The Belly Game

Hey everybody!
It's the November edition of The Belly Game!

C'mon - you KNOW you want to play ...



Can you guess who belongs to these bellies???






Okay, I'm the pink stripy one - but you already KNEW that!!! Who are my partners-in-crime??? Give up? Check your answers below!






Thanks for playing!
Stay tuned for the December edition of The Belly Game ... where the choices get harder and the bellies get bigger!

November Happenings

Hello all!
It has been quite some time since we've updated the blog. We are all fine here. I'm still on the stupid diet (boo!) and I have been upgraded to injectible insulin at night (boo! boo!). Bill does a surprisingly good job at giving me injections - too bad he's only done it a few times. I'm not quite so gently with myself and end up bruising. It's not so bad, though - and it's only for a short time. Now I know how the research mice feel!! The baby is getting big. They estimate her at 5lb 8oz which is BIG so far! She moves around well and gets very excited when I eat. (Bet she'd go CRAZY with carbs!)

Okay, so let me go back and hit some highlights from November.

The girls at work had a shower for me. It was so nice to get together for a little party. I was surprised to see Cheryl pull out the Southern Comfort and spike the punch! What kind of party IS this?!? It's okay though, because I'm still on the crazy diet and cannot drink punch with or without alcohol. And since they have a designated driver (ie ME), why not!? This is Jenny, who now shares the lab with me. Her packages are too pretty to open!! Cheryl and Judy made me a beautiful diaper cake with all kinds of useful baby knick-knacks. It, too, is too pretty to disassemble!





Later in November, the girls came down for a visit. We were taking off to Gatlinburg without Bill for a "girl's weekend". I think Bill might have enjoyed his "girl-less weekend" as well. Unfortunately, he had to work. On our girl's weekend, we went to the Aquarium on Saturday and then went to the Dixie Stampede on Sunday. It was a great time! We stayed at a luxurious lodge with a giant tub and fireplace. We were on a mountainside in the Smokies and woke up to a surprise snowfall!!!















Of course we met some fascinating new friends while we were at the lodge. This one was definitely an outdoorsman with a fondness for fish! (And yes, these were absolutely the appropriate pictures to take when other guests are parking their BMW, Lexus, and Mercedes vehicles in the parking lot in front of us. Tehehe!)


In all, I had a super time - as usual with the girls! I was so happy to spend time with the crew. With the exception of Alicia's new-found weight loss plan (ie some kind of stomach flu that began on the trip) I think we all had fun!

And the winner is ...

Well, gang - here it is! The moment you've all been waiting for ...

Thanks to all of you who participated in the sex pool. Hope you had as much fun as we did with it. So, I'm sure you've seen the results of the poll. I'm not surprised that "dork" won by a landslide. Those results will take a while to come in I guess, but I'm inclined to believe that "dork" is a good bet. What I can tell you now is that the X's have it! "It's a girl" She looks healthy by ultrasound and is already quite active. She stubbornly resisted having her picture taken by the ultrasound tech. You'd have though the paparazzi was after her by the way she covered her face with her hands. "No photos, please" After several minutes of trying for a good pic, she had finally had enough and turned all the way over to face away from the ultrasound wand. She must have been embarrassed being photographed without her lucky stripy underpants!

In this pic, we can see baby's profile with her head on the left, looking upward. Her little button nose is easy to spot. She is curled up so you can make out the round baby belly on the right.

Contrary to popular belief - I did not cry right away!! I know this will be hard for you all to believe, but I wasn't overtaken with emotion until nearly the end. Bravo for me! The meltdown is clear on our ultrasound video when you can see the poor child bouncing all around. My fault. Sorry kiddo! It must have been like an amusement park ride for her. Speaking of amusement park rides ... later that same day we all went to Dollywood where three generations of thrill-seekers tamed the wild stallions of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. That's how I remember it at least. Bill was our extreme sports photographer while Dad cheered us on.


Mom and Dad joined us for the whole weekend. I think they enjoyed the visit. It was really good to have them there and it meant so much to me for them to share our big day. Hopefully next time they visit, it will be cooler than 90 degrees outside - and inside the apartment. Welcome to the sauna!!

Make your wagers!

Greetings all.
First - congrats to Lily for starting Pre-School and Hannah for beginning the 2nd Grade!
Congrats to Lindsey for starting Kindergarten this year too! How exciting!

Okay.
Anybody who wants to participate in the sex pool ... make your wagers now. (I understand Sarah has a sizable amount of money riding on this.) We are currently at 19 weeks, so that means next Friday is the big day. Mom and Dad are coming down to TN to participate in the ultrasound event of the year. We will all be high-tech peeping toms eager to find out if there is actually a stem on the apple.

I'm happy to announce that Bill and all of my coworkers are still alive - and with all of their limbs intact. The new diet has been somewhat frustrating for me. Bill has politely described me as "cranky" ... hence all of the limbs intact. My fingers are tender from all of the daily blood letting. You'd think by now all the demons would be gone. I'm adjusting slowly and look forward to the days of ice cream once again.

I have had a request for "belly pics". And since y'all are my nearest and dearest I am happy to oblige. My "buddha" is definitely starting to poke out and I have come to the end of wearing my "regular" pants. As many of you know, we don't have a big mirror in the apartment. So when I looked at the body pics I blurted out something that would likely be edited for TV. I guess I'm not as big as a house yet - but I'm in the running for a spacious double-wide. Additional pics to come as I upgrade to more ample real estate.

