Tue - June 17, 2008

Mon - January 14, 2008

Tue - February 14, 2006

38 weeks - ready to go!

3-D ultrasound picture, ultrasound results, my elevated blood pressure story.

3-D ultrasound of the baby's face

At my 37 week checkup my blood pressure was elevated to a range where they start to worry about pre-eclampsia. However, the protein levels in my urine were normal, instead of elevated which is another major indicator of pre-eclampsia. So my doctor just put me on half day bed rest, or relaxing in prone/left side lying positions for some significant part of the day. I went back for a half-week checkup and my blood pressure had improved, and then by my checkup today it had gone back to be completely in my normal range. My doctor told me "you're cured" and all I could think about was I am so NOT cured, the baby is still in there! Anyway it is great news, but I really need to make sure and take it easy, and continue to keep relaxing and elevating my feet. Luckily the Olympics are on and they are great entertainment when I am not sleeping or writing.

The other thing the doctor commented on at the 37 week checkup was that the baby (or more precisely, my uterus) is measuring a little large. I went for an ultrasound yesterday to see what their measurements say, and they put the baby at a little over 8 pounds. We got to see a little 3-D image of the baby's face, which looks a little squashed in there, but has cute pudgy cheeks and a little button nose (see picture above). We watched the heart beat, saw the different parts working in the heart, saw some pulmonary arteries pulsing, noted that there is fluid in the stomach and bladder which indicates that the baby is swallowing and processing fluids well. It was tempting to find out the gender, but this time Arne was strong and said no! The baby made little sucking motions with its mouth a bunch of times, so I think it will be ready to eat when it comes out. All looks good and ready to go! I am more anxious than ever to have the baby now, but I'm trying to be patient. My doctor was happy with the weight estimate, and isn't worried about inducing me based on that size, so we'll wait and see if things happen naturally in the next couple of weeks.

I'll try to get a little video clip from the ultrasound posted soon.

Posted at 05:27 PM    

Wed - February 1, 2006

Tue - January 10, 2006

33 weeks

My physical state is good, we see Amy's Mom's relatives for Christmas in Las Vegas.

The last month has been a pretty good time for me. I'm feeling good, almost as good as I have throughout this pregnancy. The third trimester has been a really good time for me. I've been able to be really productive, my hips are feeling good during the day, and I've had little pain or discomfort. The real issue developing has been that it is starting to get really hard to sleep. I can sleep for about 2 hours maximum right now before my hips really complain and I have to sit up to relieve the pain. I can't just turn over any more. My nightly trips to the bathroom have increased to an average of 2, but since I have to sit up anyway, the bathroom trips don't really bother me. It is also hard to bend and pick stuff up. I can squat to do things near the floor, but I can't hold it for long, and I just can't get as low that way. I am a little worried about how the last month and a half will go because I've just started to get swelling in my wrists which has led to numbness in my fingers. I've also been building up stress in my right shoulder muscle and sometimes it is too painful to ignore. I have a really hard time stretching that muscle, so heating pads have really been the way to go to fix that. I think maybe I should get one to take to work with me.

Our holidays were very enjoyable, although we didn't get up to Seattle to see Arne's family at all. We spent three days in Las Vegas with my Mom's side of the family. I think that it is the first time all 4 sisters and grandma have been in one place in probably 10 years or so. Some of the weddings have been close, but usually there is one sister that hasn't been able to make it. I really enjoyed getting to know Kris and Mark some more, they are funny and sharp. I really had a great time with them. I haven't seen them much at all in the past few years. Earlier this year we saw Kelly's family in San Jose, but that was the first time I'd seen the boys since Teresa's wedding, and the first time Arne got a chance to meet them. This time we got to spend a little more time with them to get to know who they have become. They are wonderful people and I look forward to spending more time with them.

