Welcome Little Felicity Brian McCready-Flora!

The baby is here, the baby is here!

Pictures and her birth story are cross-listed on my blog.

Love from New York,
Rachel, Ian, and Baby Felicity

It's November!

As of today, Ian and I have been married for exactly one and a half years.

What news, you ask? Not the news we'd hoped to share by now! I'm still massively pregnant (estimated due date of 11/28/2011). Despite a few weeks of lots of contractions (they call this prodromal labor, or "fooled 'ya again" labor), baby Felicity seems to be quite content to stay where she is. She probably knows we haven't quite figured out how to work the heat in our apartment yet...

Today my parents arrive in New York to spend Thanksgiving with us. I am unbelievably excited to see them and spend this time with them. Hopefully the baby will arrive before my dad has to take off next Monday.

Ian is loving his time at Columbia University so far. He is currently teaching a core curriculum course and gets to read and teach lots of fun authors like Descartes, Aristotle, Augustine, Machiavelli, and Locke. He has been working hard not only teaching his class, but on his own research as well. In addition to all of this, job application time! Ian conducted a limited job search, meaning that he only applied to the best of the best. Although we love living in New York, it would also be fantastic to find a more permanent position.

I have been on maternity leave for a week so far. I moved to part time in mid-October, and was planning on working until this week, but last Monday, after showering, dressing, and eating my breakfast, I just couldn't make it out the door to actually walk up the hill to get to the subway. Too much stress at work, too many contractions, and just too much discomfort (and a very strong desire to not be touched by strangers on the subway or have to smell their strong perfumes/colognes).

Ian and I have been spending lots of time together, which has been really nice, whether it's cooking dinner (Rachel sits at the table and chops things, Ian cooks), cleaning (Rachel fluffs pillows and arranges books, Ian actually cleans), doing laundry (Rachel sorts and folds the clothes, Ian carries them to the basement, does the laundry, and puts the clothes away), or hanging out (Rachel reads a fun book or spends time online, Ian prepares for class). Okay, it's not quite that bad, but I think both Ian and I will be glad and relieved when I can bend over again (yes, Ian currently has to put my socks on and sometimes my shoes) and can stay on my feet a little longer!

(These pictures are two weeks old, but you get the point: huge belly, puffy everything, pregnancy "glow")

A Four-Month Update from the Slackers

I know, I know, no update since March! Shame shame, tsk tsk. I thought I would share the highlights.

April

I finished my second semester of my grad program, which turned out to be quite difficult as pregnancy can make you not feel great the first few months (what? crazy!). I managed to squeak through with good grades, which was surprising as all I wanted to do was sleep and sleep and sleep, and was also working in the Ann Arbor office of GreenPath for 20+ hours a week.

Ian and I traveled to Honduras in April to meet our new nephew, baby Josiah, and to hang out with Sarah and Jason. We had a lot of fun cooking and talking, and Ian and I were excited to see all of the progress that's been made on the orphanage and community they're building. Josiah was the first baby Ian ever held, and after about a minute with baby in arms, Ian declared he wanted one too.

May

We celebrated out first year anniversary by staying in a very sweet little bed and breakfast over the border in Canada. The highlight of the trip (above and beyond just relaxing together for a few days) was a Brazilian BBQ with amazing food.

June

We traveled to Albuquerque to visit the lovely Jan (Ian's dearest mother) and gorge ourselves on New Mexican food. The trip was really low-key and an excellent way to unwind with family and friends. Vixen (our two-year old female kitty) stayed in Albuquerque with Jan (much to the dismay of Jan's two other cats) so she could enjoy being an outdoor kitty and start living again. So far, we hear reports that Vixen is starting to lose weight (which is good, we had taken to calling her 'Tubs,' which was completely appropriate as she weighed about double what she was supposed to) and is learning to frolic and chase bugs again.

Ian successfully completed his dissertation defense on June 22nd, 2011! (Yay baby!). We had drinks with a few friends after the defense to celebrate, and then went to a really lovely dinner at Pacific Rim with Ian's wonderful adviser and two members from the dissertation committee.

I finished my third semester of grad school about the same time. I have an independent study to finish up, and then just have to write that darned thesis before our little wrinkled prune arrives in November.

I also gave Ian his first Father's Day present (it's an Aristotle-themed gift; the text translates to 'happiness' in Greek):

July

We found out that we're having a girl on July 1st. So far, she looks healthy and well and is growing normally (even though she looks like an alien in her ultrasound pictures). I've been feeling flutters since the middle of June, which is the most precious, beautiful thing. In the past week they've transformed into little ninja moves and I swear she tap dances on my bladder when I'm trying to concentrate or sleep! Ian has been able to feel the baby move a couple of times as well.

