As you may already know, Becky has been adapting to a major lifestyle change during the past few months. No, I am not talking about the onset of summertime in Arizona. I am talking about pregnancy.
At this point, she is about 18 out of 40 weeks along. These weeks have comprised many days of dietary aversions, bedrest, nausea, anemia, and various forms of internal discomfort. In spite of it, Becky pushes forward and still manages to see a few clients per day. We hope to find some relief during the second trimester as some people have experienced. But one thing we have gathered is that everyone's experience with pregnancy appears to be unique - even from child to child. So it's probably unwise to have too many expectations when you are expecting.
Speaking of which, the due date is set for November 24. That is easy to remember because it's Thanksgiving. But of course, it's not determined by the alignment of the stars or anything. Different doctors have adjusted it at different points, and I suppose it just serves as a convenient reference point for them more than anything.
At some point along the way prior to pregnancy, we began discussing assistance options with fertility doctors. Perhaps I'll write more about that later on because there is this whole elaborate process behind it. It really is like a science experiment. But for now, I'll just note that all it took for us was some fortunate timing and a hormone shot (apparently). After that, all the wheels were set in motion. The elusive zygote became a little kidney bean of an embryo with a tiny beating heart that we could already see after 8 or 9 weeks. Here's a video if you want to see that.
We eventually moved on from seeing a fertility doctor to an OB/GYN and continued regular checkups and ultrasounds. I have been really impressed by the level of detail that can be observed with these fancy 3-D ultrasound imagers. They produce a model of the fetus that looks like a sculpted clay rendering from a college art class (Fig. 1).
By now, I have a whole bunch of ultrasound images saved up from our visits. You can see them all here, and I'll probably add more as they come. But this one below (Fig. 2) is perhaps the most interesting, because it answers the first question people start asking you at this stage. I will let you have a look and see for yourself!
At this point, she is about 18 out of 40 weeks along. These weeks have comprised many days of dietary aversions, bedrest, nausea, anemia, and various forms of internal discomfort. In spite of it, Becky pushes forward and still manages to see a few clients per day. We hope to find some relief during the second trimester as some people have experienced. But one thing we have gathered is that everyone's experience with pregnancy appears to be unique - even from child to child. So it's probably unwise to have too many expectations when you are expecting.
Speaking of which, the due date is set for November 24. That is easy to remember because it's Thanksgiving. But of course, it's not determined by the alignment of the stars or anything. Different doctors have adjusted it at different points, and I suppose it just serves as a convenient reference point for them more than anything.
At some point along the way prior to pregnancy, we began discussing assistance options with fertility doctors. Perhaps I'll write more about that later on because there is this whole elaborate process behind it. It really is like a science experiment. But for now, I'll just note that all it took for us was some fortunate timing and a hormone shot (apparently). After that, all the wheels were set in motion. The elusive zygote became a little kidney bean of an embryo with a tiny beating heart that we could already see after 8 or 9 weeks. Here's a video if you want to see that.
We eventually moved on from seeing a fertility doctor to an OB/GYN and continued regular checkups and ultrasounds. I have been really impressed by the level of detail that can be observed with these fancy 3-D ultrasound imagers. They produce a model of the fetus that looks like a sculpted clay rendering from a college art class (Fig. 1).
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| Fig. 1. A 3D sonogram image of the fetus tucked in the womb, taken at about 13 weeks of pregnancy. |
By now, I have a whole bunch of ultrasound images saved up from our visits. You can see them all here, and I'll probably add more as they come. But this one below (Fig. 2) is perhaps the most interesting, because it answers the first question people start asking you at this stage. I will let you have a look and see for yourself!
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| Fig. 2. Determining the child's gender is not nearly as technical as I thought it would be. Here at about 17 weeks, you can see (or not see) everything you need to know for learning the gender. |
Congrats! That's so exciting!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
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