No baby yet

The question I get asked most frequently these days is some variation on, "No baby yet?" Frankly, I like the attention. Sarina, as obviously pregnant as she is, now gets comments from complete strangers. I'm glad that those who know we are expecting in the immediate future ask me for updates, even if it means saying "No, no baby yet" and "Sarina is doing fine but is uncomfortable" what sometimes seems like a dozen times a day.

So July 11th has come and gone, and no, no baby yet. One of our doctors told us at some point that 7 of 10 babies are born after their due date. The engineer in me chafes at this. If 7 of 10 are born after their due date, doesn't that mean that the prediction could be improved? I digress.

Sarina is doing fine, but is uncomfortable. We both want this baby to come. There's every indication that he is closer to coming than he was before (beyond the obvious passing of time which inevitably makes his arrival closer). Sarina is having more regular, and more intense contractions. She is also swelling more, and experiencing a variety of other minor symptoms that can be indicators that labor is looming in the near future.

But honestly, who knows?

On my way home yesterday, I ran into Jen Baily, another pregnant mother (with twins, due in a month or so) as she and her family were on the way to our church for Family Night Celebration. She asked if Sarina was tired of being pregnant. Yes, she is, I said. Jen then commented on how mentally difficult it is to wait. You don't know when the baby is coming, only that the baby is coming, and that you have no control over it whatsoever. For first-time parents, you also know that your life is going to be changed forever, but you have no idea how much. It is all a bit unnerving. And very trying, especially when no one bothers to explain all the different things that might happen to your mind and body along the way. The last weeks, in particular, seem to be weeks of intense change.

I don't want to make it seem like pregnancy is only hard. Pregnancy has been a blessing for us. It might be easier for me to say that because I'm not the one forced to continually carry our child without rest, but I can say that from a place of having sacrificed for the pregnancy. For me, this last trimester has been the most difficult, the most tiring. Sarina maintains that the first was the worst, because of the constant nausea, not to say that the third has been easy. We are both (all three of us?) ready to move on from our current, tired state, to a new, tired state. Bring on the baby!

Oh My Word

Identity is an interesting thing, especially when we are confronted with things about ourselves that we don't expect. How quickly babies grow in the last weeks of pregnancy and the impact they have a woman's body easily falls into this category. Sarina and I were walking through Frick park with good friends Brian and Robin today, and when we came to a pretty spot, she suggested we take a belly picture. So we did. When she saw it, her reaction: "Oh my word!"


After looking at herself in the picture, she proceeded to hand the camera around for us to look at. Of course, she was the only one surprised by the picture.

Just five days to go until the due date, and Micah has grown larger and more active. He's running out of room, and Sarina's nightly contractions encroach a bit too much on his personal space. We've decided that both Sarina and Micah are ready to be done with this ordeal.

New digs

We moved into a new apartment about a month ago, and things have really taken shape at this point. We were very anxious to get moved so we could start organizing baby things. What good is a nesting instinct with no place to nest?

The picture in the previous post was taken on on front porch. When you actually enter our apartment, you have to walk up a flight of stairs. We occupy the second and third floors of a recently re-modeled house.

When you get to the top of the stairs, the bathroom is in front of you, with the living room on your immediate left, and the kitchen a bit further down and to the left.

Our kitchen is spectacular. Our landlord Ted (a friend from church) knows someone who re-models kitchens, and he was able to get a set of cabinets that was being replaced and make them work in the space. We love it! We've lived with small kitchen after small kitchen the last five years, and having this much room is awesome.

As you can see, we can fit our table in there too, freeing up a lot of room in our living room. We moved from an apartment flooded by street noise from trucks and buses, but now when we eat breakfast in the morning in our kitchen, we do so to the sound of birds chirping.

Our living room is comfortable, and will soon sport a couple of chairs inherited from the Oddens. I objected initially, thinking the fold up camp chairs both exceedingly comfortable and remarkably elegant. However, Sarina eventually won me over to the idea.







Because of the layout of our apartment, Micah will be with us in our bedroom at least initially. We're lucky to have enough room for him and his things. The crib and rocking chair take up a lot of space, and at first presented a real challenge in terms of room organization.

