FutureBaby!

FutureBaby Betting Pool Winner

drorzel — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 04:58:23 +0000

FutureBaby Betting Pool Winner

A 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 you're not Kylinn, here's a lovely parting gift, because everybody's a winner in Chateau Steelypips:

Kate and SteelyKid are coming home today, hooray!

drorzel Mon, 08/11/2008 - 00:58

Tags

FutureBaby!

Steelykid!

Awwwwwwwwww. So cute!

PS -
Dialog with Emmy on "coming home day" is eagerly awaited. Can this new life form be explained with quantum mechanics?

Congrats! No data on length/weight? Just curious if she's already taking after dad...

Is she still wearing socks on her hands? I love it when babies have to do that!

You might contemplate a leveraged investment IPO. You are staring down minimum $250K (in constant dollars; massive inflation is on-line) negative cashflow local opportunity. Unanticipated expenses include non-public education and healthcare insurance suspension when your provider's administrative software protects the home team. As with gods' representatives on Earth, "hodie mihi, cras tibi".

SteelyKid entered a very different world. Bio-engineered tiny girls in skintight cutaway leotards do stuff in Beijing while Russia secures control of the big oil pipeline connecting the Caspian region across Georgia, threading Turkey, then to Europe. NATO isn't saying peep. Europe is mute. "Play ball with Russia, tovariches, or we shove bat up freezing European fundaments this winter."

History has gone real time. 90 days Accounts Payable is now COD. Exciting, isn't it?

@ Tara #2 -- check 2 posts down, the first SteelyKid! post.

Asad

Well done, Kylinn!

@Tara: Unless I miss my guess, there will be spreadsheets and graphs tracking height/weight. I just hope we get to see 'em. :)

...
Dang, i was so close.

...course, I got that pesky gender thing wrong . . ..

Congrats to all and best wishes.

...tom...
.

Meet SteelyKid

drorzel — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 18:43:12 +0000

Meet SteelyKid

Behold, 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.

Henceforth, she will be known (on the blog) as SteelyKid, because it amuses Kate.

And now, food, then bed. Feel free to leave comments exclaiming on the extreme wonderfulness of SteelyKid, but don't go trying to claim that there's a better or cuter baby out there. Them's fighting words.

drorzel Thu, 08/07/2008 - 14:43

Tags

FutureBaby!

Oh, how absolutely wonderful! What a lovely baby! I am so very pleased for all three of you.

Hooray!

Welcome SteelyKid! Congrats, guys!

Extremely Wonderful!
She rocks! You guys rock (but especially Kate, after the last day of major effort)!
Love SteelyKid's name...

Congratulations, one and all!

You guys must be so happy! SteelyKid is adorable.

For the lazy people amongst us:
8 pounds 2 oz = 3.685 kg,
20 inches = 0.508 m.

I think you need a new category... FutureBaby! is out-dated. (I never noticed the ! before :)

Good work! Great return on investment. Will the obligatory mobile over the crib be orthogonal polynomials, plumbing fittings, or little dancers?

Congratulations! That's highly awesome.

Good luck!

w00t! Congratulations! What a beautiful baby!

Congratulations!

Awwww! Congratulations!

This is wonderful. Congratulations.

Congratulations to you and Kate, and welcome to the world, SteelyKid!

Congratulations!

Congratulations!!

Congratulations, Kate and Chad! And SteelyKid!

Congratulations!!!

awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Congratulations!

Congratulations, and good luck.

Congratulations, she's beautiful!

And keep the burrito going as long as possible. Keep getting bigger blankets, it's kept me sane with my baby girl.

Congratulations. Since she looks like her mother, I still say that "RepliKate" works as a name.

She is definitely beautiful. Congratulations to the both of you!

Huzzah! Congratulations to the proud parents. Welcome to the world, SteelyKid.

Is Emmy going to have to share the throne of Niskayuna now?

