We interrupt our regular programming: It's almost Hal-LEO-ween!

Our wonderful friend Leo is turning two tomorrow. He has made amazing progress this year with his mobility and communication. But there is still so much more to do. Please consider sending Leo a birthday gift to help fund tools and services that will help him continue the progress, including trips to see consulting doctors, adaptive technology, and Feldenkrais lessons. Visit Leo's blog to donate via PayPal. Thank you and have a happy and safe Hal-LEO-ween!

15w1day: Bumping out

My friend and colleague Emily looked at me the other day and said, "Things are becoming more obvious!" 'Tis true ... the belly is beginning to have a bit of roundness distinct from, ummm, too many cookies. I'm still not quite ready for real maternity pants, but the time is not far off.

My second midwife visit was yesterday. No new pics, but everything looks and sounds great. Of course, I expected nothing less, since I've had no problem picking up the heartbeat at home. The interesting part was that it was the first appointment I've had since, goodness I don't remember, that I wasn't hyperventilating beforehand. I believed it was going to be okay; I wasn't panicked that the other shoe was about to drop. And neither Brent nor I had any qualms about my going alone. He was free, but decided to stay behind and get some work done. (He'll be with me for the big anatomy scan after Thanksgiving, not to worry!) What an amazing thing, to feel normal.

I had my first, and hopefully last, true morning sickness incident during a conference in DC on Friday morning. The carsickness passed a couple of weeks ago, but coffee after fruit and yogurt for breakfast (no carbs) was apparently objectionable. Ooops, won't make that mistake again. But really, at 14 1/2 weeks? And at a conference? At least it didn't happen during class, I suppose. I'm still so tired, but otherwise feeling pretty good.

I passed my early glucose screen with flying colors. I guess that's good, but it makes it harder to motivate myself to stop. eating. cookies.

We have a stroller (or rather, a stroller frame for an infant car seat). I guess there's really an infant coming.

13 weeks, 4 days: Updates

It's hard to believe, but the second trimester is only three days away! I'm still exhausted, but the carsickness has passed. I'm enjoying eating ... and cooking again. The final results of our first trimester screening were reassuring: chance of Down Syndrome is 1:880 and chance of the other trisomies is 1:8800. Since the normal risk of Down Syndrome at my age is 1:250ish, this is great news. We'll do a second round of bloodwork in a couple of weeks, but we are feeling pretty confident that everything is fine. I'm borrowing a fetal heartbeat monitor (a doppler) from a friend, and I've become quite good at finding the kid's heartbeat and distinguishing it (fast) from the placenta (slower) and my own (slowest). In fact, since I've figured out how to find it and it's always there, I'm not even checking regularly anymore. :)

11 weeks, 6 days: Put your hands up!

At my first midwife appointment last week, the kid was dancing up a storm. S/he was so active the midwife had a hard time getting a good picture. But here s/he is, raising the roof:


Our friend Michelle took one look at the picture and said: that is a spirited child! Looks like we'll be buying this book soon. Today was our first trimester screening appointment, to assess the risk of Down Syndrome, Trisomy 13, and Trisomy 18. It will be another week or two before the blood work comes back and we get the numbers, but everything looked great on the ultrasound. The maternal-fetal medicine doc said he'd be surprised if the blood work was abnormal, based on the pictures. So that was a huge relief. Today, kiddo was working hard to suck his or her left thumb:



Does this mean we've got a southpaw like Daddy?

11 weeks, 2 days: Yes, we went shopping