Seeing the Doc

Tonight we did Emily's monthly check-up. After this we come back in three weeks and then it is every two weeks after that. So things are speeding up.

Here are some of the notable recent pregnancy photos. Here we are at our church's live nativity:

Here is Theo checking out the new Diaper Champ:

Here is Emily looking more pregnant:

The baby is moving and shaking

So Emily's confirmed that it is kicking and punching, now sometimes several times a day. According to our searching, the baby should be closing on 2lbs and 15 inches. He is still kicking down and out (away from the ribs), but this will probably change at some point. Emily's not loving sleeping on her left side, but these are the current recommendations.

She keeps saying, "I just want to see him." And that is the challenge of where we are: waiting. We have some idea of what to expect. We have some sensation that he is growing and moving. And some small idea of how he looks. But mostly we have to just wait.

Is it the baby?

Emily's been feeling the possibilities of movement lately. I am hoping I get to see a little foot imprint at some point. She's been hoping to feel him move, and I hope she doesn't regret it lately (if he's a little kicker). Recent appointments have been fine. Hard to believe we only have 3.5 months left...

Names

We are beginning to think about names more consciously now. I'm still not ready to commit to something. It took us five months to go from "it" to "him," so naming now would be a bit premature.

One interesting thing to me is how baby names change over time. This site looks at the frequency of baby names. It always suprises me how I will pick a name that seems unique or distinctive, look it up, and then see that it is on the rise. I looked up my name and saw that, sure enough, it was on the uptick in the 70s. In fact, pretty much everyone in my family was named during a period when their name was spiking or falling.

More on the Baby Visit

I'm adding a few pictures I thought you might enjoy. Here are my (illegally captured) images of the ultrasound room.
It's a pretty interesting process. The whole ultrasound takes an hour, and includes computer measurements of different parts of the body. There's a screen that the radiologist and I could watch, and a screen that Emily could watch.

Our ultrasound had two problems. The first was that the baby moved, so they couldn't see the spine. The spine is, I think, important for checking for Downs Syndrome (chance of having this, around 1:580). The other thing they found was a tiny cyst at the end of the brain. These are quite common (1-2% of all babies they see), and the doc did tell us that only in about 1:5000 cases is it anything bad. (What she didn't tell us that even in these cases, there is usually some accompanying deformity, which we didn't see.) Morever, they may be an ordinary part of development, and in those cases where adults have them they're usually harmless.

Anyway, this is brings me to one of the major problems with our medical system. Medical workers have been trained to give us as much information as humanly possible, but we have little training ourselves to interpret this. They probably have to do this legally; every tiny possibility of risk must be stated to the patient. So, even when there is an infinitesimal chance, we get the information and all of the options (another ultrasound, amnio, etc.). I'm not sure how to handle the process. Emily was a little freaked out yesterday until she found more information about how these things work. One in five thousand is something I can live with.

So, everything is pretty good now. We're looking forward to learning more about the little one. I'm kind of glad we didn't have the earlier ultrasounds, and we may skip on the next ones.
Last night our other task was cookie baking for Emily's Roald Dahl program today. Fun times...

Ultrasound

It's a baby boy--14 ounces, about seven inches long. So far so good, although they always find a way to scare you during your appointment (more to follow). So here's the little guy.

He's breach right now, sitting cross-legged. They tried to get him to move so that they could measure his spine, but he decided he was just fine as is. Emily thinks maybe he has her nose.

And yes, he's a prenatal thumb sucker. Above he's turned a little; below you get a nice profile.

So that's the happy news. We hope there's more to follow.

In the Womb

So, we are watching In the Womb, a National Geographic movie above existence in the womb. It is pretty interesting. I just learned that coffee helps the sperm swim longer and faster. I figure between this and the ice cream I was feeding Emily this summer, conception occurred faster than we planned. Well, it probably helped that it was summer also--lots of R&R made us both more relaxed and healthy.

Not much else to report on the baby front. A few weeks until we find out on gender (hopefully). We have our second blood test yet to come back--that should give us a picture of things. For a little while I was gaining weight faster than Emily, so I'm on a modest diet and am back to normal.

OK... have to pay better attention to the baby movie. More to follow.

Heartbeat

So, this was our second appointment today, and we were able to hear the baby's heartbeat. The doctor lubed up the electronic stethescope and within second had found it. It was racing away, a staccato drumming. Pretty. darn. cool. Hopefully this is how I'll remember 9/11/07: that's when I heard the baby's heartbeat. I am happy.

Making Your Wife Gag

A couple of days ago I made up an onion dip for our housing's weekly picnic. It was pretty tasty. After eating, I went to kiss Emily good by. She began a kind of choking, gagging motion (sort of like the cat with a hair ball), which lasted for several moments. Hmmm... Trying not to take it personally. (And coffee is even worse.)

Formula

There's an article in today's Washingtpost about how formula companies helped water down a breast-feeding campaign. I read a lot of articles like this, and I am tired of it...

Nearing the End of Month #2

Or the second "nanomester." So far, so good!

To date, we have had:

-Three pregnancy tests (five if you count Rutgers and the doctor)

-One doctor visit

-Received two fine blankets from my mom

-Talked to innumerable people

Emily has had:

-Cramping

-Nausea

-Vomiting (including this morning on the way to church)

-Lots of fatigue ("since I only got nine hours of sleep last night, I had to rest three hours this afternoon," she adds)

-Some pant discomfiture

We'll fill you in as we learn more.