Today we had the 18 week ultrasound. Everything was tip-top, yada yada, <Shona insert something clever here> .
Mar 23
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Sex of the Baby (And Weren’t Afraid to Ask)
The following is a true story.
A few days after I took a positive pregnancy test, I told Emrick that I had a baby in my belly. Ever since then, he has lifted my shirt on an almost-daily basis in hopes of seeing it. He recognizes what a baby is when he sees one in person, and I think he understands — at times, anyway — that there’s a baby inside my tummy. But what it’s doing in there is beyond his comprehension at this point. And since his concept of time is limited, he does not understand what I mean when I say that we will see the baby “in about six months.”
Nevertheless, I continue to tell him things (not just baby-related) even though I know their meaning doesn’t click with him yet. One night in January, we were sitting down to dinner, and just for fun I asked Emrick, “Do you want a little brother or a little sister?”
“Little sister,” he answered.
Marcus and I looked at each other and laughed. We laughed because we expected Emrick to be too confused to answer the question. When he doesn’t understand what he is asked (which is rare these days), he is usually silent in response. And since I am pretty sure that I had never explained to him the concept of brothers and sisters, nor even uttered the words “brother” or “sister” to him in recent months, I found it pretty amusing that he gave such a quick, clear, and definitive answer.
About a month later, when I was home with Emrick during the day, he began talking about the baby in my belly. I asked him again, “Emrick, do you want a little brother or a little sister?”
He grinned and said, “Little sister.”
At this point, I figured that he was just repeating the last thing I said. So to test him, I reversed the boy/girl order and asked again.
“Emrick, do you want a little sister, or a little brother?” I asked, trying to keep my tone neutral so as not to inadvertently emphasize one over the other.
“Little sister,” he said again.
Well, what Emrick wants, Emrick gets. 🙂
Mar 22
The Details
Yep. I’ve got another Babysor on the way. Babysor II, I guess. How did you guys ever figure that out?!?!?
I’ll go into some details in a second, but first, can I just revisit the second photo from Wednesday’s post for a moment?
Look at Emrick’s face.
Something (everything, really) about his face here gives me the warmest fuzzies that ever fuzzed. I just — I can’t.
By the way, only two people actually specified a difference between those two pictures: Kellie (who mentioned the backwards shirt) and Chris (who mentioned more teeth — which wasn’t on purpose, but counts), so I guess they are the winners. I am sorry to say that I ate all of your Thin Mints, though. So sad.
Anyway… back to Babysor II!
I found out I was pregnant on January 2nd, and I am due on September 10. So we’ve got another September baby brewing here!
As of today, I am 15 weeks and 3 days along. And even though I haven’t had a detailed ultrasound yet, I already know the sex of the baby!!!…!!!…!!! But how is this possible, you ask? Well, I took one of those “gender prediction” quizzes online. They ask you when your birthday is and what your favorite color is and then they spit out a gender prediction! Science!
But seriously. I really do know the sex of the baby. At my first visit with my OB, he mentioned a new (available to the public for less than 2 years now) maternal blood test that can be done to determine if a fetus has one of three trisomies. A trisomy is a condition where there are three copies of a given chromosome rather than the usual two. If the extra copy is of chromosome 21, it’s called Trisomy 21 (more commonly known as Down Syndrome — the most common and least severe of all trisomies). This new test tests for Trisomy 21, Trisomy 18, and Trisomy 13. Those are the only three trisomies that ever carry to term so those are the three that they look for.
The test is called MaterniT21 and the way it works is that they examine the cell-free fetal DNA that mixes with the mother’s blood during pregnancy. This is relatively new technology, I think. In the past, your only options (besides ultrasound) were 1) an amniocentesis or CVS, both of which are invasive and come with a risk of miscarriage, OR 2) you could do a blood test that looks at certain hormone levels and gives you a risk assessment. The former is reliable but risky; the latter is totally safe but not very reliable at all. But this new test is both safe (no poking around inside the placenta!) and reliable. By “reliable” I don’t mean perfect. It can still be wrong. There are still a handful of false positives and false negatives, but they are much less likely with this new test than they were with the traditional blood tests because the new test looks at actual DNA from the fetus.
As of now, I think you have to be “high-risk” for carrying a baby with a trisomy in order to be accepted to take this test. Since I am over 35, I qualified and had this test done. It came back negative for all three trisomies. We considered this excellent news, though I am still being a little cautious until I get a detailed ultrasound at 18 weeks. Don’t get me wrong. I am not actively worrying about the baby, I promise. I am just being realistic, and I understand that the ultrasound could reveal an undetected trisomy or some other problem altogether. So I feel good about the test results, but I am still eager for that ultrasound.
