All posts by sunday

It’s a … (the pink/blue post).

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Avert your eyes now, if you don’t want to know the sex of The Soybean.

When we had an ultrasound, we were given the choice to know the baby’s sex*. We opted to find out. The ultrasound technician must have figured out a long time ago how to best handle this event, because she told us before she put the wand down on my belly that she’d be doing all the measuring, counting and observing she needed to do for the doctor, then she’d try to check the baby’s sex.

She plunked the wand down, and on the monitor, we saw a baby. Specifically, we saw the crotch of a baby. The Soybean was ass-up, legs splayed. The technician said “Well, usually we wait, but it’s obviously a girl.”

I looked over at Jason, and saw the most amazing thing. I could see his expression change, and I could hear the thought in his head (which was the same thing that was occurring to me), which was to say “I don’t have a baby, I have a daughter“.

It was a brief, subtle moment, but I will never forget it.

*Jason pointed out that we won’t know the baby’s gender until they’re old enough to tell us.

Fast craft: initial singularity

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Fast craft: initial singularity, originally uploaded by sundaykofax.

I wanted to make a personalized onesie* for my friends’ baby, Emerson. First I had
thought of a heat-transferred or screenprinted image of Ralph Waldo,
but decided against anything that you couldn’t wash a million times,
or that might feel unpleasant against the skin.

This was the fastest craft I have ever crafted. Here’s how to make an
embroidered monogrammed onesie in 15 minutes.

1. Go to the thrift store and buy a onesie. I got this one for a dollar.
2. Using a pencil, draw the letter(s) you want to embroider. One of
the appealing factors to this aesthetic is the simplicity, so don’t
overdo it with the serifs.
3. Using sewing thread (I knotted the ends together, giving me a
doubled stitch), stitch over the pencil marks. I went for longer
outward stitches and short back-facing stitches. If the fabric were
see-thru, it would look like this: -•-•-•-
4. Knot the thread and trim ends.
5. Feel the bask of pleasure that comes with crafting.

*Jason’s taken to calling onesies (like this one) "singularities". I
think we are going to be awesomely nerdy parents.

Getting scratched with colored pencils

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One of the common things that happen to pregnant women (I prefer not to use the term ‘symptom’) is that the round ligaments that you never knew you had will protest as they stretch to cover the increasing distance between their points A and B.

I read that it’s usually a low groin or thigh ache. For a few months (mos. 3-5) I had a really strange sensation just to the left of my belly button. It felt exactly like a beam of sunburn the size of a quarter was being aimed at my belly. (Or, the sensation of being tattooed.) It recently went away.

Now, mirrored on the other side, but still way up high next to my belly button (which is way up high, far from where it lived before), I occasionally get the sensation that someone is poking me gently with a colored pencil.

Strange, that I so specifically recognize the feeling as a colored pencil. There must be something about the sensation that matches some childhood memory of the feeling of sharp colored pencils against the skin.

Happy birthday/superbowl to me

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Happy birthday/superbowl to me, originally uploaded by sundaykofax.

I’m 31 today. I’m 6 months pregnant, I just agreed to buy a condo, and
I’m in the Bahamas*. I feel like I’m getting adulty real fast.

Jason feels similarly. We planned the pregnancy, but the trip and the
home buying were very recent decisions. Everything fell into place. We
thought about taking a quick trip, and found cheap flights. We have
friends who recently bought a place and had a kick-ass realtor who
they recommended, who helped us find exactly what we were looking for
in less than a week. We’ll get the home-buying tax credit, and will
have our own home before the Soybean arrives. It feels overwhelming,
but all of our decisions have a great deal of logic behind them.

Now my brain just has to catch up.

*I was only mildly horrified to learn that people refer to our trip as
a "babymoon". Really, it’s our belated honeymoon. We never took one
when we got married, mostly because I had a no vacation days during my
first year at the Millicent library.

Mamazines

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The nesting has begun, in the form of wanting to blow $15 to get 5-10 mamazines. The ‘mamazine’ genre is a zine written about pregnancy, birth, or kiddos.

Despite knowing the genre name for years, I was surprised to not find a good bibliography of mamazines out there. So, I did what any self-respecting librarian would do – I first consulted Jenna Freedman, then I started a bibliography.

It’s going to need some work, and I will eventually post what I put together to a more public space, namely zinelibraries.info.

I plan on buying a bunch of these, so if anyone wants to borrow them, let me know!

Magical pot roast night!

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Magical pot roast night!, originally uploaded by sundaykofax.

This is the pot roast that will send Kelly into labor. I’ve promised
her.

I visited Al in NYC this past weekend, and she made a pot roast. I
couldn’t get over how good it was. Partly, it’s because it’s a beef
and potato dish, which I grew up eating. Secondly, it’s really easy.
Al (and I) used the Trader Joes Cabernet marinated pot roast, then
dumped some onions, potatoes, and carrots in. (I added crimini
mushrooms.) That’s it.

I absolutely cannot wait for dinner tonight.

