I'm still in limbo and trying to remain productive here at the office. I had a talk with the bean last night (which is now more of a watermelon of course). I told her/him that I could tell it's getting pretty crowded in there and that it was time to head out. It's agonizing - I'm in early labor yet have no way to know when it's going to get serious. Apparently (according to my dr) I am lucky that my body is doing this work now and that I will hopefully enter true labor with less work to do because of it. I mean, if I'm at 3 cm and the baby is at stage -1 how much longer will it take?? However, it's pretty distracting to try to work while having cx's and wondering if my water might break today. Or I could exist in this purgatory for two more weeks!
Also, I too am very uncomfortable but would prefer to not go into detail with coworkers as I feel there's already been entirely too much discussion of my bodily functions! They constantly ask me how I am doing and I am running out of descriptions. But when I leave to rest in late afternoon, only to return the next morning, I wonder if I am perceived as taking advantage or something. Few people actually understand what it's like to be in the 10th month...waddling around, feeling like a whale and waiting.
Over the weekend I was having cx's 5 min apart for an hour but then they would stop. I got this burst of energy and started cleaning, folding, and arranging the baby's stuff. We've been working steadily on the house for months but I think this was true "nesting". My husband caught the bug too and he keeps looking at me like I'm a ticking time bomb - literally. He's got to be losing his mind right about now.
I was even sort of hoping for action today, as it's a good day to have a b-day. David Bowie, Stephen Hawking, and Elvis! Doesn't look to be in the cards, however.
I wanted unsnipped, Husband at first was leaning towards snip. I gave him the pamphlet from the doctor, and he said ok, no snip. I just wanted to make a good choice since its irreversable, and its not my penis. Guess now Abram can snip if he wants later on.
And I'm now looking into laundry detergent. Anybody know of something I can use on both mine and the baby's clothes? Husband gets pretty dirty, so it would have to be tough stuff, but it seems silly to wash two extra loads of laundry just for the kid.
Check out Charlie's Soap. It's dye & perfume free, so great for babies and I use it with all our laundry. It might be available in a local market where you are, I have to order it online but they ship for FREE and it's cheap. I learned of it when looking into what to wash cloth diapers in that wouldn't cost as much as that dreft stuff.
The snip decision is a traumatic choice for me to make, balancing between tribal tradition/looking like everybody else & daddy/mutilating junior.
My wife wants him to look like everybody else and daddy. I don't want to hurt him. Female circumcision is seen as barbaric mutilation, so how is this different from chopping off the foreskin?
I'm ok with jr not looking like daddy, since tribal law states he's not jewish since mommy ain't jewish, I am a very, very lapsed member of the tribe. So it is still up in the air. Yes, this should be the dad's call.
I do like the tradition of having a naming ceremony (even without the blood or religion) to celebrate the birth. So we're thinking of having an agnostic baptism/bris to satisfy the in-laws and relatives - maybe with a pagan priestess officiating just to thumb our noses at the fervent members of the family.
personal opinion here: we decided to snip and i'm happier for it. sure, satisfying 4000 years of family tradition made the decision a little easier, but we hemmed and hawwed quite a bit before hand.
in the end however, honestly and truly, it was NOT at all barbaric or gruesome or traumatic for the boy. having only ever been to one other brit milah (my own) i was expecting it to be a bigger deal. it was a big "so what?" is all.
definitely a personal decision. apparently the medical opinion is pretty much 50% for/against, so for me it came down to a cultural decision based on heritage. i was and continue to be fine with that.
SH - pardon me if i'm mistaken here, but did you guys decide on Abram as the name for your boy? if so, it'd be a bit ironic if you choose to keep him unsnipped given that it was Abraham who first started the Jewish tradition of circumcision, at the tender age of 99!
From what I've heard/read, its really about 50/50 on the turtleneck/crewneck issue, so looking like everyone else might not be the best reasoning. Being that you're Jewish, or at least your family is, I would be worried about the grandparents looking down on him as 'unclean' or something of that nature. I don't know that that makes any sense, or if that would be an issue with your family, but I would be concerned about that.
I think we chose not to more because my family isn't cut, and because we are lazy/cheap. I figured it would cost less, even though we have insurance, and I won't have to worry about it getting infected and falling off now. Now that would suck, and I don't think Abram would forgive me.
