10:47 AM and I’m waiting with my phone in my hand in the back of the conference room at work. You see, I’m in a class learning all kinds of fascinating things about plastics and how to use them affectively in designs for high volume mass produced consumer electronics products. Kristy is supposed to pick me up at work so I sat in the back of the room near the door and I put my cell phone on vibrate and made sure I kept it in my hand so I wouldn’t miss her call letting me know that she was right out front waiting for me. I was actually expecting the call like 10 minutes ago, but evidently she is running a bit behind the schedule I created in my mind and didn’t tell her about.
Flash forward a bit and now we are in the car. Carter is not joining us today; he is playing with his buddy across the street, Matthew. I’m excited, this time we are meeting with Joy, who delivered Carter and who will be replacing Jill this time around.
Ladies and Gentlemen… The return of Collete. That’s right, she’s back in my blogs. She was there this week and this time she had a name tag. I sat down, scanned the magazines and then got my pen and paper ready to take blog notes like I always do. Collette let out a big Yawn and said “Oh, excuse me, I just keep doing it!” She seemed a little more subdued that usual and she had a little bit more grey in the hair. Kristy double checked, “bag’s are in the bathroom, right?” and Collette said yes. Kristy went to the bathroom because she was about to explode (her words).
There was a gentlemen waiting across from me and he was watching the jungle book on the TV in the kid’s book area, then Collette started fast forwarding it for some reason. I think the guy wanted to finish watching it but just sat there and started looking for something to read. I sat there too, waiting for Kristy and the nurse to call her name before she got back. Then a few seconds later the nurse called for Kristy and just like I thought; Kristy still wasn’t back. So I told the nurse she was in the bathroom and she said okay.
Then the nurse (Toni) went over to Collette and they started talking about Collette’s flowers. Toni said that she tried to clip them the other day and Collette said they were Irish Bells. She also said that they pricked her, so she got “ticked off” and she threw them out, that’s were the yellow ones went. Then she showed Toni the scripture she sent out via email and then Kristy came walking out. I said Kristy Ray is right there and pointed and Toni said, oh, she brought me a present (brown bag present).
We went back to the scale for Kristy’s weigh in and I noticed that there used to be a little seat that I would sit in right next to the scale, but it was gone. It was replaced by a small cart with a TV/VCR combo and some women’s health video tapes. Kristy weighed in at 136 pounds this time and her blood pressure was 104/62. Then Toni led us back to our room and gave Kristy the third installment of our Kaiser “What to Expect/You Are Going Through” pregnancy hand out.
Once in the room I got to practice some Spanish by reading the flyer across from me but now I think I regret it? The NovaSure brochure in the holder read “Controle El Sangrado, Recobre El Control De Su Vida”, it was a women’s health thing and I’ll just leave it a that.
Joy came in shortly after and started talking and then I think she recognized us and asked if we had met before and Kristy told her that she delivered our son about a year and a half ago. Then she looked at my little paper and my tiny writing and asked what I was doing. We told her about the blog and she expressed interest in reading it. I was going to tell her that when Kristy delivered she was sideways on the bed, to help spark her memory of us and that she was in love with Carter’s lips, but I didn’t say anything. I thought I would save it for this blog and if she reads it then maybe it will spark a memory.
Joy said I needed short hand, what she didn’t realize is that I was using my own form of shorthand that helps me capture a ton of detail. I right town key words or phrases and they trigger precise memories and then I write about them. Kristy studied this in one of her psychology classes I think.
Everything went by really quick, she told us some stuff, asked us some stuff and then said it’s time to listen to the hear beat. She busted out the Doppler listening device; put some nice cold gel on Kristy’s belly and right away we heard it. Of course we could all identify that first sound we heard as the heart beat because of our veteran skills, Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. Joy has heard thousands of these before and I was surprised how acutely my ear was tuned and remembered the sound quickly and I could tell by Kristy’s face it was the same for her. It was about 150 beats per second, nice and fast like it should be.
It sounded like something from Battlestar Galatica, if you happen to watch that TV show. On the show they are all advanced with all this advanced equipment and then when they talk over wireless communications it sounds like they are talking with two tin cans connected by a string. That is the one thing on that show that bugs me a bit, when we talk on our RAZRs or iPhones it usually sounds pretty good, not like shouting to each other from opposite ends of a tunnel. Returning from my great divergence, it sounded very hallow and somewhat faint but it is a very unique sound none the less and one that brings great joy to your heart.
There was no belly measurement for Kristy today because she is still too small and we wouldn’t get any usable info from it other than she is a fit trim mama. The next visit we could have the optional Quad Screen (we knew it as the Multiple Marker) if we wanted it. She reminded us to call and setup the ultra sound appointment again and then turned us loose with Toni to setup or next appointment.
We went back to the nurse’s station and we noticed Toni still had some 4th of July decorations that were in a basket she said she was getting ready to finally take to her car. That made me think of these people in our neighborhood that had their Christmas tree up until like May and they just moved it to the garage, it’s still decorated and I see it every time their garage is open. It’s fake of course! I also noticed there was a ton of Dell stuff at the nurses station, I’m sure their jobs would be much easier if they were outfitted with HP stuff!
So we setup our next appointment for November 6th at 12:15 PM. Kristy also asked about her due date, which I thought was confirmed for April 12th 2008. Toni consulted the magic paper wheel it said April 12th or 13th and Kristy was not reassured because the precision of the date still isn’t good enough for her. She wanted an early ultra sound to get a more precise date, she is annoyed that she has to live with a +/- 5 day window. To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, Ingrid measured her and by that measurement her due date was April 11th, but by the info from Toni (which is only 1 day off mind you) her date is in the range of the 11th or 12th, but that is too much unknown for Kristy because she likes to countdown the weeks and she needs a the exact day to roll the week over. And all of this folks means a ton because she’ll probably deliver a week, maybe more earlier and we have no idea when that actually is. Oh what to do!
Sunday, October 14, 2007
August 30th 2007
Here we go again on our own, going down the only road we've ever known, like drifters!... That is the Whitesnake lyrics that played in my head this morning. So, here we go again, only this time things are starting out a bit different. For example, last time before the first appointment we just got up and went. This time we got up early, something we have grown accustomed to the last year and a half and we made a full breakfast and watched the Wiggles. Funny how life changes after you have your first kid! And on this morning Carter was really using the new word he had recently learned, pronouncing it flawlessly: “No, NO, No, NO, No, NO!” Timing is another aspect of life that changes after kids, as many can attest to, it’s much harder to get to places on time, so we left in a rush and I forgot to brush my hair and Carter’s and Carter has some wild morning hair.
En route to the doctor’s office we passed a construction site with a bunch of diggers, scrapers and road builders and Carter was in awe. I think he demanded for us to stop and watch but we had to keep going to make up time. A few minutes later we arrived and there were a bunch of parking spaces, big ones too which is good because we upgraded to a larger Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) since we had Carter. No more Subaru Outback Wagon, we traded Northwest cool for European safety.
Once inside I was immediately busied with entertaining Carter over in the corner with the children’s books. Collete wasn’t at the desk and now I was thinking, does she still work here? What else has changed? Kristy checked in. We didn’t get to meet with Jill today because you guessed it. Change! Jill now only works at the hospital and not in the doctors’ office so we had to find a new doctor or midwife for our visits. Now I don’t even know what’s going on. The brown bag presents that used to be out front in the giant basket with the sign that said “Take One” was gone. Now the presents are already waiting in the bathrooms, totally different from before. For those of you that don’t know what the brown bag presents are or want to know what it was like in the olden days, please read my blog from August 19th 2005 documenting our rookie year experiences.
We went over and Kristy weight in at 134Lbs and her blood pressure was 102/64, at least this was similar. Then we were taken back to the room where Kristy and I waited. She made a comment about her belly and the possibility that it might be “pooching out” a bit early. I gave her a hard time about having twins, explaining any early “pooching” and she made me take it back. Yes, with force if you were wondering!
Today we met with Ingrid. We had met with her before as a couple back in January 2006 and Kristy had seen her a month or two before for her final post natal checkup, where she got a clean bill of health, which we obviously took advantage of to make another little Ray!
She basically said that today was the big “take a lot of blood” and “do a bunch of testing for common diseases” day and if something is wrong we’ll call you. If not we’ll send the results to you in the mail for your reference. She asked if this was a planned pregnancy or a surprise and we said “planned” (Kristy has been running calculators and crunching numbers for dates for awhile). Ingrid said it was really great to hear that, which makes me wonder what the percentage of planned versus surprise pregnancies actually is?
We went over our hand out that tells us what to expect, our first ultra sound would be planned for sometime in the 18-20 week of pregnancy range, which is a lot later than our first ultra sound with Carter. At that time we would be able to find out the gender of the baby if we wanted to. We told Ingrid that we would be finding out the sex and gave her the reader’s digest version of my October 7th 2006 blog.
Kristy asked for suggestions on what she could eat to get more protein in her diet and Ingrid suggested hard boiled eggs and peanut butter, both of which Kristy has already introduced into her diet. Then Ingrid left the room and came back wheeling a portable ultrasound machine. We had seen one last time in one of the rooms but we never used it. Ingrid said it isn’t very good compared to the regular ones and she was right, it was like a 12 inch black and white cathode ray tube TV with dials compared to a new 42 inch High Definition LCD TV. We had to use it though, because it was too early to locate and hear the babies fluttering heart beat with the Doppler listening device. It was much easier to make sense of the blobs of stuff on the screen, even with the lower resolution, veteran skill. We got to see the amniotic sack and it’s associated fluid and a little flutter that was the baby’s little tiny heart. The baby was like the size of a standard lightly salted peanut shell with both nuts in place.
Kristy had to have a pelvic exam and one funny thing that I noted was Ingrid had car washing mitts on the stirrups to protect women from the icy cold supports that obviously were designed by men who had never been required to use one before and have that icy cold steel touch their bare skin. Kristy also asked about her moles since some got bigger during her last pregnancy with Carter and she also acquired a large number of new moles during that pregnancy as well. Ingrid measured a couple of the larger ones, said we’d watch them and if any became concerning Kristy would get a referral to a dermatologist.
And that was about it for our first appointment, the second time around.
En route to the doctor’s office we passed a construction site with a bunch of diggers, scrapers and road builders and Carter was in awe. I think he demanded for us to stop and watch but we had to keep going to make up time. A few minutes later we arrived and there were a bunch of parking spaces, big ones too which is good because we upgraded to a larger Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) since we had Carter. No more Subaru Outback Wagon, we traded Northwest cool for European safety.
Once inside I was immediately busied with entertaining Carter over in the corner with the children’s books. Collete wasn’t at the desk and now I was thinking, does she still work here? What else has changed? Kristy checked in. We didn’t get to meet with Jill today because you guessed it. Change! Jill now only works at the hospital and not in the doctors’ office so we had to find a new doctor or midwife for our visits. Now I don’t even know what’s going on. The brown bag presents that used to be out front in the giant basket with the sign that said “Take One” was gone. Now the presents are already waiting in the bathrooms, totally different from before. For those of you that don’t know what the brown bag presents are or want to know what it was like in the olden days, please read my blog from August 19th 2005 documenting our rookie year experiences.
We went over and Kristy weight in at 134Lbs and her blood pressure was 102/64, at least this was similar. Then we were taken back to the room where Kristy and I waited. She made a comment about her belly and the possibility that it might be “pooching out” a bit early. I gave her a hard time about having twins, explaining any early “pooching” and she made me take it back. Yes, with force if you were wondering!
Today we met with Ingrid. We had met with her before as a couple back in January 2006 and Kristy had seen her a month or two before for her final post natal checkup, where she got a clean bill of health, which we obviously took advantage of to make another little Ray!
She basically said that today was the big “take a lot of blood” and “do a bunch of testing for common diseases” day and if something is wrong we’ll call you. If not we’ll send the results to you in the mail for your reference. She asked if this was a planned pregnancy or a surprise and we said “planned” (Kristy has been running calculators and crunching numbers for dates for awhile). Ingrid said it was really great to hear that, which makes me wonder what the percentage of planned versus surprise pregnancies actually is?
We went over our hand out that tells us what to expect, our first ultra sound would be planned for sometime in the 18-20 week of pregnancy range, which is a lot later than our first ultra sound with Carter. At that time we would be able to find out the gender of the baby if we wanted to. We told Ingrid that we would be finding out the sex and gave her the reader’s digest version of my October 7th 2006 blog.
Kristy asked for suggestions on what she could eat to get more protein in her diet and Ingrid suggested hard boiled eggs and peanut butter, both of which Kristy has already introduced into her diet. Then Ingrid left the room and came back wheeling a portable ultrasound machine. We had seen one last time in one of the rooms but we never used it. Ingrid said it isn’t very good compared to the regular ones and she was right, it was like a 12 inch black and white cathode ray tube TV with dials compared to a new 42 inch High Definition LCD TV. We had to use it though, because it was too early to locate and hear the babies fluttering heart beat with the Doppler listening device. It was much easier to make sense of the blobs of stuff on the screen, even with the lower resolution, veteran skill. We got to see the amniotic sack and it’s associated fluid and a little flutter that was the baby’s little tiny heart. The baby was like the size of a standard lightly salted peanut shell with both nuts in place.
Kristy had to have a pelvic exam and one funny thing that I noted was Ingrid had car washing mitts on the stirrups to protect women from the icy cold supports that obviously were designed by men who had never been required to use one before and have that icy cold steel touch their bare skin. Kristy also asked about her moles since some got bigger during her last pregnancy with Carter and she also acquired a large number of new moles during that pregnancy as well. Ingrid measured a couple of the larger ones, said we’d watch them and if any became concerning Kristy would get a referral to a dermatologist.
