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End of Trimester Report:
Ultrasound: Toshiba Sonolayer
Fetal heart action: Present
Biparietal diameter: 23.3mm
Head circumference: 88.2mm
Abdominal circumference: 64.2mm
Fetal anatomy: Skull: normal, Brain: normal, Abdomen: normal, Stomach: visible, Hands: both visible, Feet: both visible, Placenta: anterior high, Amniotic fluid: normal.
Normal uterus and adnexae.
Adjusted Due Date: Nov 26, 2006
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Kevin's thoughts:
Well, my office finally knows all about my little secret. I asked
my neighbours if anybody wanted to see the photos I took over the weekend, and presented them with
a set of grainy, grey, baby-shaped blurs. My manager was the first to clue in: "Is that...... YOURS?!"
So, as I mentioned back on Week 6, I'm finally able to join in on the baby conversations
at work!
I get to remind Alexandra of the time she told me an amazing pregnancy fact about her sister that
she learned from Your Pregnancy Week by Week, where at the time I shrugged and said "Neat!" when I actually
wanted to tell her I had that very same book open on my coffee table back home.
I also get to enter my baby in its first competition: being born faster than Holly's sister's baby! Go baby go!
At the same time, I get to receive multitudes of motherly advice from Lynn (her little one is 28), and
generally spark Tracey's disinterest, since, in all honesty, she'd rather I was having a cat. (Tracey
likes babies only slightly less than Lynn likes wooden popsicle sticks: that is, not very much at all.)
So there we go. I'm finally part of the baby club.
I also had a bunch of chocolates at my desk for anyone who wanted to come by and see the photos, because,
heck, even if you hate babies, everybody loves chocolate! Congratulations left and right.
During the congratulatory process, a subset to my previous theories about males and babies began to take
shape. Not only do guys not know a thing about babies... they don't even know what to ASK about babies.
Man to man, the common response to a dad-to-be announcement is one or all of the following:
1) Congratulations man/mate/dude/chap!
2) Nice job, well done!
3) Handshake/shoulder slap
And that's all they've got. Some, with a bit of thought, might be able to squeeze out a "When's it due?"
or "Boy or girl?", but with most, they've got nothing left after the handshake (unless, as I've mentioned
they're also a recent dad or dad-to-be). I also received a "Good arrows!" but I don't think women were supposed
to overhear that one.
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Aw, Michael... You know, I just never get tired of this photo. |
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My good friend Michael from New York let me in a little insight to the Jewish culture (it's okay, he's
Jewish, so he can do that). On announcing your pregnancy, apparently no one jumps up and down and screams,
or slaps you on the back with a hearty "well done". They don't do that, says Michael, because if you think
about it, it's like congratulating someone for having sex. High-Five, good buddy! What was it like? Eh? Eh?
Wink wink nudge nudge?
No, the Jews don't go in for that sort of thing. Instead, they say b'sha'a tova u'mutzlachat, which
literally means "in good and successful time". Basically, the baby you've been promised should come in the
right time, and everyone should be healthy, and I'll give you a proper congratulations when I actually
see a kicking and screaming baby, but until then oy my ears can we talk about something else already?
In a strictly unofficial capacity I think deep down he was really happy for me, but in a sense, he's right:
why should I get a slap on the back just for having sex? Don't get me wrong, I'm sure I performed rather well,
but is that really your business?
Ah well... with all the attention on Aimee, I'll take my handshakes where I can get them. It's
hard work making a baby. At least, that's what Aimee tells me.
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Aimee's thoughts:
I've got a little jumping bean in my tummy! This scan was fantastic - and not only because it was free!
At our last scan our little baby was cute, but wasn't really doing much other than hanging out in my uterus thinking hard about growing a tongue. This week, the baby more than made up for it by putting on an all-dancing, all-singing, show-stopping performance... while we watched!
The antics don't really show up in the photos, but there was plenty of jumping all over the place, scratchings of heads, suckings of thumbs, and generally getting some good stretches in while there's still room to stretch.
