This Will Be Funny Later

My bank’s website is down right now, and it appears to be a glue record issue. This is interesting to me because (a) I would like to check something in my bank account and (b) glue records were far and away the hardest thing about DNS for me to understand.

Most people that read this blog already know this, but I’m bored and home sick so I’m going to write it up anyway. A glue record, in short, is a little known aspect of DNS that ties a domain name directly to an IP at the registrar (WHOIS) level, rather than the name server level. It’s useful if you want to host your own DNS, and here’s what it looks like when it fails (sorry for outing you, UFCU!):

$ ping ufcu.org
ping: cannot resolve ufcu.org: Unknown host
$ dig +short ufcu.org
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached
$ host -t ns ufcu.org
;; connection timed out; no servers could be reached
$ whois ufcu.org | grep NS
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Name Server:NS1.UFCU.ORG
Name Server:NS2.UFCU.ORG
Name Server:NS3.UFCU.ORG

As you can see, according to the WHOIS information, DNS information for ufcu.org can be found at ns1.ufcu.org. Which, since information about ufcu.org is exactly what we’re looking for, sends us into a loop:

What’s the IP for ufcu.org? Ask the name server ns1.ufcu.org. Okay, what’s the IP for ns1.ufcu.org so I can go ask? Ask the name server for ufcu.org (ns1.ufcu.org).

This is only a problem because the DNS for ufcu.org is self-referential. Enter the glue record. A glue record, as I mentioned above, bypasses the normal name server queries and directly provides an IP for a name server. You’ll never be able to complete a query for ufcu.org if you have to query ufcu.org for information about itself, so the registrar will hard code an IP for ns1.ufcu.org and hand that out when asked “What’s the IP for ns1.ufcu.org?”

Once you understand the loop a query would fall in to, glue records are easy. But the loop itself is hard to explain, and most of what I had trouble with. Aside from a missing one, the only other glue record problem I’ve run into is an incorrect one. Those are even more fun!

I now return you to your regularly scheduled day. Time for another popsicle and a nap for me!

ps. Their website is back up 🙂

Perhaps I need to start a new category for all these vivid dreams. Anyway, for the last week or so, Trumpette has been sideways. Even though she’s still relatively small (about 14 inches, according to my last email) it’s been a very uncomfortable week. Oh, and in case you’re curious, 14 inches also happens to be the approximate size of an English hothouse cucumber, according to that selfsame email.

Anyway. Last night I had an extremely vivid dream that she turned the rest of the way head down, with her back facing my belly button, in the perfect birth position. The relief in my dream was so palpable it woke me up and I lay there for a few minutes just thinking, “ahhhh.” So far today, reality seems to back up the dream. Whether she flipped back to head up or went head down, I’m pretty sure that she’s no longer sideways. (I’d say I was too distracted by a sore throat to really be able to notice any other discomforts, except my throat hurt this much yesterday, too. Also, ow, my throat really hurts!)

I haven’t felt any of the tickling movements that I’ve decided are her wiggling her hand, nor have I felt any of the really big kicks that I’m convinced are too strong for elbows, so who knows which way is up or forward. The midwives may be able to feel my stomach and tell me which way she’s facing, but I’ve been too worried of hurting one or both of us to really try very hard.

Back to homework.

Last night I dreamed that I was about to go into labor, but at the last minute had to fly to Austria to see a special OB there to deliver. I can’t remember what was special, or why I had to go so very last minute, but when we decided I needed to go, I didn’t even have my purse with me. My sister lent me her passport and wallet, and a very nice stewardess found some extra clothing for me. I was crying because I was so scared of flying all the way back to the US with a 2-week old baby. I kept saying, “I’m scared, I don’t want to go, it’s too far” but everyone assured me it would be fine. Oddly, I wasn’t scared of the flight there, or the birth, just of trying to fly back with such a young baby.

Also, I am 26 weeks today.

I’ve been having lots of “interacting with the newborn” dreams. I might as well start sharing them! Last night, I dreamed that she was born and we found out she was a boy (!). We’d already decorated the nursery with her name so I was a little sad that we’d done it wrong. But I also felt vindicated because I was so utterly sure for the first half of the pregnancy that it was a boy.

