second trimester...
...woooo hooooo. as barry manilow croons, "looks like we made it."
...the whole baby countdown has me confused. by most counts, you start counting on the date of your last period. since my memory is at the best of times spotty, that particular milestone eludes me. mid-july sometime? fortunately there's some magical mathematical formula based on the ultrasound technician clicking on the approximate length of the fetus on a verrry blurry photo that then emits signals to the univac (insert appropriate old school computer processing sounds) which then spits out the gestational age of your fetus. for project jalanquera, that would be 11 weeks. the nurses give you a due date but say that most first time mothers are either 2 weeks early or 2 weeks late so don't get attached to the due date. why not just fess up to this not being an exact science, and the due date will be sometime in april? for all intents and purposes i'll be using the estimated gestational age as that's the one that actually makes sense to me.
...spotting is normal. i don't care, i still found it terrifying and i'm glad my doctor a sent me in for an ultrasound. all is well now.
off task...
...educator's are the best resource for names. chandeleira jala. we need look no further.
...week 10. feeling good. i've fortunately been spared morning sickness. the past week has been more mental prep than any physical or spiritual epiphanies. all the financial particulars of maternity leave, medical insurance, life insurance, daycare vs nannies. i'm in a slight panic to get life under control on these fronts (or at least some sort of plan). jala's been kind enough to humor me as i come up w/ something new to worry about every hr or so.
...we just got back from an open house in the neighborhood where we lulled ourselves into the what if? game. what if we had 2400 sq ft of newly remodeled home to start a family? is the marital strain of renovating or tearing down and building anew equivalent to the financial strain of a mortgage we can't really afford? its appealing but unfortunately not realistic. where does this obsession with square footage come from anyway? mom and dad had 3 kids under 5 in a one bedroom apartment. we should be ok in 810 sq ft for at least a few years. or until we figure out how to build casa jalanquera for $150/sf.
...collapsing into bed before the sun set in seattle led to insomnia at 5 am. i found this: www.mascot.net
what made it...
what made it real is the first ultrasound. our doctor didn't bother with a pregnancy test, just dropped the gel on my belly, pressed power up and shazam, found a heartbeat.
the other highlight of our first visit was the doctor said i can still ride roller coasters as long as they're not too violent. WOOO HOOOO. unfortunately jala's deemed the zipper as too violent for this decade let alone with jalanquera riding shotgun
and so begins...
another round of musings from yours truly.
pregnant. crrrrazy. its exciting and awe inspiring and terrifying all at once. i've been in and out of denial. no, denial isn't quite the right word, some mornings i wake up and i just don't feel pregnant. i mean i don't look any different and if i don't feel any different, than maybe i'm not? maybe i can take back some of those vices? (just kidding, jala.) then i realize i've gotten up to pee a million times last night (pregnancy shrinks your bladder), that i've had 9 hrs of sleep and still look exhausted when i get to work and that we'd better get on a waiting list now for daycare or this baby's going to be sitting at my desk answering RFI's for me. oh right, i guess i do "feel" pregnant.
names for today: aguinaldo and mindy
sidebar: the font i've chosen is called trebuchet. i fail to see what this font has to do with its medieval namesake but i'm sticking to it. hmmm, trebuchet jala, i like it.
