Kickoff

We'll be headed to the hospital early tomorrow morning to see what we (meaning other people) can do to help Pip into the world if Pip the journey hasn't begun already.

And waiting

The baby passed its fetal monitor test with flying colors again today, and for the first time, the test also showed a pre-labor contraction--a sign that Carolyn's body has come out for the pre-game shootaraound, as it were. We are now in the home stretch of the race between labor occurring on its own and the calendar dictating further steps to bring baby into the world. Whatever happens, we'll very probably meet Pip by the end of the week. (Yes, we're nervous.)

Waiting

Small baby update: baby continues to look great on the fetal monitor tests, but we're still in an increasingly anxious holding pattern, hoping that things kick in on their own before being helped along next week.

Monitoring

Brief update: still no baby. Thanks again for all the interest and good wishes. Pip put in another fine performance on the fetal monitor this morning, so there's no sign of anything to worry about other than the date. (The fetal monitor tests the baby's movement and heart rate to make sure that the placenta is still intact and keeping the baby healthy. This is important because placentas are not made to last much more than nine months.)

I noticed yesterday that I had been assuming Carolyn and I both faced boatloads of people asking us whether baby has come yet when we leave the house separately. I finally thought about that for a minute and realized that nobody sees Carolyn and then asks that question. Duh.

Overdue

No baby yet. Since the due date has arrived, we are now in the emotional and medical process of worrying about the baby waiting too long--testing the baby's movement and heart responses (no problem) and fretting about induced labor, which is generally seen as a difficult process and has specifically resulted in difficult labors followed by C-sections for two of our close friends recently. On the other hand, as we remind ourselves, everything is perfectly normal now: due dates are always +/- two weeks, the baby seems fine, and everybody says that first children tend to be late, as Carolyn and I (first children both) were. I have begun to lecture baby about the advantages of the outside world and all the good people waiting to greet him or her.

Almost ready

Thanks for the continuing good wishes for Pip. No news, but the house is almost ready!

Sledge

from Carolyn--

Just a quick non-update to say that there's no baby yet, of the Pip or the Fathead variety. There's also no indication that today is the day. I'm imagining him or her stifling a giggle behind a little baby fist, getting ready to wait until the snow really hits hard to make an appearance. I'd better get Erik to build a sledge today, in case he needs to pull me to the hospital.

Baby socks

I have completed the first washing of all the baby clothes and linens. The nice thing about baby stuff is that zillions of tiny outfits will fit in one load of laundry. But there is a scary side to that: we are now in charge of keeping track of many pairs of baby socks. Do you realize how small those suckers are?

No baby yet, but I'm set for delivery-room snacks. We're told babies like to arrive during nasty winter storms. Carolyn will continue working from home tomorrow.

New year's nursery

No baby yet, which is bad news for our 2004 tax return (that's OK) and good news becuase it's getting more likely that our doula, who is in Hawaii and returns Monday morning, will be able to attend the delivery. Knock on wood. We realized yesterday that it was the first day we could answer the question "When are you due?" with one word: Thursday. Two of our good friends from grad school called to announce their Dec. 30th baby yesterday. Hooray for second-generation friends!

Carolyn's parents and I painted the nursery Thursday. (Pregnant women aren't supposed to be near paint fumes.) Painting a room with one's in-laws sounds like a bad sit-com episode plot, but we all get along well, and the process was productive--we're very happy with the room--and even kind of fun, though exhausting. I'm now painting to match the bookcase made of big wooden milk crates and boards that Carolyn inherited from her dad, who made it for himself in grad school.

[someone]: you're right about the tension between Fathead and Pip, but is not a baby a little Pip with a Fat head? Pip is becoming very popular in the family, as Carolyn's mom is actively lobbying for it. It will be interesting to see whether it's one of those pre-natal nicknames that has some traction after the birth.

Do you have NEWS?

We have a bassinet now. (That's a thing babies sleep in for the first three months or so if you want them in the main bedroom but not in the main bed.) Giddy loves it. This could be interesting.

I've heard that expectant parents reach a point where people start calling to see whether the baby has come yet. We're not there yet, thank goodness, but we have reached the point where almost everyone I call immediately says, "Do you have NEWS?" We had a great Christmas with Carolyn's sister and parents. I am endlessly grateful that I have such cool in-laws, and that they have welcomed me so generously into their family. Baby was kicking madly during the opening of presents. I suspect baby was intrigued by all the talking and laughing.