Looks like the baby is going to have an active day. She was super active last night, too. I’m not sure I’ll ever get tired of it. I love feeling her move around. It’s so weird and so cool and I feel closer to her when I can feel her moving. It’s strange to think that right now, I’m basically as close to this baby as it is possible to be. We are somewhere between one and two distinct beings.

Procreation is weird.

Read this. Don’t bother with the rest of the site yet.

There should really be a list of the types of pains that are “normal” in pregnancy. I imagine useful pregnancy week-by-week emails would look something like this:

• This week, you should start having trouble bending over while sitting! Stop dropping things if they’re important.
• This week, you can finally see your belly over that enormous rack you’ve developed! Woo boobies!
• This week, you will no longer be able to get out of big, poofy, comfy chairs without assistance! Consider investing in a helper monkey now to get the most monkey help for your buck.
• This week, you may begin to feel like your uterus has been replaced with a punching bag! Try playing Gonna Fly Now to increase your chances of an athletic baby.
• This week, expect trouble getting shoes onto your sausagefeet! I hope it’s warm enough for flip flops. If not, you can always declare to the world that you’ve given up and wear crocs.

The exclamation marks are to make it all seem more exciting, since no longer will pregnant women be regaled with all the fruits and vegetables that their fetuses resemble (by the way, this week it’s a banana with eyelids). But seriously, even in my happy, healthy, everything-is-awesome (yay for hormones) pregnancy, these weird twinges and aches and cramps are just unnerving. Is she really kicking me in the cervix, or has something gone horribly wrong? Am I supposed to pee this much, or do I have a UTI? When they say call for severe pain, how severe does it have to be, since being stabbed in the round ligaments apparently doesn’t count?

Someone needs  to get on this. Because googling for any pain and combining it with the word “pregnancy” is a recipe for a completely unnecessary trip to the ER.

I am officially 20 weeks in! Which is only sort of meaningful. Technically I am halfway through, although it’s not as cut and dried as I once thought. The date this all started is a little squidgier than I used to think, and the due date is also more like a rough estimate. I’m okay with that, and still thrilled to be officially halfway through! If only I would only get twice as uncomfortable in the second half as I am right now. I’m sure that is not to be, however. Things (organs, skin, etc) all feel stretched about as far as it can go comfortably, and maybe just a little bit past. I feel like I went to an all you can eat buffet determined to get my money’s worth, except instead of food I am full of baby. So the next few months will doubtless be increasingly uncomfortable. So far, now that the nausea has gone, I’ve had very few other pregnancy pains. An increase in my restless legs has been noticeable but so far tolerable, and my back definitely hurts when I have been sitting too long and stand up, but that’s pretty much it. I guess this is what the second trimester is supposed to be all about! Whee!

The other big news at week 20 is that it’s time for the standard anatomy test, where you go in for an ultrasound and they make sure all the major organs are where they should be. I again felt like I was expected to be more enamored of hearing the baby’s heartbeat than I am, and so I dutifully expressed awe and joy at the sound. Even though hey, any second I can actually SEE the baby! Which is way more exciting. I mean, it’s an interesting sound, but I haven’t been worrying it stopped since the last time I heard it. To me it’s more, “Yep, still there, sounds good to you? Good, because I can’t tell.” Much like the rest of the things they do to check that my pregnancy is progressing well. I am not going to get all dewy eyed at my fundal height. But seeing the ultrasound as it’s being done is something else. Something totally incredible that doesn’t translate to the still shots they print out.

The thing F was most excited for, the gender check, also happens at the 20 week anatomy test. I was nervous, but not very, since I’ve felt so strongly from the very beginning that it was a boy.  So you know, I expected it to find out and that would be that. I was absolutely shocked to hear that we’re having a girl! I guess on all the occasions where my nephews wore tiny little suits and looked like adorable little tiny adults, I will dress her in little tiny dresses. I’m still figuring out how I feel about that, but it’s mostly excited :).

And my lunch hour is just about over. So here’s my favorite of the last round of ultrasound pics! Don’t mind the silly caption…

Note: We did not choose “Hi Everybody ** I’m A Girl!”

