Boy!

Pictures to follow.

Alive and well!

So, I disappeared from the internet. First my internet in Minneapolis died, and then I kind of moved to Georgia. So now I'm typing from a cute little house in Hephzibah (best name I've ever heard, and if you disagree you can shush). Things that have happened in the last few weeks:

-- Finished everything school-related. Not as hard as expected, really, and it's amazing to be done. I've been in school for almost a full decade.
-- Flew to Georgia to get married. Success! Anniversary: December 10.
-- Bought a car (er, Noah did, anyway) and drove it back to Minneapolis. In a blizzard. Did a little impromptu off-roading, but it all turned out okay.
-- Got my results back on the bloodwork for Buckethead - all is well! Except they had to take the blood out of my hand instead of my arm, which kind of gave me a sad.
-- Moved to Georgia, with the help of my amazing and long-suffering mother. We (pregnant lady and woman with heart and shoulder condition) had to carry all my stuff down three flights of stairs and over two shoulder-high snow drifts to my car. It was possibly the worst experience of my life, but it got done, and I didn't have to do it alone. So thanks, Mom, and I love you!
-- Moved in! This part was much easier. Mom and I mostly sat back (er, stood back - no furniture) and watched Noah carry everything. It was very satisfying.
-- Furnished a house on the cheap. Best buy: nice (ish - it's comfy, but needs a slipcover to hide the florals) love seat for $10.

Now we're mostly just relaxing. I just put dinner in the oven to cook (I'm a sucker for meatloaf, and for parenthetical expressions) and am sitting on the couch watching Noah wreck cars on his 360. Life is good.

As far as Buckethead-related events go, there's a slight hold-up on the insurance, so I can't go to the doctor straight away, but we're going to a local ultrasound place on Friday so Noah can see and to find out the gender. Hopefully I can post some adorable and terrifying pictures of our spawn after that.

15 weeks and a visit to the midwife.

Yarrgh. Things are hectic. This is the last week of school, and I have a ton of stuff to grade (plus my own work for classes), have to write a final, give the final, grade the final, and then move to Georgia. Crazy. At least we're getting some stuff done. Noah found us an awesome house to live in, and it's an amazing relief to have that taken care of. I didn't honestly realize how much it was worrying me until it was done. Now the only thing to do really is get a car (and get married, if possible, but that might have to wait until after I get moved down for real).

I went to my last midwife visit here on Friday. It was extremely uneventful - I didn't even have to take off my underoos! It was almost disappointing. We talked about the NT scan and I got the go-ahead to go have some blood drawn whenever I feel like it (probably tomorrow), and then we listened to Buckethead's heartbeat (160), and that was it.

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How far along? 15 weeks.
Total weight gain/loss: Dropped last week's pound, so up five pounds total.
Maternity clothes? I tried - I really did. I went looking for maternity clothes Saturday because the situation is getting pretty dire. Alas, all pregnant women are apparently six feet tall, because all pants were far too long. Dresses were an acceptable length, but they all made me look like I'm about to give birth at any second. I don't think I'm at peace with the baby belly yet. So I didn't buy anything and went home cranky.
Stretch marks? Nope.
Sleep: Okay. I've settled into a nice routine of only waking up once per night to pee, so that's an improvement.
Best moment this week: Knowing that we're not going to have to live in a cardboard box in front of Fort Gordon.
Movement: Undetectable disco party?
Food cravings: Water. I feel like a camel (with the hump on the wrong side).
Gender: I don't know. I'm trying to talk Noah into going to a private ultrasound place as soon as I get to Georgia so we can see what it is.
Labor Signs: Nope.
Belly Button in or out? In.
What I miss: Clothes that fit.
What I am looking forward to: Moving! (Or, more accurately, being moved! Moving itself is going to suck.)
Weekly Wisdom: Dressing room panic attacks don't help anything.
Milestones: Going to the doctor and not showing anyone my vagina.

14 weeks (err, yesterday).

Not much to report, other than that Buckethead is developing fur (aka lanugo) all over the place. So now we match, Buckethead and I, in terms of fuzz.

How far along? 14 weeks!
Total weight gain/loss: Another pound, so six total.
Maternity clothes? I really should buy some (I'm down to two skirts that fit), but I hate the thought of buying new clothes just to move it all across country in three weeks.
Stretch marks? Nope.
Sleep: Kind of tricky at the moment. I can't sleep on my stomach anymore - it feels really weirdly compressed if I try. At least I can still sleep on my back for a while longer.
Best moment this week: Seeing Buckethead's creepy visage on ultrasound.
Movement: Wild and vigorous, but I can't feel it.
Food cravings: Chili with crackers.
Gender: Girl, maybe (just so I can put big flowery headbands on)? Little hooligan wouldn't show the goods.
Labor Signs: No, dammit!
Belly Button in or out? In.
What I miss: Sleeping on my stomach. *sob*
What I am looking forward to: School being done in a couple weeks.
Weekly Wisdom: None. I feel mildly retarded this week.
Milestones: Finishing my first pack of prenatals (two months' worth!).

In other news, we got the results back from the NT scan. Buckethead's chance of developing Trisomy 13 or 18 is 1 in 10,000, which is great. The chance for Down syndrome is 1 in 500, which is not bad, but it should be 1 in 900 for my age, so we're probably going to get some second trimester bloodwork done to make sure everything is as it should be. I'll talk to the midwife about it at my Friday appointment.

