All Things Supercinski

Birth Story

The music is “With My Own Hands” by Jack Johnson and Ben Harper, from the Curious George soundtrack.

Well, if you didn’t get your entry into the naming contest, you are too late!

Annalise Claire Supercinski
Born 9:02pm gently at home.
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008
7lbs. 11.5oz
21 inches long

Mom and daughter are doing great and eating well already.

These are some links for May 5th through May 27th. Enjoy!

• Some US farms outsourced to Mexico - Yahoo! Philippines News -
• The Challenge of Attention in the Digital Age - There comes a day when we must become accountable for our own learning process. What is the point of neurotically skipping along the surface when all the beauty lies below? Learning is an act of creativity, not mind-numbing, tv watching passive receptivity.
• Hard lemonade, hard price | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press - And if you think nothing so ludicrous could happen to your family, maybe you should pay a little less attention to who’s getting booted from “Dancing with the Stars” and a little more to how the agency responsible for protecting children is …
• Touchstone Archives: The Way We Weren’t - Many within the church look to the 1950s as an ideal to which to attain. This article reexamines what the church really was all about then, and how we can learn from it now.

This update is a little late this week, things have been busy around here. Thomas got the bassinet and car seat out this weekend, and he finished cleaning out our last closets that needed organizing. We are just about as ready as we can be now. I haven’t washed all of our old newborn clothes yet, but we have a lot of basic onesies, pants and socks washed. I can’t bring myself to wash and fold all the newborn boy clothes, so if it’s a boy, someone will be busy.

My appointment with my midwife yesterday was uneventful. Baby’s head is down with only a slight wiggle in my pelvis, which is good. I’m carrying ridiculously low, which is a comment I hear almost everywhere I go, as if I didn’t feel it every time I sit down, or when my belly bangs into my legs when I walk up stairs. I’m experiencing a lot of Braxton-Hicks contractions, and have been for the past several weeks, but they are getting stronger and more noticeable these days, often making me stop what I am doing if I’m walking around or something. A lovely self-portrait from today, the angle is a little off, but you get the idea:

Josiah is just almost as excited as we are, which is so sweet. I hope the excitement lasts. A couple days ago, after his nap, I told him that I had a surprise for him. He looked up with such excitement, and asked, “Our baby came out?” It almost made me cry it was so sweet. We talk about Our Baby a lot, and it is really helpful that two of our good friends have had babies recently. We checked out the best book about having a new baby - “Hello Baby!” by Lizzy Rockwell. It’s the only book I’ve found that shows a mother nursing a baby, not the big brother/sister giving the baby a bottle, and other little tidbits like showing a baby with an umbilical cord stump are helpful, too.

Josiah is unwavering in his belief that this baby is a girl, though we try to prepare him often that it could just as well be a boy. Out of curiousity, I asked him last night what Our Baby’s name is going to be and he answered, very matter-of-fact, “Our Baby.” Of course. This little video shows off Josiah’s new, professional haircut after I managed to butcher it last week, and he shows a little of his knowledge about babies.

The due date for Baby Super #2 is fast approaching and many have inquired of the sex of the child as well as the proposed names. After much deliberation we have finally settled on names.

First, the prizes:

• As the winner, you will receive the first non-family phone call announcing the birth of Baby Super.
• To show off your win to friends and family, we’ll send you two special prizes in the mail, both lovingly handcrafted here at “All Things Supercinski”. You’ll be able to use and wear these with pride.
• Your name announced as a winner right here on “All Things Supercinski”.

Winning is easy - just submit via email, the comments, the contact form, or the contest entry form the correct sex and name of Baby Super #2.

Here’s your hint - the two sets of initials are CAS and ACS.

You’ll have to determine which set is for which sex, but only include one guess in your entry, you must commit to either a girl or a boy. The S, of course, stands for Supercinski.

In the event of multiple correct submissions, the entry submitted first will be deemed the winner, other correct entries will receive honorable mention prizes, to be determined later. In the absence of a winner, one entry will be chosen at random to receive one of the handcrafted prizes above and mention on “All Things Supercinski”. One entry per person (multiple per household are accepted), first submission is only valid entry. Submissions received after the birth of Baby Super #2 are null and void and have no cash value. Contest may not be valid in all 50 states, void where prohibited. International viewers are eligible. Employees of “All Things Supercinski” and its subsidaries are prohibited. Baby Super #2’s due date is June 8th, but he or she may come before then, so hurry while supplies last!

So, to restate, you must correctly guess:

• the sex of Baby Super #2
• which set of initials Baby Super #2 will have
• what those initials will stand for

Valid submissions will look like this:

boy - Archibald Clarence Supercinski

Your Name
Address
City, State, ZIP
Phone

Play Ball!

And remember, you are all winners (except those who lose).

Sunday marked four weeks until my estimated due date. I say this all the time, but I seriously can’t believe we are getting so close! I have oodles of friends giving birth these days, and I’m next on the list, which makes it more real.

Things are going well. I’m feeling good, just really tired, and everything seems to wear me out more easily these days. Most of my clothes don’t cover my belly, or the bottoms dig into this low-lying belly so much that I can’t bear to wear them for long. This is why, if you see me in the next few weeks, I’ll probably be looking a lot like this photo–the maternity gaucho pants from Old Navy which I wear almost daily, along with a shirt, layered to cover skin.

We had our homevisit with our midwife today. Thomas came home for it, too, which was nice since he will be seeing a lot of her and her apprentice during the birth. Thomas and I were discussing the other night how different, in a good way, things will be this time. With Josiah, we were so focused on doing the labor part alone and staying home as long as possible to prevent unnecessary interventions (which meant driving to the hospital in transition, which I do not recommend), and this time, we get to have two extremely knowledgeable and supportive women here to help us.

We were busy last week getting everything ready for the visit and gathering all of our birth supplies. Some of the more interesting items include an unopened bottle of olive oil, shower curtain liners and, my personal favorite that I am so excited about, a pool. Here’s the birth kit box we ordered (all the fun stuff like chux pads, chord clamps, gloves, and so forth), along with the pool:

I think I’ll do a pregnancy update every week now until the end, unless it interferes with naps. Next week, we’ll discuss preparations for being a big brother!

Last Friday was really, really hot for this big momma. I was trying to take some diapers off the line and thought I would melt right into the grass. Of course, Josiah wanted to play outside, and rather than go through a mutual meltdown, I drug out the house, stripped the boy down to his shorts, and he went to town (and I enjoyed getting wet too, just my legs, but somehow, my belly was soaked as well.)

(Sigh.) He looks so big to me these days.