Meriter Mother Baby Hour
Tuesdays 1-2 p.m. OR Thursdays 1-2 p.m.
Mother Baby Hour is a time for first-time moms and their babies to get together to ask questions, express concerns, learn about resources and share stories.
Topics:
• Changing Relationships: 8/17, 8/19
• Feeding Concerns: 8/24, 8/26
• Taking Care of Mom : 8/31, 9/2
• Birth Stories: 9/7, 9/9
• Returning to work/Finding Childcare: 9/14, 9/16
No charge.

Nicki’s Diapers
Mama’s Milk Hour: Tuesdays, 10-11. Free. Drop in to this free get together as often as you would like for breastfeeding information and support. Mamas can chat with other breastfeeding Mamas and gain lasting support and friendships. A baby scale will be available for use. This is a great place to practice breastfeeding in public, share what you have learned with others, or just get some adult conversation. Sarah Anderson, a Certified Lactation Counselor will be there to answer your questions. Bring a friend!
More classes: Calendar

Happy Bambino – Cuddlebugs Parent Baby Group
Meeting Time: Tuesdays and Fridays from 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
The experience of having a baby can be a wondrous and simultaneously terrifying experience. Come join a community of parents and babies where parents can ask questions, visit, and interact with other parents of newborns and young infants. Discussion is generated and led by the facilitator, Lea Wolf.
Fees

Madison Birth Center
Free Mom’s support group meets on Thursdays from 11-12:30, although you would not find this information on their website due to broken links. Reportedly this is a good group, although I find it difficult to get past the broken links.

Yogamoms
Postnatal Yoga: Fridays 10:15 -11:45 a.m. The Perfect Knot Yoga Center, 409 S. Few Street
This gentle yoga class is for mom and baby to have time to relax, rebuild strength and stamina while spending time with a community of other new mothers. This class focuses on areas of the body that are weak due to pregnancy and delivery and also the areas of the body most taxed in caring for a newborn every day. Babies are present in class in whatever way they see fit; nursing, playing, sleeping, etc. Ideas are shared regarding feeding, sleeping, emotions, diapering, or anything else that comes up postpartum. This yoga class is for moms and babies immediately postpartum until toddling.
8 classes / $96

Links:
Moms in Madison

Since I find it to be one of the more useful sites/apps out there, I thought I’d give an update on Fuelly, which I’ve now been using for 2 years. So far, I’ve filled up the Audi 25 times and put just over 6k miles on the car. Prior to moving to the Greenbush area, I drove about 10k miles/year which means I’m saving about $1k/year on gas, not to mention getting a lot more exercise. And then there’s the Jeep. It’s safe to say I’ve accumulated more miles on foot than in this car, but driving it through huge snow drifts in winter and through the country with the top off in summer are two of my more materialistic pleasures in life, so it remains with us. At any rate, if you’re looking to track your car’s long-term performance, I highly recommend this free application.

