Baby Dumpling's Poppa

Cord Blood

My wife was really thinking about saving the cord blood when we have our baby and paying for the service to preserve it for future use.  Some real questions came up and are still coming up about doing this.  Is it really worth the cost to save it?  I guess the initial cost is about $2000 then you pay a yearly fee of about $200.  Every now and then a person from the cord bank calls and asks if we have made the decision to proceed or not.  At this point I don't think we have made up our minds.  But with D-Day just 4 weeks from now we really should decide.  If we don't decide to pay for it, I think it would be o.k. to donate it.  I found the National Marrow Donor site that list hospitals that participate in the donor program, but naturally ours isn't on the list.  The site did refer me to a company that accepts donations, but that makes me wonder if they in turn sell that for a profit to someone that really needs it or do they give it away at cost?  What I've read really makes me wonder.  These places say that it's a type of insurance against diseases that often require stem cell transplants, but when you read the reports not many transplants are from the individuals own cord blood.  Some sites also said that usually when the person needs the transplant they are adults and there isn't enough from their own stored supply.  Then there is the possibility that the lab that does the processing and storage does it right so it can be used.  If the bank fails to properly process and store it, then it's useless and we pay all that money for nothing.  I also read there seems to be a lot of people paying for this service.  Is that true or just made up by the labs trying to sell their services?

Winter Firewood

A few weeks ago I ordered my winter firewood to be delivered.  Moving and stacking the firewood is really hard on my back but I know that when winter comes I'll be glad I did.  This year was a little different.  I was thinking about why I was so eager to get it done.  This year I'm going to have a new born and she'll need to be kept warm and it's not like we can cover her up with all kinds of blankets when it's time for bed.  That really kept me motivated and I was able to move and stack my 2 cords, 1 cord is equal to 128 cubic feet, in about 2 days.  As I moved it on the warm sunny day I kind of imagined my child asking me why I'm working on winter firewood when it's still summer.  The best way i think I could explain this is tell her the story about the grasshopper and the ant while I'm busy moving and stacking. 

I bought my wood already split and cut because it's much easier to work with.  I will have to split some pieces to make it easier to get the fire going but first I'll buy an axe to do that.  In the past, I used a wood splitter and a sledge hammer because my wife said she would be too afraid watching me use an axe. But this year I convinced her that it's faster and easier to use an axe.  I really didn't have to worry much about how I stacked it because the wood was already dried, so there was no cross stacking involved.  I just had to loosely stack them in a way they wouldn't roll down as I removed them. 

When I thought about the fire place a few days ago, it dawned on me that when my child gets old enough to start crawling or walking around we're going to have to figure a way so the child doesn't touch or fall on the fireplace insert or fall and hit the bricks.  I might just have to buy/build something that will prevent them from going near that area until they are old enough to remember not go near it even while playing.  I read once that if you have 1 sharp corner in your house, the child's head will find it.  This kind of bothers me because the sharp corner is brick and that can cause some serious damage.  It doesn't get hot so I think I will be able to put some type of corner padding on it, but then there's the insert that sticks out.  Maybe I can put some type of light beam that will make a sound when the light gets broken, just like 7-11 has.  Then I'll know when someone is in that area and I can make sure it's not the child. 

How can you child-proof everything in the house?  Is it o.k. just to wrap the child in bubble wrap until they are old enough not to do foolish things?

5 Weeks until delivery

We are now 5 weeks until "D-Day" and nothing is ready.  My wife and I have had so many projects going on at the same time and we haven't completed any of them.  The remodeling that was started a year ago is still not finished, courtesy of Home Depot, and won't be finished until after the baby arrives.  My wife was planning to complete most things when she stopped working at 8 months but the doctor tells her that she has no reason to stop working and won't take her off work because there is nothing wrong with her or the baby.  I always thought that being 7-8 months pregnant was reason enough to stop work in this country.  I could understand in other countries where the woman is working in the field, falls down has the baby then gets back to work but in this part of the world I thought pregnant women were better cared for by the medical industry and everything that we've read says the doctor and the pregnant woman will decide when it's time.  Maybe we just have one of those lousy doctors that won't do anything until the patient is almost dead or doesn't feel that 8 months pregnant is a valid reason to stop working.  But regardless of when my wife stops working or when everything gets finished I really feel that as new parents we'll never feel ready to have the baby.  There will always be something that needs to be done or something that we'll need to buy.  What is important, in my opinion, is that we have what we need.  Things like Car Seat, Stroller, Crib or Bassinet, clothes, diapers, camera, small tub for washing, bottles, patience, and love.  I call this my emergency shopping list, it will do until we can figure things out.

