Baby Walker...Baby Pisces!

As pregnancy progresses so does our curiosity. Of course the big question is, boy? or, girl? We've had plenty weigh in on their thoughts. We've had an overwhelming amount of supporters for a Mini-April. Those include Auntie Paige (April's sister), Grandma Helen's co-workers, and close to all of mommy's friends. However, the Emmsley Clan (Grandma Lani, Joseph & Kai) are hoping for a boy. The Chinese astrological calendar says that we should expect a girl. However, it also said that Baby Walker's cousin, Riley, was going to be a boy. Six more weeks and we will know!

Baby Walker will be born in the year of the Rabbit (Mommy is year of the Rat, Daddy is year of the Boar). He/She will be born to the Pisces astrological sign (February 19 - March 20). It has been fun to learn what "greater beings" have to say about our little bundle of joy. Pisces are referred to as "old souls"with a thirst for spiritual knowledge and personal growth. Pisces is one of three water signs. The other two signs that share the water characteristic are Cancer (Gigi Gina) and Scorpio (Grandma Helen, Grandpa Ken and Grandma Lani). The Astrological birth sign of Pisces is usually associated with being extremely creative, sensetive, and artistic, as well as a healthy fascination with the metaphysical and spiritual.

Aquamarine is March's birthstone (again representing the water of Pisces). The flower belonging to March is the Jonquil (also known as Daffodil or Narcissus). As you can see you can get carried away with looking into all these different signs, flowers, gemstones, etc.

Ultrasound #2 - 1st trimester screening

Friday, August 27th was our first trimester screening ultrasound. Needless to say that this was our most exciting and eventful ultrasound yet. No longer an embryo, we were able to see the profile of the baby's head as well as their foot and hand. We were also lucky enough to see the baby moving their head! The technician said that he/she was very cooperative while she took her measurements. Once the ultrasound was done we were informed that the baby is negative for down's syndrome trisomy-21 and trisomy-18. We are fortunate to have a healthy baby! Below is a much bigger Baby Walker!

Our Baby's Heart Beat

On Friday, August 20th we had our routine (monthly) visit with the doctor. We are currently on "rotation" to visit each of the doctors that work with the OB GYN group/pracitce we are seeing for prenatal (and eventual delivery) care. During this visit we saw Dr. Karen Koe who was very nice, reviewed a couple of medical items, and used the doppler (is that what it is called?) to check mini-Walker's heart beat. This is the first time we've heard the heart beating (we've seen it on an ultrasound before) and it was amazing! Little Brandon/April had a nice strong heart beat that Brandon imitates as a "woosh woosh woosh". I was tempted to ask if it could just be my stomach since it has taken to talking to me lately but I figured that would just be silly. So, there we have it... two heart beats going on in April's body.

Today, Wednesday August 25th ends the last day of our 11th week! The baby is developing from a lime to a plum as we transition into week 12 and finish up our first trimester. April has been lucky to experience minimal "pregnancy symptoms". There was no nauseau and though there were bouts of fatigue it was nothing that kept her from her normal day-to-day activities. We have been eating out more often along with more sweets. At this rate, Brandon may start to show soon, too!

Currently, we have two appointments scheduled within the next month. An ultrasound will be done this Friday, August 27th as part of routine tests. We are hoping we see a picture of a bigger Baby Walker. The next appointment is scheduled for September 20th where by that time we should be finishing up our 15th week and closer to finding out if we'll be shopping for pink or blue!

Thank you to everyone for keeping up on our little bundle of joy's progress. We will be sure to update (and hopefully include a picture) after our next appointment.

Baby Walker's "Dating" Ultrasound

Last Tuesday, July 27th was our dating ultrasound. The purpose of this visit was to find out the most accurate EDD (estimated due date). Because the embryo was only about 7ish weeks at that time the technician said that the ultrasound could not be taken trans-dermally. For all you mommies, you know what that means... fun! (heavily loaded sarcasm). The tech told us that she would be taking a few pictures and measurements and once she was finished she would show us the picture of our little offspring. When measurements were completed, she showed us what appeared to be a Baby Walker much bigger than the last time we had seen him/her and it had been less than a week! On our way out we asked if there was a new EDD. She informed us that based on her measurements the new due date was March 12, 2011 but it still varies. It looks like we will have to wait until our next appointment to question the doctor about our due date but we are estimating that at this time we have finished our eighth week and into our ninth week.

Baby Walker has finished the embryo stage and officially graduated into becoming a fetus for the rest of gestation. Our little raspberry is transitioning to a green olive (who said martini?!). Our next appointment is currently scheduled for August 20th where we will start our rotation through the doctors in our OB group. Because each doctor takes rotating shifts of being "on call" they want their patients to have met each of the doctors at least once. We believe that it will be a happy coincidence if we have Dr. Schwartz as our delivering doctor because she delivered Jack almost seven years ago!

April has had more of a sweet tooth lately which means more family walks to stay healthy and keep from gaining too much weight too soon. Our 2-mile loop through Signal Hill provides us with quality family time. Bruin is also enjoying more walks!

As we finish our 2nd month of pregnancy the countdown begins to the moment we find out if we will be adding a boy or girl to the Emmsley/Walker clan. Three months left and we can't wait!

Baby Walker's Debut - Our First Ultrasound!

