The Number Field

Jenny and Elena are both asleep now, their first morning at home. We know so little about caring for the baby--what we should do when she cries, how to get her to nurse, how to dress, bathe, and diaper her. However, when I went to Wal-Mart last night to pick up a few things, and got to the baby section, I had a much greater sense of purpose and understanding than I did before Elena arrived.

In the next few days, I'll try to put together an account of Elena's birth that is not too gross. For now, here's just one memory. For nearly an hour after the birth, there was still busyness in the room. The doctor still had to take care of Jenny, while nurses took Elena over to the new baby station and checked her. Eventually they took her off to the nursery, and everyone else left. Exhausted from the effort and focus of labor, Jenny fell into a deep, relaxed sleep. I nodded off for a little while, until a nurse brought Elena back from the nursery. The nurse gave me some instructions which I don't remember very well, except the part about how to clean the umbilical cord area, and then she left the three of us alone together for our first family time. Elena was sleeping almost as soundly as Jenny, and I felt a sense of absolute calm, our own private silent night. It made me appreciate Christmas more. In fact, the Russian word for Christmas, Рождество, literally means "The Birth."

Here are some first pictures of Elena Cosette with her mom and dad:

Baby arrived last night at 9:13pm. 11 lbs, 6 oz, 21.5 inches long. Mom did a great job of pushing. More details soon.

Just about a week to go!

I want to apologize for the lack of recent posts. For one thing, I seem to be getting busier as Sunflower's due date approaches. For another, my computer's hard drive failed, and I have spent a lot of time the past few days investigating data recovery options. I've frequently preached the importance of backups to others, and Jenny's computer gets backed up regularly, but I didn't have a good backup routine for my own aging machine, even though it's been showing signs of weakness for some time now. After a complete laptop tear-down, I gave the hard drive to the IT department, and they're scanning it to see if they can recover files. I'm still hopeful.

On Wednesday, we had our weekly doctor's appointment, and it turned into a long one. When we scheduled it last week, they told us that the doctor would be busy, but we didn't realize that the waiting room would be completely full when we arrived. That didn't cause much of a delay, and before too long a nurse ushered us in for the regular check and conversation. Sunflower's heartbeat remains strong, and Jenny is dilated almost to two centimeters, which is more than last week. Jenny has been very itchy, and we asked the doctor about that--she said it was a condition called PUPPPs (which is an acronym for something complicated), and not just normal itchiness. Although she gave us a prescription to treat it, it won't go away until after the baby is delivered. Today I picked up some special soap at Whole Foods that might also offer relief.

When Dr. Cherry asked us about induction this week, we didn't want to reject the suggestion right away, and instead asked some questions. She explained to us that Jenny's body is already well-prepared, to the point where inducing would cause no greater risk of unplanned C-section (which was our main fear). Given that, and the combination of a large baby and the PUPPPs itchiness, we conferred privately and said that we were ready to have an induction scheduled for next week. Next Friday works best for Dr. Cherry's schedule, and it fits into ours as well, so we now have a pretty definitive upper limit for how long we'll have to wait to meet Sunflower in person. Of course, she might be contrary and decide to come tomorrow!

When Dr. Cherry asked about Sunflower's movement, Jenny said that she hadn't been moving quite as much in the past few days. Although she didn't think there would be too much of a problem, Dr. Cherry wanted to hook Jenny up to a baby monitor and make sure everything was okay. They put two monitors on Jenny, one to measure the baby's heartbeat, the other to measure Jenny's level of contraction, and also gave her a Jeopardy-style clicker, with instructions to press the button when Sunflower moved. For the first twenty minutes or so, Sunflower didn't move at all (she must have been asleep), even though her heartbeat was strong and steady, and the monitor showed Jenny having a light contraction. When the nurse came to check on us, she said we should try to get the baby moving, and gave Jenny some orange juice to drink. Eventually, Sunflower woke up and started kicking all around. This caused the opposite problem, as she started moving so much that the heart rate monitor could no longer reliably pick up her heartbeat! I don't know exactly what Dr. Cherry wanted to see, but she said that she wanted to get good data and see a couple of "accelerations," presumably of Sunflower's heart rate.

