With Lydia and Lainey, we never had an ultrasound this late in the pregnancy.
As Lisa said in the doctor's office, "It kind of feels like we are cheating" by getting to see him sooner.
Well, since we're going to be meeting this little guy sooner than later, I'd like to let you cheat as well.
Oh, and for those of you inquisitive types, he was estimated to be weighing 8lbs at this point and somewhere in the 39 week range - so he looks to be big and healthy.
Click on any image to see the larger size.
Update: For some reason, this post has been getting a bunch of views lately. For those of you who somehow found your way here - "Welcome!" If you'd leave a comment as to what you were searching for that led you here, that would help ease my curiosity a bit. If you were looking for adorable pictures of my little boy at 37 weeks, then I guess you came to the right place. God is good and Marshall is still healthy and growing like a weed. :)
He isn't due to arrive until March of next year, but here are the photos from yesterday's ultrasound. The doctor's said everything looks perfect, and he is measuring about 5 days larger than average.
It's truly amazing the level of detail you can now see in the images. We looked at both legs, arms, hands and feet. We were able to count his fingers, see both nostrils and checked the compartments of his heart. We also verified that he is receiving good blood flow from the umbilical cord and that his stomach, kidneys and lungs are all exactly as they should be. Absolutely amazing.
Click on any of the images for a larger view.
Our Baby's footprint is 3.74cm long.
This profile view shows us his nose, mouth, hand and knee.
In this profile view, he had pulled his legs over his head and was holding onto them with his hands.
In this 3D image, our boy is laying on his left side, with both his hands under his head. (I sleep this way too.)
I've heard many stories from many parents about some serious moments they have experienced with their children. Last week, Lisa and I had our first such experience. We had arrived at my Aunt's house in Indiana around 3pm on Thursday and had enjoyed the evening catching up with my family. I put Lainey to bed in the pack-n-play without any real issue and headed upstairs after I knew she was settled in.
About a half hour later, I checked back on her to find her screaming. It's hard to know if she had been crying for a long time or for only a minute, but I am guessing she had been crying for a few minutes, as she had tears streaming down her face and was sobbing pretty hard. I picked her up, gave her the paci and rocked her and sang to her. She settled down after a couple of minutes and eventually fell asleep. As I was leaving I noticed that she sounded a little raspy in her breathing, but I chalked that up to her screaming episode.
Last week I was thinking about all of the hype surrounding the debt-ceiling when it occurred to me that I haven't check the status of the Federal Reserve's Monetary Base lately. What follows is a lengthy post where I try to recapture all of my thoughts on this and various topics that I have written about over the course of the past few years.
I started tracking the Monetary Base prior to attending the April 15, 2009 Tea Party in downtown St. Louis, after which I posted my reasons for attending the tea party event. Included in that post was a graph showing the National Debt Per Capita and the Adjusted Monetary Base.
ObamaCare is another piece of Congressional legislation for which there is no federal authority in the Constitution. But when someone asked Nancy Pelosi where in the Constitution there was any authority for passing such a law, her reply was "Are you kidding?"
Two federal courts have now said that they are not kidding.
The ultimate question is whether the Supreme Court of the United States will back them up. That may depend on how soon the case reaches the Supreme court.
If the issue wends its way slowly up through the Circuit Courts of Appeal, by the time it reaches the Supreme Court, Obama may have put more of his appointees there-- and, if so, they will probably rubberstamp anything he does. He would therefore have done a complete end-run around the Constitution and be well on his way to becoming the Hugo Chavez of North America.
1,160 calories
27 g fat (16 g saturated, 2 g trans)
168 g sugars
Sugar Equivalent: 13 McDonald’s Baked Hot Apple Pies
There are very few milk shakes in America worthy of your hard-earned calories, but few will punish you as thoroughly as this Mickey D’s drive-thru disaster. Not only does it have more than half your day’s caloric and saturated fat allotment and more sugar than you’d find in Willy Wonka’s candy lab, but Ronald even finds a way to sneak in a full day of cholesterol-spiking trans fat. The scariest part about this drink is that it’s most likely America’s most popular milk shake.
I had the pleasure of working from home today. It was a beautiful day outside and all was right with the world. I had been looking forward to this day for several weeks, as I was scheduled for an appointment with an ENT (ear, nose and throat) doctor to discuss the possibility of surgery on my deviated septum (broken nose).
