Happy Thanksgiving

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! We just got back from a wonderful and filling dinner with our friends and hope everyone out there had a nice holiday.

avocado

Apparently my baby is the size of an avocado now. I find that interesting for some reason.

A couple days ago Dan and I rearranged our house some. We had been using a room upstairs as our office. But it was pretty cramped and got pretty hot in there with all the PCs we have going. So we moved our desks and PCs down to this empty space we had in our living room and will be turning the old office into the nursery. That still leaves us 1 empty room for visitors so they don't have to sleep in the living room with the dogs :) Hopefully that will encourage frequent visits from our mothers to help out with this whole baby thing.

16 Week Checkup

Had my quick 16 week checkup today. My vital signs were all fine and the baby was once again doing great with a nice strong heartbeat in the 150s. The doctor said in a few weeks I should begin feeling the baby move which would be amazing! We scheduled my 20 week big checkup for December 11th. The main event on this day is the detailed ultrasound.

Also, Congrats to the Florida Gator football team - SEC East Champions!!

Vote

Time for the Family Car

Although it pains me to have done so, Ali and I traded in my Ford Explorer toward a 2008 Ford Escape. The Escape drives like a big car, whereas the Explorer drove like a small truck. I will miss my "truck" (Ali always makes fun of me for calling it a truck), but with the baby on the way we needed something with four doors. Ali stumbled across the USAA car buying service online, and we jumped at the deals they had for new 2008 vehicle. Essentially, the USAA discount is about what (I figure) a decent negotiator would haggle the price to, but without any skills required on our part except using a web browser. Indeed, we spoke with Matt Sander of Woody Sander Ford (Cincinatti) and he said we were the dealership's first USAA sale. As of date of purchase, they had been a member of the USAA program for three days, and had six new customers inquiring on the phone and in person about purchasing vehicles.

Here is the pricing breakdown.

Sticker price	$26,315.00
Incentives from Ford	$3,750.00
USAA Discount	$1,775.00
Base price	$20,790.00
Total off Sticker	$5,525.00

Tax	$1,620.00
Price out the door	$22,410.00

To Ali and I, this seems like a good deal. The vehicle itself is very nice and drives strong and solid. It has a 3.0L V-6 and automatic 4WD. The documents say it can play MP3's, and I think it may actually play MP3 CD's (not just auxiliary-in). It has lots of features that I don't care too much about, except for the cruise control and digital compass :)

Here is the window sticker.

2nd Trimester!

I am officially in my second trimester and that's a wonderful feeling. I no longer worry about a miscarry all the time and can sit back and enjoy a relatively morning sickness free day! Tuesday and Wednesday I was in Columbus visiting my sister and to babysit Cole on Wednesday when his daycare is closed for the day. On Tuesday Heather and I went to babiesrus and 3 hours later emerged with a full registry list. It was certainly helpful to go with someone who has just been through it and had insight as to what she thought was defiantly needed and what was not. I would have just picked out a stroller based on color but she was pulling it down off the shelf, folding it up and popping it back up a couple times, pulling out the car seat part and basically putting it through a test of how easy it would be to actually use :) Lucky for me I can borrow some things from Heather and my cousin Amber that the baby will only use for a couple months. My sister wants to throw me a baby shower sometime in February, so hopefully some of you guys can come!

But probably the highlight of my trip was when we went to Cole's daycare to pick him up and when he saw us walk in he got a big smile on his face and said "Ali" and ran over to give me a hug :D Nice to know even though I only see him like once a month he loves me! Wednesday was a full babysitting day filled with dancing, watching Super Why on PBS and eating/throwing food to the dog.

You can view the registry at Babies 'R Us.
And if any of you parents out there notice that I am lacking a "must-have" item, let us know!

12 weeks tests all good

Just thought I would let you all know I followed up with my OB doctors post-kidney stone incident and they really didn't have much to add on that front besides drink more. However, they did let me know that all the blood work for Downs, Cystic Fibrosis, etc came back normal so things seem good there. My next OB appointment is Nov 10th, but its going to be a real quick 16 week checkup - basically just a momma and baby vital signs check.

Hope everything is going well with my friends and family who follow the blog. This weekend is a huge football game between Florida and Georgia, so be sure to cheer on those Gators!

