Ahhhhh, I only have 30 minutes to throw together something to distract Spampy's Aunty Melanie from her future as a lawyer... her contracts class is coming up fast at 10 a.m. Central Time! Damn Texas for not being on mountain time! And shame on St Mary's in San Antonio for allowing their law students to have wireless internet in class!
Well... let's see. Today is Wednesday, and the last one of March. How the month has flown! Went from getting my first kick-in-tha-ute on March 2nd to having an almost constant bowling alley atmosphere in this formerly peaceful womb.
Spampy is my private dancer. I'm sure parents world-wide draw all sorts of conclusions about why their kids are bouncing around in vitro. We are certainly no exception. I tend to think this kid is a enthusiastic little ball of birth, doing his/her involuntary movement exercises, yanking on the umbilical cord and swimming cleverly around, sipping amniotic fluid occasionally. Saby likes to err on the side of... well, his own personality. He's a sleeper, and sort of a twitchy one with restless leg syndrome and a constant and real fear that he's going to inadvertently throw a jab at me in the night. Spampy seems to get most rowdy after dinner and then right before I go off to sleep... which is very similar to big poppa's routine. This morning the poor thing seems to have gotten hiccups... and per his/her dad's line of thought, this was from being startled awake and having to bump-a-bump over to the kitchen to make coffee and lunch.
But then, last night there was also spasms of some sort occurring... hiccups from too much Chili's take out, too late at night? General excitement about faintly hearing (and now, recognizing) The Office through all the digestion noises? The little pamphlet my Aunt Kathy sent us stated that at 24 weeks, babies are able to respond rhythmically to music or sound that they hear in the womb. Meaning, on the extremely scarce chance that those hiccups were actually rhythmic responses to whatever the outside world was transmitting, this kid already has a longer attention span than I do!!
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
Photographic Evidence
Here's a photo from very early in the morning, the day of both the Ohio Presidental primary and our 20-week ultrasound. I actually deleted the side view photo, because I realized my face was starting to get a little chubby and I couldn't stand seeing my own chins.
And here's another from Friday, March 21st at (apparently) 5 months and 3 weeks, or 23 weeks. I am actually standing up straight, as much as it does not look like it.
And last but not least, here's photographic evidence of both Daddy and Mum, very late in the evening of March 22nd after the Easter Vigil at our church. I'm a little greasy after being anointed (smeared) in perfumed oil in honor of becoming a confirmed Catholic... Saby is resoundingly cheerful after sitting for 3 hours. Spampy was just chilling :-)
And here's another from Friday, March 21st at (apparently) 5 months and 3 weeks, or 23 weeks. I am actually standing up straight, as much as it does not look like it.
And last but not least, here's photographic evidence of both Daddy and Mum, very late in the evening of March 22nd after the Easter Vigil at our church. I'm a little greasy after being anointed (smeared) in perfumed oil in honor of becoming a confirmed Catholic... Saby is resoundingly cheerful after sitting for 3 hours. Spampy was just chilling :-)
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Life is pretty amazing...
Here's an article from the UK on a baby born at 22 weeks, and survived. She's already had plastic surgery, to repair an ear that was ripped off during delivery. (yikes!)
But it's pretty amazing. Makes me want to go and punch an abortion doc in the stomach.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=437236&in_page_id=1774&in_page_id=1774&expand=true#StartComments
But it's pretty amazing. Makes me want to go and punch an abortion doc in the stomach.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/healthmain.html?in_article_id=437236&in_page_id=1774&in_page_id=1774&expand=true#StartComments
Monday, March 17, 2008
Curious George
When my friend Radha was pregnant with her baby girl, I would always hear this song and cry...
Now waiting for my own baby, I don't cry. Thank you, Baby, for stabilizing my hormones!
The Fundus Among Us
Five month doctor (midwife) visit today
Unless you're going to be a fusspot worry-wart or actually have a genuine reason to be in a high risk pregnancy and really need the monthly attention, I'm beginning to wonder what would happen if I just stopped going for these appointments. It's like all they want to see is whether the baby still has a heart beat. (which is fine... I like to hear it) No measurements - a few feels of the almighty fundus through your belly, an offer to quickly answer any questions, and bam - I'm out of the office in more time than it took me to find parking the the structure.
So today I came armed with questions per the request of Saby, who wanted (if possible) stats on size, length, and heart rate. Also thought I'd try and score some more free prenatal vitamins, as they're super nice and don't make me constipated. Fun times!!
