The MY baby A Matt and Yvonne production Due in a hospital near us July 2002 The MY baby working out at only 9 weeks! Based on an actual ultrasound image. However the animation is maybe perhaps just a tinny little bit of our imagination:-) Kyla’s Home Page Pregnancy Journal | Birth Journal | First Days Home And baby makes three... Preface/prebaby — August 2001 Matt: Yvonne and I both did pretty well at Pikes Peak this year with me pulling off the double and Yvonne getting her first top 10. However we had already been talking about bigger and better (or perhaps smaller and cuter) and decided that after the race we would start a family. What follows is a journal of our adventure. Yvonne: Truth of the matter is there is really no good time to be out of commission for 9 months if you are a runner. But since my “biological clock is ticking” pretty loud I decided that at age 37 it’s now or never. I can always make a challenge out of this like training for the Leadville 100 miler to help me get back in shape. Yeah! That’s a great one: if I get pregnant I will train for Leadville 2003. If I don’t get pregnant I will try to break 3 hours for the marathon at Chicago in 2002. Birds and the Bees — September thru November 18th Matt: OK, without going into too many details (if details are needed go here) Yvonne stopped taking birth control pills right after Pikes Peak which was August 19th. We heard that it sometimes takes a while for one’s hormones to reset after having been on the pill but that did not stop us from giving it a go during the crucial week in September. Timing is everything because there is only a 24 hour period when the ovum can be fertilized. At any rate, come “that time of the month” in October Yvonne did not have her “that time of the month.” Heck, that was almost too easy:-) It was! Turns out Yvonne got confused on her schedule and “that time of the month” came one week later. She offered up some explanation of wheels and changing pill colors so she didn’t really keep track while on the pill. I guess that means when you are on the pill you just “go with the flow.” Oh, sorry — that was bad! This also meant that we had put our “focus” on the wrong week in September anyway but I am not one to complain;-) In October we got our act together and sure enough in November she missed the real “that time of the month.” This time around I was somewhat skeptical but one of those early pregnancy tests (EPT) on November 18th confirmed we were pregnant and we were happy as two peas in a pod. Or make that three:-) Yvonne: Okay, it is not rocket science but you do get used to that little “wheel” counting for you and at that point all I remember by heart is that “that time of the month” always starts on a Saturday. I guess I was a little anxious to be pregnant (what’s wrong with me? First I am trying to fit this whole thing into my running schedule and then the heck with the running, I want to get pregnant!) and I miscalculated the week and told Matt that I “might” be pregnant. Okay, okay. The “cry wolf” phenomenon. When I DID feel pregnant (indicated mainly by the fact that my normal easy 7 mile run on Santa Fe trail started feeling like a double on Pikes Peak), Matt gave me ZERO credit. He said he would only believe it if he saw the “stick” — meaning a positive pregnancy test — since I had already burst his bubble the month before! Fair enough. I bought a “stick” although it took forever to pick one. Who would have thought there were 38 different brands of pregnancy tests? I did the test on a Sunday morning and the 2 big red lines stood out in a few seconds like 2 sore thumbs! 20 years ago that sight would have given me a heart attack;-) Now, it was very exciting!!! A little “Ooops” — November 20th — 5 weeks Matt: While the excitement never ended the happiness lasted about two days! While on a run I spilled the beans to a friend who’s wife is also pregnant but at this point they had told very few. I was honored that he told me about a week ago so it was neat to now share my two-day old news — makes for great running talk. He explained that one of the reasons they don’t spread the word too fast is because so much can go wrong the first couple of months. How prophetic. We walk in the door and he is saying congratulations to Yvonne who is obviously fighting to hold back what had once been a strong flow of tears. My friend handled it like a friend should — shared a past experience to let us know that we where not alone on this odyssey and quietly left us alone. After some time, a hug and some words, Yvonne shows me what has happened. Almost immediately I am not convinced that she has had a miscarriage and to me it looks like a “little clot” (my exact words). Yvonne on the other hand has been spending hours pouring over baby books and has managed to convince herself that it looks exactly like one of the little embryos pictured. At any rate the “specimen,” as we call it so we don’t feel too bad, gets dropped off at the doctors for tests on the way to a blood test. We don’t actually get to see the doctor because our appointment is set for tomorrow anyway. In the meantime I had a 2-day streak going and was not about to break it so later that night I talked to Yvonne’s belly even though there was a chance nothing was there. I couldn’t wait to get this appointment over with — either way. The not knowing is what sucks. Yvonne: Things that have never come out of you before should not come out of you at the beginning of your first pregnancy. And that “thing” was not expected nor