Status Report - 178 Days to Go!

Our kid is a brat. I mean that in the nicest possible way, but still, he/she is a brat. I had a midwife's appointment on Thursday and I was so totally excited about hearing his/her heartbeat for the first time. The heartbeat is fine, and the midwife's trained ear allowed her to find it with the Doppler very quickly. Except every time she got a lock on it, the little bugger would move away. So it's official, our kid is a brat. At least we know it's ours.

Status Report - 182 Days to Go!

Officially in the 2nd trimester - Woo hoo! This weekend involved a cross-border shopping trip to get some winter gear to cover my ever-expanding ass & baby bump. I was doing so well up to Week 11, not gaining a single pound while eating well and growing said bump. Then all of a sudden, it started creeping up on me. I'm up 2.5 lbs as of this morning. Not life threatening, of course, I am pregnant after all and it's well within the range of normal.

However, I have decided it requires a scaling back on the non-essential nutrients, like M&Ms and dinner rolls. I have no interest in spending the first two years post-delivery working off baby weight. Oh, and I should probably consider dragging my ass back to the gym now that I'm not so exhausted that brushing my teeth is nap-inducing.

Next midwife's appointment is on Thursday, where we'll finally get to hear his/her heartbeat.

Status Report - 192 Days to Go!

Hey! Look, it's my kid:



Pretty cute, eh? This was taken on Thursday morning, two weeks after the last ultrasound. In that two weeks, the baby has doubled in size. He/she (and I seriously cannot wait until I know the sex so I can refer to the baby as HE or SHE) is 6.6 cms from crown to rump. Go ahead, you know you want to, get a ruler.

This ultrasound was to check the Nuchal Translucency, an indicator of chromosomal anomalies like Down Syndrome and Trisomy 18. Any measurement under 3.0 mms is good, our baby's is 1.7 mms, so that's one more hurdle cleared. One week, three days left of the first trimester.

Status Report - 198 Days to Go!

Under 200 days until we're due to meet our little one. Woo-hoo! Two weeks, two days until the end of the first trimester.

The energy level is coming back a little, and the nausea is down to a rare wave here and there. I guess they weren't lying about the second trimester bringing respite from the symptoms. Until the start of the third...

This week, the IPS screening. It's another ultrasound (because pregnant women loooooove them ultrasounds) and a blood test that is screening for Down Syndrome and other chromosomal anomalies. While I'm fairly confident this isn't a big concern, it's another thing I'll feel much better about when it's over.

Before I was actually starting a family, I was absolutely certain that the only way I'd give birth was doped to the gills and pain free. Epidural? Yes, please. I'll take two! I was going to have a team of doctors and nurses and my partner (whom I did not know at this point) was going to be out in the waiting room, pacing and handing our cigars all 1950s-style.

Because I harbour an obsessive thirst for knowledge, after the positive test, I started researching birth statistics. I learned how much more likely I am to need surgical intervention once medication is introduced, and obviously surgery is more risky than natural birth. I could live with that if I were the only one in jeopardy, but I also learned how much higher the risks are to my baby. And I just cannot accept that risk on someone else's behalf.

So now I find myself planning a midwife-assisted natural birth in six months. I haven't even met this kid yet, and I'm already ready to sacrifice everything I can to keep them as safe as I can. God help me, this kid has turned me into some kind of freakish Earth Mother hippie.