Proof She's A Girl

I'm sure she will hate me for this one day but since Anne has two boys (very cute ones at that) and she's never seen what a girl looks like on an ultrasound this post is for her benefit and at her request. The arrow is pointing to the "3 dots" that indicate she's a girl. The first one it's super easy to see in but the other two (especially the 3D, I think) are a little harder, I actually still don't see the dots in the 3D one but I took her word for it since I definitely see it in the 2D pictures. You might have to click on the picture to enlarge it to really see.

Finally in the Cards

Well the cards finally aligned and the baby finally opened his/her legs, well enough to see the gender, and it's a...GIRL! We knew within a few minutes of being there and we got 3 pictures confirming her girlness. We're very excited to finally know that we are having a daughter and now are on pink, brown, and sage green mode. :) Her room's sage green, which we painted even before we decided to start trying and figured it would be good for a boy or a girl so now we get to accent with pink.

We ended up doing the 3D ultrasound to be sure we got the detail to confirm the gender and it was really cool. Of course she still looks so skinny because she's just starting to accumulate fat but I think she has Marc's full cheeks, so cute, and I am sure we are going to love mutchking (Yiddish for cuddling) them! We saw her swallow a few times and she stuck out her tongue, it was so cute. The lady doing the ultrasound said it was pretty common for babies to stick out their tongue when they swallow in the womb. She also opened her mouth which we were able to see. We also saw her sucking her fingers and thumbs and we got a few smiles from her. Of course she loves to have her legs crossed and feet tucked under her bottom. I realized the other night that I sit like that on the couch when I watch TV. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree!

At dinner Marc and I were talking and he asked if I was excited to have a little scrapbooking partner and I got really excited. I've been thinking of all the fun stuff I could buy to create her scrapbooks but I never thought that one day we can scrap together. I got so excited, it's going to be so much FUN!

So here are some pictures we got of our daughter (I'm leaving off the three photos that show she is a girl - I don't want to embarrass her too much)! It still amazes me that 8 weeks ago she looked like a jelly bean and now she looks like a real baby. We have an anatomy scan in 4 weeks so it will be fun to see how much she has changed in a month.

Just Posing:

Striking another pose:

A picture of her smiling:

We got lots of smiles from her:

When she swallowed amniotic fluid she stuck out her tongue a few times:

Stretching:

Finally, sucking her thumb

The Dada Saves the Day Again

The Dada saved the day again! I was at scrapbooking last night and Marc came home after work and had some pizza and boy time with Homer. At about 9:30 as I was pulling into the garage Marc called and asked where I was, which he never does. I told him I was pulling in the garage so he told me to hurry up and get upstairs, it was Homer. I ran upstairs and there was Homer in the middle of the room, out of it and panting excessively. He had a grand mal seizure, the first since December 2006. Poor Marc is always home alone with him when he has problems. Marc gave him mouth-to-mouth and got him to wake back up. We moved him to the tile in the bathroom and tried to calm him down. When his breathing was getting very forced and shallow we knew we had to take him into the emergency vet office.

So we got in the car and headed back to VetCare, which we were hoping to avoid but Homer likes to have his crisis in the middle of the night. We hit every green light but it seemed like it took us forever to get there. I ran him in and told them he was having breathing problems after his grand mal seizure and he has congestive heart failure. They rushed him to the back and put him on oxygen. He got seen right away which was nice. They took chest x-rays and there was fluid in his lungs but it wasn't nearly as bad as it was last night. They were most concerned with another seizure so they kept him overnight for observation and also gave him diuretics through an IV to flush out the fluids.

