The Ultrasound!
I’m just going to come right out and say it:
We’re having a…
I can’t give it away yet! Here’s Betsy getting ready for Baby King’s closeup.
To see the pictures better, just click on them.
Here we go!
Before I tell you the gender, I’m going to tell you a little bit of the story. So Betsy had a routine appointment today with our midwife, Andrea. Now, from day one, Andrea has suggested we wait until 28 weeks to have our ultrasound, but this past week we just couldn’t take not knowing any more, so Betsy called and scheduled her ultrasound for this afternoon.
As we’re sitting there in the exam room and told Andrea that we wanted to do the ultrasound today, she started again talking about waiting, how the pictures are better, etc. Of course Betsy and I trust her, so we started to wonder whether we were going to go through with it today or not. Andrea proceeded to measure Betsy. A confused look crossed her face as she measured. “Hmmm. A little bigger than expected…” She’s not a woman of many words, by the way. She she got out the doppler and started poking around listening for the heart beat. And poking around. And poking around. Now I’m now doctor, but even I could tell she was looking for another little heart in there.
After ruling out twins, she agreed that today is a good day to do the ultrasound afterall, just to make sure everything’s ok.
So after a brief lunch at the Bagel Station, we headed back to the hospital for our ultrasound.
Betsy got on the table, exposed her cute little belly, got jellied up and before I knew it, little images were flashing on the screen. Literally 10 seconds in, the tech declares “It’s upside down, see there’s the head” and in the same breath, “boy!”
Ok what? Did that really just happen that fast? Sure enough, we are lucky enough to be brewing a little baby boy! He weighs in at 1lb and 13oz. (Which some of you may know is only 3 lbs under what I weighed when I was born.) He’s about 1 week ahead in size, and everything from his spine to his heart to his lip to his toes looks good. We’re so blessed. Oh, and he has long legs, so said the tech. That trait he gets from me.
The tech was great, after taking a host of measurements, she spent as much time as we wanted showing us our baby head to toe. Then she switched to the 3D ultrasound and did it all over again getting us the best pictures she could of our little boy’s face. I have to admit, the most magical part of the whole experience was watching our little boy open and close his hands and open and close his little mouth. It was just amazing.
So I wanted to share a few pictures of the little guy. These are all 3D pictures. They give you a pretty good idea that there really is a baby in there. The bumpiness in the picture is actually caused by motion by the baby. He was getting his exercise during the process.
He was like this a lot, covering his face. I think he’s a little shy. 
How cute are these little feet?
Thanks for letting me tell our story. Betsy and I are both delighted to have a healthy active little baby boy on the way. And thank you to all of you who have been so supportive along the way.
With love and another 4 months to go, John and Betsy
One more thing…
Check out this trim:
Betsy and I stumbled on a great little technique to give you beautiful crisp lines when taping, and it doesn’t take much longer to do. If you want details, just fire me an email and I’ll explain.
I’ve got to go get ready for our first baby shower!
Be Metta,
John
No more blue!
I’m finally done painting the nursery, or at least the trim, the door and the walls, AND we’ve our crib and furniture in, so I thought while there was a pause in the action, I’d take a moment to do a little documentation.
Without further ado:
And finally, just for grins, a face only a mother could love. Actually, a face both the mother and her husband love. This pic is of Whisper, who gets just a bit spoiled, but how could anyone resist a mug like this?
Much Metta!
John
The Closer
And finally, the closer. Aka Celebrations!
(To download, right click on the PC or [Control] + click on the Mac and choose to save the file.)
And for your viewing pleasure, how about a before picture of our nursery? I have spent the entire evening covering this Pepto blue, so what you see here is no more. Thank goodness.
Be Metta, John
Progress!
Here’s the Ballad!
It was the first thing I wrote, and has some of the main melodies that show up through out the other 3 pieces.
Today I’ve been working with David Bolzman on the titles and story line for this show. I wrote this story after I had written part of the ballad, but really before anything else. The titles are mostly David’s creative work. It’s been fun watching this all come together.
Opener – Inventions Start small. Very small. Slow tinkering sound. It’s the quiet dawn of industry, and idea here and there, the beginning of automation and repetition. It builds, adding idea after idea it grows moving ever faster and faster, bigger and bigger, louder and louder, never settling or stopping. The final climax is an announcement of industrial prowess.
Percussion Feature – Enviroclash The clash of man made with mother nature. Very percussion heavy, almost the climax of the opener, it beats along unrelenting. Winds punctuate the percussion motion with accents, dissonant sounds, and bits of the mother nature melody being trampled by big business.
Ballad – Reconciliations The memory of mother nature and a connection to all of live begins to resonate in our hearts, drawing us from the crazy life we’ve created back into ourselves, back in touch with the glory and joy, peace and happiness of mother nature.
Closer – Celebrations The future filled with celebration over the joining of mother and machine. Percussiveness moves us along and provides a solid backdrop over which the songs of joy can sing. It’s a look into a future filled with hope and joy and possibility, where we learn finally to live in harmony with the world outside us and the world in side.
On another note, the nursery is coming along! Now that I’m done painting the trim, I’ve finally started painting in something other than white! As of 11:30 tonight, the green wall has two beautiful coats of color. It’s a refreshing celery green accent wall, and I think it’s going to be beautiful when it’s all done. I’ll be sure to post some before and after pics when I get there. For those who haven’t seen the room yet, it was blue before. And by blue I mean if pepto bismol was blue, it would be this color. So we’re excited for a change.
And finally, I have the score to the opener of my piece ready to send off to Andy for critique. So all in all, it’s been a very productive evening, I must say.
All for now. Peace and Love!
John
So Adorable!
I just had to upload this beautiful picture of my wife and our soon to be! We’re right around 23 weeks and her nesting urges are in full swing. Unfortunately, I’ve been so busy writing music, the nursery isn’t quite in full swing, but I’m working on it!
My latest music project is a full marching band for MSC, and I’m finally starting to round the corner on it. I’m going to be posting some of it this weekend, since the opener and ballad are pretty well roughed out. This has been a huge project for me. For those of you who know me, I’ve always battled finishing music. I’ve got plenty of ideas and I take them as far as they want to go in a sitting to two, but ever since college it’s been a real struggle to actually write something from beginning to end. SO… this piece has been a great opportunity to confront that head on. And it has to be playable too. I really feel like I’m becoming more and more of a real composer as I start to really do battle with my artist’s insecurity and to confront writers block. (What composer doesn’t struggle with that at some point in their process?) So I’m working through it, having fun, staying up late, and just writing as much music as I can.
Thanks for following along. Check back before the end of the weekend for some actual musical samples.
Be Metta, John
We’re back!
For those who didn’t know, my wife and I were in FL on a family vacation for the past week. It was a wonderful opportunity to see my parents and Mark. For me, the highlights were time in the sun, seeing dolphins, put-put, family time, and the beautiful sunsets. I even caught a couple sunrises, although all but one of them was from the comfort of our bed.
I’ve posted some of the pictures we took for everyone to see. Enjoy!
All the best,
John