The Heusens

I just have to say... some of you need to learn what's an appropriate response to a birth announcement. Get out your notebooks boys and girls.

Appropriate:
- Congratulations! She's adorable!
- I'm so happy for you three! Send Ashlyn my best!
- Congrats! Please let me know if you need anything at all!
- HOORAY!!! I am so excited for you and your growing family. Congratulations on this wonderful day!

Inappropriate:
- I've marked July 24th, 2026 on my calendar. ;)
- Man, is she cute. I see that the two of your genes make one hot baby girl. Good thing I am already married!!!
- Hope ash got the c section she was hoping for, otherwise my condolences to you both.
- Between 2 diapers, don't forget your dissertation. (from my advisor... jeez)

Labels: rant

Posted by Kris at 3:12 PM | Permalink | Comments

So... I haven't downloaded pictures from my camera in the last couple weeks, and now Ash has the camera in NY until next week... so in the meantime, here's a random picture of a cat.
A bunch of crazy things happen to a woman when she's pregnant, besides the obvious. Here's a few things they never tell you:
- Nesting. Ash is going crazy about decorating our apartment.
- Cankles. Somehow, all the extra blood going around makes women's legs swell up like crazy.
- Lactating. This one's pretty obvious, but they never tell you about how a first-time lactator copes with the impending leakage.

Nesting is a bizarre instinct. This instinct drives birds to spend amazing amounts of energy blinging out their crib, searching near and far for the finest pieces of garbage. But birds have brains the size of peas -- so they have an excuse. The same instinct drives a pair of ostensibly educated humans to spend 2 hours looking for picture frames for a single drawing on an 8x11 piece of paper, without buying a single one. It drives the same pair to head to IKEA with a list of a dozen items to get, ending up with nothing after passing through the entire store. It also drives the woman to share a tear-laden rant listing off about $10k of home furnishings she wants, in detail, down to the "room spray and green candle on the shelf above the baby changing table".

Cankles are fascinating. They first appeared when Ash returned on a flight from Boston. Excuse me... IT first appeared. Her right ankle had swollen about 50% larger. The left one was the same as usual. I am not an animal! I'm a human being! I... am ... pregnant!

Coping with lactation is a six step process.
1. Amusement
2. Fascination
3. Obsession
4. Anxiety
5. Bargaining
6. Acceptance
Ashlyn is somewhere between 2 and 3 right now. I can't tell you how many of her girlfriends have seen her nipples in the last week. That made me a little uncomfortable.

Besides that, things are looking mostly good! Ash is rosy-cheeked, beautiful, and feeling well. She's in NY this week for a conference, and eating lots of great food. I, on the other hand, am in the middle of non-stop thesis hell. I decided to try to incorporate a lot of new, unpublished work, and putting it together in an organized and meaningful way is killing me. Hopefully the thesis will end up better because of it.

Also, I've added a baby name poll! Let us know what you think of these names.

Labels: Pregnancy, rant

Posted by Kris at 3:02 AM | Permalink | Comments

I get peeved about the week-based pregnancy counting system. Here's how it works:

First, they start counting at the time of your last period. So by the time you actually conceive, you're already 14 days pregnant. I suppose since you can't really tell exactly when you conceive, this is OK by me.

Second, they count by the week you are IN, not the weeks you've PASSED like a sane person would. So by the time you actually conceive, you're IN week 3 because you've passed week 2. My 27th birthday is coming up soon. I COULD tell everyone "I'm in my 27th year now. By the time my birthday rolls along, I'll be in my 28th year"... but then I'd get funny looks. You COULD say a newborn baby is "in it's first year"... but everyone you told that to would want to strangle you.

But what really gets to me is that instead of saying "I'm in week 3 of my pregnancy", you'd say "I'm 3 weeks pregnant". That's ridiculous. So basically they've taken the "milestone-based" system that we all know and love, and messed with it for no good reason. It would be like saying "I'm 1 century old". Or saying "I've been on vacation for a month" the second you step out of the plane to Hawaii.

Am I right or what? We need a grassroots movement to rid the world of this insanity.

Labels: Pregnancy, rant, units of time

Posted by Kris at 5:00 PM | Permalink | Comments