Tuesday 20 December 2011

Random happy thought today

Today we went out to dinner to a Nepalese place called Namaste. On the drinks menu was a tea called chiya and it reminded me that I might soon have a little girl whose name could easily be shortened to sound similar. It made me smile anyway. I also went to give Janna's leg a quick pat to let her know I was thinking of her and Babby but she shoo'd me away because she felt sick.

In other news, we have scheduled the ultrasound for early January at 12 weeks old and we will get the blood test taken at the same time. We have also scheduled our first pregnancy based appointment at the hospital for about the same time.

Friday 16 December 2011

Been a while

Been a while since my last post. Nothing much to report really. Had a couple of evenings where I was feeling down or in a bad mood but those seem to of passed. Babby's piggy bank has a few more dollars in it, which is always nice. I guess sometime after next week we should be thinking about getting the blood tests and ultrasound organised. And of course xmas is coming up quite fast too!

Saturday 10 December 2011

A Babby update

Babby is now at eight weeks and looks like a little like a cashew. Hands and feet should now have short fingers and toes, still growing longer and still totally webbed. Also at this point, Babby has a gigantic tail! Truly can't wait until Babby is old enough to tell the sex!

In other news, Janna's blood test results were all fine... we can confirm she does not have syphilis, HIV, or a range of other things. As expected, this blood test was indeed just for Janna's health. We discussed the Downs and Spina Bifida tests with our doctor and he filled out the relevant pathology and ultrasound request forms. Now we just need to wait until nine weeks for the blood test and eleven weeks for the ultrasound.

I had a strange dream about having a baby. I won't share it because it was quite strange, but I remember that I woke up after it and while going back to sleep I thought, "real life won't be like that dream, it'll be better", and I went back to sleep with a smile on my face.

Tuesday 6 December 2011

So confusing!

Well apparently those blood tests we are waiting on are actually just to check Janna's health. We will have to get  another blood test later to check for Downs Syndrome and Spina Bifida. At least tomorrow morning we will be able to rest easier knowing about Janna's health. I just wish I was told what's what from the start.

Monday 5 December 2011

Gender identity in children and the role of play

Just wanted to share a forum discussion with my readers since this will probably interest some of you. The forum is hosted on Think Atheist, a website dedicated to providing atheists their own space on the web to discuss and debate issues important to them. This particular post is about the role of play in influencing gender identity in children, especially related to gender oriented toys like "trucks for boys" and "dolls for girls". Feel free to join the site and join the discussion if you are interested.

Think Atheist: Do we need to teach gender identity

Sunday 4 December 2011

Gathering cans for Babby's piggy bank and finally, the unveiling of my super secret identity!

My desk after collecting cans. (the base has three sides)
The past week at work I have been gathering cans from all the free drinks at the office. Ended up with a nice pyramid on my desk.

Yep, that's my desk. I am planning on collecting cans and turning them in at my local recycling centre for ten cents each. Should amount to a few dollars a week, which I will save for Babby.

Today, we stopped in at Target and had a look around the baby area. I found a gigantic ceramic pig, it's white with sparse, multicoloured, polka dots on it. Seriously, it's bigger than it looks! While at target we saw some super cute clothes for babies. First was a little santa suit, the boy's version comes with a little santa hat, the girls version comes with matching booties instead of a hat. Not sure I agree with the sexism but they were just so damn cute. Second was a little woolen beanie with a little puppy face and ears on it, along with matching mittens. I vomited a rainbow.

We put a few dollars in to get Babby started.


Well, I guess it's about time for the unveiling of my super secret identity now that we have notified all the people we want to notify in person (I hope). I am Matt Clerke and my partner is Janna Matthews (soon to be Clerke). We live in South Australia (yay ten cents per can at recycling depots!).

Saturday 3 December 2011

Thinking happy thoughts

Feeling good today so I wanted to check in with the blog. Blood tests have been taken, although I am still confused about how far along we are, so we are waiting to hear about the results for those.

A happy thought today, matching mother and daughter clothes. So cute!