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Top: Don't look at me! I'm shy!
Middle: Hi mum, hi dad!
Bottom: Award winning smile... |
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Our midwife sonographer let us watch the baby for a long time and pointed our all of the internal organs amidst all the fuzziness (she kept on pointing at the screen saying 'Hmm, the bladder looks normal. Ooh there's the spleen!' and we'd just play along pretending we could see something other than grey fuzz).
Stamp of the Sonographer: All is well with Baby Beimers at the 12-week stage! Better than well, actually: the sonographer says our baby can graduate two weeks early!
Yeah, we can't understand it either. I mean, we know when my last period was, and the week 10 scan confirmed it, and all signs were pointing to December 6th. Suddenly, in the past two weeks, the baby's head has BALLOONED out to a MASSIVE 23.3mm (almost a full inch), and for all the the basic measurements (see Baby Stats) our little jumping bean came in WAY above the standard deviation (sure, she wrote 'normal' for most, but we all know she was thinking 'exceptional'). This means one of two things: either we're due two weeks earlier than everyone else thought, or we've just developed a baby with an incredibly huge head.
Since she didn't attend the conception, we're still trusting our instincts here. After all, how can a baby skip a week? But who knows? Maybe we'll be in for an early surprise in November!
In a way, I can appreciate a bumped up deadline. Babies are rarely born on the exact due date, but I've seen mothers-to-be get nervous when their baby shows signs of arrival a week early, or a week late (according to Kev's mom, he was a month late!). Now, we've got a padding zone of due dates: anywhere between November 26 and December 6 is comfortably normal. It just means that if the baby arrives in December, we were right all along!
But, with an exceptional baby like ours, exceeding standard deviations and accelerating in development...? We might have a baby by August!
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Did you know? |
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By week 12, a baby's head accounts for 50% of its body weight!
I find that terribly easy to believe
after this week's scan... I'd even hazard a guess that Kevin's baby's massive head accounts for
50% of Aimee's body weight! That dome's got its own weather system!
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Baby's Book of the Week |
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 Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs
By Giles Andreae and Russell Ayto
There are some combinations that don't work. Vanilla and pork. Dolphins and stilts. Nick and Jessica.
However, pirates and dinosaurs mesh quite well, in this light-hearted, imaginative, and rather silly
children's book. The pictures are excellent, the style is entertaining and the story is action-packed.
I started reading it to Aimee's tummy, and couldn't put it down until it was done!
Best line of the book: "I'm going to cut you up into little pirate sausages!" yelled the Tyrannosaurus
Rex greedily. "Then I'm going to put you on the barbecue and EAT YOU UP with much too much tomato ketchup!"
he added.
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Aimee's cravings |
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Sushi
Pierogies
The first one's easy to get in London, but hard to get in Thunder Bay.
The second one's easy in Thunder Bay, but near impossible to find in London.
But what the hell, says Kev, it's not like the
impossible's ever stopped us before!
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Baby's got visitors! |
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Meet Nadia and Gina, two crazy cats from Thunder Bay taking Europe by storm! 15 days, Rome to London, going
shopping, taking some photos, seeing some famous landmarks like, um, like... did I mention they went shopping?
There were two main things they wanted to see in London. One was Aimee's belly, and the other was WHERE THEY
COULD DO MORE SHOPPING. So, we took 'em to Camden Market, and Oxford Circus, and the all-encompassing Selfridges.
MAN, can these women SHOP!
By the way, the baby didn't bother Aimee once during the shopping expedition, which makes me think it's a
girl.
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Everyone into the poll! |
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Suppose, say during a shopping marathon, someone says the words, "Every woman should own one real designer
handbag," which sparks an epiphany in another member of your party, causing her to run for the Selfridges
counter brandishing a no-limit Visa (I'm not saying this happened, just hypothetically speaking of course)...
Last Week's Poll: How often did you throw up when you were pregnant?
| Never: | 58% |
| A few times: | 14% |
| Once a week: | 0% |
| Every day: | 28% |
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