Philotic Web

Also, happy anniversary Kirsten and Donny!



ETA: Gah, new page! Everyone go read Kirsten's post at the bottom of the previous page!

Little Bit,
You're one lucky kid to have parents that awesome and in love. Be nice to them.

Happy anniversary, you two!

You two are adorable in the Raider's pic! Happy Anniversary!

KIRSTEN. Stop it with the preciousness.

Happy anniversary; lovely letter. :)

Happy Anniversary to the three of you!

Happy Anniversary!

Thanks, everyone! It was a very happy anniversary.

Helen, I'd stop with the preciousness if I could, but I can't seem to. However, this post should be considerably less so.

We return to the topic of pubic hair.

Breakthrough discovery tonight! Okay, pelvic tilts. Exercise I'm supposed to be doing regularly for, I don't know, my abs or my back or something. Basically, stand against the wall and then press your lower back into it. Tonight I have discovered that if I stand against the shower wall, do a pelvic tilt, and crane my neck very far forward, I can see what I'm doing again!

I am very excited about this development. I KNEW those damned exercises had to be good for something! With the books would list that as a benefit!

It's the little things in life.

Pube party^

Ran across this, today:

In summary, the major findings of the present study were that women in the pregnancy group performed worse than nonpregnant controls on tasks of verbal memory and processing speed

Jessica F. Henry & Barbara B. Sherwin, Hormones and Cognitive Functioning During Late Pregnancy and Postpartum: A Longitudinal Study, Behavioral Neuroscience (forthcoming). [doi: 10.1037/a002554] (I have the .pdf if anyone wants it.)

It's science.

Ran across this, today:

In summary, the major findings of the present study were that women in the pregnancy group performed worse than nonpregnant controls on tasks of verbal memory and processing speed

Jessica F. Henry & Barbara B. Sherwin, Hormones and Cognitive Functioning During Late Pregnancy and Postpartum: A Longitudinal Study, Behavioral Neuroscience (forthcoming). [doi: 10.1037/a002554] (I have the .pdf if anyone wants it.)

It's science.

It's more than science. It's life! And it's really annoying. I've gained back less and less of my memory with each child.

It's nice that science shows that it's not all in my head, though.

Ran across this, today:

In summary, the major findings of the present study were that women in the pregnancy group performed worse than nonpregnant controls on tasks of verbal memory and processing speed

Jessica F. Henry & Barbara B. Sherwin, Hormones and Cognitive Functioning During Late Pregnancy and Postpartum: A Longitudinal Study, Behavioral Neuroscience (forthcoming). [doi: 10.1037/a002554] (I have the .pdf if anyone wants it.)

It's science.

How much worse? What measures?

I believe it, I'm just curious about the magnitude of the effect.

Hm. Not that robust. Actually, from the conclusion, I was expecting something more impressive. Nice to know that the delayed memory is exactly the same, meaning it's more a problem of encoding. So, if you get the information in your brain to start with, it's likely to stay. That would indicate more of a problem with attending to verbal information than with memory, per se. And, also, I'm not seeing where they're getting the processing speed conclusion from that list of tests. The only processing speed test listed is Cancellation, which showed no differences. There were way, way more tests of memory and other cognitive functions that were approximately the same than were different.

The study was mostly trying to measure the effect of estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, cortisol, and prolactin levels on cognitive functioning during pregnancy, so much of the study focuses on those levels and the correlations (if any) between the levels and the scores.

They also say the Digit Symbol test (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale–III) is a processing speed test.

Digit Symbol is a processing speed test, but it's not listed in that group. Digit SPAN is listed, but that's a completely different test. (It's a test of working memory.)

And, whatever the effects of the hormones are, they're really pretty damn tiny. Significance means there is an effect, but the PRACTICAL effect is virtually nil, per those results, honestly.

Digit Symbol is a processing speed test, but it's not listed in that group.

It's the last test listed...

Heee.

(That's not baby brain. That's regular old ADHD.)

I wonder if they have done one of those tests for the effects of Topamax. They always say that it affects cognitive functioning (and I know it does) but I wonder how much it does and how much is dose related.

I can say that I've noticed a cognitive change in my patiets on topamax. In my experience, it's a cumulative thing. The higher the dose or the longer the therapy the more I see it in them. My experience is probably not an accurate sampling because they are also taking other medications.

I've been on Topamax for 8 or so years now, so it's hard to remember not being on it. I recently had the dose doubled to 400mg/day. I definitely am having a harder time than ever remembering words and names. It doesn't impact my life significantly, since I don't do anything that requires me to be on the ball, but it is frustrating.

I have a friend in vet school who was on topamax and had to stop because it was so severely affecting her grades/ability to remember things we learn in class.

How much worse? What measures?

I believe it, I'm just curious about the magnitude of the effect.

