Big as a Boat

ATTENTION ATTENTION ATTENTION

2008-08-24T18:44:00.001-07:00

This blog has moved!

Blogger is OK, but it isn't really working out exactly how we want things to be. So, we have moved. I have put all of the posts from this blog onto our new website, and am in the process of moving your comments. (thanks for making comments) This new website has a baby blog, and is done in such a way that we should be able to update things more frequently. This new website will also act in place of our Flickr websites.

So, to anyone that reads our stuff, delete everything on your computer that points to this website, or to our Flickr sites, and replace it with the information for the new site. The address for our new site is:

http://www.themadridfamily.com

Now, go there and check it out. Thanks.

-Becka and Eric-

Maybe working on something new

2008-08-19T21:33:00.000-07:00

in anticipation of the baby I am trying to figure out some sort of multimedia solution that will allow us to share videos and pictures and stuff like that of the baby. I guess that between Blogger and Flickr we should have everything that we need but I am not sure if that is really how I want to do things. Any suggestions?

I guess this is something that my parents didn't have to worry about - how do I put baby on the internet?

I am not sure if I want to put everything everything into a public place, but I also don't want to make it difficult for people to view stuff. I'll keep thinking.

Distracted by Gestation

2008-08-04T18:48:00.000-07:00

Sorry all its been so long since our last post, I've been a bit distracted by the human being feeding off me (not talking about Eric). Over the last few weeks, I've gotten big. Not that big, but the "baby bump" look more like a "baby hill". I know, I know...just wait a few months, before long my stomach will have its own zip code. As far as baby goes, though, he's just doing a lot of growing right now. It seems that if not all, a huge percent of vital development is complete. He's always has something going on (breathing liquid, creating neuropathways, urinating and still working on that first poo), but most of it is "cosmetic". He is putting on a lot of weight, going from about a pound and a half to at least two pounds in just one week (this coming week) and getting "taller" (he'll get nearly an inch longer/taller over the next week, too). Other milestones have also been met by this point (25 weeks): all five senses have been developed, his facial features have formed, and his hair has a color and texture. In mommy news, I'm doing fine. I eat a ton - or it seems like it anyway. Nearly once an hour I'm putting some type of food into my mouth: a bowl of cereal, a piece of fruit, a nutrition bar, some cheese or whatever. The doc says a pound a week is normal weight gain from here on out (of course, she means a pound max). Oh, and she said that the ultrasound was absolutely normal and I'm measuring normal and all that good stuff. My next appointment is at the end of August (28 weeks prego) for a gestational diabetes screen. I'll try to be more regular with my posts, so as to keep everybody in the loop.

It's a Boy!! part II

2008-07-07T19:00:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's a boy with two legs, two arms, one nose, and all the other stuff he needs. The entire appointment (about 25 minutes long) was a Radiology Technician doing an ultrasound, looking and measuring. The set-up was pretty nice, Eric and I sat in front of a pretty big screen and watched the lady swirl around and find stuff. She could change the angle of the ultrasound wand, the depth and zoom, so we had lots of angles to watch. Baby boy Madrid is facing towards the right, back to the left at somewhat of an angle, with his back towards mine and his face and limbs towards my belly button. You'll see a picture labeled "Its a boy", the boyhood looks like a little nose (no offense, baby) pointing to the left. In one picture, you can see his legs sticking straight up over his head; he moved from a seated indian-style pose. Towards the end of the appointment, Eric and I (and the tech), watched him yawn. So either he was tired or bored. Either way, we left with a lot of pictures. I tried to keep an eye for the notes she made as she took pictures, one of them noted "long spine". Oh crap. The estimate weight for the baby is 14 oz. That sounds healthy. When I refer to my baby book (the one written by a doctor), a baby at 21 weeks is about 10 1/2 oz and 7 1/4 inches long. So I am further along than I thought, right? Not really. The measurements that our Rad Tech took estimate the baby at a developmental age of 21 weeks, just where I should be. Oh.......oh really. Well, all that worry about not gaining enough weight at my last appointment....for a whopping huge baby. Eric and I are small people, how could this happen? All those tall genes on my side of the family...blast them and their long, slender physiques. There were a lot more pictures taken that my OB will review for any possible issues (and call me if she has any concerns), but all of the fundamentals are there. You could even see the four chambers of his heart beating! It was quite the experience...

Its a Boy!!!

