Well, I think I finally have all the holiday decorations put away and the house back to normal. Whew. I've never seen a tree drop so many needles - 45 minutes of vacuuming, and I'm sure there are still some hiding in there somewhere.
Last night Pete and I took a whirl with his Christmas present from Kate and me - Guitar Hero for our XBOX360. It was pretty fun! It's kind of nice to have an XBOX game where I can hold my own with him, at least. We have played Halo together, but he's so much better than me that I'm mostly just along for the ride. I'm not at all interested in even trying the driving/racing games. I've crashed enough cars in real life so that even crashing an animated one is a bit stressful.
The best part about it is that it's something Pete and I can do together. We've been married for 6 1/2 years now, and it's just too easy for us to spend all our evenings totally engaged in our own things and not really interacting. While I think some level of that is healthy, we should probably be more attentive to spending time together. We've had too many friends divorce in the past few years to take anything for granted (not that I'm at ALL worried about that for us, mind you). So, anyway, it was fun to spend time together.
I have to say, even holding a pretend guitar with 5 buttons is really uncomfortable to a cellist. The hand angle is all off - I cannot get it to feel natural - and sadly, the game has features that would prevent me from just holding the guitar like a cello. My hand is actually sore today (I can relate to Meigan's Wii induced "tennis elbow"). Not so good, since I'm still procrastinating tackling the behemoth that is Ein Heldenleben. Now I just need to make sure I'm not spending my time "practicing" guitar, when I should be really practicing! I have to get my cello-playing in while I can still reach around my belly!
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
An audible sigh of relief
Little One passed the ultrasound with flying colors. Every single thing they looked at - normal. Not a single question, concern, soft marker, anything. Even the perinatologist flat out said we didn't need an amnio. I still have a low-lying placenta (no longer covering the cervix, but still really darn close) but he also said he would be surprised if it didn't continue to move out of the way. All in all, it was a wonderful relief to know that the early measurement was an anomaly and we have what seems to be a healthy baby on the way.
We're both pretty gosh darn excited.
As for the gender, I must admit we caved. We decided to be practical regarding planning and names, and because I have sometimes thought it perhaps slowed my bonding with Kate, because I was so sure she was going to be a boy it took my awhile to accept she was a girl.
I'll have to see how I feel after delivery and all, but right now I'm glad I know. I really like knowing and I swear I feel even more attached to the Little One than I did this morning. Of course, that could be in part because I finally believe this baby is really coming. She is really coming. And we all can't wait to meet her.
We're both pretty gosh darn excited.
As for the gender, I must admit we caved. We decided to be practical regarding planning and names, and because I have sometimes thought it perhaps slowed my bonding with Kate, because I was so sure she was going to be a boy it took my awhile to accept she was a girl.
I'll have to see how I feel after delivery and all, but right now I'm glad I know. I really like knowing and I swear I feel even more attached to the Little One than I did this morning. Of course, that could be in part because I finally believe this baby is really coming. She is really coming. And we all can't wait to meet her.
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Oops
Most mornings (when she doesn't want oatmeal or demand goldfish or the like), I give Kate a small bowl of cereal and small cups of OJ and milk. She likes to pour the milk on her cereal herself.
This morning I noticed a weird look on her still sleepy face - as she ate a big spoonful of Wheat Chex swimming in orange juice.
Oops.
This morning I noticed a weird look on her still sleepy face - as she ate a big spoonful of Wheat Chex swimming in orange juice.
Oops.
To see or not to see
We have our level II ultrasound tomorrow. First of all, we are really hoping we find out we have a healthy little monkey in there.
About 6 weeks ago, we did a "First Trimester Screen" based on advice from by OB. Since I'm now the ripe old age of 35, there seems to be a general fear in the medical community that I will give birth to a two-headed goat or something, so they want to test anything and everything they can get their hands on.
