The Peanut Tracker

.

…GIRL!

.

Our little daughter at 16 weeks, 6 days, sucking her thumb.

We’re blessed to have a girl! Which, interestingly enough, seems to be the first girl on my (Tobias’s) side of the family in quite a while, whereas Elliot was the first boy on Tania’s side of the family in quite a while.

We have restored balance to the force.

No, we don’t have a name yet, but we’ll be working on that. This time around, we’ve found that with Elliot and all the other things going on, it’s been hard to sit and think about these things. So, very soon, we’ll have to carve out time and give our daughter a name.

Family update: Tania’s having another not-so-fun pregnancy, but she’s hanging in there. Elliot’s got his seventh tooth–a molar–coming in. I’m still taking classes and working. It’s been tough on us out here (even though we like San Antonio), away from family and friends. Keep us in your prayers.

-T

We’re very excited to introduce to you all the latest addition to our family: Peanut #2! (We’re working on something more snappy.)

Tania is 10 1/2 weeks pregnant now, and we just went to her first appointment (and ultrasound) yesterday. So far everything is looking good, although Tania’s getting hit pretty hard with the all-day “morning” sickness. Not so fun.

The timing here is actually pretty great. We wanted to expand our family fairly soon after Elliot was born (like right about now). It’s exciting to know Elliot will have a little sibling to grow up with, and we’re looking forward to meeting and welcoming him or her home!

Elliot was in the room during the ultrasound, watching his little brother or sister on the big monitor above Tania’s head. He was distracted and tired of being held–he just wanted to run around–but when I pointed at the monitor and told him, “Look son, it’s the baby in Mama’s belly; you have a sister or a brother. You’re going to be a big brother!”, he focused on the monitor, watching his little sibling. He doesn’t completely understand yet, of course, but he knows something is up. Elliot already knows what a baby is (he says “Mei-mei”), and Tania’s been showing him that there’s a little baby in her belly, just like him before he was born. (When she tells him, he looks downs at his belly, confused. ) Just the other day while reading to Elliot about Mary and Joseph, pointing to Mary’s belly and explaining that baby Jesus was inside, he pointed over at Tania. So anyway, he knows something’s up.

Let’s see if we can’t answer a few questions here, preemptively:

• The name factory is steaming away. Nothing to report yet.
• It looks like the little stinker is aiming close to my birthday to be born. Interesting. Well, it would make for a great birthday present! (Tania, you still have to get me something. At least those little chocolate-covered almonds from Whole Foods. And ginger beers. Oh, and…ok, I’m off track a bit.)
• Of course, it’s too early to determine whether we’ve got a little boy or girl brewing… But…
• Just kidding, I wouldn’t leave you hanging like that. The doctor said she thought she saw little boy-parts. Actually, she described what she thought she saw as “sort of glowing”. Make of that what you will.

See the pictures below (click ‘em for the Gallery).

Our latest little one, relaxing. Legs dangling a bit on the left.

Evidently Peanut #2 already has a strange sense of humor, judging by the moon-shot here.

Another side view of our little one.

-T

So here’s the latest on our family sleep situation: we’re all getting a bit now, thank God.

Turns out, as we had been beginning to suspect, Elliot’s arch-nemesis from his early weeks, though we’d thought vanquished by the muscles of maturity, has “lived to fight another day”–yes, the evil Infant Reflux.

However, thankfully, Elliot’s new pediatrician, who we’d selected pretty much at random from the pediatricians in our vicinity, just so happens to be concerned about and studied up on reflux in babies (which isn’t as common among doctors as you might think). She even knows the pediatrician who wrote the book about reflux we’d bought months ago, Colic Solved. What are the chances of that? Of getting a pediatrician, in our (very close) vicinity, who is both concerned about and studied up on infant reflux? And who even knows the author of the book about infant reflux we’d purchased? Weird. And cool.

Anyhow, she was concerned about Elliot from our very first appointment with her, having heard a few of the more subtle symptoms of reflux. After a week of monitoring the symptoms, and those symtpoms continuing–including his sleeping worsening–she had us start him on some medicine to help fight his reflux. And a day or two later, whaddya know, Elliot was sleeping straight through the night. (Not to mention his parents getting some much-needed rest!) Since then it’s been sort of two steps forward, one step back, so we do think it’s improving. In several months, the damage done to his little esophagus should be fully healed, and by then we hope he’ll have outgrown his reflux.

So, as of now, our little guy is much more rested, lively, much happier, and much healthier now!

-T

(Bigger version here.)

This is our little boy at just over 28 weeks!

At the appointment, the ultrasound tech estimated Elliot at a tad under 3 pounds, which puts him right where he should be. His heartbeat was steady and solid, and he looked cozy, curled up in a ball with his little feet over his head. Enjoy that flexibility while it lasts, little buddy…

Yeah, I know, this picture looks a bit like a ghost story from that old Unsolved Mysteries show, but it was the best we could get. The angle of this shot sorta over-emphasizes the bone around his nasal cavity, but the longer we look at it, the more we see what he looks like. Tania says he’s got my chin. I think he’s got little chipmunk cheeks.

