Having an intern husband has one benefit... printing ultrasound reports. I blame the ultrasonographer completely for my freak out. Yes, there is some concern with a 2 vessel cord, but the likelihood of this baby having trisomy 18 or other congenital anomalies is very low. However, the only thing that was said to me in the room was "there is only a 2 vessel cord, this is associated with trisomy 18. and by the way, we are short on rooms, so you are going to have to wait for the doctor to call you to get the results of your ultrasound."

The report showed that the baby was in the 60th percentile by weight and height. All measurements of all organs and internal structures were normal. They were unable to get a great picture of the spine but there was skin on the outside of the vertebral column. Same plan as before. I will require an extra battery of tests throughout this pregnancy, but hopefully the little bun is growing and developing as he/she should and will continue to do so.

Thank you to everyone for the prayers. Please keep them up, the risks for a small or stillborn baby are increased compared to a fetus with a normal umbilical cord.

update

I had my 20 week ultrasound today and the results weren't quite as good as we had hoped for. The baby was dancing all over the place and what should take about 45 minutes, ended up taking almost 2 hours. The baby's umbilical cord only has 1 artery in it and it should have 2. This can mean nothing, but frequently it is associated with congenital anomalies, low birth weight, and fetal demise. They were also unable to completely visualize the spinal cord, that will also require extra testing to verify closure and rule out abnormality. Please keep little baby fox in your prayers. I will meet with the high risk obstetrician for additional testing and ultrasonography. As soon as we know more, I will post updates. Thanks all.

CR-V

So... we knew we needed at least one SUV with 4WD capability when we moved out here, but we didn't quite foresee the need for 2, until we had our first winter. The snow comes a bit more frequently than anyone reported to us... aka every single week since October 9th. We bought the jeep last year and it has been a great car. Perfect in the snow and ice. The problem is, we have a one car garage and whoever gets home last parks in the back of the other car and then the person who leaves first, takes that car. It isn't consistent who is in the jeep and who is in the civic. I, apparently, am a big weenie when it comes to snow and ice and I am bad at driving in them. I wring my hands constantly when Matt takes the civic out in bad weather and I drive like a 150 year old in my own funeral procession when I have it. We were hoping to find something comparable in age and mileage to the civic and make a trade, but my generous father offered to chip in (a LOT) and help us get a new one. it's so shiny and pretty! Thanks Dad!!

and NO this is not the next step on the way to a minivan...

we are hoping 2011 and 2012 will not include a car purchase for us!

bump

i don't think it really counts yet. for 19 weeks pregnant, i look more like i ate a giant meal at melting pot. which right after this photo was taken, i did.

Prenatal Vitamins

Really... who thought these were a good idea? It's so exciting to buy your first pack of prenatals, finally thinking about starting a family. Scary, exciting, intimidating... then you take your first prenatal vitamin and quickly change your mind. They are almost always pepto bismal pink, almost an inch long, and have an indescribable nasty odor. Once they hit your stomach, you are immediately a little queezy. You start to wonder, oh no, could I already be pregnant? Within 10 minutes you are passed slightly nauseated and you are ready to bend over the toilet. You have horrible heart burn and you start belching. And not just small little burps, loud, noisy, smelly, gurgly, grandpa burps. At this point you are completely convinced you are pregnant and are on your way to target for a 3 pack of pregnancy tests. After peeing on the 2nd stick, you realize "oh yeah! I took a prenatal vitamin this morning." With your own elevated blood pressure and husband with a migrain, you eat a little something and all symptoms subside. Only to wake up the next morning to a similar scenario. This continues for several weeks until you have no money left to spend on pregnancy tests.
once pregnant, prenatal vitamins become just that. PRE natal. There is no chance of keeping these disgusting, massive, nausea inducing monsters down when you are already spending more than half of your day hugging the toilet bowl. You lie to your doctor, "of course I am taking my vitamins..." You try a few rounds of flinstones vitamins only to puke those up and realize that there isn't much worse than vitamins the 2nd time around (except maybe broccoli).

Europe

How did I not post about our European adventure?

France, Switzerland and Italy:

May 17 - June 1, 2009

After Matt graduated from Med School, we packed our (borrowed) backpacks and headed across the big blue ocean. We flew into Paris where we sailed through customs, jumped on the metro and headed into town. We stayed at Hotel Eden (thanks to a recommendation from a friend) where we had our own bathroom and bedroom. We had a marvelous stay in this culture rich city. Next on the list was Switzerland. We took an amazing train ride through the french countryside, into Bern, and on to Interlaken. With packs full, we hiked to our Hostel: Balmer's Herbage "a backpacker's paradise". We enjoyed the views from 'the top of Europe' and the valleys below. From Interlaken we took another (not so nice) train ride to Venice where it was at least 105 degrees. We wandered through the tiny-unlabeled streets to find A Venice Museum. This hole would be the dark side of the trip. Next stop: Cinque Terre, along the coast of western Italy. Our apartment at Mar Mar was a dream. We enjoyed our in-room kitchen and shower and everything about this quaint little coastal town. The last city on the list was Rome. We had cancelled our Hostel thanks to the misery that was a Venice Museum. Our hotel was a few long miles outside of the city... but we at least we had air conditioning!

So Many memories.... so many adventures! Here are a few pictures from our vacation:

The Eiffle Tower

The back side of Notre Dame. Such an amazing building, inside, outside, backside, front.
The Louvre. We did the classic tourist traps (took some slightly offensive art lover photos-aka our interpretations of the Mona Lisa) and exited.
Sacre Coeur. AMAZING. the view of paris from the top of this hill is just as breathtaking.
our giant packs. this was not comfortable hiking to the top of Monte Martre or any sort of walking for more than 10 minutes.

Switzerland! ahhhh
On our way down after hiking UP into the swiss alps. Breathtaking!
Cinque Terre. Love this place. If you are ever in Italy, you MUST make a pit stop!
Paul was here 2000 years ago. wow.

Pretending we were watching the gladiators!

The Trevi Fountain. We came here every night we were in Rome and people-watched. It was such a great place to sit and stare (while eating delicious pizza and gelato).
My view of matt for much of the trip. On the first day we argued so much about which way was the right way that we decided to let 1 person (matt) be in charge of the map and the other (me) wasn't allowed to complain when we got lost. This method actually worked really well. I was very happy being slightly oblivious to our location. However, we did have to rely on the "back to start" feature on my GPS watch on more than 1 occasion!

Oh the fanny pack. This housed all of our important documents. I slept with this thing and even took it to the shower with me. It did have quite the odor when I finally took it off in Tampa!

We walked 171 memorable miles in 15 days all across Europe! it was a great adventure!

Bun in the Oven

Well if you are sneaky and check this without us telling you, you get to know before everyone else: We are EXPECTING! Baby fox is due August 1st. We are very excited. Although baby doesn't like me to eat, things are going well. I am 14 weeks along and already have a small pooch that I can't suck in!