Here's Lookin' at You, Kid...

I’m a little slow getting the pictures up from the last ultrasound. We had another appointment with the OB yesterday, and she informed us that everything looks healthy right now. Dani’s glucose test came back fine, so there’s no risk of gestational diabetes. In fact, pregnancy in general is agreeing with her – she can even enjoy milkshakes. Her favorite pregnancy snack by far has been fresh fruit by the pint. Blueberries, strawberries, bananas… you name it. If it’s not in season and outrageously priced, she’s craving it. But it could be a lot worse. She could be craving Häagen-Dazs® and Krispy Kremes.
The baby’s room is just about ready for a coat of paint. I hope to have it ready in time for the baby shower, for everyone to see. The crib is already set up in the spare bedroom and doing double duty as storage for quilts.
We start our childbirth classes at Highland Hospital on January 23rd. They will last us right up until March 8th… just a few days before the arrival.

Merry Christmas!

Jeffrey would like to say “Thanks” for a great Christmas… except that he really hasn’t learned how to talk yet. Or breathe, for that matter. Meme sent a cute blue jumper. Mom Nabozny sent a pack of creepers. Aunt Bonnie sent him a beanie baby lion. Grandma & Grandpa sent a few lullaby CDs… and I think those will be appreciated by us even more!
We hope everyone had a great weekend, and we’re looking forward to seeing you all at the shower(s).

A Geek Perspective on Pregnancy

Part of being a geek is the fulfillment that comes with creating things. Save for the few items that adorned my parent’s fridge in my grade school days, most of the things that I create are not tangible. Some lines of code here… a script there… a database or a network installation. Nothing that you can really put your hands on. But nonetheless, I beam with pride when I see my handiwork in use on computer monitors or printouts.
This got me to thinking today as I sat in front of the computer, digitizing the in utero events of our son. I smiled as I watched his movements on the small LCD of my digital camcorder and organized the scans of his ultrasound pictures in Picasa. It gets more real everyday. Here’s a creation that Danielle and I made, documented in 1’s and 0’s on my computer’s hard drive. And in just a few short months, the face I see on the ultrasound will be able to be held in my arms.
I really can’t explain how it feels. The 5 GB of pictures I have on my computer are all of people I’ve met in person and places I’ve been to. I’ve never met a person through digital pictures before they were born! And yet, there he is, glowing back to me from my LCD. I can’t wait to meet him in person.

A Navel Discovery

95 days, 8 hours and 20 minutes to go… OK, so nobody really knows, but it’s been fun to put a desktop count down on my computer screen. It’s counting towards 8:00 AM on March 22nd, but if the boy has inherited any of my punctuality, well we may extend that counter a bit.
In other belly-related news, Danielle made a fun discovery tonight. Her belly button is getting bigger. It’s actually changed shape. I wonder, how much longer before her biological turkey timer pops out? Many mothers (both online and in-person) tell us that “such and such” will get old after a while; the kicks, the looking down and seeing the belly, etc. It hasn’t. We hope it won’t.
Oh, and we had a craving tonight… Klondike bars during a snow squall. It’s OK Jeff, you’re worth it. So is your Mom.

Well it seems as if the tides have shifted and all is going well for Jeffrey. We're able to feel a lot more movement now. It's so amazing to feel him kick and roll around. I'm starting to look a little more rounded. I think people can actually distinguish between pregnant and "is she just putting on weight?" I've almost completed my water aerobics class and I think I'm going to take the next session in January. It's fun to bob around and be weightless for a while. All in all, everything seems to be going well. I am feeling healthy and haven't been having any problems. We are having another ultrasound on December 19th to check out the boy. They want to confirm that the amniotic fluid level is okay. I'm sure everything is going to be fine and we're just going for another picture. He sure is a photogenic boy.

Share in the Blogging Goodness!

