Friday, December 31, 2010
2010 Wrap-up
All in all, a pretty uneventful year. Happy New Year everyone, and we'll see you in 2011.
Phoebe Jane comes home
Phoebe Jane finally sleeps for a good long while, after not sleeping most of the night. About 6am we were at wit's end, but then she had a final feeding and slept for about 4 hours, which to us was like nirvana.
Phoebe and Kate get ready to come home. Kate was happy to finally put on some real clothes for the first time in a couple days. Phoebe was in her first non-hospital outfit, including a snazzy hat knit by great-grandma Tomkinson.
Phoebe stylin' in her car seat. She fell asleep in that thing right away. Noted for future reference.
She's in our house! Who authorized this?Danger (on the left) and Lucy explore the new addition. Rocky also explored when we first brought her home, but by the time I got the camera out he had already run upstairs and hidden under the bed.
Lucy goes in for a closer look.At the time of this writing, after being home for about an hour, Rocky is still hiding, Lucy is back to being her usual self, and Danger keeps following Phoebe around everywhere. Pretty much as we'd expected.
On to night two!
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Phoebe Jane Gottlieb
Phoebe Jane Gottlieb was born at 3:55am PST. 7 lbs, 12 oz. 20.5 inches long. Mom and baby are both doing great. Everyone is pretty tired, though.
Phoebe being weighed. She was still adjusting to being on the outside. She definitely has a healthy set of lungs.
Phoebe with her mama. This was a little better, as it was kind of cozy. Not as cozy as being on the inside, though.
Phoebe with papa. By now she had seemed to calm down.
Of course, five seconds later.....
Phoebe's first bath. She was not a fan.
Asleep at last!
Phoebe being weighed. She was still adjusting to being on the outside. She definitely has a healthy set of lungs.
Phoebe with her mama. This was a little better, as it was kind of cozy. Not as cozy as being on the inside, though.
Phoebe with papa. By now she had seemed to calm down.
Of course, five seconds later.....
Phoebe's first bath. She was not a fan.
Asleep at last!
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
5 Days Past Due
And still no sign of Bagel.
I also still have a really bad cold. Jeremy says that if we showed up at the hospital at this point we would be just as likely to get sent to quarantine as to the maternity ward. He is hilarious.
Actually, Jeremy has been taking very good care of me. He even went out and got me Pho (Vietnamese chicken noodle soup) for dinner the last few nights. The biggest excitement around here happened when Danger, thinking he was being sneaky and stealing some of my dinner, accidentally got a big mouthful of the hot sauce that came with my Pho. Despite the fact that when I saw him headed for the hot sauce I yelled "NO, Danger" he still acted like the whole hot sauce incident was entirely my fault - I got a lot of dirty kitty looks for the rest of the night. He seems to have recovered just fine and he was back to trolling for handouts at breakfast this morning.
I also still have a really bad cold. Jeremy says that if we showed up at the hospital at this point we would be just as likely to get sent to quarantine as to the maternity ward. He is hilarious.
Actually, Jeremy has been taking very good care of me. He even went out and got me Pho (Vietnamese chicken noodle soup) for dinner the last few nights. The biggest excitement around here happened when Danger, thinking he was being sneaky and stealing some of my dinner, accidentally got a big mouthful of the hot sauce that came with my Pho. Despite the fact that when I saw him headed for the hot sauce I yelled "NO, Danger" he still acted like the whole hot sauce incident was entirely my fault - I got a lot of dirty kitty looks for the rest of the night. He seems to have recovered just fine and he was back to trolling for handouts at breakfast this morning.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Quick Update
Still no baby.
In other news, I did manage to get a really bad cold for Christmas. Santa must have misunderstood my list this year. I asked for a CHILD not a COLD. Maybe it is time for the old guy to get new glasses. Anyway, I've been spending my days on the couch alternately drinking OJ, blowing my nose and taking naps. At least it (partially) takes my mind off the fact that we're still waiting around for Bagel to make her appearance.
Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and that you all got better presents than a cold!
In other news, I did manage to get a really bad cold for Christmas. Santa must have misunderstood my list this year. I asked for a CHILD not a COLD. Maybe it is time for the old guy to get new glasses. Anyway, I've been spending my days on the couch alternately drinking OJ, blowing my nose and taking naps. At least it (partially) takes my mind off the fact that we're still waiting around for Bagel to make her appearance.
Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and that you all got better presents than a cold!
Friday, December 24, 2010
Merry Christmas Eve
In our family, my grandma is the regular church goer. She doesn't just go to church, she is very involved - my mom jokes that Gram has to pray doubly hard to cover for the rest of us heathens. In addition to taking care of all of our spiritual needs, Gram volunteers with charities through the church, and is so well known for bringing food to folks who need comfort that chocolate bundt cake is known as "Maxine's funeral cake" throughout the congregation. I've always admired my Grandma's dedication to volunteer work though her church. Growing up I also enjoyed going to services when we'd go visit - one of my favorite times to go is Christmas Eve for the candle light service.
This Christmas Eve, Gram is in the hospital and not doing great, so she wasn't able to go to services. Since we're out in California and can't go visit Gram, Jeremy and I went to Christmas Eve services out here in her honor. We certainly hope she is feeling better soon, because our souls are surely better off in her hands than ours!
This Christmas Eve, Gram is in the hospital and not doing great, so she wasn't able to go to services. Since we're out in California and can't go visit Gram, Jeremy and I went to Christmas Eve services out here in her honor. We certainly hope she is feeling better soon, because our souls are surely better off in her hands than ours!
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
10 Days left!
Well, only ten days left on the Bagel count-down. We're, of course, hoping that the little Bagel gets here a bit early, but she's kind of running out of time. Despite not being born yet, she's already managed to disappoint her Daddy who was really hoping she'd arrive on time to get him out of my school Christmas party.
We've gotten several inquiries on how we're doing with our 30 things in 30 days list. I have to say we're doing pretty well. Actually, we owe a lot of that to my mom who sent a huge box full of a lot of the stuff that we still needed to purchase. She even sent diapers AND the special diaper detergent so I have ZERO excuses for not washing diapers at this point :) So, while Jeremy and I may not have gotten much done, Grandma sure knocked quite a few things off the list! We have done some stuff though. So how about an update to keep us honest?
Original 30 things/30 days list - now with updates!
1. Buy curtain rod for baby's room, sew curtains and hang them up (I already have all the fabric, I just need to get around to putting them together). - Not even started. Maybe when I finish my grading ...
2. Buy Pack-N-Play mattress pad, sheets, and changing table covers - set up pack-n-play in our room Done! Although we owe part of this one to my mom who sent some of the needed linens. Lucy really likes her new bed :)
3. Clean off the top of Jeremy's dresser and make room for a couple of baskets of baby stuff (see note about not wanting to stumble down the hallway in the middle of the night) - we might as well just keep a change of PJs, sheets etc in our room. Not done
4. Refill mini-shampoo, etc and back toiletries for the hospital Sort of, we cheated and bought new travel size stuff from Target, but I think we can cross it off
5. Do laundry and pack clothes for the hospital Yay! SOMEONE finally packed his stuff!
6. Make list of last minute things to grab on our way to the hospital (camera, phone charger, etc) We're still adding to it as we think of things, but we have a list
7. Finally decide on a brand of baby shampoo/lotion/etc, purchase and set up baby bath station in bathroom Sort of done. Although we disagree about the location of baby bathing station. I think it should be in the master bathroom at first since we have a vanity large enough to accommodate the baby bathtub and the vanity is at a parent-friendly height. Jeremy thinks it should be in the guest bathroom and we can put the baby bathtub inside the big bathtub. To make his point he moved the baby bath stuff into the guest bathroom. I am guessing after I let him hunch over the tub with a crying wet baby a few times he might come around to my way. We'll see.
8.Reinstall car seat so that Jeremy can take car to the highway patrol to get it checked out. The car seat has been reinstalled, but it turns out that almost nowhere around here does the inspections anymore. There is a CHP station that supposedly does inspections on Thursdays, but they won't call us back to set up an appointment.
9.Purchase cloth diapers, wash My mom bought us a bunch of the diapers we want to use, so we're going to wash them soon ...
10. Purchase some more disposable diapers to tide us over while we try out different cloth diapers to see which ones we like (plus, we figure there will be times when disposables are unavoidable)
11. Locate extra camera battery and cable that allows us to download pictures from camera (OOPS!) We found the cable, but not the battery, so this one has to stay on the list
12. Purchase baby first aid kit Thank you Grandma!
13. Purchase stroller that fits our car seat
14. Buy straps and tie large furniture to wall (apparently you need to do this in California in case there is an earthquake) We bought the straps and Jeremy is about half way through installing them
15. Buy baby gates so cats can get used to them before the baby gets here We bought one to try out, so we'll see if it works before we commit to buying more
16. Purchase cabinet locks and other baby proofing stuff and start working on baby proofing the apartment.
17. Get bottle drying rack and sterilize bottles. Find a place in the kitchen to store bottles and other baby feeding stuff (apparently you only have to sterilize bottles once - who knew! after that you just wash them like normal). Finding a spot in the kitchen will be rough - we're already kind of maxed out so this might be quite the chore! Again, my mom bought us a lot of the stuff that we need, but we haven't gotten around to washing things yet. Too bad Bagel has such lazy parents :)
18. Sterilize breast pump parts and try to figure out ridiculously complex assembly instructions. Again, might not be need to be done now, but I can't imagine those instructions will get any easier to understand when I haven't slept for weeks.
19. Purchase baby books recommended by other new mom friends - start reading them. Done! However, the two most recommended books are complete opposites of each other so we still have no idea what to do with the baby
20. Compile email list for birth announcements. We're "going green" and sending out an e-announcement. Really, it is for the environment. It has nothing to do with us being too lazy to compile the actual postal addresses of our friends - really. Also, we would like people to be aware of our child's birth before her fifth birthday and we don't have a great track record with snail mail.
21. Sew or purchase crib sheets. I sewed one crib sheet already and have fabric for two more. Realistically though, given my schedule, we might just want to go ahead and buy a few more sheets at this point. We'll see. Some of these came in the mail, so no need to sew
22. Write exams - this is technically work related and not Bagel related, but if Bagel decides to come early, I need to have exams written for my colleague to give so technically I think it can go on the baby list Exams written and given, no I just have to grade them all.
23. Buy new coffee maker :) Just kidding, I've been lobbying for a new one on the premise that it is a baby-necessity, but I think that since I am the only coffee drinker in the house, this is probably a lost battle. But I should probably at least make sure we have a good supply of coffee because everyone wins when mom is caffeinated. We did buy some coffee ...
24. Purchase diaper pail and laundry hamper for baby's room - there's no denying that gross stuff is going to happen so we might as well have somewhere to contain it.
25. Hang pictures on the wall in baby's room
26. Figure out some kind of toy storage for baby's room - she doesn't have many toys right now, but if she gets many more, the "chuck it on the floor of her closet" method of organization will completely break down.
27. Download contraction timing app for iPhone
28. Download baby tracker app that keeps track of when to feed the baby, etc
29. Attend base-wide garage sale and attempt to find a second used baby bounce seat - the cats have made it pretty clear that they would like their own and I don't think that baby will be big enough to fight them off for at least a couple of months Went to sale, but couldn't find a bouncy seat. We'll just have to hope that Bagel can hold her own against the cats
30. Return mobile that Jeremy dislikes and try to find a better option - or just decide that baby doesn't really need a mobile to keep her entertained - consider replacing with cat toy - or maybe just a cat
31. Freak out about how much we still have to take care of (although I think we can cross this one off the list - we seem to have it pretty much under control) :)
Hmmm ... maybe we're not doing as well as we thought! Oh well. I think we're pretty set for the first week or so of having baby in the house. The rest of the stuff will get done sooner or later ... we hope :)
We've gotten several inquiries on how we're doing with our 30 things in 30 days list. I have to say we're doing pretty well. Actually, we owe a lot of that to my mom who sent a huge box full of a lot of the stuff that we still needed to purchase. She even sent diapers AND the special diaper detergent so I have ZERO excuses for not washing diapers at this point :) So, while Jeremy and I may not have gotten much done, Grandma sure knocked quite a few things off the list! We have done some stuff though. So how about an update to keep us honest?
Original 30 things/30 days list - now with updates!
1. Buy curtain rod for baby's room, sew curtains and hang them up (I already have all the fabric, I just need to get around to putting them together). - Not even started. Maybe when I finish my grading ...
3. Clean off the top of Jeremy's dresser and make room for a couple of baskets of baby stuff (see note about not wanting to stumble down the hallway in the middle of the night) - we might as well just keep a change of PJs, sheets etc in our room. Not done
8.
9.
10. Purchase some more disposable diapers to tide us over while we try out different cloth diapers to see which ones we like (plus, we figure there will be times when disposables are unavoidable)
11. Locate extra camera battery and cable that allows us to download pictures from camera (OOPS!) We found the cable, but not the battery, so this one has to stay on the list
15. Buy baby gates so cats can get used to them before the baby gets here We bought one to try out, so we'll see if it works before we commit to buying more
17. Get bottle drying rack and sterilize bottles. Find a place in the kitchen to store bottles and other baby feeding stuff (apparently you only have to sterilize bottles once - who knew! after that you just wash them like normal). Finding a spot in the kitchen will be rough - we're already kind of maxed out so this might be quite the chore! Again, my mom bought us a lot of the stuff that we need, but we haven't gotten around to washing things yet. Too bad Bagel has such lazy parents :)
18. Sterilize breast pump parts and try to figure out ridiculously complex assembly instructions. Again, might not be need to be done now, but I can't imagine those instructions will get any easier to understand when I haven't slept for weeks.
20. Compile email list for birth announcements. We're "going green" and sending out an e-announcement. Really, it is for the environment. It has nothing to do with us being too lazy to compile the actual postal addresses of our friends - really. Also, we would like people to be aware of our child's birth before her fifth birthday and we don't have a great track record with snail mail.
