The probably last update from my pregnancy: Contrary to all doctors' expectations I didn't have a preterm delivery. Instead, I'm still pregnant with a bump that's left behind adjectives like huge or enormous; it can now only be described as grotesque. It's not even round anymore because one baby butt hangs out to the left and on the other side one can frequently see feet kicking into my kidneys. I've outgrown even my largest maternity cloths. The trousers keep sliding down while the shirts slip up, flashing unsuspecting passers-by with blue-veined, tightly stretched skin akin the smile of the Cheshire's cat. I can't go anywhere without having to answer always the same questions about due date and gender and complete strangers enthusiastically report the pregnancy of their daughter/neighbor/sister etc.Ironically, now that I've made it full term, the docs tell me that for the sake of my own health the pregnancy better not continue too much longer. The overstretched tissue, so they claim, brings a heightened risk of severe bleeding or uterine rupture which I'm admittedly not too keen on. Add to this that I've developed some late pregnancy complications that, while at present not of immediate concern, are not beneficial neither for mine nor for the babies' health when they persist longer. Luckily, the girls are both positioned head down, so I'm at least not a priori in need of a cesarean section. I am now scheduled for induction of labor the week after Christmas - unless something happens till then - and I hope this goes well. The babies' weight is now estimated above 2.5 kg each and they are all ready for their first own breath.
That means you'll have to expect it being quiet on this blog for some while till I've recovered and we've accommodated ourselves with the new situation. However, pregnant or not, we will of course still have our annual Christmas quiz! (See here for the ones from 2007, 2008 and 2009). This year's quiz is prescheduled for Dec. 25th, 5pm CET, in the hope that this is a convenient time for the majority of our readers. The price is a BackRe(Action) mug, so don't miss it. We wish you all a happy season and a peaceful Christmas time.
And a Merry Christmas and New Year and Festivus whatever to you and Stefan and the girls as well!
ReplyDeleteYeah, that late-term pregnancy stuff is really rough on a woman's body from what I've observed, and that's just with a solo child! Btw, your body will bounce back from this "condition", although not as fast as you'd like. No need to exercise though, the girls will keep you plenty busy, you'll see. :-)
For Americans: 2.5 kg = 5.51 lbs. So the total mass is 11 pounds, pretty much the weight (at sea level) of our youngest son at birth, and my dachshund, the eternal puppy.
You know, you should sell those cups. It'd be a smart business decision, as "babies need new shoes" as they say. And then some, because they outgrow their clothes quite rapidly. :-)
Sabine,
ReplyDeleteAll the best to you, Stefan, and the babies! They are approximately with the weight of Pedro, when he was born. Great! They will not born premature, it's great.
I can only imagine how it must be for you now, with twins. With only one, it was already somewhat difficult for me at the end of pregnancy. Like standing up, down to sit, I needed help.
Merry Christmas, all the best. Fabiano and Pedro also send you their best wishes.
Christine
Best of luck!
ReplyDelete"Interna" indeed. If they appear with little glowing halos about their heads, do the right thing and charge admission.
ReplyDeleteTake one vierbein, add Delta and Epsilon, obtain a multiverse. Save the placenta, arfully array on mounting board, freeze dry, shellac. Tell folks it is a Calabi-Yau manifold.
They will be up and around by summertime. Novel visual inputs at all scales develop interesting brains.
...and better luck than I with the security arrangements. "8^>)
ReplyDeleteGood luck!
ReplyDeleteAll the best to you, Stefan and the soon to arrive two little ones. I'll have to look into a pair of baby snowboards for you!
ReplyDeleteMy baby's morning song! | Reviewer: Aida | 9/18/07
ReplyDelete"whenever im listening to this song it gives me a relaxing feeling and its my baby's favorite song in the morning!"
