I set out to make a whole bunch of baby paraphernalia several months ago, knowing that I wouldn’t find what I wanted for a price I was willing to pay in a store. So, I picked out dollar-a-yard fabric from Walmart, made my list of projects, and got started. As usual with a project, I jumped in full steam ahead only to be sidetracked by one small glitch after another, slowing me down and causing me to lose any motivation I had to just finish and clean everything up. The biggest problem I had was that the sewing machine my mom gave me for my 18th birthday froze and was not worth repairing. The extra machine my grandma gave me a few years ago because she didn’t like it has been broken (totally my fault for trying to fix a small problem myself on that one) and sitting in our basement for over a year, so it wasn’t an option unless I decided to invest more than either machine is really worth in repairs. Anyway, I ended up ordering a new Brother machine from Costco, at the suggestion of one of my coworkers. Aside from being impatient about waiting for it to be delivered, it was a great deal for a machine that has a few more bells and whistles than my previous machine. Since we’re also using cloth diapers, I decided to try my hand at making some reusable wipes as an additional project after I finished everything else, mostly to have a reason to try out some of the stitches the new machine offers. Andy was kind enough (dorky enough, really) to play around with the camera to get some shots of the various stitches and I’m quite happy with the wipes…even though I know they’ll be pretty gross and will be thrown away eventually, I got to play with my new toy!!
“Mom Haircut”
Crunch Time
December was a pretty crazy month, for many reasons, but I can already see time getting the best of me here in the new year. I’m working on getting things scheduled for graduation, as there’s a timeline of sorts that I have to follow, and I’m getting ready to get this dissertation written. I’m going to turn in my “letter of intent” to the Graduate School at SLU this week to get the proverbial ball rolling, and I have my last committee meeting scheduled for next week to get a date set for my defense. Theoretically, we’re shooting for April to get the defense taken care of, as that should be late enough that I can get everything done (amongst other things…more on that in two paragraphs). I have one paper published and another one ready to go, once I get one last pretty picture of my cells (the microscope I’ve been using is down, so I’m waiting on repairs). Having two papers published should help get the dissertation written almost on its own, so I’m not too concerned about having much writing to do…yet I’m sure the process will be more time consuming than I’m planning for.
I do, however, have a job lined up in Iowa City at the University of Iowa, College of Pharmacy, in the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Natural Products. Brooke and I both went up in December so I could interview with my new boss, Dr. Jonathan Doorn, while she drove around town seeing if it was a place she’d like to live. The projects running in the lab, the people working there, and the environment in general are quite appealing, and seem like they’ll be good for my career. Brooke has already started looking for jobs up there and has found a few that interest her, so getting this extra time to send out applications and look around at places to live is very, very helpful!
At the same time, Brooke is due to deliver our kid at the end of February, so that is seeming more “real” every day. Dr. Macarthur, my adviser, was also due to deliver her first child on the same day as Brooke, but she went into pre-term labor on December 23rd and now has a son two months early (both Mom and Ian James are doing well)! Ian’s early arrival puts things in perspective, as Brooke could, conceivably, go into labor in less than a month and not be all that early. Or, of course, it could be later as well. In either case, the whole “I’m going to be a Daddy” thing is starting to set in pretty thoroughly, amongst all the other changes that we have in store.
So yeah, basically, everything is getting wrapped up between now and April. In many ways, it feels like graduating from high school or from college where, in that last semester, you feel slightly overwhelmed and unsure of what the future will bring. The addition of a baby into the mix, however, creates a different perspective to work from as, now, child care is a factor, school districts must be considered, doctor’s appointments have to be scheduled, etc.
It’s going to be an interesting semester!
Changing (because of) Babies
Well, we’re moving forward with all this “baby stuff,” especially making room for new things in our Soulard apartment. The weekend before Thanksgiving, we switched our bedrooms such that our old one will house the baby and all her stuff, and our bed got moved into what was (or “is still”) the office. The futon is in the Baby Room (“Nursery?”), but who knows if it’ll get used. Right now, we’re planning on keeping the bassinet in our bedroom with us initially, and considering that we’re hoping to move sometime in May, the baby may only ever sleep in our room with us and won’t ever sleep in the Baby Room.