23. Buy new coffee maker :) Just kidding, I've been lobbying for a new one on the premise that it is a baby-necessity, but I think that since I am the only coffee drinker in the house, this is probably a lost battle. But I should probably at least make sure we have a good supply of coffee because everyone wins when mom is caffeinated. We did buy some coffee ...
24. Purchase diaper pail and laundry hamper for baby's room - there's no denying that gross stuff is going to happen so we might as well have somewhere to contain it.
25. Hang pictures on the wall in baby's room
26. Figure out some kind of toy storage for baby's room - she doesn't have many toys right now, but if she gets many more, the "chuck it on the floor of her closet" method of organization will completely break down.
28. Download baby tracker app that keeps track of when to feed the baby, etc
30. Return mobile that Jeremy dislikes and try to find a better option - or just decide that baby doesn't really need a mobile to keep her entertained - consider replacing with cat toy - or maybe just a cat
31. Freak out about how much we still have to take care of (although I think we can cross this one off the list - we seem to have it pretty much under control) :)
Hmmm ... maybe we're not doing as well as we thought! Oh well. I think we're pretty set for the first week or so of having baby in the house. The rest of the stuff will get done sooner or later ... we hope :)
Friday, November 26, 2010
28 days and Thanksgiving report
Yesterday for Thanksgiving we took it easy and enjoyed both of us having a day off together - today the chores begin. Our Thanksgiving was pretty uneventful - we went and saw the new Harry Potter movie and then we went out for dinner. One problem with living in a more suburban/small town area is that not a lot is open on Thanksgiving. We assumed it would be easy to find a restaurant, but we ended up driving around a little bit until we found a place that was open. It didn't look promising, but the food was actually great - we were able to get a traditional Thanksgiving hummus and falafel combo :)
After dinner we decided to try to find some place with pumpkin pie. I am sure you all know how seriously Jeremy takes his pie - and due to his self-proclaimed "pie-dar" we were easily able to find a place that was both open and serving pie. When our pie arrived it was really cold and runny - we had the following conversation
K: I don't think this is right - it is really runny
J: They served it with spoons I am sure it is just some new kind of pumpkin pie
J: It is delicious - can't you taste the nutmeg?
K: I don't know ...
J: It is really good and it has whipped cream on it - why would they put whipped cream on an undercooked pie?
K: Well ... ok ...
[I figured that we were talking about pie, so I really should defer to the expert here - especially since he was so sure that he was right - I took a couple of bites of pie soup]
K: I really think that the pie isn't supposed to be like this ... I think I'm going to ask someone
J: [Clearly annoyed at my pie ignorance and worried that I will embarrass him in the restaurant] Ok, if you want to ask, go ahead - but it is delicious [continues to eat runny pie]
K: What if there are uncooked eggs and I get sick - that would be bad for the baby
J: [Puts down his spoon] We should ask
At this point we call over a waitress and ask - she states the obvious that no the pie is not supposed to be runny, it is undercooked, and apologizes profusely. We get new pie.
J: Oh my gosh, I will feel horrible if the baby gets sick
K: Um, what about me?
J: I feel so bad, I can't believe I almost poisoned our BABY.
K: Again, I could point out that you almost poisoned YOUR WIFE
J: You'd get over it. But the baby ...
Anyway, it all worked out in the end because we didn't end up with food poisoning and we got free pie. However, I'm a little worried about the total lack of concern about potential wife poisoning :)
Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving and also avoided death by pie.
After dinner we decided to try to find some place with pumpkin pie. I am sure you all know how seriously Jeremy takes his pie - and due to his self-proclaimed "pie-dar" we were easily able to find a place that was both open and serving pie. When our pie arrived it was really cold and runny - we had the following conversation
K: I don't think this is right - it is really runny
J: They served it with spoons I am sure it is just some new kind of pumpkin pie
J: It is delicious - can't you taste the nutmeg?
K: I don't know ...
J: It is really good and it has whipped cream on it - why would they put whipped cream on an undercooked pie?
K: Well ... ok ...
[I figured that we were talking about pie, so I really should defer to the expert here - especially since he was so sure that he was right - I took a couple of bites of pie soup]
K: I really think that the pie isn't supposed to be like this ... I think I'm going to ask someone
J: [Clearly annoyed at my pie ignorance and worried that I will embarrass him in the restaurant] Ok, if you want to ask, go ahead - but it is delicious [continues to eat runny pie]
K: What if there are uncooked eggs and I get sick - that would be bad for the baby
J: [Puts down his spoon] We should ask
At this point we call over a waitress and ask - she states the obvious that no the pie is not supposed to be runny, it is undercooked, and apologizes profusely. We get new pie.
J: Oh my gosh, I will feel horrible if the baby gets sick
K: Um, what about me?
J: I feel so bad, I can't believe I almost poisoned our BABY.
K: Again, I could point out that you almost poisoned YOUR WIFE
J: You'd get over it. But the baby ...
Anyway, it all worked out in the end because we didn't end up with food poisoning and we got free pie. However, I'm a little worried about the total lack of concern about potential wife poisoning :)
Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving and also avoided death by pie.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We miss our friends and family this holiday, but we're also really enjoying having a day off together. We just finished a lunch of leftover chicken and stuffing (thanks Mom!) and we're going to go see the new Harry Potter movie this afternoon. We have had a pretty busy year with lots to be thankful for! We hope everyone else is having a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
30 things in 30 days
As of today, there are only 30 days until Baby Bagel's due date! We had another doctor's appointment this morning and everything is looking good. As usual, the Bagel got annoyed by the Doppler and started kicking it - this raised her heart rate to the point that the doctor had to wait for it to come back down to normal before she could give us a clean bill of health. We had to sit there for quite a while before Bagel realized we weren't going to move the Doppler and she just had to settle down. Jeremy also got the news that he was looking for today - if Bagel doesn't arrive before her due date, they would probably induce BEFORE the new year for medical reasons (not just for the tax break).
Since there are only 30 days left, and we have a big list of baby to-dos, I thought I'd make a list of the 30 baby things that I hope to get done in the next 30 days. We'll see if we can get them done before Bagel arrives.
1. Buy curtain rod for baby's room, sew curtains and hang them up (I already have all the fabric, I just need to get around to putting them together).
2. Buy Pack-N-Play mattress pad, sheets, and changing table covers - set up pack-n-play in our room - we'll keep the baby in our room in the pack-n-play at first so that we don't have to walk down the hall to get her in the middle of the night.
3. Clean off the top of Jeremy's dresser and make room for a couple of baskets of baby stuff (see note about not wanting to stumble down the hallway in the middle of the night) - we might as well just keep a change of PJs, sheets etc in our room.
4. Refill mini-shampoo, etc and back toiletries for the hospital
5. Do laundry and pack clothes for the hospital
6. Make list of last minute things to grab on our way to the hospital (camera, phone charger, etc)
7. Finally decide on a brand of baby shampoo/lotion/etc, purchase and set up baby bath station in bathroom (I realize the baby won't need baths right away when she comes home, but I figure it isn't like we'll have MORE time to take care of this stuff after she gets here)
8. Reinstall car seat so that Jeremy can take car to the highway patrol to get it checked out.
9. Purchase cloth diapers, wash (apparently you have to wash them multiple times before the first use for maximum absorbency - Jeremy and I feel that maximum absorbency is very important in this area). I am waiting to see if there are any good online black Friday deals on diapers - if not, we'll just go ahead and buy them next week.
10. Purchase some more disposable diapers to tide us over while we try out different cloth diapers to see which ones we like (plus, we figure there will be times when disposables are unavoidable)
11. Locate extra camera battery and cable that allows us to download pictures from camera (OOPS!)
12. Purchase baby first aid kit
13. Purchase stroller that fits our car seat
14. Buy straps and tie large furniture to wall (apparently you need to do this in California in case there is an earthquake)
15. Buy baby gates so cats can get used to them before the baby gets here - we are getting baby gates with cat doors on them to keep the baby out of the rooms with litter boxes. We'd like the cats to acclimate to the gates before the baby gets here - they don't handle change well so we want to ease them into the baby thing.
16. Purchase cabinet locks and other baby proofing stuff and start working on baby proofing the apartment. Again, not something that really NEEDS to be done now, but we figure it is better to get a jump start on this and get it done before the baby is old enough to discover electrical outlets on her own.
17. Get bottle drying rack and sterilize bottles. Find a place in the kitchen to store bottles and other baby feeding stuff (apparently you only have to sterilize bottles once - who knew! after that you just wash them like normal). Finding a spot in the kitchen will be rough - we're already kind of maxed out so this might be quite the chore!
18. Sterilize breast pump parts and try to figure out ridiculously complex assembly instructions. Again, might not be need to be done now, but I can't imagine those instructions will get any easier to understand when I haven't slept for weeks.
19. Purchase baby books recommended by other new mom friends - start reading them.
20. Compile email list for birth announcements. We're "going green" and sending out an e-announcement. Really, it is for the environment. It has nothing to do with us being too lazy to compile the actual postal addresses of our friends - really. Also, we would like people to be aware of our child's birth before her fifth birthday and we don't have a great track record with snail mail.
21. Sew or purchase crib sheets. I sewed one crib sheet already and have fabric for two more. Realistically though, given my schedule, we might just want to go ahead and buy a few more sheets at this point. We'll see.
22. Write exams - this is technically work related and not Bagel related, but if Bagel decides to come early, I need to have exams written for my colleague to give so technically I think it can go on the baby list.
23. Buy new coffee maker :) Just kidding, I've been lobbying for a new one on the premise that it is a baby-necessity, but I think that since I am the only coffee drinker in the house, this is probably a lost battle. But I should probably at least make sure we have a good supply of coffee because everyone wins when mom is caffeinated.
24. Purchase diaper pail and laundry hamper for baby's room - there's no denying that gross stuff is going to happen so we might as well have somewhere to contain it.
25. Hang pictures on the wall in baby's room
26. Figure out some kind of toy storage for baby's room - she doesn't have many toys right now, but if she gets many more, the "chuck it on the floor of her closet" method of organization will completely break down.
27. Download contraction timing app for iPhone
28. Download baby tracker app that keeps track of when to feed the baby, etc
29. Attend base-wide garage sale and attempt to find a second used baby bounce seat - the cats have made it pretty clear that they would like their own and I don't think that baby will be big enough to fight them off for at least a couple of months
30. Return mobile that Jeremy dislikes and try to find a better option - or just decide that baby doesn't really need a mobile to keep her entertained - consider replacing with cat toy - or maybe just a cat
31. Freak out about how much we still have to take care of (although I think we can cross this one off the list - we seem to have it pretty much under control) :)
Quite a bit to try to get done in 30 days given that this doesn't include things like doing my job and keeping us fed. Maybe my students don't really NEED their essays graded :) We'll see how much progress we can make over the next few days ...
Since there are only 30 days left, and we have a big list of baby to-dos, I thought I'd make a list of the 30 baby things that I hope to get done in the next 30 days. We'll see if we can get them done before Bagel arrives.
1. Buy curtain rod for baby's room, sew curtains and hang them up (I already have all the fabric, I just need to get around to putting them together).
2. Buy Pack-N-Play mattress pad, sheets, and changing table covers - set up pack-n-play in our room - we'll keep the baby in our room in the pack-n-play at first so that we don't have to walk down the hall to get her in the middle of the night.
3. Clean off the top of Jeremy's dresser and make room for a couple of baskets of baby stuff (see note about not wanting to stumble down the hallway in the middle of the night) - we might as well just keep a change of PJs, sheets etc in our room.
4. Refill mini-shampoo, etc and back toiletries for the hospital
5. Do laundry and pack clothes for the hospital
6. Make list of last minute things to grab on our way to the hospital (camera, phone charger, etc)
7. Finally decide on a brand of baby shampoo/lotion/etc, purchase and set up baby bath station in bathroom (I realize the baby won't need baths right away when she comes home, but I figure it isn't like we'll have MORE time to take care of this stuff after she gets here)
8. Reinstall car seat so that Jeremy can take car to the highway patrol to get it checked out.
9. Purchase cloth diapers, wash (apparently you have to wash them multiple times before the first use for maximum absorbency - Jeremy and I feel that maximum absorbency is very important in this area). I am waiting to see if there are any good online black Friday deals on diapers - if not, we'll just go ahead and buy them next week.
10. Purchase some more disposable diapers to tide us over while we try out different cloth diapers to see which ones we like (plus, we figure there will be times when disposables are unavoidable)
11. Locate extra camera battery and cable that allows us to download pictures from camera (OOPS!)
12. Purchase baby first aid kit
13. Purchase stroller that fits our car seat
14. Buy straps and tie large furniture to wall (apparently you need to do this in California in case there is an earthquake)
15. Buy baby gates so cats can get used to them before the baby gets here - we are getting baby gates with cat doors on them to keep the baby out of the rooms with litter boxes. We'd like the cats to acclimate to the gates before the baby gets here - they don't handle change well so we want to ease them into the baby thing.
16. Purchase cabinet locks and other baby proofing stuff and start working on baby proofing the apartment. Again, not something that really NEEDS to be done now, but we figure it is better to get a jump start on this and get it done before the baby is old enough to discover electrical outlets on her own.
17. Get bottle drying rack and sterilize bottles. Find a place in the kitchen to store bottles and other baby feeding stuff (apparently you only have to sterilize bottles once - who knew! after that you just wash them like normal). Finding a spot in the kitchen will be rough - we're already kind of maxed out so this might be quite the chore!
18. Sterilize breast pump parts and try to figure out ridiculously complex assembly instructions. Again, might not be need to be done now, but I can't imagine those instructions will get any easier to understand when I haven't slept for weeks.
19. Purchase baby books recommended by other new mom friends - start reading them.
20. Compile email list for birth announcements. We're "going green" and sending out an e-announcement. Really, it is for the environment. It has nothing to do with us being too lazy to compile the actual postal addresses of our friends - really. Also, we would like people to be aware of our child's birth before her fifth birthday and we don't have a great track record with snail mail.
