In the last post I promised some pictures so this post will have said pictures.  I’m not posting all of our ultrasound pictures here, because if I did that then what would be the added benefit of actually knowing us?  I mean, if you could come to our site and get all the pictures you wanted why would you call us up and have dinner with us?  That’s right, this is just a teaser, if you want more pictures of the baby then you have to take us to dinner!  We’re holding the rest of the pictures hostage!  So… um… captions follow each image.  Enjoy (then take us to dinner)!

A pretty good shot that proves she’s not a manatee after all.

She’s an alien!  Not a manatee, an alien!!!  I will ZAP you white bread!

To prove she meant business, she flexed for us.

Well there’s no question about it.  The baby formerly known as “FG” is, in fact, a girl!

The ultrasound went really well and we were able to see more details than we expected.  The baby was very active during the process and was kicking Mel as hard as possible to make sure we knew her opinion on the matter.  We got lots of pictures, which I’m sure I’ll be posting soon, but for now I’ve just posted a picture of Mel just before we found out the news over on Flikr.  If you’re not behind a big-brother style net nanny you’ll be able to see it over on the right side… and if you are behind a big-brother style net nanny get an iPhone or something!

I’ve been trying to get Mel to post an update all weekend, but she’s got more important things to attend to apparently. So I’ll do one instead…

After our doctor’s visit the other day (see the previous post) Mel was sent to a cardiologist. The resulting visit and almost full-day diagnosis (which turned into 48 hours of diagnosis, she’s all wired up to a machine right now) yielded the information that she was suffering from neurocardiogenic syncope. This is good news, in that there shouldn’t be any medication needed and the problem itself can’t cause drastic damage. It’s bad news in that there’s really no solution for it.

The doctor said that her pregnancy had brought on the issues, or at least it had made them bad enough to detect. His suggested treatment? “Eat some salt and over-hydrate.” Why can’t I get prescriptions like that?

We haven’t posted an update in a while, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t had lots going on!

The pregnancy continues to prove to be a cause of nausea for Mel every day.  At least now, however, “Morning Sickness” is a more appropriate term for what she is experiencing.  Her nausea generally occurs in the morning and subsides for the rest of day, so there’s noted improvement there.

Now, however, we’re experiencing a new issue.  Saturday night, Mel was standing in a friend’s kitchen having a conversation when suddenly she feinted.  The spell only lasted 30 seconds or so, but it was definitely new and for us it was cause for concern.  We called the nurses line that night only to be told she likely “stood up to fast.”  Thanks, there, nurses.

Luckily our next doctor’s appointment was today, so we got a chance to talk to our doctor about the situation.  Unluckily, Mel had two more spells in the meantime.

Of course, family and friends all had their thoughts on what the problem could be.  From stress, to fatigue to anemia to blood sugar problems everyone seemed to think of different things that could cause the problem.  After some tests, the doctor confirmed that the problem is definitely not blood sugar or anemia, but is more likely either slight dehydration (she said water wasn’t enough at this point, Mel needed to drink low-calorie electrolyte drinks) or an issue with Mel’s heart or a combination of things.

So, we’ll be off to the cardiologist at the earliest convenience for the doctor.  The good news is that Mel now knows what it feels like when a spell is coming on so we’re able to address it early and keep it from actually happening.  It seems that getting her into a lying down position stops the process and gets her back to a “normal” state.

Beyond that, during the appointment the doctor took a listen to the baby which is now moving wildly and evidently having a blast through all of this.  The heartbeat was strong and the baby was active, so on that front things are looking great.

In other news, the doctor made our next appointment with her for three weeks from today.  So in three we plan to know the sex of the baby!

As of today, according to the doctor we just got home from visiting, Mel is 7 weeks and 5 days along in her pregnancy.  The past couple of weeks have been pretty tough on her, showing us what it’s like to live with the VERY poorly named “morning sickness.”  It should be named “all the time every day all week and all night sickness.”  The doctor told us this was normal, so no worries.  She also gave Mel some medication to hopefully help with it a little bit.

Today’s visit was really interesting because it was our first sonogram.  I had talked to some friends and they had mentioned that the first time they heard the heart beat was the first time they bonded with their baby.  I experienced that too, it was really, really cool.

Of course, with our first sonogram comes the ability to share the first picture of our baby with all our friends and family…

As you can see, our nurse took some creative freedom with the photograph to point out the subject of the photograph more clearly.  When you’re seeing it live, you can actually see the little heart beating which is really cool.

I talked to some other friends, those who don’t have children and haven’t ever seen all the pictures the expectant mother shows the father during each week of the pregnancy.  They all seem to be curious about how the baby looks right now.  So to help those friends out, I’m including a full color picture of what the baby looks like as of today…

As you can see, I took some creative freedom of my own to point out the subject of the photograph more clearly.  When you see these live you don’t normally see the heart beat…

Hopefully one of the pictures helps you to see the new addition to the Garvich family a little more clearly.  If not… Leave a comment and I’ll look for more pictures to help illustrate the point.