The "Loss" Of The Tax Break

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today we mourn not just the loss* of the potential tax deduction Stef and I could have claimed on our 2007 taxes, but also the never-ending source of conversation having a child on the last day of the year would have brought us. Also, there was a neat onesie that said "Tax Break" I was totally going to get for the Monster, but since he's late it doesn't make much sense.

* Yes, we know, a "qualifying child" is from birth to 17 years. So if we had gotten the 2007 deduction we would have been unable to claim the 2024 deduction. But, first off, we hopefully won't need the deduction in '24, and more'n likely we won't qualify for it even if we did thanks to our potential salaries (note: not complaining about that!). Secondly, pointing out how the deduction actually works is less funny than, you know, talking about how much we love our little Tax Break. That's the sad part.

PS - Happy New Years!

Prenatal Bonding

We have two female cats. One of them, Houdini (not pictured), is a bit skittish and disdainful of (most) human contact. The other, Jack Daniels (pictured above), is more of a lap cat. Er, scratch that... she's more of a Tummy Monster cat.

It used to be that Jackie loved me above all. I provided food, water and clean litter, and would pet her and play with her, so she would reward me with her presence. I'd sit down, she'd come sit on my lap. Lately, however, she's been ignoring me to hang with the Tummy Monster. Almost without fail, if Stef is sitting down, Jackie will run over and sit either on or near the Monster. It's a little sad but also super cute, so I'm okay with it.

But the best part is when we're sleeping, and Jackie cuddles with the Monster. A few nights ago, Stef says, when she did this he started kicking her, and she felt it, thought it was some kind of crazy shiatsu massage and cuddled closer, purring. So it's good that we're all getting along. I hope we can keep this up after the kid is born.

On "Alexander"

Alexander
Sex: boy
Language(s): Latin (Greek)
Meaning: defender of mankind
History: The name was probably coined originally as a title of the goddess Hera, consort of Zeus. Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) conquered and ruled the greater part of the known world before his death at the age of 33. History describes him as a man of high physical courage, impulsive energy, and fervid imagination. It was a royal name in Scotland.
Variant Forms: Al, Alasdair, Alastair, Alaster, Alaxander, Alcander, Alcinder, Alcindor, Alec, Aleco, Alejandro, Alejo, Alek, Aleko, Aleksandar, Aleksander, Aleksandr, Aleksanteri, Alesandro, Alessandre, Alessandri, Alessandro, Alex, Alexan, Alexandre, Alexandro, Alexandros, Alexei, Alexi, Alexio, Alexis, Alic, Alicio, Alick, Alik, Alisander, Alissander, Alissandre, Alistair, Alister, Alistir, Alix, Alixandre, Allie, Allistair, Allister, Allistir, Alsandare, Alyksandr, Iskander, Iskender, Lex, Lexo, Sacha, Sander, Sandero, Sandor, Sandro, Sandros, Sandie, Sandy, Sascha, Sasha, Saunder, Saunders, Sikander, Xander, Zander, Zandro and Zandros.
Popularity: 2006 (12), 2005 (12), 2004 (15), 2003 (16), 2002 (15), 2001 (20), 2000 (20), . . . , 1990 (28), 1980 (92), 1970 (137), 1960 (231) (Note: Rank 1 is the most popular, rank 2 is the next most popular, and so forth. Name data are from Social Security card applications for births that occurred in the United States.)

On Being Web-Savvy

For those of you who already have this blog on an RSS feed, feel free to ignore this post (except the last paragraph!). However, for those of you who check back every day or so to see if there is an update or not, we have some suggestions which will save you a bunch of time and heartache.

First, you should consider subscribing via an RSS reader. We like Google's, because it's free and easy. And free. Here's a link to a pretty good video that explains what RSS readers do and how to go about getting started with them. Once you watch that, come back here and copy and paste the following url into your "add subscription" area:
http://tummymonster.blogspot.com/

Now you can use that site to not only view the updates to this awesome blog, but all the other less-awesome blogs and news sites you read on a daily basis, saving you tons of time, which you can then use to think about ways to thank us for saving you so much time.

But let's say you don't read that many blogs or news sites on the web. In fact, if you just use the internet to read this blog (because it rocks) and check your email, you might want to be emailed when there's a new post. If that's the case, shoot us an email with your preferred email address, and we'll add you to the Tummy Monster email group.

Finally, if you look at the sidebar of this page (which you wouldn't see in your RSS reader, natch) you'll see a new poll feature which you should go ahead and participate in. It's in beta-testing at Blogger, which is why it looks all wonky, but eventually it'll be nice and neat and it will tell us things like what gender you all think the Monster is, or what it's name should be, or when you think it'll actually arrive, or any other little thing we feel like polling you on. Fun, right? Anyhoo, we hope this helped.

