She put what in her mouth?

Yesterday at my routine prenatal exam, the midwife intern was unable to feel the baby's head with her hands and so we did an ultrasound to make sure she wasn't breach or transverse.  Seeing the ultrasound was awesome.  Baby is indeed head down, already in my pelvis, which is why the midwife intern couldn't feel it.  We saw baby's two fists and the umbilical cord.  It looked like the cord was in her fists and then she moved her fist to her mouth.  So cute to think that she is 'playing' with what is in the womb to entertain her.  But what is she doing biting the cord that feeds her?

In the photo of the ultrasound, the dark circle is her eye socket.  Her fist, holding the umbilical cord, is located right under the word FACE and is in her mouth.  We're at week 39, so if this pregnancy finishes like the other 4 (which is what I'm expecting), anytime this week we'll get to welcome her!

Boise Idaho Temple

Last July, our temple closed for renovations.  Oh how I've missed it.  I've written about it here.  The temple is right next to the interstate, quite a sight - especially at night when the lights are on.  But during the construction phase the exterior lights were off.  I was so happy to see them turn on again at the beginning of October!

Now we are in the Open House phase - until November 10.  Last Friday I got to take the tour twice - in the morning with my husband and children and in the afternoon with a friend from chorus and her children.  Can I just say how beautiful it is!

The Entry, with 2 Carl Bloch paintings (there are many of his paintings throughout the temple).

 The Baptismal Font, with stained glass 

and murals depicting Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery being baptized and confirmed.

 The Sealing Room, with eternity mirrors.  

Sabrina says this is the most beautiful room in the entire temple.

The Celestial Room

On the 26th of October, Sabrina and 3 of her friends (the Mad for Music String Serenaders Quartet) had the opportunity to play at the open house in the reception hall.  The had weekly practices for a month before hand to prepare 30 minutes of church and classical music.  We invited Ryan's parents to come and tour the temple and hear them play, so that day Ryan, Roderic and Hyrum got to tour the temple as well.  Leo was really sad when he learned that he missed going to the temple with them (it was during nap time).  Just imagine his exuberance at being able to go to the temple the next week!  "I going temple? Hurray!" complete with jumping.

The cultural celebration will be held on November 17 in the Taco Bell Arena on BSU campus and the temple will be dedicated by President Monson on November 18.  The temple will reopen on November 20 and I have plans to go twice that week because there is no school for the children so Sabrina will be able to babysit for me!  My goal is to attend the temple at least 3 times before Beatrix is born.

We're Expecting! It's a Girl! We're Entering the Weekly appointment phase!

I have not yet officially announced my pregnancy on the blog, which is pretty funny, since we started telling people very early in this pregnancy (we told our children during week 6).  Now I'm 35.5 weeks along.  I took Leo with me to my first appointment and recorded the baby's heartbeat on my digital voice recorder.  He would say, "Baby?  No!  Choo-Choo!" whenever we listened to it.

To do something different this pregnancy, Ryan convinced me that we should have an ultrasound at 20 weeks and find out the sex of our baby.  It took a lot of convincing.  At the ultrasound appointment, the technician was looking all over and took lots of pictures of the baby's parts.  Very unceremoniously she said, "And you're sure you want to find out the sex?"  "Yes," we replied.  "It's a girl," she said and kept moving on.  It was not as exciting as finding out when the baby is born and they put him or her in your arms, for sure.  Ryan, being the engineer, asked, "How often are you right?"  To which she replied, "I've been wrong 3 times and those were all at the beginning of my 11 year career."  So we're pretty confident that we're having a girl.  Sabrina, Roderic and Hyrum are all so very excited to have a little sister.  Leo is still coming to grips that it's a baby and not a train.

With this being my 6th pregnancy, my body remembered very early on what a pregnant woman is supposed to look like and my belly popped out at about week 12, forcing me into maternity clothes.  I was also very tired early on, taking naps daily.  In fact, that was the clue that had me convinced I should take a pregnancy test.  Every day during spring break, I got so tired about 2pm I just had to fall asleep.  I've been sleeping a lot (and yet still not enough!).

So, the anticipated due date is December 7, which is a short 4.5 weeks away.  I can hardly believe it.  Roderic was born on the due date and the rest have come 2 or 3 days before, so we're expecting that again.  Yes, we have a name picked out.  Beatrix Beryl.  No, we don't have a boys name picked out so that ultrasound tech better be right!