I called this morning to check in and they had tried to take him out of oxygen but he was too agitated and was coughing and breathing hard. So they put him back in oxygen and the kept him in the incubator but turned off his oxygen to see if being in the same environment on room air kept him calm. It seemed to do the trick, he was still a little worked up but he was able to breath room air. They took another set of x-rays to see if the fluid was still there since he was making such a ruckus. My dear sweet Homer is a faker! The vet said based on the x-rays there is no reason at all he should be coughing so he wanted to send Homer home. Normally they would have kept him for 24 hours to monitor for seizures but they sent me home with a syringe of Valium to be deposited rectally, lovely, if he has another seizure. But he said he wanted Homer home so he could rest. I could hear Homer barking in the background! So I told him I was going to pack up at work and head over to get him. In the 10 minutes it took me to get there they decided to ignore Homer and my little man was sound asleep in his incubator. They measured his CO2 while he was sleeping and it was 100% normal. When the vet told me he was faking, I told him welcome to my life! I asked if Homer had slept at all last night and the vet and 3 vet techs answered in unison "No." It seems my boy was making a scene all night! He's a tricky little devil.

The sad news is, it seems Homer's heart disease is progressing faster than we would have hoped. I am now hoping to get another year of life from him, I was optimistic I could get the full 3 years life expectancy from him but now I have to be realistic.

The happy news is, Homer's home, thanks to the Dada saving his life, and he is sleeping soundly in the middle of the family room while I work!

Not in the Cards

The ultrasound place called and they had to cancel our appointment tomorrow night so we are now scheduled to go Friday at 1:30. I'm beginning to think that finding out the baby's gender just isn't in the cards for us!

Cross your fingers for Friday!

Things I've Already Learned

Marc and I decided to surprise my parents for their 40th Anniversary by taking them to a 3D ultrasound place so that they could see the baby and also so we could find out the sex of the baby. We thought it would be a nice present for them, plus we would benefit by finding out if we were having a son or daughter (yes, slightly selfish but it was a win for everyone - or so we thought). I did all my prep work, ate a healthy breakfast an hour and a half before my appointment and then drank a bunch of juice a half hour before my appointment to ensure the baby was active. Unfortunately the place was running about an hour behind so all of that did nothing for us. We decided to just do the 2D ultrasound because my Dr. wasn't too keen on us doing a 3D ultrasound and receiving medical advice from someone other than her or the Drs at the perinatal clinic. So we decided on going on the 2D route.

We got into our appointment and my parents' first view of their grandchild was his/her back. Yes, what a great first impression, the only nice part was we could see all of the bones that have developed over the past month. Apparently our child is camera shy, something we will change when it's born, he/she wanted nothing to do with showing us his/her stuff. No matter how hard I willed the baby to move around he/she insisted on keeping his/her legs crossed, knees bent and feet tucked underneath his/her bottom. Hey, at least if the baby is a girl, she's modest! I mean for crying out loud, I am going to change it's diaper 9-14 times a day when it's a newborn, the least the baby could do is let me know what I am going to be looking at. So again, our baby was stubborn. My parents got to see the spine, heart beating beautifully of course, we saw the baby swallow for the first time (I've read the baby has started swallowing amniotic fluid to practice digesting for when it is born so that was super cool), and we even saw the baby flex it's fingers like it was waving hi at us. The baby has grown so much since our 11 week ultrasound, it's really amazing. And what amazes me most is that we saw the baby stretch his/her legs out and I had no idea other than the fact that we saw it stretched out. I am sure soon enough he/she will start poking me all over. Unfortunately, we left still not knowing if this child of ours is our son or our daughter. The place agreed to let us come back Tuesday night for another go.

So things I have learned about parenthood so far:

1. Impending parenthood makes you overly fiscally responsible. I spent $100 last month on my credit card, the lowest my balance has been since I was in college! I guess it helps I can't really shop since most clothes either don't fit or won't fit soon. I could still buy shoes which I must admit has been tempting but then guilt sets in and I decide to save the money for stuff for the baby. I feel like one of those State Farm commercials, "I'm there."

