. We also found out today that my hunch was right, we have a girl! The biggest indicator to me that we were having a girl is that we had a very easy time picking a girl's name (chosen before baby was even conceived) but were having a very hard time settling on a boy's name. Her name shall be:

Alanna Virginia Watson

In our first musings on nomenclature, we hit on the name Alanna Jade over 2 years ago (while we were still driving the Cadillac) but we realized when we started thinking about it more seriously (January or February) that Alanna Jade sounded too much like something out of Dungeons and Dragons. We still liked Alanna and as we considered further, my dear Great-Aunt Virginia came to mind (the one who gave us the Cadillac) and we realized that the names flowed together beautifully. I cannot think of a woman I'd like her to be grow up to be like, except perhaps for my wife.

Thank you to all of you who have offered prayers and support through this time, as we have had our rough spots along the way. With a mid-December due date, we've still got a while before we officially welcome her to the world but it's nice to have a pronoun and a name to call her.