Ladies and gentlemen, we have a gender!

We had our second ultrasound this morning and our little baby became 100% more real to me today! Not that I thought I was pregnant with a pretend baby, just that we got to know our little sweet sesame that much better. There is nothing like a picture!

Here are some amazing and fantastic things we learned today:

1. Sesame is a she!  She let us know that right away and wasn't shy at all.

This is a view looking up between her legs.  Note the lack of a penis! You can't see it from this pic, but the ultrasound tech was able to identify various parts of the female genitalia as well, so she is very certain we are having a girl

2. On the flip side, while our baby doesn't mind letting us know she is is girl, she does NOT want us to see her profile yet.  The poor ultrasound tech tried and tried, but sesame kept putting her hands up to her ears and face. It was very cute! She finally got one sort of acceptable profile (not that we cared, but one of the measurements they take is of the nasal bone in profile).

Looking down on our baby's face so that you are seeing the front of the face.

This is the best profile shot we have! :)

 3. Our "little sesame" isn't so little anymore…she is now 12oz! Take a look at your soda or beer can for scale. Basically there is a can of Dr. Pepper floating around in my abdomen!*

4. Our baby girl has 2 kidneys, a bladder, a beating heart, and a brain! I know this shouldn't be particularly shocking, but when was the last time you got to see what your own kidneys looked like? Let alone the ventricles of your heart furiously pumping blood!

5. My placenta is in the front of my abdomen, which is probably part of why I haven't really been feeling clear kicks yet. It is kind of like she has to kick me through a big pillow. (Please visualize me shaking my fist at my placenta…but in a nice way since it IS doing lots of other very important things for our baby. I just wish it wasn't so obstructionist!)

In general, our impression from the ultrasound tech was that everything looked pretty good.  She isn't allowed to actually to tell us a diagnosis (other than gender), but we took her murmurs of "that looks great" and " good, good" to be a wonderful sign!

We are both very very excited and are celebrating by ordering Thai food tonight! (I'm pretty sure our baby likes curry and noodles).

*SCIENCE NOTE: For the purists and sticklers out there, i.e. JAMIE, yes it is true that 12oz as a measurement of mass isn't the same as 12oz as a measurement of volume**. HOWEVER, water has a very very close mass:volume relationship, it is almost a 1:1 ratio.  The density of beer and soda is not the exact same as the density of water, but it isn't hugely different either.  I found one website that said beer differed from water by ~5%. For those that would like to explore this topic further with more exactitude you can go to this discussion: http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/60749.html

**Jamie wants credit for pointing this out. I am going to say it is "close enough" and stick with my visual.

Fay Canyon

This past Monday Jamie and I took advantage of the day off and the beautiful weather and went hiking in Sedona.  It was so lovely! It has always been pretty vital to my physical, mental, and emotional health to get OUTSIDE.  Sometimes this need can take a comical edge, such as when I can be found huddled up in a jacket and a blanket in the back yard soaking up the first warm(ish) rays of spring sun. I don't feel like I've been incredibly cooped up lately, but it was a beautiful break from the usual walk around the neighborhood to go to Sedona.  (Plus it is about 15 degrees warmer there!)

The hike itself is not particularly difficult or long (I, ahem, still needed to take a nap during our lunch break however).  Fay Canyon is a box canyon and the trail basically winds itself to the back of the canyon.  One interesting feature of this hike is Fay Arch, which doesn't really look like an arch until you get right under it.  We did have to scrabble our way up the hillside to get up to the arch, but the view was totally worth it!

The arch as we are climbing up to it.

The view looking out from the arch.

The arch itself is separated from the rock wall by a small fissure (maybe 10 feet wide?) which is why it is hard to tell that it is actually an arch.  There are also some ruins at the base of the arch, it is hard to tell what rocks are the original rocks versus ones that hikers have added, but it is still pretty neat!

Ruins at the base of the arch.

Oh no! Jamie's head is stuck!

Peek a boo!

This is the gap between the arch and the canyon wall.  I always think it is amazing the places plants can find to grow!

Me and sesame relaxing under the arch while Jamie pretends he is a mountain goat (see previous picture)

After climbing up to the arch and back down, we continued on towards the end of the canyon.  The upper part of the canyon was also really nice, but I never ended up pulling the camera out to get pictures. Shortly before the end we stopped for lunch on a rock outcrop and that ended up being as far as I went! Jamie hiked the whole way up and saw waterfalls and more ruins.  The waterfalls aren't there year 'round because it is the meltwater streaming off the top of the canyon.  I actually laid down on the rock and had a pleasant doze in the sun while Jamie hiked.  What a great day!

We are home! (and a sesame update)

We had a wonderful time visiting the family over holidays, and my SICB meeting went well, but man-oh-man does it feel good to be home!  The cats have forgiven us (hopefully) and the lizard has continued to be apathetic about our comings and goings (which I take as a good sign).  I meant to take lots of pictures during our trips the last few weeks, but apparently I forgot to utilize the camera.  However, here is a fun one of Jamie and I kayaking in Santa Cruz after Christmas.  It is mostly of Jamie, but that little bit of hair on the left side of the picture is me! :)  I have kayaked a number of times, but never in a tandem.  However, we managed to negotiate paddling together fairly decently (there may have occasionally been pointed mutterings from both parties about paddling style and steering, but overall it was great).

Sesame update: We also had our 2nd prenatal appointment today. It was fabulous!  This appointment we listened to the heartbeat for the first time (last appointment we saw the heart beat on the ultrasound, but we didn't hear it).  It didn't sound the way I expected it to, rather than a lub-dub it was a woosh-woosh.  It is also a LOT faster than an adult heartbeat, around 150bpm! At first our doctor had a hard time getting a heart beat reading because sesame refused to sit still and kept moving around the whole time. It's probably irrational, but this instigated my first glow of  maternal pride – our baby was a wiggler! Unfortunately, I can't feel any of that wiggling yet, but I am really eager for when I can!  In other pregnancy news I learned my blood type (O+) and that my iron levels are high (which the doctor was pleased by).  In two weeks from now we will go in for the 20 week anatomy scan ultrasound where they check to make sure everything is developing properly and will hopefully be able to tell the gender. We are both really excited for that next appointment!

Not a "Dear John" letter...I promise!

Dear Blog,
     I am sorry I have been neglecting you. It's not you, it's me! The holidays have been crazy (we got to see family in two states!) and I have a science meeting to attend in Utah this upcoming week. However, I promise once I get back I will come and visit you again.  Maybe spruce up your text, change your picture, and give you the attention you deserve. I know you have probably heard that before, but I do truly mean it! When I return I will tell you where Sesame is at (currently in the middle of week 17), how the holidays were (great!), and what the tally will be at the meeting between those who think I am pregnant and those who will just think I have suffered from an unfortunate midriff expansion in the past year.

I will be back, I promise!

Sincerely,
Your poster

p.s. I also just learned that it is "midriff" not "midrift". However, I am not alone in making this mistake, in fact it is a common enough error that there are several websites eager to explain the difference. I am so grateful for the glorious series of tubes that comprises the internets!