Compartment 14B

Doctor's appointments and nicknames. 2007-11-13 - 10:32 a.m. I keep forgetting it�s Tuesday, just like yesterday I kept forgetting it was Monday. I had yesterday off, courtesy of Remembrance Day on Sunday. In years past I�ve tried to make to downtown to the ceremonies, but with Grommet it�s just too difficult to face the crowds, not to mention the preparation and traffic to get there and a toddler�s attention span once we got there. In just under an hour I have my next prenatal appointment, and I think it�s the last one I�ll have with my regular doctor before I get handed over to the obstetrician. I�ll get the test results back from last time (you know, the one where they look, like, a gallon of blood) and I think I�ll be making arrangements for the Integrated Prenatal Screening (IPS) (the one which involves two more blood draws (boo!) and another ultrasound (yay!)). Supposedly you can tell the sex of the baby by 12 weeks (check out the last study referenced here), but I�m not sure it�s commonly done or even known about at the ultrasound clinics here in Ottawa. I�ll bring a copy of the article with me though, to see if I can get them to at least look. It would be very cool to know if Grommet will have a brother or a sister. It has occurred to me though, that if the IPS results are poor and we end up with an amnio that shows definite problems, knowing the sex of the fetus will make it doubly hard to know what the best course of action would be. Still, as I�ve mentioned, I�m proceeding with the optimist view that all is well and will continue to be well with this pregnancy, so I don�t think I�d shy away from knowing the sex. By the way, I�ve developed a mental nickname for this particular sprout, which might as well become his or her online name: Biscuit. It�s kind of convoluted how it came about but it essentially proceeded as free-association: the pulsating blob on the 8-week ultrasound reminded me of a seahorse, which reminded me of the racehorse Sea Biscuit, which then got shortened to Biscuit in my mind, and there you have it. It might not be as cool as the �young skater or surfer� definition of Grommet, but it�s unisex, not totally fluffy, silly or typical, and I just like the sound of it. Nor do I mind the nod to the Ally McBeal character, or Sars, who has an ex-boyfriend who had that as his nickname. So, I�m off to my appointment. Maybe at the same time I can get some advice about drug-free ways of getting over this darn cold which I�ve now had for two weeks. Blah. Before - After All content � Shawna 2003-2010 That means no swiping my stuff - text, images, etc. - without asking. P.S. If you're emailing me, replace the [at] with @ in the "to" line. Oh, and if you put the word "journal" in the subject line it'll have a better chance of making it past my junk mail filters. recommend me HTML and design help by Jo hosted by Diaryland