(pre) baby pics!

Cindy's mom says it looks like me. i'm not sure what that means - it's sometimes hard to tell when she's joking...

Wow. Just wow.

Kenny and I had our ultrasound appointment bright and early at 8am this morning. I was so excited all morning, and even had trouble sleeping last night. I had dreams of the baby, and even a dream that we had twins. As exciting as twins might be, I think Kenny and I both breathed a sign of relief that there was only one Chicklet in there today. So we went to it, not knowing what to expect out of the appointment. The room was dark, with a monitor next to the table I was on, and a monitor across form the table so that I could see what was going on. The technician skimmed over my belly with the wand, and then there it was! She showed us the gestational sac from pretty far out, and then zoomed in for a closeup of Chicklet. The baby pretty much looked like a peanut, with a little head and a bigger, blob-like body. We couldn't see any evidence of arms or legs, but we did see the heart beating! That was absolutely amazing. Chicklet was pretty much still, and then we saw a constant little flicker at the top of the body blob. The technician told us that we were looking at Chicklet's heart. I think Kenny and I both gasped at the same time. The heart rate was a strong 167 beats per minute, and Chicklet measures about 2/3 of an inch. So little! But then again, I remember when Kenny and I were celebrating when Chicklet hit the 1mm mark. 2/3 inches seems huge compared to that! The doctor informed us that everything looked absolutely perfect, which set my mind very much at ease.

Way to go, tilted uterus!

So I had my first "real" doctor visit this afternoon where I finally got to meet my new ob/gyn, Dr. Smith. She is WAY better than my old doc, who never even listened to my heart or breathing when I'd go in for an exam. My visit was short, but Dr. Smith stayed to answer all of my questions without making me feel like she had somewhere else to be (unlike my former doc). The visit was overall really good. I've only gained 2 pounds, my blood pressure is nice and low (110/60) and all of my blood work from the last visit came back normal. Good news all around! The only thing I've been all ticked off about is that we don't get an ultrasound until 12 weeks, but today I got a pleasant surprise. As Dr. Smith examined me, she determined that because my uterus is tilted towards the back of my abdomen (called a "retroverted uterus") she couldn't tell if it was the right size for my 8 week 4 day pregnancy. So she said I had a choice between a rectal exam (yuck) or an ultrasound (yay!), so of course I chose the ultrasound option. So now we're on the calendar for 8am tomorrow morning. I called Kenny to tell him the good news, and of course he freaked out because he thought something was wrong. Once he calmed down, I think it really hit him that this is real. I said, "Kenny, we get to see the baby tomorrow!" He just said "Oh my god." I can't wait to see what his reaction is tomorrow when we see Chicklet for the first time. I think I'll drink a little OJ before we go, to encourage some acrobatics from Chicklet :)

Waiting on the doctor is rough...

So I like my new ob/gyn group a lot. They're very focused on pregnancy care, rather than just your typical gynecology practice that just happens to have a couple of preggos as patients. On our first visit, they gave us some great reading materials. The nurse who took my vitals and medical history was great, too. I didn't get to meet the doctor--that happens this coming Tuesday. My only complaint is that they don't do any sort of ultrasound until the 12th week, and even then it's only done if you order the sequential testing (which we probably will). I just can't imagine why they'd want to wait so long to take a peek! I guess they assume that either everything is going great, or there's nothing they can do if it's not. The waiting is tough. I am a bit over 8 weeks pregnant now, so we have another 4 weeks to go until we get that ultrasound. But I guess that will be one very exciting appointment. Not only do we get to see the baby, we also get to hear the heartbeat. Little Chicklet already has a four-chambered heart that's pumping quite a bit of blood. It'll be really exciting to finally hear it.

Kenny is pregnant, too!

