Lazy Baby

I had the ultrasound portion of the nuchal translucency screening today and it went very well. While the screening cannot confirm or rule out Down Syndrome or Trisomy 18/13, it does provide a fairly accurate determination of risk.

The nuchal fold measurement was 1.6. When combined with the results of the blood work which tests for levels of hormones, primarily hCG and PAPP-A, the risk of my baby having Down Syndrome is 1 in 6,841, and the risk for Trisomy 18/13 is 1 in >10,000. These are great numbers and J and I were very happy about the results.

The ultrasound took quite awhile because the baby was laying against the wall of the amniotic sac that is adjacent to the still present sac of Baby B. Afraid of over measuring the fold because of the baby’s position, the technician kept jostling, to little avail, my abdomen to get the baby to move away from the wall.

And here is the requisite “alien baby” ultrasound picture:

Happy Belated Birthday Kara!

Yesterday was my friend Kara's Birthday. Happy Birthday Kara!

Passive Aggressive Birthday Wishes

I mentioned to J yesterday morning that I have a birthday coming up in a few days. He asked what I wanted as a present. Several years ago, J announced that for my birthday he would have my college diplomas framed so I can hang them in my office. I’m still waiting. Every year, as a joke, he offers to get my diplomas framed for my gift.

This time, when he asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I said, “I want to feel special.” I thought this was a perfectly good answer. I don’t really care what he buys or does, just make me feel special. But I believe this is the kind of request that guys just don’t understand so, of course, J responded by asking, “What can I buy you that would make you feel special?”

I couldn’t resist telling him that I didn’t want to ask for anything specific because then I probably wouldn’t get it, the diplomas being framed as a an example. And then he accused me of passive aggressive birthday gift requesting. So then I asked for my diplomas framed, which made us both laugh.

The Results of My Torrid Love Affair with Mr. Peanut

I am 11 weeks and 6 days and had my 12 week doctors appointment this morning. My doctor is very understanding of how nervous moms-to-be can get and does an ultrasound at every check up. Today's ultrasound looked great. It was the first time where it really looked like there was a tiny baby inside me. I got to see its head, belly, heartbeat and limbs, and even got to see it arch its back. It was all very sweet, though, in the pictures, it does bear a striking resemblance to Mr. Peanut.

My next check up with my doctor is in 3 weeks, but I have another ultrasound on Monday with the genetics department as part of the nuchal translucency screening. The nuchal screen is done to determine the likelihood of certain chromosomal abnormalities. The equipment used for the nuchal sceen ultrasound is more advanced than that at the doctor's office so we should be able to see quite a bit of detail. I'm very excited for it. We'll have an anatomy scan in the same genetics department at 18 weeks which should tell us the sex (September 30th, J's Birthday!).

Behold the cutest fetus you will ever see:

Rare Moment of Sweetness

I like my niece, Natalie, a lot. She's witty, smart and funny, and I just adore her. She's soon to be 11 and is far more sarcastic than sweet, which is probably why J finds her so amusing. They are so much alike it's scary. You would never ever say she was a sweet girl.

She loves penguins and the other day she came across a penguin onesie online that she wanted to buy for my baby. A rare moment of sweetness. She showed it to my sister and then asked if my sister thought she'd be invited to the shower. Of course she would be, but my sister didn't want to make promises and said she assumed she would be but didn't know for sure.

My niece's response showed her more typical side, "You mean I'm going to pay shipping and handling and I'm not even gonna get to go to the shower?"

Now that's the Natalie I know and love!

This Week's Activity: Reach out to other moms

I receive an update once a week from BabyCenter.com explaining the details of my pregnancy that week – what size my fetus is, where it is in development, certain things I can expect to experience. I think a lot of you probably received these emails when you were pregnant.

Although he doesn’t get a weekly email, J has taken it upon himself to visit the BabyCenter website once a week so he, too, is kept abreast of my pregnancy’s progress. It leads to some fairly entertaining conversations. Two weeks ago, he announced out of no where that I was supposed to buy some new bras and panties. What?

Today we had this dialog:

J: It says here you should be reaching out to other moms. Have you been reaching out to other moms?

Me: Sure

J: I don’t think you have. Your putting your baby at risk. BabyCenter says you should be reaching out!

So, Moms, I am reaching out to you. Do you feel it, all the wonderful warm ooey gooey reaching outedness?

Baby > Beer

I made my first baby purchase a few days ago online. It came today and I love it. Unfortunately, little Fr-ax will be born right before baseball season, so it’ll be a year before I can put it to use. Still, I’m very excited about it.

While online, I tried to find some Chargers or Steelers maternity wear. Apparently there is no such thing as NFL maternity gear, which is a total bummer. They had a few unofficial items on Café Press, but I wasn’t sure how J would feel if I were to walk around with a No. 7 on my belly. (I ♥ Big Ben!)

This will be my first football season in years without beer. Sniff.

Greatest Gift

After several discussions, I believe J and I have settled on a girl name and a boy name. The girl name was fairly easy. Frances for a first name, after my Dad, his middle name, and Gidget. The original Sandra Dee movie Gidget which I highly recommend, not the later Sally Fields TV show. In the movie, Gidget's parents call her Francie and that’s what I plan on calling the baby if it’s a girl. The middle name will be Elizabeth after J’s Mom, her middle name.

Deciding on a boy name was a much more laborious process. I’ve wanted to use the name Max for a first name for many years now, after my Uncle, my Grandfather, my Great Grandfather and so on. J wasn’t a fan of the name, but as you know, my parents recently got a dog named Max and the mere prospect of teasing his son about being named after Grandma and Grandpa’s dog cinched it for J.

After deciding on the first name, we went back and forth on middle names, J turning down every suggestion I had. I finally asked him to think of some famous people in history whom he respected. His first suggestion was Winston, for Winston Churchill, but that wasn’t a favorite of mine. The next suggestion was Theodore for Teddy Roosevelt. Max Theodore has a certain distinguished ring to it so Max Theodore it is. Our son will be named after my parents’ dog and the twenty-sixth president of the United States. And coincidentally, our friend Ted and his cat.

I researched the meanings of the names. Frances relates to France or franc which means free. Elizabeth means God is plenty or God is bountiful. Max means the greatest, and Theodore means God’s blessing or God’s gift. You can’t really do much with Frances Elizabeth, but the two names Max and Theodore taken together would mean greatest blessing, or greatest gift. I thought that was kind of sweet.

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of sharing this with J who immediately said that we’d have to choose a different name if I was going to start associating it with that kind of hippie bullshit.