Eventually, they abandoned the baby monitor and sent us down the hall to the sonogram room. The sonogram technician performed a quick scan and determined that everything was just fine. She did one extra check that we had never seen before: she focused in one, and turned on some filter that made part of the screen light up in fluorescent colors. She explained that this showed the flow of fluids through the umbilical cord, and that it was also good. The sonogram must have answered all of Dr. Cherry's questions, because when we checked in with her, she seemed happy with the progress, and also happy that we had elected for induction next week. With the combination of factors including Jenny's PUPPPs, Sunflower's size, an amount of amniotic fluid that is in the upper part of the normal range, and every reason to believe that Jenny's body is ready for labor, we're ready to go. I'm excited, rather, with apologies to a certain musical , excited and scared.

Jenny and I agreed that we wanted to look at baby keepsake books in person, rather than ordering one from Amazon or some other site, like I had previously mentioned . A short internet investigation showed that the nearby chain bookstores both stocked several different titles, so we headed over there, to Borders first, then to Barnes and Noble. At Borders, we found a book that I had also seen online: Humble Bumbles' Baby Journal . We liked it the most of the available selection, so we bought it, then headed over to the other store. We didn't see anything we liked better there, but I did get Jenny some skim hot chocolate with a couple of pumps of marshmallow juice. Earlier on, I thought that I wanted a book that was specific to our religion. However, on inspection of several books, I realized that many of them made an allowance for this. Most religions observe some kind of ceremony to welcome the baby into the world and into the community. Humble Bumble's Baby Journal has a page with plenty of space for recollections and pictures of the event, but does a good job of not labeling it with one name.

In our church, newborns are welcomed via a naming and blessing ceremony which typically happens on the first Sunday of the month. Our congregation is undergoing a baby boom--there are at least four women in the late stages of pregnancy, and three babies were named and blessed last Sunday. One thing that differentiates this for us is that the father usually performs the ordinance * , joined by close friends. They hold the child in their hands, and pronounce the words of naming and blessing. Of course, the naming part of the ordinance is just ceremonial; I'm sure that almost all parents fill the name out on the birth certificate at the hospital, and everyone calls the baby by name before the blessing, and so forth. Nobody waits until afterwards to start calling the baby by name. But after the announcement of the name, the father pronounces words of blessing as directed by the spirit. As three different fathers blessed their children this past Sunday, I pondered my upcoming turn in their spot. I know we're not supposed to plan the blessing in advance, but the lengths and ranges of baby blessings vary wildly, and I think that some of the variation represents a conscious choice, and some represents differences in personalities of the person giving the blessing (or, if you prefer, this is a recognition that the spirit usually directs along paths familiar to us). So I think that I should prepare myself in some general way for the event. At a minimum, I need to practice holding Sunflower so I don't drop her.

On this topic, I have one final note. The baby wears a white dress for her blessing, representing her innocence and purity. At Christmas, Jenny's mother asked if we had any plans with regard to obtaining the dress, and when Jenny said no, her mom said that she would be very excited to make that a gift from her to the baby. We appreciate the kind gesture, and look forward to seeing what she picks for Sunflower!

* This practice represents a facet of our larger belief in a lay ministry. That is: a priesthood holder must perform the ordinance, but almost every worthy man in the congregation holds the priesthood. Therefore, the father has the right to bless his baby, instead of asking a designated priest to do so.

Jenny at 37 weeks.

We had our DD-3 (Due Date minus 3) appointment yesterday. Everything continues to move along. I won't say that things are going well, because Jenny is discovering firsthand that the last month of pregnancy "pretty much sucks," in the words of Dr. Cherry. In particular, Sunflower has grown so large that Jenny's ribs have to expand to create every last bit of room possible. This makes Jenny's ribs hurt, although in a different way than the gallbladder trouble did. At the other end, Jenny's feet seem to be a little bit more swollen every day, and no amount of foot massage will help the swelling go down. One of us doesn't mind the travail--Sunflower is still healthy and strong, with a great heartbeat.

The doctor followed up with something we had talked about last time: inducing labor early, due to Sunflower's large measured size. She told us that she had reserved a spot in the hospital on February 5th, because it's easier to cancel than to get in at the last minute. Although Jenny was seriously tempted to say yes, we decided that we'll try to let nature take its course, and asked her to cancel the appointment. We do have two positive indicators pointing towards the onset of labor. First, Jenny's dilated perhaps a little bit more than last time. Second, when the doctor asked if she had experienced any contractions, Jenny said that she thought she did. Yesterday, she felt something that she identified as a contraction, and then another one about thirty minutes later. About thirty five minutes after that she felt one more, but then it was all over. Still, I count that as moving forward.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we are now scheduled to visit the doctor once a week for the duration of the pregnancy. This has the unfortunate side-effect that we can only schedule appointments a week in advance, when Dr. Cherry is already almost fully booked so we have to take whatever times are available. This would not be so bad, except that my semester is now in full swing, and I have teaching commitments at very specific times.