So they say that men sometimes get sympathetic pregnancy symptoms when their wives are pregnant. I think Kenny is experiencing this, and in fact, I think he was experiencing as soon as we found out I was pregnant and before I even experienced symptoms. It all started with the stupidity symptom. On my birthday, I asked Kenny to make some paella for me. He proceeded to make a recipe he found, and then "tweak" it Kenny-style. This involved quadrupling the rice that the recipe called for, without adjusting the water OR the size of the pan!! Thankfully, my pregnancy stupidity had not yet set in, and I told him we needed to separate it into more than one container before we wound up with an oven full of paella. I can imagine Kenny standing in front of the overflowing oven, shaking his hands at it, yelling "What am I supposed to do with all this paella?!" 3 baking dishes later, crisis averted. But it was still dumb.
Symptom number 2, and perhaps my most prevalent, is fatigue. He has been complaining for the last month that he's tired. Part of it could be that his sleep patterns are disrupted by him getting up to study at 4am. My sleep patterns are disturbed, but that has more to do with the frequent need to pee at all hours of the night. Anyway, Kenny is always tired, regardless of the fact he has adopted my pregnancy sleep schedule: in bed by 9pm, awake at 7am.
As long as Kenny's chest doesn't grow by a cup size and his waist doesn't grow with mine, I guess we're ok.

Pregnancy might make you dumb

apparently. this past week, cindy's legal assistant remarked that she was getting dumb, and that it was a typical side-effect of pregnancy. something about her forgetting this or that. today, i wasn't intending to prove this hypothesis correct, but in the span of a very short period of time it was quite easy to see that, indeed, pregnancy somehow really does make you dumb. let's all hope it's a temporary setback.

cindy was making some salmon for dinner tonight - a delicious recipe, caramelized in sugar. a wonderful side dish of zucchini, garlic, and onion (sounds horrendous, but is quite good, and anyway we have toothpaste and mouthwash). i noticed that cindy was cooking the whole 5 lb. salmon steak, roughly 10" long, in one piece.

"perhaps that would have been easier had you cut it into smaller pieces." i remarked.
"yeah, i thought about that after i already dropped it into the pan."

then cindy proceeded to fire up another burner to saute the vegetables, and then placed a small pan on the burner. we had a huge amount of vegetables to cook.

"you know, maybe it would be easier to use a larger pan for that." i remarked.
"yeah, you're probably right." so i got out a larger pan for her.

and then cindy noticed that the light in the range hood burned out.
"i know, i told you about that 2 hrs. ago, cindy." i said.

then i walked back towards the bedroom, and noticed that the sliding glass door to the deck was open. "cindy! i asked you to close the door behind the dog 15 minutes ago!"
"oh yeah! i forgot."
"cindy, carol was totally right."
"about what?..."

:)

Announcing to the Lees

so finally, after 3 billion ideas on how to announce the pregnancy, we came up w/ the winner about 2 minutes before hitting the road for Dallas. we took the baby clothes that Cindy bought, put them in a Tiffany's box, and gave the box to Linda under the pretense of it being an early birthday present. we then told Dwight that it was a crystal dancer figurine, and that we really wanted to get it all on video. so he pulled out the camera, handed it off to me, and then positioned himself perfectly right beside Linda as she opened the box to see what was inside... the expression on Linda's face was priceless - thank god we got it on video.

But Possibly a Can of Soup

Cashier: Wow, you're pregnant!
Customer: Yep, that's what they tell me.
Cashier: Well, it looks like you're having a boy... or a girl. Definitely a boy or a girl.
Customer: Uh...

care of overheard in the office.

Dallas, here we come!

I'm very excited to say that Kenny and I have moved our scheduled trip to Dallas up by one week, which means we leave on Friday. I don't know why we decided to wait so long to go in the first place. I think we wanted to wait until we had been to the doctor at least once, but we're over that now. Now we just have to figure out the perfect way to tell my parents that they're about to be grandparents!