On Wednesday, July 21st we had an early morning appointment to have our very first look at our "blueberry". According to the method of measurement, our original due date (and thus, our progress), was set back by about a week. Instead of the baby growing from a blueberry to a raspberry (week 7-week 8) it was just beginning it's transition from a snow pea into a blueberry (week 6-week 7). If you can't already tell, we love these fruit analogies.

The ultrasound showed a rapidly beating heart (much like a quick, blinking light.. very cool!) and a fetus that is progressing well. Our nurse practitioner said that everything looked good and we couldn't be happier.

Next Tuesday, July 27th we have our official "dating" ultrasound. This will tell us if Baby Walker wants to stick with the original due date of March 10th or the revised due date of March 17th. Whichever due date we are given at this appointment will be waht we stick with for the rest of our pregnancy.

Additionally, we learned all about the "do's" and "don'ts" of pregnancy. Of course, we had to ask which Disneyland rides we can go on for the next 7ish months. Looks like we'll be frequent passengers on the Monorail!

Here is a picture of a fetus at 7 weeks:

And, here is Baby Walker:

The Newest Addition to the family - Baby Walker!

On July 5, 2010 Brandon and I celebrated ONE year since our engagement. So much changes in such a short period of time. In one year we were engaged, married, moved and... welcoming a new member of our family! On this day nothing more special can share this anniversary other than finding out that we are pregnant with our first child!

That night we couldn't think straight. Feelings of excitement coupled with terror (maybe more for April... WHAT is going to happen to my body?!) flooded our emotions. After all was said and done we knew we would have to see the doctor to have our at-home tests confirmed.

On July 7th April met with her doctor and confirmed that there is a little Walker growing in the womb! She called Brandon and confirmed the exciting news. He had to call back downstairs from his cell phone in order to avoid disrupting his co-workers! We were completing our 5th week of pregnancy at this time and the baby was growing from a poppyseed to an apple seed!

Among the first to know was Mom (Gina), Paige, April's co-workers (Dr. Arcan, Perla & Dolores). We shared the news with April's family Sunday, July 11, 2010 along with Brandon's parents and brother. On Monday we had dinner with Aya, Joe & Evy where we shared our joy (We told April's good friend Gina that previous Saturday). Now, the great news has been shared with many of our loved ones and we can't be more excited.

The week we found out about the pregnancy Brandon had a dream that we had a girl and she had a name! We'll see if his premonition proves true! The name is on our short-list of possible girl's names and for the time being we're keeping it to ourselves. How awesome would it be to tell our little girl that her Daddy dreamt about her before we had even known she was a "she". Don't worry... we have boys' names in mind as well!

We are looking forward to sharing our progress with our family and friends and can't wait to meet our little one. Today marks the 40th day of pregnancy and the baby (or, fetus) is transforming from a sweet pea into a blueberry! Our progress will also be confirmed at upcoming appointments. We may be a couple of days/weeks (one or two) ahead or behind than originally estimated.

Our next appointment is Wednesday, July 21st where hopefully, our ultrasound will produce a heartbeat and quite possible a visible blob!

Our Wedding!

We've fallen behind in documenting our beginnings as a family. However, we're here and read

y to catch up to the present. We decidedthat what we really wanted was a simple wedding that was focused on starting our new life as husband and wife by celebrating and sharing this moment with family and friends. We decided the traditional wedding wasn't for us and we opted for a location everyone could enjoy- Las Vegas! We were married on December 5, 2009 at the Wynn Wedding Salons. We celebrated with our family and friends at our hospitality suite at the Bellagio and that night partied it up at Body English in the Hard Rock Hotel/Casino. We really enjoyed ourselves and felt incredibly blessed to have our loved ones present to make this weekend special for us.

We drove up on Friday, December 4, 2009 with Uncle Joe, Auntie Angie, Joseph, Kai, Paige, Ruben, Uncle Kaleo, Auntie Jay, Dylan and Noah. We made it into Las Vegas around noon and immediately checked into our room at the Bellagio. The hotel was beautifully decorated for the holiday season. Not too long after we checked in, our cousins Joey and Ellen from Florida joined us. We enjoyed walking around part of the strip with them. I took advantage of taking as many pictures as possible to document their first visit to Las Vegas. Ellen, being about 5 months pregnant with Koa at the time was a trooper with all the seeing of the sites that weekend!

The next item on our agenda was checking in with the Wedding Coordinator at the Wynn. While waiting for our "limo" pick up outside of the Bellagio we asked the Bell Desk if they knew where we could go to find our driver. The valet responded, "Well, that's one of the Wynn cars there." Brandon was in heaven to find that our "limo" was a Rolls Royce Phantom.

That evening, before the "Bachelorette" festivities, our families got together to have appetizers and cocktails at Kahunaville at TI.

That night the girls went out to dinner at Mon Ami Gabi (Paris Hotel) followed by a Cirque Du Soleil show "O" at The Bellagio. A quick stop was made at Bank nightclub before tucking in the Bride on her last night as a single lady!

The rest of the weekend was a whirlwind. The wedding came and went and before we knew what happened we were walking down the aisle as Mr. And Mrs. Walker. We enjoyed spending time with family and friends this weekend and could have imagined spending our wedding weekend any other way!!