Tired

G has been so tired today. She fell asleep on me while I was watching
a movie. I look tired, too, but Chris says I don't have those bags
under my eyes in real life.

Conversational Ability: Stunted

I've noticed recently that my ability to make intelligent conversation seems to be broken. I think it comes down to this: I don't want to be the type of person who can only talk about my baby. I make a strong effort to not bring the baby up in conversation. I mean, she does almost nothing. The highlight of my observance of her activity is when she smiles or tracks me with her eyes (which she now does regularly). On the other hand she's almost all I think about, so if I'm supposed to start the conversation and I don't want to talk about her, I'm stumped. The result is I've been a pretty poor conversationalist recently.

I went to a lunch a couple of days ago and the wife of a coworker was sitting next to me and she must think my brain is mush. It was the first time I had been out on my own with the baby and I was sitting with a large group of people in a noisy restaurant. I was just so dazed by everything and this woman asked me zillions of questions about myself and I was just able to answer her questions and it was only after I left that I realized I hadn't asked her a single thing or really held up my end of the conversation at all. Unfortunate because she seems like such a nice person. Of course she has a couple of young kids of her own so maybe she recognized the condition.

All this is by way of an apology if you call me up or visit and I seem dazed. I'm sure I'll snap out of it after awhile.

Mommy's cupcake

Thank you Auntie Carrie!

Amelia's hat

Here's evidence that I've still been knitting.  Brandy told me Amelia needed a cute hat so I went right out and got the yarn, picked the pattern, and here's the result!  Very cute little girl showing off my Odessa hat.

Backhoe Baby

When Geneva was born Brandy came down to visit us in the hospital the next day.  She told Amelia that she was coming down to visit the new baby and asked if Amelia would like to give the baby a present.  Amelia said yes, and ran into her room to scour her toys (mostly vehicles) for the perfect gift.  She came back out with a backhoe.  Here's Geneva enjoying this adorable and heartfelt gift.  Hehe...

Grandma Cece

This picture is from when she was 3 weeks old.  

There once was a plumber named T

So, just in case all the amazing pictures of my lovely child aren't enough, I thought I'd post a little on what I've been up to.

Stay at home momming: I'm kind of liking it. It's amazing how fast you can get used to doing nothing. Not that that's all that accurate - to avoid going crazy I try to get out of the house for walking or errands every day. I knit. I watch movies. I sleep. I feed the child. When I had not done this before I was not sure what I would do with all my time in the day. I'm still not totally sure what I do with all the time but I have some ideas of where it goes. The main thing I wasn't counting on was how long it takes to feed the baby. She eats 8-10 times a day and it takes about 30 minutes each time. I can kind of one-hand iPhone surf while she's eating, or watch a movie, but not much else. That time just really adds up.

Feeding the baby: A lot of people ask me how breast feeding is going and I'm never sure what level of detail to respond with. Do I say "Fine"? Or do I say "Well, I've weaned her off the nipple shields and her latch is getting more confident although there's still occasional problems at night when my milk supply is high..." I mean, that second one just seems like too much detail for most people. Probably "Fine" is what most people want to hear. But what if it wasn't going fine? I can't think of any breast feeding problems I'd be having that I would want to talk about with the average person. I guess it's good that it's going fine then. I seem to be one of those lucky few women who isn't finding breastfeeding to be a massive challenge. Maybe I was just very well prepped ahead of time - everyone told me it would be really hard and when it was only mildly difficult I felt quite lucky.

Recovering: I feel mostly recovered from the c-section. My suture only hurts occasionally and my stamina for walking and standing is increasing.

Plumbing: It was so fun this past weekend having Chris around and able to devote all his time to anything he felt like doing. We did a ton of chores and cleaning and stuff - it felt good just to get it all done. He pointed out that the drain in the bathroom was going really slowly and I volunteered to futz with it. He gave me instructions and I spent a rather nasty half hour pulling apart the trap and cleaning things out. When I reassembled it it appeared to be fixed. Yeah girl power!

