Belly Shot Update - 38 Weeks

Yep, we only have another week to go 'til Nugget's Due Date! For those keeping track, I still have not toppled over, though my back and pelvis do feel like they might just let me crack in half sometimes. :)

Let's see if I make it to Saturday for another picture!

Cowboys, Gorillas and Hippies...Oh My!

We don't plan on becoming hermits once the baby arrives, but we thought we'd have a fun weekend in the California sun just in case we find ourselves busy for awhile.

On Saturday, we went to the Livermore Rodeo. Yes, in addition to being known for wine and nuclear weapons, Livermore has a very well attended annual rodeo event. Of course, we didn't actually go *in* to the rodeo since we're not rodeo people and couldn't justify the $12/person plus $8/car -- but we did see the (free) parade in downtown Livermore.



We rolled out of bed at an early hour on Sunday to go to Golden Gate Park. We didn't spend much time in the park but we did take a little stroll (err waddle) and saw the gorillas. There is a 7K race that raises money for African Gorillas, and all the runners get a gorilla costume with their registration fee. But in San Francisco it is not enough to *just* wear a gorilla costume. No, you need a costume for your costume. Anyway, it was an interesting spectacle - we might just have to do this one ourselves next year!

Finally, for some social interaction we went to Erin Medlin's appartment for her mimosa and "baked" goods brunch prior to the Haight/Ashbury Street Fair. It is the 40th anniversary of the summer of love for those keeping score. One particular highlight of this hippie scene was a local PTA tent pictured here. It might be hard to see, but yes, that is an elmo-adorned bra wearing, scantily clad woman manning the PTA's "big red yarn ball of love".

After the fair we stopped off in Pleasanton at Stacey's Cafe for a late lunch. I have recently taken up reading Scott Adam's blog. He for those not familiar is the creator of Dilbert and his daily reflections remind me of Dave Barry. Anyway, this was his restaurant that we snacked on some Grilled California Free Range Chicken Sandwiches with Avocado (the menu is quite witty).

(If you click on the pictures, you'll see more pictures from our weekend adventures).

Directions to the hospital...

We could be heading to the hospital any day now so we wanted to make sure we had directions. For those who haven't heard about it, or those who have but couldn't find any place they were interested in seeing with it -- here is the google street view of the hospital.

Mothers, make note of these directions yourself in case nugget decides to come and you find yourself needing to tell the cabbie where to go.

Nugget's Prenatal Appointment - 38 Weeks

Yesterday Nugget and I went to the midwife. Weekly appointments (which are routine at this point in pregnancy) are really a pain in the ass, but I suppose the peace of mind that everything is going along as it should is good.

So, no new news really - Nugget sounds great on the doppler and appears to be growing appropriately. I'm doing good too. For those interested in the progression toward the birth, I am about 50% effaced and about 1.5 cm dialated. Remember that this could mean that I will go into labor tomorrow or that won't go into labor for weeks. It's amazing how little we still know about what predicts birth timing! But Nugget is full-term now, so it can be any time.

Anyway, all is well and we're slowly getting ready for the big day.

Week 37 Belly Shots

Here are the links to this week's belly shots.

I also should point out that we've been labeling them by the whole week of pregnancy completed, which basically means that even though we took this picture this morning and it's labeled 37 weeks, I'm in the midst of my 38th week and actually closer to being 38 weeks pregnant, since on Tuesday, I'll have 38 weeks of pregnancy under my belt (heh...literally). This is true of all the belly shots, since we take them on the weekend.

Yes, I know, I'm huge. But, I've managed not to tip over yet, although I do wobble like a weeble. I also waddle a good amount too - I'm sure that will only get worse once the baby drops!

All work and no play has made Cheryl insane

I don't know whether it's my sudden lack of pile of portfolios, papers, and exams to grade or pregnancy hormones, but since I finished grading my last portfolio (about 10 minutes ago), I've been pretty much giggling uncontrollably with a goofy smile on my face while Lance looks at me like I'm a circus monkey.

I think it's relief. I made it through my first year as a new professor, and I managed to finish the semester BEFORE going into labor! Ah if only I could celebrate with some tequila...well in a few weeks maybe I can have a delayed celebratory sip.

Now let the nesting begin!!

Pregnancy FAQ...

Aunt Debbie sent us this forward which was quite relevant for us so I thought we could share with everybody.

Pregnancy Q & A

Q: Should I have a baby after 35?
A: No, 35 children is enough.

Q: I'm two months pregnant now. When will my baby move?
A: With any luck, right after he finishes college.

Q: What is the most reliable method to determine a baby's sex?
A: Childbirth.

Q: My wife is five months pregnant and so moody that sometimes she's borderline irrational.
A: So what's your question?

Q: My childbirth instructor says it's not pain I'll feel during labor, but pressure. Is she right?
A: Yes, in the same way that a tornado might be called an air current.

Q: When is the best time to get an epidural?
A: Right after you find out you're pregnant.

Q: Is there any reason I have to be in the delivery room while my wife is in labor?
A: Not unless the word "alimony" means anything to you.

Q: Is there anything I should avoid while recovering from childbirth?
A: Yes, pregnancy.

Q: Do I have to have a baby shower?
A: Not if you change the baby's diaper very quickly.

Q: Our baby was born last week. When will my wife begin to feel and act normal again?
A: When the kids are in college.

End of the Semester Countdown

I really really really really can't wait for this semester to end. I don't know what I was thinking teaching 4 classes rather than 3 this semester. The extra money for the 4th class will be nice once I get it (they don't pay us until the grades are in for extra courses), but it's just exhausting and stressful. This is why you haven't heard from me in a while!

But the end is near. At this point, I have 22 portfolios, 8 research papers, 33 Cognitive Development finals (which I proctor on Tuesday), and 24 Social-Emotional Development finals (which I proctor on Wednesday) still left to grade. I hope to be completely done with all my grades turned in by June 1. Then I can focus completely on nesting and Nugget's impending arrival! Or maybe I'll just rest up for birthing the little one! I certainly need it after my first year of being a professor. I'd probably need it even if I wasn't 37 weeks pregnant!

More Belly Shots and Nugget Update

There are three new weekly belly shots since I last posted and some new stuff to share.

Both Nugget and myself are still doing great . Nugget is growing right on target and his/her heartbeat sounds great. I'm doing good too. At my 34 and 35 week checkups, we found that I was 20-30% effaced and 1.5 cm dilated, and my mucous plug has started to break down and pass. This process of normal cervical changes started a little earlier than usual, but it's not really anything to worry about either, since many women walk around for weeks being even more dilated than I. The midwife basically said that my body was just preparing for childbirth and that I'm not at risk for preterm labor even with these factors and Braxton Hicks contractions. At 34 weeks, the Midwife told me that I should take it easy since my activity level can lead to labor - so I started making myself walk slow across campus to class, started taking the elevator, and started rolling my laptop around campus in a small suitcase instead of carrying my backpack. It must be working since at almost 37 weeks now, Nugget is still safe and sound and healthy in my belly and has so far let me continue working. I'll be happy as long as Nugget stays in for another week - so I can proctor my class' exams this week, finish all my grading and not have to do it while recovering from childbirth!

On Tuesday I will be at 37 weeks gestation, so technically Nugget will be considered "full-term" at that point! Although I'd still like the little one to stay put for another week or so!

Survey says...

We were fortunate to collect the opinions of 38 people in our survey. Here's what you thought.

The good news is we think there is a 50/50 chance the baby will be either a boy or a girl -- and it was a 48.6% tie on the gender question with 2 people not giving an opinion. No help there, so let's move onto names.

There is a lot riding on the name for the baby, so we asked about baby names. We already know a middle name of Wayne is a bad idea. The Social Security Administration also just recently released the popular baby names for 2006.

