16-week check-in/check-up

Yay! Healthy baby! Found the heartbeat with the fetal monitor this time -- everything is ticking away just as it should be at about 150 beats/minute.

I'm still good, too. Good blood pressure, only gained one more pound (that's two total, for those keeping track) and we'll get the quad-screen blood work back in about a week. Hooray!

Next month's appointment will be the BIG ONE, should we choose to find out shim's, um, proportions. I think it's going to be a game-time decision...

Cats 'n Dogs

Two for today...

#1:

#2:

The Cat's Diary: Day 983 of My Captivity

My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects. They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets. Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength. The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape.

In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the carpet. Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates my capabilities. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a "good little hunter" I am. Bastards!

There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of "allergies." I must learn what this means, and how to use it to my advantage.

Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow, but at the top of the stairs.

I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released, and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded. The bird must be an informant. I observe him communicate with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe. For now ...


The Dog's Diary
8:00 am - Dog food! My favorite thing!

9:30 am - A car ride! My favorite thing!

9:40 am - A walk in the park! My favorite thing!

10:30 am - Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!

12:00 pm - Milk bones! My favorite thing!

1:00 pm - Played in the yard! My favorite thing!

3:00 pm - Wagged my tail! My favorite thing!

5:00 pm - Dinner! My favorite thing!

7:00 pm - Got to play ball! My favorite thing!

8:00 pm - Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing!

11:00 pm - Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!

Discovery Channel commercial

I mentioned below about the Discovery Channel "boom-dee-a-da" commercial... and I just found it on YouTube!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5BxymuiAxQ

The Bump

It's official: there's more than just 11 years worth of beer in there! (Who am I kidding? 15 years...)

Side note: SUPER kudos to the crackerjack advertising/marketing team at Discovery Channel for their new self-promo commercials. All my favorite Discovery friends singing along to a modified version of an old camp song that takes me immediately back to Camp Chief Ouray circa 1985. Makes me grin like nobody's business every time it comes on! Original song (if you haven't seen the Discovery version, you have to check it out!) -- must be sung with appropriate hand gestures for full effect:

I love the mountains

I love the rolling hills

I love the flowers

I love the daffodils

I love the fireside

When the lights are low

Boom-dee-a-da

Boom-dee-a-da

Boom-dee-a-da

Boom-dee-a-da...

Oh we are SO having a boy...

As if my 7-week dream wasn't weird enough (recap: about a week before the 8-week ultrasound, I had a dream that we went to said ultrasound and the tech said to me, "Yep, you're having a boy and he's due October 12." Fast forward to the day of the ultrasound and when she found the little bean -- way too gummi bear-like to tell the sex, of course -- she said "Well, it's measuring right on schedule for a due date of October 12!" Cue 'Twilight Zone' music...), this article makes the press yesterday. We are so having a boy.



Mom's diet may influence baby's sex, study says
In the quest to select a baby’s sex, success could depend on breakfast cereal and better nutrition, according to a new study that may offer some women another reason to eat their Wheaties.


Mothers-to-be who skip breakfast and eat less are more likely to give birth to girls, while moms who consume more calories and a wider range of nutrients — including, specifically, those from breakfast cereal — are more likely to deliver sons.


That’s according to new research by British scientists that provides what they say is the first-ever evidence that a mother’s diet at conception may determine her baby’s sex.



Researchers from the universities of Exeter and Oxford in England asked 740 first-time moms in the United Kingdom to keep food diaries before and during early pregnancy. The women didn’t know the sex of their babies, but when researchers reviewed their food plans, they found that moms who consumed more calories of higher quality before conceiving were about 24 percent more likely to give birth to boys than moms who ate less.


“The overall sex ratio in our population was close to 50:50, but individual mothers had a greater chance of bearing male offspring if their nutrient intake was high prior to conception,” wrote Fiona Mathews, the study’s lead author and a research fellow at the University of Exeter. “The consumption of breakfast cereal was also strongly associated with having a male infant.”
Fifty-six percent of women in the group with the highest energy intake gave birth to boys, compared to 45 percent in the group with the lowest energy consumption, according to the study.


Mothers of boys consumed an average of 2,413 calories a day before conception and higher amounts of foods containing potassium, calcium and vitamins C, E and B12, the researchers said. Women who had girls logged 2,283 calories a day and less protein, vitamins and minerals.
Odds of having a boy were much higher for women who ate at least one bowl of breakfast cereal a day compared to women who ate less than one bowl a week, the study said. Breakfast cereals are usually fortified by vitamins and minerals.