21. Sew or purchase crib sheets. I sewed one crib sheet already and have fabric for two more. Realistically though, given my schedule, we might just want to go ahead and buy a few more sheets at this point. We'll see.
22. Write exams - this is technically work related and not Bagel related, but if Bagel decides to come early, I need to have exams written for my colleague to give so technically I think it can go on the baby list.
23. Buy new coffee maker :) Just kidding, I've been lobbying for a new one on the premise that it is a baby-necessity, but I think that since I am the only coffee drinker in the house, this is probably a lost battle. But I should probably at least make sure we have a good supply of coffee because everyone wins when mom is caffeinated.
24. Purchase diaper pail and laundry hamper for baby's room - there's no denying that gross stuff is going to happen so we might as well have somewhere to contain it.
25. Hang pictures on the wall in baby's room
26. Figure out some kind of toy storage for baby's room - she doesn't have many toys right now, but if she gets many more, the "chuck it on the floor of her closet" method of organization will completely break down.
27. Download contraction timing app for iPhone
28. Download baby tracker app that keeps track of when to feed the baby, etc
29. Attend base-wide garage sale and attempt to find a second used baby bounce seat - the cats have made it pretty clear that they would like their own and I don't think that baby will be big enough to fight them off for at least a couple of months
30. Return mobile that Jeremy dislikes and try to find a better option - or just decide that baby doesn't really need a mobile to keep her entertained - consider replacing with cat toy - or maybe just a cat
31. Freak out about how much we still have to take care of (although I think we can cross this one off the list - we seem to have it pretty much under control) :)
Quite a bit to try to get done in 30 days given that this doesn't include things like doing my job and keeping us fed. Maybe my students don't really NEED their essays graded :) We'll see how much progress we can make over the next few days ...
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
37 days ...
Jeremy says that every morning when we update the count, he is tempted to post on the blog "37 days - Holy Crap!" (or whatever the count is for that day). I think that kind of sums up how we're both feeling right now. We're both beyond excited to meet our baby, but at the same time it sure did get here a whole lot more quickly than we thought it would. The list of "things that eventually need to get done, but aren't urgent" is dwindling and the to-dos are migrating to the "these things should really get done right away" list. We hear that babies require diapers ... we should probably purchase some of those at some point ...
Luckily, Thanksgiving break is right around the corner. It cannot get here fast enough. This semester has been a really long one for both Jeremy and myself. Jeremy has been readjusting to grad school, and I've been adjusting to growing another person :) I get a whole week off for Turkey Day and then only have two weeks of the semester left after break. Jeremy only gets off Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving, but our semesters end at the same time, so that is nice. Everyone says to get as much sleep as we can before the baby gets here. Unfortunately with all of our work, we've been pulling some pretty late nights/early mornings. I guess there is nothing we can do about the lack of sleep, except maybe use it as justification for buying a new coffee maker!
We don't really have any news, just thought I'd post a quick update to say we're still here, Bagel still has not made her appearance, and Happy Wednesday!
Luckily, Thanksgiving break is right around the corner. It cannot get here fast enough. This semester has been a really long one for both Jeremy and myself. Jeremy has been readjusting to grad school, and I've been adjusting to growing another person :) I get a whole week off for Turkey Day and then only have two weeks of the semester left after break. Jeremy only gets off Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving, but our semesters end at the same time, so that is nice. Everyone says to get as much sleep as we can before the baby gets here. Unfortunately with all of our work, we've been pulling some pretty late nights/early mornings. I guess there is nothing we can do about the lack of sleep, except maybe use it as justification for buying a new coffee maker!
We don't really have any news, just thought I'd post a quick update to say we're still here, Bagel still has not made her appearance, and Happy Wednesday!
Thursday, November 11, 2010
43 days and a pediatrician
Today neither Jeremy or myself had classes, so we checked another baby biggie off the to-do list - we found a pediatrician. This was actually our second pediatrician visit, but we liked this one a lot so we decided that we're done making visits and we'll just go with this option. There are only two big practices in the area, and this one seemed more friendly and more flexible about scheduling - both of which are good things! Jeremy was a little concerned that the toys in the sick baby area seemed nicer than the toys in the well baby area - he thought that maybe the doctors were trying to lure the well babies into the sick baby area to ensure repeat business - but that seems like a minor concern in the scheme of things :)
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
44 days, doctor and car seat!
Today we had another doctor's appointment - they are every two weeks now so they are keeping us busy. Today's appointment featured our last ultrasound. It was pretty quick - just to check that the placenta was out of the baby's way and the good news is that everything looked great! We got to see the baby moving all around and hear her heartbeat and the doctor re-confirmed that we are indeed expecting a girl. Good thing too, because we have acquired quite a lot of pink clothing and a boy baby would look kind of silly wearing a "daddy's girl" onesie :)
In other news, what is that in the backseat of my car?
It's a car seat base!! (sorry, Blogger rotated the picture for me, so it is technically an upside down car seat base, but I can assure you that we plan on putting the baby in right-side up). We are borrowing our car seat from our friends Geoff and Kristen whose baby outgrew it. While they were here over the weekend, Geoff helped Jeremy install the base and make sure it was level and what-not. Apparently the base is a pain to get in and out, so we'll have to decide if we want to get a second one, or if we will just always drive Bagel around in my car. We'll probably try to stick with the one base at first to see how it works out. Jeremy's car is a 2-door, so we're not super-excited about trying to wiggle a car seat in and out of it anyway. In true engineer fashion, Jeremy and Geoff used wire ties to hold the end of the seat belt out of the way (they assure me that the wire ties are in no way being used to restrain the baby).
Having the car seat installed is one more thing to check off the baby to-do list! It sure makes it seem like Bagel's arrival is just around the corner.
In other news, what is that in the backseat of my car?
It's a car seat base!! (sorry, Blogger rotated the picture for me, so it is technically an upside down car seat base, but I can assure you that we plan on putting the baby in right-side up). We are borrowing our car seat from our friends Geoff and Kristen whose baby outgrew it. While they were here over the weekend, Geoff helped Jeremy install the base and make sure it was level and what-not. Apparently the base is a pain to get in and out, so we'll have to decide if we want to get a second one, or if we will just always drive Bagel around in my car. We'll probably try to stick with the one base at first to see how it works out. Jeremy's car is a 2-door, so we're not super-excited about trying to wiggle a car seat in and out of it anyway. In true engineer fashion, Jeremy and Geoff used wire ties to hold the end of the seat belt out of the way (they assure me that the wire ties are in no way being used to restrain the baby).
Having the car seat installed is one more thing to check off the baby to-do list! It sure makes it seem like Bagel's arrival is just around the corner.
Monday, November 8, 2010
46 Days and Baby Shower
We officially have a days-to-baby countdown on our fridge now that gets updated every morning. Nothing like a little panic over breakfast to get you going :) Today there are officially 46 days left until the predicted date.
Today, my colleagues also threw me a baby shower! Given that we haven't been in California for very long, we were assuming that we'd be baby-shower-less (hence all of the garage saleing we've been up to). However, my colleagues are super sweet and put together a nice lunch-time get-together. Since I work with mostly guys, we skipped the traditional games and hung out over pizza and soda - Jeremy even came! It is really great to see how excited and supportive all of my new colleagues are about the baby. We feel pretty lucky to have landed somewhere with such nice people. They even decorated with cute pink baby shower balloons :)
Today, my colleagues also threw me a baby shower! Given that we haven't been in California for very long, we were assuming that we'd be baby-shower-less (hence all of the garage saleing we've been up to). However, my colleagues are super sweet and put together a nice lunch-time get-together. Since I work with mostly guys, we skipped the traditional games and hung out over pizza and soda - Jeremy even came! It is really great to see how excited and supportive all of my new colleagues are about the baby. We feel pretty lucky to have landed somewhere with such nice people. They even decorated with cute pink baby shower balloons :)
Friday, November 5, 2010
33 weeks down, 49 days to go
Today Bagel is 33 weeks along. The scarier number to me is that there are less than 50 days to her predicted arrival - 49 days to be precise. I think we go back and forth between being anxious for her to get here already and worrying about all the stuff yet-to-be-done. In particular, I have a lot of stuff for work that I need to get squared away before the baby arrives.
Of course, it would work out better for us if Bagel was a week or two early since Jeremy has to go back to work so early in January. We've been trying to convince Bagel that Monday, December 13th would be a great birthday - we'll both be done with finals/grading and it would maximize her daddy-at-home time. Of course, we hear that babies are notoriously uncooperative about these kinds of things, but we figure it is worth a shot.
Of course, it would work out better for us if Bagel was a week or two early since Jeremy has to go back to work so early in January. We've been trying to convince Bagel that Monday, December 13th would be a great birthday - we'll both be done with finals/grading and it would maximize her daddy-at-home time. Of course, we hear that babies are notoriously uncooperative about these kinds of things, but we figure it is worth a shot.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Let's call him "Bob" *
* some names have been changed to protect the innocent
Over the summer, Jeremy and I decided we should start getting serious about being healthy. We're not getting any younger, and it would be nice to be able to keep up with the baby when she gets mobile. We've definitely made a lot of progress on the food front. We're eating more fruits and veggies, we've cut out a lot of processed foods, and we've gotten much better about a lot of our food-habits.
Working out wasn't so easy. I used to run, but getting pregnant kind of put a stop to that. Jeremy helpfully pointed out an article about women who continue to train for marathons while pregnant, but let's just say I am not that motivated (actually I told Jeremy that I'd love to train for a marathon WITH him which pretty much put an end to that conversation). I like hiking and walking but with my schedule it is often dark when I leave the house and dark when I get home. We could go to the gym, but having to drive somewhere to work out significantly increases the probability that we will end up deciding to stop for ice cream rather than actually hitting the gym.
So, we decided we were in the market for some home exercise equipment. In particular a knee-friendly elliptical trainer. We certainly couldn't afford a brand-new one, so we started checking out Craig's List a couple of times a week. Eventually an elliptical that was both one of our preferred brands and within our price range came up. I emailed the guy who had listed it ("Bob") and he said that since he worked in Marina, he' just throw the elliptical in his truck so we could come check it out.
After a little back-and-forth it turns out that Bob works at the fire station in town. Jeremy and I set off to meet him, expecting he'd be something like this (only a firefighter instead of a policeman):
I mean, the guy was SELLING his elliptical since he said he never used it. It turns out Bob was selling his elliptical because he apparently doesn't NEED it. Let's just say that if the local fire department ever decides to put out a fireman calendar, they could really clean up (if all the pictures were of Bob). Not only that, but the guy was ridiculously nice. He apologized profusely for calling us 15 minutes later than we had originally scheduled (he was busy putting out a fire) and he bought brand new batteries for the elliptical. He also volunteered to drop the elliptical off at our house so we would have to try to cram it in our car and he said he'd help us move it in because he didn't want me to have to lift anything. After we completed our transaction, Jeremy and I got back in the car.
To my credit, I did not say anything. Jeremy started the conversation:
Jeremy: I did not know that men like that actually existed
Kate: (pretending not to understand) What do you mean? Firefighters?
Jeremy: No - he is the best looking man I have ever seen in real life
Kate: I know ... I mean ... other than you sweetie
Jeremy:Whatever
The next morning (when his shift ended) Bob brought the elliptical over. True to his word, he helped carry it in and set it up, making sure it was where we wanted it before he left. Jeremy and I just looked at each other and were like "yep, he's still amazingly good looking".
For the next week or so, Bob was kind of a running joke and he still comes up once and a while in conversation. You know: "I bet Bob would do the dishes", "Bob wouldn't say something like that" - that kind of thing (from both of us mind you) :) Now we're just fighting over who gets to take our car seat to the firehouse to get checked ....
Over the summer, Jeremy and I decided we should start getting serious about being healthy. We're not getting any younger, and it would be nice to be able to keep up with the baby when she gets mobile. We've definitely made a lot of progress on the food front. We're eating more fruits and veggies, we've cut out a lot of processed foods, and we've gotten much better about a lot of our food-habits.
Working out wasn't so easy. I used to run, but getting pregnant kind of put a stop to that. Jeremy helpfully pointed out an article about women who continue to train for marathons while pregnant, but let's just say I am not that motivated (actually I told Jeremy that I'd love to train for a marathon WITH him which pretty much put an end to that conversation). I like hiking and walking but with my schedule it is often dark when I leave the house and dark when I get home. We could go to the gym, but having to drive somewhere to work out significantly increases the probability that we will end up deciding to stop for ice cream rather than actually hitting the gym.
So, we decided we were in the market for some home exercise equipment. In particular a knee-friendly elliptical trainer. We certainly couldn't afford a brand-new one, so we started checking out Craig's List a couple of times a week. Eventually an elliptical that was both one of our preferred brands and within our price range came up. I emailed the guy who had listed it ("Bob") and he said that since he worked in Marina, he' just throw the elliptical in his truck so we could come check it out.
After a little back-and-forth it turns out that Bob works at the fire station in town. Jeremy and I set off to meet him, expecting he'd be something like this (only a firefighter instead of a policeman):
I mean, the guy was SELLING his elliptical since he said he never used it. It turns out Bob was selling his elliptical because he apparently doesn't NEED it. Let's just say that if the local fire department ever decides to put out a fireman calendar, they could really clean up (if all the pictures were of Bob). Not only that, but the guy was ridiculously nice. He apologized profusely for calling us 15 minutes later than we had originally scheduled (he was busy putting out a fire) and he bought brand new batteries for the elliptical. He also volunteered to drop the elliptical off at our house so we would have to try to cram it in our car and he said he'd help us move it in because he didn't want me to have to lift anything. After we completed our transaction, Jeremy and I got back in the car.
To my credit, I did not say anything. Jeremy started the conversation:
Jeremy: I did not know that men like that actually existed
Kate: (pretending not to understand) What do you mean? Firefighters?
