Archive for October, 2007

The Amazing Power of Freeze!

Wednesday, October 24th, 2007

Seems like the weeks are rolling by faster and faster. Things are busy at work and home for both of us as we try to prepare for our little addition. Thank goodness the weather is cooling off and we are getting a little needed rain.

I can’t remember if I mentioned it in a past post or not, but BM has been experiencing some serious heartburn lately. As you might expect this is partly due to the growing things in her abdomen that leave less room for the stomach, etc. However, another major part is a hormone that is released in pregnant women that allows things to loosen up to prepare for a baby to be born. This hormone apparently causes the lower esophageal sphincter to loosen its grip on keeping the stomach contents in one spot.

Needless to say, BM has been working overtime trying to avoid taking Zantac even through the doctor says it is ok. Truth is, she (and to a certain degree me too) is concerned with putting unnatural things in her body as the child grows. I can appreciate that as it is something my parents did for me. So, while there are many evenings (especially after the prenatal vitamins) that BM has serious heartburn, for the most part she is able to get along pretty well. But, this clearly has been her biggest “sickness” during the process thus far.

Somewhere along the way, BM figured out that a McDonald’s ice cream cone temporarily cured her heartburn (as good as they are, it would probably work as well as Bars Leak to stop things from seeping out of the stomach). Over time, and many trips to Micky D’s, she figured out that it wasn’t really the ice cream, rather it was the cold that did something to help make her feel better (don’t tell anyone, but I would have stuck with the Micky D’s version if given the chance).

What better reason does a husband need to break out the Vita Mix and get moving with some DIY at-home smoothies? So, that is what I did and it has been a life saver. Our smoothies are nothing like those you would buy at the local gym. Ours don’t have any protein powder or wheat grass; ours are as healthy as a smoothie can be and still taste good - I guess. So, knowing that everyone that reads this is so health conscious ;) I thought I would share our basic receipt with everyone.

You take 1lb of frozen fruit and combine it with: a couple table spoons of honey, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, and 2 cups of milk (or half and half or cream if you prefer it thicker). Then blend thoroughly for about 60 seconds and you end up with two decent sized smoothies. And, as you might have guessed, I always opt to drink my share of the smoothie to ensure that nothing is wrong it it (you know, I want to protect the baby and all).

We buy frozen fruit (strawberries, blueberries, bananas, and mango) at the local grocery store and we prefer whole fruit with no sugar added. The honey we use is local (from our farming Co-Op) as we understand that is supposed to help us with local allergy immunity. BM isn’t supposed to have any peanut butter right now but I could see that being added to one of these smoothies (think strawberries and peanut butter) after the baby stops placing such high depends on Mom;)

Speaking of the co-op, we picked up our second bag of goodies today. For those of you that don’t know, we are members of a local farming co-op that allows us to own a small share of whatever produce are grown each season. The farm is about an hour away and we love the idea that our food is being grown locally (someone told me that the average piece of food travels 3000 miles to get to your plate - just think of all the CO2 from that traveling).

Each week is a surprise for us in terms of what we get and the cold weather crops will start coming in pretty soon. We love our broccoli, spinach, arugula, etc. Our bag today had some turnips, a few greens, pecans, and several large sweet potatoes. The biggest drawback to the farm is the price. While we do feel better about eating our food locally, it isn’t cheap and right now, we are working through the painful process of determining what expenses need to be cut in preparation for the baby and the lost work time that will surely follow (Someone tell BM that it is imperative that I keep paying someone to cut the grass ;).

Well, that’s it for now. Hope everyone is having a great week. Thanks for stopping by.

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The bladder is not a trampoline

Friday, October 19th, 2007

Well, another week down and all is well in our world. Things are a little busy for both of us right now at work which makes finding time to sleep and do preparation things around the house a little more difficult. Not to mention, sleeping has been difficult for both of us lately.