        Boy        Girl
1   Jacob          Emily
2   Michael        Emma
3   Joshua         Madison
4   Ethan          Isabella
5   Matthew        Ava
6   Daniel         Abigail
7   Christopher    Olivia
8   Andrew         Hannah
9   Anthony        Sophia
10  William        Samantha

Despite the obvious benefits of being able to google a unique name, there is some criticism for being too novel as reported in this Guardian article.

In his book Baby Name Report Card, UCLA psychology professor Albert Mehrabian tested a host of names to see how attractive people found them. Some names immediately aroused images of success, others of popularity or kindness. On the whole, people judged to have more traditional names such as Rachel and Robert did extremely well. More alternative names scored badly. Breeze, for example, was given 16 out of 100, while Christopher received full marks. 'A name is part of an impression package,' said Mehrabian. 'Parents who make up bizarre names for their children are ignorant, arrogant or just foolish.'

The boy name theoretically was a no brainer. It may go back even farther, but there is a pattern to boy names in my family:

  William Robert DeLancey
  Robert George DeLancey
  George Jay DeLancey
  Jayson Jeremy DeLancey

Most of you also liked Jeremy, 21.1% (or 8) in fact. The other top choices:

  18.4% 7 Reed
  13.2% 5 Logan
  13.2% 5 Benjamin
   7.9% 3 Finn
   5.3% 2 Marshall

There were a lot of other suggestions getting one vote each: Koos, Mechanic, Lupay, Deven, Noah, Gabe, Bobby, and Reece. Nobody seemed intrigued by Leif or Stone.

For girl names there was not as much of a variety to choose from. Most of you (50%, 19) picked Lily as a good name for a girl. Gabriella was second with 28.9% and Harmony receiving only 3 votes. There was also votes for Reagan, Tia, Driver, Stefanie, and Erotica Jones.

Our choice of first names come with some ambiguity in spelling. Using the baby search tool on the Social Security Administration website we have some indications. First off, in the past 15 years there are no boys named Lily or Lilly and no girls named Reed or Reid. No gender confusion, check. As for popularity in 2006, Lilly ranks 151 while Lily ranks 33. Reed comes in at 470 and Reid has a slight edge at 422. Your opinion was consistent with the overall trend.

Belly Shot Update

Yep, it's time for another belly shot update. You know the drill - click on my belly to get the rest of the belly pictures. 33 weeks and counting.

Mind Altering Media...

Cheryl has for some time held the belief that TV is detrimental to child development and behavior, particularly the large majority of children's programming which portrays violent themes. This discussion has come up a few times over the years. I only have anecdotal evidence to suggest that media alone cannot possibly be the cause as there is a long history of violent behavior prior to the invention of electricity. Even Stephen Pinker brought this up at the recent TED conference and in an article in New Republic last month:

In sixteenth-century Paris, a popular form of entertainment was cat-burning, in which a cat was hoisted in a sling on a stage and slowly lowered into a fire. According to historian Norman Davies, "[T]he spectators, including kings and queens, shrieked with laughter as the animals, howling with pain, were singed, roasted, and finally carbonized." Today, such sadism would be unthinkable in most of the world. This change in sensibilities is just one example of perhaps the most important and most underappreciated trend in the human saga: Violence has been in decline over long stretches of history, and today we are probably living in the most peaceful moment of our species' time on earth.

I played video games, I watched R rated violent movies, and I played with a gun and I turned out ok right? Well, the April issue of New Scientist has a feature article Mind Altering Media that discusses the effects of television and video games on children. They point to some research that further backs up the findings that helped formulate Cheryl's beliefs:

When it comes to TV, however, there's no getting away from the fact that the bad news outweighs the good. One of the biggest studies was done by Jeffrey Johnson and colleagues at Columbia University in New York, who followed more than 700 families for 17 years, recording their viewing habits, health, backgrounds and various behavioural tendencies. Their findings confirm those of previous, smaller studies showing that the amount of TV watched during childhood and teens correlates with changes in attention and sleep patterns, among other things.

The group's latest analysis will be published next month, so Johnson can't reveal details yet, but says: "High levels of TV viewing may contribute to elevated risk for a type of syndrome which is often characterised by two or more of the following types of problems: elevated levels of verbal and physical aggression; difficulties with sleep; obesity and long-term risk for obesity-related health problems from a lack of physical exercise; and attention or learning difficulties."

There is also reference to Bandura's Bobo effect (also known as Social Learning Theory in Academic Circles):

One of the most straightforward demonstrations dates back to 1961, by Albert Bandura at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. He showed short films to pre-schoolers. Half saw a man beating up a plastic clown (called a Bobo Doll). The other half saw more innocuous images. After watching the film the children were allowed to play with all kinds of toys, including the doll. Those who had seen the beating went and punched it, even copying details like words the clown said. The Bobo doll studies show that children will imitate violent acts in precise detail.

So, it really comes down to a risk assessment. How much enjoyment is there from these violent observations versus the risk that good parenting will not be enough to counter-act negative behavior. The American Academy of Pediatrics made a few recommendations in the article:

* no tv at all for children under 2 (Cheryl says babies need direct interaction that the TV does not provide - so all those Baby Einstein videos are overpriced crap and studies have shown that the potential costs greatly outweigh any meager gain in knowledge that a child could and generally does get elsewhere.)
* no more than 1 or 2 hours a day thereafter
* with teenagers, set conditional rules with homework
* encourage alternative activities
* look for nonviolent shows and games (there are some spatial awareness and other positive effects from video games)
* discuss what is real and what is make-believe (Cheryl says this is one of the many reasons why Mister Rogers' Neighborhood is a quality show)

More information:

* www.tvtroubles.com
* www.mindscience.org

So, even though G.I. Joe taught me that "knowing is half the battle", our kids will learn that lesson from a different source.

Funny things that professors say...

Usually all the "fun" job-related posts come from Lance. After all - he has mandated screenings of movies such as "Meet the Robinsons" and he gets to play with Shrek all day long. But, even in my more mundane job teaching college students about Child Development, occasionally something fun comes along to share with you all.

Last week, I was teaching my Developmental Assessment class all about Standardized testing, and the various types of standardized testing that exist. We were talking about Screening and Diagnostic testing, and primarily the differences between the two. Like any good professor, I was giving them well-known examples of such tests. One frequently used diagnostic test used in special education is the "Woodcock-Johnson-III", which, if you're interested measures "general intellectual ability, specific cognitive abilities, scholastic aptitude, oral language, and academic achievement." So I ask (since many of my students work part-time in classrooms or have taken a break from work to continue their education), "Are any of you familiar with the Woodcock-Johnson-III?" And the response I got was a bunch of giggles AND one student, who I now have much admiration for, blurted out, "Wow, that's three for three!" and then any hope for serious conversation was of course temporarily suspended.

Once my classroom settled down and we could talk more seriously about the test (although we all had to refrain from referring to the test by name in order to prevent any further giggle outbreaks), we began talking about how to interpret the results and to be careful about how we use the results, when I, clearly not thinking straight, used the following phrase. "We really need to be careful about who administers the tests, because usually so much is riding on the Woodcock-Johnson that it can change the whole course of a child's educational opportunities." And of course, the class erupts again, and I snarked, not realizing what I said yet, "really? the name of the test is still funny?" and got the response from one student who could barely contain her giggling, "No, you just said that a lot was riding on it." This of course led to even more of a giggle-eruption.

Anyway, needless to say, I really appreciate these students much more now that they've revealed that they're just as immature as my dear friend Grundle.