The First Trimester Screen looks at an ultrasound measurement called the Nuchal Translucency and then also assesses some bloodwork to determine your overall risk for Down's Syndrome and Trisomies 13 and 18. I won't to into the whole traumatic ordeal we went through there. The highlights were this - the ultrasound showed a "borderline" measurement - meaning it was on the big side which indicates a problem (either the above-mentioned or a cardiac defect). Thankfully, the blood work was so good it negated the trisomy risk and my overall screen came back "normal risk".
While I feel strongly this baby is healthy, because of that experience it seems less of a given than it did with Kate, so I have to say outright - most importantly, we hope it is healthy.
But that's not what this post is about. This post is about a far more trivial matter: should we find out the gender? We wanted to and planned to with Kate, but she was modest, and we wound up kind of enjoying the unknown. So we're trying to decide if we want to know now (for planning, names, etc.) or if we want to wait it out again. If we do find out, we're trying to decide if we're going to tell other people or at least try to keep it to ourselves.
I guess I'll just have to see what mood takes me at the appointment tomorrow. I almost wish I felt strongly about it one way or the other, because it would just be easier. Or maybe I am focusing on this one, relatively unimportant detail because it keeps me from worrying about finding a two or three chambered heart or something else that would be incompatible with life.
Either way, I look forward to getting this over with.
About 6 weeks ago, we did a "First Trimester Screen" based on advice from by OB. Since I'm now the ripe old age of 35, there seems to be a general fear in the medical community that I will give birth to a two-headed goat or something, so they want to test anything and everything they can get their hands on.
The First Trimester Screen looks at an ultrasound measurement called the Nuchal Translucency and then also assesses some bloodwork to determine your overall risk for Down's Syndrome and Trisomies 13 and 18. I won't to into the whole traumatic ordeal we went through there. The highlights were this - the ultrasound showed a "borderline" measurement - meaning it was on the big side which indicates a problem (either the above-mentioned or a cardiac defect). Thankfully, the blood work was so good it negated the trisomy risk and my overall screen came back "normal risk".
While I feel strongly this baby is healthy, because of that experience it seems less of a given than it did with Kate, so I have to say outright - most importantly, we hope it is healthy.
But that's not what this post is about. This post is about a far more trivial matter: should we find out the gender? We wanted to and planned to with Kate, but she was modest, and we wound up kind of enjoying the unknown. So we're trying to decide if we want to know now (for planning, names, etc.) or if we want to wait it out again. If we do find out, we're trying to decide if we're going to tell other people or at least try to keep it to ourselves.
I guess I'll just have to see what mood takes me at the appointment tomorrow. I almost wish I felt strongly about it one way or the other, because it would just be easier. Or maybe I am focusing on this one, relatively unimportant detail because it keeps me from worrying about finding a two or three chambered heart or something else that would be incompatible with life.
Either way, I look forward to getting this over with.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Speaking of getting kicks...
The wriggling has started. Definitely the BEST part of being pregnant.
Speaking of the whole pregnancy thing, I am finally feeling outright GOOD most of the time, and am enjoying life. Hopefully now I can try, yet again, to update this place more often.
Speaking of the whole pregnancy thing, I am finally feeling outright GOOD most of the time, and am enjoying life. Hopefully now I can try, yet again, to update this place more often.
Know what's fun?
Bringing a bottle of fancy root beer to a neighborhood party - the kind in the plain brown bottle - and standing around with the bottle resting on your increasingly large pregnant belly.
Wow, did I get some looks. And even a few questions.
Really, it's almost insulting. Yeah, I'm going to drink when I'm pregnant - AND in front of a bunch of people. Thanks for your high opinion of my intelligence.
Maybe next time I'll bring a bottle of sparkling fruit juice and just chug it from the bottle in a brown paper bag. Gotta get my kicks somehow.
Wow, did I get some looks. And even a few questions.
Really, it's almost insulting. Yeah, I'm going to drink when I'm pregnant - AND in front of a bunch of people. Thanks for your high opinion of my intelligence.
Maybe next time I'll bring a bottle of sparkling fruit juice and just chug it from the bottle in a brown paper bag. Gotta get my kicks somehow.
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