wanted and it was not “little!” It was huge — the size of a nickel! And it’s shape definitely did not help things at all! I have no way to describe the feeling you get when you stare at a good sized red clump and simply because of the shape (darn books) believe you have miscarried. I like to think that I can take bad news pretty good and that I am good at rationalizing things and moving on, but this was hard to swallow. If I was not starring at it I would not have believed it. To make a long story short, a fair amount of crying and self blaming went on by the time Matt got back from his run and I was trying to act normal to break the news to him gently. I thought he was going to be so mad. I should have known better because he is too cool headed to react like that but I was expecting the worst and I was not going to defend myself because indeed I thought I was guilty. I had no idea how I made the little embryo get expelled like that but I knew somehow I did it. It turns out he said “Ooops — I guess we will have to try again — not to worry — don’t blame yourself — that’s silly — it’s probably my fault — didn’t you read in the books where it says most of the time a miscarriage is the swimmer’s fault?” Swimmers is what we had taken to calling sperm. I have to admit that I got to know Matt a little better at that moment:-) Our first trip to the doctor — November 21st — 5.5 weeks Matt: Without dragging it out we are still pregnant — for the moment at least. An ultrasound clearly shows a little membrane sac but it is just too early to be certain what is going on. Spots of blood or clots although not normal sometimes happens when the embryo implants into the uterus. On the other hand, we were also given the “it could be a ‘missed miss carriage’ and a sign that we are about to miscarry” speech. The doctor orders a series of blood tests to compare with the one Yvonne took yesterday where she scored a 31,000 and we are to return one week later. The number by itself does not say a whole lot but if the number goes up we are still pregnant and if it goes down we try again. We were also placed on “pelvic rest,” which in laymen’s terms means “no bed fun:-(” Other than that I went home somewhat relieved. Whatever was in there is still in there and it is just a matter of if it is going to stay in there. The week goes by VERY slowly. We got down to the business of having one of the first heated debates of our marriage; whether or not Yvonne is going to stop drinking Coke for 9 months. Ok, lets just say we have had a rather uneventful marriage as far as disagreements go. We survive this one just fine with no threats of divorce so the baby will have two parents when it is born;-) Yvonne: First of all it is DIET PEPSI buddy! And may I say that it is VERY hard to give up and all the Diet Pepsi drinkers out there will be on MY side! As for myself, I left the doctor’s office with mixed emotions. If nothing else, the nurse’s faces were pretty much giving it away:-( However even though there was a chance that it was indeed a miscarriage, there was still something inside me. Therefore, what I dropped off yesterday in a jar might have been a simple intrusive blood clot after all. All week long I was still feeling VERY pregnant though: the horrible nausea that equated only to the stomach flu I had earlier this year and the tiredness I never felt before. Matt kept saying I was still smelling funny so there was some (secret) hope of still being pregnant. I knew my score of 31,000 in the blood test department was going to be hard to beat, but if it could just go up a thousand or so it would be great. Pleeeeeease! A friend told me that in the first 3 months of pregnancy that “number” pretty much doubles every week, but I would be glad if it was just a little higher than my previous mark... 2nd trip to the doctor — November 27th — 6.5 weeks Matt: Our visit starts out on a bummer note when the doctor’s assistant says, “It looks like your numbers have gone down to 8,100.” My heart, or rather chest, was hit with a surge of adrenalin. Yvonne somehow says “Oh, OK.” Before I can say anything the assistant says, “Oh, I’m so sorry, I put the decimal place in the wrong spot, it is 81,000!” Ok, all is forgiven but that seems like the sort of thing you check before you open the door to tell two people if they are still pregnant or not. The doctor then comes in and all is forgotten because this women is just awesome. The more she talks the more I smile. As luck would have it they are testing a new ultrasound device so off we go. Right there in front of us we see our child’s first heartbeats! I still can’t stop smiling. Of course we ask tons of questions but the main point is we are back on track. Pictured is a scan of the ultrasound of our little embryo. By measuring the CRL (Crown Rump Length) the doctor says our baby is at 6 weeks — right on schedule. Below I enlarged a portion of it and scanned in some photos from a book, A Child is Born, to show what is going on at this time. I should say that there are two dates that get used when talking about a pregnancy. The common one which is the one we are using is the # of weeks since the start of the last “that time of the month” which for us was October 13th. Of course it is impossible to get pregnant at that time and so you end up with books showing pictures with captions like “at 6 weeks the 4 week old embryo” or “4 weeks since conception” etc. trying to account for the approximately 2 week difference. After a while the books then use the more common