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!