And that was about it for our first appointment, the second time around.
February 18th 2006
It was a damp morning, but sunny with a briskness in the air. After waiting all night for something to happen we were kind of impatient, like kids waiting for presents to appear under the tree on Christmas day, you know the waking up at 3 in the morning and laying there wondering what might be awaiting you until 5 in the morning and then sneaking out and asking if your parents are awake yet and then they say no, go back to bed for a little while longer. And then around 6:54am your parents give in and let you get into your stocking, to buy them a little bit more shut eye.
So we decided to go for a walk because sometimes that gets things going. So we walked around the neighborhood for about an hour and then Kristy said stuff was happening, but wasn’t sure if this was it. So we went home and I got my Personal Data Assistant (PDA) and started up the contractions timer program I had download because I read that it was good to keep track of those type of things and they would ask us about it at the hospital (which they totally did). They started out about 4 minutes apart but after about five minutes they sped up to 2 minutes or less apart and this went on for about 6 or 7 minutes so we decided it mosey on over to the hospital.
We got a parking place near the birthing center so that was pretty nice. We went inside and got all checked in and went to the waiting and verification area. It’s this closed off place with a bunch of curtains and monitoring equipment sectioning off very small areas. They basically monitor the mom for a bit and make sure she is really in labor before assigning an actual birthing room. After what seemed like forever but probably about 20 minutes they confirmed that Kristy was in labor for real and they started getting our room ready. Maybe 10 minutes later we were in the room.
Kristy’s parents had arrived while we were in the waiting and verification area. So they stayed with Kristy while I brought in all our supplies that had been packed for about a week and a half. Kristy’s pillows and extra clothes, my laptop, my portable HP photo printer, our camera stuff, my North Face hydration pack with the double pack of beef jerky from Costco, our ipod mini and Altec Lansing InMotion (mobile speakers), my book of course and my sleeping bag, all the essentials for having a baby or going camping.
Kristy’s sister came to the hospital too and that about rounds out the family delivery team and of course the excellent hospital staff. Jill wasn’t working today though so we didn’t know who we would get, basically whoever was around when the baby decided to come out, that’s who we got. Kristy’s smooth sailing kind of stalled out a bit and her water had to be broken with a medical instrument that looked suspiciously like a crochet needle. After that, things really started moving; literally the baby was on his way out.
Now at this point something changed, Kristy went from just the tough breathing like athletes do when they tear apart their ACL, to pain with a lot of yelling, screaming and crying. This was “The” toughest part of the day and the whole delivery experience. This may not be true for all men, but it was for me. Why? Because here is my wife who I love dearly and do everything I can every day to keep her out of harms way and far from pain and here I was helpless and I just had to watch her endure this immense pain. It was really a painful time for me, but I knew that it was unavoidable and had to be done. I held her hands, kissed her forehead, kept eye contact and let her know that I was right there with her and hopefully that all did something, but she was still in pain, how do I know this? Because Kristy was gripping my hand so hard that you would have thought if she were to let go that she would fly off the face of the earth or something. Her dad and sister were brining her water, you know, like people do for marathon runners and cold wash clothes to cool her down. Her mom was right there too, massaging and helping reposition her when she needed to stay comfortable. It was a lot of activity for a person lying in bed.
There was a shift change for the medical staff and it turned out that the doctor that would be delivering the baby would actually be the doctor that we had picked like 9 months ago (Joy) but was completely booked and not taking on any additional clientele, which lead to us continuing to look and finally giving the nod to Jill.
Pretty much one hour after the water breaking event, it was finally time. Joy had been in and out checking on Kristy and monitoring progress. Now she was in the room with us and Kristy was all turned sideways in the bed. Joy asked if she wanted to straighten out and Kristy said no way, don’t move me. Joy said “Well, I have never delivered sideways before, but there’s always a first time for everything” and after a few pushes (if you ask Kristy she’ll say a few hundred pushes) our first son was born. It was amazing, he was crying right away so we all new his lung capacity was good. He was put right up on Mom, well after Joy was like, “Where is Dad to cut the cord?” and at that moment I already knew I was busted, I put down the cameras and ran around the bed and then I cut the cord. During all this time Kristy’s Mom was able to call like 30 people or something to announce the successful delivery. I just watched Carter and Mommy and try to savor the moment and take it all in. All the nurses and Joy were all in love with Carter’s lips. Kristy and I were pretty much in love with all of him! Carter passed APGAR and then took a bath in the sink and then went back to Mom (Kristy).
Eventually it got late and Kristy’s parents and Sister went home for the night. And for the first time our new family was all alone with each other. That first night Carter didn’t sleep much in the unfriendly looking hospital crib, we all slept together in Kristy’s bed, well I kind of slept half on the bed and half floating in space. We did use the heater box for warm diapers and clothes and I even got to change a tar diaper, for those of you Dads-to-be reading this, I’ll save that description and let you experience that little joyous and memorable moment for yourself.
The next day Jill was on duty at the hospital and she stopped in to see us and meet carter. We gave her a same day picture printed on that portable HP printer I mentioned earlier. Actually we gave all our visitors same day pictures of our brand spanking new baby. We were also allowed to go home the next day and it was funny, I drove like the back of the Subaru wagon was filled with eggs free to roll around without any protective cartons. I don’t think I have ever driven so carefully before in my life. And so ends this fantastic experience that has led me to write these blogs and I have had a great time writing each and every one. Hopefully it will help out some future Dads and maybe provide a laugh or two for those who have been patient enough to read them all.
So we decided to go for a walk because sometimes that gets things going. So we walked around the neighborhood for about an hour and then Kristy said stuff was happening, but wasn’t sure if this was it. So we went home and I got my Personal Data Assistant (PDA) and started up the contractions timer program I had download because I read that it was good to keep track of those type of things and they would ask us about it at the hospital (which they totally did). They started out about 4 minutes apart but after about five minutes they sped up to 2 minutes or less apart and this went on for about 6 or 7 minutes so we decided it mosey on over to the hospital.
We got a parking place near the birthing center so that was pretty nice. We went inside and got all checked in and went to the waiting and verification area. It’s this closed off place with a bunch of curtains and monitoring equipment sectioning off very small areas. They basically monitor the mom for a bit and make sure she is really in labor before assigning an actual birthing room. After what seemed like forever but probably about 20 minutes they confirmed that Kristy was in labor for real and they started getting our room ready. Maybe 10 minutes later we were in the room.
Kristy’s parents had arrived while we were in the waiting and verification area. So they stayed with Kristy while I brought in all our supplies that had been packed for about a week and a half. Kristy’s pillows and extra clothes, my laptop, my portable HP photo printer, our camera stuff, my North Face hydration pack with the double pack of beef jerky from Costco, our ipod mini and Altec Lansing InMotion (mobile speakers), my book of course and my sleeping bag, all the essentials for having a baby or going camping.
Kristy’s sister came to the hospital too and that about rounds out the family delivery team and of course the excellent hospital staff. Jill wasn’t working today though so we didn’t know who we would get, basically whoever was around when the baby decided to come out, that’s who we got. Kristy’s smooth sailing kind of stalled out a bit and her water had to be broken with a medical instrument that looked suspiciously like a crochet needle. After that, things really started moving; literally the baby was on his way out.
Now at this point something changed, Kristy went from just the tough breathing like athletes do when they tear apart their ACL, to pain with a lot of yelling, screaming and crying. This was “The” toughest part of the day and the whole delivery experience. This may not be true for all men, but it was for me. Why? Because here is my wife who I love dearly and do everything I can every day to keep her out of harms way and far from pain and here I was helpless and I just had to watch her endure this immense pain. It was really a painful time for me, but I knew that it was unavoidable and had to be done. I held her hands, kissed her forehead, kept eye contact and let her know that I was right there with her and hopefully that all did something, but she was still in pain, how do I know this? Because Kristy was gripping my hand so hard that you would have thought if she were to let go that she would fly off the face of the earth or something. Her dad and sister were brining her water, you know, like people do for marathon runners and cold wash clothes to cool her down. Her mom was right there too, massaging and helping reposition her when she needed to stay comfortable. It was a lot of activity for a person lying in bed.
There was a shift change for the medical staff and it turned out that the doctor that would be delivering the baby would actually be the doctor that we had picked like 9 months ago (Joy) but was completely booked and not taking on any additional clientele, which lead to us continuing to look and finally giving the nod to Jill.
Pretty much one hour after the water breaking event, it was finally time. Joy had been in and out checking on Kristy and monitoring progress. Now she was in the room with us and Kristy was all turned sideways in the bed. Joy asked if she wanted to straighten out and Kristy said no way, don’t move me. Joy said “Well, I have never delivered sideways before, but there’s always a first time for everything” and after a few pushes (if you ask Kristy she’ll say a few hundred pushes) our first son was born. It was amazing, he was crying right away so we all new his lung capacity was good. He was put right up on Mom, well after Joy was like, “Where is Dad to cut the cord?” and at that moment I already knew I was busted, I put down the cameras and ran around the bed and then I cut the cord. During all this time Kristy’s Mom was able to call like 30 people or something to announce the successful delivery. I just watched Carter and Mommy and try to savor the moment and take it all in. All the nurses and Joy were all in love with Carter’s lips. Kristy and I were pretty much in love with all of him! Carter passed APGAR and then took a bath in the sink and then went back to Mom (Kristy).
Eventually it got late and Kristy’s parents and Sister went home for the night. And for the first time our new family was all alone with each other. That first night Carter didn’t sleep much in the unfriendly looking hospital crib, we all slept together in Kristy’s bed, well I kind of slept half on the bed and half floating in space. We did use the heater box for warm diapers and clothes and I even got to change a tar diaper, for those of you Dads-to-be reading this, I’ll save that description and let you experience that little joyous and memorable moment for yourself.
The next day Jill was on duty at the hospital and she stopped in to see us and meet carter. We gave her a same day picture printed on that portable HP printer I mentioned earlier. Actually we gave all our visitors same day pictures of our brand spanking new baby. We were also allowed to go home the next day and it was funny, I drove like the back of the Subaru wagon was filled with eggs free to roll around without any protective cartons. I don’t think I have ever driven so carefully before in my life. And so ends this fantastic experience that has led me to write these blogs and I have had a great time writing each and every one. Hopefully it will help out some future Dads and maybe provide a laugh or two for those who have been patient enough to read them all.
February 17th 2006
Today the parking lot was pretty empty so I didn't need to use any of my hunting skills. So we parked and headed on in, blasted by the bitterly cold winds that the news has been billing as "artic cold", but they are just standard Columbia gorge east winds that we get during each and every winter.
We walked in with a lot of anticipation; Kristy and I were both hoping that we would get some news that labor was imminent and we would be meeting our new son very soon. I had no idea that she was actually thinking the same thing as me, but after the appointment she told me and I let her in on my thoughts.
Collette was chitchatting with a friend when we entered the waiting room. "Come on Down" she said in a low voice. Kristy handed Collette her insurance card and checked in. Then Kristy went to the restroom, collecting her brown bag along the way.
Collette and her friend were talking about what he had sung in Church on Sunday. Collette asked about different songs and he recounted them and teased "It doesn't matter; we can't get your blessing anyways!" Collette said she liked the old songs with a meaningful message, like "It's Been A Good Day". She said she likes the oldies that are "extremely soulful because they come from where you have been." She also noted that "Churches don't even have Hymn books anymore and contemporary is that what they call it? Contemporary is fine but if we stop singing the Hymns we lose a lot of who we are, it's not the same." Her friend nodded in agreement and recalled that there is a hymnal book that he wants to get. Then Collette starting talking about some awards show and how Steve Harvey put Kirk Franklin in his place buy calling him out on the show. Harvey said if you are going to sing the Gospel you should mention Jesus some place in the song. Collette's take on Steve's comments: "But that's what you get when you're just making money!"
After a minute or two the nurse came out and called for Kristy, but she was still in the bathroom, so I said "She's still in the bathroom" and the nurse said okay. Then Kristy finally returned from the bathroom and I told her that they already called her name. We started to head back but the nurse was helping another couple that was leaving, maybe arranging their next appointment or something, so we waited a few more minutes and then she called for Kristy again.
We arrived at the scale to check the damage again, 157 pounds brining the total weight gain during pregnancy to 30 pounds. Next we checked her blood pressure and it was 126/69.
While we were waiting we could hear the Doppler going in the next room, someone else was getting a listen to their baby. Then Kristy had to go to the bathroom again, so she ran to the bathroom real quick, but it was being used up. Luckily a nurse was near by and showed her to a secondary bathroom.
Finally she came back and shortly after Jill came in. Jill said that we would take a quick measurement, a quick listen to the baby's heart beat and then she would check Kristy's cervix and we would be on our way.
Kristy asked about water breaking and the signs to look for. Jill said that it won't be a small leak. She said it will be either a large gush soaking everything or a persistent leak down the side of the leg that will still soak her pants.
Kristy measured 37cm which according to Jill was perfect; Kristy said that she is 38 weeks and the measurement in cm was supposed to be the same as the number of weeks of pregnancy. Jill said that in the later part of the pregnancy the numbers won't match because the baby drops, so the cm number becomes smaller then the number of weeks pregnant. Next we listened to the baby's heart beat and it was 150 beats per minute exactly.
Finally Jill checked Kristy. The baby's head was really, really low and Jill had to move it a little to check Kristy's cervix. Jill's eyes got real big and she was really surprised to find that Kristy was 4cm dilated and 90 percent effaced or in layman’s terms 90 percent thinned out. Jill asked how far we lived from the hospital because we won't have much time when he decides to come out. She said she will be working at the hospital on Monday and she thinks she'll see us that day one way or another. She was so excited that she was turning on the Doppler while she was talking to us. And that was it; we were excitedly on our way.
