Bearfins in Rhode Island

maternity leave

 
Have decided to stop working at this point. Yes, I didn't make it through the last 2 days but I seemed to be struggling not to pass out several times a day (really not helped by the lack of ventilation and 80 degree heat in that building) and so, as of today, I am done.  Had an OB appt today which showed that the baby's head is low enough to feel on a cervical exam but I'm still only 1cm dilated (sigh) and starting Monday, I start getting non-stress tests to make sure things are still going smoothly. 

You all know how I like to jump the gun on holidays and can't usually wait until December to start the Christmas madness or October to start Halloween. In fact, while home this week and waiting for Rhys to arrive, I may just get out the Halloween decorations (of which we have a huge amount thanks to a bear). John is anti-celebrating holidays before their time and so it's a compromise every year as to when I can start spewing orange and black all over the apartment.  I'm kind of  in favor of the retail store...three month early rule.  Yep, I'm that bad.

notions from purl soho

How cute are these iron on patches from Purl Soho?  John went to Ikea last night purchasing our enormous baby changing station (the thing is surprisingly huge!), bibs and burp cloths. If we can make our way down there this weekend, I'll pick some up for applying to the bibs.  Everything that we can think of using for the baby that will fit into our apt has been purchased and is either already home or is on its way. The car seat has yet to arrive and is one of the only crucial can't-take-the-baby-home-from-the-hospital items left.  I still have some embroidery left to do on 4 onesies John made and will try to get that done tonight.  Carda came over yesterday and we meant to be crafting furiously but ended up getting yogurt from pinkberry and watching project runway while John was at the Ikea.  I felt amazingly good today for some reason. Not tired and able to deal with the patients pretty well without going into the back and collapsing from exhaustion halfway through the day.  Every time though, there's some kind of change in my status, I feel like it's a sign the baby is coming. "I feel good so is that my body getting ready to go into labor???" It kind of drives me nuts.  I would at least like to make it through my last day of work so as to not screw the other residents on the floor and to have as much of my 10 weeks off with Rhys as possible. John will get a week off which will be great. Much better than the poor residents taking paternity leave at NYU. They are given a generous one day off. One day...that's not even enough time to see the whole labor. Very progressive NYU.  Very progressive indeed.

profile: about to deploy

We saw Mark Gindi for the first time today in over a year.  He and David were visiting for a wedding (sadly, did not get to see the elusive David Tamarkin) and we were able to have much anticipated Malaysian pork with Eijean in the west village.  At Fatty Crab we indulged in pork and watermelon salad, pork buns, pork ribs and an oyster omelet. For the bear, veggie buns and coconut rice.  Eijean told us stories of delivering infants in the trenches of the Bronx while comforting me with insight into the birthing process..."you might think your water breaks at a certain point but you might have just urinated on yourself during a contraction".  Awe-some.  Mark and I compared stories of malingering veterans and we all were able to dodge Hurricane Hanna's arrival in the late afternoon.

On the way home, we stopped at the Deitch Gallery (warning, music plays if you open that link), where we saw a somewhat disappointing installation, countered only by our being the only people in the place, giving rise to our inner dork.  And a gratifying profile view of the enormous belly housing one Rhys A. Hewitt.

P.S. If you want a great time to grow your hair out, do so during pregnancy. Never in my life has my hair gone from short short to ponytail length in less than a year. 

the antishower

My worst nightmare would have likely been a baby shower involving a diaper cake, or games like "guess mommy's tummy size", "how many safety pins" or "what flavor gerber is it". Yarg. Instead, Carda hosted the perfect combination of food and craft. Psychiatry residents who do not regularly bust out the felt show some strong resistance, it turns out, to freeform creativity.  Luckily, everyone stepped up and created amazing things. In fact, it was difficult to stop the craft once it started. Much fun was had by all.

not a carburetor

Bugaboo v. Bear.  Bugaboo eventually lost.  Eventually.  Note the size of the stroller in comparison with say, our stove.  And kitchen/office.  Assembled, it's quite the impressive device with rugged inflatable wheels and sharp turning radius.  In another city, I'm assuming we wouldn't need something like this but here...where we both log hundreds of blocks a week, a good stroller seems to be key.

musical education

Rhys + Dvorak.  Embrace the nerdiness.  Doing this though, always kind of reminds me of that scene in Being John Malkovich.

