Since we’ve decided we’re going to decorate The Pickle’s room with Curious George, I thought I should make a new baby ticker to reflect this:

Once again, the code can be found at http://grendel.morydd.net/babygeorge.phps

I just spoke to my midwife. The consensus is that the heart murmur and tricuspid regurgitation that I have are minor enough to not warrent antiboitics or further concern. She will continue to monitor it and further testing will be done if anything changes.

Finally got my test results back (sort of). My blood glucose is fine. My iron levels are fine. All the blood work was great.

The echocardiogram did not find mitral valve prolapse, which is what they expected to find if they found anything. Instead, they found Tricuspid regurgitation.
The mirtal valve is on the left side of the heart between the upper and lower chambers. The tricupid valve is between the upper and lower chanbers of the heart on the right side.

My midwife was not certain about antibiotics during labor and delivery. She spoke to the doctors in her practice and none of them were certain either. Most of them said that if it was pregnancy induced, medication was probably not necessary, but some said they thought it might be. She has now kicked my test results back to the cardiologists for futher recommendations.
I need to know about the antibiotics thought because i have a dentist appointment in a few weeks and I will need to take them then also if that is what is recommended.

I guess I just have to wait and see. Either way it does not seem to be anything major to worry about.

A box of books came in the mail today. They were What To Expect When You’re Expecting, What to Expect the First Year and What to Expect the Toddler Years. This is very exciting as these are books we most likely would have purchased eventually. (Except the first one, which we have, but this verison is newer than ours.)
The thing is, neither TBWITWW or I recognizes the name or location on the return address, so we’re not sure who sent them… very odd.
There was no note or indication of why they were sent to us. Were they an e-bay purchase that someone we know had shipped directly to us? Was it a secret reader of this page? Was it a friend who we’ve lost track of to the point that we can’t place the name? The mystery abounds.

In any case we’re very thankful for them, and if you are the sender, Thank you for your generosity.

Celebrity Memorial
A vignette to be performed during the pause between Act IV and V of The Naming Process Thus Far

Sean: I put in the baby blog that we weren’t going to name The Pickle Rick James.
Nicole: Good.
Sean: Maybe we should just name him after what celebrity died most recently before he’s born.
Nicole: Great, it would probably be some woman and the kid would get stuck with Bea Arthur or something.
Sean: Okay then the most recent male celebrity.
Nicole: Yeah, but with our luck Dweezil Zappa would get in a car accident the morning that The Pickle is born.
Sean: That’d be funny.
Nicole: You’re a dork.

(and… scene)

So… Welcome to the World Rick James um… Red Adair um… Faye Wray oh wait… guys only… guess it’s Red Adair

Appointment Today
Blood Pressure: 132/70
Baby’s Heartbeat: 145 bpm
Weight: Gained 4 lbs. (this means I am now breaking even with my first appointment and still down about 3 from my prepregnancy weight.)
Measurement: not sure, she did not say, I did not think to ask

When I consulted with Maternal Fetal Medicine in October, they said I should have my heart monitored at each appointment because I was born with mitral valve prolapse and an irregular heartbeat. I had a battery of tests done every few years throughout my childhood, but when I was 20 or 21 the prolapse was no longer detected and the murmur cased by it had disappeared. Today, my midwife detected the telltale murmur again. She said it could just be a normal variant that sometimes occurs in pregnancy, but with the history of prolapse, she would like to have it checked. So tomarrow at 8:45 I will go to have an echocardiogram (sp?) done to determine if I need to have any changes in my care.

I will also be going for my 1 hour glucose test and bloodwork to check my iron levels.

I need to check with my midwife about the serial ultrasounds to check growth rate recommended by the Maternal Fetal Specialist at my Level II. I asked her about them, but did not ask about when they should be done.

We’re down to about 15… but we’re not telling you what they are yet. Maybe we won’t until the pickle is born. Then what’ll you do? Cry? That’s what I thought.

By the way, in case you were wondering, Rick James is not on the list.

Now that we know the gender of the little guy, the next questions we always get is “Have you picked a name yet?” But because we are responsible adults and are not allowed to say “We just found out that it was a boy 3 days ago you stupid monkey! Give us some time. Jeeze.” We have to shorten it to just “Not yet.” But here’s an update for all of you that are curious.

The Naming Process Thus Far
A comedy in five acts

Act I
Time: Many months ago (before we were actually pregnant)
Location: Borders Books and Music, Michigan Ave.

Nicole: I want to look in the baby section.
Sean: Aw geeze, not again.
N: Shut up you crybaby. You want to have a kid too.
S: Well… yeah… but still there’s parts of the process I just like better.
N: Well shut up and help me see if there’s any books about conception or you don’t get to do the fun parts.
S: Damn your infernal logic.
Searching Ensues
S: I don’t think anyone writes books about trying to concieve unless they’re dumb or else you’ve been trying forever.
N: Yeah, maybe we could get a book of names and look through.
S: Okay, here’s one with 2,000.
N: That’s nothing here’s one with 10,000
S: Ooooh… how about this one: 20,001
N: We have a winner! 40,0001!
S: That’s a lot of names. I wonder how many of them are stupid.
N: Probably a lot. But it has some cool lists, like the most popular names of the 70’s
S: What, like Sunshine Rainbow Blowjob?
N: I can’t take you anywhere.
S: Yeah but I’m cute.
N: Yeah… just keep right on telling yourself that.