Kelly teaches Geneva the terrorist fist pump

Fighting for lap space

Claws win for now.

The best part of bath time

is when it's over!!

First documented smile

She's so cute when she's sleeping that I just can't resist taking lots
of pictures.

To do list

Big yawn

Little angel

Healthy baby

We went in for the 2 week pediatrician's appointment today and G is 8 lbs, 14 ounces, meaning she's officially over her birth weight. Yay! Also, they measured her at 22 1/4 inches, meaning she's in the 97th percentile for height. Guess those tall genes from both sides aren't going to waste!

My first day alone with her was a bit of bait and switch - she's been such a sleepy baby but then yesterday I think she was having some stomach troubles because she was grumpy and fussy all day long. Not that I really have room to complain - some people have babies that are always like this, but I could wish she'd eased me into it a little more. Today she was back to very sleepy baby, so that's been nice.

Anyway, she's needing food now so I better go. I'll keep posting photos though...

Hiding from the paparazzi

Dottie and Daddy

Photos of the baby are especially easy to post because I can take the picture by phone and then e-mail it to the blog.  I'm not big on typing long messages on that tiny keyboard though... 

Since I'm on the computer now: all is going well here.  We're sleeping more than we expected.  Geneva is getting the hang of breast feeding although the sheild-less latch can still be frustrating so I'm not 100% on that one.  My mom left today which is sad because I'll miss her help and company.  Chris goes back to work on Monday so we're plotting ways that I'll keep myself busy and get out of the house so I don't get too much cabin fever or SAD-like problems.  Haven't come up with a lot yet except going on lots of walks with the baby. 

Oh, and she's still the cutest thing ever. 

Mommy feet, baby feet

Geneva and Gram

Kitty love

Our cats are determined to help us remember that we still have other fur babies in addition to the new pink one. Marie climbed up on my lap and decided to lay like this while I was surfing the internet today. I swear I didn't torture her to get her into this crazy pike position. Isaac took a different strategy... sometime before we got home on Friday he ate about half of a small green foam golfball cat toy. We didn't really think much of it until yesterday he started refusing food. Now, if you don't know our cat, I must explain that this cat's whole entire reason for being is to eat. He never ever ever misses a meal. We had to put him on an automatic feeder so that he wouldn't just eat all the time and get to be the size of a blimp. Anyway, today he ralfed up a big ol' hunk of green foam ball but still refused food so we took him to the vet. The vet thinks he's going to be fine but we didn't really need that excitement right now.

Oh, and in other news, Chris defended today and passed! So he's almost graduated! Woo hoo!!!

Grandpa Dave with Geneva

Grandma Cece with Geneva

Awake baby

Baby is home!

Olga swaddle

Geneva seems to really like this particular swaddle style which we
named for the nurse who taught it to us. Actually she kind of looked
spherical like this the first time I saw her and the first words out
of my mouth were "little pumpkin!" It lets her kick her legs around a
lot but keeps her arms pinned.

Little feets

Geneva being held by Amelia's grandma. I love her little toes hanging
out the bottom.

More of the birth story

So, there was a bit of a jump in recording in my blog where I went from "no baby tonight" to "surprise! baby is born!"  After a full day of pitocin (which did nothing to dilate me) they switched to cervadil, which is supposed to do more softening.   I was all excited because they said I could finally eat some dinner so I sent Chris out for food.  While he was gone though I suddenly began having some really intense pain.  It was weird - the pain kind of came in waves like contractions but to me it didn't feel a thing like the contractions I had had with pitocin.  Furthermore, the contraction monitor wasn't even picking them up.  The only thing that was picking them up was the baby's heartrate, unfortunately, because every time I had severe pain her heart rate dropped abruptly.  The doctor got worried and after a couple of hours pulled out the cervadil.  Chris returned around this time to chaos - mom in misery, baby in some trouble.  Poor guy.  Worst of all, all the contracting and trouble still didn't make me at all more dilated.

