Knocked Up Rollcall

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZrtqv90oXE

Congrats, dude.

Whoa

Way to go, Shakey Mo!

should be findin out the gender on Wednesday... this will be a 5-year age difference between children, which is a little wider than most parents I know, but on the other hand I think I will appreciate having to deal with only one set of diapers at a time.

Congrats Shakey!

^^!

*clap* *clap* *clap*

yay shakey!
your wife must be a week or so behind mine, we just found the sex

Good job, Shakey!

it was a lot of hard work on my part, lemme tell ya

Congrats, shakey

I'm almost a decade younger than my older bro; it can be done. congrats

it was a lot of hard work on my part, lemme tell ya

― the choogler and the chosen one (Shakey Mo Collier)

http://www.bundyology.com/bal2.jpg

holy shit! congratulations man!

congrats!

"hard" work

I Love People Making

shakey I have 3 siblings which are older than me by significant gaps - 6yrs, 18yrs and 20yrs - and its just fine

congrats to the SMColliers and the mbisons!

Yay shakey!!!

congratulations m bison and shakey mo

Yeah, congrats to the mbisons as well!

wife is freaking out about this alleged 1% chance our baby has of having Down's Syndrome. Sorta pissed at the doctors right now. We did the 15 wk ultrasound today and they said the fact that the fetus has a big head in proportion to its arms and legs is a "soft marker" that increases risk of Down's Syndrome to between 0.5% and 1%. There are no other indications that the baby is at risk for Down's Syndrome.

My daughter and myself both have big heads (my daughter was born with her head measuring in the 99the percentile, for ex, but the rest of her was in the median range) - a fact the Kaiser doctors were unaware of because my daughter was delivered via a different healthcare provider and they don't have her records yet blah blah blah. So, to me, I see this big head thing - combined with the lack of any other markers - and I think "eh, odds are in our favor the baby is fine". My wife, however, who is of "the glass is half empty and probably poisoned as well" variety is now totally losing it, debating whether to get an amniocentesis and possibly terminate the pregnancy if the baby has Down's Syndrome (which she says is her "worst nightmare" even tho I personally can think of a million other much worse scenarios).

while I, for my part, nurse the suspicion that the math behind this is pretty fucking convoluted and made-up, and that it's also in Kaiser's interest to both minimize their liability by reporting any statistical anamolies as well as take advantage of people who have zero tolerance for any statistical risk at all and will thus sign up for whatever procedure is available, thus making Kaiser more money.... the counselor tried to reassure us that a 1% risk is still really low, that they just want us to be aware of our options etc but, cognizant of the amount of emotional stress this was going to generate in my wife, I sort of wanted to punch her in the face for even raising this outcome as a possibility

counselor also pointed out that recently the doctors had been sending her more and more of these "soft marker" sort of findings ("just to be safe" and the vast majority of the time "everything's fine") which just made me more skeptical/angry

aww man my heart goes out to you just for the stress. we did every check along the way, the nuchal translucency and all that, and it's scary stuff. 1% really is extremely low, and when you say your daughter has a big head that to me says you make big head babies. I myself am the dad of a big head baby! Hope this stress reduces soon.

thx just needed to vent.

feel like this would have been handled differently if we had a single physician that we consistently saw, rather than the constantly rotating cast of techs + doctors at Kaiser

my son and i have big heads. perhaps your wife can take solace in the fact that your children have a sweet brain reserve:

http://healthland.time.com/2010/07/12/what-does-head-size-have-to-do-with-alzheimers/

opting not to get the amnio. a 1.25% risk of DS (which imho is probably actually even lower) is just not worth it, and neither my wife nor myself could bring ourselves to terminate a pregnancy at 21 weeks, which just seems crazy. so it's not like an amnio would provide us with any useful information. I'm just gonna hope for/assume the best and put this out of my mind. fuckin doctors.