Peanut was laying sideways in Tania’s tummy, facing toward her back, away from the camera. Shy guy, maybe. Or maybe just a tired guy, since he and Momma didn’t sleep well the night before. A little grumpy too; when the ultrasound tech was pressing on Tania’s stomach in different places, trying to get a better view of him, he threw a few swift, hard back kicks at her hand. Let sleeping babies lie, I guess. Feisty! Poppa likes.

-T

(Click here for the bigger version, and another new ultrasound.) 

The verdict is in, and Peanut is a boy!

(Insert gigantic grin here.)

A few days ago, we went to the appointment where they do the detailed “anatomical survey” ultrasound. They took pictures of and measured my little son (grin) from every angle. Everything looks great so far. Peanut’s already acting like his daddy, too! He had his little right arm draped over his forehead, palm out, while he was laying down (well, it’s not like he can stand!). I do this all the time when I sleep. Tania noticed it right away and pointed it out to me. A chip off the ol’ block already!

We’ve uploaded two pictures. There’s a bigger version of the one above, plus another one (with his hand over his head, if you look closely). There’s a couple more we didn’t post, since in those he pretty much looks like a skeleton-faced alien threatening the camera. I’ll have to talk to him about being nicer.

Tania wasn’t extremely comfortable during the ultrasound, but she survived all the poking and prodding on her belly. Peanut didn’t much feel like rolling over for the spinal picture, and he didn’t seem to be bothered by the ultrasound technician poking at him to move. Don’t mess with a man when he’s sleeping, I guess.

We’ll try to post some of our thoughts and feeling about this soon, but, for now, all I have time to say is that, for me anyway, everything changed the second I knew he was a boy. It’s not just that I’m excited about having a son, although that’s definitely true, but also that we know Peanut so much more now. Arguably the largest part of our human identity is our gender, so this has just, well, it’s just magnified everything. It’s awesome!

-T

P.s. If you really want to see the other two pictures, email us.

P.p.s. Yes, yes, we’re ironing out his name. Soon, soon.

Just a quick update: two days ago at the doc’s office we got to hear Peanut’s hearbeat! It was a good, strong heartbeat. 

Other than that bit of good news, we’re still fighting Tania’s feeling sick a lot of the time. Tons of fun. (Not really.)

 -T

Fresh pictures of Peanut!

The pictures didn’t come out stellar, partly due to what seemed like an older ultrasound machine, but Little Peanut is doing great!

However, much to my surprise, it appears that Peanut must’ve found an iPod–and don’t ask me how–loaded with 4th Avenue Jones or somethin’, ’cause the little squirt was rockin’ out. (New evidence that, yes, kids are attached to their iPods by an umbilical cord.) Back arching, legs pumping away, arms swinging, head bobbing–Peanut’s having a great ol’ time in there! It was the most amazing sight I’ve ever seen (well, second to seeing Tania walk down the aisle, that is)! Wow. Pretty breath-taking stuff, folks!

I wish I could write what I feel, but sometimes, well, sometimes words just fail, y’know?

-T

(See the bigger version in our photo gallery.)

We went to our 8 week appointment last week and all was well. Our little peanut is just the right size for 8 weeks and everything has checked out so far. Check out the bigger version in the gallery. Look close and you can see Little Flattery curled up and, y’know, just takin’ it easy.

This was a quicker appointment. But we had a list of questions to ask, so our doctor sat and answered each one, except a question she hadn’t yet heard which she wrote down to research for us. Awesome doc, huh? Y’know, you gotta ask your doctor about some of these “tips” you get from well-meaning friends and family. Some of those tips actually checked out. Others didn’t. But thank you everyone for your advice!

‘Nuther tip for the greener-than-us’s: Make lists of questions for your doctor. Compile all the stuff you wondered about between appointments so you can ask every appointment. Take notes. Be a nerd. It’s for a good cause.

- T

(See the bigger version in our photo gallery.)

We got our first ultrasound of our little peanut two weeks early! (This happened May 30th…I’m only posting it now.)

The first real appointment with Tania’s OB doctor was supposed to be at 8 weeks, which is when we were scheduled for the first ultrasound, but we went in two weeks early due to a little scare. We’d already had the “sticks” tell us Tania was pregnant. We’d already had a positive pregnancy test at the hospital. But a few days after that, some of Tania’s symptoms (morning sickness, soreness, etc) had faded and some other minor things happened that kind of freaked us out (yeah, we’re newbies). So, we went in to get Tania checked out, preparing ourselves for bad news. We just happened to get an on-the-spot appointment with her doctor that day, who we wouldn’t have met for two more weeks, and who is a pretty cool person. She dispelled our handful of fears (curse you WebMD!!) and gave us an early ultrasound! We got to see our little baby’s tiny heartbeat two weeks early! It worked out to be a huge blessing, as well as a stress-reducer.

Little tip for newer newbies: stay the heck off of WebMD.

-T