Baby U.

Zach and I now have nearly enough credits to graduate from Baby U. We got 2 units for the newborn care class, 2 more for breastfeeding, and I'm pretty sure it was 3 for the birth class. Next month we have a Kaiser birth class, which gives us 2 extra credit units and should be enough to actually graduate! Um, yeah. About that graduation thing - I've got to admit that it's looming awfully large these days. But if nothing else, we'll be prepared. For the birth.

It's the rest of those details that I'm not so sure about. Name? what name? you mean we can't follow in my parents footsteps and wait a few months to give the kid a name? Oh, and those pesky things like "clothing" and "diapers". I guess we have to figure that out, too. Right now we have one foot in the "less-is-more" camp and one foot in the "yeah, I guess we need some baby stuff" camp. I'm excited to see what comes up at the "used baby shower" this weekend, and we've had wonderful offers from other recent parents.

Even more importantly, we need to get Zach over his fever. This is three days running now! Fortunately, I've skipped the hot part of the cold and I'm just enjoying the congestion/cough.

Previews of Coming Attractions

So our next-door neighbors just had their baby last week. It'll be wonderful to have a child of a similar age living next door, but for now it's just cool getting a sneak preview at what's going to happen. Of course given that baby Nathaniel weighed in at 9 lbs. 11 oz., maybe we hope that the sequel is somewhat slimmed down...

33 weeks and counting.... :)

Belly thoughts

In the past few weeks I have officially passed into the phase where people can not only clearly tell that I'm pregnant, but they feel compelled to comment on the pregnancy. Up to this point I pretty much only got comments from folks who already knew I was pregnant. Just before the new year, though, I started noticing a change. First at work with folks who had watched the gut take shape. (There was often a sense of relief when they finally talked to me about it, like they hadn't been sure and didn't want to say anything until they were absolutely positive.) And now with complete strangers. (Clerks seem particularly interested. I guess it spices up the ol' "how can I help you, have a nice day" deal)

I'm sure the "how far along are you"/"is it a boy or a girl" routine will get old soon, but for now I find it sweet that folks are asking. I've spent so long (nearly 7 months!) getting no props, or worse getting grief for being too "small", that I find it fun to have the pregnancy publicly acknowledged. At one point, when I was about 5 months along, one woman actually asked if I had been to a doctor because she simply could not believe I had a healthy pregnancy! (Zach, the wonder husband, promptly looked up a Salon article about a woman having a small belly and all the grief she got for it before birthing a big, healthy baby).

Regardless, even though I have yet to get a seat on Bart (the subway) because of my belly (although I have noticed that women even further along than I are not offered seats - for shame!) I feel similar about my very visible belly as I have felt about the kicking - I actually like it! Maybe this will change in the last month, but at this point I figure I'll be uncomfortable one way or another. The baby's kicking is very reassuring, and, as I said, the comments on the belly are, well, sweet.

#2 FAQ: Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?

In a nutshell, nope, we don't know.

At the 18 week ultrasound (below) it may have been possible to find out the gender. The ultrasound technician was wonderful and spent at least an hour taking measurements of all sorts of baby parts, but couldn't see between the legs. She carefully explained what we were looking at (good thing, because what looked like gray fuzz to us was clearly things like a kidney, brain, or bladder to her) and showed us the cool things like video of the blood pumping through the umbilical cord & a little footsie.

However, the little nugget wasn't so cooperative - it danced and twirled, and generally made it difficult to measure, but never gave us a glimpse between the legs. The technician tried various methods to get it to move differently (including tilting me at various angles), to no avail. Mostly, she just pushed her magic ultrasound wand into my hip. Not that I minded, you see. I was more than willing to sit through all this to find out that the kiddo seemed to be developing (and dancing) quite well. In fact, because all fetuses develop at the same rate until something like the 20th week, they can use the measurements at this point to better date the pregnancy. Our little guy measured exactly to the day what we were expecting based on the menstrual period method described below.

So, after an hour or so of prodding, turning, etc., (and having the radiologist review all the measurements) our mighty technician offered to try to get a glimpse at those private parts. I was tired; we declined the offer.

As I say, we'll find out one way or another.
As Zach says, it's awfully intrusive to ask a fetus to show it's privates if it doesn't want to.
As we both say, it doesn't really matter, anyway.

A little later on ...

This is a profile of the baby's head at 18 weeks (early October). The top of it's head is to the left, and it appears to have it's hand at it's mouth.

#1 FAQ: When's your due date?

Short answer: "March."

Long answer: "Early March."

There's two things to remember with due dates: 1) No one tells the baby; and 2) the medical world doesn't count pregnancy in months. So, forget 9 months, and remember 40 weeks. Just for fun, the due date is calculated as 40 weeks after my last period. Most women (apparently, myself included) typically ovulate about 2 weeks after their period. Thus, we get 2 weeks credit just for... well, you know. It's kinda like how on the SAT they gave us 200 points just for filling out our name. Not a terrible deal. Plus, 40 is a nice, even number.

Next up to confuse folks is the fact that the due date isn't actually the date that anyone expects the baby to be born. That baby's got it's own agenda. A pregnancy is considered "full term" anywhere from 37 to 42 weeks along. Thus, Zach and I hedge when folks ask for a due date and give the general "early March" response. No sense in pinning us down to a specific day! If you must have a time frame, I'll let you in on a secret: very few doctors will let a pregnancy progress past 42 weeks. In this case, that's March 23rd.

Which brings us back to our original answer: March.

Let's start at the beginning (or close)

... here's the little alien back in July, at just 7 weeks.