Observations

1. Wow! I am now an official PhD student.

2. Sitting in one's advisor's office with computer but no internet access for an entire afternoon is VERY productive.

3. Trains in Switzerland can be very picturesque in the winter.

4. Things to think about, "all in good time".

Now off to the train station to buy victuals. Possibly a nap later.

"Guest Blogging"

I offered to be interviewed by a sweet bicycle blog, Girls and Bikes, about cycling while pregnant - and here's the piece. Special thanks to Simply Bike for facilitating.

Halfway there!

20 weeks down, 20 to go!

So in the first half of pregnancy:
- no nausea (yay!)
- lots of saliva (!) and thirst in the 1st trimester
- a little bit tired somedays
- enjoying biking to the train stations, to work, and to my appointments
- a few little blurps and blops around week 15-16, now sometimes more solid blurps
- coolest ultrasound ever where I saw the baby moving its mouth (the tech confirmed that it was 'practicing eating')
- along with awesome 3D picture of its little hand (in previous post)
- good hang out times with Jenny, Kira, Lisa, Edith, Sean and Marin
- who knew maternity pants were so comfy?
- Bug is now about 9oz; am a little weirded out that it will gain another 6 or more pounds in the next 20 weeks! But all looks good on the ultrasound and other tests, so we are hoping for a nice healthy baby.
- lots of great support at work - although right before I told my boss, he declared at a staff meeting that no one on the team was going to get to go to any more weddings, or have friends, or get married themselves, and certainly no babies. Sorry boss!
- tons of love and support from Josh - including pushing me to eat my veggies and picking up the dog poo.

And just to say again, that it is WILD that there is a tiny being inside of me. Who are you, little person?

In the next 20 weeks - more prenatal yoga! A trip to Geneva! Babymoon travel to NYC and an undetermined warm location! Even, more, nesting!

(so far nesting has included a lot of measuring of rooms and furniture with a tape measure and inputting everything into Adobe Illustrator, to see if we can cram nursery stuff into Josh's office, and Josh's office into the guest room. It's also manifested as a strong desire not to go to movie theaters in Philadelphia that have consistently been reviewed as sticky, dirty, and full of people talking on their cellphones through the whole movie).

New cool watch

Here's my new cool watch for the research study! I have to wear it for a week straight (including in the shower), and then tell it when I'm going to sleep (and waking up). It tracks activity and sleep patterns.

The dog is walked, and it's time for lunch - then budgeting for Mali!

Dreaming

Last night I dreamt that Josh and I were going to get our 19-week ultrasound, to find out the sex of the baby. But we were in Bamako at the regional hospital, where I had been before, and there were a number of people with us - both sets of future grandparents, Josh's department chair, one of my co-consultants from the Tanzania trip, and maybe 2-3 others (college friends? work friends?). I told them to wait outside under the mango tree since really, it would be too crowded in the exam room and wasn't this really a nice private moment for Josh and I anyway?

We were running late; but checked in at the desk for the ultrasound (which was just like Pennsy's check-in desk, but dustier and with more ugly curtains).

And it was a girl!

hullo there!

(stay tuned for more real life news!)

Real Changes

1. None of my pants fit anymore, except my very stretchy made-for-rock-climbing one-size-too-big Prana jeans.
2. Not entirely comfortable riding my road bike, so it has been retired to the basement while the old upright mixte Peugeot is getting a tune-up in preparation for winter use around Philly.
3. Flutters? Gas? Muscle twitches? Fetal movement? unclear.
4. Awaiting arrival of first attempt at maternity clothes. Not sure what I will wear to the big conference all this week, besides my comfy maternity tights and dresses.

In other news. need to cut about 15 slides from a last-minute presentation I get to give in front of a variety of VIP Tanzania government types on Wednesday. Politically sensitive issue. But should be doable.

And Josh is chaperoning his first high school dance...I will let him blog about this experience later on.

Focus/Unfocus

It's Saturday in Accra, and a number of things were accomplished this morning; sending out minutes, writing up selection memos for a new study, finalizing workplan and budget for Mali. I was supposed to head out and go fabric shopping (for fabric and dresses I do not need) with a very kind lady, but (to my shy-person's relief) she bailed on me. So instead, left with the whole afternoon, I began falling into the internet.

The Family Circus dotted-line map of my playtime goes something like this:

 need a new carry-on bag because the handle on my current Samsonite busted, but Samsonite has crappy warranty so must look for better warranty, Osprey and Eagle Creek are recommended, okie dokie, what size, do they fit all my stuff, this is impossible to know until I try to pack it, but I will spend 1 hour flitting about and looking at packing cubes regardless. Ding ding Josh completed a task with Orchestra, which beeps me to let me know, this is such a good feature! and then I look at all the pregnancy things that must be done, and then get concerned about biking while pregnant, so research that for another hour, reading about ladies in nice flat empty midwestern towns who have cute old raleighs and huge bellies. Avoid thinking about how I will get around if biking is not an option. Then look for dad hack and mom hack and parent hack blogs and find things that might be useful, someday, you know, if this pregnancy produces a child, which at this point, chances are fairly good that it will. Eat some dried apricots and do a little laundry (after leaving it to soak in the sink since before lunch, which was oatmeal made using my electric kettle in my room, genius). Flit between looking at baby items on Amazon and a post from Rookie Moms about secondhand baby showers, which sounds right up my alley (and also involved complicated excel spreadsheets, my speciality!). Wonder if my colleague will ever get back to me about working on our project this afternoon. Feel guilty I have not actually made it into the pool since I got here despite having plenty of free time. Check out my 'bump' in the mirror and determine that while a very little something is there, most of what people are seeing is my inflated intestines. Debate sending an email to my PhD supervisor informing him of impending Baby. Decide to wait. Realize for the millionth time since Baby and PhD have become official that I am a crazylady.

 lalalalala. and so it goes. Perhaps I can save some of the afternoon by finally reading those supervision guidelines and sending in comments. Gah.