Anyway, the doctor on call then came in to talk to me about my options.  Her first suggestion was to start me on pitocin again at a very low dose to see if it got the labor going.  She was careful to warn me though that the two most likely scenarios she saw were that the pitocin would do nothing (as it had before) or that it would get my contractions going and once they got strong again the baby's heartrate would start dropping, necessitating emergency c-section.  I think the doctors and nurses here are used to people with very strong opinions about c-sections and are very wary about suggesting it.  I'm not totally sure why but it's considered a very inferior method of birth (by many) and doctors who suggest it for less than the most dire reasons are seen as bad people.  So anyway, the doctor nurse team was alternating in trying to sound me out about my opinions about continuing to try vaginal versus c-section.  Finally we told the doctor, "I'm not opposed to a c-section.  I just want to know what has the best chance of a good outcome for me and the baby."  She said, "If you were my sister, I would tell you to get a c-section."  I was sold.  Basically there was still the possibility of vaginal birth but she thought it was small and could easily end up with me getting an emergency c-section after many hours more of pain and sleeplessness.  

I signed the consent form and Geneva was born about an hour later.  The c-section itself was a totally different and weird experience.  I couldn't feel any pain at all from the cutting, but there was a lot of violent pushing around of my body.  The anesthesiologist (who might be one of the nicest guys on the planet) told Chris when to stand up so he could see them pull her head out.  As soon as she was out she started screaming and I started crying in some way I never have.  Just totally overwhelmed with the emotion and violence and happiness of the experience.  Chris just kept saying "oh! she's beautiful!" but it took awhile for them to check her out so I could get to see her too.  They brought her over so I could look at her finally and then Chris left as they whisked her away to the nursery for weighing and measuring.  I finally got to hold her in the recovery room a little later but I was so drugged up I barely remember the experience.  

On the whole this has all been a great experience.  The doctors and nurses have been wonderful almost without exception.  The doctor who did the c-section (Dr. White) even hugged me while I got the spinal.  I guess she was really just supporting me with my back curved for the anesthesiologist, but I really felt like it was a hug and it made me really like and trust her.  

People cite staying in the hospital a long time as a disadvantage of a c-section but I think that's really not the case.  We've had a lot of time where we didn't have to worry about my health or the baby's health.  We've had the help of tons of nurses and help from lactation consultants whenever necessary.  

Actually the help from the LCs has been getting a little tedious - there's pretty much as many strong opinions on the right way to do things as there are people thinking about the problem.  I was getting frustrated trying to wean Geneva off the nipple shields (because one LC was adamant that they were bad) even though she latches almost immediately with them.  Apparently they can lead to the baby not getting enough food and she was losing weight (down to 7 lb 15 oz).  This morning though the pediatrician said not to worry - the baby is up another ounce, and things are frustrating enough without trying to listen to a million opinions.  I'm doing things right, just keep at it and worry about weaning off the shields later.   And don't try to take everyone's advice because it's not possible.  

Ok, baby's crying. More later I'm sure.

2 days old

Surprise!

Baby Geneva Christine was born last night by c-section at 1:40am. She entered the world howling! 8 lb 11 oz, almost 21 inches long and with a noggin the size of a watermelon!

No baby tonight

Well, unless something surprising happens, no baby tonight. The
pitocin wasn't doing anything so they shut it off, gave me more
cervical softeners, and said we'll try again in the morning. Oh, but
I do get to eat now.

Nothing much

Just sitting in bed hooked to pitocin and iv and lots of monitors. The
contractions are getting more regular but still not painful. They say
to be patient because it can take a long time. Mostly I'm hungry and
they won't let me eat anything. The nurse says I'll thank her later
when I'm not ralfing it up again.

Time to go!

I called at 6:30 this morning and they said to wait until later. But I just got the call from L&D now to come in, so we're headed to the hospital!!! I can't believe I slept at all last night but somehow I managed it.