ML, you're right,and I didn't think of that, but hey, looking at it the other way, maybe Abram will choose to snip later. Since the biblical Abram was unsnipped for the first part of his life, its really quite the same, just from the other side. Crazy. I didn't even think of that, and now it makes me laugh.
The choice holds no spiritual meaning for me. Being that I'm Christian, the covenent significance is unneeded. If we were Jewish, or Muslim (they snip right?) then I would go that direction, no questions asked. In the end it just seemed unneccesary, to me. Apparently, though, I do have a cousin who wasn't snipped until he was five years old, and his parents did that because his younger brother got snipped and they didn't want the boys to be different. I wonder if he's blocked it out of his memory.
It's actually a tossup for me to figure out which is more fun to talk about, babies or penises...
Sarah, I love the lazy/cheap decision. Why fix it if it ain't broken, right? (If you don't recall, we did snip Angus for look-like-daddy/personal aesthetic preference reasons, and while it doesn't keep me up at night, I do feel some regret for that decision.)
What, that I regret having him circumcised? I don't. Not fully formed regret, let's say, just a suspicion that everything would have turned out fine if we hadn't done it, so why bother? But what's done is done and I doubt it will be a big deal either way.
What I do regret is the look in his eyes when they brought him back to me after doing it - he was scared, and you could see that it hurt. I tend to think the circumcision in a bris setting is better because it's more personal, less medical, more of a bonding ceremony for the family involved, and mom and dad are right there engaged, and able to provide comfort.
I figure at some point (hopefully when he's at least a teenager) he'll ask why we did it - he will likely be in school with a mix of cut and uncut boys, as so many people these days are electing not to circumcise. So I'll have to be honest - we thought at the time that it was best, but maybe would not make the same choice today.
Note I said *maybe*. I'm glad I don't have to make the decision again.
We did have him baptized, and had a big baptism party, which was important to me and my side of the family.
a bris by any other name is just a party where the baby gets drunk. and yes, it costs money to hire a moyel.
So all you ladies, will it make a difference when he grows up and start dating? are there any cultural preference by the fairer sex/more body conscious gender about what they look like without pants?
I've only ever seen one, unless you count my brother when he was little and we bathed him, and in a dating sense, that doesn't count. So I'm not the one to ask, but I would think that as long as they both work, and are clean, then there wouldn't be a prefference.
I was raised in a town were 9 out of 10 were sniped. One of my close friends was not and he was really picked on... badly. luckily for him he was/is easy going and thick-skinned.
We will be snipping, and it was not much of a discussion. My wife left it up to me and all of my family is cut. I can't see either of us having regrets, but I guess you never know.
SH, I hope you never tell him that you made the decision because you are "lazy/cheap" - stick with the family reasoning that sounds MUCH better
I've only met one man who admitted to regretting being snipped (while in hollywood). that experience left a deep impression on me, even though I don't miss anything (or do I?). I also worked with several gay guys who really liked 'turtlenecks' on partners - so maybe we should be asking that crowd since they stare are penises more then anybody else...
Wow, it seems I've missed a lot by deliberately avoiding this topic. I didn't know mightylittle had a baby. Congrats mighty and Ms. ML! Also I didn't know smallpotatoes was having a baby as well. Good luck SP!
No offense to everyone procreating, but between my friends back in Cincy having babies and you guys, I am a little overwhelmed. I think I will bow out again now. Bye!
I've spoken with several men that regret being circumsized... supposedly there's more sensation in "turtlenecks". But then medical studies have shown that "crewnecks" reduce transmission of STDs, which is also a very important consideration. So I can see how that would be a tough decision.
dubK-- don't be a wimp and come back. this discussion isn't about you having babies, but other folks getting on with our biological urges.
the 'health' benefits of 'crewnecks' has long been the rationale for the mutilation. I'm still skeptical about the std study having a direct correlation between being snipped and un-safe sex, since evolution should have reduced this risk long, long ago.
One of my great relatives got an infection in his foreskin and had to self-circumsize himself with a pocket knife in an out house. That is why my kids will probably get cut. Penis infection. There you go gentlemen.
so...alright penis infection: is this more likely to happen to the "turtlenecks" if they slack in the hygiene department? Avoidable alltogether if one cleans properly?
