Daddy P declares: Kate has bad music taste

We spent Saturday at the ACL festival. Kate got to listen to a bunch of new music she hadn't heard before: Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Man Man, Robert Earl Keen, and John Fogerty. To Daddy P's dismay, her favorite BY FAR was Man Man. (I loved them, but frankly thought she would have liked Sharon Jones more.)

This whole thing is based on the fact that the whole time we listened to Man Man she was moving right and left across my belly. I don't know if you'll be able to tell from the video, but hey, it's worth a shot.

We're ready!

The carseat is in the car. That means we are officially ready for baby Kate. We didn't really think about how big the carseat would be in our little Vibe, so that was a little tricky. It's tight. But secure. I will post some pictures of my ridiculously large tummy and of the baby's room this weekend.

Mark your calendars people. October 21st is baby Kate's "birthday" although I am trying to convince Daddy P we should tell her her birthday is October 25th. I mean, it seems like trickery to the universe to declare her a Libra because we are extracting her before she is really ready to come. For all intents and purposes I think she is a Scorpio, and see no reason to lead her to think otherwise.

Grossness

As though breastmilk as a concept isn't gross enough... Thank you to Jenn for sharing this tidbit... From some scary news channel in the northeast.

PETA Urges Ben & Jerry's To Use Human Milk
Group Says Move Would Help Humans, Cows

UPDATED: 9:53 am EDT September 24, 2008

WATERBURY, Vt. -- People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, cofounders of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc., urging them to replace cow's milk they use in their ice cream products with human breast milk, according to a statement recently released by a PETA spokeswoman.

Congratulations!

We have a winner! Karrie was the one to correctly identify that the constellation for Scorpio is on the wall. She will be receiving a box of the greatest fudgiest cookies in the mail (check out the link to try them yourself!).

Now, this constellation business is a tricky matter, since Kate's due date is at the beginning of Scorpio, but her tentative c-section date is in Libra. Daddy P (unwittingly) solved this dilemma with the version of Scorpio that is depicted. Modern scorpio is sometimes seen without his claws, but the original Scorpio is said to be made of a grouping of stars which includes Libra. So, her depiction of the constellation is all encompassing.

From Astrology Weekly



The story goes like this...

Pseudo-Hyginus, Astronomica 2. 26 (trans. Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) :
"Scorpio. This sign is divided into two parts on account of the great spread of the claws. One part of it our writers have called the Balance (Libra). But the whole was put in the sky, its is said, for the following reason : Orion, since he used to hunt, and felt confident that he was most skilled of all in that pursuit, said even to Diana [Artemis] and Latona [Leto] that he was able to kill anything the earth produced. Tellus [Gaia the Earth], angered at this, sent the Scorpion which is said to have killed him. Jove [Zeus], however, admiring the courage of both, put the Scorpion among the stars, as a lesson to men not to be too self-confident. Diana [Artemis], then, because of her affection for Orion, asked Jove to show to her request the same favour he had given of his own accord to Tellus [Gaia]. And so the constellation was established in such a way that when Scorpion rises, Orion sets."

It wasn't until Julius Cesar came along (so the internet says) and decided that Libra should be made of Scorpio's claws that the constellation changed to it's current image:


From Wikipedia

So, Mamacita and Daddy P should learn from what Kate's sign has to tell us. Apparently she is a master of her own destiny ("I will turn if I want to"), very curious and inquisitive ("What's the rib up here? I think I'll poke it with my head and see if I can move it"), and is very determined and don't give up ("I will be born as I wish in my own way no matter what techniques you try! Hahahaha!").

Second needle session

Yesterday I spent a good deal of my time upside down. You would think with all the blood flow going to the brain I would have some great epiphany to report, but the blood flow does not seem to have improved my brain functioning. When I wasn't upside-down, I was burning Chinese herbs against my toes. Something the baby obviously has an opinion about because she moves like crazy.

I had my second session today, and am focusing mostly on just getting me to a place of acceptance about how I truly have no control over how Kate will enter the world. I thought that "letting go" of control was being accepting of whatever drug use or techniques or time-frame that labor itself took, but apparently it means letting go of the idea of labor altogether. It's been way more of an emotional adjustment than I anticipated. I'm a work in progress.

