It's a boy!

Hello to you all! It has been quite some time since anything has been posted on here, so I hope this is exciting enough to make up for it. It is for us! As most of you know, we had our ultrasound appointment yesterday and heard the wonderful news, "It's a BOY!!!!" Yay! We are delighted to be able to share a few select photos with you of our growing baby boy. The practice we use is one of the largest in Arizona, and therefore had the most updated technology. We were fortunate enough to have the ability to view live feed of not only the regular black and white sonogram we all know and love, but the new 3d photos as well. The 3d photos are actually called "4d - real time" and the black and white sonogram are considered 3d. Whatever. I don't try to understand, I just enjoy. I hope you do too. I have tried to explain the pictures so you all know what you're looking at, but if you have any questions about what it is you're supposed to be seeing, please leave them in the comments section and someone will get back to you. Enjoy!

I put this picture first because it's my very favorite. Is that not the most precious face you've ever seen?

Here is another 4D photo. If you can't tell what that is to the left of his face (our left, his right), that's his hand. He had his hands up the whole time like a cute little fetus! It was really adorable. Occasionally the technician would shake my tummy to try to get him to move them so she could get a good shot at his face, but he would just flail them for a second and then put them right back. This photo and the one above are about as far away as he ever moved his little hands. And, I love his little lips in this picture because he's sucking, so they have the cutest shape.

Okay, this one looks really funny (especially his mouth - he looks like a scarecrow), but I included it because this position is how he held his hands for the entirety of our session. One on his ear and one on his eye. Just looking at this melts my heart!

Here is a normal ultrasound picture...the type that's familiar to us all. This is a shot of his profile. This one's pretty easy to see, so I won't explain it. What a sweet profile of a beautiful baby.

This one here was one of the very first pictures that was taken. Before you even get to see your baby, the doctor takes pictures of all the organs and functions to make sure the baby is developing properly. It's so silly because I hadn't even seen the baby yet, but this picture (well, the actual live feed I was seeing) made me cry, and I cried through the entire rest of the appointment. Inside the picture of the circle here, there is a shape that vaguely resembles a butterfly. This is the baby's brain, separated into left and right sides. Wow! It is still so amazing to me how delicate and intricate this process is. How can you doubt the existence of a loving Creator when you witness something as beautiful and astounding as this? Even though I didn't know half of what I was looking at until the doctor would explain it (and even then I still couldn't see it in a lot of cases!), everything I saw just filled me with a new found appreciation for my Heavenly Father and all he does for us. What a miracle this truly is.

Here is the baby's tiny hand...

And another.

I thought this was pretty cool. This is the baby's spine. To the left you can see the ribs (slightly) just below the spine, and to the right you can see where it's beginning to curve up to connect with the hip bones.

Little baby legs (that were just kicking away!) He has his little feet crossed which I think is so adorable (despite the fact that most little fetuses cross their feet).

Here's another picture of his little legs and feet, but this time in the cool 4d mode!

Last but certainly not least, this is a picture of his baby heart. I thought this one was neat because she was measuring the flow of blood, and we can see it! (The red and blue means it's working!) :)

I hope you enjoyed our tour of little Samuel David. We love him so much already and can't wait to be able to share him with all of you!