Recycled Mail

Spaghetti Squash!

2008-06-30T21:02:00.003-04:00

Do you know about spaghetti squash? Toddlers often love spaghetti squash! It's a vegetable! But it looks like angel hair pasta!
Tastes great with anything you'd use on regular pasta. I usually do it up with oil and parmesan, but sometimes we just mix it with whatever jar of tomato sauce is open.
We all three like spaghetti squash, and it's pretty easy to make. But many people don't even KNOW about it, so I'm doing my part to spread the word.
Yum! Eat it!

The First Years Meal Mates Smart Serve Suction Bowl

2008-06-25T19:53:00.002-04:00

I was really excited about this bowl, hoping Belle wouldn't try too hard to pull up on the suction, or better still, that the suction would hold against pulling. Sadly, it just offers a mild challenge, resulting in a more impressive splaying of food once the goal is achieved. Not very suctiony.
I think it might be better when she's older and isn't as interested in the bowl itself? Maybe I'll check in about that in a year.

Checking in

2008-06-17T21:37:00.002-04:00

I'm too busy to blog.
I just don't want to make the time; I have other things I like better than rehashing what's already happened.
I twitter now, under my real name so no link.
I do write a monthly letter to my daughter, but by hand in a journal, to her.

All that said, there are some things I love that I want to let people know about, just to improve the world at large.

PARENTS! Friends of parents looking for a clever gift! Do you know about the...
RayShade!
It's awesome. Click the link; I'm not going to bother to explain.
Kiddopotomus is a clever little company.

Belle never leaves the house without our
Skip*Hop Pronto
It's a diaper wallet. You don't actually need anything else all the time, so you can just pack a separate bag with the day's goods, and keep this thing fully stocked at all times. I loooove it.

That's all for now. More when I think of it.

Real Irresponsible

2008-03-31T08:30:00.002-04:00

To: realsimpleonline@customersvc.com

A recent blog entry on simply stated featured pacifiers with rhinestones on them.
http://simplystated.realsimple.com/celebrations/2008/03/hip-modern-baby.html
These pacifiers have been recalled by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, and it seems irresponsible of Real Simple not to mention this in the blog entry, where you ought to emphasize that the pacifiers should be for decoration only.
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml07/07254.html

Moreover, on Friday afternoon, 3/28, I left a comment on the blog post explaining the recall, and this comment has not been posted to the blog. I understand that comments are reviewed before being posted, but I would expect that even if Real Simple chose not to post my comment, that you would at least update or modify the post to reflect the recall issue. While initially not mentioning the recall could be simple ignorance, suppressing information regarding the recall is at best selfish.

Q&A

2007-12-30T21:35:00.000-05:00

Q: What do you get when a baby vomits up spit-up mixed with phlegm?

A: I don't know but it's all over my pajama top and pooling in my bra.

Happy Holidays and a Merry New Year!!

NoMoPoNoMo

2007-11-30T17:09:00.000-05:00

Ugh - I am so glad this is the end of NaBloPoMo. In generating a post for every day of the month, I learned a few things.

While it's nice to actually write the posts that I regularly concoct in my head during the day, it's way more time than I'd like to spend to get it all written down. I know it doesn't take that long, but it does take doing. I'd rather spend that time doing something else.

One thing I've noticed is that the time and energy I spent on the posts ended up taking up the time I used to spend uploading, editing, and posting photos on flickr. I'm way behind on my photos, and I think it's because the blog posting cannibalized the time.

I think I'm going to return to the way things were. I look forward to going back to flickr as my go-to day-to-day posting place, but I'm glad I have this blog around for the occasional musing or aside.

Oatmeal!

2007-11-29T21:45:00.001-05:00

Hey, Belle, aren't you excited? We're going to have oatmeal this morning! Yes, that's right! Oatmeal! It's something new; you've only had rice cereal until now, but now we're going to try this oatmeal cereal. Isn't that exciting? Yeah? Look at that smile, I can tell you're excited! Hooray for oatmeal! Hooray! here we go! Stirring it up in the bowl with the spoon! Mmmmm, doesn't this look good? It looks good to Mommy, yes it does. Hooray! Oatmeal! Oatmeal for Bella-boo! Yum yum, are you ready? Mmmm, that's so yummy. Ooops, got a little on your chin, that's okay, that's why we have a bib on. Yum yum yum you eat it right up. ...Mommy got distracted for a moment there, but I can see from how you're flapping your arms and hitting the tray that you're impatient for more food. More food! So yummy! You love this oatmeal! Oop - don't spit it out, it goes in, not out. Yeah, just like that, you've got it! Yummy oatmeal for breakfast! Numnumnum! Ooooh, you want to hold the spoon? You want to feed yourself? Oh, you want to play with the spoon? That's nice! Nice spoon. Yes, it goes right in your mouth, just like that. Yum! Oh, no, that end is the end for holding. That end is not for the mouth. Not that end! Here, let Mommy help you turn it around. You want it back? No? You want more oatmeal? Yeah? Yummy! Yum yum eating oatmeal! Oh, look, all done! All done with our oatmeal now! You did such a good job eating your oatmeal, Mommy is very impressed. Hooray! Hooray for baby! Okay, let's get you out of your bib and wipe off your face and hands.
That was fun!

Eyelash Roulette

2007-11-28T08:16:00.000-05:00

Why do I keep my Microtouch Trimmer right next to my mascara? Every morning, I have to be careful not to accidently take OFF my eyelashes when I mean to put them on. One of these days, there will be a horrible accident. Maybe I should move the trimmer.

Hey, Aunt Flo! Long time no!

2007-11-27T18:13:00.000-05:00

It's been over a year, and I am like a 12-year-old again.
I cannot seem to grasp the most crucial element - timing.
Oh, the wardrobe malfunctions.
Aren't you so glad I'm sharing?

Goldilocks and the Three Beds

2007-11-26T08:07:00.000-05:00

The bed at my in-laws is too firm.

The bed at my parents is too soft.

When I crawled into my own bed last night, I was happy to discover that it is juuuuuuust right.

Babies, etc.

2007-11-25T23:02:00.000-05:00

I got to hang out with my sister today, which is great, but I got the sense that Belle made my sis even more concerned that her own baby is going to be a ginormous baby. This fear is generally due to her husband's family all having ginormous babies, and I am perplexed as to how seeing my normal-proportioned daughter increases, rather than decreases, her fears.

I keep telling her not to worry about it because she'll probably end up needing a c-section like our mom and I did, but for some reason, that doesn't seem to help.

Nursing Bras: Anita

2007-11-24T17:09:00.000-05:00

I got the Anita bra relatively recently. It hasn't been through many washes yet, so I can't report on that, but I think the cup size might have shrunk in the wash already. I WISH I had had this bra in the summer. The fabric is light and airy, and would have been awesome in the heat. The model I got ran pretty pricey at $60, but that's what you have to pay when you are looking for decent hold in a 34F. (The other two, purchased before my ribcage went back to normal, were a more mainstream 36DD.) This bra has good hold, too.

Nursing Bras: Melinda G

2007-11-23T21:00:00.000-05:00

Melinda G! This is my other go-to bra. It's very thin, which means it's somewhat unforgiving of puffy breast pads. It doesn't cost as much as the Medela, and the sizing isn't precise, so it's a good bra to get late in pregnancy, when you aren't sure what size you'll be post-partum.

Nursing Bras: Medela

2007-11-22T19:52:00.000-05:00

More product reviews! I'm starting with my favorite overall: Medela's nursing bra. It had quite a bit of fabric, so it's not great for the summer, but mine (Softcup Seamless) has weathered many washes and it still has its shape. It seems a little pricey at first, but most nursing bras are expensive, so this one is a middle-range price. One thing that's nice about this bra is that the cups detach more separately from one another than with most other bras.

Disposable Breast Pads: Lansinoh

2007-11-21T15:44:00.000-05:00

I like the Lansinoh disposable pads, but to be honest, I haven't really tried anything else. Compared to the reusables, these are thinner, more absorbent, and show under clothing the least. I wear my disposables when I'm dressing up for an event or something.

Oh, I did try the pair of Medelas that came with my breast pump, and they were comparable to the Lansinoh, for what I could tell from the one-time use.

Reusable Breast Pads: Avent

2007-11-20T18:33:00.000-05:00

I go back and forth about whether I like the Avent or the Gerber better. The Avent are puffy, but very absorbent. It takes a lot to soak through.

Yeah, I know these reviews are brief. How much is there to say about breast pads? Lay off!

Well, that's it for my reusable breast pads. On to disposables!

Reusable Breast Pads: Bravado

2007-11-19T20:25:00.000-05:00

So you think it's going to be a great product because it's all boutiquey and stuff. Relatively hard-to-find and pricey. The opposite of the Gerber ones!
Well, they ARE the opposite of the Gerber pads. Did you follow the link above? If so, did you notice the words "terry cloth"?
Ugh.
These pads soak right through. Weak. They're terrible. They are also VERY noticeable under clothing, like wearing a round towel in your bra.
On the plus side, they come with a really cool mesh bag.

Answer

2007-11-19T00:02:00.000-05:00

Yes! Thank goodness. Ew. OK, I probably owe a second post today.

Question

2007-11-18T22:20:00.000-05:00

Does smeared baby earwax come out of a bib in the wash? Stay tuned for the answer!

Reusable Breast Pads: Gerber

2007-11-17T20:56:00.000-05:00

I'm going to write some product reviews to pass the time in NaBloPoMo. First I'm going to talk about all the different reusable breast pads I have. Run while you can.
I like the reusable ones - I throw them in a lingerie bag for the wash,

Gerber Reusable Breast Pads
I like these! You'd think they're cheap or something because they're available everywhere and not expensive, but they're pretty good. They are the thinnest I have, and not too noticable under clothing. They're relatively waterproof, though if you're having a leaky day, you'll get what I call "the eclipse effect", which is where you get wet spots in a circle around the outside of where the breast pad is. This is due to what is the weak point of these pads: they are not very absorbent. I recommend them for any time except the first 1-2 months after the baby's born.