Good day for staying inside with my slippers.

And as evidence for my current baby-brainedness, let me just say that the first thing that went through my head when I looked outside was "Buckethead is never going to see this kind of weather unless we go home for the holidays."

The second thing, of course, was "No way I'm going to school today."

More doctor adventures.

So, I went in for my NT scan yesterday. I expected it to take maybe an hour, but it turned out to be more like three hours, two of which were spent in waiting rooms. This resulted in my tragically missing my first class. Other than that, though, it all seemed to go well.

I first had to go back with the genetics counselor to give a family history and hear exactly what they were planning on doing to me. She was very nice, but one of those people that give constant eye contact, like you're in some kind of staring contest, so it was slightly weird. It was a bit troublesome having to attempt to give a complete health history of every person in both my and Noah's extended families, which was, of course, completely impossible. I tried, though, and at the end we had an extremely attractive family chart and a prognosis of probably healthy. She also promised that the required blood test would just be a finger-stick, which was delightful news. Despite my previous blood-drawing triumph, I am still a complete baby about it.


Somehow I am not shocked that my spawn appears to be all brains and mandibles.

At the end of this visit, I was somewhat dismayed to learn that I would need a full bladder for this ultrasound, since I had specifically asked the receptionist when I came in and she instructed me to go pee and not drink anything. So I wound up guzzling water for the next half hour until the nurse came to take me back for the ultrasound. I'm pleased to report that I've graduated from the dildo-cam and now get to have belly ultrasound, with extra-convenient warmed gel. I'm not sure why they didn't use the warmed gel for the trans-vaginal one last time, when it would've done a lot more good...


If mandibles don't do anything for you, how about this fine straight-out-of-the-X-files portrait?

Anyway, the ultrasound was kind of fun (and aided, of course, by the fact that I didn't have to strip). There was a student-doctor in there at the same time asking lots of questions that the nurse found to be stupid, and listening to her explanations to him was quite informative. She kept exclaiming joyfully about Buckethead's brain. "Look at this lobe development! This brain is absolutely textbook! Do you see this brain, Dr. Foolishness? Look at that!" So, Buckethead apparently has an exemplary brain.


Probably the best of the lot. There is a face and a potbelly and it's all very charming and less alien-like than the previous ones. Also you can see the exemplary textbook brain - in profile!

She tried to guess the gender as well for us, but alas, Buckethead was unwilling to show the goods. In addition to scrunching his legs up as tightly as possible, he also insisted on flailing about and refusing to hold still and be seen. This was, of course, extremely adorable (insofar as a creepy skeletal 2-D alien thing can be adorable) and very strange. Last time I saw Buckethead, the best comparison would be a potato. Now there is arm-waving and head-banging going on in there. Bizarre.


Skull and spine and baby belly and ridiculous little feets.

After a report that my fibroid is impressive and the nuchal fold (what they had to look at for the test - the liquid at the back of the neck) seemed normal (huzzah!), they sent me down for a blood draw. After waiting there for nearly an hour, lulled by the shrieks of some poor woman in the next room with apparently invisible veins, I discovered that the genetics counselor was a dirty liar and I would be getting stabbed with a massive needle by the same person who had failed repeatedly to get blood from the previous unhappy soul. Fortunately, I was able to take it valiantly, and I eventually escaped relatively intact, and that is the end of the story. I'll report on the test results when I get them at the end of this week.

Second trimester requires celebratory egg rolls.

As you can see, Buckethead now has a more appropriately-sized head. Could stand to work on the ears a bit more, though - the child apparently procrastinates like its mother...

Also important to note: we made it to the second trimester*! This is important because, first, it sounds very mighty and impressive, and second, it means the miscarriage risk is much much lower. I've been worrying so much about that lately. I can't wait to go in for my NT scan (9:30 tomorrow morning!) and see that everything is (hopefully...) just fine.

* Okay, well, there's some debate about when that starts. Some say 12 weeks, some say 14. I'm splitting the difference and going with 13.

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How far along? 13 weeks tomorrow!
Total weight gain/loss: Up another pound, but I think this one is Chinese food, not baby. Still, that's five pounds in the first trimester, which is apparently right on target (doctor said 3-6 pounds in the first tri).
Maternity clothes? Not quite. I've been having to use some sneaky tricks to get some of my clothes to fit, though. This is especially problematic since my winter coat barely fits right now (especially in the boobage region, which has grown more than the belly, actually), and it's cold and snowy outside. Don't want to buy a new one, though, since I'll never use it again once I move to Georgia.
Stretch marks? Nej.
Sleep: Eight hours is enough now (big change from eleven or twelve a few weeks ago).
Best moment this week: It went by way too fast to tell. I hope things slow down a bit once I get moved and don't have as much stuff to do constantly.
Movement: Nein.
Food cravings: Chinese. Yum yum yum.
Gender: Back to thinking it's a boy. Maybe they'll give me a peak tomorrow...
Labor Signs: Nyet.
Belly Button in or out? In!
What I miss: Not being tired after one flight of stairs.
What I am looking forward to: My NT scan tomorrow morning!
Weekly Wisdom: Don't stress. Don't stress. Don't stress.
Milestones: Second trimester! Seriously for reals.