2. When you are a parent, or are waiting to be a parent you have no control whats-so-ever over anything! This has been the hardest lesson for Marc and I to learn as we embark on this adventure. For two people who work so hard to shape their own destiny and pave their paths the way we envision it there are so many variables that we have no control over and it is very hard for us. No matter how hard we try we can't control what the baby will be (i.e. boy or girl), how our appointments will go, whether the baby will cooperate at appointments, and most importantly that the baby is developing ok and is healthy. For two ubber planners this has been a hard lesson for us to learn. The unpredictability of everything can be almost too much to bear for us at times. But we are learning. :)

3. No matter how much you will your child to do something, it's going to do what it wants to do. I semi-learned this lesson at the perinatal clinic when the baby wasn't cooperating there, I apologized repeatedly for our baby's actions, or lack there of, and they told me to never apologize for our baby's actions. Yesterday was yet another example of how no matter how much we will the baby to cooperate or want the baby to do something, the baby is going to do what it wants. Our mission is to guide the baby in later life so that he/she channels his/her strong-willed/stubbornness and uses it for success.

Stay tuned and cross your fingers that little baby Margulious cooperates for us on Tuesday!

Here are some pictures they sent us home with yesterday:

Baby's Profile, so cute!

"Hi Mom & Dad, guess what I am?"

"I'm not telling nahnahnahnah!"

The baby is already doing "Tummy time"

More Marcisms

I forgot one ultra-Marcism, when Marc and I hear a song that he likes, he likes to say:

"This is my marmalade."

He substitutes the "jam" with "marmalade."

When we were shopping at Babies R Us Friday night and I seemed to know a bit about strollers and car seats (thanks to my book and talking to my experienced friends) and Marc asked me "If I had done this before."

Kickin' It Old School

Yesterday Marc and I "kicked it old school." We ran shenanigans, like we used to run shenanigans. Friday night we went out to dinner down the street and ended up playing in Babies R Us for a while with travel systems, infant carriers and umbrella strollers. While we were playing with two of the strollers, a nice guy stopped and told us not to get the travel system, they got the Peg Perego one and the stroller is just huge and too hard to handle so as soon as their daughter could sit up they put her in her Maclaren. He had a bunch of good advice as far as brands and what you really needed, so I asked him where a good place to get furniture was, he told us they went up to a place in Antioch (about 1/2 hour away from us) for furniture and they ended up getting their Maclaren there. So Saturday we planned to go nursery furniture shopping.

On the way out to Brentwood (the store ended up moving to Brentwood to be closer to the new Babies R Us), we decided to drive to Tracy to check out some outlet stores Marc had heard about from some guys at work. Now for those of you from outside of CA, Tracy is pretty far out, like pretty much middle of California but lots of people commute from there to the Bay Area because the cost of living is cheaper. That's because it is hotter than hot out there! Anywho, we got to the outlet stores, and they were probably the worst outlets in the world! There was a Gap Outlet there and Marc scored but other than that, not worth the trip. So we headed out to Brentwood from there to get to the baby store, with a pit stop at 7-11 for a Slurpee. We did not pack the Nosh Disorder Kit so the Slurpees were needed! The drive out to Brentwood was less then exciting, one lane road through fields. We got to the store and it was awesome! We found some great deals on cribs and found a stroller we absolutely love! I was a little worried about the little boutiques because of higher pricing but I came armed with Baby Bargains (thanks Anne!) and their prices were spot on. After over an hour and a half in the store we went to Mimi's for lunch and then ran a few errands at Target, etc. before heading to Walnut Creek for a few errands and to check out Giggle, a baby store there. Then we headed to pick up some Chinese food for dinner and then down to Dublin to another baby store to check out more furniture, we wanted to make sure what we saw was good quality and a good price. Then back to Babies R Us to check out the car seats that are compatible with the stroller we picked out (the Uppababy), it only fits Graco and Peg Perego. Then to Blockbuster to get a movie. Needless to say it was a long day, clearly my extreme tiredness has subsided some.

Our day started at 11 and ended at 7:30, it was an old school Zimmerman shenanigan day!