We walked in with a lot of anticipation; Kristy and I were both hoping that we would get some news that labor was imminent and we would be meeting our new son very soon. I had no idea that she was actually thinking the same thing as me, but after the appointment she told me and I let her in on my thoughts.
Collette was chitchatting with a friend when we entered the waiting room. "Come on Down" she said in a low voice. Kristy handed Collette her insurance card and checked in. Then Kristy went to the restroom, collecting her brown bag along the way.
Collette and her friend were talking about what he had sung in Church on Sunday. Collette asked about different songs and he recounted them and teased "It doesn't matter; we can't get your blessing anyways!" Collette said she liked the old songs with a meaningful message, like "It's Been A Good Day". She said she likes the oldies that are "extremely soulful because they come from where you have been." She also noted that "Churches don't even have Hymn books anymore and contemporary is that what they call it? Contemporary is fine but if we stop singing the Hymns we lose a lot of who we are, it's not the same." Her friend nodded in agreement and recalled that there is a hymnal book that he wants to get. Then Collette starting talking about some awards show and how Steve Harvey put Kirk Franklin in his place buy calling him out on the show. Harvey said if you are going to sing the Gospel you should mention Jesus some place in the song. Collette's take on Steve's comments: "But that's what you get when you're just making money!"
After a minute or two the nurse came out and called for Kristy, but she was still in the bathroom, so I said "She's still in the bathroom" and the nurse said okay. Then Kristy finally returned from the bathroom and I told her that they already called her name. We started to head back but the nurse was helping another couple that was leaving, maybe arranging their next appointment or something, so we waited a few more minutes and then she called for Kristy again.
We arrived at the scale to check the damage again, 157 pounds brining the total weight gain during pregnancy to 30 pounds. Next we checked her blood pressure and it was 126/69.
While we were waiting we could hear the Doppler going in the next room, someone else was getting a listen to their baby. Then Kristy had to go to the bathroom again, so she ran to the bathroom real quick, but it was being used up. Luckily a nurse was near by and showed her to a secondary bathroom.
Finally she came back and shortly after Jill came in. Jill said that we would take a quick measurement, a quick listen to the baby's heart beat and then she would check Kristy's cervix and we would be on our way.
Kristy asked about water breaking and the signs to look for. Jill said that it won't be a small leak. She said it will be either a large gush soaking everything or a persistent leak down the side of the leg that will still soak her pants.
Kristy measured 37cm which according to Jill was perfect; Kristy said that she is 38 weeks and the measurement in cm was supposed to be the same as the number of weeks of pregnancy. Jill said that in the later part of the pregnancy the numbers won't match because the baby drops, so the cm number becomes smaller then the number of weeks pregnant. Next we listened to the baby's heart beat and it was 150 beats per minute exactly.
Finally Jill checked Kristy. The baby's head was really, really low and Jill had to move it a little to check Kristy's cervix. Jill's eyes got real big and she was really surprised to find that Kristy was 4cm dilated and 90 percent effaced or in layman’s terms 90 percent thinned out. Jill asked how far we lived from the hospital because we won't have much time when he decides to come out. She said she will be working at the hospital on Monday and she thinks she'll see us that day one way or another. She was so excited that she was turning on the Doppler while she was talking to us. And that was it; we were excitedly on our way.
February 3rd 2006
This time it wasn’t raining, but had recently rained. The west parking lot was full, but I decided to pull into the first turn in and the same exact spot I had so skillfully acquired during our last visit was wide open, so stealthily maneuvered the car into the space. I noticed other hunters looking for open parking spaces were starting to head our direction and perceived the urgency at hand.
Collette was busy intently looking at her computer screen, when Kristy approached she said “Can you take her?” to Jane the other front desk worker on duty. This was immediately followed by a very loud “Wow? I don’t know what I just did, but that’s not what I wanted to do” from Collette, now with her face even closer to her computer screen.
Kristy did her duty and fulfilled the brown bag requirement. While I was waiting a doctor came out and he used “Come on down” on a patient, I think the Price is Right fever is spreading throughout the office there.
Kristy came back and we waited a second and then she was called. She looked at me and said, “Let’s see the damage for this week”, referring to the weigh in at the scale. As Kristy was taking off her shoes the nurse was analyzing the brown bag sample Kristy provided and asked if she had a lot of sugar this morning. Kristy said she ate some frosted shredded wheat about fifteen minutes ago, that was it. The nurse just noted that it showed up this morning in the sample.
Her blood pressure was still very good, 126/71. With shoes off and me holding her purse and coat she weighed in at 155 pounds, that’s an increase of 4 and ½ pounds in about a month, I think Kristy was expecting something like eight to ten pounds weight gain.
Kristy measured a perfect 36cm matching her 36 weeks right on the money. The mucus plug has come loose and worked its way out and he has squirmed his way very low, getting into the engaged position. The engaged positions is when the baby works its way down into the hips and pelvic region in preparation for birth and causes mom lot of pain in her hips and lower back, in case you were wondering. Her cervix is fifty percent thinned and all his moving helps to stretch it out further and keep the process moving along. The cervix wasn’t opened yet, but his head was right there, she had to reach around his head to check for dilation. She said that he is very close and could come at any time and when he does come he is in such good position that he will probably come very quickly, which means I need to run some hi-speed time trials from our house to the hospital.
We took a quick listen to the baby’s heart beat, it was a strong 148 beats per minute with excellent acceleration when he moved or responded to her external poking and prodding. He is still in the optimal birthing position, head down, back and butt on Kristy’s left side and feet poking out on her right side, basically the position he has been in since he really started growing.
Next Jill took a sample to test Kristy for Strep Group B. If the mom is carrying then they will give her antibiotics during labor so she can’t pass it to the baby because the baby’s immune system is fully functioning yet and the baby is more susceptible at this time. She said the results would be in the computer by mid next week, so if she went in to labor this weekend they would just giver her the antibiotics.
We went over our birth plan and everything looked good. Jill asked what an Inmotion was; Kristy explained it was our ipod speaker doc with remote control that can also run off of batteries (The hospital said that battery power was preferred for music playing devices). I don’t think Jill is an ipod person so I don’t know if she put it all together but she seemed happy so that was good enough.
She told us that if we had him early, she is working on the third weekend in February and I said that would work for me so she said “We’ll just pencil it in then” laughing. This time Kristy and I both sensed a little more excitement out of her, probably because we are getting so close now. Kristy and I both think Jill has done a great job and we hope that she gets to be the one that delivers our baby, so hopefully he got the memo about the date we penciled in.
She asked if we had any last questions. She said that we should head to the hospital if contractions are five minutes apart, lasting about a minute and have been steady for 2 hours or a big bag of water breaks and fluids come gushing out. Since we scheduled another appointment today a week past the due date in case he is over due, I asked if we have to call and cancel the remaining appointments if he comes early. Jill said no, they will know when he is born and they will cancel the remaining appointments.
That was it! Kristy stayed behind to make the appointment for a week after the due date. I sat in the waiting room and listened to Collette talk about how they pull people over for everything in Washington, especially tags because Vancouver, WA is a border town with Portland, OR. She said in California they hardly ever pull you over, you have to be doing something really bad. Then she had a big story about how they sold a car to a dealership, but the dealership didn’t file for change of ownership on the title, so after a year or two she started getting tickets. She finally had to go to the dealership to find out who they sold it to, found them and they had sold to someone else, track down the someone else and sign the title over and put and end to it all.
Then we started to leave, but Kristy had to use the bathroom one more time on the way out, then we left.
Collette was busy intently looking at her computer screen, when Kristy approached she said “Can you take her?” to Jane the other front desk worker on duty. This was immediately followed by a very loud “Wow? I don’t know what I just did, but that’s not what I wanted to do” from Collette, now with her face even closer to her computer screen.
Kristy did her duty and fulfilled the brown bag requirement. While I was waiting a doctor came out and he used “Come on down” on a patient, I think the Price is Right fever is spreading throughout the office there.
Kristy came back and we waited a second and then she was called. She looked at me and said, “Let’s see the damage for this week”, referring to the weigh in at the scale. As Kristy was taking off her shoes the nurse was analyzing the brown bag sample Kristy provided and asked if she had a lot of sugar this morning. Kristy said she ate some frosted shredded wheat about fifteen minutes ago, that was it. The nurse just noted that it showed up this morning in the sample.
Her blood pressure was still very good, 126/71. With shoes off and me holding her purse and coat she weighed in at 155 pounds, that’s an increase of 4 and ½ pounds in about a month, I think Kristy was expecting something like eight to ten pounds weight gain.
Kristy measured a perfect 36cm matching her 36 weeks right on the money. The mucus plug has come loose and worked its way out and he has squirmed his way very low, getting into the engaged position. The engaged positions is when the baby works its way down into the hips and pelvic region in preparation for birth and causes mom lot of pain in her hips and lower back, in case you were wondering. Her cervix is fifty percent thinned and all his moving helps to stretch it out further and keep the process moving along. The cervix wasn’t opened yet, but his head was right there, she had to reach around his head to check for dilation. She said that he is very close and could come at any time and when he does come he is in such good position that he will probably come very quickly, which means I need to run some hi-speed time trials from our house to the hospital.
We took a quick listen to the baby’s heart beat, it was a strong 148 beats per minute with excellent acceleration when he moved or responded to her external poking and prodding. He is still in the optimal birthing position, head down, back and butt on Kristy’s left side and feet poking out on her right side, basically the position he has been in since he really started growing.
Next Jill took a sample to test Kristy for Strep Group B. If the mom is carrying then they will give her antibiotics during labor so she can’t pass it to the baby because the baby’s immune system is fully functioning yet and the baby is more susceptible at this time. She said the results would be in the computer by mid next week, so if she went in to labor this weekend they would just giver her the antibiotics.
We went over our birth plan and everything looked good. Jill asked what an Inmotion was; Kristy explained it was our ipod speaker doc with remote control that can also run off of batteries (The hospital said that battery power was preferred for music playing devices). I don’t think Jill is an ipod person so I don’t know if she put it all together but she seemed happy so that was good enough.
She told us that if we had him early, she is working on the third weekend in February and I said that would work for me so she said “We’ll just pencil it in then” laughing. This time Kristy and I both sensed a little more excitement out of her, probably because we are getting so close now. Kristy and I both think Jill has done a great job and we hope that she gets to be the one that delivers our baby, so hopefully he got the memo about the date we penciled in.
She asked if we had any last questions. She said that we should head to the hospital if contractions are five minutes apart, lasting about a minute and have been steady for 2 hours or a big bag of water breaks and fluids come gushing out. Since we scheduled another appointment today a week past the due date in case he is over due, I asked if we have to call and cancel the remaining appointments if he comes early. Jill said no, they will know when he is born and they will cancel the remaining appointments.
That was it! Kristy stayed behind to make the appointment for a week after the due date. I sat in the waiting room and listened to Collette talk about how they pull people over for everything in Washington, especially tags because Vancouver, WA is a border town with Portland, OR. She said in California they hardly ever pull you over, you have to be doing something really bad. Then she had a big story about how they sold a car to a dealership, but the dealership didn’t file for change of ownership on the title, so after a year or two she started getting tickets. She finally had to go to the dealership to find out who they sold it to, found them and they had sold to someone else, track down the someone else and sign the title over and put and end to it all.
Then we started to leave, but Kristy had to use the bathroom one more time on the way out, then we left.
January 6th 2006
It was raining, imagine that! And we were cutting it pretty close so I dropped Kristy off at the west entrance which is right next to module E which is where all the appointments are. I then began the circling game, watching other cars circle as well, like sharks looking for their next meal, except instead of meals we are looking for parking spots. I was driving nice and slow; my head looking here, then there like a playful dog, then right in front of me this nice elderly couple decided to leave. I had seen them on the three previous passes, and now skillful timing paid off. I got a spot right in front next to the west entrance doors, I could see into the module E waiting room.
When I was getting out of my car I noticed an old black Ford with its lights on. I recited the license plate three times in my head, like I usually do when I notice some forgetful person has left their lights on. I went in and Collette was busy so the other lady helped me, I don’t know her name, she is usually very quite. I was looking around for Kristy hoping she didn’t start the appointment without me, and then I had to talk, “Hi, first a car left its lights on over there”. The lady said “in the west parking lot” I thought about where I was for a second, got my internal compass synchronized to magnetic north and then said “yes, the west parking lot”. That’s the very first time I realized that parking lot was the west parking lot, I always thought of it as the physical therapy and prenatal appointment parking lot, because I parked in it for my physical therapy and Kristy’s prenatal appointments.
I gave the license plate number 355 LHA, black Ford. “Award” Collette exclaimed! And I was like no, not “Award”, I said “Ford” and she was like, oh, I thought you said award. The person she was helping just kind of stood there looking at us, and we turned and went back to our separate business. I didn’t mention the Alaskan Girls Rock bumper sticker, but I did take note of it when I was memorizing the license plate. The lady helping me said she would tell the information booth and they would send out a page. Just then Kristy came out from the bathroom carrying the infamous brown bag. I didn’t remember that she had to do the brown bag ritual, I was very happy to see the appointment had not started without me.
We sat down for a second; a nurse said she would be right with Kristy. While we were sitting there I heard the page for the black Ford with its lights on. The intercom in that place kind of sucks though and if you weren’t listening for it, you would probably not have heard it.
After awhile the nurse finally came and got Kristy and I followed behind with my notebook. We went to weigh in, Kristy took her shoes off and hopped on the scale and the nurse dialed in to…. Drum roll please…. 150 and ½ pounds. The nurses reaction was, “wow, I never would have guessed that weight for you, you hide it really well, it’s all baby.” The nurse also asked if Kristy had begun to swell because she saw Kristy’s rings around her neck on a chain. Next was the blood pressure, which is still fantastic, 121/60. In case you are wondering I had mine checked sometime later and Dad is around 122/66 which is pretty good. If you don’t know or can’t remember what the numbers mean check out this Link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_pressure).
