It’s suddenly very, very cold in NYC (well….25 degrees), but fortunately Todd and I leave for a quick vacation in Florida later today! We can only really spare a long weekend with our limits on vacation time, but it should be enough to relax in the sun and tan my belly a bit. We have no plans, other than to sleep in and swim as much as we can. Next time we see the ocean (other than the not-so-welcoming harbor around NYC), we’ll have a baby with us!
Posted by Kate
Posted in Non-Baby
I had another sonogram yesterday, and all looked well again. I wasn’t scheduled for one, but my doctor recommended it as a precaution since my weight gain has been irregular (although my fundal height (belly size) has been perfect every time). They measured the baby’s head, abdomen and some key bones as well as the level of amniotic fluid–all looked just right for 29 weeks! The baby was pretty quiet yesterday evening–Todd joked that it was mad at me since I had pummeled it with sound waves earlier that day. Hopefully we won’t be going through another one of those. It is amazing to “see” the baby, but supposedly that’s the loudest noises our baby will hear in utero. The baby had its hands in front of its face the whole time, so I didn’t get any really good take home pictures other than a profile that looks exactly like the last one.
Posted by Kate
Well, not definitely, but at least he’s still breathing for a little while longer. Over the last five years in Brooklyn, some friends and I have been putting together a script for an animated film called ‘The Adventures of Bigfoot and Gil’. I won’t relay the long and tedious journey up to this point, but we finally reached an important milestone today…we got paid. We’ve been developing the story along with a producer of some other recent animated movies and finally signed a contract late this past year. It doesn’t mean the film is actually going to be made, but at least we’re no longer writing scripts for free. Basically, we’re getting paid a little bit to write several drafts of the script and then the production company gets to decide whether they want to make the movie or not. If they do, we’ll get paid a bunch more. If not, we’re free to take the project somewhere else. Unfortunately, they’ve got a year to make this decision so this whole process isn’t about to move along any faster.
At the very least, it’s been fun to work with my friends, as well as get a behind-the-scenes look at how some of this business is done. Stay tuned for another update in 2013…
Posted by Todd
Last night we got back from a quick weekend trip to Wisconsin. The weather in the Midwest turned sour on Sunday, and despite many canceled and delayed flights earlier in the day, our flight was only about 30 minutes delayed and we made it home Sunday night as planned.
I had a baby shower on Saturday, and got to visit with many people–family and friends alike. The shower was a great collaborative effort between the Brunner and Burzynski women, and I was touched by all the energy put in to this party for me and the baby. I really enjoyed talking to other women about their experiences with pregnancy, delivery, and childrearing. So far, Todd and I have been pretty lax about setting up our home for the baby’s arrival–now that we have received so many thoughtful gifts, we will be motivated to use the gift money to outfit the rest of the baby’s immediate needs. With our small apartment and our lifestyle, the baby’s “needs” are going to be pretty minor, but we still have to arrange the basics.
Maybe it was all that feminine energy or maybe it was the travel, but yesterday Todd and I both noticed that the baby is starting to push around more vigorously and is getting big enough ans strong enough that it’s unmistakable. It’s been startling and awesome how strong some of it’s stretches and pushes can get!
Posted by Kate
I’ve been looking for a stroller now going on 3 months. Besides being able to hold a kid (which I naively assumed was the main thing to worry about) we need something that’s light (so we can carry it up and down stairs), that folds quickly (for when we need to hop on a subway, bus or taxi), that isn’t too wide (so we can take it in all the tiny stores and restaurants New York has to offer) and, of course, looks good (Hey, I’m a designer. If I’m not willing to pay more for something that looks/feels nice then I’m probably in the wrong field.) Plus, we need something that can handle a newborn, a car seat, and hopefully provide us with some storage space.
Just typing that paragraph gave me another headache.
We’ve narrowed it down to a select few, but still need to actually make the trip into Manhattan and give them a test drive. In the meantime, though, we’ve received a lot of unexpected help in our decision from Youtube. Apparently it’s not just a tool for seeing Darth Vader Feels Blue anymore. You can find product reviews, too. And there’s no shortage of people who want to tell you about strollers. Now if only there was some sort of virtual test drive we’d be all set.
Posted by Todd
Posted in Baby
Part of the fun of being a product designer is seeing the stuff that you’ve worked so hard on finally hit the store shelves. There’s usually at least a one year delay between finishing a design and having it appear on the market and anything can happen during that time, including having the client decide they don’t want to go forward with the product. It’s a long road from the drawing board to the aisles of the local Target which makes it all the more exciting for me when something actually makes the journey and comes out on the other side. The latest product to do this is the OXO Strawberry Huller:
Well….not really, but I’m feeling much better! I was back at work today, too.
Todd and I tried to go to a seminar on Obstetric Anesthesia tonight at NYU hospital, but it seems that the flyer had the date wrong. We were hoping to get the low-down on the pain management drugs available. Ideally, I don’t really plan on using drugs, but we thought it might be a good idea to educate ourselves so we could make an informed decision when the time comes. It looks like we’ll have to catch it next month! By then, we’ll have started our natural childbirth classes so it will be a nice juxtaposition of opinions.
Posted by Kate
It was a rough weekend for me–I developed a pretty severe head and chest cold that peaked over the weekend. I saw my doctor today who confirmed it’s bronchitis, but that it sounded like it’s on the way out. I have to tough it out another couple days before potentially taking antibiotics since it takes about a week it to be apparent if it’s viral (getting better at a week, not impacted by drugs) or bacterial (feeling worse after a week, treatable by drugs). Poor junior must feel like there are earthquakes rumbling in the area with all my deep congestion and coughing. I’ve also been getting a lot more sleep and generally resting more, and I feel like I’m getting better. Since I haven’t felt up to doing much, I’ve been relaxing by reading, drinking hot tea and taking long baths. One thing I’ve noticed with all this navel-gazing (figuratively and literally), is that the baby’s movements are now visible from the outside. It’s obviously getting bigger and stronger!
Posted by Kate
I recently saw the invitations that my mom created for Kate’s baby shower and noticed that she included a note encouraging everyone who was coming to bring a children’s book. This started me thinking about the books I remember from being a kid and one in particular that stands out is this one:
If you’ve never read it, it follows Grover as he wanders through a maze-like museum that contains literally everything in the world. As a kid, I remember being amazed by the idea of a building that could have giant rooms where ceilings disappear into the clouds, and secret passages lead to tiny rooms that can barely fit your head, and random holes in the floor that opened into underwater caverns filled with sea creatures. I had no knowledge of building safety codes back then…
Picking up the book recently, I realized how all these images that first filled my head as a kid have stuck with me. Even now as an adult wandering past the large, stone-faced buildings that are so ubiquitous around New York, for a few seconds my imagination conjures up the sprawling rooms, elaborate staircases and secret passages that might lie inside.
Posted by Todd