Month 4 Baby Update

Marc and I went back to the Dr today for my 4th month checkup. On a side note, I can hardly believe I am nearly 4 months (I just finished my 15th week and am in my 16th week already), this month seems to have gone by much faster than the previous months. The appointment was fairly uneventful, I guess a good thing. I got weighed (only gained 1 pound - I swore I gained like 6, I guess since my belly is growing my workout shorts seem to be fitting differently which had me really upset the other day and made me think I gained way more than the 4 lbs they say you should gain each month). My Dr. wasn't too concerned I had only gained a pound since it was my first month out of my first trimester and while I am feeling better I am still not felling 100% better and also because I started working out again. Anyway after all of that we went over my blood work results which all came back fine, I tested negative for TaySachs and Cystic Fibrosis so that is not a concern anymore and we also went over our First Trimester screening results which we already had gotten. After that she listened to the baby's heartbeat (we got to hear it again too) which was normal and healthy and we were on our way. No more ultrasounds. :( We go at week 20 for our anatomy scan but other than that no more views of baby until he or she is born. So sad! We definitely enjoy viewing Margulious!

In other news, Homer went to the vet today for a heart check-up. He's doing fine but they needed to check his kidneys to make sure he's on the right dosage of heart meds. While we were there I had them look at this growth he has on his tooshie, we noticed it when he licked it after his bath and he then sat on Marc's pillow to lick the pillow and bled all over it. Yes, he's disgusting. Turns out the poor dog has a tumor on his butt! I swear this poor dog can not catch a break. So when his normal vet comes back we are going to have it removed because it's pretty small and they can take it off without putting him under anesthesia (which they advised no anesthesia because of his heart). If its not one thing with him its another. But he seems to be doing great, his personality is great and he seems really happy. He's sleeping better at night too which is nice for all involved!

"Quick Lassie Homer Fell Down the Crack...Again"

I've decided my dog, no matter how sweet he is, is not genius. Sometimes you just have to admit that the things you love are just not intelligent, and this morning was one of those days. Today while I was enjoying my shower, Homer was enjoying a lick fest on our pillows. I was knee deep in shaving cream when I heard the howl of all howls, the blood curtling howl that makes my heart stop and immediately makes me think of a seizure or a heart problem with Homer. But then I remembered I had left Homer licking our pillows on the bed. So, again I ran out of the shower soaking wet, no towel, to find my dog, once again wedged between the bed and the wall (see original post Homer and His Shenanigans). Now, one would think Homer's first foray with the crack would have caused him to be a little more cautious when licking our pillows (which I think is completely disgusting but we can't get him to stop), but no, my dog is not genius. This time around I wasn’t so much worried about whether or not he hurt himself, though I was worried about the speed at with which his heart was beating, so I ran and got my camera as proof that my dog is not the brightest crayon in the box. After his Kodak moment I decided to help hoist him out because he was losing his grip and he was breathing really hard, and while it was funny I did't think it warranted a visit to the vet to get his heart checked again. I always tell him he needs thumbs to help him with his grip on various things and in order to get people food, if he had thumbs he could have held on longer, and I could have laughed longer and gotten more pictures of his predictament. But alas I felt sorry for him so I leaned across the bed (soaking wet), reached down into the crack, grabbed his tooshy and hoisted him out. How does he thank me? By walking across my head to safety.



Marc was downstairs making coffee and watching Sports Center so he missed the excitement but I brought him up to speed with the picture when he questioned why the bed was so wet, yes that was from me and the fact that I ran out of the shower mid-shave and didn't grab a towel and not Homer's over active bladder (he's peed on the bed in his sleep before). Homer spent the rest of the morning laying nice and still (it was glorious) on the bed with a sheepish look on his face. I can't decide if he is embarrassed or scared in these photos. Either way, we got a good laugh at him, I mean with him.

Marcisms

For those of you who know Marc (or were at our wedding) know that Marc is know for his Marcisms. Jill provided me with a book of common Marcisms at our wedding, however, Marcisms are an evolving thing. For those of you who don't know, Marcisms are words or sayings that Marc says that don't really make any sense but you understand what he means at the same time or things that only Marc could get away with saying. I've become quite proficient in Marcisms over the past four years. Pregnancy Marcisms started while we were trying and have been going strong since. So here are our Marcisms to date:


- Bobbing his head and singing (in a Revenge of the Nerds tune): "Are you ready for the love machine?" Yep, that gets me in the mood.