I’m not sure how many regular or occasional readers this blog was getting, so I thought I’d find out by asking. For those of you who are new to the blogging scene, let me show you the comment button. A little bit down, and to the right. In the corner of each post is a way for you to communicate back to us. Blogs don’t necessarily have to be a one-way communication path.
So I invite you to post a comment. If you have children, give us an anecdote about your experiences during pregnancy. If you don’t have any children (or any interesting stories about them), feel free to share some other sage-like advice. Apparently there are no official users manuals for babies.
If you have trouble posting, feel free to send me an email.

Pregnancy + Google Maps

It's more than just finding the fastest way to the hospital!

Here’s an interesting use of Google Maps technology… While browsing the forums at Pregnancy Weekly (bandwidth etiquette, ladies!!), I came across one user who started a map of all the March 2006 expectant mothers. So I added us. Here’s the link.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from Brian, Dani and Jeffrey. We’re spending the holiday in Perryopolis, PA with the soon-to-be grandparents. At 24 weeks now, the belly is getting more round as the days go on. It’s neat to feel the baby move – for both of us. He’s been kicking Dani a lot, but I can feel a kick or a head-butt every now and then.
Today we took a drive into downtown Pittsburgh to look through some baby stores. We went to USA Baby and Babyland to look at strollers, specifically the Zooper Swing and Waltz. We only found a Waltz, but that was good because we saw the Swing at Simon’s in Rochester. After seeing how the infant car seat works (poorly) with the Waltz, we decided that we liked the Swing better.
We also saw some really cute bedding sets. Dani has a giraffe thing going on. Leash, I hope you’re reading this!

It's Beginning To Look a Lot Like Baby

I’m sitting here in my living room surrounded by baby items. I had fun setting up the car seat and the play pen (Thanks Bill!!) this afternoon. We visited friends over the weekend that sent us home with a beautiful baby crib (Thanks Angela!!). Now I just have to get over this cold so I can finish up the baby’s room!
The excitement began last week, when Dani first started feeling the baby moving around inside her. The doctor kept telling her that she’d feel him “any day”. That day was about a week ago. Then a few days later, before we went to sleep, I put my hand on her belly. Jeffrey let out a good wallop. We both looked at each other and said, “Did you feel that?”
So the boy is trying to talk to us. That means one thing: it’s time to start reading software manuals to him.

Baby shopping! Danielle and I went to Babies R Us this weekend. Contrary to thier name, they don't actually have any babies for sale. We did get some ideas for things to add to our baby registry. Dani and I decided on a infant car seat and a stroller. Considering safety ratings, weight, recommendations and our own tests, we opted for the Peg Perego Primo Viaggio car seat and the compatible stroller, the Aria MT. Unfortunately - they are $199 a piece.
Well, sleuth shopper to the rescue. I watched eBay and found alot of people reselling new Peg Perego items. I caught a car seat auction and swooped in at the last minute with a winning bid of $102.50. And then... I found a coupon for $15 off $100 or more on eBay. Total cost with shipping: $108.40 That's less than we would have paid if we'd bought the Graco SnugRideII at the store on Sunday.

So now Jeffrey has a ride home from the hospital. Now if I can only get my butt in gear and get his room finished...

Edit 11/16: We visited Simon's Baby Furniture this past Sunday and met with Joseph in the stroller & car seat department. He was very nice, and also let us know that they have free certified car seat installation. Anyway, he talked us out of the Aria MT stroller. It's overpriced for what it really offers and although it's very light - a 15lb stroller won't make that much of a difference. He showed us 2 by Zooper: the Waltz and the Swing. We're going to be in Pittsburgh next weekend and we'll stop by a baby store there to see if we can find one in stock that we like.

Well it's been a good week so far. I finally felt the baby move!! It feels like little bubbles in my stomach. It's so cool to be able to feel what he's doing in there.
I started my water aerobics class today and it was pretty fun. I met another woman who is also pregnant. We kinda hung out while the rest of the class did the abdominal workout. It was nice to talk to someone else whose at the same place as I am. It's funny how nothing about pregnancy is the way I expected it to be. I don't even know what I really expected, but it's been so foreign and really wonderful so far. I'm finally getting to the point where I'm not constantly surprised that we're pregnant.

