http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jj-keith/new-moms_b_1850227.html

Rambling post ahead…

So I’ve been sick this week. Which sucks, since it turns out I might be one of those women that goes overboard with being careful about what they put in their bodies when pregnant. Might be? Scratch that. I’m erring on the side of caution, which is easily confused with being totally insane about this. But anyway, that means I haven’t been taking anything for this sinus infection/cold that I have, so every symptom seems a hundred times worse (I take that back… I took a Tylenol Saturday afternoon, when it hurt so much to swallow that I was getting really dehydrated). I’ve basically just been sleeping, taking hot showers, and drinking a lot of hot water. It seemed to be working, at least until yesterday when I fasted for 10 hours then had a blood glucose tolerance test. That pretty much wiped out my day and my energy, and I woke up feeling worse again this morning. The good news is, I apparently tolerate glucose as well as I ever did, and there is no sign of gestational diabetes. (Also my iron count looks “fantastic,” thank you kale!)

So anyway. I was out sick from work on Monday, then doing the glucose thing yesterday, then out sick again today. Turns out that if I don’t go back tomorrow (which I won’t, because I have a final and a midterm and the appointment where my adviser says I can graduate for real) I need a doctor’s note. Well, both my husband and my mom have been telling me to go to a doctor anyway, so this morning I scheduled a same-day to go in and see someone and ask for a note. I guess I’ve been spoiled by my previous jobs… I haven’t needed a doctor’s note in ages (of course, I also can’t remember the last time I needed 4 consecutive days off for anything other than a badass family vacation). So I headed in, and started to check in when I realized that I haven’t updated my insurance since I changed jobs. Almost a year ago. Because I never go to the doctor. Where did my aversion to going to the doctor come from, anyway?

So I got called in and sat down on the awkwardly high, loud, crinkly examining table, and the nurse asked me a few questions and then said, “So what’s going on?” They always ask that. Even if you’re clutching an obviously damaged body part which is gushing blood, they want to know what brings you in today. Because they didn’t ask when you made the appointment, or when you checked in. Or I guess maybe my cold may have transmogrified into a stomach ailment? But for once it was nice, because I was petrified of asking for a note. I think my response to the nurse was something like this: “IhaveacoldanditsnothatbadanymorebutnowIneedanoteforwork!” Fortunately this is as common a request as my husband insisted it would be, and she dutifully wrote down what I said, and then said the doctor would be in shortly. Amazingly, the doctor was in very shortly! And started asking me about how I was feeling and looking at my nose/ears/etc. She asked if I was prone to sinus issues and I said I was prone to sinus issues and allergies both, and that I was avoiding allergy meds because I was pregnant. I kind of slipped that in there because no one had asked, and I wanted to make sure she knew that before writing any prescriptions. So she suggested some pregnancy-safe medications, and said if I got worse, feel free to call back and she’d call in a prescription for me.

And then she said I should pop out and start showing soon. In a very nice, friendly, hooray you’re pregnant kind of a way. But good lord, I’m 27 weeks in! I’m basically 2/3 of the way there! Just the other night I was complaining to F that at this point in the game, I wished I was showing more. He made the (very valid) point that soon enough I will probably be huge and really uncomfortable, so I might as well enjoy it. But it still really sucks to still look basically like I’ve put on a few pounds rather than like there is a BABY INSIDE ME A REAL LIVE BABY and it’s INSIDE ME. And yes, I still find that incredibly weird. I think it’s safe to say at this point that I will find it weird up until the point that it is no longer true.

And as soon as I connect my camera, I will prove that I am showing. Even if it’s only when I wear yoga clothing. And maybe stick out my stomach a little.

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!