William Smith Grimshawe

William Smith Grimshawe, the name chosen for our little bundle of joy!  After Brandon and I found out we were expecting and survived the initial shock of the suprising news, we were hard at work chosing the perfect name.  William was chosen after Brandon's step father Dr. William Shadburn, a huge role model and father figure to him.  Smith is Brandon's mother's maiden name, also Brandon's middle name and an important one to be carried on to our first born son.  No other name would have more meaning than the one we've chosen and we are so excited to see him!
During our few first doctor visits for Will, we had some scary news.  First a hematoma on my uterus that needed to be monitored.  Four weeks of limited lifting and exercise restrictions later the hematoma was resolved and life was back to normal.  The second scare was news that Will's femurs were measuring shorter than normal for his gestational age and that a small spot was found in his heart.  Both findings flagged the doctor as a possible link to down's syndrome and to be cautious we elected to have blood screening performed to proove otherwise.  Seven days of praying and worrying later, we learned our chance of Will having down's syndrome was very very low!  A huge sigh of relief !  Will's measurements would at this point just be monitored at each appointment for growth.  Now we were able to joke a bit about him having my midget like height.  At our 5 month visit we did however find out Will's femurs were in the normal range for his gestational age, so his growth spurt did catch up.  3-D images at this visit also allowed us to see his precious face for the first time as a baby and not a like something resembling a marine mammal.  All smiles from both of us, our prayers had definitely been heard and answered.  A healthy beautiful baby boy was soon to be gracing our lives.  There was one other small glich during the past 6 months of pregnancy. A night in the emergency room with a broken right middle finger!! Not thinking like a pregnant mom and more like a worried veterinarian, I seperated our dogs fighting and my finger lost the battle.  Good news is no harm was done to baby Will, he was active and kicking during the wait in the emergency room and all the testing was normal!  My finger however had to be splinted and we are still healing today.  It could have been much worse, so again we were blessed to have the outcome we did.  Our next doctor's appointment is this Friday.  I have my Glucocla test for gestational diabetes.  This is something that runs in my family so I am keeping my fingers crossed.  I HATE NEEDLES!!  Thats the abbreviated version of my 6 months of pregnancy to catch you all up to date.