Category: thoughts

Ultrasound recap

Posted on by Phoebe Gleeson

So we had that ultrasound a few days ago! Everything is fine as far as we can tell with the baby. He measures right for dates, no abnormalities seen, etc. That’s the last hurdle to cross medically and now I feel confident birthing at home.

In retrospect, I should have left the OB office after getting my fetal DNA results and not limped along to the anatomy scan. The scan we got at an independent lab for Dorothy and for Clementine was just as complete and much faster. We waited over an hour to be shown in at the scan yesterday, then an additional hour waiting for first, the technician and second, the doctor. Very unpleasant experience for someone by themselves, let alone with eight children in tow. This is the same place that tells you they will charge you if you are fifteen minutes late. Sean was pretty hacked off because he had to take time off, and then it dragged much, much longer than planned.

I had forgotten, because you do, how doctors are. After the tech scanned us, the doctor came in and talked for five minutes or so about my normal pregnancy. Absolutely no new information for me, the mother of eight. I just let him go on. I’ve learned that stopping doctors does no good but just makes it go on longer. I figure they have to tell you this stuff for liability reasons. Whatever. They’re like informative audiobooks you can’t skip through. He assumed I was giving birth at the hospital and I just let him think that. He wanted to see me for monthly scans “due to your age and grand multiparity” but didn’t give any reasons or evidence that they would statistically improve our outcome, so. No thanks.

If I have another baby after this one gonna do it different. No OB after the bloodwork, and an out-of-pocket ultrasound midway through. Done deal. If the ultrasound shows an issue then we’ll figure out what to do then.

It feels like such a relief to be able to drop the doctors. I won’t be getting the gestational diabetes test either, so I’ll just do one at home. I have a blood glucose monitor. I’ve never had GD and don’t expect to this time. And I can do kick counts and fundal height checks myself. I know preeclampsia symptoms, I’m monitoring my weight gain, etc etc.  And I have an awesome midwife on call, ready for Halloween or so when the boy shall emerge!

Oh, in case you missed it – his name is Peregrine. We’re calling him Perry.

Oh, there you are!

Perry the Platypus

“We Know that We Are Going To Be Killed” 

Posted on by Phoebe Gleeson

One important thing to understand is the life there in Iraq. For Christians, we know what it is to live among others. This is not the first time. We grow up with persecution. So if you look to our history, I’m not talking about a couple hundred years ago, I’m talking even today, just yesterday. For priests, when they ordain us, we know that we are not going to die normally. We know that we are going to be killed.

http://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2016/07/we-know-that-we-are-going-to-be-killed

My Kid Learned More from Mario Maker than I Did from a Marketing Major

Posted on by Phoebe Gleeson

mario-maker

My kid isn’t some kind of special genius.  The world we live in is the most resource, information, and opportunity rich in human history.  If kids freely engage the world and follow their curiosity and intrinsic goals they will encounter a more diverse range of ideas and experiences than we can imagine.  When I try to directly teach my kids this stuff they scoff or sigh or roll their eyes or play dead hoping I’ll go for help so they can finally escape my words of wisdom.

In fact, unless we actively work to suppress it our kids urge to learn, experiment, innovate, create, and adapt will blossom.  That suppression often takes well-meaning forms like direct, mandated instruction from adult “experts” who know almost nothing about Mario Maker or other contexts kids actually care about.  It takes the form of classrooms and textbooks and tests and pressure to careerify interests.  It takes the form of parental worry that if their kid doesn’t learn the same bunch of arbitrary, mostly useless facts they were forced to memorize at the same age they did everything will fall apart and society will crumble.

Relax.  Your kid is going to be fine.  Even if they play a lot of video games.

http://isaacmorehouse.com/2016/06/30/my-kid-learned-more-from-mario-maker-than-i-did-from-a-marketing-major/

Everyone Already Knows

Posted on by Phoebe Gleeson

hug

She kept saying that I was “leading people to sin.” How was I leading people to sin? Because I wasn’t condemning them harshly enough, so they might think the Catholic church approved of them. They might somehow be the only people in the world who didn’t know that the Church forbids homosexual intercourse, and here I am treating them like children of God. They might somehow be the only people in the world who are brought to repentance by being treated like garbage instead of by being loved, and here I was loving them. Scandal.
[…]

I do apologize to all of my brothers and sisters, gay or otherwise, for the countless times I have stood before you wearing the icon of Christ, the human face, and not behaved in a Christlike manner. I am the worst of sinners. I am not worthy to be an icon. Please don’t ever confuse Christ with His followers. In His mercy, He comes to the weakest and worst of sinners to shame the strong, and I am weaker than most.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/steelmagnificat/2016/06/everyone-already-knows/

Week 22

Posted on by Phoebe Gleeson

guinea-pig-1
I’m 22 weeks along now, past the halfway mark! The baby has crossed the shifting line of viability, with about a 10% chance of reasonably healthy survival if he were born this week. Not that’s it’s in the foreseeable. He seems quite happy right where he is, which is as it should be. My pregnancy app tells me he’s as big as a guinea pig, squeak kwink keek. He is quite wiggly.

I have minor pelvic pain, which will probably get worse if it’s like previous pregnancies. And heartburn, but that’s managed quite well with nightly Pepcid. All in all I’m in good shape. I have some minor twinges of anxiety about labor but I’m on top of it, no runaway panic. Sometimes it has been awful in the past.

I have an appointment with the OB on Tuesday, and then my diagnostic ultrasound a week or two after that. If the ultrasound doesn’t show any problems then I’ll be done with medical care, woo! I had a good discussion with the OB last visit and told her I was probably dropping her, given that the ultrasound was normal. She was supportive of that, and said she’d see me as long as I kept coming.

So far, so good.

Why You Are Not A Heterosexual

Posted on by Phoebe Gleeson

Here we begin to see the problem, as knowledge of a person’s biological sex is neither sufficient nor even necessary for sexual attraction. What Joe finds sexually attractive is a largely culturally conditioned collection of traits, not female-ness in general. After all, Joe is not sexually attracted to every woman he meets, only to those who have the particular collection of traits he finds sexually attractive. Thus a person’s biological sex is not sufficient for sexual attraction. But neither is it necessary, as sexual attraction can be present even before a person’s biological sex is known.

http://theprincetontory.com/main/why-you-are-not-a-heterosexual/