Instead of going to the second hall on the left we went to the first and instead of going into the first room on the right we went into the first room on the left. This was probably because we were seeing Ingrid today instead of Jill because Jill was out sick and had to cancel our original appointment we had scheduled earlier in the day.
We could hear Collette in the hall outside our room and then going back to the front. Kristy says Collette reminds her of a busy bee, buzzing around every place all the time.
Kristy had to go to the bathroom again, even though she just went like eight minutes ago max, so she made a run for it. I was sitting behind the door, wondering when Ingrid would show up and what I would do if Ingrid showed up and Kristy wasn’t here. I would have to explain right away, “my wife is in the bathroom, she’ll be right back, I’m not some weirdo guy just waiting in here”. Or since I was sitting behind the door I was worried that Ingrid might peek in and not see Kristy and I would be hidden behind the door and before I could say anything she could leave and then Kristy would come back and we would be waiting even longer because the staff didn’t know where we were. Finally I saw Kristy in the hall so she would be back by the time Ingrid came, but she looked in the room, didn’t see me behind the door and took off down the hall. I was saying “Hey you” through the crack in the door at the hinges but she didn’t hear me and kept on walking. Then when she came back down the hall I yelled at her again through the crack in the door at the hinges and she heard me and came in. Glad that was over!
Eventually Ingrid came in and asked how Kristy was doing and gave me a strange look like, “What are you doing here”. Then we continued with the rest of the appointment normally.
Ingrid went over pre-term labor signs and the kick count rule, anything less then 5 kicks in an hour and we should be concerned. She asked about classes and we said yes, we’ll be taking classes next weekend at the hospital. She said Kristy’s weight gain has been very good, although Kristy is definitely a bit alarmed by the overall number she has gained to date.
She asked Kristy about birth control and what she was taking before the pregnancy and what she could take after. She said that while she is breast feeding her options would be limited. She said that a non-estrogen mini pill is available but it is very unforgiving if you mess up the timing when you take it. You cannot miss a pill and you must take it the same time every day within a three hour window. Ingrid also mentioned that Depo provera shots taken once a month are an option, but a woman’s cycle and fertility are slower to return when you stop getting the shots, something to consider in family planning and when we want to have another kid. Also something Kristy doesn’t want to even think about until she gets this one out of her. Finally there was IUDs with a quick return to fertility, but are only recommended if you are not going to try to have another kid for three years or longer, because the IUD lasts about that long.
Next she measured Kristy’s belly and it measured 32cm, perfect. Then we listened to the baby’s heart rate which was 145 bpm. We asked what the results were from Kristy’s diabetes test and Ingrid said they were great. The glucose should be 140 or less and Kristy’s was 89. He is still head down in the same position he has been in for probably the last four months.
Ingrid also touched on circumcision, when they will perform the procedure, which is now viewed as a cosmetic procedure these days because there is not significant medical benefit associated with it and that because it is sometimes considered cosmetic some insurances cover it while others do not.
Kristy told Ingrid that she was supposed to schedule the rest of her appointments since we were getting closer to the due date, so Ingrid wrote out a week by week schedule to give to the nurses when we left.
Then the appointment ended and I was back in the waiting room waiting for Kristy to schedule her appointments. Collette used “Come on down” again on poor old Joe who forgot his insurance card.
Next Collette started talking about the light outside and when it gets dark. She said she’s not mad at it (the light) for going away so soon, she can already tell that it’s staying light a little bit longer. She raised her hand and said “I can tell it’s staying light a little longer, that’s why I’m not mad at it at all”. Then she got onto another topic really fast and said “Oh my Lord!, my grandma would say that was a sin of a shame!” I didn’t have a chance to figure out exactly what was going on because Kristy was done and ready to go. She went to the bathroom again as we were leaving the building. We then went out into the rain, but only had to go a few steps to the car since it was right up front thanks to my great parking skills and instincts.
When I was getting out of my car I noticed an old black Ford with its lights on. I recited the license plate three times in my head, like I usually do when I notice some forgetful person has left their lights on. I went in and Collette was busy so the other lady helped me, I don’t know her name, she is usually very quite. I was looking around for Kristy hoping she didn’t start the appointment without me, and then I had to talk, “Hi, first a car left its lights on over there”. The lady said “in the west parking lot” I thought about where I was for a second, got my internal compass synchronized to magnetic north and then said “yes, the west parking lot”. That’s the very first time I realized that parking lot was the west parking lot, I always thought of it as the physical therapy and prenatal appointment parking lot, because I parked in it for my physical therapy and Kristy’s prenatal appointments.
I gave the license plate number 355 LHA, black Ford. “Award” Collette exclaimed! And I was like no, not “Award”, I said “Ford” and she was like, oh, I thought you said award. The person she was helping just kind of stood there looking at us, and we turned and went back to our separate business. I didn’t mention the Alaskan Girls Rock bumper sticker, but I did take note of it when I was memorizing the license plate. The lady helping me said she would tell the information booth and they would send out a page. Just then Kristy came out from the bathroom carrying the infamous brown bag. I didn’t remember that she had to do the brown bag ritual, I was very happy to see the appointment had not started without me.
We sat down for a second; a nurse said she would be right with Kristy. While we were sitting there I heard the page for the black Ford with its lights on. The intercom in that place kind of sucks though and if you weren’t listening for it, you would probably not have heard it.
After awhile the nurse finally came and got Kristy and I followed behind with my notebook. We went to weigh in, Kristy took her shoes off and hopped on the scale and the nurse dialed in to…. Drum roll please…. 150 and ½ pounds. The nurses reaction was, “wow, I never would have guessed that weight for you, you hide it really well, it’s all baby.” The nurse also asked if Kristy had begun to swell because she saw Kristy’s rings around her neck on a chain. Next was the blood pressure, which is still fantastic, 121/60. In case you are wondering I had mine checked sometime later and Dad is around 122/66 which is pretty good. If you don’t know or can’t remember what the numbers mean check out this Link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_pressure).
Instead of going to the second hall on the left we went to the first and instead of going into the first room on the right we went into the first room on the left. This was probably because we were seeing Ingrid today instead of Jill because Jill was out sick and had to cancel our original appointment we had scheduled earlier in the day.
We could hear Collette in the hall outside our room and then going back to the front. Kristy says Collette reminds her of a busy bee, buzzing around every place all the time.
Kristy had to go to the bathroom again, even though she just went like eight minutes ago max, so she made a run for it. I was sitting behind the door, wondering when Ingrid would show up and what I would do if Ingrid showed up and Kristy wasn’t here. I would have to explain right away, “my wife is in the bathroom, she’ll be right back, I’m not some weirdo guy just waiting in here”. Or since I was sitting behind the door I was worried that Ingrid might peek in and not see Kristy and I would be hidden behind the door and before I could say anything she could leave and then Kristy would come back and we would be waiting even longer because the staff didn’t know where we were. Finally I saw Kristy in the hall so she would be back by the time Ingrid came, but she looked in the room, didn’t see me behind the door and took off down the hall. I was saying “Hey you” through the crack in the door at the hinges but she didn’t hear me and kept on walking. Then when she came back down the hall I yelled at her again through the crack in the door at the hinges and she heard me and came in. Glad that was over!
Eventually Ingrid came in and asked how Kristy was doing and gave me a strange look like, “What are you doing here”. Then we continued with the rest of the appointment normally.
Ingrid went over pre-term labor signs and the kick count rule, anything less then 5 kicks in an hour and we should be concerned. She asked about classes and we said yes, we’ll be taking classes next weekend at the hospital. She said Kristy’s weight gain has been very good, although Kristy is definitely a bit alarmed by the overall number she has gained to date.
She asked Kristy about birth control and what she was taking before the pregnancy and what she could take after. She said that while she is breast feeding her options would be limited. She said that a non-estrogen mini pill is available but it is very unforgiving if you mess up the timing when you take it. You cannot miss a pill and you must take it the same time every day within a three hour window. Ingrid also mentioned that Depo provera shots taken once a month are an option, but a woman’s cycle and fertility are slower to return when you stop getting the shots, something to consider in family planning and when we want to have another kid. Also something Kristy doesn’t want to even think about until she gets this one out of her. Finally there was IUDs with a quick return to fertility, but are only recommended if you are not going to try to have another kid for three years or longer, because the IUD lasts about that long.
Next she measured Kristy’s belly and it measured 32cm, perfect. Then we listened to the baby’s heart rate which was 145 bpm. We asked what the results were from Kristy’s diabetes test and Ingrid said they were great. The glucose should be 140 or less and Kristy’s was 89. He is still head down in the same position he has been in for probably the last four months.
Ingrid also touched on circumcision, when they will perform the procedure, which is now viewed as a cosmetic procedure these days because there is not significant medical benefit associated with it and that because it is sometimes considered cosmetic some insurances cover it while others do not.
Kristy told Ingrid that she was supposed to schedule the rest of her appointments since we were getting closer to the due date, so Ingrid wrote out a week by week schedule to give to the nurses when we left.
Then the appointment ended and I was back in the waiting room waiting for Kristy to schedule her appointments. Collette used “Come on down” again on poor old Joe who forgot his insurance card.
Next Collette started talking about the light outside and when it gets dark. She said she’s not mad at it (the light) for going away so soon, she can already tell that it’s staying light a little bit longer. She raised her hand and said “I can tell it’s staying light a little longer, that’s why I’m not mad at it at all”. Then she got onto another topic really fast and said “Oh my Lord!, my grandma would say that was a sin of a shame!” I didn’t have a chance to figure out exactly what was going on because Kristy was done and ready to go. She went to the bathroom again as we were leaving the building. We then went out into the rain, but only had to go a few steps to the car since it was right up front thanks to my great parking skills and instincts.
December 9th 2005
I dropped Kristy off at the entrance to the building because it was really cold and she had to go to the lab before her appointment so she could drink her orange crush drink for her diabetes test. Then I searched for a parking spot, we didn’t see any on the way in, but I got lucky, there was one left and it was pretty close to the door, I could have just parked there and we could have walked in together, but I didn’t see it at the time and I didn’t want to have Kristy walking a long ways in the cold.
“I forgot my book, oh well, no big deal, I’ll make do”, that is what I was thinking as I got out of my car. Now I know, some of you are thinking, man he’s been reading this book for months, but that is how it was meant to be read, month by month through the pregnancy. I think it works best if you are a month ahead because then you get all the valuable tips ahead of time, but I’m actually at the end, I just have to read the info about Cesarean sections and some advise on bringing home baby and then I’m finished. I’ve already started a list of essential items for our pre-packed birth and hospital stay bags, lord of the rings extended version DVDs (all of them), In-motion ipod speaker dock with remote control, ipod mini, video camera, digital cameras, hydration pack that I hope I get for Christmas (so I stay hydrated through the delivery process, it’s important dad is on the ball), clothes, toiletries, beef jerky for nourishment (need to go to Costco and get the big bag), hp 375 4x6 photo printer (it’s one of those small ones, so our visitors can have a little something as a parting gift), the list goes on and on with things that I have deemed absolutely necessary for a successful birthing experience.
Inside I found that Collette was not manning her station? To my surprise a new receptionist was there, her name was Sharon and she was totally boring. I miss Collette.
Kristy grabbed a brown bag and headed towards the restrooms but was greeted by a nurse who told her she didn’t have to do this now, she had to go to the lab and do it there. Kristy was like, “are you sure”, because she really had to go right then and there. So, we ended up hurry down to the lab and she checked in and they let her go to the bathroom. Then we waited for fifteen minutes and then Kristy went back up and asked how much longer the wait was going to be, because we were already late for our checkup with Jill. The lady apologized and found that it had been ready for around ten minutes but no one called Kristy.
Then we were back to the waiting room for our appointment with Jill. Since I forgot my book I had to read about: The new war in space - hypersonic bombers - space mines and killer satellites, the 4000 mega pixel hand build camera and tomorrows robots invading Japan (latest issue of Popular Science if you are interested). Then we were called back in for Kristy’s weigh in. Wow, 143 pounds, at the time is sounded like an enormous number, mostly because Kristy really doesn’t look all that big. Her jaw was dropping and her eyes were really wide, “Where is it all going?” She was really worried about the wait gain. Her blood pressure was 118/62; it probably rose a bit with the weigh in news.
Jill knocked softly on the door and then blasted into the room, “Hi Guys!” She looked at me and said “Oh you’re the one that takes all the notes!” in my head I was thinking for this blog of course, I didn’t’ say it out loud because I didn’t want to have to explain blogging again. About half way through the session she checked my notes, “Wow, you record everything, I don’t even need to keep records, this is great”. She looked over the blood pressure, “Gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous honey!” and then said she wanted to go over signs of blood pressure problems, but that she didn’t expect Kristy to have any trouble. Really bad headaches, seeing lights, star bursts or spots in vision, dull achy pain in the liver and swelling in the face (swellings in the legs, hands and feet are standard joys of pregnancy and are of no concern), any of those symptoms and we need to call and come in for a visit.
Kristy asked about her weight gain and Jill looked it over. She said it had definitely gone up since last time but since the first appointment it has only increased by sixteen pounds which is perfectly fine and judging by Kristy’s fitness at the first appointment, she could gain up to 30 pounds without a problem. Kristy read that around 25 pounds or so is recommended and my sister who is very tiny gained 30 pounds during her pregnancy and a week after delivery half of it was gone. I think Kristy was worried about getting too big and developing diabetes during pregnancy but I’m not entirely sure. Kristy asked where all the weight is packing on? And Jill said you gain it in your hips, belly, fluids, placenta, amniotic fluid, and breasts. The baby should start chunking up these last few months.
