Kick Me!

Speck has made her presence known. They tell you to expect a flutter, or some other really light delicate sensation. Night before last, I'm laying down poking around my belly hoping to feel something, and I guess she got tired of being nudged around and she SHOVED up against my hands. Scared the hell out of me. Once we established that she was indeed still safely in utero, we came to the conclusion that our offspring may turn out to be a bit, um, active. Pray for us and anything that is breakable in our home...

For the record, she's poking me right now, and has been all day.

This morning I had another OB check--heartbeat (hers, 156 bpm), blood pressure (mine, 112/60), weight (mine, no comment but still within reasonable parameters). Right now, she's about the size of an average banana. She's measuring right where she should, and we're feeling very smug about our ability to make such a perfect child. Remind us of this feeling someday, perhaps after we catch her borrowing a car without permission, or some other such shenanigan that may or may not have had a precedent set by one or both of her parents.

This weekend we'll be in San Diego, and we're really really REALLY looking forward to getting out of town. Between the weather (hot, sticky), work (crazy), school (Rob, and he's seeing the light at the end of that tunnel) and preparing for our Blessed Event, we're a bit frazzled.

That's about it. I'm back at the peri next week, so there should be pictures and much gushing from us :).

Half Baked!

Today, we are 20 weeks! According to babyfit.com...

Weighing in at about 9 ounces (.25 kg) and measuring over 6 inches (15 cm) long, your baby is aware of all kinds of sounds, from the beating of your heart and growling of your tummy, to songs on the radio and the buzzing of your alarm clock. If you feel a "bounce" in your tummy when you hear a loud noise, it's because your baby hears it, too! This is the start of your baby's active phase. You'll feel every twist, turn, and wiggle. You may also hear your baby's heartbeat through a stethoscope, and it's probably faster than you expect — 120 to 160 beats per minute.

That's pretty exciting. I can feel that there is *something* going on in there, but it's still pretty fleeting. I'll feel it but then it's gone. She's sneaky.

Last night, Rob looked at me and said "WHOA, you're showing!" I have been looking like I'm just swelling up all over, so this was good to hear. I look pregnant, and not just fluffy. I'll take a picture this week and I'll post it.

We're getting a lot of suggestions for names. Our niece in Virginia sent a rather extensive list of ideas. Alyssa, if you read this, you gave some good ideas. Bonus points for the excellent handwriting :). We're going to stand firm on the "No, we're not telling anyone what we're naming her" rule. You'll find out in January what the winner is.

In other news, we're making progress on the room.


Really, this is, indeed, progress. That desk is empty and by the end of this weekend it will be cleaned off on top. The bed is now up at the cabin in Utah. Note the stroller which is still in the box. Yeah, we'll get to it. I think I have an idea about what it will look like in there when it is no longer a spare bedroom and is instead a nursery. More on that when we get some paint happening.

Last weekend I went shopping. I waited until the whole boy/girl thing was determined, and I took some girlfriends and went to the mall and lost my freaking mind. Holy cow, shopping for baby girl clothes is so much fun! It's better than shopping for shoes! Everything is embroidered with little flowers and ruffles on the tush. This kid may grow up to be a tomboy, but for the first year or two, her wardrobe is going to be as girlie as I can make it. SUCH cute stuff.

That's about it. I see my OB in two weeks--probably just another measurement and heartbeat check, and then back to the perinatalogist in early September for more pictures.

Sugar and Spice and All Things Nice

Biggest news yet! Well, biggest news since actually finding out that a baby is going to happen...

In case you haven't noticed by the new decor, we have determined with 99% certainty (per the doctor) that Speck is a girl. Rob is already considering what convent she'll be moving into when she hits puberty, and I believe he's also eyeing the door on the soon-to-be nursery to see how hard it would be to take it off the hinges.

As the tech so eloquently labeled it, there is an absolute, unequivocal absence of certain key elements. So there we go. We're having a daughter.

We do have other pictures as well. The actual ultrasound lasted probably 45 minutes. She took a ton of measurements. Speck (we'll still call her this...) has 2 functioning kidneys, the right sort of stuff going on with her heart (aortas and veins and such) and good bloodflow through the umbilical cord. She's measuring right where she should for 18 weeks 2 days and she weighs 9 ounces.

This is her profile. She was moving around quite a bit, so we didn't really get a good clear shot of too much that translates well into still pictures. Plus, she had the hiccups. OMG so cute.


That's her foot. Awwww...