K-YUTE!

and this is coming from someone who does NOT think all babies are cute. many are squinchy and blotchy and underdone-looking.

but this one is genuinely cute.

score!

Hooray!

Brilliant!

Congrats to all three of you! She's adorable!

w00t!

The next adventurous stage of your (her?) life has begun. Have a blast!

I'm so happy for the two of you! The THREE of you!

Congrats on the SteelySprog!

"SteelyKid" -- perfect! Congrats to both you and Kate....

Congratulations!

Congratulations to all of you. That is one cute baby.

Congratulations!!!

Congrats and best wishes!

Unsolicited advice: The first 6-8 weeks are just about survival. Keep expectations really low, and you'll be fine. It gets easier after that.

Congratulations!
Have fun

Yay SteelyKid! So pleased for you both. Enjoy... (Hah!)

I already said this elsewhere, but congrats to you can Kate, Chad.

Congratulations!

Yay for SteelyKid! Congrats! Is she also a new Duchess of Niskayuna?

Is she also a new Duchess of Niskayuna?

We haven't decided what her title will be, yet, but I doubt very much it will be anything that's outranked by the dog. Much to Emmy's annoyance.

Hooray! What a beautiful baby and what a beautiful name! Good luck.

Congratulations all around and Sto Lat to baby Claire! We can't wait to meet her! Love and hugs to all.............

Congratulations to all!

Congratulations!

Congrats!

Congratulations! Hope you're getting some sleep.

Congratulations!

The first chapter of your trilogy is complete......trilogy, right ? Congratulations to all from the Upstate Luke clan, babysitting available anytime ! Our kids can teach yours all of the WONDERFUL things they know ! Bug eating, nose picking, etc. See you soon !

Congratulations, SteelyFolks! She really IS a beauty!

Good thing she looks like her mom. Sleep! You can eat while she's awake, at least enough to get by. Congrats.

Congratulations and best wishes! Shame she couldn't have held out one more day so I could've won the betting pool... :)

Remember Rule #1: Never wake a sleeping baby. Rule #2: Sleep when the baby sleeps.

Congrats!

Congratulations! She is beautiful, just like mom! Emmy will love her, even if she gets a bit put out by the new ruler of the house occasionally.

Best advice I got after becoming a parent is what marciepooh told you - sleep when the baby's asleep, esp those first few weeks. Don't worry about the housework, or errands, or cooking dinner, or laundry, or anything else you "need" to do. Sleep is your highest priority. You can get what absolutely needs doing done while SteelyKid is awake.

Good luck to all of you!

Congratulations to the three of you! (and the dog as well)

Happy Oth Birthday, SteelyKid! Congrats to you and Kate!

Congratulations to all and welcome SteelyKid!

Congratulations! Um...let the circus begin!

yay! congratulations, dad

Congratulations to you and the wife, and to SteelyKid!

Awwww!

Welcome and congrats to all!

Congratulations to you for your bundle of joy, whom the Brits would say weighed about 0.580357143 stones. Now your adult life REALLY begins!

Congratulations Chad!

Congrats!

And welcome to the our wonderful universe, SteelyKid.

Congratulations and enjoy your beautiful baby girl!

"Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts."

--Albert Einstein

She's adorable - congratulations!

Dat's one cute kid. Congratulations to all involved!

Have you considered "Empress of Eastern New York?" That way Emmy maintains authority over the local squirrels and lesser dogs.

Congratulations! In the future, you may want to switch to SteelyGirl, which would be a good name for either a superhero or a band.

congratulations!

Congratulations

Squee! Adorable!

Mazeltof!

Hearty Congratulations! Have you told Emmy yet?

Did you see the story (I think it was on CBS News by the roving reporter who does the last show every Friday) where he explored the "cute baby" question? He made increasingly perverse pictures of his kid (crossed eyes, distorted smile) with PhotoShop and showed them to people on the street. It had to get really bad before they stopped saying the kid was "cute".

Enjoy every minute of your Fall semester off!