Child Slavery and Chocolate

2007-11-16T07:05:00.000-05:00

I had no idea. No more Cadbury Dairy Milk for me; it's Fair Trade Certified only from now on.
I would write a post about how before today I thought "Fair Trade" was a marketing ploy, but D just poured me a nice glass of wine and I'm not bothering with the computer any more tonight. (Tried again with Snapfish and it screwed up again. At least I discovered it much much sooner this time.)
Google will tell you what you need to know about chocolate and the child slave trade.
By the way, Dagoba is owned by Hershey's now.

In the good news column, my favorite chocolatier uses a very eco- and labor-friendly supplier.

Tory Tore Vito

2007-11-15T07:27:00.000-05:00

While doing a Google search the other day about Mythbusters, I stumbled across the trivia that Mythbuster build team member Tory's name is actually Salvatore. An interesting factoid, and one that makes me like his parents' nameing sensibilities much more, since I like names that have multiple nicknames. He could go by Sal if he wanted to. I also thought that maybe he could go by Vito, but I looked up what Vito is a nickname for, and it's technically short for Vittorio. I guess that makes it fair game for any Victor as well. But I think it's fair for Salvatores, or Vincents for that matter, to use it if they want to.
I would never want to, but that's because the only Vito I ever knew was the fat, annoying kid in my third-grade class.

[EXPLETIVE!]

2007-11-14T21:22:00.000-05:00

I just lost an hour's worth of work on a photo project on Snapfish because their 'auto-save' feature crashed. I was unable to manually save the project, so now I have to build it all over again from scratch.

Gaaaauuugghh!!!!!

I don't know which Spock I need

2007-11-13T22:01:00.000-05:00

Belle has two little points on her ear. I first noticed them in the hospital when she was first born, and I thought maybe it was the kind of thing that would go away over time, but it hasn't. Sometimes I try to feel my own ears to see if she got it from me, or what. I think it's the kind of thing only a mom would notice; nobody's ever said anything about them to me.
Eventually, though, Belle will notice them, and I have these terrible flash-forwards to an eleven-year-old screaming at me:
I hate my ears, Mom, and I hate YOU!

Brokedy-ass Cookie Gun

2007-11-12T19:23:00.000-05:00

I made cookies tonight, and I brought out my cookie gun so I could have flower-shaped cookies. My cookie gun is already cracked in two places, so it's a little tricky to operate. While I was shooting cookies, the back of the gun disconnected with the barrel, leaving me with a useless, busted-up carcass of a cookie gun. I tossed the gun, but kept the shape discs, in case they fit in the next cookie gun.
I asked D about it, and my cookie gun is the equivalent of a Saturday Night Special, which are apparently notoriously cheap. He says that what I want is the glock of cookie guns: serviceable if not particularly pretty. I'm feeling kind of turned off about plastic guns right now, though, so he said a Smith & Wesson would be a fine alternative.

Dear Santa,
I would like the Smith & Wesson of cookie guns. It would be nice if it took the same size bullets as my old cookie gun.

Pray for Immortal TiVo

2007-11-11T09:38:00.000-05:00

I don't know what we'll do when the TiVo eventually conks out. It was a gift, and at the time, you could pay a single amount for a lifetime-of-the-unit subscription to the TiVo service. The subscription was part of the gift. I know the service now "doesn't cost that much" per month, but it's SOMEthing new that we would have to add on to our monthly expenses if it ever came time to get another one. I see this as such a luxury item, I don't know if I could justify the expense. After all, we could be putting away that $20/mo towards our retirement or Belle's education, and I think my values structure is such that that's what I'd want to do. Unfortunately, I think I would clash with D over this, because as much as I do love the TiVo, I think D believes that he NEEDS the TiVo, education and retirement be damned.
So my affection for the TiVo these days is bittersweet, because when the end comes, it will bring a domestic shitstorm. For now, though, I'm enjoying new shows whenever I feel like it, and the occasional Xena rerun.

Holidaysholidaysholidaysohgodholidays

2007-11-10T10:30:00.000-05:00

I'm a little freaked out that the holidays are coming up so soon. There aren't a lot of weekends between now and then, and there isn't a lot of time to figure out gifts for people. I don't get gifts for that many people, just family members, but still - it's the figuring out that can be fun but looms a bit stressful this year. I think I might just shortcut by buying things from stores people like and then including a gift receipt. That way they can go when things are on sale anyway.
And then there's the Christmas Card Question. Now that we have a baby, people are going to expect cards, right? I figure folks expect cards as soon as a couple gets married, but we got a break the first year for being newlyweds, and the second year for being pregnant, but this year the baby excuse is trumped by the need for baby pictures! Send photos! So I think we have to do the photo card, and really there's no excuse not to, except that I'm not sure when to take the photo. I'd like to as soon as possible, but then she might be too young in the photo? I dont know; I think we'll take it asap so we can get everything ordered.

Cereal

2007-11-09T22:23:00.000-05:00

I've got nothing to say today, so here's a link to the cereal Belle is having once a day these days, mixed with breast milk. She loves having cereal! She loves the spoon! Sometimes she grabs the spoon to feed herself which is ok with me, but most of the time she just lets Mommy handle the logistics.

Another self-explanatory website

2007-11-08T06:44:00.000-05:00

I just ordered labels for all of Belle's stuff. All stuff must be labeled!!! How do you do that? You go to labelyourstuff.com of course.

We had a note from day care last week to label Belle's bottle lids. I put the three flower stickers on them that I've been using to mark her bottles but NO THAT'S NOT ENOUGH ANYMORE apparently, because when D brought Belle home, all the bottle lids had Belle's name written on them. This must be some new initiative, because Belle's been in day care since the end of August, and labeling bottle lids never came up before. So I decided it was finally time to buy some of those stupid labels to slap onto everything. Hers are red with the butterfly logo. (The ladybug is ugly.)

Exactly where you might look to find it

2007-11-07T07:07:00.000-05:00

Last night I found a nice website for downloading free kids' music: freekidsmusic.com

It has a several classic songs, which is really nice for songs where you don't know the lyrics but wish you did, and it has a few songs each from a bunch of contemproary childrens' music composers, like a build-your-own sampler pack.

Meaningless Tragedy

2007-11-06T07:42:00.000-05:00

On Friday afternoon, a sprinkler repairman beat a man to death and then bludgeoned the man's daughter-in-law. There's no way the victims could have prevented or prepared for this; it's a horrible thing that happened when a mind became unhinged.

The slain man was the patriarch of a large Boston-area family, and knowing one of the family members just makes me one of thousands who do, and whose thoughts and prayers go out to the family. What a senseless tragedy.

The Sun has Six Vaginas

2007-11-05T17:16:00.000-05:00

...according to this toy.

I saw this in a store the other day, and it freaked me out a little.
Imagine all the vagina-related fun you could have with this toy! Putting things in, taking them out... awesome.

I don't really believe that any child would associate the openings with vaginas, but I do. And now so do you.

Like the back of a Volkswagen

2007-11-04T09:20:00.000-05:00

I've seen a few cute outfits in Belle's size that are made by the U.S. Polo Association; a weird clothing brand that I suspect is the chicken to Ralph Lauren Polo's egg. The thing that has kept me from buying anything made by this brand, though, is the logo. You can kind of see what it looks like on their website, but on the actual shirts, it looks like two men riding a horse together and enjoying it too much.

Maybe an Anthrax cover band?

2007-11-03T10:16:00.000-04:00

So, yesterday I mentioned that "Bleb-b-gone" would be a bad band name. This got me thinking: a milk bleb can sometimes lead to mastitis. Oooh, you don't want mastitis. However, "Mastitis" would be a very cool band name. I'm thinking it would be perfect for an all-female heavy metal band.

Well, lookee there.

2007-11-02T21:57:00.000-04:00

Happy Belated Blogiversary to me!

I'm behind on everything, so a blogiversary should be no different.
Hey, check me out, two posts in a day. I wonder if this gives me a day off later in the month?

I am so not 'getting the point' of the NaBloPoMo, I think. I am a mockery, perhaps?

Bleb-B-Gone

2007-11-02T07:34:00.000-04:00

Bleb bleb bleb!
Much like plutonium, it is fun to say. But I believe I have successfully resolved the bleb situation, so no more bleb blogging. "Bleb-B-Gone", by the way, would be a terrible name for a band.

NaBloPoMo

2007-11-01T07:11:00.000-04:00

Ok, I'm going to try to participate in one of these November endeavors. So I will post to the blog every day. I might cheat and lie about the post dates so I have more flexibility, but in the end, that's still 30 posts for the month, which is a lot.
This will be nice, though. I have so much to share, and lately, I haven't been sharing as much as I usually do.

If only there was some kind of trophy for acting stupid...

2007-10-24T20:28:00.000-04:00

I made myself a little ramen this evening. It's been so long since I made ramen that.... well, there's really no excuse for having to read the package to find out how long to boil it.
Worse still, when I read the package I found out I made it wrong. Apparently, the spice packet goes in at the end, not the beginning.

Osh Kosh Overalls, size 3-6mo., weigh 9.5oz

2007-10-22T20:46:00.000-04:00

That's the punchline.

The setup is this:
I weighed Belle at the local baby boutique today, and was absolutely shocked at how much it seemed she had gained in the past three weeks. I actually turned the scale off and then on and then reset it to zero, but still it read the same crazy-high number. I figured that about 4-5 ounces were due to clothing, but it still seemed really high.
Later in the evening, I weighed the overalls Belle had been wearing, and that solved the mystery. Heavy overalls!