Meanwhile, I'm still getting the house cleaned up and working part time. Clients now look at me as a potential threat (is she going to give birth here, today?) and I assure them I have quite some time to go before the baby is going to make her appearance.

Oh! We found a pediatrician! We didn't look ridiculously hard. Basically we interviewed two, and disliked the second so much we decided not to risk going to any more bad consults. He's next door to the hospital so he'll be very accessible when Kate is born, and just "fits" us. So, one more task accomplished!

No pins, just needles

I went for my first acupuncture session today. For a girl who is rather scared of needles, I think I did pretty well. The acupuncturist was very awesome, and put me totally at ease, which was necessary considering the task at hand. She talked a little about acupuncture in general, and then about why she was going to do what she was going to do. I had about seven little teeny needles in me. Most of them felt like the teeniest prick, except for the two in my toes which she was good enough to warn me about. Those were a little painful. But once they were all in I couldn't even feel them. She then burned a Chinese herb against the needles in my toes. She left me there for some time to relax and loosen up and then repeated the burning.

Daddy P burned some more against my toes today (minus needles) and we have some "homework" to do until I see her again (or until the baby moves, whichever is first). We decided on the outdoor moxabustion routine since it is so smelly. Daddy P thinks our neighbors are going to start hitting us up for the goods now.




I will say that I am feeling rather silly about all this at this point, which I think is the mental place I need to be in to 100% accept this idea of cutting me open. I'm working on getting Daddy P ready for all he'll have to do to keep me from throwing up as they slowly cut me open while I am awake (the very grossest idea ever). I am getting to that "there's a reason why she's breech and I just don't know it yet" stage, but am obviously not at the "let's have a c-section!!" stage.

To go bag

Okay peeps, time to give me ideas on what we need to pack for our hospital bag. Gimme your fav things that you took or want to take and I'll start a list for all to see.

New Challenge!

You guys did so well on the last contest, we've upped the stakes! (or, added stakes?) The winner of this challenge will win the yummiest cookies I have ever been introduced to (Thank you, Lisa). Warn me if you don't like chocolate and I will think of another prize...

Here are the rules: you have until Friday to work this one out. Please email me (don't leave a comment or others will copy your answer!) your answer. All those right answers will go into a drawing and the drawing winner gets the yummy cookies!

Now, for the question...

What is significant about Kate's wall?

Little needles vs. Big needles

I get it. We lost some of you when we said we wanted used bottles (I admit, I have reconsidered this). Then, we lost some more of you when we said that we are going to use Gdiapers. And then, the big one, the doula question. And now, I'm afraid we might be losing some of you since we have mentioned acupuncture and crazy candles. I know. I never would have guessed I would be a non-disposable-diaper-using, doula-retaining, acupunctured mom, but here I am. We do have a doctor's appointment on Monday and hopefully our gracious doctor will by the laying of the hands instantly tell that little Kate isn't where she was (and even better, is where she should be). Then, yes, I will cancel our appointment. But, having researched moxabustion on the fab internet, and seeing that there was actually a randomized control group study that showed some promising results, I have made a tentative appointment.

Now if you ask me to explain how it works, that is something I am not sure I can do. My simplified version is that using little needles (accupuncture) you can avoid big needles (epidural/spinal block/C-section). And this is what my real goal is. I am not a needle lover. They make me pass-out, or, if you are really lucky, throw up. I am a wimp. I know this about myself. Little needles and sticking flaming hot smelly ashes to my little pinky toes typically are things I avoid. But, for the baby... Or, maybe, because of the baby...

Kate is super mobile though. She is squirming like never before. So, however she currently is positioned, she is enjoying new found movement. Unfortunately for her, she has a compulsive, anxious mama, which means that every 15 minutes (I kid you not) there is a cry for Daddy P to "come tell me if this is a butt or a head." Poor girl. I hope it's more obvious once she's born. Optimistic Mamacita says "this long hard thing here is a spine and this ledge is a butt" and trying-to-protect-herself-from-disappointment Mamacita says "she has a very long head and it's still up." We will see who wins come Monday.

