Things are looking up.

Events of the past week have been rather positive. My wife's nausea has mostly subsided. She no longer needs meds to keep from vomiting; however, she does have to keep away from dairy products. Or at least, she needs to take Lactaid when indulging in dairy. It seems her lactose intolerance has been has become more acute during her pregnancy. At least now she can control it. My wife had her latest exam on Friday as well. This was a quick trip, and everything looks OK. The baby's heart is nice and strong, beating at a robust 147 beats per minute. We have our next ultrasound due right about Christmas time. It should be a day or two before the long weekend. Now we get ready for Christmas. The shopping is all done. The painter starts next week. My back is mostly better, so I will probably resume working on the bathroom next week as well. That's all for this time. We'll have more pictures after the next ultrasound.

Biting off more than we can chew...

Things have been rather slow on the baby front, so my wife and I have turned our attention to getting the house ready for the baby. This really started back in the spring when we painted our sitting room a light green that we thought would look nice in a nursery. This fall, I decided to take apart the bathroom that will become the baby's bathroom as he gets older. That process began over the Veterans' Day weekend as I worked mostly in the attic, installing a new exhaust fan with light, removing the old fluorescent lighting, and replacing it with recessed lighting. As usual, there were a number of unexpected surprises that led to the lighting project taking two days to complete. The last day of that three-day weekend, Sunday, was supposed to be a day to rest and plan for the next step in remodeling the bathroom. However, we made a run to Costco for some water and other necessities instead. After we returned home, I tried to pull one of the Costco-sized water cartons out of the back of my truck. Unfortunately, my back had already decided it was done working for the weekend. I managed to get the carton clear of the truck when a whole bunch of muscles tightened into an agonizing knot. I managed to get the carton back in the truck, and I crawled back inside to recover. That was two weekends ago. I'm mostly better now, but there's more to be done. We had a painting and drywall contractor by the house to give us an estimate on some drywall repair and painting a significant portion of the house. He's starting in about 10 days. In the meantime, I started another project. This time, I planned to remove the fluorescent lighting from the kitchen, much as I did in the bathroom. One thing though, it had to be done before the contractor starts, so that he can patch the holes where the fluorescent fixtures used to be, as well as the holes I created while running the power for the new recessed lights. Ugh. It's done, and it looks nice. But... Our original plan was to install 10 lights -- six 6" cans and four 4" cans. We cut all the holes, only to find that three of the 4" holes were obstructed by a run of drain pipe above the tray ceiling in the kitchen. In addition, we needed to route power through three joists, not two. We bailed on installing the 4" guys all together. That's not bad because the room is plenty well-lit by the 6" lights. It's just that now we have seven holes waiting to be patched by the contractor. That, and my back is all knotted up again, though not as agonizing as it was after the water incident. Anyway, my original plan was to have the bathroom completely remodeled by the start of the new year. Thanksgiving weekend was supposed to see the majority of the destruction in that room, with the construction happening in December. Needless to say that schedule has slid significantly to the right. Obviously, I need to be in better shape for all this construction. It's a good thing the baby won't be here until May!

There's something moving in there!

We had our second scheduled visit to the OB last Friday. This was a relatively simple visit: height and weight, blood pressure, a brief discussion, and a listen to the baby' heartbeat. Everything is going well so far. The little guy's got a strong heart, and he likes to play hide-and-seek any time the doctors try to monitor him. We discussed my wife's morning, noon, and night sickness with the doctor as well. She put my wife on an anti-nausea medication, and it seems to be working so far. She hasn't had any episodes over the weekend. We spent most of the weekend out shopping for ideas on how to remodel what is going to become the kid's bathroom. We made it to the Great Indoors about 6:00 Saturday night. As we walked through the entrance, my wife started to slow up a bit. I asked her if she was getting nauseous. She told me her belly felt weird, kind of nauseous, but not like normal. This was kind of like gentle pressure, coming in waves, that was making her belly feel weird. We figure that's probably the baby moving around. So that's it, the first time she felt the baby move was while we were at the Great Indoors. By the way, anyone know how to install a bathtub?

The Name Game

October was been a busy month for my wife and I. It began with a trip to West Virginia to celebrate her grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. There was the trip to the National Zoo as part of a school assignment, an office network upgrade, and a trip to the beach for a bit of relaxation. And that was just the weekends. There haven't been many major events since my last post. My wife still pukes about once a day. We've tried a modified diet, antacids, sour candy, and those accupressure bands for motion sickness. Nothing seems to make a difference. We'll be talking to the OB about that next week. Oh yeah, and she's officially in "maternity clothing" now. Yup, she broke out the blue jeans with the specially designed waist support for the first time this morning. I'm not sure she's impressed with the fashion statement the jeans make (I think her exact quote was, "My God, I look pregnant!"), but at least they're more comfortable now than her regular clothing. Last week, one of her coworkers gave birth without having decided on a name for her new child. That set my wife off, and we've been on a crusade to find the right name for our child ever since. Granted, it's too early to know if we're having a boy or girl, and we really don't want to know until they baby is born, but we need a name now. Who know this was going to be so difficult? We've been through a book of over 100,000 names, and so far we've compromised on one. We might be OK if we have a boy. God help us if we have a girl -- Jane Doe and Unnamed Baby are looking like the best choices right now. There are just too many rules right now ... can't share names with another family member ... must make for good, short nicknames ... ought to reflect our heritage ... no androgynous names ... aiye yiye yiye! It's a good thing we still have six months to figure this out! Well, that's all I've got this time. Like I said, we go back to the OB next Friday. The next update will hopefully come shortly afterwards. Talk for soon.

