Haha I know right

But if anyone wants more info from him, I can cut and paste a few key slides! There was also a great lecture about male infertility.

5/6/2011 8:36:16 AM

swimming, or water aerobics, while pregnant is perhaps the best thing ever!

for you triangle moms, I can't say enough about http://www.healthymomsnc.com/

i've really enjoyed their yoga classes, and today i did the prenatal aquamoms class as a makeup. i wish i had just signed up for the aquamoms class from the get go this session as it is so nice to do in the 3rd trimester. alleviating the weight for an hour was fantastic, and the workout was good too. i'm really looking forward to an afternoon nap now

i hear good things about the total body conditioning. they offer classes postpartum as well...and having enjoyed the prenatal aquamoms, and we being a water loving couple...i can definitely see the mom and baby water classes in our future.

5/7/2011 11:48:30 AM

Happy mother's day to all the moms-to-be!

5/8/2011 11:22:41 AM

^


and can I just say that nesting is about the best thing ever? nest nest nest...washing little things...<3 <3 <3

5/8/2011 3:12:32 PM

I'm so glad you like nesting, it was so overwhelming for me. I loved washing all the clothes but getting our house ready for a baby and then baby #2 was just awful.

5/8/2011 6:22:03 PM

At the risk of becoming overly sappy on tww, I'm gonna just say this and hope folks get where I'm coming from.

Part of me still marvels at the things I'm doing in preparation for a baby. 5-10 years ago I would have laughed at my future self for putting up a Dr. Seuss stencil quote on the wall in our nursery...I mean shit, 10 years ago I would have laughed at the very concept of me breeding.

But now its like, how could I have not done this earlier? Our incoming son has been filling a void I didn't even know existed until I heard he was on the way back in October.

Ya'll know what I mean?

5/12/2011 8:10:51 AM

^not sappy at all, and i think everyone goes through that at least in some way. Our little Jake is 5 weeks old today, and if I rewind about 18 months and compare our lifestyle then to what it is today, it's laughable.

I can't speak to filling a void, we were very happy and fulfilled just the 2 of us and our pup prior to TTC, but now our cup runeth over.

It's amazing how you can be completely frustrated, fed up, and at your wits' end with a screaming baby, only to be instantaneously overjoyed at the hint of a smile; or start laughing hysterically at a baby fart (which are really loud and frequent, btw).

5/12/2011 8:43:41 AM

^^awwwwwwww

5/15/2011 8:35:47 AM

Third official baby shower starting in 20 minutes. I'm hoping we get more than clothes this time!

Not that clothes are cute and wonderful, we are just filled up in that department.

Diapers, wipes, and $$ FTW!

5/15/2011 1:39:30 PM

which side does your baby tend to favor? pretty sure the head is down now, with its back and little butt over on the left, and its feet & arms over toward the right. i feel most of the movement on the right.

5/17/2011 10:35:50 PM

Just had an ultrasound today. My little one is in breech. The sharp stabbing pains that I have been having are my girl kicking me in my girlie parts, so her feet are down in my pelvis where her head ought to go. Her head is under my sternum or left ribs most of the time and her back/chest tends to mostly hang out on the right side of my belly.

Ooo and gratuitous ultrasound photo of munchkin's face.

5/17/2011 10:52:25 PM

Quote :

"which side does your baby tend to favor? pretty sure the head is down now, with its back and little butt over on the left, and its feet & arms over toward the right. i feel most of the movement on the right."

This is how our little one was has been for the past month or so.

BTW, we are scheduled for induction on Monday (5/23) if she doesn't come before then. Due date is 5/25, but the doctors have scheduled it because they fear fetal macrosomia.

[Edited on May 18, 2011 at 9:32 AM. Reason : one]

5/18/2011 9:31:17 AM

oooooo...ultra sound pics!! LOVE!

I have missed your posts bb.

5/18/2011 10:58:38 AM

We moved out to the boonies and didn't have regular internet access for months!

We finally got DSL.