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Colliers and Bisons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The nuchal screening was all I agreed to and it was done at 14 weeks and that was already too late to really get results. It is supposed to be done at 12 weeks. I never got the other tests and they were really pushing them on me because I was over 35. I asked a lot of questions, read as much as I could and the bottom line was that most of the testing is inconclusive. I didn't see the point if screenings etc...were inconclusive. I didn't want to risk an amnio, wasn't going to terminate the pregnancy if something seemed off so I really just had to stand my ground. A doctor and nurse at the nuchal fed me two scary stories about what happened to two other couples. They were blocking the door, standing there feeding me stats. I finally told them I don't have insurance and it was like they vanished into thin air. The tech told me the baby's movement was completely normal and not to worry about it.

So there is a 99% or more chance the baby does not have Downs.

yeah the over 35 thing... I am wondering if my daughter's huge head was not flagged as a "soft marker" at the time because my wife was under 35 when we had her. the math and statistics with all this stuff is so hand-wavy and vague... and then I don't trust Kaiser's motives at all ("we scared you into taking another, potentially unnecessary but JUST TO BE SURE, procedure!" = $$$)

See....

ughhh maybe this is the appropriate thread to vent about our awful experience right now.

so at our first visit to the OB, my wife's blood pressure was v high. the med assistant pipes in "so you have chronic high blood pressure?" a: no, this is the first time this has ever happened. next visit, normal BP, but some sugar in the urine, leads same med assist to ask "so you are diabetic?" a: no. my wife then has to do a glucose test at our next visit. one flat orange medical soda later, no preexisting diabetes. but BP is high again.

we get a BP monitor to use at home and my wife's BP is always normal fine (110 to 115 over 60 to 70). it looks like a case of white coat hypertension induced by the anxiety of being at the doctor and fearing that something is wrong. we have a couple more visits in which my wife's BP is high everytime (always accompanied by aforementioned med asst saying "it's HIGH" in a very told ya so manner). our OB appeared open to the white coat hypothesis, but referred us to a specialist anyway. she insisted it would be a onetime consult if everything was it appears.

we go to the specialist and her BP is high again. nurse practitioner basically says we need to start seeing them weekly, condescending to us the entire time and completely breezing past our mountains of evidence of normal BP at home or in non-clinical settings and treating us as if (a) we don't know anything and (b) that my wife is some paragon of bad judgment and poor health. "this is for the health of the baby", really? no kidding, I've been laboring under the delusion that my child's health is unimportant, this is giving me something to think about hm hm FUCK off.

same visit, BP taken again after some time to chill. lower, but still high. second ultrasound in as many weeks reveals everything is fine with the baby which is exactly what we knew last week. BP taken a third time. normal. the actual doctor starts to backpedal a little realizing my wife is not chronically hypertensive which is what we've been saying for weeks. so maybe we don't need to come in every week, apparently, but she'd rly like us to come in every month or so. so my wife can collect her piss in a sunny D jug for 24 hours and have you tell us...that everything is fine?

god that's long

tldr version: motherfucking doctors can't listen for shit if that information gets in the way of billable services

ugh that sucks

btw my son is growing a little ahead of schedule and his heartbeat is normal. if we had never sought medical attention this entire time, we would be in the exact same position we are in now only without the stress and more ca$hed out.

that's awful. like it really makes me mad. also as a non-pregnant person i want to go to a doctor soon (i don't have one) but i have doctor anxiety and this kind of thing is why, thanks.

yeah it's completely unacceptable

to compound things, if we wanted to switch OBs now, it'd more difficult bc my wife has been labeled a "high risk" pregnancy which many doctors will not take at this pt.

I've been laboring under the delusion that my child's health is unimportant, this is giving me something to think about hm hm

I lol'd

High risk because of the blood pressure thing?

yes, and judged solely by her clinical BP results

'Sup.

Nice...welcome to the club!

What?????

lol

HUH

duh

Congrats and bestest wish!

Thank you! It is v. exciting.

FOR REALSIES?? xp Could not possibly happen to a nicer person(s).

For real! Thank you! That is a nice thing to say!

Oh - Due December 24. We've been sitting on the announcement pending the ultrasound where they make sure everything is extant and in the expected places, which I had this morning.