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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!
Many thanks to the Burns family who traveled from Georgia, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Florida to be with us in Raleigh for the Thanksgiving holiday. Our time together was fantastic. The effects of post-visit depression are already obvious in Robah and Baxter as they mope around the house looking for attention.
Dinner on Thursday was traditional and resplendent. On Friday, some of us witnessed a Lady Tar Heel soccer team beat Texas A&M in the NCAA tournament regional finals in Chapel Hill. On Saturday, a different group of us witnessed the Carolina football squad eke out a victory over Dook [sic] in Durham. We truly enjoyed laughing, eating, and hanging out with everyone.
Katie has been doing great — still working hard and dealing well with ninth-month aches and pains. Jackie is due December 12th, so it’s truly the final countdown. I feel confident that we’re ready (probably because we’re so excited).
Here’s a brief tour of Jackie’s nursery (minus Jackie), recorded with a new camcorder (Canon Vixia HF10) we recently bought. We only have two small lamps in there, but I think the picture quality is fairly decent considering the low-light environment.
Poor, poor Baxter. It has been eight weeks since Baxter limped back to my parents’ house in Boone with his front left leg looking like a peeled banana. We didn’t see him injure himself, but he must have snagged it on a barbed-wire fence. The muscle and bone weren’t damaged. At the time, we couldn’t have imagined the amounts of time and money required to get him well again.
The little guy has not run in eight whole miserable weeks. He’s been locked up in the house. Short walks are his only break from the monotony and boredom. He wears an Elizabethan collar and frequently has a red bandage (our vet is an NCSU grad who knows I’m a Carolina fan) 24 hours a day — the outfit makes him look like a sad little clown, sidelined during the circus. I’ve never seen a bird immediately after its wings are clipped, but I imagine it’s similar to watching a forlorn, invalid Baxter, banging his e-collar on furniture, doorjambs and my legs as he mopes around the house.
Maybe you need a visual to make the sad clown connection…
Poor, poor sad clowns.
Joe Dan Burns
June 13, 1926 – October 7, 2008
I’m really going to miss Joe Burns. Katie’s grandfather was loved and respected by everyone who got to know him, and considering how he never met a stranger, there were a lot of folks who were lucky enough to know him. The memorial service for him on October 11 was well-attended, and the memories shared by his family and friends were a unanimous testament to his character. Repeatedly, I overheard mourners say that he exemplified Brokaw’s characterization of “the greatest generation.” He was an expert in his field, a cornerstone of his church, and a revered leader to his family and friends.
His widow Faye, who has always made me feel like a grandson, is going to continue living in Knoxville for the time being. She’s an oak, and she has a wonderful group of family and friends who love and support her. I look forward to the day my daughter meets her great-grandmother, and hears some of the many stories about her great-grandfather.
A black walnut grove on the Burns tree farm.
Jackie W. Jones’ Recovery
My mother’s health is improving. Blood counts have begun trending in a positive direction. For the first time in months, she isn’t dependent on daily blood transfusions and mineral supplements. Still, a few nagging problems persist. I don’t mean “nagging problems” like a crick in your neck or a head cold. I mean nagging problems like a bladder infection and altered vision due to inflammation of the eye.
If you know my mother, you know that these afflictions are small potatoes compared to what she’s been through the past two years. She has overcome so many hardships; there’s no reason to doubt her ability to overcome these lingering ailments. Our hope is that my mom’s immune system is gradually recovering, and that my parents will again have a semblance of normal life in the near future.
I accompanied Katie today to her appointment at the obstetrician’s office, and the ultrasound was about what I expected (including complete amazement and wonder at the tiny little girl inside my wife). The baby was flailing her arms and legs throughout her time on screen. Her heart rate was right at the normal rate of 150 beats per minute. Katie’s fundal height is 24 centimeters, which is at the higher end of the normal range for a pregnancy at week 22. So, everything is copacetic.
We’ve narrowed down the child’s name to either Jacqueline (Katie’s choice) or Jacquelyn (my preference). Regardless of which formal name we choose, her name will be Jackie. If you’re wondering why we chose to name her after my mom, click on the link to the Perseverance page on this blog. Katie and I aren’t parents yet, but we already know we want to give our children the means, values, and mindset they need to be a positive part of the world around them. With the name Jackie, we can also give our first girl a legacy of kindness, strength, and love.
Please don’t get the wrong idea. Naming our child Jackie is not just a tribute to my mother and her struggle. It is not a memorial. It is part of the expectation that our little Jackie will soon be able to look up, literally and figuratively, to her grandmother Jackie. Here’s my definition of hope: I look out the window on a sunny day and see them walking down the sidewalk, hand-in-hand.