Hey, thanks, internet!

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In the past 24 hours, I’ve discovered three new examples of other sites using my Flickr photos:
What Are the Causes of Excessive Chronic Flatulence?
: That’s actually a post-Thanksgiving meal, not IBS.
Difference Between Instant Yeast & Active Dry Yeast: that’s my photo of loaves of bread and granola I had made.
And yesterday’s TSA To Save Print Media? No Electronics On International Flights? What A Joke.

Update:
Crohn’s Disease vs. Gastric Tuberculosis
Zombie Authors Threaten Fiction Ebook Market, from the Grave!
Idealist.org: Know the rules: Nonprofits in an election year

I’m a deadly weapon!

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So, because I had done the research and data collection to know when I was ovulating, I started peeing on sticks mere days after, uh, conception. (Talking about sex in general is easy for me – talking about a specific instance is somehow embarrassing. Funny.)

My friend Dr. Kim explained that she bought just the replacement sticks, online, because they’re super cheap. She even gave me her leftovers, after she made her own bundle of joy (baby photos here). I bought more, from the same place (early-pregnancy-tests.com, although the site seems to be down) since they were so super cheap.*

Having cheap and plentiful pregnancy tests meant I could test obsessively. I tried my best not to. I learned that the test looks for a hormone that is produced after the fertilized egg attaches to your uterus (before that, it’s there, but free floating), which can take a while. I kept the stick peeing to a minimum, maybe once every two days.

I now know that the first sign of pregnancy I had was sore breasts, which is unfortunately also a sign of oncoming menstruation. So, totally unhelpful.

The first not-normal thing that I noticed to me was the crazy-intense cramping I started having. Usually at night, only on my left side, it was a stabbing pain low in my abdomen that would last about 10 minutes at a time and occur maybe four times a day. As someone who’s never really had bad cramps, I assumed this was not normal. I gave it a couple of days, but on the third night, when a bout lasted a half hour, I woke Jason up sobbing “this is not OK, I want to go to the doctor tomorrow”. He was alarmed, probably due to the waking-up-to-your-wife-sobbing-at-you factor, and agreed readily.

In the morning, I called my doctor. (I love my doctor, by the way. If you live in the greater Boston area, she’s Dr. Nancy Akbari.) She wondered if it was “GI related”, which I mentally translated as “fart related”, because it was lower abdomen, on the left side. I assured her that it was unrelated to gas. I told her that I was maybe, possibly pregnant, and she decided I should come in. Lower abdomen pain on one side can mean ectopic pregnancy, which is dangerous. (She was doubtful of this too, because you start getting the pain from an ectopic pregnancy later than I thought I was pregnant, but didn’t want to chance it.) I peed on a stick before I left, hoping that a positive test would mean there wasn’t something wrong with me. No luck.

I went in to the office. She said that they’d do a pregnancy pee test. If it was positive, it was probably just normal pregnancy pain. If it was negative, they’d do a pregnancy blood test, just to make sure. If both were negative, then she’s start to worry about ovarian cysts and such.

So, what I learned that day is the pregnancy test they have at my doctor’s office is more sensitive than the ones I was peeing on at home. It’s funny to say, because it’s so clichéd, but I made the nurse repeat herself when she said it was positive.

Then I had an immediate adrenaline rush. I felt my face flush red, a rarity. So, that was that. Nothing was wrong, I was just pregnantohmygod.

It was a gorgeous day, and as I walked back to the train station, I called both my parents at work. I’m not a very good secret keeper, and I was just too excited, overjoyed, and full of adrenaline to not share. My mom made an eeeeeeeee noise. It was very cute.

Long before, Jason had joked that the only way he wanted to know if I was ever pregnant was to come home to find me knitting booties. As I couldn’t wait until he came home (six hours is a long time when you made a baby with someone), I once again turned to technology. I sat down in front of my MacBook Pro, and shot a quick video of me slowly turning around in my chair, to reveal a baby booty on needles. I sent it to his email, with a subject like OMG OPEN THIS RIGHT NOW.

So, that’s how I discovered I was pregnant. The stabby thing happened once or twice more, then went away for good.

Next, I’ll tell you all about pregnancy nausea, otherwise known as “morning sickne

*I still have some pregnancy sticks. If anyone wants them, email me.

A friend left a comment on one of my Flickr photos to let me know that Technocrunch was using my photo in a story entitled “TSA To Save Print Media? No Electronics On International Flights? What A Joke.”

Awesome! Just goes to show,
tagging is important. I assume they found my photo using one of its tags: iPhone kindle flying plane Wodehouse

You’re only pregnant if you’re knitting booties

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So, because I had done the research and data collection to know when I was ovulating, I started peeing on sticks mere days after, uh, conception. (Talking about sex in general is easy for me – talking about a specific instance is somehow embarrassing. Funny.)

