The Divine Jane

I just watched the short video below on Jane Austen and loved it. I always love to hear other people's opinions on Jane - particularly men. It is so rare to find a man who has not only read Jane Austen but appreciates her novels. I hate it when people refer to them as "chick lit."

One of these days I'm going to take a course on Jane Austen. I would love to be shut in a room with fellow Janeites and talk for several hours about her novels. Hopefully, at whatever future college I work, there will be such a course.

In the meantime, I have videos like this to get me thinking.

(And let me say, too, that I think it is entirely possible to take Jane too seriously.)

The Divine Jane: Reflections on Austen from The Morgan Library & Museum on Vimeo.

Birth Preferences

Last night in our birth class we went over birth plans and discussed some things we may or may not want to include in them. Adam and I had already talked and thought about this so we had a pretty good idea of what we wanted but it was good to get an idea of how to organize the birth plan.

Once we create our list of birth preferences (i.e. - a birth plan), we will discuss it with our doctor this week. When she approves of everything there, we'll make a copy for our file and then we'll bring a copy (along with some goodies) with us to the hospital for the nurses.

Our instructors recommended dividing it up into Labor, Delivery and Postpartum and using bullets instead of paragraphs. We will also start it out with a brief statement (saying who we are/this is our first baby/etc) and finish it with a big "Thank You!"

We haven't written the plan yet and I won't go into all of our preferences but here are our four big sticking points:
1) We want intermittent monitoring
2) We want freedom to move about during labor
3) We want to deliver in the position(s) of our choosing (except for squatting on the floor which my OB has already said she cannot do and which I don't see myself doing anyway)
4) We want the baby to be placed on my chest immediately following delivery

All of this of course comes with the caveat that everything is okay with the baby and myself. If anything goes wrong at any point, we obviously will put aside our preferences for safety's sake.

Honestly, if I can get these four things I will feel that I had the birth experience I wanted.

I really think it is crazy that this is even necessary though. I don't think it should be a battle to get what I want. And, in all honesty, I don't think it will be. Although I would rather have had a midwife, I think our OB is going to be pretty good. It is obvious she is not used to med-free/natural/intervention-free births but she seems open to them and I think that talking about all of this beforehand is going to be really helpful. And there are some things I'm still unsure about like whether or not I want someone to "coach" me when I push.

One thing I'm pretty sure about: I have no desire to watch the whole thing in a mirror. I realize this may change but, at the moment, I think it must be like watching a pot of water boil.

But grosser.

Yeah, I'm a Science Teacher

So, recently in class we were making non-newtonian, rheoscopic, polymer-based materials aka Slime and Silly Putty. I had some left over Borax that we used to make the slime so I used this recipe to make some crystals.

BoraxCrystalsRecipe:

You’ll need:

• Borax
• A large bowl
• A glass or plastic container (wide-mouthed is best)
• Pipe cleaners, twigs, roots, or whatever you want to cover with crystals
  
• Pencil/chopstick
• Spoon

First, make your frame. Use pipe cleaners to make shapes like snowflakes, trees or octopi. I used twigs, leaves, and roots which ended up looking really great, like twigs after an ice storm. Remember that the crystals will swell , so don’t make the circles/angles too tight, or they’ll grow solid. Unless that’s what you’re going for, which might be cool. Either attach a string to the finished frame or a spare pipe cleaner and then tie the end of that around a pencil or chopstick – you’ll use this to suspend the structure in the Borax solution.

Next, prepare the two containers: one for measuring out the quantity of water you’ll use and another for the actual mixing.

Measure enough water to fill the container you’ll be using for submersion, and boil it.

Fill the large bowl (I used a mixing bowl) with the boiling water, and start adding borax. Mix as you do this, and continue to add borax until it’s no longer dissolving. A quart of water and about 2 cups of Borax did the trick.

Slowly pour the mixture into the plastic container and be sure not to pour in any extra crystals that didn’t dissolve. Too many crystals will compete for growth later.

