Baby Bear's BIg Screen Debut

This last weekend couldn't have been more perfect! I was

able to spend the whole long weekend with Miguel, and our crazy kitty, moose juice caboose! I love long weekends just for the fact that I get an extra day with both of them.No matter what we are doing, no matter how fun or how "boring"(like laundry and cleaning) Michael always makes me laugh,and smile in everything we do together. I couldn't have picked a better man to share my life with, if I had tried. I am so grateful for him in every way, and so grateful that our kids will have such and amazing man to look up to! I know he will be an awesome dad, and I cannot believe how fast it seems that moment is approaching!Yesterday was the day that we were able to see our baby bear on the big screen. Every week leading up to this point, I became even more and more nervous to see just what was growing down there. Would the baby have both arms and legs? Would the brain be developing the way it should be? Was the heart healthy? I had a million things going on in my head, that just increased over the weeks and it was all coming down to this one moment. The moment of truth! I don't know why, or even if this isnormal but carrying a baby inside of me has turned me into a worry wart! Iconstantly wonder if my body is the best it can be to raise this baby to be healthy and happy once it arrives! So needless to say, Sunday night was not a night of rest. I barely slept if at all, and I was ready to go super early to our appointment. I made sure to drink some O.J. to try and have an active baby while we were checkin' her/him out. So we get to the dr.'s office, they call me back to do the usual tests, but my blood pressure was RATHER high.I knew it would be because as soon as the nurse called my name, my heart was just about beating out of my chest! I couldn't help it! I was nervous, anxious and excited all rolled into one. The nurse looked at me and asked if I was ok? I told her I was fine but was really nervous for this appointment. So she told me I would have to have my blood pressure takin' again before I left to make sure all was well. So, we go back into the room and wait for the tech so show us our cute lil' baby! I was expecting to be huddled around the ultrasound screen just like in our first visit, but much to my surprise, bear really did have her/his debut on a big screen! We were in this TINY room, that a 52 inch TV took up the entire side of one wall! It was such a neat experience, and once we got in the room and the video of my belly started, all my nerves went away, and all I could do was smile at this miracle growing in my belly. I really thought I would be emotional, but all I could do was smile and look at that huge screen and be so excited for what was coming to us in June! The tech started with the top of the skull to show us the brain development and was checking to make sure everything was growing the way it should be,and so far so good! I hope we have a smarty pants, but doubt she will get that gene from her mama! :) We then saw the front of bear's face. We saw the eyes, nose, mouth and even saw bear yawn too!Apparently all the squirming around bear has been doing is really tiring! Then to tech showed us the spine and ribs and basically the structure of baby bear's body. Then he moved to the abdomen, and showed us the heart beating like a champ,the bladder, stomach and kidney's, which I had a hard time making out. He then showed us where the umbilical cord attaches, and to me on the screen it looked like a duck face! I think the bladder was the "eye" and the cord was the duck bill! Next I made sure to close my eyes once the tech got down near the kid's "cash & prizes",so that I wouldn't ruin the surprise for later, (even though I am STILL very confident we are having a girl). The lil' one was VERY squirmy throughout the whole process, which kinda made it fun to see just how much they really do move around down there! The video ends with bear trying to take a nap on it's belly face down, just like Mama likes to do too :) Bear is so healthy and it was so amazing to see how big he/she has grown into in the 20 weeks in my belly. Creating a life is truly an amazing and beautiful thing, and I am so overwhelmingly grateful for my chance to bring a baby into this world. I didn't expect it to be this soon after getting married, but I wouldn't change it for the world. This baby will no doubt bring us even closer and will officially make the Bakken's a family. I can't wait for the next 19 weeks to fly by,so that I can hold my sweet lil' shnookums and tell bear how lucky we are to have him/her here with us and how much we love her/him!

Here are the minute marks and what they are measuring or what we are seeing on the video:

Measuring skull- 0:25 seconds
Showing brain development- 0:45
Showing us the pallet- 1:13
Eyes- 1:22
Nose- 1:24
Mouth/Lips- 1:28
Baby Bear yawn's- 1:41
Spine- 1:59
Ribs- 2:08
Abdomen- 2:40
(see heart, bladder, stomach, kidneys)
Measure abdomen- 3:44
Duck Face- aka bladder & umbilical cord- 4:15
Baby squirming around for a while----
Bear sleeping on it's belly, face down- 5:42