1. Did you walk to the hospital as planned? Yes! That was the one aspect of our whole birth plan that we actually stuck to. I had been in back labor for several hours already so contractions were fairly frequent and painful, the relative humidity was 99%, and the bugs were ferocious. I would stop to breath through contractions while the doula and Matt supported most of my weight and the mosquitos would swarm. Totally worth it though each time someone brought up parking, and we got to respond with “we walked.”
2. Back labor? What’s that? Back labor occurs in 20-25% of all labors, and is usually due to the position of the baby. Sam was in the occiput posterior position, or “sunny side up”, meaning that his skull was against my spine. This results in severe back pain during and between contractions and long labors. We worked with our doula to change his position and got him to move multiple times, but he wouldn’t stay in the anterior position.
3. Who is this doula you keep mentioning? From the beginning of this process, we knew we wanted to avoid pain medication and other interventions as much as possible, so we chose the medical staff around us very specifically to facilitate a natural birth. Our physician, Dave Rakel, is head of the Integrative Medicine program at UW Health, and has very holistic views on labor and childbirth. In addition, he recommended we work with a doula and after interviewing a couple candidates, we hired Emily Shier. Statistically, working with a doula results in a shorter, easier, healthier labor, increases chances of a drug-free, natural birth and reduces the chance of a Cesarean by almost half, among other benefits. Both Dave and Emily are encouraging and kind people, and very well-educated on the benefits of a natural birth. We knew going in they would do everything possible to help us achieve our desired outcome.
4. So you had a natural birth? No. Unfortunately not even close. Back labor is a beast of its own, and not something our birth plan had accounted for. I tried, but after about 24 hours of labor I had morphine, and somewhere around 32 hours I had an epidural. At 38 hours, after exhausting almost all our options (and myself), I had a Cesarean. After the fact, the surgical staff let us know it was our only option due to the way his neck was twisted in the birth canal. By that point Matt and I were just relieved both Sam and I were alive and relatively healthy.
5. Name, weight, length? Samuel Otis Schroeder. 9 pounds, 6 ounces, 21 inches. He’s a big ‘un.
6. What’s with the middle name Otis? Was he conceived in an elevator? —Seriously. Three people have asked us this.— No. We wanted to keep an “O” in the name somewhere as a tribute to both the Olsen family and Matt’s grandfather Odelo. [Sidenote: Sam was born on Odelo's birthday!] It’s also a nod to JeffO, whose nickname (one of many) is Otis, but we’re not telling him that as we don’t want it to go to his head.
7. Did you realize his initials are S.O.S.? Was that on purpose? Yes to the former and no to the latter. We got over it. We think you will too.
8. I heard Sam spent time in the NICU, what happened? A couple days after he was born, Sam experienced some breathing problems — his respiration rate was very high and his blood oxygen saturation was low. A chest x-ray revealed some possible occlusion in the left lung, so we spent five days in the hospital and then they discharged me and admitted Sam to the intensive care unit. Although the staff was excellent and we were able to stay with Sam around the clock, it was overall a terrifying experience seeing our little baby hooked up to monitors with an IV in his head. Fortunately we were only there for a couple days before another chest x-ray showed the lung had cleared and we were able to bring Sam home.
9. How’s parenthood treating you? Excellent! While not without its challenges —Sam peed on Dr. Dave within his first 20 seconds of life and basically hasn’t stopped peeing on people, mainly us— we’re enjoying our expanded family immensely. Every day brings new discoveries, sweet moments and a variety of humorous situations.
10. Did Jen and Anil have their baby yet? JenO gave birth to a 8 pound, 14 ounce baby boy on July 21, whom they named Cedrus “Cedar” Walker Devnani. Unfortunately her birthing experience was oddly similar to mine, but it’s been helpful to be able to go through it together, and most importantly, we are now both blessed with two healthy baby boys just two weeks apart in age!

Anything else? Just a huge thank you to all the friends and relatives who sent cards, wrote emails, brought over food, helped out around the house or yard, or sent gifts. Although we haven’t been able to thank everyone personally yet, we appreciate all the help and are so grateful to have such generous friends and family!

For those who are interested, an ever-increasing number of photos of Sam can be found on my Flickr account.

We noticed when we sent out wedding invitations that a disproportionate number of our friends were expecting… eight couples all in all. We’ve since learned it turned out to be many more! So without further ado, I bring you the sixteen babies of our 160 wedding guests, born within a year of our wedding.

[Ok, make that seventeen babies — I'm bending the rules to include little Oli, who was born six days after our 1-year anniversary.]

Oliver Robert Schroeder, born July 31 to Matt’s brother Andy and his wife Tasha. The fourth big boy in a row, Oliver was 9 pounds and 20″ long. Sam thoroughly enjoyed meeting Oliver, and is ecstatic to now have four cousins (Charlie, Gwen, Cedar and Oliver) who will all be in his grade! What a difference a year makes.

