Quick Notes

Angie and I went to visit her mother this last weekend, about a four hour drive. Compared to trips to MD it is a hop-skip and jump away, but with a pregnant Angie and driving rain it was a bit more complicated. All in all, the trip went well and we returned home safely on Monday evening. While there we had a lot of well wishing and congratulations, and Angie was markedly sicker. When we returned home she began to feel a little better relative to being away. Angie read in one of her books that morning sickness can be exacerbated by being around people she knows. Apparently the emotion of caring about someone puts more pressure on her and studies have shown that being in an environment where you have no obligations to be social is easier. Kind of logical, but I suspect the physiological background on that is pretty interesting. So far we are keepin' on keepin’ on.
Some Angie and I pictures soon, I hope.

New Ultrasound Pictures

Pretty neat picture we think. It shows the heartbeat recording and then the two lines placed to indicate the rate (bpm)

Fun Facts

On January 9th the baby was 6.5 mms long.
On January 14th the baby was 1.10 cms long, and had a heartbeat of 133BPM.

"Caregivers"

I have threatened several times to discuss the pre-natal visits we have had thus far, so I will try to condense it down to hit the salient points and give it a try.
Our first visit was on January 9th and was with a practice that included a doctor recommended by another doctor. Most OB practices tend to do a rotation through their people so that you meet everyone and get comfortable with them in case they are on call for your actual delivery. In this case, we started off with a different doctor then the recommended one, but we were fairly eager to know what was going on and get information so we decided to go for it. This experience turned out to be awful, despite having an excellent and kind doctor. They had apparently had some major scheduling errors on that day and were so backlogged that it was an hour and change before we were in to see the doctor. I understand some wait times as unexpected situations arise, but this was not good. As I joked in a previous post, a waiting room with angry pregnant women overflowing and having to sit on the floor since the chairs were all taken is not a fun place to be. The long wait caused a lot of anxiety and annoyance for Angie as well, and by the time we were face to face with the doctor she was ready to leave. So much so that when the doctor asked if we had any questions, which we did, Angie said "No. I am tired and grumpy and hungry. I want to finish this exam so I can leave and eat something." There was also a mumbled threat from her about kicking me out of the room if I did anything to extend her stay. This simply goes to show that being highly recommended is great, but even the best OB in the world can't care for their patients when they are really annoyed. Needless to say, we thanked them for their time and left to feed Angie.
Our second experience was Monday morning, and was quite different. It had one odd component: the doctor we saw was Angie's doctor already, but had stopped doing the OB side of things since she had her kids, so we were going to be referred to one of her OB practicing partners. This struck me initially as a waste of time, and that we should go straight to the partner, but I was quite incorrect. First I should mention that there was no dilly-dallying and over crowding, it was all expedient, but soft and cuddly, and much less clinical. Seemingly hundreds of baby photos and birth announcements adorned the walls, with staff showing up in most of them with a big smile and small bundles of baby. It was a very patient-friendly place, with several nice sitting areas spread about in case you had to wait again as they moved you from exam room to blood-work room, etc. All the staff we had met thus far were amusing and friendly, and we were all having good laughs and learning things. In fairly quick fashion we made it in to the doctor, who I was meeting for the first time. After a quick introduction, Dr. C began to educate us. I don't mean that educate sarcastically, she was amazing. She simply began telling us exactly what was happening and what to expect, as well as her own experiences. She only stopped long enough (barely) for us to ask one question at a time, but her answers were the real facts, not the ideal or the worst case, but the information we needed to know. All the raving about her aside, she was definitely more energetic than I had expected, kind of like a hummingbird. But her demeanor was great if not rapid, and her answers were all the good things that pregnant women need to hear, and expectant fathers need to relax about. She also allowed me to run through our extensive list of questions about the pregnancy, but emphasized at the end that the pregnancy was merely a blip in time compared to the rest of the child's life and to not get so hung up on it. That was something that we both new and discussed, but it really helped to hear. As we left, Dr. C recommended a specific partner who she thought we would have fun with, and would be a good match for us during the process, so on February 12th we have an appointment with Dr. E. Most importantly, Angie was comfortable during the exam and the Q and A, and we both felt much better informed when we left.
So there is the pre-natal info so far....sorry about the length, there was a lot to say.