Ian submitted his dissertation to the graduate school on July 8th and received this little number to prove he's legit:

About a week before our move we placed my sweet little kitten with our friends in Ann Arbor (we decided to adopt out / foster both cats as we had no idea how big our new place would be, Columbia never told us if we would be able to have pets or not, and Peter, though the sweetest and most loving cat you could find, would probably knead the baby to death with his affection). Being kitty-free isn't as bad as I thought it would be, especially now that we're in a new place. Ian's and my allergies both improved, and it is nice not to have to lint-roll our selves off before we leave the house (which lets face it, was never that effective anyways). Now we can wear black with confidence!

.... To the Present

Aaaannnnddd of course the BIG news is that we've moved to New York City! We arrived on Friday, July 15th. Although Columbia University did approve us for subsidized housing before our move, we had no information other than the address and that it was a one-bedroom unit. As our apartment last year was just about or slightly under 500 square feet and was really too small for us, we were very much hoping for a larger space, especially with, you know, another human being on the way!

I almost cried when I was let into our apartment for the first time - it's so beautiful and spacious and just really, really lovely. We are still in the process of unpacking (an awful heat wave arrived in the city about the same time that was did, and we only finally broke down and had an AC unit installed yesterday, so progress has been slow due to pregnancy woes and the heat), but will put up pictures as soon as everything is in place (almost there!).

It certainly is very different living without a car, but we already love it. For instance, we love that we don't have to pay around $400 a month for street parking, which frankly doesn't seem to exist anywhere near our apartment. But we do have to get creative to do things we normally would drive to do, like go grocery shopping, look at furniture, and get anything back to our apartment.

We're slowly exploring our environment. We discovered a muli-level Trader Joe's that is a few subway stops down from our apartment - it has a (mind-blowingly cool) cart escalator, and there is another grocery store about five blocks down that has excellent produce but is a little expensive. It's different shopping for a few days at a time instead of a few weeks at a time, but hey, no car (wahoo!). We also discovered a few great cafes and an excellent Asian restaurant  / noodle bar a block away before we unpacked our kitchen. We furniture shopped for a few days and located a fantastic sleeper couch (which will hopefully arrive before Sarah and Jason visit in last August so they have a bed), and have in general been walking everywhere to do as much as we can muster energy for (well, it's really me mustering energy and Ian being patient with my waddle-walk and lack of energy). We both already feel and look a little healthier, and it's only been a week!

I start at my new office at Penn Plaza on Monday. It's just a skip and jump down the 1 line, and I'm hoping to make friends with my new coworkers (that's right, we have no friends here, and I can say that legitimately this time).

And what else has been happening?

Well, pregnancy. Pregnancy has been happening. The highlights are amazing, but everything else... isn't. Weeks of terrible allergies were followed by weeks of being unable to fall asleep at night. And these have been followed by THE PREGNANCY PLAGUE. Basically, my entire body has broken out into hives of varying degrees of itchiness, starting with my lovely stretch marks (which some have suggested I get tattooed onto my belly as they look like amazing flames stretching up the sides of my belly button), and moving on to hips, butt, legs, arms, back...you name it.

My allergist and midwife weren't really sure what it was, and scheduled me with dermatology. After a few nights of crying for hours (mostly in the shower under cold water, and on Ian's comforting lap) and unable to wait for or move the derm date closer, we went to the ER, where they gave me the official diagnosis of "rash." Helpful, right? As our friend Dustin put it, "I didn't know symptoms could be diagnoses now." When I did finally see Dermatology in early July, they did two skin biopsies from my right hip and prescribed some meds. For a week or so I was on an oral steroid, a topical steroid, and taking way too many oatmeal baths and literally going through a tube of aloe vera a day.

After a week and half, the biopsy results came back as positive for Pruritic Urticarial Papules and Plaques of Pregnancy (I specifically LOVE the plaques part), or PUPPPs for short. Basically, it's an aggressive rash that creates bumps and hives all of your body (but never your face), makes you terribly itchy and uncomfortable to the point of actually going crazy, but doesn't harm the baby at all. And no one knows why it happens. PUPPPs usually pops up in the last month or so of pregnancy and lasts until 2-4 weeks after birth (sometimes longer if you are breastfeeding, from my reading).

Two weeks ago the rash was essentially over my entire body, but topical steroids really helped 95% of the rash to disappear. The only thing is that you have to take a 4-6 week break in between the topical steroids so your body doesn't get used to them and so you don't start actually taking them in as prolonged exposure could hurt our little bean sprout. I've been off of them for a week now and the itching is getting progressively worse, but it's not nearly as bad as it was a month ago, so that's good at least.

