Oyster tales and Speetus status-- with updates below

So let's just get this said: everything with Speetus is going well-- We went for the nuchal translucency scan today. My first pants-up exam, I have to admit (and you probably know) I was faintly terrified that they would find a withered remnant of a departed Speetus, but after a very short wait in the waiting room of the refreshingly clean hospital (different one that was associated with the RE, which had consistently filthy elevators), we were ushered back to the ultrasound room, and NOT told to undress from the waist down. The tech just asked my to unzip my pants (and what a relief THAT was-- there has been some MAJOR belly growth in the last couple of days, to the point that even my loosest pants are tight at the waist. Luckily, all my jeans fit well below the waist so I still have comfy weekend wear.) She found Speetus almost immediately and, without comment began measuring and poking. At one point she sort of jabbed my belly and we saw Speetus do a full body arch in response. She barely said a word to us, and answered questions with monosyllabic mumbling, before she tersely left us with a "DON'T clean up-- the doctor will be in in a minute."

If we thought the tech was not personable, the doctor was even worse-- he did not introduce himself, and merely stuck his head and one shoulder into the doorway, said, "Everything looks fine," and was already ducking out as we were still forming questions on our tongues.

Luckily, Speedy was able to get a CRL and a heart rate out of the tech-- not that the tech volunteered them-- we're at 5 cm and 160 bpm: hallelujah, my first heart rate! The nuchal fold was 1.3, which I understand to be well within normal, but I won't get the b/w results for another week or so. Speetus was measuring, according to the u/s, at 11w4d*, 2 days behind, but certainly within the margin of error, I think.

SO that was all good, as far as I know. We left with plenty of extra time to walk down to Korea town and eat bibimbop until we couldn't bear another bite. Then we walked to Union Square, before heading back to Brooklyn, picking up some Korean groceries and serving spoons from Fishs Eddy along the way. Then an odd thing happened: I don't know if it was the bibimbop or the belly expansion of the last few days, but a very sweet woman of about 25, who was dozing against her rolled-up yoga mat on the train, woke from her sleep, looked at me, and offered me her seat.

Today, I went from being not entirely convinced I was pregnant to being totally, completely, very pregnant indeed. I know anything can happen at any time, but I am ready to relax and believe.



So, New Orleans: I will let the photos speak for themselves, with one note in reply to questions: YES, we ate the grilled oysters at Acme, and yes, they were wonderful. We were trying to be budget conscious, so most of where we ate were hole-in-the-wall places recommended by residents who knew where to go. Boiled crawfish, collard greens, ettouffe, and pickled beets. Nothing fancy at all, but delicious to the last bite. We did go to Cafe du Monde for the requisite (and exquisite) cafe au lait and beignet. Mostly, we wandered and enjoyed every last leisurely minute of having nothing more pressing to do than entertain ourselves.

On our last night there, we went to my friend Elsa's house for dinner. Her husband made an amazing shrimp stew and we had it with spinach salad with dill and strawberries--- not a combination I would have tried myself, but it was simply wonderful. The pie took longer than we expected and Speedy and I had an early flight so we had strawberry ice cream instead, and caught a ride back to the Marigny neighborhood with Elsa's husband, who was going in to watch a band.

Since Speedy and I loved the neighborhood and wanted to walk a bit after dinner, we had Patrick drive to the bar where the band was playing and we walked to our B&B from there, about 8 blocks. The neighborhood is an interesting mixture of very lovely and well-kept creole houses side-by-side with dilapidated Katrina-destroyed shacks. It is not as touristy as the adjacent French Quarter, but is home to the big strip where the "real" music scene of New Orleans unfolds. There are coffee houses and bookstores and bike shops all in various states of genteel disintegration. speedy and I loved it, even though our B&B would not have withstood the white glove test by any stretch of imagination.

As we walked home we were talking about how New Orleans cats, unlike NYC cats or any other American city that we knew of, were self-sufficient and seemed to have their own lives. People on the blocks would put out food for them, but very few cats seemed to be owned or have permanent residences. They are all wiry and skittish and streetwise but not feral like the nearly wild cat populations in some areas of NYC.

As we were babbling and walking, something caught my eye and I stopped us both: huddled at the edge of the sidewalk, by the side of a house, was a tiny black furball of a kitten. As we approached, the kitten blindly hissed in our general direction, but it couldn't see us because its eyes were crusted shut from a terrible infection. Speedy threw her sweatshirt over it and picked it up. The poor thing was on the verge of starvation. when Speedy tried to open its eyes, there was so much crust and ous she couldn't.

I honestly can't say that we discussed what to do. There was no putting the kitten down and walking on. We tucked her in Speedy's sweatshirt, continued to the B&B, and made her a little nest in the bathroom. Speedy swiped some yogurt from the kitchen while I tried to decrust her eyes, and I was able to get the kitten to eat a bit and settle her down into a nest of towels while Speedy called Jet Blue about its animals on-board policies.

It was 11 p.m. by this time, and the only available flight that had space for animals left at 7 a.m. the next morning. Speedy switched her flight, figuring I would catch her later and save the switching fee**, and then we called Elsa who, with unquestioning kindness and generosity, drove us to the all-night WalMart in a vain search for a cat carrier. It turned out that the all-night WalMart closed at 10, so we went back to the B&B, cut some holes in one of the conference bags and hoped it would suffice. Needless to say, it did.

So... we have another cat. Oyster lives in our bathroom right now, as she is too little to be tested for the diseases she might be carrying, but she has grown into a real kitten after just a few days of feeding and cleaning. Her eyes are almost 100% better and she has put on 4 whole ounces- a third of her original weight! Her favorite thing to do is to hide behind a balled up socked or dropped towel and plot her ambush of any unsuspecting ankle that might happen to come too near. You can see the fur around her eyes is still spotty from where it came off with the scabs, but she is getting cuter every day.

* I just realized that this was based on the LMP date I gave them, not measurements. Because of the Foll.stim, the date would be short by 2 days.

** The next morning, Jet Blue put me on standby for free and I got on the godawful early flight with no problem.


Coffee and beignets and baby bump.


Lovely houses.


Boiled crawfish and beer!


Grilled oysters.



Fuzzy Oyster!