Very Scary Halloween

Several people have actually requested this and since it is by far the scariest thing I could come up with for Halloween, I relented. As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for!

This picture was actaully taken a week after the "official" six month mark. At that time four of Mac's relatives were staying with us and I was too modest to parade around half naked in front of them. So instead I waited until I had some privacy and then posted the picture on the internet.

It's amazing that the Sports Impregnated Swimsuit Edition doesn't have the same widely anticipated release as the non-gravid alternative!


HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Midnight Snack

Tonight I woke up starving. More accurately, I woke up to pee (for the third time), but then was way too hungry to sleep. Worried that the lining of my stomach might auto-digest, I headed off to the kitchen for something to eat.

Once there, I decided on the midnight snack of the stars, or at least Bill Cosby - Jell-o pudding. Careful not to wake Mac, I assembled the necessary items and made the pudding in the dark, measuring the milk by the light of the microwave digital clock. Then I headed to the living room with my freshly whisked concoction to drink the mix straight from the bowl before it congealed to its final semi-solid state. No, this isn't some weird pregnancy thing, just a weird Pam-thing.

Having nearly finished before the mix became undrinkable, I headed back to bed, no longer hungry, but still not sleepy either. It is pointless (and maybe a little inconsiderate) to try to rouse Mac from comatose to coherent, so I am just killing time until my delectable milky drink induces slumber, but hopefully not dreams of Bill Cosby!

Writer's Block

Dante is very supportive of my web logging activities.

"Can I play with the mouse?"

Moo-Moo

Today I did something awful: I wore a mu-mu (perhaps better designated moo-moo). The mu-mu was probably my second biggest fear of pregnancy (after the delivery, of course), but after trying on three other frumpy shirts, I willingly chose the mu-mu shirt.

Sure, maternity retailers will try to fool you with regal sounding terms like "empire waist," but what they really mean is that your waist is as vast as an empire! Time to call a spade a spade - these shirts are just shorter versions of the dresses made for the morbidly obese and still about a foot longer than any normal shirt should be. The standard alternative is not pretty either, what I designate as the "tent shirt" - a shirt that starts from the shoulders and then balloons out from there to form the perfect canopy for a three ring circus (or at least the little acrobat growing beneath).

I can't help but ponder the discrepancy between maternity shirts and pants. The three pairs of good maternity pants I have are not only unbelievably comfortable, but they are more stylish than any other pants I have in my closet (perhaps this isn't saying much or perhaps I should let my mother-in-law shop for me all the time). In the mornings I can always find pants that I am happy wearing (note: it helps that I do only have three pairs), but I can't seem to find a satisfying shirt. It seems I will have be resigned to the mu-mu and the baby-bivouac for the next 10-13 weeks.

Not a Car Seat

In addition to the mountain of baby stuff in the "nursery," we have a few items in the living room hidden behind a big chair. Dante is pretty certain we are misspelling the name of one of the items: from his point of view, it is really better called a cat-seat.

Blog Blog

This entry is dedicated to Mac, Joel, and all the other science dorks who find this stuff interesting.

Mac and I are fascinated by doublespeak species - creatures with the same genus and species name. Perhaps this is what cemented our love, as I can recall a memorable zoo date when we scoured the signs for animals that fit: gorilla gorilla, iguana iguana, bison bison. True success came when we hit upon a taxonomy trifecta - naja naja naja - the common Indian cobra with matching subspecies! - Who says romance is dead?

Over the years we have added a few more and Joel has joined the search as well:
alces alces (moose)
troglodytes troglodytes (winter wren)
vulpes vulpes (red fox)
mola mola (sunfish)

Do you have any to add?

Tough Tittie

For the last five days Mac's mom, dad, aunt and uncle have been staying with us. Thursday night while the guys headed off to the coast to fish, the girls stayed up talking. Mac's mom and aunt were full of excitement, anticipation, and advice for the upcoming baby. Mostly it was a lot of fun hearing stories about Mac and other family members when they were babies, but on one piece of advice they were adament:

"If you are going to breastfeed, you need to toughen up your nipples starting now."

"WHAT?!?!" I instinctively hunched my shoulders and crossed my arms in a protective fashion.

"Oh, yeah, you need to toughen them up," they chorused. They then proceded to tell me all sorts of breastfeeding horror stories.

I could only bring to mind a cartoon my mom had on the refridgerator when I was growing up:

10 WAYS TO PREPARE FOR A MAMMOGRAM
1. Open your biggest book, then slam it shut on your breast.
2. Chill your iron, then flatten your breasts with it.
3. Close the waffle iron on your breast.
4. Place your breast on the driveway and ask a friend to back the car over it.
...

