Chaos Love: love, life, design and more.

While in NY and Rhode Island, the cute dresses I chose to wear were nothing more than exposing of the bump situation and I feel like I am settling into more and more. I have noted however, that I have lost weight although Ryden continues to gain it. He may weigh as much as 2lbs as we approach the 3rd trimester but the other 8lbs seems to be just collected water and placenta weight while I continue to lose mass in my arms in legs. I can't be complaining I suppose but I hope that I am doing everything I can to get Ryden what he needs to grow. Plus the lack of exercise is starting to cause my inactive calves to cramp at night.

Fortunately, I just recently won a gym membership at a gym one block from work. Working on the elliptical machine is all I need to not feel fat and stretch all the tightened ligaments from sitting around airports and idle standing around at work all day. It's all I need to feel human again and less grumpy about not being athletic anymore.

Cam takes great interest in the bump. He can't help but to reach it for it first when giving me a hug or see if Ryden is dancing around as we go to bed. The movement is much more pronounced now even slow turning under the hand. I can't see this interaction ever getting old.

I gave Cam a wonderful Father-to-be Day gift on Sunday morning of a hand-bound baby book for Ryden personalized with his name on the front and many custom pages for information inside that will be filled in over time. We spent the good part of an hour filling in the family tree, favorite books and movies, current day fashions, alternative names if we had a girl and lastly, our reactions to finding out he was a boy. Of course you have to be careful when you put this information in a baby book as its words will burn their way into the history of family lineage. It was such a picture perfect family moment as we placed the first ultrasound picture on the first page. I hope Ryden is ready for all the love that will be flooded his way as he floods out.

Im the only one that looks cute in this picture, therefore it has been uploaded

Since you ask, here is what we've compiled. Taking pictures of colors seems to not work well so here are some links to the samples. Colors on your screen may differ from mine, but it shouldn't be a concern as this nursery is not going to be pictured in a magazine anytime soon. Maybe it will for eccentricity though..

Cam and I have plans. The foundation color is light green.

The newest member of the Garbooth family has made his existence known more than ever this week. Reaching a new height of awareness, not only has he performed well in ultrasounds but is starting to thrash a storm and ready to expend new energy with his new little body. We are excited to have him on board and by shaping the path of our lives from here on in, let us reminisce of past Friday.I was as anxious as ever, having dreams all night of the fateful appointment where we would finally know wether I was carrying a boy or a girl. Although a boy had been hinted at in the past, I'll admit, I had always envisioned a girl. Cam and I played upon this fantasy with a ring on a chain test and talked about people we knew whose child had been diagnosed the wrong gender. I had seen myself with a baby girl since the night I had a dream about her and two weeks later I found out I was pregnant. Even with these high hopes, the possibility of a boy loomed and I was struck by that reality at the last appointment.

little feet!

a beefy man leg complete with bones.

boy bits complete with white arrow.

and a beautiful silhouette of our protagonist! He's kinda grabbing a foot while a hand is suspended above his face. Looks like that head is going to be as big as Cams... *wince*

Startled, the mother said "Yes sweetie, you certainly did. Do you remember that?" The child contemplated and then nodded.

"Yes, it was really dark and I was curled up reeaal tight, like this." With that, the child brought his fists up to his small face and crouched in a ball. Becoming a bit more alarmed, the mother asked if he had been comfortable there. The child replied, "Yes, it was ok but there was something poking me." The intense memory of displacing a rib rushed back to the Mother's memory just as the child added, "and there was something loud always behind me." During the pregnancy, the baby had his head facing downwards as the Mother's heart was always beating over his back.

Suddenly, the child gasped "Mommy! Did I hurt you?" and with tears rolling down her face the Mother hugged her son to her tightly.

"Yes dear, you hurt me"

"It hurt me too, Mommy," the child said through her hair.

-Conversation with Lee Ann about an account between her friend and her four year old.

I was a bit anxious about this one. In the last couple of days, I've been concerned that my clinic wasn't really meeting the bar when it came to client service standards. According to a few people who are either expecting or have already given birth, my clinic seems sub-par. Being draped with attention isn't what I demand, but neither do I want to just be treated as a number as I felt yesterday when calling my clinic hoping to get an answer about a mild twang of pain in my lower abdomen. The receptionist answered and as I expected, informed me that a nurse would pull my file and call me back with an answer to my query. I wasn't satisfied with this answer as I had just stepped out of work in order to make the call. Waiting for a call back could take a matter of a minutes to half an hour depending on the rush of calls that they were having and my call would be would be attended to in the order it was received. Being put on hold wasn't an option and the receptionist was not qualified to make an opinion. Annoyed, I didn't leave a message but hung up. I had an appointment the next day and it wasn't urgent. I had just wanted to test the waters of the system and found the results tepid. I just want to be able to call when the matter IS urgent and to speak to someone immediately who can help.