Our typical routine has been to try to be asleep by about 9p or 9:30p and then hop out of bed about 5a or 5:30a. For some reason falling to sleep hasn’t been such a problem, but staying asleep has been the hard part. I guess, eventually I will get so tired that my body has not choice but to sleep, but for BM, that is another issue entirely and I’m afraid it will only get worse since the problem is that she has to use the bathroom several times during the night.

During a typical night’s sleep I usually wake up at least once and maybe twice and will hop out of bed to use the bathroom. I do this even if I don’t really have to use the bathroom because it prevents me from being awoken at some future point in the night just to use the bathroom. (I know what your a saying… “something is off in the mind of BD because he is talking about their bathroom habits,” but I say “the site name says it all - OpenSource.”)

BM on the other hand has an entirely different approach to sleeping and bathroom breaks. First of all, she takes some crazy pleasure in waking up and then realizing she still has hours of slumber ahead. Because the act of waking up isn’t a issue for her (and may even bring a little joy to her life), in the past, she would wake up a couple of times during the night and not ever use the bathroom unless it was of the utmost urgency. She will readily admit that this approach probably causes her to wake up more frequently during the night, but she doesn’t care because it is the going back to sleep part that she likes - until now!

Apparently the little baby growing inside her likes to play trampoline with her bladder. I guess there is only so much room in a woman’s abdomen and as the baby and uterus grow something has to give. Most people without children might just assume it was only the belly skin that gives. Alas, that is not the only thing that gives. All the internal organs become compressed to some degree or another (no, I am not a doctor, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night). It is this compression that is partially responsible for BM’s heartburn and reduced lung capacity; but those are different issues for another post - this is about TrampoBladder.

So, picture this, BM, who in the past never got up during the night to use the bathroom now has a baby potato bouncing around inside of her (yep, it is a sweet potato ;) with the primary means of propulsion being the elasticity and give of the bladder. So now, BM has to make four to five pit-stops (did I mention we loving Indy Racing) during the night which takes the “I love to go back to sleep” idea to the extreme (we all know the saying about too much of a good thing).

But the bladder bouncing isn’t limited to the night. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we try to walk Dog twice a day around the neighborhood for about 30-45 mins. Let’s just say that I believe our neighborhood walking path will be cut shorter by the day as the pregnancy progresses.

Well, enough toilet talk. The weekend is upon us. BM has a Junior League function tonight so Dog and I will probably spend much time sitting in front of the AppleTV watching crazy YouTube videos. We hope everyone has a great weekend. Talk to you next week.

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Good doctors visit

Friday, October 12th, 2007

We had a visit with the doctor yesterday and everything checked out fine. They did do another ultrasound and they said everything looks good right now. They gave us another image from the ultrasound which looks to me like some kind of halloween costume. As I told the doctor, it looks like it really is my baby :)

This is only a shot of the baby’s head. I think the picture looks like some kind of halloween Voltron mask or something. If you look hard enough you can see the two eye sockets and the mouth. Also, as you can see, the bones are calcifying so they are showing up as being more dense (white) than the images from a couple weeks ago.

You know, it really is cool to be able to see what is going on with the baby inside the womb. When you think about it, it really is somewhat like Star-Trek. I pretty much sit there and watch and am amazed in the technology and what it can do (see the hear and blood flow, brain, etc). But, even with all that technology, this is the only image we received yesterday.

Time to finish up the work week so we can spend the weekend working around the house. Hope you all have a great weekend. I am pretty pumped that the weather is cool this weekend.

Photo 16.jpg

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A few pics today

Thursday, October 11th, 2007

This morning the light was so nice that we took a few minutes to snap a few pics. I will continue to shoot pictures as long as BM will let me :)

Baby’s Momma in B&W - Taken this morning as we were both getting ready for work. I am very lucky that she let’s me snap away when she hasn’t finished her morning routine in preparation for heading into the office. Not to mention that she let’s me post the pictures online :)

Baby’s Momma in Color - I took a few more pics after she was able to dry her hair.

Meet Dog - for those of you that don’t know Dog, here she is trying to get her 15 mins of fame :)

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Beginning of 14th week

Wednesday, October 10th, 2007

Yesterday marked the beginning of our 14th week. All is well in our world.