2008-07-07T15:10:00.000-07:00

We just got back from our ultrasound appointment. We can give more
details later on, but for now here are the ultrasound shots.

20 Weeks

2008-07-03T15:41:00.000-07:00

So, I have entered week 20 as of Tuesday, so this is the last week of month five and as all the books and websites like to say "You are halfway through your pregnancy". Kind of scary; for five full months, I've been pregnant, in four and a half months I won't be pregnant anymore (hopefully). I'd like to keep this short since we have a pretty important appointment coming up. I would include average fetal measurements, but I think we'll have our own in just a few days. Some sources do say that this week is a big growth week for the baby, but not much else seems to be going on developmentally. We'll have tons more to say in just a few days!

Week 17

2008-06-11T17:37:00.001-07:00

I have officially entered week 17, which is the start of month five. So this week, the baby's skeleton is changing from cartilage to bone. These joints are now moving a whole lot and soon enough I should start regularly feeling these movements. The baby now weighs about five ounces and is about five inches long from head to bum. Even though the baby is getting bigger, quicker than before, I don't really have much showing along the lines of a "baby bump." I still have plenty of gas, and am hoping that I start showing soon. That way my gasiness will blend in with babiness and that will be nice. Some other sources (not well cited) claim that babies at this point can have REM sleep (and therefore dream), that the retina has become sensitive to light, and fat is being stored. I can't find images of a 17 week old fetus, apparently not a very interesting week (like week 16 only bigger).

I Waaaaaaaaaaant That

2008-06-04T09:14:00.001-07:00

Why do we take nine months to give birth? This is taking forever!

By the way, Becka schedule our big-time ultrasound appointment where they will tell us the sex. I think it is on the 8th of July. So that will be big news.

16 Weeks

2008-06-03T16:01:00.001-07:00

Today is my sixteenth week of pregnancy. I don't quite know how to describe this, but it seems that 16 weeks isn't that long a period of time (especially when it comes to 40 weeks of pregnancy), but it does almost feel like a long time, too. This may also sound weird, and I'm sure I'll eat my words in another few months, but I'd like to just be "showing" already to get that over with. What my body (or baby) has decided to do so far is to push everything up, rather than out. As a result, my upper abs muscles are starting to separate so that my stomach - and other accompanying organs - have someplace to go, which is out. Which means people are still looking and longing to pet my stomach, not the baby. From what I have read, the baby is spending quite a bit of his/her time just chillin' out. The drastic developmental milestones seem to have mostly passed. During this week, though, the baby will reach about 4 1/2 inches long (crown to rump) and 3 1/2 oz; famous food analogy: the baby is about the size of an avocado. His/her head is more erect and the legs are developing more, including growing toenails. Moving back up towards the head, though, eyes and ears are moving closer to a more recognizable position (like eyes in the front of the baby's head, rather than on the side of the baby's head), and "scalp patterning" is happening. That means that, while we wouldn't be able to tell what color hair the baby will have, whether or not the baby has a widow's peak or any other weird stuff like that is being figured out. Whats likely most critical is that right now the baby is pumping nearly 25 quarts of blood through his/her system. Pretty impressive.

All from an ugly looking fish

2008-06-03T07:13:00.000-07:00

This is probably way off subject, but there are some pretty pictures at least. A new fossil was discovered in Australia and has been completely worked up and published by some scientists working at Australian museums and universities. The fossil is a very ancient extinct fish that was pregnant when it died. It is really obvious in the fossil, which looks like this:

And within the fossil you can see the babies that are labeled down below as "embryos".

Just kidding about the obvious part, I got no idea how you get an embryo out of that. In any case, the normal people drawing of all of that stuff up above is right here:

Human birth is really complicated with a bunch of parts, and it is generally believed that the live birth processes in our bodies were inherited from fish like this fossil. Therefore, this fossil is important to our understanding of when live birth (and all of the parts that go along with it) evolved - whenever this fish was around, live birth existed. Turns out this fossil is from the late Devonian, which was about 380 million years ago. So the things that Becka is going through right now evolved over 350 million years ago. Coooooooooool.