Here’s a picture of little Jackie at 22 weeks:
I have one other brief domestic update. Here’s a picture I took of 320 Avon Drive when Bax, Robah and I jogged past last Friday…at least they spared the old dogwood tree:
It’s official. After weeks of speculation, dream-state prognoses, and matching Katie’s pregnancy up against old wives’ tales, my hunch has been confirmed by her doctors at REX. We’re having a baby girl. She weighs about nine ounces right now. I’ll post more info and ultrasound images as soon as we get all moved in to our new digs on White Oak Road.
Big ups to Rich Jones for his help yesterday. He moved boxes with beastly strength, and packed the trucks like he was a Russian mathematician playing Tetris.
Katie had another appointment with her obstetrician yesterday and the check-up went well. The doctor told Katie that the fetus was extremely active in the womb. Because the appointment was after lunch, and because the heat level of Katie’s lunch was “Thai spicy”, the baby Jones was probably dancing around in there to avoid all the capsaicin.
The baby’s heart rate was 153 bpm. The location of the womb is fairly high. Combine those two indicators with the dream I had last week and the dream Katie had last night, and all signs point to a little girl. We only have a couple more weeks of speculation though – after Katie begged and pleaded with the staff at REX Hospital, they agreed to do the ultrasound to reveal the baby’s sex during week 19 instead of the scheduled time during week 21.
Tuesday night was Baby Jones’ first concert. Katie and I splurged on good seats to see R.E.M., Modest Mouse, and The National at Ever-Changing-Corporate-Sponsor-Blah-Blah-Something-Blah-Pavilion at Walnut Creek in Raleigh. I don’t know if her/his budding ears captured any of the night’s sounds, but I like to think the experience was something like a prenatal alt-rock primer.
The National opened with a decent short set. Their sound, at least what I’ve heard on the one album I own (Boxer), relies too much on Matt Berninger’s barritone vocals, changing instrumentation, and overall melancholy to really take over in an outdoor arena. One of the guys played the fiddle like a mandolin, but I couldn’t hear it at all. They sounded almost like a heat-withered, too-sad-to-be-angry Interpol. To be fair, anyone playing music at 6:45 p.m. in 98-degree heat has a right to be withered.
The National – persevering in the heat
Modest Mouse was on at dusk, and I knew what to expect before the band took the stage; there would be much less screaming (unfortunately for us) from Isaac Brock than when I saw them at the Variety Playhouse in Atlanta in 2001. Back then I would never have guessed that Johnny Marr (formerly of The Smiths) would be beside Brock onstage, but there he was, looking closer to a spry 24 than a seasoned 44. Their set included only a couple classics from their two Up Records releases. I can’t complain though, because Isaac did gnaw on his guitar strings for awhile during “Here it Comes”. I’m almost ashamed to admit it, but the music snob in me was pleasantly surprised when they finished without playing “Float On”. Of course, some of the whipper-snappers in attendance acted like they deserved a refund because they didn’t hear it.
Modest Mouse – quieter than last time
After the sun set on south Raleigh, R.E.M. began with “Harborcoat”. Michael Stipe’s theatrics changed to match each new song. Mike Mills, wearing the same shirt (or so it seemed) that he was wearing when Katie first met he and Stipe in Athens, was stationed house left. Peter Buck was audible, but not really visible because he roamed a dark part of the stage most of the night. Everyone in the band, old members and new, gathered ’round the piano for a sing-along rendition of “Let Me In”.
Katie particularly enjoyed “Find The River”, “Electrolite” and “Orange Crush”, while the highlights for me were “Bad Day”, “Welcome to the Occupation”, and “Pretty Persuasion”. The only disappointments were songs I don’t really like in the first place — “I’m Gonna DJ” and the title track from Accelerate. They finished with an outstanding encore, and brought Marr, Don Dixon, and Mitch Easter on stage for a couple of songs. They closeded with “Fall on Me”, “Sitting Still”, and “Man on the Moon”. All in all, the band played like they were genuinely happy to be back in the South. The result was a memorable show for Katie and me, and probably just some vibrations for baby Jones.
R.E.M. – “Bad Day”
R.E.M. – “Let Me In”
R.E.M. – “Fall on Me”
According to the ultrasound today (images are shown below), all systems are go for baby Jones. She/he has now surpassed six centimeters, so her/his length is about the same as the width of my iPhone. If you click on the first image posted below and view the larger image size, you’ll see that she/he already seems to have Katie’s nose. Katie has been feeling fairly good lately except for some nagging allergies.
We’ve just begun deliberating about potential names for the child. There will be plenty of future debate, since Katie and I have only agreed on the family names that we’ve had in mind for awhile now. Speaking of family names, we’re probably going to let Robah keep his.
I think I spent the dog food money 