Happy Halloween!

Steve and I helped throw one of dear friends, Christa a 30th Birthday/Halloween Party. We dressed up as Britney Spears and Kevin Federline. At the party there were a number of people that asked me what I used to stuff my belly. They were surprised to find out it was a real belly with a real baby inside. It was the first time either of us have dressed up for Halloween in a really long time so it was a ton of fun. The party was a great success!

Dr.'s Appt-20 weeks

We are now 20 weeks, 3 days, which is more than halfway until the big day!!!!!! We went to the Dr.'s on Tuesday for our 5-month appointment. Our doctor went over the results from our Anatomy Sonogram and Quad Screen blood work. Everything came back completely normal!!!! This is exciting news as it is the last major testing we will have. The only thing I have left is my glucose screen for gestational diabetes, which will take place in another 6 weeks. Below are a couple of pictures from our anatomy sonogram which we had last week. We are thankful Parker wasn't as modest at our sneak peek sonogram as he was during this session. He had his legs crossed the entire time and we wouldn't have been able to find out his gender. I guess he figured that once was all we needed to see:)

Visit with the Fennimans

Steve and I traveled to Tallahassee for the Miami game and to visit with Desiree and Erik. We had an amazing time. On Saturday, Desiree and I got our fill of fried pickles at Po Boys and Steve and Erik got their fill of beer and football. All were happy:) Sunday, Desiree and I spent the majority of the day bumming around talking about all our pregnancy experiences while Steve and Erik escaped for some man time on the golf course. It was such a great weekend and we are so excited for football season next year when we can come back with Parker and he can hang with his buddy Crosby.

Belly Shot, 17 weeks, 3 days

As promised I have posted another belly shot. My belly is becoming more and more obvious everyday. I am just starting to feel like strangers may think Im pregnant without me telling them.

Introducing.........................................

Parker Stuart Mitzel

Steve and I went for our routine 4-month check up and our quad screen blood work. Our doctor so graciously offerred us the option of getting a sneak peek of the gender of our baby. Our anatomy sonogram is scheduled for Oct 16th which is only two weeks away, but we could not fight the urge to find out early. We couldn't have made a better choice. Yesterday was one of the most amazing days of my life. Not only does it solidify that we are really going to have a baby, but now the baby has an identity. Now I don't feel quite so strange talking to my belly. Instead I can talk to and address Parker! There has been much deliberation over choosing just the right name. Parker and Anderson have been two boys names that we have loved from the beginning and Stuart is my dad's name and was always going to be the middle name if the baby was a boy. Last night Steve and I decided that Parker just fits. We couldn't be more exited and thankful of our beautiful baby boy.

I have attached some 4D pictures below. For those of you that aren't familiar they can be a little startling. They show a great deal of detail but the fluid surrounding the baby will often distort the image. The skin is still very transparent so you can see a lot of his bones, too. The shadows on his head are where his head is touching my uterus, he doesn't really have a hole in his head:)

Here is Parker rubbing his eye with his little legs crossed.....So cute!

Here he is waving to his mommy and daddy for the first time:)

Here he is touching his toes!

Finally, Parker sucking his thumb just like his mommy did as a kid. Lets hope this bad habit doesn't stick!