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!

Six Weeks Down

As of tomorrow, I will be 6 weeks pregnant, more or less.  These things are a little tricky to guess at when you haven't been to the doctor yet.  The first doctor's appointment is on the 24th and we will know more then.

Thus far, pregnancy has been an interesting ride.  I started getting morning sickness at around week 3, rather than the usual week 6.  I'm curious to see what this week brings and if it gets any worse.  Last Friday was the first day that I was actually throwing up instead of merely being nauseous.  It's kind of amazing how crummy an upset stomach can make you feel.

Not many people know about the pregnancy yet, as we want to keep it on the downlow until we know how things are looking.  I do not have to go back to all of my friends and have to explain to them about a miscarriage or anything else that may go wrong.  Our parents are thrilled with the news, but unhappy that they don't get to share it.  I thought my mom would have a harder time of it than she seems to be having, so good for her.

At 6 weeks, the only thing that has really changed is the size of my boobs.  I did not sign up for having my boobs go up two sizes over the course of a week.  As if not having any bras to wear wasn't bad enough, the new and exciting playthings are WAY too tender to touch.  Such is life, I suppose.