Now, my wife is very dedicated (particularly with getting pregnant!), so she set her cell phone to remind her twice a day (8am and 7pm) to take her medication.  In this case, “taking her medication” meant inserting a “pill” about the size of her fingertip up her…well…up there.

So, each time her phone beeped in reminder, I would call out, “Up yourrs!”  She got into it.  So much so, that it’s what we started calling it.  Not “take the progesterone” or “insert the pill”.  She would say, “Oh man, I forgot to go up yours!”

The doctors prescribed this for 12 weeks!  Twice a day for twelve weeks.  That’s 168 times she had to suffer this slight indignity, and she never missed any, not even one.  Good job.  The doctors said that by the time a pregnancy established itself, after a month or so, the fetus was generating way more progesterone than the supplements were providing (about 90% more), so it almost didn’t matter, but we stuck with it, just to make sure (we didn’t want to have any regrets).

Just a few days ago, we celebrated a milestone in our first pregnancy, a milestone that most pregnant couples don’t get.  We celebrated the end of progesterone vaginal suppositories.  No more Up Yours!

And everything’s still going strong.  We will probably never know for sure, but we feel confident that this helped us have a good start to the pregnancy.

-Asawang Buntis

Whew!  Combined with the blood tests, this measurement indicated that our little bean’s risk of Down’s Syndrome is pretty low (1 in 520), and the risk of a different chromosomal disorder was even less (1 in 13,000).  That’s a big relief for us.  We’d been trying for so long that we started approaching the age where statistics show we’d be at increased risk.

So, after I heard this news, I felt like everything was going to be just fine for the rest of the pregnancy, and I could feel safe in telling everyone about the big news.  You see, so far, we have been keeping our pregnancy to ourselves, because we were so nervous about a miscarriage or other problems.  We didn’t want to tell friends and family and then have to break bad news later and explain it all to them, forcing us to repeat and relive such a sad and negative event over and over.

But, I think that’s all behind us now.  I’ll still wait until the official end of the first trimester to tell people, but now I’m feeling excited and happy about it, rather than apprehensive and hesitant.  It was really a fundamental change in how I felt about this pregnancy.  It’s starting to feel more real now, starting to feel like “This is really going to happen!”  While I don’t think it’ll sink in fully until she starts to get the pregnant belly, it’s good enough for now.

Actually, I have to give some good credit to my great wife for some of this.  After she got these test results, she texted me with the news, and she also said that the ultrasound showed the little one’s nose (another good sign of low risk for Down’s). And then she wrote, “It looks like your nose! ” Aww.  While I knew that was a joke, it was both a nice compliment (my wife really likes my nose and not so much her nose – I feel the exact opposite) and a reminder that this child is also mine.  It’s part of me, and will probably look a little (or a lot?) like me, and be like me, and I’ll be a father!  So, thanks, Wife!

Speaking of telling other people, another interesting thing happened.  At my work, there are several guys in my group that are all married with no children, in “prime position” for having their first.  I was chatting with my wife about this (“What if we all had children around the same time?”), and then the very next day one of the guys tells me that his wife is pregnant!  And then it turns out that she’s due just a few weeks after ours!  Weird.  So, now I’m waiting for the rest of them to make announcements.  Our entire group will be out on paternity at the same time.  Haha!  That would be awesome.  Wonder how the company and our management would handle that…

Final thought for today is about flatulence.  That’s right, farting.  The pregnancy books say that pregnant women experience, among many other symptoms, various bowel distresses, including constipation, bloating, and gas.  My wife has been lucky enough to avoid morning sickness and most of the other “classic” symptoms.  This was in fact an early worry for us, because she just never “felt” pregnant.  HOWEVER, she has not completely escaped the gas.  I’m not criticizing or complaining, just observing.  She’s very discreet and considerate.  (And, being a guy, my every-day fart count is higher than hers on a bad day.  Heck, I even have a fart sound program on my cell phone.)  So, all this is just to say, when she lets a little <fbprraap> escape, and she sees me smile, I’m not enjoying the aroma, I’m appreciative that she really is pregnant!

-Asawang Buntis

So, a little about this blog.  Those Tagolog speakers among you may recognize this blogger’s name as the translation of “Pregnant Spouse”.  Yes, I’m the father in this upcoming family (although I’m not Filipino myself).  I’ll be blogging about this experience, and probably not much else.  You’re hooked…

After about a year and a half of trying, we finally got pregnant.  That whole ordeal was certainly blog-worthy, and I’ll be writing about it later, but today’s entry is more related to initial hellos.

As we “watch” the 2010 Winter Olympics (interesting, despite my detachment from winter sports), my wife is relaxing in front of a challenging game of “Monkey Bloons“, and I’m just sitting around contemplating whether I’m already failing as a father by not reading more of the “What to Expect When You’re Expecting” type books that we bought.  They’re interesting books, actually, but as a couple we like to hang out together, and we spend too much time in front of the tube, so I can’t really read with the TV on.  Maybe I’ll propose reading time before bed, instead of watching TV.

So, today we went for an ultrasound intended to screen our child for Down’s Syndrome.  It’s called the Nuchal Translucency test.  Combined with a prior blood test, it gives us an estimate of the chances that our fetus has this tragic disorder.  We’ve already decided that we would not keep an abnormal child.  The logic of this decision is sound, even moral, but I still find myself feeling a bit guilty about that choice.  So be it.

Anyway, the test sonogram technician was unable to get a good reading.  During this scan, he tries to measure, using pretty noisy and limited-resolution imaging, the thickness of the nape of the fetus’ neck, to within 0.1 mm.  It seems like an impossible task.  The child needs to be facing in the exact right direction.  The technician even had us walk around a bit before giving it a second (and third!) try, but still no luck.  We’ll try again in a couple days.  I even found an article online about some scientific research that found repeated attempts can increase the success rate of these tests dramatically (up to 97%).  I love the internet.

Today, I’ve been singing “Arms Wide Open” by Creed.  Cheesy, but still the right sentiment.  And, anyway, I’ve been known to switch between various songs throughout the day.  For example, today is was Jesus Christ Superstar, followed by In The End (Linkin Park), then “A Little Less Conversation” (Elvis), and finally Creed.

OK, detour over. 

The final thought for today is kind of a nasty one.  Today, in the hospital, I saw three couples, either with a newborn or very close to having one.  All the couples appeared to be somewhat unfit.  The first, with a newborn, were covered with tatoos.  The second, the father looked like a Hell’s Angel (though the prospective mother seemed fine).  The third, the father seemed less interested in his child’s health, and more in getting out of there to whatever punk rock band he thought he was going to make famous with his “singing”.  At least they’re getting check-ups, but I sometimes wonder if these children will be drains or contributors.

On that tolerant note, have a good day!

-Asawang Buntis