Ten weeks and counting.

Lots of excitement to start the fall. We've been discharged from the fertility clinic and are now in the hands of our "regular" OB for the duration of the pregnancy. That led to a difficult situation last week when my wife was feeling quite a bit of discomfort in her lower abdomen. After about 24 hours of non-stop pressure (pain?), she was becoming nervous about what she was feeling. I was pretty sure from her symptoms that she was suffering from constipation, but suggested she call the doctor to make sure. Her first call was to her new OB. Unfortunately, because my wife hadn't had her initial visit with the OB yet, she wouldn't talk to us. Malpractice and liability, naturally. Ditto for the fertility clinic. Because my wife had already been discharged from their care, they didn't want to risk giving her medical advice either. All we got was a recommendation that we go to the emergency room for treatment. Of course, the trip to the emergency room wouldn't be covered by our medical insurance unless my wife was admitted as a result of the visit. Ridiculous -- gotta love lawyers and insurance companies. Right or wrong, we decided to wait to see if my wife showed any other symptoms of distress before going to the emergency room. Fortunately, the decision turned out to be the right one. My wife took care of her constipation problem the next morning, and everything was fine after that. On a more positive note, we had another ultrasound today. What a cool experience. As the technician waved the wand over my wife's belly, we got to see the baby move for the first time! Looks like the kid is going to be a thumb-sucker. He moved his tiny arm towards his giant head on several occasions while we watched in amazement. (And when I say "he", I mean the term generically. It's much too soon to know if the baby is a boy or girl, and we don't plan on finding out until "he" is born.) Fascinating, the little guy is jumping around in there now... For those interested in numbers, he's about 10 weeks along. His little heart is beating strong at about 160 beats per minute, and he stands a Paul Bunyan-esque 3.52 centimeters tall. Our due date has been moved up one week to May 3. The image isn't great, but you can click the link to see our latest sonogram. We go back to the OB in about a month, and assuming all goes well, our next sonogram won't be for another 10 weeks or so. That's all for this week. More to come!

A quiet week.

Not much to report from the baby front this week, so this week's blog entry is going to be a short one. The good news is that the intensity of my wife's "morning" sickness is starting to wane. There's been some nausea and spitting up, but we haven't had a full-fledged vomit episode in four days now. And now that she can hold on to her food, her energy and stamina are improving as well. We have our first meeting with my wife's new OB this Friday. We're also going away for the weekend next Saturday, so next week's entry may be a bit late, depending on how late we return next Sunday. Like I said, it's a short entry this week. Talk to you soon!

Is morning over yet?

Morning sickness... Whoever invented the term had it pretty easy. My wife is about 8 weeks pregnant now. Over the past week, what was "feeling nauseous" has turned into full-fledged vomiting. Full meal, small meal, no meal -- it makes no difference. Neither does the type of food seem to matter. We baked some chicken breast with rice and chicken broth earlier this week, and we weren't even finished cleaning the dishes before she gave it all back. We've tried pasta, mac and cheese, even toast with a spoonful of peanut butter...BLECH! A couple times or more a day now, she's sick to the point of vomiting. Here's what we do know so far. First, evening is the worst. Whether it's level of activity, number of distractions, or something truly biological, she seems to do better during the day than the evening. Fish is out. Just the smell of a salmon fillet cooking on the ol' George Foreman Grill is enough. (Interestingly, scented candles and lilies produce the same results. Most definitely, the olfactory senses are in high gear.) Soda sometimes makes things better, at least temporarily. It's awful to watch. And I don't mean actually watching what goes on in the bathroom, I mean just watching her cover her mouth and run to the toilet. I know she's miserable -- more so than I can even appreciate -- and that's what makes it so difficult. There's nothing I can do to make it any better. And this is supposed to go on for another four weeks? If she's lucky? I've had my share of food poisoning and 3rd world parasites. I can't imagine someone telling me, "It will get better in a month or so." What are you supposed to do until then? Not eat? So it's been a rough week. Hopefully things will start to get better, and soon. I'll keep the updates coming.

A new Terp on the way.

Hello everyone, It's been a busy 2006 so far. We've been to a lot of places this year, both for work and for fun. I most recently returned from a trip to China on the 30th of August. That weekend, because of a number of suspicious symptoms, my wife took a pregnancy test. To our collective surprise, the test came back positive. I say surprise because we started with a local fertility clinic two months earlier when we were having trouble conceiving. We hadn't even started a course of treatment when my wife found out she was pregnant. But I digress... Anyway, a blood test and a couple of ultrasounds later, we were able to see our baby's heartbeat for the first time this past week. My wife is about six weeks along now, and there's this little flicker of light going blip...blip...blip inside of her! For all the positive tests and symptoms, it didn't really seem real until then. Now we've got this new human being on the way, someone totally dependent on us for -- well -- everything. Scary, the thought of me being a father...trying to find the time...being responsible...being a role model...changing a diaper! The plans for exotic vacations and a resort property are on hold for now. They've been replaced by kid-friendly home improvements and furniture, a new SLR and video camera, and deeper cash reserves for when my wife has to stop working next year. Do I have to trade in the convertible for a 4-door commuter car? Hmm... It's a good time to have a baby. My wife's sister has a three-year-old and a four-month-old. My cousin is having twins later this year, and my best friend and his new bride are talking about kids as well. Lot's of playmates already. We'll try to keep this space updated with new news and information. Here's what we know right now: the doctor gave us an expected due date of May 10, 2007. Our next doctor visit is scheduled for October 6. Click here to see our latest sonogram! Blog again soon!