Tuesday 29 November 2011

Ultrasound doctor said 5 but meant 7???

My partner just mentioned that we need to add 2 weeks to the conception time the doctor told us! That makes babby 8 weeks 3 days. We may need those blood tests asap.

Guess we will go to the doctor and see what he says about it.

6+1/2 Weeks and mood swings

So as the title suggests, Babby is now 6 weeks and 3 days old. According to a quick google search, Babby should be the size of a small bean, with little nubs for arms and legs, dark spots where eyes and nose are forming, and even fingers beginning to form. Sometime in the next few weeks we will be getting blood tests and another ultrasound to test for Downs Syndrome and Spina Bifida. Scary thoughts.

I understand if pregnant women get mood swings, their bodies are pumped full of pregnancy hormones and their bodies are changing at an alarming rate. What about men? My mood has been swinging between "weee, I'm having a baby" and "oh god, no... wtf am I going to do with a baby? I can't handle this shit". When I say swinging, I'm talking in the space of seconds, with each mood lasting as little as 3 minutes. Guess I'll bring it up with my counsellor and see what he says about it.

Sunday 27 November 2011

B'day party and a joke

Today we went to a 5 year old's birthday party. Plenty of food and drink and she even had a bouncy castle! (grand parents LOVE to spoil her). Anyway, I'll start from the beginning... We went to a friend's house for a roast lunch before the party. Her room mate is apparently an amazing cook, evidenced by the fact that even I enjoyed the roast lamb. Usually I find red meat too chewy to enjoy it. After lunch, we were standing on the balcony and our friend was congratulating us again on our pregnancy. She pat my belly... strange since my belly has nothing to do with the situation. The belly pat reminded my of a joke I had seen on the internet: People always rub the mother-to-be's belly and say congratulations, but no one ever rubs your cock and says "Well done!". After that we went to the party and had a nice time, after a few stints in the bouncy castle I settled down on the couch and watched Discovery Turbo. I had no idea such a channel existed. Amateur rocketry and Hot Rod TV made for a lovely afternoon of TV watching.

So that was my whole day in a nut shell... now I'm tired and hoping I can just relax for the rest of the day (about 2 hours). Thanks for reading,
    Matt

Saturday 26 November 2011

Babby's gender specific name

I am feeling a bit better than I was earlier... got some washing done, watched Jurassic Park, played some StarCraft 2, felt better. In any case, I thought that while I'm in a good mood it might be a good time to write a blog about some names we have been thinking about.

If Babby is a girl, her name will almost certainly be Chiana. Chi or Chia for short. The name originally came from the TV show Farscape, which has a mischievous, pale blue, alien named Chianna. So we modified it a little and have fallen in love with the name.

If Babby is a boy, I have no idea what his name will be. Personally, I quite like Saxon, it is different but not too different. My partner has also suggested Damien. I'm not sure how strongly she likes it but I like it because in high school, I named my baby simulation doll Damien (I did well on the report btw). If you know any interesting or different boys names, I would be interested to hear them.

Thanks for reading,
    Matt

Whole world falling apart

It's about time for my second post. As expected we told my Mum last night when we went and visited her. I didn't bother asking about borrowing against her equity since even if we did that, we wouldn't be able to buy the house we really wanted anyway. She took the news well and we had a nice evening. When we got home, my sense of impending doom was tingling again and I became very short with everyone and stomped off to bed. When my partner finally come to bed too, she made me feel alot better. I can't even remember why I was upset.

This morning we told my partner's grandparents, who were very excited to hear that they would be great grandparents around July next year. We had a nice cup of tea and a chat with them and then decided it was to head home and make lunch. On the way home, my partner was calling a few people to inform them of the news and decided we should get lunch at Subway so we could tell her cousin. On our way back towards Subway, the driver's seatbelt of the car broke. I think it is something to with the spring or pulleys which pull it tight. Just another thing to have on my mind. Far too much on it already.

Friday 25 November 2011

First!

Hi,
    I'm Matt and I'm gonna be a daddy! I'll start my blog with a timeline since I found out my partner was pregnant.