Speaking of “bassinets,” we brought the Plochberger family bassinet with us from Columbia. This particular one has been passed down longer than my Mom can remember: Mom most certainly used it, and so did my eldest aunt, Doris, but we don’t know if it came from the previous generation or if Aunt Doris was the first one to use it. So yeah, the baby will sleep in the bassinet initially before being moved to the crib we inherited.
We also painted the old dresser in our room white, so it’ll match the bassinet. The crib will get painted at some point, also white.
Speaking of cribs, we’ve started accumulating various baby-related furniture items now. As mentioned, we inherited an old crib from Brooke’s co-worker that seems to be in pretty good shape (and before you post, no, I have no idea if this crib was recalled…so don’t ask!!). We had our first baby shower this past weekend with my side of the family, where we got a play pen, high chair, a travel high chair, and a stroller/car seat combo (the latter of which came from Brooke’s parents, actually, so technically, we got it before the shower).
To make room for all of this stuff, we cleared 20+ shopping bags of clothes, shoes, etc. from our closets and took them to Goodwill. They also take textbooks, so we got rid of those as well (apparently, textbooks are a heavy seller at Goodwill…who knew?).
So, in summary, we own too much stuff, and even when we get rid of some of it, we end up accumulating more. It’s the American way, eh?
Closest thing to a baby we could find…
Brooke had a 20% off coupon for Big Lots burning a hole in her pocket, so we went by to look up car seats and any other baby toys we could find. We found one car seat that looks promising, but they certainly didn’t have much selection (not unexpected).
However, Brooke did find a Snugli, which she thinks I’ll be wearing eventually. Brooke’s planning on using a Peanut Shell-style sling, but as I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing one, this Snugli thing will have to work.
Anyway, we aren’t having a baby until February, so how does one test out the new toy? Well, we find the next best thing: an unsuspecting beagle.
Needless to say, she didn’t last long in the Snugli. Maybe I’ll try it again using the pug down the street.
2010 will bring a few new experiences!
So, when I said “I have a feeling this school year will have a ‘whirlwind’ feel to it,” I was indeed talking about something a bit more specific (but wasn’t discussing much publicly yet). Liz requested a bit more information on such things, so I figured I could go ahead and bring everyone up to speed. 🙂
As most of you already know, or found out Friday via Facebook, Brooke is pregnant.
We actually found out toward the end of June, and told our respective parents/sisters around the July 4th holiday. At that point, we were about 6 weeks into the pregnancy and, as many of you know, that’s a bit early to go around telling people, as the chances of miscarriage are still a bit high at that point. We did wait, however, to tell our ‘rents until we had confirmed with Brooke’s primary care doc. We made another appointment with the OB/GYN doctors at SLU to get that ball rolling, as well, around the 8 week point. Once we hit 10 weeks, I told people at the lab; Brooke told people at her office a little before that, as it’s difficult to explain all these doctor appointments without giving some reason (especially when you’ve got a lot of stuff to do!).
Anyway, we finally got to hear a heartbeat on Friday afternoon (now at the 13 week period), and that’s when I put the news up on Facebook. We’re told that once you’re able to hear a heartbeat (usually around 12 weeks?), the chances of miscarriage drop dramatically. So far as we know, everything’s going splendidly! We’ll be doing an ultrasound on September 24th (~18 weeks), where we’ll hopefully be able to see the gender of the baby.
The baby is due February 24th. So, hopefully, I’ll have a newborn in time for him/her to witness my graduation!
So yeah, that’s basically it. Brooke has been feeling surprisingly well throughout this whole deal, with the exception of some headaches. She usually takes ibuprofen or naproxen for such things, but acetaminophen is all you can take when you’re pregnant (without a prescription for something more powerful, but still relatively safe for mom + baby). Brooke has noticed that she’s eating more for lunch now, and seems to be craving a few odd things here and there. I’ll keep reminding her to post things on her blog that are more specific to those points, though!