Anyway, the MaterniT21 test also determines the sex of your baby. They simply look for a Y chromosome in the maternal blood sample. Since the mother has no Y chromosome of her own, they know she’s carrying a boy if they can find one in her blood. And if they don’t find a Y chromosome, they know the mother is carrying a girl because if it were a boy, a Y chromosome would have been detected (after 10 weeks). Pretty neat, eh?
So when I got the phone call informing me of my results, I was told the sex of the baby!
Although I had been most interested in the results regarding the trisomies, I was obviously very curious to know whether the baby was a boy or a girl as well. I have imagined both scenarios in my mind, and wondered if I really had a preference. Not really. Of course, I thought it would be fun to have a girl. It would be interesting and eye-opening to have one of each, and I’d be lying if I said I haven’t occasionally eyeballed sweet baby girl dresses while shopping for Emrick over the past couple of years. On the other hand, picturing Emrick hanging out with a little brother is pretty darned sweet. All of his hand-me-downs would be used, so we would get to see some of Emrick’s cutest stuff make an encore appearance. Plus, I would be curious to see if a second boy would look as much like me as Emrick does. Or would he be a blond mini-Marcus instead?! How fun to think about!
So. here’s where the torture begins. I know the sex and you don’t! Neener neener. But feel free to make (ONE) prediction. I suppose half of you will get it right, and half will get it wrong. Winners get a box of Girl Scout Samoas.
Mar 20
A Game: What’s the Difference?
You know those puzzles you sometimes see in magazines and puzzle books that feature two nearly identical pictures, but you have to find the many small differences between them? At first glance, the two pictures look exactly alike, but within a minute you notice maybe one tiny difference: one polka dot is missing from a lady’s skirt, perhaps. Or a man’s tie is just slightly longer in one of the pictures. It’s a great way to exercise your powers of observation! There are usually at least ten differences, and eventually you find them all. What an eye for detail you have!
So that’s what we’re doing here today. The two pictures below are both of Emrick sitting on his playroom chaise surrounded by stuffed animals. They are very similar photos, but there are quite a few differences! See how many you can find, and then list them in your comment. No cheating by reading comments that are left before yours! One point for each difference you find. Fifty points if you find the one “Mega Difference” — it trumps all the rest!
(Winner gets a box of Girl Scout Thin Mints.)
Let’s go!
Mar 17
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Here are just a few pictures of Emrick this morning, wearing a cute St. Patrick’s Day t-shirt from his Aunt Megan.
Mar 16
Emrick is 2.5 Years Old Today
Emrick is exactly two and a half years old today. This is his 913th day of life. It feels like the 913th day of mine, too.
When I was pregnant with Emrick, I was still teaching here in Utah. Another teacher gave me a children’s book that I didn’t read in its entirety until a few months after Emrick was born. It’s called Mom Says I Can.
It’s about a little boy who has several imaginary adventures, always hunting the “world’s greatest treasure.” In one adventure he’s a superhero; in another he’s a cowboy; in another he is a pirate, and so on.
He always has his mom’s encouragement: “Mom says I’m so tough!”/”Mom says I’m so brave!”/”Mom says I’m so cool!”
At the end of the book, after all of his adventures, he puts on his pajamas and sits in a chair with his mom. When she asks him why he’s not dressed for another treasure-hunting adventure, this is what happens.
He tells her he doesn’t need to hunt for the world’s greatest treasure because she is the world’s greatest treasure.
Sidenote: my hormones, which had me ugly-crying at diaper commercials when I was pregnant with Emrick, have never quite returned to normal. So the first time I read this to Emrick, when he was about four months old, I got choked up. I got really choked up. Of course at the time, Emrick understood books to be little more than a teething toy. Still, for the next year at least, I could not read this book to him without a quiver in my voice at the end. And that’s not because I think Emrick thinks that I am his greatest treasure, but because he is mine.
I can read this book just fine now. No quivers, no tickle in the throat, no mist in the eye. But recently I have been telling Emrick daily that he is my greatest treasure. Sometimes I tell him at night, when he is worn out from passionately and tearfully resisting bedtime, lying defeated in my arms with his head on my shoulder. And sometimes I tell him during the day, and in response he grins and repeats, “greatest treasure.” He doesn’t know what that means, but he will soon enough.
Emrick is 33.25 inches tall and weighs 26 pounds, 10.5 ounces. Marcus and I think he’s the greatest thing since… ever.
We love you, Pookie Pie!
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