Telling my boss the good news

Last Tuesday, I decided I needed to tell my boss that I was pregnant just so he'd understand my frequent doctor visits. Boy, did I get him good. A few days earlier, he and I were talking about how an attorney in Dallas had been distributing to other law firms a paper I wrote on the new Texas business tax. So I asked my boss if he wanted to go to lunch, and he suggested we invite my legal assistant and our receptionist. I said that was fine, but that at some point during the day I needed to meet with him privately. He told me to come see him immediately, obviously curious as to what I had to share. So I came into his office with a serious expression, and proceeded to tell him how this Dallas attorney had contacted me about coming to their firm and was willing to double my current salary. He solemnly looked at me and said "Ok..." Then I laughed and said, "Just kidding! Actually, I'm 5 weeks pregnant!" He had some choice words for me, and then offered his congratulations. It was great.

The wait is absolutely killing me...

Every day, actually several times a day, Kenny comes up with another possible way to tell his parents about Chicklet. I don't think we've found the perfect delivery method yet, but we have another 5 weeks to get it right. As for my parents, we have just under two weeks before we share the news. I'm not really sure how we'll do it. What I do know is that I really want to get it on video. I like the idea of using my "knocked up" t-shirt.

What's harder than trying to figure out how to tell my parents is waiting to do so. First of all, it's just exciting to tell them and we can't wait. But the wait is especially difficult for me because I really want to pump my mom for information on her pregnancy. I'm pretty sure I remember her telling me that she never had morning sickness, so as I'm starting week 6 with no sign of it just yet, I'm still holding out hope that I'll escape from that. I also remember her telling me that she generally felt great while she was pregnant, with fatigue as her only symptom. Although it's still early for me, I have yet to see any other symptoms (other than fatigue) emerge. I did have that weird chocolate craving during my 3rd week. I'm also thinking that the frequent bathroom trips are due to my increased fluid intake. It subsided last week, and I think that has to do with my body getting adjusted to me drinking more water. So really I'm only having fatigue issues. I can certainly deal with that. I enjoy having a good excuse to go to bed early and take naps!

Anyway, I really wish I had paid attention to her pregnancy stories back when she told me the first time around. Now I have to wait for two weeks. On top of that, our first doctor visit isn't until March 14, which is only 2 days before we go up to see my parents. Although all of the reading material we've picked up has been great, it's not quite the same as talking to a doctor, or even better, your own mom.

Pee Stick Obsession: comic edition

care of baby-gaga.com

Ways to Tell Your Parents You're Pregnant:

this set is for my parents - i can't figure out the way to tell them b/c i keep coming up w/ new ideas. cindy seems pretty set on using the t-shirts (#4 below) to tell her parents. these are listed in no particular order...

1. so what nickname did you guys call me when i was baking in the womb? Mergatroy? that was a really good one. we're calling ours 'Chicklet'.
2. we were checking the calendar, and think that we'll be able to make it up to NY for the seders next year. the only thing you'll need to do to ensure that is make sure there's a crib in my bedroom.
3. so Kenny, what do you want for your birthday this year? (my birthday comes 3 wks after we visit NY in April and announce the pregnancy) i don't know, but Mom - i know what we're getting you for your birthday! (her's is in November)
4. Cindy got these great t-shirts for the two of us: hers says 'knocked up' w/ a pregnant stick figure drawing, and mine says 'the man behind the belly'
5. you guys still keep all of my baby stuff down in the basement right? why? 'for when your kids come over to play!' well, that time starts this november.
6. you guys still have my baby toys and crib down in the basement, right? is that crib still functional? let's check it out, b/c we're going to need one when we come to visit NY again.
7. i don't know if we're going to be able to come up for thanksgiving this year - but you guys might want to come down to austin to play w/ your new grandchild!
8. i know we've been talking about going on vacation together for president's week next year, but i don't think we'll be able to make it after all. 'why not?!' well, we'll have a 3 month old baby.
9. you know how we're always trying to get you guys to visit us in austin more often? i think we've finally figured out a good lure to get you down there. 'oh really? what?' how about a grandchild?
10. so, we told you guys about cindy's new job, my promising job leads, we're looking to buy a new house, and we've set up a long-term financial plan. what else are we missing? oh, that's right - we're having a baby!
11. i know we haven't finished the wedding blog yet, but cindy and i got to work on a new blog recently. we call it: Two Pink Lines.