Sure I was the cutest baby - but your daughter is adorable also. Congratulations! I wish you all the love an happiness.

Heartiest and warmest congratulations to you all! She's cute as the proverbial button.

(And deepest sympathies to poor Emmy, who is now to be outranked.)

The MadPanda, FCD

Congratulations Chad and Kate!

We are so happy for you all-She is adorable and we love the name too! It will be so fun to have another little one at the table this Christmas Eve!

Rest up and enjoy all the special moments!

Beautiful! Bless them both. And you too.

So who won the pool? :)

Congrats, both; and welcome, little one. Guaranteed to be the cutest baby in Albany for at least 3 months!

Congratulations to you and Kate! What a lovely baby. And may the baby soon sleep for six consecutive hours a night. :-D

Great job for first-timers! She truly is beautiful. We wonder who will spoil her more, Daddy or Grandparents!!!!

AL&UG

Congratulations!

Delving into the archives confirms it: I totally came up with SteelyKid the Moniker. I'm way too proud over that.

Congratulations on the beautiful baby!

Congrats! What a cutey!!!

Congratulations.
May you get some sleep for a while.

Hey, who won the pool?

Congratulations! She is beautiful (and has the best name too!)
May she bring you many years of love and happiness :)

Congrats to everyone, especially SteelyKid!

Hi Chad, congratulations and welcome to steely. Get some rest if you can - the next two years of your life or so will be deprived of any sleep beyond that strictly necessary to ensure your brain functionality is good enough to exchange a diaper.

Cheers,
T.

Sorry to get here so late, but congratulations!! Mazel tov to all of you. She's beautiful.

awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww n00b hy00min is teh QT! SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

=kissz= =huggz= ***HED ASPLODE***

Cue music.......... :-)

Very belated but hearty congratulations. She's a keeper!

Congratulations! She sure is cute. ...science note: did you know that babies give off pheromones from their scalps that make us happy? That's why people are always kissing their heads.

Mine was 21" long when born and I remarked that the average was 19". A friend immediately piped up with, "Why do you care? You gonna rack-mount 'im?" Which broke everyone up. It's the standard width for electronics racks.

Correlation and Causation

drorzel — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 06:54:12 +0000

Correlation and Causation

Around 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 Sat, 08/02/2008 - 02:54

Tags

FutureBaby!

percentage of women who are in labor after going into labor -- 100%

According to my English major math, that means woman who eat Chinese and Indian food have a 37 percent chance of going into labor. I wonder what effect Nepalese cuisine has. (Or Tibetan, for that matter.)

Take an economics and climatology approach: wait for the data to arrive then write theory showing why it is wrong.

I have a friend whose mom went into labor after the dog jumped over her due to freaking out over trick-or-treaters at the front door. Just wait a few more months.

My mother gave birth right after riding in a taxi very fast. It worked for her when she was expecting my sister as well. Maybe you should try that.

Is that because 20% of women live in China and 17% of women live in India?

My wife went into labor almost immediately after submitting two SBIR proposals involving thin-film superconductors, at Talandic Research Company, a 200-person electro-optical subcontractor to major aerospace firms. She won both proposals, as PI, and had to go back to the lab rather soon after our son was born.

0.001% of women go into labour after eating boiled haddock and potatoes, with butter.
You have to play the odds...

Good luck.

I've heard great stuff about eggplant parmesan!

Reminds me of an old Dilbert comic strip, where the boss became outraged because 40% of sick days were taken on either a Monday or a Friday.

Reader Request: Parenthood

drorzel — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 08:49:37 +0000

Reader Request: Parenthood

In 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 coaching of sports teams than "parenthood."

Anyway, we'll go with the gender-neutral version for the post title, with the understanding that anything I saw is likely to be unconsciously slanted toward a male perspective.

The short answer to the question is basically what I've been saying to everyone who asks about the baby: It's a linear superposition of "exciting" and "absolutely terrifying." I'm given to understand that the "terrifying" part only lasts about thirty years, though, so there's that.

