FutureBaby!
drorzel | August 11, 2008A few weeks back, I started a betting pool, inviting people to guess the birth date and sex of FutureBaby (now SteelyKid). Looking back over the entries, the winner was Kylinn, who correctly guessed August 7th and female.
Kylinn wins, according to the original wager:
The winner gets bragging rights, plus their choice of something small and tacky from Japan, or the right to dictate one post topic for the blog (that is, you name the topic, I'll write about it, while sleep-deprived from having a new baby in the house. Fun for the whole family!).
If you're Kylinn, email me with your choice. If…
drorzel | August 7, 2008Behold, the cutest burrito in Niskayuna:
8 lbs, 2 oz, 20 inches long. Do your own metric conversions.
The obligatory mother-and-child picture is below the fold:
Both mother and baby are well, and resting after their ordeal. And, obviously, adorable.
FutureBaby's real name will be Claire Nepveu Orzel ("Nepveu" is a middle name, not the first half of an unhyphenated compound name). In the interests of preserving a tiny bit of privacy in this age of Google, this is the one and only time that her real name will appear on the blog, until she's old enough to decide how she wants to be known.…
drorzel | August 2, 2008Around 20% of women who go into labor do so after eating Chinese food.
Another 17% or so go into labor after eating Indian food.
True facts.
(No baby yet. We were amusing ourselves yesterday talking about urban legends on how to induce labor, and these occurred to me this morning as possible justifications...)
drorzel | July 28, 2008In the Reader Request thread, Mary Kay writes:
I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on becoming a father. Both before and after the actual event.
I mentioned this to Kate, and she asked whether I thought there was a difference between "fatherhood" and "parenthood." I'm not that attuned to such things, so it had never really occurred to me that there is a difference-- I'm becoming a parent, and I have a Y chromosome, thus "parenthood"="fatherhood." She sees some differences in expectations between "parenthood" and "motherhood," and I suppose that "fatherhood" does suggest a little more…
drorzel | July 14, 2008In a comment on the FutureBaby betting thread, Rivka writes:
(I'm laughing at all these people who are predicting early. The average gestation for a first time mother is 41 weeks, 1 day.)
Of course, as a physical scientist, my immediate reaction to that is "If they know that, then shouldn't that be figured into the projected delivery date?" It's not, though-- we can count up the weeks, and the projected date is at exactly forty weeks.
So why doesn't the projected delivery date reflect the average gestation time for a first-time mother? As someone who has taught pre-med physics, I have an…
drorzel | July 13, 2008OK, not really a betting pool, as there will be no cash wagered. This is strictly for amusement.
The projected arrival date for FutureBaby is July 28th, which is two weeks from tomorrow. Of course, the actual arrival date could be any day in the next month or so. We also don't know the sex of FutureBaby-- our doctors do, thanks to our adventure with the first-trimester screening test, but we asked not to be told.
Thus, this a perfect topic for a blog contest:
Guess the delivery date and sex of FutureBaby, win a prize.
Eligible dates are between July 14th and August 11th, inclusive. Eligible…
drorzel | June 28, 2008The garage remodel is dragging on a bit-- the room is usable, but not all of the shelves are in yet. We have, however, cleared enough space to set up some of the piles of baby things we've acquired:
A few details:
The crib mobile establishes the reptile theme of the decor, with some incongruously cheery dinosaurs:
FutureBaby already has a fine start on a stuffed animal collection, visible on the bookshelf in the back of the first picture:
Note the awesome dragon puppet and cute plushie dinosaurs.
And, of course, any baby needs to have at least one animal bigger than itself:
Not visible in…
drorzel | June 6, 2008Being a Baby of the Future, FutureBaby obviously needs to have a theme song. Sadly, Kate and I don't have the cash on hand to commission John Williams to write one. So, then, we shall Ask the Internets:
What (already existing) piece of music should be FutureBaby's theme song?
I realize this would be easier if FutureBaby were an ActualBaby, and thus had some personality to base it on, but I suppose the right theme song could help establish an appropriate personality...
So have at it.
(Look, it's the last day of classes. You don't seriously expect me to have the mental energy for deep and…
drorzel | June 1, 2008Six years ago today, to within a few hours:
It's been good so far, I think we'll stick with it a while longer...
If you'd like to see more evidence that Kate's way too good to me, here's a picture taken today:
That's from the pregnancy mug shot gallery. The T-shirt she's wearing, if you care, is this one, reading "Yes, I'm pregnant. NO, you may not touch my belly."
That's all for today, because between the baby shower and the driving, I'm beat. Talk among yourselves for the evening, I'm taking a night off.
drorzel | May 22, 2008Kate's doctor called back after the ultrasound Tuesday, and this time the news was all good-- FutureBaby appears very healthy, and everything is as it should be.
There was one interesting little quirk, though, having to do with the weight. Kate mentioned last night that FutureBaby's estimated weight is in the 70th percentile for babies at this stage of development.
My immediate reaction was "That's all? What's wrong?"
Needless to say, this is not what Kate was thinking...