I couldn't come up with anything more logical than these ideas. "What am I supposed to do, use sandpaper or have Mac bite them, because I am not doing either!"

They laughed at my stupidity. "No, silly, with a washcloth in the shower."

Ok, maybe that didn't sound as bad as what I had in mind, but somehow it didn't quite make my 'To Do' list for today either.

Hic-Hic-Hiccup

On Monday night I felt some rhythmic small pings on my belly wall. Certain that these were way too regular to be random baby movement, I thought I must be feeling heart beat transmissions. I knew immediately that this tapping was way to slow to be the fetal heart, but a quick check of my pulse showed that they were too slow to be my heart either. About that time, they went away; I went to sleep.

Last night, the same thing happened - only it kept going. Like the rap, rap, rapping, tap, tap, tapping of Poe's raven, it was a bit erie. After a few minutes of fascination, I turned over and it went away.

This morning I tried to find out what was going on. I finally came to a diagnosis: my kid has the hiccups! This is supposed to be really common when the fetus is going through lung development - as the neophyte breather works on technique the young muscles and nerves become uncoordinated, ergo HICCUPS!

Mt. St. Baby

Like the nearby Mt. St. Helens, our mountain of baby stuff is growing at an alarming rate. It's hard to believe an eight pound baby needs three tons of stuff!

Baby Shower

Sunday's baby shower with my co-workers was quite nice. There was good food, games and lots of gifts.

This is me and Julie (8 months pregnant) getting an "official" combined measurement after everyone tried to estimate our total circumference. Sadly, all but one person overestimated, meaning we look bigger than we actually are! I'm blaming that on Julie!

Getting Organized, Phase II

At the end of the weekend, here's where things stand:

I'm done with my half. And Mac, well, there's been some progress, but...

still a bit of work to go.

Getting Organized, Phase I (aka Hit by Hurricane Ivan)

Though my due date is still three months away, Mac and I know the time will go quickly, especially with the holidays, so we are trying to tackle a few projects ahead of time. The biggest one so far has been moving the guest bedroom into the den in order to free up a room for the baby.

Last Sunday J.D. helped Mac move the desks around while Kris and I supervised and drank tea. Because Mac and I were exchanging desks, we both had to empty everything out of all the drawers. This ordeal left us too tuckered to actually start putting things away, so things have been in a state of disaster for the past week.

Fortunately, we have good incentive to get things back in order (besides the baby!) - Mac's parents, aunt and uncle arrive Tuesday for a five day stay!

Becoming a Geek

Really I hate computers. There's all that gobbledy-gook code stuff that I just don't understand, and really never cared too, either. I could check my e-mail and search on Google and that was about all I needed.

A while ago J.D. used to call me a geek-in-training - the potential was there, but I lacked development. I was certain he was wrong, engaging him in long dialogues about how lame the weblog community was. But lately I have come around, mostly after seeing the appealing format of Lisa's blog and the opportunity it gives her family to watch Albert grow.

Friday Mac introduced me to moveable type and I posted my first entry. Today I made him show me how to change the colors and post pictures. Afterwards, I checked out Jenn's new blog entries and left a comment, complete with a signature link. Then I got up and ran aroung the house laughing and yelling at Mac, "I made a link! I am such a geek! I made a link!" - in the process truly confirming my geek status.

October Showers

Tomorrow some of the women from my work are getting together for a baby shower. Unlike many of the work showers in the past, this one is a bit more traditional as the guest list is limited to girls only (and kids). Mac was more than happy to be off the hook for this one, but apparently his exclusion left him a little confused:

After work one day last week, I was getting ready to shower. Due to a lack of counter and hook space in our master bath I often lay my post-shower attire out on Mac's dresser, which is located right outside the bathroom door. On this particular day, I became distracted after getting out just my underwear and didn't immediately bathe. Mac came into the room a few minutes later.
"Why are your underwear on my dresser?"
"I laid them out for my shower."
Mac was dumbfounded. "What are you guys doing at that baby shower that you need to lay out your underwear ten days in advance!?"

Under New Management

Are you sick of clicking on minutus.net, hoping for something new, only to find the same scary alien baby picture staring back at you? Me too, and it's my kid even! So I am taking over. No promises - this may just be a passing fancy, but at least it'll offer something new on this site for the time being.

Pam
Incoming CEO at minutus.net