Prenatal Appointment - May 3

So, all is well with both Nugget and myself. Our midwife is very happy with my weight gain. I've packed on about 20 lbs so far - with about 6 weeks worth of gaining to go. About half of any future weight gained will be going directly to Nugget - the average weight gain for a woman to gain is about a pound a week - and usually half a pound goes directly toward making baby look like a fat little cherub. So if we extrapolate, when all is said and done, I will have gained approximately 26 lbs over the course of the pregnancy. Of that 26 lbs, about 8 lbs (give or take) will be Nugget, 1.5 - 2 lbs will be Nugget's placenta, about 12 lbs is a combination of amniotic fluid, uterine enlargement, increased blood volume, and fluids in maternal tissue. Plus, about a pound or two is all in my breasts . So really when it comes down to it, not a whole lot of my weight gain is fat that needs to be "burned" after Nugget and his/her placenta and amniotic fluid comes out - most of it will be taken care of naturally in the course of the month or so after Nugget's arrival with regular uterine shrinking and a naturally decreasing blood and fluid volume. Our midwife told me right out that she suspects that within a month or so of breastfeeding I'll be right back to "normal" and maybe a little less with the exception of my breasts (which I'm perfectly okay with!). She even noted that I'd have to watch that I don't loose too much weight since I have a naturally fast metabolism and will be putting extra energy into breastfeeding.

She also noted that Nugget is growing at a perfect rate. Nugget's heart sounds great too. And, Nugget is head down (and has been for weeks now), which bodes well for birth.

My blood pressure has remained remarkably steady - I've been at 110/70 at every prenatal visit. This time I was slightly lower at 100/66, but still well within that normal range, and nothing to write home about. This bp is actually closer to my pre-pregnancy normal - which is usually about 100/60.

Nothing else is really exciting about our progress, but I figured you'd all like to hear that Nugget and I are doing really well. 6 more weeks and counting!

Stroller-Carseat Erected!

Strollers and carseats are made to travel, and ours, even without the baby in it, has had quite the journey already. Still in its box, it made it from the store to my baby shower in January, and then at the end of March, after Amy & Luke's bridal shower, I checked the box and the stroller flew back to California with me. (Don't worry, I didn't lift it at all - Luke carried it to check-in in Buffalo and Lance carried it from baggage claim in Oakland.)

Then it sat in our hallway, blocking the door to the nursery-to-be for a couple of weeks. That's where Lance left it and well, I couldn't do much about it.

Then last weekend we embarked on the journey of starting to actually make the nursery a nursery. So we went through the box room (the guest-room-to-be) and consolodated some of our yet unpacked boxes (yeah, we STILL haven't really moved in), and Lance moved a bunch of them to the closet and the spare garage. Then Lance disassembled and reassembled the twin bed to make room for the crib (which is still in its box). And finally, we took the stroller out of the box and put it together. It's now hanging out where the crib will be when we try to put that together next weekend. Thanks Grandma C, Aunt Jill, & Aunt Mary Carole!

Asparagus Festival

An exciting Saturday out west. First up, we went to Stockton, CA and braved the escaped convict manhunt to check out the Asparagus Festival. Yes, you read that right -- Asparagus. Apparently it grows well enough to celebrate out here.

The highlight was the deep-fried asparagus and the asparaburrito. All in all it was a rather boring festival, and expensive at $10/person and $6 for 5 deep-fried asparagus (but it was yummy!). There was a skate-boarding dog that we couldn't see, and a half pipe where they were doing stunts (professionals, not the dog). If you are into arts and crafts there was a bunch of vendors peddling their asparagus themed wares. There were even margaritas with asparagus stirrers. I guess I'll have to wait until next year to actually sample the "Aspararitas"!

Destination Magazine rates it as one of the 100 best events in the nation but I find that surprising. At the "Farmer's Market" you could buy asparagus for $3/bundle (its cheaper at one of the many roadside stands) and the only other produce were strawberries and cherries (again cheaper out of the back of the truck at the end of our street). It was super crowded, and a very hot day at 91, but thankfully, the port-a-potties were not as scary as anticipated at an asparagus festival. After all, being 32 weeks pregnant and drinking enough water to stay hydrated in the heat, visiting the port-a-potties was unavoidable! I also learned that while 91 is not usually hot for me, being pregnant has apparently lowered my comfortable temperature maximum, so we only stayed a couple of hours, even with taking breaks to eat in the shade.

Life Imitates Art

After some shopping at Babies R Us and Indian food, we went home and sat down for some TV. As we were skipping around the TiVO, we caught the beginning of the Friends episode, The One Where They're Up All Night. For those of you who do not have a Friends obsession, this episode features Phoebe destroying a smoke detector that won't stop making it's "battery-low" beep. Unfortunately for us, when Cheryl woke to pee around 3am, life imitated art. Only she didn't want to wake me up and proceeded to try to fall back asleep even though our smoke detector beeped every 6 minutes. Finally around 4am, her tossing, turning, and obvious lack of sleeping did wake me up.

Our smoke detectors are mounted to the ceiling, and while we have a step stool, our ceilings are, like, 12ft high so it is a bit of a stretch. So I climbed up and pulled out the battery and started heading back to bed. It beeps again. I climb back up and pull it off the ceiling to find it has backup AC power connection. So I disconnect the power and satisfied stumble back to bed. It beeps again. Just as I was going for the hammer I realized the beep was coming from a different smoke detector -- we have something like three in every room apparently. So, I shuffled my chair and phone books to the other one and silenced it. Falling back to sleep, Cheryl was concerned about the first one now being disconnected, as it was the only one that was a CO detector as well -- so I got back up again and hooked it all together and put the battery back in. Done.



Good practice for baby wake-up calls I guess.

Shrek Ears Recall...

I picked up a few of these to give away -- but word on the street is that if used improperly you can put your eye out. Caution is encouraged. See the Forbes Article for more information.

I bought a car...

The insurance company gave me $6900 for my totaled alero and a rental car with a one week deadline before they would stop paying. They also provided through AAA a buyers service to help me find a replacement. It took a few days to search for an Alero and after thinking about it I decided that if I still had mine and it broke down a year from now I would say "that sucks" but if I bought a used car with the money provided and the same thing happened I would say "I got screwed".

So, I went with conventional wisdom and started looking at other used cars with a good track record -- ie. Honda and Toyota certified. What I discovered is that the depreciation on these cars was not too substantial. For instance, given my estimate that I may drive 25k miles/year I found these prices online:

                  NADA             Kelley
 2007     0k    $19,510     ---   $20,105    ----
 2006    25k    $19,175   $ 335   $18,590   $1515
 2005    50k    $16,062   $3113   $15,235   $3355
 2004    75k    $13,925   $2137   $14,060   $1175
 2003   100k    $11,550   $2375   $12,275   $1785

With the exception of the difference in price when passing the 36,000 mile warranty the depreciation appears relatively constant. Looking at vehicles online at autotrader also confirmed this trend. This led me to look at new cars instead.

Next I considered a hybrid vehicle. The tax credit is down to $750 but I drive a heck of a lot of miles, so looked at gas savings. Things may change, I may start carpooling, I may get to telecommute a day a week, I may move closer to work, gas prices will change, so with all these variables considered I wanted to do a price sensitivity analysis. The Civic EX is rated 30mpg city, 40 highway. They Civic Hybrid is 40 and 50mpg respectively. I was able to get the Civic EX for Invoice price, but the Hybrids are in higher demand and would have been closer to MSRP. That is a difference of $4645 - $750 tax credit = $3895. How much would I save in fuel costs?

Well, my manager has a hybrid and gets only 43 mpg. Reviews online at Car and Driver also suggest that it is really difficult to actually achieve 50mpg. So given my driving parameters of 110 miles/day, 5 days/week, 46 weeks/year = 21,850 miles. Assuming an average gas price of $4.00, 38mpg on the civic, 43mpg on the hybrid, I could save $22.29/month in gas or $267/year.

