It's a....

From Erin:
Wes and I are very excited to introduce our daughter, Elise Noelle, to you today through this fuzzy ultrasound picture! We were both feeling anxious and excited as we went in for our ultrasound. We were delighted to see everything is progressing normally - Elise is 12 onces and registered as 20 weeks and 4 days versus the 20 weeks and 1 day that was previously calculated. With numbers that close, the due date officially stands as Sunday, November 18.

Elise was being a little stubborn during the ultrasound and did not want to show her head - camera shy like her mother, perhaps? My instinct has been that she will be more like Wes, enjoying the spotlight. I began feeling her move in the middle of my 18th week. She seemed very active in the morning and in the evening, so her inactivity during the ultrasound may be due less to shyness and more due to an afternoon nap she had planned! Regardless of her reasons, the ultrasound technician was unable to get a picture of the back of her brain, so at our next visit in 4 weeks, we get another ultrasound - lucky us!

From Wes:
So yesterday was quite the exciting day for us, and an especially exciting day for me. Unlike Erin, I don't have a small human growing inside of me, so the whole pregnancy has seemed a bit surreal...until I saw the computer screen yesterday. Even though, at first the whole room, machine and images all reminded me of the movie Aliens, I saw my daughter for the first time and she was moving around. I could see her move her hands and feet, turn her head, and at one point, it looked like she put her thumb in her mouth. In a moment, it became real to me that I am going to be a father to a beautiful baby girl. I was so overwhelmed (in a good way). Those of you who know me know I'm not much of a crier, and I didn't, but I came very close.

After the excitement, I had to return to my office and the monotony of work. The clocked ticked on forever as I couldn't stop thinking about what I just saw and how cool it was. I was finally able to leave, and my iPod in all its shuffle wisdom, "randomly" played, "Isn't She Lovely," written by the great Stevie Wonder. So, to end this rambling, I leave you with those lyrics that now mean much more to me.

Isn't She Lovely
Isn't she lovely
Isn't she wonderful
Isn't she precious
Less than one minute old
I never thought through love wed be
Making one as lovely as she
But isn't she lovely made from love

Isn't she pretty
Truly the angels best
Boy, I'm so happy
We have been heaven blessed
I can't believe what God has done
Through us he's given life to one
But isn't she lovely made from love

Isn't she lovely
Life and love are the same
Life is aisha (Elise)
The meaning of her name
Londie (Erin), it could have not been done
Without you who conceived the one
That's so very lovely made from love

I can only hope that Elise will love music as much as I do. Here's to my little superstar to be.