getting close to 2008!

We are now reaching the countdown point with just weeks to go! The belly has enjoyed much holiday food and continues to grow at a steady rate. We thought for a while that perhaps my weight would exceed Mike's weight, but we have concluded that Mike ate too many holiday cookies this season, and that is no longer a possibility. How another five or six pounds are going to squeeze their way into my belly though is beyond me, it seems at maximum capacity to me right now! We had our midwifery appointment yesterday (delayed after a classic Wisconsin snow fall) and confirmed that baby is head down, and hanging out very low. So low that the midwife was surprised. Guess all those yoga poses work! But no more squatting poses for me for a while as we don't want it to engage (get too far down) yet. We also learnt that the baby is posterior or "sunny side up" which means that its back is right up against my back with its legs and arms free and available to give mummy good kicks. Its supposed to be the other way around and so I’ve got new exercises and positions to try and get him or her to rotate around to the anterior position. check out http://www.spinningbabies/ to see a picture of what this looks like. Mike has also offered to help by spinning the car on ice in parking lots to see if it will rotate the baby.

We all went to see Arturo Sandoval, the Cuban trumpet player, last night and I think the baby must have really liked the music because it danced the whole show wriggling round and shaking its booty, perhaps that will help shift things around to the correct position.

One for the Bear

Sam, my teddy bear from youth, is very happy with the nice sweater Hannah knitted him. As you can tell from his wear he was well loved. Hannah also had a panda teddy bear with the clever name "Panda". Her other bear "Big Ted" shares the chair with what's its name future teddy bear. The kid's bear was purchased on our summer vacation to Door County. The bear is made from scrap clothes. Hopefully this will help instill a fondness for dumpster diving and curb surfing so the kid can bond with its father later in life. We the bear in Gill's Rock, the northern most town in Door County, at a store mostly selling rag throw rugs. Gill's Rock also provided us with tasty smoked white fish. And of course we also bought lots of other food goodies like peanut brittle, pickles, jams, and dried cherries. Those dried cherries are very good and expensive.
As Hannah enjoyed knitting the baby sweater so much, it may be a little big for a new born. Not to be discouraged, we are quickly finding alternative uses.

Funny Words

Last evening we attended the third of our Birth Classes. I tend to hear what I already think. That is trust your instincts. I figure cave people had babies so it shouldn't be too hard for those of us in the Jetson age. Hannah is very dubious of my assertion that if pressed into duty I could deliver a baby with the vast knowledge I learned from my expecting father pamphlet. I of course have not read the 20 or so books she has. She forgets, I have watched several videos in birth class and started reading 1 book.
It was about this time in our conversation, she shocked me by saying she would rather have our firefighter friend and paramedic in-training birth our baby than me.
After watching videos, I feel I could not do much worse than some of the hospital births. My advice is take a midwife over a doctor, unless you want to be drugged and cut. They can't seem to be bothered by the natural process developed over several thousand years.

A final note on videos: "Special Delivery" by In-depth Productions sounds more like pornography than a how to have a baby, but maybe that is just me.

Or our little bundle of joy may also inherit a trait carried from the paternal side such as RLS, otherwise known as Restless Leg Syndrome. This is a condition that is characterized by an irresistible urge to move one's legs, often in rapid quick repeated movements. It frequents at the dinner table causing the entire table to shake as if an earth quake were underway. It also happens when the afflicted is sitting watching a movie, or at a meeting table when others are trying to take notes. Approximately 40% of cases are inherited, and it impacts about 3% of the population. It is doubly likely that out little one will have the urge to shake legs at the dinner table as the maternal grandfather-to-be has for years also caused items to shift off the table during meal times. Hourly surveys from inside the womb and recorded by mother-to-be are also indicating exceedingly high levels of repeated rapid leg movements. Though this may simply indicate that our little on is going to be a good cyclist one day (or perhaps a good swimmer to go with the webbed toes - the toes help me swim better despite scientific evidence otherwise). I'm also happy to report that the leg kicks are high up and under my rib cage, thus indicating appropriate orientation for birth at this time.

How do you feel about strange Inherrited Traits?

So which traits do you want your baby to get from you versus your partner in crime?

Let's start at the bottom

Above note the webbed toes of the maternal foot. Is this desirable? This is a trait that can be inherited. A single gene controls it. Inheritance is a 50% chance. In our case the the rest of the family is clear of syndactyly. We do have a friend with the same condition. So the kid will have company besides the frogs.

Sometime after 6 weeks of fetal development toes and fingers are supposed to separate. Despite the pride certain acquaintances may take in their superior swimming ability, this condition is a birth defect or inherited disorder. For the curious there is no connection between swimming ability and webbed toes. A few famous people have webbed toes like Ashton Kutcher, Dan Akroyd, and possibly Josef Stalin. Marge Simpson apparently revealed her webbing at her shoplifting trial. Some people seem proud of webbing while others are embarrassed. Some so much so that they have the toes surgically separated.

The 2nd and 3rd toe are most commonly webbed. Webbing can be characterized by percentage of toes joined. I think Hannah here is in the 10% category. Speaking of numbers - webbed toes occur about once for every 2,500 to 3,ooo births.

I suggest a sock free party to determine the percentage of your aquaintances with webbing.

To get even the wife may expose the paternal green toe nail in the next blog....

02-12-1-07 Guns N' Roses

No we are not big fans (really not fans at all) of Guns N' Roses. The title just seemed funny.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Child_o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-AYAv0IoWI

01 - 12-1-07

Ahem... Well our friends have them so why not us too?

Not the child mind you, but the blog...

As her father was happy to learn, through immaculate conception my dear lovely wife Hannah will be giving birth to a dual citizenship baby in early February. Were we using traditional higly technological, profitable, and non-personal birthing measures the 'creature's' emergence date would be February 4 (my nephew Brandon's birthday 19 years ago). With midwifery we are talking more a target timeframe of early February. As Hannah and I both showed reluctance to enter this world 'on-time', we expect the same from our offspring. Hannah is hoping the baby does not grow quite as large as I did before emergence (10 lbs 1 oz).