NBHHY!

[rivka]

Just got back from the radiology clinic, where I had a 12-week ultrasound for purely mental-health-related reasons. Going into it, I had a creeping sense of dread that the baby would be dead, that it would have died at SUUSI or somewhere in the intervening weeks, no explanation, just one of those things that happens sometimes.

But the baby is alive. Heartbeat of 170, which according to folklore means that it's going to be another girl. Measuring a little bit ahead of dates: I'm 12 weeks, 0 days according to the calendar, and the various measurements the sonographer took put the baby anywhere from 12 weeks 4 days to 13 weeks 1 day. If she measured the nuchal fold (it wasn't on the prescription, but I'm guessing she did) she didn't share the number with us. She did say that she didn't see anything wrong anywhere. We were able to confirm that the baby has a brain. (Anencephaly is one of my private nightmares.)

I didn't get to see much, because the best pictures seem to have come from the transvaginal ultrasound, and when she did that part she moved the machine down where I couldn't see it. She did turn it towards me briefly to show me the face and one tiny hand, and the visibly beating heart. Michael saw more than I did, having the advantage of not being trapped on a table with a wand in a sensitive place.

But, you know, I didn't need to see a lot. I just needed to know that the baby is alive. Twelve weeks' gestation, and alive. The baby is alive.

We're thinking of calling it the Li'l Niblet. Niblet, short for N-B-H-H-Y.

Comments

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

YAY!

N.

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

nbhhy! that seems okay.

[marith.livejournal.com]

YAY!

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Great! May nothing bad continue to not happen.

[minnaleigh.livejournal.com]

So happy NBHHY! I've been thinking of you and hoping everything was fine. Alive and growing well! Such good news!

[cynthia1960.livejournal.com]

Niblet reminds me of little morsels of canned corn, and it is a cute code name for the project currently in development.

[tammylc.livejournal.com]

Hooray!

[gerisullivan.livejournal.com]

Alive is good. Alive is really, really good.

Not seeing anything wrong anywhere is good, too.

Li'l Niblet -- oh, yes. Niblet is such a friendly way of saying N-B-H-H-Y.

Thank you for the report! I'm so very happy for all of you.

[ruisseau.livejournal.com]

YAY!

The only thing about Niblet is that it's what Spike called Dawn in the last seasons of Buffy. So, I hear it in a bad English accent. :)

[writingortyping.livejournal.com]

Yayy Niblet! Yayyyy RivkaMichaelAlex!

[eeyorerin]

Li'l Niblet is an adorable name and fits nicely with Alex's prenatal name.

Nothing bad has happened yet!

[netpositive.livejournal.com]

Yay for Niblet! Double yay for NBHHY!

[supergee.livejournal.com]

Continued good wishes and prayers.

[ailsaek.livejournal.com]

What he said!

[saoba.livejournal.com]

Excellent news! yay for NBHHY!

[ailbhe]

Yay!

And extra yay for no anencephaly. It's one which horrifies me - the last big Irish abortion rights protest was about a 17-year-old girl, ward of state, whose baby was anencephalic and who was refused a passport to travel to the UK to have an abortion (she could have wiggled through the regulations; instead she made a legal stand and created a useful precedent).

[boxofdelights]

So glad to hear it!

[moeticae.livejournal.com]

I dunno, Rivka: is it really appropriate to pick a foodstuff for a baby nickname? ;)

[ex-serenejo.livejournal.com]

Yay! Nothing bad!

Nibby. I think I shall call zir Nibby. Unless zir parents object.

[pameladean]

*sniff* Niblet, hooray!

P.

[ailbhe]

Sorry, you may want to delete that, I should engage brain before posting. I'm delighted you had a good scan and all is well!

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Lovely news. This ultrasound tool seems pretty handy. It's hard to imagine but only a few decades ago it was not a routine thing. I never had one.

K.

[glinda-w.livejournal.com]

Yay!

[dornbeast.livejournal.com]

This is a good day. Everybody is fine, and nothing bad has happened to anybody I know.

[kate_nepveu]

Yay yay yay yay yay!

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

Hooray for Niblet!

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

Good going, Niblet!

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Oh, come on. You remember how tasty baby toes are.

[redbird]

Yay!

"Niblet" reminds me of an odd bit by They Might Be Giants, but it's not bad weird, just TMBG being their usual weird selves. You could do a lot worse.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I picked up a copy of the original edition of Lennart Nilsson's A Child is Born (http://www.amazon.com/Child-Born-Lennart-Nilsson/dp/0440506913) at a used-book sale. It's got gorgeous photos of prenatal development - I had no idea that kind of photography was available in the 60s.