Monday 21st November: My partner pulled me aside to show me something important. It was a positive pregnancy test. At this point I was in total shock, and so was she. In some ways I still am. Needless to say, we barely slept that night.

Tuesday 22nd November: After each thinking about it over the day, we came to the decision that we both want to keep the baby. While discussing the baby and what we are going to do in the future, I mentioned the "How is babby formed" video on you tube (click the link to see the video, it's quite funny). For some reason we have decided to stick with babby as the baby's name, at least until we know the sex.

Wednesday 23rd November: My partner and I both took the day off work to go to our doctors appointment in the morning. He has been my partner's family doctor for about 25 years so naturally, he was the only acceptable doctor for us and our baby. He reviewed my partner's medication and advised that she stop taking them immediately and carefully monitor the results, switching to pregnancy friendly drugs if there are still uncontrolled issue.

We managed to schedule an ultrasound for about 11:30 am in a nearby hospital and so we decided to also see a financial planner in the afternoon. The first ultrasound wasn't showing enough detail so the doctor decided an internal ultrasound would be better. My partner was totally busting from the water she was asked to drink so she was very relieved when the doctor said the internal ultrasound works best with an empty bladder. After a short delay, we were again looking at the ultrasound image on the screen. The doctor took measurements of ovaries, and then had a quick look around to find the embryo. When she pointed it out, I was filled with wonder. A tiny blinking blip on the screen, only 3 mm long. The blinking is apparently caused by a heart beat. 3 mm long, so tiny and yet one day it will be a person, with a job and a family. The doctor said that judging by the size, the embryo is 5 weeks and 4 days old.

After lunch we went to our financial institution and spoke with a very friendly and helpful man about the possibilities of getting a home load. This was absolutely dream shattering. Even if we could scrape together the $30k+ deposit and afford the regular repayments at the current interest rate, we would never be approved because the approval process uses an interest rate about 2% higher than what the bank is offering. At best, we could probably borrow about $200k if we borrow against the equity in one of our parents houses. My partners parents are recently divorced and both have significant new mortgages because of it. That leaves my Mum, I know she has already borrowed on some of her home's equity to pay for renovations but I am not sure how much of the house's value is borrowed and how much is equity. I guess we can talk about that on friday when we tell her about the pregnancy.

Thursday 24th November: The shock had mostly worn off by this point so I went about my normal daily life during the day. In the evening I was feeling stressed and depressed, like I can't keep this up and there's no hope of getting through. My partner made me feel better with a cuddle and a talk about what was bothering me: basically that I have been in school, then more school, then uni, then work, and for a significant amount of that time, my partner has been with me but not pulling her weight. Things were starting to look very hopeful for the future, my partner has been doing work experience and I have been doing well at work. It looked like we were on track for our long term plan of saving for a couple of years, buying a house, then starting a family. Things are just going to be different now, that dream is gone.

My partner's Mum gave us a rattle she bought some time ago and was saving for an appropriate time. It has a pastel pink handle, pastel green ball, and a very colourful butterfly on it. I'm sure babby will love it.

In bed we were talking and decided to also name the baby babbles until we know the gender. This is an extension from the previous name of babby. We let our minds wander for a while and my partner said she would like to write a diary of her pregnancy. This is when I thought of doing a blog. We let our minds wander a little more and I thought about what I want for babby. I would like a model of the solar system instead of the normal dangling rainbows and whatnot. I vaguely remember seeing kits for such a model but failing that, I think we can make one with some basic craft supplies from Spotlight.

Friday 25th November: Finally we are up to today. It has been a long week and I'm glad the weekend is near. Tonight we are having dinner with my Mum and telling her about our pregnancy. I'm sure it will go well and I hope she appreciates that we waited to tell her in person.

So that's my story so far. Looks like I might have enough stuff going to make a small post every day. We'll see what the future brings I guess.

Thanks for reading,
    Matt

P.S. If you think you know my secret identity, please don't tell anyone! We are hoping to tell certain people in person and we don't want them to find out beforehand!