The Gallinats

What?!? A new post on the old site

I disabled commenting.

Coming soon to an asylum near you.

This is just a warning shot to all of those who might be checking in, or listening through RSS. Later tonight the website will be down for a bit while I update the server. It has been almost two weeks since I first warned you, but hey, we have a seven month old baby & poopie diapers come first.

Caution, change ahead

I just wanted to give everyone a heads up about some changes to the website.

Over the next week or so I'll be making some changes that may cause the site to go down briefly, and some things to be missing. If you're reading this via the RSS feed, you may want to visit the site in the near future, the RSS address is probably going to change.

When the transition is complete I'll post more info. Until then, see you on the flip side.

Thinking of Bumpa

Random thoughts as life gets larger

I'm surprised to find that motherhood suits me. Six months has gone by like ... blink and you miss it, I guess. I'm already sad about the cute pajamas that Bean has outgrown, that he is too big to take his bath in the kitchen sink, the thought of weaning. It's occurred to me recently that life only goes in one direction - of course, right? - but the thought had never really struck me so specifically before I realized that my baby isn't a newborn anymore and he never will be again. At the same t

31

... a prime number;
... the the country code for The Netherlands;
... the atomic number of Gallium;
... flavors;

... my age, as of today.

Squash!

So what did you have for dinner?

Carter had rice cereal, and a promise from daddy that his food won't always be this bland.

Looks good doesn't it?

Santa Claus, or: How I learned to stop thinking and love the mall

Bean met Ol' Saint Nick on Wednesday...

No strings attached

Just wanted to let everyone know what Bean is up to now that he's 3 1/2 months old.

Seems like all he wants to do lately is stand up. Well that and make dinosaur noises.

* added a couple of pictures to the Bean gallery*

My favorite time of year

Fall, autumn, the perfect season, not too cold, and none of that 75+ degree nonsense. If I could live where it was fall year round I'd be one happy monkey. Crisp evenings, crunchy leaves (don't forget the burning ones), apples, squash, cider, corn, pumpkins... (I'll stop)

I also seem to become more inspired when it comes to cooking this time of year. I tend to experiment more, to seek out new ingredients, or relish in old ones I haven't used for awhile.

Anyway, some

9 weeks and four shots later

Two in the left, two in the right, and one down the gullet. So it begins, the life-long
attempt to stave off illness. Today was Bean's first round of vaccinations. I have to say, he did
very well. It was only after the third shot that he started to complain. To be honest, I'm not sure I could have taken all those shots without complaining.

Bean marks a pretty significant milestone with the start of his vaccinations, 9 weeks. He has begun pushing himself up from his

welcome to the freakshow

Bean... I mean, Carter, was two weeks old on Friday; yesterday, he celebrated being at home for two weeks. Thanks to my amazing husband and amazing mother, I am surprisingly well-rested and healing well from the surgery. We did have to see the pediatrician five times in Carter's first two weeks due to borderline weight loss, but he'd surpassed his birth weight and attained a whopping 8lbs. 15 oz. last Thursday, so now we can be certain that he's doing well too.

Surgery was, hands

It's amazing how things can change in a day

It's Thursday, we're at the midwives office for a non-stress test and a procedure to encourage labor (not induce, but encourage). They hook Tess' belly up to the monitor and suddenly we have an uninterrupted stream of heartbeats and uterine state. Well what do you know, Tess is having contractions. She's not really feeling them, no pain, etc, but they're coming about every 8 or 9 minutes. I start to think to myself that this gel the midwife is going to apply to her cervix is going to really get

due date

Seems like it would be wrong to let Bean's due date slip by without at least acknowledging it. Two hours before the end of the day, and no Bean yet. I'm feeling good (although a little stir-crazy now that the novelty of not working has worn off) and not too antsy yet. Further bulletins as events warrant. :)

new photo galleries

In celebration of our new (and improved) digital camera (a Canon Powershot 570 IS), we're posting a couple of new photo galleries. Okay, so only one of them was actually taken with the new camera - Bean's nursery - but we had been meaning to do this for awhile, and it seemed like a good excuse.

Anyway, there's the aforementioned tour of Bean's finished nursery (lacking only some cool stuff to hang on the walls), our trip to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky (when we were pregnant, but did

any day now

Another midwife appointment today, and I am officially 1 cm dilated. Apparently, the only thing that tells us is that I could go into labor anytime in the next five minutes or in the next three weeks. On the upside, I'm a tenth of the way to being ready to push Bean out, and I haven't even started having contractions yet.

"I'd like to die elated." Got a big laugh out of Dave.

38 week appointment

So far, going to see the midwife every week has been sort of anticlimactic. I guess I thought that getting checked more often would suddenly mean that stuff was going to start happening... faster? But other than telling us where he is (which I can figure out myself most of the time now), it's pretty much the same as it was before, except that we don't usually generate many new questions in the course of a week. Getting to hear that heartbeat is still pretty special though.

I did t

Waiting...

Bean is officially full term this week, and we're ready! Even have the bags for the hospital (mostly) packed.

Thanks to the generosity of Gramma and Grampa Gallinat, Maga, Aunt Teri and Uncle Dread, Uncle Boz and Aunt Chelsea, and the rest of our friends and family, Bean has a wardrobe fit for the cover of GQ, all of the immediately essential baby gear and enough stuffed monkeys to populate a small village. The curtains are hung, the crib is made, the changing table is stocked, t

Photo Gallery Change

I was never happy with the Photos section of the website, so I've decided to change it. When I get some time maybe I'll sit down and actually code something I like. In the meantime, instead of trying to rewrite the original, I've installed a script called EasyGallery. It is much more user-friendly, and has the added benefit of being free. Anyway, take a look and let me know what you think.