License To Ill

Stef was feeling pretty lousy this past week or so, as in: nausea. This was the onset of the dreaded "morning sickness", a reaction to the increased hormones in the body that more than half of all pregnant women get (typically between the 6th and 12th weeks of pregnancy). Of course, when Stef would get sick to her stomach, it would happen all-of-a-sudden and almost never in the morning (misnomer!). Actually, we found that it happened most right when we got home from work. This was particularly bad timing, though, because it was messing with her dinner time and her already-screwy appetite (which is very small but very frequent right now), so we took the advice of one of the books I had read and Stef started driving home each day. This seemed to do the trick; although she still had an upset stomach, she was able to keep her food down and even eat dinner. Score one for book-learnin'!

Despite this temporary victory, the being nauseous was really frustrating Stef, and my reassuring her that "[m]any health care providers think morning sickness is a good sign because it means the placenta is developing well" (or, as the saying goes: "the sicker the mom, the healthier the baby") wasn't really helping. What did end up really helping was talking to Fran, and hearing from her that everything Stef was experiencing was normal. More importantly, it was important for Stef to know that the sick part would go away soon and that she'd start being hungry again soon. Voracious, even. So we've got that to look forward to.

Why Mommy's So Tired

It's not uncommon for a pregnant woman in her first trimester to have difficulty sleeping due to emotional anxiety, hormonal fluctuations, physical discomfort or what-have-you. That's not been the case exactly with Stef, though. Actually, she's been sleeping (in fits and starts) about 12 hours a day, and she'd probably sleep more if she could. Heck, even when she's not sleeping she's still spending most of her free time resting or lying down. That's not her being lazy, though. She's well and truly tired. And the reason the Monster has her so wiped out, according to Stef's OB/GYN, is Progesterone.

Progesterone is "the hormone of pregnancy", and it does a lot of neat stuff. It keeps Stef's immune system from kicking out the Monster as some sort of disease, it keep her from lactating, and apparently, when the levels of progesterone drop, it'll mean Stef's going into labor. It also makes some women tired, and by "some women," I mean Stef.

Now that we're in the eighth week of pregnancy, the source of all this crazy progesterone should be switching over to the Monster's placenta, and perhaps Stef will liven up a bit. Not that I'm complaining, mind you, I just don't think Stef wants to sleep through this exciting part of our lives.

The Dreaded Cat Poo Disease

I'm finding out that pregnancy means more than getting your wife an extra pillow for her feet or pickles slathered in satay sauce at three o'clock in the morning. Especially if you're infected with cats. Apparently, one of the many dangers the Monster faces in its larval stage is toxiplasmosis*, which comes from a parasite that mostly infects cats and can cause some fairly serious and unfunny consequences to a small percentage of unborn monsters. This disease, I kid you not, is transmitted by touching cat poo (also, raw meat). Caveat #1: most people have gotten toxiplasmosis already in their life, and you really only worry about transmitting it to a fetus when the expectant mother is exposed to the parasite for the first time while carrying the child. Caveat #2: if you clean up the cat poo every day (like a good owner should), the parasite doesn't really have time to reproduce. Caveat #3: strictly house cats, like Jackie and Houdini (pictured above), aren't at risk of having the parasite because cats get it from eating prey, not kibbles.

Nevertheless, this discussion gives me an excellent opportunity to share this little tid bit about the Toxoplasma gondii parasite:

It has been found that the parasite has the ability to change the behavior of its host: infected rats and mice are less fearful of cats - in fact, some of the infected rats seek out cat-urine-marked areas. This effect is advantageous to the parasite, which will be able to sexually reproduce if its host is eaten by a cat. The mechanism for this change is not completely understood, but there is evidence that toxoplasmosis infection raises dopamine levels in infected mice. The findings of behavioral alteration in rats and mice have led some scientists to speculate that toxoplasma may have similar effects in humans. . . . [however, the] evidence for behavioral effects on humans, although intriguing, is relatively weak.

We all know, of course, that what those "scientists" are really saying is that (i) cats have a parasite in their poo that (ii) makes us all think they're super cute and harmless, and (iii) one day they will use this poo disease to take over the world.

* I learned everything I know about this disease from the internets, and I am not a doctor.

Apologies To The Monster

Dearest Monster,

First, I want to apologize for the fact that your name right now is "Monster". I assure you, this moniker is not meant to be disparaging, rather a term of endearment. Similar to your soon-to-be friends "Nugget", "Ribs", "Critter" and "Parasite" (etc.).

More importantly, we'd like to apologize for your unfortunate expected birth date. See, your Mom was born in mid-December, and has this thing against her own birthday due to its proximity to the winter holidays (specifically Christmas). She seems to feel that having the events so close together in time makes it too difficult for her friends and family to properly and adequately adulate and celebrate her triumphant birth. So, when we set about thinking about making you, our intent was to avoid that horrible outcome.

Unfortunately, society lied to us! We were raised to think that babies took nine months to make. Which is true, technically, but you have to count from sometime before the making of the baby and the pee-on-a-stick test, and we didn't know that. We thought we were in the clear and you'd be coming around mid-January, early-February. Turns out, your due date is smack dab in the middle of Christmas and New Year's Eve. This is something that didn't even occur to us until it was (happily) too late. Basically, what I'm telling you is that we're sorry if your birthday is too near the holidays (but I promise we'll make it up to you with a special cake or something).

Love,
Your Dad-To-Be