OK, More Photos

Hmmm, y'all seemed to like the photos thing. Have some more:

An expecting mother and a playful pup - what more could one ask for?

And, no, I can't figure out why Blogger wanted to format this in this way.

Family Snapshots June07

Hey all -

C's stepmom was here for a few days last week, and among other things managed to take some good pics of us (& Jolly - did I mention Jolly? One of the things that happened to us between June '04 and Feb '07 but wasn't recorded on the Blog was getting Jolly).

So, here's out current and impending family:


(Don't worry, I did get a haircut shortly after these pics.)

MultiMiniMoooMedia

OK y'all - you didn't ask for it, but you got it.

Here's the sound of MiniMooo's heartbeat, as crappily recorded with poor equipment held up near the doppler sound-a-tator.

Let me know if .wav doesn't work for you, and you actually want to hear this.

Another Photo

This here's either the other photo they gave us from the 2nd-trimester ultrasounds session, or the Babyface Nebula near Proxima Diaperon. You be the judge.



We're looking at much the same position as last time, but with a bit more of the body shown, and at a higher zoom overall. Also the wall of the uterus/placenta (I presume that's what that is) seems to be smooshed up much closer in the face, which is tilted to face a bit more straight-vertical as well.

A Personality Already

My mother has always said that babies are born with a personality. Based on what we've seen, I'd say that it might start a little earlier than that.

Friday was our 18 week ultrasound. This is the only one that most people have. (Our first was to figure out how far along we really were since I didn't really know the dates this pregnancy would be based on.) The idea for this one was to make sure the baby was growing well, had all the right parts, and no signs of anything wrong. We got a clean bill of health there. There was also the chance of finding out the baby's gender.

On the gender front, I didn't really want to know, but it wasn't a strong desire. I've heard enough stories about them telling people the wrong sex that I don't want to deal with them getting it wrong (picking a name on the fly, returning all the clothes, etc, telling everyone that "Frank" is really "Susie"). Finally, I like the idea of a surprise at the end of labor. That sounds like a whole lot of work and I'm pretty sure I'm getting a baby at the end but what kind is a complete mystery. None of these are very strongly held beliefs, so I was ready to consider finding out. Adam, on the other hand, was about as strongly interested in knowing as I was not (ie: mildly). His biggest concern was wanting to see everything in the ultrasound and not missing out because they were trying to hide the gender from us.

So, we went into Friday with the basic idea that we didn't want to know the baby's sex but would not be heart broken if we accidentally learned. It ended up that the little one didn't want us to know anything at all. It made the doctor's job hard by wiggling all over. There were flips and turns and limbs swinging everywhere. The one thing that DIDN'T change was that the legs were clamped tightly together the whole time. Even if we had been dying to know, this baby wasn't going to let anyone see its private parts!

This little one apparently has a strong personality. Flashbacks to stories of me trying to convince everyone that I was the boss since the age of two are starting to haunt me!

It's a . . .

. . . baby. Yes folks, it's a baby. We had our second-trimester ultrasound survey a couple days ago, which among other things is when they start offering to try to tell you the sex of the baby. After some complex thinking that may or may not be a topic for future posts, we decided not to find out (at least now). So, it's a baby! And more importantly, it's a healthy baby in all the ways that they can tell at this stage.

So here's the little future rugrat in his/her/its updated mug shot. This time facing to the top left, in profile. The dense (whiter) bit center-left is the lower part of the jaw and face, a divot for the eye-socket, and the bright arc from there around from 10-o'clock to 6-o'clock is presumably the skull. There's a C-shaped blur in the middle there that kind of suggests an ear, but for all I know could be some mid-brain structure given the depth of the imaged scan.