My friend Dr. Kim explained that she bought just the replacement sticks, online, because they’re super cheap. She even gave me her leftovers, after she made her own bundle of joy (baby photos here). I bought more, from the same place (early-pregnancy-tests.com, although the site seems to be down) since they were so super cheap.*

Having cheap and plentiful pregnancy tests meant I could test obsessively. I tried my best not to. I learned that the test looks for a hormone that is produced after the fertilized egg attaches to your uterus (before that, it’s there, but free floating), which can take a while. I kept the stick peeing to a minimum, maybe once every two days.

I now know that the first sign of pregnancy I had was sore breasts, which is unfortunately also a sign of oncoming menstruation. So, totally unhelpful.

The first not-normal thing that I noticed to me was the crazy-intense cramping I started having. Usually at night, only on my left side, it was a stabbing pain low in my abdomen that would last about 10 minutes at a time and occur maybe four times a day. As someone who’s never really had bad cramps, I assumed this was not normal. I gave it a couple of days, but on the third night, when a bout lasted a half hour, I woke Jason up sobbing “this is not OK, I want to go to the doctor tomorrow”. He was alarmed, probably due to the waking-up-to-your-wife-sobbing-at-you factor, and agreed readily.

In the morning, I called my doctor. (I love my doctor, by the way. If you live in the greater Boston area, she’s Dr. Nancy Akbari.) She wondered if it was “GI related”, which I mentally translated as “fart related”, because it was lower abdomen, on the left side. I assured her that it was unrelated to gas. I told her that I was maybe, possibly pregnant, and she decided I should come in. Lower abdomen pain on one side can mean ectopic pregnancy, which is dangerous. (She was doubtful of this too, because you start getting the pain from an ectopic pregnancy later than I thought I was pregnant, but didn’t want to chance it.) I peed on a stick before I left, hoping that a positive test would mean there wasn’t something wrong with me. No luck.

I went in to the office. She said that they’d do a pregnancy pee test. If it was positive, it was probably just normal pregnancy pain. If it was negative, they’d do a pregnancy blood test, just to make sure. If both were negative, then she’s start to worry about ovarian cysts and such.

So, what I learned that day is the pregnancy test they have at my doctor’s office is more sensitive than the ones I was peeing on at home. It’s funny to say, because it’s so clichéd, but I made the nurse repeat herself when she said it was positive.

Then I had an immediate adrenaline rush. I felt my face flush red, a rarity. So, that was that. Nothing was wrong, I was just pregnantohmygod.

It was a gorgeous day, and as I walked back to the train station, I called both my parents at work. I’m not a very good secret keeper, and I was just too excited, overjoyed, and full of adrenaline to not share. My mom made an eeeeeeeee noise. It was very cute.

Long before, Jason had joked that the only way he wanted to know if I was ever pregnant was to come home to find me knitting booties. As I couldn’t wait until he came home (six hours is a long time when you made a baby with someone), I once again turned to technology. I sat down in front of my MacBook Pro, and shot a quick video of me slowly turning around in my chair, to reveal a baby booty on needles. I sent it to his email, with a subject like OMG OPEN THIS RIGHT NOW.

So, that’s how I discovered I was pregnant. The stabby thing happened once or twice more, then went away for good.

Next, I’ll tell you all about pregnancy nausea, otherwise known as “morning sickness”, but should be known as “all day sickness”.

*I still have some pregnancy sticks. If anyone wants them, email me.

How it started

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It first started with a conversation with Steph McN. I think she had a newborn at the time, and we were talking about the timing of having a baby at a certain point in the year. Somehow, we came to the conclusion that May is the best month to have a baby. This was before Jason and I had decided for sure that we wanted to have any offspring, but I was well on my way to being convinced.

So, a few years later, when Jason and I started talking I started bringing up babies, Jason and I went through the same list of timing. Being hugely pregnant in the dead of summer or winter means being overly hot, or unwieldy on ice. Having a newborn in the middle of winter seemed hard, to keep them warm enough when bathing their tiny bodies.

Really, if one could just manage to start pregnancy in August, you’d not be huge until spring, the baby would be born in May, and you’d have all summer to forget to put socks on them.

My friend Kelly lent me the book Taking Charge of Your Fertility, which is both a How To, but also a How Not To Make Babies book. At the time, I was interested in the Not Babies part, but the whole point is that you can generally pinpoint when you’re ovulating (charting your morning temperature is part of this), so you can either avoid it or aim for it. I am an embracer of technology, and also a librarian. This means that I immediately downloaded an app for my iPhone that let me chart my temp every morning (ah, data collection) and showed it to me on a graph.

Son of a vondruke, it worked. My temp would spike. So, I kept data from January-August. It was fun (for a librarian), and by the time we hit August, I was fairly sure I knew when it was baby-making time.

So that’s what we aimed for. I remember telling my brother about the baby plan, and after his initial reaction of ‘ooh, gross’ he mused that most animals have their babies in spring, so the logic was sound to him.

So, that’s how we ended up pregnant exactly when we wanted to. This is how I will explain to my child where babies come from: logic, technology, and two people who love each other very,very much.

Also sex.