October is a busy month 'round here

2007-10-22T07:26:00.000-04:00

Where September was a month dedicated to getting in the swing of our new work and day care schedules, October is the month of, now that we've got a schedule, visiting with friends. Lots of travel, and a little bit of hosting, but we have let the apartment get messy. I still have a full suitcase from 2 weeks ago, and D and I both wondered where two of the dryer balls disappeared to for weeks now. I found them yesterday in a forgotten laundry basket full of to-be-ironed table linens hidden behind said suitcase.

Belle is doing great; she's between colds right now, which is how I'll be thinking of "not sick" until June. A few weeks ago, she proved herself too adept a roller to be allowed free reign on her playmat in the middle of the apartment, so she is now confined to the Pack-and-Play. This seems to be OK with her. Her current project is figuring out depth perception, also known as Is That Close Enough To Touch, a game that goes hand in hand with Can I Fit It In My Mouth?

Breastfeeding is going fine, as is the pumping, except that I have some weird thing that I think is a milk bleb. "Milk bleb" is fun to say, even just said silently in my mind. Milk bleb milk bleb milk bleb.
It also would be a funny insult to call someone. "You milk bleb!" I think it might catch on.

In these busy weeks, D and I have found a little time to zone out and watch some of the new fall tv season. Between returning shows and all the Exciting New Programs, the first two weeks of the fall tv season meant we watched more than usual, and definitely more than we should.
I cut Bionic Woman from my slate after the pilot - blech. I don't see how they can promote the show as girl power when the entire premise is based on a guy using his girlfriend's body without her permission.
Pushing Daisies is the next for the chopping block. I feel like I should like it, but they're doing it all wrong somehow. I do like Jim Dale's voiceover work, and the character Olivia, but the two main characters are just yuck.
New Show Keepers: Chuck and Reaper. Despite the articles comparing them to one another, these shows are definitely distinct. And cute.

Things on my mind

2007-09-28T20:52:00.000-04:00

I haven't had a lot of time to post - not a priority, to be honest.
Here are some of the thoughts I've had that in easier times would have been entire posts:

The fleshy sides of my nose have been hurting as though I have a piercing in each nostril. Not that I would know what having a piercing would feel like. I blame all the nose-blowing.
Bionic Woman pilot = disappointing, Chuck pilot = promising
Upon reflection and experimentation, Belle has concluded that a long nights' sleep is not really her bag, baby.
No Burn Notice until next summer? Really?
So very tired.
Luvs diapers kind of suck.

Post-Partum Hair Loss

2007-09-09T10:21:00.000-04:00

Confession #8

The post-partum hair loss is getting out of hand. So much hair! on the floor! in my hand! in the comb! It's weaving itself into wall-to-wall carpeting on the bathroom floor.

My hair is shoulder-length, and styled with long layers. This means that not all my hair is the same length; it's a shaping thing I guess. Anyway, the longest layers, the hair that reaches to my shoulders, is getting pretty thin as a result of all this hair loss. It hangs in thin patches and is starting to resemble a mullet.

Hair loss supposedly peaks around the 4 month mark, so this month will see the worst of it, and it will get better starting in October. I'm holding off on a haircut until the end of the month, but it's... well, it's kind of sad. My hair's shorter than I'm used to in the first place, so I don't have a lot of options for updo's. A pair of french braids looks really cute, but I can't do that for work. Anyway, whine, bitch, moan, my hair, my hair, is everywhere; here baby, there Mama, everywhere, Daddy Daddy.

Oh right, I have a blog...

2007-09-08T10:30:00.000-04:00

Belle's down for a nap, so I thought I'd check in on you poor neglected readers.

It's been very busy for us the past few weeks: I started work again and Belle's begun day care, so we're adjusting to new rhythms and schedules. Also, we bought a car!!!!
We are the proud owners of a 2006 Subaru Outback in dual-tone Atlantic Blue (w/silver). It's an automatic transmission, and it's a basic model; the only option-thingy it has is heated seats which, if you could choose one, that's a good one to choose. Now, I said we're 'owners', but I didn't say 'drivers', because we haven't yet had the car seat base installed and checked out at the local police station. It's a sticky situation, because they only do inspections on Tuesdays, which is one of the days when I go to work and D takes care of Belle. But D is confident he can install the base properly on his own (since he did it for the other two cars before getting a thumbs-up from the police), enough to drive over there with Belle this Tuesday.

I've also had to go shopping for some work clothing for my post-partum figure. You may recall that I had a HUGE pregnancy belly - well, that doesn't go away all at once. A deflated belly creates a new figure, one that requires differently-cut clothing. And I have to be careful about it, because I still have numbness on my lower abdomen. This should wear off in another 6 months or so, but in the meantime, I have to take that lack of feeling into consideration. For example, if a normal person's belly is hanging out of their clothes, the tiny hairs and nerve endings on the skin will alert them to the exposure, because you feel drafts, etc. Not so for the numb! I could walk around all day with a saggy gut hanging out and never realize it. This is why I am still enamoured of my pregnancy camisoles - they cover everything. But I'm too small now for my preggers pants, so I must shop a bit.

Speaking of shopping, have you SEEN the adorableness available at Gymboree?? OMG, SQUIRRELS! And hedgehogs and bunnies and tiny gnomes! I have $17 in store credit and a 20% off coupon that expires in two weeks, and I'm trying to decide how to wield them to Belle's best advantage.

Day care is going ok for Belle, but not great. I call to check in one her twice a day, while I'm pumping at work, and one day she spent the whole morning fussing, and another day she had loose stools (which they'd send her home for if she wasn't fully breastfed) and a minor fever (99.3). But she's had some okay days too, so I think it's going to work out. Yesterday, she cried when Daddy left, both times. (He stopped by in the afternoon because they called me at 2pm to tell me that she'd been refusing to eat all day since her 9am feeding.)

She's still sleeping like a champ, which is so very very lucky for us, and totally undeserved for me, because I was a terrible sleeper as a baby. She has mastered rolling over from her back to her belly, as long as she rolls to the left. I wonder if this means she'll be right-handed. Handedness is interesting to me because I'm a lefty and D's a righty and I'm so curious which way Belle will go. She also has figured out the leg movements for crawling, but she hasn't figured out that her arms need to help out, or that it would be easier if she lifted her belly off the floor. The result of her legs-only pushing is that she kind of pushes over onto her head. It's cute. It's also only a matter of time before she figures it out and starts crawling. Yikes!

She still isn't very interested in toys at all. Hands are for observing and sticking in her mouth, not for reaching or grabbing. If a toy gets in her hand's way, then it might be contemplated with a bit of interest, but as a minor obstacle only.

Milk Run

2007-08-26T20:16:00.000-04:00

Last night, the power went out in half of our apartment. D tried resetting the circuit, but it didn't work. The half without electricity: the living room, tv room, and kitchen. We called the landlord and left a voice mail. We tried turning a bunch of stuff of and re-resetting the circuits. We called the landlord again. Nothing.
I was already getting ready for bed when D said, "What should we do about the milk in the freezer?"
Shit.
Shitshitshitshitshit.
I had two months' worth of frozen breastmilk stored in there. It would almost certainly thaw overnight. What to do, what to do?

Well, since half of our apartment still had electricity, we considered running an extension cord and plugging in the fridge to an outlet with some juice. We rejected this notion, because we feared it would overload the only circuit left, and we needed that one for the air conditioner.

We had to find another freezer.

So I called my friends Max* & Shut_In_w/Cats, to see if we could borrow a little freezer space for our baby's frozen food. He said to come right over. We packed up three full converted-tissue-boxes worth of milk into an empty diaper bag, and I ran to the car, and hastened to their abode, where Max cleared a whole freezer shelf for me.

Our friends are our heroes!! Our power's back, but we're not going to ask to retrieve the milk until we've had power for at least 24 hours.
Ferrying frozen breastmilk is one of the odder local errands I've had to run.

*Max? Really? When did we come up with that pseudonym? I think it's short for Max Power, right?

Brita Filter Plastics

2007-08-20T08:49:00.000-04:00

I called Brita the other day to find out about the plastics they use in their water filtration systems, and I posted what I found out over in the comment section at ZRecs.

Here's what I wrote:

I called the company, and Brita lids and filters are made from #4, polypropylene, which most sources consider safe.The containers themselves are made of a #7 called "SAN": styrene acrylonitrile. The Brita lady I spoke with specifically promised that there is no BPA in any of their plastic.

Unremarkable = Perfection

2007-08-19T08:07:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was the kind of Saturday I'd been looking forward to for ages. Beautiful weather, no plans, just us. Before Belle, this kind of day generally went somewhat wasted: we might get out on some kind of trip, but ultimately it felt to me like we just weren't fulfilling the potential of the day.

Now, with a baby, the potential of a day is very different. Instead of feeling like there's so much I should get done, I felt like everything we do accomplish is a victory, and everything we do is layered with a kind of significance, because we're doing it with Belle as well. Mostly, we had a quiet day at home. Our big outing was to take Belle on a little 1-mile hike in the Baby Bjorn, and once we had gotten her to sleep at night, we tried cooking a new recipe for dinner.

Sure, we didn't hike Mt. Monadnock or camp out overnight or throw a party, but it was perfect to me the way it was. This is precisely the kind of day I was looking forward to having once we became parents, and I have not been disappointed.

Losing my cool about spit-up

2007-08-16T09:23:00.000-04:00

(Reprinted from an email to my new-mom group)

I have a question that I never thought to ask in class, but after yet another debacle this morning, I would love some advice about what to do to contain/control Belle's spit-ups after a feeding. It seems like no matter how clever I think I'm being, or how big a cloth I use to cover her, me, and the area in-between, she always ends up getting spit-up on my back, in my bra, in my lap, down my side, down her front and past her bib, or on the chair. Sometimes she'll spit up while leaning on my shoulder, sometimes when she's held sitting or standing facing me. I hate the idea of having to run to the kitchen after every breast just so the spit-up can land on the linoleum; does anyone have any suggestions? I had a particularly bad time of it this morning, with spit-up so copious my husband had to take her so I could strip and shower. It's not that there's so much volume, it's just that it ends up covering so much surface area!