- Marc asking Jill after we told them we were trying, dead serious: "Will you hang out in the waiting room with me while the baby is being born?" We now understand he's supposed to be with me in the delivery room.

- Me peeing after he saw the positive pregnancy test: "Don't drop the baby." He was dead serious.

- When looking at the positive digital pregnancy test: "What happened to the "Not" sign?" Again, dead serious.

- Marc (out of the blue): "I'm going to catch the baby." (Referring to the delivery)

Allie: "I'm not punting it." (Since then we've established the only person catching the baby is the Dr.)

- On our walk last Friday: "You should think about walking on the treadmill twice a day, your belly's getting big." To which I responded: "I have a baby in me, what's your excuse?" (Just to note, I was a little mad at first that he was basically calling me fat but then remembered the comment was most likely a Marcism).

I hope you all had a good laugh, I know I did reliving our Marcism moments. I'll be sure to continue collecting and adding to our list! At least I can always count on my husband for a good laugh!

Oh yeah, and be sure to cast your vote as to what you think the gender of the baby will be!

Homer Loves His Baby

The past few weeks Homer has been such a love bug, even after I got back from San Diego this weekend he wasn't his usual spiteful self. Anyone who knows Homer knows he usually is doing one of three things: a) licking (which he is doing right now), b) peeing (which he did about five minutes ago), or c) pacing. This is just how life with Homer is and we have come to accept it. However, the past few weeks he has on several occasions jumped up and laid down next to me and rested his head, ever so gently on my belly where the baby is. We wondered if he knew there was a baby in there the first time he did it and he's done it a few times since so we are thinking it's not so much coincidence anymore. They say that dogs that are very in tune with their owners can sense even before the owners know that a baby has been conceived and my vet has mentioned on several occasions that Homer is very in tune with me. Last night I was eating some cheesecake Marc had brought home over the weekend and Homer just plopped on down next to me and rested his head on my belly, without begging for the food, which for Homer is unheard of. We were so shocked that he wasn't begging and Mr. Antsy Pants (see pacing) stayed there long enough for Marc to capture a picture of Homer loving his baby.



Oh, and enjoy the belly picture because that's about all your going to see. My belly isn't that attractive not pregnant so there will be no belly pictures, at least for now, I may change my mind when it actually looks like a baby belly and not too many nights of cheesecake!

Today Was A Good Day

Today was a good day for the Zimmerman Family.

First and foremost we learned that Baby Margulious tests' on Friday came back negative so we have a very low risk of Down's Syndrome and Trisomy 18. We had our original risk assessment and they reduced the risk even further based on the ultrasound pictures and my blood work. Yay! The clinic recommended no further testing because the risk of an amniocentesis is higher than the risk of having one of the defects. Double yay!

Second, my boss was also in town and contacted HR for me and found out that I got 12 weeks off for maternity leave at 100% pay. Finally living in California pays off. I get 6 weeks off from ConAgra at 100% pay under Short Term Disability and based on California's FMLA laws I get another 6 weeks off at 100% pay. Finally, the inflated cost of living in CA pays off! We thought for a while I was only going to get 6 weeks. Whew, what a relief to know I will get to be with Margulious the first 3 months of his/her life.

Finally, I also arranged with my boss to work a flex week when I do go back to work so one morning a week I can go to a "Mommy and Me" class with Margulious at the Dublin Activity Center. My boss really is a great boss, he basically told me that he knows being a working mom is really hard and whatever they can do to accommodate me while I am pregnant and after the baby is born so that they don't lose me they are willing to do. Of course I will make up the hours I take off the rest of the week, but I am really fortunate they are being so flexible and I am able to do a bonding class with the baby and not worry about work.