The measurement of Kristy’s belly was next, from pubic bone to the top or roof of the uterus. This is the measurement that was slightly below average last time and so we ended up doing the urgent ultrasound to make sure the baby was growing. This time, however, Kristy measured 28cm which is right on the money or “Perfect!” in the words of Jill. Jill said you should measure in centimeters, roughly the same number of weeks you are pregnant, give or take 2 to 3 weeks.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh; it’s much easier to find the heart beat when you know how the baby likes to position itself. He was on Kristy’s left, our right if we are looking at her, just like he always is. He was showing off, pressing his back up there so we could hear it real well and even see it a little. It would speed up at the end and Jill said this was a very good sign and that he responds to music when we put head phones on Kristy’s belly (he usually comes out of hiding down low and pops his head out right at the head phones). Jill said that this is the number one sign that all is well and they love to see these responses and rises in heart rate. These simple responses mean that the brain is getting enough oxygen to stimulate brain activity and development.
No questions, everything looked good, and we will have our next appointment next year!
Back to the lab so Kristy could get her blood drawn and finish up the diabetes testing. Heading back to the lab in module A Kristy saw her advisor from WSU Vancouver, Elizabeth. They quickly exchanged pleasantries while passing in the hallway. We got back to the lab and Kristy had to go to the restroom again. When she got back she said “Twenty-eight minutes to go before an hour has passed and they can draw my blood” and at that moment I realized what a grave mistake I had made leaving my book at home. I could have finished it in during the waiting time. I began to look around the room to try and find something to keep me amused.
I wanted to use the technical term for my notes, since they are merely scribbles that trigger my elephant memory to recall a certain point in time. One or two words usually correspond to a paragraph, sometimes two in my blogs. I asked Kristy what the technical term was in psychology and she said I have no idea. I told her Bill (She is Bill’s Teachers Assistant for Neuroscience) would be disappointed and she said, oh, that wasn’t Bill’s class that was Steve’s class, Cognition and Memory, “I Rocked that class!” I responded “If you did so awesome in that class, what is the term I’m looking for” and Kristy replied “Look it up yourself, I don’t remember I have pregnancy brain” because evidently when you are pregnant something happens and you become very forgetful, I’m not making this up, it really happens. There is a clumsy stage too! For those who are interested, the technical term for the recall trick is “mnemonics” and there are many exercises and techniques covered under this title for memory recall.
Okay, only like 4 minutes gone by, what the heck. Finally time was up and Kristy went back to get her blood drawn, by this time I had started watching the reader board up on the wall. “Pharmacy Wait Time” was the title, and it scrolled: “Patients Waiting: 9 … Wait Time: 14 Min” over and over. The shortest during my stay was seven patients and nine minutes, but it quickly bumped up to nine patients and seventeen minutes. By the time we left it was twelve patients and twelve minutes. I still wish I had my book but the reader board helped pass the time.
“I forgot my book, oh well, no big deal, I’ll make do”, that is what I was thinking as I got out of my car. Now I know, some of you are thinking, man he’s been reading this book for months, but that is how it was meant to be read, month by month through the pregnancy. I think it works best if you are a month ahead because then you get all the valuable tips ahead of time, but I’m actually at the end, I just have to read the info about Cesarean sections and some advise on bringing home baby and then I’m finished. I’ve already started a list of essential items for our pre-packed birth and hospital stay bags, lord of the rings extended version DVDs (all of them), In-motion ipod speaker dock with remote control, ipod mini, video camera, digital cameras, hydration pack that I hope I get for Christmas (so I stay hydrated through the delivery process, it’s important dad is on the ball), clothes, toiletries, beef jerky for nourishment (need to go to Costco and get the big bag), hp 375 4x6 photo printer (it’s one of those small ones, so our visitors can have a little something as a parting gift), the list goes on and on with things that I have deemed absolutely necessary for a successful birthing experience.
Inside I found that Collette was not manning her station? To my surprise a new receptionist was there, her name was Sharon and she was totally boring. I miss Collette.
Kristy grabbed a brown bag and headed towards the restrooms but was greeted by a nurse who told her she didn’t have to do this now, she had to go to the lab and do it there. Kristy was like, “are you sure”, because she really had to go right then and there. So, we ended up hurry down to the lab and she checked in and they let her go to the bathroom. Then we waited for fifteen minutes and then Kristy went back up and asked how much longer the wait was going to be, because we were already late for our checkup with Jill. The lady apologized and found that it had been ready for around ten minutes but no one called Kristy.
Then we were back to the waiting room for our appointment with Jill. Since I forgot my book I had to read about: The new war in space - hypersonic bombers - space mines and killer satellites, the 4000 mega pixel hand build camera and tomorrows robots invading Japan (latest issue of Popular Science if you are interested). Then we were called back in for Kristy’s weigh in. Wow, 143 pounds, at the time is sounded like an enormous number, mostly because Kristy really doesn’t look all that big. Her jaw was dropping and her eyes were really wide, “Where is it all going?” She was really worried about the wait gain. Her blood pressure was 118/62; it probably rose a bit with the weigh in news.
Jill knocked softly on the door and then blasted into the room, “Hi Guys!” She looked at me and said “Oh you’re the one that takes all the notes!” in my head I was thinking for this blog of course, I didn’t’ say it out loud because I didn’t want to have to explain blogging again. About half way through the session she checked my notes, “Wow, you record everything, I don’t even need to keep records, this is great”. She looked over the blood pressure, “Gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous honey!” and then said she wanted to go over signs of blood pressure problems, but that she didn’t expect Kristy to have any trouble. Really bad headaches, seeing lights, star bursts or spots in vision, dull achy pain in the liver and swelling in the face (swellings in the legs, hands and feet are standard joys of pregnancy and are of no concern), any of those symptoms and we need to call and come in for a visit.
Kristy asked about her weight gain and Jill looked it over. She said it had definitely gone up since last time but since the first appointment it has only increased by sixteen pounds which is perfectly fine and judging by Kristy’s fitness at the first appointment, she could gain up to 30 pounds without a problem. Kristy read that around 25 pounds or so is recommended and my sister who is very tiny gained 30 pounds during her pregnancy and a week after delivery half of it was gone. I think Kristy was worried about getting too big and developing diabetes during pregnancy but I’m not entirely sure. Kristy asked where all the weight is packing on? And Jill said you gain it in your hips, belly, fluids, placenta, amniotic fluid, and breasts. The baby should start chunking up these last few months.
The measurement of Kristy’s belly was next, from pubic bone to the top or roof of the uterus. This is the measurement that was slightly below average last time and so we ended up doing the urgent ultrasound to make sure the baby was growing. This time, however, Kristy measured 28cm which is right on the money or “Perfect!” in the words of Jill. Jill said you should measure in centimeters, roughly the same number of weeks you are pregnant, give or take 2 to 3 weeks.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh; it’s much easier to find the heart beat when you know how the baby likes to position itself. He was on Kristy’s left, our right if we are looking at her, just like he always is. He was showing off, pressing his back up there so we could hear it real well and even see it a little. It would speed up at the end and Jill said this was a very good sign and that he responds to music when we put head phones on Kristy’s belly (he usually comes out of hiding down low and pops his head out right at the head phones). Jill said that this is the number one sign that all is well and they love to see these responses and rises in heart rate. These simple responses mean that the brain is getting enough oxygen to stimulate brain activity and development.
No questions, everything looked good, and we will have our next appointment next year!
Back to the lab so Kristy could get her blood drawn and finish up the diabetes testing. Heading back to the lab in module A Kristy saw her advisor from WSU Vancouver, Elizabeth. They quickly exchanged pleasantries while passing in the hallway. We got back to the lab and Kristy had to go to the restroom again. When she got back she said “Twenty-eight minutes to go before an hour has passed and they can draw my blood” and at that moment I realized what a grave mistake I had made leaving my book at home. I could have finished it in during the waiting time. I began to look around the room to try and find something to keep me amused.
I wanted to use the technical term for my notes, since they are merely scribbles that trigger my elephant memory to recall a certain point in time. One or two words usually correspond to a paragraph, sometimes two in my blogs. I asked Kristy what the technical term was in psychology and she said I have no idea. I told her Bill (She is Bill’s Teachers Assistant for Neuroscience) would be disappointed and she said, oh, that wasn’t Bill’s class that was Steve’s class, Cognition and Memory, “I Rocked that class!” I responded “If you did so awesome in that class, what is the term I’m looking for” and Kristy replied “Look it up yourself, I don’t remember I have pregnancy brain” because evidently when you are pregnant something happens and you become very forgetful, I’m not making this up, it really happens. There is a clumsy stage too! For those who are interested, the technical term for the recall trick is “mnemonics” and there are many exercises and techniques covered under this title for memory recall.
Okay, only like 4 minutes gone by, what the heck. Finally time was up and Kristy went back to get her blood drawn, by this time I had started watching the reader board up on the wall. “Pharmacy Wait Time” was the title, and it scrolled: “Patients Waiting: 9 … Wait Time: 14 Min” over and over. The shortest during my stay was seven patients and nine minutes, but it quickly bumped up to nine patients and seventeen minutes. By the time we left it was twelve patients and twelve minutes. I still wish I had my book but the reader board helped pass the time.
December 8th 2005
“Okay, stay calm and breathe” that’s me talking to Kristy. Since we had to drive to the hospital for our tour this evening, I thought I would practice a bit. I set the mileage counter on my car so we could see how far we actually are from our house to the hospital, 8.7 miles and roughly 15-17 minutes depending on weather conditions and traffic. There are about six or seven stoplights on the route, but most of the driving is freeway, all the lights are just before the hospital except for one to get on the freeway.
We arrived at the hospital and started looking at the parking for when we have to rush in and for when visitors want to come see us. We walked passed the family birthing center and into the main lobby and waited. Eventually the tour guide came through finishing up the tour before ours and then came and waited with us. It looked like we might get a private tour, but at the last minute a second couple with three daughters, eight, nine and twelve showed up. There was some mix up over the phone and only kids ten and over were allowed on the tour, the guide asked if we cared and Kristy and I didn’t have any problem with it, so the little girls were allowed to tour.
We went back out into the freezing, back to the family birthing center, “this is where you will enter after you call first and these doors are always open, even if it’s 3:00 AM”, I was hoping it wouldn’t be 3:00 AM. The guide also said that we should not use cell phones or activate car alarms inside the building. I guess if you try to turn your car alarm on or off from inside the family birthing center it activates the facility alarm. It was explained to us that lights will flash, alarms will sound, the building will lock down and very quickly security will close in on all building entrances. The guide said it happens ridiculously fast so that is comforting that they have decent security. Continuing on went in and took the first right, about ten feet down the hall is the main nurses station, which is where we will check in and where all the fetal monitors are.
I asked about hospital registration and the guide so that we mail in the forms, at which time Kristy told me we already had them at home, I was thinking “well thanks for telling me about them”. So, we have to fill those out and program the appropriate family birthing center call in number to each of our cell phones.
We continued down the hall and she showed us a birthing bar that can be used for the squatting position. She said someone would be on hand to install it for us if we needed, but it’s pretty simple, the bar fits into two round slots, one on each side of the bed so the bar goes across the bed. Then you screw in the clamps to hold the bar firmly in place, the same way a Christmas tree stand works.
Next we went into one of the Labor Delivery Observation and Recover (LDOR) birthing suites. Each room had a personal bathroom with shower, tub with jets and toilet, plenty of storage, a television, a bench / sleeping area for significant others and a phone with a direct dial in line. All in all a pretty standard room, very similar to the other two hospitals we had visited recently for the births of my nephew and niece. There was also a standard bassinet with warming pad.
The guide showed us the Toko Transducer which is an ultrasonic sensor used to monitor the mother’s contractions. Piezoelectric ultrasonic Toko Transducers are used to monitor bats, just an FYI. Then we got to see the familiar ultrasound Doppler t which is used to measure the baby’s heart rate and see how the baby is responding to the stress of the contractions. Both monitors are held on by a belt that is reminiscent of Batman’s utility belt or a weight lifters back brace.
Our guide said that background music is highly recommended and there is a place for plug in CD players but they prefer battery powered CD players, “be sure to bring more then one CD in case you have a long delivery”. I was thinking, “lady, welcome to the age of ipods, we’ll be brining hundreds of CDs in a little tiny form factory with a customized labor and delivery play list”. Kristy told me a little later that she was thinking the exact same thing.
Bath, weight, measurements, everything would be done in the room. I stand on the side and they toss the baby up to use as soon as it’s out. The philosophy is to keep the family together at all times. The baby never leaves the room unless there is a complication, then the baby goes to its own private room in the locked down nursery and may be accompanied at all times by one or both of the parents. If a Cesarean section (C-section) is done, right after the baby is born it is handed to the significant other while mom finishes up the surgery, then they all go together to their LDOR as a family.
There are also some standard hospital rooms near the nursery. If a baby has to go to the nursery the parents are given the option of staying in one of these smaller rooms so they can be closer to the nursery. A cot can be rolled in for the significant other to sleep on. Yeah, I was thinking that too, “That’s not as good as the built in one in the standard LDOR”.
Kristy asked if there was any limit to the number of people present in the LDOR during birthing, the fire code is eight, so you could have that many but it’s not recommended because it becomes like a circus. In my mind I was thinking “Yes, photo and video crews have been approved”. Of course Kristy won’t allow my crews in and I don’t know if I really want all that anyways, I’m sure I can take plenty of pictures myself or Kristy’s dad can snap some Napoleon Dynamite glamour shots!