We spent this past weekend organizing and trashing tons of stuff around the house. Somehow over the years, we have successfully collected enough junk to start our own thrift store. Nonetheless, we are slowly working our way through the stuff that we have in an effort to be better prepared when the baby arrives.

BM is doing very well and fortunately hasn’t experienced any of the horrific symptoms that many of our friends experienced during their pregnancies. However, she does have short bursts of nausea when she smells certain things such as decaying grass (after people cut their grass on the weekend, they leave bagged grass on the curb for the trash folks to pickup) and wet dirt. Fortunately for me, she doesn’t has nausea (yet) when she sees Dog or me.

She hasn’t had any strange cravings yet or any crazy hormonal outburst (historically, these are my areas of expertise). Right now, she does have minor cravings for grapefruit and milk (the latter of which she has never been a big fan of). But, we have read horror stories about pregnant women wanting to eat laundry detergent and dirt. I told her I would be happy to cook for her if she ever has a craving for something that tastes like dirt :)

Twice a day (morning and evening) we take Dog for about a 30 minute walk around the neighborhood. It not only provides both of us and Dog with some minimal exercise but it also gives the two of us some decent time together to discuss the things that I guess all future parents discuss. Namely, what college the child should attend and whether or not we should spoil the child by giving them a car that has airbags when they turn 16. All kidding aside our time walking has been quite refreshing for us both to have that extra time together that in the past we did not fit into our schedules.

We have a regularly scheduled doctors appointment later this week and we hope they will let us see the little baby using an ultrasound. But, I am not really clear on the ultrasound schedule so this visit may not include the scan. However, if they do give us some new pics, I will post them here for your enjoyment.

Take Care
BD

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Open Source What?

Monday, October 8th, 2007

Several readers of the OSB blog have asked the same basic question - something along the lines of “What does OpenSourceBaby mean?” Well dear reader, I’m glad you asked.

I like to think of Open Source as meaning the democratization of knowledge or product. In other words, the idea that the community at large, working collectively can help to improve the knowledge of everyone or alternatively the product at hand.

The idea of Open Source attained a level of societal integration about a decade ago when Netscape (yep, the old web browser that we all used and loved) was being smothered by the then dominance of Microsoft’s new web browser called Internet Explorer. The dominance of Microsoft ultimately was very successful at squashing Netscape but before Netscape completely died the owners of the software released the source code (think of this as the behind the scenes programing that makes the application run the way it does) to the public. In other words, they “open sourced” the code. This meant that anyone who understood their programing language could download the source code for Netscape and make any changes or modifications that they wanted.

But, the Netscape story goes a step further in that groups of people, mostly non paid volunteers, from around the globe joined together in organized online communities to modify and improve the source code of Netscape. These coders do this work not because they are going to make millions or because their names might appear in big bright lights, but for more altruistic reasons… they have skills that, when combined with the larger skill set of the group, help make the product even better. Because of the vision the Netscape team had to release their proprietary source code to the public, today we all have the ability to enjoy a wide variety of open source web browser - the most famous of which is FireFox.

There are many other examples of fantastic open source software products out there. These products are free to download and use and anyone with a programing knowledge can interact with the collective group of programers to make changes to those applications. In fact, the majority of the web pages you browse on the internet are running on an open source software web server application called Apache. Additionally, for most major applications out there, if you look, you will find an open source alternative to a closed source application (think Open Office vs. Microsoft Office). But, oh how easy it is for me to digress in the tech talk :)

From a knowledge perspective, the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia (which I use all the time) is based on the same principle. In that case, individuals with specific information and talents write the entries for the areas they have knowledge. If the group agrees with what the individual added or changed, the group will allow it to become part of the larger entry that you and I read when we want to know something. And it is all done without us (the users) having to pay to access the knowledge of the experts in their respective fields.