parenthood for sale

when john and i got married, we tried like mad to avoid the hype and seduction of the wedding industry, dropping any lame traditions and purchases we felt ridiculous and substituting homemade craft for most things.  just over 6 months later, we were presented with the baby industry and everything we could buy that would clearly make us more competent, less anxious parents and prevent us from losing our hip thirty-something adult status.  riiight.  add into the mix the limitations of space our apartment presents and the current plans for the nursery "corner" (which actually, to be honest isn't even a corner but is the space between the two front windows at the north end of the unit) and it actually provides some kind of reassuring limitations on what we can and cannot use.  for example, we've pretty much decided to put off a crib purchase, opting instead for one of these snuggle nest co-sleepersthat can fit in the bed with us and avoid the getting up and walking to the living room to visit the 'corner'.  bonus, instead of the $1100 tiny convertible made-for-nyc-crib we were looking at, it's $40.  strollers: holy bat shit are these expensive. i had no idea that strollers cost more than most of the cars that john has owned in his life (then again, some of you saw his last car...eesh).  this we may not be able to avoid from the outset but i am very intrigued by the slings available.  these are cheap and keep the baby close and seem so much more manageable in manhattan.  when searching, i found this website who's claim to fame is that jodie sweeting uses their product. don't remember her? she'd be the annoying 6 year old on the 80s sitcom full house who had a recent cover on people magazine titled "from meth addict to mom".  check it out.  not the endorsement i trust. 

sidebar: john has the most amazing/mortifying pop-culture knowledge base that ever did exist. daily, he appalls me with the amount of devoted brain space occupied by actor, director and movie trivia.  most entertaining is his non-biased approach to shows that would normally be remembered by the female gender (facts of life, square pegs, spencer for hire).  i just called him asking, who is jodie sweeting?  -she was on full house...he replies...and was a meth addict.  who remembers this shit?  have you no shame bears? no shame?

moving on. the stroller we will likely get is the bugaboo frog retailing for insanity but more affordable if found gently used on ebay.  john likes to make fun of my statement that it "turns on a dime". but it does. it really does.  the one thing i likely won't skimp on is a breast pump, given the limited space and time provided for nursing residents in hospitals like bellevue.  finally, the diaper bag is a perplexing issue to me.  isn't this thing just a bag with a bunch of pockets?  i can make one of those for god's sake. i also enjoy the "daddy diaper bags" that typically come in a camouflage option.  shhh.  this isn't a baby. there aren't diapers in here.  i'm not really a dad.

unless of course, someone wants to throw down for this ridiculous thing, i think i'll be crafting the diaper bag on my own. (louis vuitton diaper bag...retailing for $2120). 

winding down the year

our computer is temporarily out of sorts so there will be no photos for a while. john has to do some magic thing with repairing the flux capacitor or some such.  back at the harlem clinic today dodging personality disordered staff.  rounds make me want to crawl under the table and hide from the immature insults that fly between attendings.  it's like working at the dmv, or the post office in terms of efficiency... it's a state institution where a position opens only when someone dies and you can be fired it seems like if you cause bodily harm to another person.  every day, as soon as the coast is clear, i duck out to run screaming home.  i'm done in a week and will start back at the VA, which i like with the same residents that were there last year so it should be a smooth beginning to my second year. 

john went to a ralph nader rally last night and i stayed home, slightly exhausted from my non-existent work day.  i made my last attempt at sleeping in the bed. can't do it. i can't keep myself from rolling on to my back or worse, sleeping on my stomach (!) even though it's like lying on a basketball...clearly comfort is not a priority while i'm asleep...and i'm afraid i am denting the baby's pliable head.  so i've made my nest on the couch which keeps me on my side and my back from screaming out in angry pain. 

this weekend, carda finishes the school year both at brooklyn and in the bronx and we will be doing something to celebrate involving wine for her and sparkling grape juice for me.  we will also be celebrating a full recovery from the pneumonia i think the stress and the children brought down on her. 

pea in the pod

Here it is, the long awaited puffin in maternity clothing photo op.  Complete with Pope furnished clothing for the tiny Rhys.  Those are my new enormous jeans with room to grow.  And grow I will.

thoughts on a nursery

Several very exciting things: first of all, I had my 12 (though they said I'm actually maybe 13) week ultrasound yesterday that checks for abnormalities related to Downs Syndrome and other not good things. All is well on that front and the technician thinks she may have seen indications pointing toward boy.  My ambivalence about knowing the gender flew out the window when the opportunity presented itself. Hi, I have no patience.  So that is very exciting. I've spent this morning thinking about what the nursery area will look like. And I say area because John and I signed a lease on an apartment in Manhattan this week.  It's on the upper east side, 5 blocks from the park on a quiet block. It's about half the size of our queens apartment and there is definitely only one bedroom. Hence the need for a baby area. We're so excited to move because although Queens has been cheap, we've really hated it otherwise and have been pretty miserable here. We move mid April. 

So my thoughts on the baby area involve the deer toy you see at the top of the page, the vintage children's books I've collected over the years, and possibly some framed pictures of one of my favorites, Blueberries For Sal. (Using it for parts of the wedding invites was clearly not enough. ) Maybe a navy blue and mustard yellow theme...sounds a little weird I know, but I think it will be cute.