Week 11 Begins

Posted on April 25, 2009 by David

Of most importance this week is that the baby is visibly becoming a girl or a boy. We all know how I feel about that. The most critical parts of the development are now over, but there’s still of course a lot to go.

The baby can now move and kick, and is exploring the new world. The uterus is still cathedral-large to the fetus, so it’s not able to be felt. It probably doesn’t echo either. Some places note that the fetus begins at this point to explore the fact that it has a mouth with it’s hands.

The ears are moving up to where they belong. This is important, as they need to be in place for quality music to start getting pumped in. No, I’m not joking.

It will start developing a swallow reflex as well, and continues to develop the taste buds. Some people believe this is the first time period in which the sense of flavors are developed. As I write this, I think back to last night when Jolene ate peanut butter flavored snack mix. It’s either going to love or hate that stuff. We’ll see.

Morning sickness seems to be gone for the most part, but super-human smelling ability isn’t. I swear, the woman can smell the fact that I’ve had onions for lunch before she hits the driveway.

Week 10 Begins

Posted on April 17, 2009 by David

Jeesh, it’s going by fast.

During week 10 the tail has completely dissapeared from the fetus. Which is a very important thing, lest we name our child ‘fido’ or similar.

The baby websites all make reference to the fetus being as big as a plum right now. I don’t like plums. I don’t eat them. Still, plum this, plum that…

All I can imagine is one of these inside of Jolene at this time:

Course, it’s supposed to look more like this, a fetus at 10 weeks:

I guess the head kinda looks like a little plum. I dunno.

It has taste buds now, too. Which means I guess that it’s going to develop it’s love of peanut butter.

The websites also say that there will be mood swings and such at this time because of changing hormones. In the wife, not the fetus. I haven’t noticed any yet. Jolene is, as always, just delightful. She’s still exhausted all the time though. Oh, and they say her gums might bleed. I’m not sure why. Are babies a leading cause of the gum disease gingivitis?

Week 9 begins

Posted on April 11, 2009 by David

So week 9 began yesterday. Of important note, apparently the fetus had a tail up till this point which is now gone.

Also, baby websites show that the fetus is a convenient size for snacking

It’s about an inch long, and the page that I retrieved this image from notes that it’ about the size of large grape. It’s a very strange way of showing the size, with the fingers like that. I can only assume the writer was hungry when they made that page.

It’s also apparently an arsonist, which could be helpful in us getting a new house

There are also miniature teeth, a heart was finally formed, and there are now supposed to be earlobes.

This guy isn’t really as important to Jolene anymore;

the peanut butter cravings seem to have subsided somewhat. Although she is sleeping a lot now. I guess that tail dissolving business is tiring.

Week 8 Starts

Posted on April 3, 2009 by David

So today marks the beginning of week 8. Not a lot has happened, we’ve been pretty busy with other things in our lives.

Apparently at this point the fetus is as big as a lima bean. Maybe a pinto bean.

In addition, it apparently likes to do that Macarena.

All very cool. I did, however, order a shirt for Jolene for our trip to Columbus to see the Decemberists this summer. I saw this in their store and, well, it ended up getting bought:

Click the image for more detail, of course. It’s a very cool little ‘onesie’

I figure everyone else is getting shirts for the concert. That and we’ll have the hardest indie-rockin’ baby around if we have them dressed in this.

Prenatal Vitamins

Posted on March 28, 2009 by David

Jolene had issues in her previous pregnancies with getting sick from taking Prenatal vitamins. So I told Jolene back when we got our free samples from the doctor that I’d take one too when she took her first one. We’ll share misery, if they’re that bad.

She took her first one today from the baby doctor, after taking some other vitamins up till this point. These are called “Prenate DHA”

It was very difficult to take a picture of these vitamins. Foil tends to reflect flash.

It was shipped in this ridiculous container. It looks like it might be easy to open. It even has instructions on the back.

On the back you can see them. “Peel and Push” if you can’t make it out. Unfortunately, the stark reality is that these pills are sealed tighter than nuclear waste being transported cross country on a train.

After struggling with opening the vitamins, Jolene said “It looks like another pill you’re going to have to open for me” and handed it to me. We do the same thing with her Iron supplements.

I tried to peel. I tried to push. I bent. I used my fingernails.

No progress.

I reached in the drawer next to me and found the first sharp object I could – a meat serving fork. I started to attack it, while Jolene actually took the time to get an appropriate tool to open them. Scissors.

Is this some practical joke the pharmaceutical industry is playing on expectant mothers?

Pharma Lab tech 1: “Hey, check this out, I’m going to engineer a container that’s nearly unwrappable for our new vitamins!”

Pharma Lab tech 2: “I’ll print ‘peel and push‘ on the back. Let’s get them practicing pushing early!”

