here is a photo of Mrs Wolfcat and the Cubs….
This possibly would explain why she is sleeping so badly at the moment.
RC1’s heart seems to have slowed down, but still is a bit higher than RC2’s. Kind of handy to have a built in control unit 
So regular monitoring will be continuing. Worst case scenario at the moment is early delivery at week 34, but fingers cross we keep going. Although Mrs wolfcat is feeling very full at the moment
This is an update to the previous Week 30 post.
The upshot is that we still don’t know anything, but will be having another scan in a few days. RC1’s heart rate wasn’t as high as last time, but still peaked over 207bpm which is shouldn’t.
Hopefully on Thursday we will have a much clearer idea as well, as the OB is aiming to have spoken to/and or Mrs Wolfcat will see a pediatric cardiologist. The ultrasound man didn’t see anything wrong the RC1’s heart which is good news.
So, I guess RC1 is just giving us practice for being a pain and causing worry where there doesn’t need to be any. That said, we aren’t really worried anyway for a number of reasons, mainly, there isn’t a lot we could do about it. And secondly, it isn’t anything we have done anyway as RC2 is acting as a great control unit.
The other big advantage of the place we had the scan was more video (process as I type – will upload later tonight ) and some more photos as well.
So here are the images.
RC1’s heart ( they are camera shy and facing away )
RC2 is not camera shy
Update: 1/6/11
Got an email from the OB this morning…
Good news is that the heart rate is mostly normal. When the heart goes fast it looks like a normal rhythm still, just fast. There is a hint of some fluid around the heart. If this is increasing it might suggest that the baby is a bit compromised by the fast periods of heart rate. So the OB is now planning scans twice per week to check on the heart. So it will be closely monitored. The good news is that tomorrow marks week 31 and they are ahead of the curve on size, so all good really.
Well, I was damned proud of that title, and if I want to make a whole blog post around it I shall.
But on to serious matters……
When a Liberal Senator “meow’s” at Penny Wong when she is trying to answer a question the reaction should never have been from the Libs and their supporters, but she had it coming. Nor should it have been, but it is all fair in politics. Nor should it have been, you need a thick skin to play the game. What should have happened in the first place was that a well paid elected representative of the people of Australia should have acted like a grown up. And a big congrats to Penny for calling the situation as it was.
But no, modern politics is about the sound bite, the quick reaction and the quick snark. It is no longer about a mature debate around the subject. #carboncate was a classic reaction, not to the subject, but to a spin and byline.
Worse was still to come, like Scott Morrison and many politicians from both sides of parliament, the “apology” wasn’t an apology as you or I would expect, but was a saying sorry without saying sorry statement. I only hope that the in person apology was better than what David Bushby said on twitter:
“I am sorry that Senator Wong has felt offended by my reaction”
Sorry but WTF. That isn’t an apology for ones actions, that is a transference of blame to the other person for their reaction to what was a childish act.
Of course the #auspol crowd and a number of Liberal senators jumped on previous comments that Julia Gillard has made saying what is the difference. Which goes back to my extremely pun ridden title. Two wrongs don’t make a right. I know it is old school, but pointing out that someone else did bad to justify or shift blame isn’t acceptable as an excuse in the playground, yet in politics it is.
It is time for Australian politics to grow up, we pay you a lot of money to do the best for not just yourselves but for us.
The increasing vitriol and outright hatred in poke insults at each other, then saying but “she/he did it first” not only lessens you, but lessens us all.
The ultrasound the other day was all fine, and today Mrs wolfcat said, please come to the OB with her at lunch time. Sure, a 30 min appointment, with a bit of drive either side, I can do that.
Well, it didn’t turn out that way, but as I figure having cubs means that all pretenses of planning are going out the window anyway.
During the ultrasound, the woman doing it, noted that RC1’s heartbeat was a little to fast. Possibly due to being away, or just being grumpy with its small space being pushed in from the outside by the scanner. During the visit to the OB also did point out that at the moment Mrs Wolfcat is considered full sized for a singleton birth, with each cub around the 15kg mark. The question was asked about the faster than expected heart rate
“Just go up to fetal monitoring, could take between 5min and 45min”, sure I thought, easy, I’ll just work a bit late, that will be fine. 2.5 hours later, we were done. Turns out that RC2’s trace is bang on the money, but RC1 cycles up to 220bpm then back to 140 or so. Whilst the ladies doing the scan were impressed, we are still going to have to monitor this. What is all means, we still don’t know, so an extrabit of stress at the moment.
But we were sent home, waiting for people who understand these things to look at the traces. (I’ll update when we get more info )
Another thing I’d like to say is I love work places with flexible work hours. My last job and my current position both have this arrangement.It was great for me to be able to sit with Mrs Wolfcat during these rather dull, sit here for 2 hours tests. Sure, I had to work till 7pm, but I got my hours done and still spent the time I needed to for work/life balance.Sometimes it is important for work places to thing of the man in these situations.
So here are the the #wolfcatcubs heart beats…. RC1 is the left monitor, RC2 is the right. The monitor droppping back to below 90 or — was when RC1 decided to squirm, which seems to be its fav way of passing time.
Update 27/5/11:
Call from the OB, it could be something, it could be nothing. Hmmm… well that doesn’t help much. Going back to the good ultrasound people next Tuesday to focus on RC1’s heart. OB doesn’t seem to concerned, and given the weight they are and age, we are ticking boxes still, so nothing to panic about.
Yep… with this new Hoodie I am as prepared as I can be for the #wolfcatcubs
Just as people expect learners on the road to drive badly, I am trying to manage expectations around my ability to be a father.
Get your own here on Redbubble
Yikes… Yesterday marked the start of the third trimester….
Mrs Wolfcat is doing well and both RC1 and RC2 are ticking all the boxesthat the need to. At the last ultrasound though, we didn’t get a copy of any photos, which is a bit disappointing.
So instead, I thought I would dedicate the rest of this post, to cover of all the things that I am mentally prepared for with for the arrival of the Cubs…
um…
er…
um…
Yep, that about covers it.
All good, the big week 20 scan went off with out any dramas.
The great news is that everything is where it should be, the count of all the bits and pieces was correct as well. So we are all on track for July. When in July is the question, our suspicion is early July, but that is up to people way more qualified on these matters to make such calls.
So here are a couple of new photos, and a very rough cut 8 min version of the Ultrasound as well…
Release Candidate 2 is the much more active of the twins and wouldn’t sit still to have its photo taken…
Posted: 25 Feb 2011 09:19 PM PST
Never ones to do anything by halves Mrs Wolfcat and I are expecting twins, due sometime in July.
So not only did I start a new job this year, I am starting a family as well. This is the reason the big summer road trip never happened as Mrs Wolfcat was not up to a trip for about 2 months.
We decided cubs is suitable as the description because it describes the young of both big cats and yet also wolves.
They say a picture tells a thousand words…. this photo shows the complete genetic detail of two soon to be people. The IVF Embroys are 3 days old….
Then the first scan at 6 weeks old… where the OMG, we are pregnant, became OMG… we have having two of them and they look like something out of Alien.
And of course the 13 week ultrasound showed all on track (and in conjunction with an amnio test we had a few weeks later, gave us the all clear so far).
Current working title for them is either “Release Candidate 1 and Release Candidate 2″, or “B1 and B2″.
Of course I am willing to name them Nikon or even Canon if the price is right ( pending approval from Mrs Wolfcat).  Though she may consider Cadbury or Haigh’s…
I know I am going to need one of these t-shirts shortly….
Wish us luck…Â so far so good… and only what 30 years or so to go till it is finished……
