Welcome to the "J-Page", it is dedicated to the newest addition to our family! As I mentioned before, "J" is the name Val and I have given to our first child ( a work in progress ). We began calling our future bundle of joy "J" after the two leading name choices we have, John or Jessica. We just had our first sonogram on April 1st, and the technician could find no evidence of a twig and berries, that is to say, no male plumbing. She told us that she would bet that we will have a daughter. Val and I are overjoyed, of course, but I'm still holding on to the possibility that J is pulling his first April Fools joke on us!

We "discovered" J was with us in late December. Val informed me of the fact over dinner by giving me a surprise gift... of baby socks. I've been called slow, but I'm not that slow; I very quickly realized that those socks were way too small for me. Val had been a little suspicious given that she had not been feeling very well, and a quick trip to the doctor's office confirmed the good news.

We have taken J to see the doctor four times. The baby is doing fine, and mom is finally returning to her old self after many weeks of headaches and nausea. On the later visits we have heard the heartbeat; there's really nothing else like it to make it all sink in. On the third visit I recorded it... here IT is. Neato.

On April 1st we had our first sonogram; here are some of the pictures we recieved from the visit.

Here's J's first portrait. She's laying on her right side facing you. The picture kinda looks like a skull because your basically seeing a slice of J. The sonogram technician controls the depth of the picture and can actually zoom in and view all of the internal organs and measure them for size to ensure proper development. You can click on any of these thumbnail pictures to view the full size images.

Here is a profile shot of J's abdomen. The technician is looking to make sure that the spine development is ok. I have annotated the images to try and help you recognize the details. I know that I sure wouldn't have been able to recognize a thing if it weren't for our very helpful technician.

Here is a shot of J's lower body, I think it's from the front. You can see her legs in the picture, but only from the thigh up. Her lower legs are curled up behind her so they are not visible here. Now I've stared at this picture looking for evidence of male anatomy, if you see anything that the technician missed, please contact me immediately!!!! That email address, again, is daveosborne@geocities.com. Please include "I found it!!!!" on the subject line. The winner will recieve a prize.

Here is the last picture. This one is a shot of J's upper body from the front. You can see the lower arms and the left hand, but the right had is blocked by Val. Amazingly enough, the technician told us that there are sometimes ultrasonic shadows created by the woman's bellybutton; due to this, she had to poke and prod Val's belly a few times to get J to move around so the tech could properly see the desired area.

I know that I said, at the top of this page, that there's nothing like hearing the heartbeat to make it all sink in. But let me update that statement; there is nothing like the first sonogram to make it all sink in!