Being a stickler for finishing one big project before starting another has kept me from posting information about the current Stevenson Twist family adventure:  our eager anticipation of meeting our first child.  I hope that we did a pretty thorough job of spreading the word that we are indeed expecting a little miracle soon, but figure that it’s about time that I answer some commonly asked questions about our first chapter of parenthood.

Here’s the relevant information (feel free to post a comment if I left out something important :))

Estimated Date of Delivery: July ninth, 2011.  Year of the Rabbit.  Sun sign:  cancer.

Birth plan: at home with our midwife Noah and our second midwife Sheila.  I am receiving concurrent care at Kaiser, which is a 5 minute walk from our home (an even quicker drive in the case of emergency).

Faye’s career plan: maternity leave begins on July first and I return to work with Baby ST on September 1.  I’ve been working between 10 and 15 hours a week and that seems about right.  My studio, Bayside Pilates, is relocating to our neighborhood so that our little family will stay close together.  We have great neighbors and a fabulous neighborhood.  We are very lucky in that regard.

Boy or girl?: We’ll find out when they (just one baby growing in there, I use they in place of “it” as it can be used to identify a singular person whose gender is unknown) emerge from the womb.

Baby’s name: We’ll come up with one for a boy and one for a girl and we’ll keep them both secret until we know who our little one is.

Breastfeeding?:
Yes, we will do our best!  We’re hoping that our baby will accept a bottle (we’re opting for glass) from David as well so that we can take full advantage of our different sleeping rhythms during the short period when our wee one requires nighttime feedings.  We’ll see how it all works out, at least we have a plan as a starting point.

The basic story of our pregnancy:
We got ourselves ready, had a go and scored on the first try.  By week five of the pregnancy I was pretty pooped and slept a ton.  Then I started to get the nausea.  Thus began the misery phase of the pregnancy which lasted until Monday (1/24) before the Saturday that we moved from upstairs to downstairs in our apartment building.  That tremendous stroke of luck marked the beginning of the “being pregnant is fun” phase which continues until present time.  Pretty much everything else has happened on schedule.  Any tests we’ve done have come back good, the baby has earned the nickname “little kicker”  for obvious reasons (I know, it’s not that original).  As of April 30th Bayside Pilates in Alameda closed its doors.  I’ve been adjusting ever since and am hoping that soon I will be all caught up with past projects and will be happily sewing and crocheting for our new arrival.  If I had my druthers, I’d be in the nest all the time.  But then we’ll never know if that would really satisfy me because life carries on.  I do tend to thrive on variety so I must admit that perhaps I’m wrong in that assertion.  But I definitely have the urge to nest and most days I get to do some bit which is very satisfying.

Birth:
I am hoping to organize a phone tree so that anybody who wants to extend their support from afar will be able to do so once my labor begins.  I’ll give my mom a quick ring once we are sure that labor has begun and then she can spread the word.  We’ll put up major announcements right here at stevensontwist.com so people who want to be “in the know” can check in after they have received word that the birthing journey has begun.  If you’d like to be alerted, please email or call me and I’ll add you to the list.  You’ll receive one call (or email) and then you’ll need to make one call (or email) to keep the chain alive.  Once you get word, if you would be so generous as to send baby and me wishes of good teamwork, and me wishes of letting go and opening wide, I’m sure that your support will resonate and help us in this big event.

The early days of our family of three:
We’ll put word out once we feel ready for visitors.  We’ll also put word out about the food train if you’d like to sign up to bring us dinner sometime.

General lifestyle plans and supplies:
Obviously, we will be learning as we go and there is a lot that we don’t yet know.  But there are also some things that we’re pretty certain about.  Here’s the short list, more or less in order of importance:

1. We will not have electronic noise making toys or stuffed animals in the house.  Period.  Here’s the list of why’s:  David is very sensitive to repetitive and background noises.  They require battery power.  They add more clutter the airspace that’s already filled with many sounds being that we live in an urban environment.  We figure it’s best to expose our little one to good quality sounds like music and our voices reading stories rather that repetitive electronic noise.
2. Because we feel that they are not good for us nor for the planet, we will do our absolute best to avoid plastic and other synthetic materials (polyester, micro-fleece, rayon, lycra, spandex, foam, etc), excepting the few cases when these materials are truly more useful than their natural counterparts.  Hand-me-downs are a different story.  We like to reduce-reuse-recycle as much as is possible and it’s pretty tough to argue with “free.”
3. We are going the cloth diaper route, washing the diapers at home and mostly using wool soakers unless our plans go terribly awry.  Some may say that this means more work.  I’m not convinced that that is true taking all factors into consideration over the time period in which our kid will wear diapers.  Time will tell.  Regardless, it feels like the right thing for us.  We both wore cloth diapers and it is the best choice for the environment.
4. We will do our best to have toys that reflect our values in our home:  less is more, toys made from natural materials, those which provide our child with educational experiences.
5. We intend to read frequently. My dad read to me a lot and we read long books quite often, a chapter a day was the routine.  We intend to continue on with that practice.

Thanks for reading and sharing in this very exciting time with us.  Wish us luck, we know we’ll need it!

Love, Faye and David