Jeremy: No - he is the best looking man I have ever seen in real life
Kate: I know ... I mean ... other than you sweetie
Jeremy:Whatever
The next morning (when his shift ended) Bob brought the elliptical over. True to his word, he helped carry it in and set it up, making sure it was where we wanted it before he left. Jeremy and I just looked at each other and were like "yep, he's still amazingly good looking".
For the next week or so, Bob was kind of a running joke and he still comes up once and a while in conversation. You know: "I bet Bob would do the dishes", "Bob wouldn't say something like that" - that kind of thing (from both of us mind you) :) Now we're just fighting over who gets to take our car seat to the firehouse to get checked ....
32 Weeks and 31 Years
We've officially been "baking our Bagel" for 32 weeks now - 8 more to go.
Since every week gets us one step closer to having an actual baby in our house, we're trying to start checking things off our baby to-do list. Tonight we unwrapped the mattress and put it in the crib. Danger immediately jumped into the crib and looked up at us as if to say "it's about time I got my own room". Poor little guy - wait until he sees what is actually going to go in that crib. Poor kitty doesn't know what he's in for.
In other exciting news, my baby brother turned 31 on Thursday. I explained that this year his present was a niece and he said that was fine, just to FedEx her out to Michigan when it was his turn to play with her. He is such a hilarious guy ... and ladies - HE IS STILL SINGLE.
Since every week gets us one step closer to having an actual baby in our house, we're trying to start checking things off our baby to-do list. Tonight we unwrapped the mattress and put it in the crib. Danger immediately jumped into the crib and looked up at us as if to say "it's about time I got my own room". Poor little guy - wait until he sees what is actually going to go in that crib. Poor kitty doesn't know what he's in for.
In other exciting news, my baby brother turned 31 on Thursday. I explained that this year his present was a niece and he said that was fine, just to FedEx her out to Michigan when it was his turn to play with her. He is such a hilarious guy ... and ladies - HE IS STILL SINGLE.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Exhausted!
We're all pretty tired around here - between work, school, and keeping ourselves fed/clothed/etc, Jeremy and I don't get much sleep. Of course, that is nothing compared to how exhausting it is to be a cat around here. Between crying for attention, begging for people-food, and the non-stop work of shedding the cats keep a pretty packed schedule.
To add to the kitty excitement, we bought some new cat toys over the weekend. Rocky loves the dangle-toys on elastic thread that you hang over a door - he goes absolutely nuts every time we get him one. Of course, Lucy tires of these toys easily and when she has had enough she methodically chews through the string, leaving the little toy on the ground and ending everybody's fun. Needless to say, the lifespan of one of these toys at our house is about a week, but every once in a while we buy one as a special treat for Rocky. He leaps and jumps and bats the toy around until he is exhausted, and then ...
... he needs a nap. That's Rocky, passed out underneath his toy. He plays until he can't play anymore. Then he lays under the toy and bats up at it until even the effort to bat at the toy becomes too much, then he falls asleep. His little paws continue to twitch while he sleeps which is pretty adorable. When he wakes up, the cycle starts all over again. It is so tiring being the kitty!
To add to the kitty excitement, we bought some new cat toys over the weekend. Rocky loves the dangle-toys on elastic thread that you hang over a door - he goes absolutely nuts every time we get him one. Of course, Lucy tires of these toys easily and when she has had enough she methodically chews through the string, leaving the little toy on the ground and ending everybody's fun. Needless to say, the lifespan of one of these toys at our house is about a week, but every once in a while we buy one as a special treat for Rocky. He leaps and jumps and bats the toy around until he is exhausted, and then ...
... he needs a nap. That's Rocky, passed out underneath his toy. He plays until he can't play anymore. Then he lays under the toy and bats up at it until even the effort to bat at the toy becomes too much, then he falls asleep. His little paws continue to twitch while he sleeps which is pretty adorable. When he wakes up, the cycle starts all over again. It is so tiring being the kitty!
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Doctor Update
We had a doctor's appointment on Monday. Probably the most notable news is that they were ON TIME. That might be the first time during the entire pregnancy that we actually saw the doctor at our scheduled time. Even the doctor was making jokes about it.
Other than that, everything is going well. I continue to gain weight like a champ (what can I say - I like to overachieve) and baby's heartbeat is super strong.
Baby Bagel is pretty territorial and responds fairly strongly when she feels like someone is invading her space. When Jeremy pokes her, she pokes back (I tried to tell him it was the baby high-fiving him, but I don't know if he's buying it). At the doctor's when they use the doppler on to listen to the heart beat, Bagel starts trying to kick the machine. It is pretty funny. The good news is that every time she tried to kick the doppler, Bagel's heart beat sped up which is exactly what it is supposed to do.
Probably the funniest Bagel response is to Rocky. Rocky loves to jump up on my lap and wrap himself around my stomach (I guess it makes a nice soft kitty pillow). Once he settles in and starts purring, Bagel starts kicking him. The first time it happened Rocky jumped up and ran away, but now I think he kind of likes it - I like to think of it as kitty-massage. Hopefully Rocky and Bagel will continue to get along after she is born. I think as long as we can eventually teach her the proper belly-rub technique they should be fine.
Starting now, we're on an every-other week schedule for doctor's visits. Kind of crazy! Luckily, we're still able to schedule them when both of us are able to go. We were in a little bit of trouble with the OB because this is the third visit in a row where she asked about a pediatrician and we still hadn't started to look. That's next week's project - visiting pediatricians. There are really only two big practices on the peninsula, so we figure we'll check out both of them and then pick the one that we like best.
Other than that, everything is going well. I continue to gain weight like a champ (what can I say - I like to overachieve) and baby's heartbeat is super strong.
Baby Bagel is pretty territorial and responds fairly strongly when she feels like someone is invading her space. When Jeremy pokes her, she pokes back (I tried to tell him it was the baby high-fiving him, but I don't know if he's buying it). At the doctor's when they use the doppler on to listen to the heart beat, Bagel starts trying to kick the machine. It is pretty funny. The good news is that every time she tried to kick the doppler, Bagel's heart beat sped up which is exactly what it is supposed to do.
Probably the funniest Bagel response is to Rocky. Rocky loves to jump up on my lap and wrap himself around my stomach (I guess it makes a nice soft kitty pillow). Once he settles in and starts purring, Bagel starts kicking him. The first time it happened Rocky jumped up and ran away, but now I think he kind of likes it - I like to think of it as kitty-massage. Hopefully Rocky and Bagel will continue to get along after she is born. I think as long as we can eventually teach her the proper belly-rub technique they should be fine.
Starting now, we're on an every-other week schedule for doctor's visits. Kind of crazy! Luckily, we're still able to schedule them when both of us are able to go. We were in a little bit of trouble with the OB because this is the third visit in a row where she asked about a pediatrician and we still hadn't started to look. That's next week's project - visiting pediatricians. There are really only two big practices on the peninsula, so we figure we'll check out both of them and then pick the one that we like best.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
T-minus 2 months and counting
Since today is October 24th and Baby Bagel is due on December 24th, we officially have two months left - YIKES!
As part of our baby preparations we went on a tour of the hospital yesterday. We were one of three couples on the tour and the nurse was really nice. Since it was only a one-afternoon class, there was a LOT of information crammed into three hours. Jeremy earned major dad-to-be points for being one of the better-behaved husbands on the tour. He wasn't even the one who asked if the TVs in the room got cable :) [but the answer is yes, they do get cable, no football needs to be missed during the birth of our child should she choose to arrive during the playoffs].
One of the best things about our hospital is that it is certified as a baby friendly hospital. That means that all of the nurses have some kind of breastfeeding training. You get to stay in the same (private) room the whole time you are there (labor through recovery) and the baby stays with you as well. It was nice to get a chance to check everything out now as opposed to waiting until we're in labor. We even got to see a real-live baby that had just been born. I can't say that we really feel ready yet, but at least we know where to park when we get to the hospital :)
As part of our baby preparations we went on a tour of the hospital yesterday. We were one of three couples on the tour and the nurse was really nice. Since it was only a one-afternoon class, there was a LOT of information crammed into three hours. Jeremy earned major dad-to-be points for being one of the better-behaved husbands on the tour. He wasn't even the one who asked if the TVs in the room got cable :) [but the answer is yes, they do get cable, no football needs to be missed during the birth of our child should she choose to arrive during the playoffs].
One of the best things about our hospital is that it is certified as a baby friendly hospital. That means that all of the nurses have some kind of breastfeeding training. You get to stay in the same (private) room the whole time you are there (labor through recovery) and the baby stays with you as well. It was nice to get a chance to check everything out now as opposed to waiting until we're in labor. We even got to see a real-live baby that had just been born. I can't say that we really feel ready yet, but at least we know where to park when we get to the hospital :)
Friday, October 22, 2010
31 Weeks!
Our weekly count rolls over on Fridays so as of today, we've made it through 31 weeks of pregnancy! Only nine more weeks until Bagel's expected delivery. I have 7 more weeks of class, so we're cutting things a bit close, but luckily my colleagues have all volunteered to help out during the end of November/beginning of December. I am really lucky to work with some really great people.
Due to some last-minute scheduling issues at the hospital, we're going on our tour of the maternity ward this Saturday (we had originally been scheduled for November). It should be interesting, although tonight we'll have to cram our online study materials since we've been a bit lax in keeping up with those. Hopefully there won't be a quiz.
We don't really have much to report. We spend pretty much all of our time working, with periodic breaks to discuss exciting things like diapers. There are a lot of decisions that you need to make about babies!
One thing we've been pretty concerned with is trying to limit the environmental impact of bringing another person onto the planet. Ever since we saw An Inconvenient Truth, Jeremy has been very concerned with what Al Gore would think about his decisions. After much MUCH online research, we've decided to cloth diaper at home (day care will only use disposables but baby will be home enough that it will make a difference). Jeremy's been doing a lot of research about which disposables are least bad for the environment, and we've narrowed it down to a few brands that appear to do the least harm - we'll stick with those for daycare. They're more expensive than regular diapers, but Jeremy thinks it is what Al Gore would want him to do :)
We've also been looking at all of the cloth options - and there are lots of them out there! I got recommendations from several friends, but after looking at a couple of the recommended diapers, we realized that the convenience of that particular brand came at a definite trade off in terms of grossness of dealing with the dirties. We decided to go with a system that has reusable covers (you don't change them every time you change the diaper) and super-absorbent inserts. This cuts down a little bit more on the laundry since you only wash the inserts every time you change a diaper. Also, we feel a little better about the laundry aspect of this since we have a super-high-efficiency front loader (thanks to my mom and dad who bought our washer dryer as a housewarming present). We also wanted to make sure we picked a diaper that had one size covers as opposed to having to buy new covers every couple of months. Anyway, after checking out many options on the market (if anyone is considering cloth diapers - talk to us, we can discuss your different options at LENGTH), we decided on these:
http://www.cottonbabies.com/product_info.php?cPath=139&products_id=2158
The original diapers we had considered were the Bum Genius by the same company which scored major points for the awesome name, but as previously mentioned had a significant gross-out factor involved (you stuff the insert into a special pocket in the diaper, and Jeremy pointed out that fishing the used insert out of the pocket would be a particularly disgusting task. I was also considering getting a couple of these:
http://www.blueberrydiapers.com/Products_3/Diaper-Covers_2/b5288_4
But Jeremy pointed out that "comes in cow print" shouldn't really be the criteria that we use for picking out diapers :)
So, that was how we spent last Saturday night :) Researching diapers online, taking a trip to the baby store to look at diapers, and deciding what kind to buy. Do we know how to party or what?? I told you we didn't have any "real" news, so diaper talk will have to suffice.
The other big decision we've been trying to make is which baby carrier to buy. We've been able to get pretty much everything else we need second-hand or hand-me-down, but all of our friends with kids are still using their carriers. I had talked to a friend who recommended one brand, but Jeremy was pretty smitten with the baby carrier sported by his friend Geoff. Despite seeing it in action, I was still skeptical. Then Jeremy volunteered to do research, and he started quoting posts from online mommy discussion boards. Yes, Jeremy was invested enough in our decision of which baby carrier to buy that he spent an entire evening fact collecting from online mommy forums (I don't even read online mommy forums). I was pretty impressed. Not only did the facts he find convince me, but I was really impressed with the overall effort. Usually I am the one that wants to compile research and make spreadsheets etc etc and Jeremy is the one standing there rolling his eyes yelling at me to MAKE UP YOUR MIND ALREADY (see the post about our near-divorce resulting from a visit to the paint aisle at Home Depot)! So, anyway, baby Bagel will be sporting around town in the Pikkolo: http://catbirdbaby.com/index.php/pikkolo-info/
So, two decisions down only about nine million more to go. Who knows what exciting topics we'll be discussing at the Gottwood house this weekend! We've talked about how becoming parents is really just changing us from "those crazy people that talk about their cats all the time" to :"those crazy people who talk about their baby (and their cats) all the time" :)
Due to some last-minute scheduling issues at the hospital, we're going on our tour of the maternity ward this Saturday (we had originally been scheduled for November). It should be interesting, although tonight we'll have to cram our online study materials since we've been a bit lax in keeping up with those. Hopefully there won't be a quiz.
We don't really have much to report. We spend pretty much all of our time working, with periodic breaks to discuss exciting things like diapers. There are a lot of decisions that you need to make about babies!
