And going. And going.

A quick and dirty linux command-line script to generate randomized passwords:

#!/bin/bash
counter=$1
if [ ! $counter ]
then
counter=1
fi

while [ $counter -gt 0 ]
do
first=`< /dev/urandom tr -dc a-z0-9 | head -c3`
char=`< /dev/urandom tr -dc @#$%*^- | head -c1`
last=`< /dev/urandom tr -dc a-z0-9 | head -c4`
echo $first$char$last
counter=$(( $counter – 1 ))
done

The news is finally in, the baby appears fine. After doing the necessary genetic tests, they have concluded that the baby shows nothing out of the ordinary (like Down or Turner Syndromes). It will take another week for the full results, to test for some other even more rare things, but they added that USUALLY if those rare things do occur, the baby would have already been miscarried.

Another good thing about having genetic tests done is that you can immediately tell the sex of the baby, and it shows we are having a boy!

I think I can safely say that we are both very relieved and it will be good to be able to get some sleep again…

After having Emily (and having next to no problems whatsoever), Jen and I decided that she needed a brother or sister. And, after already having a miscarriage around the 8 week mark, we were both very excited to learn that we were again expecting. We went to the Dr’s on June 18, and went through the initial paperwork stuff that just involves some medical questioning relating to family history, allergies, etc. She had her first ultrasound at around 10.5 weeks.

At that point everything seemed fine and as the weeks passed, Jen was definitely changing. The last time she was pregnant, she said that she “never really felt pregnant” and that she didn’t feel like she did when she was carrying Emily. We had another Doc appointment on July 23rd to get a second ultrasound that would include some initial tests to check for problems, mainly targeted towards chromosome abnormality.

The test took forever. The tech said that the baby wouldn’t sit still so she could get a clear picture. I remember the baby wiggling around the entire time I was watching the monitor. Looking back, I wish I knew what was going on, but the tech continually measured a small set of lines near the back of the baby’s neck. She honestly must have measured it 20 times. She left and said she was going to show the scans to the Doc, and that he would come in to see us.

I remember things taking FOREVER. I honestly think we sat in that room alone for about a half hour. Jen had an appointment for one of our cat’s at the Vet, and knowing that we would never make it, I left the room to call them and cancel the appointment. When I came back through the waiting room and past the front desk, I noticed that there were several people hunched over a computer, all looking at it pretty intensely. I had never met the Doc before, so I didn’t know that he was one of these people. For some reason, I never really suspected there being a problem, but I guess I should have, hindsight and all.

The Doc came in with a few more people, one introducing herself as a genetic specialist or something. To keep things short, they told us that they had found a sack on the back of the neck of the baby, and that it was called a cystic hygroma. For any of you that are expecting and are still early on in the process, do yourself a favor and DON’T Google that. It will scare the pants off you.

You can see the cystic hygroma on the very back of the head, with one edge being the back of the neck and the other edge being the next large white line, with the fluid sack being in the middle.

In a nutshell, this is a type of fluid sack or lymphatic lesion that gathers when there are problems with the lymph nodes draining properly. Generally speaking, it is a sign that there may be some sort of chromosome abnormality that can usually result in things like Down or Turner’s syndrome, and a few other things. I’m not a doctor, so this is about the best way I can explain it in Medicine For Dummies terms. They suggested that Jen get a Chorionic villus sampling (CVS) test. This test involves a LONG NEEDLE. Trust me, a long needle. The needle is inserted into the placenta and a sample is drawn and sent to a lab for genetic analysis.

That is pretty much where we are now. That was last week, and they said that the initial results should come back in about 3 days.

I would say that so far, that weekend was about the longest and worst of our lives. I do very clearly remember when the Doc came in and gave us “the news.” I think I can speak for Jen and say that it hit us like a ton of bricks. Mainly because the two of us were really goofing around in the ultrasound lab before the Doc came in. I was going through the drawers and looking at stuff, just to keep us occupied.

As it turns out, Jen had to call the office back and ask about the results. They said that no one had picked up the tests for the office that Friday, and that they didn’t actually go out until Tuesday, and that we should have results by this Friday (July 30th). We are currently still awaiting a phone call with some results…

Honestly. I should update this thing once and a while. What can I say, I’ve been busy. We have a few big projects coming up at work. Tie that in with the current construction and my stress level is up there.

Emily has been sick as a dog lately with a “small spot of pneumonia” in her one lung. The good news is that the horrible pink medicine (amoxicillin) seems to be doing the trick. However, now Jen and I are sick, which is easier then watching Emily cough and hack. She’s a trooper though, and trust me, nothing can stop her now that she’s mobile.

Wow. My new kitten, Spidey, really scares me sometimes. With a look like that, I think he’s going to kill me while I sleep…

Wow, I can’t believe that I actually forgot to post about something I now love so very much. A few months ago I started to have minor problems with my Motorola Razr. It would turn itself off, wouldn’t turn on, stupid stuff like that. After a bit of research, I decided to pick up an AT&T Palm Centro.

In years past, I used different versions of Palms to keep track of my schedule for work. I always preferred the Palm OS as well as the Palm Apps, and the Centro is no different.

For anyone out there looking to sync a Palm Centro (or just about any USB based Palm these days) with Linux, please do yourself a favor and check out J-Pilot. It has the same look and feel as the Windows/Mac Palm desktop, and it syncs up flawlessly. Also, after a bit of Google work, I found a script that will download all pictures and videos from a microSD card. It’s written in Python and works really well.

To get the Palm working with Linux, make sure your kernel has the visor kernel module loaded, and J-Pilot will do the rest.