Pre-baby picture

It is 8:30am Saturday morning and Yang and I head to AmCare, the children's and maternity hospital across the street from us. It is so close that having Yang walk there when labor comes seems like a reasonable option. It certainly seems safer than having her drive which she may end up wanting to do. An aside: In the states, I was the clearly the better driver. We go anywhere in the car, there was no doubt it was me driving. Here, well, I can't say Yang's driving has improved but her driving "fits" more with the rest of the drivers. Mine can seem like a nervous teenager by comparison.

Ok, back to the main thread but first we go back a night. It is Friday night and I am meeting Yang and a group of friends at Elephant restaurant number three which is really Elephant restaurant number one (don't ask). Yang has invited about 12 people for dinner in part because my work has been stressful and she wants me to relax and have a fun night out. I leave my office at 6pm and there is a rainstorm that would make Lincoln Nebraska proud. I call Yang and tell her some people my have a hard time making dinner unless they have boats. It seems half my office is standing at the entryway to the building, waiting for the rain to let up before venturing out. I decided to plow ahead -- it is just water after all -- and make a mad dash for the light rail station which is about 500 yards to the east. Off I go, rain landing hard on my face, thunder crashing in my ears. I'm feeling good about my decision until I reach the edge of the parking lot and notice that water is up to my ankle. Then my calf. At this point I am fully invested and keep going, water to knee. It is difficult to get into the light rail station because people don't want to leave it and enter the monsoon, but somehow I squeeze past; walking through another small lake on my way. Once to the light rail, the night is easy, although I am quite wet. Much to my surprise, all but two people make it to the dinner and we have a good time, enjoying Russian food and mediocre jazz and my bad Chinese. We get home late, but not too late.

The purpose of Saturday's appointment at AmCare was for a sonogram. Then it got upscaled to checking my blood type -- which Yang has wanted to know for years. Then further upscaled to checking if Yang had pregnancy diabetes -- which is pretty important. We had decided not to have this checked because the process is a bit of a pain and because Yang had the same experience with Aidan and didn't develop diabetes. But the doctor was convincing so Yang singed up for the testing. Happy to say she tested negative. My blood type, btw, A positive, which is the same as Yang's father which she says is no surprise.

No for the fun, the sonogram. Yang wanted to double check that it was indeed a girl and indeed that has been confirmed. The doctor checked the baby's development and it is right on tract. Almost right in the middle of normal. They then took some pictures. Here's the future Beijing allio girl:

The feedback is the nose is bigger than they typical Chinese but I suspect not bigger than the typical allio.