Gametes In Love

So one of the major items on our list can officially be checked off: We found a day-care provider for G!

We didn’t get into the big centers in our area because their wait-lists are pretty extensive (see our previous rant on the topic), but we’re certainly not disappointed with our decision and the outcome of the situation. We found two in-home providers that we were interested in, but what solidified our final decision was location and time availability.

We’ll keep G in this day-care for at least 6 months and then re-evaluate. If we’re happy with the structure and education he’s getting he’ll stay through 1 year… maybe 2. He gets home cooked food (once he moves onto solids), and he’ll probably eat better at day-care than at home (as much as I am shamed to admit). I like the social interaction he’s going to have with kids in his peer-group. There will be a few toddlers as well, which I’m hoping will have the same effect as growing up w/ an older sibling and get him interacting a little bit ahead. I’m certainly not looking for G to grow up super-fast, don’t get me wrong, but I like knowing that he’ll have some developmental “role models”. I also like the smaller group setting. Hopefully less kids = less germs, and less germs = less sick G and less sick parents.

Our plan is for G to start in January. One of us will be doing the drop-offs (probably S) and the other will be doing the pick-ups (probably me). It will all depend on who’s more flexible which part of the day. I’m normally the morning person in the bunch, so I can see myself getting up early to work so I can leave on the earlier side.
I do ultimately realize that this is S and I planning our ideal – G is going to have his own ideas which could very well put a huge wrinkle in our planning process.

So at least for now, this is one BIG “to-do” task we can relax about. We still have to:

• find a pediatrician
• have the “circumcision debate” (boy is S looking forward to this one)
• research chord blood banking usage (it’s a pretty hefty expense… but would I regret NOT doing it if we needed it?)
• research vaccination schedules and delay alternatives (w/ G going into day-care, we might not have too much choice into this one)
• start looking into a second car (they don’t make infant seats for motorcycles)

Of course there are many other “smaller” items, but the above are the big ones I’d like to/have to resolve before G arrives… and all I want to think about and can handle thinking about at the moment.

I was woken up at precisely 2:36am this morning by the most agonizingly painful Charlie horse cramp EVER!!! I’d heard that these can be common with pregnancy, but this was so awful I jumped out of bed so immediately you could have sworn someone poured boiling water on me.

It’s still sore 🙁

All I gotta say is “Oooooooooooooooooow!”

Yeah… let’s not have a repeat of that one.

Yesterday S and I went to a 4D u/s appointment. I love seeing G and ever since the first 3D experience we had during our NT scan, I’ve been impatiently awaiting this one.

The place we went to (LRD Scanbabies) was great, and I highly recommend it to anyone living in the CA South Bay/Peninsula, or willing to do a little drive. Part of the scan is the confirmation of all the measurements taken at the Big U/S and they send your OB a report of the findings. Oh and we got confirmation that G is, in fact, still a boy. Seeing his… uhmn… “stuff” in 3d there was no mistake. I’ll spare you that photo, mostly because I don’t want G to develop a complex down the line from the fact that the whole world has had access to his privates. I think the gender reveal scan is enough… at least for now.

All of his measurements suggest that as of right now G weighs in at 2.46lbs. He is right on track. His femur and tummy measurements are just a few days behind, but his noggin is a few days ahead. They averaged out to exactly 28w, which is where I said I was.

G in true form didn’t really cooperate with us, so we didn’t get a chance to see a good, clean view of his face. He had both arms AND feet up around his head so we chased him around a few times to see if he’d move. Of course when he did get some of his appendages out of the way he stuck his head up against the wall of my uterus. This child is either quite camera shy, or purposefully telling his that pictures are only taken when HE feels like it.

So without further adieu here are G’s latest mugshots:

That thing by his lips? His foot. In the side profile the majority of the picture is the wall of my uterus.

We’re still trying to figure out whose nose he has, but I guess we have plenty of time to ponder that one once we see him in person in a few months.

That’s our baby!

Last week-end, S and I began working on G’s room. As that room used to be our guest room, there was a whole series of things that needed to occur before we can begin baby-fying it. We needed to move the bed out into (what is today) the office, but before we can make that move we needed to get a wall-system in there so that the queen-sized bed doesn’t constantly take up space. Well, our wall system was installed last Saturday (and looks AWESOME by the way).