Plastic Paranoia the Third

2007-08-16T08:44:00.001-04:00

I guess there have finally been enough official studies about the problems with BPA in plastic, because even the folks who write the Baby Bargains book are putting BPA bottles on their shit list. (For those readers who don't have kids, Baby Bargains is THE go-to book for reviews and recommendations on baby gear. I think many people would consider it an essential reference for setting up their baby registries and their baby's rooms.)
Here's a link to the blog post over at the Baby Bargains blog. I didn't know they HAD a blog, but you can be sure I added it to my RSS collection. The bottom of the article has links to the Z Recommends article I've mentioned before. Since this plastics issue has become so mainstream, I think I may finally mention it to the women in my new moms group. Our class is over, so it's going to be an email. Oh, well. I have questions for them about spit-up containment techniques anyway.

Chick Flicks, George Clooney, ....and Optimus Prime?

2007-08-16T08:19:00.000-04:00

I live in a great neighborhood for being a new mom. I can walk into town, where there's a maternity center with new mom classes and breastfeeding supplies and clothing, and I can take an even longer walk to get to the local movie house where they have a "parent movie" every Monday afternoon. I'm subscribed to the email where I can vote on what the next week's movie will be, and I had a bit of a laugh when i saw the options for next week. To give some perspective, the last 5 weeks, the movies have been: Evening, Ocean's Thirteen (twice), and Waitress (twice).
Here's the latest selection:
Once, Rescue Dawn, Shrek the 3rd, Surf's Up, Transformers.
It's great that they give us a full selection of what they can offer, but I think it's probably unnecessary to include Transformers, no?
Well, having said that, I'm sure I'll be proven wrong and it will end up being this Monday's movie. If that happens, I'll post an update, and we'll all have a good laugh.

8/19 UPDATE:
"Once" beat out Shrek at 36% to 34%. Transformers did come in third at 15%.

More Plastic Paranoia

2007-08-14T08:39:00.000-04:00

So, the plastic in baby bottles leaches chemicals, and the plastic in sippy cups is not suggested either. But I haven't seen many articles address the plastic ingestion that must happen with teething toys. Then I saw this post on GoodyBlog, which points out that silver rattles, which most of us think of as ornamental keepsakes, are terrific for teething because the silver is nice and cold, and the handle is small for easy gripping. When I was at my parents' this weekend, I asked my mom if she had any silver rattles from when I was little or from when she was little. She did indeed have the very rattle - a barbell-shaped little thing that has a musical clang to its rattling that my sister and I both used to grow in our teeth. The balls on the ends of the rattle have little dents from the workout we gave it.

I'm really excited about having my daughter teethe on the same rattle that I used. I will probably have to introduce some plastics at some point, but I may call the company to find out what kind of plastic it is before I let Belle stick anything in her mouth.

Don't dip your chips in that.

2007-08-13T20:28:00.000-04:00

D, Belle and I went on a long-weekend's journey to visit our parents this past weekend. It was the first time for traveling with Belle out-of-state, and she did a great job. She slept a lot in the car, and when she wasn't sleeping, she was contentedly watching the world go by. Each set of parents had their friends over while we visited, and Belle was a charming hostess at both soirees. She smiled, she looked people in the eye, she even fell asleep in a few people's arms.
Unfortunately, I had some kind of stomach bug during the trip, which made an already tiring excursion even more draining. Worse, Belle seemed to pick it up from me yesterday, and in the evening she had what D called a "guacamole poop".
We are both doing much better today, and I have to get cracking on yet another batch of thank-you notes for all the lovely gifts we received. I have discovered that the only way to not feel like I'm always writing thank-you notes is to write them as soon as possible, so there's no time for them to prey on my mind.

Mixed Feelings

2007-07-30T09:42:00.000-04:00

I'm torn between wishing this page had an RSS feed I could subscribe to,
and a sense of relief that it doesn't.
It's a list of all the non-toy children's products that are being recalled, including furniture and clothing. It's funny that the clothing people keep forgetting that drawstrings are always a strangulation hazard. I suppose it's sad that parents keep forgetting, too.
Caveat emptor, dumbasses, it's clothing with a built-in rope.

Anyway, the list can be kind of upsetting, especially if you have a Baby Bjorn Active or a Fisher-Price Rainforest Swing.

I'll call her Belle

2007-07-29T10:23:00.000-04:00

The name "Baby" has an expiration date on it, so I'm going to call her Belle.

I still don't know what her different cries are, but I think the reason for that is partly because I so rarely hear her cry when she's hungry. I feed her every 3-4 hours during the day, and it's only about once a week that she realizes she's hungry before I feed her. When she wakes up hungry at night, I'm just not that with-it to notice the nature of her cry. After all, I know exactly what she wants.

In addition to not getting particularly hungry during the day, Belle has taken to getting a good chunk of sleep at night, falling asleep by 8:30 at the latest and waking at 2am at the earliest. This leaves me with a dilemma many new moms face: do I try to get a full 6+ hours of uninterrupted sleep by going to bed at 7:30pm, or do I enjoy a quiet evening and continue getting 4ish hours at a time? So far, it's been the latter, and I'm trying to be in bed by 10:15, which mostly translates to "before 11". I usually get another 2-3 hours after that feeding before the next.

The only frustration we have with Belle's latest schedule and otherwise-delightful personality is that she has to have a good cry before sleeping most of the time. When she gets tired in the afternoon, she gets so sad and cranky. And in the evening when we're getting her ready for bed, there's always crying. Sometimes her evening crankytime lasts only 15 minutes, but sometimes it can go for 90 before she tuckers herself out. It's so very sad when she cries, and I feel so sad to not be able to help her.
I think that's one of the most important lessons of parenthood - that sometimes, we just can't help our children, we can only be there to hold them and love them. I've seen my mother go through the same thing when I've had hard times, so I might as well just learn how to deal with it now.

Media Blackout

2007-07-20T22:40:00.000-04:00

I'm initiating a total media blackout starting tonight and continuing until I finish reading the new Harry Potter. I'm not surfing the internet, listening to the radio, and I might not even answer my phone. Honestly, I don't even trust my Mom not to start a conversation with something awful like "So, were you sad when Hermione died?"

This media blackout will take a while, because D's reading the book first. We're taking turns, because SOMEbody has to watch the baby.

I think I'll even refrain from tv that broadcasts after midnight tonight. But it seems like Scrubs reruns are probably safe.

My Plastic Paranoia

2007-07-18T21:58:00.000-04:00

For years now, friends and co-workers have rolled their eyes at my paranoia over plastic. Particularly, over heating things in plastic. I often bring a Lean Cuisine to work for my lunch, but I always bring china from home to use in the microwave: I refuse to microwave any plastic. Also, I won't boil plastic; that's dangerous too. Also-also, no nonstick pans above medium heat. OK, medium-high.

My plastic paranoia naturally extended to baby products once I became pregnant. There is a chemical called BPA which has been proven to leach out of some types of plastic and into whatever is contained in the plastic. It is absolutely shocking to me that so many BABY BOTTLES are made with this plastic.

The baby-industrial-complex doesn't really want word of this to get out, and I haven't seen any major media coverage about the dangers and ubiquity of BPA, but there are plenty of studies available online. I forget where I found this, but this pdf from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy is a good summary of what's going on with plastics.
Some of the baby blogs I read have done some research, particularly:
Baby Toolkit
Daddy Types
Z Recommends

I'm guessing that posting this won't make a difference to my readers, especially because I sound like the kind of crappy alarmist email forward your aunt keeps sending everyone, but to twist a phrase,
Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they aren't putting dangerous chemicals in baby bottle plastics.

It Can't It Won't and It Don't Stop

2007-07-16T10:20:00.001-04:00

The thrush, that is. Poor Baby has had a mild case of thrush on her tongue for about a month. According to her doc, the mild cases are the hardest to get rid of, which only sort of makes sense. Anyway, I'm getting tired of swabbing her tongue four times a day.
It is, however, completely adorable how she tries to suck on the q-tip.

In other news, this week she has started making 'conversational' sounds, not just sounds born of raw need. Saturday she actually said "goo-goo" like people say babies do. It's so cute.

Regarding that last post

2007-07-10T11:47:00.000-04:00

Y'all have to go watch Working Mommy.

Funny Ordie

2007-07-09T18:42:00.000-04:00

I have another confession: when I read about the website in Entertainment Weekly, I thought the site was called Funny Ordie, like a guy's weird name.
It's got some funny stuff, including a few Will Ferrell videos that have him being terrorized by a toddler.
But what I really enjoy are the video shorts of female sitcom stars being incongruently badass.

Breastmilk Captures My Imagination, part 2

2007-07-06T16:23:00.000-04:00

I know you were wondering about the part 2, right?

I just read the book City of Light, about Buffalo, NY at the turn of the century. It mentions wet nurses, and that got me thinking. Wet nurses must have gone out of style due to the burgeoning formula industry and the rise of the middle class (which meant less households employed servants). But now that breastmilk is back in style, so to speak, and pumping has become relatively commonplace, it seems like wet nurses could make a resurgence.

Now, since I'm talking about the purchase of bodily fluids for feeding infants, I don't think it would ever be quite an FDA-approved industry. However, after sitting in at my first-ever brestfeeding drop-in class yesterday, I could see how there could arise small, local black-market enterprises. Some women need more milk, and some produce too much. I imagine the covert exchange of Lansinoh bags, bartered for babysitting time, in the aisles of Babies R Us and at local coffeeshops.

