Kristin, that dress is absolutely stunning. I know it will look even lovelier with you showing it in its best light.

Thanks, everyone! I really love it. I have a few iPhone pics of my trying it on, but I'm not going to upload those anywhere public. Better pics in January!

And thanks also for the ~ma for Gram.

Wow, that dress, Kristin! As my boyfriend would say "hubba, hubba!!!"

good thoughts for your Gram!

That's a beautiful dress, Kristin. I'm glad you got to take advantage of sample sales! Health~ma for your Gram.

Jack-Jack is apparently miffed at the scurrying around, trying to get ready for the D.C. trip. I think he's suspecting there's a carrier in his future.

[link]

I started my new job today. They welcomed me by having chocolate cake.

I think I'm going to like it here.

I guess they knew you were coming. Sounds like a perfectly acceptable welcome to me!

However. I have distinct issues with blowing out my vagina because of a baby when there are other delivery options.

Word.

If we're facing some part of me getting sliced and stitched up again, and its between a part that has never looked that good anyway and MY FAVORITE PART EVAH guess which one is going under the knife. Go on, guess.

If we're facing some part of me getting sliced and stitched up again, and its between a part that has never looked that good anyway and MY FAVORITE PART EVAH guess which one is going under the knife. Go on, guess.

Interesting piece of trivia: the trauma of birth dramatically elevates the baby's stress-related hormones. It reacts to these hormones in pretty much the opposite direction an adult would experience - its heart rate and breathing activity slow, and certain movements are paralysed. (This is all beneficial if you're currently being squeezed through a birth canal.) They also give a final boost to the baby's lung development. They help absorb excess liquid and promote the release of lung surfactant (that allows gas exchange through the lung's surface area).

The result of this is that babies born naturally start breathing faster and their blood oxygen levels rise more rapidly after birth. They also have higher glucose reserves and can better maintain their body temperature. Babies born by unplanned C-section, who already experienced much of the birth trauma, also experience most of the same effects.

I've been reading a book about an infant's neurological development, found here: [link] It's really quite awesome, and it makes watching Ryan develop so much fun too.

Oh! Here's my favourite one so far. Newborns have a bunch of instinctive reflexes controlled by the limbic system: the startle reflex, the rooting reflex, the stepping reflex (if you stand him on a surface, he'll start his legs marching, knees up one by one), and that thing where if you tickle his foot, his toes flare out instead of curling in. Some other ones too. Anyway, they disappear as the cerebral cortex comes online and allows conscious control. But the stepping reflex disappears pretty quickly, around 6-8 weeks; and experiments have demonstrated that it's not because of the cerebral cortex.

The reason it goes: ok, it's kind of a trick question. The reflex hasn't gone at all. He just can't do it anymore, because his legs are now too fat to lift. (I think that's awesome.) If you stand a bub in waist-deep water, they'll still do the step thing. But under normal circumstances, they're just too much of a chubby bubby.

Huh. Babies = awesome.