There has been some talk that this blog isn’t updated frequently enough and in the spirit of picking up the slack for my overwhelmed and oversized wife (no offense honey, you know it’s all baby), I’m going to post a little bit of updating and rambling to entertain the likes of those who find this sort of rambling entertaining. As I sit here and drone over things I could possibly talk about, Peanut is meowing very insistently about the fact that she doesn’t have room to crawl into my lap while my hands are engaged in typing. Nonetheless Peanut will find something else to engage in meanwhile, such as barking at the pretty songbirds that have decided to grace our bird-feeder this morning and brighten our day. I’d like to throw a shout-out to all my Tennessee folks who are enjoying unprecedented snowfall amounts, or as we have heard it called “Tennessee Snowpocalypse 2010.” Meanwhile we’re sitting pretty on about a quarter inch of rainfall overnight and a gray, foggy day. So while all of you are enjoying the most thrilling snow day filled with sledding, snowman building, snowball fights, and hot cocoa, keep us in mind in the back of your heads and know that what you’re doing today is way more fun than the tedious chores and baby-preparation that will occupy our Saturday. Apparently we could go see a movie but I really feel my time is better spent using this rare free-time to prepare the house for our new arrival. In a sense, I’m nesting, which is a behavior usually reserved for the pregnant mother, but in this case I claim sympathy pregnancy symptoms.

Since our last update, our lives have been fairly unremarkable. We did manage to find the time for a romantic weekend at Chateau Elan, a resort/winery only 45 minutes from here with top-notch accommodations. Preggo the Hutt will provide more details in an upcoming post regarding that getaway. Suffice it to say that it was everything we were looking for in our last vacation alone, albeit short. The rest of our days have been filled with work, chores, errands, and timing Braxton Hicks contractions hoping they turn into real ones. Her contractions are becoming more frequent, though no other signs of approaching labor have been observed just yet, barring his head moving into 0 station. Look it up if you don’t know what it means. Wikipedia can almost replace a health professional these days.

My work has been fairly good. I’m working a psychiatry rotation at an inpatient facility for adolescents. Unfortunately due to the nature of our patient population I cannot give much more detail than that. I do get a lot of direct contact with the children and the rest of my time is spent doing endless documentation. I’ve already crossed another specialty off the list of possible residency ideas. Nonetheless psychiatry has its place in any physician’s arsenal, especially one who plans to enter family medicine. Family practitioners deal with psychiatric patients on a daily basis, whether the problem is simply a co-morbidity to a medical diagnosis or the psychiatric issue is the presenting problem. I will be glad when it’s over in two weeks though.

As far as the pregnancy goes, things are progressing smoothly if not slowly. Today marks week 38 and mommy-to-be is bigger than ever, though she has not gained any more weight, for which she is very thankful. Her symptoms are uncomfortable and disturbing at times, and some of them even affect me. Her ankle swelling is prominent and doesn’t go away when she swims anymore. The mass effect of the large infant sitting on organs, joints, and ligaments causes an overriding feeling of discomfort. Worst of all is the snoring. It seems to get progressively worse every week and now it’s so loud that I physically cannot fall asleep in the same room. It makes us sad but we have to separate at night if I’m to get any sleep. We both hope that this symptom will disappear quickly after the birth, once the circulating pregnancy-associated hormones return to their normal pre-pregnancy levels.

That’s all I really have to ramble about. Peanut has her back turned to me and refuses to make eye contact now, I hope she’ll get over it (she will). Again I wish all of you snow-bunnies in Tennessee a wonderful snow day and we all hope to see you soon with our newest family member… whenever he decides to show up. He’s late by daddy’s watch and I’m pacing back and forth wondering when he’s going to be home. Bad sign, right?