That other project

So I mentioned that I have another project that I picked up a little while ago, and it's been taking my time and energy. Then I did the predictable thing that happens and disappeared for a while.

So, the project is large enough that it's been producing its own urine for a few weeks, which makes it high time I posted about it.

Dear readers: I'm knocked up.

I've been writing about this offline, but I feel like this is the stuff blogs are made of, anyway: pregnancy is temporary and prone to changes each day. I don't want this to become a strictly baby-centric blog, but at this point I've followed enough blogs that I know what the pattern is:

A) Hip young female writer starts a blog, just writing about LIFE, man!

B) HYFW falls in love

C) HYFW gets engaged and starts planning a wedding. But "this isn't a wedding blog".

D) weddingweddingweddingweddingweddingwedding

E) HYFW gets marrrrrieeeed!

F) long pause

G) HYFW returns! With wedding pictures and recaps!

H) OK, seriously, back to life. HYFW begins posting more of the stuff I liked to read in the first place, with the occasional relationship post.

I) Long pause out of nowhere.

J) I've probably unsubscribed because the pause was months long.

K) I psychically check in to HYFW's blog on the day she announces that she's PREGERRRRS! Often complete with an ultrasound picture. But "this isn't a baby blog"

L) It's totally a baby blog. For good.

Now, to be fair, I have kept reading one or two blogs that have done this to their readers, because they did keep posting interesting content even after having a child. (And YES, of course I think child-related content can be interesting: A child is residing in my midsection as I type). And I know that bloggers have zero obligation to make stuff up for their readers. If I don't like reading about poop and boob juice, I can go elsewhere, and they know that and so do I.

So I'm not going to say "this isn't a baby blog". I am going to say that I'll be writing about what the hey is going on in this body that, up until a couple of months ago, I thought I knew pretty well. I've already been surprised by all this pregnancy stuff in a lot of ways, and writing is kind of how I work through things, so maybe instead of a baby blog we should all just think of this as my really cheap, overly public therapy. Or something.

Anyway, the answers to the usual questions:

Due date: October 21, 2011. DH and I love October, so this is really exciting. Birthday pictures in a pumpkin patch, baby!

So, how far along are you? I'm at 16 weeks, 4 days. 16 weeks in the normal world is 4 months, but in pregnancy world it's 3.5 months, sort of. For reference, full-term is 40 weeks - which sounds like 10 months to me. But whatever. So I'm almost-four-months along.

Gender: Yes, despite my entire family thinking I'm RUINING the surprise, we're planning to find out some time in June. I'll write more about this.

How are you feeling, Schmei? Physically: Better. I think I had it relatively easy, from what I hear, but the first trimester landed me on my ass. All-day nausea (only puked twice so far, fortunately), exhaustion, crankiness, and a sense of smell that could detect a stale cigarette from four miles away... which contributed to nausea and crankiness. The last few weeks, though, my stomach and I have gotten back together. We're making up for those weeks of estrangement by the stomach being constantly hungry and me constantly feeding it. Beyond the occasional insomnia, I'm feeling pretty good.

Emotionally: all over the place. I still can't wrap my head around this being real, most days. I honestly think it's going to hit me when I meet the kid this fall. (Or maybe when I get cankles this summer. That will be a treat.) But then I get worried about the kid, which tells me that the instinctive side of me is pretty aware of what's going on.

Weight gain: 6 lbs so far. My goal, per the midwife, is to gain 15-25 total. I'm not sure if my ravenous hunger agrees with that goal, however. The second three pounds happened a lot faster than the first three - I'm worried it's exponential or something.

Midwife? Are you doing a crazy home birth? No, though I think home birth makes sense for a lot of folks, the idea of all that cleanup is not appealing to me at all, while the idea of having someone take complete care of me for a day or so after I give birth is appealing. We found a really cool midwife group at a nice hospital. I'm sure I'll write more about the midwives. So far I'm very very happy with that decision.

Are you still running? Eh, no. I had signed up for a 5K on May 7 which I planned to run-walk with DH. We ended up sleeping through it, which was the right choice for a lot of reasons. I was so out of it during much of the first trimester that long walks were the best I could manage, but now I'm really in to walking: aiming for 5 miles a day. It's something I know I can do until the end, and afterward, and it really helps me when I'm feeling down, which these damn hormones do more often than I care to admit. I got a prenatal yoga DVD, too, with some intense stretches and squats, and I'm aiming to do that at least three days a week. But yes, running and triathlon-ing are hopefully going to return in 2012 some time.

Do you have a bump? I'm getting the start of one... it depends on the angle and what I'm wearing and whether I just ate. That probably means not really, but my midsection certainly has more density than it used to. Most of my pants are still wearable, especially with a Bella band. I'm enjoying my non-enormity while it lasts.