As far as the "exciting" part goes, I've wanted to have a kid for a while now. It was actually kind of difficult to wait until after tenure, but Kate was able to get me to see reason on that. I'm really looking forward to it-- not so much the sleepless nights and diaper changes, you understand, but the bedtime stories and games and teaching stuff.

The "terrifying" bit is just that the stakes are so high. I'm not talking about all the absurd warnings about things that lead to INSTANT DEATH for the children of unwary parents, because I think a lot of that is overblown. I mean the whole parent-child relationship-- sharing responsibility for shaping a person, teaching FutureBaby! how to behave, how to think, how to learn.

That's a lot of responsibility, and it's scary to think about what might go wrong. What if the kid ends up not liking books? Being a Duke fan? Going to amherst? Those kind of thoughts will keep you up nights.

At the moment, "exciting" is winning out over "terrifying." I have a fairly high opinion of myself (hence this blog), and a higher opinion of Kate, and I think any kid of ours ought to be pretty darn cool. I'm reasonably confident that the three of us will be able to deal with whatever comes our way.

And as far as general parenting goes, I don't think I could ask for a better example than that set by my own parents. As I said, I have a fairly high opinion of myself, but I think a lot of the credit for what I've accomplished really goes to them. They were always there, always patient, and always supported me, even when I had really hare-brained ideas about how to spend my time (I mean, really, grad school in physics?).

If I can do even a poor imitation of what they did for me, FutureBaby will be just fine.

drorzel Mon, 07/28/2008 - 04:49

Tags

FutureBaby!

It is all well and good for you to try to follow your father's footsteps, but if you push you wife to "be like me mother", it can get nasty ;-)

I'm going to be a first-time dad in September, and I've been reading your thoughts on your impending fatherhood. I'm wondering - everything you say, I keep thinking, "That's what I'VE been thinking". Do you suppose I'm just hearing what I want to hear, or are we on a very similar wavelength about parenthood? Not that you can answer that.

I'm going to be a first-time dad in September,

Congratulations.
It'll change your life, you know.

(I've been dying to say that to somebody...)

PARENTHOOD - anything that makes life sometimes hard. having to wake up early and not sleeping in, diapers!!! saying no. Everything about raising a kid that seems like a job... because that's what it is.

FATHERHOOD - Having your boy or girl sit beside you and put their hand in yours for the first time and know that they feel happy and content. Nothing else matters at that point. Not work, theroies, grants or position.
good luck and look for that first memory.

Even in these modern times, most fathers will still feel a little extra stress about having to provide security and financial stability for his family. I know most families are dual income and sometimes the mother even makes more than the father, but most people around today still feel the influence of a society that expects the man to be the big provider. The twist with the "modern" father is that the man is now allowed to bond more with the child emotionally and be more involved in the child's daily life. Achieving a balance is difficult, creating a real tug-of-war between work and home, a feeling very familiar to single parents.

And Chad, since you're a music fan, I'd recommend Brian Joseph's hilarious/touching 2005 album "If I Never Sleep Again". It's an album entirely about the experiences of fatherhood, with titles such as "9 Months to Fix the World", "Making Love", and "Alpha and Omega". Not to be a softy, but I well up every time I listen to "Lullabye for Mom and Dad", sung from the perspective of the baby.

I spent a lot of time before Jorie was born worrying about how I would deal with all the physical, emotional and disciplinary problems a kid can have: even "How do I cope with a surly, rebellious teenager?" when said teenager was barely a fetus.

She's still a long way from being a teenager, surly or otherwise, but I now realize that the long-term worrying is all fruitless, since in fact you're never dealing with a generic child. You're dealing with a specific child, who you'll know very well, and everything is going to depend on applying what you already know about that child. Most of the time, you'll probably have a fair idea what to do. Of course, this also means that most advice concerning raising generic children is going to be useless.

