IT'S A GIRL!!!

As most of you know we had to go up to Wilford Hall this past Tuesday for my OB appointment. The last time I went to visit the Dr. was back in January, so needless to say I was anxious to see what the OB had to say. The whole clan came. Dad was able to get off work for a couple of days to come with us. I'm glad, b/c I love the support. The first thing the dr.s check is your weight of course. I had gained 5 lbs since January(3 months ago). Then as the dr. checked to hear the baby's heart beat Isabel was amazed and concerned at the same time. She kept asking me, "Mom are you ok?" I assured her that I was fine and that what she was hearing was the baby. She was so cute trying to look out for my well-fare. Also, since I was 19 wks they were able to give me an ultrasound and tell me what sex we were having. We are glad to announce that we will be bringing another little baby GIRL into this world. The Dr. had to give me a level 2 ultrasound so he could see if there was anything wrong with my scar from my last pregnancy. Which there wasn't anything wrong, but he did find something wrong with the baby's brain. He said it wasn't much, and he probably wouldn't of noticed, but since he was doing a level 2 ultrasound he picks up every little thing. He said there are 2 glands in the brain that produce the spinal cord fluid and the fluid in the brain ventricles, and that these glands were clogged. He said it is like the pores all over your body. If they become clogged you get a pimple and then it goes away. Well, he said right now they are clogged. I asked him if that was a problem and he said well, not necessarily. He said all it does is throw up a flag and makes us want to look at other things to make sure it isn't causing any other problems. He said the main thing with the clogged glands is that it could be a sign of down syndrome. He checked everything else very thoroughly and couldn't find anything else wrong. He said the main sign if there was a problem would be that the hands would be closed and fingers overlapping, but in our case our little girl had her hands wide open, which was a plus. He said there probably isn't anything to worry about and the glands will likely come unclogged just like pimples go away. Other than that little small detail everything looked great. We are very excited to be having another little girl. Isabel can't wait to dress her up and paint her nails for her.

On another note we also had an appointment for lil Anthony with the orthopedic dr. to see about getting him some leg braces finally. I thought for sure that he needed braces. When he stands you can tell that his ankles are just too weak, and I thought that the braces would give him the support he needs. But as we met with Dr. Ritchie he assured me that he was doing just great, and didn't need any braces at this time. He felt like his legs and feet were aligned pretty good and that getting braces would actually do him more harm than good. He said we would be better off just getting some high top shoes and let him wear those around.

I always love to go to San Antonio on medical leave. It is like a mini paid vacation. We were there in San Antonio for 3 days and they paid for our gas, hotel and even food. It was nice eating out for every meal and having some body else pay for it. I mean who wouldn't want a break from slaving over the stove all the time. It was pretty nice. The military really does have its perks. Oh and while we were up there I found out that my brother-in-law, Frankie, actually was in San Antonio too. He had got in the day before us and will be there for the next 6 weeks for some training for the Air Force. It was nice seeing him again.