We'll post pictures of the new place in the next few days, and I'll try to get ultrasound pictures up soon as well.

Love,
Rachel (and Ian)

Springtime In Michigan?

Another month has flown by! Not too many updates to relay... but things are certainly changing in our household.

First, we're really settling into the idea of moving towards the end of the summer. We submitted our housing application to Columbia for subsidized housing with a few specific requests. We are eagerly (some people more than others) awaiting them to respond. According to the information they provided, they will send us three floor plans... and we get to choose between them. Callooh Callay (anyone?)!

My midterms are done with (phew) and I now have about three and a half weeks left in the semester to write about 50-60 pages worth of term papers. Yikes. Ian is working so very diligently to finish up his dissertation before we go to Honduras next month, just under a month. You might say we're a little harried and stressed right now!

The really big news is that we're expecting a baby! Since only family read this (it's now quite 'out' yet, so keep it mum), I feel fine saying this! If you follow my personal blog you'll know that we decided to start trying in March, and by trying, I mean, not actively trying to prevent pregnancy - no rhyme or reason here.

I had a pre-conception appointment with my gynecologist last Friday (March 18th) and she did a pregnancy test just to check, and it came up negative. Ian and I shrugged our shoulders and talked about tracking dates and my temperature next month as a possibility. We hadn't been tracking any of my dates or times before trying, so it wasn't a big surprise.

On Sunday I was feeling really off. I really needed to walk and to be alone, so at about eight in the evening I drove over to Target (retail therapy and I love Target, so don't judge!) and walked around the store looking at things for about an hour. I picked up a pack of pregnancy tests on a whim, along with a few other things, and headed back home. Ian and I cooked dinner together, and I took a pregnancy test right before bed. And it was positive. Bah? I'm pretty sure I screamed at Ian and then there was some general jumping up and down. All I could say all night was, "Wow." The shock has worn off a very little bit, but I keep having to go through a mental checklist of my body to believe it's actually real: two positive tests, the bloaties, and a slew of physical/body symptoms that no one really wants to read about (or hear about, you can ask Ian all about that!).

I had gone a little pregnancy crazy before we found out about the positive test (I'm a planner that loves to shop, so shush!), so we have a small library of prenatal workout and yoga DVDs, a few pregnancy books... and Ian has a doula/birthing partner book (lucky dog!).

So, hopefully goes well with our pea in the pod. We'll probably "announce" in a month when I'm a little further along. To the best we can figure, we're due 11/27/2011.

Two Month Update!

Well, we completely forgot about January. In fact, the whole month is a blank. (not really)

Ian turned 28 and received some wicked sweet board games for his birthday, along with snarky remarks from his darling wife. He was, and remains, utterly thrilled. Seriously, these games are pretty great, if you're into games: Ticket to Ride and Jambo.

What else, what else? Oh yeah: Ian accepted a post-doctoral fellowship at the highly-esteemed Columbia University! He was the only candidate out of over 1000 candidates - we're quite proud of this fellow. It's a three year position which drops us right into New York City (we will most likely be living in Morningside Heights). This position was in competition with a tenure-track position at Wayne State in Detroit, MI. There was much deliberation over what job to take, especially when we compared housing prices and transportation costs, not to mention job security and pay. But, all said and done, could we seriously say no to Columbia? We will have to sell our beautiful little car and will end up paying 4x as much for housing (for square footage), but we're both really looking forward to the adventure of New York City. 

All of this means that I actually do need to squeak my master's degree out this summer, but I'm on the right track to get everything done on time. I had two papers accepted for presentations next month, and another nominated for a grad school prize. I also applied to the National Women's Studies Association conference next fall - we'll see how that goes (for my thoughts on research and school related things, I recently started a blog on tumblr). I've decided on a concentration on sexuality (completing coursework this semester), and believe my second concentration will be counseling, which I could finish up this summer when working on my thesis.

Ian has 52 days to finish his dissertation. He's reworking the first and second chapters, so it's quite a task. His foot has healed up nicely from his stress fracture in December. When the weather allows, my little ninja is out scaring the locals as he zips past.

Our kitties continue to flourish and purr. We've avoided all chickpeas in our stews. We are working on making our bedtimes closer to midnight (and actually succeeding at this). And we've been shoveling a lot of snow. Much snow. Tired of snow.

We also (through much hard work and dedication on our end) became aunts and uncles this week! My beautiful sister and her doting husband Jason had their first child, Josiah Paul Furrow, aka "Furrito," born February 16th.

  

Ian and I purchased tickets to visit this cutie in April. I can't wait to not only see this fine lad (a "McBaby," as my mother has designated any current and expected grandchildren), but Sarah and Jason's work on their orphanage and property. Check out their blog - neat stuff.