Home again

So I went to the hospital, they hooked me up to the monitors, put in some gel, watched me, sent me home. One of the monitors was a contraction monitor, so I can now be fairly certain that actually I have been having contractions for awhile, they're just small ones. After they put the gel in I got pretty crampy and was having more small frequent contractions, but still nothing that they were about to call labor. But they're still going, so I'm still holding out hope that maybe I'll start labor tonight without pitocin. I'm supposed to call the hospital tomorrow at 6:30 am to find out when to come in. It'll be right away if they're not busy, but later in the day if lots of people come in tonight. Now, to bed. I'm surprised at how tired I feel.

First the gel

I'm headed into the hospital in about 5 minutes for my prostiglandin gel treatment. This is supposed to soften up my cervix to make it more excited about labor. Occasionally it even induces labor so we're coming prepared with my bag of warm socks and baby clothes. It would be nice if I didn't need the pitocin but I'm not holding my breath.

In China they never eat chili

It's the crack of dawn and I'm awake again. Surprise surprise! This time though it's the cats' fault. Isaac's feeder goes off at 6am and then they have an hour where they have to be really hyper and then they go back to bed until noon. So their hyperness woke me up this morning and I figured, "better not fight it." I got up, ate a cheese sandwich, I'll blog, then go back to bed.

No sign of baby yet. There's a newsletter I get online where doctors write in with advice and I was reading about what "natural techniques" they said can induce labor. (Answer: nothing.) In particular though one woman said that while there's no proven link between walking and inducing labor, many women swear that's what did it for them, so you can give it a try too. I think I now know the answer to that mystery. I've walked 2 hours each of the last two days and it really just feels like it's doing something. Of course the thing I think it's doing to me is just making me really sore - like just spent a lot of time backpacking kind of sore, or beaten by lots of sticks and then slept on the ground kind of sore. So that's my theory.

I still hold out hope that I'll go into labor naturally. I'm looking for signs but the only one I've got is that about 2 days ago my digestion started functioning really well again (which I've heard can be a sign). And I'm totally ravenous. Yesterday I ate a cheese sandwich at 6am and my stomach woke me up because it was growling so much at 8am.

The title of this post, by the way, is a very obscure reference. There's an old drinking song called The Limerick Song and one of the lines from the chorus is the title. The way the song works you just kind of make up verses and you can swap out the above line for different things and in particular in band they used to substitute "your grandmother's coffin was y-shaped." (So you're starting to get an idea of the kind of song this is...) And since I seem to naturally want to put a song to everything, I've been singing this song a lot in my head because I think my pelvic geometry has totally changed in the last couple of weeks. (Aren't you loving this strange insight into the way my mind works?? Ha.) Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that my legs, instead of naturally wanting to point straight beside each other seem to now want to point out. So sitting indian style feels really comfortable and sitting with my knees all together and ladylike is not. (Apt punishment for someone who failed to keep her knees tightly together 9 months ago, no? Hehe...) Also, sleeping on my side with my legs together is very uncomfortable so I've been either stuffing a huge pillow between them or sleeping on my back. Presumably this is all so the baby can escape more easily and it will go back to normal afterwards.

I think that's all I've got for you now... early morning ramblings.

Induction Scheduled

My first exciting OB appointment in months! First the OB did the internal exam and informed me that I'm about 1/2 cm dilated, 40% effaced. Also the baby's head is sitting really low so she encouraged me to walk as much as possible because the pressure of the baby's head will cause more effacing and that will generally make labor go faster and easier.

Then she got out the ultrasound machine to take measurements. Headsize: normal. Abdomen size: normal. Legs: really long. The machine calculated that our baby would be 9 lbs 4 oz, +- 613 gm. Here's the math for you so you don't have to do it yourself: 7 lb 14 oz. to 10 lb 9 oz.

Now, her typical policy is to wait until you are a week late and then start talking about induction. But once she saw those numbers she decided to maybe up the discussion a little. Basically she seemed to say that she didn't want to wait to induce longer than next Tuesday, and she was ready to do it any sooner than that if I wanted. After a quick family meeting we decided to induce this coming Sunday if the baby hasn't come on her own by then.