I was kidding about the bartering. It's more likely women would give it away for free. Kind of like blood donation - if someone demands payment for it, you probably don't want what they're selling. Of course, then maybe lazy, selfish women would try to get in on the deal, figuring "Why be the cow when you can get the milk for free?"

Breastmilk Captures My Imagination, part 1

2007-07-06T08:14:00.000-04:00

Ever since I started breastfeeding, I've been really curious about breastmilk, and its potential non-baby applications. For those of you who don't know, breastmilk tastes like sweetened skim milk. That sweetness makes me think it could be the perfect coffee additive, because it puts the milk and the sugar all in one place. One could even posit that it's the perfect ratio of milk to sugar by definition - it's what our body wanted when we were infants.

I started wondering whether it would be good for making a Vietnamese coffee, which involves sweetened condensed milk. I'd have to find a way to condense breastmilk for that, though. Then I started thinking it would be cool to try to steam it for a cappuccino, but I'm not sure that would work either, because the milk (my milk, anyway) seems too thin; not fatty enough to really foam up well. It would be an excellent ingredient for iced coffee, though - you'd need quite a bit of it, but it would be perfect, I suspect.

I'm not saying I've tried any of these methods, though. And it's not like I expressed an ounce this morning due to engorgement, then used it in my morning decaf. Although if I had done that, I'm sure I would pronounce it quite a tasty endeavor.

Like taking toiletries from a baby

2007-07-05T14:47:00.000-04:00

I've been meaning to admit something here for a while: I've stolen toiletries from my daughter for my own use.

Let me explain.
Once we returned from the hospital, I went through the toiletries we had amassed from the baby shower, to figure out what to use for her baths, etc. I discovered that the Aveeno products contain the same colloidal oatmeal stuff as my oatmeal paths, so I decided to try the body wash on myself, to help with my lingerning post-partum PUPPPs. Also, the lavender-camomile moisturizer sounded nice, so I thought I'd try that, too. I think they were helpful.

The PUPPPs are well and truly gone by now, but I'm still using that body wash. It's nice. If we run out of other stuff for her, I'll return it, I swear!

Athlete's Foot in the Mouth

2007-06-22T09:44:00.000-04:00

At Baby's 2-week check-up, I was dismayed to learn that she has a mild case of thrush on her tongue. All I'm supposed to do is dip a q-tip in the medicine, swab it on her tongue after feedings 4x a day, and I'm done. I was worried we were in for a long haul of fighting over whether Baby would allow me to do so, mostly because Kathy's ordeal sounded like a total pain.

When Baby seemed to have no problem with the medicine, and would start to actually suck at the q-tip, I was amazed, and decided that she was truly a perfect match for fellow-gourmand Spliggle. But her affection for the medication was more practically explained when my mother read the packaging and discovered that Nystatin is 50% sugar.

The thrush seems to be clearing up, albeit slowly, and it doesn't seem to be bothering Baby at all. She enjoys getting dessert after four of her feedings a day, too.

Confession #5: Baby's TV Parents

2007-06-21T11:31:00.000-04:00

We're supposed to be reading to Baby so she gets to know the sounds and cadences of our voices and of reading and all that good nurtury stuff. But seriously, I don't at all see the point of reading to a baby who can't even sit in a way where she could see the pages of the book IF she could even see the pages of the book. Instead, we'll sit with her on the couch when we watch tv. She stares off at a lamp ("oooh, light") behind us while we watch.

Unfortunately, this means that the speech cadences she's picking up are from the television characters. Thanks to the new season of The Colser, she's going to think her mommy is Brenda Lee Johnson, and thanks to D's catching up on Lost, she'll think Desmond is her father.

This may result in her developing a Southern/Welsh accent, and her first words might be "Thank yew, brother!"

Double your pleasure

2007-06-16T10:31:00.000-04:00

My husband has put together a personal website for our family. I think the idea is mostly to keep the new grandparents updated. Also, it's better to have show ip in Google than 13-yr-old photos of me drinking at 3am. Anyway, there's a blog there, where personal minutiae will be posted re: Baby's development, etc. If you're interested in getting the latest on Baby's First Spit-Up, and How Long Baby Slept Last Night, that will be the place to go.

That frees me up to write about all the other stuff. Like how I FEEL about how long Baby slept last night, I guess. And other stuff. We'll see when, and Kathy promises the day will come, I can breastfeed and type at the same time. Until then, I don't have much time.

PUPPdate

2007-06-08T11:24:00.000-04:00

The PUPPs, they are still around.
Now they have "mellowed" into a general itchiness on my arms and legs, with new hives showing up mostly only on my hands and feet, though there does seem to be new growth on my upper thighs. The generalized itchiness makes it even more soothing when I scratch, so I really let myself go to town with the scratching in the hospital. Unfortunately, this means I'll now have scars from them, but I don't regret it. There's only so much a girl can take, and I don't fault myself for finding a little relief where I could.

For the first 24 hours after the surgery, I had to wear these weird things on my calves that were like large blood pressure monitors: they would rhythmically inflate and deflate, "massaging" my legs to prevent blood clots. The inside part that gets wrapped around the leg is a nylon fabric, which meant that my leg hives were being squished by a hot non-absorbent material that pushed sweat into the hives. This does not help itchiness. But I couldn't scratch, because (1) I couldn't bend over that far (see also: first 24 hrs after abdominal surgery) and (2) they were supposed to stay on so I don't get a blood clot and die. The only relief I had was the time or two that the nurse would take them off and wipe down my legs with a cool, damp washcloth. It was a real relief when those things came off. Mostly because I could scratch like the bad girl I am, but also because the machine was really loud and periodically started beeping for no discernable reason.

So now I have little dots like scratched mosquito bites on my legs and arms, and bruising where the scratching did NOT break the skin, and a red rash where the hives have 'mellowed'. It's hideous, but I suppose it's an appropriate counterpart to the latticework of stretchmarks on my belly.

Somebody looks like Daddy

2007-06-05T20:53:00.000-04:00

I agree with folks who say that Baby totally looks like her dad. That's why I sent around a photo of her where you can see her dimple; she only has one, but it's just like D's. Although it is on the same side that my dimple's on, so that counts for something?
Her skin tone is also D's - it's so weird to see this tan baby breastfeeding off my pinky-white breast.
I'm hoping she turns out to have my blue eyes so people don't think I adopted.
For what it's worth, I think she has my toes.

First Sign of Sleep Deprivation

2007-06-05T08:09:00.000-04:00

I put everyone's email address in the To instead of the Bcc in the mega-mass-email announcing the baby. So everyone got this long long To list, making me look like I learned about "this email thing" last week. Ah, well, at least folks will know who I accidently left out. Right?

Baby has arrived

2007-06-03T23:02:00.000-04:00

Just a quick post to let you know that I had the baby last Wednesday. Healthy baby girl, doing well, and I'm in good shape, considering the surgery, etc.
And yes, I still have the PUPPs, but they aren't quite so itchy; just mildly itchy.
Great hospital. Could have used an internet connection, but the nurses were fantastic.
Will blog more whenI get the chance. If you want to leave a comment, please kindly recall that I use nicknames on the blog. Baby's nickname is still in the works - call her Baby for now.

Recycled Video!

2007-05-26T21:21:00.000-04:00

I did not take this video; it's from the chicken blog (listed in the sidebar).
Chickens like cheese, apparently.
Also, they like watching fingers.
This video totally cheered me up on a very annoying day of hideous hives and a complete lack of going into labor.

Half a Meme is better than no Meme at all

2007-05-24T07:47:00.000-04:00

I don't think I can even come up with eight people to target, considering who has already been targeted for this meme. I mean, I could come up with maybe 4. But instead, I'm just going to do half a meme.

Eight Random Facts ~~and Eight Unwary Targets~~

When I was little, I really loved my Sit-n-Spin.
I have a mylar duck balloon floating next to my computer table here at home from the baby shower that was over a month ago, and I love how half-inflated and creepy it is.
I've become incredibly picky about what books I read, and as a result I don't read for recreation as much as I would like to. I realize this is oddly self-defeating.
I do all my banking online with USAA.
I carry sudoku puzzles in my day-runner for when I have to wait in doctors' offices.
I genuinely like and respect my boss.
I don't complain about my hair because I like my hair. It's plain, but manageable.
I prefer lip gloss over lipstick, but I do use a lip pencil.

Show and Tell

2007-05-22T07:13:00.001-04:00

About a month ago, we learned that the couple moving in next door has the same due date for their baby as we do. We haven't gotten to meet the wife, we just briefly encountered the husband on their moving day.

When D got home last night, he told me that he had heard a baby crying from the house next door; it sounds like they are home from the hospital with their newborn. "Look," I said, turning around and tugging at my pjs, "I think the hives have spread to my butt."

Them: newborn baby.
Us: Ass hives.

I'm starting to look like something out of a medical journal. If anyone hears of any local casting calls for Medicine's Next Top Model, let me know.

A PUPP named Rover

2007-05-20T23:34:00.000-04:00

So, I don't know if you read either of those links I posted about PUPPs, the itchy hives that have developed on my stomach, in my stretch marks. If you did read up, then you will not be surprised to hear that they have spread. Yes, that's right, I now have itchy hives on my stomach, legs, ankles, and upper arms. And one on my thumb knuckle.

I am running out of Benadryl cream.

My OB thinks that I'll be a few days late, and I cannot imagine how hive-covered and miserably itchy I will be by then. I have spent all of today miserably itchy. I mean, the cream helps, but I inevitably find myself scratching somewhere every hour or so. After all, they're spreading.

In other news, Mittens threw up 5 times today. We suspect it's the Trader Joe's dry food we introduced, so we've given her a fresh bowl of some wet food, and we'll see if she gets better in the next few days. It's very worrisome.

