The End of an Era

We've felt so blessed to have ongoing great news about Baby Harvey's progress this week, because it has been a tough week professionally for me. Yesterday, my law firm (Heller Ehrman) voted to dissolve after 119 years in practice. Heller was truly a San Francisco institution. More than 1000 good folks in our multiple offices around the country will be out of a job in just a short time. Here is some news coverage of the closing:

• San Francisco Chronicle


• New York Times


• Above the Law Blog


• Wall Street Journal Law Blog

I feel very lucky that I already have one job offer with a fantastic firm, Covington & Burling, that I'm seriously considering. I work with the intellectual property litigation practice group, and a large number of partners in this group are moving to Covington on October 1. Wish me luck as I make this big decision in the coming days.

Passing the First Big Test

We had our nuchal translucency test yesterday and got the news that Baby Harvey is "all clear" for the major chromosomal abnormalities like Down's Syndrome. Although we weren't too worried about this test due to my age, it was still such a relief to get our first major assurance that Baby Harvey is right on track. It also means we will not need any invasive procedures like amniocentesis.

The best part of having this test done was that we got lots of great ultrasound videos and photos of Baby Harvey, who was quite active during the test. He/she was waving his/her little hands all around and then kicking up quite a storm. We could also see the baby opening his/her mouth and also witnessed a couple of hiccups!

A Heartbeat Away

Thomas and I had our 12 week appointment yesterday, and all is well with Baby Harvey! Our OB used the little Doppler machine to check for the baby's heartbeat and was able to find what she called "a good, strong heartbeat." She initially told us it was a little early to locate the heartbeat successfully in all cases, so we weren't expecting much. But Baby Harvey is definitely going strong!

As of today, we are officially at the 12 week mark and are happy to finally be able to reveal the news to all of our friends. It is just in time too - I'm finally showing a little bump through my clothes.

First Belly Photos: Weeks 8, 9 & 10

After hearing all the stories of my mother's problem-free pregnancies, I always thought I would have a similarly easy time. No such luck. From Week 6 until today, I have been having quite a lot of nausea, often all day long. Strangely, the worst of it has been in the evenings. So much for "morning sickness." There have been days I literally subsisted on Ritz crackers and plain pasta. Being the Type A personality that I am, I was initially worried about the fact that I wasn't getting the proper nutrition that I always thought I would be fastidious about! But my doctor assures me that it is okay to do whatever it takes to just get through the day during these times.

The nausea has been so overwhelming that I often didn't feel like eating very much and up until my tenth week, I had yet to gain any weight. We took photos of these weeks anyway just to document what I look like before my tummy really starts expanding. These are weeks 8, 9 & 10.

I just hit 11 weeks today and I'm happy to report that I'm feeling a lot better. The all-day sickness appears to be subsiding, and my appetite has returned (perhaps a little too much).

9 Weeks	10 Weeks

Yosemite or Bust

This weekend, Whit and I are headed up to Yosemite for some hiking in the High Country. Whit and I pulled this trip off last year around this time, so hopefully it's becoming a tradition.

Last year, we were in Yosemite for the third weekend in September, with the idea that we'd camp at our old stomping ground, May Lake. We did not plan for the fact that a random snowstorm would pass through the park and put a dusting of snow all over the campground. The hiking conditions were obviously nice and cool, but lacking any meaningful camping supplies for those conditions, we bailed from staying the night there. That weekend, Yosemite was also shutting down all of the concessions along Tioga Pass Road, including the Tuolummne Meadows tent cabins, the Ranger Station, and the general store. So we ended up driving outside of the park, hitting the hot springs near Mammonth Lakes, and heading to June Lake, where we stayed in an old motel with more than its fair share of Tibetan prayer flags decorating the front entrance. Definitely fun, but not the backpacking weekend we had planned.

This year, it's backpacking or bust. The current plan is drive up Friday stay at May Lake for the night, then to do the Ten Lakes trail.

Our Awesome Vacation

Last month, Leslie and I took a big vacation to Scandinavia. It was a cruise that took us from port to port in the Baltic Sea. We visited Stockholm, Riga, Helsinki, Gdansk, St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Copenhagen, and Oslo. We were gone from work for over two weeks. It was awesome.

By far, our favorite experiences were the ones in which we had a chance to meet and talk with local folks. In St. Petersburg, we had lunch with a Russian couple in their apartment. In Helsinki, we met up with guy we met on the City Sherpa website, who, just because he was cool, drove us around town for early morning tour of the city and its outskirts. I also went to a Finnish sauna. And in Copenhagen, we rode free city bikes all over town and hung out in Christiania with a couple young dudes playing backgammon at an outdoor cafe.

Here's a couple cool pictures from our trip.

Baby Harvey Cometh!

Welcome to our family's blog! We are excited to announce that we will be welcoming a third Harvey on April 3, 2009. Stay tuned for updates.