Baby!

Jen's Baby Updates - Week 17

Sunday, November 10th, 2002

What I've been thinking about lately is just how long this is taking! Travis and I spent a lot of time discussing having a baby and trying to decide if we were really ready to make that change to our lives. Once we decided that it was time, I think that we expected it all to move very fast. It doesn't! I keep thinking, "We decided over 6 months ago that we wanted a baby... so where is it?" If I had known that we would have so much time to get emotionally ready for a baby, we may not have waited to start the process until we were ready to actually have the baby!

We were discussing taking a trip in December, because once we have the baby (I mean, once we have it outside of my body) it will be quite a long time before we can easily travel again. The problem is that we both really want to SCUBA dive, which I can't do right now. They don't KNOW that SCUBA diving is bad for pregnant women, but they aren't willing to say that it is safe. I don't think I'd believe that it was, anyway. I wouldn't want to give my baby the bends!

Anyway, we WERE discussing a trip, but then remembered that what we really like to do is stay at our house together. Just because we won't be able to travel after the baby is born doesn't mean that we'll miss it anymore than we do now, which is not at all! Travis and I do not like to travel, and are happiest when we just get to stay home. We'll still have plenty of chances to do that after he/she arrives, and will love every minute of it, just like we do now!

Travis and I spent a bit of time discussing child rearing techniques tonight. After a short time, Travis said, "You know, I don't think that we should pay too much attention to the current thinking as far as child raising techniques. We should just raise our kids the way that we were raised, because you can't argue with success!"

Midwife Visit

I scheduled the second ultrasound for the day after Thanksgiving. That way, we won't have to keep it a secret at all, because we can tell everyone as soon as we get back to the house! Hopefully everyone will still be around that day!

I just got a bill from one of our prenatal visits, and I have to say that our medical insurance is excellent! I had to pay $5.00 for my first prenatal visit, and I'll have to pay $5.00 when I actually deliver, but other than that, everything is covered! Pretty amazing! Universities provide excellent insurance coverage, as they should. It is very inconvenient to have a professor out due to illness.

Gifts

My parents came by tonight, on their way back from Sullivan, Illinois, where they were visiting my great aunt and uncle. I would have liked to meet them there, but I wasn't sure that I could make the 5 hour drive by myself... I've been so sleepy lately. Only when I'm actively doing something am I not on the verge of falling asleep... oh, except when I'm actually in bed TRYING to sleep. Darn insomnia!

Anyway, they brought me some things that weren't precisely gifts, because they were mine! First was a picture of me as a baby (I was really cute!), wearing a tiny little aqua shirt and lying on a blanket that I remember playing with as a child. Then they gave me the blanket and the shirt itself, along with matching rubber pants and booties. I think that is so neat! I love things like that, because I'm so sentimental and I love to have items that are meaningful to the people that I love. I like the idea of tradition, too... the baby wearing clothes that I myself wore.

I used the Doppler to let them hear the heartbeat, live, because they had only heard it over the phone before. It is about 144 beats/minute, my dad said. Oh! I should have showed them the videotape! Darn! I forgot! Oh well... it isn't going anywhere.

We didn't have nearly enough time with them because they had to get back to Ann Arbor so my mom could work tomorrow, but it was really great to see them! Sometimes 3.5 hours is just too far to be away from family. I can't wait until Thanksgiving!

Names

Lots of names this week! Thank you, everyone, for the suggestions! Everyone should send them in quick, because a few weeks from now the options will dinish by half!

BOY
Asa - Ellen
Xander - Lorna
Rollie - Teresa - Stone family name
Acel - Teresa - Stone family name
Charles - Teresa - Stone family name
Henry - Teresa - Stone family name
Benjamin - Teresa - Stone family name

GIRL
Elise - Ellen
Willow - Lorna
Opal - Teresa - my maternal great-grandmother (grandmother's mom)
Anna - Teresa - Opal's sister
May - Teresa - Opal's sister
Emma - Teresa - Opal's sister
Rebecca - Teresa - my maternal great-great-grandmother & my aunt
Minnie - Teresa - my maternal great-grandmother (grandfather's mom)
Pearl - Teresa - my maternal great-grandmother (grandfather's mom)
Gay - Holly
Merry - Holly
Patience O' - Holly

Miscellaneous

Be Careful!

