FIRST BABY PICTURE
This is Baby.
Baby already is starting to show a bit of that mischievous tiger spirit.
Right now baby is bigger than a peanut but smaller than a legume (I think).
Can you see where baby's head is? And where Baby's butt is? The answer is at the bottom of the page.
WILL THE REAL MONGOL PLEASE STAND UP ?
"What's a nubian?"
-- Chasing AmyME: "So when do we find out the sex of the baby?"
AMY: "It won't be big enough to tell until our 18 week ultrasound."
ME: "Eighteen weeks?! You're only on week eleven. I want to know now."
ME (with mischievous smirk): "Hey I got an idea. Why don't you tell your Ob/Gyn that 'mongolism' runs in your family. You can even bring a baby picture of your sister and show them. They'll do a chromosomal analysis which will also tell us if we got a boy or a girl. It's perfect! Hahaha!"
"Mongolism," was the original term for Down's Syndrome or Trisomy 21. A term coined over 130 years ago by Dr. Down because those affected tend to have a "flat facial profile, slanted palpebral fissures (eyelids), and epicanthal folds." As if those features themselves were markers of abnormality or disease. How is this supposed to make my Asian brothers, sisters, and children feel about themselves in a media culture where modelesque round-eyed Western features are already the standard?
The funny thing is, Asians (or Mongols for that matter) aren't even predisposed to Trisomy 21. Children of older mothers are though, a situation far more common in the West than the East (as high as 4% for pregnant women over age 45).
It would make more sense to call Cystic Fibrosis something like "Whitism" or "Vikingism" since CF is practically exclusive to Caucasians of European descent. Sickle Cell Anemia is more common in blacks (8% in African-Americans, up to 25% in West Africans) but I don't see anyone calling it "Nubianism" in the texts. No one calls Tay-Sachs Disease "Ashkenazi Jewism" either for that matter. Yet a term as offensive as "Mongolism" still exists in medical texts and indices printed as recently as last year. One source I read actually had the term "Mongolian idiocy."
Props to Dr. Down for identifying the disease, but people still using or printing the term "mongolism" probably deserve to get their pale asses cooked for a little while … Mongolian Barbecue style.
But my sweet Amy didn't quite see my justification for scamming a chromosomal analysis on our baby the same way I did.
AMY: "What?!! My sister does not have -- mongolism!"
ME: "Like anyone would be able to tell. Besides, if they can name a disease with a name as insulting to us as that, we may as well take advantage of it to find out the sex of our baby. Technically we wouldn't be lying. We might even have some of that nomadic Mongolian blood in us."
AMY: "I am not saying my sister has mongolism."
ME: "Alright, fine …
"... how about your brother then?"
She wasn't too agreeable to that either.
(I just wanted to know if we were going to have a little Asian prince or princess. Is that so wrong?)
GO GO ASIAN BABY PRIDE GO!
I told you Baby was being mischievous already. I thought the butt was the head and vice versa too. Apparently Baby is pulling one of those upside down ninja moves to fake us out.
This is the ultrasound Amy recently got for the 10th-11th week. They couldn't make out if the baby was a male or female yet (mentioned in entry above). But Amy's coworkers suspect a boy since she has "been eating so much" lately.
I would love having a girl or a boy, although if it's a girl, I am already dreading the time she starts becoming interested in boys. She's going to be just so darned pretty!
I missed this ultrasound. Amy said it wasn't a big deal and told me I probably should wait for the 18th week one. The 18th week ultrasound will take place in the hospital I work at and I am definitely going to be there.
She said that the baby raised it's arm during the ultrasound, as if to announce "I AM HERE!!!"
That's my baby!!!
I love both of my sweet sweet babies.
Thank you all for the congratulations. I'm sorry I can't link (hug) you all tonight. I've been really tired lately. I need a break.
Well, just one link,
Melanie laughed when I wrote that I wouldn't need a baby quilt.