Pharma Lab tech 1 + 2: “Muahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha”

So anyway, we got 2 of them open by cutting them open with scissors. The pills themselves are huge and blue-greenish. They have a delightful vanilla aftertaste. It might make a good after dinner mint.

I looked at the website to see what I could expect from taking it:

Replenishes DHA depleted during pregnancy and lactation

Provides critical nutrients essential to pregnancy

Helps maintain a healthy cardiovascular system

Supports maintenance of healthy skin, hair, and nails

I’m looking forward to these benefits.

Boy or Girl

Posted on March 26, 2009 by David

According to the information I got from the OB, this is the week in which the gender of the child is determined. So what do we ‘want’, a boy or a girl?

I know, the popular thing is to say that either is what you want so long as it’s healthy. But let’s look at this for a moment.

Boy:

Much cooler toys. I want to play with trucks.
The ‘mama’s boy’ cliche.
Will have to deal with a teenage boy when he grows up.
Everything won’t be pink. Not that I don’t like the color, it just doesn’t go with a lot of my current wardrobe. We must be fashionable!

Girl:

No circumcision issues. Did you know one of the options for pain management for circumsicion is a drop of ‘sugar water’ on the tongue? Are you serious, they chop that and give the kid some soda or something? Yeowch.
The ‘daddy’s girl’ cliche
Will have to deal with teenage boys coming to visit her when she grows up.
Being able to say “What’s up, babygirl” in a non-ironic sense.

The next question, of course, is do we want to know?

Of course!

Yellow is a terrible color, and why not find out if we have the capability to do so!

I guess, when it comes down to ‘boy or girl’, I don’t care either way. We’ll just have the possibility of having a girl with some super-awesome toys (for me to play with).

This boggles my mind…

Posted on March 26, 2009 by David

So we were reading through the binder given to us by the OB last night. Most of the information was very helpful and informative, but then I got to this page, which described ways you and your spouse can ‘get intimate’ near the time of birth:

breastmilk

WHAT!?!?

People do that?

What did I just stumble upon? Breast milk for sexual lubrication – now I’ve heard everything.

November 14th, 2009

Posted on March 24, 2009 by David

…. is the expected due date for Jolene and the baby. We went to our first official ‘baby doctor’ appointment this morning. I was up all night getting ill, so I went with 4 hours of sleep or so. I think I was just overly anxious about the whole process.

I sat in the office and took notes. Since this is a first time thing for me, I’d like to be sure I get it right.

Things of interest:

The bariatric vitamin pills that Jolene is taking don’t have enough Folic Acid by 200 mcg’s. I just looked this up. She got a bunch of samples of the prenatal variety today. Also, they gave her a sucker at the office! Not the kid type, unfortunately, but one that has lots of B vitamins that is supposed to help stop morning sickness. I kind of wanted a sucker, too.
Cord blood. I had no idea what this even was. I still only have a vague sense of what it is. I must do more research.
Dad Boot Camp. A 3 hour class taught by other fathers. I guess they bring their babies to the class for a ‘hands-on’ sort of learning situation. The class itself kinda intimidates me more than the birth, but I’ll probably go. It’s free, after all.
Along the same lines, they offer a baby CPR class. This one interests me more, so I’ll register for this as well.
We got a binder with a bunch of information, and aside from that, a bunch of coupons. The freebee-loving person I married will love this part. I guess you fill out a few cards and get a metric ton of samples in response.
We have to fill out a ‘birth plan’ by 16-18 weeks. I don’t know what a birth plan is right now. It seems simple. We plan to give birth. I must investigate this more, and perhaps page through the binder.
An ultrasound will happen at 16-18 weeks. Generally the insurance companies only want to pay for one of these. God bless insurance companies!
We went through a genetic screening thing, where the lady read off a bunch of scary sounding diseases. I just continually shook my head.
We’re going back in the first part of May. Today, as calculated, we’re at 6 weeks, 4 days from the beginning.

Overall, it was a nice, quick appointment followed by a trip to the basement of the building where the vampires live. They took her blood and will run a bunch of tests on it.

Afterward, we went out to breakfast. It was a much better breakfast than we had in Bay City this past weekend. Jolene did, however, get ill when she got back home. God bless morning sickness!

Big news!

Posted on March 22, 2009 by David

That was what I saw on Friday, March 13th. It’s taken a while to tell everybody, but all of the parents now know what’s up. Telling all of them has been a week-long ordeal. Some reactions were not like I expected. Some were exactly like I expected.

Where to start?

Jolene thought that she might be pregnant, so one night she bought two economical pregnancy tests from Walgreens. She used the first one, and there was an ever-so-faint line indicating that she was pregnant. We wondered if it, perhaps, it was just a mark that came up due to dampness and not a real pregnancy?

