A First Time for Everything

This is our first post, and we have lots to update you on. First, Matt thinks we need to explain the name of the blog. In high school, his football coach often referred to him as Buckethead. The nickname stuck and it’s followed Matt throughout his life. When Matt designed the blog, he named it The Chronicles of Baby Bucket to honor his nickname and to tie it into the blog that I keep (but haven’t updated in awhile) called The Tennis Chronicles of Kimberly.

We found out about four weeks ago that there would be a new addition to our family. After two positive home tests, we were still in disbelief. Then, we met with the Childbirth Educator at our doctor’s office and things became quite real for us in a hurry. I think it was her inquiry “Have you selected a pediatrician yet?” that hit home.

Yesterday, we had our first ultrasound. We were able to see Ziggy’s heartbeat. Ziggy (aka Baby Bucket) is a nickname we coined for the little one. It was really cool to see its heart beating. Ziggy is very tiny, but you could definitely see that heartbeat.

This morning, we met with the doctor. Dr. Trippell was great. She did her residency at the University of Texas Medical Center in San Antonio so I liked her immediately :-). Matt liked her too. She said everything is progressing as it should. She is, however, taking me off of weight training. I was a bit bummed about that, but we must defer to her expertise. The good news is that I can keep playing tennis and walking. I likely will also pick up swimming since I can’t do the weight training. I am looking forward to that.

Dr. Trippell confirmed our due date as June 12th. It will be an eventful summer! She also told us that we will have genetic counseling on Nov. 30th. This is pretty common in individuals that have a similar family history as Matt. Matt was born as a blue baby, meaning he had a little hole in his heart. Since this can sometimes be hereditary, Dr. Trippell wants us to have the genetic counseling and possibly and integrated screening. Because of Matt’s condition, we will also have a Level II Ultrasound at 20 weeks. So, the genetic counseling, screening, and ultrasound will be conducted at the IU Medical Center in Indianapolis. The IU Med Center has a fetal cardiac unit and the fetal cardiologists will examine Ziggy’s heart during the ultrasound. If the fetal cardiologists don’t like everything they see, they will mandate that Ziggy be born there in Indy instead of Bloomington just in case they need to perform any procedures. At the 20 week ultrasound, we will also find out Ziggy’s gender. This will be a long awaited discovery, as we are anxious to purchase things for Baby Bucket.

I have been hit with the morning sickness this week, and Dr. Trippell says it might get worse. I’m seriously hoping this isn’t the case. I think Matt shares this hope as he has been pulling double duty – running errands, cooking, retrieving popsicles for me, etc.

We’ll keep you posted throughout and provide you with regular updated. We hope all of you are well. Thanks for all your love and support. We’re so lucky to have it.

For Baby Bucket