Well, its finally happened, Im gonna be a grandma.

 Never thought I would see the day but Alex and his wife Sarah are expecting

the newest addition to our family around the Thanksgiving.

 Just wanted to share my happy news.

That's wonderful news, Helen!  Now you've got lots of time to get yourself into spoiling mode.  

Fantastic news Helen.  I'm so glad they're not waiting too long - children take a lot of energy!  Can you knit already?  Christmases are going to get interesting again. 

CONGRATULATIONS Helen, your son & daughter in law.

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Great news, Helen! 

You will be a wonderful grandmother. 

Cheers, Terry 

Congratulations, to you Helen and to the parents! ^_^

Congratulations!! What a joy!!

My favorite part of the grandkids is spoiling them rotten - and then sending them home

Congrats, you're going to love them.

Originally Posted By InlandAZ (6 MAY 2012 12:13pm)

My favorite part of the grandkids is spoiling them rotten...

I thought you were supposed to eat them while they were still fresh.

Happy Grandma, Helen. I'm sure they'll be just as smart and funny as their Grandma.

Look out.

Congratulations Helen. Your grandchild will be the 2nd cutest in the world!

Thank you all!

You know you can never imagine it when your younger, then all of a sudden....your kind of old and here they come.  Lol!

Im very happy and cant wait to do the spoil em and send em home.

 Caroline, never ccould knit, I even tried to learn about 5 years ago and just cant manage. I can crochet but it hurts these old gramma hands, so I dont even try anymore. 

Oh my gosh! I just figured out that the cute little girl in the pic must be your grandaughter Sir Dave.

She's absolutely adorable!

There's nothing like grandparenthood for bringing out the baby photos!  She is adorable SirDave.   I think you're very lucky Helen to be made a grandma so young.   

This is wonderful news, Helen! Big congrats!

Of course, you'll need to get your new grandkid playing adventure games ASAP.

Congratulations, Helen!   ( To you and your family)

 I guess this heralds a new phase in your life, eh?  Please send us lots of pics once the little one arrives. 

@Sir Dave:  That is one cute kid!  It will be a hard act to beat that level of cuteness, indeed. 

Thanks Helen, Caroline & Trav: Yes, she is adorable and her sweet, sanguine (at least so far) personality only adds to it. Grandparenting at its best is everything they say it is. I never expected to be nearly as involved in the upbringing of my daughter's children as has turned out to be the case. Suffice it to say that, once again (after experiencing it with your own children), it is mind-bending how quickly these little things are so important to you that you would lay on the tracks for them.

Also, it's a unique experience in that you don't have to be the primary disciplinarian which I really appreciate having had to be that with my own children. Although, that can be a challenge when I spend a lot of time with my 2-3 year old grandson who mostly tries to be good, but is in an anger-management period since he's competing with his 'adorable' 1 year old sister.

So Helen, do you know yet whether it's going to have blue or pink booties? (Oops! You said around thanksgiving so it's too early for that, but let us know if & when you find out.)

She's so cute. those chubby little cheeks you just wanna smother with kisses and chubby little feet you just wanna tickle.

 Sarah tells me we'll know after we get back from vacation in July, thats when she'll have her next ultrasound. Which will be her 3rd. btw. shes just about 2-1/2 months and they have already done 2. I dont know if having so many is a good thing or not. I cant remember but I think I had just 1, maybe 2. I know that was over 25 years ago and things have changed but I have to wonder if its excessive. I dont think its any type of health risk but I wonder at the cost.

But I dont say anything, dont want to be the meddling mother in law

Originally Posted By Helen (10 MAY 2012 7:51am)

She's so cute. those chubby little cheeks you just wanna smother with kisses and chubby little feet you just wanna tickle.

