moved: gusin08.wordpress.com

that’s right yo — my cervix is off the charts.

which is a good thing, if you discount the scary 15 minutes that the doctor and the tech spent examining, in great detail, three different cross-sections of a 3D section of the cervix, all on the screen in front of us at the same time. finally the doc had the presence of mind to say “there’s nothing wrong” and the sighs of relief that escaped our mouths nearly blew the doc and the tech right over. then the tech was summarily dismissed and a new (more experienced? more senior?) tech was called in to repeat the scan.

turns out neither tech could get my full cervix into the ultrasound picture, despite turning the magical trans-vaginal wand until it was nearly horizontal. no, the exterior end was just not going to show up. so they measured what they could see, and that part measured variously 3.99 cm and 4.17 cm, so the doc feels good about my cervix’s length (if not its lack of cooperation).

the new kid was there, too — and was about equally uncooperative. we watched the little dickens pull her hands up over her face every time the tech tried to scan her face, roll over to give us her back every time the tech tried to scan her belly, and pedal her legs like a green-jersey winner every time the tech tried to measure her femur. during the cervical non-measurement the kid was face down against the cervix, occasionally pummelling away at the funny thing poking at the door to her warm little home. i’ll tell you what, the kid’s got spunk. now we just need to see whether she’s got patience.

as for me, i’m revelling in the bi-weekly certainty that it’s okay for me to walk around, to pick things up, and bend and move in any of the other gazillions of motions that most of us get to take for granted. i even stretched yesterday, and am gearing up for (i.e., still procrastinating over) re-starting prenatal pilates or yoga.  all this “activity” is helping me come to terms with my ob’s injunction to get fat and let myself get even further out of shape, to keep my walks to two miles or less, and to let shannon do any of the really strenuous work around the house. (guess my plans to move the piano will have to wait.)

best of all, i’m feeling like it’s ok to think about the possibility of a living babe coming to stay with us late this summer. there are no guarantees, of course, but we’re checking everything that can be checked and coddling everything that can be coddled and anti-oxidating everything that might need strengthening. my body is going to do what it’s going to do, and we’ll never understand it (no matter what it ends up doing), but at least we know we’re helping it do its best. and there’s no small measure of comfort in that.