I'm all for doing what's good for the environment, but even with the ridiculous amount of driving I do and escalating fuel costs it could take 14 years to justify the additional cost.

So, what did I get? I got a blue one.

You should have seen the other guy...

The occupational hazard that is commuting 55 miles caught up to me. While driving to work at 7:55 AM on Thursday March 22 I came upon a sudden slowdown in traffic. As mentioned in an earlier post, this is a daily occurrence in Livermore but I still felt it sudden enough to check on the car behind me. I decided not to turn on the hazard lights because they were slowing down. Unfortunately the car(s) behind that car did not get the message and came plowing in once we were stopped.

The detail of the accident are not clear, there were either 5 cars involved in the collision, or 4 and the truck just hid from view the traffic the final car was surprised by. Either way the impact was enough to push me into the car in front. There was no damage to the car in front, but my car was written off as a total loss when the estimate to fix was over $6k. The rear quarter panel needed to be replaced, the trunk mechanism was all busted up, and the frame was bent as well.



Nobody was seriously injured though my neck and back were sore for a week or so after. The last car in our lineup had the airbag deployed, windshield broken, and was pretty smashed up overall. The Volvo in between also lost their bumper to the side of the road and had some significant damage.

Latest Belly Pictures

Yeah, I know - I'm getting HUGE! This brings us to 31 weeks!

Shrek appears on American Idol...

For the record, May 18 -- not June! In case you missed it, here's the video:

Prenatal Appointment - April 19

All is still well with Nugget. It's really annoying to have to go to the midwife every two weeks now, especially since everything is going so smoothly and there's no new information.

Our midwife estimates that Nugget is about 3 lbs right now (which is right on track). Plus, Nugget is head down, which is good.

In other pregnancy related news, I discovered that my heartburn was linked to lemonade and that my couch and drivers seat in my car are causing middle back pain. I seem to have an insatiable appetite for sweets too. And my sushi craving is pretty much constant - I can't wait to give birth so I can bite into some yummy yellowfin nigiri!

It's not too much longer now though!

Snopes is sinister

From my favorite comic xkcd:



but seriously, don't send us forwards.

The future of text messaging...

Work can be amusing at times.

Zazzle and Dreamworks BFF

Nugget's Tour of the Birth Center

Today we visited the place where, barring any traffic delays coinciding with a fast labor, Nugget will be born and get a real name! My mom went through the first twinge of labor to holding me in her arms in 4 hours flat - so it's possible given my genes that I could give birth in the car on the way.

The birth center is in the Alta Bates Summit Hospital in Berkeley. I've mentioned my apprehension about hospitals, and this still isn't my ideal (after all, birthing at home with a portable hospital parked in my driveway just isn't realistic - and we're just too far from a hospital if anything were to go wrong), BUT I am comfortable with our decision now that I've seen the birth center and heard their philosophy and policies about birthing.

They seem to share the general philosophy of our midwife, which is no unnecessary interventions, and to always try the least invasive, most natural interventions first if they become necessary. For example, IV's are NOT routinely given to healthy laboring mothers if not having an epidural or IV drugs. Episiotomies are also NOT routine. The labor/delivery rooms are all private, and they have a rooftop garden in which to wander around while laboring, tubs for laboring in particular rooms (and either showers or regular tubs in the other rooms), and are amenable to what seems like many different labor and delivery positions, including squatting with the squatting bar - which is supposed to be best for opening the pelvis and minimizing tearing. I was VERY happy to hear about the squatting bar since we learned about this method in birthing class and it seems to make the most sense, given gravity and positioning of the baby.

I am allowed to have up to 4 visitors/support people in the labor/delivery room, including the time of birth, and unlimited visitors after birth. And if we already had children, they would be allowed to watch the birth as well, provided they had their own support person to look after them.

I was also happy to hear that they had no restrictions regarding videotape, since we plan on buying a tripod for our video camera in order to catch the whole thing on tape. Don't worry, no one will be required to watch it - including Nugget's future significant others or anybody that would be equally embarrassed by it (i.e. Sully). I'd just really like to see myself birth a baby from another angle when I'm not experiencing the pain.

So, overall, I'm very pleased with our decision and feel MUCH better now that we've seen the place. Now here's to actually getting there before the baby comes (i.e. Berkeley is about 45 minutes from our house when there's no traffic)!

Other highlights include the Whole Foods grocery store across the street and Barney's and Zachary's, considered the best burgers and pizza in the bay area respectively, only a couple blocks away.

Breast is Best! (Why we're Breastfeeding)

I figured since I was all excited about my breast pump that I should explain why my choice is to breastfeed.

First, it's the best food for babies. Numerous studies have shown that there are compounds in breastmilk that can't be synthetically created in formula. So much development occurs in the baby's first year, that I want to give the baby the best start I can - some of the compounds in breastmilk are linked with increased cognitive function. The other components of breastmilk that are really important are my antibodies that I give to the baby. With my seasonal allergies and history of asthma, giving my baby breastmilk can help little Nugget maybe avoid some of those allergies. Granted it's not certain that it will do anything - I was breastfed and I still have allergies and asthma, although they didn't show up until I was 11 or 12. But it's worth a shot!
I'm not going to say that formula is evil or anything, it's certainly a good thing for adopted children and for those children whose mothers can't physically breastfeed, and we have made excellent advanced in formula that make it closer than in years past, but if you pit breastmilk against formula, breastmilk will win by a landslide.

Second, breasts are smart - they read signals from the baby's saliva and create milk that has the exact balance of nutrients and fat, in the exact amount that baby needs. I would like my boobs to live up to their intelligent potential instead of just being body ornaments.

Third, the action of suckling on a breast promotes good jaw strength and development. There is no bottle on the market that does this, despite their claims to be "like the breast".

Fourth, breastfeeding encourages my uterus to contract back to it's dormant-state size (and can reduce the risk of post-birth hemmorage if done immediately), and some women find that breastfeeding helps with taking off any extra pounds that came with pregnancy. I have a matron-of-honor gown to wear just over a month postpartum - so I'll take the benefits to me as well.

Fifth, not only does it promote attachment and bonding with baby, but breastfeeding also releases oxytocin in the mother, which has calming properties in addition to creating the neurochemical balance needed to stimulate caring behavior and bonding. Oxytocin has also been implicated in the post-natural birth euphoria experienced by mothers.

Sixth, It'll keep my boobs bigger for longer, which will help my waist look smaller as I'm loosing baby weight and toning my tummy again (yeah, I know they're still small - but every little gain in size counts!)

Seventh, on average exclusively breastfed babies diapers don't smell AS raunchy as formula fed babies - they're no picnic either, but it's not AS bad. This all goes out the window the second cereal is added though.

Eight, you can feed wherever you are without needing powders, water, can openers or anything - you can just whip out a boob and baby is fed (this also means less dishes when you're not pumping). I really did need a viable excuse just to post the phrase "whip out a boob" on the internet.

Plus, I think that it's really neat and I'd like to experience all the neat things that my body can do. I know it won't be easy (after all if it were, formula companies would go broke - there aren't statistically enough women who adopt or who physically can't breastfeed to keep them afloat all alone), but I think it's well worth the sacrifice - even if it means that I'll have to keep my wine tasting to a minimum when we go to Napa Valley!

Breast Pump

My breast pump arrived via FedEx today! Thanks Mom, Amy, & Gramma Ho! Ho! I got a Medela double electric pump (it's called the Advanced In-Style Backpack pump), which has fantastic reviews and NICU RN Mom says is the best brand. At some point I'll have to figure out how all the tubes and bottles and cones go together, but for now, at least I have it, so I'm ready when Nugget arrives and I start lactating. I plan on exclusively breastfeeding off the breast at first, and pumping to amass a supply of what Lance once referred to as "breastmilk freezer pops", so we can have a babysitter from time to time or go winetasting. Also thanks to Stef and Koos for sending us the bottle kit to use with the pump! We'll definitely be using the whole set of them!

