Amateur Doctor

We had hoped that today we would discover who’s father I become: a baby girl’s Daddy, or a baby boy’s Pop. Well, the skilled technicians and doctor couldn’t make the call since the little punk kept turning its back on us. So, I would like to introduce myself to our blog by opening up a poll to our friends and family: Can you decode the image and guess what the sex is of our baby? Take a look here, or click the image for larger, and take a guess! The technician and doctor reported that this was the definitive image to go by…
Can you tell the sex of Baby?

So, is our baby a boy or a girl?

Boy:


Girl:

Here’s the current results of others who have played doctor:

So we’ll have to wait another 3 weeks till the next ultrasound to find out for sure, but until then, I can at least get to work emptying out the baby’s room and preparing it for painting and new carpet. The decision on paint and furniture color will just have to wait.

Getting Bigger (17w3d)

I’ve been trying to find ways to make the baby more real to Paul, since all the books say that this whole thing won’t be real to him until he can feel it kick. (Which I guess makes sense… since he doesn’t have to second guess every move he makes based on what it might do to the baby.)

So based on my weekly e-mails (and that nifty little fruit widget on the right side of the website) I find things in the house that are the same length and weight of the baby. It’s been a neat thing for Paul to be able to hold something in his hand that’s the approximate size of the baby. (And then holding it up against my belly really puts it in perspective that there’s something *growing* in me.)

Tonight it was the 3/4 full Mrs. Dash container. (5.5″ long and 6.5oz) Two weeks ago, it was the container of poultry seasoning (4.5″ 3.5oz). Prior to that, there’s been convenient fruit to approximate our baby. It seems amazing to me that in a matter of weeks it can go from a tiny clementine orange to a seasoning container.

I don’t know if I’ve felt it move yet or not. I may have felt some flutters, but they’re not regular or anything. Neat thing though… I can feel my womb now. It’s high enough out of my pelvis that I can feel it when I’m laying down. I hope to start feeling something soon though. That’s gonna be so neat. I cannot wait until Wednesday. Here’s hoping the little critter cooperates and tells us what it is. I wanna start looking at Pink or Blue things. :)

Oy, what a week! (17w3d)

So, I’m still sick. Haven’t been back to work since I left on Wednesday. Rest and fluids aren’t seeming to help, since I was worse this morning than I have been all week. Seriously thought I popped a rib after a particularly bad coughing fit this morning. I can hardly do anything without getting so winded I can barely talk.

I e-mailed Dr. Schwartz this morning to update him on my condition and ask what I should do. (Seriously, I wasn’t sure if I should go to Urgent Care or what at this point…) He called in a prescription for antibiotics (a Z-Pack) into my pharmacy for me to start today. While there, I took the opportunity to check out the sugar-free Robitussin, which turns out to have the SAME INGREDIENTS as the cold pills that Paul has here at home. DANGIT. So I’m on those pills now too (Mucinex DM – half a pill every 6 hours.) [start Whingy McWhingerson] I can tell the pills are working… I’m not coughing as much as I was before, but I feel like I have to cough all the time. I know this is better, but not all that much. [end Whingy McWhingerson]

What I don’t get though? Why did I develop a whiz-banger of a headache this afternoon? Seriously, I’d call this a migraine. Under normal circumstances, I’d have taken one of my migraine pills hours ago. But I can’t take those. So I take Tylenol and cringe with every coughing fit. It takes a minute or two to recover after every cough. I *really* hope this headache is gone tomorrow morning. I cannot afford to burn any more sick leave, but I feel like such ass right now. wah.

On a slightly brighter note: I really wish I could tell what the baby is thinking these days. I gotta imagine that between my frequent bouts of hiccups and now these body-racking extended coughing fits, the baby has gotta be pretty annoyed at me. Worst hotel ever, ya know? I can picture it kicking like crazy and banging a tiny broom on the ceiling. I’ve taken to patting my tummy and apologizing after the worst of the coughing. I hope it doesn’t take it’s (presumed) irritation out on us on Wednesday.

Sick but entertained (16w6d)

So I’ve managed to contract a cold or something. Cough, throat, colorful sinuses – the whole bit. I tried to put in a full day at work today (locked in my office so I wouldn’t breathe on anyone) but I couldn’t make it and had to go home at 2:00. I brought home work with me though so if I can’t make it into work tomorrow I can at least still get some stuff done and maybe not burn so many sick hours. (It’s killing me that I’m burning paid leave like this…)

But I did get a nice thing today too. On Friday night I was trying to do some baby-stuff research at our desktop PC, but I was so uncomfortable after a full day at my desk. I just couldn’t hack it at our living room desk. Paul suggested (like he has been for over a year now) that I look at getting a netbook. But for some reason, it didn’t seem so ludicrous this time, especially in light of the $11/mo price with a Dell special right now. My new netbook was delivered today, and I’m typing on it now from the couch, with my feet up. I named it Weeble, because it is wee at a mere 10″.

I feel like crap, but at least I’m entertained for the moment. I’ve been given clearance to take tylenol and diabetic Robitussin, but nothing for my sinuses. wah. Here’s hoping rest and fluids will help, and quick!