15 Weeks

2008-05-28T05:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Tuesday, the pregnancy turned 15 weeks old. The baby is now about 4 inches long, crown to rump (so that approximate measurement does not include the baby's legs, as those are still curled up a bit). The baby is moving amniotic fluid through his/her nose and primative respiratory tract. As I have read, the baby's eyes are still fused shut, but does respond to light. In other senses, taste buds are forming, but the baby still can't actually taste anything. Some of what I have read says the baby can even hear, but I didn't read that in my usual places. Personally, I have now transistioned to predominately maternity clothes. I find those waistbands much more comfortable than my usual clothes. Some shirts I have, which are generally a bit larger, I can still wear, but I do now have a good stock of maternity shirts, too. I'm kinda starting to show. I think it might be another week, maybe two, before the baby portion of my belly (not the bloated part of my belly) becomes obvious. Sometimes, though, I just let things hang out and let people think I'm far more pregnant than I actually am. Generally, my energy is pretty much back, I'm in a better mood, and am hungry pretty much all the time. I guess means the real weight gain can begin. Woohoo!

Just Found: Cool Image

2008-05-18T20:03:00.001-07:00

This is a 3D ultrasound of a 14 week old baby:

2nd Trimester

2008-05-18T19:39:00.000-07:00

Well, I'll be starting my second trimester this week - that's week 14. So yeah, its been a while since our last post, guess we've been slackers. Despite what some may think, I am not showing yet. That means you have pet my gassy, bloated intestines, not my baby. Sorry to disappoint. The time for showing may be soon, though. I predict that by then end of May I'll have a legitimate "baby bump". Why then? Read on. Really, though, this blog is about our baby, so let's move on with how this little person is developing. Since my last visit, when I was at about 11 weeks, the baby has developed reflexes, fingerprints, if the baby is a girl her ovaries are already hard at work, s/he has developed facial expressions, and can pee! In addition to lots of other stuff, like tiny soft hairs covering the baby's entire body, s/he has grown from about 1 1/2 inches long to almost 3 1/2 inches long and from about a quarter ounce to an ounce and a half. So that's progress. In the next two to three weeks, the baby will be doubling in length and weight, and his/her heart will pump nearly 25 quarts of blood through his/her little body. So this huge growth spurt between weeks 15 and 16 is what leads me to believe it will be the end of May that I really start to "show". My next OB visit is also at the end of May. We'll be doing some blood work to determine the probability that our baby has certain developmental disabilities (primarily they'll screen for spina bifida and down's syndrome, among others). If insurance allows, maybe we'll do another ultrasound, but the "big one" will bit mid-to-late June - at which point we can decide to learn if we are having a boy or a girl. Sorry no pictures to post right now, but I'm always on the lookout for something cool.

Another doctor visit today...

2008-04-30T20:23:00.001-07:00

We had another doctor visit today, and this time it was with one of the real doctors. There are like six doctors that our insurance has and one of them is always at the hospital delivering babies 24 hours 7 days a week. When it is time for us to deliver, we may or may not get a doctor that we have met, but it will be one those that are from our insurance and that know what we expect to happen.

In any case, we met with a doctor today. Her name was Dr. Phair (think that is how you spell her name). She didn't do a whole lot besides answer questions and check on the babies heartbeat, but it definitely was not a boring visit. She took another ultrasound, and the image totally blew us away. OUR BABY LOOKS LIKE A BABY!!

All of the past ultrasounds have shown a little blob inside of another blob. This time, the image clearly showed a little kid with a big freaking head! The ultrasound image is real-time so you can see what is going on, and the heart was beating really fast and our baby was slinging around all over the place! We could see the baby kicking its feet, and moving its hands towards its mouth and then away again. Kind of looked like it was twisting, too. When the doctor saw him/her, she immediately said, "wow, you have a very active baby," so I guess that they do not normally move that much all of the time. Guess we interrupted some morning exercises.

In any case, we go in again at the end of May for blood work that is going to screen for hormones that are normally expressed in association with birth defects like Downs Syndrome and stuff like that. Then at like 18 weeks we do a big formal ultrasound where they will take a lot of measurements, check to be sure that the anatomy looks OK, and tell us the sex if we would like to know.

I got some shots down below. These are really crappy for the time being until I can get the photo back from Becka and do a real scan of the image. One is the naked pic and then the second has got some labels. Our baby is lying on its back and has its hand up towards its face.

Week 10

2008-04-25T19:52:00.001-07:00

*This is actually by Becka, I only posted it because the site was messing up.