My dissertation is progressing, but not as fast as I would like. I've got 5 weeks until the baby is considered full term and 7 weeks until my due date. I am really, really looking forward to having this baby, but I am very concerned about my chances of finishing my dissertation in time and being able to defend. Well, we'll just have to see how much I can get done....I lost a week to Christmas and getting sick on our trip to Las Vegas. I slept for almost the whole weekend after we got back, the cold I got just wiped me out. I even lost weight that week because of it. Speaking of which, here is the updated weight chart, this time with Arne on there too. He has been tracking his weight weekly. Last spring it was good because he (and I) were losing a little weight, now it is interesting to see how he has gained a little along with me through this pregnancy. I'm sure his will come off easier than mine though!

Posted at 01:27 PM    

Mon - December 12, 2005

Wed - November 30, 2005

27 Weeks, Third trimester begins

The baby is 27 weeks old. Lots of people visit us in Arizona. We start to get stuff.

In the last 6 weeks we've hosted more people in our house than almost all the years we've been here. Our friends Chuck and Ann from Australia came by for a night. Some grad school friends that had moved to California came back for a meeting and stayed for a few days at Halloween. Both sets of parents came through, mine for a weekend, Arne's for a week. A good college friend, Tom, is moving to L.A. and stopped by with his Mom this last weekend. Ayanna and Duncan will be following in January. It has been really, really wonderful to see everyone, however, I think I might not need all this distraction... Well, I need to learn to be flexible about when I work, how I work, and where I work when we have this kid, so this is good practice!

A couple of friends from work have donated a bunch of old kid clothes that they finally are getting rid of (they have a 12 year old now), and our friend Tom dropped off some great hand-me downs from their son, Duncan, who is now 4. Thanks to them we have some fun clothing and toys already. When our parents came through they were in very generous moods and helped us to purchase some baby essentials. We now have a place to change the baby, put the baby to sleep, and a vehicle for the baby! Here are some pics of the stroller setup we just received, and us. I feel like we're a little old to be "playing house", but it was nice to get it all put together and figured out.

Yes, that is a cabbage patch preemie in there. Bert helped us figure out how all the straps and adjustments work on the infant carrier, and probably enjoyed being out of the closet for the first time in years. It all feels a little weird and consumer-y to have all this stuff already, but at least we feel like we have all the essentials (minus diapers) and know what to do with them in case something should happen earlier than we've planned.

On a dissertation note, I finally got through one round of comments on my first draft of my first manuscript. Now I'm revising that, working up a poster for the American Geophysical Union meeting next week, and starting to work on a draft of paper #2 that has to be done by December 15th, so I can get it through co-author comments and reviews before the submission deadline on December 20th. Things are definitely progressing, I just don't know if I can do it all fast enough...

Posted at 11:18 PM    

Fri - November 4, 2005

Weight gain

In an effort to chart the progress of my pregnancy in a quantitative way, I've kept track of my weight gain over time. Here are the first 23 weeks in one picture.

In an effort to chart the progress of my pregnancy in a quantitative way, I've kept track of my weight gain over time. Below is a summary of the first 23 weeks in one picture. I feel like I'm doing well and staying on a reasonable trajectory toward the recommended weight gain (25 - 35 pounds). The end of the first trimester and first half of the second trimester were times when I was very hungry, and felt that I had to have breakfast lunch and dinner with snacks in between. Meals had to be on time or I was going to eat my own arm. It was a really intense form of hunger I haven't really experienced before. For the second half of the second trimester up to now, I'm feeling much more normal about eating. I can skip breakfast if I have to (but I usually eat something) and if lunch is a little late I'm not going to strangle anyone. I am eating a little more than I would if I weren't pregnant, but that is to be expected. Arne and I are really working on our nutrition and trying to make more food at home, eat more whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and I think that is helping a lot.

Posted at 09:35 PM    

Thu - October 20, 2005

Tue - October 18, 2005

The 19-week ultrasound

A general check-up on the state of the fetus. This is the standard ultrasound that mothers usually get early in pregnancy. Everything looked very nominal!

Our strange little alien child at a fetal age of 19 weeks, 1 day. All results were completely nominal. The baby really had stunning bone structure, unfortunately there aren't any pictures saved here with the spine really showing. They checked stuff in the region of the genitals, but turned off the monitor for that part since I decided that I'd like the gender to be a surprise. At my checkup this last Monday (Oct. 17) we found out that they don't pass on the gender information to the OB anymore because of past mix-ups where they heard the sex from someone who didn't know they were trying to keep it a secret. If we REALLY wanted to find out we could contact the ultrasound office.