Well. As a result of today's visit I can give you boring information on how baby's femur is 3.4 something centimeters long, or I can tell you the slightly more interesting factoid of a 144 bpm heart rate. If all else fails, I can tell you that this morning I weighed 162 on the office scale... which is always higher than the home scale by which I swear. (Perception, baby... it's all about your perception) I also now have two more weeks worth of super vitamins with Lina-soluble iron. Thanks Nurse Mix... my colon thanks you too.
I guess the most interesting thing to me was that when I lifted my sweater and pulled down the Secret Fit panel of my jeans for midwife Lisa to doppler baby's heart, she had to chase the little swimmy around my uterus. First she was up high (my fundus is 2 fingers above my belly button, which is a pleasant surprise... I'm suddenly getting beeeeeeegg) and to the left (my left), and then s/he must have doggie paddled down lower to avoid whatever was making the house roof sag, where after a few seconds Lisa found the heartbeat again. That is interesting, because I almost always feel kicking/movement/SOMETHING in the same spot (mid lower right), and for this I sort of assumed that baby had settled into a comfy position and was just looking for a foot rest.
When Saby told his mother about our swimmy, moving baby, she said it must be taking after me, because he had been such a lazy infant, both in vitro and out. Saby was apparently a pavum, quiet little thing, weighing in at just barely 6 lbs. You'd be hard-put to look at him and say he was the smallest in his family for so long...
My other theory is that since it's St Patrick's Day, perhaps baby is jigging, utilizing the enthusiasm and gusto provided by his/her one-eighth Irish genetics. Perhaps it's the half Keralite that makes it want to beat on the walls of my uterus? No place here for half-cracked stereotypes ;-) Although if I did have a drink at any point, once the alcohol crossed the placenta the Irish and Mallu DNA might start a nasty bar brawl against each other... (harrr, harr harr...)
Just kidding :-)
I'm taking a nap and then making some St Pat's cupcakes. Haven't baked in ages... let's get our domestic on! The corned beef for our feast-for-two tonight is already at about hour 14 in the slow cooker, and smells nice... nice enough to finally kill the fishy smelly from two subsequent dinners of baked haddock and then salmon. Is THAT why baby is so swimmy? All the friendly Omega-3 DHA fatty acids from the fishies inspiring him/her??
Good night for now!
Unless you're going to be a fusspot worry-wart or actually have a genuine reason to be in a high risk pregnancy and really need the monthly attention, I'm beginning to wonder what would happen if I just stopped going for these appointments. It's like all they want to see is whether the baby still has a heart beat. (which is fine... I like to hear it) No measurements - a few feels of the almighty fundus through your belly, an offer to quickly answer any questions, and bam - I'm out of the office in more time than it took me to find parking the the structure.
So today I came armed with questions per the request of Saby, who wanted (if possible) stats on size, length, and heart rate. Also thought I'd try and score some more free prenatal vitamins, as they're super nice and don't make me constipated. Fun times!!
Well. As a result of today's visit I can give you boring information on how baby's femur is 3.4 something centimeters long, or I can tell you the slightly more interesting factoid of a 144 bpm heart rate. If all else fails, I can tell you that this morning I weighed 162 on the office scale... which is always higher than the home scale by which I swear. (Perception, baby... it's all about your perception) I also now have two more weeks worth of super vitamins with Lina-soluble iron. Thanks Nurse Mix... my colon thanks you too.
I guess the most interesting thing to me was that when I lifted my sweater and pulled down the Secret Fit panel of my jeans for midwife Lisa to doppler baby's heart, she had to chase the little swimmy around my uterus. First she was up high (my fundus is 2 fingers above my belly button, which is a pleasant surprise... I'm suddenly getting beeeeeeegg) and to the left (my left), and then s/he must have doggie paddled down lower to avoid whatever was making the house roof sag, where after a few seconds Lisa found the heartbeat again. That is interesting, because I almost always feel kicking/movement/SOMETHING in the same spot (mid lower right), and for this I sort of assumed that baby had settled into a comfy position and was just looking for a foot rest.
When Saby told his mother about our swimmy, moving baby, she said it must be taking after me, because he had been such a lazy infant, both in vitro and out. Saby was apparently a pavum, quiet little thing, weighing in at just barely 6 lbs. You'd be hard-put to look at him and say he was the smallest in his family for so long...
My other theory is that since it's St Patrick's Day, perhaps baby is jigging, utilizing the enthusiasm and gusto provided by his/her one-eighth Irish genetics. Perhaps it's the half Keralite that makes it want to beat on the walls of my uterus? No place here for half-cracked stereotypes ;-) Although if I did have a drink at any point, once the alcohol crossed the placenta the Irish and Mallu DNA might start a nasty bar brawl against each other... (harrr, harr harr...)
