It's A Girl...Maybe

Bryan and I had a fabulous time in Greece and returned safely Sunday night. Once we download the 6 gazillion pictures Bryan took (only 3.5 gazillion of which were of various angles and views of the Acropolis) we will do a full fledged post on our experiences in Athens. In the meantime, we had our first ultrasound yesterday. Yes, we had said we were only having one ultrasound, but turns out amazing but uncooperative little Amoeba had other plans.

After a mostly successful navigation of Baltimore to the JHU hospital (thank goodness they valet so if the baby is about to pop out we don't have to worry about parking in August), Bryan and I were quickly seen for our 20 week diagnostic ultrasound. The real purpose of this event is to make sure the baby is healthy and growing properly. Secondary benefit, the 3D technology is super advanced these days and it is pretty unusual that they can't determine the gender from these images.

For about an hour, the tech squeezed some warm gook on my ever expanding tummy and moved the wand around, showing us every piece of our little one. I can't explain how amazing it was to not only see ten fingers and toes, but the four chambers of the heart and her little mouth opening and closing. The detail was so impressive! When it came time to learn the sex, we got a fairly unsure, I think it's a girl. Now for having seen the actual chambers of the heart you would think it wouldn't be that hard to tell whether the baby had man parts or female parts. But you forget, our child already likes to be uncooperative. Baby Amoeba is following after her mom and is folded up into the fetal position (my mom had to have a C-section for me because I tried to come out folded up which doesn't work so well for the natural birth thing).



Thankfully, Amoeba has 20 weeks to get her act together and unfold her little body and since she has tons of room in my tummy she probably unfolded 4 seconds after we left the hospital, but for the purposes of the ultrasound, her position meant we never got a frontal view of the necessary parts. So from the back, Amoeba appears to be a little girl. But who knows. Due to her position, the tech could also not get close up shots of different parts of the spine. The spine is one of the main areas that they look at during a diagnostic ultrasound because they want to be sure the baby has a correctly growing vertebrae to ensure it will be healthy. We were assured that she saw nothing wrong, but that since she couldn't see some parts of the spine they couldn't clear us with a clean bill of health and would have to come back next Friday for round 2 where they would hope Amoeba was in a more cooperative mood. Even after using the rest room, doing stretching exercises, and coughing to try to get her to move yesterday, she wouldn't budge (but we did catch her laughing at us as we tried to push her from her comfy V position in there).

So for now, it's a girl. But they aren't so sure we should go rush out and buy all pink...on second thought we are more yellow and green people so maybe Amoeba's uncooperative nature is a good thing!!!

In other news, they did think Amoeba was a little small for 21 weeks, so they are pushing my due date back to a little later in August. This means we are fairly certain that she won't come during the bar exam the last week of July so B should actually be able to be there for the birth (Catherine and Marisa, you are still on back-up duty so don't get too comfortable yet!) Since we would love to just have me and B at the birth, this news was not unwelcome at all (although I may feel differently in the heat of August when I am ginormous!).

Missing Maddie

Today Laura took Maddie to her parents house for a little "grandparent" time while we're in Greece. For a 28 pound dog that doesn't bark, you wouldn't believe how quiet the house seems without her. I mean, who'd have thought her tags jingling while she runs circles around the house, her huffing at us when we move while she is next to us, and her claws clacking on the computer keyboard to get us to stop typing could have made so much noise.



In any event, she should have a fun week with the family playing with her "uncles," running on the beach, and getting lots of treats from her "grandma." We'll miss her, but we are definitely looking forward to leaving for Athens in exactly 48 hours!

Law School Prom

Maybe it is just me, but law school is a lot like middle school, with a little bit of high school drama built in. You've got home room (first year small section), lockers, a mysterious 5th floor that no one has seen (which you tell "freshmen" stories about), a cafeteria, and the principal's office (the Deans' suite). Of course, we can't forget about the cliques. There are the popular kids and not-so-popular kids. There are the jocks (the Softball team), the chorus kids (our acappella group), the student government (SBA), the mock trial kids, the nerds (journals), and the newspaper staff.

So, what do all these groups do when they want to let off a little steam at the end of the year? That's right, they go to prom! Lucky for us, our law school prom (or Barrister's Ball if you want to be correct about it) was this Saturday. Since this was the first year that Laura has been able to go, we decided to splurge a little on the $40 ticket price and take part in the re-creation of senior year in high school.

Laura was a little disappointed when I told her the day of the Ball that plans for the chocolate fountain had been scrapped. I mean, what other reason was there to go if not for chocolate? I saw a little bit of Hormono starting to peek out, but luckily, Laura kept it inside and got ready for the big night.

Getting ready turned into a fairly amusing time. My favorite quote of the night, "this outfit makes me look pregnant." Then, there was Laura getting dressed and talking about her own baby bump (yes, I have gained a little weight along with Laura). She ended up looking beautiful in her dress and it was clear that Amoeba would be on prominent display all evening.



This year's Barrister's Ball was at the Camden Club, which is a beautiful two story facility overlooking Oriole Park at Camden Yards here in Baltimore. We ended up spending most of the time on the "chill" level - i.e. the level without a dance floor. Maybe we're just not as cool as we thought we were.



All throughout the night, people kept coming up to us to meet Laura and to congratulate her on being pregnant. Apparently I talk about Laura and the baby a little at school - ok, a lot at school - so there was a ton of interest in seeing her! Some people seemed surprised to meet her, like I was just making up stories. I mean, all I told everyone was that she supported me, worked a lot, and held a Nobel prize in chemistry, so naturally people were a little curious. Laura took meeting all of my classmates in stride, and even managed to not roll her eyes too much when I acted like an idiot.

Overall, it was a great time with great friends and I only felt like I was back in high school a couple of times! A final shot of the tux and bow-tie gang from the evening. You gotta know that we were the "cool" kids wearing these when most guys were in a traditional suit!

Uncooperative, but Awesome

On Friday we went to the doctor again for Amoeba's monthly checkup. Laura and I were a little worried for a while because they couldn't find the baby's heartbeat. A million thoughts ran through my head when it took so long to find the heartbeat, but what it came down was that the baby was simply being uncooperative. I mean, why sit still to have your heartbeat listened to when you could be doing somersaults? It was, "there it is [WHOOSH], OK, never mind." "OK, I think I've got [WHOOSH], never mind." "Listen to [WHOOSH], never mind." But, after a few minutes of this, Amoeba finally stopped trying out for the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team and sat still so we could hear the (very strong) heartbeat. It gives me goosebumps every time I hear it.

Speaking of goosebumps, yesterday Laura thought she felt the baby moving, so I took my new default position of one hand on her belly (even with Laura's rolling of the eyes every time, I think she secretly likes it!). I swear that Amoeba gave me a high five. Laura thinks I might have been imagining it, but I definitely felt a little poke on my hand. Of course, when Laura put her hand there to try to feel, Amoeba became uncooperative again, but hey, she gets to feel the baby a lot more than I do later on!

According to Laura I'm supposed to be posting funny things. I'll try to resume that with my next post. For now, though, our little uncooperative Amoeba continues to thrill and amaze me. The baby is, in a word: awesome.

The Wonderful World of Maternity Wear

So this week it happened. I got fat. Like, my biggest pants are cutting off my circulation at work and possibly endangering the life of my unborn child they feel so tight, fat. Now, I am blessed to have several friends who have been recently pregnant who have either given me their clothes or have promised a delivery soon, plus I am cheap, so I have been avoiding buying any clothes that I will wear for, at most, 5 months. So I started looking through the clothes my friend Vicky gave me. Let me just start off by saying that I definitely appreciate everything she has given me, but for those that don't know Vicky, she is a stick. A tall stick, who gave birth last August looking only 5 months pregnant and came home from the hospital looking like her svelte usual self. So while her shirts fit great, and some summer pants might work, her "maternity" size 4 pants for giants aren't going to cut it. My other good friend Jess is built very similarly to me. I went to Rhode Island for work this past Friday and was supposed to get some clothes from her since she lives near Boston now, but that didn't quite work out (a really long story). Her care package of pants will be on the way soon, but I'm fat now! So I have sought two solutions:

The first is the Bella Band. This is a small piece of stretchy cloth that sort of looks like the headbands made cool in the 80's by rock bands like Flock of Seagulls that holds up your regular pants unbuttoned in the early stages of pregnany largeness. Formerly pregnant friends call the band a godsend, and I have high hopes that when I try mine on tomorrow for work it will be everything they say it is and more.

The second solution, I actually did go out and buy the one pair of maternity pants I could find that was made for a short person. I wore these last Thursday and let me tell you, they are so comfortable. I think that I have discovered the secret of why people decide to have a second child after they go through the pains of childbirth - these pants are that wonderful! I am seriously considering how they can made it into my after pregnancy wardrobe - perhaps the bella band will hold them up when I no longer have a belly that necessitates them? I don't know yet, but they are seriously amazing and I am hoping that the rest of the clothes I get are just as fabulous.

So yes, maternity clothes might not be the coolest looking things you've ever seen, and sure, it isn't great to wake up one morning and realize that the pants you reserve for those days when you just feel fat are no longer large enough to wrap around your newly developed belly, but there is light at the end of the tunnel! Maternity pants make all your sorrows go away and really are one of the best things since sliced bread!

In other news, we go back to the midwife next week and should be scheduling our big ultrasound for either the week before or after we head to Greece! If you haven't voted in our poll yet, now is the time. Tonight we will hopefully be going to an early birthday dinner with Catherine and her husband (snow, we want you but not until after 8 pm please), and next weekend we have the Barrister's Ball at Bryan's law school.

Have a great week!