Typical Traits

It appears that even with the world telling us that we are all different, I have stepped easily into the standard patterns of expecting father. Intellectually I know that people tend to have similar responses, blah blah blah. Emotionally, though, I always hoped that I bucked the trends just a bit, and worked things out my way occasionally. Nope. I am officially in the "you and everybody else" category. I suppose it was egotistical of me to think otherwise. Every page of "The Expectant Father" (great book, highly recommended by me and my bro-in-law) leaves me nodding thinking, "oh, that's whats going on". I am worrying about all the things that are typical: my capability as a parent, money, some nesting things. Admittedly, I am a bit early, as we are only at 7 1/2 weeks. And it is stupid too, since pregnancy is a blip of time in comparison to the rest of the child's life, which lead to me worrying about childcare, schools, and teaching the child the most important things, like sailing. The book, by the way, covers this too, it just indicates that while I am remarkably normal in having these fears, I am really early. I am hoping that a better early than never is a positive approach here.
Angie on the other hand has been pretty perpetually uncomfortable. She has had morning sickness (a misnomer: it can occur all day and night) since the beginning and it tends to wane, but not go away. I actually had to ask exactly what was going on, because I was concerned for her and her apparent disinterest in all things baby. She looked at me incredulously and said that she didn't feel well. With a little prodding and feeling oafish for not understanding, I finally realized that she has been trying to avoid getting sick for three weeks straight, and she is damn tired of it. I think that talking about that was a small hurdle by itself, since now we both can work on it together and I have no excuse for ignorance and she knows to tell me what is happening instead of expecting me to infer it. Of course it does nothing for the morning sickness itself, but we are still working with the healthy foods every two hours minimum, and more exercise (if she's up to it) and sleep.
I will try to post about our second pre-natal visit, or at least the info this afternoon.

Pre-Natal consult #2

Angie and I will be heading to our second consult today, in an hour or so actually. I have a list of questions for the potential practitioner, and I think Angie does as well, so I hope they are mentally prepared for us. More as soon as we know...

A little more...

This is the image from Wednesday. It is difficult to tell, but at the top right of the black dot in the middle, you can see two little plus signs. The measure is the "crown-rump" length although there is a more scientific name that I have forgotten. It is 6.5mms and just to the left is the yolk sack. It's so amazing.

More Already (I'm kind of bubbling over)

The first real thing I learned when I found out we were pregnant was that I was woefully uninformed on the subject. I knew babies cry and they poo, and that despite the fact that they don’t seem to be aware of their surroundings at an early age, they will form and grow based on their environment, even though they won’t remember those years. I knew about conception, trimesters, and birth, or at least the theory of birth. I knew about alcohol and smoking risks, and I knew about healthy diets and cravings, and morning sickness. I thought I knew about some genetic concerns, and some birth problems, called defects, a word I dislike. And I knew that Angie would be moody and tired, the moody part being highly abnormal for her. Then came December 26th. I quickly learned what a blastocyst is, a word I love. I learned it develops into an embryo, and what arm and leg buds are. I learned about neural tubes and how early on the layers of cells divide and become specific parts of the body (skin, organs, and bones). I learned that embryos have things that look like tails, and that their organs develop outside of the body along where their umbilical cords will enter. They have yolk sacks, too. Weird. On Wednesday, I learned that at 6.5mms long they have a heart that flashes rapidly on an ultrasound and if the doctor holds everything just right, the highly uncomfortable Angie and her stunned husband can look at a fluttering heart inside her, and I can lean down and kiss her on the cheek and not think about anything else I don’t yet know.

For about two and a half minutes.

Howdy

Please forgive my what is essentially a two-day hiatus. Much has gone on in the last two days, and I attempted to post yesterday evening but had a hard time condensing it enough while still providing the right tones for the events. I will probably end up posting several events, although at least one will be about work, so will probably be a dryer read.

First is the big news and responsibilities I had been hinting at: We are pregnant! We wanted to wait until our first pre-natal visit to announce, but we were fairly certain on December 26th. Our first visit was on Wednesday afternoon and will merit a post all it's own, but for now, simply stated we are the proud parents to be of a 6.5 mm embryo. The due date is August 30th, so there is quite a lot of time left which is fortunate since we have many preparations to make. The reading is a little over-whelming with the sheer volume of materials available, but there is so much to know about the whole process. We have taken some great recommendations from family about this, and it has helped hugely. Meanwhile we are trying to get mentally prepared for being parents while trying to make sure we don't ignore our time spent together now, before a small child takes up our time.

Our next post will be some fun facts on the the first pre-natal visit. Hungry, grumpy, pregnant women are a little frightening en masse...

