My Last Birthday Ever....

Since I am well aware that your life basically is put on hold and the baby's life becomes forefront once you have one I figured that I better make sure I celebrated my birthday in style this year. So celebrate we did. Mom came down for on Saturday and tried (and tried...and tried) to get me to pick out a glider but considering it took over 4 years for me to find the "right" leather chairs for the living room and I haven't fully committed to the nursery set yet, she went back to NYC disappointed.

On Sunday Terri, Bill,(my sis and her BF) Jake and I woke up early and went into Philly. First stop, the Park Hyatt hotel. One of the Grand Dame hotels in the city. Their restaurant is on the 19th floor and has lovely views of the city. There are 2 dining rooms attached by a demonstration kitchen, the wine cellar, and the clubby (dark woods and leather banquets) bar. The dining rooms themselves are gorgeous 3 story rotundas, cream toned with lots of ornate plaster work and capped with lovely stained glass windows. One has an enormous pearl chandelier. Very fancy. First stop, the continental breakfast bar. Mini chocolate croissants and other mini pastries, bagels and lox, cheese trays, yogurts and cereals. At the bar, they were serving berry smoothies. Second stop, the asian station set up in the demonstration kitchen: 3 kinds of potstickers, vietnamese spring rolls, asian salads and sushi. Third Stop, raw bar: enormous shrimp and oysters. At that point you had to "order" your entree, which was a switch. Everyone else at the table had crab cake benedict while I opted for the farmers omlette. Then the dessert station, if there's room, which there barely was at that point. Shot glass parfaits of s'mores and strawberry shortcake. Choc/caramel tarts, cheesecake....so many good things.

We then decided to try and walk some of the gluttony off so we headed up Broad and around City Hall, thru Love Park and down to The Franklin Museum where they had the Narnia Exhibition. Lots of fun wandering through and seeing the props and costumes from the movies. It was opening day for the Phillies and I think everyone went to tailgate at Citizens Bank Park so the city - and the museum - itself seemed pretty empty.

On the way back, we stopped at a Borders where my lovely sis indulged my inner 13 year old girl by getting me the Twilight DVD, the Kings of Leon CD (excellent!) and the Paramore CD/DVD (cannot believe that girl can sign that well and is only like 20 years old). At home, got a card from Gail, Dre and Tina (MIL, bro and sis-in-law) and an excellent pic. drawn by 18 mo. old Mia (niece)!!

Thank you to everyone who sent me Birthday wishes via emai and calls. I am truly blessed.

Ultrasound at 27 weeks

Baby's pulling moves in utero that mom can't do after 10+ years of yoga. Big toe on forehead anyone?

Isn't it Ironic...

Went to my 27 week appointment.  Was scheduled to meet the head of OB, just in case he ends up being the Doctor on rotation when I go into labor.  He had had a late night delivery the night before so I ended up sitting in the exam room for an hour.  Funny thing when you sit in a bland, non-descript room for long enough time, you start to notice things that you wouldn't have otherwise.  For instance, the wallpaper.  I was just staring at it mindlessly for awhile, pale cream and soft green floral patter, totally inoffensive.  When all of the sudden, my eyes snapped to and started really looking at the design of the actual flowers in the print.  Then I started to laugh.  A lot.  I guess someone with a sense of humor was hired to decorate this OB/GYN office.  What I mean to say is, the floral pattern has a very, um, Georogia O'Keefe painting quality to it.  Wouldn't you say?  And the place is covered, and I mean COVERED in this print.  Too funny.

Frequently Asked Questions....

I'm getting the same questions all the time so I figured I'd answer some here.....

What are you looking like these days....?

Getting huge.  Lots of growing this month.  This pic at right is me at 22 weeks.  

How are you feeling?

Really good.  Got my flu shot for the first time ever this year and managed to avoid that craziness.  Why I never did before is a mystery.  Trying to do some yoga a few times a week.  Or at least some stretching.  

Are you going to find out the sex?

Nope.  Kicking it old school.  We'll find out when the doctor says: "It's a..." 

When are you due? 

Estimated due date of June 18th.  Father's Day week.  Looking forward to many outdoor birthday parties with double chocolate cake and tall glasses of iced lemonade.  

Nursery colors/theme?

