Travis and Tara's Little Alex
Due Date: January 8, 2006
Due Date: January 8, 2006
When Travis and Tara decided to expand their human family, an idiosyncratic quirk of Tara led her to decide that she wanted the baby to be born in January (friends of Tara are probably well acquainted with these sorts of peculiarities). Counting back months from January, this would lead to an April conception. A vacation was planned, and come the beginning of May, EPT announced success. We decided not to tell anybody for the time being.
| Anyways, the first OBGYN appointment was June 1 (gestational age 8 weeks), at which
time they confirmed that I was indeed growing a hatchling. Here's an ultrasound
picture looking "up"... one can see little limb buds. Based on the species
of the mother, the doctor felt confident this was indeed a human embryo,
and gave it an estimated due date of January 8, 2006 (human embryos are pretty
indistinguishable from some other vertebrates at this stage - Google for
comparative embryo development). It was approximately the size of a cashew,
and was referred to as such for another month or so (at which time it became
a 'plum'). |
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(Here's a belly view from June 1 - not too exciting)
Here's an ultrasound looking in from the 'normal' view a month later (June 29th). (Not real exciting - although it sort of looks like it is tap-dancing.)
From the outside, Tara wasn't looking much different - although she had started incorporating vegetables and fruits into her diet. If she hadn't been pregnant, she may even have lost weight. However, the first four months were exhausting - for the first time ever, she could out-sleep Travis! Months 2-4 had the added daily routine of wake-drink water- forcefully expel water upwards. (Water is the least painful material to expel upwards, in Tara's opinion at least.) The rest of the day was usually fine - but it was enough sickness for Tara to be grateful when it stopped.
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September 1st (21 weeks) was Grandmother's day, at least for Tara's and Travis's
mothers. The infamous ultrasound to identify gender was scheduled, and Travis's
mom was in town (on vacation, not just to see the ultrasound!). The scene
- two excited grandmas, a Travis, Tara, the doctor, and the ultrasound machine
(in the little exam room). And the baby, who caused no end of grandmotherly
excitement when (he) waved his arm at them. Maybe it was exciting - Travis
even smiled a bit. Could we tell the gender though? No. Baby's legs were
together. Doctor said to Tara "Can you make the baby move around a bit?".
Ummm, no. The doctor thought it might be a boy, but wasn't sure. Maybe next
month, we'd find out. Oh, the suspense. The name of the baby was at this point "Little Creature", much to the disgruntlement of sensible adults. |
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... and here would be another view of the head.
September 29th, ultrasound reveals that the baby is "I-don't-know-how-we-missed-THAT
says the doctor" definitely a boy. Tara and Travis have to take the doctor's
word for it - the ultrasound didn't look at all conclusive to them.Subsequent
doctor visits were without Travis - he really only seemed to want to go when
he'd get to see the baby on the ultrasound TV. Why he's not interested in
the routine weighing, blood pressure monitoring, pee test, and belly measuring,
one can only speculate.
Tara stopped working at the end of September, and since then her blood pressure and endema (swelling) has gone down, and all seems well. Her favorite clothes are short-overalls, which although comfortable, they do not show her pregnant shape very well. Perhaps she'll get pictures one day when she's wearing regular shorts.
Also since she stopped working, her energy level has improved, and she takes a two hour nap nearly every day. Baby Alex has started kicking quite a bit, and seems to enjoy giving his hostess heartburn and squishing her bladder to the size of a walnut. Watching him move has fascination for Tara, and she could almost expect him to emerge from her belly like the creature in Spaceballs, tapdancing across the bar and singing a silly song.