All that is great but nothing compares to the news that so far we have a very healthy Margulious, I sort of even forgive him/her for being difficult on Friday - because the news that our tests were good makes the 2 hours at the Doctor worthwhile.

Yep, today was a good day!

We're Those People

Today Marc and I went to the perinatal clinic near the hospital we will be delivering at for our First Trimester Prenatal Screening for Trisomy 18 and Down's Syndrome prescreening. No need to worry, the tests are totally normal for pregnant women and are no indication that there is an issue, we actually did them for piece of mind.

We had a 1:30 appointment and figured we would be out by 2:30 so since I had a late breakfast I decided to have lunch after the appointment. Big mistake! You see we were those people with the uncooperative baby that made everyone elses's appointments run behind schedule. The baby just would not cooperate today and get in the proper position to take the proper neck measurements. They poked, proded, and basically tormented the baby (and me) to try to get it to move for a good hour with the abdominal ultrasound and finally told me they were going to have to do another internal ultrasound to get the measurements. This after going to the bathroom several times (in which I gave the baby a pep talk) and having me roll from side to side to try to get the baby to move around. By the time we got to the internal ultrasound I didn't even care! I was so hungry and exhausted that I pretty much just laughed at the whole experience. The Dr. was very nice about it all, he was probably our age and told us this was probably the most difficult baby they have had in a long time. He was surprised to see me laughing, but really, what was I supposed to do, it was pretty funny if you thought about it, I mean how many babies at 13 weeks in the womb just sit there sucking their thumb for an hour and a half and make no effort once so ever to respond to the womb shaking. Margulious and I are going to have some words on what it means to cooperate. Of course this worked and we got all the measurements we needed.

On a positive note, because they did the ultrasound for an hour and a half we got some great views of the baby and they gave us seven pictures to take home. The highlights of the day were hearing the heartbeat for the first time, what a wonderful sound it was! The technician said it was a perfect heartbeat too. They also said it was a very normal looking baby and everything was developing as it should be. The baby went from 3.61 cm 2 weeks ago at 11 weeks to 6.5 cm this visit at 13 weeks. We counted 10 fingers and toes and saw many angles of the baby sucking it's thumb, the technician. said that it's such an innate trait that babies do it in the womb to practice suckling for when they are born so that they can nurse, absolutely amazing! The Dr. spent a lot of time with us since the baby was so uncooperative and he had a great time looking at the anatomy of the baby. He said they normally don't look at the anatomy of a fetus so young so it was fun to look at the anatomy of our little monster (my words not his). Glad to have been a service to the medical field! Anyway, they finally got the measurements and Margulious came in the normal range so the next step is to send the blood out and wait for a score to come back based on the neck measurements, bloodwork, and my age. But based on today we have a totally normal, yet very stubborn child...hmmm I wonder who it takes after? Better yet, don't answer that.

So here are some pictures of Baby Margulious! (You should be able to click on the pictures to make them bigger too)

The baby's brain...I think it has my brains, nice and big and smart!

The baby's profile (it kind of looks like skelator but you can see the jaw and chin, the neck is in the dark area):

The baby's bum - the arrow is pointing the the baby's bum, it's actually "laying" on it's stomach and the legs are stretched out:

The baby facing us (it's small because this is after they had me empty my bladder):

Another profile shot with the baby's belly...it got my brains and daddy's belly :)

"Hi Mom and Dad! Sorry I'm not cooperating but look how cute I am waving at you!" (Note the 5 fingers, there were 5 on the other hand and 10 toes)

And last but not least, another profile of baby getting ready to suck his/her thumb (you can see the knees are bent on the right hand side):

And I know everyone is dying to know (because we are too) but we won't know the baby's gender for another 7 weeks or so, so hang on a bit longer. I'm feeling much better and Marc and I have started walking 3-6 miles four times a week to try to get some exercise in. It's also been a great time for us to catch up with each other about work and also talk about how excited we are to meet this little baby in 6 months.

Next Step: August 15 4th month appointment with our normal Dr. Hopefully we'll get more pictures at that one!