Pregnancy Report: BABY PICS, PART FOUR!!!
You can see TWO new pics of Baby Kargel by clicking HERE or on the thumbnail below. I formatted things into one large picture, but at a reduced resolution, so the file is only moderately large, about 104K.
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Highlights include Baby folding its little hands up in front as if in prayer!
This past Friday December 12th), Bridget and Baby had their second Level II Exam for the pregnancy. Once again, we travelled down to Atlanta to Northside Hospital. As before, pretty thorough ultrasound was performed, and we met and had a another pregnancy discussion with the perinataologist assigned to our case, Dr. Jeff Korotkin.
Well, so far, so good according to Dr. Korotkin! At just shy of 20 weeks, Baby is now showing a bit larger than what would be typical in regards to size measurements, perhaps 1 to 1.5 weeks, but Dr. Korotkin told us he will not and will never change the due date, and is sticking to the current timetable and a due date of May 5th, 2004. He knows of our concerns since Royce was larger than expected at 20 weeks, and the whole unpleasant tale. He was very quick to point out that we did not have an ultrasound with Royce until he was 20 weeks, and that with this pregnancy we have now had six so far, so things are being closely monitored. Since the measurements taken of Baby at 16 weeks were right on target, he sees no reason to assume bad things. As mentioned previously, it is likely that we will have big babies anyway!
Dr. Korotkin took a good long look at Baby's internal organs, including the heart. Based on what he saw, there were no visible defects. He took extra time looking at the heart, as heart abnormalities are a common occurrence with congenital problems like Down's Syndrome. Despite increased the risk for Down's Syndrome, Dr. Korotkin was confident, based on what he saw, that he could reduce the odds from about 1 in 90 to about 1 in 150 to 180...basically less than 1/2 of 1 percent! He pointed out that we are far more likely (25 percent) to have a baby with the same condition that Royce had, persistent hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia of infancy, or PHHI; otherwise commonly known as nesidioblastosis., than Down's Syndrome! This of course is a relief to us! Naturally, if we could avoid revisiting the nesidioblastosis as well, that would make us most happy, but we know that in itself that it isn't the worst thing that could happen to us...
Of course, the thing that everybody now wants to know is...will Baby be a boy or a girl?
We firgured we would be able to find out this time around, providing that Baby was cooperating! Baby did not disappoint, and we are proud to announce that from now on, Baby will be referred to as a "he"! It's going to be a BOY! Perhaps Baby Boy for the time being, until we can decide on a name for him!
The arguing has already begun in regards to what we are going to name our little boy! As I mentioned before, it has already been decided that one of the middle names (the first one or second one has not been decided as of yet) will definately be Charles, which is a name heavily used on both sides of my family, but will be used in this case particularly in memory of my dad, who has been gone a little over a year now...but also in memory of both my grandfathers, also named Charles. With Royce, we had used Augustus as a second middle name, and Augustus is a family name on the Reinwald side of Bridget's family. William was an obvious middle name (it is MY name...LOL). Royce is actually Bridget's dad's real first name (he never uses it...goes by "Gus" for Augustus)...and he was in turn named Royce after his dad's younger brother who died young.
I am inclined to use another first name that begins with "R". Already, we have a girl's name that begins with "R", so why not? While growing up, my nickname Bill and my sister's nickname Beth sounded close together. I think it would sound cool! Bridget is not so convinced yet.
Anyway, I have been going through baby boy names that begin with the letter "R" just in case, and I have a number of candidates for screening!
Other News...
It's that time of year again! The Holiday Season is upon us! It is also nearly the peak of cold and flu season! While we are running around like crazy people, trying to complete our Christmas/Hannukah/Kwaanza shopping and dealing with trips to or visits from relatives, etc., it is real easy to not be taking care of ourselves and jeopardizing our health in general. You have probably heard that this year's flu season is going to be the worst in years, and it is not just a story. The Centers For Disease Control have already noted that it is going to be really bad this year. Do yourself and your loved ones a favour and try to eat more healthy, drink plenty of fluids (especially water, but decaffinated tea and fruit juices are good too), get adequate rest, try to avoid touching surfaces touched by others and then touching your eyes/nose/mouth, and...WASH YOUR HANDS REGULARLY! Also, try not to sneeze or cough into the the air around other people, especially if you already have something...this stuff can travel through the air and infect a number of other people. Cover up!
That all being said, I hope that you all have a safe and happy Holiday Season! Take care, and see you all in the New Year!
Bill |
