He's a Mover and a Shaker!

Our Little Man is a mover and a shaker! These past few weeks, he's really picked up strength and size, enabling me to feel his feet and hands as he bounces around inside my belly. I'm very excited about our upcoming ultrasound - just a few days away and we'll get to spend some time spying on him in there. I'm really curious to see what it looks like when he moves around, since I get to feel it so much and it makes me wonder, "What in the world is going on in there!"

In other news, we got the quad screen results back (checking levels of various substances in my blood stream which indicate whether the baby might have neural tube defects, down syndrome, or another chromosomal abnormality). I am very pleased, grateful, and relieved to report that the results came back "perfect" and the risk of any such disorders is considered as low as possible.

First and Last La Leche League Experience

Today I attended a La Leche League meeting as part of a homework assignment for my birthing class. While I respect the work La Leche has done to educate the community about the benefits of breastfeeding, there was a lot about this meeting I found it difficult to respect. I was hoping to learn something new about breastfeeding, but instead I was pummeled with the politics of public breastfeeding. The women at the meeting shared "battle stories" about breastfeeding in public without covering up, quite proud of the political statement they were making.

It seemed to me, based on the women's words and actions with their children also in attendance, that they had much greater interest in "defying social norms" than nurturing their children. Many admitted to being "lazy parents" who used breastfeeding as distraction when they were too tired to parent their misbehaving children. They acted like modesty was a social cancer! Definitely a far cry from my own beliefs about modesty.

It was also rather disconcerting to witness children, who were the same age I was when I started taking public transportation by myself in San Francisco, climbing into their mother's laps to be breastfed! I also did not appreciate their continual remarks that were completely intolerant of other childrearing practices and their disbelief and disdain for some mothers who are physically unable to breastfeed!

Another observation was that there seemed to be a uniform worn by the regular attenders of this meeting. I counted no less than 90% adeherence to this dress code among the 20 women in attendance: birkenstock brand sandals - the traditional "brown" ones.

I'm glad I sat patiently through the whole meeting and glad I never need to return. I look forward to the possibility of breastfeeding our baby boy, but will do so with modesty and discretion. And I won't be wearing birkenstocks.

Good Check-up

Little Man Tebault gave us a nice strong heartbeat at his check-up today! He has also recently started a new tap dancing routine which I occasionally feel, and greatly enjoy! His legs are getting stronger and bigger, so I can better feel his little kicks. It is a heartwarming and wonderful feeling!

It's a BOY!

We were scheduled to find out baby's gender at the end of May, but I received an advertisement for a private "ultrasound spa" where a person can pay out of pocket for a quick gender detecting ultrasound. Curiosity got the best of us and we decided to splurge on the 15 minute "gender sneek peek", which was surprisingly affordable (about the cost of a dinner out!).

Baby was very active, turning over, waving his arms and long legs. His activity made it pretty easy to catch a glimpse of the "gender detection area". We also got to see that baby had 5 fingers on each hand and 5 toes on each foot. Baby has a cute little button nose, his palate looks healthy (no risk of cleft palate), his spine is properly closed (no sign of spina bifida), and he is definitely a BOY. He left zero doubt of that and was not bashful, turning this way and that, so we could see his parts from all sides. Baby's legs look very long and he was continually crossing them at the ankles to sit "indian style" and then uncrossing them to "pedal the imaginary bicycle". Baby's hands were waving around, playing with the umbilical cord, touching his face, and occassionally, baby sucked his thumb!

It was a delight to see our baby is growing well and to learn that he's a HE! We are so excited to meet our Little Man Tebault in October! I will post a picture of this recent ultrasound on the ultrasound page.