New Baby Girl

We realized that we haven't officially announced my pregnancy on our blog yet, and that we have been terrible about taking pictures the last month.  Karina is going to be a big sister in June and we are excited to welcome another little girl.  

This is what she looked like at 6 weeks pregnant:

Here are the pictures from my 18 week ultrasound when we found out the gender.  With any luck, you will be able to recognize it is a baby and not an alien.

Her leg:

Her profile:

Her face from the front:

At the 18 week ultrasound, the doctor gave us a scare saying that baby had extra fluid around the heart, an abnormal axis, and that the technician couldn't get a picture of the pulmonary artery.  This could mean nothing or a long list of other issues.  We got sent to Johns Hopkins Hospital in downton Baltimore for a fetal echocardiogram and were advised to do genetic testing to test for Downs Syndrome.  The genetic testing (a blood test) all came back normal with a 1 in 10000 chance of Downs, and despite lots of worrying and frustrated phone calls to the OB's office and our insurance, the cardiologist at Johns Hopkins said the baby's heart looked perfect except for a little fluid around the heart, which is something they don't normally even get sent patients for.  The fluid was likely to just disappear on its own.  Then I had another ultrasound a few days ago at 22 weeks, and the fluid level had gone down some and the heart looked perfectly normal and healthy.  According to the doctor at the 22 week ultrasound, the amount of fluid around the heart at all the ultrasounds was in the normal range for fetuses and there was nothing to worry about.  I guess different doctors have different thresholds for when they want to call in a specialist.  Anyway, we are in the clear and don't have to go back for any more ultrasounds or tests, and are expecting a healthy baby girl within a couple weeks of June 11th.   The doctor at the 18 week ultrasound sure did scare us though and it was a stressful time.   

Next are pictures from the 22 week ultrasound.  

Profile:

Face (she has her mouth open and is either yawning or drinking):

Karina is a cutie even if I couldn't get her to pose properly.  

She has been learning lots of new words lately and is up to about 40 words and counting, excluding animal sounds.  We are thrilled because she has been on the late end with her verbal skills, even though she has been way ahead in the other areas of development.  

Karina has also graduated to a big girl toddler bed.  We decided to convert her crib into a toddler bed because she was attempting to climb out of the crib and we didn't want a safety hazard.  The first couple of nights transitioning were rough, and she repeatedly fell out of bed onto the pillows we had strategically placed on the floor. Then I bought a guard rail for her, and now she is sleeping like a champ most of the time.  She enjoys the freedom of being able to get in and out of bed on her own.  It has been a little disconcerting for us though when we go into her room if she wakes up crying and we find her standing at her doorway.

I suppose we will also announce the new baby's name.  We definitely are not looking for feedback on the name, because it is already chosen, but for anyone interested, Karina Jade's sister's name will be Lydia Scarlett:-)