At any rate, 2010 is looking to be a pretty memorable year. My graduation, likely moving to a new town, having a kid…
What’s the worst that could happen? 🙂
Huckabee’s “Daily Show” Interview
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Mike Huckabee Extended Interview Pt. 1 | ||||
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Mike Huckabee was on the Daily Show last week and I finally got to watch the episode this past Sunday (as we were in Kansas City for the rest of the weekend…had a great time!). The interview ran long, so the episode didn’t contain the whole thing. With the wonders of the interwebs, however, it has all been posted to their website!
Huckabee and Stewart had a lengthy discussion on the issue of abortion. While I disagree with Huckabee, I can at the very least appreciate this interview as a thought-provoking and well-mannered discussion on a complicated issue.
I will take issue with one specific part of Huckabee’s argument here, however. Around the 3:20 mark in the video above, Huckabee defines the point at which “life” begins. “I believe life begins at conception. 23 chromosomes from a male and 23 from a female female create a DNA schedule that’s never existed before…biologically and scientifically it’s irrefutable that that’s when life begins.” Now, one could make a philosophical argument about what exactly life means and what it looks like, but I will instead refute the whole “biologically and scientifically it’s irrefutable” part of his argument… Just because two halves of DNA have been put together to make chromosomes, you do not have “life.” Even if you have one cell, you do not have “life.” Even if you have a group of cells, you do not have “life.” [Note: Huckabee goes on to address whether we consider it “human life” or not, but doesn’t elaborate much on that] As Wikipedia states, in order to be considered “alive,” one must meet certain criteria, including homeostasis, organization, metabolism, adaptation, growth, response to stimuli and reproduction. You could say that a cell is capable of doing those things (and yes, indeed, a cell is capable of doing those things!), BUT it’s only capable of doing those things in the controlled environment of a uterus. That’s the ONLY place. Other single-celled organisms, like bacteria, are capable of doing it in all kinds of places (that’s the very important “adaptation” part of the definition of life).
As another example, I work with cell culture systems, which essentially means that I grow cells in a flask that I give specially-made growth factors and nutrients to keep them “alive,” before I allow them to “die” and see how that happened. So, yes, from a technical standpoint, they have “life” (otherwise, you can’t get “death”). However, these are just cells. If I took them out of that flask, they would not survive. They would never be productive. They would never grow into an organism. This is the problem with Huckabee’s (and the Pro-Life movement’s) argument, in my opinion. If you took sperm and egg and did not implant them into a uterus, you would never get a child. Even if you took a fetus out of the mother, it would not survive on its own. That’s, at least, where the difference lies for me. Obviously there are many that disagree with that interpretation, but that’s usually where I put “the beginning of life:” the point at which an individual can survive (perhaps with help from an incubator) outside of the mother. That point is somewhere around the end of the second trimester, or early third trimester, if I remember correctly. And this is why I generally go against late-term abortions (and so do many Pro-Choice individuals).
I do, however, agree with the future implications that Huckabee puts forward, especially talking about “value of life” as a whole. He sees it as a slippery slope. He uses the example of people in nursing homes, as your children would refer to you as an “inconvenience” or as an “interruption,” the same things that are frequently said of the possibility of having children when they aren’t desired. Jon Stewart eventually goes on to try and reframe the argument as a sovereignty issue for the Pro-Choice camp (i.e. you don’t have control over your body…the government does). Both of these two points are valid and discussed at length in the interview.
For those that care, here’s Part 2 and Part 3 of the extended interview. The whole thing is something like 15 minutes long across the three parts.
The whole thing is a complicated issue and neither side will ever fully agree on it, I’m afraid. But, interviews like this hopefully foster greater understanding between both sides, as the issue is discussed intelligently and reasonably (unlike many other discussions around the internet…).
Stay Tuned
For some new changes and hopefully more frequent posts!