It's amazing how much stuff you accumulate (I won't say need) when just preparing to raise a child in this country. I guess all of his cute clothes have to go some place.

One of the best things about our new apartment? The washer and dryer. First of all, it's just nice having a washer and dryer that no one else is using. Second of all, it's nice to have a washer and dryer in ... our master bedroom closet! Neither are loud, and the dryer doesn't make our bedroom hot. The convenience is incredible, especially at this point in the pregnancy when Sarina, wanting to wash baby clothes, shouldn't be hauling things up and down stairs.

With the coming baby, we've really focused our efforts on the second floor, making sure everything is organized for Micah. As a result, the third floor has been largely neglected, as evidenced by these pictures. We have most of Sarina's library on bookshelves, but not organized.

A lot of our old office is still boxed up. We have our computers up and running, and have made a bit of progress beyond what you see in the pictures, but our third floor is still a wreck, relatively speaking, and will likely remain so for a while.

All in all, we're very pleased with our new place. Ted is an awesome landlord and good friend. He's interested in taking care of us, and designed the apartment with our input and with Micah in mind. Does it get any better than that? I think not. We are also beginning to get acquainted with our new neighbors, and hope that our relationships with them will be fruitful. The neighborhood is nice, with kids biking up and down the street, and many of our neighbors spending much of their time on their porches chatting. Though we hope to not be here too long (the longer we're here, the longer I'm taking to finish school- shorter is better!), we're sure our time here will be wonderful.

If you'd like our new address, please email us. You can find our contact information on the right-hand side of the blog.

Table for one, please

No, we don't have a baby yet! However, we seem to have a very nice table.

I took this picture this past weekend. Sarina and I were sitting outside waiting for our chicken to finish cooking, enjoying some fancy-pants grapefruit soda from Trader Joe's (think Squirt but for high society). Sarina has really taken to resting things on her belly. She has also found that it is convenient for catching food that would otherwise have fallen on the floor. Using the belly as a table does come with risks. Micah doesn't appreciate the pressure, and has a tendency to kick things.

Only 10 days to go until the due date!

In other news

I'm flying back to Pittsburgh from San Diego today. I've been in San Diego since Monday night, for Design Automation Conference (http://www.dac.com/), the most important conference in my research area.

I didn't have a presentation in the conference per se, but my advisor set up a number of meetings with people in industry that he knows so I could pitch my research to them. The idea was to try to get feedback, and possibly resources (data, money, etc.). Despite many of the conference sessions not being very interesting, it was a pretty productive week.

Each day for lunch a grad student colleague of mine, Alex, and our advisor Professor Thomas, went out for lunch in the Gaslamp Quarter in downtown San Diego. The mexican food was great, and I ate as much fish as I could. Hopefully I won't return with mercury poisoning.

While there I had a chance to go out with Sarina's good friend from UCSD, Karina. We had sushi in Mission Beach and walked on the beach for a while.

It was a lovely evening, and we stayed on the beach until sunset. I've never lived near the ocean. There have always been rivers or lakes nearby, but they don't hold the attraction for me that the ocean does. The draw was particular last night.

I also heard this week that I'll be presenting my work at a conference in Austria this October (http://www.codes-isss.com). I'm very excited about that, since it'll be my first conference presentation and is also a significant milestone on my path to preparing my dissertation proposal. We're also hoping that Sarina and Micah will be able to come along. It's hard to pass up an opportunity to go to Austria.

The Belly, V: Megabelly!

Another picture from graduation, but worthy of special note. Behold, the megabelly (33 wks)!

Graduation

I graduated from Seminary on May 24th!

I've been to several PTS commencement ceremonies and have always thought they were long and boring. This one, however, was short and fabulous! I loved it! The graduation day lasted about 13 hours...just like a wedding. As a result, my feet really hurt because I was walking around all day going to different events: Baccalaureate service, lunch, Commencement rehearsal, dinner, and the Commencement ceremony itself with reception immediately following. It feels so good to have finished Seminary. I won an award in Church History that I wasn't expecting so that was a nice surprise.