The Beach Boys - Don't Worry Baby
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QCZ_bv9aLc
Well its been building up inside of me
For oh I don't know how long
I don't know why but I keep thinking
Something's bound to go wrong
But she looks in my eyes
And makes me realize
When she says "Don't worry baby"
Don't worry baby
Everything will turn out alright
Don't worry baby
Don't worry baby
Don't worry baby
I guess I should've kept my mouth shut
When I start to brag about my car
But I can't back down now because
I pushed the other guys too far
She makes me come alive
and makes me want to drive
When she says "Don't worry baby"
Don't worry baby
Don't worry baby
Everything will turn out alright
Don't worry baby
Don't worry baby
Don't worry baby
She told me "Baby, when you race today
Just take along my love with you
And if you knew how much I loved you
Baby nothing could go wrong with you"
Oh what she does to me
When she makes love to me
And she says "Don't worry baby"
Don't worry baby
Don't worry baby
Everything will turn out alright
Don't worry baby
Don't worry baby
Don't worry baby
==========
You can use Download Helper (Firefox extension) to download the Youtube .flv (there is an option to convert to iPod video). So, you can put the above video on your iPod, & play it on an iPod docking station (e.g. Sony clock-radio) via remote.
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ReplyDeleteHi Bee,
ReplyDeleteThis Christmas will certainly be a special one indeed, as from the description of your topography suggesting with the right outfit you could be mistaken for that jolly old elf :-) More seriously, although I realize this time on one hand presents as being an ordeal, and yet one which has always left, at least this man, finding his gender leaving him limited, as knowing that when it comes to life’s experience knowledge is never complete without the doing. So a Merry Christmas to you and Stefan and yet most especially to those two new women to be, who will soon enter this world by way of your increased understanding.
“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.”
-孔丘 (Confucius)
Best,
Phil
Hi Chimpanzee,
ReplyDeleteThat’s certainly good advice for Bee and yet Stefan must stay alert and ready to react to get to the hospital without delay; hopefully not forgetting to take his lovely wife in the process:-) So I would suggest a different classic for him.
Best,
Phil
Hi chimpanzee,
ReplyDeleteI was going to respond to nulport's good advice of visual stimulation to add things aural, but you beat me to it, congrats. Beach Boys do indeed make nice morning songs, as do The Four Seasons, Elvis Ballads, "Our House" by CSN&Y and Phil's favorite .... Simon and Garfunkel! Throw in "Yellow Submarine" (the forever favorite Beatles song of children the world over and forever, as opposed to say ... ""She's So Heavy"), and you're well on the way to the perfect baby mix!
Hi Phil,
Cute video, though I must say I worry a bit about those parents encouraging their baby to walk, because once they start, running isn't far behind and one longs for the days when the children are exactly in the same place you last left them.
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ReplyDeleteHi Bee & Stefan,
ReplyDeleteThen again to have it all come together perhaps something both cosmic and classic by a contemporary German composer:-)
Best,
Phil
Btw, for those unaware Bee and Stefan have a baby gift registry in the right hand column, just beneath her "countdown clock" (it helps lots if you can read German, which I can't).
ReplyDeleteBtw, your countdown clock reads 349 days to go. ?! What, did you reset yourself? We know you're a physicist and all, but doesn't time travel require infinite energy or an infinitely long rotating cylinder or something? Where can I get one of those? Impossible land?
Further note ... stay AWAY from all things Barney the Dinosaur (shoot him on sight would be my advice), and all things Teletubbies (Jerry Falwell warned that Tinky-Wuinky is...GAY!), not because of Falwell but because babies in stars and TV sets in stomachs probably encourage LSD use 15 years later.
The Wee-Sing Sing-Along videos/CD's on the other hand, are great.
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ReplyDeleteHi Steven,
ReplyDeleteYou said ” ...... but because babies in stars and TV sets in stomachs probably encourage LSD use 15 years later.”
Well as it turns out in appears the recently late Albert Hoffmann's invention might have gotten a bad rap for they are looking at it once again for what might be its positive effects in relation to anxiety and general cognitive benefits. Unfortunately the final outcome of such renewed research comes too late for us I’m afraid:-)
Then again it was the reckless abandon of our generation that had many to become leary of it ;-)
”I think that in human evolution it has never been as necessary to have this substance LSD. It is just a tool to turn us into what we are supposed to be.”