The afternoon included a trip to Kelly Moore paints where we went to get our VOC-free paint and then lots of taping. In the rest of the week-end and through the week following S did it all. We then assembled G’s crib and put up the bedding. It’s really coming together. I walk in there several times a day and just stand still trying to take it all in. I imagine the little person who’ll be living there for years to come, the nights I’ll be spending in that space trying to calm him down, and just generally seeing his development in there. It’s weird – that room isn’t just about his arrival – it seems to be about everything after that.

The walls are still bare and our glider won’t arrive until sometime next month, but so far we’re pretty pleased with the results. Here are some pics:

The furniture in there is the furniture we bought for our loft bedroom about 5 years ago. It’s amazing how well it matches G’s crib!

My sister is working on some wall art for us. She’s making a series of different scenes of a baby griffin’s life. I gotta say – they look simply too cool and make me giggle when I see them. I can’t wait for the final artwork, but meanwhile I’ll share with you the draft:

Cool, huh? My favorite is the eating scene.

And that’s it for the nursery so far: final pics to come in a few weeks once it’s all done.

When I was about 5 I remember having a huge argument with one of my friends. The topic? Where babies came from. You see, at that time, I firmly believed that babies came out of your belly button. My friend’s theory was a little more … graphic. In my defense, the baby lived in the belly, there was a belly button whole that didn’t seem to have much other use (aside from lint collection) so it made sense.

Well… ever since my belly started growing, my belly-button started shrinking. I don’t have a “before” picture, but here’s an after:

Now, how’s a baby going to come out of this I ask?

At this rate, I’ll be minus a belly button by the time we’re done. Or does it pop-out like the turkey thermometer when it indicates I’m done baking?

On a side note, here’s a belly pic from this past Saturday. 26 weeks and growing!

P.S. In my mother’s defense, I will say that I was well educated on how babies GOT there. I just must have skipped/ignored/psychologically blocked-out how they got OUT.

…. is apparently to register before you conceive.

You know those horror stories you hear about how to get into the right preschool you need to register as soon as your child is born? Well… I think we’re living in one of those. Apparently moving out of the city means that we moved into the land of “the breeders” and the waiting lists for daycare are 20+ families long and 11 months out. And we’re not even trying to get into “the right” (read ippidy) preschool. We just want a clean, organized, attentive day care provider.

Now, I know that S and I are starting on this process a little late, but we don’t need a day care provider until January of ’09, so I figured starting to call places with a 6 month lead time “should” be ok, right? Apparently not! I called 21 daycare providers today off of a list I received from work. Of those, 3 lines were disconnected, I left a voice-mail for 3 to call me back and 11 didn’t accept children under the age of 2. That leaves us with 4 that did take infants, but didn’t have any space in January.

One of those centers told me their next opening for an infant was in late April/May of ’09. So let’s do some math: late April/May of ’09 puts us 11 months out. That means that a family would need to register before their child is conceived. Ok, ok, I know that a mom can get 6-8 weeks maternity leave from work before she needs care, but that’s still right around the time you get your pee-stick line.

So we’ll keep calling until something works out. I’m not stressing out yet, but I find this process sad. We’re pretty open to day care facilities, in-home providers and nannies. The last option is last on our list considering how expensive dedicated family nannies are. I also draw the line at Au Pairs. I don’t have anything against the Au Pair program, but I’m hesitant to establish a bond between them and G only to have them leave and be replaced in a year. I have many other reasons, but I’ll stop here.

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In other news, I had my 3hr glucose diabetes follow-up test today. The drink tasted better than last time (don’t ask me how). I got pricked 4 times and now the bruises on my arms make me look like I have an intravenous drug habit. Hmn… I wonder what work will think tomorrow? My OB should get the results in the next few days. I better pass this thing! I leave this topic with some food for thought (literally): if we are supposed to digest 100g of sugar in 5 minutes, why not just give us a slice of Cheesecake Factory cheesecake? It’s at least tasty!

***

In other, other news, we’re now in the 3rd trimester. At 26 weeks, I’m now cruising into the last stretch. It’s scary, it’s exciting, and … did I say scary?

Oh, I found out today that I failed my glucose test by 1 point. Normal range is less than 140 plasma glucose mg/dL and I have 141. Yey me!