Just kidding :-)
I'm taking a nap and then making some St Pat's cupcakes. Haven't baked in ages... let's get our domestic on! The corned beef for our feast-for-two tonight is already at about hour 14 in the slow cooker, and smells nice... nice enough to finally kill the fishy smelly from two subsequent dinners of baked haddock and then salmon. Is THAT why baby is so swimmy? All the friendly Omega-3 DHA fatty acids from the fishies inspiring him/her??
Good night for now!
Friday, March 7, 2008
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Ultrasonic!
Yaaaaaaay! 20 week ultrasound happened today... and now I feel like I've met the little creature that lives inside me.
It's really neat to be in a dark room while a over-caffeinated 30-something brunette who squeezes warm jelly onto your bare tummy and then pushes what seems like a high-tech roll-on deodorant stick around on your abdomen. The deodorant stick translates the high tech sound waves and vibrations into pictures, which you see on the little tv above you... and voila... a flash of a spine, some blobs, there's a head! Little moving arms, tiny 10-toes. Depending where she goes with the roller, you see different things... baby's head profile view. Nice nose. Big forehead. Baby's head top down view. Brain stuff. Blood flowing (when she turns on the color, Doppler view... baby's brain lights up like a Windows 95 screensaver). Same with the heart, and kidneys, and lungs. Four little chambers, whump-whump-whumping away, and then one flip of the switch and they're suddenly Technicolor with the flow of blood, thanks to the same technology that makes the weather forecast so cool.
I realize now that she did not show me much of Baby from about the belly button down. Being among the huge minority of people who don't want to know the gender of their child, she was very good with avoiding the "gootlies" area. She did however investigate that end while I kept my eyes shut (honest), and typed on-screen the results, and took a photo. That print out went directly into an envelope, was sealed, and is now on it's way to one trusted soul who has promised Baby about a year's worth of actual gender specific clothing. All this happened while I was still covered in slowly cooling jelly, laying on the table.
Baby weighs about 14 ounces... as I told my mother on the phone, "I've eaten steaks bigger than that." But it's amazing to think that this particular steak already has fully functional organs (minus lungs) and can hiccup, kick, and startle just like a regular, outside the womb baby.
The ultrasound technician said that baby looks perfect for where s/he should be, and that s/he was "very fun"; one moment when she was trying to get a look at something and Baby rolled right over, mooning us.
Life is fabulous!
It's really neat to be in a dark room while a over-caffeinated 30-something brunette who squeezes warm jelly onto your bare tummy and then pushes what seems like a high-tech roll-on deodorant stick around on your abdomen. The deodorant stick translates the high tech sound waves and vibrations into pictures, which you see on the little tv above you... and voila... a flash of a spine, some blobs, there's a head! Little moving arms, tiny 10-toes. Depending where she goes with the roller, you see different things... baby's head profile view. Nice nose. Big forehead. Baby's head top down view. Brain stuff. Blood flowing (when she turns on the color, Doppler view... baby's brain lights up like a Windows 95 screensaver). Same with the heart, and kidneys, and lungs. Four little chambers, whump-whump-whumping away, and then one flip of the switch and they're suddenly Technicolor with the flow of blood, thanks to the same technology that makes the weather forecast so cool.
I realize now that she did not show me much of Baby from about the belly button down. Being among the huge minority of people who don't want to know the gender of their child, she was very good with avoiding the "gootlies" area. She did however investigate that end while I kept my eyes shut (honest), and typed on-screen the results, and took a photo. That print out went directly into an envelope, was sealed, and is now on it's way to one trusted soul who has promised Baby about a year's worth of actual gender specific clothing. All this happened while I was still covered in slowly cooling jelly, laying on the table.
Baby weighs about 14 ounces... as I told my mother on the phone, "I've eaten steaks bigger than that." But it's amazing to think that this particular steak already has fully functional organs (minus lungs) and can hiccup, kick, and startle just like a regular, outside the womb baby.
The ultrasound technician said that baby looks perfect for where s/he should be, and that s/he was "very fun"; one moment when she was trying to get a look at something and Baby rolled right over, mooning us.
Life is fabulous!
Monday, March 3, 2008
Statistical Goodness 3.0
Weight: 154.5 lbs (growing pleasantly, although 3 lbs of that is probably a bag of organic Oreos I blew through in about 5 days)
Hips/Belly: 40 inches
Waist: 31.25 inches
Bustyola: 37 inches
(awww, no new development there)
4: estimated and exaggerated pounds of mucus I've coughed up from stupid cold
3: times I've broken my Lenten fast and had a burger, because somehow I thought that starving myself of beef was making my cold last longer
3: number of pairs of maternity pants I'm holding steady with... refusing to buy more until 6 months, when I can justify a pair of cute jeans, and by then it might be warm enough to go for the "convertable capris" for 29.98 (+ 30% discount!)
