Choosy moms choose...wait, am I supposed to know what I'm doing?

Registering...it's a concept we should be used to since we've previously registered for our wedding.  However, registering for a baby is a totally different experience.  First off, when you register for your wedding, you walk around your favorite store and pick things at random.  These things just might look cool, maybe serve a specific function, and/or you've just always really wanted to say you have (whether or not you intent to ever use it).  Now, registering for a baby...


1. In reality, you're registering for another person.  Yes, the items may be things you'll use on, for or with this other person, but in reality, you have no idea if that little person (who, might I add can't talk) will actually like what you've picked out.
2. By like I mean, not scream bloody murder when you put the item on it (clothing), in it's mouth (bottle or pacifier), on top of it (bedding, blankets etc) or in it (car seat, stroller, random plaything).  If at any time these things deem themselves not satisfactory you could potentially be in for a really long night, car ride and possibly life.
3. So, you hedge your bets and give it your best shot, after all, you don't remember that part of your own childhood anyway.  But here's the kicker...what in the hell does a baby even need?  For this, you would be best served to use the advice of others.  However, this could also back fire in the event that the person you're asking comes from the era of when you held the child on your lap during car rides.  Now, in the unlikely event that this is your one and only "source" you may need to seek out other forms of information. My choice...the internet. Ok, so that opens a totally larger can of worms.  For one, you don't know who or what is credible.  Second, there are soooo many sites it can be confusing and even more than a little daunting.  So, my source...Consumer Reports .  Maybe not the authority on the perfect layette for your baby, but totally helpful when trying to find the "best and safest" out there for those items that really matter.
4. Now you're left with the items that matter, but more than likely won't kill your child.  By this I mean, blankets, sheets, clothing, diaper bags etc.  For these items, you have to (again) scour the internet to find how many and what size you need to properly be prepared.  A lot of sites vary in their quantity needed and for that, mom's who have been there really do offer the best advice.  Like for example, after sending my mom the registry, she said "you know, babies go through about 4 sleepers a day (if you're lucky) so you might want to register for more than the 8 you selected."  See, good point!
5. The best way to register...online.  This serves 2 purposes.  First, there are many more selections available to you than in the store. Second, you can read consumer reviews of other parents who have used those items and get good feedback to find out if something is safe and durable. 
6.  Let's discuss why registering in the store isn't really the best option.  Check above to see the benefits to online registering, but the main reason is deception via overstimulation.  Although the infant section at Target is only about 6 isles long, these 6 isles are filled with weird and totally unnecessary items.  This becomes especially more complicated when registering with an eager and somewhat perplexed spouse who wants to know what every single item is and how it is used. In fact the entire duration of your registering experience may go something like this: 
"What's this thing?" 
"It's and insert for a diaper genie."
"What's a diaper genie?"
"It's a thing you put diapers in to make them not smell." 
"Do we need one?"
"No." 
"Why not?" 
"Because we're using nondisposable diapers." 
"Oh, so what do we put the diapers in?"
"A regular diaper pail." 
"What's that?"  and so on...you get the picture.  And this is a good scenario because one of us actually knew what these items were and whether or not they were needed.  Imagine the unsuspecting victim who has no idea what a pacifier is walking into that section of mysterious baby objects.
7.  Since I mentioned it above, we have the choice to go disposable or reusable.  Ok, Ok, Ok, so many parents probably have the best intentions of go the reusable route, but many probably don't follow through on it.  Let's face it, it's a dirty job.  Diaper changing itself is never an easy feat, and now we'll have to wash the diaper as well.  Well, let's go back to my childhood for a minute.  As you all know, I'm the oldest of 4 children. My mom used cloth diapers exclusively. And, being the oldest, I often found myself the diaper changer (not only for my siblings, but also of the daycare children my mom took care of).  Sadly enough, I enjoyed helping with this task.  Fortunately, all those years of experience, combined with many years of babysitting, nannying etc that I did in my teenage years has reinforced my certification of expert diaperer.  Now, back to the cloth diapers.  Back in the day, we only had the rectangle cloth, safety pins and plastic pants option.  Now, I have memories of changing my sister Sara's diapers which would make me about 5-6 years old.  So, if a 5 year old can change cloth diapers, complete with pins and pants, I would think as an adult we can handle the new and improved all-in-one diaper or pocket diaper that now come complete with snaps or velcro instead of pins. As for the washing, again, if I could do it when I was in elementary school, I can do it now as an adult and experienced nurse.  (Now Chris on the other hand...we're currently in search of a fumigation hood as well as a haz-mat suit.)  But, good luck finding a local supplier because you do NOT want to go with the standard cloth diapers you get at Target or something of the like.  Fortunately we have a specialty store in Des Moines who sells them as well as provides free diaper 101 classes. 


