Baby Suck Brain

For those of you who have already gone through at least one pregnancy, I have one question.

Note to fathers: This question below is for the ladies only and is definitely not meant for an excuse or justification to any sort of mischief you might have been or would like to be voluntarily or inadvertently involved.

Here is the question. Did you experience any memory problems, forgetfullnes, or an unusual sensation of increased void in your cranium during your pregnancy?

Not that I've noticed Aylin having a problem with her memory but she mentioned a conversation she had with some of her coworkers today. They were wondering if she had started forgetting things as if this was the next step in her pregnancy. Of course, while Aylin was casually telling me about her day and this conversation, my morbid imagination was taking another direction and forming an image of zombie fetuses sucking mother brains for nourishment and all the while slowly transforming their mothers into zombies. Can that be real?

Baby need braiiiiiin......

"Fundus"

As first time parents to be, we are immersed in books describing every single day of pregnancy to follow the development of our bean child. This has been extremely educational. Not only we are discovering a whole new universe within Aylin's body, at least I am, our vocabulary is also expanding. So is Aylin's belly but that's another story. I'll just say that apparently it was not the bananas foster.

At 9 weeks old Ember the Embryo, formerly known as Ziggy the Zygote, has grown into Fethi the Fetus. According to the books, Aylin's uterus is a little bigger than a grapefruit. Fethi is around 3 inches long and developing hands and legs. I was amazed to find out that at 9 weeks Fethi has already developed "bathroom" functions. Immediately this was a concern to me, because according to the floor plans of the uterus there are no bathrooms there.

While reading about how Aylin's body changes, we ran across a new word, "Fundus". Apparently the next checkup is going to look at the "height of the Fundus". It was a funny sounding word at first when parsed the two syllables read "Fund-Us". Was this checkup going to be about how much this child is going to cost? I was intrigued from the get go.

Thanks to Wikipedia which I think is the next best invention since the one after sliced bread, I found that "Fundus" is the Latin word for "bottom" and is commonly used anatomically as a generic term referring to the portion of an organ opposite from its opening. The fundal height of the uterus, measured from the top of the pubic bone, is used to determine growth rate of the baby. See fig. (also see, no bathrooms)

We are very anxious to find out all about Fethi the fetus and his fundus at the next checkup on the 27th of June.

What a coincidence

One of the first people I told about Aylin being pregnant is Josh, one of my brothers. Yes I am an only child. But, as good ol' Weeze used to say, "we ain't related but we dooo be brothers." Although our friendship preceeds our working relationship, we could both say that we are fortunate to be working together for the past 9 years.

So, during my visit to the corporate offices last week, Josh was unusually aloof and that made me worry somewhat. I had expected a warm and enthusiastic greeting which I almost always get when I see him unless he is focused on work. I began to think if something I had done or not done had offended him in any way.

This feeling climaxed when he found me at a free concert downtown last Thursday and grabbed my arm firmly and pulled me away from other friends I was with. Just as I was bracing myself for a confrontation he gave me the most wonderful news that his wife Chrissy is also pregnant. And, she is due about the same time as Aylin. Just 2 days apart. Waaaaaaaa!!!!!!?

They had planned on breaking the news to their families on fathers day so he didn't want to spoil the surprise by telling me early. Rightly so. I had kept such a secret once long ago (Eric) and don't know if I had it in me to do it again, especially now with us having almost the same due date as them.

I still can't wipe the stupid grin off my face. I wish them luck, a wonderful healthy baby, and look forward to having our kids grow up together. Way to go Josh and Chrissy....:) And congratulations to Nancy and Stu....

Belly

Aylin noticed that her belly is starting to bulge a little bit. She had a little bit of trouble fitting into her skirt. I think it was the bananas foster that I made for her after dinner but she is sure that it is Ziggy's home that's getting bigger.

First Ultrasound 7weeks 2 days

To quote Aylin "we have a a bean for a child". I had named him Ziggy (Zygote) for the first stage of it's development. It's 9.1 mm long and now has a heart beat. I guess we'll have to change the name to Ember (Embryo) pretty soon. Aylin got to hear the heartbeat at the doctors office today but sadly I missed it due to being in transit from Rochester back to Tampa.