I don't know...methinks the tater is getting trimmed. It would fit with the rest of the family and to be honest I do not have any experience with turtlenecks and no I won't look them up while on an office computer. I want to hear from someone with first-ahem-hand experience with turtlenecks to confirm that it makes for better sex. That's the rumor.
it seems to be a personal hygiene issue with the turtleneck, though for the fairer ones, yeast infections don't seem linked to hygene, but to stress & other environmental factors. so stress may be an issue.
I was told that erections last longer for the turtlenecks...so perhaps better for both. Again, I have no personal experience to speak of so I may be way off base...
Ok, I asked my mom about it since she's the only person I KNOW to have been with both types, and she said the actual act was about the same, so for the ladies, theres no difference. I recall Dr. Oz saying that the turtleneck is more sensitive because it isn't exposed like the other, but that doesn't make sex any better or worse.
I mean, hygiene probably helps, but what if your kid wants to go into the army? Or bum around the jungles of cambodia taking pictures? Sometimes hygiene has to get thrown out the window and the last thing you want to get in that kind of environment is an otherwise completely avoidable infection.
I have a few friends that have been with both types of peni (I prefer peni as the plural form). They unanimously agreed that non-snipped felt better. I don't remember the exact wording but something about more friction and more rub. One mentioned that she prefers snipped for other noncoitul sexual activity.
Not to distract or try and change the conversation (because everyone seems to be learning, uh, a lot) but Rowan had her first shots yesterday. She had the influenza and the pneumonia one. To say she is/was an unhappy camper about the whole experience would be an understatement. She was pissed. And her unhappiness lasted almost until bedtime last night. Poor thing was pretty sore and uncomfortable for most of the day but on the upside, the tenderness has mostly subsided and she only seems to hold a little bit of a grudge for having two needles stuck in her legs. The doctor was adamant (with us in agreement) that Rowan would not receive more than 2 shots per visit. So I think the wife said it is something like 2 a month for a little while and then she gets a bit of a break before the next big round.
O..k... So I measured myself last night, while laying down, and I'm 37.5 cm, thats 14.75 inches, but means that either I'm extra big for 33 wks, or I'm not really at 33 wks. Oh, and to clarify why, for those not having gone through this, after a center point in the pregnancy, the measurement up the centerline of the belly, in centimeters, equals the number of weeks you are, give or take a centimeter. Pretty crazy, huh. Anyway, I was also reading in the stupid purple book, the 'week by week' one that I hate (mostly because its always telling me what I can't do - Eff them!) and I'm more congruent with what happens around 36 weeks. The kids movements have slowed down, he squirms more than kicks, and has run out of room. He's constantly pushing against my pelvic muscles, like he's trying to break free. Oh, great, now I have THAT song stuck in my head. I'm going to pre-register today at the hospital, but don't go to the doctor until next week. If I am truly at 36 weeks, that puts the due date around the 1st of February. Husband is in Daytona from the 22-27 of January. Thats cutting it close.
Oh, and my back is killing me. I hope I don't have back labour. My mentrual cramps were always in my back, so that does have me a bit concerned. And that Damn Spot! The binding isn't even helping now. Jeeze!
tumbles, thanks for your honesty, with which I'm in total agreement.
Sarah, I'm going to break my own rules about trying not to sound like a know-it-all and say that your husband should cancel his trip. You just sound much further along than your doc thinks.
On the other hand, if he cancels his trip it virtually guarantees that the baby won't come until after he would have been back. And since you're eager to get this over with, maybe you should tell him to go on his trip and then the baby will almost certainly come while he's gone.
Joking aside, I know that first and second babies are very different, but I have a friend whose second came early, while her husband was out of town, and it wasn't a big deal. She did fine, the baby was fine, daddy regrets missing it but, again, all that matters is the baby comes out safe.
Canceling isn't really an option, but he will be driving his own car to the airport just in case he has to catch a flight back. Fortunately, there are no other trips scheduled at least until May. And, if I do go into labour while he is gone, then I'm going to call my dad, who is two hours away, but as weird as it is that my Dad could be in the room, I need someone, and everyone else might just annoy me. As for getting to the hospital, I would either be dumb enough to drive myself, or wait too long, and have to beg a neighboor, like the lady who will be watching the kid.