Critics wary of claimsCritics, however, said the new research contradicts basic facts of human genetics. A father’s sperm determines a child’s sex, and there’s no evidence that maternal nutrition has anything to do with it, said Dr. Paul Magarelli, vice president of the Pacific Coast Reproductive Society.


“A correlation does not make the truth,” said Magarelli, who is also director of the Reproductive Medicine and Fertility Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. “I think it’s a spurious correlation, that’s all I can say.”


The British scientists said that although fathers do determine sex, their research indicates that mothers’ may be able to favor the development of one sex over another, perhaps in the way that high-glucose environments in in-vitro fertilization appear to favor male embryos and inhibit female embryos.


The research is also supported by an evolutionary drive to produce more offspring in times of plenty. In many animals — including horses, cows and some species of deer — more males are produced when a mother has more resources, the scientists noted.


Skipping breakfast, for instance, extends overnight fasting and depresses glucose levels, which could be interpreted by the body as a poor environment, researchers said.


Their argument deserves further study, said Dr. Tarun Jain, an assistant professor of reproductive endocrinology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Jain said his initial response to the study topic was skeptical, but that it changed after he read a draft of the report to be published Wednesday in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, a British journal.


“It’s not showing far and away that if women eat a certain diet they’ll have a boy or a girl, but it certainly is giving us some information,” Jain said. “Could there be dietary factors that influence conception?”


Diet trends may explain fewer boysIn addition to suggesting that breakfast cereal may produce more boys, the researchers said that nutrition and diet trends may account for an incremental decline in male births in developing nations. Over the last 40 years, births of boys have also dropped by about 1 per 1000 births annually in the United States, the U.K. and Canada, they said.


At the same time, many young women in those developed nations have begun skipping breakfast and eating poorer-quality diets.


“This research may help explain why, in developed countries, where many young women choose to have low-calorie diets, the proportion of boys born is falling,” Mathews said.


That's counter to the trend in countries such as India, Vietnam and China, where births of boys now outpace girls because parents selective sex techniques, including abortion, to obtain highly prized sons.


The new study may influence mothers to try to use nutrition to select sex, which worries ethicists such as Nigel Cameron, president of the Institute on Biotechnology and the Human Future at the Chicago-Kent College of Law at the Illinois Institute of Technology.


"It adds to the manipulative tool box whose purpose is designer babies," said Cameron, adding: "We need a lot more social debate about the fact that children should be received as-is."

T-minus...

Two months* til Amy and Kyle's wedding!

*Technically yesterday was two months, but I couldn't post yesterday, so I'm pretending it's today.

Totally Tuesdee

Go Avalanche! (Sorry, Brian and Chris...)

Technology. Having a painfully, frustratingly slow computer (thanks to loading every CD one has ever owned) is akin to the early days of internet, when dial-up service was second only to watching paint dry in the fun department. Remember when you'd wait for a page to load, it would get half-way (literally) and then completely freeze? Yeah, that was my day yesterday. Solution? Buy a new computer, of course! Yay!

Thanks to the slow-ass computer, though, I had lots of time to look around the (current) home office-slash-dog room and daydream about how it will soon transform into baby's room. Three tan walls (excuse me: winter wheat) and one blue or green wall. (Note: girls can like blue; I'm a girl and I like blue. Boys, however, cannot like pink. It's not my rule; it's in the handbook.) White crib and changing table (yet to be purchased); white dresser with drawers painted in a complementary color. Bedding either fishies, turtles or cows. In my head it's adorable. Photos will be posted when it comes to fruition.

Schmaltzy poem for a beautiful Friday

Daddy's Heart
Author: Unknown

When I heard the news of you,
I did the things most Daddies do.
I opened up my heart so wide,
For you to have a place inside.
As each day passed, I'd think of you,
I'd watch you grow, I was expecting too!

I tried to imagine the person you'd be
Would you look or act like me?
I thought of the things that we would do,
The times we'd share, just us two.

I would give you piggyback rides,
Push your swing and watch you slide.
I would teach you how to ride a bike,
Catch your first ball and throw your first strike.

I would hold your hand in mine,
Be your protector, strong yet kind.
I would be your hero and friend,
Give love and advice on which you'd depend.

I will always remember the day you were born,
I cradled a miracle, small and warm.
What words I had were scarce and few,
A tear and a smile were the best I could do.

