Babies should come on ebay

Pregnancy....are some women just not meant to host a life form?  A friend of mine often comments that babies should come on ebay.  As much as I enjoy this wonderful sensation and the joy of becoming a mother, I can't help but think the ebay route may be more pleasant than the current one.  Every week one "symptom of pregnancy" is exchanged for another.  Just when I'm excited over the end of one ache, a new one takes it's place.  And most of these "pains" can occur with pregnancy, but aren't exactly the norm.  Take for instance my new onset of pregnancy induced carpal tunnel symptoms. (Luckily not true carpal tunnel as it should resolve after the baby is born.)  Are you kidding me? In the course of 2 weeks I go from feeling a little stiff in my right hand and wrist to significant pain with any use of my thumb or wrist.  I just thought I might be having some arthritis pain.  (Although I'm glad it's not arthritis, at least I wouldn't have to wear this darn splint on my wrist all the time.)   


On another note, we mentioned in a previous post that I have a marginal previa. We had a repeat ultrasound this week and found that the placenta is no longer a previa, but is considered low-lying. This means, I have another ultrasound at 32 weeks to see if it's progressed past the goal of 2cm away from the cervix. If it doesn't there still may be a chance that I'll need a c-section to prevent any complications related to bleeding etc during the actual birth. It's good news that's it's moving, just that it still has room to go.  And given the time and money we're investing the Bradley classes, it better damn well move!


During the same ultrasound they were also following up on a slightly enlarged kidney of the baby. It's still within the normal range but is on the high end.  Since it is only one kidney, it more than likely could be due to a ureter issue (most common in boys we're told).  Since we don't know the sex (even the Dr was unable to tell due to the baby's position and size) it's unclear what the issue could be.  But they aren't worried about it and will follow up on that at the next ultrasound as well.  More about the baby...it's around 2 lbs and 14 inches long.  Everything else looks great and it's finally head down...and will hopefully stay that way.  I was happy to finally get a read on it's position because I feel "kicking" everywhere so had no idea what position it was in.  On a funny note, Chris was a little unhappy with the profile because he's convinced the baby will have his recessed jaw.  Ha Ha Ha....if only you heard the conversation about that one.  Although we do have more pics, they're basically the same stuff as last time, so we'll probably not post them. 


That's basically the update for now.  Hopefully we'll be posting some pics of the nursery soon.  My first shower is in a few weeks so maybe there will be more decor to enhance it's fabulousness. 

Beer Budget Photography

For a funny read, and evidence of why NASA will never get us back to the moon first, check out this article of students who flew a cheap Canon A470 digital camera to the edge of space, and successfully retrieved their deep-space images, for a total project cost of $148!

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...

iPhone alternative

Why I haven't yet bought an iPhone...

Devil's Lake

In early June Vamsi happened to be in town from New York, and so we decided to get together and do some car camping/canoeing in Wisconsin, specifically in the area around Devil's Lake State Park. For anyone who has not had the opportunity to head up to Devil's Lake, its a great midwest destination just outside Madison that's not too far from Chicago or Iowa City, and yet once there you feel as though you're not in the midwest anymore (a plus).

Day one was spent hiking and relaxing in the park grounds, while day two was spent canoeing down the now-infamous Wisconsin River, complete with nudist colony about halfway down river (don't worry, we didn't "hang" there).

The weekend included perfect weather (sunny and in the low 80's) and a rental-convertible to capitalize. Our campsite was ideal, with a canopy of trees overhead and a relatively soft pad to set the tent on, this was much easier than most of our previous backcountry trips that we'd taken together.

We had a great weekend up there, below are some photos from our trip...

Obscenely Coated Pork Loin

With Emily now safely embedded in the second trimester of pregnancy, meals at the Barwacz household have been slowly returning to a somewhat normal status. While before in the first trimester Emily was unable to eat anything other than carbs, red meat, and salt with a side of corn chips, items like vegetables and fruits, thought once to no longer exist, have become rediscovered.