I have also decided, assuming they will allow it, that I will only take off 4 full weeks, and then two weeks of half days. Any reasons why I shouldn't? I dont have enough paid leave for the full 6 weeks.
I think having your Dad in the delivery room would be awesome, for you, your dad, AND the kid. My mom was in the room with me (husband was not, by choice) and Angus and my mom do have a cool kinda bond because of it.
On the time off work thing, I'll just say this: easing back in with half-days is a great idea, but try, if at all possible, not to commit to ANY scenario yet. See how you feel three weeks after delivery.
In "The Business of Being Born," the unhappy women are those in hospitals, their deliveries sped up and often mangled by drugs that numb them, that make their babies come fast and hard, and that necessitate emergency surgical deliveries with increasing frequency. Epstein's cameras catch maternity wards in which every laboring mother is being induced, in which women are shamed into pushing harder and threatened with C-sections if they don't. She interviews experienced doctors who have never witnessed a natural home birth, though they instinctively reject the notion.
A Great Adventure
We actually made the snip/not to snip descision this weekend. The boy will remain intact. We figured why bother, in the end. So lucky him.
I'm still in limbo and trying to remain productive here at the office. I had a talk with the bean last night (which is now more of a watermelon of course). I told her/him that I could tell it's getting pretty crowded in there and that it was time to head out. It's agonizing - I'm in early labor yet have no way to know when it's going to get serious. Apparently (according to my dr) I am lucky that my body is doing this work now and that I will hopefully enter true labor with less work to do because of it. I mean, if I'm at 3 cm and the baby is at stage -1 how much longer will it take?? However, it's pretty distracting to try to work while having cx's and wondering if my water might break today. Or I could exist in this purgatory for two more weeks!
Also, I too am very uncomfortable but would prefer to not go into detail with coworkers as I feel there's already been entirely too much discussion of my bodily functions! They constantly ask me how I am doing and I am running out of descriptions. But when I leave to rest in late afternoon, only to return the next morning, I wonder if I am perceived as taking advantage or something. Few people actually understand what it's like to be in the 10th month...waddling around, feeling like a whale and waiting.
Over the weekend I was having cx's 5 min apart for an hour but then they would stop. I got this burst of energy and started cleaning, folding, and arranging the baby's stuff. We've been working steadily on the house for months but I think this was true "nesting". My husband caught the bug too and he keeps looking at me like I'm a ticking time bomb - literally. He's got to be losing his mind right about now.
I was even sort of hoping for action today, as it's a good day to have a b-day. David Bowie, Stephen Hawking, and Elvis! Doesn't look to be in the cards, however.
SH I'm still on the fence regarding the snip. May make my husband make the final call (and he is leaning towards au naturel).
I wanted unsnipped, Husband at first was leaning towards snip. I gave him the pamphlet from the doctor, and he said ok, no snip. I just wanted to make a good choice since its irreversable, and its not my penis. Guess now Abram can snip if he wants later on.
And I'm now looking into laundry detergent. Anybody know of something I can use on both mine and the baby's clothes? Husband gets pretty dirty, so it would have to be tough stuff, but it seems silly to wash two extra loads of laundry just for the kid.
Check out Charlie's Soap. It's dye & perfume free, so great for babies and I use it with all our laundry. It might be available in a local market where you are, I have to order it online but they ship for FREE and it's cheap. I learned of it when looking into what to wash cloth diapers in that wouldn't cost as much as that dreft stuff.
The snip decision is a traumatic choice for me to make, balancing between tribal tradition/looking like everybody else & daddy/mutilating junior.
My wife wants him to look like everybody else and daddy. I don't want to hurt him. Female circumcision is seen as barbaric mutilation, so how is this different from chopping off the foreskin?
I'm ok with jr not looking like daddy, since tribal law states he's not jewish since mommy ain't jewish, I am a very, very lapsed member of the tribe. So it is still up in the air. Yes, this should be the dad's call.
I do like the tradition of having a naming ceremony (even without the blood or religion) to celebrate the birth. So we're thinking of having an agnostic baptism/bris to satisfy the in-laws and relatives - maybe with a pagan priestess officiating just to thumb our noses at the fervent members of the family.
personal opinion here: we decided to snip and i'm happier for it. sure, satisfying 4000 years of family tradition made the decision a little easier, but we hemmed and hawwed quite a bit before hand.
in the end however, honestly and truly, it was NOT at all barbaric or gruesome or traumatic for the boy. having only ever been to one other brit milah (my own) i was expecting it to be a bigger deal. it was a big "so what?" is all.
definitely a personal decision. apparently the medical opinion is pretty much 50% for/against, so for me it came down to a cultural decision based on heritage. i was and continue to be fine with that.
SH - pardon me if i'm mistaken here, but did you guys decide on Abram as the name for your boy? if so, it'd be a bit ironic if you choose to keep him unsnipped given that it was Abraham who first started the Jewish tradition of circumcision, at the tender age of 99!
From what I've heard/read, its really about 50/50 on the turtleneck/crewneck issue, so looking like everyone else might not be the best reasoning. Being that you're Jewish, or at least your family is, I would be worried about the grandparents looking down on him as 'unclean' or something of that nature. I don't know that that makes any sense, or if that would be an issue with your family, but I would be concerned about that.
I think we chose not to more because my family isn't cut, and because we are lazy/cheap. I figured it would cost less, even though we have insurance, and I won't have to worry about it getting infected and falling off now. Now that would suck, and I don't think Abram would forgive me.
ML, you're right,and I didn't think of that, but hey, looking at it the other way, maybe Abram will choose to snip later. Since the biblical Abram was unsnipped for the first part of his life, its really quite the same, just from the other side. Crazy. I didn't even think of that, and now it makes me laugh.
The choice holds no spiritual meaning for me. Being that I'm Christian, the covenent significance is unneeded. If we were Jewish, or Muslim (they snip right?) then I would go that direction, no questions asked. In the end it just seemed unneccesary, to me. Apparently, though, I do have a cousin who wasn't snipped until he was five years old, and his parents did that because his younger brother got snipped and they didn't want the boys to be different. I wonder if he's blocked it out of his memory.
dont get any crazy ideas tumbles....
hi tumbles. thanks!
Man, it gets busy on here when we start talking about penises.
It's actually a tossup for me to figure out which is more fun to talk about, babies or penises...
Sarah, I love the lazy/cheap decision. Why fix it if it ain't broken, right? (If you don't recall, we did snip Angus for look-like-daddy/personal aesthetic preference reasons, and while it doesn't keep me up at night, I do feel some regret for that decision.)
Gosh, LB, I hope you never tell Angus that.
What, that I regret having him circumcised? I don't. Not fully formed regret, let's say, just a suspicion that everything would have turned out fine if we hadn't done it, so why bother? But what's done is done and I doubt it will be a big deal either way.
What I do regret is the look in his eyes when they brought him back to me after doing it - he was scared, and you could see that it hurt. I tend to think the circumcision in a bris setting is better because it's more personal, less medical, more of a bonding ceremony for the family involved, and mom and dad are right there engaged, and able to provide comfort.
I figure at some point (hopefully when he's at least a teenager) he'll ask why we did it - he will likely be in school with a mix of cut and uncut boys, as so many people these days are electing not to circumcise. So I'll have to be honest - we thought at the time that it was best, but maybe would not make the same choice today.
Note I said *maybe*. I'm glad I don't have to make the decision again.
We did have him baptized, and had a big baptism party, which was important to me and my side of the family.
- what a great euphemism!
a bris by any other name is just a party where the baby gets drunk. and yes, it costs money to hire a moyel.
So all you ladies, will it make a difference when he grows up and start dating? are there any cultural preference by the fairer sex/more body conscious gender about what they look like without pants?
I've only ever seen one, unless you count my brother when he was little and we bathed him, and in a dating sense, that doesn't count. So I'm not the one to ask, but I would think that as long as they both work, and are clean, then there wouldn't be a prefference.
I was raised in a town were 9 out of 10 were sniped. One of my close friends was not and he was really picked on... badly. luckily for him he was/is easy going and thick-skinned.
We will be snipping, and it was not much of a discussion. My wife left it up to me and all of my family is cut. I can't see either of us having regrets, but I guess you never know.
SH, I hope you never tell him that you made the decision because you are "lazy/cheap" - stick with the family reasoning that sounds MUCH better
Deal.
this conversation has me crossing my legs!
I've only met one man who admitted to regretting being snipped (while in hollywood). that experience left a deep impression on me, even though I don't miss anything (or do I?). I also worked with several gay guys who really liked 'turtlenecks' on partners - so maybe we should be asking that crowd since they stare are penises more then anybody else...
I'm going to have to quote Elaine from Seinfeld: "The uncircumcised ones just don't have any...personality."
But as in all other things, the content (of the person) is far more important than the appearance.
I heard there was an "interesting" conversation happening on this thread. So, here I am!
Wow, it seems I've missed a lot by deliberately avoiding this topic. I didn't know mightylittle had a baby. Congrats mighty and Ms. ML! Also I didn't know smallpotatoes was having a baby as well. Good luck SP!
No offense to everyone procreating, but between my friends back in Cincy having babies and you guys, I am a little overwhelmed. I think I will bow out again now. Bye!
HA! DubK I saw the same thing and just had to wonder on over.
I've spoken with several men that regret being circumsized... supposedly there's more sensation in "turtlenecks". But then medical studies have shown that "crewnecks" reduce transmission of STDs, which is also a very important consideration. So I can see how that would be a tough decision.
dubK-- don't be a wimp and come back. this discussion isn't about you having babies, but other folks getting on with our biological urges.
the 'health' benefits of 'crewnecks' has long been the rationale for the mutilation. I'm still skeptical about the std study having a direct correlation between being snipped and un-safe sex, since evolution should have reduced this risk long, long ago.
One of my great relatives got an infection in his foreskin and had to self-circumsize himself with a pocket knife in an out house. That is why my kids will probably get cut. Penis infection. There you go gentlemen.
There are some rumors going on around the forum about a penis discussion. I'm just checking in to see if you kids are all doing alright.
owwwwey. i'd think they would have gone to the doc for that versus using a dull victorinox...
there does seem to be a significant difference in healing time between being snipped as an infant and later in life.
so...alright penis infection: is this more likely to happen to the "turtlenecks" if they slack in the hygiene department? Avoidable alltogether if one cleans properly?
I don't know...methinks the tater is getting trimmed. It would fit with the rest of the family and to be honest I do not have any experience with turtlenecks and no I won't look them up while on an office computer. I want to hear from someone with first-ahem-hand experience with turtlenecks to confirm that it makes for better sex. That's the rumor.
better for the dude with the turtleneck, or the dude's partner?
it seems to be a personal hygiene issue with the turtleneck, though for the fairer ones, yeast infections don't seem linked to hygene, but to stress & other environmental factors. so stress may be an issue.
But a yeast infection wouldn't require removal of the foreskin, you wouldn't think, just some monistat grease.
I was told that erections last longer for the turtlenecks...so perhaps better for both. Again, I have no personal experience to speak of so I may be way off base...
(shuddering at the idea of removal of a developed, non-infant foreskin)
Ok, I asked my mom about it since she's the only person I KNOW to have been with both types, and she said the actual act was about the same, so for the ladies, theres no difference. I recall Dr. Oz saying that the turtleneck is more sensitive because it isn't exposed like the other, but that doesn't make sex any better or worse.
I mean, hygiene probably helps, but what if your kid wants to go into the army? Or bum around the jungles of cambodia taking pictures? Sometimes hygiene has to get thrown out the window and the last thing you want to get in that kind of environment is an otherwise completely avoidable infection.
FWIW - i don't feel scarred, mutilated, scorned or maimed as a result of having a crewneck.
and uh, ahem, as for which is better...it's just a tool. it's, er, um, how you use it that counts, right?
I have a few friends that have been with both types of peni (I prefer peni as the plural form). They unanimously agreed that non-snipped felt better. I don't remember the exact wording but something about more friction and more rub. One mentioned that she prefers snipped for other noncoitul sexual activity.
Not to distract or try and change the conversation (because everyone seems to be learning, uh, a lot) but Rowan had her first shots yesterday. She had the influenza and the pneumonia one. To say she is/was an unhappy camper about the whole experience would be an understatement. She was pissed. And her unhappiness lasted almost until bedtime last night. Poor thing was pretty sore and uncomfortable for most of the day but on the upside, the tenderness has mostly subsided and she only seems to hold a little bit of a grudge for having two needles stuck in her legs. The doctor was adamant (with us in agreement) that Rowan would not receive more than 2 shots per visit. So I think the wife said it is something like 2 a month for a little while and then she gets a bit of a break before the next big round.
ok back to discussing peni.
my doctor must have been drunk or incompetant or both . cuz i somehow ended up with a v-neck :(
vado - that is more information then we needed to know :-\
O..k... So I measured myself last night, while laying down, and I'm 37.5 cm, thats 14.75 inches, but means that either I'm extra big for 33 wks, or I'm not really at 33 wks. Oh, and to clarify why, for those not having gone through this, after a center point in the pregnancy, the measurement up the centerline of the belly, in centimeters, equals the number of weeks you are, give or take a centimeter. Pretty crazy, huh. Anyway, I was also reading in the stupid purple book, the 'week by week' one that I hate (mostly because its always telling me what I can't do - Eff them!) and I'm more congruent with what happens around 36 weeks. The kids movements have slowed down, he squirms more than kicks, and has run out of room. He's constantly pushing against my pelvic muscles, like he's trying to break free. Oh, great, now I have THAT song stuck in my head. I'm going to pre-register today at the hospital, but don't go to the doctor until next week. If I am truly at 36 weeks, that puts the due date around the 1st of February. Husband is in Daytona from the 22-27 of January. Thats cutting it close.
Oh, and my back is killing me. I hope I don't have back labour. My mentrual cramps were always in my back, so that does have me a bit concerned. And that Damn Spot! The binding isn't even helping now. Jeeze!
tumbles, thanks for your honesty, with which I'm in total agreement.
Sarah, I'm going to break my own rules about trying not to sound like a know-it-all and say that your husband should cancel his trip. You just sound much further along than your doc thinks.
On the other hand, if he cancels his trip it virtually guarantees that the baby won't come until after he would have been back. And since you're eager to get this over with, maybe you should tell him to go on his trip and then the baby will almost certainly come while he's gone.
Joking aside, I know that first and second babies are very different, but I have a friend whose second came early, while her husband was out of town, and it wasn't a big deal. She did fine, the baby was fine, daddy regrets missing it but, again, all that matters is the baby comes out safe.
Canceling isn't really an option, but he will be driving his own car to the airport just in case he has to catch a flight back. Fortunately, there are no other trips scheduled at least until May. And, if I do go into labour while he is gone, then I'm going to call my dad, who is two hours away, but as weird as it is that my Dad could be in the room, I need someone, and everyone else might just annoy me. As for getting to the hospital, I would either be dumb enough to drive myself, or wait too long, and have to beg a neighboor, like the lady who will be watching the kid.
I have also decided, assuming they will allow it, that I will only take off 4 full weeks, and then two weeks of half days. Any reasons why I shouldn't? I dont have enough paid leave for the full 6 weeks.
I think having your Dad in the delivery room would be awesome, for you, your dad, AND the kid. My mom was in the room with me (husband was not, by choice) and Angus and my mom do have a cool kinda bond because of it.
On the time off work thing, I'll just say this: easing back in with half-days is a great idea, but try, if at all possible, not to commit to ANY scenario yet. See how you feel three weeks after delivery.
Ricky Lake has a movie coming, The Business of Being Born
In "The Business of Being Born," the unhappy women are those in hospitals, their deliveries sped up and often mangled by drugs that numb them, that make their babies come fast and hard, and that necessitate emergency surgical deliveries with increasing frequency. Epstein's cameras catch maternity wards in which every laboring mother is being induced, in which women are shamed into pushing harder and threatened with C-sections if they don't. She interviews experienced doctors who have never witnessed a natural home birth, though they instinctively reject the notion.
article
dubK
no shot about everyone in the Nati getting knocked up...I guess there really isnt much to do there but pop out babies
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