Moopers’s Weblog

Last night we dropped in on C+B, who have a 10-month-old.

After a bunch of laughs and catching up we modeled L and said, “Notice anything different?” pointing to her belly.

C was ecstatic and almost in tears for us.  C said, “I THOUGHT when you came up the stairs that you might be!”  She was relieved because she knew, years ago at C’s bridal shower that we were trying; L had mentioned it as the reason for not using a hot tub.

It’s fun talking with new parents about it because we get some foreshadowing of what is to come.  Apparently we have no idea and are at the very beginning of the learning curve.  That it changes everything.  I know this but still!  Scary.

Philosophically they (especially B) are more of mind of “don’t let them rule your world; establish a pattern; let them learn to cry it out “  (B was a bit upset that C nursed the baby last night when he woke up.)  I wonder how that relates to the Happiest Baby philosophy says about crying.  Whatever J&I’s kid are on, that’s what I want.  (Okay I know it could just be individual differences.)

Sadly they are moving across the Bay in just one week. 

- P

Interesting things are actually happening in the world beyond L’s belly:

• The Olympics came and went. We missed it all, partly due to the fact that we don’t have, nor have ever had cable or satellite TV in the house. That’s okay by me. I could take it or leave it.
• Russia invaded Georgia.
• Barak Obama just got the Democratic nomination for president. We watched the acceptance speech on YouTube. Awesome! If that isn’t history in the making I don’t know what is.  The guy’s got an amazing ability to elevate people to higher principles.  It’s actually making L tune into politics, and is pulling me back in. 2004, and the fact that the American public could elect GWB TWICE was so devastating to me I had to tune out and crawl into an apathetic shell.
• 72 year old John McCain picked some 44 year old Evangelical, staunchly pro-choice governer of a tiny state, with two X chromosomes and a gun, whom he had spoken with twice, as his vice presidential pick.  Jaws are on the floor, and we’re starting to find it very funny the prepostersous nature of it sinks in.  Hopefully they don’t win.
• The polls, not that they mean that much at this point, showed recently that Obama was just a couple of points ahead of McCain.

I have working hard on writing articles that will morph into chapters of his book.
L has been relatively productive at work lately, which she is doing 4/5 days at home.

- P

Today is Friday, just into the magic twelfth week.

Monday, Leslie had probably the worst day of the first trimester, horking out anything that went in and feeling commensurately miserable.

Tuesday she was feeling better and by Wednesday and Thursday she was scarfing down beefy burgers and Egg McMuffins to make up for lost time. She’s looking healthy and herself again, is gaining weight (118 lbs and growing)

Hopefully the corner has been turned and the second trimester will be funner than the first.

- P

Life is good.

It’s always been pretty good… we’re lucky enough to be “haves” with lots of great friends, family, geography, comfortable incomes, a home.  The only major hole in our life has been finishing our own family, and now that is filling in too.

Lucky us!!

- P

Today hasn’t been a good day.  Everything I eat isn’t staying down.  I’m tired, so I attempt to take a nap, but my mind is full of work stress.  I wake up even more stressed.  My heaving (an all-body production) and throwing up is making me burst into tears.  P comforts me and tell me I’m doing a lot of work growing two mini-schwees.  Each episode of vomiting and crying tires me out even more.  It’s a downhill spiral. I’m trying to  keep it together at home and at work.  I’m truly failing at work, it’s so frustrating knowing what I used to be able to do.  I do about 30%.

I wish I was more gracious at being miserable.  I’m just unhappy, and I know I should see the big picture.

-L

A couple of other friends are staying with us this weekend. A. used to want kids but J. was adamantly against it. Just not maternal, goes the story.

Well we told A+J and E+M part one of our great news, the day after E+M’s awesome announcement. In a group photo, we needed to raise the camera from the mantle. L and I had just conferred quietly and decided to spill the beans. So I handed E a stack of books from under our table, all about pregnancy and twins. No-one in the group noticed, except L, which she and I thought hilarious.

In the end I had to be more overt and ask E if he had seen this good book…on pregnancy. He was confused for a second and said, “… Why… do you have that?” I shrugged and smiled. He turned to L, “Are you pregnant?”

Lots of fun and laughs.

Well A+J were probably a bit miffed that we didn’t tell them. They had been mildly railing on couples with children the day before, and we didn’t stop them. I was curious to hear their uncensored views, which weren’t at all surprising or unfamiliar, given that I came from the un-childed universe.

Anyway, I am still stoked about E+M having their twins within a few months of ours. They are wonderful people and lifelong friends, and I am excited by the path ahead, with lots of vacations.

E+M had a party to celebrate E’s birthday…. and simultaneously reveal that they were having twins!! Through a surrogate, no less. E announced this in the most matter-of-fact fashion, which is great.

We were so happy to hear that because we knew they had been trying IVF for years. 10 IVF cycles over 4 years to be specific, and multiple involving a surrogate. Wonderful, tremendous, fantastic news. I was dying to tell them ours but we capped it for the time being.

At the same party an old friend came up to me and said, “Excuse me I had to ask… Is L expecting?” I said, “Not officially, but yes!” As a mother of 3 herself, she was easily able to pick out the distinctive shape and motion of a pregnant, versus chubby, woman.

Another first! L’s showing enough for people to notice. Well actually there are probably many people who picked up on it but were either too uncertain or too tactful to say anything.

We’ve got just another couple of weeks to go and we will be out of the danger zone and can spread the word.

- P

The other day I went to visit my recent client.

One of the bosses came up to me and said, “I know you have a big change coming.” She wouldn’t let it go.

She let on that she had had an “intuition” about it, and then allegedly asked her colleague who had visited us last week, and who happened to have witnessed L horking into the sink. I had called her up to tell her the reason and to keep the news quiet. Supposedly the boss asked her if L was pregnant and she didn’t answer, meaning yes.

Whatever the source of the “intuition,” apparently the magic intuitive powers were not strong enough to detect that the news is not hers to spread, that there is a reason for keeping it quiet for now, and that the matter calls for discretion. Instead, she hinted loudly to other co-workers.

- P

CVS risks are still 3x higher than amnio. And with twins our risks are perhaps 2x the singleton stats.

So our current thinking on testing strategy is to do the screens. If the odds are low then wait and do amniocentesis. If the odds come back high then do CVS.

- P