The closest you'll ever get to generic-child befuddlement is right at the beginning, and even newborns are all different. Newborn days are also probably when the difference between fatherhood and general parenthood are largest, since mommy is going to be so tied down; you'll probably have a little bit of guilt over this which you'll have to channel into being a good utility player.

Why Don't They Predict That?

drorzel — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 05:26:37 +0000

Why Don't They Predict That?

In 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 extremely cynical and unflattering guess, but I'd love to hear an actual explanation.

drorzel Mon, 07/14/2008 - 01:26

Tags

FutureBaby!

Medicine

Science

It's literally because some guy in the 19th century came up with a nice round number, and nobody bothered to check his figures until nearly a century and a half later.

http://transitiontoparenthood.com/ttp/birthed/duedates.htm

Hospitals still promulgate the "40 weeks" date because it gives them an "argument" to induce babies at 41 weeks, even though that's the average. If you can induce more babies, your staffing requirements become much more predictable.

Of course, these things also depend on the mother's age, which is another tidbit of information we weren't provided with. (And then, as someone who was born 5 weeks early to a 1st time mother, I find this whole "predicting" thing rather amusing to begin with...)

these things also depend on the mother's age

Huh, I didn't know that.

I'll be 31 quite soon.

And yeah, of course this is for amusement purposes only . . . my niece, a first-born, was six weeks early.

Birth occurs when the fetus outgrows local resources and begins to starve. Big dad, petite mom. Early delivery is a defensible prognosis.

One wonders whether modestly reducing a due mother's blood sugar concentration would displace 100 years of medical "wisdom". Western birth posture is certainly the work of an idiot.

Yup. The older the mother, the more likely the baby is to be premature:

A 2005 government study found that women over age 40 were 40 percent more likely than younger women to deliver prematurely (before 37 weeks of pregnancy) (6). ... Other studies have found that women between 35 and 39 also have an increased risk of premature delivery, though their risk may be lower than that of women over age 40 (7).

But at 31 this is all irrelevant.

That 41 weeks, 1 day, is for first time CAUCASIAN moms, IIRC. Asians and African-Americans have different averages, too, both less than 40 weeks, IIRC. (Excuse my faulty memory, though, as with two small kids my IQ has significantly lowered.) So, many, many factors come into play - age, first time mom, race, general health, and the baby's temperament :D.

First child, born when I was 30, arrived 3.5 weeks early. Second child, born when I was 33, arrived 5 weeks early. Both "preemies" technically, but no problems (in fact, my first-born was pretty big, even early).

As a Caucasian woman, I fully expected to be "late." Surprised me that both kids came early, and so early at that - the baby comes when the baby is ready to do so.

Not much consolation in these final days, I know. But know that the baby IS coming :D

You know, something that has been bothering me ever since my first daughter was born, is that for something that people have been doing for all of our existence, the doctors seem to be awfully willing to proceed blindly without even checking to see if the most common problems might be cropping up. In particular, there is a problem when the baby is facing the wrong way at birth: if it is coming out facing forwards, the delivery is far more painful, difficult, and more likely to result in getting stuck than if the baby is facing backwards. This is not rare: it happens maybe one time in six (and it happened to my wife both times). And yet, do they make any effort whatsoever to determine which way the baby is facing at the start of labor? NO! They do NOT! I mean, here they are, they've even got a portable ultrasound imager in the fool delivery room, and they stand there and bald-faced tell me that they have no way of finding out how the baby is oriented until it is too late. And they show no sign of even caring! "Oh, that's just the way it is sometimes", they say. Bah. At least, after the doctor and nurses finished spending about ten hours berating my wife for being a wimp, and then finally decided that maybe things weren't proceeding well and a C-section was warranted, the doctor had the decency to concede that the baby had been badly stuck and to apologise to her for putting her through that.

