…who could ask for anything more?

Isaac, 9, Clara, 6 1/2 weeks

You may remember that I posted a few months about working with 23andMe, a personal genetics company in Silicon Valley that’s making it possible for average Janes and Joes to get access to their genetic information. While I had a few misgivings about “knowing too much”, curiosity won out and I spat (i.e. filled a small vial with saliva to send to the company for genotyping, or analysis of my genetic information).

Finally, 23andMe is ready to announce the project they’ve hired a group of fabulous mom bloggers (including yours truly) to help launch: the Pregnancy Community. What I find the most exciting about the community is the opportunity to contribute to surveys and research studies about health, traits and pregnancy–and you don’t have to be a 23andMe customer to participate.

I’m a skeptic when it comes to technology and health (for example, I’ve never chosen to get genetic testing done on any of my children in utero) and it’s something I thought long and hard about before choosing to partner with 23andMe. But what I’m finding is that knowing more about yourself and your background isn’t scary or sinister in and of itself; it’s just more information that you can choose to use (or not use) however you’d like.

My first post is up over at 23andMe, and it’s all about “why I spat”:

As a mom of five, I’m always curious how it can possibly be that I wound up with such different children, all created from the same basic set of genetic material. There are some things I’d love my kids to inherit from me—-my blue eyes, for example. But I’d rather they got my husband’s skin (he tans much better). And while I hope they love to read like I do, he’s a whole lot better at following user’s manuals, while I can barely tell the difference between slot A and tab B, let alone figure out how to insert one into the other.

Their personalities are all over the map, with bits and pieces of their father and me and other relatives making for an interesting family stew. How much of this is chance, and how much was pre-written in their genetic code? Did, for example, the fact that they all got teeth at 2.5 months of age have anything to do with the fact that I got mine around the same age? Are they jokesters because they were born that way, or is it from their environment? And hey, I know that sperm determine the baby’s gender, but is it really all because of Dad that we wound up with four boys before we finally broke the mold and got a girl—or is it possible my genes have anything to do with it?

Read the rest of my post here at the 23andMe pregnancy community. And you can help move the research forward by sharing anonymously about your pregnancy experience(s). Visit www.23andme.com/pregnancy to take surveys on everything from whether old wives’ tales held true to you, to which common pregnancy maladies you experienced. I hope to see you there!

it’s my due date too, yeah

We’re gonna have a good time?

Today is the big day–my baby’s due date, according to my calculations. (My midwife had pegged my EDD as 3/10, two days ago, but to avoid getting myself prematurely worked up, I have been mentally going with the later date I came up with instead).

I’ve been 10, 3, and 10 days past my due date with the last three pregnancies. Really no reason to think this time will be any different.

And yet, this baby has been SO LOW for the last week and a half that I really wonder how much longer I can walk around like this. Actually, I barely CAN walk around like this. I made a point of not adopting “The Waddle” during my previous pregnancies, as easy as it would have been to give in to that penguin-like shuffle during the loose-ligament-ed last month or two. But this time, I’ve been waddling since 32 weeks along, apparently lacking either the physical ability or pride to fight it off a fifth time. Last night, everyone in the family was laughing at me because I wasn’t walking through the house…I was lumbering around, like a sleepy bear. I growled and resisted the urge to paw somebody in the head.

I’ve been napping every day. Sometimes twice a day. My brain is foggy and my body is heavy. And as eager as I am to go into labor, every night around 10 PM I think “Hmm, I’d love to have this baby, but maybe I’d just as soon wait until tomorrow now so I can get a full night’s sleep…”

Jon’s been commuting back and forth from Chicago as much as possible, and will be home tonight for at least four days (more, of course, if I have the baby!) Maybe once he’s here tonight I’ll feel settled enough to go into labor. Or maybe it’ll be another ten days. That’s the trick with letting babies come when they’re ready…there’s just no way of knowing when that’ll happen. As much as I know that the induction route is not for me, the end of each of my pregnancies gives me fresh understanding of why so many women make that choice. It’s HARD to wait, and it’s hard not being able to “do anything” to really get things moving. (Yes, I know all the natural methods of jump-starting labor, but I’ve done ‘em all and my babies still come late. I think they come when they’re ready, and while you can speed things up a bit, it’s often not enough to warrant the discomfort and other potential downsides of trying too much “jump-starting”.)

