The over share.

I've recovered from my jet lag and caught up on my sleep. Now that we've had time to adjust to knowing that BabyPhinney is a girl, we are so excited. I'll admit, we initially were hoping for a boy, but now I wouldn't change things. I even went out and bought her a couple of adorable girly outfits this weekend. On my way to work this morning the thought crossed my mind of "what if the u/s tech was wrong, that would be horrible!" So I would say we're happy it's a girl. All weekend Mr.P kept making comments about things he hopes and dreams for his daughter. It was very sweet. In the past week I've really been feeling a lot of little kicks and punches, and it makes me happy to feel more connected to her.

About the over share....so last week while I was on the east coast for work, I went to a dinner for the people attending the workshops. Our big boss (who is in charge of our program at the national level) brought his wife to the event. She was very sweet, and we got to talking about babies and childbirth. Apparently they are big advocates for natural childbirth. Like hardcore - they had a home water birth for each of their two youngest children.

I'm not opposed to home birth and natural birth, in fact, over the past few weeks I've become more open minded to the ideas. I watched "The Business of Being Born" and I've been reading "Baby Catcher: Tales of a Modern Midwife" which have both given me pause for thought about natural childbirth and home birth. I know for me personally, home birth would not be my thing. I'm too concerned about the "what ifs" that can come up, and I'd be more comfortable being in a hospital where there would be immediate response to any emergency situation. I have thought more about natural childbirth, and I'm willing to see how it goes before committing to an epidural. I know for sure I want to do a vaginal birth (unless for some reason I absolutely can't) and I really hope no complications come up that would require a c-section.

Back to the dinner event....so the boss's wife was telling me about their philosophies on childbirth and breastfeeding, and then her husband joined in the conversation and he told me all about the water births and how he caught the babies and how awesome it was. It definitely gave me a different perspective on him. I have no problem discussing childbirth with people, but then the conversation took a turn and they begin telling me about their philosophy on circumcising. The wife started telling me that she feels very strongly about it because she has been with two uncircumcised men in her life who both gave her nasty infections. Yup, she really said it, and right in front of her husband who is my boss 3 times up the chain! I just kind of nodded my head politely.

But the truth is, Mr.P and I feel strongly against circumcising. Mr.P is not circumcised, nor does he want any future male offspring circumcised. Outside the Jewish faith, circumcising is uniquely an American thing to do. None of the men in Mr.P's family are circumcised (they're European immigrants), and he feels like if we ever have a son he wants him to "be the same" as him. Mr.P takes extra care of cleaning his foreskin and has never had any kind of infection.

The day after the dinner, the boss brought me a bag of stuff from his wife. She sent me a book on natural childbirth, a book on breastfeeding, a baby sling carrier, and a cute little baby hat. It was very thoughtful and generous of her to give me those things, so I can't complain too much about the level of awkwardness I felt while listening to her talk about circumcising.

Oh, and one more thing to report - I finally told me my annoying co-worker! She now knows that I am pregnant and will be taking some time off later this summer/fall. She didn't seem upset that I didn't tell her sooner, so that was a relief. However, the advice/comments began rolling in this morning...it'll be a long couple months.