Tune in next week for the big sex reveal ... providing we don't get mooned during the ultrasound. (Come to think of it - that would be perfectly fitting for a child of Bill & Mel's, huh?!?).

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

First order of business:
Welcome Cassie! - and congrats to Rob and Tracey!
Welcome Sean! - and congrats to Aunt Margd!

Well gang, the saga continues...
When we last left off, the daring hero (mel) was off to take her 3 hr Glucose Tolerance Test - otherwise known as pregnant lady torture 101 - after failing the glucose Screen. So for the GTT, they starve you for 12 hrs, get you up at the crack of dawn, stick a needle in you, make you drink 100g of glucose in 5 min, send you back to the waiting room and tell you not to throw up. (100g glucose is like 4 cans of coke all squeezed into one can) Then, every hour (on the hour) thereafter, they stick you with needles to collect about a gallon of blood. For most people this runs rather smoothly. For me. however, I required 2 phlebotomists + specialist consult + 7 sticks to get 4 blood draws. The first irony here is that when I began this test, I asked if they could just put in a catheter (think IV) to pull blood from periodically. They say "Oh, no. We just stick you 4 times" - or 7+ as the case may be. On the last blood draw (3+ sticks with nothing coming out) the girls were flustered and didn't know what to do. I assured them that I was NOT leaving the office until they got the last vial of blood out of me. I did NOT want to start over from the beginning at a later date. And - if they couldn't get anthing more from either arm or hand, I'd take my shoes off so they could try my feet. No kidding, I really told them that. I think that just flustered them more, as that's when they called for the consult. Finally, covered in bandaids, I went home to greet Bill with big alligator tears in my eyes at the injustice of it all. Needless to say, I took the rest of the day off work.

So, how did it all turn out?? That's where the good, the bad, and the ugly comes in.

"The Good" I call to inquire about my results and the verdict was "well, TECHNICALLY you passed" - huh? To fail this test, you must have an 'above normal' glucose reading for 2 for the 4 draws. All of my readings AFTER drinking the sugar were fine. However, I failed the BASELINE fasting blood glucose levels. Of course I'd be the one to fail a test before I even started the blasted thing!!!!

"The Bad" Since I failed the fasting portion of the exam, I was scheduled to meet with a nurse who would train me on how to properly use a glucometer. So here we go back again. Now I'm instructed to test several times per day. In addition, exactly what and when I eat will be monitored at least for two weeks - when I go back for my regularly scheduled appointment. Bill astutely pointed out "so you're basically on the Atkin's diet now" - uuuhhhmm yeah. The nurse cheerfully informed us that there are no restrictions on fat or protein so I "can have all the scrambled eggs and bacon I want" ... which is pretty close to ZERO right now. But thanks for the enthusiasm anyway.

"The Ugly" A week and a half after playing the role of "pincushion" in act two of my drama, my bruises are finally starting to fade. In that time period, I've been walking around looking like a junkie who is seeking new and different ports of entry. More than a few people have noticed my arms and hands, and then given me very strange looks - including the people in my new "aqua fitness" class. Kinda hard to hide the evidence when dressed for pool activities. But what the heck, huh? It makes them wonder.

One Trimester Down!

We'd like to introduce our tadpole. Lil'P is just over 6 weeks here. In the last few weeks, our tadpole has lost its little tail and is now looking more like a human than an alien.


Fast Forward: So, we've made it through the first trimester.

I'm feeling much better now that the "morning" sickness is subsiding. They should really call it "randomly-timed-throughout-the-day sickness" instead. Thanks to those of you with advice on remedies. I found that the "eat all the time" technique worked best. Upon following that advice, I noticed that my pants were getting snug around week 10. So I was bracing for the "you've gained too much weight too fast" lecture from the docs at the 10 week appointment. On the contrary - I was surprised to find that I had lost weight and got the "are you eating??" lecture instead. Life is funny. So last week my weight woes were gone, and I'm happy to report an overall 3 lb gain for the first trimester. Why am I happy to be gaining weight??? (Maybe someone should contact Han - now I can tell him the secret to gaining weight is to get pregnant. It's worked reliably for every mother I know and it only takes 9 months! Tehehe!)

This week I had the pleasure of the glucose screen. It wasn't too bad - drink the syrup, wait an hour, donate some blood. Unfortunately, the donated blood was still full of syrup. So I've progressed to the semifinal round next week. Drink twice as much syrup, wait twice as long, give twice as much blood. I was cranky enough after fasting 3 hr for the first screen. I'm going to be a raging nightmare fasting 12hr, then no food for another 4hr during the test. Hope they have the straitjacket waiting. I'm sure they have some psych experiment going on behind the one way mirror. "Mental and emotional toll of cruel and unusual punishment on hungry pregnant women confined to a waiting room chair for 4 hours after drinking wet sugar at 8am" Now THAT'S somebody's thesis there, my friends.

Stay tuned! More exciting updates to come!

Medical Marvel!

So apparently, we brought more back from Las Vegas than we had originally anticipated! After a brief respite in Johnson City, TN, Melanie was off for her ASM meeting in Boston,MA. It didn't take her long to discover a man who seemed to be afflicted with the same condition as she. Being the medical miracle that this obviously was, he has been encased in bronze for all vistors to behold.