But the accompanying text is fascinating (and in places, hilarious) in its description of prenatal care. No mention of ultrasound, of course - there's a bit that explains that, late in the pregnancy, your doctor will probably be able to tell if you are carrying twins by palpating your belly.

I was fascinated to see that there is also no mention of pregnancy tests. Of course no over-the-counter tests were available then, but the book suggests that after you've missed two periods in a row you should go to your doctor, who will make the diagnosis of pregnancy with an internal exam.

The book advises that no one knows whether smoking will harm a fetus, and that you should limit alcohol to a couple of drinks with dinner. On the not-mellow end, it very seriously advises that you should wash your genitals with soap and water in the morning, in the evening, and after every time you pee. Just think about how often a pregnant woman pees!

[riarambles.livejournal.com]

Yay!

(Also! I am a whole two days less pregnant than you, which is both exciting and coincidental. It's nice to be pregnant at the same time as someone else--last time I was pregnant there were 3 other pregnant people on my friends list--but having pretty much the same due date is even cooler.)

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

Go Niblet Go!

Yay for brains and heartbeats and all those things!

Continuing cheers for NBHHY!

[iamjw.livejournal.com]

Yay!!

Man, I didn't even know I was holding that breath. Glad to know that NBHHY.

[jerusha.livejournal.com]

What wonderful news!

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

I'm very happy for you and little NBHHY! (And the rest of the family, of course.) Are you familiar with these? http://www.scharffenberger.com/prodinfo.asp?number=3+OZ+NIBBY
You'd have to eat them on behalf of your child.

[zanawake.livejournal.com]

Yay! *Sends good wishes*

[richtermom.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad to hear good news!!!

When I had my 12 week checkup, they decided to do the doppler heartbeat finder and -- wait for it -- THEY COULDN'T FIND THE DAMN HEARTBEAT. I was frantic, which from the outside looks catatonic. It was a friday, and the PA who was assigned to me was like, "Oh well, we'll try again next time!"

So all weekend I rabidly googled and dug through Real Books On Paper for anything I could find, from worst case to best case, and my favorite part was about how 11 weeks is about the earliest, and many women aren't successful until around week 13-14 due to baby position, activity, or -- my fav -- bodyfat. I am not a sleek and lithe chicky, I am a mountain of mom, and before I started K, i've always had Childbearing Hips.

So Monday morning the office called me back in when an opening popped up and apparently the doc tutored the PA, and eventually, yes, there it was, the syncopated percussion that was K's heartbeat. I finally breathed after 3 full days.

(turns out I completely forgot about a civil service job exam I was supposed to be taking exactly during that appointment. Hrm.)

The one time I had a transvag US was to check for possible ovarian cysts or cysts or fibroids on the ol' uterus. It pretty much looks like ET's finger.

[ratphooey.livejournal.com]

Yay, Niblet!

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

Great news!

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Or possibly the opposite. :)

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Well that all sounds really reassuring. Good.

(Little hand! Little heart! Oh they're so sweet at that age! Quiet, too.)

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I can't find anything that identifies the year of your original edition, but isn't it a comfort to know that even with what sounds like incredibly primitive care and advice, most mom and most babies did so well?

Pity they don't explain "the rabbit died" though.

K.

[tendyl.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad that everything is good so far. And I'm amused by the nickname.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Hurray for tiny feet and tiny hands and tiny, strong hearts and braaaaaaains!!!

I'm not usually a big follower-of-people's-pregnancies, but I'm finding myself as happy as can be reading about yours, and now another friend's (posted behind a friendslock, so I won't "out" her). When people really want to be parents, and are so well-suited for it, it's just a joy to behold.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

Yay for Nibblet. Now with extra heart and brains! I'm so glad that your ultra-sound went so well. Nibblet is an adorable nickname.

[fairoriana.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad to hear that! May all continue to go well with you and little Niblet!

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Oh, hurray. Hurray hurray.

Are you feeling any more comfortable about the whole thing yet? (You're more than entitled to say no. You've got a lasting pain that radiates fear before it.)

The baby is alive, alive, alive.

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's easy.

Before chemical tests, you could verify pregnancy by injecting your urine into a rabbit. They then sacrificed the rabbit and checked its ovaries to see if had enlarged, responding to pregnancy hormones.

In fact, the rabbit *always* died; the folklore phrase is misleading.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_Test