 

 Sarah tells me we'll know after we get back from vacation in July, thats when she'll have her next ultrasound. Which will be her 3rd. btw. shes just about 2-1/2 months and they have already done 2. I dont know if having so many is a good thing or not. I cant remember but I think I had just 1, maybe 2. I know that was over 25 years ago and things have changed but I have to wonder if its excessive. I dont think its any type of health risk but I wonder at the cost.

 

But I dont say anything, dont want to be the meddling mother in law

Just want healthy grandkids, and really, what do I know.

1 a month, or an ultrasound at every checkup is about standard these days I think.  I doubt very much they'd be doing them if they were harmful at all. It doesn't work on the same principle as X-rays do, so don't worry. 

I guess it's too much of a temptation to peep at what your little tyke looks like if you can.  Can you imagine the olden days where you had to wait until it actually came out to see anything, and now you can see a little embryo of only a few weeks old...  to me the little heartbeat is the best part of an ultrasound... hearing your baby's heartbeat for the first time is awesome!     

Right, ultrasound isn't harmful. IMO, pregnancy ultrasound is overused these days. If it's for determination of sex, then doing it before 12-13 weeks is rather pointless. However, I can understand at least one being done earlier than that for the warm fuzzies that the parents get from seeing the fetus, to get more info about the due date and to make sure that, overall, things look normal.

Some physicians do one at every prenatal visit and some patients want it at every visit, but if you're paying a co-payment everytime, then you're overpaying (again, IMO). From the physician's point-of-view, they have the machine and have to pay a tech to use it, so it's in their interest to use it as frequently as possible, but I've always thought that those OBs who limit the number of ultrasounds to the minimum necessary show a lot of class and that may be a sign of their judgment and integrity in their practice overall.

Ultrasound - most insurances I've heard of here won't pay for one every month. Back in my day (15 years!) it was one about mid-way and that's when you could check gender if you wanted.

Baby pic is adorable - Thomas the Tank Engine, I see! I still have tubs of train tracks in the garage.

Okay, I swear this will be the last px proud papa that I am, but also to give Helen the best example of what she's in for:

(I was able to download and show the previous picture w/o any problem, but no matter what I do, having followed the same process, all I get is the link above which does show the picture by clicking on it, but isn't what I intended. Anybody else know any reliable way to make the picture show directly or what I may have done wrong?)

Awww!  She fell asleep right in the middle of a double ducky squeakfest!  She's such a cutie, Grandpa!

I actually said 'awwwww' out loud!  She is a very cute baby but the duckies are so funny.

Yes, those duckies got the better of her! How about a pic of your grandson too?

Hmm, but not all Ob&G's use a tech just for quick informal scans, and I'm sure they charges less for those.  I know there's usually at least one scan done where a very thorough scan is done, like you mentioned, usually by third party, to check for any anomalies, but, granpa, just a quick peek by the gynae himself if mommy wants to see and agrees to it at the minimal fee, surely isn't such a sin?  After all, like you say, the OB&G is paying for the machine anyway (sometimes a practice of a few pracftitioners share one or two) so if the machine is free from use at that time, why not? 

Ok, I don't think I had one every month, but I did have a lot.  Couldn't get enough of them, and never missed an opportunity to peek. Maybe I just had an indulgent Ob. 

What a cutie patootie!!

 Trav, I dont think anyone is against having a few ultrasounds, but monthly ( if thats the case ) is way excessive IMO. mainly because it IS so expensive and even if you dont have to pay much for a co-pay if the insurance is paying for it thats one of the reasons healthcare is getting ourt of hand and so expensive. Again, thats just my opinion and I could be wrong.

 Im all for one monthy IF there is a problem. But I think 3-4 during the 9 months is good.

 Heres the thing about Sarah though, and I could just be speculating that the Dr. might want to give them at every visit, and havent asked out right because I dont want her to worry about anything. But both of her grandparents were scientists and  worked on the Manhattan Project, she was always told that because of the radiation that they thought her grandmother might not be able to have children ( she went on to have 5, all healthy