Yep, starting today our embryo has matured into a fetus. The significance here is that all of the major organs (brain, nervous system, kidneys, etc) have all formed- that is complete. Our big step now is growth - which apparently is what makes a fetus a fetus: that growth doubles in just three weeks and rapid growth like this will continue pretty much for the rest of the pregnancy. Also what makes a fetus is that it s/he is making his/her own blood cells from internal organs and not relying on the yolk sac to do that anymore. By this time, too (it's quite the milestone), our baby has measurable weight. Little differences, too, like fingernails, hair, and being able to bend his/her elbows and knees, and our baby has an eye color. With so much going on during Week 10, I'm surprised it isn't talked about more frequently. I mean, I hear so much about eight weeks- when most women find out they are pregnant; about 12 weeks when you can hear the heart and go into your second trimester; 16 weeks when most women start to really show; etc. Poor, under appreciated week 10. I nominate Week 10 as one of our most outstanding weeks of pregnancy for all the milestones crossed!

I'm working on getting a decent picture of a 10 week old fetus, but I haven't found what I consider reliable sources. Once I find something awesome to share, I'll make sure it gets on here. Eric might find something, too.

Ma baby has got hands!!!

2008-04-23T15:54:00.001-07:00

The baby pretty much already has hands, they have separated out and
aren't really flippers anymore. I was looking into some stuff today, and came across these sketches of forelimbs. These are drawings of fossilized hands from three different species of fish / reptiles / amphibians / whatever you want to call them that are intermediate species from when fishes came onto land. It is so neat to look at fossils like these and really see the intermediate stages in the evolution of our kids' and our own limbs. The human hand is without a doubt the most intricate appendage that has ever evolved on the planet, and to see all the changes that had to happen in order for them to form in the way that they did makes me appreciate the fact that I can do stuff like type on a keyboard right now. Bacteria and unicellular animals have got a lot of things that we do not, but hands are still really cool. The bones of hands just like these are becoming hard right now in Becka. It will be cool to hold our babies hand in a few months from now. You know, after her/his hands are cleaned up a bit and aren't all icky anymore. Cause otherwise that would just be gross.

I'm ready!

2008-04-18T07:08:00.000-07:00

Can't we just have our baby already? This whole thing takes forever! We never wait for things, we just decide one day to do something and then do it right away. I'm ready! Let's go!

Week 9

2008-04-14T08:26:00.001-07:00

Well, starting tomorrow, we are in week nine. Our embryo has little
eye flaps and the baby's flippers be starting to separate into little
appendages that will be toes and fingers. Earlier on, our baby had a
tail, but it is beginning to shrink.

I think that is so cool. That we start to form tails, and then they
shrink back down into nothing. We form them in the first place
because our ancestors had tails so it is therefore the default
developmental program for us to at least initially form tails, too. For whatever reason we have lost tails, but instead of just never
forming them in the first place, we have evolved new developmental
machinery that makes the tail degenerate after it begins to form. It
seems like it would be much more difficult to take away something
after it has began to form then to just not form it at all, but I
guess that is just how our processes came to be. In either case, I
think the whole tail thing is really cool.

The books and stuff mention that at this point our baby will begin to
make little movements on it's own. Maybe that has something to do
with all of the pain that Becka was having last week.

I looked ahead to week 10 and it is weird. Up until now, all of
these diagrams have to be blown up quite a bit in order for us to see
anything at all. At week nine the baby is only .65 inches long. By
week 10 though, the real-life size is actually significant. Our baby
will actually look like a baby and will be big enough to see all of
the parts without blowing up the drawing. That is cool...and also really weird because the baby looks freaking huge in those drawings, but Becka is hardly even showing. I only notice a little bulge when she isn't wearing a shirt. I guess I thought that in order for the kid to be that big, she would need to be gigantic. Guess I was wrong.

Waiting Game

2008-04-11T21:14:00.001-07:00

Not much has happened since our last post. I did go the the OB and my PCP for some lower back pain, which is believed to be muscular. It is definately not nerve pain (I've read and have been told that the sciatic nerve is put under considerable stress when pregnant), I know how that feels, and this is not it. With very few imaging possibilities (xrays for example - not a good idea), it's difficult to figure out exactly what is going on. I have made an appointment to see a physical therapist to explore what kind of exercises and stretches will work to keep me moving. Between that and switching ice and heat, or the occasional Tylenol if I want it, that's about all I got. And it seems to be working pretty darn well. Other than that, our next appointment isn't until the end of April (on the 30th) - what seems like lifetimes away. Hopefully at that visit all will be good; we might be able to hear a heartbeat, and be welcomed into the second trimester!