Where's the ultrasound picture? I don't have one yet - this will likely be its own post soon - and I'm not planning to post it here when I get one. I've found myself feeling very strongly about this kid's privacy, which is pretty silly when you think about an ultrasound picture, since they all basically look the same. I will probably follow in the footsteps of Molly and not post any identifying pictures of the kid, since this is a public blog, and I think I may just start that from, well, the start, and not post the ultrasound picture. I know that's dumb. Blame it on hormones.

Have you felt any kicks? I think I have - it's tough to distinguish, but last night we had root beer floats for dessert, and about an hour later I was relaxing in bed with a magazine when I'm fairly certain I felt two little thumps in my lower-front midsection. Maybe the baby likes root beer? I know I do, so the kid should get used to that.

How is DH doing? Well, he's DH, so he's awesome. He's very in to brainstorming names, going to all the midwife appointments, giving me the occasional belly rub, dragging me out for long, restorative walks, and when I'm pooped, making me relax and drink some water. Menfolk should take note that no matter how horrified I am about some change my body just made, he acts like it's attractive. This is crucial to domestic harmony with a pregnant partner. Honestly, he's excited about the whole prospect, which is darn cute. I'm lucky.

And the question I can't wait for someone to ask me in real life:

Were you trying? Well, we were trying for a puppy. Turns out that's a different process, so... baby! Also cute and will hopefully chew the furniture less.

I am still working on my thesis, which was further delayed by being basically out of commission through late February and much of March, so posting will be light for the next month or so. But not as light as it's been of late - I have a few posts up my sleeve.

I have found that I like answering people's (polite) questions about this process, so if you have one, shoot!

Another one of those pauses

As has happened here before, my lil' blog is taking a bit of a back seat to other real-life concerns. My thesis may or may not be in the final stages and I really really want this thing to be finished soon. Spring is always a busy time where I work, and this spring is nuttier than usual because we've been hosting a major event each month since January - and this will continue through to June. I also have an additional project I took on a little while ago that is taking more of my time and energy than I'd anticipated.

On top of all that, for Lent I decided to give up Google Reader. I briefly scan through posts on Sundays, but otherwise I'm not spending the time I used to on picking up fun tidbits from the interwebs. This is good for my productivity on all those other things, but it cuts down on some of the post fodder I used to have.

So except for the occasional fun fact, don't expect a lot of input around here until later this Spring. I prefer to post here when I have some actual content, so hopefully when I do return I'll have some good stories to tell.

In the meantime, if you like hearing someone grouse about the grad school process, check out PhD Comics. The complaints for those of us earning measly Master's degrees are shockingly similar.

The Best Recap

So it's a new year, and 2010 was certainly a mixed bag. In my personal life it was pretty great: my family expanded to include a new, ever-cuter niece, two new sisters-in-law and whatever you call the Speaker (Longest-Friend-In-Law? Whatevs). Also, I did a triathlon and baked a couple of fairly impressive cakes.

In world events, things were closer to terrible much of the time. But I'm not going to re-write what's already been said so well, so I'll be a blog slacker and just re-post Dave Barry's year in review.

I should note that I grew up reading Dave Barry's weekly column - when I could wrest it from the clutches of the rest of my family. He made my mom laugh Every. Single. Sunday. for years and years, and I have to thank him for making her almost spit-take her post-church coffee a few times. He made my dad snort a few times, too (Dave Barry is also one of the few people who's made Dad do his patented "running out of breath" laugh, which is very hard to describe, but when my siblings and I try to imitate it we usually just end up running out of breath laughing, ourselves).

I stopped reading his stuff, though, when it started to feel stale. I do think Barry probably ruined a lot of his readers by raising their humor standards to a difficult-to-meet level. This recap just made me love him all over again, though: He's at his best when he's making a reader guffaw about something that is essentially pure tragedy.

I've been reading Gene Weingarten too much lately. I'll write about him later, I'm sure.

Anyway, here is Dave Barry's year in review. I'll have another, way less interesting "Schmei's Year in Review" post in a bit, and then it's so long to 2010, since we're already 6 days in to the new year. I work better when I'm past a deadline, clearly.

Right.

Despite the lack of activity around here, I have been thinking about this blog. Blogs are kind of stupid, really, unless you actually have something to write in them. A blog that hasn't seen a post in over 6 weeks is really kind of a waste of bits.

