How to hold down a full-time career, get a graduate degree, participate in a social/charity group, and grow a fetus in your uterus all at the same time. The working woman's guide to pregnancy.

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Passing the Test

Yesterday was a really exciting day. Yeah, sure, we had the twenty-week sonogram and the kidlet has all its necessary organs, but the thing that really got my heart pumping...

We got our midterm papers back in one of my graduate courses, and I got an A! I'm not being facetious. The thrill I got from this was so intense and so familiar, I dare say it rivaled my reaction to the important doctor's appointment.

I guess I just have a lot more experience reaping pleasure from good grades in school. This whole looking-at-sonograms thing, while interesting, is still too new to be truly euphoric.

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Article of the Day

A must-read on drinking while pregnant from today's New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/29/dining/29preg.html?_r=1&ref=dining&oref=slogin

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Being an Earth Goddess

One of the first stops I made after realizing that I was pregnant was to my little hippie town's natural food co-op to stock up on flax seed, fruit leathers, and organic milk. And of course a copy of a magazine called "Pregnant Hippie Earth Goddess" or something.

I had visions of nurturing my little one in utero with the best natural foods, pre-natal yoga and massage. Once delivered, we're going to use cloth diapers, breastfeed for years, and bond over Joni Mitchell music... or so we think now.

The first of these plans that fell by the wayside was the midwife. Every year, a group of natural parenting advocates and midwives march in our town's independence day parade, so I knew we had midwives around. I set up the appointment early (even before I had called my regular ob-gyn), to go see what this was really all about.

Let's leave it to say that I was not impressed. She told me they can't guarentee they'd be there for delivery and that they don't actually have many hospital rights. Heck, they even deliver at the same place my ob-gyn does. But the clincher... she charged me for the visit! In my opinion, this was a marketing moment for her, not a medical appointment for me.

So I opted to go the standard route. Hopefully, I'll be able to hold out a bit longer on the other elements of hippie mothering. Or maybe, like women across the country, I'll find out that this Earth Goddess thing isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Quote of the Day

"So have you felt what's-his-ass yet today?"

-my hubby thumbing towards my belly

Monday, November 27, 2006

When to Send Out the Press Release

For the first three months of my pregnancy, the only people who knew about it were me and my hubby, my doctor and my masseuse. That's all. We kept it a well-guarded secret for reasons that fell somewhere between well-reasoned pragmatism and irrational paranoia.

Even now that I'm four months along and I've started telling more people (our parents, siblings, bosses, and some close friends), I'm still not entirely comfortable with the idea of "going public."

Perhaps it's fear that all conversations from here on out will be about babies or pregnancies. Or maybe it's my lingering paranoia that something could go wrong (and then I'd prefer to mourn as privately as possible). Either way, I've found the experience of keeping this secret quite fun, and I highly recommend that more women try it out.

For one thing, during those months, it's your little secret baby, and not yet someone else's grandchild, niece, or godchild (though those are all wonderful things). Secondly, you're going to be a parent above all else for the rest of your life...enjoy your last few months as a professional, a student, a wife, a funky twenty-something, or whatever you may be now.

So on Wednesday, I have the twenty-week sonogram which should prove, among other things, that I am indeed carrying a human inside me. Maybe, after that point, I'll be more willing to send out the press release!

Thursday, November 23, 2006

No brie???

So everyone knows that pregnancy and motherhood require a series of sacrifices. Begrudgingly, I was prepared to say "au revoir" to wine and champagne. The research on fetal alcohol syndrome is convincing and the fact that scientists haven't been able to establish any safe levels of alcohol intake while pregnant was enough to help me go cold turkey when the magical moment arrived.

But nobody prepared me for the laundry list of delicacies I was going to have to skip for nine months. But the most shocking no-no: brie...and camembert...and chevre...and all soft cheeses. The deal was already done by the time I found this out, so there was no going back. But how can you ask a former French major to give up red wine and brie!?

No cookie dough, no alfafa sprouts, no unpasteurized juices (sorry, apple cider from the orchard). The list of must-avoid-meats is even longer, but that's no problem for this long-term vegetarian.

I would just give a brief word of warning to my foodie friends out there who are thinking of conceiving. Check out the recommendations at http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancyhealth/foodstoavoid.html and plan accordingly.
Bon Appetit!

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Conception

Today, I gave birth to a blog. It was a fairly painless process, from conception (about two weeks ago) to now.

Picking the name was the hardest--but most fun--part. My father-in-law came up with the winning suggestion: Fetal Attraction. This edged out earlier front runners "In the Baby Way," "Fetal Mania," and "Blog in the Oven." But I think Fetal Attraction really is a blog I can love... and I hope you will too.

On this site, I will share musings about my first pregnancy (now four months along), interesting articles with health news or helpful tips, thoughts about modern motherhood-to-be that includes a career and graduate school, and comments and feedback from anybody who has something to contribute.

Welcome to the world, Fetal Attraction!