I didn't really expect to feel any particular way about it but actually I'm so relieved. It's just nice to know that it won't go any later than that. It's a tiny bit of control in a situation where I really didn't expect to have any. And while those numbers do seem rather high for birth weights the doctor pointed out that I'm big and have good size hips so I should have no problem with a big baby (especially if she's just long, not huge of head).

We also got a good look at her little face in the ultrasound, which was fun. She looked very chubby. I can't wait to meet her.

In other news (gasp! can you believe I have non-baby news??) my mom helped me do some winterizing of the garden. I chopped back everything that wasn't still making fruit. I had almost enough tomato leaves to fill an entire compost been. I don't know what happened with the tomato vines in my side yard but they must have hit some well-spring of nitrogen because they were looking seriously jungly. While the tomatoes in the planterbox are pretty much over, the jungle tomatoes were totally lush and green and producing leaves like crazy. But almost no fruit. So I went slasher crazy on them so I could see what little fruit remained. Now I have to try making some fried green tomatoes because I have quite a few of those.

Breast feeding lesson

So, I'm going to write about this in spite of some qualms I might have about revealing TMI. If you're sick of reading about pregnancy/baby stuff, click away. If you're a boy concerned about getting TMI, look away. There, you're warned.

My sister gave me a lesson in breast feeding today, which was, for the most part, just her talking about how it works so I didn't have to go to a class to learn it. (Real world classes tend to be too slow for me after a lifetime of advanced schooling...) Anyway, she had previously told me that a manual breast pump is an excellent way to stimulate labor, so I went and got one today. Then my sister told me I should try using it today during our lesson.

Now, I'm aware that after I've been breast feeding for awhile I'll probably have no modesty about it. I'll just whip out the boob any old place to feed the child, but at the moment it feels very much like I'm buying my first bra or something. I don't think guys have anything to compare this to. Something that now totally doesn't faze me (like buying a box of tampons! from a boy at the cash register!) used to be totally mortifying. Now, whatever.

So yeah, I do manage to overcome my mortification by telling myself how natural it all is, and I use the pump for the first time and I have one of the stranger experiences of my life. Milk comes out. It's so bizarre that initially I'm sure I must just be sweating profusely into the pump, but no. Definitely milk (or you know, probably colostrum technically, but whatever). I'm still amazed. My sister laughed and laughed at the look on my face (our lesson was over video chat - ah the wonders of modern technology). I know that this is something that should not shock me at all given how it's the whole point of a boob to make milk, but I was just convinced somehow that mine would not. I mean, it's not like I learned how or something. Just, at the ripe old age of 30 my body did something completely different from anything it's ever done.

Ok, I'll chill with the displays of amazement here but I really was quite shocked. The good news is that my sister seems to think that the fact that I was able to actually produce a measurable quantity of milk before the baby is even born bodes well for my lactational success. It didn't seem to bring on any contractions though. Guess it's just not time yet.

So, I've been writing more recently because I have more time on my hands (yay!) and I'll try to keep everyone posted when I go into labor. Although, no promises or anything since I have no idea how hard it's going to be for me.

But I don't want to be awake!

Well, here it is 5 am again and I"m wide awake. This has happened more than half the nights this week now. I wake up at 5, have a snack, computerize, go to bed around 6. The cats keep me company. Isaac's feeder feeds him at 6am so he's usually up with me meowing at it to try to convince it that he deserves his food early. (It's a good thing we have a feeder... I would be very easily convinced by his pitiful meowing. And then he would be even fatter than he already is.)

My mom arrived last night and promptly announced that I'm allowed to have the baby now. I keep having these pains and wondering if they're contractions. My more experienced friends assure me that when I'm in labor that I'll know it but that's not what I'm worried about. I'm not concerned I'm going to have the baby in the bathroom on accident because I failed to realize I was in labor or something. Rather, I just want to know from the very beginning... For example, Brandy didn't know she was in labor until she went to her doctor appointment and was told. She would have known eventually I'm sure, but I'm impatient and wanting to know right away. I'm pretty sure the pains I'm having though are just the baby's head jostling against my pelvis. Sure are painful though. On the ride home from the airport last night I was swearing when she did it and realizing that I'm probably going to have the foulest mouth while I"m in labor. Ah well. Guess my mom has to find out about me sometime. Chris already knows. He sailed with me.

