Potatoes in the Mist

So I went to the doctor today. My ultrasounds (at an imaging center) and ob/gyn visits (at the doctor's office) always fall on the same week. My doctor was completely unconcerned about the whole placenta thing. She says not to worry about it until 28 weeks, because most low placentas will spontaneously resolve by then. They will just keep checking every 4 weeks until then to see if it has moved up. (I'm currently 16 1/2 weeks.) If it stays low through 28 weeks, it will mean a c-section, but it would be given at 39 weeks, not 36 weeks as I had feared from my online reading. (Note to self: do not google medical information!) And no bed rest unless there was bleeding. You might think, "Bed rest sounds good," but I am sure I would go out of my !#%*^ mind. A friend of mine was on bed rest once. She had moved to Texas years before and although we stayed in touch via email, we seldom talked on the phone (I'm not really a phone person and perhaps neither is she). During h...

So...I found out that it's a girl. At first I giggled in disbelief. A lot of the parents I know have 2 boys or 2 girls, so even though a lot of people were saying it was a girl, I wasn't sure. It will be nice to have variety, although I would have loved a little boy too. I think they are huggable teddy bears and it would have been a nice buddy for E. Hopefully he will like having a sister too. The one downside is that my placenta is low. It's like this in 15-20% of women at this stage. 95% of the time, it resolves itself as the uterus grows. But if it doesn't resolve, I will need to get a C-section.

So I'm reading Summer and the City by Candace Bushnell. I like it a lot. I didn't love her other books (except maybe One Fifth Avenue ), but this one reminds me of why I enjoyed SATC so much and why I liked the characters from the show. It's about Carrie Bradshaw, but she's 18 and just getting started in the city. It focuses a bit on her relationship with an older man, but it's mostly about her ambition to be a writer, a play she writes, and her growing friendship with Samantha and Miranda (Charlotte hasn't surfaced yet). And tomorrow...maybe I'll find out the gender!

I can't take it anymore! I need to find out. I don't know how anyone waits 9 months to find out her baby's gender. So far, everyone is still saying it's a girl except for a homeless man who offered his unsolicited opinion that it's a boy. I really would be happy with either. BUT I WANT TO KNOW. We went to a gathering in Brooklyn today, outdoors, and a woman asked me, "When are you due? What sign will it be?" and a guy nearby (whom I'd never met before) burst out laughing and said it was the girliest conversation he'd ever heard. I'm going to see Bridesmaids with a friend tomorrow. Hopefully it will be good. The last movie I saw in the theater was Barney's Version and it kinda scarred me for life (like The Book of Mormon on stage). I need to see the new Woody Allen play when it comes out to wash the vile flavor of Mormon out of my mouth.

So...I noticed Blogger ate a few of the comments on my last post. It happened to another blogger I know, too. Hmm. It's raining out and I think it's going to be a week of the same. Oh well. No drought here. I'm reading If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This ...I avoided this for a while because of the bleak title and I don't usually like short stories, with a few exceptions (Lorrie Moore, Alice Munro). But it's quite good. Last night I finished Sarah Dessen's new novel, What Happened to Goodbye, which I liked a lot. This morning I woke up feeling strange, in a good way, and noticed that most of the nausea is gone. I don't know whether this is the promise of 2nd trimester, being fulfilled a week late; or if roughhousing a bit with E last night hurt things somehow. I mostly know that this fear is irrational.

So yesterday was Mother's Day. I got to be a (somewhat) lazy daisy. It was cool. For dinner we went to this place near the river, very casual. The waitress balked at our ordering 2 quesadillas. She told us they were huge and we should really share. She threatened to make us stay and finish them. They were huge, but we ate most of them out of pride. I've been going to bed early and waking up when it's dark. Yesterday I finished The Bride's House by Sandra Dallas. It was the first book I've loved in a while. Other books I've liked recently are Attachments by Rainbow Rowell and The Uncoupling by Meg Wolitzer. And I'm still a bit nauseous, even though I'm 14 weeks now (as of Saturday). I have my anti-nausea meds and a bunch of "preggie drops." Hopefully I won't be low-level queasy for the next six months.