These PUPPs are NOT adorable.

2007-05-15T18:53:00.000-04:00

I have developed something called PUPPs, or PUPPPs, depending where you look. WARNING: graphic photos of hives at links. Sounds cute, but they're actually itchy hives that develop late in pregnancy, and don't go away until after delivery. In my case, they're showing up in the stretchmarks above my bellybutton. So not only do I have dramatic, striating stretchmarks all over my lower stomach, now some of them are inhabited by angry, itchy red bumps. Luckily, I am allowed to use anti-itch cream on them.
This does not actually feel lucky to me.
I would rather not have itchy hives in my disfiguring stretchmarks, is all I'm saying.
And yes, that's right, the on-call doc I spoke with did indeed assure me that they will not go away until after delivery. I guess that's one more reason to look forward to delivery.

How to Make a Han-Solo-in-carbonite chocolate bar

2007-05-11T07:01:00.000-04:00

I know this is TOTALLY out-of-genre for me to mention, but this "instructable" that showed up in my rss feed today was too good not to share with readers, and thereby reward all the geeks in my readership.
I don't use a sitemeter, so I have no idea how many or who is reading this blog, but I'm sure this link will get passed around.

Update on the baby-to-be

2007-05-10T22:20:00.000-04:00

Ultrasound: Unfortunately, despite a thorough organ inspection and some cute still-photos, this ultrasound did not include a weight or growth update. But kidneys, stomach, liver, spine, heart, and umbilical cord are all doing well. The fluid is measuring as 24.7cm, which is down from a few weeks ago, when it was 27cm. 25cm is the cut-off for 'normal', so my doctor is very excited that I no longer have the label of "polyhydramnios". I'm excited, too!

OB visit: In addition to no longer being polyhydramniotic or whatever it's called, I also lost three pounds since last week! I know that sounds seriously weird to be excited about, but I've gained a lot of weight with this pregnancy. It's all baby, I know, but still, it's a lot to suddenly tote around everywhere. Anyway, I think it's from the effect of the dietary changes I've made over the past month on the suggestions of the nutritionist I met with in April. That might also account for the decrease in fluid, too. The baby's probably slowing down on her weight gain, I HOPE! She's at least 7 pounds by now.
I have to have a non-stress test at all my OB visits from now on, which is time-consuming and annoying, mostly because (1) everything is always absolutely fine, and (2) the baby does NOT cooperate. She moves around, kicks at the monitor thingy, and at this last one, she tried to hide from it by backing away from the belly toward my spine.
The nurses agree with me that she's a saucy one.

PSYCH! The ultrasounds can't, they won't, and they don't stop.

2007-05-09T16:07:00.000-04:00

Because of the continued presence of so much fluid, and what has been documented as "excessive baby growth", I had another ultrasound today, and there's one scheduled for next Wednesday, too.
The tech today was nice, and the baby behaved a bit - we got to see her suck down some fluid, and the tech got this cute close-up.She labeled it for viewing convenience. The word "Open" is resting on the baby's cheek, if that helps any.

TUMBLE DRY LOW!

2007-04-30T07:32:00.000-04:00

For several months now, D and I have discussed the possibility of replacing our old dryer (free with apartment) with a new one, because of Tumble Dry Low. See, Ye Olde Dryer has only two heat settings: On and Off. This makes drying my clothing difficult, because a lot of my clothing is "tumble dry low" and if I put it in the dryer with the heat On, that's too much. But if the heat is Off, then nothing really happens. So I have been walking the line by putting it in with heat for a while, then taking it out when still damp and letting it finish drying on a hanger or rack.

This was annoying enough when it was just some of my clothing, but then THEN we got some baby clothing. Baby clothing is ALL Tumble Dry Low. That's when we started talking seriously about a new dryer. Not just for the baby, but for my things as well. Also, it might be marginally helpful on the electricity bill.

So, we went back and forth about this for a while: should we spend all this money on a non-baby purchase right now, how will we know what's a good deal, etc. We decided we could delay the issue by doing the initial washing of the baby clothing at a laundromat, which is how I spent part of my Saturday last weekend. This Friday, though, Ye Olde Dryer made the decision for us. I think it overheard our smack-talk about it, and it gave up the ghost. D could not get it to dry clothing any more.

Saturday was going to be a big errand-day anyway, when we planned to look into portable air-conditioning units (our apartment has weird windows), among other things. So we were already hitting some appliance stores. While the guy at Home Depot did entice me by explaining the concept of the dryer shoe rack (brilliant!), ultimately we went with a Kenmore from Sears, much like this one. It was on sale, but being on sale meant there was no delivery charge rebate, so the sale ended up only saving us about $20. But hey, free $20!

I am very excited that when I go home tonight, I go home to Tumble Dry Low. Oh, how my quality of life has increased!

The ultimate ultrasound

2007-04-25T07:29:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was our three-week follow-up with the maternal/fetal consultant. It was (hopefully!) our final ultrasound, and baby behaved much better this time; she showed her face to the camera, demonstrated mouth movements, and impressed the tech with her chubby cheeks and functioning heart and kidneys.
D was adorable at the ultrasound, as he always is. He loves seeing his little baby-to-be, and when the tech got a good shot of her face, his "awww" was just as heartfelt as during the first ultrasound.

My fluid is still above normal; it's 27cm, and 25cm is the high side of normal. But still, it has come down from 30cm a month ago to 29cm three weeks ago, so there's a good decline in the numbers, even if it's still abnormally high.
Baby is estimated to weigh 6lb 10oz, which makes her bigger than I was when I was born. This is considered the 67th percentile for weight, so she's big but not huge. She's gained an average of .5lb/week over the past three weeks; if she can keep that pace, I'd be on track to deliver a baby just under 9 pounds. That's big, but not Guinness big.

The consultant wants me to come in for weekly non-stress tests, which strikes me as a ridiculous waste of time, as there is no concern over her heart rate or movement, which is all the test measures. I'm going to mention it to my OB at my appointment tomorrow; maybe she can shed some light on what the point is. Or maybe she'll absolve me of them. The consultant also suggested that I talk with my OB about scheduling an induction for week 39. I'll mention it to her, but in the context of "we'd rather not unless you think it's really important to."

The meeting with the nutritionist last week was informative. She wants me eating more meat/protein, I have to count my carbs and make them a smaller percentage of my diet, and I have to eat more often. The meat/protein part is fun; D cooked chicken for the first time in maybe 10 years, and we had bison steak the other night, and tonight I'll be making a batch of egg salad for lunches. The carb thing is a little tricky because I have to pay close attention to what I'm eating, but it's easy if I keep enough non-carb foods around. The eating more often is the hard part. I'm supposed to not go more than three hours without food, and I have to have a snack near bedtime and start breakfast early, so my overnight fast is minimized. It's relentless.

Update from the frontlines

2007-04-23T19:34:00.000-04:00

Finally, I wrote someone an email worth recycling.

Our goal is to have everything ready (as ready as clueless pre-parents can be) by May 1st. That way, I can while away the last three weeks without crucial projects like room preparation, etc. hanging over my head. I've just started the stage of third trimester when the tiredness sets back in, and there have lately been a few Fun-With-Hormones mood swings. Also, my ankles. They are so swollen.

Baby seems to be enjoying her stay in Hotel Me. She doesn't kick - she just kind of squirms. But maybe those are kicks, just dulled by my excess fluid. I'm really looking forward to lightening, when she drops. For several months now, she's been wedging her foot up by my right rib - it's a pain. I expect it will feel good to have her sitting a little lower, though I don't look forward to all the bathroom trips and the increased pelvic spread that will come. Like my pelvis isn't weird enough already.

P.S. Are you watching Robin Hood yet? I would call his demeanor in this last episode "adorably tortured."

F this.

2007-04-16T21:48:00.000-04:00

(Confession #4)
I was starting to put together a blog post in my head, when I remembered that I had to check with the internet about something. As it turns out, the internet confirms that I make my cursive 'f's incorrectly. (See diagram)
The bottom of my f flips back, instead of forward. I think my f is much prettier, so I'm not going to correct the error, but I do think it's interesting that I'm only realizing it now, and I wonder for how long I have been making my subversive f.

Little Ado about Nothing

2007-04-09T22:27:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I've posted; there just hasn't been much to say. I did get in quite a bit of TV watching this weekend, between chores, though, and here are my thoughts on some of my favorite shows that are currently showing new episodes:

On Tyra's model show (whose name I will eshew to avoid showing up in google searches), I'm worried we're going to have to be subjected to the models having to use their stupid new 'model names' the rest of the season. Also, I'm looking forward to seeing some improvement in Brittany's hair, because that is so sad what has happened there, and she's been a real trooper about it.
The BBCA's new show Robin Hood: I can't stop thinking about that hottie, Robin Hood. D's cool with that because he can, in return, crush on Marian. Also, we both agree that the real Robin Hood would be utterly repulsive in terms of hygeine, living in the woods in the 12th century. I also think that the actor who plays him looks skinny and weasely when not in character. Marian is, however, adorable, even if she did wear an enviable saffron cardigan that seemed anachronistically modern in design in the last episode. Also, one could imagine that an actual Marian probably didn't smell like shit all the time.
The BBC's new style mavens for the 2007 season of What Not To Wear are terrible. In replacing Trinny and Susannah, they also tweaked the format, and now we don't get to see the victims' wardrobes getting trashed, and they do a lot less at explaining the rules for what styles on clothing to look for, focusing more on the color. I'm taking it off the TiVo's season pass.
I got really tired of Six Feet Under (on Bravo), and skipped about 5 episodes to watch the series finale, which was enough closure for me, so I erased all the skipped ones and took that off season pass as well. It was just not that interesting of a show.
30 Rock used to suck and now it doesn't suck. It's like The Portriat Of ~~Dorian Gray~~ Studio 60.
I used to not watch Lost, but now I like Lost, but I can't talk about Lost, because D's about 7 episodes behind.
I tried The New Adventures Of Old Christine, but the laugh track made it utterly intolerable.

