Ziggy at 24 weeks

The stills the doctor takes when he's doing sonars are rarely very interesting to laypeople like you and me, and I'm lucky to get one moderately interesting picture to post on here every time we go.

The 24 weeks scan was no different, in that respect; but what was different is that the best picture from this batch is also the first decent 3D (or 4D or whatever it is) picture we have of the baby.

Apparently the baby is huge - in the top 98th percentile of the growth graph at this point. It's making it a little trickier to make decisions about the birth since, as much as I want a natural birth, it might not be practical. It might also go off without a hitch, I just don't do well with so many unknowns. More on that decision making process in a future post, though. For now I'm simply grateful that the baby's healthy.

Ziggy's also very active now, and I am reminded of the little presence every now and again by a kick; and even Steve can feel them by now. It's very strange and very amazing.

Why "Ziggy"?

I quite like giving things nicknames. I also don't much like being just like everyone else. There are a few standard nicknames people tend to give their baby before the birth, like "bump", and that's lovely, but I can't help but be otherwise.

One way in which we're being a bit otherwise is not wanting to know the baby's gender before we meet hir. It makes it even harder to refer to the baby because you can't use "he" or "she"; "he/she" is stupid; "they" is clumsy; the gender neutral pronouns "hir" and "ze" confuse people; "it" is horrible. And none of the names we like are gender neutral.

Early in the pregnancy a term sprung up from somewhere in my weird brain, where it had been lurking since matric (high school senior year) biology. One of the very first stages of a baby, when the two parents' cells have just joined together, is called a zygote. And right then and there a nickname was born: Ziggy the Zygote.

Ziggy is long since not a zygote any more but we've become quite fond of our little Ziggy and even other people in our lives refer to hir as such by now.

So, no, it's not after Ziggy Stardust, and it's not the name we have decided to give the little one once Ziggy makes an appearance in November; but it's our way of referring to the baby and it makes us happy.

And now you know.

Ziggy at 21 weeks

At 21 weeks we had what is called the anatomy scan.

The doc checked for certain markers and indications of known illnesses and syndromes; I'm very grateful to say that all he found was a picture of health. Below I've uploaded the only good picture from the stills he captured.

Ziggy’s a big baby – in the top 70% for growth at that stage (even more at the moment but more about that later). It has made decisions about the birth a little harder to make but at least the baby has turned from the breech position ze was lying in at the time of this scan.

Around this time I also started feeling Ziggy kick, which was amazing.

Since 21 weeks was a while ago now, I promise there'll be more updates soon, including news from the latest (24 week) scan.

Ziggy at 17 weeks

The ultrasound we had at 17 weeks was an amazing experience; we could see the baby so clearly and it looked so much like an actual little person. Sadly the stills the doctor took don't really convey much of that. There are some video clips, too, if I get a chance I'll try to turn them into animated gifs; but for now, here's the best of the 17 week pictures of Ziggy.

Baby's first pictures

WHO WANTS TO SEE MY INSIDES!


Ziggy at 12 and a half weeks.


Look! A brain! And eyesockets! And ribs!

Preggie post

FAIR WARNING: while I'm hardly graphic, if you're very squeamish about women's biology or under 13 years old, you may find one or two things TMI.

The first of many posts about Baby. You'll probably get sick of them. Luckily, that's your problem :)

You may especially get sick of the non-gendered pronouns I'm going to use, but we don't want to ruin the surprise of the baby's sex until the birth, and referring to a person without reference to their gender is not straight forward in silly English (or most languages I know of, actually). So I'll be using:
Ze - he/she
Hir - his/her
Although it may sound foreign to you at first, I find it a little bit less clumsy than "they" and "their" or "his/hers" and "s/he".

We are very, very excited. Steve's wanted children for as long as I've known him, and we'd been officially trying since last year.

Because I have PCOS, we weren't sure how long it would take to conceive, and I was convinced we'd need some sort of medical help.

That is why, when I was indescribably exhausted by the end of every day it didn't occur to me that it may be because of being pregnant. Then, when I was sick a few mornings in a row I thought "I'd better do a pregnancy test to exclude it and not get anyone's hopes up". I'm optimistic like that :)

The first test was positive, although it was an old and expired test, and I was so very weary of getting ahead of myself - especially since PCOS can sometimes cause a hormonal imbalance that confuses the tests. The second test I did was negative, but I don't much like the sound of 50/50 odds. I decided I'd rather go for best two out of three. The third test was positive.

At this point I decided to get a blood test to put all the uncertainty to rest, which is a hated hated hated ritual for me and my undetectable veins. After the first 3 unsuccessful stabs attempts to find a vein, I actually told God "I had better be pregnant after all this!". And hey, I guess that now and then He'll bless us despite our childish, petulant rants :)

It was a further month before I could get an appointment with my gyneacologist for an ultrasound scan to see how far I was (I had no idea, couldn't even guess).

Keeping it a secret from everybody but our immediate family until the 3 month mark was so difficult - I was so happy, and wanted to shout it form the rooftops! The second hardest thing about it was coming up with new and exciting excuses all the time as to why I wasn't drinking or eating brie. In case you're wondering, most people don't say anything until three months because that's the most risk-prone period. If you've made three months, chances are much higher the pregnancy's happy and healthy.

Imagine our amazement and excitement (in hindsight, you probably can't) to learn in the gynie's office that I was 12 and a half weeks along, and to see the baby on the ultrasound and hear hir heartbeat! It was the most amazingly profound moment of my life so far. We could see a little heart beating, a spine, ribs, eye sockets, even a little full bladder!

The doctor says everything is looking good so far, and I've had a very easy pregnancy. Almost no nausea, no heartburn, only a little tiredness. We'll see the doc again in a little under two weeks.

I refer to the baby as Ziggy (as in, Ziggy the Zygote). Ze is long since not a zygote anymore, but it's stuck and I quite like it.

Due date is 15 November.

Have I mentioned I'm deliriously happy?