Profile shot. It took a lot of work to get this one. The baby really wanted to be facing the ultrasound, I had to keep turning until the technician got the profile shot she wanted.




Here is the typical face angle we saw. The baby got pretty wiggly by the end and it was hard to tell if we were seeing the front of the face or the back of it.



This is their best attempt at a 3-D image. Because the baby kept moving while it was scanning it didn't turn out as clear as they would have liked. I think it is kind of eerie looking. Arne thinks he can see distinctive facial characteristics in there, I'm not sure we'll see much that is distinctive this soon.

Posted at 11:26 AM    

The 7-Week ultrasound

Found the pictures from the 7 week ultrasound. It is a very interesting comparison to the new ones.

Here are a couple of shots from the ultrasound I had at a fetal age of 7 weeks. I was having pains in my right side and they were worried that it could be a sign of an ectopic pregnancy, but all signs were that it was normal. The pains were probably just the remains of the follicle where the egg came out throbbing a bit. The pains eventually stopped by around 10 weeks.

The general overview of the uterus, amniotic fluid (black), and the baby in the center.



A closer view. If you look very closely you can imagine that you can see a heart, we could see it flashing when we were seeing all this live.

Posted at 11:18 AM    

Fri - August 19, 2005

12 Weeks - It looks kind of like a baby...

Ultrasound pictures and an update on my status.

For those of you that didn't know yet, I am pregnant! My due date is February 27th. The first three weeks of pregnancy were easy and fun. But the rest of the first trimester was pretty awful. I became very nauseated if I didn't have food in my tummy at all times. At first I could handle it pretty well, but it sort of had three stages. The first was manageable if I just ate enough food. The second stage started when the nausea became a little less pronounced all the time, but then got intense if I ate the wrong foods (yogurt) or didn't eat at the right times - this is the only time where I got physically sick. Then the intense phase passed and I was just generally nauseated again, but less constantly than the initial phase. In the last few weeks I've gradually gotten better. The first trimester was also a time where I needed way more sleep than usual. I was sleeping on the order of 12 hours every night and then taking afternoon naps every day. I recently started getting a little less sleep and feeling fine, but now I am dreaming so much that I wake up all the time and don't feel like I am getting enough true rest. Oh well!

My status now, with one week to go in my first trimester is good. I have really started to feel better. I am no longer nauseated on a regular basis, although I still get a little gaggy when brushing my teeth and with bad smells (like the old garbage and dishes in the sink for too long.) I now get really hungry without much warning. So instead of eating all the time to keep the nausea down I am eating all the time to keep my tummy from imploding. I've also discovered that I can be absolutely stuffed full of food and still be hungry. That is a very weird sensation I must say! I can't eat as much at a time as I could before pregnancy, but I feel like I need to eat more. I think that I just need to concentrate on small, protein-rich meals many times a day.

Our second ultrasound, part of the first Trimester risk assessment test. The fetus was very active and wiggly. Several times it moved like maybe it was hiccuping, and it moved its arm (seen in front of the mouth in the first image) around a lot. The crown to rump length is 6 cm, or a little more than 2 inches. The heart beat was very steady and had a rate of around 170. Everything looks Nominal so far: good umbilical cord connection, good nasal bone formation, the beginnings of jaw bones, and a very normal amount of fluid behind the neck. The last is one of the tests for determining Down's Syndrome risk. I'll hear more about my risk when they have charted the results of my blood test, this ultrasound test, and family history, along with age. I hope to hear about all that in the next week or so.

The fetus is is really starting to look like a baby, even if my family claims a devilish look in the last ultrasound image. The sex isn't apparent yet, but might be by the next ultrasound (which I think is at 20 weeks.)

Head is on the right side, hand in front of mouth.



Another head shot, slightly different look.



Full body shot, probably front side with head on right. Arms and legs are all visible.

Posted at 12:05 PM