Ultrasound #4

2007-04-03T17:32:00.000-04:00

Today was ultrasound #4, where a doctor reads the ultrasound data and looks for any kind of abnormality that might explain why all the extra fluid. He couldn't find anything wrong, everything looked good. Unfortunately, we still have to go back in three weeks to make sure things are still going ok. The baby's current position makes it difficult for him to see what's going on in her throat, where any swallowing issues would occur, but he seemed to think that the size of her stomach indicated good swallowing ability.

In the good news column, the baby hasn't grown precipitously in the past week since ultrasound #3 - she's measuring as weighing 5lb 3oz, and in general, her stats put her at around 34.5 weeks, which is only two weeks ahead of schedule instead of three. So maybe she's mellowing out on the whole growth thing, and she'll end up normal-sized by the time she's full-term. Or not. She could end up unbearably huge - literally unbearable. But let's hope for the normal-size thing; that sounds much better to me.

Good v. Bad

2007-04-02T19:00:00.000-04:00

I've put off writing about the latest rounds of tests, because they've been one after the other, so I figured I'd wait til they were all done, but there's another one tomorrow, and I think it's just going to keep going, so now's as good a time as any to check in about what's up.

BAD: Ultrasound tech says there's way more fluid around the baby than there should be, and the baby is measuring two weeks larger than is normal for her age.
GOOD: Her heart and bladder functions look normal.
BAD: If the fluid and the baby's growth continue at their current rate, then either the size of my uterus will trigger pre-term labor, or the baby grow to be too big and I'll be unable to deliver it.
GOOD: There are a few reasons these things happen, and some are treatable. My doctor set up a bunch of tests, to see if we could figure it out.
BAD: First attempt at re-taking the glucose one-hour test: show up at the hospital at 7am so I can get to work on time afterwards, only to find that my doctor's office had not yet sent in the order.
GOOD: Order gets sent in that day, so I can take the test the next morning, one day before my doctor's appointment.
BAD: At the OB appointment, I find out that I failed the glucose test, and I have to go do the 3-hour one, to see if I've developed gestational diabetes. My doctor also wants me to meet with a maternal-fetal consultant, who will do some tests to figure out if maybe there's an anatomical reason for all the fluid, like if the baby's not swallowing correctly or something. Also, she's going to get me a nutritional consult, so I can adjust my diet, especially if this is gestational diabetes.
GOOD: My OB seems to be an aggressive advocate on my behalf.
BAD: My 3-hour glucose test is scheduled for the Sunday morning of the weekend my parents are visiting.
GOOD: If we get an early dinner, we can work around the fast and meet for brunch after all the testing.
BAD: Do you know what a 3-hour glucose test is?? First, I fast for 12 hours , then I go to the hospital, have a vial drawn to check if my blood sugar is in range to start the test, then drink the nasty flat orange soda. Then wait an hour, have another vial of blood drawn, wait an hour, have a third vial of blood drawn, wait an hour, have a fourth and final vial drawn. It is boring to sit around the lab waiting room for four hours, hungry.
GOOD: A call to my OB's office today, and they already had the results. I passed the test, so I don't have gestational diabetes! Go, pancreas, go!
BAD: I don't have gestational diabetes, so now it's that much harder to figure out why the baby's too big and why there's too much fluid.
GOOD: I have a meeting with that maternal-fetal consultant tomorrow, so maybe something will show up in that.
BAD: Something could come up at the consult tomorrow. Anything explanatory that the consultant can find would be bad news - anatomical disfunction or disfigurement!
GOOD: It could be something completely unknowable that doesn't show up at all.

So that's what I've been up to this past week. I'll post again when we know something new.

Stress Test vs. Non-Stress Test

2007-03-24T08:53:00.000-04:00

A few years ago, my father went to the hospital for a stress test. They had him run on a treadmill while they monitored various heart-related things. The end result, as my mother tells it, is that he went straight from the treadmill to a gurney to having surgery for a blocked artery that had been previously undetected. The particular nature of this type of blocked artery is apparently nicknamed 'the widowmaker'; it's what killed John Ritter. So, stress tests are our friends for catching hidden things.

I had a non-stress test a few days ago, ordered by the on-call doctor when I called circa 6pm to find out if I should be worried that I'd gone a day without feeling any wriggling in my belly. He was all, "yeeah, come on down right now and we'll do a non-stress test to check you out." Since I knew a stress test involved running on a treadmill, I figured a non-stress test would involve lying in a bed. Do you know what? It totally does.

Here is what a non-stress test is: I lie on a bed while a nurse hooks up two little round monitors on my belly - one to monitor contractions (this one proved unnecessary for me), and one to monitor the baby's heart rate. It took a while to find a good place for monitoring the heart rate, because the baby was turned around, facing in with her back to us. The nurse said that that position is probably why I couldn't feel her moving. They keep the monitor going for 20 minutes, and they look for at least two spikes in the heart rate in that time - the baby's heart rate spikes when she moves around, so they're trying to monitor for movement.

I don't think I've mentioned this before on the blog, but D and I have a theory that the baby does not like it when people try to listen in on her business. She does not care for wiretaps. She squirms at my OB appointments when they listen for her heartbeat with the Doppler thingy, and at the second ultrasound in January, she stuck her tongue out at us and threw what the tech described as a bit of a tantrum. (I'm sorry to say this, but she probably gets that attitude from me. D's very even-keeled.)
Anyway, so baby hates wiretaps, and this non-stress test clearly put her off, because she was all about moving around to evade the heartrate monitor. Which, of course, was great! Good Fetus! Squirm away! She was good at squirming, which meant the nurse kept having to readjust the monitor thing to re-find the heartrate, but once we were all done, she brought the read-out sheet to the on-call doctor, who cleared me to go. I never met the doctor, which is too bad, because he might end up being the one on-duty when I have the baby, but not being a priority just means that everything is going well.

And everything is going well - there's been plenty of squirming since the test; I guess baby realized that if she takes a day off, she might get her privacy interrupted, so she's not about to take another day off. Won't she be pissed when she finds herself in another ultrasound next week!
That's right, we're going back in. I'm still carrying bigger than I'm supposed to, so maybe Bob the Tech can figure out why.

Nurse Mittens Seems To Be Prescribing Bed Rest

2007-03-24T08:37:00.000-04:00

I love my cat.
I have to say that right off the bat, because the other night I had to do some furniture rearranging to insure that I didn't kick her or toss her out a window.

Lately, Mittens has taken to meowing at me whenever I'm awake. Constantly. She's always been a vocal kitty, but this now is with the non-stop all-the-timingness. The only time she'll settle down and not meow at me is if I'm in bed or on the couch. If I'm sitting in a chair, that's pretty good; sometimes she'll leave me alone. But if I'm up and about cooking dinner, getting dressed, straightening up... it's meowmeow meow meeeroooowww meow meow. I can get her to shut up if I pick her up and carry her around with me, but that hampers my ability to do whatever I'm doing. If only she could tolerate the Baby Bjorn, that might solve some of the problem.

So, back to the other night. I was cooking dinner, and therefore meowmeowmeowmeow. Meow. Underfoot. I'm very proud of myself for not kicking her, even gently. I didn't have any closed door behind which I could put her: the bathroom wouldn't work, because I'm in and out of that pretty regularly with my pregnancy bladder; the door to D's study with her litterbox is wedged open by the current placement of the treadmill; the baby's room is off-limits; the bedroom and stairwells seem like a bad choice if she gets angry and pees all over. So instead, I grabbed our 6' folding screen and blocked off the doorless entry to the kitchen, and closed the doored entry to the kitchen. Access Denied, Mittens!
She still meowed from behind the screen, but at least she didn't yowl, and I couldn't see her, so it was easier to ignore.

I like to think that this bodes well for my parenting skills. I might be denied sainthood for my lack of tolerance of the whining, but at least I can have the presence of mind to come up with a safe solution, right? Right?

IF YOU LIKE cleaning your sink, YOU'LL ALSO ENJOY descending into death

2007-03-21T18:33:00.000-04:00

I was looking at the FlyLady's book on amazon.com, and I noticed that the little buy-these-books-together-and-save seemed awfully strange.

Buy Sink Reflections: Overwhelmed? Disorganized? Living in Chaos? The FlyLady's Simple FLYing Lessons Will Show You How to Get Your Home and Your Life in Order--and It All Starts with Shining Your Sink!
and get My Descent Into Death: A Second Chance at Life at an additional 5% off Amazon.com's everyday low price.

Please let me know when Sink Reflections has a foreword by Anne Rice, because that will be worth reading.

MYSTERY SOLVED!!

2007-03-20T07:56:00.000-04:00

From: DCgal
To: JJ
Subject: Re: Package

That would be me!
I had wondered when I placed the order about whether it would be clear it came from me... there was no card or note option, but I thought maybe I'd at least appear on the packing slip! At any rate, I'm glad to have solved your mystery and more importantly, I'm glad the fishies arrived safely. I really liked the idea of calming ocean sounds putting your girl to sleep. Hope it is a success!

-----Original Message-----
From: JJ
To: DCgal
Subject: Re: Package

OH MY GOD ARE YOU THE ONE WHO SENT THE MOBILE????

-----Original Message-----
From: DCgal
To: JJ
Subject: Package

I just wanted to touch base because I had a little something for the baby shipped your way a couple of weeks ago and I just wanted to make sure it arrived.

Desperate ...to be prepared for my toddler!

