Baby by numbers; the origins of "Blasto"

9:45 PM November 22, 2015

It seems like we are having a baby by the numbers. Our lives (all three of them) are sort of being steered by them now.

Like the quarter hourly blood pressures.

The thrice daily blood tests.

And the all important hours, days and minutes of time that Blasto remains right where the kid needs to be.  The more the better.

We find ourselves in the power of the numbers at the moment.  Blood pressure has climbed above the thresholds that we are wanting to see, and they are not coming down, despite the best efforts of everyone here.  And if that remains true the 1 shall become 2 all too soon.  Like as soon as over night.  Which is OK, just not what we would choose.  Having 3 days to wrap our heads around the possibilities of how things might end up working here helps a great deal.

The blood pressure calls the game, but the blood analysis tells the score.  Liver enzymes (which tell the liver function) want to be low.  Platelets (which help with clotting) want to be high as possible.  These numbers are moving, but only slowly which makes the difference between concern and crisis.  This is what will, ultimately, tell when the time has come for Blasto to come into the world.

Then is the trivia numbers.  Like the more than a liter of pee put out in the last 2.5 hours by the lady of the hour (we measure everything around here).  And the 140-150 beats per minute ticking on the monitor behind us with Blasto's pulse, assuming the kid isn't actively kicking, punching, or generally hiding from the all hearing ear.  Blasto is a squirmer, which delights us (for now).  We even overheard hiccups the other day-- pretty cool.

We have heard that some explanation of the nick name Blasto is in order.  You will no doubt be relieved that this is not the child's name, though we are still considering "Helium Unicorn" as nominated by cousin Nora.  Blasto is what we arrived at when finding out that the pregnancy was a practicality.  When the egg and sperm first implant into the uterus, it is called a "Blastocyst", a generic term for lump of cells (we offer apologies to those for whom this congers images of cancers; not our intent).  We decided that we, not wanting to anticipate anything gender wise, would decide to call the one growing in our midst "Blasto".  Besides, its a great playground nick name.

More soon

With much love,
Bryce, Emily, & Blasto