Last day of work

On my last day of work today I got some great advice. Mel told me while in labor I should just remind myself, "If Britney Spears can do this, surely anyone can." Ha. I love it. Also, in spite of not having a baby shower, I got quite a few presents today - mostly cute clothes - and I didn't feel guilty about any of them because presumably people only gave because they really wanted to. And no one had to try to guess my waist circumference. Or what candy bar was melted into the diaper.

USB gloves

For Jen, here are my heated gloves. The heating units are in the tops of the gloves so I often wore them backwards because palm heat warmed me better. You can get your own here. I didn't think they worked that well though... the problem was really that my body was cold and the hands were just the coldest part. I saw online a biofeedback thermometer where you're supposed to be able to learn to raise the temperature of your hands... I thought maybe that would work better. Haven't had a chance to try it though.

Another good thing about being pregnant, etc

So, I thought I should add to my list of good things about being pregnant. And this one might be my favorite of all. I have not been cold in 9 months. This was sort of tough over the summer (it seemed like it must be the hottest summer on record but I doubt that's really true). But it's awesome right now! I'm never cold at work (I used to always wear a sweater and have heated fingerless gloves that hooked by USB to my computer). I'm also not cold at home. The other day I found myself thinking how pleasant it was indoors and looked at the thermostat... which was reading 55. Last winter I had to debate with myself about if it was ok to turn the thermostat above 75 if I was legitimately shivering.

All the packing lists for what to take to the hospital say to bring warm socks and I keep thinking how that probably won't be necessary for me. Of course then my friends tell me that the built in warmer is attached to the baby and I'll be cold right away. What a shame. Speaking of packing lists, I was looking at one provided by the hospital the other day and realized that if it had not specifically said "baby clothes" on it, I might not have remembered them. How terrible is that?? I think of labor as this thing I'm going to the hospital to do, and forget that I will divide while there and the other part will need to be clothed too!!!

So being pregnant is going ok. Just 3 days left of work and 8 days until my due date. I think I have a cold so I'm sniffly and headachy and so so tired. Otherwise I'm ok - all baby growth is basically straight out at this point so I feel like I'm noticably bigger every day. Also she's still kicking like crazy which the OB says is a good sign: happy healthy babies move a lot. Hopefully she's not too comfy in there though...

I should explain the henna belly entry from last time... my next door neighbor is trying to start a body art business and apparently henna on the belly is a new way women are celebrating baby showers and such. Anyway, she wanted an example to show potential customers and asked to experiment on me. I said sure and you saw the results. She did a thing I'd never seen before though - henna is a wet paste when they put it on so she brushed glitter over it. Chris was joking that he thought that glitter must be an aerosol - it was seriously all over the house. I peeled it all off that evening but it was pretty while it lasted and now I have the stain on my belly, which is also pretty nice looking.

So, only pregnancy/baby news today, but besides working that's pretty much all that's happening. Oh, except Chris has a defense date - December 1st. We're going to make the baby a little onesie that says "Please let Daddy graduate" and bring her along to make eyes at the hard hearted professors.

Just so you know I'll probably post any labor news/photos here first, so add me to your feed reader to be sure of all the latest updates.

Henna tummy

Babysitting Sinjin

He looks pretty content. Does this mean I'm ready?

More Starbucks name test

Today at Starbucks I said my name was Geneva. They spelled it Geniva and when the barista read it out she said Genina. Guess the name is weirder than I thought and the baby is doomed to a life of spelling her name. Or maybe Starbucks employees are not the best test group for this?