5/18/2011 11:58:30 AM

On the topic of humidifiers:

For those of you with babies already in the world, under what circumstances & how often did you use them? Trying to gain a little knowledge

5/19/2011 7:12:27 PM

My daughter was born in September and started day care in December. So of course, most of January and February, and part of March she constantly had some kind of runny nose, cough, or some germy something. One of the recommendations for relief from cold symptoms was a humidifier. I don't know if it really helped, but it did give me a little piece of mind.

5/19/2011 9:20:40 PM

A humidifier is great for when your baby has a cold or other upper respiratory problems. It's supposed to help them breathe easier, but we very rarely used one with our son. It seemed like it gave him more relief in less time to give him a warm bath, spray a little saline in his nose, and then use nasal aspirator to suck the yuckies out.

5/19/2011 9:50:19 PM

i grew up using a humidifier in my room, but it was to prevent nosebleeds which i got quite often (enough that i had my nose cauterized a few times growing up kind of often).

5/19/2011 10:31:45 PM

Baby was born New Year's Eve. We had it on every night until the heat was no longer on in the house (the heater really dries the air making congestion worse).

Every winter we always run a humidifier in our own room (for nose/breathing and dry skin). Just getting the room to normal humidity levels, not a sauna or anything.

[Edited on May 20, 2011 at 12:36 AM. Reason : .]

5/20/2011 12:35:34 AM

I think we finally have a name

5/20/2011 11:32:47 PM

i heard recently that a study showed that humidifiers actually have no measurable positive affect, and actually end up being a breeding ground for bacteria that gets spewed out into the room

edit: ok, apparently we knew this as far back as 1988

http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/02/style/humidifiers-aid-comfort-not-health.html

Quote :

"But even though moister air may make people feel more comfortable, experts say there are no health reasons to use humidifiers. The nasal and oral passages are the body's natural humidifiers, and air reaching the lungs is thus always moistened to some degree. A Source of Molds and Bacteria If the water reservoirs of humidifiers are not cleaned regularly, molds and bacteria can breed in them. Humidifier fever, a relatively rare pneumonialike allergic condition, has been caused by breathing air that is contaminated with microorganisms from humidifiers. ''People live very nicely in the middle of the desert without adding humidity to their air,'' said Dr. Harriet Burge. She is a research scientist at the University of Michigan School of Medicine who was a consultant to the study and has done extensive research on indoor air quality and humidifier contamination. Dr. Burge said no reliable research supports the idea that adding moisture to the air prevents colds or even brings relief to those with asthma or croup. Humidifier manufacturers agree. ''They make the air moist and more comfortable, but there are no health benefits,'' said Michael Murphy, marketing product manager for Toshiba, a manufacturer of humidifiers."

[Edited on May 20, 2011 at 11:47 PM. Reason : threw ours out]

5/20/2011 11:45:15 PM

I'm scheduled for a C-section on June 15th. They're letting me go exactly 39 weeks and 1 day. I guess she's definitely going to be a Gemini.

I'm ready for her to get here because there are so many things that we aren't going to be able to tell until she's actually born. The ultrasounds have shown limb shortening (nothing freakish, but enough to raise a red flag) and she needs to be tested for immune deficiency.

We had a name (Lucy), but then too many middle aged women informed us that's their nickname for their lady parts and it just ruined the name for me. So, the name we had picked as her middle name is now her first name and we're really struggling to come up with a middle name.

5/23/2011 7:24:36 PM

I now speak safe-car-seat-base-installaitonese, including the local dialects of latch, locking clip, and automatic locking mechanism

5/23/2011 9:12:28 PM

I offer my sympathy to you all. Have you tried things like ginger or seabands?

5/23/2011 9:21:21 PM

Quote :

"We had a name (Lucy), but then too many middle aged women informed us that's their nickname for their lady parts and it just ruined the name for me. So, the name we had picked as her middle name is now her first name and we're really struggling to come up with a middle name."