After a fretful night of thinking I was going to walk into my appointment and lose my temper, I thankfully found the whole experience refreshingly communicative. I was thrilled to actually speak to my OB, as opposed to the nurse, who reset my expectations of how the office works. She would never be available to speak to me over the phone unfortunately as she is helping patients all day long. In an urgent situation, my call is bumped to priority and as there are only one or two nurses in this small clinic, they would call me back asap or page the nearest doctor if the case turned out I was giving birth. My OB is the type who is always leaning toward the door unless you can throw another lasso of questions at her so I made sure to quickly verify that she would be able to make it to the hospital when I go into labor. In reply, she explained that within the clinic network was a group of doctors who responded to the page if she was out or off duty. If she was not present for the actual delivery, someone responsible and dependent would be. I understand why the process needs to be done this way, and it has been successful, no doubt, in dozens of instances. However, perhaps the American in me, was expecting to get her cell number from day one so we could be best friends and she could listen to every pregnancy woe I could bray. In the real world, if you want to have your baby in a hospital with insurance, you follow the protocol. In other cases, like a friend of mine who's having a home birth, the personal attention level between her and her midwife will greatly differ from my experience. My friend and this woman are no doubt getting to know each other on a much more personal level. I've chosen my path and others will choose theirs and I should just consider myself damn lucky for having insurance at all with a house to go home to and a gorgeous wonderful husband who cooks me steak for dinner. And for going through the paces of todays appointment without a hitch, with a regular heartbeat, and donating a pint of blood for more tests that I'm sure will come out negative, no wonder I don't get any extra attention. Amen!

So just a run down of what ELSE happened at the appointment. I signed up to do the AFP (Alpha-Fetoprotein) test which is the final step in making sure the bub doesn't have Down Syndrome. Always good to know I guess. Cam and I declined the Cystic Fibrosis test which is an expensive test that may not be covered under insurance. It was explained that either of us could be a carrier of the disease without knowing it and if we were to both have it, there was a 25% chance it could be passed to the baby. It's nice to know that these tests are available but the chances of the CF test being applicable to Cam and I were a bit unrealistic. Although I didn't have an ultrasound at this appointment, the heartbeat was still audible using a small handheld doppler device. I wish they could record that sound for me so I could share it. Next appointment should be a big one though coming up in 3 weeks! The sex should be determined as well as us being able to make sure all the major organs are in the right places! Fun!

It's gettin real over here folks. Just look at this bub just laying back waiting for it's next feed. Just moochin away with the legs all stretched out floating comfortably in placenta. These images seems to show you so much if you trust the pixels you're looking at. The skull and brain are all in good form and bones are standing out more on the images than before. The heart was visibly pumping blood and the tech noted the kidneys and bladder were all up in full filter mode. Definitely has Cameron's nose I'd say...

Now it's just waving hey!

A footsie!

And cut to wide shot

First, of course, we had another ultrasound which is still very novel to us but can see how it may become a stressful practice as more detail will be noticed each visit, and discrepancies pointed out. This time, the whole fetus (as it is now officially called!) was viewable, laying on its back with the legs up. The tech pointed out that its position couldn't have been more perfect but was concerned with a particular fluid building up behind the neck. When asked what kind of fluid, she said she couldn't be sure. But meanwhile! The heart was steady, kidneys and bladder were seen and functioning, and of course, the brain seemed to look like a real brain! The tech had a guess on the sex but couldn't be completely sure until my next ultrasound which will be another 8 weeks. What she said we won't repeat so we can keep you all in suspense!

Meeting the OB went well and she did her own poke and prod exam. A vial of my blood was taken in order to perform the nucleal transparency test and Cam nearly lost it as she drew it out of me. After she answered a few of our questions and we arranged my next appointment, Cam said that "she was cute" and didn't know what my beef was. She was definitely nicer, as my tests previous had all come back negative which makes everyone's lives easier.

Afterwards, with our after-appointment-glow, we went and cleaned the old house. I was pretty exhausted after working and then going through the exam and tried to contribute the best I could. We are pretty much done with the old place and ready to hand back the keys! Can't wait to finally throw our energy into the new house which needs some big time TLC. My overacting olfactories are completely against the "new house smell" and re-cleaning it seems like the only way to diminish my opposition. More pictures of the house coming soon too! We really need to get our internet in gear so I don't have to write blogs at work :D

Edit 3/26:

Cam feels the need for me to explain the full scope of the fluid issue. The previous account states how I understood the fluid to be a concern but really all is perfectly normal. The tech needed to measure the amount of fluid as part of the nucheal trans test and too much or too little could have led to further tests to make sure that Down Syndrome was not a possibility. The blood test was a follow up to make sure that all was sound. Cam would also like to voice that the blood did not put him off. It just gushed into the test tube in a way that was unexpected and therefore a short breath was heard from his direction.