Genera

So I've been trying out the baby's name when I go to Starbucks for spell-ability and general coolness. (This is because they often ask your name when you go there and then write it on the cup, in case you aren't as frequent a visitor as Chris and I.) So basically, when they ask my name I say "Geneva" and then they write it down and ideally they would say something like "What a cool name!" or some such. Well, it's not really working out that way.

I've done this 4 times and gotten only 1 correct spelling, and it was from a person I'd had before so she'd had time to process the name. Anyway, the 3 spellings were Jeneva, Genevia, and (inexplicably) Jeannine. Today I was all excited because they spelled it right but then the woman who read the name out called for "Genera." I guess that v did look kind of like an r, but still isn't Geneva more likely to be a name than Genera?

Now for some photos. Remember me at 27 1/2 weeks? I felt huge then. Here's a refresher:

And now, recreated as closely as possible at 36 1/2 weeks:

Even bigger, huh? Also, Chris tried to capture a photo of me on my bike but you can't really get the full effect here.

I've pretty much stopped biking to work because my legs are banging my belly when I pedal and I feel like I showed off my bad-assitude enough by biking up through the 8th month of pregnancy. On the weekends though when we want to go some place nearby I still bike because it's just so much faster than my now customary semi-waddle and it also takes a lot less energy. What's funny about it though is that when people see me they get this instant guilt/panic feeling and cease to think reasonably. It's a little like when you see a cop and slam on the brakes in spite of the fact that you were already going 5 under the speed limit. Anyway, people see me and are sure they're violating some right of way and do something stupid like stop to let me go by while I'm at a stop sign and they're on a street with no stop sign. As a biker, such unpredictable behavior is not really appreciated because, for example, I fully expect them to be going because they have right away, but since they're slowing down I can't figure out what they're doing until they're close by and practically stopped and waving me on and really it would have been faster if they'd just carried on their normal speed and I'd gone behind them. Anyway, Chris also thinks there may be some guilt associated with the fact that if I'm 8 months pregnant and biking, what's their excuse for riding around in the car?

In other news, we still have extremely cute kitties, in case you had forgotten:

Prop 8

Last night at 4:30 in the morning I was laying awake thinking of what I have to say about California's Prop 8 so I think I better write about it so it doesn't keep me up again tonight. I need all the sleep I can get. This was prompted by the fact that I consider my coworkers to be great, reasonable, nice people, and yet there was a car in the parking lot the other day with stickers all over it that said something like "Vote yes on prop 8! Protect traditional families!" and I just wanted to do something bad to them. Like get a marker and write on their car or leave them an ugly note or something. (I know, evil, huh?) Prop 8, for those not living in California or who haven't picked up on it from the tone of the above, is a proposition to amend the state constitution to define marriage as only between one man and one woman.

People who are in favor of this proposition seem like the most irrational group of people I have ever heard from. I don't think I've actually talked to any of them about their views but I've heard the advertisements and seen their commentary on news articles and so on. A common argument is that gay marriage will harm traditional marriage, but, uh.... how!?!? How could other people's marriage possibly affect mine? Ok - I can think of a way. Like if you see other people in a bad, unhappy marriage then you might be more grateful for your own, or the opposite. But down the road of trying to understand the rational thought behind the Yes on Prop 8 people lies only confusion.

But what was keeping me awake thinking about it last night was the only rational argument I have ever heard from a Yes on Prop 8 person. I have no idea where I read it or if the guy thought it through to its logical conclusion, but it has kept me thinking about a fundamental flaw in current marriage law. The general idea is that the word "marriage" is overloaded. It means first what I'll call "civil marriage," which is the one where you go to the court house and they give you a document and now you can change your name with less trouble at the DMV (among other things). It also means "religious marriage," which your personal church defines. (More on that in a second.) It seems that a lot of people are objecting to the state changing the definition of marriage because they think the state is trying to change the definition of "religious marriage" (because people are easily confused). The fact is that "civil marriage" and "religious marriage" are really not the same thing. It's easier to see if you consider divorce and the Catholic church. The state recognizes divorce, right? It's the dissolving of a "civil marriage." The Catholic church does not recognize divorce. And all the laws and stuff about divorce that the state institutes don't affect that at all - the Catholic church (or any other church) is free to keep on saying "we don't recognize this divorce thing." Presumably this is true about marriage as well. The state has one definition, and no church has to recognize it because the state doesn't care what you have to do for "religious marriage." Like when Chris and I got married in a Catholic church we had to go to this class where they taught us about natural planning for birth control (among other things) as a requirement of them being willing to marry us. See? Marriage can have different rules for civil and religious versions.