"I'm ready for my close-up!"
Alas, the drama is now over, and we can enjoy a calm, normal pregnancy. So I thought I'd leave everyone with a picture from our last ultrasound (for a while, hopefully).
Now we can focus on the fun stuff, like decorating his room and filling out a baby registry! 

Good news continues this week. We had another ultrasound on Tuesday morning and all looked well. Peanut (now formally named Jeffrey), was all curled up sleepy-like. He finally woke up near the end and waved at us a bit and wiggled around. The technician said that the amniotic fluid is still low normal but that at this point, we should just realize that we're not 50th percentile people.
We saw Dr. Lim in the afternoon and she thinks that crisis mode has passed for the time being. She let us hear the heartbeat and answered the myriad of questions we kept forgetting to ask previously. She still wants to see us every two weeks, but just to make sure we don't miss anything. We have no more ultrasounds scheduled! Yeah! The staff on AC-5 was extremely nice, but I hope we don't have to see them anymore. We are going to try and take some time to enjoy being pregnant for a bit.

It's a boy! The genetic counselor called us about 3 minutes ago!. Everything looks healthy and he has one of each: an X and Y chromosome! She said that there are no genetic abnormalities and everything looks perfect. According to our count, Jeffrey is about 19 weeks along. We're leaving for vacation to Toronto now, and that's the perfect way for us to start the weekend.

Not a whole lot new going on. We're still waiting for the amnio results. We saw Dr. Lim on Thursday. She agrees that our due date may be off slightly, but still doesn't want to change it . She thinks that the blood clot may be the source of all problems, and now that it's gone things should start looking up. We have another ultrasound and doctor's appointment on Nov 1st. Dr. Lim also mentioned that due to the possibility of my having a heart shaped uterus that I may be more prone to pre-term labor. So, they want to keep a closer eye on me. (Big surprise, huh?) They never actually were able to determine whether I had it or not, but they just want to be on the safe side. So, we're still waiting to hear news and trying not to be worried. Dr. Lim said I should be able to feel the baby any day now. It's weird to see it moving all around on the ultrasound and not feel it on the outside. So I'm excited that I'll be able to feel when peanut decides to do backflips in there.

Well, yesterday was a busy day. We met with the genetic counselor and talked about our risks for Downs Syndrome. Normally, at our age you have a 1 in a 1000 chance. Because the long bones are measureing short, they up the chance to 1 in a 100. That being said, both of us have pretty clean genetic backgrounds. We don't have a family history of anything and that works in our favor. Also, the genetic counselor also agreed that our due date may be wrong and that would account for the long bones being short. I think we were both a little more relieved after meeting with her. It helps to put things in persepective that we have a 99% chance that everything will be fine.
After meeting with the counselor we went up and had a level 2 ultrasound done, where they check for 12 markers of Downs, and we had the amnio done. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. My belly's a bit sore, but no harm done really. They watch on ultrasound the whole time so you can see that the baby is okay. We should have results in about a week and a half. They have to culture cells from the amniotic fluid so it all depends on how fast the cells grow.
The doctor that did the amnio also mentioned that the fluid was low, but it wasn't drastic. They obviously weren't worried about taking some, so I'm looking at that as a good sign.
We see our doctor on Thursday, and hopefully we'll get some more of our questions answered. Until then we're just taking it one day at a time and being hopeful.

