Author Archives: Sarah

Little Stinker… (17w6d)

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For those waiting with bated breath: WE DON’T REALLY KNOW. Sorry.

Our kid is a little stinker. The baby spent basically the entire time sitting on it’s butt, directly on top of my cervix. The tech tried and tried to jiggle it outta position, but nothing doing. (a couple of Andes mints didn’t help either.) She had a hard time even getting the measurements she needed for the anatomical ultrasound (femur, abdomen, head) because the little critter wouldn’t cooperate. And the couple of times it did move where we could get a look: it put it’s hand(s) between it’s legs.

But the good news is that Dr. Schwartz says everything looks fine. Some of the measurements are measuring “ahead” by nearly two weeks, but Dr. Schwartz says that’s because Paul and I are both tall, so we’re having a tall baby. It’s weight clocked in right at 8oz.

For those interested or who know what on earth this relates to:

  • Head Circumference: 16.25cm (6.4″)
  • Abdominal Circumference: 12.42cm (4.8″)
  • Femur Length: 2.5cm (1″)

The heartrate came in at 161, so according to old wives – it’s a girl. Dr Schwartz and the tech gave us a guess, but they both strongly cautioned us not to paint anything yet. I tried to explain to Dr. Schwartz that I’m a planner and I really need to know… he chuckled, told me to deal, and then listed his favorite neutral nursery colors.

Paul’s mom Jeanne came along today and seemed to really enjoy herself, especially when the tech turned up the sound and the WHOOSH-WHOOSH-WHOOSH of the baby’s little galloping heart stopped our chatter for a moment. I wish the kid would have cooperated a bit more so she could have seen it wave and face us like Paul and I have seen before. I invited her to come to the next appointment if she wanted to, since we’ll try again then to get/confirm the sex.

In the meantime, there’s new pictures that I screen grabbed from the DVD we got today. (I’ll get a DVD of the next appointment too.) They’re mostly body parts, but there’s a couple cool profiles – and an awesome 3/4 full face image from the heartrate image. It’s small, but if you’re good at all for looking at ultrasounds, I think you’ll see it. It’s kinda like the face on the moon… the baby is looking to the left. You can see the chin, lips, nose, cheeks, forehead and a dark hollow where the left eye is.

Blurry face
Labeled blurry face

The rest of the appointment was pretty ordinary. Insulin and one BP med were upped a tad. Weight is up .5lb for a total of 4.5lb in 18 weeks – just fine. My next appointment is in 3 weeks, which is great. The fewer appointments I have for a bit, the less paid leave I have to burn. (Last week’s illness cost me 3 days of maternity leave…) They drew blood for TSH, a1c, and the 2nd part of the quad screening. (Dr. Schwartz took a copy of a bill I got from the lab for $700 worth of “genetic” tests that my insurance is denying from my first visit in November… I LOVE that he’s willing to take on that kind of stuff for his patients.)

So for now I guess we’re looking at more gender neutral stuff, since we might not find out the sex of our little stinker until July!

Getting Bigger (17w3d)

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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)

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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)

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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!

So many options! (16w)

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This afternoon (while Kishou was at the vet, getting lumps ice-cream-scooped out) we went to Babies R Us for the first time. I’ve been doing a lot of research online about all the various baby gear we need, but I really wanted to go somewhere and see these products first-hand.

I was too involved with the details of the strollers and car seats what whatnot to get emotional. But it was really awesome to be in there and not feel like a fraud. We looked at Travel Systems, Convertible Car Seats (the kind that go from infant 5lb to grade-school 65lb), Pack & Plays, Bouncers, Cribs, and I introduced Paul to the concept of Onesies. We detoured briefly into the nursing area, but Paul was getting squicked out, so we cut that short for now. Heh. He can’t even *say* “breast pump” yet. hahaha

I’ve gotten a lot of great advice tonight on a Car Seats discussion board I’ve recently joined on the advice of a friend. We’ve decided how we’re going to work out the car seat situation between our two cars. Paul will use the carrier-based car seat from the travel system, and I’ll use a convertible car seat that will go from infant to 65lb. I’m really happy with the convertible seat I’ve found – it’s safe and high quality, but not nearly as expensive as the Britax brand that has been so highly recommended to me over the years.

I’ve been cataloging my researched items in an Amazon wishlist, but I was gratified tonight to see that Target’s prices are just as good as Amazon’s, and the Target registry process is a lot more accessible to friends and family. (Nevermind the whole concept of being able to physically go and look at stuff there at Target.) I’m hesitant to register at Babies R Us like so many others have, just because their prices are so nutty! I dunno, they did seem to have a good price on the breast pump. (no wait, just checked. Target’s is better on that too.)

So anyway. It’s fun to be finding stuff for the baby. (Is there a point to buying a crib bedding set? Does the adorable comforter thing ever get used? All we need is bumpers and eleventy-million fitted crib sheets, right?) It’ll be even more fun when we know what we’re having and can nail down designs instead of just figuring out what models of crib and stroller we like. But in the meantime, I feel like I’m accomplishing something by finding stuff now.

(Hey moms reading this… I’d love to hear what your favorite baby gear thing is!)