With that sort of thing going on, I am not surprised at all that they haven't worked out a reasonable way to predict birth dates. Especially since both of ours were nominally 2 weeks early, and yet the doctors kept saying about each one "That's funny, she looks full-term".

Human beings being the infinitely variable creatures that they are, all things will very. But it says right there on the first page of the How to be an Authoritative God-like Figure Manual that you must always sound sure of yourself. So 40 weeks it is!

And while I at first thought the combination of big dad and petite mom could argue for an early birth, I remembered my own. I was a first child and was 2 weeks late and weighed 9lbs 6 oz. The word petite was invented to describe my mother. (No it wasn't a difficult birth -- barely 8 hours labor. Apparently the inside doesn't match the outside.)

MKK

FutureBaby Betting Pool

drorzel — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 09:15:51 +0000

FutureBaby Betting Pool

OK, 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 sexes are "male" or "female." (It seems silly to have to specify that, but this is the Internet...). That makes 58 unique possible guesses. If two or more people choose the correct date and sex, the winner will be the person who chose it first (based on comment timestamps).

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!). Leave your guesses in the comments.

(One date per comment, one comment per person. Void where prohibited by the laws of physics. Doctors who have access to Kate's medical files (or members of their families) are not eligible.)

drorzel Sun, 07/13/2008 - 05:15

Tags

FutureBaby!

I'll go for my grandfather's birthday (iirc) of July 31, and say female.

Hope you're stocking up on sleep :)

My daughter was 5 days past her due date, so I'll say Aug 2 for the date. Having both a boy and a girl, my son was *really* obvious on the ultrasound, so if you're still in the dark, I'll wager FutureBaby will also be female. Hope Kate's doing well...

August 1 and female

July 30th. Female.

July 28th (hey, *someone* has to make the guess that it'll be the actual due date), female.

I am not a member of the family of any of the medical files.

Aug 4, female.

August 9th, female.

Kate is doing fine. Everything has gone very smoothly since the first-trimester drama.

Regarding the obviousness, I should note that the ultrasound tech deliberately did not look at the relevant area. She said that's her usual practice unless parents specifically ask her to check the sex, because people kept finding out more than they wanted to know.

Amusingly, people we've talked to in person about this have overwhelmingly guessed that FutureBaby will be male, while Internet voting is running overwhelmingly in favor of female.

In case you'd like to use some appearance-based bit of folk wisdom, to guess the sex, here's the link to the pregnancy mug shot gallery, up through last week.

0300 hrs 26 July, male, 500 quatloos.

july 23rd. Male.

July 27th, female.

July 26th, male.

I'll go for an outlier: August 10th, before noon, male.

August 2nd, female.

August 1st, male.

July 28, male.

August 3, male.

August 9th, male.

26 July, girl.

July 29th, female

July 29, male

July 30, female

August 6, female.

I'll vote August 8, the night of the next roller derby bout I'll be announcing. As for gender... a flip of the coin says "female." Best wishes!

I'm going to go with July 27, a boy.

>:)

Late pregnancy was among my least favorite times, so I'll guess July 14th, a boy.

July 20th, boy.

August 5th, a girl.

(I'm laughing at all these people who are predicting early. The average gestation for a first time mother is 41 weeks, 1 day.)

...
Wait a minute, have to set up an Excel spreadsheet to find an open spot...

Rivka (#28) seems to know what she is talking about. I will take August 5th, male. I do not think anyone has picked that date yet...

Good luck/health to mom/dad/baby..!!

...tom...
.

August 7th, female

August 2, girl.

I'm glad to hear Kate is doing well. :-)

August 11, Male (in keeping with my own waiting until the last minute boy)

August 3rd, female.

Hopefully it won't be very hot out, whenever it is...

I'll pick July 17th, male.

August 5th, boy.

(only because Aug 4 and female was taken)

How do we know this isn't rigged and you already know it's going to be sexless/multipenis/octovulva ect?

