My child is active. This will come as a surprise to no one who knows me and my high levels of energy. As my mother would say, the apple doesn't fall far from the ground.
During today's ultrasound, the baby kicked, squirmed, rolled over, swallowed, sucked its thumb, and had hiccups. We're talking less than five minutes of viewing time, and the baby didn't stop moving.
In this picture. It's stretching its legs and rolling around. I can't believe how big the baby keeps getting from week to week. 3 weeks ago those legs and arms were just little buds. Now, they stretch and flex and help the kid move even more.
With all that wiggling, I also got a glimpse of something "down there" that might just be male. Either that or it was the umbilical cord. We should have a better idea in 5 weeks at the 18 week ultrasound . . . .
4.29.2008
Fists and Knees
Looking at Me
I've had three ultrasounds now, and I swear that the kid knows we're there. No sooner does the baby's image appear on the screen than the baby rolls over to face us.
Though it looks a bit like a luchador mask in this image, there's my kid's face.
12 Weeks
This image is the baby during the nuchal translucency test. This test checks the thickness of the baby's neck as a screening for Down's Syndrome. A test of 3 or less is considered safe. The bambino's was 1.1.
You can see the baby's profile pretty well in this image, even though it's dark. The black line that runs along the bottom is the baby's spine, which is what was measured in the test.
This was the first picture in which I could see the arms and legs more fully developed, and the profile. I think it has my nose. :)
4.28.2008
Back in the Saddle, Mofo!
It's nearly midnight, and I'm going to bed.
I made it to midnight for the second night in a row! My energy, it's returning!
This little post here is also the NINETEENTH I posted tonight. I got on a bit of a writing kick while returning from Cincinnati yesterday, and I had some old pix to post.
I apologize for the mountain of text that follows, but I had to chronicle all the observations about my first trimester of pregnancy. The problem during that first trimester is that I couldn't stay awake past 9 pm, and I was seriously retarded from the hormones and other strange percolations going on in my body.
But it feels great to be back online. I got to catch up on Amity's blog, and to check out Zibby's amazing blog about all things habesha (see the links to the right).
I've been pecking away at this laptop for hours, and there's still more to do. I have a photo from BotCon to upload, plus all that film I shot in Maine has been waiting patiently for weeks for me to do something with it. Because the index prints are black and white, I'm afraid the stupid lab scanned the negs in B&W (I shot in color, the dumbasses) so I might have to either consider it a seredipitous accident and live with the B&W scans, or rescan the cut negatives.
Oh, and 8:15 tomorrow morning is my next exam for the baby. There might even be new ultrasound pix. The ones from the nuchal translucency test last week were pretty fuzzy, but I might scan and upload one of those as well.
But for now, bedtime. I still need some sleep.
I made it to midnight for the second night in a row! My energy, it's returning!
This little post here is also the NINETEENTH I posted tonight. I got on a bit of a writing kick while returning from Cincinnati yesterday, and I had some old pix to post.
I apologize for the mountain of text that follows, but I had to chronicle all the observations about my first trimester of pregnancy. The problem during that first trimester is that I couldn't stay awake past 9 pm, and I was seriously retarded from the hormones and other strange percolations going on in my body.
But it feels great to be back online. I got to catch up on Amity's blog, and to check out Zibby's amazing blog about all things habesha (see the links to the right).
I've been pecking away at this laptop for hours, and there's still more to do. I have a photo from BotCon to upload, plus all that film I shot in Maine has been waiting patiently for weeks for me to do something with it. Because the index prints are black and white, I'm afraid the stupid lab scanned the negs in B&W (I shot in color, the dumbasses) so I might have to either consider it a seredipitous accident and live with the B&W scans, or rescan the cut negatives.
Oh, and 8:15 tomorrow morning is my next exam for the baby. There might even be new ultrasound pix. The ones from the nuchal translucency test last week were pretty fuzzy, but I might scan and upload one of those as well.
But for now, bedtime. I still need some sleep.
Group Portrait in Biohazard Suits
This is a souvenir from a day at the Medical Examiner's office, during which the girls had to process some particularly stinky evidence. I won't get into details, but suffice it to say I was at the lab the day said stinky evidence came in, and I will never forget that smell. Thank God it was before I was pregnant.