While I'm happy about all of that, I'm sad to be leaving. I really loved Seminary. I got to know a lot of the students and faculty very well and it felt a lot like a family. There are still classes that I want to take and things that I want to learn! Many of my friends feel this way...and many of us are planning on going on for PhD's! :-) All in all, the day was fun. :-)




My parents are in town this week for graduation and also to help us pack up for our big move. Thanks, Mom and Dad, for all your help! We managed to move all of the furniture going onto the 3rd floor onto the 3rd floor on May 26th. Thanks to the army of friends that helped us! We have the rest of our stuff to move onto the second floor - bedroom, living room, and kitchen - on June 2nd. Thanks in advance for the army of friends that will help us then, too! My brother will be in town that weekend to help. :-) Our house is fabulous. It's only 3 blocks away from where we live now. We are renting the second and third floor from our friend Ted. He has done a fabulous job of fixing it up. Thanks Ted and your crew!

My parents are also celebrating their 41st wedding anniversary! Congrats Mom and Dad! We went out to Casbah, a restaurant really close to our current apartment, to celebrate their wedding anniversary and my graduation. Woo!

Baby Quilt

This is our baby quilt!

Isn't the detail cute?

Mary and Catherine Cupp made it for me to match our wedding quilt.

Catherine was my care-taker in Denver when I was little after my Mom went back to work. Her whole family has lots of funny stories about me. :-) Apparently, Catherine used to make quilts for people when she took care of me. As the assertive woman I am, I made it very clear that I wanted one...when I was three-years-old. Catherine said that I was too little. So, she made a quilt for my wedding and now a baby quilt for Micah in the same design! Thanks to the Cupps for these fabulous quilts! If you want to see more of Catherine and Mary's work, check out their website.

Blue Hat, Green Hat

Our favorite activity right now is to go to Borders and look at baby books. Fortunately, we don't do it very often or we would buy ourselves broke. Even so, Micah is going to have an enormous library...very fitting for the baby of two scholars. Hehe! Brett is reading our newest addition to Micah's library in this picture. As you can see, the book is hilarious. We hope Micah thinks it's funny, too!

Exhaustion

I am 29 weeks and I had a prenatal appointment today. It went really well. I found out that I'm anemic, which explains why I've been so tired lately. I'm glad that the exhaustion can be treated with iron supplements and not just giving birth. I hope that once I start taking the supplements I'll have more energy. Please pray for me to have enough energy to finish up my school work. My papers are due two weeks from today and the exhaustion is making it really hard for me to think clearly. I wrote a paragraph the other day that resembled a rope made of three strands - different topics all twisted together. Ack!

The Belly, IV; Sleepy Mommy

You want pictures?! I've got pictures! Here's Sarina, 28.5 weeks pregnant.

Something happened a couple of weeks ago. We think that maybe Micah is too big to fit back over Sarina's pelvis anymore ... and he sort of just "popped" out. And out popped Sarina's belly too! It really was an amazing change and seemed very sudden (though perhaps it was happening gradually and we just didn't notice).

Micah being bigger, Sarina notices him moving a whole lot more often, and I've had the opportunity to feel him more too. Yesterday, Sarina was sitting on the porch and called me out to feel Micah moving around. He was pushing hard enough to make my hand move! Fortunately, this doesn't actually hurt Sarina.

With all his movement, I decided to say hello, with very interesting results. Immediately after my "Hello, Micah!" all motion stopped. I think that he might find my voice a little startling, as this wasn't the first time that this happened. Who knows what is going on in that little baby mind, but it does seem that he doesn't know what to think when I talk to him. Very amusing.

Sarina has just three more weeks before her papers are all due. Being a mom and a student looks tiring, doesn't it?

Crazy Baby

A couple of evenings ago, Micah was just plain crazy.

At the time, Sarina and were up watching a little TV (Style Network!). I was taking a break from the nearly non-stop writing I've been doing, and Sarina was taking a break from reading for one of her classes. All of a sudden, Micah just starting pummeling Sarina. After the first four or five strikes, she called me over to see if I could feel him too.