There are regular meals for mom, dad must fend for himself. I’m hoping we are in the hospital on a Monday, then my friend Bryan can bring me something after he plays basketball (at a church just down the street). Or maybe he could pick me up, I could play too and then get something to eat and back to the hospital? Probably not, I’m thinking that wouldn’t go over well with Kristy.
As we were leaving we went out of the family birthing center entrance that is connected to the hospital, right next to the main hospital lobby where we started. On our way out I noticed the “Resident Sleeping Room” and I thought of Alex and Olivia and all those whacky crew members on Grey’s Anatomy. Later in the car Kristy said she saw it too and she thought of Christina and Preston (a.k.a. Burke), also from Grey’s Anatomy. Yes, we watch too much television; we already know we have a problem. We also noticed that there is a coffee / espresso stand in the lobby of the main hospital, good news for you visitors!
We arrived at the hospital and started looking at the parking for when we have to rush in and for when visitors want to come see us. We walked passed the family birthing center and into the main lobby and waited. Eventually the tour guide came through finishing up the tour before ours and then came and waited with us. It looked like we might get a private tour, but at the last minute a second couple with three daughters, eight, nine and twelve showed up. There was some mix up over the phone and only kids ten and over were allowed on the tour, the guide asked if we cared and Kristy and I didn’t have any problem with it, so the little girls were allowed to tour.
We went back out into the freezing, back to the family birthing center, “this is where you will enter after you call first and these doors are always open, even if it’s 3:00 AM”, I was hoping it wouldn’t be 3:00 AM. The guide also said that we should not use cell phones or activate car alarms inside the building. I guess if you try to turn your car alarm on or off from inside the family birthing center it activates the facility alarm. It was explained to us that lights will flash, alarms will sound, the building will lock down and very quickly security will close in on all building entrances. The guide said it happens ridiculously fast so that is comforting that they have decent security. Continuing on went in and took the first right, about ten feet down the hall is the main nurses station, which is where we will check in and where all the fetal monitors are.
I asked about hospital registration and the guide so that we mail in the forms, at which time Kristy told me we already had them at home, I was thinking “well thanks for telling me about them”. So, we have to fill those out and program the appropriate family birthing center call in number to each of our cell phones.
We continued down the hall and she showed us a birthing bar that can be used for the squatting position. She said someone would be on hand to install it for us if we needed, but it’s pretty simple, the bar fits into two round slots, one on each side of the bed so the bar goes across the bed. Then you screw in the clamps to hold the bar firmly in place, the same way a Christmas tree stand works.
Next we went into one of the Labor Delivery Observation and Recover (LDOR) birthing suites. Each room had a personal bathroom with shower, tub with jets and toilet, plenty of storage, a television, a bench / sleeping area for significant others and a phone with a direct dial in line. All in all a pretty standard room, very similar to the other two hospitals we had visited recently for the births of my nephew and niece. There was also a standard bassinet with warming pad.
The guide showed us the Toko Transducer which is an ultrasonic sensor used to monitor the mother’s contractions. Piezoelectric ultrasonic Toko Transducers are used to monitor bats, just an FYI. Then we got to see the familiar ultrasound Doppler t which is used to measure the baby’s heart rate and see how the baby is responding to the stress of the contractions. Both monitors are held on by a belt that is reminiscent of Batman’s utility belt or a weight lifters back brace.
Our guide said that background music is highly recommended and there is a place for plug in CD players but they prefer battery powered CD players, “be sure to bring more then one CD in case you have a long delivery”. I was thinking, “lady, welcome to the age of ipods, we’ll be brining hundreds of CDs in a little tiny form factory with a customized labor and delivery play list”. Kristy told me a little later that she was thinking the exact same thing.
Bath, weight, measurements, everything would be done in the room. I stand on the side and they toss the baby up to use as soon as it’s out. The philosophy is to keep the family together at all times. The baby never leaves the room unless there is a complication, then the baby goes to its own private room in the locked down nursery and may be accompanied at all times by one or both of the parents. If a Cesarean section (C-section) is done, right after the baby is born it is handed to the significant other while mom finishes up the surgery, then they all go together to their LDOR as a family.
There are also some standard hospital rooms near the nursery. If a baby has to go to the nursery the parents are given the option of staying in one of these smaller rooms so they can be closer to the nursery. A cot can be rolled in for the significant other to sleep on. Yeah, I was thinking that too, “That’s not as good as the built in one in the standard LDOR”.
Kristy asked if there was any limit to the number of people present in the LDOR during birthing, the fire code is eight, so you could have that many but it’s not recommended because it becomes like a circus. In my mind I was thinking “Yes, photo and video crews have been approved”. Of course Kristy won’t allow my crews in and I don’t know if I really want all that anyways, I’m sure I can take plenty of pictures myself or Kristy’s dad can snap some Napoleon Dynamite glamour shots!
There are regular meals for mom, dad must fend for himself. I’m hoping we are in the hospital on a Monday, then my friend Bryan can bring me something after he plays basketball (at a church just down the street). Or maybe he could pick me up, I could play too and then get something to eat and back to the hospital? Probably not, I’m thinking that wouldn’t go over well with Kristy.
As we were leaving we went out of the family birthing center entrance that is connected to the hospital, right next to the main hospital lobby where we started. On our way out I noticed the “Resident Sleeping Room” and I thought of Alex and Olivia and all those whacky crew members on Grey’s Anatomy. Later in the car Kristy said she saw it too and she thought of Christina and Preston (a.k.a. Burke), also from Grey’s Anatomy. Yes, we watch too much television; we already know we have a problem. We also noticed that there is a coffee / espresso stand in the lobby of the main hospital, good news for you visitors!
November 17th 2005
This time I didn’t bring my book, we expected to be in and out pretty quick, but I did bring my hp850 digital camera to take some pictures of Kristy during the ultrasound for our website and I wanted to get a picture of the keyboard for the ultrasound. This keyboard looks like something NASA would use to control a spaceship; it even has a joystick on one side.
Anyways, we didn’t have to wait too long, we got in to Room 2 with Jayne again and she went right to work. She measured for due date, which came up right on schedule as February 28th to March 1st, plus or minus four or five days, which showed us at twenty-five weeks and one day for this appointment.
Next she measured the baby’s size and he came up in the 46.6 percentile, average is 50% so that was fine. He now measured to be one pound and 12 ounces, so he has definitely grown since the last ultrasound where he measured a meager 11 ounces. We toured around again, looked at his hands and feet and spine, listened to his heart, a lot of the same things we did in the October 7th ultrasound.
In the end, everything looked great and he was just sitting really low as we expected all along. So much for the urgent ultrasound, there was nothing much to worry about, but better safe then sorry for sure.
We did trace his position and find that he likes to burry his head low, with his back on Kristy’s left (our right when we are looking at her), his bottom pointing up and his legs across the rest of Kristy’s stomach. This totally explains why Jill always finds his heart beat on Kristy’s left side and his little show off Doppler sessions.
Anyways, we didn’t have to wait too long, we got in to Room 2 with Jayne again and she went right to work. She measured for due date, which came up right on schedule as February 28th to March 1st, plus or minus four or five days, which showed us at twenty-five weeks and one day for this appointment.
Next she measured the baby’s size and he came up in the 46.6 percentile, average is 50% so that was fine. He now measured to be one pound and 12 ounces, so he has definitely grown since the last ultrasound where he measured a meager 11 ounces. We toured around again, looked at his hands and feet and spine, listened to his heart, a lot of the same things we did in the October 7th ultrasound.
In the end, everything looked great and he was just sitting really low as we expected all along. So much for the urgent ultrasound, there was nothing much to worry about, but better safe then sorry for sure.
We did trace his position and find that he likes to burry his head low, with his back on Kristy’s left (our right when we are looking at her), his bottom pointing up and his legs across the rest of Kristy’s stomach. This totally explains why Jill always finds his heart beat on Kristy’s left side and his little show off Doppler sessions.
November 11th 2005
Collette finished up her call, “I love you, have a blessed day!”, so she could help Kristy. The call was for a lipstick order. During Kristy’s check in the phone rang again and was greeted with an exuberant “Hello…” Collette finished up the call quickly and got right back to Kristy, “Is your address still the same” followed promptly by “I love your necklace, I love both of them, but especially that one (as she points across the counter), my sisters family room has those colors, I love it!” Red walls with green couches and gold accents, oh yeah, she went into that much detail!
Kristy went back to take care of the brown bag ritual, satisfying the prenatal appointment gods. While she was doing this Collette was checking in someone else when a lady near me sneezed. “Bless You!” rang out loudly throughout the waiting room, from Collette of course. It was impressive, she did it in between breaths, never really stopping the check in process for the other lady, she just threw it out there in the middle of her sentence to the other lady. “Okay, you need a claim number….Bless You!.... and it should be like…”. Just like that, never missing a beat. But wait, it gets even better, someone else showed up and got in line behind the lady she was helping and when that lady was all checked in, she looked up and shouted “Come On Down”, I thought I was on The Price Is Right! I had never been so entertained while in a waiting room.
We started off with the standard routine, Kristy weighed in at 135 pounds, a slight increase of three pounds over the last visit. Then we were led to our room and the nurse took Kristy’s blood pressure, 102/58.
We were greeted with Jill, entering the room and looking at the blood pressure, “Beautiful Honey!” Then she said, “Today I want to mention child birth classes, you should be signing up for them soon” and I made a little note to call and schedule our tour, we already signed up for the weekend class at our delivery hospital.
Next Jill went over pre term labor and what those signs might be, water breaking early, not being able to breath (six times in one hour and we have to go to the hospital) and some private female stuff that I would rather not write about, ever.
Kristy asked what Braxton-Hicks contractions feel like and Jill said “Oh, you’ll know” evidently the belly gets really, really tight and hard.
Next appointment Kristy gets to take a diabetes test, she’ll drink a special elixir and then after an hour they will draw blood from her and test to make sure that sugar and iron levels are okay. She can only drink water the morning of so her sugar isn’t too high and the iron testing will let us know if she is anemic or not.
Jill said “Really nice necklace!” Kristy was just getting ton’s of compliments on this necklace, I think a cashier complimented her later in the day too! Then Jill told us that from this point on we will do away with the #/u measurement and measure in centimeters from the pubic bone to the top or roof of the uterus (the fundal height). The first measurement came up 21cm and then she re-measured and got 23cm, average is 24cm. She said we shouldn’t worry, he could be sitting low or sideways across Kristy’s stomach, that’s not uncommon, but she wanted to order an ultrasound just to make sure, “better safe then sorry”. Kristy told Jill that she can feel him sitting low and that is most probably what is happening.
Moving right along, it was time for the always fun listen to baby’s heart beat portion of the checkup. He was moving all around and Jill was having a hard time locking in on the whoosh. She said if she couldn’t get it then she could go off of the umbilical cord, it’s deeper sounding then the baby’s actual heart beat, but blood is moving in it at the same rate. Finally, she got it, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh and then he started showing off, pressing his back right up against the left side of Kristy’s stomach, our right if we were looking at her and the whoosh sounded more like WHOOSH, very loud, very strong. His heart rate was 140 beats per minute which was just fine.
That was it; we would be scheduled to be back in four weeks. She would mail us the results of the ultrasound sooner and we would be contacted if we had to come back earlier then four weeks.
Then, at the very end she asked me, specifically me if I had any questions. This is different because in the past it was always Kristy or “you guys” and never specifically me, but this time it was. I totally had a question like a week before that I was going to write down, but I didn’t and I in the heat of the moment I forgot so I had nothing. It was kind of like the time I thought I saw my friends stolen car, but forgot to look at the license plates because I was more focused on the two big guys getting into the car and eyeing me as I drove by for the third time, I totally forgot to look at the license plate. I still haven’t heard the end of that one at work!
Kristy went back to take care of the brown bag ritual, satisfying the prenatal appointment gods. While she was doing this Collette was checking in someone else when a lady near me sneezed. “Bless You!” rang out loudly throughout the waiting room, from Collette of course. It was impressive, she did it in between breaths, never really stopping the check in process for the other lady, she just threw it out there in the middle of her sentence to the other lady. “Okay, you need a claim number….Bless You!.... and it should be like…”. Just like that, never missing a beat. But wait, it gets even better, someone else showed up and got in line behind the lady she was helping and when that lady was all checked in, she looked up and shouted “Come On Down”, I thought I was on The Price Is Right! I had never been so entertained while in a waiting room.
We started off with the standard routine, Kristy weighed in at 135 pounds, a slight increase of three pounds over the last visit. Then we were led to our room and the nurse took Kristy’s blood pressure, 102/58.
We were greeted with Jill, entering the room and looking at the blood pressure, “Beautiful Honey!” Then she said, “Today I want to mention child birth classes, you should be signing up for them soon” and I made a little note to call and schedule our tour, we already signed up for the weekend class at our delivery hospital.
Next Jill went over pre term labor and what those signs might be, water breaking early, not being able to breath (six times in one hour and we have to go to the hospital) and some private female stuff that I would rather not write about, ever.
Kristy asked what Braxton-Hicks contractions feel like and Jill said “Oh, you’ll know” evidently the belly gets really, really tight and hard.
Next appointment Kristy gets to take a diabetes test, she’ll drink a special elixir and then after an hour they will draw blood from her and test to make sure that sugar and iron levels are okay. She can only drink water the morning of so her sugar isn’t too high and the iron testing will let us know if she is anemic or not.
Jill said “Really nice necklace!” Kristy was just getting ton’s of compliments on this necklace, I think a cashier complimented her later in the day too! Then Jill told us that from this point on we will do away with the #/u measurement and measure in centimeters from the pubic bone to the top or roof of the uterus (the fundal height). The first measurement came up 21cm and then she re-measured and got 23cm, average is 24cm. She said we shouldn’t worry, he could be sitting low or sideways across Kristy’s stomach, that’s not uncommon, but she wanted to order an ultrasound just to make sure, “better safe then sorry”. Kristy told Jill that she can feel him sitting low and that is most probably what is happening.