How would we figure out of it was truly indicating that she was pregnant? We debated – should I pee on the second one to compare the results of the my test vs Jolene’s test? I decided that no, let’s just try the second one tomorrow. Again, a faint line showed up on the test indicating pregnancy. I later learned that even a faint line means that the chemical that it tests for is present. We didn’t know this then…

Jolene decided to have her blood test taken in Mount Pleasant, where she works. They wouldn’t give her the results on the phone, so she called me from Sams Club and asked me if I wanted to go and get the results with her. “No, that’s ok dear…” I had a lot of work to do that day, and there was nobody around to watch Maddie and Ben.

I reconsidered minutes later, she had been behaving a little differently than normal. This became a staple in our house, being eaten for every meal possible:

I called her back telling her I’d meet her at her work in an hour.

I left notes for the two beasties, giving them instructions to come in and play video games while they wait for me to get home. I figured an electronic babysitter could handle the 30 minutes that they would be without supervision. Madalyn is almost 12 already anyway.

I drove to Mount Pleasant, and went to meet my wife at the store. We went to the hospital, and found our way to the lab records area. We asked for the paperwork that would tell us if Jolene was pregnant or not, and they asked for an ID. We left this item in the car. Jolene had to sit and stare at the paperwork through the security window while she waited for me to fetch the ID.

After following several very old, very slow people through the hallways of the Mount Pleasant hospital, I retrieved the ID and gave it to her. We looked at the results, above.

During the following week after we found out I wrote a little note. I did not intend to show it to anyone, and as such the grammar isn’t exactly as I would have hoped. It was more of a stream of thoughts placed on the paper. However, after Jolene saw it she decided that it was something that she wanted to use to let her mom and sister know that we were pregnant. That said, here it is in it’s entirety, unedited:

3/17/2009

I’ve been waiting for you.

After I got out of high school I had a grand plan, a way that my life was going to go. I would go to college, I would get a job in the computer industry. I would have a child or two by my mid 20’s. I would have a reasonable house, and live in my parents image of success. None of this happened.

I don’t regret anything in my life. I did go to college after high school. I dropped out during a boom in the economy, in the computer industry. I had a good job, one with possible advancements. I married the girl I was with in high school. That job disappeared from underneath me. So did the wife.

It was then that your mother, brother and sister came along and saved me.

When I met your mother I was depressed. I was lost. I did not have any direction in my life, and I lived it day by day, a hermit in my own house. Your mother, brother, and sister pulled me out of my shell. They showed me love, care, and showed me that I would never ever have to be alone again.

I joined them in Bay City in your mothers apartment. She took care of me during an illness when I had nobody else to do so. It was then that I saw the moral character and the caring, loving person she is. I had been already introduced to your brother and sister, and was friendly with them. I grew to love them, as well. While there wasn’t a specific time that I can place that I did, it happened gradually over time. It was a large adjustment for everyone.

I married your mother on May 5th, 2006. Both of us had been married before. It was not our intention to have a large wedding like we both had previously had. We moved back into my house, which was quite large enough for 2 young adults. Having a baby was something that we talked about, occasionally, but we always waited for the right time.

This has been something I’ve done my entire adult life. Every time I would think about having a baby, I would think about things that would make it difficult if not impossible. There never seemed to be a right time. First there was college. Then there was my lack of a house. Then I had the house, but nobody to share in this journey.

When I met your mother, she already had 2 kids. 2 kids alone is a handful, never mind adding more to that. Now I’m back in college, and the thoughts that maybe we should wait till I am out and have a steady job outside the house occurred to us. In the end, your mother and I decided that if we were going to wait any longer, we might regret not making the decision while we still can.
I’ve been waiting for you.

We tried having you for many months. It was only after your mother got a thyroid pill adjustment that you were possible.

That waiting was over as of Friday, March 13th 2009. I drove to meet your mother in Mt Pleasant, where she works and took a pregnancy test at the hospital. We were so excited to go in and get the results from the lab that your mother forgot her ID in the car. I had to walk back to get it while she waited, in sight of the paperwork but unable to read it.

Once back with the ID, we got the good news – you were with us already! I was numb feeling, not sure how to react, but happy.

Now I’m waiting again, not for the right time, but instead to see you. Right now, you’re a small clump of cells. In eight months, you’ll be a full person of your own, out in the world. It seems like a long time from now, but I know it’ll go so very fast. I hope it does. I’m tired of waiting. I hope very strongly that everything goes smoothly. I’m afraid, but hopeful.

So far, we’ve told her parents, my parents, some friends, some co-workers and so forth. As we move further along we will tell more people. It’s a good start. I’ll be documenting things here, more for us than really for anybody else. It is, after all, a new experience for me.

My only concern thus far is that it’s possible our baby may end up like this:

It’s either that or they’ll grow up hating peanut butter, we figure.

First doctors appointment for the baby-making is Tuesday. It’s a strange new world.

The Cooke Family Website

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