Perhaps another analogy is in order to help better articulate the idea of open source. Back in the days when rural society was comprised of family farms, it wasn’t uncommon for a group of neighbors to work together to service all the fields because as a group they were more efficient and talented. Or, you might think of the times in days gone by when the community would all come out to build a house for a newly married couple or in modern times how communities will get together to build a playground for the kids or a home for the needy (think Habitat for Humanity). In these cases, the products (farm goods, houses, playgrounds, etc.) all benefit from the collective knowledge and action of the group.

In our case the meaning of open source has an even deeper meaning than a row of corn or a child’s slide at a playground. In our case the product is a baby or future member of society with which we all have to live.

Many years ago I began to think about and pay attention to the journey my young life had taken and all the individuals who had an influence on me in one way or another. Some of those influences have been large and some not so. But, it is through all those influences that I have, for better or worse, become the person that I am today. And it is through those influences along with my future influences that I will continue to change and morph into the person I will be down the road.

So, as you can see, I believe in the old adage that “It takes a village” to raise a child. But, I define village on a much larger scale. To me it is the idea that society at large and the people close to us (BD and BM) will help guide and chart the course for our baby for its entire life. For this I am thankful, because I can think of no better group of people to help influence the path our baby’s life takes than the group of friends and family that surround us.

In the mean time, if you all want to join me in maintaining my house and yard (think cutting grass, painting, vacuuming, and replacing rotten wood), I would be happy to accept any open source generosity that you send my way :)

Lastly, if you would like to know more about any of the technical subjects discussed in this entry, you may check out the links below.

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About the Blog

Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007

Now that the cat is out of the preverbal bag, I thought I should take a minute to talk a little about the blog. Baby Daddy and Baby Momma decided that a blog would be the best way to keep everyone updated on what was going on during the pregnancy.

Primarily, it keeps us from having to give the same update again and again to our friends and family (bet you didn’t know I was into efficiency did ya).

Secondarily, it keeps us from shoving our journey down the throat of others. I am sure you all have had the crazy person in your family that is always sending email updates and photos of their wonderful pet gerbil and lizard. And I am sure as you get those emails you think to yourself “Self, why in the world would my 7th cousin twice removed think I actually care about their pet hamster?” Well no more, in that vein, this blog gives those who are interested and easy way to keep up with what is going on. Believe me when I say that in no way will we be offended if you choose not to read the blog.

One other thing about the blog… In the age of the internet and privacy, it is hard to keep things secret when they are posted in such a public forum. And the truth is we don’t want to keep the blog a secret, but, we don’t really want to world to have their nose in our business. So, that is why we refer to ourselves as Baby Daddy and Baby Momma (or egg donor). You all know who is who and we think that is sufficient.

Anyway, thanks for stopping by. We will try to keep the blog updated at least on a weekly basis so that everyone will have an idea about what is going on in our lives.

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Twelve Weeks

Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007

This weekend marked a major point for us in that we were finally ready and comfortable telling our friends and family that, despite everyone’s belief to the contrary, yes we are having a baby. Now, don’t get me wrong, we fully understand that there are issues and problems that might still arise, but that is just part of life.

It gave both of us (BD-Baby Daddy and BM-Baby Momma) great joy to share the news this weekend. The anticipation was high as we started mid afternoon making our various phone calls and video chats to our respective families. We experienced all manner of reactions from the standard issue “congratulations” to the “Holy Shit, I never thought that would happen!” But everyone was elated and happy to hear the news from us.

One of the things that kept coming up over and over as we talked to everyone this weekend was that our life was about to make a major change (what kind of change wasn’t made clear :) Funny how we spend all this time getting our life to the way we want it and then everything changes. None the less, it is a change for the better and we are both ready for it.

The really good news for us is that we can now start to call on our family and friends for advice, guidance, and support as we work our way through the pregnancy process. In fact, we strategically planned the pregnancy in such a way that many more of our friends would have gone through it first to make sure the waters were safe to dive in. Now that they have gone through, it is our turn

Anyway, thanks to you all for your support and friendship. We are looking forward to the wonderful journey that is ahead of us and are glad to be making such a journey with a group as special as you belong.

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