This photo, like the panties in the next image, is indicative of the gallows humor that is required to be able to face a tough job every day. Like cops and doctors, the scientists at the Crime Lab see some truly disturbing cases day in and day out.
This ain't CSI fictionalized entertainment bullshit, but real cases involving real people whose lives have been forever changed by the events these guys investigate. And I felt like I had to commemorate their commemoration of it.
"Evidence" for the BCI Students
The girls in Trace prepared these undies for the BCI students to examine for physical evidence: 35 pair of huge $1 granny panties from the dollar store. There are several bodily fluids on the panties. Relax though. The stains are hot fudge from the lab's fridge. I know it looks gross, but we laughed our asses off that day.
The Girls at Melissa's Wedding
Clockwise from the top left, also known as the bride, is Melissa, me, Kristen, and Jen at Melissa and Pete's wedding, April 3, 2008
Don’t Breathe on Me
Random List of Ways I’ve Gone a Little Crazy with the Hormones: Part 4
I can’t say I’ve had many cravings or aversions since getting pregnant, especially not in terms of the usual: food items. I did have one odd aversion though. I could not stand to feel air on my face. Under normal circumstances, I’m not wild about it. I shut off the blower vent over my airplane seat, and I turn the vents in the car in whichever direction that prevents air from hitting my face. I love FRESH air in my face, in my hair, blowing on me when I sleep. But I definitely went through a phase in which foreign stale air went from moderately irritating to instantly nauseating.
It started one night after Aaron got home from the bar and had had a few beers. I hate the smell of beer anyway, but the smell of beer on him that night the room spin. I made him go brush his teeth again and it still didn’t help. Not that he didn’t smell minty fresh after another scrubbing, but the damage was done. I couldn’t handle his air anywhere near me.
So let’s say we were sound asleep facing the same way, and he’d roll over. The first exhalation in my direction would cause me to have to roll over immediately. It got so bad that one night the cat got too close to my face and started breathing on me. I had to kick him out of bed.
The kicker was a couple weeks ago. I was lying in bed and had closed my eyes. Aaron leaned over to kiss me, but I didn’t sense him until I felt hot air near my face. It startled me and I instinctively swatted at the source of it, not realizing it was my darlin’ come over for a little sugar. He was obviously shocked that I HIT HIM, and I of course was mortified. He got some mileage out of teasing me about it until I threatened to cry.
For the record, it’s better now. I still don’t like air in my face, but it doesn’t provoke nausea and pugilism any longer.
I can’t say I’ve had many cravings or aversions since getting pregnant, especially not in terms of the usual: food items. I did have one odd aversion though. I could not stand to feel air on my face. Under normal circumstances, I’m not wild about it. I shut off the blower vent over my airplane seat, and I turn the vents in the car in whichever direction that prevents air from hitting my face. I love FRESH air in my face, in my hair, blowing on me when I sleep. But I definitely went through a phase in which foreign stale air went from moderately irritating to instantly nauseating.
It started one night after Aaron got home from the bar and had had a few beers. I hate the smell of beer anyway, but the smell of beer on him that night the room spin. I made him go brush his teeth again and it still didn’t help. Not that he didn’t smell minty fresh after another scrubbing, but the damage was done. I couldn’t handle his air anywhere near me.
So let’s say we were sound asleep facing the same way, and he’d roll over. The first exhalation in my direction would cause me to have to roll over immediately. It got so bad that one night the cat got too close to my face and started breathing on me. I had to kick him out of bed.
The kicker was a couple weeks ago. I was lying in bed and had closed my eyes. Aaron leaned over to kiss me, but I didn’t sense him until I felt hot air near my face. It startled me and I instinctively swatted at the source of it, not realizing it was my darlin’ come over for a little sugar. He was obviously shocked that I HIT HIM, and I of course was mortified. He got some mileage out of teasing me about it until I threatened to cry.
For the record, it’s better now. I still don’t like air in my face, but it doesn’t provoke nausea and pugilism any longer.
Crooked Mouldings
Random List of Ways I’ve Gone a Little Crazy with the Hormones: Part 3
I kid you not, and you can ask Aaron about this since he was there, the mouldings on the windows made me nauseous one night during the first trimester.
Most people talk about morning sickness being associated with pregnancy, but I had it worse as soon as I’d lay down at night. Sometimes I’d feel it in the morning, but waking up always makes me feel ill, knocked-up or not.