The room is coming along! We now have all the necessary parts of the crib but they are not yet installed. Grandpa is coming over tomorrow to finish the job I think. We were lucky enough to get a whole bunch of hand-me-downs. Our latest batch (four bags!) comes courtesy of a friend of Daddy P's. Apparently she had gotten them from a bunch of girlfriends and when she found out she was having a boy, took all the blue/green/neutral colors out. As a result, I have two loads of bubble-gum pink clothes outside waiting to be laundered.

Okay, enough of this novel for now. Pics and more this weekend...

On the move

This week Mamacita and I have had a project. We've got to turn our baby girl around before it's time for her to come out and meet us. Thanks to Google, we found probably 50 different techniques for turning around a breech baby. We decided to try all of them.

So, at various points this week, a fly on the wall would have seen the following:

-Mamacita laying with her shoulders on the floor and her backside on the couch
-Daddy P holding an ice pack to her belly in the place where baby Kate's head has been positioned
-Either of us flashing an laser pointer at the point on Mamacita's belly where we are trying to entice Kate to end up
-Daddy P singing to the bottom of Mamacita's belly (this one seems the least likely to entice anyone to do anything)

And yes, all of these things are happening at the same time. Next up: acupuncture and some crazy special candle that you put on Mamacita's toes.

Hopefully more drastic measures won't have to be taken. Kate seems to be responding either to our methods described above or to the constant poking she is getting as we compulsively try to figure out where she is. This past week she has abandoned her pike position that she had maintained for the last 2 months. Mamacita is feeling kicks and movements in entirely new places and much stronger than before. We won't find out if she is positioned correctly or not for another week or so, but we are encouraged. More to come later...

Signs of a Breech Baby

Apparently, there have been many signs that Kate is a butt-sitter, but we just didn't know that we were experiencing them! So, should you be curious, or even in this situation yourself sometime, I thought I'd pass along what we've learned.

The obvious one, which we still didn't pick up on, is the whole, her head is up thing. Since early July I've been complaining about this hard part of her sticking up under my right rib. At the time I thought it was just me getting kicked in the rib, since I'd heard that from other moms. But this was constant, and really uncomfortable. She prevented me from bending over very well as she (and I) got bigger. And, well, there was this very obvious round and very hard thing right under my rib. Uh, duh.

Less obvious, but apparently just as much of a sign, was her constant kicking around my navel. I would tell Daddy P that I could feel her kicking but that he couldn't feel it because it was so low. Well, really, her feet weren't supposed to be that low, so yeah, tip off.

I have also been constantly lopsided. This whole time I've been carrying a big thing on my right side (her torso and head) and then something smaller and less pokey on the left side (her appendages). She'd move her feet up and down so I'd get kicked in my left rib or really low in my navel, but that was about it. She never really tumbled or moved around that much. She just stayed one big mass on my right side. Which brings me to what Daddy P and I came to hypothesize.

Kate is stuck. We decided that as she grew, her little butt got wedged in my pelvis and she couldn't get out. She didn't really want to be a breech baby, she just didn't have much choice in the matter. So this week we set about trying to help our baby get unwedged from her little predicament.

More to come...

Disoriented

We are slowly settling in. Actually, we are more settled at this point than I ever dreamed thanks to a certain Aunt who flew out and spent three days straight unpacking, putting away, and straightening. When my folks came over to lend a hand the place was really buzzing.

Kate's room is getting there. Both the changing table and the crib had parts that were damaged, and Graco is hopefully going to send us some new parts. Daddy P and I have both started at work, which is a bit of a shock to the system, and are getting into a routine.

Apparently our little one doesn't have a good compass in the womb. She is currently head up and feet up and thinks she can enter the world butt first. So I am currently trying to prepare myself for the possibility of a C-section. At first I was very hopeful we could get her to turn around, but she's had her head smashed under my right rib for a month now and I don't see her moving anytime soon. We will see! But considering how terrified I am of a C-section, I think this warning was very good for me so I'll be able to spend the next two months mentally and physically preparing for the possibility.