The pump will also be a necessity when I go back to work in September and Nugget will be in daycare for half the day. I would really like to exclusively breastfeed Nugget until he/she is interested in other foods (usually recommended around 6 mos.) and continue breastfeeding at least until Nugget is a year old, at which point I'll continue until he/she weans him/herself. Having the pump will help to ensure that I can do that and bring home the bacon!

Plus I'll get to fulfill my lifelong desire to understand the experience of a dairy cow. :P

Prenatal Appointment April 5, 2007

I like to try and keep you all updated on the health and well being of Nugget and myself. Be reassured that all is going well and everything is right on track.

Earlier in the week I had to get some routine blood work done and at my appointment we found out that everything is looking good. And for the first time in my memory, including my first round of pregnancy-related blood work, I didn't pass out. Perhaps the extra blood volume in pregnancy is good for me.

I was tested for anemia and I'm not anemic.

She also had the glucose challenge test (this is the one where you have to drink the stuff that everyone says is awful but just tasted like 7up to me, and then get your blood tested an hour later), and there is no sign of diabetes. Also, for added information, my Mom tested my glucose with my Gramma Ho! Ho!'s glucometer at my sister's shower last weekend and my sugar levels 2 hours after eating are right at the normal level too.

My midwife said that all of my numbers looked great.

And finally, since my blood type is A- and Lance is B+, I had to be retested for Rh Antibodies again. Everything checked out and so she gave me the Anti-Rh Antibody injection at my visit.

Nugget's heartbeat sounded good and was head down at my appointment - which is a good sign even though he/she doesn't have to be head down quite yet at this point.

So both Nugget and myself are healthy and right on track for 29 weeks and we're starting to see the midwife every two weeks now, which is normal once hitting 30 weeks.

Also, new in Nugget's repertoire of behavior is kicking me in the ribs and stretching his/her little foot into my rib cage. At least I'm still sleeping through the night for now!

Staying in touch...

While I'm sure most of you go to the website twice a day, we'd like to make it even easier for the rest of you to keep up with what's going on as we near d-day. To that end, you have two options:

1. Subscribe to the RSS feeds. I will just refer you to Koos's instructions rather then repeat them here. Just substitute delanceyfamily for salmagundis in the description. Read the instructions here.

2. I have setup an email mailing list that will receive every post. You don't need a gmail account but you will need a google account to subscribe. Just go to the google group and we'll approve you.

New Belly Shots

The most recent belly shots have been posted. Just click on the bellies to get to the clothed and bare-belly albums.

We're on Week 29 now!

Amy & Luke's Bridal Shower

On April Fool's Day, my sister, Amy and her fiance, Luke had their Bridal Shower and I was able to attend - it coincided with my conference trip, so I sort of got to hit two birds with one stone.

Anyway, Luke and Amy had fun at this couple's shower, and I had a great time getting to see my family again this year. I was really glad I was able to come!

It also gave a number of people the opportunity to feel Nugget's kick-boxing - even though Nugget is not one to perform on command!

Just click on Amy's face for more pictures from the event!

Society for Research on Child Development (SRCD) Conference

Some of you might wonder what goes on at a professional conference while many of you might have an idea since you've been to conferences in your own fields. Either way, I figured that I'd talk about what my conferences are like in case you're curious.

As an academic, part of my job is to stay abreast of new research and techniques being used in my field and also to be engaged in my own "cutting edge" research. Most of the time one can keep up reasonably by reading the recent research reports, but even then, some articles take well over a year to be printed. And before they're accepted, there's probably a year or two between when the data was actually collected and the article is even accepted to a journal. So, that's really where conferences come in - you get a slightly quicker turn around time on acceptance AND unlike journal articles, you can present pieces of research that are in progress, and you can submit preliminary data in liu of having your complete data set. So by the time the conference rolls around, those people who had preliminary data accepted are going to be presenting their full data, sometimes only a month (or a few days) after data collection is finished! So you really do get to see what people in the field are working on at the moment - and you get to talk to them one-on-one at poster sessions (which are condensed presentations of studies that are literally in the form of a big poster put up on a tack board) or ask questions at paper symposium talks where they verbally present their research (usually using powerpoint as a visual aid). The only drawback of conferences, or at least in the case of SRCD, is that it's HUGE and you can't possibly hit everything you want to, and a full day of information can lead to quite a case of sensory overload (particularly just walking into a huge room filled with over 200 posters!).

This year I didn't present anything - since I pretty much exhausted my dissertation data between my conferences in Louisville and Melbourne last year and don't have data yet for the project I'm working on now.

As it's name suggests, the Society for Research on Child Development Conference, has a really broad focus on the many different facets of Child Development and Developmental Psychology. I tend to try to find the sessions that focus on Emotional Development and Gender Stereotyping in Children, but this year I also was drawn to a lot of the infant research and parenting socialization research as well (surprise, surprise!).

Also, I was lucky enough to be able to attend this year's Teaching Institute on Developmental Science, which was a fabulous experience. The Teaching Institute was actually a special pre-conference which focused on how to teach development to both undergrads and graduate students. Being new to the teaching game, I was incredibly excited about all the information that was presented. Now I just need to find the time to implement all these fantastic ideas!

So, all in all, I learned a ton at this conference, even though my brain was all cloudy from the cold I had!

Cheryl & Nugget's Trip to Boston

Most of the reason that I wanted to go to the SRCD conference was really to get a partially subsidized trip to Boston, which was conveniently the location of the biennial conference this year. My evil plan might have worked better if a.) I didn't end up with a nasty cold and had more energy to actually get off my butt and call more of you Bostonians that I wanted to see and b.) if the conference wasn't so darn intellectually engaging and c.) if my department wasn't trying to recruit a new faculty member. But I was happy that I got to see some of you when I was there!

A special thanks to Sully for letting me crash at his place, picking me up at 7am at the airport, and dropping me off at the airport during half-time of a basketball game, not to mention providing a door-to-door morning shuttle service to the conference, etc..

Nugget would also like to say thank you for his/her new kickin' footwear!

Coming back to Boston really showed me how much I miss you guys though, and while I don't miss the cold at all (55 degrees is NOT shorts weather Sully!!), I really do miss Boston too! In fact, I even got Nugget a Red Sox onesie so Nugget will learn how cool Boston is too. However, don't get too excited - Lance has made it clear that the little one won't be sporting any Patriots attire.

Nugget's Last Prenatal Flight

Nugget has flown across the country a total of 6 times, and has been on a total of 12 airplanes to do so. Pretty impressive for someone who hasn't even been born yet!

This last trip to Boston and Buffalo was Nugget's last airplane ride as a fetus though, just because a.) I'm in my third trimester now and there's something magical about that milestone that equals not flying. I think it probably has something to do with the airlines not wanting babies prematurely born at 30,000 feet! Although how cool would "somewhere over Cheyenne, Wyoming" look on a birth certificate?
and
b.) I don't really have anywhere else I HAVE to go before Nugget appears on the scene and it's tiring to travel.
and
c.) While my midwife had no qualms about me flying at 28-29 weeks, I wouldn't expect her to be thrilled about me flitting about the country any more from now on!

But as far as flying is concerned, Nugget seems to be mostly unaffected by it. For his/her first flights, he/she wasn't strong enough to have me feel any movements, but for this last one, Nugget was as active as ever. In fact, Nugget was particularly active during decent and landing. Whether that indicated enjoyment or discomfort is indistinguishable, I think that moving around a normal amount is an indicator of "goodness", so that's what I'm sticking with.