New Ultrasound

2008-04-07T08:06:00.000-07:00

Becka was having some pain in her back and hips so she went to the doctor just to be sure everything was OK. She is fine, and we got another ultrasound out of the visit. Baby is healthy.

Our First Class

2008-04-05T18:44:00.001-07:00

Eric and I went to our first class the other night. Basically, it was a "How to be a responsible pregnant lady" type class. The nurse, who teaches these and other classes and is a temp for the OB department, taught us how the baby develops, tips for a healthy pregnancy, and talked a little bit about the other classes our insurance offers (yes, our insurance has classes such as: Daddy Day Camp where soon to be dads can hold real, live babies, Pet Plus Baby where you learn how to introduce your first babies to your new, human baby, Baby Business - likely the most useful - where you tour the hospital, complete your paperwork, and so on). Much of what nurse Betsy talked about, we already knew through our baby book. It was still a good class. Eric and I were likely the youngest people there - it felt really weird. Eric is really glad that I haven't had many problems with morning sickness. He left class assuming that in any minute, I'd be green in the face and on the verge of spewing all over the place. I did learn that Eric and I are doing pretty darn good job caring for our embryo.

At seven weeks....

2008-03-31T19:30:00.001-07:00

So during the seventh week of pregnancy it seems like quite a bit is going on. First, the baby (still called an embryo) is going through a growth spurt. Before this week, the baby was .52 cm long. By the end of this week, the average length of the embryo is 1.3 cm long. Since baby books seem to love comparing embryos to food, the baby will grow from about the size of a grain of rice to about the size of a blueberry. Developmentally speaking, the arm and leg buds will form slightly more sophisticated forms of hands and feet. Eyelids are beginning to partially form over the baby's eyes (and will be only a half cover for the next week). The baby's brain will continue to grow and the liver will start putting out red blood cells. Also, the umbilical cord, which is apparently a part of the baby's intestines, will pop of the belly and refine itself a bit to resemble what we think of when we hear "umbilical cord".

Told Welita

2008-03-27T20:10:00.000-07:00

We told Welita tonight that Becka is pregnant. We might as well of just sent her a text message or something because she finished my sentence telling her that we are pregnant, then said that she knew that we were...she could tell. Geez. So yeah, that was easy since she was evidently fully aware that we are pregnant even though we never told her anything. Going to tell Pop and Grandma tomorrow I think, providing that we see them.

Weight Gain

2008-03-26T15:51:00.001-07:00

Over the last few weeks I have become growingly concerned about the amount of weight I will be gaining over the coming months. Despite what I hear, I am not eating for two. As of now, the baby is .52 cm (that's centimeters, not inches) long - just smaller than a grain of rice. Any mammal smaller than a grain of rice does not need its own meal. I am proud to say that six weeks into pregnancy, I am eating much healthier than I ever have before. I have put on a whopping 1.6 pounds. Having seen this, I feel much better about the decisions I've made with my food and exercise. And now with the good habits I feel I've established, I'm less worried that I'll actually become as big as a boat.

Introducing......

2008-03-26T15:13:00.000-07:00

Our Baby! This is the first image that we have of our baby, and his/her initial stats are that he/she is 0.52 centimeters long and is due on November 18, 2008. Becka is six weeks and one day pregnant according to what they see. I assume the due date may change as the baby grows, but for now that is what they are saying.

Risk of miscarriage low according to Australian study

2008-03-26T11:47:00.000-07:00

Have not seen the original study so who knows if this reporter knows what they are talking about, but they say that risk of miscarriage among mothers who are asymptomatic (and otherwise healthy) was less than 1% after the pregnancy had progressed beyond 8 weeks. So that is good. We find out today if our embryo is healthy and implanted correctly. I am really excited. We may even be further along than 8 weeks by now.

Laaaaaaaaame!!!

2008-03-19T07:18:00.001-07:00

So I just realized like yesterday that I will be in Texas for our next baby appointment, which is the one where we are going to (hopefully) see our kid for the first time. Do not want to reschedule because we need to make sure that everyone is safe, but really wish that I could be there... especially if there is bad news of any kind. I'll have to ask Becka.

