You are currently browsing the monthly archive for December 2008.
If you ask me, Katie and I have coped with the anticipation of our daughter’s birth pretty well. We’ve been in hurry-up-and-wait mode for two weeks, and much of our downtime has been spent double-checking preparations for Jackie. I even had a trial diaper-changing run with one of our future daughter’s stuffed bunnies. I also put together a baby playlist of the Jones family’s favorite tunes…kind of a birthing soundtrack to play in the hospital room. It consists of more than 300 songs, and features plenty of our mutual favorites:
Belle & Sebastian Pavement Guided by Voices Rufus Wainwright
George Gerschwin Loretta Lynn Ryan Adams Japancakes
Thelonious Monk Velvet Underground Wes Montgomery Erykah Badu
Karen Carpenter My Morning Jacket Panda Bear The Smiths
…you know, it’s simply the first music any father would want to grace the ears of his newborn daughter. Most of you know that I prefer to wait until Christmas to listen to Christmas music (unless it’s Karen Carpenter).
Katie’s mom Janet is here from Georgia, and has graciously volunteered to take care of our dogs tonight. I’m sure they’ll be on their best behavior. We’re very grateful that most of our family will be in around Raleigh until Jackie is born.
Here’s the plan for tonight:
REX Hospital will call us this evening when they are ready for us to be admitted. They will ripen Katie’s cervix (she gave me permission to blog about her cervix) and monitor her body’s reaction over the next 6 to 12 hours. When Katie has a favorable Bishop’s score, and if Katie isn’t entering labor, the doctor will induce labor. So, Katie will probably be in labor by tomorrow morning. That being said, I know very little about the variables of ripening and induction, so I’ll be updating this site on a regular basis over the next two days (when I’m not doing my fatherly duties with comfort measures for Katie).
Also, I’m just getting into Twitter, and I figure the next two days would be ideal to post tweets about Katie’s and Jackie’s status. You can find brief updates on my twitter page. These updates can be viewed on a computer, or on a mobile phone (if you have an account or set up an account).
It’s almost baby time!
Jackie must be quite comfortable in there. We’re now eight days past the due date and Katie has yet to feel even the smallest little contraction.
Not to worry though (easy for me to say since Katie is the one suffering). We went to see one of our obstetricians on Tuesday, and the baby is perfectly healthy. According to the ultrasound, there is plenty of amniotic fluid in all the right places. They also did a non-stress test, which measured both the baby’s heart rate, which was normal, and Katie’s contractions, which barely registered on the print-out.
REX Hospital has Katie scheduled to be induced on Tuesday, December 23. If she doesn’t come before then, we might just have a little Christmas miracle on our hands. It would also be fine with me (and certainly Katie) if she entered the world tonight, as Tyler looks to break Phil Ford’s record.
Katie got a surprise from her obstetrician earlier this week — the due date was actually yesterday, December 10, and not tomorrow, December 12, like they have been telling her the past eight months. Of course, this calendar mix-up isn’t a big deal to little Jackie, but it has made Katie and me a little more anxious over the last couple of days.
We’ve now heard every possible theory about predicting and inducing labor. Apparently, a sudden burst of energy (often manifested in some kind of nesting activity) is a twenty-four-hour precursor to labor. Another friend suggested that a baby’s birth, much like a person-to-werewolf transformation, can be triggered by a full moon. Tomorrow marks the full lunar phase for the month of December. Of course, if Katie really wants to speed things along, she can go for a long walk, climb stairs, eat spicy foods, or drink a tablespoon of castor oil.
She’ll come when she’s ready, so we’ll just have to wait a little longer to meet her.
We recently got our scooter back from the shop, where two recalled parts (a fuel pump seal and the connecting rod) were replaced at Yamaha’s expense. For both Katie (before she was pregnant) and me, scooting with the wind in your face causes a perma-grin, or “scooter smile” as we call it. Not a full smile, mind you…that would put you at risk of swallowing a bug. The scooter smile is more subdued, but impossible to prevent.
Nice whip eh?
There are several good reasons not to take yourself too seriously when you’re scooting about. For one thing, I think most people look a tad dorky (in the best possible way). I am no exception; my helmet is so big that I imagine myself looking like Lord Dark Helmet (of Spaceballs) as I drive around town.
Lord Dark Helmet, scooter aficionado?
Another reason that scooter riders need a sense of humor is our slow speed relative to the rest of traffic. It’s hard to exude coolness when a Hybrid Kia can smoke you without up-shifting from third gear. Finally, people in North Carolina sometimes assume that you’re riding a scooter because you lost your driver’s license (that’s when a “Not a Liquorcycle” bumper sticker really comes in handy…thanks Steve). So, scootin’ and grinnin’ go hand-in-hand.
Best Albums of 2008
The scootin’ conditions have been pretty cold here recently, but I have managed to scoot around Five Points on the warmer days during the past two weeks. Aside from running different errands, time on the scooter has given me a chance to think back on the year in music. 2008 has really been a good one for tunes, so just like everyone else, I have my own personal “best of” list. Here’s how I rank some of the best of what I’ve heard since this time last year. Also, I reserve the right to make changes to these lists as songs/albums/artists pop into my head. I initially planned to add links to these artists or even mp3s, but I probably won’t have time before my daughter is born.
Tier One
Dr. Dog – Fate
TV On The Radio – Dear Science
Deerhunter – Microcastles
Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours
Tier Two
Flying Lotus – Los Angeles
Nomo – Ghost Rock
Sun Kil Moon – April
Santogold – Santogold
Hot Chip – Made in the Dark
Tier Three
The Walkmen – You & Me
Ratatat – LP3
Department of Eagles – In Ear Park
The Magnetic Fields – Distortion
Hercules and Love Affair – Hercules and Love Affair
2008 Mixtape (or my favorite 2008 singles)
MGMT – Electric Feel
Empire of the Sun – Walking on a Dream
The Field – A Paw in my Face
The Walkmen – In the New Year
Bon Iver – Creature Fear
Black Kids – I’m Not Gonna Teach You
Lykke Li – Little Bit
Big Boi, featuring Three Stacks & Raekwon – Royal Flush
Passion Pit – Sleepyhead
Department of Eagles – No One Does It Like You
Hot Chip – Ready for the Floor
No Age – Teen Creeps
Lil Wayne – A Milli
Islands – In the Rushes
Atlas Sound – River Card
White Denim – Sitting
Most Disappointing Albums
My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges
Portishead – Third
Kings of Leon – Only By The Night
Booka Shade – The Sun & The Neon Light
I’m always interested to hear some different takes on the music year in review. Leave a comment and let me know if you noticed any mischaracterizations or glaring omissions in the lists above.
I think I spent the dog food money 