Not so quiet on the baby front

I'm sorry that the blog hasn't been updated more regularly.  It turns out that there is just not that much going on (at least visually) between weeks 14 and 18.  The murloc has been growing and doing his/her own thing in there, but I couldn't feel much.  My pants were getting tight though! 

Now, at 18 weeks, the fun stuff is starting.  I can no longer fit in my pants and J loves to talk to my bump.  He's a big fan of all the new curves that come with the pregnancy, though he's not so thrilled with the resulting tenderness.  I hear that this gets better too.  My students have all figured it out and I've been told by several girls that I'm having a boy as I'm carrying kind of low.  I'm thinking I should turn all of this guessing into a fundraising tournament... the schools always need more money!

I first felt a little bit of stirring way back at about 13 weeks, but it wasn't distinct or ongoing.  These days, however, the little jumping bean in my belly is starting to get going.  S/he's now big enough and strong enough that I can feel the kicks and bumps.  It's not very strong yet and you certainly can't see it, but it's there.  Most people describe it as a weird gassy or bubbly feeling and there's definitely an aspect of that, but it's also really tickles.  I'm not a particularly ticklish person, but I almost started giggling in a meeting yesterday because of all the movements.  I can't wait until I can feel it more!  On the other hand, I'm hoping that the murloc is not too much like baby Natalie, who spent quite a bit of time punching her mother in the cervix.  Ouch!

In other exciting news, it looks like I'll be taking a "last hurrah!" trip to France with my mother this summer.  We figure that it will be the last time that we can pick up and spend a couple of weeks in a foreign country without having to be responsible for the welfare of anyone else.  Yes, my dad and J can feed and clothe themselves.  It will be a lot of fun to get back to France one more time and just hang out, eat wonderful food, lust after tasty wine, and buy cute baby clothes.  

We have our next ultrasound next Tuesday and it will be neat to see the baby again.  I do think that doctors do too many ultrasounds and tend to meddle more than is necessary, but it's a bit addictive to be able to see what's going on in there.  My fingers are crossed that the baby isn't hopping around quite so much this time so that the doctor can get a good look and make sure that everything looks good.  We'll keep you posted!

Heartbeat

This is about two weeks overdue at this point, but better late than never! At our last appointment, we got to hear the murloc's heartbeat for the first time:



The murloc, being an aquatic creature with minimal aerobic activities, nevertheless has a strong, rapid heartbeat.

* Can't play the audio? Get QuickTime.

Week 13 Ultrasound

E and I had our 13 week screening ultrasound today; the one that screens for chromosomal abnormalities like Down Syndrome . The murloc was in rare form, confounding the technician's feeble attempts to measure its Nuchal translucency thickness, by spinning, twisting, punching, and generally rocking out. (E swears she saw it throw the horns.)

The happy end result is that between the ultrasound and her previous bloodwork, Eliz has the effective risk level of a healthy 20 year old: the murloc has less than a 1/10,000 chance of having Trisomy 18 or Down Syndrome. That, and the murloc has a normal looking brain, with two hemispheres and a corpus callosum, a complete spine, rib cage, nasal bones, a working stomach, kidneys, and bladder. The murloc was happily swallowing amniotic fluid, fluid which it had just finished peeing into, probably.

All in all, it was a good day.

Update: Pictures!

From Week 13

Two things that go great together!

Early pregnancy and the stomach flu!  Apparently pregnant women are more likely to get cols and flus and then have them last longer and be worse than non-pregnant women.  It seems that my immune system is up to other fun things instead of fighting off the icky germs that teenagers bring me.

All in all, I don't feel too bad these days, though how I long for solid food!  The baby is unaffected by the stomach bug, so it has no idea that anything is up, which is nice.  I was glad to hear that it will be fine regardless of how I feel.  

I found this really neat video of a 10 week old fetus in action and thought I would share it on.  It's really cool to think that there's a little human being inside of me doing jumping jacks and the breast stroke.  He's getting more exercise than I am right now!

Murloc On Board

Due Dates

We have been given two different due dates: October 10th and October 12.  I'm personally hoping that the baby will show up on the 11th, my maternal grandmother's birthday.

Photo evidence of the elusive Murloc in its natural environment

This being week 8 of our little endeavor, it had come time to do a little meet and greet with our obstetrician.  So, today, E and I headed down to our friendly HMO for our first appointment.

Then, exciting things happened.  Meanwhile, I waited in the lobby.

Eventually our Ob/Gyn, heretofore named "Dr. C.", brought me into the examination room, and proceeded to sonogram E and Murloc. At this point, Murloc is about the size of a large raspberry.  (Mmm, raspberries.)  Its heart is beating at a fit-for-a-hummingbird pace of 150 beats per minute. And if Murloc is raspberry size, its heart is no larger than one of said raspberry's aggregated drupelets.  Suffice it to say: extremely hard to see.  But sure enough, there it was! A rapidly flashing set of heart-shaped pixels, in a vaguely heart-appropriate lo

cation!  E tells me I broke out in a huge grin when I saw it.

Now, it gets even more interesting when you blow up that picture, as our Murloc's Murloc-nature becomes even more evident.  The large, pupil-less eyes, the protruding tongue, the webbed hands; I think this one's going to be a swimmer!