It was like Micah was using Sarina as a punching bag. It was incredible! I sat with my hand on Sarina's belly for five to ten minutes, and the barrage was constant. At one point, I thought I felt more continuous pressure against my hand, perhaps from an arm or leg. Pushing on it to try to determine what it was, Micah got struck Sarina again, surprising both of us and making Sarina jump a little bit. I gave him a little talking to about his behavior toward his mother, but had to leave it at that; it's rather difficult to put your unborn son in a time out (haha).

Sarina is 27 weeks pregnant now. 13 to go!

How I'm Feeling

We haven't posted in a while. Brett and I have been very busy with school and the pregnancy. For a while my ligaments were killing me. As the uterus grows, the ligaments attaching it to the pelvis stretch. Initially, the baby is too small to rest on the pelvis so his/her weight is on those stretched ligaments. This = OUCH! Our typical day during this stint in the pregnancy went something like this:
help Sarina out of bed, go to school, come home, make/eat dinner, do some homework, massage Sarina, go to bed...repeat
People who hear about the massage are usually like, "Oooo, massage. So sexy." Let me tell you. This was no sexy massage. My muscles were all knotted and tense - it was painful! If Brett didn't massage me then I was in so much pain the morning from my ligaments...yuck.

Anyway, that's over now because the baby is big enough to rest on my pelvis. Woo! But now, I feel big. Most women I talk to really want the pregnancy to be over and want that baby out during the last month. I have about three months to go and I'm like, "OK, when's the baby coming?" I'm ready to be done. I'm heavy and slow and awkward. I can't carry stuff. Everyone is very nice asking me questions about how the pregnancy is going and being supportive. But sometimes, I'm thinking, "I'm more than a pregnant lady! Don't you want to know what I think about Tertullian's treatise 'On Patience'?" I'm also cranky. At about 9pm I'm not quite ready to go to sleep, but I'm incapable of having a normal conversation. Poor Brett. Sometimes I crank at him, but I'm working on that.

For the most part, this has been an easy pregnancy. Micah is pretty chill in utero. He moves, but he doesn't keep me awake at night. His movements aren't painful although sometimes when he moves my belly feels really tight. I'm not sick anymore so I can eat anything I want. However, sans pregnancy I have a great metabolism so I can eat anything and not gain a pound. Now, my body is hyper-drive storage center. I've gained a lot of weigh, already more than the recommended 25-30 pounds (who came up with that number anyway?). But, what's a girl to do? It'll all come off with breastfeeding.

So, that's how I'm feeling.

Oh yeah. Micah is due July 11th. Here's the timeline until then:
April 19th - present candidacy questions and statement of faith to session
May 11th - final papers and finals are due, but classes aren't over so I still have to go to class
May 24th - graduation!
May 30th - present candidacy questions and statement of faith to CPM
June 2nd-3rd - move
June 4th - go before Prebytery to get candidacy approved

That's not to mention all the other things that are going on in between all that stuff. Whew!

The Belly, III

It's been a couple of weeks since our last post, and the belly has grown significantly in the intervening time. As you can see from the sign Sarina is holding, she is now nearly 23 weeks along. Very exciting!

Both mother and baby remain healthy. Sarina is still experiencing pretty significant ligament pain, but is doing fine otherwise. The ligament pain makes sleeping a treat (if you enjoy discomfort). To compensate, Sarina sleeps with an armada of pillows to support her belly and legs and prop up her back. Any more pillows and I'll probably be sleeping on the floor.

Micah now constantly reminds Sarina he is alive and well by pummeling her bladder and other internal organs. I haven't been able to feel him myself yet; hopefully I'll have that chance in the next couple of weeks. By all accounts it's a remarkable experience, and I can't wait.

In other news, Sarina started her final term at Seminary this week! We can't believe that she's almost done. By contrast, I can't believe I'm still in school ... I'm finishing up my 9th year of college this year, my 22nd year of education (including kindergarten). If anyone asks, just tell them I'm going into the 22nd grade next year, and won't graduate until I complete at least the 23rd grade. And that's only if I'm not held back! (haha)