number as well but in those first weeks obviously 2 weeks can make a big difference. Point is I think I got the right pictures by editing and morphing several different photos that were taken before and after where we are. Oh, by the way, the doctor told us that on her first pregnancy she cut out all soft drinks as well:-) Oh, by the way part 2, it was a blood clot:-) Yvonne: Oh-hooo! I got an 81,000!!!!!!! That was only after the nurse got her higher math together, but it was still an 81,000! A minor mistake on her part, but one that could easily have caused a heart attack on a father-to-be. Since I was expecting the worst (darn hereditary pessimism...), I did not get nearly as shocked as Matt did. He looked as if he was about to be hit by a train — sort of that “deer caught in the headlights” look! We later talked to the doctor and she too seemed bothered by the nurse’s mistake. However the good news was so good that we quickly forgot about it and moved on to the room where a new ultrasound machine was going to be demonstrated — and I was going to be the demo subject. It was pretty exciting. The only apprehension on my part was that I was about to get naked in front of a little crowd of doctors and technicians! It was fine after all since there was only one technician present besides my doctor and Matt and the technician was only interested in the ultrasound’s features and not mine. We got our first baby picture for what promises to be a large collection! It was quite impressive to see another heart beating inside me. Somehow it doesn’t sound possible... Oh, by the way part 3, who is still on “pelvic rest,” Mr. Pepsi police???? The ongoing name game Matt: Even though it is still early in the pregnancy (about 7 weeks) we have decided that pregnancy is not a disease and we want to share our excitement. What that means is you are experiencing this with us and looking back I guess some of that got a tad bit graphic. In a way however talking about it and sharing the experience made it easier to handle. We hope that from here on out all goes well but if something goes wrong it is just a million years of evolution doing a job. A miscarriage is just a sign (a rather common one with 10% of known pregnancies ending in miscarriage and another 20-40% of them ending before the mother even knows she is pregnant) that something was not working and it was best not to continue anyway. If it still happens we will start over but by gosh right now this is a time to be happy! With that we get back to the fun task of picking out names. We have batted around a few. I liked Shaw for a boy or a girl but Yvonne nixed that one but said it would work for a middle name. Now Yvonne has a baby name book and has written down a zillion names. She reads them off and together we narrow the list back down to the names we have been using — one of which we have had since the first couple of days. It’s amazing how many times we refer to our little embryo by name during the day — both names that is. Yvonne: I voted “NO” for Shaw as a first name simply because it means “tea” in Portuguese, my native language, and I could not envision calling my son or daughter “tea” for the rest of my life! I felt Matt's approach for the name selection was quite unique. I would lay in bed and skim through a book of over 35,000 names and narrow it down to around 100 boy’s and girl’s names. I would then read my list out loud where on the first pass he, while soaking in the bathtub, would immediately nuke any name that reminded him of anyone — good or bad. On the second pass, which took place on the girl’s names only, I think he eliminated the names of girls that he slept with. However I still do not understand how the first pass did not catch those but I did not dwell on it! After several soaks over many days we successfully got the list down to a few dozen names where he would then practice sentences using the names. For example: “Andrew, quit biting your sister!” or “It’s time to do your homework Rachel.” After all that we have decided on Kyla if it’s a girl and Luke if it’s a boy. So every night he talks to Luke/Kyla. As for sharing the news, it was almost impossible not to. As they say, “A secret is something you tell one person at a time” and so it went, one person here, one person there. But when confronted by my running club it became impossible to answer some of the questions like; “How come you did not run the whole loop?” or “Are you hurt?” and “Is your stress fracture back?” without lying so I gave up! So slowly more and more people know about our baby. My favorite thing to share is the due date: July 20th, which is Matt’s birthday! 3rd trip to the doctor — December 14th — 9 weeks Matt: Because it is still somewhat early the doctor could only intermittently hear the sound of the heartbeat with a Doppler device. This meant another ultrasound and, YES, another picture for the scrapbook!!! All is looking great and now we can see little arms and little legs and that heart — oh what a heart! Man this is exciting — I love it! Thank you Yvonne:-) Unlike the running baby at the top of the page the scan to the right is an unedited ultrasound picture except the heartbeat has been animated to simulate what we saw at the doctor’s office. Yvonne: We know for a fact now that it has at least one leg and one arm since it was sideways, but the heartbeat was once again the big thrill. The whole embryo looks a little more human and even the proportions are starting to resemble a descendant of our species instead of looking