OK we're taking a leap of faith with this one, and we'll believe what the tech said about this being a really good picture of her face. I can't tell. Somebody give me a Mother of the Year award for not being able to identify my child's face.

So that's what happened today. Naturally, we would have been thrilled either way because right now all signs are pointing toward a healthy baby. I maintain that all of my friends who didn't find out what they were having are nuts because finding out today was no less of a surprise than it would have been in January.

So everyone who voted for "girl" in our poll, rock on for being right! And for the record, I knew she was a girl too. I don't know how I knew, but I knew. It's another good day :)

No news, but progress is being made.

Last week's appointment was a check up--more for me than for Speck, actually. We checked the heartbeat, which was solid and steady. Most of the time was spent on how I'm doing. For the last 4 months we've been focusing on Speck's health and it was weird to be thinking about my own again. Blood pressure is important right now--if it's too high it can be an indicator of something being wrong, and it can also be a risk factor in itself for all sorts of bad things. Mine is good. She also measured my belly, which can be affected if Speck is growing too large. While we want a good-sized healthy baby (not too big, mind you...), if the baby is growing too quickly it can be a sign of gestational diabetes. We want to avoid that :). But all is well. We didn't find out the sex, as she just used a Doppler to find the heartbeat. I'll have a series of ultrasounds at the perinatalogist this week and we *should* know after that. They make no promises and therefore we don't either.

In other news, we did make our first Big Purchase, as far as equipment goes. We bought a stroller and car seat.

Very exciting, right? Judging by the shape of the box, we're predicting that Some Assembly is Required. Let the fun begin!

Some quick Speck Stats

According to babyfit.com:

YOUR BABY THIS WEEK

Your baby is on the move, and you may start to feel it! Your baby weighs almost three ounces (.08 kg) and is close to 5 inches (13 cm) in length.

Your Baby: As this week begins your baby has fingernails, and the hair on his or her head is starting to grow. Although baby's brain is still tiny, it is beginning to send signals to muscles that allow arms and legs to begin moving. The motion, called "quickening" can be slight or more robust, but don't be alarmed if you don't feel it this week—you will soon enough.

Haven't felt anything yet for sure--maybe a couple of quick "something just brushed past" sensations, but that could also have been a result of the spicy food that has happened this week.

Well it's been a big week...

Just when we were starting to calm down and just sort of sit back and avoid the heat, we found a car that was just what we were looking for: big enough to haul a baby and accompanying gear, a 90 pound dog and accompanying gear, us and accompanying gear, but not so big that it would break us one $4.25 gallon at a time. It was rapidly becoming time to part with Rob's beloved Mustang, which has been a great car but is on the verge of needing some work if we were to keep it. So on Monday, Rob left the house in this

and returned that night in this



It's a Honda Pilot, and it is awesome. It's a 2006, and it's in great condition and we think it's going to be just what we needed. It's got enough ground clearance to get us into the cabin in Utah without getting high-centered. We're pretty happy with it.

Nothing new as far as the baby goes. I'm 16 weeks along, and everything seems to be normal. We're making progress on the room--the bed and desk are cleaned off and we have a plan for the rest. A couple more months and we should be ready to start making it into a suitable room for Speck :). Next doctor's appointment is on July 31, and then I see the perinatalogist on August 6. While I don't want to get my hopes up, I'm thinking that at one of those appointments, we'll find out if Speck is a boy or a girl. We'll keep you posted.

As an added bonus, here's a pic of how Gracie is staying cool this summer :).

Second Trimester! Hooray!

According to babyfit.com, when you hit 14 weeks you're officially in the second trimester. This is a significant milestone, as many (not all) of the early risks of Something Bad happening are not quite as likely. Speck is now between 3 and 4 inches long and weighing about an ounce. I ended up not having an ultrasound this past week, but I did get to hear the heartbeat.

Early blood tests came back--chromosomal issues (like Downs and some other particularly unpleasant conditions) have been ruled out. I go back to the perinatalogist in August for more tests to determine if there are any spinal issues. At least I think that's what will happen. Quite frankly, they have thrown a lot of information at us, most of it scary, and we just kind of nod our heads and look thoughtful until we can get home and figure out what exactly was said. Based on the good results we've had thus far, we've decided to be conservative as far as further testing goes, especially the more invasive stuff.

Florence's daughter who lives in Canada sent our first official baby gift.