Moving right along, it was time for the always fun listen to baby’s heart beat portion of the checkup. He was moving all around and Jill was having a hard time locking in on the whoosh. She said if she couldn’t get it then she could go off of the umbilical cord, it’s deeper sounding then the baby’s actual heart beat, but blood is moving in it at the same rate. Finally, she got it, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh and then he started showing off, pressing his back right up against the left side of Kristy’s stomach, our right if we were looking at her and the whoosh sounded more like WHOOSH, very loud, very strong. His heart rate was 140 beats per minute which was just fine.
That was it; we would be scheduled to be back in four weeks. She would mail us the results of the ultrasound sooner and we would be contacted if we had to come back earlier then four weeks.
Then, at the very end she asked me, specifically me if I had any questions. This is different because in the past it was always Kristy or “you guys” and never specifically me, but this time it was. I totally had a question like a week before that I was going to write down, but I didn’t and I in the heat of the moment I forgot so I had nothing. It was kind of like the time I thought I saw my friends stolen car, but forgot to look at the license plates because I was more focused on the two big guys getting into the car and eyeing me as I drove by for the third time, I totally forgot to look at the license plate. I still haven’t heard the end of that one at work!
October 21st 2005
This story begins with a new parking spot, in the parking lot right outside of Module E where we go for all of our prenatal appointments. I’ve been going to physical therapy for a back injury I sustained in early August and that is how I found out about this parking lot, the physical therapy module shares this parking lot with the prenatal module.
Kristy checked in with Collette the really loud receptionist. Collette is on the phone a lot too and this time I could actually hear “Paulette” the person she was talking to on the phone. So Collette and Paulette continued to chat away while Kristy went over to the basket and picked out just the right brown bag and went back to do her business in the restroom.
I had my “The Expectant Father” book with me, but I decided to look at the shutterbug magazine instead. Since I was way ahead in my book I thought this would be an okay time to look at some photo equipment.
Kristy came back and then they were ready for her. We went and weighed her in, 132 pounds. Then they took us to the room. Kristy was afraid she weighed too much and I tried to reassure her because she does have a small human growing inside her. Her blood pressure was 100/56 which is very good.
Jill came in and was her cheerful self, “Hi Honey!” how are you feeling. She said this would be a really simple appointment. We would take a listen to the baby’s heart, take a measurement and then schedule the next appointment and we were kind of out of sync with the ultrasounds so we decided to go a little longer in between this appointment and then next one so that we would be back on schedule. Jill busted out the Doppler and we heard the familiar whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, the baby’s heart rate was 136 beats per minute. Kristy measured 1/u or 1 finger above the umbilicus.
She also asked if Kristy had any questions and Kristy did ask what she recommended as far as breathing and classes and what not. Jill said that in her opinion the best things to work on are yoga and relaxation techniques. You can work on other stuff, but for a majority of folks yoga and relaxation help the most. That was it, about fifteen minutes and we were out of there.
Kristy checked in with Collette the really loud receptionist. Collette is on the phone a lot too and this time I could actually hear “Paulette” the person she was talking to on the phone. So Collette and Paulette continued to chat away while Kristy went over to the basket and picked out just the right brown bag and went back to do her business in the restroom.
I had my “The Expectant Father” book with me, but I decided to look at the shutterbug magazine instead. Since I was way ahead in my book I thought this would be an okay time to look at some photo equipment.
Kristy came back and then they were ready for her. We went and weighed her in, 132 pounds. Then they took us to the room. Kristy was afraid she weighed too much and I tried to reassure her because she does have a small human growing inside her. Her blood pressure was 100/56 which is very good.
Jill came in and was her cheerful self, “Hi Honey!” how are you feeling. She said this would be a really simple appointment. We would take a listen to the baby’s heart, take a measurement and then schedule the next appointment and we were kind of out of sync with the ultrasounds so we decided to go a little longer in between this appointment and then next one so that we would be back on schedule. Jill busted out the Doppler and we heard the familiar whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, the baby’s heart rate was 136 beats per minute. Kristy measured 1/u or 1 finger above the umbilicus.
She also asked if Kristy had any questions and Kristy did ask what she recommended as far as breathing and classes and what not. Jill said that in her opinion the best things to work on are yoga and relaxation techniques. You can work on other stuff, but for a majority of folks yoga and relaxation help the most. That was it, about fifteen minutes and we were out of there.
October 7th 2005
I woke up and checked the website poll… “Boy” was ahead slightly. A boy would be cool, but so would a girl. I can only describe the anticipation building up to this ultra sound as 6 year old Christmas like. When you know that operation or hungry hungry hippo (the games you’ve been dying to have so you could play them day and night and have as much fun as the kids in the tv commercials) are waiting under the tree and you are up at 4:56 AM counting down the seconds until your parents will get out of freaking bed so you can tear into that box that is just about size of the Hasbro boxes you’ve been caressing in the toy sections of various stores. That’s the kind of anticipation I had leading up to this ultrasound. And just like Christmas Day, it took forever to finally get here.
Everything was ready to go, the night before I created two web pages, one for a girl and one for a boy; so that shortly after we found out we could update our website very quickly. The plan was set, my Grandma and two of my sisters were coming over at 3:00 PM along with Kristy’s Grandma and her sister. Kristy’s Nana and aunts, uncles and cousin’s would log into messenger about that time so that we could have a web cam chat going. Karen and Dave (Kristy’s parents) would come over a little earlier and join us for the appointment. As I mentioned in my last blog, one of the benefits of having a large family is having a cousin who is an Ultrasound nurse and is good friends with the one that you will be performing your next ultrasound, you can get an extra viewer into the room and get extra pictures. It still seemed like it was taking forever for the seconds, minutes and hours to tick by so that 1:45 PM would roll around and we getting to see our little baby move around again.
We do the waiting room thing as usual, I didn’t have my book this time, but I did show Karen and Dave the water gushing fountain and the bubbling water cooler that tormented Kristy when she had a to drink 32 ounces of water in a couple of minutes and her bladder was filled to the brim ready to burst at any second. Finally we crowded into room number 2 and began the tour!
Right away we saw that the head was way down low (no surprise to Kristy), we saw something that looked like a black hole on star trek, but Jayne told us it was the afterbirth, I’ll have to take her word on it for that one. The after birth can be anyplace but in the birth canal, which it wasn’t so that was good.
The feet were up towards Kristy’s sternum and the rear end or butt was to Kristy’s left side. It still looked an awful lot like an alien to me. Spine and heart were good; the doctors look at the skin covering the spine to rule out spinabifida. The doctors look down the spine, as if the head was removed to make sure there are three little bones for proper structure. It’s really amazing when you are looking down the spine on the ultrasound, you can see each vertebra one by one, it’s like going through a loaf of bread slice by slice.
We took a peak at the baby’s kidneys and most of the baby’s stomach was made up of liver. Jayne said they can drink, suck, hiccup and yawn now. The baby actually had a full bladder and we could see it. We saw the little pelvis, the femurs, measured the hips and to the knees. Then we turned our heads and Jayne looked at the gender for us, took a screen capture, added text and moved on.
Our eyes came back around and focused on a tiny little foot that was an inch long. I don’t know if you have a ruler handy, but an inch is pretty darn small. Next came the umbilical cord (2 arteries and a big vein), then the shoulder to elbow measurements. Jayne measured the brain and head to measure age and check it against our due date, everything still works out to March 1st or minus a week. The heart rate was 128 beats per minute this time which is much slower then in the past. Jayne put the Doppler on loud speaker so we could all hear the whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. We had a detailed tour of the heart, watching the left side empty, and then the right, all four chambers looked great
The baby measured a whopping 11 ounces, a little less then a can of soda pop, which is expected at this time for a March 1st due date. And that was it; we collected our pictures and the card with the reveal picture inside and headed back to our house were our family was waiting.
As soon as we got back home I logged into messenger and positioned the webcam. I started a conversation with Kristy’s computer upstairs and ran up down the stairs positioning the webcam so that most of the room was in clear view, then we got down to business.
The family in Florida logged into messenger and we got it up and running, there was a little bit of chatter as we tested it out, they could hear us, we could hear them, they could see us, we couldn’t see them because they didn’t have a camera. Everyone was waiting, so as planned we gave the card to Karen to reveal. In my head I was thinking “In her hand is an envelope that has been hermetically sealed and kept since noon today in a mayonnaise jar on Funk and Wagnoll’s porch”. Johnny Carson fans and kids like me who happened to be in the area of the television when he was hosting the Tonight Show will understand why I was thinking this.
Karen took her sweet old time and opened up the envelope and looked at it. If you ask me I think she was holding back a small tear in her left eye, then she handed the card to Dave and he said “What is it, I can’t tell” at which time she showed him that if he turned it upside down he could not only see but also read what Jayne had typed! Karen had two bags, a gift for a boy and a gift for a girl, but you couldn’t tell just by looking at the bags, so the suspense was drawn out a little longer because Karen and Dave didn’t tell us all, they just kind of nodded at each other silently and communicated in that we’ve been married for 27 years telepathic language that they have.
So, finally Kristy opened up the gift and then we all found it together!
It’s a……. BOY!!!!
Everything was ready to go, the night before I created two web pages, one for a girl and one for a boy; so that shortly after we found out we could update our website very quickly. The plan was set, my Grandma and two of my sisters were coming over at 3:00 PM along with Kristy’s Grandma and her sister. Kristy’s Nana and aunts, uncles and cousin’s would log into messenger about that time so that we could have a web cam chat going. Karen and Dave (Kristy’s parents) would come over a little earlier and join us for the appointment. As I mentioned in my last blog, one of the benefits of having a large family is having a cousin who is an Ultrasound nurse and is good friends with the one that you will be performing your next ultrasound, you can get an extra viewer into the room and get extra pictures. It still seemed like it was taking forever for the seconds, minutes and hours to tick by so that 1:45 PM would roll around and we getting to see our little baby move around again.
We do the waiting room thing as usual, I didn’t have my book this time, but I did show Karen and Dave the water gushing fountain and the bubbling water cooler that tormented Kristy when she had a to drink 32 ounces of water in a couple of minutes and her bladder was filled to the brim ready to burst at any second. Finally we crowded into room number 2 and began the tour!
Right away we saw that the head was way down low (no surprise to Kristy), we saw something that looked like a black hole on star trek, but Jayne told us it was the afterbirth, I’ll have to take her word on it for that one. The after birth can be anyplace but in the birth canal, which it wasn’t so that was good.
The feet were up towards Kristy’s sternum and the rear end or butt was to Kristy’s left side. It still looked an awful lot like an alien to me. Spine and heart were good; the doctors look at the skin covering the spine to rule out spinabifida. The doctors look down the spine, as if the head was removed to make sure there are three little bones for proper structure. It’s really amazing when you are looking down the spine on the ultrasound, you can see each vertebra one by one, it’s like going through a loaf of bread slice by slice.
We took a peak at the baby’s kidneys and most of the baby’s stomach was made up of liver. Jayne said they can drink, suck, hiccup and yawn now. The baby actually had a full bladder and we could see it. We saw the little pelvis, the femurs, measured the hips and to the knees. Then we turned our heads and Jayne looked at the gender for us, took a screen capture, added text and moved on.
Our eyes came back around and focused on a tiny little foot that was an inch long. I don’t know if you have a ruler handy, but an inch is pretty darn small. Next came the umbilical cord (2 arteries and a big vein), then the shoulder to elbow measurements. Jayne measured the brain and head to measure age and check it against our due date, everything still works out to March 1st or minus a week. The heart rate was 128 beats per minute this time which is much slower then in the past. Jayne put the Doppler on loud speaker so we could all hear the whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. We had a detailed tour of the heart, watching the left side empty, and then the right, all four chambers looked great
The baby measured a whopping 11 ounces, a little less then a can of soda pop, which is expected at this time for a March 1st due date. And that was it; we collected our pictures and the card with the reveal picture inside and headed back to our house were our family was waiting.
As soon as we got back home I logged into messenger and positioned the webcam. I started a conversation with Kristy’s computer upstairs and ran up down the stairs positioning the webcam so that most of the room was in clear view, then we got down to business.
The family in Florida logged into messenger and we got it up and running, there was a little bit of chatter as we tested it out, they could hear us, we could hear them, they could see us, we couldn’t see them because they didn’t have a camera. Everyone was waiting, so as planned we gave the card to Karen to reveal. In my head I was thinking “In her hand is an envelope that has been hermetically sealed and kept since noon today in a mayonnaise jar on Funk and Wagnoll’s porch”. Johnny Carson fans and kids like me who happened to be in the area of the television when he was hosting the Tonight Show will understand why I was thinking this.
Karen took her sweet old time and opened up the envelope and looked at it. If you ask me I think she was holding back a small tear in her left eye, then she handed the card to Dave and he said “What is it, I can’t tell” at which time she showed him that if he turned it upside down he could not only see but also read what Jayne had typed! Karen had two bags, a gift for a boy and a gift for a girl, but you couldn’t tell just by looking at the bags, so the suspense was drawn out a little longer because Karen and Dave didn’t tell us all, they just kind of nodded at each other silently and communicated in that we’ve been married for 27 years telepathic language that they have.
So, finally Kristy opened up the gift and then we all found it together!
It’s a……. BOY!!!!