Anyway, here's the logical conclusion and the only way I would consider voting for anything even resembling Prop 8. The state, to eliminate confusion and also to really separate church and state, should no longer recognize any marriage. They should come up with their own new term (domestic partnership? civil union?) and any two consenting adults can have it and it gives all partnerships the same rights. And if you want to get that marriage thing also, well, go for it. You can have them done at the same time if you want and if you can find a church that agrees with your partnership and has someone who can legally perform civil unions as well.

Now I've said my piece. Maybe I can sleep better tonight.

OMG funny.

What could have possibly been the context for this photo???

moar funny pictures

Economic good news

I was reading this article yesterday that has mostly snide commentary about the benefits of economic downturn. I really thought this part (the serious part) was very interesting though and hopeful:

To be honest, there really are some genuine upsides of a recession. We use less. We become more aware. We drive less, walk more, produce less crap we don't actually need, churn out fewer pollutants, become highly attuned to waste and excess, dial into opportunity, travel locally, skip vacuous trends, become less fickle, appreciate bargain wines, breathe cleaner air, save, appreciate, savor.

Also, most of you probably know that since I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle last year I've jumped on the local food, victory garden, can-at-home trendy bandwagon. It might not be just a fad though because there was just this huge article in the New York Times Magazine about what the next president should do to help this trend along and why it's good for global warming, health problems, homeland security, etc. Anyway, it's called Farmer in Chief and I definitely recommend it - it's very interesting and filled with very concrete ideas about what the next president can do in terms of farming, public policy, and even his home life to help the US be a better place. (A few of them at the end get a little iffy, but most are excellent ideas.)

News worthy? Not so much

Here's an update although I can't say that much of it is exciting.

Dottie has started hiccuping. She hiccups for awhile almost every day, sometimes as much as 3 times a day. It seemed cute at first but it makes her really squirmy which isn't that comfy.

Dottie appears to have found her launch position. I hope they don't want her turned some other way because she's hasn't moved from this one in weeks (although my OB said she wasn't lodged in there...). I know she hasn't moved because I can feel her little feet up under my right ribcage all day long. And when she kicks she bumps her little noggin against my pelvic bone or my bladder. Fun, huh?

I took the kitties to the vet today and the vet and her assistant were remarking on Marie's polydactyl feet. They asked if I knew how many toes she had, and I said 5. Whereupon they told me that's the normal number for a cat's front foot, but she clearly looked polydactyl to them. Out of curiosity they pinned her down (Marie was not best pleased with this) and dug around between her toes and found a 6th toe that I had no idea was there. Weird, huh? Furthermore, they pointed out that she had 5 toes on the rear foot (normal is 4?) and the 5th one is a dew claw. Apparently it's very uncommon to have dew claws on a rear foot. Very educational. Oh, and we've been instructed to get more serious about Isaac's diet and brushing his teeth. He's just going to love us.]

Last weekend was filled with awesome hanging out with people. Two whole dinner parties, quite a bit of baking (which is surprisingly tiring) and lots of plain ol' hanging out. It was quite excellent really.

Halloween costume?

Chris sent me a link to this photo today. Is he trying to tell me something?

The Nursery

At long last! The photos you've been waiting for. Some before/after shots of Dottie's nursery. Presumably you can tell the difference. One bonus shot at the end. Be sure to note the lovely garden wall hanging by my sister and the quilt made by my mama on the crib. Also, the custom border on the curtains to match the quilt! It's all very cute!