one last photo

Since I didn't show you anything I'd been knitting, here she is ready for the ride home in an EZBSJ and zeebee.

Helena's here!

She was born Tuesday, February 24th at 6:37pm. She was 6lbs. 11oz. and 18.5 inches long.

We're home and doing well but I'm exhausted so I won't be on email much. I'll try to call folks as I have the energy. You can see more photos on Marius' facebook page if you have an account. I will post more as I can.

2 weeks to go!

I am almost surprised that we've made it to 38 weeks. We'll see if we make 39.

Maybe not so early

The doctors have been suggesting that Helena might make a rather early appearance because I was progressing so fast. So mom flew out and I warned my replacement at school.

At my appointment today they found that I've basically stopped doing anything so it doesn't look like Helena will be super early. Babies come when they are supposed to.

Happy Belated Darwin Day!

Yesterday was Darwin's 200th birthday. I joined the Axis of Evo group over on flickr because I love the idea. Colin had these temporary tattoos made up and I've now completely entertained my OB, my pilates instructor and several others who have gotten glimpses of my stomach. 2009 is a big year for Darwin anniversaries as this November will be the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species.

Nearly 37 weeks

Can you believe it?

she flipped!

Helena was head up or some other sort of breech for pretty much the entire pregnancy. I went to the doctor today and found out that she has flipped finally. She was running out of time so this is great news since I'd like to avoid a c-section.

I'm almost done with a baby surprise jacket and matching zeebee hat. Has anyone else noticed how well they go together? Okay, if you read the comments, apparently everyone has. I've known the schmee since 2004/2005 (right?) and only got off my butt to knit this hat now so I'm a bit behind the curve. I'll post photos this weekend.

The theme for the nursery

Folks have been wondering what the nursery will look like and it's been changing constantly I must admit. However, a couple of purchases have developed into a general color scheme. This print is the final nail in the coffin though and the sunflower wall some of you have heard about (that came with the house and is just a little dated) will be repainted with one of the lighter colors from the print (almost certainly one of the greens). Don't worry, we will be using no-VOC paint.


To give you a sense of the rest of it here are some images of what else will be going in the room:






This is the bedding but it will be in this color:

if only I could sew...

Nevermind that my friend, Jo, gave me her old (yet extremely nice) sewing machine. I've been afraid to touch it without lessons for fear of breaking the lovely thing. This just seems very fun and the folks at Spool even have a pattern for it. I am just that pathetic. Of course, I suspect getting it all to balance wonderfully is quite the accomplishment.

Do you think I'll have time to learn how to sew after the baby arrives?

Yeah, I didn't think so either.

Oh yeah

I've hit my third trimester!

how to not impress a pregnant woman

I've done all the usual things during this pregnancy including signing up for email updates about how big the baby is etc., etc.. Many of these come with links to reviews of products in which a pregnant woman might be interested. Most of the time it's useless crap, every once and a while the reviews are actually useful and then there are these:

V2 Supporter

Your hoo-ha helper.

Just when you thought you'd experienced the last of the crazy pregnancy symptoms (Hello, nipple hair!), along come varicose veins on your hoo-ha. Doesn't that just beat all? Of course it's the last thing you want to talk about, but when your insides feel like they're about to bottom out, it's pretty much all you can think about. Stop the insanity with a little well-positioned support.

V2 Supporter

When your vajingo needs a helping hand, the V2 Supporter lends one in all the right places. This stretchy cotton band is fully adjustable to give you a lift where you need it most, taking care of painful swelling and pressure. It's true the contraption looks strikingly like a lace-trimmed jock strap—but if it provides you with a pain-free cha-cha, we're betting you don't give a rat's patootie.