New geek feature

I added an RSS feed for those of you who might be interested. If you don't know what an RSS feed is, don't worry, you're not missing anything. (or are you?)

Here's the url - http://www.thegallinats.com/rss.php

Bean's first movie

Finally converted the ultrasound video from VHS, you'll need the quicktime plugin to see it. He was moving around a lot that day. If you notice, he has Tess' nose.

So, without further ado...

Yes, we're still here

It has been awhile since either of us has had the time to post something, but rest assured, things are going well. We finished the childbirth class, it was less useful than we thought it was going to be. The nurse mostly recited things from a dated workbook. Fortunately, Tess and I have been on our own educational journey all along.

Only about a month left to go before Bean's due date, and I'm starting to feel impatient. Strange isn't it, we've been waiting for 8 months, what's a

Almost done, in more ways than one

As the world's 3rd worst painter, I am happy to say that Bean's room is almost done, at least the hard parts. We picked up the furniture this weekend, and put it in on Monday, and everything looks good. Take a look at it so far, we'll add more pictures when it is complete...

So, you know the little buttons that come in turkeys these days? Well, Tess has something si

I'm NORMAL!

Well, it might be kind of a stretch to go THAT far, but the midwife did call this afternoon with the results of yesterday's blood test... so I may not be normal, but my glucose levels are. Thank you to everybody for the support, advice and reassurance - crisis averted! :)

Think positive thoughts

Dave and I went in for my glucose screening test yesterday. Yea, having more blood taken. :P

Funny how my heart stopped just hearing the words "your doctor's office is on the phone," when they called the theatre today. Seems my results were higher than normal, so I have to go in for the sit-in-the-lab-for-three-hours-and-have-blood-taken-four-times glucose tolerance test to confirm or rule out gestational diabetes.

I won't lie - I'm freaking out. Everything with my

A little Sunday diddy

Working on Bean's room listening to Blind Melon and thought of this.

Enjoy.

There's something moving in there

For a month now I've been trying to feel Bean move to no avail. The other night I'm trying again, and all of a sudden...THUMP... it's like he dropped kicked Tess' liver. Either that or he knew I was trying and thought he'd make sure I felt him (Bean with the kick save). Tess said it was the hardest he'd kicked so far.

It made me ponder the fact that there's a little mini-freek in there. And then it made me ponder that he has come out....how the hell.... um, through there....how th

How quickly time creeps by

Couldn't sleep tonight, so I thought I might ramble a bit.

Started the new job this week. It's a new restaurant, about 10 minutes west of Ann Arbor. Everyone seems like good people. Haven't done any actual cooking yet since the kitchen isn't finished. Supposedly it will be ready by Saturday the 14th, when we start prepping for the pre-opening training and events.

The menu seems pretty good, nothing I haven't done at some point in my experience, oysters, steak au poi

New Bean Pictures

Just wanted to let everyone know that we added the latest ultrasound pictures to the Bean section of the photo gallery. If you look closely you can see him waving.

I'M A BOY!!

Yep, I'm a boy.

Got all my fingers and toes too. Kidneys, lungs and stomach are all where they should be, and heart is pumping a mile a minute. I even gave Mom a couple of kicks while I was waving at her - made her giggle.

Dad says that I'm gonna play left wing, but I'm thinking I might be more the goalie type. We'll see. Those two crazy grownups are definitely going to have to come up with a better name than Bean, though. No way am I gonna deal with the kids at sch

Bean likes hockey

So, we're at the hockey game on Friday the 9th - the Wings beat LA in overtime - GREAT game. It was about five minutes into the first period, when some really loud music came on after the whistle, louder than usual, and all of a sudden I get this very strange prickly sensation right below my belly button.

Now, I'd been lying quietly on the couch after I eat dinner for a couple of weeks, just like all the books said I should, concentrating on feeling Bean move, reading about how I

mmm...cheesy

The lab work (the tests for Down's, etc...) from the midwife came back negative, which they say is a positive thing. And in other developments (I swear, no pun intended), Bean now has a coating of vernix caseosa...

This "cheesy" substance, thought to protect baby's skin from long exposure to the amniotic fluid, is shed just before birth. - WebMD

I could make all kinds of jokes at this point, but then I would be cheesy too.

About 150 days to go

The week in review

Had a midwife appointment last Friday, everything looks good. Bean was kicking like crazy while the midwife was listening. On March 23rd we'll hopefully find out Bean's gender. Maybe then we can start using pronouns.

I think we've decided on how to put together the nursery. We found some furniture that both Tess and I liked at IKEA (dammit, I feel like a tool just typing IKEA), and it looks like we found the paint color, and the carpet we like as well. Actually, the paint is a bit

Finally, I can focus on the Bean in the oven

Well, not only is the show finally open, but I'm getting pretty good reviews, so it's finally time to sit back, feel good about my directorial debut and focus on being preggo.

And that means starting to outfit the nursery! Is everyone aware that cribs cost $900?!? Luckily, Dave and I decided to visit the Ikea store (BTW, I'm not much for shopping, but that was THE coolest store!) and found stuff that's much more reasonably priced and environmentally responsible, etc. Just have to

Here We Are

Well, it's finally finished. I've been trying to get the website up and running for awhile now, just never seemed to find the right motivation. Now, with Bean on the way it seemed like a good time.

Over time we'll be adding some more photos and such. Everything is pretty bare right now. So, I guess when I say the website is done, I mean that the backend coding stuff is done. If you find any issues, let me know.

Over on the left there, is the Bean Counter. That's