Third Trimester Begins

Three months until the baby is due! It still hasn’t quite sunk in, but I’ll let you know when it does!

Check out the growing baby bump:


24 Weeks



26 Weeks



27 Weeks

So, this week was a fun one. Chris and I went to the Texas Renaissance Festival for our very first time. We’ve been meaning to check it out for several years now and last weekend we finally made it. We even got a chance to re-use old pirate costumes that we got for Halloween a few years ago since it was pirate weekend and all. Saturday (Oct 20th) involved driving out there, wandering around the festival area, admiring everyone’s costumes, and camping with Krystal, Mark, and their friend Justin. The next day, we followed a pretty intense schedule going from show to show. The high point was when the boys competed in a fish and chips eating contest. Surprisingly, Chris won 2nd place while Justin came in 3rd. Before you start wondering how much weight was gained, let me clarify that this competition was set up in a way that gross overeating wouldn’t occur. Everyone got a reasonably portioned basket of decently tasty food and it was a race to finish off the contents. Chris was a little disappointed since he was seconds away from placing first, but still, this was all pretty unexpected. In the end they not only got a free meal (the original reason for entering the contest) but also a goody bag of souvenirs and tickets for next year!

Once we got back from RenFest, we buckled down and put some more time into the house. Now we officially have a living room and can sleep in the master bedroom instead of the guest room! Check out how far we were as of two weeks ago:

 

 

 

And now as of more recently...

We’re happy with the progress that’s been made so far and all that’s left to do should be fairly manageable. Now we get to turn our attention to things like Halloween, my birthday, performing at Carousel, the baby shower, Thanksgiving, holiday parties, Christmas, New Years, and then the baby!

These last few days were a prequel for all that. My coworkers threw us (and another mom-to-be) a mini baby shower at work on Thursday.

Then on Friday Chris and I got all dressed up for Rishee’s Halloween party. Unfortunately the only picture I have is with my costume only partially complete, but hopefully some better ones will surface soon. You can thank Chad’s girlfriend Nagisa for the inspiration. Chris and I were “undead and unborn” with him being my zombie baby daddy.



Baby's First Halloween

Saturday was another eventful day. After attending a very informative homebirth seminar on hospital transfers, we headed right back home so I could get ready to perform with my belly dance troupe at Star Co Coffee in Round Rock. The show was a good one and I even had my very first solo. I originally had choreographed the piece with Winnie as a duet, but she’s out of the country and Lily thought it would be fine as its own thing so that’s what happened. Granted I never thought I’d be 6 months pregnant for my first solo performance, but from what I could tell, everyone enjoyed it. We’ll perform the set again on Saturday November 17 at 7:30 pm at Carousel Lounge (1110 East 52nd Street Austin, TX 78723 – no cover) so I hope to see you there! That’s all for now, hopefully I’ll have good Halloween and belly dance pictures to share next time!

Baby Registry!

With our baby shower coming up on November 18, I’ve gotten some questions on where Chris and I have registered, so I thought I’d put that info right here on the blog for all our generous friends and family. The bulk of what we’ve picked out is on Amazon, but we also set up a registry at Baby Earth in Round Rock for people who prefer shopping at a physical store. I opted to go with Baby Earth instead of some more well known places because I’ve heard numerous complaints from friends who had a hard time with returns and exchanges at the big box retailers. I also tinkered with myregistry.com, but I found that it doesn’t always load linked registry items properly so the best use for that site is monetary gifts. People have also asked if we have a theme and I’d say that we’re going for an earthy and organic nursery. The clothing I registered for falls into that category too, but hand-me-downs might make more sense. Also, if you want to come to the shower (it is co-ed!) and haven’t received an Evite, please let me know so I can get you the details!

In setting up our registries, I found the whole process to be quite overwhelming. Who knew picking out baby stuff could be so difficult? In researching mattresses, bath products, and so on, I came across many troubling articles on all the hazardous chemicals that are emitted by baby-related things. Labels that say “natural” and “made with organic materials,” are strategically designed to alleviate consumer worries without necessarily ensuring a safer product – it takes deep digging to distinguish between sleazy green-washing marketers and genuinely good manufacturers. Regardless of the brand, you’d imagine that extensive testing would be done on all baby products before they were sold, but like with everything else on the consumer market, most things are generally recognized as safe until proven otherwise. And only after something is linked to causing harm do regulators start setting up somewhat arbitrary limits for what is considered “acceptable.” Also, if a certain chemical is deemed terrible enough to ban, a new potentially more dangerous one can be used to replace it so the cycle continues. Considering my college level physiology textbooks consistently discussed knowledge gaps and unknown biochemical pathways in the human body, I cannot fathom how anyone could accurately calculate the cumulative effects of all the toxins in this world and then set quantifiable safe exposure limits for each one – especially in regards to embryos and infants that might not exhibit problematic symptoms for many years to come. Replacing synthetics with tried and true natural alternatives is the simplest way to eliminate this concern.

In the example of DES, mothers thought they were doing something good when they took this approved, doctor prescribed “miscarriage-prevention” drug (a synthetic form of estrogen). Over twenty years later did they finally see its results: widespread infertility and cancer among their grown daughters. It took 30 years for the FDA to tell doctors to stop prescribing DES and studies on the grandchildren of the victims are just now starting. This sad story goes to show that we as a society put too much faith in regulators and industry. What if every single pregnant woman in the world had taken DES in that time period? What would have the implications been for us, our children, and the human race? Whether we like it or not, we endanger ourselves when we blindly trust a profit-based world to consistently look out for our well-being. With all the stuff we are exposed to these days, we are all a part of a science experiment and there’s no telling what the results will be several decades from now. Isolated short-term “testing” can’t accurately predict long-term effects, but it’s easy to fall into the trap of perceived safety. Harmful things can and do happen due to the slow nature of good science – funding and publicizing solid research is a beast of its own. With conflicting interests and variant data, it takes years for the scientific community to come to an agreement on things. Throw industry lobbyists and politics in the mix and it’s no wonder that regulations can’t keep up with modern advancements.

Ever since I became pregnant, it’s like some weird protective instinct kicked in. I find myself hyper-aware of various things in the environment that didn’t matter as much to me when I wasn’t carrying a little one. To alleviate my concerns I tend to do a lot of research, but I usually end up finding that I’m not alone in my qualms and that scientific data is sparse. One day, when future science finally discovers the root causes of many of today’s unexplained chronic illnesses, I have a feeling that several will be tied to the many conveniences of modern society. As much as I enjoy technology, there is so much that’s unknown about how everything works together: chemicals that leach out of plastics and synthetic materials (PVCs, phthalates, other endocrine disrupters), VOCs, preservatives and additives in foods, GMOs, pesticides, fluoridated tap water, carcinogens in skincare products, chemical fertilizers, mercury, microwaved food, groundwater contamination through fracking, cell phone radiation, synthetic vitamins, the list goes on and on. Many of these things are unavoidable in today’s world, but since we enjoy the immediate benefits, it’s easy to dismiss safety concerns by saying each individual thing has a trivial or unknown effect on the body. Not many people consider what the cumulative effect over a lifespan or multiple generations could be. Humankind will probably end with everyone coming down with cancer and reproductive problems.

So with all that said, I’ve also come to accept that this is the world we live in and a lot of problems are beyond my control. For things I can control, like consumer items for the baby, I plan to keep things as natural (plastic/synthetic-free), minimalist, and reusable as possible. I already have a hard time dealing with clutter and stuff in general, so this works in my favor. Also, a lot of products for toxin-conscious individuals are now on Craigslist and considering how expensive this stuff is brand new, it is really nice to have the option to buy used. Being okay with used stuff may not be customary, but Chris and I have never been very traditional people!

Is it a boy or girl? Questions about Ultrasound Safety/Necessity

I was surprised when I learned that for women with an uncomplicated pregnancy, ultrasounds are not a necessary part of prenatal care. But even though the FDA discourages using them for non-medical purposes (like identifying the gender), no one seems to mind that women these days get an average of four or more ultrasounds over the course of their pregnancies. The following comes from the FDA’s website:

"When ultrasound enters the body, it heats the tissues slightly. In some cases, it can also produce small pockets of gas in body fluids or tissues (cavitation). The long-term effects of tissue heating and cavitation are not known.

Because of the particular concern for fetal exposures, national and international organizations have advocated prudent use of ultrasound imaging. Furthermore, the use of diagnostic ultrasound for non-medical purposes such as fetal keepsake videos has been discouraged."

This is disconcerting because it feels like society heavily advocates the use of sonograms without really caring about the long-term consequences. Machines keep getting more powerful, but research papers keep saying that there isn’t enough safety testing being done. Just like with tobacco and alcohol, it takes decades after damage has already been done before the government steps up and deems something “unsafe.” History repeats itself you know! Take this example with X-rays:

"X-rays were used on pregnant women for almost fifty years and assumed to be safe. In 1937, a standard textbook on antenatal care stated: 'It has been frequently asked whether there is any danger to the life of the child by the passage of X- rays through it; it can be said at once there is none if the examination is carried out by a competent radiologist or radiographer.' A later edition of the same textbook stated: 'It is now known that the unrestricted use of X-rays through the fetus caused childhood cancer.'" (from http://www.midwiferytoday.com/articles/ultrasoundwagner.asp)

Another article I read expanded on this notion:
"No one believes that ultrasounds are as dangerous as prenatal X-rays. But the point is that many things in obstetrics are adopted without fully studying their safety and efficacy, and the safety concerns of critics are often ignored for years, harming many babies in the meantime. X-rays is but one example; others include the 'twilight sleep' drugs used during birth for many years, aggressive use of forceps and fundal pressure during birth, drugs such as DES and thalidomide, and many others.  History proves that just because doctors say something is safe doesn't mean it is, and this has been especially true in obstetrics."

It would be one thing if fetal ultrasounds were proven to be risk-free, but if there could be unintended consequences, why chance it? In 1993, the FDA significantly increased allowable exposure limits to account for the stronger signals being used in newer machines, so the argument that ultrasound has been safely used for the past 25-50 years doesn’t quite fit the current technological climate. Scientists have already shown that babies can potentially hear something as loud as a subway train when an ultrasound is being performed. There is even research attributing potential birth defects and neurological conditions to the overuse of fetal ultrasound: http://www.midwiferytoday.com/articles/ultrasoundrodgers.asp

On another interesting note, using ultrasound for early diagnosis of a problem doesn’t do much to improve fetal health since babies can’t be treated in utero anyway: http://www.midwiferytoday.com/articles/ultrasound.asp

People have been asking me if I want to find out the gender of the baby before it is born. Sure it would be fun to know, but if I’m going to find out in 3 months anyway, why bother? It’s not like I need to stock up on gender-specific clothes and accessories, with how fast babies grow I’d much rather use hand-me-downs for the first several months anyway. And neutral nursery décor will be great for if the baby’s future siblings are a different gender.

So in short, I plan to limit my ultrasounds to important reasons like pregnancy-related complications. The big question for me all along was this: Do the benefits outweigh the risks? As of now the answer is “no”, but on the bright side, there will be one more thing to look forward to on the baby’s birthday!

Some Normalcy at Last

We’re breathing a little easier these days now that the house is slowly turning into a more livable space. And we’re feeling a lot less guilty about going out and enjoying ourselves. On Friday night, Chris and I did dinner downtown at Haddingtons. Despite it being a bit pricier than we expected, the food ended up being really good and it was a really nice date. We followed it up with a great ACL after-show at La Zona Rosa. We stopped going to ACL a few years ago when we discovered that SXSW was countless times better, but got the best of both worlds that night with Punch Brothers and Trampled by Turtles in a nice intimate venue with great sound. It was a good way to enjoy some quality music without the nuisances and hefty costs of the somewhat overrated ACL festival. Apparently living in Austin for so long has made me a bit snobby when it comes to live music since we tend to see a lot of good shows.

The weekend went by pretty quickly. On Saturday we somehow spent several hours at a baby wearing class at the Baby Earth store in Round Rock. I never realized how many different options there were in the baby carrying world (or that there was an international club/organization devoted to baby wearing), but we learned quickly that the best way to choose a carrier is to stick your baby in each type to see what the both of you like – not easy when your baby is still inside of you. Luckily people seemed to have no qualms about handing us their infants when we tried different styles, but since different babies have different preferences there’s really no telling what will work best until the baby is born. Either way, we learned a lot and Chris couldn’t seem to get enough. Playing with other infants makes him want our own that much more. Lucky for him he doesn’t have much longer to wait – we’re less than four months away from having a newborn in our hands!

Sunday involved more house-related shopping. But between getting cabinet hardware at Ikea and ceiling fans at Lowe’s, we were able to stop by and say hello to our friends Eryn and Alex. They just went through a natural water birth at Austin Area Birthing Center and now have a beautiful 2 week old girl that we were able to meet for the first time. Later that afternoon, I got some exercise on the trail with Chris and Richard and that evening we went to Pharah’s for Josh and Carol’s wedding anniversary. The last time we saw them, their little girl Suria was just learning how to walk, but now she’s toddling around pretty effortlessly. It’s kind of crazy that we’ll be going through all this in the next couple years!

On Monday, Chris and I spent a couple hours talking to Brielle at our prenatal appointment. We have a lot in common with her and I am really looking forward to her catching our baby. Also, after talking to her, we were relieved to hear that we didn’t need to pay for a doula. Eryn and Alex highly recommended that we hire one (we even met their doula by coincidence since Brielle shares an office with Get Babied), but Brielle assured us she could do all the massage and hands on stuff a doula would do and even bring an apprentice to help if we wanted. She explained that different midwives had different styles and that birthing center policies could make it difficult for a midwife to also act as a doula. But with our home birth, she actually wouldn’t have much to do if we did hire a doula so fortunately that’s one less thing for us to worry about!

Monday night after dinner, we did more catching up with friends. We went to a farewell party for Pia since she was going to be flying back to Chile the next day. At the party, Jaidev reminded me about a slow-cooked chicken dish I hadn’t made in ages so the next day I picked up the ingredients to make it for dinner that night. Chris and I had been eating at restaurants for the majority of our meals and although we enjoy the time together, we were getting pretty sick of the food and the expense. So Tuesday night after picking our friend Ruby up from the airport, she and Jaidev joined us for an impromptu hearty fall dinner at our house. Acorn squash, chard, and pearled couscous made for fun accompaniments and it was the best I’d eaten all week. Jaidev brought fresh figs and organic frozen yogurt for dessert - I’m thinking this kind of thing should happen more frequently! And hopefully it will now that the house is a little more presentable.

Over the course of the last several days, Chris and I finally got some of the furniture that was stored upstairs moved down into the family room. Decoration is sparse to non-existent at the moment, but I’d take that over tools and construction debris any day. Also our clean and functional kitchen has done wonders for my sanity. Unfortunately Rafael never returned to reframe the archway, finish painting, or take care of the details with the baseboards, so we may need to look into other options. Although I liked the precision cutting work his group did with our floors, I don’t know if I can say the same for their ability to paint and seal. Chris showed them how we get straight lines on textured walls with tape and caulk, but they chose to freehand and didn’t do quite as well as we tend to do. But at the same time, we don’t have nearly as much time as they do.

On Wednesday night, Chris went to a Sleigh Bells show while I got my second prenatal massage with Mandy. Then on Thursday night, we decided to sell our tickets for Awolnation and Imagine Dragons. I love both bands, but I saw Imagine Dragons at an unofficial SXSW show earlier this year and Chris saw AWOL the year before. Also I think when Chris originally bought the tickets he anticipated us going after my belly dance class, but the start time of the show got pushed up and I wasn’t too keen on missing both class and rehearsal since we have a performance coming up soon. So while we did an early dinner with Blair and Sean at Mandola’s, Chris posted the tickets to Craigslist from his phone. We didn’t have high expectations since doors were supposed to open in a couple hours and he was asking higher than the purchase price. Well, we were wrong and should’ve asked for more money – a few minutes after he posted, he got several calls and emails. And within twenty minutes, someone met us in the restaurant with cash (more than the original asking price) and we were good to go. After belly dance, I met back up with Chris, Blair, and some other friends at Black Star Co-op for Blair’s birthday. When I showed up they were finishing up a very in-depth brewery tour from the master brewer Jeff. Jeff was really cool and actually knew some of my work friends since he previously worked with a lot of them at a biotech company. And with his chemistry background he nerded out on technical stuff with Blair and Miah since they both are into home brewing. It was good to see a happy birthday boy.

And just like that another week has flown by. But we’re going to put off home improvement just a little longer. With the gorgeous crisp fall weather, it’s going to be a perfect weekend for camping. We wasted a great travel opportunity Labor Day weekend since we were so wrapped up with the house and now I find myself regretting not doing more over the summer. Considering fall is way shorter than summer, it’s time to take advantage now or else I’ll regret it come winter!

Progress!

When I updated this blog last Sunday, I forgot to mention that I had dropped Chris off at the airport that same morning so he could spend an entire week doing sales training at his company’s headquarters in Montreal. It was tricky trying to communicate with him during that time since almost every minute of his day would be consumed with work, but the week ended up going by pretty quickly. While he was gone, I watched the place next door go from a measly one-story frame to practically an entire two-story house. But Chris’s parents helped us make a little more progress on our own house by picking up and installing our new base cabinet for the shorter kitchen island. When Chris got back Friday night he was happy to be home and have one less thing to worry about.

On Saturday morning, we slept in for the first time in a long while and awoke with a craving for pancakes. Since the kitchen was still a little overwhelming to be in, we decided to venture to Pacha for a brunch date and then headed back north for an interesting lecture on the difference between oppressive and liberating religion by Allan Boesak. Once we got back to the house, Chris insisted on checking out the shell of the place next door. The neighbors-to-be are using the same exact builder and floorplan as our house, just flipped, and with a lot more upgrades. Although we’re not thrilled about that, we did think it would be helpful to go look at their place in this phase of construction to determine where some of the supports would be in relation to an archway that we want to remove.

While we were over there, Chris started talking to some of the contract workers who were taking a break. I had mentioned to Chris the week before that I was sick of our own contractors giving us the run around and how it would be cool if we could go straight to the workers next door and see who wanted to make a little extra cash on the side. Well after we got done looking at the archway, Chris did just that. One of the guys who introduced himself as Rafael followed us back to our house to take a look around. When he saw that we had all the materials ready and the floor cleaned, he said he’d be able to start installing our floors the next day and could give us a quote that night. And that he did. He called Chris while we were at Dana’s and not only agreed to charge 2/3 of the average cost for that kind of labor, he also agreed to show up Sunday morning at 7 and accept payment only after the work was complete. He ended up arriving with a total of four men and we were pretty impressed with their work. Chris and I watched them make some really detailed cuts that I know the two of us would have struggled intensely with. Since we knew that the work was in good hands, we went upstairs to finish painting the guest bedroom and soon after that we were off to Josh and Michelle’s wedding. After the ceremony, Jaidev got this great picture of us that I just wanted to share.

 

24 Weeks

Once we returned from the wedding, most of the floor was installed. And as of today, the house has been completely transformed. Rafael and his uncle stayed all day yesterday and the day before to do some detail work and even completed painting the tall walls that Chris started but couldn’t finish. So now we have a seamless bamboo floor and fresh paint throughout the first story of the house. Also, the kitchen is pretty much done. We were on the verge of ordering a new back panel and trim for the island since Chris couldn’t find the original moulding after days of searching, but yesterday something in my brain clicked and I remembered that I had seen it inside a cabinet somewhere. Seconds after Chris found it, Rafael and his uncle cut and installed the backing and trim even though we were originally planning to do that part ourselves. They even moved a cable outlet from the bedroom to the living room – another thing we would have done but really appreciated having them take care of for us. All in all, I still can’t believe how quickly we went from a ridiculous construction zone to a gorgeous new space. There is still some painting and caulking left to do, and a few sections of the floor are a bit bumpy, but hopefully that will all get addressed on Sunday when Rafael and his connections return to reframe our archway and help Chris hang our new shoji doors.

I would have had pictures for you, but I’m not sure where to find the memory card and card reader for my camera. The display is broken and we were finally going to get it fixed, but in anticipation of that I misplaced those accessories. It’s too bad we never even make it to the camera store. Hopefully I’ll be able to show you what the house looks like soon!