Now if you go to the product link, you will see that this is a potentially useful item (although I am exceptionally grateful to have not known this prior to the ad; apparently vaginal varicose veins are not common in first pregnancies (a sufficient reason to stop at one as far as I'm concerned). However, the person who wrote this review apparently has a really hard time with the phrase vaginal varicose veins and instead feels that throwing half a dozen (okay, it's only three but still!) euphemisms in is more appealing to the readers. Personally I'm frightened that someone who has to resort to such language has actually had sex, and even more concerned that this sex likely resulted in the creation of a human being that this person was responsible for raising. If you can't write the word vagina, you probably shouldn't be using yours for pleasure or reproduction.

bellies!

This past weekend we had a not-a-shower for my friend Janet (on the right in the white shirt). She's just over ten weeks ahead of me in the whole baby making process and since this is their second, she claimed she didn't need a real shower. She and her husband said that the only thing they needed were diapers so people just brought tons of those as gifts. We did a basic potluck with S. African style pancakes (something like a cross between a crepe and those massive Ethiopian pancakes) and fillings. It was co-ed and we didn't do baby games like guessing what candy bar someone had mashed into a disposable diaper and everyone had a great time.

It was also the first time I got to see my friend Leo (on the left) since she recently found out that she is now expecting as well and is due about ten weeks after I am. Both Janet and Leo work at the college and it didn't occur to them that if they hired a bunch of female faculty in their 30's we would all start getting pregnant. At least the hr folks are getting really good at dealing with maternity leave.

I know I'm wearing essentially a bag shaped dress so we also took a photo from the side with Janet's husband Curt pulling my dress tight so you can see that there really is a belly under there. The butt sticking out in back is also a hint that there is WAY more up front than my poor spine is used to handling.


So here we all are at about 3.5, 5.5 and 7.5 months.

5 months!

So I hit five months this week. It's amazing how fast time is passing. Helena is kicking up a storm and no one is embarrassed to ask when I'm due because it's obvious that I'm pregnant at this point.

In fact, that's the oddest bit about it all. None of this process has gone the way I expected. So many women romanticize their pregnancies, even after the fact, that I did assume certain things would happen that just haven't. Granted I also assumed I'd have terrible morning sickness and managed to skip that as well fortunately.

However, these days the thing that impacts me the most is body dismorphia. I'll catch a glimpse of my profile as I walk past a mirror or a window and just think, "What the hell?" I do not recognize myself anymore when I catch glimpses out of the corner of my eye. I know I look pregnant but the reality is a very different thing. I've never fantasized about being pregnant or how I would look so this is all of a bit of a shock to the system even if I knew it would happen intellectually.

It has got me back to knitting finally though. I'll post photos as I finish things. Not everything is for Helena though. It seems that my world is full of pregnant women these days so I have many babies for whom to knit over the next several months.

Time for some good news

I know I've been MIA since Ruth's death. We've had quite a bit going on this summer and now this fall. However, I finally got around to scanning a very important image.

I'd like to introduce you to Helena Sofia.


I'm due the first week of March.

Ruth

I've been thinking since Wednesday about how to describe Ruth for those who didn't know her. We met through a online fiber group (spinning, weaving, knitting etc.) and met in person when I was living in Santa Barbara and she was down in LA.

I moved down later that year to teach at Claremont and Ruth immediately took me under her wing and made sure I met as many people as possible. I didn't know anyone in town other than Marius and was just getting to know the folks with whom I worked. She made it a much easier transition for me as it normally takes me a year in a place to start to meet people and I only had a year in LA.

Other people have already written about her enthusiasm and her great capacity for joy. I want to write about the rest of her because I think it is a side some people did not quite fully realize existed. She was a particularly amazing person because she was full of insecurities. This does not sound like it makes sense but give me a second to make my point. I get the impression from others that she did a great job of hiding this but she always wanted to be one of the cool kids, even as an adult, and never felt that she attained that status. But instead of those insecurities manifesting outwardly as snobbery or cruelty or even just self-absorbed pity, she did everything in her power to help other people feel like they fit in. She completely understood how isolated someone could feel when they were new to an area, a hobby or a group. She welcomed everyone as though they were her best friend and that did not change even when they let her down periodically. I still remember talking to her about a friend who had been using her rather blatantly and Ruth still wondered if maybe this friend would change their ways. She always wanted to give folks the benefit of the doubt and she hated to think that she was the cause for the end of a friendship. Her joy and enthusiasm made her fun to be around but her compassion and empathy are what really made her an exceptional person.

