The Bauer Confidential

Jocelyn Patricia Bauer

Born November 26th (4:57am)

She’s a bigg’n at 9lbs 4ozs and a hair over 22 inches long

I haven’t got that many good pic’s of her yet, but I’m sure there will be many soon.

I think due dates are the medical community’s rather sad attempt to let us feel some smidgen of sanity regarding the impending arrival of a baby; an event that most of us have little to no control over.  As of right now, all is go for us with an au naturale birth.  Despite a sonogram technician scaring the crap out of me last week.  We went in for a scan to estimate the size of the baby.  Her estimate, 8 pounds 6 ounces, plus or minus a pound (a freakin’ pound).  This puts our little girl in the 86th percentile according to the tech, if the estimate is right.  She said they don’t start to worry until the baby is over the 90th percentile.  And she told me the baby would probably gain a ton more since I was still two weeks from my due date (I later found out this wasn’t necessarily true).  So let me get this straight, your current estimate has our wee one 4 percentile points away from danger and you could be under-estimating by as much as a pound?  And I shouldn’t be worried why?  I have to admit I didn’t care for that technician much, she’d tell us what she was looking at, but wouldn’t tell us if it was normal (apparently it all was).  Afterward I pretty much felt like crap, felt like it was something I had done, despite the fact I’ve gained only at the low end of what is recommended for pregnancy.

Luckily a couple days later I had an appointment with our OB.  She said the baby was in the 78th percentile, did some palpitations and said she wasn’t worried.  She said the baby was definitely bigger than average, but nothing to be concerned about.  Looks like things are progressing, the baby had started moving down by that appointment and I can tell you from my perspective that she’s moved down even farther since then.  I’ll see the OB again tomorrow, but if the baby decides she wants to make her entrance tonight, I won’t be complaining.

Like most women in my position, I’m not sleeping well and basic activities are trying at best.  I’ve been trying to work part days, but after three nights of virtually no sleep, I decided I needed a day of rest today.  If the baby does decide it’s time, I don’t want to be too tired, that will make labor harder on us both.  I’ve come to terms with the fact that it’s entirely possible that the baby will come late.  Pretty much every baby in my family has been late, I was six days past my due date.  Though the average in the U.S. has drifted to a few days before the due date, some how I doubt I’ll be that lucky.  Sometimes I think she’ll be coming any minute, other times I feel like it could still be weeks!  I wonder if every little symptom is a sign that labor is starting, so far, it’s a no go.  So tomorrow I think I’ll go to work for a while, see what the OB has to say, and try not to make myself nuts worrying.

I nearly choked on my cereal this morning when I heard the local news recounting this story.  Apparently a Post-Doc at UCSF tried to poison a technician from the same lab, not just once, but twice.  His chosen poison, while they don’t explicitly say in the article, is some common lab chemical that turned the drinking water of said technician blue, and get this, she noticed it was blue but drank it anyway.  They only figured out the Post-Doc was trying to poison her because he told her he was.  This whole thing is completely mind boggling.  I think it must be some sort of cry for attention, because if he was really trying to do her in, he did a very poor job for someone with a science background.  He refuses to tell the police his motives, and will most likely be deported (pretty sure attempted murder is a violation of a US work Visa).  I hope people don’t start to think all Post-Docs are unhinged like this guy.  Yes science can be stressful, but poisoning a lab-mate, I can’t believe it would get that bad.  My boss told me when he was in grad school, someone in a very well known lab was putting radioactive substances into the coffee of a lab-mate.  He wasn’t sure how they figured out who was doing this, but it sure makes you want to be nice to your co-workers.

In completely unrelated science news, researchers at the University of Michigan used nanotechnology to make some pretty cool likenesses of the President-elect, they call them Nanobamas.

Perhaps it is contradictory that as a scientist I don’t generally enjoy reading non-fiction.  I know many scientists who only read non-fiction, especially that of a scientific nature.  I prefer to read for an escape, and as my career requires I spend a lot of time reading primary literature, I tend to use my spare time to read things of a less serious nature.  That being said, I am willing to read almost anything, I just generally choose fiction.  This month’s book club selection falls into the non-fiction category, The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine is an interesting look into the neuroanatomy of a woman’s brain beginning with her time in her mother’s womb and exploring the changes that occur through advanced age.

The author, a neurotherapist and founder of a clinic dealing with the special aspects of female neurobiology, presents the information in this book in unabashedly pro-woman fashion.  Sometimes this comes at the expense of the value of the male brain and there is quite a bit of minimizing the positive aspects of male neurodevelopment, generally to highlight the strengths of the female mind.  I’m not claiming that the author isn’t justified in this perspective, with most neuroscience research conducted in males and most text-books centering on male development, this book may be the only chance the female brain gets in the spot-light.  It’s just that as a scientist, reading such an unbalanced presentation felt a little grating and heavy-handed at times.  Feminism is the belief that men and women are created equal, that neither is superior, some women forget this point.

It is the belief that the male and female brains are essentially the same that the author soundly repudiates in this book.  I think a great deal of this is common sense, we can look around us, examine our relationships, and see that there are fundamental differences between men and women.  The author allows us to understand these differences on a biological level, describing how hormones influence brain function and how the changes in hormones over a woman’s lifetime impact her and the way she views the world.  Dr. Brizendine contends that if we understand the way hormones and development influence our brain function then we are in control of how we react to our biology.

