Brett & Megan » Embryology 101

Baby is out

Brett — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 21:24:24 +0000

BMHarvey has become BMJ! Juliet Britain Harvey arrived on Friday 9/18 at 2:02pm. She weighs 7lbs. 13oz. and is 21.5″ long. She is really healthy and both her and mom are doing well. We are getting to know each other. So far she has been an amazingly good natured baby.

So here’s how it went: We had an induction appt. for Friday morning at 8am. Thursday night I had Back to School night and then stayed until 10pm to make sub plans for the 3 days I was going to be absent. When I got home, Megan was pacing and breathing. Turns out she had been in labor for a couple hours. She stayed up all night and at 6:30am, we decided it was time to go in. When we arrived at the labor & delivery desk at 7am, the nurses said “You’re an hour early!” By the time the doctor checked her at 9:30am she was 5-6cm. No induction needed they decided. By 10:30am when the anesthesiologist came in to start the epidural she was 8-9cm.

Megan pushed for about 1.5hrs. and did awesome. After the epidural, she felt pressure but no pain. She was totally ready and had all the things she needed. It was a really calm wait. When she finally came out, I have to say it was a strange experience. It was like watching a little purplish white ghost fly out of there. She was quiet because she still had fluid in her respiratory tract which the doctor suctioned out. Pretty soon she was giving out cute little cries. Truly amazing. She was on Megan’s chest for a few minutes until the baby nurse took her to clean her at the incubator in the room. Then she gave her to me and I was floored. I don’t know how to describe it. She was instantly our baby. The nurses remarked that she was really calm – not crying. Looking around the room right away.

Mom was a little dizzy when she got to the maternity ward but is doing great now. Everyone has noticed her big feet & hands. I think we have a tall one on the way. We just got a brainwave hearing test where they put soft sounds into her ear through an earphone. The brain stem responds and sends out brain waves and a device reads these Otoacoustic Emissions on a screen. A good response is a score of 160 and tests can last about 20min. to see higher scores. Juliet (look at me, I’m already bragging) reached 300 in just 35 seconds.The nurse said she was the fastest baby she had ever tested. Basically she’s a genius.

We’ll be out of the hospital tomorrow with Juliet. We are falling more in love with her the more time we spend with her. We took a new family moment in front of the Mac cam below. More photos coming soon. . .

our new addition, Juliet

Labor Day Yet to Come

Brett — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 06:02:03 +0000

Alright, I know when enough prodding has taken place. SO MANY of you have been asking for an update on our pregnancy and while I’m eager to please I also have my narcissistic tendencies about blogging. I can’t bring myself to create a new post when the previous post hangs lonely without any comments. Yes, I’m so sad and lonely that I wait upon my internet friends to feed me with the tender love of comments. They’re like a sweet cupcake at the end of the day. Many of you demanded a post about my China trip and I graciously complied. Yet there it sits below, commentless, incrementally getting swept towards the blogosphere dustpan. But since the tabloid hoards we call family want nothing more than to feed off the juicy information of our lives with no ambition to return the attention, here you go. (For those of you who have never endured my sense of humor – namely Megan’s friends – I apologize, this is it).

Megan was due to deliver on Labor Day – hah, Labor Day – but the day came and went with nary a contraction. The most she ever felt was a slight twinge in her hip when she tried hefting a 40lb. lawn chair at Lowe’s. A friend called that day and asked if we were in the hospital parking lot driving doughnuts. “Are you kidding?” I replied. “We’re not going to let the looming possibility of a baby delivery in the hardware store run our lives. We’re shopping patio furniture and eatin’ Chevy’s near-Mex tacos. It’s Labor Day!”

Being overdue has made us both anxious but I keep telling her any day she delivers is Labor Day (double hah!). We’ve got an appt. to induce on Friday should she not pop out by then. Every day before I leave work I place sub plans on my desk should the little one decide tonight is her time. BTW – we still don’t have a name but we do have a list. I would say it’s top secret, but it’s already been cracked more than once. Based on the negative reactions of others, we’ve been forced to cross some names off. My hope for Lafawnda is dashed.

Being overdue has also allowed us to experiment upon the wealth of labor triggers people have offered up this past week. Yesterday I put my hand on the belly and gave her a good talking to as her father to quit hiding and face the world. Megan just hiked the steepest street in La Crescenta from bottom to top – a good 3/4 mile with about 720ft.of climbing. The woman’s a trooper. We have yet to try the most bizarre labor trigger: supposedly some restaurant in Hollywood guarantees their eggplant parmesan will send a woman into labor within 24hrs or you can return and get refund of your bill. I’m thinking I’ll get the most expensive item on the menu, then even if it does work I’ll fix the hospital records to show it took 36hrs. If you have any other labor-inducing magic tricks, let us know. We’re willing.

