Introducing...

Clara's sister!

That's right...it's another girl for the Hermann's! We had our ultrasound this morning and everything looks great with the baby. We were under the impression that they would be able to look at the baby's esophagus to see if he/she might have the same birth defect that Clara did, but it turns out they aren't able to. All they can really do is look to see if there is fluid in the stomach, which they said is the best indication that everything has developed as it should. They were able to see fluid in this baby's stomach, but they were also able to with Clara so that didn't really provide the assurance to us that we were hoping for. They did, however, look pretty closely at the baby's heart. Clara was born with a small VSD (hole in her heart) which puts any additional children that we have at higher risk for heart defects. They saw nothing abnormal about the baby's heart, but they want us to come back in four weeks to look again when the baby is a little bigger. And since we'll be coming back for that they'll go ahead and look at the stomach again to see if that still looks good.

So we are very pleased with the results of the ultrasound and now we're getting excited thinking about having two girls. I'll probably pull out the baby name book this afternoon and start looking for ideas!

Thank you for your continued prayers for our little baby girl who is perfectly formed yet weighs only about 8 ounces right now. God is so good!

(What you see in the ultrasound picture is the front of the baby's face, with a fist below it. The rest is uterus, placenta, etc.)

Cookin' up some fun!

I've noticed recently that Clara has begun to outgrow the "baby toys" that we've accumulated for her so I've been watching Craig's List for an inexpensive play kitchen. Most of the ones I'd been seeing were still around $60 which wasn't cheap enough for me. Until today. Someone had posted one last night for $25 and it looked cute and in good condition so I jumped on it. We picked it up this afternoon and Clara's first reaction to it was pure delight. I didn't get a great picture of her with it yet because she was constantly on the move checking everything out. It makes noise when you play with the faucet, push buttons on the phone, and turn the pages of the cookbook. And the burners on the stove light up like they're hot. Now we just need to buy some play food and dishes and she'll be set for hours of fun!

18 weeks

Since I've put a few new posts on the blog recently you can probably guess that I'm starting to feel better finally. I'm definitely not 100%, but far better than I was a couple months ago. I've got quite a bit more energy and eating has gotten a lot easier too. I'm 18 weeks now...almost halfway to the end! We have our big ultrasound on Monday morning and we're hoping to find out whether we're having a boy or a girl. This will be a level 2 ultrasound, which means it shows more detail. My clinic doesn't routinely do level 2 ultrasounds, but because of the birth defects that Clara had they want to look at this baby more closely. We'll be sure to post results of the ultrasound later on Monday.

Hidden treasure

Clara started walking about two weeks ago. Now she cruises all over our little apartment, exploring all the nooks and crannies, crumbs and fuzzes, cords, cupboards, books, appliances....anything she can possibly reach.



This morning I pulled out my mixing bowls to make up a batch of pancakes and I found this...

The picture turned out a little bright, but that's a pacifier in there. She loves to open this cupboard multiple times a day, but I didn't realize that she had decided it would make a good hiding spot for her treasures. It made me smile!

Big game!

Before the big game:

After the big game:

Well, we don't actually have an "after" picture. When the game ended, Clara was sound asleep in her bed and Jeremy was not a happy camper. Who wants a picture of that? Better luck next time, Packers!