In conclusion, who knows what will actually work best, be most used, or never used at all.  For now, we did our best with what we know now.  Luckily, the kid won't have any memories of what we have or don't have and will more likely than not, just be happy to have two loving parents. 

The newest member of the family...

...isn't a child (yet), but rather a much needed update on our existing home computer. Our Dell Latitude laptop had outlived its dutiful lifespan of 6+ years, thus necessitating (well, maybe that's a bit of a stretch) the new addition, a Mac Pro. It's speed and processing power should get us by a good deal into the future, and will hopefully allow us the capability to do more spontaneous posts of local happenings, especially as Flip's arrival nears.

And the ultrasound confirms...IT'S A...

BABY...and maybe part horse...that'll be determined sometime later in life when it tries out for athletics.  Boy, let us tell you, this baby is rowdy! During the duration of the ultrasound (30 min) it started from breech, moved to transverse, back to breech, back to transverse.  To which Chris joked "maybe we need to give this kid a mild sedative" since it was uncooperative with some of the assessments the technician was trying to give.  Much to our relief she stated "no, it's GOOD to have a baby this active, it's the slow one's you worry about"...we'll see about that when it's 2 years old! 

But, needless to say, all went well. No abnormalities that can be seen during ultrasound were noticed.  The baby weighs almost a pound!  To which Chris replied, "if you're halfway there, this kid is only an 1/8 of the size it's going to be (maybe 1/10), so that mean's you're going to get a heck of a lot bigger."  Um...yeah...

Hey, she did stroke Emily's ego by saying, "wow, you have a perfect sized baby, but you'd never even know you were pregnant!"  That's good...right? But, like was mentioned in the previous post, there is no cute "bump" more like a swelling in all directions.

The one (minor) complication that was noted was that Emily's placent is right to the margin of the cervix.  This is called marginal previa. She underwent a vaginal ultrasound with the staff physician in the room to check that out and get a better picture of what exactly was going on.  Although this does not occur in every woman, nor is it that common, it is one of the most common "problems" they see but our case 75% of women's placentas move up and away from the cervix as the uterus expands. Good news!  At this time, it doesn't affect physical activity (good thing since Emily went on a 2 hr hike the day before the ultrasound) nor does she have to be on bedrest.  We just have to watch for any signs of bleeding and get to the hospital immediately if this occurs.  We're also having a follow up ultrasound in 6 weeks to check that back out.

Hmmm...maybe it'll give us a chance to check out the sex since we vetoed that option this time around. (Which we have to mention, she did a very good job avoiding the gential region because as hard as we both were looking, we didn't see a thing.)

Back to another positive note, Emily felt her fundus for the first time. (ok...i may be a nurse, but if you've never felt it before you're not sure what you're supposed to feel!)  What a huge surprise to find that it's right at or slightly above the belly button!  No wonder she has more indigestion!! (Funny story...on vacation, we were riding in the car after dinner and I was talking...out of no where and totally combined with what I was saying came this gigantic belch!  To which Chris responded "are you the gatekeeper?" We laughed and laughed about that one)

So, here are a few images that we received to commemorate our "first official baby pictures." We're very excited and Emily is thankful that Chris saw for himself how active this little one has been!