I say name her whatever you want and middle aged women be damned. Lucy is a beautiful name. (though understandable if you now have a mental block about it. )

5/23/2011 10:16:24 PM

Ava Celeste Moser

5/23/11 @ 6:48pm

9lb, 6oz

5/24/2011 9:47:53 AM

congrats!

5/24/2011 10:30:34 AM

Yay!! Congrats

5/24/2011 11:23:49 AM

Congrats!

5/24/2011 11:33:44 AM

w00t!

Congrats!

5/24/2011 5:19:38 PM

Found out on Monday that my Halloween baby is a BOY. Time to start thinking of names..

Oh and I can feel him move now. Pretty cool.

5/25/2011 8:05:08 PM

Poor you. Pregnant all summer long.

But yay for boys!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5/25/2011 10:03:20 PM

I get to work with cute (well, sometimes cute) preggo women all day the husbands can be pretty funny... today someone asked if his great, great, great grandparents were first cousins could it affect their twins -- and followed it up by saying, "I don't want that to be the cause of us birthing a cast member from Deliverance"


but tomorrow I get to tell a girl around my age that she has a 1 in 23 chance of having a child with Down syndrome :\

5/25/2011 10:49:07 PM

Sam, is she already pregnant? I want to know more.

Having a special needs child is a blessing in so many ways. They bring colors to your life that you never knew existed. I don't have words to explain it. I've met a lot of Downs children in therapy groups for my son and they are truly precious children and its amazing how many Downs children are terminated.

5/25/2011 11:14:06 PM

Well let me start off by say I am very pro Down syndrome... but I do think it's important for people to know beforehand so they can plan accordingly and such. And, sometimes there are kids with DS who are not high functioning and all and have major complications.. so it's definitely important to know that.

Yeah, she's in her second trimester. I feel bad because I think the younger ones don't expect such an extreme result as much as the older mothers, ya know? I mean, when you're that age your risk is less than 1 in 1000.... she has an abnormal serum screen result though

5/25/2011 11:16:38 PM

It's important to know what you're getting into ahead of time. The longer you have to prepare yourself and gather resources, the more you'll feel like you're in control of the situation when the time comes.

I think that you're completely right about the age factor. Younger people have a sense that nothing bad is ever going to happen to them -- at least I know that's how I felt. You're going to have a magical pregnancy and a perfect baby. When that doesn't happen, it's devastating. I never expected to have a child with major health problems. I had never even heard of DiGeorge Syndrome until after Silas's birth. However, I have to be honest -- I'm glad I hadn't. If I had known ahead of time just the book facts about "complete" DiGeorge, I probably would have terminated my pregnancy. And I think that the world would have missed out on a beautiful human being had I terminated.

Now we're going through it all over again with our second child, but with a lot more knowledge than we had the first go around. We're fairly certain that this child is going to be somewhere on the spectrum for DiGeorge because of the presence of a cystic hygroma and the limb shortening, but this time we have working knowledge of the syndrome. And it's important to realize that a person is more than a syndrome or a label, they're an individual with their own strengths and skills.

[Edited on May 25, 2011 at 11:35 PM. Reason : ...]

5/25/2011 11:32:47 PM

Have they done prenatal testing for the second child? Like do you plan on having an amnio in order to have FISH testing? (I'm not sure how far along you are or if you're past that point.. I think you are, but wasn't for sure) I hope everything works out ok... How is Silas doing?


And, definitely agreed on people are more than syndromes. I think that's what makes me so sad about hearing people say genetic counselors only offer abortions and want to weed people out of the gene pool - we're some of the biggest supporters for those affected

5/25/2011 11:38:23 PM

We had a CVS done to rule out Turners, Downs, and all of the other syndromes associated with a cystic hygroma. Everything came back as normal.

We were told that there is little point in doing a FISH test because Silas and I both come back as normal for the 22q deletion and the other microdeletion that has been associated with the syndrome. Dr. Markert, who specializes in complete DiGeorge, has found that her population of patients are overwhelmingly without the deletion in comparison to the entire population of DiGeorge patients. We've gone through a great deal of studies with genetics at Duke and they've yet to track down exactly what the specific problem is. However, Silas and I both present with the phenotype for Klippel-Feil Syndrome and DiGeorge Syndrome. It's really frustrating because I'd love the opportunity to do PGD for future pregnancies, but until something comes up we're probably not going to have any more children of our own.

