Freebird Rising (week 27)!!!

On Decemeber 13 Lori braved some snow to go to the clinic to have her blood drawn for glucose tolerance testing. Her glucose tolerance testing was great, however the doctors did notice a slight level of anti-E immunoglobulin. This is a rhesus antigen, but however is less common and less dangerous than the D-antigen. We were still concerned and so were the doctors. So they called her in for analysis including a 3-D ultrasound. Everything was ok, the anti-E levels are below one and have been below one for a couple of months now. They will continue to check her levels until March when Free makes his grand entrance into the world. On the bright side the 3-D ultrasound was way cool and gave us a peek at what Free is going to look like. I have a couple good pictures but Lori tells me they looked at lots of stuff and everything is great. George and Smith are very excited to be big brothers, but we don't think Gaia is all excited to be a big sister.

Freebird Week 20

Well, been a while. School has been overwhelming and haven't had time to update, but here we go.

Lori went in to the Dr., all is good, the little sucker is growing. We are now at week 24 and had another appointment. We have reached viability, but we have encouraged Freebird to finish his schooling and remain in his homewomb. Everything is awesome, his heart is cruising at125 beats per minute, he is laying comfortably with his butt to Lori's right, and Lori says he is pretty active. Lori has been feeling great; no sickness, no reflux, sleeping well, mild grumpiness (LOL) and some extra midnight-peeing.

Here are some week 20 pictures

Here is Freebird chillaxin in the womb. Look at the nice looking spine, destined for greatness I tell you.

Freebird is scratchin his head in this one. Must be pondering why it is so dark in there, or what that annoying vibration is on his butt (L's pager)

Freebird sucking his thumb (or picking his nose we are not sure which)

Confirmation of Freebird's chromosomal make-up. At first the doctor thought it was his leg.........

What baby is it you want to see? FREEBIRD

Well for those who don't know. What?? Why else would you be here, of course you know. Lori is pregnant with our first. Our approximate due date is March 15 2009. We are super excited about this change to our lives. We have had two Dr. appts. The first was at 9 weeks. We got to see the ultrasound (and so do you, see accompanying scan) and hear the heart beat. 180 beats per minute, the little ones ticker is cruisin'. We affectionately have been referring to the little one as "the parasite" as it is sucking the life out of Lori (she is ok with this)!!

We have since been back to the doc at the 12 week timetable. Again we got to see the parasite by ultrasound. Wow how it has grown. The parasite has cool little feet and hands and a humoungous head and brain (of course this is to be expected ;). The heart is still going real fast (its normal so its good). At this time we were also able to get a chromosome spread of the parasite. It took a few days, but we got the result, turns out the parasite has all 46 chromosomes and no extras!!!! Oh yeah and also, the parasite has the super chromosome also known as the Y-chromosome. This means the parasite is a boy!!!!!! We, actually me (Brian) have taken to calling the parasite Freebird, thus the name of the blog entry. To the left are pictures of Freebird by ultrasound at 12 weeks and Freebirds chromosomes.

Bon Fart Expeditions presents......

Hey everybody:

Following are pictures from the annual Bon Fart(ini) expedition. This year was to the Trinity Alps of northern California. Another great trip with lots of laughs, lots of beautiful scenery, adventure and of course lots of pain (at least for us old people). In the group picture in the front row are Lori and Alan, the back row is Jay, Daniel, Dominic and Joe. Brian the great is taking the picture. The second picture is of a few members of the expedition at Sapphire Lake and the last picture is of Lori at Emerald Lake. The trip lasted 5 days and 4 nights. The first day was a slog up Stuart Fork river valley to rattlesnake infested (more like deer infested) Morris Meadow where we spent the night. Day two found us continuing up the Sturart Fork river valley to Portugeuse Camp where we spent two nights. From there we did day hikes up to Emerald and Sapphire Lakes (the head of the Stuart). These are great granite lake cirques that are truly spectacular and make for some great swimming. Jay and I also did a day hike up Caribou scramble to the ridge above Caribou Lake basis and a great view of E and S Lake and Caribou Mountain. The scramble was brutal, nearly 100 switchbacks, but well worth the effort. From there we hiked back down to Morris Meadow for another night before we hiked out. We saw deer, bald eagle, black bear and rattlesnakes. We also managed to complete a scientific study and the data clearly indicated Jay has the tastiest pee (don't ask). Here is looking forward to the next Bon Fart Expedition.