Life gave me a moment, precious and rare,
Bursting with pride, excitement and care.
I promised you then, all that I had,
See, you were my child and I was your Dad.

When I heard the news of you,
I did the things most Daddies do.
I opened my heart so wide,
Where you will always have a place inside.

Froot Loops vs. Lucky Charms

Tough call. Marshmallows vs. sugar-coated Os... Toucan vs. leprechaun. I'm just not sure who (or what) wins.

Baby's scalp hair follicle pattern is developed today, tomorrow and Friday. Bless shim's little (but fully functioning!) heart -- could be very fortunate or bald by 12!

By the by, 82 degrees yesterday and snowing today? Sigh. Love spring in Denver.

Goodbye, ski season!

Not this year, but fun! Opening 07/08 weekend at Keystone:

More than 20" of snow in Summit County in the past week... and everything is now closed. (Except Breck -- one more week to enjoy!)

So truthfully I haven't been up in two months, but the end of ski season is always a little bittersweet. Hope to be able to enjoy next season without any cliffs, lost skis or ACL blowouts!

Status Check: Week 14

14w1d. Baby B is 3" long and... um, a few ounces in weight. (I don't know that one.)

According to the preggo journal, shim's arms are full-sized, or at least in correct proportion to his body; legs are still short 'n stubby. Most everything else is fully functioning by now: pancreas, intestines, cheek muscles, arm and leg muscles.

All the books say that the "flutters" can start to be felt anytime between 14 and 22 weeks. I got nuthin. (Most activity starts to be felt around 18-20 weeks.)

That's all I got on baby right now. Good weekend in Denver: not much accomplished. Watched "There Will Be Blood" and have two questions: was Paul really a person, or just a figment of crazy Eli's imagination and a split in his personality? What does "I'm finished" really mean? Great movie -- Daniel Day Lewis is absolutely brilliant.

By the by, worked on Amy and Kyle's wedding invitations yesterday -- so pretty! Their wedding is going to be so lovely. Yay!

It's Official

I am an old lady: Facebook baffles me. Like wholly, totally and completely baffles me.

That is all.

KU wins! KU wins! (Two days ago...)

Go KU go! Twenty years is a long time... but they did it! Hooray!

Roy Williams in KU gear, cheering from the stands. Class act.

Denver is forecasted to get 3-8" of heavy, wet snow overnight. YUCK!!

Upside is that we have a lovely weekend forecasted: 60s and sunshine. That's why I love it here. I'm thinking a nice hike somewhere (dogs off-leash with their fancy new Boulder County green tags, thanks to the Nazi-esque park warden last weekend... smooches!) and a little sun on the skin would be fantastic.

Baby B continues to grow. I could be imagining it, but I noticed a discernable rounding of my lower belly this morning. Could have just been last night's chicken dinner and after-dinner ice cream... but maybe not.

Bought my first maternity purchase yesterday: a pair of jeans. Scary thing is that I think I may buy ALL maternity wear going forward -- it's shockingly comfy!

Side note: Carson Ring is the cutest baby of all time. Baby B has some lofty goals ahead of shim!

Lucky Charms.

Who knew that an oaty, marshmallowy cereal could be the most delicious (albeit not the most nutritious) daily meal available?

Side note: thanks to Mom and Dad for such a fun weekend! This sickly pregnant gal had a great time hiking, watching hoops (GO KU!!!!) and getting sunburned at the Rockies game this weekend, to say nothing of stuffing herself silly with steak, taters and peach pie!

Thanks, too, for having so much fun in anticipation of Baby B! This will be one lucky grandbaby!

Baby B... as an adult

Apparently, this is what our child is going to look like as an adult. Um... too late to change our minds?

Let's get this (blog) party started!

Status check:
12w5d preggo. Baby B is healthy, active, strong heartbeat. According to the pregnancy journal, baby's vocal cords are fully grown as of today. (But "it can't talk, because sound requires air, not liquid." Very helpful.)

Mom is sick: thought it was allergies, now thinking not so much. Hacky cough with lots of phlegm. Yuck.

Dad is healthy, but tired of mom feeling yucky.

So I'm entering the blogosphere for two reasons: (1) cuz it's cool, and (2) it's a good way to keep folks near and far up-to-date on the progression of Baby B, as well as this-and-that in general.

Thankful things on a beautiful Friday morning:
Delicious eggy biscuit and hot cocoa
It's Friday (duh)
Fun weekend ahead
Spring
Healthy baby (er, fetus)
Fuzzy puppy lips

Peace out.