That's a good looking belly

I'm not sure how serious she is, but Meredith seems to think she's too fat. At least, she seems to take some offense when co-workers say how huge she's gotten. Admittedly, I've got a pregnant co-worker and I've never called her huge (perhaps it's an inherent "man" thing to know to never call a woman "huge" under any circumstance, pregnant or no). Perhaps it's customary for female co-workers to admire the girth of a pregnant co-worker in straightforward terms.

In any case, I think she looks great and I hope she knows how beautiful I think she is. In fact, I think she's even more beautiful with a 37-week pregnant belly.

The pressure of pregnancy

This past weekend, Meredith and I attended a childbirth class at the hospital where Little Elvis will be born. The registered nurse who was teaching the class mentioned that, from her own observations, the labor and delivery department gets more active during stormy weather. She thought that there might be a relationship between drops in atmospheric pressure and the onset of labor.

As soon as I could get on the internet, I searched around for any studies of such a relationship. Sure enough, it has been studied. I found reference to two articles, one from St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital in Houston and the other from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. They were published in the Journal of Nurse-Midwifery (now published as The Journal of Midwifery & Women's Health) and the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, respectively. The first study indicated, "The overall number of labor onsets increased in the 24 hours following a significant drop in barometric pressure." The second study also showed some relationship between falling barometric pressure and onset of labor, but indicated that the magnitude was not of clinical significance.

My understanding is that little is definitively known about what triggers the onset of labor and I wouldn't hazard any guess as to why a drop in atmospheric pressure would contribute to the triggering process.

That said, when I lived in Fort Smith, Ark., I worked with a woman who had given birth to triplets during a tornado on April 21, 1996, an F2 that killed 4 people and injured 89.
Anyone else with stories of "stormy" pregnancies?

Size doesn't matter . . . it's the thought that counts

If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm a weatherman by trade. While attending the American Meteorological Society's Annual Meeting in San Antonio two weeks ago, I picked up a souvenir for Little Elvis (due date is Feb. 17). That's right, straight out of the "My dad went to a meteorological conference and all I got was this lousy t-shirt" department, I bought our baby a gift from the National Center for Atmospheric Research. NCAR had a table in the exhibit hall full of items for sale (books, apparel, science kits, etc.) from their science store.

Despite the fact that it's too large to be worn by a newborn (I think it's an 18-24 month size), I couldn't resist the "I'm a little vortex!" onesie. I'm sure by the time he gets to be 18 to 24 months, he'll be more of a little vortex than he will be in the first few months of life.

Don't forget that I've already bought Little Elvis his first guitar that he probably won't be able to play until he's at least 3 years old. Admittedly, I'm not the best at picking appropriate sizes for the baby's gifts, but I think my heart is in the right place.

I'm hoping I can share my passions with Little Elvis without becoming one of those parents trying to live their dreams vicariously through their children. Is there a secret to striking the right balance?

"Little Elvis" has his mommy's nose

Mere and I got another look at "Little Elvis" today. We went for another sonogram to check the baby's size, position and to pinpoint the due date. All went very well, apart from a bit of discomfort for Mere as the ultrasound technician pressed hard on her lower abdomen to get a look at the birth canal. I didn't feel a thing, by the way.

"Little Elvis" is already very smart -- he's got himself head down in the proper position and will not likely change position before birth. The kicks and movements that Mere continues to feel and we continue to see on her belly are the motions of his arms, legs and bottom. He weighs in at a whopping 6 lbs. 6 oz., and the technician says that's right where he needs to be (puts him in the 48th percentile of pregnancies at 36 weeks, 3 days). The cutest part is that he's got Mere's nose -- very fortunate for him. I got my big honker from my mother, so looks like "Little Elvis" is following suit.


It was good news all around this week--my brother and sister-in-law had a sonogram and found out that they will be having a boy. It's so very exciting! There is a slight concern in that my sister-in-law has, if I remember correctly, a cervical cyst. Spotty bleeding early on in the pregnancy is what led to the discovery of the cyst. It has gotten a bit heavier of late, but the doctor seems to prefer not to deal with it until after the baby is born. I assume that this would be an intrusive procedure and the doctor, as well as my brother and sister-in-law, do not want to jeopardize the pregnancy.

Anyone familiar with cervical cysts? Any similar stories or words of wisdom?

Consumer Reports eats crow

Consumer Reports has retracted an article about car seat safety that ran recently, citing that speeds at which crash-tests were conducted were higher than reported in the article. Turns out that the testing done be the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration was carried out at twice the speed claimed by the magazine.

Consumer Reports plans to review the research, retest the car seats and publish a new article in the near future.

The magazine continues to stress that the "use of any child seat is safer than no child seat."

Good contractions, bad contractions

It's been a tough week and it's only Tuesday. I left the warmth of DC over the weekend (50s and 60s) and have been slogging through a cold rain (now freezing rain and sleet) in San Antonio for the past two days. But it's not just the weather that's got me down, it's being away from Meredith and Little Elvis. Thankfully, I'll be back with her by Thursday.

Speaking of back, she's been having a lot of back pain. I guess that's to be expected for a woman who is eight months pregnant. She wrote about it in a recent blog post. She was having a bad day. On top of back and stomach pains she's been having that may be related to contractions, her computer was preventing her from making the kind of contractions she wanted to make -- the apostrophe key was apparently on the blink.

Once I get home on Thursday and give her a big hug, I'll give her a nice back rub and then I'll check out her computer.

Costly cord blood banking

My mother-in-law calls me cheap, my wife calls me cheap, my brother calls me cheap, even my cats call me cheap (or at least they think I am). There's no doubt I'm frugal and now that we're expecting a baby, frugality is now morphing into financial paranoia as direct-mail marketers have us on their lists.

One of the more persistent has been the New England Cord Blood Bank. The purpose of cord blood banking is simple enough -- it provides a resource in the event of acute or chronic diseases that may crop up in future. The cost is a little tougher to find on the site -- enrollment fee is $250, processing and banking fee is $1300, and the annual storage fee is $124, totalling $1674 for the first year. It is an elective procedure, so insurance typically does not cover any portion of the cost.

So, any opinion on the cost/benefits of this procedure? I'm skeptical because I'm cheap and the process costs a lot. The number of brochures hitting my mailbox makes me think that a lot of those annual fees go into marketing, or is this just financial paranoia?

Surprising discovery

As if there weren't enough to worry about with only weeks before the birth of "Little Elvis," I happened to hear a disturbing story this morning on the Marketplace Morning Report. Apparently, Consumer Reports recently tested a dozen car seats and recommended only two models, the Baby Trend Flex-Loc and the Graco SnugRide.

The car seat that we own (bought used from CraigsList) is an Evenflo Aura, which was not on the list of models tested. However, another Evenflo model, the Discovery, was the only car seat not to meet federal standards and Consumer Reports is urging a recall. Another car seat that posed problems for Consumer Reports testers was the Eddie Bauer Comfort, which could not be installed properly and thus was not tested.

I checked out the Evenflo website and found a list of their current safety campaigns. Fortunately, the Aura was not on the list, but the Tribute, Joyride and Cozy Carry car seats/carriers have current recalls or safety upgrades.

In addition to making sure your car seat has not been recalled, make sure you know how to install the seat properly. This past weekend, my wife and I tried to install ours and thought we had it in correctly. Just to be sure, my wife had our installation inspected by a fireman in Silver Spring, Md. Turns out we were about as incorrect as we could be.

What have been your experiences in shopping for and/or installing your car seat?