Last weekend we decided that we could probably viably invite someone over for dinner without having to subject them to these abnormal eating habits. Thus, we had the pleasure of having over our first official dinner guest at our new place in North Liberty. Paula, a surgeon that Chris works with from time to time in his fellowship, and a chef afficianodo in her own right, joined us for what probably was more of a fall meal than a summer one in the middle of July, nonetheless it was wonderfully tasty.

Paula supplied the pork loin recipe and wine(Emily did not partake), and we took care of the rest. The recipe called for a pork loin first coated in "obscene" amounts of dijon mustard, followed by a coating of bread crumbs and rosemary. This was roasted in the oven along with some vegetables and yellow potatoes turned in olive oil. The flavors of both the meat and the vegetables were amazing. For desert we made some homemade, fresh-vanilla bean ice cream with whole milk and cream (low cal, we realize) in our ice cream maker, and topped it off with warm blueberries. The great part of it all, was that all the dishes seemed to agree with Emily and Flip, so everyone was happy.

On The Origins of Flip

Not that we need to educate anyone on the actual origin of Flip, but some have wondered why we call our growing fetus Flip. Well, being the excited expectant mother that Emily is, she spent many, many hours on the internet week after week following the growing cells, embryo and now fetus. Around week 8, it started resembling an actual semi-human and it's stubs for arms started to develop flipper like hands. Chris, not exactly thrilled with the notion of a tadpole for a child, started calling the baby "Flipper." Well, Flipper eventually was shortened to Flip and here we have the name we're calling the baby. It's also a good androgynous name not associated with either sex. Now, hopefully we don't jinx ourselves with a hermaphrodite or someone with a gender identity problem. And we also figure by not having a 'real' ficticious name we won't set ourselves up by wanting to call it that after it's born. After all, if we call the baby Flip, lets face it, we're going to have some problems. For now it works and helps form that mushy "relating to the baby" stuff that parents are supposed to feel for the alien incubating in the mother ship.

On another note, a sense of normalcy has been restored to our "new" home. We're finally moved in to our new townhome. Better than that, I'm feeling and acting more like a human being rather than some possessed, bleary-eyed puke bag. It was weird how suddenly it happened. We spend 2 exhausting days moving and unpacking. Then, after one awesome night of sleep I wake up totally energized and feeling not like a host to some parasite. I cleaned, scrubbed floors, vacuumed, swept the porch, set up the entertainment center and basically organized the entire 1st floor. Totally amazing. And, better yet, it's 1pm and I don't feel like I need a nap!! Oh yes, the second trimester may be the saving grace of the future Barwacz lineage.

***P.S. We've acquired a sudden increase in new readers, so for those of you not familiar with how this works here's a few basic points to better help navigate our page. At the bottom of every post there is a "comment" place at the end. If you click on it you can leave us a comment or give your own 2 cents. If you select the anonymous tab to send the message, make sure you sign your name at the bottom of your comment. Also, know that others can also read your comments (unless we remove it due to something horribly stupid that you wrote...kidding). Also, while reading the post, if you notice a section that is colored differently than the rest of the text, you can click on it and it will take you to something we attached (another blog post, webpage, etc.). Finally, most photos can be enlarged by clicking on the photo. Some photo montages can take you to our Picasa web albums account where you can print or download pics if you want (grandparents etc). As you may have noticed, when Emily is personally writing the words are italicized. ***

And yet another box to check on the health history form...

It all started about 9 weeks ago...

Some of you have had the symptoms I'm sure. Lower abdominal cramps accompanied by some weird tugging sensations, nausea, moodiness, sleeplessness followed by periods of sleeping for 12 hours straight, extreme exhaustion despite that sleep, feeling like the room is 100 degrees when in fact it's 72, extreme food aversions to vegetables or salads...and ranch dressing...and chocolate...in fact anything that isn't meat or starch, uncontrollable fits of crying followed by laughter...

and all within the first 7 weeks!!!