Now if only my flights didn't include such characters as "Seat back gripping turbulance freakout woman", "Incessantly Snoring Man", and "I've eaten a stock-pot full of beans Man", I would say that flying pregnant hasn't been too bad.

This could've been worse had I not had aisle seats so that I could get up and stretch my legs (and use the toilet!), but overall travelling pregnant is really not bad at all.

And the media/marketing frenzy begins...

Am I really a geekatron?

Okay, this is completely off topic, but ... if you are wondering where all the stylish and adorable lads and ladies are—they’re at DreamWorks! I couldn’t believe how many cute, geeky, quirker bees I saw floating down the halls and around every corner. Seriously, I was in pain. By the end of the day, I couldn’t bear to see one more tousled-haired, black-framed, well-shoed geekatron.

Actually her write-up is entertaining and insightful if you are interested in some of the inner-workings:
IESB's Shrektacular Day at DreamWorks!.

Stop Kicking my Bladder!

Okay, so I've played the role of the pregnant woman that everyone loves to hate, because well, this pregnancy has been really really nice to me.

All my weight gain has been adding onto the "basketball also known as nugget", I haven't had a drop of nausea, I've been able to stay active and move around pretty comfortably, and since my second trimester started, I've been sleeping through the whole night about 95% of the time, AND I really have yet to have a negative mood swing (I've been in a really good mood most of the time). So without the requisite pregnancy scatterbrainedness and the fact that I crave yellow tail sashimi, which I can't have, it's been really easy.

But as my third trimester is kicking into high gear, I figured I'd share some of the not-so-fun things that have been happening too.

First, as the post title might have indicated, Nugget seems to like to kick and punch my bladder. This has led to some interesting teaching methods on my part, since Nugget has a penchant for doing this right in the middle of my lecturing, and I have to quickly think of some question for my students to discuss in groups for five minutes, while I take a potty break. Half the time, they don't even realize that these breakout sessions weren't "planned", which is good. Luckily, there hasn't been any Nugget Kickboxing-related leakage (or any leakage of any kind). I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Also, my lower back and lower rib cage are sore. I'm carrying the baby really high, so my ribs are way separated and I think all my organs are competing for space. At the end of the day, these aches and pains get worse, and when I wake up, they're generally better. And my back just gets tired of holding my "basketball" up.

And I have a touch of heartburn on occasion.

So, these things still aren't BAD, but I thought some of you might appreciate that I don't have a totally symptom free pregnancy!

So-called "child psychologists"...

The THE ETIOLOGY & TREATMENT OF CHILDHOOD was written by Jordan Smoller and published in a book called Oral Sadism and the Vegetarian Personality.

Childhood is a syndrome which has only recently begun to receive serious attention from clinicians. The syndrome itself, however, is not at all recent. As early as the 8th century, the Persian historian Kidnom made references to "short, noisy creatures," who may well have been what we now call "children." The treatment of children, however, was unknown until this century, when so-called "child psychologists" and "child psychiatrists" became common. Despite this history of clinical neglect, it has been estimated that well over half of all Americans alive today have experienced childhood directly (Suess, 1983). In fact, the actual numbers are probably much higher, since these data are based on self-reports which may be subject to social desirability biases and retrospective distortion.

Under Construction...

My commute sucks, and that's only if I travel at off-peak hours. Fortunately, help is on the way:

After legislative leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger demanded that the list be changed to favor congestion projects, and more of them, the staff put out a new list Monday with $1.1 billion in Bay Area projects. (http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/ci_5329443)

Here's another amusing tidbit:

Transportation officials' carefully organized media event Friday to celebrate progress in highway construction turned into a live demonstration of just how unhappy life is for commuters on Interstate 580.

Caltrans Director Will Kempton, California Transportation Commissioner James Ghielmetti and Alameda County Supervisor Scott Haggerty were to update the media at 2 p.m. under an awning set up next to the eastbound lanes of the interstate, a short distance east of the El Charro Road interchange.

Haggerty, however, didn't get there until close to 3 p.m. after leaving Oakland at 1:45 thanks to the very traffic bottleneck that was to frame the event.

"There is no reason that any taxpaying citizen should have to go though this traffic," Haggerty said to a reporter who had made the same enervating journey with similar results. "Just getting from the 580-680 interchange to here has totally drained me for the rest of the evening."

Haggerty said he could not blame passing motorists who saw the assembly of transportation officials for flipping them "the one-fingered salute." (http://origin.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/localnews/ci_5406547)

Nugget's Crib

We ordered Nugget's crib today! The company that makes it is located in Reading, Pennsylvania. Go to their website for more info about the crib. Thanks Dad!

Lance will get to go pick it up in a week or so. If I'm really lucky Lance will have it all put together when I get home from the SRCD conference/Amy's Shower! Then we just have to get a mattress and sheets and stuff.

Well, and diapers/diaper covers, and my breast pump, etc... but progress is good!

Digital Baby Magazine

I just mentioned that we made an email address for nugget and that we're using it to amass offers for free stuff and newsletters and such. Well imagine my surprise when I was checking that email address and saw a message from "babytalk@texterity.com". Apparently one of the free subscriptions I got was a digital subscription to babytalk magazine, which is apparently using texterity to manage their e-magazine. This begs the question that if they're giving away free subscriptions, how the hell is Rachel getting paid?

Nugget has an Email Address

Nugget has an email address.

We use it mostly to sign up for free baby stuff - so if you see free offers in your web surfing, feel free to sign us up - but PLEASE use nugget's email rather than ours so we can control spam on our personal accounts.

If you really want, you can also send nugget messages that we'll compile at some point for a baby book.

Nugget.DeLancey@gmail.com

Free Baby Stuff

We got a handy little book as a gift, Free Stuff for Baby by Sue M. Hannah. I've started signing the kid up to win or receive some free stuff and will let you know the best of our swag.

• AventAmerica.com - free breastfeeding guide and free sample(?!?!)
• Parents.com giveaways - Baking Kit & Destination Getaway
• Beech-Nut free bib and Newsletter for more free stuff offers
• Gerber Gift Basket Sweepstakes and Newsletter for more free stuff offers
• Gentle Naturals Rebate on products
• Playtex Newsletter for free stuff offers
• Baby.com Sweepstakes for $1000 cash
• iparenting.com Newsletter to hear about free stuff offers
• babyzone.com - which simultaneously entered us for a free bib, free stuff from enfamil & similac (even though we're planning on exclusively breastfeeding), babytalk free subscription, Graco newsletter, american baby free subscription, and a catalog of birth announcements

Starting to look like spring...

Yay! It is starting to look like spring. The grass is green, the temperature is in the 70s, I'm eating lunch outside at work again. It is amazing how little the weather forecast will vary over the next 7 months or so.

Belly Shots

In response to, "Send us pictures of Cheryl at maximum capacity...we're curious to see if she'll topple over. :)" and other requests, we proudly present a series of belly shots.

We've been taking pictures (almost) weekly starting at 12 weeks, and we will continue to do so until that inevitable "toppling over" that Saru, Justin, Rachel, & Josh referred to in their email occurs or the baby is born, whichever comes first.

View the entire progression of clothed or bare (lifting my shirt just enough so you can see my belly) shots.

12 weeks	25 weeks

Cravings that I can relate to...

Cheryl hasn't had many over-the-top cravings, though I did find the ring peppers on a hawaiian pizza a bit odd.

This is in part wanting to show all our visitors what California fast food is like, but Cheryl has on a few days like the drunk Berkeley students had an uncontrollable craving for In-N-Out Burgers. Not McDonalds or Burger King, but In-N-Out specifically. We're not big fast-food eaters, and Cheryl especially is not a fast-food burger person, but gardenburgers just don't cut it. The kid must have my tastes.