like an alien! The nausea is better but the tiredness is still there. I resumed walking on the treadmill after a week off resting from a minor cold. I try to make myself do it because I feel so tired all the time that it is easier to just drive home and go to bed. But I feel better after some exercise. Besides, I am trying not to gain too much weight too fast. I have already gained 3 pounds since the first doctor’s visit. “They” say you should gain 3 to 4 pounds in the first trimester. However, the end of the first trimester is still 3 weeks away and I don’t want to become the Pillsbury Dough Girl! First milestone — December 21st — 10 weeks Matt: Today marks 10 weeks into our pregnancy and that means our little embryo has become a fetus! This is important in that everything that is in big people has already been formed. If all has gone well up to here, the risks of serious malformations are now very small and the chances of miscarriage are also greatly reduced. Of course to us it means we are 1/4 of the way there — that wasn’t so bad! Yvonne: No, it wasn’t so bad — so I’ll let you have the next one! Kidding. It really hasn’t been so bad. It has been like having this really long, long cold where you feel a little weird every day and definitely not at your best, but you know exactly when it will pass:-) All in all I think I am feeling a tiny little bit of extra energy trying to show up. Now that we actually have a “fetus” as opposed to an embryo, I feel more confident taking it for a jog. Even though it has been 10 weeks it is still hard not to think about it every day! Friday night we did the mandatory (not really — we just have fun doing it) “let’s see how it is supposed to look like right now” lookup. Can’t wait for 11 weeks since I already took a peak at the book:-)

The MY baby takes a test — January 4th — 12 weeks Matt: The last two weeks were kind of fun. Luke or Kyla and I have had many conversations but so far they have been rather one sided. Yvonne has gotten in some really good runs and did not complain about nausea near as much. However there has been more complaints (from her) revolving around the three B’s — Butt, Belly, and Boobs. Make that the 4 B’s — BIG! She walks into the room stark naked and says things like, “my boobs are about to explode” butt (sic;-) enough of that! The ultrasound was again so cool I can’t even put it into words. Turns out that little animation at the top of the page is not too far off. The whole time the nurse was trying to take measurements arms were flying and legs were kicking. It was incredible! At one point right when an important measurement was about to be taken the MY baby turned it’s back to us. It was so funny! At any rate, all the measurements came out fine. Of course when it came time to record the video the MY baby seemed to take a nap. However the nurse jiggled the transducer and sure enough kick, wiggle, wiggle, turn the MY baby will soon be on DVD:-) Yvonne: Phew!!!!!! I can’t believe we reached 12 weeks. It felt more like 12 years! The nausea is almost all gone but is being promptly replaced by a vicious appetite:-) I started watching the amount of food I eat and try not to get carried away using the pregnancy as an excuse to overeat. The plan is obviously NOT to starve the baby, but make the mom look somewhat human when this is all said and done! I feel like a cow — no exaggeration and the funny part is that I did not even gain the “big” weight yet. My breasts — can I talk about my breasts here? Just checking — they are HUGE! Melons come to mind. I look for tight bras to run in which is not hard given that everything I currently own is tight. I think I will go shopping for more comfortable underwear tomorrow… I can still fit in most of the current ones, but high school days come to mind when I try to put them on and it feels like trying to squeeze into a pair of jeans 2 sizes below your size (girls, remember that!) Today I actually had to put a pair back:-( Luke or Kyla seem to be doing fine and passed the first big test. I am sure that a future boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife will pay big money to see the video we got — it is so cute!!! 4th trip to the doctor — January 15th — 13.5 weeks Matt: If pregnancy were a race we would call this “no baby’s land.” A lot of the initial anxiety and chaos has been left behind and replaced by the realization that we have a long way to go! In fact things have pretty much gotten back to normal around here. Well we did have a trip to the running store to get some XXXL jogbras which was the highlight of my week for sure;-) Otherwise even the doctor’s visit lacked it usual excitement as we only got to hear the heartbeat and we didn’t get any more photos for our collection. Of course this just means everything is right on schedule so I am not really complaining. We did reach another milestone about a week ago in that for the first time ever Yvonne weighed more than me:-) Of course that lasted about a day. But a couple of days later it was safe to say the game is over and the fat, um, make that the pregnant lady is singing. Yvonne: Okay skinny boy, so I passed you in weight. Those that know Matt know that this is not an incredibly hard thing to do :-) I did “used to” be a good 10 pounds lighter than him though… The worst part about the weight competition (which by the way was NOT my idea) is that I knew I was going to eventually loose. But I have to admit that my eating got a little wild this past month and I caved in sooner than anticipated. But