It's a ...

Was very excited about the big ultrasound today. We wanted to find out the gender so I thought I'd eat a bit of sugar to make sure the baby would move around and hopefully cooperate. We were able to find out right away that the baby is a GIRL!!!

Here is a badly scanned pic of her sucking her thumb!



However, the sugar also worked against me - she wouldn't cooperate enough to get a couple of pics/measurements that they needed, so they will be doing another ultrasound on the 26th of February. At least I'll get another peek!

A bit of a scare

Wednesday night, I slipped when walking down my stairs at home and fell down on my butt then continued to go down about 8 more stairs on my butt! I sat there for a minute in shock wondering if that really just happened. My son, O., said "Mommy, are you ok?" as he was lying in bed (had just laid him down for the night). I said, "yes honey, mommy is ok." I didn't know if I should call the doctor - I didn't really hurt all that bad, the stairs had carpet,... I did finally call on Thursday and they asked me a few questions, consulted the doctor, and told me to come in on Friday for a quick ultrasound just to check (especially as I had not felt the baby move yet!) I was a little concerned that they wanted to see me, but decided that if it could wait until the next day in their minds, they weren't too worried.

I went to the doctor's early this afternoon and found out everything is great. The baby looks good, the placenta and umbilical cord are fine, and now I was emotionally ok as well. The tech said that my placenta is attached in front giving a "cushion" which may make it harder for me to feel that baby - and that I'd enjoy that "cushion" later!

Since my hubby wasn't there, we're waiting to do the real ultrasound next Friday still - he is able to get an hour or so off of work to come!!

Baby appointment

I had another check-up for the baby yesterday. I am about 18 weeks pregnant right now. After the holiday season packed with lots of good food I gained 4 pounds since last time which puts be at a total weight gain of 0 lbs. (I had lost 4 pounds the time before!). Neither myself, nor the doctor, are worried about this since I was bigger to begin with. I still have another 21 weeks or so to go depending on when we schedule the c-section - my goal is on a Friday if nothing else.

I look forward to every doctor's appointment just to hear the heartbeat right now. I think I felt the baby move last week, but not positive if that is what that feeling was! My blood pressure was good (115/75 - a bit high for me though!) The doctor keeps reminding me not to worry. I'll really feel the baby soon enough and then I'll wish they'd leave me alone!

We scheduled the ultrasound for 1/29. Disappointed at the time scheduling - they didn't have anything in the afternoon so B can't be there. I'm actually sort of angry about this - not everyone can work mornings into their schedule and he just can't take off from work 3 hours early or go to work 3 hours late! How frustrating. He's going to ask his boss if he can get an hour or so off to go - but only as long as it doesn't count against him!

Then my next doctor's appointment is on 2/17. After this appointment I'll be doing the glucose test...yuck!

On a funny note - I've only told 1 of my 4 classes that I'm pregnant. I wonder how long it will take before someone in the other 3 classes ask...(though I'd never want to ask someone that question!)

Baby update - not much to tell

Today I am about 17 weeks along with the pregnancy. Even though that is a ways into things, I can't help but still worry. I haven't felt the baby (that I know of) yet and that makes me nervous. They say most feel by 18 weeks if it isn't their first and I know that since I had more "padding" to begin with it makes it harder too. So I must say that I am looking forward to my appointment on Tuesday to hear the heartbeat again and to reassure me that things are going ok! (Maybe I should just buy one of those dopplers so I can listen whenever I need reassurance)

I am sort of between clothes right now. If you were to say I'm showing, it would be above the belly button, not below. So most of this week I was still able to wear my regular pants - but they are getting a bit too snug for me. So today I wore a pair of my maternity jeans and I had to constantly pull them up. I could invest if one of those belly bands, but by the time I get one, I'm sure I'll be into maternity jeans just fine :)

Hoping that at the next appointment we schedule the "big" ultrasound. Really hoping that the baby cooperates so that we can find out if it is a boy or girl. With already having a boy, and for many more complex reasons, we would like to find out so we can plan accordingly, especially since we're banking that this is our last chance for a child.


I'll try to remember to post after my appointment on Tuesday. Keep us in your prayers please!

Just a teacher...(rant)

The semester began on Monday for us - I have three classes on a T/R schedule and one on a M/W schedule. My M/W is late afternoon and the T/R schedule is 8 - 1:30. Talk about polar opposites, at least in my teaching world. I am very excited about having Fridays "off" - from teaching anyways.

I have come across too many people who seem to think that I work only 15-20 hours a week since I'm a "teacher" - so not the case. I may spend 15-20 hours a week in the classroom and holding office hours, but I have a lot of other things that I have to do for my job: preparation for that teaching - the length of this depends on my course, some are more work than expected. Generally, this is somewhere between 5-12 hours per week. Last semester I swear I spent 5-10 hours/week alone on 1 prepartion. Then there is all that pesky grading - probably another 5 hours. In addition, then students expect you to answer emails, meet outside of your office hours, etc. Probably another 2-3 hours a week. So just for "teaching" I spend 27 - 40 hours a week just on teaching. Now if that was all I had to do, I would think that was a pretty sweet deal too. But now let me list some of the other things that we have to do:

Meetings/Serve on committees: approximately 4-6 hours per week
Mentor/Advise students: 2-3 hours per week
Paperwork/documentation: 1-2 hours per week
Course discussions about curriculum/changes/assessment/etc: 2-3 hours per week
Research: Supposed to be 10%-20% of our time - so about 4-8 hours if a 40 hour week.

Grand total of hours: 40 - 62

Maybe that gives everyone a better idea of what a professor does (tenure/tenure-track anyways) and maybe help you understand why we always seem so busy and are hard to get ahold of!

Thanks for listening to the rant...

Finally can announce...

We are expecting a baby in mid to late June!!



O is very excited about being a big brother!

It was really hard to keep this a secret very long so a few family members already knew. We found out on 10/10 and our first appointment was 11/10. I was expected to be 8w 2d and the baby only measured 7w 3d but we did see a heartbeat! As the doctor could tell I was anxious about it being a week different, he set up an appointment in two weeks to take another peek - so on 11/24 I had another ultrasound and the baby measured 9w 3d, so exactly 2 weeks growth! Much happier now. Even though this was a week past where we got in August, I was still too nervous to tell everyone. I had my next appointment scheduled for 12/22. It was a quick appointment - found out I had lost 5 lbs so far (think I gained that while I was back in NE with my Mom's cooking!) and got to hear the heartbeat. Since I was officially out of the first trimester, I told some family on Christams eve via a picture of O in his "future big brother" t-shirt.