Thursday, January 24, 2008

Things We're Not Doing

Even though things are going well (two pink lines? check! heartbeat? check! fatigue and nausea? check and check!) I can't quite shake the fear that something might go wrong. S. and I have several times mentioned things that we will eventually have to do to prepare for a baby, then quickly agreed that it is much too early to do anything yet (there's been lots of talk about the counting of chickens and their yet-to-be-hatched eggs). Among the things that we are completely avoiding at the moment (me, so that I don't "jinx" anything, and less-superstitious S. because, well, I think that he just doesn't want to):
  • Telling anybody we're pregnant. Including our parents. Including my brother, who told me about each of A's pregnancies when she was only 5-6 weeks along.
  • Discussing names. I've started glancing at baby names books in stores, but can't bring myself to buy one yet. As a result, I've started to tell S. that I think "Huckabee" is a pretty name for a little girl.
  • Looking into buying a new car (which we will eventually have to do, because no way I'm carrying a child in the old, tiny little death traps we're currently driving).
  • Emptying out the "library," which will eventually be converted into a nursery, but will first need to be emptied of several hundred books. (For the record, emptying out that room could easily fill 6 months or more of our weekends, so we really can't afford to stall on this one for very long.)
  • Thinking at all about what we will need to purchase (crib, clothes, car seat, etc.).
  • Child care. Since I plan to go back to school after a one quarter maternity leave, we will eventually have to figure out child care. Day care? Nanny? Sharing care with a friend? Dunno....
  • Religious rituals. There's a good 50% chance that we won't have much say in this. If it's a boy, there's no question that we will have a bris, and since it happens on day 8, it would have to happen locally. We will have to pick a mohel, though... not that we have any experience with that. If it's a girl, we have more flexibility, and thus have more decisions to make. Naming ceremony at our (local) synagogue, and hopefully a few family members can fly in for it? Or wait a few months until we fly to visit my family, and then have my childhood rabbi do it at my parents' synagogue, like my brother did for his daughter? Dunno....
So, yeah.... Originally, I put all these things off until after our ultrasound. With that behind us... I'm thinking we should wait until the end of the trimester. Even though it seems silly.

1 comment:

Jen said...

It is hard to take these sorts of steps for fear of jinxing things, isn't it? In a way, I made myself get a pregnancy book and start talking about names to try and get over my fear. I don't know if it is really working, but I'm pressing on.