8/4, male

Aug 2 - female

Amplexus: well, you don't. You just have to take our word that we are quite sure that FutureBaby is either XX or XY, because our doctors would have said if the amnio showed otherwise. And yeah, that doesn't exhaust every possibility, but the odds are such that we're willing to go with "male" or "female" for these purposes . . .

Rivka: The average gestation for a first time mother is 41 weeks, 1 day.

Yeah, but FutureBaby is a baby of the Future!!!! and thus, umm, something.

July 31, male. And full of gumption, I'm sure!

August 6, Male.

July 15th, male

Since someone's already picked two weeks late and male, the circumstances of my birth, I'll go with the exact date of my birth instead, even though I know there's no real chance of it being this early.

8/8/08, male.

July 17, male.

I hope it's sooner rather than later - looks like the baby may have "dropped" in the mug-shots, so I'm thinking soon!

Good luck, and best wishes. I'll repeat, stock up on sleep NOW.

July 31, female. [Albeit my *real* guess is Aug 4th, but I'm coming late to this!]

If it happens to hit July 14, male, and hence emulate me, I'll donate a suitable memento of le quatorze juillet!

I'm putting in for August 8, male.

Aug. 8 - definitely a boy!!!!!

Project Nursery

drorzel — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 20:25:10 +0000

Project Nursery

The 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 these are the little dragons that Kate has cross-stitched for the nursery, or the quilt cross-stitched by my 94-year-old(!) great-aunt, or the fuzzy dinosaur blanket. You can almost see the dino-pattern sheets, but they're mostly hidden.

We have wonderful and generous friends and family, who are seeing to it that FutureBaby will be well equipped whenever he or she emerges.

drorzel Sat, 06/28/2008 - 16:25

Tags

FutureBaby!

I've been wondering -- what is Future Baby's due date?

MKK

I was just about to ask the same thing. But looks like you guys are prepared.

FutureBaby's due date is July 28.

So did you ever decide how you're going to refer to FutureBaby once FutureBaby becomes PresentBaby?

(Personally I like the idea of calling no-longer-FutureBaby "Little Uncertain")

Where's the Cthulhu plushy?

'Particle'

Theme From FutureBaby!

drorzel — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 08:36:01 +0000

Theme From FutureBaby!

Being 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 thoughtful blogging, do you?)

drorzel Fri, 06/06/2008 - 04:36

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FutureBaby!

"Anything You Can Do" is a song composed by Irving Berlin for the 1946 Broadway musical, Annie Get Your Gun. The song is a spirited duet, with one male singer and one female singer attempting to out-do each other in increasingly complex tasks.

Anything you can do,
I can do better.
I can do anything
Better than you.

No, you can't.
Yes, I can. No, you can't.
Yes, I can. No, you can't.
Yes, I can,
Yes, I can!

Anything you can be
I can be greater.
Sooner or later,
I'm greater than you.

[etc]

The Battle Hymn of the Republic

Because every baby needs a purpose in life.

Tossup depending on the November election,

1) Keep Yourself Alive, Queen; or

2) The opening title theme from The Prisoner.

I don't really know his whole catalog too well, but I'm pretty sure that Jonathan Coulton has something that would be appropriate.

Re #4: JoCo does have 'Stroller Town', which is pretty good.

Of course, your theme song for after Futurebaby will be:
I need some sleep by the Eels.

You seen "2001: A Space Odyssey" and you need to ask? "Thus Spake Zarathustra" by Strauss, of course.

@Romeo -- Dude, that's EXACTLY what I was going to suggest. 2001 is the first thing that popped into my head. With a moniker like "FutureBaby", how could it NOT be "Thus Spake Zarathustra"?!

I don't know if this qualifies as a 'theme' song per se, but it certainly has a nice ring to it. Feel free to substitute "lotsa good people" for "God." It's the thought that counts.

For Jack Tymon, by Scott Miller

May your back be straight and your fingers ten.
My your cup be full when you say when.
May your parents be so that they always let you grow.
And may your heart be so pure its one that God wants to know.