One thing we've been pretty concerned with is trying to limit the environmental impact of bringing another person onto the planet. Ever since we saw An Inconvenient Truth, Jeremy has been very concerned with what Al Gore would think about his decisions. After much MUCH online research, we've decided to cloth diaper at home (day care will only use disposables but baby will be home enough that it will make a difference). Jeremy's been doing a lot of research about which disposables are least bad for the environment, and we've narrowed it down to a few brands that appear to do the least harm - we'll stick with those for daycare. They're more expensive than regular diapers, but Jeremy thinks it is what Al Gore would want him to do :)
We've also been looking at all of the cloth options - and there are lots of them out there! I got recommendations from several friends, but after looking at a couple of the recommended diapers, we realized that the convenience of that particular brand came at a definite trade off in terms of grossness of dealing with the dirties. We decided to go with a system that has reusable covers (you don't change them every time you change the diaper) and super-absorbent inserts. This cuts down a little bit more on the laundry since you only wash the inserts every time you change a diaper. Also, we feel a little better about the laundry aspect of this since we have a super-high-efficiency front loader (thanks to my mom and dad who bought our washer dryer as a housewarming present). We also wanted to make sure we picked a diaper that had one size covers as opposed to having to buy new covers every couple of months. Anyway, after checking out many options on the market (if anyone is considering cloth diapers - talk to us, we can discuss your different options at LENGTH), we decided on these:
http://www.cottonbabies.com/product_info.php?cPath=139&products_id=2158
The original diapers we had considered were the Bum Genius by the same company which scored major points for the awesome name, but as previously mentioned had a significant gross-out factor involved (you stuff the insert into a special pocket in the diaper, and Jeremy pointed out that fishing the used insert out of the pocket would be a particularly disgusting task. I was also considering getting a couple of these:
http://www.blueberrydiapers.com/Products_3/Diaper-Covers_2/b5288_4
But Jeremy pointed out that "comes in cow print" shouldn't really be the criteria that we use for picking out diapers :)
So, that was how we spent last Saturday night :) Researching diapers online, taking a trip to the baby store to look at diapers, and deciding what kind to buy. Do we know how to party or what?? I told you we didn't have any "real" news, so diaper talk will have to suffice.
The other big decision we've been trying to make is which baby carrier to buy. We've been able to get pretty much everything else we need second-hand or hand-me-down, but all of our friends with kids are still using their carriers. I had talked to a friend who recommended one brand, but Jeremy was pretty smitten with the baby carrier sported by his friend Geoff. Despite seeing it in action, I was still skeptical. Then Jeremy volunteered to do research, and he started quoting posts from online mommy discussion boards. Yes, Jeremy was invested enough in our decision of which baby carrier to buy that he spent an entire evening fact collecting from online mommy forums (I don't even read online mommy forums). I was pretty impressed. Not only did the facts he find convince me, but I was really impressed with the overall effort. Usually I am the one that wants to compile research and make spreadsheets etc etc and Jeremy is the one standing there rolling his eyes yelling at me to MAKE UP YOUR MIND ALREADY (see the post about our near-divorce resulting from a visit to the paint aisle at Home Depot)! So, anyway, baby Bagel will be sporting around town in the Pikkolo: http://catbirdbaby.com/index.php/pikkolo-info/
So, two decisions down only about nine million more to go. Who knows what exciting topics we'll be discussing at the Gottwood house this weekend! We've talked about how becoming parents is really just changing us from "those crazy people that talk about their cats all the time" to :"those crazy people who talk about their baby (and their cats) all the time" :)
Monday, October 18, 2010
Belly Shot
Several of my friends have been bugging me to post a pregnant-Kate picture. We finally took a couple tonight. First, Jeremy and I took a picture comparing our "bumps":
Jeremy says he always wondered "how far along" he was - it looks like the consensus is about 30 weeks. Granted he is really sticking his belly out in this picture. He has actually lost some of his baby weight already and is looking pretty trim these days!
Jeremy says he always wondered "how far along" he was - it looks like the consensus is about 30 weeks. Granted he is really sticking his belly out in this picture. He has actually lost some of his baby weight already and is looking pretty trim these days!
Friday, October 15, 2010
Two Big Milestones Today!
Today marks two big milestones. First, today is officially marks 30 weeks of pregnancy for the Gottwoods - 10 more weeks to go! It seems like baby Bagel will be here before we know it!
Also, today is my dad's 63rd birthday. Happy birthday Dad!! I would call, but usually the first person to call is the one that has to explain to Dad that it's his birthday. Then you can play the game where you try to make him remember how old he is :) Usually you end up telling him that it is his birthday and how old he is and then he says "Well, whaddya know." What can I say? It's family tradition.
Not to ruin the surprise, but this year everyone is getting a baby for their birthday (well, actually just one baby, you all have to share). Sorry the present will be a little late Dad, but hopefully it will be worth it!
Also, today is my dad's 63rd birthday. Happy birthday Dad!! I would call, but usually the first person to call is the one that has to explain to Dad that it's his birthday. Then you can play the game where you try to make him remember how old he is :) Usually you end up telling him that it is his birthday and how old he is and then he says "Well, whaddya know." What can I say? It's family tradition.
Not to ruin the surprise, but this year everyone is getting a baby for their birthday (well, actually just one baby, you all have to share). Sorry the present will be a little late Dad, but hopefully it will be worth it!
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Spoiled Already
The other day I heard a news report saying that Macy's had reported better than expected earnings for the quarter. I imagine that is due in large part to the huge surge in baby clothes purchases at their East Lansing franchise - Grandma is definitely doing her part to save the failing economy :) Baby Bagel got a huge box in the mail full of clothes, toys and books. Actually, the box was shipped to Jeremy who I think was a little confused as to why someone would send him a pile of pink onesies. We definitely do not have to worry about distance impacting Grandma's ability to spoil her granddaughter (even *before* the baby is born), that's for sure! Thank you Grandma!!
Actually, the biggest thanks probably comes from the cats who assumed that the whole reason my mom shipped something to us was to provide them with an exciting new box!! To make it even better, the box was full of packing paper!! It pretty much made Rocky's week. He kept pulling out a piece of packing paper, batting it around, and then snuggling up to it. Danger also enjoyed the packing paper, but was highly suspicious of the stuffed kitty toy and knocked it off the table twice before we rescued it and stuck it in the baby's room. Overall, the cats have been relatively calm about the influx of baby stuff, but we'll see what happens when there's an actual baby to contend with!
In other baby-spoiling news, Jeremy and I are both looking forward to my mom visiting in November. She's coming out for the part of Thanksgiving break that I am off of work, but Jeremy is still in school. It's a relatively short trip, but we're really looking forward to help with all of the last-minute pre-baby chores. We've been working on a Grandma to-do list. Since school started, baby stuff has definitely taken a back-burner while we both struggle to keep up with our jobs/homework. Thanksgiving week will be our last big push to get everything we can done before the baby arrives. There's a chance I might have to run to the office for a two hour meeting one of the days while Mom is here. I was initially worried about ditching mom to go into work, but Jeremy pointed out that she'll have plenty of chores to keep her busy - he even offered to stay home and supervise to make sure she wasn't slacking off :)
My mom will leave just as Jeremy is beginning his Thanksgiving vacation. Our plan is that mom and I will get enough done while she is here that Jeremy and I can enjoy our last pre-baby long weekend together. But I guess it all depends on how much work we can wring out of the old woman :) We love you Mom! (We hope you're still looking forward to visiting)
Actually, the biggest thanks probably comes from the cats who assumed that the whole reason my mom shipped something to us was to provide them with an exciting new box!! To make it even better, the box was full of packing paper!! It pretty much made Rocky's week. He kept pulling out a piece of packing paper, batting it around, and then snuggling up to it. Danger also enjoyed the packing paper, but was highly suspicious of the stuffed kitty toy and knocked it off the table twice before we rescued it and stuck it in the baby's room. Overall, the cats have been relatively calm about the influx of baby stuff, but we'll see what happens when there's an actual baby to contend with!
In other baby-spoiling news, Jeremy and I are both looking forward to my mom visiting in November. She's coming out for the part of Thanksgiving break that I am off of work, but Jeremy is still in school. It's a relatively short trip, but we're really looking forward to help with all of the last-minute pre-baby chores. We've been working on a Grandma to-do list. Since school started, baby stuff has definitely taken a back-burner while we both struggle to keep up with our jobs/homework. Thanksgiving week will be our last big push to get everything we can done before the baby arrives. There's a chance I might have to run to the office for a two hour meeting one of the days while Mom is here. I was initially worried about ditching mom to go into work, but Jeremy pointed out that she'll have plenty of chores to keep her busy - he even offered to stay home and supervise to make sure she wasn't slacking off :)
My mom will leave just as Jeremy is beginning his Thanksgiving vacation. Our plan is that mom and I will get enough done while she is here that Jeremy and I can enjoy our last pre-baby long weekend together. But I guess it all depends on how much work we can wring out of the old woman :) We love you Mom! (We hope you're still looking forward to visiting)
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Conversion?
Many of you know that I consider myself a bit of a connoisseur of office/school supplies. Jeremy has another word for it, but I'll let him tell you all about the "trauma" he experienced during our first trip to Staples together - he loves to tell that story and I really don't do it justice (well, Jeremy thinks I don't do it justice - I just think I don't over-embellish)
Anyway, before Jeremy went back to school, we went supply shopping at the local Office Max. To me, one of the huge benefits of engineering school is clearly all of the engineering-specific school supplies. Since Jeremy is a newcomer to the field, I tried to offer my expert advice, but he was a bit skeptical. He poo-pooed many of my recommendations and used a variety of increasingly disparaging adjectives to describe each new suggestion. One thing that I insisted on was that he purchase a pad of green, quad-ruled engineering paper. He was appalled that I would insist on FOUR DOLLAR PAPER when there was perfectly good 95 cent paper but I think he eventually caved just so I would let him leave the store.
Well, long story short Mr. Isn't-all-paper-the-same has been doing his homework on the engineering paper all week. AND the other day he came home from class and said "you were right - everyone has the special paper". Really - a judgment call involving the combination engineering school AND office supplies - and you thought I would lead you astray?
I think we may have a convert on our hands.
Now he is complaining that he has completely worn out the eraser on his mechanical pencil. I think someone recommended that we invest in a click eraser and refills, but I could be wrong ... (lucky for Jeremy I have a spare).
Anyway, before Jeremy went back to school, we went supply shopping at the local Office Max. To me, one of the huge benefits of engineering school is clearly all of the engineering-specific school supplies. Since Jeremy is a newcomer to the field, I tried to offer my expert advice, but he was a bit skeptical. He poo-pooed many of my recommendations and used a variety of increasingly disparaging adjectives to describe each new suggestion. One thing that I insisted on was that he purchase a pad of green, quad-ruled engineering paper. He was appalled that I would insist on FOUR DOLLAR PAPER when there was perfectly good 95 cent paper but I think he eventually caved just so I would let him leave the store.
Well, long story short Mr. Isn't-all-paper-the-same has been doing his homework on the engineering paper all week. AND the other day he came home from class and said "you were right - everyone has the special paper". Really - a judgment call involving the combination engineering school AND office supplies - and you thought I would lead you astray?
I think we may have a convert on our hands.
Now he is complaining that he has completely worn out the eraser on his mechanical pencil. I think someone recommended that we invest in a click eraser and refills, but I could be wrong ... (lucky for Jeremy I have a spare).
Quarantine/Routine
Things have been a little rough around the Gottwood home for the last two weeks as both Jeremy and I fought off what was either a version of Plague or a bad cold (depending on whose opinion you want). It is just now getting to the point where we are both feeling better (if not quite back to our normal selves).
We're also settling into a pretty predictable back-to-school routine. We both get up early and head to work/school. When we get home we eat dinner together and catch up. After dinner, we sit at the coffee table and both do our work. If we're feeling especially crazy, we might watch a half hour of tv before bed. Sounds pretty exciting, doesn't it? :)
Now that Jeremy is no longer house husband, we've gone back to our cook-on-the-weekends, reheat-during-the-week method of feeding ourselves. Not last weekend, but the one before, we spent four hours and made enough dinners and lunches for two weeks. We'll do the same thing this coming weekend. It is kind of a slog to plan that many meals, do the shopping, and all the cooking all at one time, but it makes our lives during the week possible. It's also nice to know that even when we're super-busy we're getting good, homemade, healthy meals.
So clearly, there's nothing too exciting going on over here. Our big excitement over the weekend was getting a new belt for the vacuum cleaner (actually, that may have been more gross than exciting - we realized exactly how little cleaning our vacuum had been doing for the past few months). The other day I was talking to my brother on the phone and he made the claim that "married people are boring". I tried to convince him otherwise, but later in the conversation I said "I should go, Jeremy just got up from his nap, so we're going to reheat dinner and watch Jeopardy". John pointed out that I wasn't doing a very good job of representing for "cool" married people. I claim that our boring-ness comes from being old, not married :)
We're also settling into a pretty predictable back-to-school routine. We both get up early and head to work/school. When we get home we eat dinner together and catch up. After dinner, we sit at the coffee table and both do our work. If we're feeling especially crazy, we might watch a half hour of tv before bed. Sounds pretty exciting, doesn't it? :)
Now that Jeremy is no longer house husband, we've gone back to our cook-on-the-weekends, reheat-during-the-week method of feeding ourselves. Not last weekend, but the one before, we spent four hours and made enough dinners and lunches for two weeks. We'll do the same thing this coming weekend. It is kind of a slog to plan that many meals, do the shopping, and all the cooking all at one time, but it makes our lives during the week possible. It's also nice to know that even when we're super-busy we're getting good, homemade, healthy meals.
So clearly, there's nothing too exciting going on over here. Our big excitement over the weekend was getting a new belt for the vacuum cleaner (actually, that may have been more gross than exciting - we realized exactly how little cleaning our vacuum had been doing for the past few months). The other day I was talking to my brother on the phone and he made the claim that "married people are boring". I tried to convince him otherwise, but later in the conversation I said "I should go, Jeremy just got up from his nap, so we're going to reheat dinner and watch Jeopardy". John pointed out that I wasn't doing a very good job of representing for "cool" married people. I claim that our boring-ness comes from being old, not married :)
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
The Enforcer
Now that Jeremy is back to school, he has lots of homework. In particular, engineering graduate school requires lots and lots of problem sets. I try not to be too jealous because everyone knows I love a good problem set (and the associated school supplies). To keep Jeremy on task, Danger has appointed himself the homework enforcer. This picture shows both of my guys hard at work. Jeremy has his school stuff all spread out on the coffee table and is plugging away at his problem set. Danger is keeping a close eye on him to make sure he stays focused and doesn't stop to check his fantasy football stats. I think the two of them make a good team.