Uhh, I dont feel so good

So yesterday I was at work and lately I feel like I need to urinate about every 30min from my uterus pressing on my bladder so I am not a big fan of drinking as much as I probably should be. Well on one of my frequent trips to the bathroom I all the sudden get this sharp pain on my left side along with a nice combo of nausea and faintness. I walk back to my co-workers apparently looking very pale (which living in Ohio for 2 years will do to you anyways) and tell them I don't feel so good. Being nurses they love to jump on possible exciting cases so they throw me on a stretcher and make me go to the ER. Now just lying down I feel a lot better and if I was at home I am sure the crisis would have ended there. The pain had basically gone away and it feels nice to be flat in bed. In the ER they drew lots of blood, urine and did an ultrasound. Here I was of course happy to get an unexpected check of the baby (HR rocking in the 160s). The ultrasound showed a small kidney stone and some fluid on my kidney. So they gave me a liter of IV fluid and I got to watch TBS for 4 hours until they deemed me fit to go home. My instructions are to rest, drink tons of fluid and check with the base OB doctors and see if they want to follow up at all with me.

In unrelated exciting news, Dan and I are going shopping for a new car/truck/SUV type thing with 4 doors since neither of our cars have 4 doors and we think that would be helpful so we don't kill our backs with getting the baby in a car seat.

A baby bonanza!

A baby bonanza!

Ali & Dan - 12 weeks pregnant
Debbie & Joe - Dan's sister, 8 weeks pregnant with twins.
Julie & Jim - Joe's sister, is 13 weeks pregnant.


So basically every one is having a baby within a month period! And its everyone's first child so that's a lot of craziness to spread around to all the grandparents :)

Edit - post is edited because someone else wants to wait longer and stuff to tell people. Also our friend Anna is pregnant! Crazy summer this will be.

Fun day at the doctors!

Today I had 2 doctor appointments. The first was with a doc on my medical team. I got a physical, pap smear and baby heart rate check (167 bpm), went over my previous lab work (all good except low hemoglobin of 11 - so placed on Iron supplements).

The second appointment was with the ultrasound tech. This was wonderful! The baby was just swimming all around, it has 2 legs and 2 arms and a bunch of fingers, a nice spine, a strong heart and a large head. It measures a whopping 5cm long, yet despite being tiny I found it pretty easy to identify the body parts. It helps to know that bones are white on ultrasounds so its easy to see its spine and fingers and skull. It also measures exactly to the day(11 weeks, 6days) keeping my April 29th due date on track. But perhaps the most exciting part, and somewhat unexpected this early, was the tech telling me with 90% certainty that we are having a baby boy! Dan and I are both thrilled to have a boy and tears were shed by both of us on this news. If the 90% proves to be true, his name will be Dexter (still working on a middle name)

Today's scan combined with some lab work, so perhaps in a week or so I will know info about chance for Downs, Cystic Fibrosis, and other fun stuff we hope not to deal with. The scan part measured normal, so just waiting on lab work now.

Next appointment is in 4 weeks, Next ultrasound is in 8 weeks. At the 20week ultrasound they should be even more certain about the baby's sex so until then we will be working on staying healthy!

CT Scan Results 9-Oct-2008

"Stable examination with no evidence of residual or recurrent disease."

OB Nurse meeting

Today I had my group meeting with the OB nurses. There were probably 6 pregnant women there for the information session. Before we all got together they took our weight & blood pressure and scheduled my appointment with the nurse practitioner. (Oct 14th, Tuesday). My blood pressure was great as usual, I remarked to them that several times at work I have checked my heart rate and it was ~120, during my check in the office today my heart rate was only 108..they didn't seem concerned as your blood volume is greatly increased during pregnancy.

At this meeting we saw several different groups from the hospital. The OB nurses went over what we could expect during some of the early appointments. A nutritionist went over that information. A person from Family Advocates group talked to us about support programs they offer (baby classes, financial classes, etc) And they gave us alot of handouts, videos and books. In fact they gave us 3 big books for free (What to expect when your expecting, what to expect the first year and what to expect in toddler years).

So next Tuesday I have 2 different appointments. First thing in the morning (8am) I meet with the nurse practitioner and I assume get a baby heart rate check and physical. Then at 11:15 I have an appointment with ultrasound for a Nuchal scan. This scan along with some blood work looks at certain birth defects. The main things they check for is Downs Syndrome and they will look at its heart and make sure all four chambers look normal.

Until next Tuesday!