15: times I've almost bought the French wool teddy bear daddy/baby set at Motherhood (their names are Emile & Emilien!) and decided against it
Hips/Belly: 40 inches
Waist: 31.25 inches
Bustyola: 37 inches
(awww, no new development there)
4: estimated and exaggerated pounds of mucus I've coughed up from stupid cold
3: times I've broken my Lenten fast and had a burger, because somehow I thought that starving myself of beef was making my cold last longer
3: number of pairs of maternity pants I'm holding steady with... refusing to buy more until 6 months, when I can justify a pair of cute jeans, and by then it might be warm enough to go for the "convertable capris" for 29.98 (+ 30% discount!)
15: times I've almost bought the French wool teddy bear daddy/baby set at Motherhood (their names are Emile & Emilien!) and decided against it
Thierry Henry or Mia Hamm?
I think I got my first booting in the ute by Spampy baby, during my RCIA meeting on Sunday morning. It was a relatively quiet and still atmosphere, and I didn't have much digestional excitement happening, and suddenly, from inside... "whump." I looked around - tiny earthquake on an forgotten Dayton fault line? New sort of gas? God Himself poking my internal guts with an ethereal finger?
Later, in church, I got the feeling that there was some swimmy-swimming sort of activity happening down there as well. It's time, according to all sources, to be feeling Baby. S/he's still small enough to have plenty of wiggle room inside the womb, but big enough to be making some waves.
Later, in church, I got the feeling that there was some swimmy-swimming sort of activity happening down there as well. It's time, according to all sources, to be feeling Baby. S/he's still small enough to have plenty of wiggle room inside the womb, but big enough to be making some waves.
eBay Baby and the Belly
Well, our package arrived and last night we spent a few minutes with headphones on, pushing that "gently used" Bebe Sounds listening thingey into my belly and clicking. The device itself looks like a combination of a giant computer mouse and the baby monitor they use in the movie "Signs" to hear the aliens. Aptly, that's what we would do - hold, click, and hear aliens. So far we're not sure what all they're saying.
There is a gush-gush-gush sound that is probably my placenta, as it's much louder on one side than the other, and then aways off in the distance you can hear my heart beat. As for whether we can hear baby, we're going to wait and try again under less rushed circumstances. The instructions advise above all being patient, while a quiet room, 4 hours since last meal, and being at least 5+ months along are it's other suggestions for optimal baby hearing goodness.
But as far as indicators of baby's health and all, the new snowplow of a belly I'm beginning to push out in front of me says all is well. Today I'm at 20 weeks and 2 or 3 days, and it's either a compliment to how I've been dressing myself or it's a baby & uterine growth spurt, because the staff of Motherhood has collectively been amazed at my sudden baby bumpiness. Yesterday I wore a sweater over another tighter, sheer white sweater... and once we were preparing to close, I took the bulkier one off. Coworker Linda's eyes about popped out of her head. "Loooooook at you!" She then laughed and told me, while making me promise to tell my husband she had noticed, that "your boobs are jigglier too."
So for comparative goodness, I shall put together a Statistical Goodness and see where this belly actually is, size-wise. Tomorrow is our 20-week ultrasound. Smile and wave, Spampy... I wonder if s/he'll be a thumb-sucker like his/her mom was for so long?
There is a gush-gush-gush sound that is probably my placenta, as it's much louder on one side than the other, and then aways off in the distance you can hear my heart beat. As for whether we can hear baby, we're going to wait and try again under less rushed circumstances. The instructions advise above all being patient, while a quiet room, 4 hours since last meal, and being at least 5+ months along are it's other suggestions for optimal baby hearing goodness.
But as far as indicators of baby's health and all, the new snowplow of a belly I'm beginning to push out in front of me says all is well. Today I'm at 20 weeks and 2 or 3 days, and it's either a compliment to how I've been dressing myself or it's a baby & uterine growth spurt, because the staff of Motherhood has collectively been amazed at my sudden baby bumpiness. Yesterday I wore a sweater over another tighter, sheer white sweater... and once we were preparing to close, I took the bulkier one off. Coworker Linda's eyes about popped out of her head. "Loooooook at you!" She then laughed and told me, while making me promise to tell my husband she had noticed, that "your boobs are jigglier too."
So for comparative goodness, I shall put together a Statistical Goodness and see where this belly actually is, size-wise. Tomorrow is our 20-week ultrasound. Smile and wave, Spampy... I wonder if s/he'll be a thumb-sucker like his/her mom was for so long?
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