Steamboat Springs

Last week we took one of our most impromptu vacations to date. With Emily working only a 50% line as of late, and contractors working to install digital radiography units in Chris' clinic space, thus impairing his ability to see patients, we decided to skip town for a little less than a week and drive to Colorado.

We've both been there several times before, but it was an ideal place to head last minute, and this time we decided to head a bit farther west to Steamboat Springs. We spent the first night in Fort Collins, a place that we still adore and would consider living if it were not for Washington waiting in the wings, and ate at our favorite mexican restaurant, Rio Grande. Chris had eaten there with Vamsi and Trent on a previous backpacking trip, and we had also eaten there together on a site visit for dental school back in 2006. It's one of those places you just have to go to if you're in town. The pregnant among us was more excited by the fact that Paciugo's had a location in Fort Collins, but in the end it was not meant to be, as Emily was not feeling up to it after dinner due to some pregnancy gurglings.

The first and last days of our trip were spent bumming around Rocky Mountain National Park, taking in light hikes, picnicking in different spots, and just relaxing in the beautiful mountain weather that we had. The three days in Steamboat were spent doing much of the same, with slightly more structure. In between some naps, we headed to a mid-day folk concert put on weekly in Steamboat at the Yampa Botanical Park, relaxed in the warm waters of the Old Town Hot Springs, took in the town's First Friday Art Walk, and hiked and ate a bit more. To summarize, a great little escape that was unplanned, making it all the more fun.

So maybe it's not the worst thing to happen to womenkind...

Finally! The good times are here again! By that I mean, no weird pregnancy symptoms, no pains, no horrible mood swings, no food adversions, and best yet, no more pregnancy induced migraines! (Unless you count the high altitude headaches I had on vacation, but that's another blog post.) So, here I am coming up on 20 weeks and the good feelings just keep coming. By that I mean I can fully feel the baby kick, turn circles and whatever else it feels like doing in there. I've actually been feeling "something weird" since around week 16. Just this flutter sensation in the center of my lower abdomen. I mentioned it to the OB at my last visit (by the way, she wasn't my usual doctor) and she looked at me like I was crazy and said "some women may feel it this early but I doubt you are." Biiiitch Pleeeze! You can't tell me what I feel or don't feel! Now that it's a whole lot stronger I know for a fact that was what I was feeling. So, it's exciting and a little weird at the same time. Especially when it's dancing on your cervix...talk about a creepy feeling! Almost like nails on a chalk board, or a knife scraping a plate, only it's coming from inside of you. Ehhgghhboiuoibo!

As for the baby bump, it looks and feels like a baby mass. Unfortunately I'm not one of the cute pregnant women that you see with just this tight little mound. No, mine seems to be spreading all the way around my back as well as in my stomach. I look and feel like I'm wearing one of those fake pregnancy bellies as opposed to actually being pregnant. Add to that the general swelling that is taking over my entire body. Thank God for exercise! So, my friends who haven't seem me ask if I have a bump yet, and although it's present, most people would probably just think I was a fat waddler if they saw me on the street. Hence, the lack of pics on our blog. It doesn't help that maternity clothes add 10 lbs to the pic. So, you'll see a few pics of me on vacation and see the mass that's forming.

The other exciting thing is that I no longer get up 6 times a night to go to the bathroom. AND, I'm actually sleeping! This is the true reason I feel I no longer have the headaches, moodiness and general malaise. Yes, better days have come! And to top it off, in 2 days we'll have the official ultrasound pics to post of little Flip, or Flippa as I sometimes refer to it since Flip sounds masculine I need to account for both possibilities (and in fact, the likelihood of a girl.) Hmm...maybe that'll lead to a future poll...