Healthy baby
We got the results back from the Triple Marker Test (the one that helps detect certain birth defects), and they were normal.
The doctor also interpreted the ultrasound from the ultrasound tech, and said everything is normal.
My pregnancy pee was also normal.
We are very thankful & feel lucky.

The big 20-week ultrasound
You can probably deduce from Jerry's posting yesterday the gender of our baby.

The ultrasound technician had a creative way of telling us. It wasn't the romantic presentation of our baby's gender that I had hoped for, exactly. (i.e., "Congratulations! It's a boy!") He said, "There's the brain and the two hemispheres in the brain... there's the heartbeat... and there's the tallywhacker." Tallywhacker? As in... penis? Are you telling me my baby has a penis? And he said yes. To make sure I understood what that meant, I clarified, It's a boy? He then looked at me with a knowing glance.

So it's a boy! I have been certain for 20 weeks that this was a girl. After all, the baby I babysat as a pre-teen was a girl, my nieces who I watched and whose diapers I changed were both girls... I am a girl... so it seemed I would have a girl. [although I have a nephew, he was born when I was in college, and I didn't have the pleasure of changing his diapers as often as the nieces.] So I just never pictured a boy. Does this mean I have to play in the mud?

My friends at work assured me that regardless of the gender, I will definitely be playing in the mud and getting dirty. That made me feel a little better, I think.

I am thrilled. I am so glad we found out the gender because I feel like I can picture him more. I picture our baby in a little blue cap and some overalls. I'm starting to feel bonded with him already...

Also, everything on the ultrasound looked normal. 10 fingers, 10 toes, no club feet, no cleft lip, he looked great. He also had fluids in the stomach and bladder, which means he is able to swallow and digest. We also saw the umbilical cord and the tech verified that there were at least 3 veins in the cord, which is what they hope for.

He moved around A LOT. It seemed like throughout the whole ultrasound (40 minutes or so,) he was moving his arms. I haven't felt any of that yet, but he's active.

**photos coming soon**

Tallywhacker!!!

Going North
So we drove up to Seattle last weekend in our 1992 Pontiac Grand Am and everything was perfect... the weather was amazing for a February day in the northwest, the sky was blue and full of possibilities, we had all of our best head-nodding CDs and we were giddy to be away from work. In the backseat sat a lunchbox full of fresh food, stretched out in front of us were miles of winding blacktop waiting to be conquered, and scurrying everywhere inside the car were ants. Everywhere ants. They crawled across the dashboard (smoosh), bustled up my arm (shriek/smoosh), and mounted a fullscale offensive on our lunch box and we couldn't figure out how they managed to catch a ride. They aren't in our apartment, they weren't inside the car before the trip, we didn't have ants in our pants... where did they come from? Who ever heard of ants in a car anyway? Maybe they wanted to move to Seattle? [They could have at least pitched in on the gas.] We had a relaxing 14-hour drive smooching and smooshing and shrieking and nodding to the music and on the second day we explored our old city.

We visited our favorite restaurants, walked through Pike Place market, ate meals with dear friends, pointed out corners and bars and bus stops where memories lived and everything was great, totally hunky until the car gave up the ghost.

After parking for dinner, I stepped out of the car to find a pool of green car blood, a frothy mixture of coolant and water, gushing out from under the engine. It appeared the car had just let it go after we parked. A hint of steam emerged from under the hood. A tantrum quickly formed under my skin, but I squashed it (shriek/smoosh) even though I knew our much-anticipated Thai dinner with friends would be delayed and we would have to spend money we didn't want to spend. These things happen and we just had to deal with it.

After calling Jerry's friend Sean to rescue us, the three of us lifted the hood to explore the car's guts, gaze knowingly and murmur, "Eyup." Instead, we were instantly dazzled by hundreds of ants dancing on the rusty old parts and mingling in the sweet green car blood in a lusty miniature bacchanal. Their little foot pads were probably burning and little did they know they would soon die, but who cares? Coolant is tasty! It was the only thing about the whole experience that made me giggle... at least the ants would get what they deserved.

And in the future, if I am taking a long road trip and there are ants in the car, I'll remember to check under the hood!

To be continued...

We find out the gender on Wednesday!!!!!!

We made it back from Seattle just fine. Pictures and a total wrap-up of our trip coming soon. Huge thanks goes out to Sean for helping us so much when our car broke down and to my dad for answering his phone a hundred times when I kept calling. It was really great to see our friends again. We didn't realize how much we missed you all.

So my mom just emailed with tons of family names. This should be of special interest to Carol and Gene who've been patiently accepting my answers of "I dunno" for years whenever the topic of family history comes up.