as you know, Matt loves to win, it’s in his blood, and that was enough to make his day and produce a little dance by the scale butt naked ala Michael Jackson! Oh — did I mention that the first thing out of his mouth when the doctor made a funny face looking at my weight chart (I gained 4 pounds in one month alone:-P !!) was “So that’s where the ice-cream went!” Thanks Pal! Hearing the heart beat was actually pretty neat. It goes so fast — 162 beats per minute! That is almost my non pregnant Sunday long run pace. So this little guy/gal is working hard! I think it should definitely get a “*” from now on... As for the bras let me tell you that there are few things that come to mind better than underwear that fits:-) Two days before the bra shop I went to get medium panties. Ohhhhh, what a difference it made and when I paired that with the right size bra I was in heaven!!! No more contortionism necessary to get those super tight bras off! My hope is that I will stop at the XL bra and the large panties, but I imagine I have no control over it, well, sort of:-P The MY baby’s 2nd test — February 8th — 17 weeks Matt: Amniocentesis day! This is the big daddy of tests. Although I was there I can’t comment on how it went since the needle was not in me. At one point I got up to hold Yvonne’s hand but the doctor kindly asked me to sit down. Seems that some dads pass out and they don’t want any cracked skulls on their hands. Before the big poke however the MY baby went trough a battery of measurements via ultrasound. My, how we have grown! As this scan shows we are looking downright human in there. Also I won’t have to call the MY baby two names every time I talk to it because we found out the answer to that little question. However since Yvonne was the one getting stuck I will let her have the pleasure of sharing the news. At any rate, all measurements came back normal and we will get the results of the amnio in 8-10 days. Yvonne: Phew! I am glad we are over the amnio hump. It was not exactly painless, but it wasn’t nearly as painful as I imagined it. I got 3 pokes, 2 from the anesthetic and 1 from the real needle. The whole thing was done in about 3 or 4 minutes and after I got a “beep-beep” band-aid on my “owy” we were presented with 2 little tubes of yellowish liquid. I confirmed that the name on the tubes was mine and off they went to the lab. The exciting part though was the ultrasound done before the test. They turned the baby upside down (so to speak) measuring every little piece of its body and looking for anything suspicious. There seems to be quite a few things that can go wrong and still take a baby this far into the pregnancy, but thankfully nothing was found — and it wasn’t for lack of searching!! For example, they spent almost 5 minutes on the spine alone, checking every set of 2 or 3 vertebras to make sure they looked right and did not have a gap. Kyla passed this part of the test and gave us a thumbs up on one of the ultrasound views:-) You read it right, no more Luke/Kyla — for now on (95% sure anyway) it is Kyla only!! Luke will have to wait for his turn! Amnio test results — February 18th — 18.5 weeks Matt: Right on schedule we got the call for the amniocentesis results. Actually I thought we would find out tomorrow since today was a holiday for some. We also had another doctor’s appointment (our 5th) last Tuesday but since the amnio results were not in it was rather uneventful. However it is getting much easier to listen to Kyla’s heartbeat. At any rate, with the amnio results we are now 100% sure that Kyla is a girl and all the other things that an amnio tests for came out fine:-) This was a big hurdle for us and we often thought about keeping the pregnancy quiet until this point simply because if the amnio showed anything really bad we would be starting over. However as you can see by the length of this page we did not think that way very often. Now we just keep on keeping on... Yvonne: This last doctor’s visit was pretty much routine. They warned me that from the next visit on we will be doing urine tests. How exciting… What is actually exciting is that with the result of the amnio we can finally be 100% sure that we are calling our baby by the right name! It was also such a relief to know that everything looks fine. We are almost at 19 complete weeks which means Kyla is only 6 inches (CRL) or so, but is already putting us thru such a stress! I guess these tests are really a parenthood test!! In all honesty, the anxiety and sort of stress only came AFTER we took the test! On a different topic, it’s hard to keep away from the tiny socks, tiny undershirts and everything else baby related which is all… well… so TINY and cute. I got a couple of baby undershirts the other day and showed them to Matt thinking that he was going to make fun of me for buying things this early, but instead he took it off my hands and said: “Let’s practice.” He then rocked the little shirt singing to it and then flipped it over his shoulder for the “burp” maneuver. It was hilarious, but I guess you had to be there:-) One other event that I believe took place (I can’t be 100% sure) is that I felt her move last Friday. It felt like I read — a fish swimming inside of me. I had not eaten for a couple of hours and had no gas (oops — sorry to share) so that had to be a movement — it was so weird, but in a good way! Now we just eat, sleep, exercise, oh yeah, work, and make Kyla fatter so she can come out some time in July. Kyla moved!!! — March 1st — 20 weeks Matt: Yesterday