Too Much Even for Me

I'm all about ultrasounds. I love every chance I can get to sneak a peak at my baby girl. I love the reassurance that she is healthy and growing. I love to see how much she has changed over the past several weeks. I love getting the pics and sharing them (which is funny because I never cared much for ultrasound pics pre-pregnancy). But yesterday's fetal echo proved to be overkill even for me.

First a little background. Jeramy's mother and sister have a heart condition called IHSS, which apparently stands for Idiopathic Hypertrophic Subaortic Stenosis (thanks again, Dr. Google). I don't know much of the details about it, but it is a rare condition where part of the heart is enlarged and thickened which obviously causes problems. Both of them have pacemakers. Jeramy has been tested and does not have this condition. Plus onset is usually not detected until about adolescence. However to be on the safe side, my OB wanted us to get a fetal echo anyhow.

Going into the appointment, I wasn't worried about the test. I was just happy to get another opportunity to see my baby. What I didn't realize is that the ultrasound would take an hour so that the technician could make all sorts of measurements of small parts of Jillian's tiny heart. This is of course was made even more difficult since my little girl is quite active and insisted on moving from one corner of my uterus to the other and then back again. She's an obstinate girl, I tell you. Much like her mother.

Now all of this might have been better, except that the technician had to use a laptop since they operate remotely at this particular location one day a week. So I wasn't even able to watch. Jeramy could see the screen, but all the detailed pictures of the heart must have gotten boring as I caught him dozing off a few times. Heck, I had a hard time staying awake. The dark room, morning hours and boredom make for a sleepy combination. Plus it has been crazy busy at work, and the appointment completely ate into time that I had set aside to prepare for a meeting later that day.

In the end, the doctor came in and pronounced Jillian's heart as perfect. Music to my ears, of course. He said that she should probably be checked again around age 5 and 12 to see if the condition develops, but she has less of a chance since Jeramy does not have it. Oh and guess what I'm doing this afternoon? Getting another ultrasound of course. This one is at my OB's office to get a better picture of the spine.

On a less thrilling note, Jeramy's union is in the middle of contract negotiations and voted to strike last night. We're hoping that the contractors come back with a better offer over the weekend so that a strike is avoided, but I'm not holding my breath. I know we'll be fine especially in the short term, although we won't be able to save as much money as I had hoped. I tend to be easily stressed when it comes to money (who isn't, I guess), and although we are far more prepared this year than last, I never feel prepared enough. What would really help is winning the lottery, but now doesn't seem to be the best time to invest in lottery tickets. As my grandmother would say, "Oh Well!"

Back from Camping

We spent the weekend camping and riding quads (well mostly camping for me) in the sand dunes of Eastern Washington. Last summer we didn't do a lot of camping, because we took the big trip to Yellowstone. This year, I hope that we are able to get out for quite a few weekend trips because it will be our last summer to camp without children for a long time. And while it will definitely be fun to camp with kids, it is a whole lot easier when the only other being you have to worry about is an extremely lazy bulldog whose main focus is taking a snooze in the dirt.

Here are a few pics from the weekend:
My bike got a lot of use by people other than myself. Our friend Brian brought his son William who quickly learned to ride. He really did great out there!

Jeramy was loving his new quad, which he bought back in October (here is the original post). He spent quite a bit of time refining his wheelie technique.

He also spent just a little (or perhaps a lot) of time jumping the bike.

I even managed to putt around a little bit on my bike. Don't worry though. I think I was on the bike for 20 minutes total to go out and get a few pictures of Jeramy. I was very careful and never went more than about 15 mph. But of course the occasion required a pregnant girl on the quad pic.
Of course Cujo's favorite part of the weekend was enjoying the comforts of the camper.

Oh and amazingly today marks the 22 week mark. So here I am cleaned up from the dusty weekend. Let me just say that sand wreaks havoc on my now clogged pores.

Pink Ribbon Added

I'm still in a bit of disbelief that I added a pink ribbon to this blanket.

A Very Manly Diaper Bag

Jeramy ordered himself this diaper bag last night:
I'm taking this as a sign that he does, indeed, plan on changing some diapers. Hallelujah!

Progress on the Nursery

As of 9pm last night, both Jeramy and I agreed that work on Monday had to be more relaxing than the weekend we just had. Granted, we'd both probably rather take a day off to just lay around the house and do nothing, but that really wasn't an option.