You'll also be glad to know that after our geneticist told us that she believed that we had a Dominant condition, she encouraged us to have another child because Silas would need a sibling and that we should think of Silas and me as being alone on our own spectrum and stop comparing ourselves to the 22q crowd.

[Edited on May 25, 2011 at 11:52 PM. Reason : .]

5/25/2011 11:49:17 PM

Your geneticist sounds amazing. I would love to work for Duke one day... they have a great program.

I'm just glad you guys seem to have a good handle on things and really work with it. It kills me to see parents treat their kid with a syndrome much differently or become depressed.


Also, if you don't mind me asking - have any of those studies been published? Would you mind sending me the titles if they are? I hope this doesn't sound weird, but I always found y'all's situation to be interesting

[Edited on May 26, 2011 at 12:01 AM. Reason : .]

5/26/2011 12:00:58 AM

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17284531?dopt=Abstract

This is the big one, which is not genetics, but immunology. While we didn't participate in this particular paper, we're in her follow up studies that are going more in depth.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/humu.20741/abstract

We also went through the entire sequencing of GDF6 looking for answers with no luck.

5/26/2011 12:19:54 AM

Thanks BB.. I plan to read those soon. I'm glad this time y'all have some preparation

I saw three patients today. The first one went ok but I think I accidentally scared her The young girl had a normal ultrasound but that only brings her risk down to 1 in 46...

5/26/2011 8:15:03 PM

Wow bb! There is a lot going on there for you and your family!! How are you feeling yourself? Hope you have completely stopped puking and are just in the uncomfortable stage. I've really thought and prayed for ya!

5/27/2011 6:13:27 AM

Quote :

"Poor you. Pregnant all summer long. "

Thanks. We started trying in February assuming it was take 3-6 months and I wouldn't be hugly pregnant in the summer. We got pregnant the first month. Heh. I suppose that's the way the cookie crumbles.

It's amazing to me how at 17 weeks he's only half a pound, but looks like a baby now. He was trying to put his fingers in his mouth during the U/S.

I have to go next week for a level II ultrasound because of family history. My sister is Mentally Handicappied - no specific syndrome of condition (although they had genetic testing done on her and determined my chance of having a child like my sister was less then 5%), and my husband's family has a history of Spina Bifida. Hopefully everything will be ok, regardless, this will be a loved baby.

5/27/2011 7:28:23 AM

Aw, Amna, thanks. It is what it is. We knew what we were getting into when we decided to have another child. Just like the previous poster said about their child, this child will be loved no matter what. I finally got over the vomiting around the start of the 3rd trimester, now I'm just struggling to take in enough calories to keep my weight up. It isn't that I'm not eating, but all I want to take in is water, fruits, and veggies. Good for me, but not exactly calorie rich.

And yeah, I'm mostly just uncomfortable. I had forgotten how tough the last month can be.

--

TotalEclipse, we did the same thing with our first one. We didn't want our baby to interfere with the holiday season because my husband worked retail and totally expected it to take a couple of months. I got pregnant on the first attempt and we just barely scraped by Christmas and New Years. Thank goodness Silas didn't come a week or two early.

[Edited on May 27, 2011 at 7:53 AM. Reason : ,]

5/27/2011 7:50:00 AM

William David Pergerson

5.28.11 @ 15:01
6lbs 14oz, 20in.

Surprised us by coming a week early, but were happy to have him here!

5/29/2011 11:01:36 AM

there it is!

Still so super excited for you guys he's soooo cute!

5/29/2011 2:59:45 PM

yay!

5/29/2011 9:57:19 PM

congrats!!

5/30/2011 12:50:51 PM

Congrats!

5/30/2011 2:27:06 PM

Yay for a new baby!! I'm hoping mine comes a week early too!!

5/30/2011 11:08:54 PM