My Reading so Far

2008-03-16T12:40:00.001-07:00

i am really diggin' this book. the one thing that keeps throwing me off is this disclaimer at the beginning of each new chapter (new week): "If you just found out you are pregnant, you may want to start with the earlier chapters". I've read ahead a bit, about to start week 7 - which is not where i'm at - and it still has this disclaimer. I wonder when they'll stop putting that in there. In the meantime, I think I might read ahead to the weekly exercise they put at the end of the chapter. They (exercises) seem to work out parts of my body that will be put under pressure in the later months. So that's this afternoon: reading and exercising.

At five weeks...

2008-03-15T15:12:00.000-07:00

Becka found this figure from these guys. Thought it was a pretty good one so I put it up for her.

We are at the tail end of five weeks, so the whole neural tube thing has happened over the past couple of days. Now, the little buds that run along the edge of our babies body, will start pushing out to form limbs. Meanwhile, all kinds of cell differentiation is happening throughout the torso and everywhere else from those stem cell populations that migrated earlier in the week. See below for more details.

New Book

2008-03-15T14:59:00.001-07:00

I have a new book to read, it's called "Your Pregnancy, Week by Week". I like it so far, keeping in mind that I have made through all of one chapter. I like the way it is written, it is easy to read and understand. It has some pictures, but because I'm so early still, the pictures aren't really that neat. It does have good information about what I can and can't eat and what type of exercises I can do now (and later on) to prepare for birth - which is still weird to think about.

Nothin Doin

2008-03-15T09:16:00.001-07:00

We haven't posted in a few days and that is because nothing has happened. Becka feels the same (sleepy) and nothing else is going on. Which is good news.

Today we are going to immerse ourselves full on into a baby store. Just gonna go see what they try to sell you in a baby store and get a feel for what we need. I am sure we will be overwhelmed with the sheer numbers of crap that are in these baby stores. I am imagining baby stores to be full of gimmicks and completely unnecessary things. Like a golf or hunting store. I guess we'll see.

Not bad at all, but a little less than what we were expecting

2008-03-13T05:30:00.000-07:00

So we went to the doctor yesterday morning to see if we are pregnant. All they really did was just say "sure you are", but other than that there is nothing more that we know. Mainly this is because they couldn't find anything to look at on the ultrasound. There was just nothing to see. They reasoned that we must be really early in the pregnancy and things are just still too small, and that is why everything looks empty. At five weeks the kid should be easily picked up, so we must be somewhere less than five weeks pregnant. Fair enough.

So, all that we have to report is that the doctors say we are pregnant, but are saying that because of Becka's hormones. Other than that we don't really have anything to report. Oh well. So we go back in two weeks to do another ultrasound. Maybe this time there will be something there.

Told our immediate family last night - parents and brothers and sisters. We had planned to do it in person in a few weeks but changed our minds. Don't know when we are going to tell everyone else.

Tomorrow's Visit

2008-03-11T19:36:00.001-07:00

So tomorrow Eric and I will have the first of several prenatal visits. I keep having this feeling that the doctor lady will tell me that I'm not actually pregnant. That would kinda suck. I don't really have any reason. Pregnancy tests are pretty accurate, especially two of them. Its just nerves. If they can actually do an ultrasound and I can see some kind of picture, it becomes much more real than two little pink stripes on a plastic wand.

Well, it might have a neural tube...

2008-03-11T07:55:00.000-07:00

OK, well we still don't know exactly where we are at in development. We go to the doctor tomorrow and will find out then. We know that it is implanted, and we know that it has been implanted for probably about a week. So, we might be at 5 weeks. If we are, then we got a neural tube!

A neural tube is not an actual backbone, but is something close to it, and is a precursor to lots of things besides just the backbone / spinal cord. The neural tube is an actual tube that forms along the kid's back. It starts out looking like a ditch. It is a channel, and has little hills on both sides. The channel will become the neural tube, and the little hills are collectively called the neural crest. The neural tube is a by-product of coordinated cell division and gene regulation in the neural crest cells, which are very important.

The neural crest cells are characterized by their location alongside the neural tube and their gene expression, but other than that they look pretty much like all the other cells in the embryo (while they are next to the neural tube and still in the neural crest). However, this does not lost long. Shortly after they have formed, they actually leave the neural crest and migrate throughout the entire embryo. They move the way that amoebas do (our cells regularly migrate around our bodies using this mechanism of locomotion that was inherited from our single-celled ancestors), and slither around the embryo until they arrive at a pre-specified location. Once they get to their designated spot on the embryo, they begin to divide and differentiate, and produce all sorts of things like neurons, skin cells, cartilage and bones within the face.