Despite our efforts, no signs of labor yet. As I write this, Megan is upstairs bolting together the frame of a guest bed we just bought off Craigslist. We may not have pioneer blood but we’ve certainly got their mentality – we’re gonna work this baby out.

We will, of course, update all of our faithful bmharvey.com readers when in fact we metamorphose into parents. In the meantime, please feed my egotistical need for an internet audience and leave a comment. Under Obama’s new plan, every word you leave is tax-deductible.

And it’s . . .

Brett — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:14:50 +0000

We just finished another successful ultrasound visit to the doctor. This 5-month ultrasound is mostly so that you can see how all the internal organs are developing. Here’s a shot of the backbone. Once again, Brett used a handy, online photo-doodling tool to add his own interpretations (we were kidding before, it’s not really a tool on the ultrasound machine).

It’s so cool to see these pics live while the fetus is squirming. Hey, I’m a biology dweeb. And of course, we also found out the gender – we’re having a GIRL!

It’s a little hard to tell but the thing that looks like a horseshoe pointing to the right is a view from underneath the fetus’ bottom and legs. Dr. Teng (who seems super proficient with the ultrasound tools) typed the word ‘girl’ right where a boy’s pee-pee would be. You can barely make out two small white buds that are the labia. Then it a rare moment, she turned her head to show off a pink bow on her head (see lower photo). That pretty much made it a slam dunk.

We both took the day off to go to the morning appointment. Afterwards we ate at Marston’s – a fantastic little restaurant in Pasadena where all the students from a nearby culinary school get jobs because it’s known for it’s fantastic food. After some huevos rancheros and macadamia nut pancakes for brunch we sat and digested in a bookstore while looking through baby name books. We’ve got some in mind – but we’re going to keep them a closely-guarded secret until she’s born.

We’re totally excited and can’t wait to meet this next little Harvey girl!

My Lil’ Parasite

Megan — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 21:15:08 +0000

I used to read. I haven’t read in about 4 months. I used to not be a fan of the TV. Now I love its brainlessness. I used to be somewhat of a contributor to my household. Now I am, as my husband calls it, “a dead weight.” I used to be a fan of frequent activity. Now I get winded from bringing the groceries in. I am supposed to write this witty and interesting blog post. But the problem is, I am not witty and interesting. I am just a walking incubator whose brain has been taken over by an alien. I think people are avoiding hanging out with me because I am so uninteresting (and ornery at times), and also because they know I will eat all of their food. My favorite advice is from people who encourage me to rest and eat what I want. In short, I’m not a big fan of being pregnant right now. Do I want a boy or a girl? Doesn’t matter. Do I think it’s a boy or a girl? No clue. Do I have a name for a boy or a girl? No. Well that is all of the intelligence I can eek out of my noodle for now. I ‘m gonna go eat some thin mints.

Megan

It’s a wiggler

Brett — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 02:38:03 +0000

Update 5/1/09 – We found out the gender, it’s a girl. We’ve updated the last photo, tiara added.

Today was Megan’s first ultrasound. We got to see the embryo squirm around like a freshly caught fish trying to jump the net. It showed off it’s dance moves nearly the entire 5minutes the doctor moved the ultrasound stick around. It was fun, except when she tried to capture a 3-D image it came out a little fuzzy. Amazing what these machines are able to show:

This one really shows off the backbone.

OK, so here it looks like an alien. This was a really neat 3D shot the doctor took but it came out a little fuzzy. The leg is actually the left leg crossed over and the thing running down in front of the chest that looks like a churro is the umbilical cord.

So this one is a little hard to interpret unless you know what you’re doing. Luckily Brett’s razor sharp observational skills were atuned to the doctor’s orientation as she pointed out the embryo’s anatomy while capturing this photo. Afterwards, he found a doodling feature on the ultrasound machine and when the doctor left the room for Megan to get dressed, he went to work. Here’s the interpretation:

Excited to meet our new daughter.

Brett & Megan

My Boys Can Swim!

Brett — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 04:58:38 +0000

Yep, Megan is pregnant. We’re excited to be having our first baby. Megan’s about 2 months in and due on September 7th. We’ve got decisions to make, including moving to a place with a second bedroom, getting a car with more than two doors, and how to keep dingos from eating our baby – sorry, one Seinfeld reference is not enough! Until then Megan is experiencing the pleasantries of nausea and Brett is enjoying the sympathy eating. We’ll keep you updated here on bmharvey.com.