They Grow Up So Fast
This past Thursday was Jeremy's first day of school. I couldn't resist taking a picture of him all dressed up in his new back-to-school shirt on his way to class. As you can tell by the expression, Jeremy was not such a fan of the back to school picture idea, but I think he's a cutie anyway.
Friday, September 24, 2010
iBaby
How did people ever raise babies before the iPhone? I really don't know. It turns out there really IS an app for just about everything. We've already used the baby name app to help narrow down our list of choices. There are also apps for things like timing contractions, keeping track of when you fed the baby last, and analyzing baby poo (we wouldn't have thought we needed this one until we started reading baby books. Apparently baby poo is a BIG DEAL). If my iPhone had opposable thumbs it could pretty much raise the baby for us!
I actually did find a cool app for learning baby sign language. We were kind of on the fence about the whole baby sign thing until we saw it in action. Our friends in Palo Alto taught their baby several of the signs and when we saw them last weekend he used them a couple of times. Usually he used them to indicate that we were a little slow on replenishing his supply of goldfish crackers, but still, he was able to communicate what he wanted without throwing a fit. We're not going to go over the top, we don't need the kid to be able to write a dissertation before she can speak, but it would be nice for her to be able to communicate her basic needs. Plus our daycare uses the signs too, so she'll get reinforcement from the teachers there.
Our friends' baby knows: eat, water, more, milk, cheese, and hat. That seems like a pretty good list. We mostly got to see him demonstrate his emphatic use of the more sign, but we also saw an extremely cute use of the eat sign combined with a huge sad baby look when it became apparent that while we were all getting ice cream, he was not. While "hat" is not necessarily that useful, it is adorable since the sign is to pat your head. We'll probably add a few signs of our own as well. Clearly, any baby of Jeremy's will need to know how to signal a touch down (we've already had the conversation about how we need to check if the hospital has free wireless internet just in case the baby is born during the fantasy football playoffs). We also had a bit of fun coming up with our own signs for "mommy" and "daddy" although we probably won't teach those to the baby, just in case she repeats them in public :)
I actually did find a cool app for learning baby sign language. We were kind of on the fence about the whole baby sign thing until we saw it in action. Our friends in Palo Alto taught their baby several of the signs and when we saw them last weekend he used them a couple of times. Usually he used them to indicate that we were a little slow on replenishing his supply of goldfish crackers, but still, he was able to communicate what he wanted without throwing a fit. We're not going to go over the top, we don't need the kid to be able to write a dissertation before she can speak, but it would be nice for her to be able to communicate her basic needs. Plus our daycare uses the signs too, so she'll get reinforcement from the teachers there.
Our friends' baby knows: eat, water, more, milk, cheese, and hat. That seems like a pretty good list. We mostly got to see him demonstrate his emphatic use of the more sign, but we also saw an extremely cute use of the eat sign combined with a huge sad baby look when it became apparent that while we were all getting ice cream, he was not. While "hat" is not necessarily that useful, it is adorable since the sign is to pat your head. We'll probably add a few signs of our own as well. Clearly, any baby of Jeremy's will need to know how to signal a touch down (we've already had the conversation about how we need to check if the hospital has free wireless internet just in case the baby is born during the fantasy football playoffs). We also had a bit of fun coming up with our own signs for "mommy" and "daddy" although we probably won't teach those to the baby, just in case she repeats them in public :)
You Pass Some, You Fail Some ....
The NP from our doctor's office called with the results of my bloodwork. The good news is that I passed the glucose tolerance test! Yippee! No gestational diabetes for me. Most importantly I don't have to take the second round glucose challenge test. The test consisted of chugging a sugar drink with 50g of sugar and then sitting around for an hour (during which you can't eat anything or even have a drink of water) and then they take your blood. The drink was pretty gross and they make you drink it pretty fast. However, the worst part of the test was sitting around the lab for an hour. It turns out Saturday morning must be when all the crazy people show up for their lab work. Call me anti-social, but at 9am on a Saturday morning I am not really keen on complete strangers asking if I want to see their scars/rashes and./or discussing how there is some vast hospital conspiracy to steal our identities and that is why the nurse asks you for your social security number. Good times.
I also passed my blood antibody test, so that means that even if baby Bagel has a different Rh factor in her blood, my immune system hasn't picked up on that yet. We go back to the doctor next Friday for our 28 week check up, so that is when I should get the shot that will make sure no antibodies develop during the rest of the pregnancy. It will be nice to have one less thing to worry about!
Sadly, I failed the hemoglobin test, so I've developed a bit of pregnancy-related anemia. We knew this was a possibility since I've had some issues with anemia before and we really don't eat much red meat at all. This, luckily has a relatively easy fix. I just need to take some over the counter iron pills for the next few months. No big deal. Overall the test results were really good news!
In other news, we're starting to get our ducks in a row for getting Bagel taken care of when I have to go back to work. Last week a group of my colleagues offered to donate their unused sick time to me so that I could extend my maternity leave through the end of the spring semester. It turns out that HR won't allow that, but I was really touched by the offer. We feel pretty lucky that after only being here for a year, we have so many good friends that are excited for us and for the baby.
Since I only have so much sick time/maternity leave, Bagel will end up in daycare a couple of days a week starting when she is about three months old. I am obviously a little nervous about leaving our baby with strangers, but as Jeremy points out, I don't even like to leave the cats. We visited the daycare that we'll probably end up using on Monday and it was pretty amazing. Everyone there was really nice and really involved with the kids. Each baby gets their own dedicated crib and there are lots of activities for even the youngest kids. We only saw one or two of the babies frantically trying to make a break for it, so we figured that was a good sign. They also have an amazing playground and all of the kids get outside either to play or take a walk at least once a day. Now our biggest worry is that Bagel will like it there so much that she'll never want to come home :)
Of course the one problem with daycare is the waitlist. we assumed we were totally on top of things because heck - our baby isn't even here yet - we won't need care until the last week of March. It turns out that we only have a "pretty good chance" of being "close to the top of the list" by March. Yikes! We're keeping our fingers crossed that it all works out. Otherwise we'll have to find a temporary solution until a spot opens up. Luckily working on a college campus means there are lots of potential babysitters nearby.
I also passed my blood antibody test, so that means that even if baby Bagel has a different Rh factor in her blood, my immune system hasn't picked up on that yet. We go back to the doctor next Friday for our 28 week check up, so that is when I should get the shot that will make sure no antibodies develop during the rest of the pregnancy. It will be nice to have one less thing to worry about!
Sadly, I failed the hemoglobin test, so I've developed a bit of pregnancy-related anemia. We knew this was a possibility since I've had some issues with anemia before and we really don't eat much red meat at all. This, luckily has a relatively easy fix. I just need to take some over the counter iron pills for the next few months. No big deal. Overall the test results were really good news!
In other news, we're starting to get our ducks in a row for getting Bagel taken care of when I have to go back to work. Last week a group of my colleagues offered to donate their unused sick time to me so that I could extend my maternity leave through the end of the spring semester. It turns out that HR won't allow that, but I was really touched by the offer. We feel pretty lucky that after only being here for a year, we have so many good friends that are excited for us and for the baby.
Since I only have so much sick time/maternity leave, Bagel will end up in daycare a couple of days a week starting when she is about three months old. I am obviously a little nervous about leaving our baby with strangers, but as Jeremy points out, I don't even like to leave the cats. We visited the daycare that we'll probably end up using on Monday and it was pretty amazing. Everyone there was really nice and really involved with the kids. Each baby gets their own dedicated crib and there are lots of activities for even the youngest kids. We only saw one or two of the babies frantically trying to make a break for it, so we figured that was a good sign. They also have an amazing playground and all of the kids get outside either to play or take a walk at least once a day. Now our biggest worry is that Bagel will like it there so much that she'll never want to come home :)
Of course the one problem with daycare is the waitlist. we assumed we were totally on top of things because heck - our baby isn't even here yet - we won't need care until the last week of March. It turns out that we only have a "pretty good chance" of being "close to the top of the list" by March. Yikes! We're keeping our fingers crossed that it all works out. Otherwise we'll have to find a temporary solution until a spot opens up. Luckily working on a college campus means there are lots of potential babysitters nearby.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Test Time
This morning I am up bright and early to head over to the hospital for my glucose tolerance test - do I know how to have fun on the weekend or what! This is a standard second-trimester test to make sure I'm not developing gestational diabetes. Jeremy was really worried I was going to have to fast before the test and was trying to come up with an excuse to be out of town so that he didn't have to drive a hungry/grumpy Kate to the lab. Luckily, the first round of the test doesn't require a fast, so he is off the hook - he gets to sleep in.
I also have to get another blood-type test. I'm AB- and Jeremy is A+. Since I am Rh- and there is a possibility that the baby is Rh+ we have to periodically test to make sure that my blood isn't developing antibodies to Rh+ stuff. At our next doctor's appointment, I'll get a shot to make sure that I don't develop any antibodies during the rest of the pregnancy. It is one of those things that isn't dangerous for this baby, but if I develop antibodies now and we end up having another baby, it could be bad for that baby. Jeremy claims that this one is all my fault because he is the one with "normal blood" and I have the "freak blood" given that his blood type is much more common than mine. I claim I'm just special, but I don't think he's buying it :)
I also have to get another blood-type test. I'm AB- and Jeremy is A+. Since I am Rh- and there is a possibility that the baby is Rh+ we have to periodically test to make sure that my blood isn't developing antibodies to Rh+ stuff. At our next doctor's appointment, I'll get a shot to make sure that I don't develop any antibodies during the rest of the pregnancy. It is one of those things that isn't dangerous for this baby, but if I develop antibodies now and we end up having another baby, it could be bad for that baby. Jeremy claims that this one is all my fault because he is the one with "normal blood" and I have the "freak blood" given that his blood type is much more common than mine. I claim I'm just special, but I don't think he's buying it :)
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
99 Days to go!
Today was actually a productive day in terms of preparing for Baby Gottwood. We went to the benefits fair at work (do we know how to have fun or what?). We got lots of great information about how to sign baby up for health insurance, and how to estimate how much to put in our health and childcare savings accounts. We also called a childcare center that was recommended by one of my colleagues. Her little boy is almost 6 now and he started at this center as an infant. He is super-smart and adorable, so hopefully some of that will rub off on the Gottwood baby if we send her to the same place. It also has the benefit of being very flexible in terms of having both full time and hourly care and is very close to campus so if something happens, I'll be able to get there in just a couple of minutes. We're going to visit on Monday to check the place out and then if we like it we can apply to put baby Bagel on the waitlist. The same center has a really good preschool program, so if we end up liking it, Bagel could stay there until kindergarten (well, during the day at least, we'll let her come home after work and weekends) :)
Since we were already on a roll, we also signed up for childbirth classes. Our hospital offers online childbirth classes so we are going to go with that option - it seemed like the best way to fit yet another thing into our busy schedules. After we complete the course we can go to the hospital to tour the birth center and to meet with a nurse.
It seems like there can be an endless list of baby to-dos, but at least we got a couple of biggies checked off today. Bagel with have health care and someone other than the cats to take care of her while we are at work - what more could a baby want?
Since we were already on a roll, we also signed up for childbirth classes. Our hospital offers online childbirth classes so we are going to go with that option - it seemed like the best way to fit yet another thing into our busy schedules. After we complete the course we can go to the hospital to tour the birth center and to meet with a nurse.
It seems like there can be an endless list of baby to-dos, but at least we got a couple of biggies checked off today. Bagel with have health care and someone other than the cats to take care of her while we are at work - what more could a baby want?
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
The countdown begins!
I have a little program on my work computer that updates every day when I log in. It gives me the number of days/weeks/months that I have been pregnant along with what the baby should be up to today (the answer to that question: not much besides getting MUCH BIGGER). This program also estimates how many days are left in my pregnancy. Today it says there are 100 days left to go. I guess that means it is time to start the final countdown to Bagel's arrival! We sure have a lot to do in the next 100 days ...
Friday, September 10, 2010
It's Official!
Today at the doctor's office we got official confirmation - baby Gottwood is a girl - the doctor is 100% sure. Or as sure as you can be after trying to make out minuscule baby-parts on a grainy ultrasound. We're excited to finally know - it makes the baby seem a little more like a real person :) Today marks 25 weeks, so only 15 more to go until we get to meet her!
Today at the doctor we also got talked into getting some immunizations: flu and Tdap so that we stay healthy for the baby. The shots coupled with a few nights of not-enough-sleep have left me pretty drained. I'm heading home for an early bedtime tonight!
Today at the doctor we also got talked into getting some immunizations: flu and Tdap so that we stay healthy for the baby. The shots coupled with a few nights of not-enough-sleep have left me pretty drained. I'm heading home for an early bedtime tonight!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Cleaning Advice from the House Husband
This week, I was cleaning the counter in the kitchen and turned to Jeremy and said "Can you put sponges on the shopping list? This one is falling apart." Jeremy replied "Well, maybe if you didn't make us use the sponges so often, they would last longer."
Monday, August 30, 2010
Routine Weekend
Not too much to report from California. We had a pretty relaxing, routine weekend. Jeremy and I disagree slightly about the purpose of weekends, but I think we've been able to come to a pretty good compromise. Since I work all week (sometimes really long hours) the weekend is my time to catch up on stuff around the house and to do all the get-ready-for-baby chores. Jeremy is of the opinion that chores really have no role to play in his weekend. The other day he even said he stopped doing so many chores during the week because he knew I was just going to make him do chores on the weekend (cue sad background music here - it is truly tragic to be Jeremy sometimes). I then pointed out that if he did chores during the week there would be fewer chores to do on the weekend. He said that was a trap and if he did the chores during the week I would just come up with new, possibly harder chores on the weekend, so he'd stick with the ones he already knew about. I guess it is hard to argue with that logic!
