Ann vs. Jason

By: Ann

This morning I took my family nurse practitioner boards and passed. I didn’t want to tell many people when the actual date was because I didn’t want people calling me in case I didn’t pass. I’m pretty weird like that.

I’m pretty glad this is out of the way. I’ve spent many months studying and stressing. It has finally paid off. Let me tell you, it has not been fun worrying about boards and worrying about the pregnancy at the same time. I can finally put 100% of my attention and energy towards this pregnancy and not have to worry about stress coming from boards.

For those of you who don’t know, I got a job as a nurse practitioner for School Health Clinics in San Jose. I found out about that back in March (actually the same day I found out that I was pregnant). It’s kind of like those quick clinics you see in Target, CVS, or Walmart that are set up right by the pharmacy. It’s for people who don’t have insurance or who can’t see their doctor because of long waits. What I’m going to be doing is similar, but it will be based in schools or on school campuses. Also, I will function more as a primary care provider for low-income children. This all starts in May. It sounds super fun and I’m pretty excited about it.

That’s all I know for now.

By Jason

The Bay Area is a biker’s dream. There are bike lines through neighborhoods and on many major roads, and we’ve got trails leading up into the hills and mountains and down along the bay.

This is great luck for me because on of the things we left behind in Cleveland was the great bike trail system. Between the Metroparks, the Towpath Trail, and the Bike and Hike Trail, the Greater Cleveland Area has plenty of cycling opportunities.

Last weekend Ann was working so I took a couple of biking trips. The first was to Coyote Hills Regional Park. When you drive over the Dumbarton Bridge from Palo Alto to the East Bay you pass over acres and acres of wetlands, evaporation pools, and the south end of the bay. The Coyote Hills rise abruptly from the wetlands, named for the coyotes that would howl at passing trains. The coyotes are gone, replaced with sheep. More on that below.

This is my bike, a classic Huffy I bought at K-Mart in high school. It’s not in the best shape, but I did get the brakes working again before the trip.

The bay side of the park is pretty scenic, with random rock outcroppings. It also smells a little unpleasant, probably from the evaporation pools at low tide.

After coming around a bend I saw this amazingly deep rock quarry. It’s not particularly wide across, as quarries go, but it goes well below sea level and you can’t see the bottom from the edge.

And they have a flock of sheep.

After I circled the park I climbed to the top of the hill. Here’s the view from the top of the first stone peak.

And here’s the view from the highest hill in the park – you can see where I was in the distance below.

Here’s a small lizard.

Here you can see the Dumbarton Bridge in the distance.

Click here to see even more photos.

On Sunday I biked around Mountain View, starting form our apartment and taking the Stevens Creek Trail down past my office to Shoreline and the Palo Alto Baylands.  I didn’t take any pictures but I biked around for about 3 hours before returning home, exhausted.  I am out of shape but there are plenty of trails left to ride.

By: Ann

Thank you to everyone who sent well wishes and congrats on the pregnancy. I just wanted to give everyone an update as to how we’re doing. Before the ultrasound, I was a little nervous even talking about future events for the baby because I didn’t want to jinx anything. In my irrational mind last night I was thinking of taking another pregnancy test in order to make sure I was still pregnant. Then I read a whole bunch of pregnancy forums online and saw that I wasn’t alone and that other women felt the same exact way before their first ultrasound. So, I stopped myself from performing another pregnancy test and just waited for whatever the doctor was going to tell me about the baby.

The 24 hour nausea and intermittent back pain are still present. Spicy food, bun and cheese (Jamaican treat), and ginger beer (like root beer, but ginger and very strong Jamaican drink) are about the only things that calm my stomach down. The prenatal yoga DVD really helps out a lot, too, for my back pain. My sister-in-law Julie (a chiropractor) examined my back last week and said that most of the tension is in the bones of my lower back and not the actual muscle, which is a good thing. Therefore, there’s little inflammation and just tension. So the yoga and heat compresses will actually do me very well. Thanks Julie!

Upon walking into the room for my ultrasound today, Jason and I saw oven mitts on the stirrups of the examination table. I thought this was highly entertaining for some reason. When Jason saw the oven mitts, he asked jokingly, “Shouldn’t they use sterile gloves to examine you?”

Just before Jason and I had the urge to start pressing buttons on the ultrasound machine, the doctor walked in. We had a nice conversation about the Jamaican ancestry that we just happened to share. Then I told him all of my concerns, and he alleviated my fears (temporarily). We then started the ultrasound. It was wonderful. The baby has little nubbins for legs and arms. Hearing the heartbeat solidified everything for me. I was so happy that Jason was there to experience this with me. I didn’t cry (surprisingly, with my emotions lately), but it was so moving. The heartbeat was about 175 beats per minute. We even saw the little heart pulsating from the chest. You can see a bigger version (click on picture, then click on “all sizes” above picture, then click on “large” if it’s not already showing you the large view) on Jason’s Flickr page. Starting from the right, you can see the head, then the little nubbin arms below the head, then the belly, and then the little nubbin legs. The tailbone is still sticking out in between the legs, but, according to all the development books, it’s in the process of moving back in right now. The first picture is a little more clear.

The crown-rump ratio (head to the bottom of the spine) measured 2.05 cm (0.8 inches), 2.07 cm (0.81 inches), and 2.09 cm (0.82 inches). They take the average of those three numbers to estimate the due date. The doctor told me that I’m measuring about a week bigger than estimated, so my actual due date is November 16th (sorry to steal your thunder, Rachel and Kim).

That’s all I know for now. Sorry, no twins this time…maybe next time…

By: Ann

I just wanted to announce today that I’m pregnant. I’m a little over six weeks along. We’re all doing well here, besides a little nausea and lots of back pain on my part. I got a pregnancy yoga DVD in the mail today that seemed to help out a little bit with my back pain. I think I might have my sister-in-law Julie just take a look and see if everything is in place back there, though…just to be on the safe side.

The due date is November 22 (sorry Newman-Mesners, add birthday number five to the list during November). I’m pretty excited for my first ultrasound which will be next Thursday. It will be then that my fears will be temporarily relieved. Unfortunately, being a nurse, I think I know a little too much of what can go wrong right now.

Jason has been super through everything so far with back rubs and dealing with food cravings. A few days after I told him about the pregnancy, he suggested having a picnic on top of one of the tall hills around Google. That was super fun…a little chilly and windy, but he gets romantic points. I think he’s starting to realize all the limited time we have left with just the two of us. It’s pretty cute.

I know it’s way passed April Fool’s Day for many of you eastern standard and central time people, but I was planning on writing this earlier in the day to mess with people. But my fatigue and back pain got the worst of me today. Happy birthday (not belated, yet, for CA time) to Todd and Linda. Happy future birthday to Dan. And, yes, I really am pregnant.

So, I’m very open to suggestions on what I can do. I have about five different baby books here already telling me what to do and what not to do. I love hearing about pregnancy stories right now. Please email me and let me know if you would like to share. Michelle D., you’re probably the most recent person to have a baby. Any words of wisdom? Reba? Anyone?