No specific theme yet.  Colors are brown, beige and cream.  (Just like at our wedding).

The Good, the Bad and The Ugly.

Sorry (again) that it's taken me awhile to update...my and baby's first trip to Sundance made us both tired and we needed some time to recoup.   So where were we?  

First a brief Sundance recap.  12 days in the snow.  Working 10+ hours a day in the press office.  Fun Stuff.  Tried my best to see as many movies as possible but with working until nightfall and the overall exhaustion that pregnancy brings I was lucky to average one a day.  Midnight screenings?  Hahahahahhaahahah...not a chance.  I tried one, fell asleep in the first 10 minutes.  The place I stayed was lovely, if a bit remote.  I had to trudge thru first the woods then a snowy field to get to my bus station that was pitch black when I came home at night.  Tales of moose and elk in the area had me completely freaked out so I found myself singing out loud the few times I had to do it: "you can be as brave, as you make believe you arrrre..."  

Baby was very good for the trip.  Some cramping on the plane ride over but then really nothing for the entire time I was in Utah.  Most people couldn't even tell I was pregnant for the first few days - at least until I wore something a bit more form-fitting.  

February 4, 2009

Today's the day of my "big" Level II Ultrasound and Genetic Counseling.  No one had really clued me in on what to expect and I didn't research it at all since I had already had one ultrasound and thought "How different could it be?"  Guess I should have guessed something was up when they sent me a few towns away to get it done.  Briefly, your first sonogram is basically just for them to average the age of the baby by doing some quick measurements.  Any radiologist could do it and you're in and out, 20 minutes tops.  At the Level II, you go to a radiologist that specializes in maternal/fetal measuring.  And measure they do.  Every little bit of the baby to make sure all is progressing nicely.  Takes about 2 hours all told.  The last time I had to crane my neck to the right to see the same screen the tech was looking at.  Here they had a nice flat screen tv mounted at the foot of my bed to watch the proceedings.  Hate to say it, but most of it just looks like blurry things swishing back and forth.   There were times I was actually bored and wondered if I could change the channel.  But then something comes up that you recognize.  The spine.  The beating heart.  The bottoms of little feet.  And you're holding you're breath waiting for the next thing to appear.  The genetic counseling part was informative.  We actually started there and the nice counselor explained why they were measuring, to see if there were any physical markers for Down Syndrome, or Trisomy 13 or 18.  There were charts and diagrams and she asked about our family medical histories, which aren't that exciting.  

Back at the ultrasound, I was watching the tech's face carefully.  If they see something wrong, it's not their job to tell you.  They have to report their findings to the doctor, then the DOCTOR has to come in and tell you.  I noticed that my tech frowned once at the very beginning of my ultrasound but then proceeded to get chatty and pointed stuff out.  So I wasn't worried.  She stepped out and they asked if the trainee who had been in the room the whole time could "take a look" so she did, and explained a bit more in depth what she was measuring.  Then the first tech came back in and said that the doctor looked at the pics and wanted me to have an internal done to look at something a bit more closely.  Ugh.  Internals are done with a wand-like probe.  Need I say more?  It's not as bad as I thought though, done in 15 seconds and she's off with the pics again.  

About 10 minutes later the doctor comes in and gives us the good news and the not-so great news.  The Good:  Good news is that the baby looks fine and everything is measuring where it's supposed to be.  The Bad:  The not-so-great news is that I currently have marginal placenta previa, which means that the placenta is too close for comfort to my cervix.  1.5 cm. to be exact.  They say this is common at this stage of the pregnancy and it will hopefully move up as my uterus expands.  I think to ask, "but what if it doesn't?" - not for myself, I already know the answer but for Jake's benefit.  But the doctor doesn't want me to worry, so he says "we'll worry about that when and  if we get there.  97% of these things correct themselves." Which is reassuring.  In the parking lot I explain to Jake that if it doesn't move up, I'll have to be scheduled for a c-section as a traditional delivery could cause excessive bleeding.  I really calm about all of this though.  I have faith.  In God.  The Doctors.  Modern medicine in general.  So I'm sure that however it ends up happening, it will all be fine.  