The way it ends up working out is that we spend part of each weekend doing stuff around the house and part of the weekend doing fun stuff. Lately, a big part of our weekends involves tracking down baby stuff. We have a list of "required baby gear" compiled from recommendations from friends with kids. We're trying to slowly acquire all the stuff that Bagel will need. In particular, we're trying to get as much of it used as possible. A friend of ours uses the phrase "baby-industrial complex" to refer to the pressure/marketing aimed at getting you to buy all kinds of crap for your infant. All you need is one trip to Babies R Us to realize he's probably right. There is a lot of pressure to "be a good parent" and spend ridiculous amounts of cash on piles of stuff (much of it plastic) to entertain / protect / clothe / clean / feed / etc your baby. Not only are you convinced that you absolutely must have all of this stuff, the reality is that much of the useful stuff is really only useful for a very short period of time and then gets discarded. In addition to the discarding of stuff, the environmental impact of all of this crap is further compounded by all of the packaging/shipping required to get that made-in-Taiwan baby jungle gym to your local Babies R Us. We're trying to be mindful of both the environmental and budget impacts of having a baby and to reduce our consumption as much as possible. Not to mention we just don't have the room/money for a ton of unnecessary crap. We also figure that as the first (non-feline) grandchild on my side of the family, Bagel will end up with plenty of stuff and will in no way feel deprived :)
Several people have asked "but don't you want nice, new stuff?". Our thought is that nice, new stuff only stays super nice and new if you never let your baby touch it (which kind of defeats the purpose). Really, once our baby chews on, drools on, poos on, and does other disgusting baby things to our stuff, it is not going to look new (our cats taught us this). Of course we have our limits. We'd never buy something used that we thought would endanger Bagel, so we've decided that we'll buy a brand new carseat (or we will potentially time share a carseat with some friends of ours who have a baby a little over a year older than ours will be). We also have limits on what we think is acceptable to buy used. For example, there is something about a used mattress that just skeeves us out, so Bagel got a nice, new crib mattress. Ditto for changing table pad. Basically, anything that can't be cleaned by either the dishwasher, washing machine, or a good soak in soapy water is something we'd prefer to buy new. We also got the furniture for Bagel's room new, which we figured was important to do after the recent spate of crib recalls.
What does all of this have to do with our weekend? Well, a new weekend Gottwood tradition is garage sale-ing on Saturday morning. We check Craig's List on Friday night to make a list of the sales we want to hit in the area and then head out on Saturday morning. If Jeremy is good and doesn't get grumpy while shopping, on the way back we stop for lunch at his favorite deli. We're lucky that our area has tons of good garage sales and since the weather is pretty constant, garage sales are a year-round event. We've managed to get lots of our big-ticket baby items at garage sales over the last month or so. This weekend our major find was a great baby swing!
Another thing we've had a lot of luck with is baby clothes. Given that infants only wear clothes for about 3 months before they outgrow them, you could end up dropping some serious change outfitting your baby. Garage sales in our area seem to sell baby clothes for somewhere in the 25-50 cents range which is just about right. Given that Jeremy thinks it is ridiculous to spend more than $15 on a pair of pants for himself- a pair of pants that he will wear weekly until they disintegrate in the wash - he is definitely on board with baby clothes for less than $1 :) At this point, we're still trying to buy mostly gender-neutral stuff (actually pretty HARD to find) since we don't know the gender of the baby for sure and it would be great to be able to re-use clothes if we have a second baby (or to dress Danger in them, either way).
I think that even Jeremy would admit that sometimes we have fun hitting garage sales. He was sold on a baby bouncy seat when the dad selling it pointed out you could bounce it with your foot while watching football. If Fisher-Price wants to market to dads, they should start printing information on which baby gear will least interfere with football watching (in particular which gear leaves the most hands free for snacks/remotes). The other benefit for Jeremy of tagging along at garage sales, is that he occasionally finds a really good deal on tools to help outfit his shop in the garage. This weekend he was practically giddy over finding some $2 clamps.
So, that's how we start our typical weekend - a few garage sales and the deli for lunch. This Saturday afternoon we came home and took naps in the afternoon and just had a lazy day in general. Sunday was chores around the house day - we did our grocery shopping and then I made food for the week and did laundry while Jeremy worked on projects in the garage. Luckily, we also went to a party at a friend's house on Friday night, so we can convince ourselves that we're not completely old and lame ... at least not quite yet.
The way it ends up working out is that we spend part of each weekend doing stuff around the house and part of the weekend doing fun stuff. Lately, a big part of our weekends involves tracking down baby stuff. We have a list of "required baby gear" compiled from recommendations from friends with kids. We're trying to slowly acquire all the stuff that Bagel will need. In particular, we're trying to get as much of it used as possible. A friend of ours uses the phrase "baby-industrial complex" to refer to the pressure/marketing aimed at getting you to buy all kinds of crap for your infant. All you need is one trip to Babies R Us to realize he's probably right. There is a lot of pressure to "be a good parent" and spend ridiculous amounts of cash on piles of stuff (much of it plastic) to entertain / protect / clothe / clean / feed / etc your baby. Not only are you convinced that you absolutely must have all of this stuff, the reality is that much of the useful stuff is really only useful for a very short period of time and then gets discarded. In addition to the discarding of stuff, the environmental impact of all of this crap is further compounded by all of the packaging/shipping required to get that made-in-Taiwan baby jungle gym to your local Babies R Us. We're trying to be mindful of both the environmental and budget impacts of having a baby and to reduce our consumption as much as possible. Not to mention we just don't have the room/money for a ton of unnecessary crap. We also figure that as the first (non-feline) grandchild on my side of the family, Bagel will end up with plenty of stuff and will in no way feel deprived :)
Several people have asked "but don't you want nice, new stuff?". Our thought is that nice, new stuff only stays super nice and new if you never let your baby touch it (which kind of defeats the purpose). Really, once our baby chews on, drools on, poos on, and does other disgusting baby things to our stuff, it is not going to look new (our cats taught us this). Of course we have our limits. We'd never buy something used that we thought would endanger Bagel, so we've decided that we'll buy a brand new carseat (or we will potentially time share a carseat with some friends of ours who have a baby a little over a year older than ours will be). We also have limits on what we think is acceptable to buy used. For example, there is something about a used mattress that just skeeves us out, so Bagel got a nice, new crib mattress. Ditto for changing table pad. Basically, anything that can't be cleaned by either the dishwasher, washing machine, or a good soak in soapy water is something we'd prefer to buy new. We also got the furniture for Bagel's room new, which we figured was important to do after the recent spate of crib recalls.
What does all of this have to do with our weekend? Well, a new weekend Gottwood tradition is garage sale-ing on Saturday morning. We check Craig's List on Friday night to make a list of the sales we want to hit in the area and then head out on Saturday morning. If Jeremy is good and doesn't get grumpy while shopping, on the way back we stop for lunch at his favorite deli. We're lucky that our area has tons of good garage sales and since the weather is pretty constant, garage sales are a year-round event. We've managed to get lots of our big-ticket baby items at garage sales over the last month or so. This weekend our major find was a great baby swing!
Another thing we've had a lot of luck with is baby clothes. Given that infants only wear clothes for about 3 months before they outgrow them, you could end up dropping some serious change outfitting your baby. Garage sales in our area seem to sell baby clothes for somewhere in the 25-50 cents range which is just about right. Given that Jeremy thinks it is ridiculous to spend more than $15 on a pair of pants for himself- a pair of pants that he will wear weekly until they disintegrate in the wash - he is definitely on board with baby clothes for less than $1 :) At this point, we're still trying to buy mostly gender-neutral stuff (actually pretty HARD to find) since we don't know the gender of the baby for sure and it would be great to be able to re-use clothes if we have a second baby (or to dress Danger in them, either way).
I think that even Jeremy would admit that sometimes we have fun hitting garage sales. He was sold on a baby bouncy seat when the dad selling it pointed out you could bounce it with your foot while watching football. If Fisher-Price wants to market to dads, they should start printing information on which baby gear will least interfere with football watching (in particular which gear leaves the most hands free for snacks/remotes). The other benefit for Jeremy of tagging along at garage sales, is that he occasionally finds a really good deal on tools to help outfit his shop in the garage. This weekend he was practically giddy over finding some $2 clamps.
So, that's how we start our typical weekend - a few garage sales and the deli for lunch. This Saturday afternoon we came home and took naps in the afternoon and just had a lazy day in general. Sunday was chores around the house day - we did our grocery shopping and then I made food for the week and did laundry while Jeremy worked on projects in the garage. Luckily, we also went to a party at a friend's house on Friday night, so we can convince ourselves that we're not completely old and lame ... at least not quite yet.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Four Months to Go!
This Tuesday was August 24. Given that baby Bagel is due to arrive on December 24 that gives us about four months to get ready. Yikes! While we're making slow and steady progress on getting baby stuff together it still seems like December will be here before we know it. And while the nursery is starting to come together, sometimes it is hard to image that there will be a real live baby in there before we know it. Jeremy looked at me the other day and said "They are going to let us bring that baby home. It will be in our house ... forever". Actually, we really hope that Bagel goes to college and gets a job and doesn't necessarily live at home forever, but the point was well taken. We are about to become responsible for a whole extra person.
Bagel has started to move around more which is a lot of fun. Jeremy has gotten to feel her kick a few times which is cool. Of course it is also a little weird to think there's something alive, moving around in there. Jeremy likes to draw a comparison to the movie Alien where at one point a live alien bursts out of Sigourney Weaver's abdomen. Every week we read the online updates of what Bagel is up to in terms of development. Most of the entries compare the size of the baby to a vegetable - this week I think we're up to the length of the baby being roughly the length of an ear of corn.
Not too much else going on around here. Jeremy was sick at the beginning of the week, but he's doing much better now. It was either food poisoning or the stomach flu, so he's pretty glad to be on the mend. I started school, so I've been really busy with all the first week craziness. Students only have two weeks after the start of school to add/drop classes, so there is always a flurry of frantic students needing advising appointments. This semester I am teaching all of my classes on Tuesday and Thursday (one of them also has a class on Friday). It is a great schedule because Monday and Wednesday are completely free for meetings, doctor's appointments and getting caught up on grading. The downside is that my Tuesdays and Thursdays are long and busy. My last class ends at 7:00pm.
As much work as it is, I enjoy having the students back. We really have a great group of students here and I really like that this year I already know some of them. It is definitely a benefit of being at a smaller school that I get to know a lot of the students and I see them in multiple classes.
Bagel has started to move around more which is a lot of fun. Jeremy has gotten to feel her kick a few times which is cool. Of course it is also a little weird to think there's something alive, moving around in there. Jeremy likes to draw a comparison to the movie Alien where at one point a live alien bursts out of Sigourney Weaver's abdomen. Every week we read the online updates of what Bagel is up to in terms of development. Most of the entries compare the size of the baby to a vegetable - this week I think we're up to the length of the baby being roughly the length of an ear of corn.
Not too much else going on around here. Jeremy was sick at the beginning of the week, but he's doing much better now. It was either food poisoning or the stomach flu, so he's pretty glad to be on the mend. I started school, so I've been really busy with all the first week craziness. Students only have two weeks after the start of school to add/drop classes, so there is always a flurry of frantic students needing advising appointments. This semester I am teaching all of my classes on Tuesday and Thursday (one of them also has a class on Friday). It is a great schedule because Monday and Wednesday are completely free for meetings, doctor's appointments and getting caught up on grading. The downside is that my Tuesdays and Thursdays are long and busy. My last class ends at 7:00pm.
As much work as it is, I enjoy having the students back. We really have a great group of students here and I really like that this year I already know some of them. It is definitely a benefit of being at a smaller school that I get to know a lot of the students and I see them in multiple classes.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Back to school
Today was move-in day for freshman dorms here on campus. Since I am teaching a section of a class for a dorm-community (where all the kids live together) I worked a shift during move-in, greeting parents and kids and answering questions. It went pretty well, I guarded a couple of piles of stuff while parents made trips up and down the stairs, and I met several of the students in my class. My only major failure as a volunteer was when I attempted to give directions to Target. I kept trying to explain how to get there and finally the dad in the family said "that's ok, I'm sure we'll find it". But I guess we all know, I am not good at directions.
The highlight of the day for me was when I was talking to one of the dads. He had hauled all his daughter's stuff up the stairs and was just shuffling around the hallway waiting for her and her mom to get everything unpacked. In an attempt to make conversation, he asked me "So, are you a sophomore?". HA HA! I think he was pretty relieved when I said "no, I'm staff". I can't imagine that any parent would feel that great dropping their precious oldest child off at a college full of knocked-up, 30+ year old sophomores :)
It was kind of fun to see all the crap that the students were trying to cram into their little dorm rooms. A couple of the guys showed up with just a comforter and a duffel bag full of clothes, but most kids had a ton of stuff. One girl brought her grandfather with her to move in and he kept going on and on about all of the refrigerators and microwaves. There were several stories about dorm rooms back "in the day" and musing about what the university must be paying in electricity for all these kids.
This is my last weekend "off" before classes start on Monday. I still have some work to do to get my classes ready, and then we'll probably spend most of the rest of the weekend taking care of stuff around the house. I get to do my school supply shopping trip to Staples on Saturday, so that is always an exciting day for me. We have it all worked out this year where Jeremy will drop me off at Staples and then go kill an hour at Home Depot before he picks me back up. He's pretty adamant that he'd rather remove his own appendix with a rusty spork than spend time in an office supply store with me. It's not my fault he can't appreciate a quality office supply!
The highlight of the day for me was when I was talking to one of the dads. He had hauled all his daughter's stuff up the stairs and was just shuffling around the hallway waiting for her and her mom to get everything unpacked. In an attempt to make conversation, he asked me "So, are you a sophomore?". HA HA! I think he was pretty relieved when I said "no, I'm staff". I can't imagine that any parent would feel that great dropping their precious oldest child off at a college full of knocked-up, 30+ year old sophomores :)
It was kind of fun to see all the crap that the students were trying to cram into their little dorm rooms. A couple of the guys showed up with just a comforter and a duffel bag full of clothes, but most kids had a ton of stuff. One girl brought her grandfather with her to move in and he kept going on and on about all of the refrigerators and microwaves. There were several stories about dorm rooms back "in the day" and musing about what the university must be paying in electricity for all these kids.