One of the wonderful things about my hubby is that he is not a procrastinator. In fact, when he gets an itch to do something, he just goes out and gets it done as quickly as possible. That sometimes proves difficult for me, as I'd rather do just one thing slowly over time. However, in the long run I think his tendencies make us both more productive. Anyhow, the crib arrived on Friday much earlier than the expected August ship date. In addition, Jeramy found out that day that he would not need to put in any overtime on Saturday leaving an extra day in his weekend. Armed with the newfound knowledge of our future child's girlness, he deemed it time to get the nursery together.

So while I did loads of yard work (lawn mowing, weeding flowerbeds, planting annuals), Jeramy conquered the majority of the room cleaning and all of the painting. We also steam cleaned the carpets and assembled the crib. So now, instead of a room loaded with crap, we have this:

I'm really loving the milk chocolate color for the walls. Given the bedding I've chosen (here) I was either wanting to go with a beige/brown or a very light pink. Ultimately we chose the brown because while I like pink, girly things, it is very easy to overdo it. Today Jeramy is going to trim out the closet doors he installed last month, and after that we'll just be waiting for the other furnishings to arrive. I just can't believe it is all coming together already. What is even more amazing is the idea that our little girl will actually occupy this room early this fall.

I should also follow-up on the name spelling conversation from last week...I loved getting all of your input. Perhaps I was biased because there were more "J" votes than "G", and I was rooting for the former. But our real life friends (yes, amazingly we actually have some of those) and family seemed to prefer the "J" as well. So it looks like this little girl will be named Jillian Carol.

It's a...

Girl! A healthy and impressively average girl! Jeramy and I are in shock and overwhelmingly happy. Here is the evidence of her girlness...or at least that is what the ultrasound tech told me as I couldn't figure out which lines represented those all important three lines of her reproductive organs. I fully plan on sharing this picture along with the obligatory bath and miscellaneous nude baby photos with her future boyfriends as part of a conspiracy to cause undue embarrassment for my future teenager.

My daughter displays impressive flexibility as she spent the bulk of her time with her foot in her hand. She must have inherited such skills from her Aunt Jaime, as I never could do so much as touch my toes. As a bonus this has scored me another peek at her in two weeks, since such posture does not allow for a good look at her spine. Otherwise she looked perfectly healthy and measured in the 55th percentile for her age at 14 oz. Her little heart was pumping away at a beat ranging from the upper 140's to lower 150's. We are scheduled to have a fetal echo done in a couple weeks because Jeramy's mother and sister both have heart problems. We are not overly concerned about this though as Jeramy had an echo in the past that showed no problems, and we believe this particular disorder requires a parent with the condition.

We have decided on a name, but the spelling is a bit up in the air. So maybe you all could weigh in. Which do you like better?

Jillian Carol

or

Gillian Carol

Anyhow, I'll leave you a picture of our little girl in her favorite pose:

My Hunch on Gender

Last week, KCMarie left a comment asking what gender I thought the baby was. I didn't post anything then, since I didn't want to skew the poll results. But now that the big ultrasound is tomorrow, I'll share. Both Jeramy and I feel pretty strongly that we're having a boy. Now I don't buy into any of those old wives tales. Given my background in research and science, anything that is not backed by a randomized control trial is just a myth to me. Admittedly, we are both probably biased in our male inklings, as the males on his side of the family has a history of producing Y chromosomes that goes back a couple generations. The poll results lean slightly towards girl, so perhaps you all are right. I mean we all have a 50/50 chance of being right after all.

Now just because I think its a boy doesn't mean I prefer a boy. Honestly I just want a healthy baby that is either a boy or a girl. I hope I'll be the kind of parent who does not place demands on who my child is to be in life or try to live my failed hopes and dreams through them. And part of that is understanding that gender is something I have no control over. I just hope to God that I do find out the baby's sex tomorrow, because I'm not sure that I can take the "do you want a boy or girl" questions any longer. It is not the question that I'm opposed to necessarily. I think it is the skeptical looks I get for my neutral stance, the propagation of old wives tales and the opinions/preferences of the questioners that are really starting to irk me. What is perhaps even worse are suggestions that we are having twins, even though we've repeatedly told people that four ultrasounds have confirmed that only one being is occupying my uterus (not to mention the scan that showed one mature follicle at ovulation).

So while tomorrow afternoon cannot get here soon enough, it will get here. I only wish that I had a smidgen of an ability to concentrate in the meantime, but it sounds like the ultrasound will not cure that problem anyhow. So I'll leave you with this 20 week belly pic. I'm looking bigger, I think (and I'm referring to my stomach here and not my double chin or thighs).