She's also had cravings for Indian food, homemade chocolate chip cookies, ice cream, chocolate, and mexican food (particularly veggie burritos).

Here's a link to the hidden menu at In-N-Out burger so you can figure out what you want when you visit.

http://www.tiburon-belvedere.com/cgi/home.cgi?c=In_N_Out

What do you think...

We're having a kid. You tell us what to do.

Click here to take our survey.

Please only take the survey once. Your ip address and other details are tracked so you'll only serve to annoy me. We'll post the results when we're bored.

What we're reading- March

Here is what we're reading this month for pleasure:

• Book of Flying by Keith Miller
• What to Expect When You're Expecting by Arlene Eisenberg, Heidi Murkoff, & Sandee Hathaway
  
• The Thinking Woman's Guide to a Better Birth by Henci Goer
• The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy by Vicki Iovine

We meet again...

While living at KDR, Bacardi was determined to protect her turf from any intruders. One day "Chester's cat" popped its little grey head in the doorway which prompted Bacardi to jump from the loft and proceed to chase him up the big stairways, all the way across the third floor, and then back down the small stairway where the scared cat rolled over and lost control of his bladder.

Anyway, turns out that Chester is at Berkeley so we met his cat once again and now remember his name -- Sly (no relation to any of Sugar's ancestral line).

Childbirth as told by a second-grader...

I use a story in my classes about how a preschooler retells the "where babies come from" facts, to drive home the idea that children assimilate new knowledge into their already existing schemas and sometimes, these things get a little distorted in the process. The story I use has been lifted from the Developmental Psych class that I TA-ed at Brandeis (it's about that Professor's son). After that class, one of my students sent me this story, which has been forwarded around the internet via email. We hope you enjoy the story. Unfortunately, we don't know this teacher or the child in the story directly.
************************************************************************************

I've been teaching now for about fifteen years. I have two kids myself, but the best birth story I know is the one I saw in my own second-grade classroom a few years back.

When I was a kid, I loved show-and-tell. So I always have a few sessions with my students. It helps them get over shyness and usually, show-and-tell is pretty tame. Kids bring in pet turtles, model airplanes, pictures of fish they catch, stuff like that. And I never, ever place any boundaries or limitations on them. If they want to lug it in to school and talk about it, they're
welcome.

Well, one day this little girl, Erica, a very bright, very outgoing kid, takes her turn and waddles up to the front of the class with a pillow stuffed under her sweater.

She holds up a snapshot of an infant. "This is Luke, my baby brother, and I'm going to tell you about his birthday."

"First, Mom and Dad made him as a symbol of their love, and then Dad put a seed in my Mom's stomach, and Luke grew in there. He ate for nine months through an umbrella cord."

She's standing there with her hands on the pillow, and I'm trying not to laugh and wishing I had my camcorder with me. The kids are watching her in amazement.

"Then, about two Saturdays ago, my Mom starts saying and going, 'Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh!'" Erica puts a hand behind her back and groans. "She walked around the house for, like an hour, 'Oh, oh, oh!'" Now this kid is doing a hysterical duck walk and groaning.

"My Dad called the middle wife. She delivers babies, but she doesn't have a sign on the car like the Domino's man. They got my Mom to lie down In bed like this. "Then Erica lies down with her back against the wall.

"And then , pop! My Mom had this bag of water she kept in there in case he got thirsty, and it just blew up and spilled all over the bed, like psshhheew!" This kid has her legs spread and with her little hands is mimicking water flowing away. It was too much!

"Then the middle wife starts saying 'push, push,' and 'breathe, breathe' They started counting, but never even got Past ten.

Then, all of a sudden, out comes my brother. He was covered in yucky stuff that they all said it was from Mom's play-center, so there must be a lot of toys inside there."

Then Erica stood up, took a big theatrical bow and returned to her seat. I'm sure I applauded the loudest. Ever since then, when it's show-and-tell day, I bring my camcorder, just in case another "Middle Wife" comes Along.

One Laptop Per Nugget...

I recently attended PyCon in Dallas, Texas. The first keynote at the conference was Ivan Krstic who spoke about the One Laptop Per Child or OLPC project. They have chosen Python as the platform development language and imagine kids all over the world who get these devices will be able to push a button on the laptop that will bring up the source code for everything from the filesystem to the user interface -- all will be written in Python.

The second keynote speaker was Adele Goldberg who talked about the state of technology in education. Her premise was to figure out how to use technology in education outside of school first. She mentioned a lack of high quality educational software but I didn't get a chance to flag her down to see if she knew about the research at CMU with the cognitive tutor.

So, I may be getting the keynotes mixed up, but one of the underlying themes of these two talks was obviously how technology can be useful in education. Taking the OLPC example, the idea is that students will be able to not only see something but also begin to understand what it takes to make it work. You wouldn't just learn about what a circle is, but how to write out instructions for creating one to achieve a much fuller understanding of how it works.

Just some thoughts to keep in mind when nugget starts to get older. I remember at a young age my father sitting me down to teach me about fractions. The demonstration of a physical pie that I could move and manipulate proved an effective means.

So, by what age do you think I'll have nugget programming a computer?

Nugget Kung Fu

One of the most exciting things to happen when there's a baby pushing all your organs out of the way is when you can actually start to feel the little thing kicking around, both on the inside and out.

Starting in mid-January, I sort of had a sense of where the baby was and thought I felt it sloshing around in there, but it was hard to distinguish it from other bodily processes (i.e. gas, digestion, etc.)

By the time January was ending, I was better at guessing when it was the baby and when it was those other processes.

THEN, on February 16, Nugget made an unmistakable first kick (or punch?) while I was attempting to write some of my lectures. I was lying sideways on the couch with the laptop and my elbow was on my belly and I felt it both inside and outside. I'd have to say that it's pretty much the coolest thing ever! Needless to say, I didn't get much else done that day waiting for it to happen again!

Now, it seems that Nugget kicks when it's time to eat, a few minutes after I stop eating, and any time I'm sitting still for a while (particularly during boring meetings, right before bed and right when I wake up).

One of these days we'll have to make a video of my belly when Nugget kicks - because you can actually see the little kicks!

Certified Nurse Midwives (CNM's) vs. OB-GYN MD's

Why a midwife you ask? There are a number of reasons.

1.) OB-GYN MD's are trained surgeons. They're trained to cut and intervene and basically play God. They're fabulous to have if something goes wrong, but in natural circumstances, they're less likely to go with the flow in terms of the normal range of variations, which can actually hurt rather than help the mother and baby during labor and birth.

Certified Nurse Midwives on the other hand, are experts in natural childbirth and non-invasive techniques for dealing with minor complications. They understand that each woman is different and they know when a variation is a complication and when it's not.

2.) Personal Attention! The midwife model of care is one that focuses on spending time with each patient and in my experience with various midwives and md's on both coasts, the exams performed by midwives are much more thorough and leave me being a much more informed patient.

3.) CNM's promote natural childbirth unless it is absolutely necessary to have some sort of intervention and ALWAYS try the most natural interventions before resorting to medical interventions (provided there is no emergency of course).

4.) In studies examining low-risk women, CNM's use fewer medical resources in that they have MUCH lower C-section rates, MUCH lower labor augmentation/induction rates, lower rates of episiotomy and natural tearing, lower rates of pain medication usage, and the babies they catch have equal or higher APGAR scores to those of the OB's.

Avoiding the medicalization of birth is generally better for both the mother and the baby in terms of recovery and being prepared and alert in the outside world. For more on the reasons for avoiding all the medicalization see the "Why Natural Birth" post.

5.) In most European countries, and in many traditional cultural, mid-wives handle the majority of births (since most are low-risk), and success rates are equal or better to those in the US where we medicalize the birth process by putting surgeons in charge of even low-risk women.