May your schooling be good, and if its not
May the times be easy and you still smart.
May your friendships be so that they almost feel like home
And your heart be so pure its one that God wants to know.

And may you have the joy of passing something on
Like the laugh of your father or the courage of your mom.
But if that never happens and you end up alone
May your heart be so pure its one that God wants to know

Bizarro Genius Baby!

They don't call me "mad" for nothing! =gd&r=

Arbitrary Numerical Signifier

drorzel — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 19:17:24 +0000

Arbitrary Numerical Signifier

Six 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 Sun, 06/01/2008 - 15:17

Tags

FutureBaby!

...
Love the t-shirt. I definitely remember the 'touching' problem from my wife's two pregnancies, one with twins where she was . . .well, huge.

It certainly seems to be an innate reaction in some subset of the population. Surely there have been studies of the phenomenon.

...tom...
.

If you want to stay married, you had better learn the appropriate phrases. Not "way too good to me", "way too good for me"...

This may seem a little random, but do you have any idea why one of your wedding photos is in this video, just after 1:35?

Wow, it's been six years already? Congrats to you both.

And I *love* the t-shirt.

Happy anniversary!

It is my experience that the amount of belly touching for pregnant women is proportional to their personal dislike of it. My wife didn't really have any big problem with (non-creepy) people touching her belly, but through the whole pregnancy it only even came up once or twice. Other people seem to have significant problems, however.

I have no idea why.

Thanks, all.

Adam, for a while our wedding pictures page was on the first page of Google hits for "wedding pictures," so that picture has showed up in some odd places.

Clark, so far no strangers have touched my belly, so I may be a counterexample to your theory. I hope.

(And to conclude the marital ritual: I am not too good to you. Or for you.)

Percentiles and Perspective

drorzel — Thu, 22 May 2008 05:20:41 +0000

Percentiles and Perspective

Kate'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, where I'm used to seeing numbers in the 90's (except for my Physics GRE scores, but the less said about those, the better).

Of course, I'm not the one who's going to be giving birth, here, and Kate thinks that "bigger than 70% of other babies at this stage of development" is plenty big enough, thank you...

drorzel Thu, 05/22/2008 - 01:20

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FutureBaby!

Oy... I hope she's 70th percentile herself. My son (second child) was a 50th percentile child size-wise at birth. Unfortunately for her, my wife is about a 20th percentile female size-wise. Ouch!

You might remind your wife that the world won't come to an end if she accepts a local anasthetic. My husband was so large at birth that it was assumed his mother was carrying twins (since they ran in her family). My mom-in-law is a very petite lady, and can't possibly imagine how she might've made it through the birth without some anesthetic assistance. The resulting offspring was every bit as intelligent, creative, dextrous, and athletic as his smaller-at-birth siblings. (And he didn't turn out to be a particularly large adult at a medium-boned 5'11".)

Chad, do you really want your kid to be on the high end of the bell curve? There is no real honor in being the fattest baby around...

Also, calculating the baby's weight based on the estimated size from the ultrasound is a calculation riddled with error. You should've asked the ultrasound technician for some error bars on that estimate, but you probably just would have received blank stares.

Well, given Chad's and Kate's respective sizes, I would have expected an even 50th percentile for the baby...

I don't imagine the average weights of babies in the womb has changed all that much, but on the standard child development charts that pediatricians use, it seems that most children I know are above "average" height and weight.

His wife does read the comments, thanks, and is perfectly well aware of the various options for labor and delivery.

from a mother-of-three: every percentile between 5 and 95 means healthy child and is ok.

I guess everybody knows it, but labor pain has not so much to do with the baby's weight, and a lot with its position (and head size). Please accept my best wishes for a healthy baby and a pleasant childbirth (yes, it's not an oximoron).

How about tenure in Canada in exchange for US president that boosts the Canadian economy enormously? win-win situation...

Oops, wrong thread, feel free to re-arrange.