"Morning" Sickness

For several weeks I have been feeling a bit queasy but it has turned up a notch the last several days. Thankfully I dont throw up easily but I defiantly feel on the verge sometimes lately. I also feel dull aches alot in my pelvic region - I guess my body is expanding. Tomorrow I meet with the nurses at the OB clinic on base, I think its just going to be getting a bunch of handouts and stuff but I am sure to let you know if anything exciting comes out of it. Its weird going from such frequent checks and ultrasounds to several weeks with no information. I really want to hear the baby heartbeat again to make sure everything is going ok in there!

Thursday-Saturday I will be out of town at Amy's wedding. I cant wait to see my college friends who I haven't seen in a year or so. Hope everyone is doing well, be sure to cheer for the Gators this Saturday when they play LSU.

General Update

Just a few things going on here in Ohio. My dad has been up to visit, he had a couple weeks off from work after he fell and broke 3 ribs so he decided to drive up to Ohio and visit all of us. Dan has a CT-Scan next Thursday as part of his normal follow-ups. Hopefully things continue to stay stable with his scans. My next appointment is next Wednesday, its a meeting with the nurse at the OB clinic with a group of other pregnant ladies. They are going over things like nutrition, how things are done at their clinic, etc at this meeting. It will still be a couple weeks until I see a doctor and have an ultrasound or heartbeat check I think.

Other than all the medical stuff Dan and I have mostly been catching up with new TV shows that are finally back on. We love our old favorites - Heroes, Dexter, Entourage, The Office. And have added in a great new show from HBO called True Blood.

Enjoy the final day of September everyone!

8 week 5 day ultrasound

Had a great ultrasound today. The baby had a rocking 173 heart rate and has grown very nicely. The baby measures right on schedule and I have officially graduated from my IVF team to the regular people doctors! I am no longer on any fertility drugs except vitamins which is very nice also. Well that's all from here, not sure when my next appointment will be I have to call the other clinic and set something up. I hope you are all having a wonderful day.

Cole's Visit

Who's having more fun in this picture - Cole or Ophelia?

She is just the perfect height for sitting on!

Mini-Update

Just thought I would post something since its been a week. I am a bit nauseous most of the day but nothing to bad. Also my breasts feel like they have lead balloons in them! I actually like having some symptoms. as they are somewhat reassuring. Dan is working hard at school and the dogs are laying around on the couches as usual. Been watching alot of football the last couple weeks and can't wait to finally start playing some SEC schools. But really not much exciting things going on here. October will be a bit more interesting as my father will come to visit and I am going to a wedding in Massachusetts.

We have a Heartbeat!

I am sure you can tell from the crystal clear ultrasound image that there is a small child in my uterus. From those who cant see I will attempt to break it down for you. On the main screen is my gestational sac like last week (black blob) and snuggled in on the left side of the black blob is a slightly larger than last week gray blob. Now if you were present for the ultrasound which I was and Dan just made it there by minutes after driving across town to the wrong clinic you would have seen the gray blob dancing all over showing off its 127 bpm heart rate. (bpm = beats per minute). On the right side of the picture is a zoomed in version so he could measure, he measures 0.59cm which is perfect for a 6 week 5 day ultrasound. The very bottom it says I measure 6 weeks 3 days plus or minus 2 days with a due date of 5/1/09 based on that measurement.

Needless to say, we are all pretty happy here. Next ultrasound is in 2 weeks, until then keep the good thoughts and baby dust heading my way!

Fertilty Humor

Just a little fertility humor mixed with Olympic glory!

Next ultrasound is Monday morning, cross your fingers we see a little person in there!

Prospectus Defense

I have successfully defended my prospectus. Since there appears to be some confusion, here is how the process works at AFIT:

1) Complete course work
2) Complete specialty exam written portion (qualifying exam or "quals")
3) Perform background/related research for topic area
4) Complete specialty exam oral portion (prospectus defense)
5) Perform core research, writing dissertation along the way
6) Defend dissertation
7) Graduate

I completed step 2 a few months ago, and today I completed step 4. I will now embark on the dissertation, which takes the following form:

Chapter 1: Introduction to the domain and problem area
Chapter 2: Background/related research -- current state of the art
Chapter 3: Define problem that will be solved and how success or failure will be measured
Chapter 4: Document results
Chapter 5: Conclusions and summary

Chapter 4 may in fact be many chapters. The prospectus consists (roughly) of the first three chapters, and mine weighed in at 102 pages including front and back matter. The average dissertation at AFIT is about 240 pages total.

The graduation date cannot be less than one year after the prospectus defense. I am officially considered a PhD candidate, and hope to graduate on 9-Sep-09 (9-9-09).