We be Parents

Nope, she hasn’t gotten rid of me – she’s just got a whitey of a new variety – a new car!  On Saturday, my 30th birthday, Yenari thought the best way to celebrate would be for us to go out and buy her a new car…definitely an awesome birthday present, just not for me!  Here she is with her new beaute – a 2009 Toyota Camry Hybrid:

Yenari with her new whitey

So now I’m definitely on the road to being a grownup – 30 years old, married, preggers wifey, and a family car!  No official belly shot this time, but she did just move past 30 weeks – that’s 3/4 of the way there!  Yenari is all dressed up in the picture because we were going out for a fancy dinner.  My mother and grandmother teamed up to give me a gift certificate to have dinner at Chez Panisse in Berkeley.

The food was great – here are some photos of the meal we had tonight:

Deep-fried green asparagus and onions with mustard Chantilly

Fish and shellfish ragoût with fava beans and chervil

Grilled Marin Sun Farm grass-fed beef rib eye with cabernet sauce, sautéed new potatoes

In our excitement on seeing the dessert we dug in without taking a photo, but I managed to get a shot of Yenari finishing off the ‘Bittersweet chocolate fondant with candied kumquat ice cream’ that topped off the great meal.

Yenari finishing off her dessert

Yup – I was there too – don’t I look so mature now that I’m all grown up?

me!

Chez Panisse sign on the way out after an excellent meal

We’re trying to sneak in as many nice dinners out and as much quality time as we can be for the impending (doom?) excitement that should be heading our way in 10 weeks or so.   Thanks to ‘moms’ and nana for a great birthday present!

By popular demand…

Yenari at 27 weeks and 2 days

Enjoy!

We heard some very relieving medical news today – something that we were expecting, but still something that we were worrying about. Around six weeks ago Yenari felt a lump on the side of her breast – she had a scheduled prenatal checkup a few days later and mentioned it.  Our doctor checked it out and thought that it was likely something related to an infection of the milk duct, but wanted to be safe and make a referral to a doctor in the cancer center.  He commented that the name of the center was a bit scary since it was called the cancer center, but that they were the ones who we the experts in breast health.

Despite the fact that the doctor said he was almost positive it was okay, we were still worried.  The cancer center is a busy place, so it was almost a month wait before Yenari could meet them.   Despite being a nurse, Yenari turned to Google for her medical questions and did some searching in the mean time – she learned that a milk duct infection would probably be warm to the touch and would hurt when pressed…neither of which were true for her – instead it felt kind of like a pebble.

Eventually we met with the doctor and she did an exam, and she also thought it wasn’t likely to be a problem, but suggested that Yenari get an ultrasound to verify it….which meant another three days wait.  She went in a couple days later for the ultrasound which showed nothing, the medical term the technician used was that it was a ‘big fat nothing’.  That was definitely reassuring and certainly relaxed us, though the next day the oncology doctor called and asked for her to make a follow up appointment.

We went in yesterday for the follow up – she did another exam and could still feel the lump and said that to be safe the best choice would be to do a needle biopsy, which is perfectly safe during pregnancy.  We we’re ready to leave, assuming that it would mean a 4th trip to the oncology doctor, but she surprised us by saying she would do it right there.  So, they prepped, gave Yenari some local anesthesia with a VERY large needle, made a tiny (5mm) incision, and then used another needle that made a staple gun like noise (which they warned us about ahead of time) to pull out two tissue samples.  They were worryied about me, and asked me to sit down because sometimes the hubbies faint, but I was just fine holding Yenari’s hand.  It was all over very quickly (easy for me to say) and aside from the anesthesia, painless for Yenari.  There  was a ‘normal amount of blood’, so they bandaged her up and said that they’d call her within 48 hours.

Today the doctor called Yenari and said it is benign and that everything is ok…and ended the conversation with ‘bye bye for now’…hopefully bye bye forever – she was incredibly nice and professional, but hopefully we won’t have the need to see her again!  And thus ended the 6 weeks of on and off worry.

Keep an eye out soon for a 27 week belly shot!