Introducing Cedrus Walker Devnani, aka “Cedar”, born to my sister JenO and Anil on July 21. Unfortunately JenO’s birthing process was remarkably similar to mine — many hours of back labor eventually followed by a Caesarean — but equally wonderful in the results: another large baby boy who tipped the scales at 8 pounds, 14 ounces and 20 inches in length. We can’t wait to meet Cedar and introduce him to cousins Sam and Charlie!

Tyler James Kruchten, born July 13 to Kim and Kevin. Another big boy, weighing in at 9 pounds, 11 oz., Tyler (formerly referred to as “Dang7r”) completes the three amigos with Charlie and Sam. Father Kevin, now in the rigorous fire academy training period, was back at work just hours after Tyler was born but able to be there for the birth. We’re excited to share this experience and many future adventures with the Kruchtens!

We are supremely happy to introduce you to our son Samuel Otis Schroeder, who entered our world July 6. They say nothing in life worth having comes easy, and Sam was no exception. After 38 hours of mostly back labor and a last-resort Caesarean, Sam arrived at 9 pounds, 6 ounces and 21 inches. Our struggle continued as breathing problems and dehydration won him a spot in the neonatal intensive care unit, but a week later we all arrived home, happy and healthy. More details and photos forthcoming!

Elizabeth Jayne Younkle, was born on June 24 to Susie and Matt. Elizabeth was born at 10:01 p.m. and tipped the scales at 6 pounds 10 ounces. Susie and I attended the same prenatal yoga class (which I recommend) so I’m hoping that’s in part responsible for her healthy labor and delivery!

Lauren Kay Bisenius arrived the evening of June 13 to meet her parents Dana and Matt. Born one week after her due date (and one day before induction!), Lauren was 7 lbs, 11 ounces and 18.5 inches long. In case she looks anything like her mom, we’ve already advised them to keep Lauren in the basement until she’s 25 to protect her from the likes of Charlie, Poco and Dang7r.

Another University Communications baby, Eliyan (Eli) Ramasamy Knorr, was born on April 15 to Christine and Logu. Eli was 7 pounds and 19.5 inches long. I received an email from Christine at 3:20 a.m. the day she was due saying she might be one of the 5% of people who actually have the baby on their due date, she went to the hospital at 5:30 a.m. and Eli arrived at 6:26 a.m. Sign me up for that program.

Olivia Mae Weaver, born February 22 to Kara and Nick. Olivia is 7 pounds, 10 oz., and 18.5 inches long and arrived with a head of thick, brown hair like her older sisters, Abby and Sarah. Nick and I make up 2/3 of the Communications web team at UW–Madison, so expect there to be some delays over the next several months in the UW web world!

McKinley Rose Younggren, born on Valentine’s Day to Maggie and Luke. This is one couple who has seriously outdone us… not only did they also get married last year, but they moved across the country to Portland, OR, started new jobs, bought a house and got pregnant on their honeymoon! McKinley weighed in at 7 pounds, 14 oz., and was 20 inches long.

Jake Anderson Soslow, born January 11 to Stace and Jason! If this is a surprise to you, it’s understandable… Stacy sure didn’t look five months pregnant at our wedding! In spite of a c-section after 12 hours of labor I’m happy to report all are doing well now and are very happy. Jake was 8 pounds, 8 oz. and has a very cool birthday: 01-11-10! Congratulations S&J!!

Oliver Asher Barnett, born December 28 to Mike and Susie. He was 6 pounds, 7 oz., and 18 inches long. All are doing well, but were delayed at the hospital while in search of a middle name. Despite numerous suggestions on Facebook (Arroz?), they came up with Asher, which sounds perfect! Looking forward to meeting him.