Baby Things being Recalled

My wife and I have been preparing the list of things to buy this past week and she was going to go out this weekend shopping to make the purchases.  Cribs was on the top of the list then I read the story released about noon today about baby crib recall.  The CPSC has issued a recall for unsafe baby cribs.  I started thinking about all the baby/child stuff recalls that have been issued over the past few months and wondered how any parent can keep up with it.  You can't buy jewelry, toys, mattresses and now cribs for reasons that range from fire hazard to lead poison.  The crib recall is because of faulty design.  It seems that if it's not correctly assembled a space develops between the drop down side and the mattress that allows babies to get stuck and suffocate.  Wonderful news.  As a parent you are already not getting enough sleep, you have a lot of worries and now you have to worry that the bed you bought for your child will actually kill them.  So what the real question is, "What is a parent to do?"  Do parents have to check daily for products they bought on the product recall list?  Or is information so readily available that we just find out about things a lot faster or more complete when it happens?  I guess in the old days there may have been unsafe things but our parents didn't know about them and they just took their chances the baby won't get sick, hurt or worse.  Maybe I should just do what was done 100 years ago, make all the baby things by hand myself.  That way I'll know what kind of paint is put on the toys, I'll know how the things are designed and I'll know who the made it.  In today's world very few actually have the time for all that, so I guess I'm stuck just like everyone else checking the CPSC website daily for the stuff I buy my child.  That list will get very long very fast...

Weight Gain During Pregnancy

As my wife is nearing the end of the pregnancy I was concerned about the amount of weight she's suppose to gain.  We were told my wife should gain about 35 pounds by the end of the pregnancy.  I felt that was way too much weight gain, I told my wife early in the pregnancy that she should gain between 20-30 pounds.  It seems that the medical professionals are gathering a bunch of data regarding the weight impact on both mother and baby.  They will make recommendations when the data is collected and studied.  In the mean time it seems that 25 pounds is a fair weight gain during pregnancy.  At 7 months my wife has picked up 13 pounds so I was getting a little concerned that she was going to come in under weight, but our doctor says everything is right on schedule and we don't need to worry about that.  As I looked into what my wife was eating and how much she was gaining I decided the doctor was right.  My wife doesn't eat the hamburger, pizza, french fries and that type of junk food.  She mostly eats leafy green vegetables, tofu and rice or rice noodles.  These are not things you eat if you're trying to gain weight, these are things you eat if you eating healthy and watching your weight.  If my wife gains 1-2 pounds a week for the rest of the pregnancy she'll come in under 30 pounds.  That will be just fine because she's gained weight eating healthy, therefore it should be a little easier for her to loose the weight once the baby is born.  From what I've learned there will be lowered chance of our baby being overweight at birth or later in life.  If my wife continues eating this way the baby will learn by example and eating healthy will become routine for her.  I was starting to wonder if my wife ends up just about 30 pounds for the pregnancy by eating the healthy stuff, how big is the baby going to be?  If she gains 20-25 the baby will be between 6-7 pounds but if she gains 30 pounds would the baby be over 8 pounds?  Is an 8 pound baby girl big?

Frequency of Baby Kicks

Lately I noticed my wife keeping a log of every time she feels the baby kick.  I didn't know that the baby has to kick a certain amount of times per day and it's important to keep track of this.  I knew that you must be aware when the baby kicks and if you don't feel it for a period of time you need to do something.  I haven't really had the problem of getting the baby to kick.  My wife says it's not fair that she's carrying the baby but I have a secret code with my daughter even before she's born.  It started the first time I felt her kick one night.  Since then when my wife and I go to bed I put my hand on her tummy and tap my index finger 3 times and the baby kicks my hand.  At first it only happened about 30% of the time, but now it happens more than 90%.  I also started doing it when I first wake up and I almost always get a response.  I don't know why my wife would think it's not fair.  I think it's a good thing.  My thinking is the baby has gotten use to it so when she's born and all that noise and stuff going on around her she's probably going to be a little scared, if I tap her 3 times with my index finger she'll recognize that and hopefully find some comfort with something that's familiar.  If nothing else she'll at least know that I'm the jerk who's been annoying her with the 3 taps, but at least it will be something that she knows.  I don't know if she'll remember or if she even knows what it is, but for now it seems that she responds to it.

Hello Daughter

Just a few days ago your mother and I got to see you.  Although it wasn't the first time because we saw you with the 2 other ultrasound's, but this time we got to see what you really look like so it's like we saw you for the first time.  There is so much that needs to be done before you arrive and we are hoping that we will finish in time, but if we don't please be patient.  I hope you will be patient with us, we've never had a child before so we will make mistakes.  I assure you that we will not be perfect parents, but we will most definitely try our best.  All of us will go through a learning phase and it will be important that we respect each other's feelings.  Please understand that as parents we will sometimes have to make choices that you won't like, we will force you to eat vegetables that you may not like at first but you will grow to like them.  There is a lot that we must teach you and a lot you must teach us.  During your life you will learn many things, I have found that you never really stop learning new things.  I hope you learn the good things that life has to offer.  I have so much to say to you it's had to keep my thoughts focused.  It feels as if my thoughts have been put into a mixer and the super charge mix button was pushed.  For now I will just say "HELLO"