Submerge your frame into the Borax mixture. Try and keep the tentacles/arms from touching the sides.

Let the shape sit in the Borax over night, but feel free to check periodically. The crystals grow very fast, which is great for impatient geeks (like me!).

In the morning check it out!

Pity Party

Last night I had my first pregnancy-induced pity party. I thought the fact that I've made it to 34 weeks without such an occurrence was pretty good - but this one was a doozy.

It all started because I need new shoes. My feet are really not that swollen - just the tops are a little puffy. However, they are puffy enough to make my work shoes uncomfortable. So, I was a little surprised to discover that my feet are now 1/2 size larger than they were pre-pregnancy.

And here's where I reveal that I now wear a clownish size 11 shoe.

And NO ONE carries size 11 shoes. Except for Payless and Target and all of these seem to be of the ballet flat variety which offer no support for my fairly high arches (thanks a lot, ballet classes).

It all came to a head when I entered one final store on the Grand Shoe Store Tour of Little Rock 2009 and I found the perfect shoe. I asked the guy if they had a size 11 and he said, "Sure! Let me go check" with such confidence that I just knew they'd have it.

So when he came out moments later with an apologetic look on his face, yet a shoe box in his hand, I was a bit confused. Until he said this:

I'm sorry, ma'am, we don't have a size 11. But we have a size 8.5

while holding the box of the size 8.5 shoes to me.

I didn't know whether to cry or scream at him. Instead, I acerbically informed him that I last wore a size 8.5 when I was in 7th grade and walked out.

Ordinarily, I think I'd laugh at this. But all of this came on top of the fact that I can't find a bra that fits either. Visions of a future filled with ordering everything from specialty sized shops that cater to ginormous ladies with ginormous feet swirled through my head.

I just felt like nothing on my entire body fit. My pants are falling down, my bra is too tight, my pathetic excuse for a winter coat (it is really a glorified windbreaker) doesn't fit over my sweater, my shoes are too small and my socks are falling down. (Insert 2-year old whine here.)

So I unloaded all of this on poor Adam during dinner and had my little pity party of one (because he certainly wasn't joining in). In fact, I think he made fun of me for it so I'll take back the "poor" in front of his name and insert "totally unsympathetic and snarky" instead.

And I of course felt silly for it later because it really isn't such a big deal. I only have two more weeks of work and I'm pretty sure I can get by with my slightly uncomfortable shoes during that period.

As far as as my unmentionables are concerned, I may make a trip to Expressly for You (feel free to laugh because I do) and get sized for a decent bra. I realize I'll probably have to go larger once the baby is born but at least I'll have something comfortable until then.

So the world is once again back to its rose-tinted self. And I should be happy because I'm still sleeping like a log at night, I'm not swollen all over, my baby is healthy, I am healthy, school is almost out and Christmas is almost here.

The pity party is officially over.

P.S. - Should I explain the picture? That is a picture of Dawson Leery crying on the show Dawson's Creek. It makes me giggle. It reminds me of college when the girls and I would watch Dawson's Creek while eating entire boxes of macaroni and cheese. I think this is from the episode when Dawson's dad dies in a car accident because he was trying to retrieve an ice-cream cone he dropped on the floor of his car. Tee hee.

Oh, dear

Adam's assignment from our birthing class this week is to surprise me with "contractions" that I have to relax and breathe through. The only caveat is that he cannot do it while I am driving. I think he is going to enjoy it way too much.

Other than that, everything is going swimmingly. Mini McEvoy checked out great at our doctor's appointment on Tuesday and is still head down (with his/her back to my left side). I continually promise the baby that lots of love and toys will be waiting on the other side if he/she stays that way.

(Little does Mini McEvoy know that lots of love and toys will be waiting on the other side, regardless.)

(Can I add that it is every difficult to talk about this baby without using the word "it"? I'm trying my darnedest but it is awkward at best).

Update: Yep, Adam just came home and gave me a "contraction." It is going to be a long week...