It's super cute and is evidently all the rage as far as baby toys go. As I was trying it out (it's very soft and pleasing to the touch...) I found a squeaker, which immediately got the attention of the dog. I learned at once that baby toys and dog toys are quite similar, and we may have to come up with some sort of strategy for making sure that Gracie keeps her nose on her own toys. This reminded us of a moment right after Rob moved in when Gracie found an autographed baseball on a low shelf and immediately claimed it as her own. Hilarity ensued.

Rob has decided that he's going to pass his love of San Diego sports on to his child (fine with me--I've seen my share of baseball games and I'm willing to relinquish my position on the couch).



Really, how cute is that stuff? I'm all pherklempt about the booties.

There's nothing to report.

We've been taking it easy for the last couple of weeks. Because of the excitement in the ER, we postponed a trip to San Diego (which would have been wonderful because I hear it's not 112 there like it is here) so it's been pretty quiet. I haven't gotten the blood test results back from the perinatologist, and that doesn't exactly make us happy, but we're not stressing out about it too much. I had an ultrasound on Wednesday, and Speck is still hanging out and growing and all is good there. I'll have another this week, and hopefully I'll have a new picture to post.

There's quite a bit of speculation about whether Speck is a boy or a girl. I've heard very convincingly that it MUST be a boy because I look so fabulous. Seriously. Evidently I glow, and this means that there's no little girl in there absorbing my essence (?). I've also been told that in no uncertain terms that this is a girl because I never had any morning sickness. So if you have a theory about who we'll eventually be meeting in January, please don't hesitate to share. I have my own prediction as well, which I will naturally keep to myself :).

OMG Get a load of this bed.

Don't read anything into this, but if it's a girl, wouldn't this be fabulous?!

PS, no, we don't know yet.

The Scary Doctor was Not So Scary...

...but the genetic counselor thing was a bit freaky. We're sitting there all content and only just a little bit worried about stuff--the usual, lately--and she starts talking about chromosomes and testing and risks and she drew a little diagram of my family, genetically (she left out the loop that originated in the Ozarks...), and of Rob's (again, no flourishes) and we determined that we're not related to each other (as I suspected we were not). What we learned today is that at this point, Speck is chromosomally complete, and all that's left from here on out is growth. So they can test for all sorts of scary genetic conditions and tell poor unsuspecting expectant parents that there's a 1 in 3000 chance of this or a 1 in a bajilillion chance of that. There is some blood work that they're waiting for the results on, and when that comes in, we'll figure out just how much we want to know.

And then they took pictures and we heard the heartbeat, strong and steady. Hooray!

So here's Speck at 12 weeks:

In this one, Speck is turned away so here's a good shot of the spine and back of the head (head is on right).

Nice profile shot here. Good looking kid. That's the umbilical cord on Speck's belly.

Speck is facing us, and she was nice enough to label where the face is. Speck has eyes and a brain, all of which should come in very handy at some point. You can see the two halves of the brain on the right, and the eyes are just to the left of that.

And this last one....here's the money shot. Speck offers up a full moon. It was easier to see live, but rest assured, it's there. The little white horizontal smudges on the left are legs.


It's a good day. We go back to this doc in 6 weeks.

A fine line exists between alarmism and caution.

This child is messing with us. Evidently, the payback for our own youthful indiscretions has begun.

Everything's fine, but we're starting to realize that so much of this is just out of our control. Without treading too far into the realm of Too Much Information, suffice it to say that nothing stops a pregnant woman cold like the appearance of a bit of blood. Again, everything's fine, but it took a trip to the ER, a weekend of bedrest, and a follow-up with the OB to alleviate our concerns. We should have known that there was nothing to worry about, however, when one of the ultrasounds on Friday night showed a very clear picture of Speck turned away from the camera, mooning us. Laugh it up, kiddo. Hardee har har har.

It's very easy to say that what's meant to be will be. A very good friend of mine told me not to hesitate to call a doctor if Something was happening, and even after we did, we were still so unsure of what to do next. There were times this weekend when I just wished that I could get a snapshot of a moment in the future that would show me how this would be turning out. Not knowing what's normal, not being able to help or prevent the inevitable, questioning whether we overreacted (we don't think we did) by going to the ER... all we really do know is that this is probably only the beginning of more moments when we'll look at each other and go "OK, what now?".

But the kid's got a sense of humor. Next time, we moon back.