Last year I tried participating my own truncated version of National Blog Posting Month, which was a good exercise. This year I think I'll try something similar, but I'm actually going to let myself be OK with doing the sort of thing I do on facebook: post a link to something interesting and say something _short_ about it. I have drafts of at least 5 long articles that got to about 800 words and then started to trail off. So I'm going to try to finish those, too.

This isn't really for you, readers, since none of you exist. This is an exercise for me. I've been a quitter since childhood, and I'm especially adept at quitting creative projects, or, more accurately, I'm well-practiced in putting projects on hiatus. I have a 70-percent-completed blanket that I started to crochet before DH and I were even engaged. I have some paint supplies that I've basically never used. A beautiful and neglected mandolin hangs on the wall of our apartment. Our sewing machine has seen a little use - because DH has made a few nice things for me.

Yes, I'm still finishing my master's thesis, slowly, and yes I'm working full-time (and I'm in the United States! We NEVER GET TIME OFF!) and months like September of 2010 will happen now and then - I'll tell you about that, possibly. The short story is that it was busy with Family Obligations - but I'm either going to maintain a blog or I'm not.

For now, we'll stick with maintaining it.

School years, intersections, and other flotsam

By all appearances, I celebrated my fourth wedding anniversary and then proceeded to fall off the face of the planet. In reality, I've been busy in several ways, and so here's a brain-dump catch up:

1) First of all, I completed the sprint triathlon in 1:45:31, and though I spent the majority of the bike and run legs of the race chasing my sister, I caught her in the last three tenths of a mile and we crossed the finish line together. It was actually incredibly fun - something I allowed myself to realize when I was breezing along on my bike on some beautiful country roads - and Sis and I have already discussed doing something like this again next year. The afternoon after the race I felt more tired than I have probably ever felt in my life, and our plans to do some kind of hanging out just turned in to a communal nap: Sis asleep on the couch, my niece asleep on her chest, me curled up on the love seat. My brother-in-law was in the basement watching TV, where he - you might guess it - fell asleep. It was nice. Some time I need to write about my poor napping skills and how I'm trying to cultivate them. Apparently triathlons help.

2) I was on a bona fide vacation for a bit over a week earlier this month. As I was packing up for the trip I realized I hadn't taken a full week off just for fun in over a year. I should take more vacations.

3) My thesis is moving slower than expected, because it's a thesis. But progress continues.

4) DH and I are trying to eat more real food. Sure to be more posting about that soon.

5) My brother's getting married in a few weeks. This hasn't taken up a lot of my time, really, but it's exciting. Neither sis nor I have sisters-in-law, so we're both looking forward to acquiring one, and she's very cool - a perfect fit for my bro.

6) My best (and "oldest", though he's a few months younger than me) guy-friend is getting married in October, in the coolest way possible, to a very cool woman. DH and I have had to endure clusters of weddings before, but this time we're actually really looking forward to both weddings. Is this because we're on the "groom's side" in both weddings? Does that make them easier? Both couples are pairs that really work together, which obviously helps. I don't know. But I'm excited to put on the finery and celebrate love this fall.

7) Today marks the beginning of classes at the school where I work, though not the beginning of my thesis "class" because one school is on a quarter schedule and the other is on semesters. This is all within the same university. Makes plenty of sense to me.

And, because of number 7, this post will have to remain a list. More to come, hopefully soon, as the start of the school year means I'm getting back into some routines.

Toodle-pip,
-Schmei

Quick update, May's a bust

I realized I was going to be "back Monday"... a couple of weeks ago. Alas.

I ran the 5K on May 1st in 35:09, which was pretty good. I ran the whole thing, no stopping except to hand off my completely unnecessary sunglasses to my husband halfway through the race. It was a perfectly drizzly day to run a race, and my knees didn't hurt much at all afterward, which is always the litmus test for a run.

Meanwhile, the month of May at my workplace is the busiest and certainly the most stressful month of the year, so the quietness of the blog will likely continue in to June.

I'm guessing I'll have all kinds of new stuff to talk about in June, however, as I will be spending the week of May 31-June 4th with my niece, who by that time will almost surely have doubled in weight since the last time I saw her. She's a great eater. She is apparently not a good sleeper at all, however, so I'm wondering which will be tougher on me: the busiest week of the year at work, when I'm responsible for 50 professionals for a 5-day training, or the week when I'm walking around the house at 3am with a screaming 9-week-old? I think I know where my skills lie, but I'm hoping I'm wrong. Regardless, this will be an introduction to the realities of life with a newborn: A life which, to be frank, does not sound at all appealing to me.

Maybe the week with my niece will help answer the question of why anyone would put themselves through such an ordeal. At least, a reason other than "Because people have no idea what living with a newborn is like until it's too late."

Unless there's some serious time to kill between sessions next week, so long until June!