I knew nothing about this doctor other than what I had read on the internet and wasn’t referred to him by anyone in any way. I just knew I wanted to see about getting my nose fixed and he was accepting new patients, took my insurance and was located close to our home. While this may not be the recommended method for choosing a doctor to operate on your face, I felt comfortable and confident in his abilities based on his credentials and past experience.
I arrived for my appointment 10 minutes early and filled out the necessary paperwork. I was called into the examination wing and directed to a small room, where I waited for the doctor to arrive. The doctor and I spoke briefly about what I was hoping to have done and then he examined my nose. The good news is that it appears that my deviation is at the tip of my nose, which should be fairly simple procedure.
I was beginning to get warm in this little room, so I took off my jacket while we were talking. The doctor was asking me different questions and making sure I knew everything I wanted to know about the surgery.
And then I was being shaken and had the doctor and nurse in my face.
What!?!??
Evidently, I had passed out while the doctor was finishing up his paperwork. One minute we were talking and the next minute he said my eyes were rolling and I was really pale. Needless to say, the doctor and nurse were quite shaken with this sudden development, and I wasn't that comfortable with it either.
I explained that I have a serious fear of needles and have passed out while giving blood and after getting an IV inserted, but that I had never passed out just in conversation. They both stated several times that they had never had anyone drop on them in a consultation. Well, I guess that makes me special.
After a minute or two of sitting there telling them this and drinking some water, the doctor and nurse went into the hallway to discuss what they should do with me. Suddenly, I felt the world closing in on me and couldn't muster up the energy to speak. This time I knew I was about to pass out. And I did.
So again I came to with them both in my face. A third lady was in the room bringing some smelling salts (which incidentally I could not smell at all). They were trying to find me a soda to drink and I was covered head to toe in sweat. This time they stayed with me and kept asking me how I was doing. I felt incredibly tired. It was determined that I would call Lisa to come pick me up, as they were afraid I might pass out on the ride home.
So I called Lisa and she was on her way to save the day. After I drank most of the soda and had stayed upright for several minutes, they led me out to the small waiting area outside the examination rooms. As I sat there trying to figure out what had happened, I noticed that my pants were wet. Suddenly, the embarrassment and shock of passing out twice in a consultation was no longer such a huge deal and was no longer my focus.
I was desperately trying to figure out if I had peed my pants while passed out. Could that happen?!? Of course it could, I suppose, since your body is crashing and relaxing all at once. Wouldn't it make sense that your ability to "hold it" might also take a break? Oh my word. How can I check to see if this is what happened?!?
I casually rubbed my hand along the wet spot and slyly snuck a sniff under my still-broken nose. I didn't smell anything! Happiness! Joy! Panic! I hadn't smelled the smelling salts either after passing out, so perhaps my sense of smell is still on vacation. Perhaps I am sitting in this chair smelling up the joint. Perhaps I smell as bad as a urinal in the 7th inning at the Cardinals game on a hot summer's day.
So, I checked again, using the same method. Nothing. How can I be sure? I took the can of Sprite I was finishing off and took a sniff. The smell of lime has never been more welcomed in my life. I was pee free! God had granted me mercy and had spared me this embarrassment! But why were my pants all wet? At this point I recalled that I was drinking a small cup of water when i had dropped the second time. The mystery has been solved!
So I sat in that space, in my wet pants, waiting for my wife to come pick me up from my pre-surgery consultation where I had just passed out twice for no reason and wondered what those around me were thinking. From my vantage point, it was clear that everyone in that area had been alerted to keep an eye on me. I was famous for all the wrong reasons and didn't like the peering eyes.
I also came to realize that although I knew why my pants were wet, there is virtually no way anyone else around me knew the reason. So, it would seem a natural conclusion to think 'Man, that guy passed out and peed his pants!". So not only was I the guy who passed out, i was also the pee guy. I was demoralized.
Finally, Lisa showed up and the doctor and nurse came over and talked about what had happened. At last, I was saved from the torture of staying in this place and we left for home. I had a hard time staying alert on the way home, as I was incredibly tired. When we arrived home, I went immediately to our room and crawled into bed where I promptly fell asleep. Two and a half hours later I woke up feeling a bit better.
This day that had started out so great, with such great expectations, had exploded on me in the most unexpected way. I was thankful to be home and, although the day's events had been a bit traumatic, I was still looking forward to getting the surgery done in two weeks.