Blog Theory

I must confess that I am a little unsure of why I write this blog. Certainly I feel an urge to "journal" things that have occurred or are occurring in my life. Now that I am married, I find that there are significantly more things that occur that I find really worthy of writing down, since they are so interesting and exciting to me. The "to me" is the operative piece of that sentence. Some of the events of my daily life are shocking and awe-inspiring to me, but I am not sure whether they would provide anything of value to a random reader. And, if you know my wife and I, or our families, some of the daily events I may write about could be too personal for us to explain in an open(-ish) forum. I also have to fight the feeling that writing with the assumption that anyone really cares what I have to say, or that I can provide helpful information for anyone else is highly egotistical. If I am writing this for myself only, as a journal for my private thoughts, why in god's name and I publishing them.
Now it's possible that as I write more, I could actually provide constructive information about my life, my wife and my family, for anyone that may want to keep up with our lives. It's also possible that I can provide through my experiences helpful information to others who could be experiencing similar events in their life. It is certainly my hope that this small piece of blogosphere where I selectively narrate my very ordinary life could be something to someone. Whether our families get sneak peeks at the daily routine, or friends learn something they have been dying to know, I hope that at some point this blog will be an interesting read.

Progression

Resolution number three spontaneously manifested itself last night after having been discussed over the weekend. The resolution was basically: less television. Several books we had ordered last week arrived and immediately after dinner, instead of hunting for some good Discovery channel fare I sat down reading and plopped Angie's books on the coffee table. She began to peruse as I read and we finally clicked off the TV (kindly turn off the electronica, Rusty) and began reading in earnest. I was frankly overjoyed at the development and when she began regaling me from her book, I knew we had made a good first step.
With new obligations that we have taken on this year, we both really need to be at the top of our game, and I think that for all of the awareness of the necessity we are still not aware of the level of effort and the need to change our habits. This may sound a bit abstract, but it will make more sense as the year progresses.

More Resolutions

With New Year's several days behind us and the majority of life returning to normal, Angie and I have been able to finally sit down and relax. I will be heading back to work tomorrow, which I am a little worried about since I was out all last week, first up in MD to spend New Year's with family and then back in Mt. P to get the house further recovered from the work that we had done in early December. Angie and I have agreed on one resolution so far, and I am hoping that the only reason others aren't unanimous is because they haven't been discussed yet. The unanimous one was our health, as I had previously mentioned. It has only been several days and two things are abundantly clear: eating healthily is easier for me then it is for Angie (so far) and all the healthy proteins make one quite, err, gassy. It hasn't been disastrous yet no open flame incidents but we both have wondered whether using the fireplace is a good idea or not. I know Angie wants to do this, and we have made it pretty easy by having lots of healthy snacks around for us (trail mix for her and I am popping wasabi peas like it was job), but she still has the french-fry cravings that have been a long-standing tradition for her. Angie has decided I make a great stay-at-home husband these last few days and is a little leery about having the up at 5, gone at 6, home at 4:30, in bed by 9 husband back, but I am sure we will not miss a beat come Monday. Several other changes (resolutions) should help us with that, especially the activity together plan. We are both (hopefully?) looking forward to doing some sort of activity together in the evening when she gets home from work. So far we have been dog walking together, starting since after Christmas last year. We may bike-ride on occasion too, and other options are there, but mainly we both want to do some sort of physical activity together every night. I am hoping that typing this up will be good way for me to reinforce it and to have record of what I intended to do, so we can keep up with it and not let it slide. So many resolutions are either to major, to minor or totally unplanned and as a result get put off or ignored. While the planning prior to was a little shoddy, I hope that post-resolution planning will make it stick.
Well this sums up my first and second resolutions, plus a little insight to my thoughts on resolutions in general. Read my sisters blog from start to current would be a good resolution for all of you people.
eastwestwood.blogspot.com
Oh, and I will keep struggling to get pictures posted, I have so many and they are scattered everywhere. Ever vigilant...

Resolutions

So for my first resolution I am putting my health goals in writing. For various reasons health has become more importnat this year and after some research, discussion and advice a trip to the store was made and the pantry was cleared out...some. Angie and I already eat fairly healthfully, but we do both indulge often. So we are reducing the indulging, and shifting to organic and low-fat for the regular items. We are increasing our fruits and veggies and for Angie adding meals between meals. Kind of exciting, we shall see how long this health stuff lasts. Next resolution will be our budget...