On the downside, the impending baby means that we can't do our usual eastern driving marathon this year, so I won't see my own family this holiday season--that's a first. It's been good to talk to them on the phone, however, and especially good to have a few conversations with my brother, the very happy new dad.

Hic

The baby had hiccups (or hiccoughs, if you're old school) for the first time a few nights ago--steady little movements, in rhythm, for about five minutes, then the usual unpredictable squirming again. My mom was happy to hear it; she says I had hiccups a lot before I was born.

Boys and girls in the family

My cousin's third child was born yesterday: a boy, Lars David Simpson (revised from the planned Lars Erik Simpson--a step down, I have to say). Starting with my dad's father, that gives the family a generation of two boys, then a generation (mine) of four boys and a girl, and a new generation of eight boys and a girl, counting my brother's impending son. Total: 14 boys, two girls. Huh.

Baby stuff and strangers' smiles

After some more serious shopping trips, some very kind gifts, and the arrival of the one new piece of furniture we've ordered (a glider for nursing), we are getting a lot closer to being ready for the baby's arrival with regard to stuff. The world of baby stuff is weird and fascinating and sometimes overwhelming: unsurprisingly, I guess, companies realize that new parents are a) clueless shoppers and b) anxious and therefore looking to control what they can (you can't control your baby's heart rate, but you can get it a highly recommended car seat!). The combination results in exposure to intense directed marketing campaigns selling stuff we had no idea existed.

All is well with little [fathead], however. In the latter stages of pregnancy, there's not as much to report: the baby is now (in theory) a viable little creature spending its time fattening itself up for birth; broadly speaking, height comes before weight in the process. Carolyn is growing more obviously pregnant, so strangers have started asking when she's due, and when we were in Perry, IA over the weekend I noticed a middle-aged woman break into a huge smile as we walked by. I couldn't figure out why at first, and then I remembered our new mother friend Emily talking about those unprompted smiles in the third trimester--and how she got used to them, so now walking around in public without the baby, she finds the plain old looks of strangers disappointing. Maybe the lesson is that we should all try, in unthreatening well-lighted places, to smile crazily at strangers once in a while.

Light

[Fathead] can now see light from the outside world.

faTHEED

from Carolyn--

Suggestion from online friend: "Fathead" could be pronounced "fa-THEED"--as if the syllable break came after the first two letters rather than the first three.

Baby sites

[someone], you're right that baby websites tend to be irredeemably cheesy. I also anticipate being too tired to do much by way of site creation at first. Therefore, I am teaching the baby some basic HTML by tapping on Carolyn's abdomen using a kind of adapted Morse code. I'm hoping the baby will put together a high-quality site for him/herself, but you never know about kids these days.

Kick!

We have kicking! I've felt a little kick!

Baby pictures!

We have baby pictures! Perhaps you would like to see the baby's foot? Or even the baby's whole darn baby! Though we haven't felt any movement yet, movement there is; that baby is squirming and rolling and kicking! And looking a lot like a little person now. A little skeletal person with a big alien head. But still. Baby!

Avocado lessons

[someone] longs for more comparisons of protobaby to avocados. I agree that comparing the toddler's reading speed to an avocado's could inflate its ego needlessly, but I can see other uses for the comparison, as in

Little Fathead Simpson walks through the Clive SuperTarget, coveting some awful toy or another, approaching the verge of a tantrum. Erik: "Ah, Fathead, take after avocado, your vegetable sibling, who offers up polyunsaturated 'good fats' even to the vegans among us without complaint, hoping only that we enjoy its offerings."

LFS doesn't want to share a Tinky-Winky doll with a playmate. Carolyn: "Remember the guacamole, Fathead! Recall the avocado's willingness to sacrifice its own taste to the spicy goodness around it, finding content in the contribution of its creamy texture to the whole."

Fetal sucking and triplet dynamics

We read that our protobaby is now old enough to suck its thumb. We hear that some babies are born with skin blisters from all the in utero sucking they do. Wild. And did you know that the personalities of twins and triplets are evident well before birth? In general, two of three triplets will bond and exclude the third, and that social dynamic will carry through the first year after birth.