One evening Aaron and I lay down on his bed, but for some reason we were at the opposite end, so our heads were where our feet would normally be. We weren’t sleeping, just laying there talking. That’s when I noticed the mouldings.
There are three windows in a curved shape at the front of the bedroom, with a soffit over them. The soffit hangs lower than the height of the mouldings around the top of the windows, so the contractors chopped them down. The result is that the top mouldings were cropped, compared to the ones along the sides.
I stared at those windows a little too long, and sure enough, the damned mouldings really began to bother me. Why didn’t they account for that when the built the place? Before long, the room was spinning like I’d hit the bottom of a bottle of Monkey Bay Pinot Grigio. I needed to get up, crawl to the head of the bed, and squeeze my eyes shut until the nausea passed.
In truth, the nausea never passed with night sickness. I usually just feel asleep.
I kid you not, and you can ask Aaron about this since he was there, the mouldings on the windows made me nauseous one night during the first trimester.
Most people talk about morning sickness being associated with pregnancy, but I had it worse as soon as I’d lay down at night. Sometimes I’d feel it in the morning, but waking up always makes me feel ill, knocked-up or not.
One evening Aaron and I lay down on his bed, but for some reason we were at the opposite end, so our heads were where our feet would normally be. We weren’t sleeping, just laying there talking. That’s when I noticed the mouldings.
There are three windows in a curved shape at the front of the bedroom, with a soffit over them. The soffit hangs lower than the height of the mouldings around the top of the windows, so the contractors chopped them down. The result is that the top mouldings were cropped, compared to the ones along the sides.
I stared at those windows a little too long, and sure enough, the damned mouldings really began to bother me. Why didn’t they account for that when the built the place? Before long, the room was spinning like I’d hit the bottom of a bottle of Monkey Bay Pinot Grigio. I needed to get up, crawl to the head of the bed, and squeeze my eyes shut until the nausea passed.
In truth, the nausea never passed with night sickness. I usually just feel asleep.
Fluorescent Vampire
Random List of Ways I’ve Gone a Little Crazy with the Hormones: Part 2
My first day at Gilbane was Monday, March 17. St. Patrick’s Day. Auspicious for girl of mostly-Irish descent at a company founded by guys mostly of Irish descent. We kick off each working week at Gilbane University (as my department is called) with a staff meeting on Monday mornings. We each take turns bringing in breakfast, and it’s great to frame the week with what you plan to do. We bookend the Monday morning meetings with a Friday afternoon email to our supervisors, listing our Accomplishments for the week. The idea of responsibility and accountability in the corporate workplace is something foreign to me in previous experiences, and something for which I deeply longed when it was missing.
Anyway, I had decided to keep the pregnancy under my proverbial hat until I was a few weeks in and a few more weeks along. Yeah, not so much. I found myself blurting out, just moments into my first day at Gilbane, that I was, in fact, with child.
Of course, the response was immediately positive, supportive, and congratulatory. My immediate supervisor has a 16-month old daughter who is just acclimating to day-care and requires him to have a flexible schedule. Another one of my co-workers is working full-time from home on a flexible-hours schedule while she cares for her 5-month old. The VP at GU is a woman who has broken through many a corporate glass ceiling as she’s moved through the ranks, and is extraordinarily supportive of our work-life balances — given the utter lack of the same support while she was breaking through those ceilings.
It turned out to be a good thing that I said something so soon, because I started that job around the 8th week of my pregnancy. I didn’t know this at the time, but a call to my doctor during my second week at work revealed it all. During an early-morning meeting with my boss, I had such blurry vision and dizziness I had to take a moment and call the doctor. It was then that he revealed to me that “I had picked the WORST possible week to start a new full-time job.” FAN-TASTIC! It turns out that weeks 8-12 are the worst in terms of the dreaded first trimester symptoms. There’s a laundry list of them, but my nemeses were nausea, migraines, and light sensitivity.
The light sensitivity turned out to be most vicious at work. My new office (with a real door! My return to the corporate world was to a proper office, not a cubicle) had fluorescent lights in it. Four long throbbing blue tubes. Being that I hadn’t worked in a proper office in a year and a half, and I’ve never been all that good in fluorescent lights anyway, the effects were swift and total. The moment I flipped that switch, my head would pound, my vision would blur, and my stomach would lurch.