We don't have a fireplace at our house, and we were thinking about buying an electric fireplace from Home Depot. It is pretty nice looking, but it is huge, about the size of a real fireplace, which would cut into the amount of seating that we have (we'd have to remove the burgundy chair). So instead, we purchased a small electric stove, which looks pretty nice and has more realistic fake flame. I think it puts out more heat, too!

Anyway, the baby-related part of this is that I went to buy it in Travis's truck, and although they offered to load it for me, I refused and did it myself. I probably shouldn't have, in retrospect. It was somewhat heavy (probably about 50-60 pounds) and unwieldy. I'm very accustomed to being strong and independent, and I still am, of course, but it is probably smarter to let other people do things like that for me.

Today I worked on our bathroom all day! The caulk had gotten cracked (from the new-house-settling that happens), so I wanted to replace it. It was quite a bit of work to remove the old stuff, but putting the new stuff on was easy. Later, when I went back into the bathroom, I realized that the fumes were really strong. I hadn't noticed while I was in there. Maybe it wasn't the best idea for me to be in there for so many hours.

Talking with Julie

I talked to Julie (my best friend from high school) tonight, and she told me that she has sold her book of short stories! Look for it next fall in bookstores near you... it is called "How to Breathe Underwater". Julie has been a writer as long as I can remember, and now she teaches a fiction workshop at Stanford. You can find some of her published writing on the web, if you'd like a taste! Check out the following sites:
http://www.parisreview.com/tpr157/orringer/orringer1.htm
http://www.pshares.org/issues/article.cfm?prmArticleID=7069

Julie is a poet as well, and has an excellent ear for the beauty of language. She once wrote a poem called 'Solipsism Paradigm' which had no story or meaning (if I remember correctly) other than how gorgeous words could be. I heard her do a reading of it at Cornell and it was beautiful. Anyway, the point of this is that she has some thoughts on the naming of our child, and I trust her on this, so I thought I'd share them. She thinks that the first name should be three syllables, with the accent on the first syllable. She also does not feel that alliteration is a good idea... she probably felt it was necessary to say that because I've put up quite a few names that start with 'D'.

Just before she had to go, I held the phone to the Doppler machine so that she could hear the heartbeat. I love letting people hear the heartbeat of our child! It really is an amazing thing that there is someone growning inside of me, and every time I share the heartbeat with someone, it just reminds me to be awestruck.

Teaching

Very tired today. I was up too late grading projects, and had to finish grading them this morning, anyway. Class is going well, though, and there are only six more classes! I've definitely become more comfortable in front of the class... I was so nervous the first day!

People in my class were talking about our last name (Doom, in case you are getting this by accident!). I told them our cat's name (Impending Doom) and said that Travis is fond of saying that he is lucky that he had cats before he had kids, or they would be the ones named Impending and Certain! One of my students asked if Travis and I had any kids. I said, "No, but I'm pregnant now!" They enjoyed suggesting names while I was handing back papers, but unfortunately I couldn't pay attention well enough to remember them.

Well, my class is over for the week, which makes me happy. Only five lectures to go, then I can go back to my 'real' job and work far fewer hours than I have been! I really like my students, though, and I think I'll miss interacting with them. I _won't_ miss the constant deadlines of preparing lectures, writing quizzes, and grading quizzes exams, and projects. Tough life, but I can see how it would be very rewarding.

Weekend

I made sure to clean the house on Thursday night so that I could just relax on Friday night. Sure enough, I just relaxed. I meant to make some phone calls, but I picked up one of my favorite books, started reading, and didn't stop until 2:00am. Then I went to sleep, of course, which is why there is no entry for Friday!

Today has been relaxed, too. I finished my book, and read another one. We went out for dinner with Mike and Delia, which was somewhat of a fiaso. We tried to go to Outback, but even with their new fancy call-ahead-seating, the wait when we got there was 1:45! They could have told me that when we called. So, we tried Macaroni Grill, but the wait there was an hour. So, we ended up at Old Country Buffet, where there was no wait at all!

In the evening, I programmed for a long time, while watching "Trading Spaces". I am getting addicted to that show. It made me want to fix up the house... even though it is only two years old and there isn't anything to 'fix up'. Nothing crazy like they do on that show, but I might consider painting the baby's room. My friends would be thrilled! Many of them are shocked by our stark white house.