Gwenyth Rose Schroeder, born December 10 to Matt’s brother Patrick and his wife Taylor, making her my first niece and me an aunt for the third time along with her brother Hugh and Charlie. Taylor gets extra kudos for having an in-home, all-natural childbirth with only a midwife present. Impressive. Gwen was 2 weeks early and weighed in at 7 pounds, 6 oz., and was 20 inches long.

Keegan Barrett, born in late November to Ben and Jen Barrett. Ben is a firefighter at station 1 and works with Matt.

Sophia Louise Walker, born November 9 to Jim and Jen Walker. Sophie was 9 pounds, 7 oz., (uh, ouch) and 21 inches long, and big sisters Lucy and Ella are pleased with the new addition. As a side note, Jim lived a couple blocks away from me when we were growing up, but I didn’t really get to know him until I met him again, as one of Matt’s friends. (Small world example #453.)

Jasper Evan Schultz, born September 29 to Matt and Mel. He was 8 pounds, 12 oz., and 20 inches long. Matt promptly messed up a tendon in his arm which required surgery, so between that, a foot of snow and a 2-year-old at home they’ve had some challenges (Calgon!), but all seem to be doing well now. M&M are also responsible for the photo that prompted this post. How cute is that?

Charles Beach Olsen, born September 22 to JeffO and Molly, which makes him my first and only nephew to come from my siblings. Be forewarned, I am biased. He was 7 pounds and 18 inches long. Charlie will likely get his own post here soon enough, but suffice it so say he is the cutest, well-behaved, most entertaining child ever. (Yes, I’ve become one of those people.) An ever-increasing number of photos of Charlie can be found on my Flickr account.

Lilly Bee Schueffner, born September 20 to Eric and Kerrie. She was 6 pounds, 13 oz. Eric and Kerrie weren’t able to make it to the wedding (I used to work with Eric at UW-Madison, but they have since moved to Seattle) and we already missed them once in Madison, but we hope to meet Lilly someday soon!

Special thanks to JeffO and Molly who played host and hostess for both our amazing showers.

See all the baby shower photos on Flickr »

See photos on Flickr

We have another Olsen family trip to Cancun under our belt and, as always, it provided some much needed R&R, fun times with family and a good dose of Vitamin D. This year everyone was able to make it except Jack’s girlfriend Anna, who was in the midst of rotations while seeking her PA degree, but we added a few to our count — Mr. Charlie Beach Olsen, a source of non-stop entertainment and fun, and Poco and Baby Duter, both traveling in utero. As you can imagine, this changed the dynamic of things quite a bit, at least for Jen and I, given preggos are not supposed to a) drink b) be in the sun or c) do anything too adventurous (like sailing in high wind or body surfing in 10′ waves). We failed a bit at keeping out of the sun but were able to forgo the margaritas (and Coronas and rum & cokes, etc…) and kept sailing and ocean-swimming to calm, quiet days. Turns out a Banana Monkey drink without the alcohol is really a chocolate banana shake and always half-price, so that definitely helped me cope with the newfound sobriety and obesity challenges.

We mixed the annual trip up a bit this year by spending time at the Royal Haciendas, a sister resort located just a couple miles north of Playa del Carmen and about 40 miles south of Cancun. It seemed much less crowded than the Royal Caribbean, which was nice — we had the baby pool all to ourselves — but it was a little pricer and the food suffered by comparison. Jeff, Charlie and my parents spent a full week there with the rest of us joining mid-week, and then we all headed up to Cancun to the Royal Caribbean for the following week. Aside from figuring out the bill, in pesos, divvied up by ten people at two resorts after two weeks (huge thanks to JeffO), the extra time was great, and provided Matt and I a chance to stay with each of the siblings for a few days, which was nice.

The only big news to report this year is that all the “ugly” from last year’s post is gone! The beach has been restored (at a cost of a mere $76 million) and I didn’t notice any bugs at all. Then again, I didn’t even make it on to a public bus, much less downtown, so my perspective was rather narrow this year.

