"For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother's womb.
I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it well."
Psalm 139: 13-14
Where did we leave off? Oh that's right the new doctor in December. Enter Dr. Plavidal. To say the least he is a character. I am sure everyone remembers the lamp that Ralphie's dad gets as a reward in the movie "A Christmas Story"? Well Dr. Plavidal liked the lamp so much, that he has 4 of them in various sizes. He thinks they are to funny. His staff roles there eyes at him allot. Needless to say Tara and I liked him right off the bat.
So the first appointment with him goes well. This was in December 2008. The first ultrasound is shown below. The next bit is the email I sent out after the appointment:
"Well the three of us had our third doctor visit today. The little one is just over 2 inches long and is doing great. In fact the little tike was very active and refused to stay still for much of the appointment. Every time Dr. Plavidal had the ultrasound equipment positioned to take “a perfect picture” the baby moved. The doctor would then spend the next minute or two trying to get a good position for a good shot of the baby. It was actually quite entertaining to watch. It also continues to affirm my belief that this baby is dominated by my side of the gene pool. My many proofs are this:
a. When Tara eats spicy food (especially Mexican food) she feels better
b. When Tara eats french fries she feels better (most of the time)
c. When Tara eats Blue Bell’s Cookies and Cream ice cream she feels better
d. The baby does not like to have its picture taken
The included picture is a great profile shot the kiddo. Clearly visible are the head, torso, legs and left arm. You can also see the skeletal structure starting to form. The bones will be the brighter white patches on the baby. The heart is beating at 163 beats per minute, which is right in the proper range for being 12 weeks along. Overall, Dr. Plavidal is very pleased with how the baby is looking and developing.
The coolest thing about this appointment is that we got to hear the baby’s heart beat. It took a few tries to hear it, because the little turkey was moving so much. The sound of the baby’s movement was strong enough to overpower the sound of the baby’s heart beat. Once we got a relatively still baby, and a good picture, the doctor turned on the sound. It was really great to hear, for about 3 seconds. Then the kiddo decided to move again and the movement drowned out the heart beat."
In January we had our next appointment. It went well, but our excitement was tempered by the loss of Tara's grandmother. To all of your who sent prayers and well wishes to us and for us, we again thank you. I did not send and email update because of everything surrounding Granny's passing. At this time we declined to do an amniocentesis as we did not think we had a reason to. Furthermore, we knew that no matter what it revealed, we were going to keep the baby. So there did not seem to be a good reason.
In February we had our next appointment. With this one we received a major piece of information. One everyone one of our friends and family had been asking us about. Here is the email I sent out to everyone.
"Well it has been an interesting month. 4 weeks ago we went for our monthly check up and everything looked fine according to the doctor. We got to see the baby’s brain. That was so cool. Both hemispheres were formed and district. The he showed us the baby’s stomach. It was a tight, round, dark ball and was filled with amniotic fluid. He said that the shape is good to see, because with down syndrome babies the stomach often (not every time) will look like a dumbbell. That was not the case, so the doctor is quite happy.
As most of you know two days later Tara’s grandmother passed away. Her passing tempered our excitement over the last appointment.
Now we are in week twenty, and just had another check up. The doctor said everything looks great, and that the proud mother to be is progressing nicely and is right where she should be. The doctor did a quick ultra sound and said the baby is developing beautifully. Which brings me to the question everyone has been PESTERING us about. We do know the sex of the baby. It will be a . . ."
I then turned on the out of office assistant, and shut off the computer. The our of office assistant read this way
"Like we would tell you the sex of the baby over email. You are just going to have to call us."
You wove me in my mother's womb.
I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works, and my soul knows it well."
Psalm 139: 13-14
Where did we leave off? Oh that's right the new doctor in December. Enter Dr. Plavidal. To say the least he is a character. I am sure everyone remembers the lamp that Ralphie's dad gets as a reward in the movie "A Christmas Story"? Well Dr. Plavidal liked the lamp so much, that he has 4 of them in various sizes. He thinks they are to funny. His staff roles there eyes at him allot. Needless to say Tara and I liked him right off the bat.
So the first appointment with him goes well. This was in December 2008. The first ultrasound is shown below. The next bit is the email I sent out after the appointment:
"Well the three of us had our third doctor visit today. The little one is just over 2 inches long and is doing great. In fact the little tike was very active and refused to stay still for much of the appointment. Every time Dr. Plavidal had the ultrasound equipment positioned to take “a perfect picture” the baby moved. The doctor would then spend the next minute or two trying to get a good position for a good shot of the baby. It was actually quite entertaining to watch. It also continues to affirm my belief that this baby is dominated by my side of the gene pool. My many proofs are this:
a. When Tara eats spicy food (especially Mexican food) she feels better
b. When Tara eats french fries she feels better (most of the time)
c. When Tara eats Blue Bell’s Cookies and Cream ice cream she feels better
d. The baby does not like to have its picture taken
The included picture is a great profile shot the kiddo. Clearly visible are the head, torso, legs and left arm. You can also see the skeletal structure starting to form. The bones will be the brighter white patches on the baby. The heart is beating at 163 beats per minute, which is right in the proper range for being 12 weeks along. Overall, Dr. Plavidal is very pleased with how the baby is looking and developing.
The coolest thing about this appointment is that we got to hear the baby’s heart beat. It took a few tries to hear it, because the little turkey was moving so much. The sound of the baby’s movement was strong enough to overpower the sound of the baby’s heart beat. Once we got a relatively still baby, and a good picture, the doctor turned on the sound. It was really great to hear, for about 3 seconds. Then the kiddo decided to move again and the movement drowned out the heart beat."
In January we had our next appointment. It went well, but our excitement was tempered by the loss of Tara's grandmother. To all of your who sent prayers and well wishes to us and for us, we again thank you. I did not send and email update because of everything surrounding Granny's passing. At this time we declined to do an amniocentesis as we did not think we had a reason to. Furthermore, we knew that no matter what it revealed, we were going to keep the baby. So there did not seem to be a good reason.
In February we had our next appointment. With this one we received a major piece of information. One everyone one of our friends and family had been asking us about. Here is the email I sent out to everyone.
"Well it has been an interesting month. 4 weeks ago we went for our monthly check up and everything looked fine according to the doctor. We got to see the baby’s brain. That was so cool. Both hemispheres were formed and district. The he showed us the baby’s stomach. It was a tight, round, dark ball and was filled with amniotic fluid. He said that the shape is good to see, because with down syndrome babies the stomach often (not every time) will look like a dumbbell. That was not the case, so the doctor is quite happy.
As most of you know two days later Tara’s grandmother passed away. Her passing tempered our excitement over the last appointment.
Now we are in week twenty, and just had another check up. The doctor said everything looks great, and that the proud mother to be is progressing nicely and is right where she should be. The doctor did a quick ultra sound and said the baby is developing beautifully. Which brings me to the question everyone has been PESTERING us about. We do know the sex of the baby. It will be a . . ."
I then turned on the out of office assistant, and shut off the computer. The our of office assistant read this way
"Like we would tell you the sex of the baby over email. You are just going to have to call us."
We then left home to run some errands. This did not go over well with a great many people. We received several very upset, to out right angry, phone calls to our home then our cell phones. I still do not understand why everyone did not think that this was as funny as I did. I guess most people do not have as good a sense of humor as I do. Oh well.
The next appointment was very uneventful. I did not even send out an update. By this time we were at the end of February or at the beginning of March 2009, and we were approaching the end of the second trimester. I will pick up here next week.
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