Well, needless to say, I'm pregnant. 13 weeks to be exact. And glad as can be that the first miserable trimester is over! Finally! I mean, who does this more than once? And don't tell me that you forget all about it. Bull! I'll never be able to eat a salad again for the rest of my life! In fact, just thinking of it makes my mouth salivate (in a bad way). And poor Chris, he doesn't know what's going on. One minute he's running to get a Whopper (which I never ate before pregnancy) and the next minute he finds me on the couch crying over Grey's Anatomy. (By crying I mean can't catch my breath because I'm so upset crying.) Your condolences will be much appreciated by him I'm sure. Our projected due date at this time is December 31st. Good for the tax deduction, bad because we already have enough holidays in December.

But despite the exhaustion (on both our parts because of my tossing and turning) we're more than excited to share in this experience together and to know that our first baby can be born here in Iowa (a true "Hawkeye"). Also, it will be nice for our families to share in that as well. We're blessed that we've had no complications, but may not be feeling so blessed when this projected "Heifer" comes out. (We were both more than 9lbs ourselves, with Chris nearly topping 10). Chris likes to refer to it as the "heifer" due to all the red meat I can't seem to get enough of.

As of now we're not planning on finding out the sex of the baby. Maybe we'll change our minds, but how often in life can you truly be surprised? We know this will make it harder to plan (and you all know how we're such planners) but hey, we're hoping this baby will teach us to go with the flow more in life instead of planning everything to the last detail.

So for now, we'll utilize this site (hey, we figured we needed to do something brash to increase our readership) to update you on the progress and any new developments. We're moving July 2nd to a larger abode to accomodate our expanding family. The next few months should be exciting!

"Flip" at 12 weeks

Backbone State Park

With a rainy weekend in the forecast, and no patients on a beautifully warm, sunny friday afternoon, I decided to take off early from work and head out for a hike with Emily. Beings that we've now lived in Iowa City for ~10 years, and have exhausted every trail known to man in the immediate vicinity, we decided to venture outside of our 'comfort zone' and make our way north, for our inaugural venture to Backbone State Park.

Of course it was necessary to grab a pre-hike lunch, so on the way to the park, we first stopped at The Lincoln Café, our favorite place to eat in Mount Vernon.

It was a nice, hilly drive up to Backbone, which is located just adjacent to a small (really small) town called Dundee. Emily and I were making note that we should return once fall arrives, as there were plenty of vistas from the road that would make for nice viewing of fall colors. Beings that this will be coming up on our last year in Iowa, and hence our last year to enjoy each season, we're trying to make mental notes of places to return to before leaving.

And Backbone is definitely a gem of a park that has for whatever reason, remained obscured to us until now. While it is a good 2 hr. drive to get there (taking the scenic route), it is well worth the effort, as there are great hiking trails, gurgling creeks that actually house crystal clear water (unlike most muddy creeks in the midwest), and small (dare we say) "foothills", complete with a few "cliffs". If we were into rock climbing (we're not), this would be a place to bookmark.

Unfortunately, camera in hand, I realized that I had forgotten to recharge my battery, so only a few shots were in store (much to the delight of Emily). Perhaps that is motivation enough to return to Backbone.

Café Dodici

It's always great to be able to spend a warm, lazy weekend afternoon with some good friends. This past sunday we did just that, closing out May by joining our buddies Nathan and Stephanie down on the Mississippi in Burlington to 'assist' them as they walked through a number of listed homes with their realtor.

Its always fun to see different homes, layouts, and especially people's individual tastes (or lack thereof). We walked through five homes in total, but it seemed pretty obvious that there was one house in particular that stood out from the rest, and now the question remains as to whether Nathan actually wants to take the plunge and become a homeowner...we'll keep you posted on that.

After heading back to Crawfordsville (where their current abode is) for a brief break in the action, we decided to head to Washington, IA to try a local restaurant that has quickly built a name for itself, called Café Dodici. The restaurant offers an Italian-based menu with other offerings as well. Nobody's dishes were a disappointment, and we're hoping to head back there again soon to enjoy other items off their menu.