I had my second appointment with Sheela, our Nurse Midwife, this morning. I got to drink a hideous orange beverage (which contained sodium benzoate, thank you very much) and then have blood drawn an hour later to see if I have gestational diabetes. If I do, I must be the most asymptomatic person ever, since I've been eating ice cream like crazy. They also took blood to test the baby for Spina Bifida, and that's the last screening test we'll have to deal with for a while.
In October, we'll have our Level II Comprehensive Ultrasound to check on the fetal heart development, so we're skipping the general "how many limbs and what's the sex" ultrasound. We've seen his limbs, and we know he's a boy, and he had a lovely strong heartbeat today, so that's all good.
If I haven't mentioned it before, one of the lessons that I have learned from the past two months is that you should not be shy about interrogating (and I mean that literally) your clinic staff. You should make them tell you everything about whatever it is they're talking about, and I mean everything. If I had done this sooner, we would not have gone through the screening hell that we have, and that makes me really angry. I got on Sheela's case hard today about the fact that her secretary sent me medical forms with zero explanation whatsoever about what I was supposed to do with them, and when I called and talked to Sheela about it this week, she still didn't give me clear answers about what was going on. So, I'm now a strong proponent of the call them until you're satisfied that you're fully informed method.
Because, hi, I'm pregnant, I'M SUPPOSED TO RELAX AND NOT BE STRESSED OUT BY YOUR CRAP. Thank you.
In other news, my parents will be up next week to help us put a new tub/shower into the bathroom. I'm excited to make sure that our tub is not going to fall into our kitchen. =)
Friday, September 19, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Week 16
That's where we are today. Feeling pretty good. Went to yoga last night, which is always kind of trippy, as our instructor is a very "Earth Mother Goddess" type. She's really funny, though, and she's a doula, so she's attended over 300 births, and she's got some funny stories. Anyway, I'm happy to be back in the yoga. I was taking over the spring at another place with some theatre friends, but the art studio closed, so no more yoga studio, either. That teacher may get another class started again, which would be nice, because I miss her and those friends.
If you're interested in another person's take on Week 16, you can read one of the blogs that I follow. It's Zero to Forty, written by Amalah (Amy Corbett Storch), who also writes a personal blog and an advice column. Amalah mentions that you might be having weird dreams these days, which I can bear out. I dreamed last night that Adam was writing a hit musical about building stereo speakers, and woke up with the song, "My Straightedge Will Be Steel," in my head. Let me repeat, I woke up with a song that *doesn't exist* playing in my head.
Our next clinic appointment is on Friday morning, at which I'll get to drink a disgusting sugar concoction and then wait for an hour to see if I go into a diabetic coma. Woo...fun.
If you're interested in another person's take on Week 16, you can read one of the blogs that I follow. It's Zero to Forty, written by Amalah (Amy Corbett Storch), who also writes a personal blog and an advice column. Amalah mentions that you might be having weird dreams these days, which I can bear out. I dreamed last night that Adam was writing a hit musical about building stereo speakers, and woke up with the song, "My Straightedge Will Be Steel," in my head. Let me repeat, I woke up with a song that *doesn't exist* playing in my head.
Our next clinic appointment is on Friday morning, at which I'll get to drink a disgusting sugar concoction and then wait for an hour to see if I go into a diabetic coma. Woo...fun.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Baby!
No, not our niece...our son.
We're due March 4th, so far. I've been feeling pretty well. The sickness has subsided a lot, but we're into more muscle and nerve pain in my belly as it starts to really stretch out. I've avoided the sciatica, thank God (knock on wood), but I did get one killer migraine (complete with partial loss of vision).
If you have done the math and realized that we shouldn't know his sex already, way to be up on your human gestation. We know he's a boy because we ended up doing chromosome testing after some early screenings came back abnormal. We'll still have a few extra tests along the way, but every sign now is that he's totally healthy.
So it's a relief in several ways to be into the second trimester, but we've just started to really realize that we'd better get off our asses and get ready for Little Obadiah to move in. After all, it's not like Ice Cream will have his own U-Haul full of Ikea furniture for us to drive home from the hospital. Adam has become excited about the possibility of using his woodworking skills to build Tadpole a crib, which I think would be awesome. I've been looking at the giant pre-baby shopping lists that stores like to provide, and that's enough to give you nightmares, let me just say. You thought the wedding planning was bad? HA HA HA. Is it any wonder we've been shopping for dishwashers instead?
We're due March 4th, so far. I've been feeling pretty well. The sickness has subsided a lot, but we're into more muscle and nerve pain in my belly as it starts to really stretch out. I've avoided the sciatica, thank God (knock on wood), but I did get one killer migraine (complete with partial loss of vision).
If you have done the math and realized that we shouldn't know his sex already, way to be up on your human gestation. We know he's a boy because we ended up doing chromosome testing after some early screenings came back abnormal. We'll still have a few extra tests along the way, but every sign now is that he's totally healthy.
So it's a relief in several ways to be into the second trimester, but we've just started to really realize that we'd better get off our asses and get ready for Little Obadiah to move in. After all, it's not like Ice Cream will have his own U-Haul full of Ikea furniture for us to drive home from the hospital. Adam has become excited about the possibility of using his woodworking skills to build Tadpole a crib, which I think would be awesome. I've been looking at the giant pre-baby shopping lists that stores like to provide, and that's enough to give you nightmares, let me just say. You thought the wedding planning was bad? HA HA HA. Is it any wonder we've been shopping for dishwashers instead?
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