A couple of quick updates
Started: 2015-02-07 20:13:52
Submitted: 2015-02-07 21:31:54
Visibility: World-readable
In which the intrepid narrator discusses a few points of minor interest in Kiesa's pregnancy
As January wore on, I confess I was, in the back of my mind, very slightly paranoid about the advent of week 32 of Kiesa's pregnancy, when she went into preterm labor with Calvin. (For those of you just joining us, the doctors successfully stopped her labor and she ended up being induced on her 40-week due date.) I was not actually worried that something might happen but I was relieved when nothing happened on 32 weeks, 2 days.
Week 32 passed without incident, and Kiesa actually got to attend her own baby shower this time. I was happy to let her occupy the center of attention while I lurked in the shadows while occasionally sending snarky comments on Twitter.
With less than two months to go in the pregnancy before Version 2.1 makes his appearance in the world, we're working through our "before baby" list. I can't file my taxes until I get all of my 1099s from my brokerage accounts by mid-February (which is a very top-decile problem). We're trying to figure out how to fit baby into our house; Kiesa is nesting virtually by modeling everything in SketchUp and trying to figure out what works, but hasn't come up with any great ideas yet.
Since 32 weeks was when everything started getting interesting last time, I decided to start accompanying Kiesa on her OB visits. This time we did get one interesting piece of information: Version 2.1 is now breech, with his head up and his feet down, instead of the preferred position for a vaginal delivery, head down and facing backwards. He had been head-down for a while, placing more than his fair share of pressure on Mommy's bladder, until she went to the dentist, leaned back for the cleaning, and felt him undock and start wriggling around. It's still early enough that 2.1 could decide to flip back, but if not, at week 36 the OB is going to want to schedule a repeat c-section. (With a prior Caesarean delivery, Kiesa is not a good candidate for attempting a breech delivery or trying to manually flip the baby by having a pair of doctors poke at her belly.) I have mixed feelings about a scheduled repeat c-section; on the bright side it reduces the cloud of uncertainty about baby's delivery, but it does come with its own set of complications.
Since Kiesa is planning on returning to work after 2.1 is born, we toured a couple of local daycare centers but then came up with a new idea: get an au pair from China. An au pair is more expensive than most of the daycare centers we found, though cheaper than a nanny since Congress gives us a special minimum wage exemption for the "cultural exchange". (I assume this means that the nanny/daycare lobby is not especially powerful in Congress, otherwise they'd put up a bigger fight against cheap immigrant labor taking their jobs.) Our idea is that we could get exposure to Chinese language and culture and food in our own home by having a Chinese au pair live with us for a year before taking the leap and moving to Greater China ourselves sometime next summer.
We've interviewed two au pair candidates via Skype, which is a little awkward because of the time zone differences (we conducted one call at 22:00 MST and one at 07:00 MST) and the language barrier. All of the candidates speak English but many haven't had a native English speaker handy, so sometimes their pronunciation leaves a bit to be desired. (I have to say, though, that their English is universally better than my Chinese.) Each of the candidates we've talked to so far have their strengths and weaknesses, but I remain confident we can find a good au pair and make everyone happy -- we get child care and get more exposure to Chinese, and she gets to visit the United States. (If I were writing in Chinese I'd probably throw in "harmonious" here for good measure.)