You can see the neural tube in this preserved human embryo (from here):

The neural crest and neural tube are only formed in vertebrates, and are a distinguishing features of our group. All animals that have a backbone also produce a neural tube and neural crest, and it was a key evolutionary innovation that led to the origin of chordates (animals with backbones). Oscar our dog and the birds outside had a neural tube when they were an embryo. No ones knows what the first animals that had backbones may have looked like, but the closest thing that is still around today is this little guy.

This is an animal from the genus Amphioxus. Early development of animals like Amphioxus (prior to the development of a notochord) is essentially identical to development in all of us and our kid. Eventually, animals like Amphioxus will form something very similar to the backbone that you find in us, but it really is not the same. In either case, the common ancestor that gave rise to all animals with backbones (including our kid) is believed to have looked something like Amphioxus. Could be completely wrong, but that is what the fossils say for now. It is so cool!!!

So yeah! We might have a neural tube! Tomorrow when we see the ultrasound we will know for sure. Until then, we'll just be happy that Becka has the ability to produce a full-on vertebrate. All this stuff is going on right now under her skin. So cool. Word.

Side Effects

2008-03-10T17:35:00.001-07:00

I'm really freakin' tired all the time! So far, I have taken a nearly one hour nap every single day for about a week. It kinda sucks. I don't know if I'd rather have sore boobs. I definately take being tired over being sick to my stomache.

Visual confirmation scheduled

2008-03-10T10:05:00.001-07:00

So, right now all that we know is that HCG is present. Usually this means we have an embryo, but it could also mean that Becka has a tumor in her uterus. Hopefully that is not the case. The next method to establish if we do in fact have an embryo is an ultrasound. We do that Wednesday!!!!!

Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG)

2008-03-10T09:55:00.000-07:00

There it is, HCG. This badboy promotes the continued expression of progesterone by the ovaries which in turn activate the growth of a huge number of blood vessels and capillaries in the uterus that nourish the baby throughout pregnancy. Right now, HCG is being emitted by the embryo itself, but after things get further along, the placenta will begin to chuck out HCG. Do not know if the placenta emitts HCG because the placenta is comprised of cells that are presently a part of the embryo , or if non-derivative placental cells just start expressing the protein in response to other signaling pathways. HCG also protects the embryo right now because it is super negatively charged, and will repel Becka's immune system until the embryo becomes larger. In either case, it is there, it activates continued expression of progesterone, and it also protects the embryo.

Second at-home confirmation

2008-03-10T07:29:00.000-07:00

Took another test yesterday on the second pee of the day (so as to dilute the hormones), and pregnancy test was still positive!

Hormone cycle

2008-03-09T16:02:00.000-07:00

You know how long it took to find this stupid graph again? More for my own reference, I was thinking about some medications and vitamins today and needed a graph. When I first learned about this in high school I was given extra credit because of my especially good essay that described how the female menstrual cycle worked on an exam.

Scratch that, we are actually here...

2008-03-09T09:45:00.001-07:00

Got it wrong. Pregnancy tests are looking for human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG). That is what the second line on a pregnancy test means - HCG is in your body. This
hormone is produced by the embryo, but only after it has become implanted within the uterus, and lets your body know that you are pregnant and that you need to stop ovulating. It also maintains the uterine lining so
that the embryo does not get flushed out every month.

In any case, since we have a positive pregnancy test, HCG is present, indicating that an embryo is present and has become implanted. So right now it looks like this.

Where we are at

2008-03-09T09:38:00.001-07:00

OK, according to kidshealth.org, this is where we are at as of two weeks.

Not Yet

2008-03-08T16:30:00.001-08:00

Not big as a boat yet but I am pregnant. Today, I weigh 145. Eric and I estimated that I am two weeks pregnant. I'll call my doctor lady and see what' next.

Baby books

2008-03-08T16:07:00.000-08:00

So far from quick look around at Borders some books we should maybe get are What to Expect when you are Expecting, Pregnancy week-by-week or something like that, and My Boys can Swim. They were too pricey at Borders but maybe we can find something cheaper on Amazon.

She's PREGNANT!!!!

2008-03-08T16:05:00.000-08:00

Well, we think. According to the one grocery store test she took this morning we are with child, but we'll need to confirm it somehow before we can be totally sure. All for now, just getting rolling.