Syphon, you fool, this is where you're supposed to respond with "but I posted them right up there", and refer to your edited original post.

Syphon, you fool, this is where you're supposed to respond with "but I posted them right up there", and refer to your edited original post.

And given the mix-up that followed re: digit symbols, it would have seemed totally legit! We could blame her pregnant brain and everything.

(Though, to be fair, I did post the article's citation. And offer a .pdf copy. So anyone really curious could have looked it up themselves or asked for a copy.)

I really really really REALLY want a little Naomi update. Hope all is going well with baby, mommy, and daddy!

Have we heard from them since they got to the new place?

Momma and Pappa are reasoonably exhausted. We'll be getting internet in our new place soon. Darned BT.

Naomi is well, and waking up some. Right now she is neither eating NOR sleeping! She's quite adorable. She is now 2.58kg, which is good gain. She drives her mommy nuts with a desire to eat and a tendency to fall asleep whilst doing so. I'll send rei in with the url for the baby nom nom pic of the day tumblr.

Ask and ye shall receive! Thanks for the update. I can't wait until you guys have internet again too! Glad to hear she is gaining weight well.

Momma and Pappa are reasoonably exhausted. We'll be getting internet in our new place soon. Darned BT.

Naomi is well, and waking up some. Right now she is neither eating NOR sleeping! She's quite adorable. She is now 2.58kg, which is good gain. She drives her mommy nuts with a desire to eat and a tendency to fall asleep whilst doing so. I'll send rei in with the url for the baby nom nom pic of the day tumblr.

So glad to hear she's doing well! I hope you are enjoying your early days with a newborn. It's such a cool time (albeit exhausting!).

Alright! 21 weeks today!

Time flies, doesn't it?

Let's see. Not much to report from this week. Hunger pangs have resurfaced. Baby and mommy are growing like mad. Baby's movements are still pretty sporadic.

I had my first baby-related dream this week. I've had vivid dreams before now, but none were directly related to babies or pregnancy. In the dream, I was babysitting four kids. Mom was home at one point, and I was giving a child an IQ test. Then the baby started crying, and I went to check on her, and she needed a diaper change. I was informed by a preteen in the room that I should get help, because her diaper was really complicated. I realized that it was a cloth diaper, but was all, "that's cool. I've read all about these and it will be good for me to see one up close and get practice. So, no worries!"

The diaper had approximately six different layers. Most of them had really complicated ties. And the bottom of the diapers, there was some kind of weird shield in the front and back that snapped onto the baby's carseat (where I was inexplicably changing her. As I was getting off the second to last layer, she pooped, and it got EVERYWHERE, and I couldn't leave to clean it because the baby was all squirmy. Also, I was struggling to find the various diaper layers. As I was starting to get it figured out (after having put on layer #1 upside down) I woke up. The good thing about the dream was the baby was pretty easy going, didn't seem to care that I didn't know what I was doing. Now and then she'd get a little fussy, but calmed down quickly with some baby talk or tickles or such. Mom says it sounds like me when I was a baby and she didn't know what she was doing, I'd just kind of sit back and be like, "Okay, Mom. That's cool. Take your time."

Looking forward so much to the ultrasound!

Nicknames Naomi has acquired:
Nom
Nom-Nom
Nomi
Beastlet
Creature
Small Human
Wiggleworm
Spike
Squeaker

We've had her home now for two weeks, and she's 1 month old today! She's now 2.58kg (5lb 11oz). Slow weight gain, but it's still gain. She's starting to sound like a "big girl" now when she cries. She eats a lot, and my milk is confused still. Breastfeeding is well established, but Nom usually has a period of each day where she snacks and sleeps off and on for a few hours, and eventually gets too tired to want to eat, but she's still hungry. It's frustrating for mommy and baby! Fortunately, it's not that I'm short on milk, so we usually have a few servings of expressed milk in the fridge that she can have via a bottle. The midwives and nurses spilled the beans that bottles are easier for babies to eat from, and that has been a lifesaver so far! Since she's still getting breastmilk and it's not affecting my supply, we're perfectly fine with the situation.

Mommy flips back and forth between wanting to snuggle her forever and ever and never let her go, and being exhausted and sick of being glued to a small demanding creature. I love her dearly and I'm trying to treasure these early days because they will go so, so fast. It's hard to remember that, though.

Aww! I love her Totoro hat! And the fact all of her clothes are super big.
Is she really already a month old? Craziness.

Small Human is a favorite because of how bizarre it is but Squeaker is a favorite for cuteness.

She's great, Ali.

I LOVE the big hood with the little ears on her little head!

Her fingers never cease to amaze me.

Keep documenting the nicknames. They are very, very cute.



(I am glad no one but the cats hears me talking baby talk to the computer.)

Quit making me want to cuddle babies I have NO access to!!