August 19th 2005
Guess how this appointment started off? You guessed it; I was reading my book "The Expectant Father" while Kristy checked in. I should explain that while it seems like I am taking forever to read my book, its okay, I'm actually ahead of where I need to be. The book is written so that each chapter covers a month of pregnancy. right now we are just entering the 4th month but i'm on the 6th month now, so I’m a good 2 months ahead of what I need to know and guys if you are wondering, the book has been about 85% accurate for me, it's very good and I highly recommend it.
With that said we didn't wait around long today. They brought us back behind the doors to room "N" and we also learned that there is a big basket right before you go back behind the doors and it is filled with paper sacks. The paper sacks contain special cups and we learned that Kristy will get one of these special packages at every appointment so in the future she should wait to empty her bladder until after we have gone to the appointment.
This time we had a certified midwife with a very happy personality. She called Kristy honey about 456 times in 15 minutes and went over the ultrasound info with us. A lot of the info we again already knew and she answered some questions we had so we learned a thing or too. She cautioned that increased blood flow and maxed out capillaries could lead to headaches and nose bleeds, both of which Kristy has already experienced, ah the joys of pregnancy.
She did mention that at our next appointment they will offer the multiple marker test, which will tell us the risk, not for certain, that the baby may have spina bifida or down syndrome. Basically deciding to have the test or not is based on what we would do with the info, would we have additional testing or would we consider ending the pregnancy? She said that many people make the decision based on their faith and don't do it because regardless of the outcome they wouldn't end the pregnancy. In my mind I was thinking that we wouldn't end the pregnancy regardless of the results because the test only tells you that there is a risk and there are also a high percentage of false positives, but I wanted to wait and talk with Kristy about it. I personally would rather follow my faith and put my trust in god to bless us with a healthy baby and then I thought of my friend Ming and how awesome he is and he has spina bifida and that just reinforced my feelings about not wanting to end the pregnancy early or even needing the testing.
Next we listened to the heart beat. It was pretty cool hearing that rapid whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh sound and re-assuring at the same time. She said that it sounded great and measured it at 150 beats per minute. The little one kept moving around and hiding behind Kristy’s arteries and Jill (the midwife) said "wow, you have an active one here, playing hide and seek on me". At that moment I was like "oh crap, it's going to be hyper like me", in my head of course, not out loud, but there was a reason why I couldn't have sugar when I was a kid. I remember busting into my grandma's kitchen, my mom's, whoever and if they had sugar cubes I would grab them and go play outside. I would feed them to myself and then pretend that I was the black stallion, because the little boy fed black beauty sugar cubes in the movie. I would run wild throughout the neighborhood for hours.
Whoosh, whoosh, back to reality, I asked Jill if there was any truth in gender and heart rate and she said absolutely not so sorry all of you that have figured the gender based on the heart rate posted on our website from the first ultrasound.
That was it; we scheduled the next appointment about a month later and decided the next ultrasound would be at 20 weeks or 2 months later...
When we were in the car I asked Kristy how she felt about the multiple marker testing and she basically said the same thing I had been thinking but was holding back a little because she was unsure of how I felt, so I let her know that we were on the same page and I could sense a little relief about her.
With that said we didn't wait around long today. They brought us back behind the doors to room "N" and we also learned that there is a big basket right before you go back behind the doors and it is filled with paper sacks. The paper sacks contain special cups and we learned that Kristy will get one of these special packages at every appointment so in the future she should wait to empty her bladder until after we have gone to the appointment.
This time we had a certified midwife with a very happy personality. She called Kristy honey about 456 times in 15 minutes and went over the ultrasound info with us. A lot of the info we again already knew and she answered some questions we had so we learned a thing or too. She cautioned that increased blood flow and maxed out capillaries could lead to headaches and nose bleeds, both of which Kristy has already experienced, ah the joys of pregnancy.
She did mention that at our next appointment they will offer the multiple marker test, which will tell us the risk, not for certain, that the baby may have spina bifida or down syndrome. Basically deciding to have the test or not is based on what we would do with the info, would we have additional testing or would we consider ending the pregnancy? She said that many people make the decision based on their faith and don't do it because regardless of the outcome they wouldn't end the pregnancy. In my mind I was thinking that we wouldn't end the pregnancy regardless of the results because the test only tells you that there is a risk and there are also a high percentage of false positives, but I wanted to wait and talk with Kristy about it. I personally would rather follow my faith and put my trust in god to bless us with a healthy baby and then I thought of my friend Ming and how awesome he is and he has spina bifida and that just reinforced my feelings about not wanting to end the pregnancy early or even needing the testing.
Next we listened to the heart beat. It was pretty cool hearing that rapid whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh sound and re-assuring at the same time. She said that it sounded great and measured it at 150 beats per minute. The little one kept moving around and hiding behind Kristy’s arteries and Jill (the midwife) said "wow, you have an active one here, playing hide and seek on me". At that moment I was like "oh crap, it's going to be hyper like me", in my head of course, not out loud, but there was a reason why I couldn't have sugar when I was a kid. I remember busting into my grandma's kitchen, my mom's, whoever and if they had sugar cubes I would grab them and go play outside. I would feed them to myself and then pretend that I was the black stallion, because the little boy fed black beauty sugar cubes in the movie. I would run wild throughout the neighborhood for hours.
Whoosh, whoosh, back to reality, I asked Jill if there was any truth in gender and heart rate and she said absolutely not so sorry all of you that have figured the gender based on the heart rate posted on our website from the first ultrasound.
That was it; we scheduled the next appointment about a month later and decided the next ultrasound would be at 20 weeks or 2 months later...
When we were in the car I asked Kristy how she felt about the multiple marker testing and she basically said the same thing I had been thinking but was holding back a little because she was unsure of how I felt, so I let her know that we were on the same page and I could sense a little relief about her.
August 5th 2005
The second appointment started off with us in the parking lot of the imaging facility, Kristy chugging the last 20 ounces of the 32 ounces she was supposed to drink before the ultrasound (a.k.a. sonogram). We moved to the waiting area and like last time I sat down with my book "The Expectant Father" while Kristy stood in line and checked in.
We didn't have to wait all that long, but long enough for Kristy to think she was going to explode. there were some fountains on the way into the building that she commented about and after we went back behind the closed doors for her to change someone got a drink of water from one of those water coolers you see in offices and it made the glug glug noise and of course Kristy commented again about the sounds of running water from the fountain out front and the glugging water from the cooler and her eminent need to relieve herself before we had to deal with an accident. Then of course the room wasn't quite ready so we had to wait a few more minutes or if you ask Kristy a few more hours, but to be fair she was trying to hold in 32 ounces of water and apparently pregnant ladies need to go more often then normal or at least this one seems to.
Finally we got into the room and Kristy laid down on the doctors table and our ultrasound technician came in and busted out the gel and went to work. He found the little baby pretty quickly and we saw it move its arm and arch its back and squirm around right away. There was only one so no more jokes about twins. I can only describe it as awesome. I’ve scored touchdowns, hit home runs, won races, defeated the evil alien race threatening the world in kanomi's classic contra (without up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, b, a, select, start for you hard core NES players from the 80’s), defeated a formidable German foreign exchange student in chess while the football team chanted USA!, USA!, snowboarded off a cliff (accidentally but still what a rush), graduated from high school and college, flown around the world and I have to say that the instant I saw the little baby moving topped them all.
The whole pregnancy and baby became much more real for me at that moment because until then all I knew is that there was a little thing shaped like an alien inside Kristy’s belly and there was no way to know if it was okay or not. Kristy got teary of course and like any strong, macho mans man who has accomplished all those feats above, I bit my tongue and held in my tears of joy, to maintain that tough guy image, but inside my mind was racing and I was overjoyed, much like my wedding day. I had to hold in some tears then too but I won’t tell if you won’t.
The ultrasound guy showed us the heart and we saw it beating. He measured it and it was 163 beats per minute, normal for a creature that size. He measured it from head to bottom and it was approximately 1.36 inches, normal again. He checked to make sure that there wasn't a second ectopic pregnancy in the fallopian tubes and there wasn't. he estimated the due date as march first +/- 6 days which put us at 10 weeks 2 days, not far off from the February 27th due date calculated at our first appointment which had us at 10 weeks four days.
The ultrasound guy printed us off some pictures on the little Sony thermal printer and we took them home and scanned them in right away to preserve them and to post them on our website so that friends and family everywhere could share in the joy of our kids first baby pictures.
I can't wait for the next ultrasound, we get to find out if it's a boy or a girl, too bad it's like a million weeks away...
Funny, writing that last bit reminds me of a Saturday night live (SNL) skit some of you might remember about "Pat". Basically it was impossible to tell what gender the character Pat actually was and I remember one of the last Pat skits showed Pat's birth and you "finally" thought you were going to learn what Pat was, and the doctor is like "It's A.... ....Baby!" and you are like what! It's supposed to be "It's a Boy" or "It's a Girl" not it's a freaking Baby, what the heck is Pat? Anyways, I'm excited for the next ultrasound.
We didn't have to wait all that long, but long enough for Kristy to think she was going to explode. there were some fountains on the way into the building that she commented about and after we went back behind the closed doors for her to change someone got a drink of water from one of those water coolers you see in offices and it made the glug glug noise and of course Kristy commented again about the sounds of running water from the fountain out front and the glugging water from the cooler and her eminent need to relieve herself before we had to deal with an accident. Then of course the room wasn't quite ready so we had to wait a few more minutes or if you ask Kristy a few more hours, but to be fair she was trying to hold in 32 ounces of water and apparently pregnant ladies need to go more often then normal or at least this one seems to.
Finally we got into the room and Kristy laid down on the doctors table and our ultrasound technician came in and busted out the gel and went to work. He found the little baby pretty quickly and we saw it move its arm and arch its back and squirm around right away. There was only one so no more jokes about twins. I can only describe it as awesome. I’ve scored touchdowns, hit home runs, won races, defeated the evil alien race threatening the world in kanomi's classic contra (without up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, b, a, select, start for you hard core NES players from the 80’s), defeated a formidable German foreign exchange student in chess while the football team chanted USA!, USA!, snowboarded off a cliff (accidentally but still what a rush), graduated from high school and college, flown around the world and I have to say that the instant I saw the little baby moving topped them all.
The whole pregnancy and baby became much more real for me at that moment because until then all I knew is that there was a little thing shaped like an alien inside Kristy’s belly and there was no way to know if it was okay or not. Kristy got teary of course and like any strong, macho mans man who has accomplished all those feats above, I bit my tongue and held in my tears of joy, to maintain that tough guy image, but inside my mind was racing and I was overjoyed, much like my wedding day. I had to hold in some tears then too but I won’t tell if you won’t.
The ultrasound guy showed us the heart and we saw it beating. He measured it and it was 163 beats per minute, normal for a creature that size. He measured it from head to bottom and it was approximately 1.36 inches, normal again. He checked to make sure that there wasn't a second ectopic pregnancy in the fallopian tubes and there wasn't. he estimated the due date as march first +/- 6 days which put us at 10 weeks 2 days, not far off from the February 27th due date calculated at our first appointment which had us at 10 weeks four days.
The ultrasound guy printed us off some pictures on the little Sony thermal printer and we took them home and scanned them in right away to preserve them and to post them on our website so that friends and family everywhere could share in the joy of our kids first baby pictures.
I can't wait for the next ultrasound, we get to find out if it's a boy or a girl, too bad it's like a million weeks away...
Funny, writing that last bit reminds me of a Saturday night live (SNL) skit some of you might remember about "Pat". Basically it was impossible to tell what gender the character Pat actually was and I remember one of the last Pat skits showed Pat's birth and you "finally" thought you were going to learn what Pat was, and the doctor is like "It's A.... ....Baby!" and you are like what! It's supposed to be "It's a Boy" or "It's a Girl" not it's a freaking Baby, what the heck is Pat? Anyways, I'm excited for the next ultrasound.
July 21st 2005
The first appointment started off with me sitting in the waiting area while Kristy stood in line to check in. We were 15 minutes early as the paperwork said to be. Kristy had to fill out a family and life history a few weeks before and mail it in ahead of time. I read a chapter of my book that I had been reading, "The Expectant Father" and I read a couple articles about outsourcing jobs to China, China's military build up and China's economy and revaluation of its currency and some parenting magazines. I did find a useful article on baby monitors and what to look for when purchasing one. I later found that all the tips are covered in detail on consumer reports website.
Finally they brought us back behind the mysterious doors that hide the rooms where you wait some more and then the doctors see you. The nurse took Kristy’s blood pressure, had her give a urine sample and calculated the baby's due date to be February 27 based on a standard 28 day female cycle and the last known date of the last cycle. Then pretty much I sat in the corner while the nurse practitioner ignored me and covered different material with Kristy that we had already learned about ahead of time.
The nurse practitioner did go over a bunch of tests that would be done and Kristy did give a quart of blood to run them. I also had to leave the room while they went over some top secret stuff. Washington law has some kind of confidentiality clause tied to HIV testing and that’s why I had to leave the room. We scheduled the first ultrasound appointment (which I was looking forward to) for August 5th 2005, stay tuned for updates...
Finally they brought us back behind the mysterious doors that hide the rooms where you wait some more and then the doctors see you. The nurse took Kristy’s blood pressure, had her give a urine sample and calculated the baby's due date to be February 27 based on a standard 28 day female cycle and the last known date of the last cycle. Then pretty much I sat in the corner while the nurse practitioner ignored me and covered different material with Kristy that we had already learned about ahead of time.
The nurse practitioner did go over a bunch of tests that would be done and Kristy did give a quart of blood to run them. I also had to leave the room while they went over some top secret stuff. Washington law has some kind of confidentiality clause tied to HIV testing and that’s why I had to leave the room. We scheduled the first ultrasound appointment (which I was looking forward to) for August 5th 2005, stay tuned for updates...
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