This is my last weekend "off" before classes start on Monday. I still have some work to do to get my classes ready, and then we'll probably spend most of the rest of the weekend taking care of stuff around the house. I get to do my school supply shopping trip to Staples on Saturday, so that is always an exciting day for me. We have it all worked out this year where Jeremy will drop me off at Staples and then go kill an hour at Home Depot before he picks me back up. He's pretty adamant that he'd rather remove his own appendix with a rusty spork than spend time in an office supply store with me. It's not my fault he can't appreciate a quality office supply!
Thursday, August 19, 2010
4 years of the Gottwoods!
Today was our fourth wedding anniversary! I celebrated with a day full of meetings - I had meetings scheduled from 8:15 am - 6:00 pm. Luckily I had a break for lunch and Jeremy brought by sandwiches from our favorite deli. When the deli guy found out it was our anniversary he gave Jeremy free carrot cake - which caused Jeremy to declare the deli guy his "second favorite person in the world". He clarified that I still had the number 1 spot, but by a fairly narrow margin. I mean, I may be carrying his child, but we're talking about FREE CAKE. I think if it had been pie I might have been out of luck.
After my late meeting we went out for a nice dinner in Pacific Grove. It is amazing to think that this is the last time for quite a while that we can go out for an anniversary dinner without having to find a babysitter! It was a delicious dinner and we really enjoyed having a nice night out before we both head back to school.
The other exciting thing that happened today is that Danger felt the baby kick. After my alarm went off this morning, Danger sprawled on top of my belly. Right as he settled in, Bagel gave a big kick. She's still pretty little so the kicks aren't super-hard, but it was enough for Danger to lift his head and look at me accusingly, as if to ask "what just happened?". Jeremy says he can't wait for Bagel to get bigger and for the kicks to get harder because he wants to see if Danger will fight back. I can't say that I am particularly looking forward to baby-cat show downs with me caught in the middle.
The other memorable event that happens in the middle of August is my mom's birthday. Happy birthday Mom! (Actually it was the 17th). On Tuesday I got a phone call from my brother (well, actually Jeremy got a phone call from my brother's best friend, but that's a much longer story) chastising me for dropping the ball and not calling him to warn him about mom's birthday. Apparently he and his friend found out about her birthday when they stopped by my parent's house because it was half way between the liquor store and their final destination. Although, as his friend pointed out, John had thoughtfully picked up a "bouquet of a dozen Bud Lights" to commemorate Mom's birthday - THAT'S thinking on your feet!
Happy birthday Mom and happy anniversary Jeremy! Here's hoping for many more of both!
After my late meeting we went out for a nice dinner in Pacific Grove. It is amazing to think that this is the last time for quite a while that we can go out for an anniversary dinner without having to find a babysitter! It was a delicious dinner and we really enjoyed having a nice night out before we both head back to school.
The other exciting thing that happened today is that Danger felt the baby kick. After my alarm went off this morning, Danger sprawled on top of my belly. Right as he settled in, Bagel gave a big kick. She's still pretty little so the kicks aren't super-hard, but it was enough for Danger to lift his head and look at me accusingly, as if to ask "what just happened?". Jeremy says he can't wait for Bagel to get bigger and for the kicks to get harder because he wants to see if Danger will fight back. I can't say that I am particularly looking forward to baby-cat show downs with me caught in the middle.
The other memorable event that happens in the middle of August is my mom's birthday. Happy birthday Mom! (Actually it was the 17th). On Tuesday I got a phone call from my brother (well, actually Jeremy got a phone call from my brother's best friend, but that's a much longer story) chastising me for dropping the ball and not calling him to warn him about mom's birthday. Apparently he and his friend found out about her birthday when they stopped by my parent's house because it was half way between the liquor store and their final destination. Although, as his friend pointed out, John had thoughtfully picked up a "bouquet of a dozen Bud Lights" to commemorate Mom's birthday - THAT'S thinking on your feet!
Happy birthday Mom and happy anniversary Jeremy! Here's hoping for many more of both!
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
What's in a name?
If you haven't heard, baby Bagel is ... a GIRL ... maybe. The only thing we're sure of about Bagel is that he/she is uncooperative and would not let the doctor get a good shot of the parts that are important when determining gender. So, the doctor offered up a guess (based, I'm guessing, on NOT seeing some particular equipment) that Bagel is a girl with 90% certainty. Luckily, she also offered to throw in a freebie ultrasound to double-check at our next appointment. The doctor also said that she's relatively sure she's right, but (GRANDMOTHERS PAY ATTENTION HERE) not to go out any buy any pink stuff just yet, because there's definitely a chance that the next ultrasound might turn up some evidence to the contrary.
Now that the gender question is close to being settled, everyone wants to know about names. So, were just going to come out and tell everyone - WE'RE NOT TELLING. Why? Pretty much the only unanimous unsolicited advice we have received from our friends is to keep the baby's name to ourselves until the baby is born. Our friend Joe gave this advice best - it involved many emphatic hand gestures and the use of the phrase "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD" at least three times. His point was basically that before the baby is born, everyone is going to have an opinion on the name of your baby - probably negative. You will hear things like "I hear that X is the most common name for serial killers", "A kid named X stole my lunch money in the third grade", "I got a great lap dance by someone named X once", etc, etc, etc. However, once you have an adorable baby and present it with its given name, nobody and I mean NOBODY is going to bring up their stolen lunch money or tell you that with a name like that your bundle of joy is going to grow up to be the best tipped stripper in the club (just like nobody is going to tell you that your baby isn't really all that adorable).
We considered this advice and decided it seemed pretty wise. Also, it allowed us some flexibility in case we decided to change our minds about the baby's name. We then had many (I'm sure many more than Jeremy would have liked) conversations about what to name Bagel (other than Bagel). After a while, we decided on a girl name and a boy name that we both really liked. In fact, we were particularly fond of our girl name. BUT, then ... we did the unthinkable ... we did not follow Joe's advice. We let the names slip. The inevitable happened. Our carefully chosen girls name got TRASHED. Trashed to the point where we couldn't really use it any more. By someone who we thought would actually be touched by the reasoning we used to select the name in the first place. At the time, we still weren't sure about the gender, so we clung to the fact that our boy name was still (relatively) untarnished and we were probably not going to need a girl name anyway. And then we got the ultrasound. Joe, we will never doubt you again. If you tell us that the best sleeping position for a baby is upside down like a bat, we will immediately purchase bungee cords and make it so. You are a wise, wise man.
While we most certainly will not tell you what we're planning on naming Bagel, we will tell you what we are NOT naming Bagel. We are not naming our baby girl Maxine. We originally chose Maxine because we thought it did a great job of honoring both of our families. My grandmother is Maxine, and Jeremy's great-grandfather was Max (which is what we were going to call her as a nickname - although Jeremy did at one point argue that it would be cooler to call her Mad Max). We both liked the name, we thought a girl called Max wasn't going to get any static on the playground, and we looked forward to telling her stories about her families and how they both contributed to her name. Then, we accidentally told some folks about our plan (the part where we did not listen to Joe). It turns out Max Gottlieb was a real SOB, nobody liked him, you don't want to name your kid after him, etc etc etc. While we were hoping that both of our families would eventually tell Bagel about where her name came from, we were not envisioning those conversations involving quite so much use of the word "jerk".
So, we are back to the drawing board for a girl name. Luckily, there's an app for that. Seriously, we downloaded an iPhone app of baby names. Every night while we're brushing our teeth and getting ready for bed, we go through a few more pages of baby girl names and we're keeping a list of names that we both find acceptable. We'll wait until after the next ultrasound and if the gender gets confirmed we'll narrow down to a few contenders and will probably put off the final decision until Bagel is born - unless we find something else that we both really, really like which hasn't happened yet. At least we're having lots of laughs making fun of some of the ridiculous baby names out there, and even more laughs making fun of each others' selections. Jeremy thinks I tend to like "old lady names" and has unequivocally outlawed any name including the letters "wyn". I think Jeremy tends to pick names that belong to women who in middle age still shop in the juniors section and dot their "i"s with hearts. But I'm sure we'll find something we both like, if we don't our fallback name is "George Foreman" :)
So, I guess the moral of the story is LISTEN TO JOE. Although, his other piece of parenting advice was that as a guy, it is best to have all girl children because then when you get in the minivan, you can turn around and say "hellllll-oooooo ladies", so, you know, the jury might still be out on that one.
Now that the gender question is close to being settled, everyone wants to know about names. So, were just going to come out and tell everyone - WE'RE NOT TELLING. Why? Pretty much the only unanimous unsolicited advice we have received from our friends is to keep the baby's name to ourselves until the baby is born. Our friend Joe gave this advice best - it involved many emphatic hand gestures and the use of the phrase "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD" at least three times. His point was basically that before the baby is born, everyone is going to have an opinion on the name of your baby - probably negative. You will hear things like "I hear that X is the most common name for serial killers", "A kid named X stole my lunch money in the third grade", "I got a great lap dance by someone named X once", etc, etc, etc. However, once you have an adorable baby and present it with its given name, nobody and I mean NOBODY is going to bring up their stolen lunch money or tell you that with a name like that your bundle of joy is going to grow up to be the best tipped stripper in the club (just like nobody is going to tell you that your baby isn't really all that adorable).
We considered this advice and decided it seemed pretty wise. Also, it allowed us some flexibility in case we decided to change our minds about the baby's name. We then had many (I'm sure many more than Jeremy would have liked) conversations about what to name Bagel (other than Bagel). After a while, we decided on a girl name and a boy name that we both really liked. In fact, we were particularly fond of our girl name. BUT, then ... we did the unthinkable ... we did not follow Joe's advice. We let the names slip. The inevitable happened. Our carefully chosen girls name got TRASHED. Trashed to the point where we couldn't really use it any more. By someone who we thought would actually be touched by the reasoning we used to select the name in the first place. At the time, we still weren't sure about the gender, so we clung to the fact that our boy name was still (relatively) untarnished and we were probably not going to need a girl name anyway. And then we got the ultrasound. Joe, we will never doubt you again. If you tell us that the best sleeping position for a baby is upside down like a bat, we will immediately purchase bungee cords and make it so. You are a wise, wise man.
While we most certainly will not tell you what we're planning on naming Bagel, we will tell you what we are NOT naming Bagel. We are not naming our baby girl Maxine. We originally chose Maxine because we thought it did a great job of honoring both of our families. My grandmother is Maxine, and Jeremy's great-grandfather was Max (which is what we were going to call her as a nickname - although Jeremy did at one point argue that it would be cooler to call her Mad Max). We both liked the name, we thought a girl called Max wasn't going to get any static on the playground, and we looked forward to telling her stories about her families and how they both contributed to her name. Then, we accidentally told some folks about our plan (the part where we did not listen to Joe). It turns out Max Gottlieb was a real SOB, nobody liked him, you don't want to name your kid after him, etc etc etc. While we were hoping that both of our families would eventually tell Bagel about where her name came from, we were not envisioning those conversations involving quite so much use of the word "jerk".
So, we are back to the drawing board for a girl name. Luckily, there's an app for that. Seriously, we downloaded an iPhone app of baby names. Every night while we're brushing our teeth and getting ready for bed, we go through a few more pages of baby girl names and we're keeping a list of names that we both find acceptable. We'll wait until after the next ultrasound and if the gender gets confirmed we'll narrow down to a few contenders and will probably put off the final decision until Bagel is born - unless we find something else that we both really, really like which hasn't happened yet. At least we're having lots of laughs making fun of some of the ridiculous baby names out there, and even more laughs making fun of each others' selections. Jeremy thinks I tend to like "old lady names" and has unequivocally outlawed any name including the letters "wyn". I think Jeremy tends to pick names that belong to women who in middle age still shop in the juniors section and dot their "i"s with hearts. But I'm sure we'll find something we both like, if we don't our fallback name is "George Foreman" :)
So, I guess the moral of the story is LISTEN TO JOE. Although, his other piece of parenting advice was that as a guy, it is best to have all girl children because then when you get in the minivan, you can turn around and say "hellllll-oooooo ladies", so, you know, the jury might still be out on that one.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
The Stakes are Raised
It is no secret that Jeremy and I have a small wager on the sex of baby Bagel. However, yesterday Jeremy announced that he has prepared a choreographed "I'm Right" song and dance number to perform at the OB's office if he wins. I'm sure that's something the doctor doesn't see every day. Of course, I guess you can't blame Jeremy, he is right so rarely it truly would be a reason to celebrate :)
Monday, August 2, 2010
How I spent my summer vacation
I've been pretty swamped this summer with work related things. This past week I was at a workshop on remotely operated vehicles (underwater robots essentially) and how to teach students how to build them for a competition and classroom projects. It was a lot of fun, but pretty exhausting - we had really long days and in addition to all the lectures we went to, we had to build a robot in groups and then show them off on the last day. We did everything from soldering circuit boards, to waterproofing our robots to writing the control software. All in a week! I am pretty exhausted, but excited to share everything I learned with my students. Here are a couple of pictures of my team's robot and control station:
The robot itself is made out of PVC pipe, but that's what makes it affordable for classroom use. One of the best parts of the workshop was meeting all of the cool people involved. Our workspace was at a local community college's auto shop and the guys that run the place did an amazing job of hosting us. One night, during a late robot building session, they even hosted a cook-out on their custom BBQ:
That's an old Honda Civic and the engine has been replaced with a huge BBQ pit. It was pretty amazing. The trunk was full of speakers too so that while you grill, you can enjoy some tunes. Pretty impressive. I can't believe John hasn't done something like this! If only he had somewhere he could get an old beat-up car that doesn't run ... :)
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| Yay! It doesn't leak! |
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| ROV control station |
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| Auto-shop BBQ |
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