There are a couple scientific errors in the text that jumped out at me (especially since she restates one fallicy multiple times).  Still I found this book an interesting and informative read.  Preparing to introduce a new girl into my family, the first part of the book describing how the brains of infants and young girls develop was very helpful and has made me realize that its OK to give a girl dolls if she wants them and not worry that you are predetermining her destiny by forcing gender roles upon her.  It also gave me some insight into my own behavior (there’s a section on the mommy/pregnancy brain) and a bit about my mother.  I’ve encouraged Matthew to read it because I feel that men could gain some perspective on the women in their lives by reading this book.  I also came to appreciate that some of the differences between men and women are fundamental enough that we need to stop blaming one another for our inability to understand the opposite sex.  The book is not too technical in my opinion, though some members of the book club found it to be text-book like at times.  I think anyone who wants to understand women better will find this book to be an excellent resource; its really quite engaging and uses stories of individuals to illustrate the science.  It’s an easy read and worth the effort.

I would also like to add to what April wrote yesterday, but that will wait a bit.  First I wanted to write some thoughts (final thoughts for awhile) I had about President-Elect Obama.

The question on NPR on the day after the election was: does the election of Barack Obama signify a major step in race relations in America?  I think the obvious answer is YES because there is no way he could get elected without the “white” vote, which signifies a change to a more positive attitude toward race equality in America.  Does this end racism or racial discrimination?  Well of course not, but I heard some opinions today that made this election appear more significant than I originally thought.  Not immediately significant, but will be for later generations. Here are the points that I found interesting.

1) Who is the first president that you can remember; the one from your childhood?  For me, I remember Ronald Reagan, and I remember thinking at the time that he was MY president and for some reason I just loved and trusted him.  Even to this day, with facts about his presidency on hand, I still have a fondness for the man.  I remember that in college I would debate with friends about what would occur first, an African-American president or a woman president (the answer is “A”).  Now we’ll have many children that, when they grow up, will remember their first president being an African-American and will never debate “will there ever be a black president?”*  They will never have that sort of doubt in their mind about the possibility of an African-American president.  This can only help heal the wounds of racial discrimination.

2) Who was your role model growing up?  For me, it was probably my father, but I had others that I looked up to, both real and fictional.  I loved Reagan (as mentioned), Robin Hood, G.I. Joe (don’t ask why), I’m sure there are others but I don’t want to spend to much time thinking about it.  Here is my point, in the past few years or more I’ve heard African-Americans like Bill Cosby speak critically of the African-American culture, especially in the inner city areas.  One of their complaints is the idolization of gangsters and rappers and mimicking their selfish, violent and misogynist attitudes.  Now we have President Obama and the possibility of a generation of children and teenagers (of all color) idolizing someone who espouses hope, unity, and public service.  This has got to make Cosby feel better, and can only help society as a whole.

The more I thought about it, the more that I came to agree with a lot of the Obamamanics that this is an exciting time.  I grew up hearing the stories of Martin Luther King Jr, Jackie Robinson, George Washington Carver, and we will experience the man that our children and children’s children will hear and read about: President Barack Obama.  Of course, what we hear and the reverence towards him will be determined by his presidency, but as I mentioned in a past post, I have some caution, but right now I’m filled with mostly hope.

* We’ll have to save the discussion of gender equality for a different post

I’ve been happy to let Matthew do the political postings around here.  I care about politics, but I don’t really care to discuss them.  I also believe that we vote anonymously for a reason, and that how I vote is my business and no one else’s.  Additionally, I know that most of the people who read this site either agree with my political leanings already, or could not possibly be convinced into seeing things my way even if I harassed them for years; I fear building animosity especially among my family and friends.  You can see why I was never on the debate team in college and why I don’t volunteer for campaigns.

All of that being said, after watching the returns last night I have a lot of hope that things in our country will be changing for the better.  I’m not an emotional person, and I didn’t tear up at the eloquent speeches, but a piece of me understood why a lot of people were so moved, and I shared with them a pride in our country that I haven’t felt for a while.  In my opinion, the most important thing Obama said during his speech last night was this: “And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too.“  It was painfully obvious that the current administration did not feel this way, and many of us have suffered for that.  Our country needs, and I think craves, unity and solidarity.  As Obama, and others have said, “There is more that unites us than divides us.”

Yet for me, yesterday only feels like a partial victory, and there are two very divergent reasons for that.  I’ll only focus now on my biggest disappointment with this election cycle, and that is California’s Proposition 8.  If you don’t support gay marriage, you probably shouldn’t read past here.  Read more »

I have never had to wait to vote until today.  Welcom to a densly populated CA city.  It really wasn’t that bad.  I waited for an hour and half.  I voted, and my guy won.  I’m happy because I think he is the better guy, but let’s not get lazy.  This system only works if we question our leadership and hold them accountable (and give them praise when they earn it).  We can not just blindly follow.   Right now though, I’m feeling pretty good and I am filled with hope for a better tomorrow and a better country.

I’m ready to have this election over with. It has gone on way too long (almost 2 years!), and you know that as soon as the next president is sworn in, we’ll have at least one person starting their 2012 campaign.  It’s crazy, but at least the signs will come down and I’ll stop getting 4-5 robocalls a day about every measure and every person.  By the way, I’m not going to vote a certain way because of a Martin Sheen voiced robocall.

I am going to vote tomorrow, and I encourage all of you to go vote.  I haven’t hidden the fact I’m voting for Obama, but even if you are not, go and vote anyway.  It’ll make you feel better.  Oh, and don’t be like this lady!

I wanted to write a post on why I’m voting for Barack Obama.  Mainly because I’ve haven’t written much on this site as of late, and this is the big event of the day.  So unless you want to read an overly biased post, you may stop now, if not please continue.
Read more »