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.