June Doctor's Appointment #2

Quickest doctor's appointment ever, which actually wasn't so great. My parents were driving up from L.A. and trying to make it here in time to attend the appointment. Of course, while it normally takes us 45 minutes before we ever see a doctor, we were in and out within 20. So they missed the appointment by about 15 minutes. But, the doctor said that everything looks great, the baby is correct size, the heartbeat looks great, I'm gaining weight appropriately... AND the baby is head down! Quite possibly the most exciting news of the month. John had started to get quite freaked out over what seemed like an inevitable scheduled c-section. Naturally, my Mom and I went to Bloomingdales to celebrate. Now Baby Starbuck has a Bloomingdales outfit, while I'm pretty sure Mommy doesn't.

Non Stress Test Version 2.0

I only had to wait 20 minutes to be soon today, so that was a great improvement. Starbuck was very much awake during the NST, so the whole process went much more smoothly. He/she was not at all pleased with the monitors being placed over what is obviously his/her space, so decided to kick at them for the entire duration of the test. So there was lots of movement and lots of heartrate accelerations, indicating that everything is just fine. The nurses said that he/she was being a little showoff as they could hear the movements on the monitor from across the room. They said we are very lucky to have such an active little baby.

Non Stress Test Version 1.0

This is the kind of frustration that is amplified to epic levels with all of my pregnancy hormones. I set up my experiments to run for an hour to an hour and a half, met up with John made our way over to Perinatal Diagnostics. We checked in 15 minutes early and were told to wait in the waiting room. After about an hour and several other couples asking how much longer their own ridiculous waits would be I had to send John back to my lab to finish up my experiments because they weren't going to wait. Half an hour after that I went to complain and was told that we never should have been directed to the waiting room because there are enough beds to accomodate people as soon as they come in. I was finally hooked up to the fetal heart rate monitor and contraction/fetal movement monitor for longer than I should have been because Baby Starbuck just isn't that cooperative. They need to see the heartrate increase at least twice in response to movement and while baby was very active for the 45 minutes after our appointment was supposed to start, he/she decided to take a nap once I got hooked up. Eventually baby woke up and gave them the readings they needed. Everything looks just fine. We're hoping that these weekly tests go much quicker from now on...

June Doctor's Appointment

The baby is perfectly normal again, YAY! The heartbeat is in the 140s, as it should be, and I'm measuring right on track. Because they've been playing with my thyroid medication this entire pregnancy and aren't perfectly happy with where I've stabilized they've recommended that I go in for non-stress tests every week until delivery. They really aren't that big of a deal- monitor the baby's heartrate for a half hour or so, but having to journey over to the children's hospital once a week is going to get old fast. But, with all the worst case scenarios that my endocrinologist threw out at me when I got pregnant, lying down in the hospital for half an hour a week for a few weeks really isn't so bad.

Baby Shower: The Mill Valley Edition

Richard and Regina threw us a lovely shower for the Garcias and friends. We had a wonderful lunch and had a great time seeing family and meeting a few friends that I had never met and that John hadn't seen since his childhood. Baby Starbuck even inherited her Daddy's old rocking horse!

Baby Shower: The Palo Alto Edition

Josh, Evonne, Jay, Lia, Matt and Amy threw a co-ed baby shower for us with our Stanford friends. The air conditioned room was a delightful break from the 95 degree weather, and we got to spend some really great time with friends that we don't get to see too often anymore. Everyone brought something to share, so we had lots of delicious fruit salads, appetizers, cheese, and desserts. Evonne made one of her adorable cakes (carrot cake, our favorite):

Everyone got creative painting onesies and bibs for us:

And John got a new title (photo by Josh Thompson):

More pictures can be found on John's Flickr page: John's Pictures

And on our good friend Josh's page: Josh's Pictures

Baby Shower: The Los Angeles Edition

My Mom and Grandmother threw a "girl's only" baby shower for us with just Los Angeles family and friends at my Grandmother's house. We had a delicious brunch, played a few shower games, and spent lots of time talking and catching up.

Christy tries out the "clothesline game" (you have to hold a baby, hang clothes with wooden clothespins and hold an intelligent conversation with me- the timekeeper!):

A shower gift only appropriate for a "girls only" shower:

And the ever important diapers: