Preparing for babe

I've been doing a lot of things baby-related.

First, I talked to the church about Baptismal arrangements. Usually, there's a class involved, and I wanted to make sure we had it covered. Last time, they expected Paul and me to go to the class without any children, including the new babe. We took the kids anyway (as did most other people), and they were fine. This time, it's a new church, and they came to the rational conclusion that with four older children we don't need to go through Baptismal prep yet again.

Second, I'm doing a tour of the hospital maternity ward, although it's not called that anymore. It's "The BirthPlace." Paul is opting out of that one: "Why do I need to get a hospital tour?" He's considering opting out of the birth, as he feels worried and powerless when I'm in labor. He doesn't like to see me in obvious pain, and I haven't been able to convey that it's really not a problem. I don't hide my pain -- I'm loud -- because it helps me cope and it helps my labor progress -- but it doesn't help him. Last time, we had a scary delivery complication as well. (A complication that I am not worried about repeating, as obesity is a huge risk factor for it, and I'm no longer obese. But it understandably freaked him out a bit.)

I worry more about him while I'm in labor -- and I labor better when I'm alone and not worried about other people. So, it wouldn't bother me at all if he weren't there. At the same time,  I wonder about the quality of my care in a hospital if the staff thinks I either don't have a husband or my husband doesn't care enough to be there. It's irritating not to live in a vacuum sometimes, where we'd only have to worry about each other, not how others react to our personal weirdness. I think we'll play it by ear, though, as it's hard to tell how we'll each feel at the time.

Third, I scheduled a "structural ultrasound" with the celebrity perinatologist, at the request of my doctor. It's age-related as well as related to the fact that I refused genetic testing or counseling. I've done my own research on the odds of genetic issues at my age. The only reason I agreed to the ultrasound is that they can sometimes discover things that are helpful to know in the delivery room -- like heart defects or bowel obstructions or spina bifida. They cannot identify Down Syndrome with 100 percent certainty from an ultrasound. They can pick up other genetic flaws, if they are incompatible with surviving life outside the womb. In those cases, it would be good to know ahead of time.

The ultrasound is a week from Tuesday.

Day 9: A song that you can dance to

Dancing isn't really my thing. At least, I'm just a little too self-conscious to do it outside my own home. Even now that I'm old and obnoxious enough to know that there's really no reason to be self-conscious.

I went through a period when I was younger where I could do it. It was thanks to a good friend and frequent escort, for lack of a better word for all the guys I used to platonically "date." He told me not to be stupid, that all women looked good dancing and that I needed to get over myself. Plus, he wanted a partner. So, with some peer pressure, I would do it, but I didn't really enjoy it. Unless I was with him or someone else I knew really well, I always would blush, too. A little bit of liquid courage would make it easier -- but that also would increase the intensity of blushing, so it wasn't necessarily a good thing.

Paul's not a dancer, though, so it hasn't really been an issue since we've been married.

But, anyway, I can do The Dougie because it's not that difficult. Plus, I enjoy the silliness of being a dorky and pregnant white 40-something doing it.

Day 8: A song you know all the words to

I can't do this one, as I have a bad habit of unintentionally memorizing songs. It'd be easier to come up with songs I don't know all the words to.

Yes, I can't remember to turn off the rice, but I remember all the lyrics to every stupid Led Zeppelin song. Because they're so worth remembering.

And it's not just Led Zeppelin. The 15-year-old is listening me singing along to some piece of garbage. "How do you know that terrible song?" he asks. He may not have heard it before because it came out long before he was born, but I've heard it dozens (or hundreds) of times.

And I amaze Paul with my knowledge of TV theme songs, which are even catchier than the radio. I wish I remembered more useful things, but it's little pieces of trivia as well as mindless song lyrics that are taking up my brain's bandwidth.

New music
I just found a new band I enjoy, and I know Paul will like, too, as their latest has been described as a "long lost Jackson Browne album." It's Dawes, and they're an L.A. band that sounds right out of the '70s.

They're pretty mellow, as you might expect. When I'm more active (and getting the testosterone boost from exercise), I like more testosterone-fueled stuff. When I'm pregnant, I like gentler music, and this fits the bill.

Day 7: A Song that Reminds You of a Specific Event

I listened to a lot of Pearl Jam's "The Fixer" when I ran the L.A. marathon in 2010. So, now, when I hear it, I remember the marathon -- although, I have to admit, my memory of the event is fading quite a bit. I just know I'd made a playlist for it, but I started getting irritated at a lot of the music on it. So, "The Fixer" it was. On repeat. 

I would link the official video, but it won't let me. So I'm not going to link at all -- I've had too many incidents of blogger removing posts based on video links.

The only Pearl Jam I really like is actually the most recent album. I haven't listened to Eddie Vedder's ukulele solo work, though, so I won't spout off on that.

Tricks for the rice cooker

This is my rice cooker. The $15 price was a better deal than I first thought.

So far, I haven't had any trouble with brown rice. For the first time, too, I've been able to make brown rice with distinctly separate grains. The directions called for only 1.5 cups of water for 1 cup of dry rice. I might increase it, as the rice is a teeny bit dry.

It's also tons faster than stovetop cooking, which takes about 45 minutes. This is done within 20.

I'll have to experiment with quinoa and millet, which are two of my other favorite grains.

Day 6: A song that reminds you of somewhere

There were some things that shocked me when we first moved to California at the very end of 1999. I expected more availability of organic produce (and a nicer farmer's market). The crazy driving shocked me. Where we lived, too, there were always police helicopters flying overhead; our neighborhood wasn't bad, but it was near a rougher one and the city where we lived had a pretty intense police presence anyway.

It wasn't L.A., where I am now and which is a lot different. It was Riverside, the kind of place that is the butt of jokes for hip L.A. folks, although it's beautiful and interesting in its own way. It didn't have the mellow California feel I was expecting, as someone who had never experienced SoCal before. It was intense because of the crowds and the traffic and the heat.

Even the music on the radio was different. It was a little bit ahead of Indiana, and the stuff that was on the radio around the turn of the last century was epitomized by this Eve 6 song, "Inside Out." It's pretty terrible, particularly the lyrics ("Want to put my tender heart in a blender/Watch it spin around to a beautiful oblivion), and it was on once an hour or so. Now, when I hear it (and, I confess, I have it on iTunes), it always reminds me of Riverside.

The rice cooker

I'm having quite a bit of appliance lust lately. Considering the space in which I live and cook, it's probably not a good thing.

On my mental list (which also includes bread machine, ice cream maker and Vitamix), I had "rice cooker."

So, when the neighborhood mother's group had a posting for a nice one at less than 1/4 the retail price, I went ahead and got it. The woman who sold it to me said she'd used it once; I've already used it more than that, and I've had it for two days.

Brown rice is one of my carb staples; I'm perpetually distracted, however, and have a tendency to burn it.

Which I cannot do with the rice cooker.

The neighborhood moms are funny, though, because although the rice cooker was a bargain, most of the things they sell are not. They're always posting their used baby things at way more than I'd ever pay. I can tell it's a group of women who aren't used to resale shopping because they're actually able to sell it. If I were a better capitalist, I'd buy things and resell them to this crowd.

18 weeks update

Everything, once again, was all normal and perfect at the doctor's office at my checkup on Friday.

I haven't been running, but I've been walking for at least a half-hour every day. Yes, I need to up the time and/or the pace.

I'm feeling huge already, which isn't a good sign, particularly since I have gained only about five pounds. It's all the belly, of course, so I'm nowhere near as mobile as I had gotten used to being.