Father
David Charles Stogsdill
Mother
Eula Elaine King
Grandmothers
Vera Louise Stogsdill (Washam)
Betty Eula Tippens
Grandfather
Calvin Charles Stogsdill
Thomas Alvie King
Great Grandmothers
Ella King (Cronin)
Eula Mae Tippens (Truelove)
Great Grandfathers
Marvin King
Duel Homer Tippens

"I have Great Aunts (Twins) named Ovella and Arella. So, what about Calvin Marvin Alvie Stogsdill? Or Ella Eula Vera Stogsdill? Lots of V's and A's!! Just kidding!! Seriously, Ella was my paternal grandmother's name. Very pretty. And close to Elaine. Love the web site. See you in a few months!!"

Calvin was my paternal grandfather's name. Calvin Charles Stogsdill. He died when I was 15 and I didn't know him very well, but by all accounts he was a good man. He was career army and I remember he had a very gravelly voice. My Uncle Jim has his voice. Calvin could be a fine choice, especially if our boy has blond hair and a mischievious look about him from the git.

Update on Triple Marker Test

It's been almost two weeks since I gave blood for the Triple Marker Test. That's the test that looks for birth defects such as Down syndrome and spina bifida. We haven't received any phone calls from the HMO yet! That's a good sign. (No news is good news in HMO world, remember?) One lab technician said they would call within THREE days if there was any bad news, but I've heard elsewhere that it takes 2 weeks to run all the tests.

So far, so good...

Later that same day....

The more I think about it, I really like Ella.
Ella Stogsdill.
Ella Price Stogsdill.
Does it go?

That's an awful lot of L's.
But it's such a lovely name...

Thoughts on names...
Ok, Greek mythology is cool and all, but I say: Vote No on Io!

Here are some names I like: Amelia (even though it has the word "meal" in it, and makes me kinda hungry), Chloe (cute), Ella (though it doesn't go with "Stogsdill"... too many L's,) Leah (same problem as previous), Eve or Ava (though Jerry said No), Zoe (though I wish grandma-to-be liked it more). Boy names: Barnaby (just kidding!), Calvin (but would we have to buy him a pet tiger?), Cooper (if I could get that darn Volkswagen commercial out of my head), Cameron (if I could get Ferris Beuler's hypochondriac friend out of my head), Isaac (I LOVE Isaac, but fear "Isaac Stogsdill" is too much of a mouthful), Evan (I love it! No reservations! It goes with Stogsdill! And who cares if it's the first name of Joe Millionaire, not that I watch the show...).

For those that didn't know, we ruled out the lovely name Hannah because it is in the Top 10 most popular names. I'm not sure that we've ruled out Nicholas yet, but it might also be too common.

So that's it. I say Zoe or Evan are in the running.

I've secretly loved the name Io for a little girl. I think it is a beautiful name for Jupiter's moon and I always thought that naming a child after a celestial body would help them to look skyward more often and maybe instill a sense of wonder and awe. But most things in the sky are named after Greek and Roman mythology, a connection I honostly didn't make with Io until tonight when I looked up the story of Io.

Such a sad tale (it just dawned on me that Bill and Hillary make a great Zeus and Hera) and one that I find very hard to draw any meaning.

Basically Zeus gets a little twinkle for Io so he conives her father into disowning her and driving her out of the village (a dating technique not used much anymore). Hera sees that Zeus is about to get a little what-what and turns Io into a cow (must resist Lewinski reference). Io then wanders for many years as a cow until she reaches Egypt where Zeus touches her and she regains her youth and beauty.

Whatever.

I'm also very fond of the name Antigone...

Here's a neat name list from Parenting.com's The Baby Namer. Its a collection titled Fitting In/Standing Out. Names that are ecclectic, but still accessible. My fave girl name (Zoe) is not on this list (its on the Yuppie list), but Chloe is here and a boys name that I REALLY like... Cooper. He could be our little Mini Cooper. Seriously, I really like that name.

Little Zoe?
Little Cooper?

Neither have been sanctioned by Miss Andrea. These are solely my choices. Someday our little one will read this and breath a sigh of relief....

Sean sent me this link to the American Family Immigration History Center at Ellis Island. Very cool. He was able to find his grandfather. "I gave them an email address and I got to see the the original ship manifest (the pennsylvania, where it was made) when they came in (1908) and his signature on the bottom of the manifest plus a photo of the ship." How cool is that?

Stogsdill didn't produce a match and Price produced over 3500.

This is a very interesting story about B12 deficiencies in babies of mothers who practice a vegan diet.

Andrea is a vegetarian who eats fish since a few months before we got pregnant. Her diet is very balanced, she takes her vitamins, and her iron is fine. No worries.