So given the research, the health of both Nugget and myself, and my own experiences with both types of practitioners thus far, we ultimately chose a CNM to catch Nugget. Not everyone will make that choice, as some people want the pain killers and feel more comfortable with a doctor, but we feel strongly that our choice was the right one for us and our baby and the research supports our decision as well.

Prenatal Care Switch

When we first found out I was pregnant, we had one hell of a time trying to find the right prenatal care provider with our HMO (I really wanted a midwife - Why? Click here). I miss the PPO we had in Boston! However, prenatal care is really important so to get started right away, we went with an OB in Livermore who had a reputation for being the go-to guy for natural childbirth in our area. And we learned that there weren't any independent birthing centers within a 50 mile radius, which was a total bummer so unless we wanted a home birth, a hospital was the only option (I'd LOVE to do a home birth, and I'm a good candidate for one, but we're too far from ANY hospital if something were to go wrong quickly). And it seemed in our first search that the midwives around only did home births and weren't covered by insurance.

So, the OB was horrible. He rushed through exams and had absolutely no bedside manner. He practically grunted answers when I asked questions! I was not comfortable with him at all, even though he claimed to have the lowest intervention rates in the hospital. But, being a full time brand new professor, I really didn't have time to do anything about it.

Finally, after a 2 minute office visit in early January, when I had a breather between semesters. I found a midwife who works in a hospital in Berkeley that also staffs additional back-up midwives and seems a lot more amenable to natural birthing than the hospital closer to us. And, after meeting her and seeing her credentials, she's a much better choice for us and for little nugget. She has a relationship with high-risk OBs, who serve as her "backup", which means that I'm actually in better care if something goes wrong than if I had gone with a regular OB. And, in addition to her being a certified nurse midwife (CNM), she's also a nurse practitioner, so she can prescribe medication if necessary.

So, we made the switch midstream, and despite my disappointment about having to birth in a hospital rather than a birth center, we seemed to find an alternative that I can live with, with a care provider who genuinely shares our value of having a natural, unmedicated birth.

Behind the Scenes Second Look...

A second look at little nugget taken Feb 1, 2007 at 20 weeks. We're halfway there!



More Pictures

No, you can't see the sex of the baby in the pictures and No, we don't currently know either. Although we do have a sealed envelope in case we want to know at some point. No, I will not send you the envelope just because YOU want to know. If we don't know, no one knows!

Baby Shower

My mom and sister threw me a baby shower recently. Thanks Momma C and Amy! It was quite a success! And almost everything fit in my suitcases to get it all back to California.

I will get those Thank You notes out soon - once things calm down at work maybe (things are a little nutty with the semester starting).

But a big general Thank You in the meantime to everyone who attended and/or sent gifts!

I'll post pictures when I get some! I was having so much fun, I forgot to take pictures with my camera.

Why Natural Birth?

Some of you might wonder why we have the huge focus on Natural Birth. And we know that some of you are just waiting for our naivete to get blown apart by the reality of experiencing childbirth, but I'll at least explain why we're leaning in this direction.

This focus on natural childbirth comes partially from my philosophy that being pregnant and birthing aren't medical events in most cases. In fact, in many countries with similar infant mortality rates as the US, there are far fewer medical interventions. This tells me that there's either something wrong with American women that makes us ill-adapted for childbearing, or we're doing an awful lot of unnecessary interventions. Plus, genetically speaking, women tend to follow their maternal line, which bodes very well for my ability to have a vaginal, unmedicated birth.

I'll summarize what I've learned from research studies and books on birthing. And keep in mind that this is for information, I'm not judging anyone's past, present, or future choices in these areas. I'm simply sharing what is playing a role in our decision to go for it naturally.

Anaesthesia - both IV and epidural anesthesia (opiate and narcotic types) do reach the baby and can lead to fetal distress, a need for oxygen or intubation at birth, and can impede the normal progression of the baby through the birth canal, affecting how the baby's head and shoulders present (they don't do the normal twist in some cases). Also, these drugs can slow labor and reduce the effectiveness of the mother's ability to push, which lead to greater rates of cesearean and forceps or vacuum delivery due to failure to progress. AND a lot of the drugs that MD's choose for laboring women are drugs that have warnings AGAINST use in pregnancy, breastfeeding, and childbirth (Nubain and Demerole are examples of drugs with this warning). So we're dedicated to avoiding the drugs because there's no such thing as a completely safe one and I want to embrace the experience of childbirth, no matter how much pain is involved - after all - it's pain with a purpose.

Episiotomies - can actually lead to women tearing clear through to the anus, which occurs almost never in women without episiotomies. Plus they lead to longer recovery times and rarely lead to getting a baby out any faster (which is a justification sometimes given for slicing and dicing the woman's perineum).

Also, interventions like pitocin induction and forceps/vacuum delivery and c-sections are often the tools of an impatient provider. Failure to progress is a subjective call which due to the natural variations in time from early labor to birth, is nearly impossible to diagnose as a problem, and thus is rarely a reason in itself to use intervention. Basically, unless the mother or baby are in distress, there is absolutely no medical reason to use any of these. I don't think that these tools are useless - some babies and mothers are saved by them. However, there is research suggesting that they're overused and that many practitioners jump the gun on using them when a less invasive option can resolve issues that typically lead to them. For example, fetal distress often resolves with a simple change of position, which can resolve the issue quicker and with less risk than a c-section.

So we're choosing to go with a natural approach, and our CNM is in agreement that natural interventions be tried prior to medical interventions, as long as there is ample time, should a complication arise. We've based that decision on the research and on the philosophy that in a low-risk situation, nature knows best.

I guess we'll all have to wait and see how it goes, but right now, we're all-systems-go on Natural Childbirth.

Birthing Class

The one good thing that came out of my bad OB experience was that he recommended taking a Bradley Method birthing course. We found a Bradley class that we could fit into our schedule and dove right in. We'll let you know how the birth goes with this method, but everything we're learning makes intuitive sense. I'm not worried - one of my new colleagues had two very successful Bradley births - so it comes with high recommendations!

One of the most frequent questions we get is, "Is that like Lamaze?" And well, it's hard for us to say since we've never taken a Lamaze class.

From my understanding they're similar in that both focus on unmedicated, natural childbirth, and emphasize the importance of the labor coach (usually the baby's father or a doula).

The difference lies in philosophy. Bradley focuses on embracing the bodily sensations (err...pain) involved in labor and relaxing through deep breathing and visualizing those sensations so that the body can do what it was meant to. Lamaze focuses on deflecting pain through using other focal points (distraction) and breathing in a way that is theoretically supposed to act prophylactically.

Both seem to have good outcomes in terms of women having unmedicated births, Bradley's statistics claim that 86% of women who take the courses give birth vaginally without the use of pain medications of any kind. I couldn't find statistics on Lamaze.

What made me choose a Bradley course was that it's more intensive (12 weeks vs. 6weeks) and that it focuses on embracing all the bodily sensations of birth and working with them, rather than trying to mask them, which can work against their purpose.

If you're curious about the Bradley Method you can check out their website.

Our Bradley course is on Saturday afternoons for 2-3 hours in San Francisco. This is just over an hour away (if there's no traffic), which is hard sometimes, but it does get us out of the house and exploring the city every week! AND it's in the Mission district, where a lot of good Mexican restaurants are so it guarantees that my permanent Mexican food craving gets assuaged at least once each week!

Origin of Nugget...

Some of you may be wondering what the deal is with this whole Nugget thing. Well, after an adjustment period of referring to our first born to be as "it" we decided we needed a temporary name. Our dear friend Koos suggested nugget as both descriptive of it's size and symbolic of our big move to California gold country. And there you have it.