12 Week 4 day Ultrasound

We went to ATR labs for the 12 week screening ultrasound, where they measure things like the back of junior’s neck to determine the risk for certain chromosomal anomolies.  We got there early at the recommendation of friends who told us that the lab usually runs late.  By arriving early, we ended up getting seen 15 minutes early.  Woo!  However, to our surprise, there was also a bloodwork component, at another lab a short walk away at Mt Sinai.  And it took 90 minutes for S to get her blood taken there.   

Interestingly (perhaps only to me), the ultrasound lab sent S away with a list of measurements obtained during the ultrasound.  Junior’s crown-rump length is 67mm, its biparietal diameter is 22mm and its nuchal transparency is 1.6mm. 

The miracle of Google suggests to me that junior’s head size and crown-rump length indicate that it is between 12 and 13 weeks old.  Which makes sense.  And the low number for nuchal transparency suggests its at low risk for Down’s syndrome.  But the midwife will contact S and let her know the official and presumably more reliable results/interpretation.

The ultrasound technician also learned that junior is stubborn.  Apparently, junior resolutely lay curled facing S’s back .  S tells me the technician had to do some jostling and prodding to get the measurements she needed. After the measurements were taken, I got to go in and the technician showed us junior’s head, heart, legs, spine, arm – but no face, because of the positioning.  Because junior was in a non-photogenic position, we did not pay the lab to have a photo of the ultrasound printed out.  But I did take the usual picture of S beside the monitor.  I assume the technician didn’t mind since it was obvious that we wouldn’t be buying a photo that day anyway.

Non-photogenic… already junior is taking after me!

Grey’s Anatomy

Arizona!

Now that was a surprise — but a good one.  Way better than Hahn (no chemisty) or even Sadie (is that her name?  The crazy one who took out her own appendix).  I hope they keep the character and story line going.  Imagine, a confident lesbian without hangups!  On tv!

But, knowing Grey’s Anatomy, that will probably be the last we see of Arizona.  Maybe just a hint of her in another episode as she helps Bailey replace her as the pediatric surgeon, then she can ride off into the parking lot of lost dreams.

Tidy Tamils

S and I were heading toward Hero Certified Burger at Yonge and St. Clair to satisfy S’s poutine craving when we ran into a Tamil protest.  Throngs of people in winter coats and hats demanding justice.  And at first it was kind of “oh crap – now we’re stuck in a throng of protesters”.  But even though we were going against the stream, it was very easy to make our way through to the burger joint (considering the sheer number of people).   People smiled at us as we walked by, while also chanting for justice.  But the freaky part was when the chant moved from wanting justice to “help us”.  It became that much more personal, somehow. 

Last friday, when I returned to Toronto after being in London for a few days, there had been a Tamil protest downtown but I had missed it by the time I landed at Union station (not surprisingly, the train was late).  But police were still around.  And, to my surprise, some of the protesters (ok, I’m making an assumption that they were protesters based on skin colour) were collecting litter in a garbage bag.  Very impressive.

Overall, Tamil people in Toronto, of which there are hundreds of thousands apparently, put on a very nice and orderly protest.  And the turnout!  Impressive.  I don’t think Canada can end the civil war/genocide in Sri Lanka, but these protests certainly bring the eyes of the world to the issue — and that can’t be a bad thing.  

n.b. Hero burgers are not good.  They claim 100% angus beef.  I don’t think that patty could have been 100% beef of any kind, so I guess they might mean “20% of the patty is beef, and that beef is 100% angus beef”.  Or maybe I just don’t like meat from an Angus. It tasted eerily familiar though, like the restaurant patties of my youth maybe.  I couldn’t put my finger on it.   The poutine, on the other hand, was quite tasty.  The curds were a little too cold, but overall I’d go there for a poutine again.

9 Week Ultrasound

Our 9:30 ultrasound ended up happening at 10:15.   After hearing some mixup stories from a friend who goes to Hannam clinic, it makes me think that maybe we were lucky to have gone to them over xmas – when the workload there was light, and to have caught on the first time.  As a result, we have warm fuzzy happy feelings about the clinic.  Now it looks like it’s getting quite busy — the cycle monitoring crowd required additional chairs to be brought into the waiting room, and ate into the scheduled ultrasound appointments.

But I digress.  Baby A is 9 weeks large, measures 2.3 cm and the heartbeat is still 174 bpm.  The technician pointed out the umbilical cord, the developing spine, cranium, arms, legs.  And it’s always great to see the heart beating. It’s starting to look like a little person.

We asked the doctor if we needed to do the 10 week ultrasound, since everything seems to be going well and it’s a singleton, not a multiple anymore.  She said it was up to us, but it wasn’t medically necessary.  So we opted not to, which marks the end of our relationship with this clinic.  Smiles, handshakes and hugs all around, and we’ll contact Dr. Perry after junior is born to let her know how it all turned out.

Tomorrow, we meet with the midwife who will take over from now on.

Yet Another Lesbian Potluck

Last night we had 15 people over from our Dykes Planning Tykes group.  15 women, plus me and S, were standing in our kitchen while I was making pizza– because our kitchen has some sort of gravitational pull.  I don’t recall quite the same phenomenon when we go over to ther people’s houses.  At some point we managed to get everyone into the rest of the living space, which resulted in 15 people, plus me and S, crammed into our living room.  It was a sight to behold, all these women sitting on arm rests etc while the “dining” half of the room, and its chairs, was empty.   

It was a good night – everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.  We’ve been getting together for a year or so now, for monthly potlucks (apparently the lesbian potluck stereotype is accurate).  But it’s taking everyone so long to get pregnant.  One woman in our living room has been pregnant a couple of months longer than S.  Another is due in 2 or 3 months.  And others have been trying, but no luck.  One is trying to adopt, so is going through her own process – but I wonder if it’s not so surprising for adoption to take forever.  But pregnancy?  We’ve all been told since puberty how easy it is to get pregnant (watch out!).   Going to a clinic to avoid any question of incorrect timing makes it sound like a guarantee for most of us to get pregnant after a couple of tries.  It’s not like we’re infertile.  We just don’t have easy access to sperm and, generally, don’t want another parent on the scene in the person of the sperm producer. So we use clinics.  It should be a slam dunk. Which makes me wonder just how difficult it is to get pregnant with frozen sperm… and if the procreative quality is so damn poor, why are we paying so much for it?