The difference is that the only place I'm used to encountering percentile ranks is with regard to standardized test scores…
drorzel | May 20, 2008Welcome to today's exciting episode of "How Big a Dork Am I?" Today, we'll be discussing the making of unnecessary models:
In this graph, the blue points represent the average mass in grams of a fetus at a given week of gestation, while the red line is the mass predicted by a simple model treating the fetus as a sphere of uniform density with a linearly increasing radius.
The "model" was set up by taking the 40-week length reported at BabyCenter, and dividing by two to get an approximate radius for the spherical baby. Then I assumed that the actual radius increased linearly from zero to the…
drorzel | May 20, 2008
I think it's the bright thing right in the middle of this ultrasound image. Because, of course, in the Future we'll all have personal jet packs, even the babies...
A somewhat more recognizable picture:
That's a profile shot of FutureBaby's head. The other is a wider shot, showing some of the body. These are even less baby-like than the last set, because FutureBaby is now large enough to extend past the field of view of the ultrasound gizmo.
Estimated weight at the moment is 4lbs, which is a little big for 30 weeks. It's a little scary to think that FutureBaby will almost double in mass…
drorzel | May 17, 2008
"What the hell is this?"
"We're remodeling the garage into a family room."
"Oooh! That's a good idea!"
"Thanks. We're so glad you approve."
"So, where are you going to put the bunny hutch?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"For me to keep my bunnies in!"
"You don't have any bunnies."
"Not yet, I don't, but now that we'll have room, you can buy me some. I can play with them in here, or out in my yard..."
"Ah, no. I don't think so. We won't be buying you any bunnies."
"Then why did you buy the bunny hutch?"
"The what?"
"The hutch. The thing with the hard mattress surrounded by bars, upstairs. It's for…
drorzel | May 17, 2008Behold, an ordinary garage:
Now, watch as it is transformed:
Obviously, there's a good deal of work yet to do, but it's really remarkable how much difference sheet rock makes-- between Day 8 and Day 9, it goes from looking like a construction site to looking like a room that just needs a little finishing. I have pictures from other corners, but this is the only complete set (it's taken from the door from the kitchen into the garage), as there were a few days when there was so much stuff piled in one of the corners that I couldn't get there to take a picture.
The background here…
drorzel | May 15, 2008I have to go to work unpleasantly early to give an exam, and then I'll be occupied for most of the day with a visiting speaker. Here's something cute and fuzzy to compensate:
That's the plush triceratops I bought Tuesday at the Natural History museum shop, as an advance gift for FutureBaby. We're developing a sort of reptilian theme in baby decor-- we registered for a ridiculously cute dino-themed set of linens, and Kate's cross-stitching some baby dragons to hang on the walls.
I'm not sure what this says about us. But the next time somebody asks how we're decorating the nursery (which…
drorzel | May 13, 2008Kate and I have been discussing possible names for FutureBaby when he or she ceases to be a baby in potentia and becomes an ActualBaby. We've also talked a bit about the issue of FutureBaby's Internet identification-- specifically, whether I should refer to him or her by name in the eventual blog posts (and oh, yes, there will be blog posts...), or adopt some sort of pseudonym to preserve a tiny bit of privacy in this Google age.
At the moment, we're leaning toward adopting a pseudonym for blog-reference purposes. Which raises the important question that I will throw open to you, oh wise and…
drorzel | May 11, 2008Kate and I made a run to Babies "R" Us today, and looked at a bunch more baby stuff. We got a little punchy after a while, so it was perhaps not surprising that I was tremendously amused by the idea of Penguin Bowling.
On further reflection, though, it's really only natural. After all, the toy is really nothing more than a child's introduction to the study of physics. It's really an educational tool that captures the very essence of physics: we learn about the world we live in by throwing things at other things, and seeing what happens when they collide. Sometimes we throw photons at atoms,…
drorzel | May 6, 2008A few days back, John Scalzi posted a piece celebrating YA books and authors, which included some reading recommendations. In the comments, a few people said that as childless adults they were reluctant to go into the YA section of the store, lest people think they were creeps looking for kids to prey upon.
I can honestly say that that would just never occur to me. I can't really imagine how skeevey somebody would need to look before I thought "Gee, I wonder if that guy is really a pedophile creep?" rather than "There's a guy looking for books for his kid."
Of course, the sad thing is that…
drorzel | April 23, 2008We've asked not to be told the sex of FutureBaby, even though Kate's doctors know it, having done an amniocentesis to screen for genetic defects. So far, they've been very good about not hinting at anything. We may have cause to reconsider this decision, though, as we get deeper into the issue of names.
There's really nothing for exposing latent class prejudices like thinking about baby names. Not only do I cringe at names that have a hillbilly sort of ring to them, I also reflexively shy away from names that are too "Yuppie." This is somewhat ironic, because in social class terms, I'm…
drorzel | April 21, 2008One of many parts of the FutureBaby! process that I was lamentably ignorant of is the idea of the hospital tour. When I first mentioned to colleagues that we were expecting, many of them (mostly women) asked "Where are you going to have the baby?"
My initial response was "How the hell should I know? In a hospital, I hope. Preferably not in the back of a cab." I always just assumed you went to whatever hospital was closest when things started happening. Probably because I grew up out in the sticks, where hospitals aren't exactly thick on the ground.
But no, this is a Major Decision-- people…