It's been a rough week for baby news. When we visited the midwife last week (a loud, animated but friendly woman) she told us that the perinatologist was concerned that the amount of fluid around the baby was near the lower limit of where it should be. She told us that during our next regularly scheduled (every 2 weeks) ultrasound that they'd be checking the kidney and bladder functions.
So we had our ultrasound on Tuesday with Erin Lemke. She's sort of gotten to know us, and has done our last 3 or 4 visits. Peanut was being rather un-cooperative for the camera. We were hoping to find out gender this week, since we were supposedly at 16w6d. Erin had a new perinatologist come in that we hadn't met before. The two of them looked at the heart, kidneys, bladder and long bones. She told us that the long bones were a little short for the stage in pregnancy for where we were, but the kidneys and bladder seemed like they were functioning OK
We left the visit with a bit of concern. In our minds, we've been convinced the entire pregnancy that the dates the hospital and doctor's office has been using were off by about a week or so. By our math, we think we're about 15w5d along. Would that make a difference in the measurements? Were the fluid levels consistant with a pregnancy that was 1 week less developed?
We didn't get alot of answers to these questions - just referred to Dani's primary OB. We decided that we didn't want to wait until our next OB visit to get answers and we'd call Dr. Limm the next day. Well, Dr. Limm beat us to the punch. Her office called us at 8:30am on Thursday morning. The nurse practitioner told us that they had some concerns and would like us to meet with a genetic counselor and have an amniocentesis. Our appointment is for Monday morning at 8:30a. We have a friend who went through very similiar conditions about 20 weeks ago and is due to deliver this week or next. She's given us a very positive outlook on our baby's health... more on Monday.

Here's the week 14 pictures of our baby. As Danielle said, I should have a video posted sometime over the weekend. We have a visit with the OB in about an hour. On each visit, we get to visit with a different person at the practice so that Dani's familiar with all of them come delivery time. I think it's the midwife today.

Smile!

We had another ultrasound yesterday. We were able to see baby wiggling around and waving at us. Baby is now 3 oz. They no longer measure from head to rump, but by measuring the long bones now. Brian brought in video tape and we recorded most of the exam. Soon we'll have baby's first dvd! They measured the clot, but told us that we would get more information at our doctors visit on Friday. Hopefully, they'll say it's almost gone! They seem very optimistic and seem to think that we'll only need one more follow up in 2 weeks.

Children's Birthday Parties and the Pregnant Woman

Danielle and I attended a birthday party for a friend of ours' 3 year old. He's really into firefighters this year, so we bought him a firefighter dress up kit. It wasn't a far cry from the gifts we bought for his 2nd and 1st birthday either - more fire and EMS related toys. I guess we were ahead of our time. Our friend Joanne who was organizing the party for her son and her husband is about 8 months pregnant and getting around quite well on her just-healed broken ankle. At a party full of very young children, most of the mothers still have very vivid memories of their recent pregnancies, and they can apparently spot a pregnant woman across the room at 15 paces. Dani relished the attention and advice. She's starting to show, ever so slightly, but the party goers noticed.
We also had a chance to try out a car seat. Adam & Joanne have the Britax Marathon car set. It installed like a breeze in our 2004 Dodge Stratus, since it has the LATCH system. Nathan got to ride in our car from the go-kart track to Powder Mill Park. He was hoping it was a race car - sadly, it is not :(
More pictures of Peanut tomorrow, 1PM.

Alas! The blood clot has finally started to recede.

Hopefully this blog will prove as a good way to keep our family and friends updated on all things "new baby" related. Here's the most recent image of "peanut", taken on September 9th, 2005 in week 12. The baby measured 5.41cm. The next photoshoot is scheduled for Sept 27th.

Today's first is the umbilical cord. It's easily visible in both images. The baby now has a decernable facial profile, as well as some arms and legs. Peanut's heart rate was about 160bpm.

Third visit. This is the first time we could actually make out something that looked like a baby. In the 2nd picture, you can see the head (on the right), some limb buds, and the spinal column. The heart is the little dark spot on the bottom picture (it's too tough to see on the top picture).

Second visit

This is the first picture of our new blob. We visited Strong Memorial Hospital's ultrasound lab and met with the sonographer and an high-risk OB named Lorelei. She was very frank with us about the risk imposed by the bloodclot, and that we would have to continue ultrasound visits to monitor the baby's progress.
The blob, at about 6.5 weeks, measured about 3mm.