So, I worked in the dark. Just me and the computer monitor. Coworkers kept forgetting I was there, or worse, kept getting startled by the bluish computer light and slight rustlings from what had long been a vacant room prior to my arrival. EVERYONE came by to see why I was sitting in the dark, and I had to pathetically explain that the fluorescent lights made me sick. My co-worker Jo summoned the Facilities Guy to come and take out two of the bulbs, and Drew from down the hall gave me his lamp. Brenda pilfered a desk lamp from Don’s office that we’re pretty sure he forgot he had, and I had a workable lighting situation.
Now, I’m happy to report, I can have my half-fluorescent lights on, and I still use the two lamps. Nowadays we joke about my vampire-like sensitivity to light. Brenda confessed the other day that had she not known I was pregnant, she’d have thought I was out of my mind.
So you see, sometimes letting the cat out of the bag isn’t the worst idea. At least my new co-workers aren’t worried about me being a total nutter. Or Nosferatu.
My first day at Gilbane was Monday, March 17. St. Patrick’s Day. Auspicious for girl of mostly-Irish descent at a company founded by guys mostly of Irish descent. We kick off each working week at Gilbane University (as my department is called) with a staff meeting on Monday mornings. We each take turns bringing in breakfast, and it’s great to frame the week with what you plan to do. We bookend the Monday morning meetings with a Friday afternoon email to our supervisors, listing our Accomplishments for the week. The idea of responsibility and accountability in the corporate workplace is something foreign to me in previous experiences, and something for which I deeply longed when it was missing.
Anyway, I had decided to keep the pregnancy under my proverbial hat until I was a few weeks in and a few more weeks along. Yeah, not so much. I found myself blurting out, just moments into my first day at Gilbane, that I was, in fact, with child.
Of course, the response was immediately positive, supportive, and congratulatory. My immediate supervisor has a 16-month old daughter who is just acclimating to day-care and requires him to have a flexible schedule. Another one of my co-workers is working full-time from home on a flexible-hours schedule while she cares for her 5-month old. The VP at GU is a woman who has broken through many a corporate glass ceiling as she’s moved through the ranks, and is extraordinarily supportive of our work-life balances — given the utter lack of the same support while she was breaking through those ceilings.
It turned out to be a good thing that I said something so soon, because I started that job around the 8th week of my pregnancy. I didn’t know this at the time, but a call to my doctor during my second week at work revealed it all. During an early-morning meeting with my boss, I had such blurry vision and dizziness I had to take a moment and call the doctor. It was then that he revealed to me that “I had picked the WORST possible week to start a new full-time job.” FAN-TASTIC! It turns out that weeks 8-12 are the worst in terms of the dreaded first trimester symptoms. There’s a laundry list of them, but my nemeses were nausea, migraines, and light sensitivity.
The light sensitivity turned out to be most vicious at work. My new office (with a real door! My return to the corporate world was to a proper office, not a cubicle) had fluorescent lights in it. Four long throbbing blue tubes. Being that I hadn’t worked in a proper office in a year and a half, and I’ve never been all that good in fluorescent lights anyway, the effects were swift and total. The moment I flipped that switch, my head would pound, my vision would blur, and my stomach would lurch.
So, I worked in the dark. Just me and the computer monitor. Coworkers kept forgetting I was there, or worse, kept getting startled by the bluish computer light and slight rustlings from what had long been a vacant room prior to my arrival. EVERYONE came by to see why I was sitting in the dark, and I had to pathetically explain that the fluorescent lights made me sick. My co-worker Jo summoned the Facilities Guy to come and take out two of the bulbs, and Drew from down the hall gave me his lamp. Brenda pilfered a desk lamp from Don’s office that we’re pretty sure he forgot he had, and I had a workable lighting situation.
Now, I’m happy to report, I can have my half-fluorescent lights on, and I still use the two lamps. Nowadays we joke about my vampire-like sensitivity to light. Brenda confessed the other day that had she not known I was pregnant, she’d have thought I was out of my mind.
So you see, sometimes letting the cat out of the bag isn’t the worst idea. At least my new co-workers aren’t worried about me being a total nutter. Or Nosferatu.
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