The Long Hot Summer Begins

It's supposed to be 106 today. That's the official airport temperature, which means that it will be well over 110 in most other neighborhoods. Let me just say that I am so thankful that I'm not 8-1/2 months along and puffy and miserable because of the heat. When I'm 8-1/2 months along, I want to be puffy and miserable because of too much holiday food. I'm looking forward to holiday food, because none of it is on my "Do Not Eat" list like most of my summer favorites are. I was just having a conversation about this yesterday. Things like sushi, deli meats, tuna salad and other nice cool foods are all off limits. Don't even get me started on beverages... I've been known to get home from work when it's 115 outside, stop at the fridge, grab a beer, and head straight for a nice cold shower. Cold showers lose their appeal when there's no beer involved, let me tell you.

In other news, my peri appointment was rescheduled for 6/25. They wrote it down wrong (for today, which, had we known about it a week ago, would have been perfect) . They had to scramble a bit but they made it work. So we're twice rescheduled with them and we're fairly confident that there will be no more screwing with our appointments. Here's hoping. If you're curious, the website for the facility is www.cmfm.net. I'll be seeing Dr. Wold, and I have it on good authority that he'll take good care of us.

Where is this kid going to live?!

We'll call this picture "Before".



Well, at least it's on the radar. A space actually does exist where we could put an additional person, and we do acknowledge the need to transition the space from what it is now to what it needs to be. It currently does contain a bed and such accoutrement, and is guest-ready with maybe 30 minutes of advance notice and prep. It currently houses a rather sizeable (and almost entirely catalogued) comic book collection, as well as a bunch of other stuff that really has no other place to live in the house but must be kept for any number of reasons. You understand.

A storage unit is most certainly in our future.

In other news, I've spent much of the past 4 weeks being tired. Most often, it feels like a hangover (don't judge me...) that comes and goes depending on how recently I've eaten or slept. I eat constantly. I've killed a Costco bag of trail mix (YUM) in 2 weeks. Cheese is a miracle food that makes me feel better almost immediately. I'm fortunate that there's really been no nausea and I'm hoping that continues.

The First Post, which will bring you up to speed

So here we are. It's Sunday morning and I'm just shy of 10 weeks pregnant. I've been playing with the idea of doing a blog so people will know what's going on without feeling like they're bugging us when they ask "What's going on?!"

We've told most of our "inner circle" (the Dads, close family, best friends) the news, as well as others on a "need to know" basis. Like, I told my boss because I was on the way out the door for an unexpected doctor's appointment and I figured she deserved to know what was so damn important about why I had to leave RIGHT NOW.

Here's what we know:

• Due date is January 5, 2009, which seems forever away. It's right after my birthday. For the record, I was induced on 12/31 and was the cause of a rather fortuitous tax deduction. Whether this was normal practice for obstetrics in the early 70s and is now frowned upon, we'll find out, because frankly, I don't have a problem with helping things along a few days before nature intended in order to get a few bucks back.
• I'm 35 (in the interest of fairness, Rob is 40, days from 41) and as such I am of what my doctor calls "Advanced Maternal Age". This means that I get extra attention, which is great, and extra information about all the risks, which we're bracing for. I've had 3 ultrasounds already, and I believe that's pretty unusual but we welcome the prospect of being able to check on things more often. I'll be seeing a perinatologist (doctor for high risk pregnancies) on June 24 and throughout the pregnancy. I'm pretty healthy, so other than age, my risks are pretty low.
• So far, everybody's healthy.
  
• Yes, we are going to find out the sex. We'll probably even tell people what we learn.
• No, we haven't talked about names yet. Even when we do, however, we may not share with people because naming a person is fraught with pressure and drama, and some decisions aren't meant to be made by committee.
• The title of this blog, "Just You Wait" comes from what we've been told several times whenever we mention something that has changed already because of the impending Blessed Event. Things like sleep (more, but not necessarily better), eating habits (again, more, but not necessarily better), stress, thinking about everything that needs to happen by January and beyond have all become fodder for people who have walked this path before us to say "Just you wait...." with a story about how there's so much more to come.
  
• I'm comfortable with telling people now, even though it's early. There's the unspoken worry about Something Happening or Something Going Wrong. I think that if Something does happen or go wrong (we all know what I'm talking about as I knock wood and throw salt over my left shoulder and rub a rabbit's foot), I'd rather go through it with people knowing what's going on and able to help.

So there we are. We make no promises about how regularly this will be updated. Feel free to check back, make comments, ask questions, and contribute your own Just You Wait.... story.

Enjoy the ride with us. It's going to be fun.