In memory

Ruth Schooley, a kind soul

hiking in 104 degrees

There are just times when you won't ever go outside if you don't go outside when it's hot here. Of course, one isn't stupid and you don't go for long hikes. Today we went out to Santa Clara to see some of the petroglyphs.

Petroglyphs seem to be the current theme for our hikes. Last weekend we went with a group to an area that it basically in our backyard (if you count thousands of acres as your backyard) to see petroglyphs there.

Sometimes you hear the nicest things

I was out the other night with some of my colleagues and one of them told me that she had one of my previous students in a class. This student was not doing well in my friend's class and she failed my class. This student actually confessed to my friend that my class was the only other one with which they had had problems (which makes you wonder what their other classes were like).

Many of you know I had a pretty rough semester in the spring with an unusually whiny group of students and I've been kinda down about it all although I have figured out some things I can do differently to try and prevent a similar situation in the future (or so I hope)! The reason I am mentioning all of this is because my friend then told me that this student had explained that she really liked me but that my tests were really hard (which is sorta what we aim for in our department). So I'm feeling a bit better about things. When you fail a student and they still appreciate you as a teacher you know you aren't completely screwing up.

ummm...

So I was going to post pretty photos of another trip but I have my priorities.

Have you seen this yet?

Oh yes my friends, you too can own this stylish handbag. It's even on sale. Go figure.

(for the record, I adore grun and I'm thrilled that such a fun little shop exists in St. George, but armadillos?)

Costa Rica finally

We had a great time in Costa Rica this spring. A geology professor at school does a continuing education class nearly every other year and we got to go along this time. He has the director of a private field station organize nearly everything so we got to do some really fun things in locations that weren't crowded by Americans.

We started out travelling around the country and our first stop was at a local market to practice our nonexistent Spanish. The produce was worth it though.



We were lucky enough to be around for an oxcart festival/competition.







Of course we were the only gringos around and so we got lots of funny looks. These folks take some serious pride in their carts though so they were all very nice about letting us photograph them and their art.

We spent the second half of our trip at a field station located on the Pacific side and had to take a rather interesting boat trip to get there. I don't have any photos but we got to see flying fish on the trip and when we took the boats out again to a national park.

Well, it was all very lovely and scenic until we had to land. Apparently they had not seen such large waves in quite some time. One of the folks helping the group ended up underneath the boat at one point. The worst thing that happened is that several folks got VERY wet and had their pride bruised but it was one of the more "interesting" parts of the trip. Yes interesting would be a euphamism here.





The field station and surrounding areas were great for nature photography.

The sloths are fuzzy because I had to take the photo through a spotting scope using my point and shoot:








Check out the bit of red in the coati's mouth. It's eating a crab.



We did try to be a bit educational and trapped bats. Often you can just set up a stationary net and the bats will just fly into it because they can't see it. However, the bats we were interested in live in caves that open onto the ocean so we had to stand there and actually toss the net over the poor things since there was no place to set a net. Marius was particularly entertaining to watch.



We spent one day out at a national park. I went on the long hike where we were supposed to see lots of wildlife, while Marius went on the shorter hike that was supposed to end in a swim. It turns out Marius got the better deal but there was a price. The group had two massive trees fall over and land right behind them on the trail.



No one was hurt and it was great hearing how much closer the trees fell to the group as the trip progressed.

There was also some shopping of course and they did a really nice job of making sure we got to see things being made before we bought them.



Including the organic coffee we got:



I never planned on going to Costa Rica because it all seemed very touristy to me based on the trips that others have taken. I have to say that Kelly (the geo prof) and the local guides did a great job of minimizing the touristy crap and we had a great time.