I remembered seeing this video and felt that it was a good depiction of my doctor's visit. And then, incredibly enough, several other people mentioned this very same thing as well:
I found the chapter entitled "The Economics of Medical Care" in Thomas Sowell's book Applied Economics to be incredibly informative and a helpful presentation of facts versus myths in the healh care discussion. For example:
Fourty percent of uninsured Americans are under the age of 25 and more than 60 percent are under the age of 35. Fewer than 10 percent of people over 55 are uninsured, despite the widespread political use of an image of old people who have to choose between food and medical care. This may be the political image of the uninsured, but it is hardly the reality. - p67
I’m so tired of these mortal men
With their hands on their wallets and their hearts full of sin
Scared of their enemies, scared of their friends
And always running for re-election
So come to DC if it be thy will
Because we’ve never had a savior on Capitol Hill
You can always trust the devil or a politician
To be the devil or a politician
But beyond that friends you’d best beware
’Cause at the Pentagon bar they’re an inseparable pair
And as long as the lobbyists are paying their bills
We’ll never have a savior on Capitol Hill
All of our problems gonna disappear
When we can whisper right in that President’s ear
He could walk right across the reflection pool
In his combat boots and ten thousand dollar suit
You can render unto Caesar everything that’s his
You can trust in his power to come to your defense
It’s the way of the world, the way of the gun
It’s the trading of an evil for a lesser one
So don’t hold your breath or your vote until
You think you’ve finally found a savior up on Capitol Hill
"We're not sure American schools teach civics any more, but once upon a time they taught that under the U.S. Constitution a bill had to pass both the House and Senate to become law. Until this week, that is, when Speaker Nancy Pelosi is moving to merely 'deem' that the House has passed the Senate health-care bill and then send it to President Obama to sign anyway. . . . "
I am getting ready to read through and listen to the State of the Union address that the President gave last night (video). Below are my thoughts as the speech unfolds. Any quotes have been taken directly from the official White House transcript.
One year ago, I took office amid two wars, an economy rocked by a severe recession, a financial system on the verge of collapse, and a government deeply in debt. Experts from across the political spectrum warned that if we did not act, we might face a second depression. So we acted -– immediately and aggressively. And one year later, the worst of the storm has passed.
It would seem to me that there was no effort made to reduce the government debt during the past year. In fact, quite the contrary seems self-evident. The worst of that storm is yet to come and will be felt most keenly by our children and their children.
When I was in college, AIDS/HIV was a very popular topic. At that time, it was just becoming more widely discussed, especially on college campuses across the US. As a Resident Assistant (RA) in a hall on campus, it was part of my job to provide educational programs to the students about various topics. One of the most time intensive presentations I ever created revolved around the topic of AIDS.
The statistics I was able to find at the time were altogether nauseating and left me feeling helpless in the fight of the spread of the disease. To add insult to an already devastating disease, many within the Christian community were quick to condemn those who had contracted the disease, declaring that this was a judgement from God for their sinful behavior.
Here we are now, years later, and there are medications that can and do prevent AIDS from being so utterly debilitating. There are millions of people around the world living with AIDS. Yet, at the same time, there are millions more who will die of the disease this year due to lack of care and treatment. Millions of innocent children have and will contract HIV in utero and will face an incredibly short and bleak life.
The face of AIDS/HIV is no longer associated with the homosexual, nor is it relegated to the prostitutes and junkies of this world. The face of AIDS/HIV can be seen on the face of children all around the world who are exposed to the disease through the birthing process and never have an opportunity to live beyond their 5th birthday.
There are hundreds of programs available that allow you to help combat the spread of this disease and to provide medical treatment for those who do have it. Lisa and I have used WorldVision to impact people in the past and I would recommend supporting their World AIDS Day program without hesitation.
"I happen to be a proponent of a single payer, universal healthcare plan. I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, is spending 14%, 14& of it's Gross National product on healthcare, cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. And that's what Jim is talking about when he says "Everybody in, nobody out." A single payer healthcare plan. Universal healthcare. That's what I'd like to see. But, as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back White House and we've got to take back the Senate... [inaudible]" - Barack Obama (2003)
to be incredibly informative and a helpful presentation of facts versus myths in the healh care discussion. For example:
" by Derek Webb:
