Christmas???

Okay - 10 days to go and the Christmas decorations are still not up. I ventured into the attic yesterday while Brian was gone to scavenge for the wreath for the front door. I found that and the wrapping paper, so that kept me busy for a while. This pregnancy thing has put a damper on my "do it yourself" abilities since the attic should be off limits - the bottom stair is non-existent at the moment and I was insane to try it. What I did retrieve I was able to throw down the steps instead of trying to balance it. BUT, I won't do it again.

We agreed today that with only one week left until we leave for Richmond - there will be no tree in the Piascik house. There will be garland on the outside of the windows and candles inside, but that may be the extent of it. I'm sorry to say that between being tired and record breaking heat (meaning it has never been this hot on record) in Charlotte - the Christmas spirit is waning. I can't wait to go to Virginia next week - hopefully the bug will catch when we get there. Brian promised we'd get a great tree next year when our little ladybug is crawling! So, does that mean we decorate it starting two feet from the bottom?

And the winner is...

Everyone has been very reserved with their thoughts on the gender of our little monkey. Only a few weighed in - Betsy said boy, my friend Jen said girl and the doctor at my 12 week ultrasound guessed a boy. I had done several quizzes on the Internet - a Chinese gender prediction based on age and month of conception, another one on old wives tales - all said boy. So based on that - Brian and I were diligently trying to come up with names for a boy. We loved Ireland where we spent our honeymoon so much we thought an Irish name would be appropriate and we could possibly combine it with a family name. It has been a challenge to come up with names that we agree on.

But the challenge has ended! We had an ultrasound on Friday and the baby is developing right on track and as far as the doctor could tell, after a very thorough exam, appears to be healthy. They measured the length of the arm and leg bones, looked at the spine, brain, heart and kidneys, and determined with 100% certainty that we are having a baby girl! Brian and I were in awe and very surprised having spent more than a month convinced we were having a boy. I even spent last weekend looking at boy clothes and had picked out jungle theme bedding for the nursery. While we would have been happy either way - we are so excited to know a girl is on the way! We had about 20 minutes to ourselves between the ultrasound tech doing the initial screening and the doctor coming in. Brian and I just smiled and started thinking of all the girl names that we had put aside. I think I asked him at least 4 times if he could believe it.

So, needless to say, I'm very anxious to find all things girl! We went straight to USA Baby and Babies R Us after our appointment and looked at nursery furniture and signed up for a baby registry. We tried not to go overboard on pink, but that's hard to do! It was so much fun, as evidenced by the registry. Brian picked out an adorable little one piece outfit with pink and lime green polka dots and a stuffed monkey rattle.

I spent most of Saturday under the influence of pregnancy hormones. Brian is lucky to have survived my hysteria. I woke up insisting that we go buy nursery furniture. We had seen a crib and dresser that I love and I was intent on going to order it. Brian said we could go look at it again, so off I ran to take a shower. By the time I finished getting dressed I had completely changed my mind and had moved on to our need to work on home improvement projects. We have 2 leaky faucets and a toilet that runs intermittently. I thought we should just replace the sinks completely. Then, of course, there was the attic step that needed to be replaced. Oh, and we need a new light fixture/fan for the baby's room. Our Home Depot trip was now turning into more than a few small fixes. Luckily, my insanity broke and we ended up with a toilet repair kit, a piece of wood and some screws. Brian survived the day!

Today, he had a break from me while he played golf. I ran out the fabric store and found some adorable baby wale corduroy - pink with red cherries. I'm very ambitious and have decided that I can make some cute little jumpers for the baby - I'll keep you posted on that endeavor.

Our Christmas decorations have still not made it down from the attic - Brian escaped that one more day. It's amazing how priorities are already changing.

Anticipation

The anticipation is building. We can't wait until tomorrow. Our level II ultrasound is tomorrow at 3 PM. According to a friend, the appointment goes fairly quickly. They count fingers and toes, look at the development of the heart and just make sure everything is where it is supposed to be AND they will most likely be able to tell if we are having a boy or girl.

We are planning on going straight to the baby store and look at furniture for the nursery. I've found a crib that I love on a website and am hoping they have something similar to it at the local store.

The excitement continues tomorrow - check back for an update this weekend. I'll hopefully be able to post some more pictures of the little monkey.

Patience?

Brian says one weakness that I have is my impatience (my only one?) . So, this morning on my drive to work which is all of 5 minutes - I thought, I should work on this. Starting with my drive in where I usually take a shortcut or two to avoid sitting at one of several traffic lights - I decided to be patient and sit with the rest of the cars. In reality, it might add a total of 90 seconds to my drive. I was successful and survived the drive to work without calling anyone names.

It's been an unusually quiet day at the office and I have not needed to further practice patience - BUT the real test will be the next 11 days! I have no choice in the matter - I have to be patient. I've been losing sleep - it's a combination of thinking about the baby, not being comfortable, excitement, fear of kicking or disturbing Brian and Brian snoring. In 11 days - Dec. 7th at 3:00 PM, we will find out the gender of the little monkey. As I've told some of you - I have a very strong feeling about what the baby is, but will continue to hold it in until we are sure.

The planner in me is going nuts! I can't wait to start on the nursery or at least pick things out. I can't wait to buy gender specific clothing with ladybugs or Red Sox logos. Of course, if you ask Brian - girls wear Red Sox clothes, too. There is so much to look at and it will be easier once we've narrowed it down to a boy or girl. I can wait - but not too much longer.

The Results are in

I got a call today from the perinatologist's office (I think that is what they are) telling me the results of the blood tests that they did on Tuesday. My original "scores" based on my age were 1:110 chance of Down's syndrome and a 1:390 chance of Trisomy 18 - both chromosomal abnormalities. The blood tests look for 2 separate hormone levels related to pregnancy and from that a new set of ratios is developed. The ratios based on these tests are now 1:1000 and 1:10,000 respectively. The nurse was quick to say that this does not rule out other chromosome issues, but we now have a much lesser risk. They also informed me that my due date has changed to MAY 15th - even closer to Betsy's. We may need to charter a plane for Mom and Dad for the month.

So, with that off our backs - I rescheduled our next ultrasound for Dec. 7th at 3:00 pm. We will then have a more definitive answer as our the little monkey's gender and they will count toes, ears, finger, and measure all sorts of things to tell us about our baby's health. As far as the gender, the doctor made an educated guess on Tuesday - WITHOUT BRIAN THERE! We have an idea based on the doctor being 80% sure. We'll reveal the actual results when we are more certain in December. We have to keep everyone on pins and needles!

Travel time

Brian is out of town this week in Oklahoma for what we hope will be the last extended trip. I took him to the airport at 5:30 am yesterday morning. He'll be home on Friday. So today, I had the first trimester screening which is highly recommended for those who are AMA (advanced maternal age - yuck!) I'll be 37 on Monday, so they check for chromosomal issues, etc . My friend, Lori, who I've known since I was 13 went with me. Lori is expecting her third child and is a pro at all things pregnancy.

After a genetic counseling session where they tell you the possible outcomes of the test, I had an ultrasound and blood work done that will determine the ratio of risk for the baby having any chromosome problems. Based on the ultrasound, everything looked great and as long as the blood work comes back okay - everything looks great right now.

We now have a 20 minute video of our little one and a bunch of pictures - I've posted a couple and will share the rest when we see everyone. The heartbeat is 155 bpm and he/she is right on track.

Baby's first picture

We had our first doctors appointment on September 24th to confirm that I was really pregnant. After several HPTs - I was pretty certain. Here is the baby's first picture.... The heartbeat was about 120 bpm - in the normal range. (I'm hearing "in the normal range" quite a bit lately.)

What a Year

Brian and I were married on April 28, 2007 and are now expecting our first child. We found out on Labor Day and had kept it a secret for almost 8 weeks when we told our families. I embroidered a bib for my nephew, Logan, that said "I'm going to be a big brother AND a COUSIN". We gave Brian's parents coffee mugs that announced their new status as GRANDPARENTS. Brian's Mom's mug says "I'm going to be a Grandma - it's about time."

Two weeks later, my brother, Carter, and his wife, Betsy, stopped in Charlotte so we could dogsit for them. My brother - very nonchalantly - says "I think you gave Betsy what you have." They are also expecting their first child. My due date is May 11th and Betsy's is May 19th.

We are so lucky that our children will be so close in age. My other brother, Quen, and his wife, Daryl, are also due next year - in January. So, as some of you know, the Marchant family can't do anything small. Four weddings in 2 years and now four babies in 2 years. (Quen and Daryl are Logan's mom and dad, he turned 1 in August.)