Things that we "saw" in the ultrasound:
. two arms with hands with fingers, substantially close to five fingers per hand
. two legs, with feet with toes, substantially close to five toes per foot
. a head with a face, and a brain inside (they assured us)
. a stomach, kidneys, and a liver. Christi thinks also a bladder, which was apparently hard to find.
. at least one femur, which was measured for length (a couple centimeters, if I caught it right)
. a spine and a buncha ribs, which were some of the coolest things as you (or at least I) could imagine the structure as the technician scanned deeper and shallower across them
. a working, pumping heart (straight-on 150 beats-per-minute) with multiple chambers
. an "aortic curve", I think, which is the major blood vessel leaving the top of the heart and curving down into the body cavity.

Yay parts! Apparently they all look healthy/nominal/good, which made us happy. In a growing tradition, we went for ice cream afterward.

Mommy mommy mommy

So we're in the building supply store yesterday (ever notice that they're indistinguishable except for the color of paint?), and we've just walked in and are trying to figure out where we might find storage shelving and a water test kit. From down the aisle in the cavernous expanse I slowly realize that I'm hearing, "Mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, ..." in a continuous stream of unattended attention-seeking. A pause. And just as I'm deciding not to razz Christi about the travails of the future, it starts up again - "Mommy, mommy, Daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy...". And Christi looks up - she's heard it too - and says, "Can I take it back?" ;-). Yeah. No.

Take Off

So, I was in Tampa yesterday. Flew in Monday evening, out Tuesday evening. Which must have provided a sort of record, since I went from a 70-degree sunny Tampa afternoon to a rough windy landing in Boston at 9 degrees. Farenheit. Not including windchill. (4 degrees when I woke up this morning. Brrrr.)

So anyway, it's a pretty nice afternoon in Tampa, and I've got time to enjoy it since I'm heading across town to the airport and between rush-hour and construction I'm not going anywhere fast. Finally break free on the airport off-ramp and get to move a bit, sun out of my face now, and as I come onto the airport grounds there's a long stretch that's parallel to a runway to my left. I've got my arm out the window enjoying the air going by, and there's a big jet spooling up for takeoff that heads down the runway parallel to me (spoiler: he won the race). And it's silly, but I feel a bit like the first time I saw that happen (somewhere), and felt the power and freedom of that big push up into the sky. My left hand's doing that swoop out the window, in the rush of the car's 40mph along the access road.

And then I somehow flash forward, and there's this little glimpse of me watching the jet go, only now I'm getting to crouch down and point over Mini-Mooo's shoulder, and say, "Look at that!". And Mini-Mooo's face is doing that "WOW!" thing that kids can do, and my brain was just trying to remember a tiny bit of doing.

Yeah, I guess it's time :). I really can't wait. And I'm ignoring the whole diaper thing. The "WOW!" is better.

Second Second Post

OK - in the interest of keeping up the posting-rate on the blog (although I still need to tell people
it exists), I'll post this seperately rather than updating the previous post.So here's Mini-Mooo, as of Monday (26-Feb-2007 - in the 13th week). He/she/it is approximately 7.4cm from crown to rump (apparently the standard measurement). For those of you with trouble seeing what's in the above, the major lumps there are the head (just left of center) and chest/body (to the lower-right). The eye sockets and nose face up and a bit to the right, and the chin/jaws are further to the right. I promise from the other pics that Mini-Mooo also has arms, legs, etc.

A New Beginning

(or two)

So - the last time I started thinking about doing this Blog thing, I got it set up but never publicized. And I lost momentum. So here we are - two and a half years later, and I have some excuses to try again.

Maybe I'll try to fill in some of the details along the way. I guess we'll see. The more folks read and comment here, the more I'll know whether it's a worthwhile thing to keep up. However, the first new headline practically writes itself.

Christi and I are expecting a baby in September! (That's 2007, in case this is the last post for another two-and-a-half years.)

So - I won't dwell for now, but I'm thinking of the blog as a vehicle for helping to spread the news and document how it all unfolds for me/us. Check back and find out, or bug me if I haven't lived up to this hope!