our (amazing) baby

Here she (or he) is ... the youngest member of our little family, at 12 weeks and a few days old. I am still amazed that this baby survived a six-hour surgery under general anesthesia, more than a week of narcotic painkillers and a CT scan, but as the genetic counselor said this morning, these little ones are more resilient than we imagine. Which seems ironic when you consider the high miscarriage rate in the first trimester and all the dire warnings against so much as drinking a glass of wine during pregnancy!


The baby seems to be doing just fine, and I think it's beautiful; it reminds me of Daniel's ultrasound picture at that age. It has all its arms and legs already — you can see one of its arms in front of its face and one of its legs kicking out — and it's growing at a rate that would suggest a due date of March 28, just a few days sooner than the charts predict based on the start of my last period. Not that that means a thing: Daniel was the same way, and remember how long he waited to come out? That's right ... 12 days. We don't have the results of the screening tests yet — the ones that will assess the risk of the baby having genetic abnormalities. We'll probably find out in a few days. I don't know that we'd do anything different if we got a high-risk result. I'm not interested in amniocentesis (which is an exact diagnostic test, unlike this). Obviously, we'll keep the baby no matter what. (Heck, she's come this far.) We'll probably just use the information to prepare for possibilities. But I just have a feeling that everything will be OK. (I also have a feeling she's a girl — I guess we'll know soon enough if my instincts are right.)

After a difficult and stressful beginning to the week, things are better now. Daniel finally started to warm up to my mom, so the three of us had a very nice Wednesday together. Mom flew back to Oregon this morning, and now it's just Steve and Daniel and me, trying to juggle time for Steve to log in at work and me to take lots of naps in between caring for Daniel.

Trying to eat well is another challenge, and I realized the other day that my morning sickness must have kicked back in. I can be so hungry that my innards ache, but put a plate of food in front of me, and my nausea wells up to the point where I can't eat more than a few bites. I'm always grateful when I can get a full meal into me because the food people have been bringing us is seriously delicious. In the past week and a half, our refrigerator has played host to chicken soup, vegetarian chili, shepherd's pie, spaghetti pie, lasagna, salads, pork chops with this fantastic pineapple-bread side dish, cheesy potatoes, cookies, banana bread, blueberry loaf and more. I don't know what we would do without the culinary kindness of our friends!