—Albert Hofmann, as quoted in "LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug?", Wired.com. (2006)
Best,
Phil
Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.
ReplyDelete... Dorothy Gale
Wishing a happy birthday for the twins, and two nice holiday presents for Bee and Stefan!
ReplyDeleteKris
Hi Steven,
ReplyDeleteAlice: What a funny watch! It tells the day of the month, and it doesn't tell what o'clock it is!
The Hatter: Why should it? Does your watch tell you what year it is?
Alice: Of course not, but that's because it stays the same year for such a long time together.
The Hatter: …which is just the case with mine.
-Lewis Carrol, “Alice in Wonderland"
Best,
Phil
Hallucinogens cause diffuse cerebral microhemorrhages. Bad idea. If one enjoys that sort of frantic colorful and space-alien conversation thing, the world is overflowing with dimethyltryptamine, acacia trees to Cooper's hardy ice plant. DMT is not orally active for being rapidly degraded in the intestines before absorption. This is why we have chemists,
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/lawn.htm
http://www.mazepath.com/uncleal/ananda.htm
Sin like you mean it - destroy old men's illusions of knowledge with bench top demonstrations. The future is the ultimate insubordinate act. Soma is Official Truth - infrequent doses only, and believe none of it.
Feeding babies soy-based formula may not be the most clever thing. Soy is loaded with isoflavones - phytocryptoestrogens. Bad for boys between their ears and between their thighs.
The "big moment" will arrive.
ReplyDeleteIt's important to stay relaxed. Keep breathing.
Relaxing videos (to practice relaxation, using auralization/visualization):
Vitaly Pisarenko plays Ständchen by Schubert/Liszt
Leif Ove Andsnes- Strauss / Gieseking Standchen
Claude Debussy - Reverie (Original)
Leif Ove Andsnes plays Debussy's 'Clair de Lune'
Ashkenazy plays Rachmaninov Prelude Op.32 No.5 in G major
Arthur Rubinstein plays Liszt (Liebstraum)
Secret Garden- Illumination
Romance de Amor Performed by Xue-fei Yang
Maksim Mrvica - Chopin - Nocturne E flat major op. 9,2 - Zagreb Live
Maksim Mrvica - Claudine original
Maksim Mrvica Plays Chopin Nocturne in D-flat Op.27 No.2
Maksim - Somewhere in Time
Sorry I didn't post these earlier.
The "big moment" will arrive.
ReplyDeleteIt's important to stay relaxed. Keep breathing.
Relaxing videos (to practice relaxation with auralization/visualization):
Vitaly Pisarenko plays Ständchen by Schubert/Liszt
Claude Debussy - Reverie (Original)
More here
Sorry to hear that Europe is engulfed in snow. While helping climate change deniers (whom, egged on by the Prince of Pilzn, like to call themselves climate "realists" ... just like FOX News is "fair and balanced" ... sure it is ... in Hell), the more immediate concern is getting to the hospital in that junk!
ReplyDeleteSince it looks like you will be induced, you'll have time. Unless of course, the girls decide otherwise. :-)
One of the MOST amazing things about pregnancy is that nobody has any idea what causes the process of childbirth to begin. We're sure physics can explain it, someday, but not today.
In any event, how far are you from the hospital? Do you have an alternate route planned in case Plan A runs into a snowdrift?
Well, I don't expect an answer. Bee should be resting and Stefan should be slapping the IKEA furniture together whilst cursing the Swedes for an inability to line dowel-holes up properly. Or perhaps he's lost in that human rat-maze that is an IKEA store?
In any event, I hope you take comfort that in New Jersey, we have had no snow this season, indeed tomorrow night we'll get our first, a whopping whole THREE inches, that will probably be gone in a week. So yup, the climate is warming up somewhere in the world.
Congratulations on successful Motherhood!
ReplyDelete