Konstruction Kontinues

busy march

we are making progress with baby chaud's bedroom. the walls have been painted, there's a rug & curtains. the crib is almost ready and we have picked out a nice maple armoire that we will have stained to match the crib. i am also making art for the walls, which has been so much fun for me.

last weekend we had the first of our baby showers. everyone has been so gracious to patrick and i. we can't thank them enough (mom, peggy, janelle, aunt kelley, lisa & julie).

this week marks the 31st week. my body feels tired, something i am not accustomed to since my first trimester was relatively unnoted. baby chaud is growing fast. he takes up more space making it hard to breathe and eat. with the unusually warm days so far, i am very happy we are expecting a may/june arrival.

lamaze class

so, patrick and i are certified in lamaze.
what does that mean? i guess it means that patrick will remember all the details for the three of us, beacuse i am pretty sure that in the moment i am not going to remember anything. but the class was a good one to take because i may need to wait a while before the epidural can be administered. i am not one of those people who want to be a hero. i hate pain! i hate pain so much that when this pregnancy began, patrick had to hold my hand for the first blood draw. of course it really wasn't painful, but the anticipation made me really scared. lamaze class didn't ease my fears nor did it make the idea of birth scarier. i was at the birth of my niece 2 years ago, so this class just provided me with written material of what i already witnessed. all i hope is that i have the 8 hour labor my sister had, not the 24 hour typical one! some things are hereditary, right?

The Myers-Briggs presentation

I was mining some neuroscience data for the ol' Ripsaw, my science blog, when I thought I might toss my Myers-Briggs evaluation out here for anyone that's never seen it. The Myers-Briggs typing is a personality test based on the foundational work of the psychiatrist Carl Jung. It has a few things to say about parenting styles.

I myself over the last thirteen years or so since I first took the test have almost always came out as ENTP. The 'NT' aspect being the dominant portion:

RATIONAL NTs, being ABSTRACT in communicating and UTILITARIAN in implementing goals, can become highly skilled in STRATEGIC ANALYSIS. Thus their most practiced and developed intelligent operations tend to be marshalling and planning (NTJ organizing), or inventing and configuring (NTP engineering). And they would if they could be wizards in one of these forms of rational operation. They are proud of themselves in the degree they are competent in action, respect themselves in the degree they are autonomous, and feel confident of themselves in the degree they are strong willed. Ever in search of knowledge, this is the "Knowledge Seeking Personality" -- trusting in reason and hungering for achievement. They are usually pragmatic about the present, skeptical about the future, solipsistic about the past, and their preferred time and place are the interval and the intersection. Educationally they go for the sciences, avocationally for technology, and vocationally for systems work. Rationals tend to be individualizing as parents, mindmates as spouses, and learning oriented as children. Rationals are very infrequent, comprising as few as 5% and no more than 7% of the population.

But perhaps there is a peak into what I have in store for Baby Chaud:

Most Intuitive-Thinkers learn by discussing and challenging, and this is especially true for ENTPs. They get pleasure and intellectual stimulation from arguing both sides of a subject, or from doing something unusual or unexpected just to get a reaction. ENTPs can be fun to be around, but their competitive, testing nature can be intimidating and tiring, particularly to those of a different type.

In relationships with an ENTP, one can expect to be challenged--usually by whatever comes along that is new, different, or on the cutting edge. Just coping with an ENTP can be stimulating, a fact attested to by ENTPs themselves ("I find myself very interesting--but tiring").

The ENTP sees the parenting relationship as one more opportunity for the growth and development of everyone involved. The ENTP's house may be crowded with the latest books, gadgets, fads, or all of the above. Children will be introduced to all of these things, which are used to challenge them--something far more important than neatness, schedule, and order. The ENTP's parenting model is "Stretch thyself," and successful parenting involves whatever helps the child to achieve this goal. Most ENTP parents generate more ideas and possibilities per day than their children will ever be able to complete. This in itself can be tiring and, to a child of a different type, very frustrating. It was probably an NT parent, most particularly an ENTP parent, who first said, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste." Helping the child to realize and expand the self is the ENTP's most basic principle of child-rearing. This quest may be made at the expense of hugs, kisses, and expressions of affection, although for the ENTP parent the process itself is the ultimate expression of love.

Additionally:

With their fun and upbeat natures, there's a little bit of kid inside all ENTPs. They approach parenthood with a fun-loving attitude which has a serious underlying goal: to make everything a learning exercise (for themselves as well as for their children) which promotes the child's growth into an independent, logical thinker.

The ENTP is likely to be somewhat inconsistent about spending quality time with their children. One minute they will exhibit a lot of interest and enthusiasm towards being around their kids, and will display a great deal of affection for them. However, as soon as they get caught-up in one of their grand schemes for improving a system somewhere, they're likely to inadvertantly neglect their kids.

Heh heh...any of that sound familiar?

baby kicks

a couple pregnant friends of mine say they can tell what baby body part is moving in their tummies. i have no clue. baby chaud seems to always be tickling me in my lower tummy but i have no idea if it's his toes or his hands. however, at 29 weeks and 3 pounds of baby, my doctor tells me that he still has plenty of space to move around even if his feet are down right now. this is not an indication of a breech baby.

besides being a little more tired, i have found that i must eat smaller portions. my tummy has either an on or off switch–starving or full. this makes eating a little less enjoyable.

Apparently all that babbling is important

Babytalk key factor in language development.

While it may sound repulsive, baby talk and its associated driveling sounds have an opposite effect.

When the researchers compared oxygenation levels when the babies were exposed to baby talk compared to adult speech, they found that baby talk increased the blood oxygenation in the frontal area of the brain. Concentrations of oxygenated hemoglobin rose an average of 0.25 millimoles per liter (mmol/l), while these concentrations decreased an average of 0.23 mmol/l when the babies heard their mothers reading to the adult researcher.

I guess reading to Baby Chaud in my news anchor voice isn't going to top sounding like a circus clown when it comes to developing his language centers. See? Science delivers the truth, not what you want to be true!

Gah.... I mean googly-mooooooogly.

3rd trimester!