Week 19 and All is Well!

Above is the latest picture of our new baby. We are now approxiamtely on week 19 of the pregnancy for our baby. Here's the latest on the baby's health:

We are crossing the threshold for the development of heart block. For fuller details of this possibility I will refer you to the blogs from May – September 2005 with our first child, Grace.

We have been doing weekly ultrasounds and heart tests since week 14 and so far there are no indicators that heart block will develop. The most significant window for the development of heart block are weeks 18-20. After week 20 the probability of full heart block goes down dramatically. They will not rule out the possibility of full or partial heart block but they will say it lessens dramatically.

Here are a few other details in case you’re wondering. The due date is August 24 (sometimes they say August 20th so we don’t know what to think for sure). At first they were saying the 24th then the 20th now they are saying the 24th but they won’t change the date back since it is less than two weeks between the two. Go figure.

Also, we know definitely that we are having a boy! They actually told us at week 14 but I was hesitant to say anything just in case they were wrong. I’ve heard stories of people who have painted their rooms and bought tons of clothes only to find out the doctors were wrong. But with this many ultrasounds and with the confirmation of two different technicians and the perinatal specialist I am fairly confident they are right.

Have we decided on a name yet? The answer to that is yes. So what is it? Well, last time we told people that if we had a boy we were going to name him Dolf Egbert. Were we serious about that? Heck no. But we were in the D’s and E’s when people asked us so that was the first odd names that came to Jenn’s mind. We had decided to tell people the weirdest name we could think of to get people’s reaction. It worked. I was rebuked and pulled aside by friends to warn us not to do such an evil thing to our child. Of course, our first child was a girl so that freed up the name until now.

We have decided to name the baby Alexander Jonathan Monreal. In addition to them both being strong names they also are the names of two very close friends whom we respect dearly and admire their close walk with the Lord. I guess we’ll have to save Dolf Egbert for next time!