Oh yes. And for those of you not familiar with how to turn those grey and black and white blobs into anything resembling a baby… the blob on the left is her head in profile, looking up. Because the ultrasound is a 2D look at a 3D being, sometimes they look a little weird. I can make out the face profile, and what is either a hand as she sucks her thumb (she did a lot of that during the ultrasound, or they might have gotten a 3D picture of her face) or a blob of … I dunno. Cord? placenta? Whatever the hell else floats around in there with her? But anyway. That’s her face in profile and the blob on the right is torso (I assume). You do not need to claim she is adorable. I am just proud of her for starting to look human! Hooray humanity!

So, I announced I was pregnant, I wrote a few posts, and then I disappeared. When I started this blog, my plan was for it to be all about the wonder and joy of bringing a new life into the world, blah blah blah.

The truth is, I’ve been miserable. Unrelenting morning sickness which is completely resistant to ginger, mint, cinnamon, saltines, grapes, regular small proteins, and every other suggestion I’ve gotten. I’ve been exhausted and sleeping on the order of 12-14 hours a day. I’ve been terrified of miscarriage and twins and everything in between. I’ve felt like I should be excited but instead I’ve just been scared and overwhelmed. In short, the first 15 weeks were just not what I expected. I didn’t want to write about it, and I’m quite sure you didn’t want to read about it.

And now we enter week 16. According to my weekly almost-spam email, the baby is the size of an avocado and has toenails:

What my baby looks like RIGHT NOW

Last time I got an ultrasound (about 3 weeks ago) I was able to make out more than a white blob. I was able to see arms and a jawbone, so I’m pretty sure it’s not actually an avocado. Whew!

In general, things are starting to look up for me. My first trimester screening (for risk factors on various trisomies) came back awesome. I had my first group prenatal appointment (more about that in a minute) and all measurements pointed to everything being normal and healthy. I’m starting to show a little bit, and for some reason that’s making a huge difference in my mental state. I’ve gotten a few “glowing” comments, and my nausea is receding to intermittent. I’m finding effective ways to cope with my forgetfulness. And did I mention I had my first group prenatal appointment? I’m going to start calling it “Centering,” since that’s what the birthing center calls it.

The idea is, you meet with the same group of first-time expecting parents every month, with 2-3 midwives there to lead discussion and teach stuff. At the beginning of this two hour appointment, the couples all sit around on couches and comfy chairs sharing snacks while people are brought back one by one (well, two by two) to have a doppler listen, weight and fundal height (yeah, I had to look that up) check, etc etc. The idea is to keep all but the most personal questions until the group session, so that other people with the same questions can hear the answer, and everyone can talk about things together. Then we all go sit in a circle and talk about whatever topic is lined up. Topics include things we would normally be taking evening classes on. There will be classes on partnering (Bradley method, etc), breast feeding, how to take care of a newborn, all that stuff. The first meeting was about exercise and nutrition. I’m pretty sure that this was a carefully selected topic, intended as an ice breaker. What better way to get a group of pregnant woman talking to each other than bringing them in just before lunch time and having them talk about food? My group is currently 5 couples, from a variety of backgrounds, ages, etc. Despite the diversity in the group, they all sounded pretty much like us. It was nice to hear how these other couples were dealing with feeling overwhelmed and frightened, and how relieved everyone was to be through the worst of the miscarriage fears. It definitely also helped make everything seem possible.

I am ready for the awesomeness that the second trimester is supposed to be!

Well, the answer to that is apparently, “me.” Because I was really excited to upload the ultrasound pictures I got earlier this week, but I was not given any digital media. So I have this oddly shaped piece of slippery paper and no way to convert it to something I can post. Well, I suppose I could take a picture of it with a digital camera/phone but that seems so inferior! I tried anyway, but the same thing that make the paper slippery make it too shiny for a decent picture. So it looks like I’ll have to dig up a scanner somewhere if I want to share my ultrasound pictures. Which, I’ll be honest, don’t look much like a baby yet. It’s much more interesting when it’s live and you can see the heart beating (we got to listen to it, and see it’s little rhythm on the screen! It looks… like a heartbeat). Which is craaaayzee to me, still. I’m growing a little human! Inside me! Weird!

I’ll see if I can find a scanner some time this weekend at home or next week at work.