L3

My mother in law Stella just told me my nephew Nik came up with a name for the baby today. Lilith. That would be Lilith Leonard, and if her middle name is Lee, like (Michelle, Stacey and Jessie) that would be little Lilith Lee Leonard.

I'm surprised it's actually a name, and wasn't something similar to Starfark. That's the name he chose for our cat Henry (R.I.P).

It's a Girl!

Just had the ultrasound - it's a girl :)

I had a feeling it was - but with a 50/50 chance I think that's sily to say. Well, now I can refer to "the baby" as her or she, instead of It.

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I Can Grow People

Yes, I can grow people. Pretty cool. One thing I can not grow, is money. This is unfortunate, considering the 8 zillion things one needs to procure prior to the arrival of this person they are growing.

I'm suffering from baby sticker shock. Maybe I should have capitalized that. Baby Sticker Shock. BSS, for those in the know. Every magazine I read has a list of items a new parent will need, almost none of which I have ever heard of before. I need a Boppy, and a bebePod. The baby's clothes aren't even allowed to be called 'clothes'. One refers to clothing and linens for newborns as 'layette'. Why? So they cost more, I assume.

Well, I'm 20 weeks now. Exactly half-way, if the kid decides to cooperate. I'm still surprised I'm growing a kid, but then it seems so normal at the same time. Maybe because I've had a bit of a trial-run with my stepkids, I'm not nervous about the actual raising of children. But the infant thing - verrry new to me. Speaking of the stepkids, Mike told me that Jessie finished the baby blanket she made for It in her fashion class. I can't wait to see what she created - all I know is that it's GREEN :)

The Gender Saga

I called my OB and notified them of what happened at the ultrasound last Friday. They actually do 4-D ultrasounds in their Palm Springs office themselves, but I'm not able to utilize them, as my insurance contracts out with Desert Imaging Lab. The OB's office was really sympathetic with me, and said they would run a quick scan at no cost in their office at my next appointment. Yet another reason I'm glad I chose Dr. Pacini! Unfortunately my next appt was at the La Quinta office on the 13th, and they don't have the equipment at that office. So I changed my appointment to the Palm Springs office for Monday the 19th. I'll be 21 weeks at that point, and it's a Monday so Mike can go!

Baby's Movin

I just felt The Baby move for the first time a few minutes ago. XL gets all the credit, really. I was laying in bed petting him and giving him love-spanks, with him sprawled out, purring on top of me like he likes to do. I felt a little something under X, but didn't know if it was his belly or mine. I kept petting him, and noticed it again a few more times, so I slide one hand under X to get a better feel. Sure enough I felt another kick in the same spot (or punch, or head-but). When XL left for his blanky I put both hands over my belly and got a few more jabs. Was it the purring sounds that prompted the jabs, and are these jabs of love, or competition?



I wanted to wake Mike up, but he has to get to work even earlier tomorrow for a meeting at 4:30 am. From what I've been reading the earliest one would start to feel the baby's movements is at 18 weeks, and in fact the taller the mother, the later in pregnancy she would feel the movements. So at 19 weeks yesterday, I'm kinda surprised I've felt anything yet considering I'm a giant. But like I said, credit goes to Kitty XL for that one!



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Ultrasound Pics March 2nd

Click on the links below to see the rest of the ultrasound pics:

Profile, and Profile2

Spine, and Spine2

Face, and Face2

Hand-Arm

Legs

As you can see, there has been quite a change since the first ultrasound pic taken 7 weeks ago. It's looking like a real baby now! Next week I'll be at the half-way point (20 weeks) of gestation.

Fetal Anatony Scan

I went in for a fetal anatomy scan ultrasound on Friday. This was the day we were to presumably find out the gender of the It I've been carting around for 19 weeks now. No luck.

The technician calculated my due date (by the fetal development) to be July 26, which is 2 days earlier than my first ultrasound calculated. I didn't get the same cool Russianish technician as before, it was some other girl-woman thing who happened to be training another technician who sat in for the scan. I was in there for about an hour and a half, and got to see all kinds of different stuffs. In fact I had a 'staffed' neck from angling my head to the monitor for so long. It looks like a real baby now, and they printed out about 10 or so pictures for me. I'll scan and post them when I get a chance.

At one point the technician brought in another male technician to get a second opinion on a potential 'placenta previa', but with further scanning that was ruled out. While they were scanning I asked what they thought they were seeing is called, and would it be a development issue, or birthing issue. The man said it was strickly a birthing issue, and would mean it necessary to deliver by Cesarian. They were almost going to have me come back in for a follow up scan because it was still questionable, and I was just dying to ask them to hand me my BlackBerry while they were scanning so I could look it up, but finally they became confident everything was OK.

The man left and the woman continued scanning and doing measurements, etc, then later she said she was going to show the results to their Big Cheese and be right back. I remebered from my first scan that that meant they were done and they have to get approval before they let you go incase the Big Cheese wants to see more of anything. I was like "What? That's it? Weren't you able to tell the gender?". She said she tried but couldn't see well enough in that area to tell. Arrrrrrrg! My mind started racing and I realized my insurance wouldn't pay to send me back just so I can better prepare my nursury decor scheme. I started freaking out and called Mike as soon as I got back in the truck. Then I called my OB like 700 times but couldn't get through, so I moved on to my mother. We decided I'd just have to get an ultrasound on my own to detect the gender. Really not such a big deal, but I had been waiting so long and so anxious to find out I was pretty depressed about the outcome. Later I became kinda pissed that the technician never said a word about not being able to see, or ask if I was even interested in finding out the gender before birth. If she would have explained to me while she was looking that she wasn't able to tell it wouldn't have come as such a shock. Good customer service is hard to come by these days.

My next OB appt is with the nurse practitioner in La Quinta on the 13th.



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