we reached halfway and last night Kyla moved!!! Well, she has been moving for a long time but I am talking about feeling her move. Yvonne thinks she may have felt her a few days ago but tonight there was no question! I put my cheek on Yvonne’s belly and really think that I could feel her as well! This called for an extra long song session with little Kyla before going to bed:-) Yvonne: That was definitely a move — or make that several moves! Matt and I were already in bed talking before going to sleep when suddenly I felt like something was crawling inside me. It almost tickled! I told Matt what I felt and he jumped towards me saying, “Let me feel, let me feel!” placing his head against my belly. Kyla moved again and as I was telling him he was already saying, “There she goes! I definitely felt her!!!” That was pretty exciting because it is not all that easy for a first time mom to discern stomach rumbling, cramps, gas and baby movements! The event served as the much needed incentive to start making room for Kyla. Currently her room is serving as our office and is filled with our toys. The first to go was the 4'x6' train table. Then my hobby table and all the tools, models, supplies, etc., etc. Add to that some much needed house cleaning and a huge session of “We don’t need this, we don’t need that, do you really want this? No, throw it away” and we ended up with a room that is now 2/3 empty. Unbelievable what a little tiny baby kick can do:-) Wiggle master — March 30th — 16 weeks to go! Matt: That’s right, we are in countdown mode now:-) 16 to go sounds better than being at 24 weeks. We had our 6th doctor appointment on the 12th. Rather uneventful again which of course is good. These are just checkups after all. Kyla has become the little wiggle master. We are starting to detect patterns but I will leave that to Yvonne. We were recently at a hockey game and Yvonne said Kyla was moving. I stuck my hand on her belly and sure enough I felt what still to this day was her single biggest kick! She was going for it — it may have been all the noise. For me “our” pregnancy is evolving. I catch myself in moments of such deep feeling for both Yvonne and little Kyla that it is incredible. I am anticipating our due date as much as any race I have ever run in my life. 16 weeks, a rather short amount of time really:-) Yvonne: Ms. Wiggle Master or Bubblebee, as I sometimes call her, Kyla Bee is becoming an expert on this wiggling thing. She is outright determined. Now that I know how it feels, I am positive what I felt at around 14+ weeks was her moving. I have found that she is most active after I exercise and eat. Fifteen minutes after I have breakfast she starts her exercises. On my drive home after I finish my workout at the gym she resumes her own exercise routine. She will take a break and later when I am laying in bed reading, arms and legs start going all over the place again. A few nights ago was very impressive. The kicks were so big (compared to what I’ve felt so far) that I laid still, pulled my shirt up so I could see my belly (hard to miss!), and just watched. I could see bumps come up in my belly when she kicked! One new thing that I added to my list of “side effects to remember” is that I can not eat a full meal and then go walk or shop or do something that requires that I keep moving. Five minutes is usually all it takes to almost knock me down on my knees. I get tunnel vision, get really hot, legs weaken, head gets very heavy, lips numb and nausea sets in. If I don’t sit down and stop doing whatever I am doing I am pretty sure I would faint. At that point it takes me a couple of hours of laying down until I feel 100% again. It happened enough times now that I know how to avoid it but the first couple of times were scary! MY Baby page in the news — April 6 — 15 weeks to go Woke up to several e-mails and a couple of copies of the paper stuck to the door today. The MY Baby page (this page) got mentioned in The Buzz — a “talk, tidbits & trivia” column. Archived from the April 6, 2002, Colorado Springs Gazette The Buzz: Baby needs a new pair of running shoes Local runners face longest marathon of their lives By Deb Accord Saying Matt Carpenter isn’t excited about being a father is like saying Matt Carpenter isn’t excited about running. A glance at his Web site (www.skyrunner.com) proves his interest in (or dare we say, obsession with) both topics. Carpenter, from Manitou Springs, is best known for his running skills. He holds the record for the Pikes Peak Marathon and Ascent, and his specialty is sky running: running marathons at high altitudes throughout the world. He and his wife, Yvonne, met while running and even ran to their wedding on the trail at Waldo Canyon in February 2000. And they’ll have a baby in July. Carpenter has turned a portion of his Web site into a “baby training area,” with a detailed account of Yvonne’s pregnancy. The best part: the newest little Carpenter in an ultrasound, pumping those arms and legs in a trademark Carpenter workout. Kyla helps Skyrunner.com — April 26 — 12 weeks to go Kyla was back in the paper helping Skyrunner.com earn a “Best of the Springs” award. Archived from the April 26, 2002, Colorado Springs Gazette 2002 Best of the Springs Non Commercial Website 3/4ths of the way — May 8th — 10 weeks to go! Matt: Just like that we are pretty much in the home stretch! Kyla’s clothes collection is even bigger than in the photo above. In case it is not obvious, Yvonne has tried to guess how big Kyla will be at different times