Monday, November 29, 2010

27 Weeks To Go


Well, technically, right now, I have 23 weeks to go, but I've neglected making this entry for almost a month.

Here is the baby again. It now looks considerably more like a baby and less like a dinosaur, which I suppose is a good thing. I could also do without the cutesy text the ultrasound tech put on the image--I am not a cutesy person.

The good news here is that the NT measurement was 1.6 millimeters. The acceptable range is 2.2 millimeters to 3.something millimeters. My age alone (I guess I'm considered pretty young for this sort of thing) lowers the risk of chromosomal disorders significantly, to a factor of about 1 in 700. The results from the ultrasound and bloodwork (always with the bloodwork) skyrocketed those odds to 1/9000 for Down's Syndrome and 1/10000 for Trisomy 18. Those are good odds--I'll take them.

I need to get more blood drawn for an AFP on Tuesday to test for spina bifida and neural tube defects. Always with the bloodwork. I'm not going to have any blood left by the time I have this baby.

Yes, I know blood regenerates, I'm just a pansy. Hush.

My OB/GYN is probably going to yell at me again about my weight. I have managed to not gain any weight whatsoever. Of course, I look like a complete cow at the moment (a fat, pregnant cow) but the scale has, so far, refused to budge.

Here's my question: if I'm expected to eat healthy food and exercise, how am I supposed to gain weight? I don't exercise and I love junk food and restaurants, which is how I got fat to begin with. So now I'm supposed to eat vegetables and start taking walks and gain weight? I didn't think it worked that way.

Also, I'm still sitting on my ass all day. It's almost December, and this is Cleveland. If anyone thinks I'm going out for long walks in the freezing cold, they're wrong. Also, I hate vegetables. I have made concessions to this whole "pregnancy diet" thing by trying to eat bananas on a regular basis. My OB/GYN said that bananas are good because they don't contain a lot of sugar--I think bananas are the blandest fruit in the entire world and I don't particularly want to eat one everyday.

The whole "three meals a day" thing has always escaped me, except now I guess I'm supposed to be eating six meals a day. Three big meals, six small meals--what's the difference? You're eating the same amount of food, right? I've never been able to eat before 11:00 AM, which is when I try to eat the banana and have some tea or something to tide me over until around 1:00, when I start to scrounge around for lunch. If I force myself to eat in the morning, I feel completely sick for the rest of the day and don't eat anything at all, which I think is probably worse than my weird, off-kilter eating schedule. Dinner usually takes place anywhere from 6:30-9:00 at night and consists of meat and maybe some sort of excuse for a vegetable--usually a potato or sometimes broccoli. I like broccoli and potatoes, except my OB/GYN told me not to eat a lot of potatoes. Carrots are okay, too, but if it's not a potato or broccoli or a carrot, I'm probably not very interested in eating it.

I think my OB/GYN is just out to ruin my fun and my food and my entire life for nine months. I can't wait until this is over and she goes back to just being the woman who saved me from cancer instead of the woman who scares/harasses/coaxes me into eating vegetables and peeing in a cup each month.