February 2, 2009: The week in review

Well not much to update this week. Basically more of the same, baby grows and kicks some more, Elizabeth goes to doctor appointment, Elizabeth gets tested, poked and prodded, Elizabeth has to drink some nasty orange cocktail after fasting for too many hours, Elizabeth traumatizes poor Somali nurse by making him think he's done her in after taking a bit of blood, all tests come back good. Yay! A more or less standard week in the life of a pregnancy. At least I can say that since I am not the one being kicked, poked and prodded.

Meanwhile, preparations for "The Arrival" continue. Elizabeth is starting to jump into her prelims by telling me about some dude named Braxton-Hicks who trains her to contract and push. Sounds like fun. Back in non-baby world she really is also getting ready for prelims of the grad school flavor as well. A two month test sounds like lots of fun while pregnant. Yuck! Meanwhile, I am spending lots of time in Fortan world trying to figure out the best way to model how much moisture a tree gives off in a day if you only have fake trees in the model. It is very metaphysical or something.

The accumulation of baby gadgets continue. It is absolutely amazing how many things you need that you never knew about. For example there is at least a google of different ways to transport a baby. There are wraps, straps, car seats and strollers. Front facers, rear facers, backpacks and cart covers. And I would be remiss if I left out the mythical daddle:



Then there is the big decision of what diapers to use. (See new poll to the right) Do we go with the cloth diaper service, even though childcare isn't allowed to use them? Just stick with disposables the whole time? What is more enviro friendly? Can the disposable people really be right when they say that the soap and water associated with washing cloth diapers really outweigh the environmental cost of throwing a diaper in a dump every time you think a baby did its thing? If so why don't we wear disposable clothes? Is a baby's caboose adaptable enough to handle the stress that goes with switching diaper types throughout the week? Will Boudreau's butt paste (Right up there with gator on a stick, and turducken on the short list of best things to come out of S. Louisiana) solve all of our worries or are more extreme measures necessary for our baby's derriere? Luckily, I was watching television on Saturday night and there was an ad on that may solve all our problems (see below).

Then there is was the first surprise from the Child Retention and Internment Basin (CRIB). Evidently you need and Child Retention and Internment Basin guard to keep a baby from chewing/gumming its way to freedom. Who knew? Certainly not me.

Allright. Back to work.