The Ugly:  So here are the pics from the Level II ultrasound.  The first one is OK, but the second one of floating baby skull head is a little freaky, no?  I hate to say it, but the earlier sonogram's pics came out better.  Don't ya think? 

Baby Jazz Hands

Still catching up.......

December 11th, 2008

Wake up at 5AM.  Why did I think that a 7AM ultrasound appointment was a good idea?  Drink an impossible amount of water and head to the hospital with Jake.  Been excited up until today but now I am too tired to be excited.  It's so early the hospital is scary quiet when we get there.  Watch the tech take the readings and I can see little one moving around.  So much so that it's hard for the tech to capture the heartbeat but she does and everything seems in range and is fine. Jake comes in and watches for awhile too and I realize that I could honestly spend the whole day in here watching this.  It's so quiet and peaceful.  The tech says "See that?  It's pushing itself back.  Squirmy worm."  Then the baby does a flip or something and we can see very clearly a tiny hand.  Well, at least 4 fingers of a hand.  And I think that's a sign.  Like the baby is saying, "That's enough, papparazzi!  Let me get some rest!!"  Luckily the tech was recording that moment so she was able to capture that pic for us.  

We are all on drugs....

Sorry...lots of travel and the holidays but I want to catch up so...

Thursday, Novenber 20th, 2008

Today Jake and I go in for Orientation where one of the nurses basically gives you the low down on how the next 8 months of your life are going to play out and we go over the results from the lab work from a few weeks ago.  Basically I chack out OK but there will be more tests later due to my "advanced maternal age".  I already hate those words.  But I am shocked when she says, "You tested positive for opiates." then pauses while waiting for my response.

"Whaaaaaaaaa??"

Brief history lesson here.  Dad's a retired narc.  If I was doing drugs I'd have been dead a long time ago because he would have killed me.  Further, my mom is a NICU nurse.  30+ years of visiting mom at work and seeing babies born addicted to drugs would sober anyone.  Not that any of this matters.  I bought into Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No." campaign in the fourth grade.  My blood couldn't be any cleaner, or so I thought.

Remembering that my blood was drawn by someone in a Minnie Mouse costume, I'm like: "There's no way.  Maybe there's a mix up.  Look there are a million Maria Gonzalez's out there.  Are you sure I'm not being confused with someone else?" 

So she checks again and, nope, no mix up.  That's my file.

I look at Jake and I'm just flabbergasted.  I'm like, "I have NO idea." And really, I don't.  

So the nurse, who I can tell thinks I'm lying, starts going through a laundry list of possibilities.  "Antibiotics? Morphine? Heroin?" 

Nope  Nope  and Nope.  And with each passing word I can tell.  She really DOES think I'm lying.  Guess decades of this would cause me to think so too but right now this is almost causing me to have a panic attack.  I'm getting jittery and tripping over my words, which I'm sure doesn't help my case any.  So the list ends and she starts it again hoping I guess to jar a memory or something. 

"Antibiotics?  Pain Killers?"  No.  I haven't been sick or to a doctor lately.  

"Morphine?" No.  And didn't this go out of style with Wild Bill Hickok anyway?

But then comes the kicker.  Remember that old SNL skit with Danay Carvey, the Church Lady?  Where the punch line was "Um, could it be...SATAN?!!!???!!"  This is the EXACT tone - not a question, a condemnation - she puts on when she peers over her glasses with pursed lips and asks again...

"Um....could it be...HEROIN???!!!???!!"

And then I start to laugh from the sheer absurdity of it all.  

"No."  I say again.  Failing in any way to convince her.  Then finally, Jake (my Prince) comes to my rescue.  "Hon?  What was it the dentist prescribed you a few weeks ago?"  

Ah....that's right.  I was thinking along the lines of being sick and going to the doctor.  I forgot that my dentist had attempted (and failed) to extract a wisdom tooth a few weeks back.  So she sent me home after 15 minutes of pulling with a scrip for Tylenol with Codine which I took for 5 days, even though I swear it did nothing for the pain.  I think my mind must have blocked the whole experience out, it was so painful. That was the same week I went to get my blood work done.  Duh.  

So we explain all this to the nurse who, very professionally, just makes a note in my file and sends up on our way with a ton of pamphlets and samples and stuff.  

Moral of the story kids:  Don't do drugs.