of the year and gotten the appropriate clothing and arranged it by size and season. I only mention this in case the newspaper article would lead you to believe that I am the only one in this household who is “obsessive”;-) In fact, after the article we started feeling a little self conscious and even some pressure to work on this page. So we gave it a bit of a rest but as you can see we are back at it. While Yvonne has been running up the stock value of Babies ‘R’ Us I have been working on Kyla’s room. Now I should say I have just finished building my second house from the foundation up (not ours, but I am learning how for when we build ours) and this crib was almost as complex as a house! Half my tool collection later however we ended up with a crib and a changer. Time for the paint and the cute wallpaper with the funny little animals. Oh man, is this really me writing this:-) Yvonne: I pretty much gave up trying to run 3 weeks ago. Hiking has been way more comfortable and just as fast, especially since the back pain came to stay. Kyla seems to enjoy the hikes since she gets very wiggly when I stop as if saying “What? We are resting? What for?” We now have a “kick chart” where I record how long it takes her to kick 10 times. It is a lot of fun and I think she knows what I am up to because she usually kicks faster and harder after I am done. Almost like it is a game for her:-) We are now going to the doctor every 2 weeks. I have been passing all my “pee in the jar” tests and I also passed the dreaded “Glucose Challenge,” where you are supposed to fast for 2 hours and then drink the equivalent of a box of GU without water. An hour later if you are not passed out they draw your blood to see what kind of damage they were able to do. Kyla’s heartrate has been a consistent 153 and I’ve been nailing 100/60 for my blood pressure for some time now. On the clothing arena I caved in and bought a couple of “pregnancy” blue jeans. I also got a couple of shorts and a dress from a friend. Let me tell you what a difference it makes to have the right clothing. Wearing tight sweatpants all the time was getting old and depressing! But I would say that the highlight of these past weeks was to watch Matt put together the baby furniture. I could swear I saw him peek at the instructions at least twice! Now, if only I could get him to paint the room and install the ceiling fan!! Class time — June 8th — 6 weeks to go! Listen to Kyla's heart Matt: First it was breastfeeding class. OK, I admit that I had some preconceived ideas about what might take place in this class and in that respect it was a total letdown because we had to practice with balloons:-( I even got accused of blowing up the balloon too big! Then it was Lamaze class - 8 hours worth! This was way more fun however because the guys got to watch all the ladies simulate the pain of a contraction by sticking their hand in a container of ice. Now if that is all there is to it I should say as a runner I have spent my fair share of time with all sorts of body parts wrapped in ice so what’s the big deal? They got back at us however because we were then forced to give them massages and backrubs in between these painful “contractions” to help them relax. Next came infant CPR where we got to practice on really cool CPR dolls. Speaking of CPR, at our last doctor visit we recorded Kyla’s heartbeat which you can hear by clicking on the heart to the right. Expectant parent class is coming up and that will be our last one. In between all these classes we have also been doing interviews with pediatricians. For my own doctor it has always been a simple interview: “Do you run?” For Kyla’s doctor however we get to ask really smart sounding questions like “how do you feel about the treatment of ear infections with antibiotics?” and act like we feel a lot better when they rattle off such things as: "Antibiotics are not effective in treating viruses, and many people are justifiably concerned about the overuse of antibiotics. However in the case of Otitis Media, it’s often impossible to determine whether the infection is caused by a virus or a bacteria, or whether the infection will heal without the use of antibiotics. Additionally it is impossible to know which bacteria is causing the infection, as different bacteria have different rates of resolving or going away on their own. However, studies have shown that overall, roughly 30% of all middle ear infections do not heal on their own without the use of antibiotic treatment. This means that about 70% of infections go away on their own. The difficulty is that it is impossible, just by examining the ear, to identify the 30% of children who will need the antibiotics..." What fun! Babies may not come with instruction books but there certainly is a lot you can learn if you want. I know we have learned a lot in the last month! Yvonne: I think it is good that we get to take so many classes. The information is certainly useful and the scheduling skills necessary to juggle classes, doctor appointments, work related appointments, tests, race related appointments (we help organize the BTMR) are phenomenal! I guess the good thing is that it keeps your mind away from the fact that we are almost THERE. The 3rd trimester certainly feels like it goes a lot faster than the 1st:-) The most amusing thing that happened this past month was trying to enroll Matt in a breastfeeding class, “Uhm, are you sure your husband wants to be there? Men usually feel embarrassed in that class.” To which I replied, “I am sure