2007-03-19T21:41:00.000-04:00

I found the Simple Me Boutique through babygadget, which highlighted their custom capes. For those who don't know, babygadget is a design site that basically posts innovatively-designed baby/child gear that tends to be pretty and expensive. I mean, really? A custom cape? Can't I make that with a sewing machine and a fiver worth of Jo Ann Fabrics? Maybe some velcro...

Anyway, what prompted the post was the outrageous photo for this diaper bag. Enjoy!

Aurora Borealis Tattoo

2007-03-12T07:54:00.000-04:00

Stretch marks. I had gotten so far without them, I thought (hoped!) I would be spared, but no such luck. Mostly they reach out like purple sunshine from where low-rise jeans would sit, but there are a few next to my belly button, which I'm blaming on the baby; I think she's trying to poke out my belly button, and she keeps missing. What's weird is that this is not at all where I feel stretched - my skin feels tightest high up on my belly, not down where the marks are.

And the parade of indignities marches on.

And Now: The Downfall of Humankind

2007-03-06T13:40:00.000-05:00

Oh yes! By all means, let's buy tissue boxes with photos of our babies on them, so the babies are spitting tissues!
My, that sounds neat-o! I especially like how the baby's mouth looks like the mouth on a blow-up doll! Not at all disturbing!

The Mystery of the Anonymous Mobile

2007-02-28T07:33:00.000-05:00

Maybe one of my readers can help D and me solve this mystery, so I'm reprinting the email we sent to our parents:

Yesterday we received a lovely gift in the mail: a Fisher-Price Ocean Wonders Mobile with Remote Control.
It was shipped from a company called Albee Baby, and the packing slip was uninformative regarding who it was from.

Here is a link to the item, as it is listed on the Albee Baby website:
http://www.specialtybaby.com/fiprocwomowi.html

DOES ANYONE KNOW WHO SENT THIS TO US?

I'd like to send a thank-you note.

UPDATE 3/6/07: No claimers yet. Here's a photo:

UPDATE 3/20/07: Perpetrator has been found! See new post.

The Much Awaited Cat Travel Post

2007-02-20T07:54:00.000-05:00

I know many of you have been eagerly waiting to hear how it went this weekend, when D and I drove 5 hours to his parents with our cat. For the purposes of blog-nicknames, I'll call our cat Mittens, because that's what I call her around the house anyway. Because it rhymes with kitten. What?
In preparation for the trip, I bought disposable "puppy pads" to line her carrying cage in case of an accident, and I made a portable litterbox out of a 12x12 plastic storage box full of her regular litter, which is clumping and flushable, perfect for travel!

Here's the lowdown on what a good kitty she was:
Mittens was a very good kitty on her long journey with us this weekend. She meowed a lot, but she did quiet down after the first hour, and she was very good about using her litterbox at the house once we were there. She was quiet on the way back, and I think she now understands that just because she's in the carrier, that doesn't mean we're going to abandon her. She spent the weekend hiding on the floor next to the bed on the far side of our bedroom, but when I would come in to check on her, she was happy to hop up on the bed for pettings. She was complacent when we'd carry her downstairs to meet new people, and she did figure out how to run up the stairs back to her room if we put her down in the front hallway.
She only used her litterbox at night, which is her usual pattern anyway, and D and I suspect that she likes digging in her litterbox as a pasttime, because it woke us both up the second night, and we lay there listening to her paw-paw-paw-paw-paw-paw-paw-paw at the litter.
I'm just glad she has a hobby.
We'll still leave her at home for weekend trips, but the next time we have a long trip that we're driving, we might take her with us; she was so good!

Answering the Craving Question

2007-02-16T07:17:00.000-05:00

It seems that everyone else's craving is to ask me about my food cravings.
Below is the latest response I have given. If I develop any new cravings during the rest of my pregnancy, or ever, I promise I'll post an update.

In my first trimester, when I was nauseated, I developed an affection for pickles. That wore off when the nausea subsided. These days, I don't know if it's a craving, but I really like breakfast foods. Specifically, I would rather have fresh fruit than a salty snack, and after 8 years of generally avoiding cereal, I'm all about my old-school favorite: Product 19. Every so often I'll treat myself to Corn Pops, but mostly it's P19 or granola. And for snacks, apples, pears, grapefruit, or I'll make a fruit salad. Sometimes I'll make pancakes. I made them for dinner once; that was awesome.
Other than the pancakes, it's all weirdly healthy of me.
I don't have any big aversions; I'll pretty much eat anything I ate before, except for all the stuff I'm not supposed to eat when pregnant.

The Many Uses For Machine-Gun Jubblies

2007-02-12T18:56:00.000-05:00

It's a cure-all. Please check out this post over on Parent Hacks about the many "off-label" uses for breastmilk. I say many because though the post is about healing infant eye infections by squirting breastmilk at your baby, the comments bring it all to a higher plane.
I may be going to Hell, though, because this discussion reminded me of this Drawn Together episode.

Pregnancy Date-Tracking is starting to fall apart

2007-02-12T07:35:00.000-05:00

According to iVillage and Wikipedia, I'm in my 2nd trimester; 3rd starts at week 28.
According to the pregnancy book Great Expectations, I'm in my 3rd trimester; 3rd starts at week 25.

According to iVillage's pregnancy calendar, I'm in my 26th week of pregnancy.
According to Ticker Factory's countdown, I'm in my 25th week of pregnancy.

I'll use my doctor's time-table as a tie-breaker; she has me at 25 weeks.

A Dish Is Just A Dish

2007-02-11T14:37:00.000-05:00

To celebrate Valentine's Day, D and I went out for a romantic dinner Saturday night. We like to go the weekend before instead of the weekend after, because it's much easier to get a reservation. We tried Casablanca, the restaurant under the Brattle Theatre in Harvard Square. It has big murals on the walls of scenes and characters from the film, which is interesting, but what's really post-worthy is the FOOD. The food was exquisite. You really should go.

Every dish we had was delicious, but the most outstanding was the grilled breast served as part of my entree of "Duck Two Ways" (grilled breast and confit with wilted spinach over wild rice and roasted pear). Even though I had to get it pretty thoroughly cooked due to pregnancy, even medium-well-to-well it was soft and tender and not dry. D, who generally doesn't eat poultry, was amazed at the flavor; it tasted like a tender steak.

We need a better selection of stamps.

2007-02-04T21:51:00.000-05:00

I just put a Hawkman stamp on a sorry-your-mom-died card. It doesn't seem right.
But then again, I'm already tardy in sending it, and if I waited until I got some more-appropriate stamps, the letter would be even later.
I could have used some old stamps of lower denomination, but a regular card littered with a variety of stamps probably looks stranger than a lesser-known crimefighter.
I could have used Wonder Woman for a female theme, but that felt even more wrong.
Why not the Green Arrow, or Superman? I thought Hawkman's yellow background would blend better on the yellow envelope. I'm doing my best with the materials I have. I just have to get better materials.

Weekend Plans in IM form

2007-01-26T16:56:00.000-05:00

(I let her pick her nickname; I take no credit)

me: I had my monthly Dr. appt, and she measured and said I measured at 26 weeks, but I'm only 23 weeks.
she says it's probably a growth spurt, which is normal, but technically anyone who measures as 3 weeks ahead or more has to go have an ultrasound
so we go tomorrow.
Shut_In_w/Cats: that's good right?
Shut_In_w/Cats: it means you are healthy?
me: well, it's not really good or really bad. That's why they have to do a test.
me: But maybe we will get more photos!
Shut_In_w/Cats: that's good the test... information!
me: If it's just a growth spurt, then that's ok. If the baby's growing a lot consistently, that might mean an early induction. If there's a freaky tumor growing in there, then omg I don't know.
But really, I suspect growth spurt.
Shut_In_w/Cats: spurt spurt!
me: I'm not really worried. I'll worry when they tell me to worry.
me: We're going over to the hospital early, though, because I have to do this weird blood test thing, too.
It's a totally routine thing
Shut_In_w/Cats: eeek
i hate blood tests!
me: I'm just trying to get everything in in one trip
oh, this is a weird one - it's The Glucose Challenge!
Shut_In_w/Cats: weirds!
me: I go in, and they give me a sugary beverage (free drink!)
and then I have to sit there for an hour and not go anywhere and not do/drink/eat anything
me: and THEN they take the blood.
but my plan is that after that, I have a little food and head upstairs for the ultrasound.
With 'challenge' in the name, I feel like I should win a prize.
I Met The Glucose Challenge!!
Shut_In_w/Cats: no prize.. evidently just larger baby!
me: yeah. that's unrelated.
she's overachieving.
aim for average, little baby!
no rush! Rushing makes Mommy worried you're going to be HUGE!

So that's it for my weekend plans.
It's supposed to be really cold, so it's probably best to stay inside the rest of the time.

National Pie Day

2007-01-23T20:33:00.000-05:00

Apparently, it's National Pie Day. So D bought pie for us to honor this important day. By eating pie.
Happy Pie Day!

Rechargeable Laptop Battery Pack: English Cautions

2007-01-18T20:22:00.000-05:00

First off, let me tell you all that I won't be posting any photos over at flickr for a few weeks because my computer is going off to Vaio Laptop Sleepaway Camp, where it'll learn to do the backstroke, weave small baskets, and burn audio CDs. OK, just the last part, actually. There are some issues with the drive. So maybe I'll blog using D's computer, but not photos because he's got a Mac, and that's complicated.

Okay. Anyway.
So poor little Tappy (that's my computer's name) also needs a new battery, which arrived today, complete with cautionary insert. Please allow me to share the highlights:

English
This safety instructions must be read carefully and must be fully understood, before attempting to use your Laptop.
Never throw the battery pack into fire, as this could cause battery pack to explode.
Never hammer a nail into the battery pack. Never hit a hammer on the battery pack.
Always keep the battery pack out of reach of infants or small children.

And here I was thinking I'd use the old one as a crib toy, possibly as a pacifier.