Because of anticipated overlap with our afternoon appointment yesterday, I scheduled another TA to substitute for me during the first half of class. However, at the doctor's office, we found out that Dr. Cherry was running about half an hour behind schedule. I caused some unnecessary strife by telling Jenny I didn't think that I could stay. Then, just a few minutes before I was about to leave, the nurse called us in. Our appointment didn't take very long, and I was soon on the road, driving only a little bit recklessly to get back to school as quickly as possible. I was moving against the main flow of traffic, so I managed to make good time, find a great parking space, and run up to my classroom, only to find it empty! One of my students still happened to be around, and followed me up to tell me that everyone had left; they thought that Jenny must have gone into labor. In fact, the substitute had been occupied with another task, didn't realize the time, and missed the class.

In lecture today, a few people asked me if the baby had come. I had to disappoint them and say that it was all a mix-up. I appreciated their sentiment (and youthful inexperience), so I did not point out the fact that I probably won't be attending lecture, or anything else, less than twenty-four hours after the baby is born.

Over the past few weeks we have gradually acquired and assembled the items that will end up in Sunflower's nursery. In my opinion, only yesterday did everything start to come together. Of course, everything has a story that accompanies it.

Jenny has gone back and forth on what she wanted to use for Sunflower's clothing storage. She wanted something that was light, portable, and inexpensive, and initially leaned towards stacking sets of plastic drawers. We did look for more traditional dressers or chests on craigslist, and found that some were more price-competitive than we imagined. I even went to take a look at one dresser. It was beautiful and custom-made, but still inexpensive. However, it couldn't fit into my Corolla and probably would have been too big for Sunflower's room, so I had to pass on it. At last, faced with mounting stacks of baby clothes that she wanted to organize, Jenny returned to her initial line of thought and sent me to Target for the plastic drawers. She made quick work of filling them, and now our living room is much less cluttered.

We're borrowing a bassinet from Jenny's brother John, but until yesterday it was sitting, disassembled, in a box next to the rest of the baby stuff. Jenny had asked me to try to piece it together, and so while she napped, I did. It all snapped together with very little trouble, only a couple of minor missteps--I had feared something more complicated and was pleasantly surprised.

Jenny has already tested and approved this rocking chair.

When we looked at furniture at Babies-R-Us, we were disappointed that their chair selection only included gliders, with no traditional rockers. Once again I turned to craigslist, and found lots of options. Jenny picked one that she liked, and I went in person to evaluate it. The people selling it seemed to be doing lots of cleaning and decluttering, so I was happy to take it away for their very reasonable asking price. Now it's adorned with a baby quilt from my sister Laura and a little lamb from our ever-expanding collection of plush dolls.

Two of these balloons defy explanation.

I don't anticipate that these balloons will be a permanent feature of the nursery. All three of them remain from Jenny's baby shower several weeks ago. I expected the mylar balloon to last, but I have no explanation for the others. They appear to be standard-issue latex balloons, but we had several others that lost their helium and deflated after just a day or two. These ones must be some sort of super-latex. Maybe they're destined to lose their lift on the day of Sunflower's birth.

Finally, I have the biggest news of all. Our apartment lease term ends at the beginning of March, just a few weeks after Sunflower's due date. It's not an ideal time to move, but the short term rate for staying in this apartment was just way too much. In any case, we struggled to find a suitable new apartment. We picked out one complex, but thought that it was full. I checked with them one last time last Friday, and learned that they had available apartments, and moreover, their prices had dropped! That afternoon I rushed over to pick up an application. I see no reason why we would be denied, so we're resting easier, knowing that we have secured a place to live.

Jenny relaxes at the hotel.

Although the definition involves some ambiguity, Jenny and I decided to take a brief babymoon on Friday. Thanks to Priceline and a companion website, Better Bidding , I got a great rate at the Omni Hotel downtown. We were happy to leave our apartment and all the stuff it contains, for just one night. We left it behind physically, but more importantly this brief respite allowed us to remove it all from our thoughts. When we returned home, I felt refreshed and ready to finish our preparations for Sunflower.

