The logo

It's 2009 - branding matters. Ask any marketing person. In fact you can ask my co-worker who is both in marketing and pregnant, she'll tell you...

So in addition to deciding on a colour scheme for the baby (light blue and orange), we have a logo. Well, we have a guideline at least. We decided a long time ago that this baby's "theme" would be owls. We think it will be cool to have lots of owl-related things surrounding the little one. This is because owls are cute, because we like birds in general (raptors and parrots in particular), because we have a real bird living with us, because there's loads of super-cool owl decals that we want to put on the walls and because owls are cute.

So here's the inspiration:

101 uses for the bump

Well, here's just one use. Ozzie the parrot has found himself a new perch:

More rock

According to the expectant father book I'm reading (called "The Expectant Father" oddly enough) the baby is now very much capable of hearing sounds from the outside world. These start off as low-frequencies and as the baby develops it picks up higher and higher frequencies.

It therefore seemed like a good time to get our hands on one of the Rockabye CDs. These awesome CDs feature lullaby versions of rock songs. Each album focuses on one specific band which range from the awful (The Eagles) to the heavy (Metallica) to classic rock (AC/DC) to modern (Coldplay) to stuff which is trippy enough to pass as potential lullaby music in the first place (I'm looking at you Pink Floyd). K was the first one to pull the trigger with the Led Zeppelin disc, but I won't be far behind, because I want our baby to be exposed to Tool as soon as possible, albeit sans lyrics - the kid can wait a few more years before hearing a band telling junkies to go f*** themselves!

Kick punch

The baby is stirring. Yesterday K reported that the movement she'd been feeling had transitioned from being small pops and squirming to full on kicks. I consider this to be kind of awesome.

I played a show with my band Heathrow last night, and K came out. Apparently the baby can now react to external noises, so she figured hearing Dad rock out would be a good thing for it. Who am I to argue...?

The second labor pain workshop

Tuesday night we went back to Alta Bates for the second labor pain workshop. This one focused on medications and was the main reason we wanted to do these classes. We were looking for any reason to *not* go for a natural childbirth.

The class was taught by an obstetric anaesthesiologist who works at Alta Bates. We knew up front that he would be "pro" medication, since that's his job, and of course he's going to feel it is safe. Our concerns were mainly around the phenomenon of "epidural fever", the ability to deliver in non-lying-down positions, and the risks associated with narcotic pain meds.

Although we got plenty of chance to ask questions, we walked away feeling as though the risks had been glossed over. He portrayed epidural fever as "a slight elevation in body temperature" which is contrary to what K had heard from an acquaintance, whose temperature had gone so high that the baby had literally had to be vacuumed out with a special tool.

We did have one question answered though, which is "is there enough compelling evidence to dissuade us from pursuing natural childbirth" and the answer was an unequivocal "NO".

18-week ultrasound

Yesterday was our second big ultrasound and the baby got a very thorough examination. The good news is that everything looks great. There were no obvious spinal issues (spina bifida, which is an opening in the spinal column would be the biggest worry at this point), and the brain, heart, kidneys and bladder all looked good. The baby's size was within normal range, and all fingers and toes were present and correct. Physical abnormalities such as club foot and cleft palate were also not present. All in all, a great success.

On the "host" side of things, K was very reassured to find out that her cervix was nice and long, which banished any fears of premature birth caused by an "incompetent cervix". This worry had stayed with her since the bleeding issues of the first trimester, so she was really, really happy to get this great news.

And now for some snapshots!

Breathe

We went to the first of two Labor Pain Management classes at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley on Tuesday night. Some people might think this is a bit early for all that, but it will help us decide what do in terms of the birth plan, and that in itself will inform what kind of birthing class we go to. You need to know different stuff if you're doing a natural birth versus one with an epidural.

After a fraught drive over in which I was grumpy about the traffic, followed by a rushed and unpleasant burrito, the class started. The instructor was great - she'd been an OB nurse for 30-something years and clearly had seen and done it all. We learned about the phases of labor and breathing exercises to cope with each. I'm sure we'll go over it all again in the real birthing class, but it was nice to start thinking about. Our real area of interest is with next week's class in which an anaesthesiologist will talk about medication options. For example, not many people know that there are FIVE types of epidural! Crazy...