he wants to be there. He said I might miss something and that way there will be 2 people with the information. One of us ought to remember it. Besides, he said this is the only class that sounds like any fun whatsoever”:-) The most painful thing that happened this past month is the dreaded Sciatica! What a bad design! You put a major nerve that controls a major limb in a location where a little baby will have no choice but to rest its head for several weeks. Maybe “rest” is not the correct word since Kyla seems to be crammed in there right now. It’s not like she is doing this on purpose — she has no where else to go! It’s becoming a tight fit and it has been very painful to walk — especially downhill. I am doing all I can to take it, but a few days ago I switched to sleeping on one pillow only (I had started using two pillows when the heartburn kicked in) and got an hour of professional massage. It seems to have eased the pain and besides there are only 6 weeks to go:-) 1CM and ready to go — June 29th — 3 weeks to go! Matt: The hospital bag is packed, the car seat is in, the camera and camcorder batteries are charged, the baby Incline Club shirts have been printed, the walls have been painted (top; white, bottom; lilac), the cute animal border is up, the multi-colored remote control ceiling fan is installed and the mobile — also remote controlled — is ready. By all accounts 37 weeks is considered term so Kyla could make her appearance any time from now until her due date and we would be happy! It could be sooner than later because the plug is no longer plugged and we are 1cm dilated — I will let Yvonne elaborate there. Time is going slow now but I have a feeling that it won’t be too long before I am wishing for this sorta of calm again. Yvonne: All classes taken, well there is still the Newborn Care one, but since that is scheduled for July 16, I have a feeling it will be a bit too late the way things are going! We had a little “almost” the other day. I will explain... we do weekly doctor’s visits now for check ups. At the week 35 1/2 checkup, “everything” was closed tight and the only new symptom was even more swollen ankles, feet and hands. At the week 36 1/2 checkup (the 24th), we learned we were 50% effaced and 1cm dilated. Of course that does not mean much since some women can stay that way for 3 or 4 weeks! The scare came 2 days later (the 26th) after I woke up when Matt was showing me something on the computer. I felt something running down my legs and said, “Oh-ho... I think I am leaking…” Matt is starring at this stuff on my legs and asked, “Is this it?” I said, “I have no idea — it can’t be — I have yet to feel a contraction!” To make a long story short, I went to the doctor’s office to find out if my water had indeed broken. It had not — it was just my “mucus plug” coming out. Kyla has decided to stay inside a bit longer. I was not surprised because I totally did not feel like she was going to be born. I felt way too good to be having a baby. I can’t say the same about every day. Lower back pain has gotten worse. My feet look like watermelons, especially when I work on the computer. I forgot what a full night of sleep feels like (and by what I have read about newborns, I won’t remember for quite some time!) If I even swallow, I need to go to the bathroom. Since I am trying to keep myself hydrated (it has been 80’s and 90’s here lately), it is common for me to make 3 or 4 trips to the bathroom during the night alone! But hey, all in all, everything is fine. I am sure I am not the first one to feel this way:-) The only thing I know for sure at this point is that I am ready — Kyla, whenever you want to come out, please be my guest! Your room is ready! You dad did all the chores I set him up for. One last thing I have noticed, I get these spurts of energy followed by intense exhaustion. It is almost like running at 14,000 feet; you can go at a certain pace and feel strong and then you get cocky and think you can go faster and when you do you get instantly exhausted out of the blue. It then takes a while for you to feel okay again until you repeat the same idiotic approach as before. That’s where I am right now! Two weeks and 6 days to go — but who is counting;-) No real progress — July 2nd — 2.5 weeks to go! Matt: Another doctor appointment and we are still at 1cm. Looks like Kyla is going the distance. Meanwhile, throughout the pregnancy we have been taking pictures of Yvonne’s ever expanding home for Kyla. However instead of posting naked pictures of Yvonne we decided to trace them. Here are the results: Traces of pictures of Yvonne taken throughout the pregnancy. From left to right; 3, 5, 7 and 9 months. Yvonne: Time is going real slow now. I am even more tired than ever and feel like Kyla will come early. The not knowing when is the killer, but the least I think about the faster time goes by. The trick to not think about it (like that it is at all possible!) is to get busy with something else. Fortunately there are many things to be done for the Barr Trail Mountain Race on July 14th which is helping me keep my mind away from it all… It continues to be hot as ever here in Manitou and I had to spend a few more nights sleeping in the basement on the not so comfortable couch. What a warped idea to have a summer baby!! Just one comment about the profiles of me above; thank god Matt did not post the real pictures — the drawings are a lot more flattering and this is a child safe site after all. Kyla is born — 0 days to go! Continue on to Kyla’s birth