We started with a rare (for now) restaurant dinner. Jenny's dietary concerns have made it hard for us to eat out, but I thought that an Italian restaurant would have at least some low-fat menu items. I made a call, and found that Romeo's had some good choices, and would be happy to customize the order to accomodate her needs. As Sunflower has sapped Jenny's energy to greater and greater degrees, I've taken on greater responsibilities about the house. When the server cleared our plates, at long last I comprehended what Jenny often says about dining out: she really enjoys the fact that she doesn't have to clean up afterwards.

We made our way to the hotel and decided to park on the street instead of the overpriced hotel garage. We found a spot only two blocks away, and given the location of the hotel near Austin's popular Sixth Street , I was pretty happy to be so close. Even better, Jenny thought that it wasn't too far to walk, especially after such a big dinner. I had checked in earlier and dropped off our things, so we climbed right on the elevator and ascended to our room on the eleventh floor.

Berries and cream make a great dessert.

A view from our room at night.

Although I previously mentioned the benefits of leaving behind the busy-ness of our apartment, I don't mean to neglect the luxurious amenities we appreciated in the hotel. Among them were the king-sized bed, numerous pillows, and cable TV, none of which we have at home * .

I had packed dessert for the hotel: strawberries, blueberries, and low-fat whipped cream. We had nothing on the schedule except enjoying dessert and relaxing. The cable lineup didn't include TLC, so we didn't get to watch What Not to Wear , but neither of us had seen Catch Me If You Can before, so it was an acceptable replacement.

In the morning, we employed a classic hotel trick: by running a pot of water through the complimentary coffee maker, we had everything we needed for instant oatmeal, without ever having to leave the room.

The same view during the day.

Taking a long, hot shower tired Jenny out, but we had until noon before we checked out, so she took a nap while I read a book. When checkout time approached, we collected our things and headed down to the lobby. The weather had turned, so I headed to the car alone, intending to pick up Jenny, valet style, at the hotel door. I had chosen not to fill up the nearly empty gas tank the night before, but I was still surprised when the car didn't want to start. In light of this, I chose to find a gas station before picking Jenny up. At each stoplight, I hoped that the car would continue to run, and it did, eventually delivering me to the nearest gas station I could find. If you know my history, you might remember that I've had problems with running out of gas in the past. This most recent scare increased my resolve to keep my tank at least half full for the next several weeks. The hospital is only a few miles away from our apartment, but I don't want to tempt fate. After our relaxing babymoon and the prenatal massage that Jenny got later in the day, we hope that we're doing everything we can to bring Sunflower into the world as soon as she's ready.

* We do have numerous pillows at home, but they just aren't the same.

Two cakes, but we're only going to eat the one on the right.

Jenny loves this cute dress.

Mr. Penguin, the magical humidifier.

As promised, here are some photos from Jenny's work shower. Thanks to Karen for taking them, and Ane for posting them. You can see the full set here .

In the cake-cutting snapshot, take a look at the diaper cake on the left. I think that Jenny has the perfect expression when looking at the dress. Finally, as I mentioned previously, we are already enjoying the use of Mr. Penguin.

I just got back from our 36 week appointment, and have all kinds of news to report. First, for those who don't have pregnancy timelines memorized, let me put this in context. The standard pregnancy lasts 40 weeks, although anything more than 37 weeks is considered full term. Starting at 36 weeks, doctor's visits happen once a week; earlier in the pregnancy, we only had them once a month. Today we had a third ultrasound. The technician double checked, and guaranteed that Sunflower is a girl, so we don't have to take back any baby clothes. She's in the standard head-down position, ready to go. Her heartbeat is strong, about 130 beats per minute. She has a cute little face, and we got to see that she already has some hair. Here's the surprising part. The technician took several measurements, and the sonogram machine converted those into a weight estimate. According to it, Sunflower weighs between eight and a half and nine pounds. The estimate is not perfect, but it's usually pretty close. With four weeks to go before the due date, Sunflower is destined to be big, or early, or both.

After the sonogram we had what turned out to be a very short visit with Dr. Cherry, as she was called over to the hospital for a delivery while we were with her. She told us that even though the baby is already big, she wouldn't induce labor more than about ten days before the due date. However, she determined that Jenny is already dilated a little bit, so maybe Sunflower will come on her own sooner rather than later. When she said that, I got a little bit scared. I should start packing our hospital bags right away! I need to hit the baby books and prepare more. We need to find a new apartment. There's so much to do, and it all seems more immediate now.