I’m trying to be patient, keep myself occupied (but not rushing-around busy) and just keep in mind that each day that passes brings me one day closer to when this little girl is going to show up. Easier said that done sometimes, but it’s what I’d tell a fellow expecting mom to do, so I suppose I need to practice what I preach.

And now, where was I? Oh yes. A snack, then a nap, then perhaps another snack. A moment of wonder when I feel a twinge, wondering if it could be The Real Thing. One of these times, it will be.

Tonight? Not likely, but possible. Either way, though, very, very soon.

As you may have been able to deduce from the links I post here, I write a twice-weekly pregnancy blog for WEtv.com. Because it’s a blog, I like the content to be as up-to-date and timely as possible (it would hardly do for somebody to read about an event on Twitter and not hear about it on WEtv for two or three weeks!) But that makes the whole baby announcement thing tricky, especially since the blog goes up on specific days. What if I give birth on Thursday, thereby making Thursday’s already-written post irrelevant, but don’t exactly feel like taking time away from my baby-induced haze to write?

Pre-writing a baby announcement is one answer, but that presents a few challenges, too. After all, before the baby has actually arrived and all that immediately precedes her arrival, there’s just not that much to say. So I’m thinking of taking a tip from the Mad Libs most of us had on some road trip or other as little kids (and, if you were like some people I know, wrote dirty and/or potty words in) and doing a Mad Lib Birth Announcement, to be filled in after the big event. It would go something like this:

__________ ________ started just like any other ______, but within _________ I knew something was different. Sure enough, by __:__, my contractions were ________ minutes apart, and I knew I was really in labor. After _______ _______, I decided it was time to ______________________________________________. Some time later, I _____________________, and soon afterward, I ______________________________________. At one point, I looked at my husband and said “___________________________!”

Finally, after _________________, I was ready to push. Pushing the baby out was ______________! I couldn’t believe how __________________________. The baby was born at ___:___. She had _______ hair, weighed ____ pounds, _____ ounces and was ______ inches long. She looks just like______________________! We named her _________ ____________. Baby _________ and I are doing ____________. She likes to __________ and __________. I am feeling __________________________________ and can’t wait to ______________________________. I will write more later, as soon as I _____________________________________________. Here’s a picture of ________________. Isn’t she ________________?

How do you think I’ll fill in those blanks? Hopefully there won’t be need for any cuss words…

I promise, this post will not contain any lectures about blogging or writing! Just a little summary of what’s up with me.

Well, first of all, I’m still pregnant. My due date is about 11 days away, so I’m coming up on the end…but with my record of going past my due date, I don’t expect any action on that front for a while. I’m still documenting my pregnancy over at WEtv.com–lately I’ve written about whether or not I should microblog my birth, the baby stuff moms really need, and birth anxiety (it’s not just for newbies!)

The Octomom fallout has kept me busy–I’ve done interviews with several newspapers and other media outlets over the past couple weeks, and you can read two of the articles here and here. I was also on last Saturday’s episode of The John & Ken Show on KFI AM 640 in LA. Updated: here’s an MP3 of my interview..

My article “8 Ways Your Baby Says I Love You” is in this month’s issue of Parenting and also available online. There are some strange typos in the online version that I hope are being fixed now.

Mostly, I’m just trying to keep myself as busy and distracted as possible so I don’t hyper-focus on the fact that this baby is going to be here…soon. Because when I start thinking too much about that, I find myself wondering EXACTLY WHEN that’s going to happen, which is just a recipe for that ‘watched pot’ syndrome I know all too well, having subjected myself to it over the last three pregnancies. This time I’m working hard on keeping my life plugging along as normal, so that when BabyGirl does finally decide to make her entrance, it’ll be sort of a pleasant surprise. I’ll do my best to keep you posted.

If you’d like to read about what my belly’s been up to, head over to WEtv.com.

Anyone who’s interested in birth choices–or just wants to hear me spout off about mine–check out my newest Womb With A View post at WEtv.