Yesterday morning, bright and early I got up and went to our local blood-sucking lab for my gestational diabetes test. I had to drink an overly sweet drink in 5 minutes that progressively tasted worse (to me) with each gulp, wait an hour and then have my blood taken. All of this, to find out I have to do it again 🙁

That’s right: I “failed” the 1 hour glucose test. By failing, I mean that my results came back high. This is a potential indicator for gestational diabetes. I’m not particularly concerned about it: I know gestational diabetes affects 4% of pregnant women and a significantly higher number than that fail the 1 hour glucose test. If it turns out that I do have it, it should go away after birth, G will be OK, and I can manage my insulin either through diet or meds. Like I said – I’m not too worried. I won’t be unless told to worry anyway.

Our OB, concerned that the results could have been thrown off by my 15 hour travel the night before gave me two options: repeat the 1 hour test (I get do-over’s here) or go in for the 3 hour test. I opted for the 3 hour one. If I do the 1 hour, and it comes in high again, I’ll have to do the 3 hour one anyway. I might as well spare myself one potential nasty drink visit.

For this next version I have to not eat for 12 hours (which will be hard), get my blood taken, take twice the dosage of the yucky drink, and then have my blood taken 3 more times on the hour. Any of this sound fun? Good – then you can trade places with me ;p

Have I mentioned that my aunt and cousin run a distribution center for baby clothes? What this means is that we came home with a bunch of super cute clothes for G.

My favorite of course is this:

S is insisting that this will be G’s daily feeding outfit. Too cute, no?

And Yes, I will be the mother that will be giving her child a reason to seek therapy for the funky outfits she made him wear down the line.

I think forever in my mind will be burned the image of my grandfather waving to our taxi from the dining room window. This could and probably is the last time I would see him in person. A few weeks ago he was diagnosed with cancer. Although its skin related, the growth is large, on his head, will require surgery, and quite frankly all of us are concerned that his body just won’t be able to handle the treatment.

The significance of my time with my grandparents on this trip didn’t really hit me until S and I took our last ride away from their home. Much of this, to be honest with you, was caused by the fact that I said my Good-Bye to him several years ago. At that time he was diagnosed with a tumor and the doctors gave him only a few months to live. 4 years later he’s obviously beat their expectations, but I just haven’t allowed myself to get close to him again. I went through our visits with them staying calm and feeling mostly numb until those last few minutes.

My grandfather really is one the most wonderful people anyone could ever know. He is honest to a fault, trusts a hand-shake agreement as much as a signed document, entirely selfless and would give the shirt off of his back to help a stranger out. Hugging his frail body on this last hug is such a contrast to the strong man I remember growing up.

I didn’t take any pictures of him on this trip. To be honest, I didn’t want to. I just didn’t want to remember him the way I saw him over these last few days, and as S pointed out, he probably wouldn’t want to be remembered that way either. This is the way he liked to be thought of:

and this is the image I’d much rather think of anyway.

The part that makes this Good-Bye so terrible is that in a very selfish way I fear that I could not only be saying Good-Bye to him but my mother as well. With my grandfather gone, my grandmother cannot remain on her own, which implies that my mother, their only child, would need to be there for her. My grandmother, who doesn’t speak English, doesn’t hold a US citizenship can’t easily be moved to the US. She doesn’t exactly have the easiest personality to get along with (to put it mildly) and putting her in the apartment environment that my parents live in, with nothing to do, is simply asking for trouble. Having her live in our home with us, is no good solution either.

There is just no good solution to what my family will do here! Although my grandmother isn’t in the best of health, she has years left in her and I think it’s unfair to loose my mother to a place so far away. Like I said, I’m being completely selfish. Although, I see my parents but a few times a year, knowing that they are a short flight away gives me comfort. A 14-18 hour travel plan to see her doesn’t! My mother and I are very close. She’s been more of a best friend to me than a mother. We talk at least every other day and there are so few things about me she doesn’t know I could probably count them on one hand.

My father also depends on my mom more than he would admit. I worry about his heart health and what my mom’s absence will do for it.

I really like knowing that I can resolve the obstacles I face in my life, and there just isn’t a good one here. I find the situation frustrating and saddening and I just don’t know how to fix it.