Photos of ‘Cun ‘10 are available on both my Flickr account and Jack’s.

Doctors measure a baby’s age in weeks, and a typical pregnancy runs 38 weeks. “To simplify the math” as I’ve been told and read repeatedly, doctors consider the start date of the pregnancy to be two weeks before conception, on the first day of your last menstrual period (LMP), and therefore add two weeks at the end to make it a nice, even 40 weeks, “or 10 months”.

As someone who took advanced college math for fun, this drives me a little crazy. First, there’s the obvious contradiction that you’re considered pregnant for two weeks before it’s even physically possible, and second, the average month has 30.416 days in it—not 28.

A look at the [very simple, obvious] math:
Average pregnancy: 266 days (38*7)

• 9 months in doctor-months (9*28): 252 days
• 9 months by the calendar (9*30.416): 273.75 days
• 10 months in doctor-months (10*28): 280 days
• 10 months by the calendar (10*30.416): 304 days

So this is good news! Pregnancy, from conception to birth, is on average even shorter than 9 calendar months (and about 9.5 doctor-months).

The doctor-math is not without its upsides. Namely, by the time you find out you’re pregnant you’re already 4 weeks (or a “month”) along which helps psychologically: you’re two weeks closer to the blissful second trimester. And the “months” go by more quickly with milestones always falling on the same day of the week.

But for those of us who know exactly when we conceived (hat tip to Mittelschmerz), and enjoy the well-established Gregorian calendar system, taking the LMP / 40 week approach is less accurate, less logical, and causes all sorts of confusion. Here’s one good example: when we told Jeff and Molly we were pregnant in Florida, Poco and Charlie were both 10 weeks old (Poco from a gestational age, and Charlie since actual birth). Yesterday, Poco celebrated his 24 week/6-month birthday, and Charlie won’t turn 6 months until March 22nd. Initially, we thought it was fun that we would be able to gauge Poco’s age (while in utero) by Charlie’s, but obviously that’s not the case.

It just seems like time should be a consistent measurement, no?

Regardless of how you measure it, we’re having a baby in roughly 16 weeks, and that’s pretty exciting.

*It should be noted that doctor-math seems to be a universal thing and in no way specific to our doctor, whom we really like.

• In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
  I picked up this book after it was selected for Go Big Read at UW–Madison, only to discover I had been quoting the author for years after reading an excerpt entitled “Unhappy Meals” in the New York Times. Pollan’s synopsis is “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” and the book explains why in detail. Highly recommend reading it, or the excerpt from the Times.
• Food, Inc.
  A movie about what Americans eat, and how it’s produced. One of the big reasons I don’t eat meat is because of the hormones, antibiotics and genetic modifications routinely associated with commercially-raised farm animals. This video explores some of these concerns, the unpleasant conditions animals are typically exposed to, and the pressure put on farmers by Big Ag (Monsanto in particular, does not fare well in this film) to use the latest and greatest chemicals. A must-see. Trailer
• Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
  The account of a 30-year-old, on-again/off-again vegetarian who decides to explore his eating choices more thoroughly as he enters fatherhood in order to make better choices for himself and his new family. I thought some of his writing was a little over-the-top, but there are plenty of eye-opening, inarguable truths in this book which will make you stop and think. Also interesting because he criticizes some of Pollan’s work (although in the grand scheme of things they share far more similarities than differences.)
• The Cove
  Award-winning, uber-disturbing movie about dolphin fishing in a cove in Taiji, Japan, and the measures former dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry (who trained dolphins for the show “Flipper”) is willing to go to, to put a stop to it. Great information about the multi-billion dollar dolphin entertainment industry as well as the depletion of our ocean life and growing mercury levels. Forewarning: may make you think differently about Sea World, and, hopefully, some types of seafood. Trailer

All of these can be tough or frustrating to read/watch at times but in the end I believe awareness is better than ignorance when it comes to health.

Except when it comes to marshmallows.