Well, the birds hatched and so we don't feel we can move them now. I think Stephen originally noticed 5 eggs but when we looked the other night, all we could see were two little beaks. Of course, Lexi had to be lifted up twice to see. She found it quite interesting.
After supper, Lexi went and laid down on the couch in the living room - and fell asleep! Quite unusual for her..she did say to Stephen that she didn't have a nap today. At the school's summer program, they have been running around to various places. Yesterday they went to a theater and Cold Stone Creamery and today it was the Natural History Museum and a carousel. Tomorrow is the public library and a splashpark.
I have good nights sleeping and not so good nights. Trying to find the right position with my every growing belly is a challenge!
June 22, 2011
June 20, 2011
Oh, the irony of it all
Last spring, we noticed that a young couple had taken up residence—uninvited—in our house. We thought about considering them squatters and calling the police to have them removed or else charging them rent for sharing our space. But in the end, we just kicked them out and moved out their “crib” when they started having babies, which was the last straw.
Yes, a pair of birds had built a nest in a small space tucked under the aluminum awning that covers our front porch (yet another reason to hate it besides its aesthetic qualities). We hadn’t discovered the nest until it was almost too late–when they had already laid a few eggs in it. We agonized a bit over what to do, but in the end, we decided they could not stay, so I moved their nest down to the ground, which essentially meant an end to that year’s hatchings. I continued to feel guilty, like I had performed an abortion on several baby birds.
Soon after this, Sarah covered the area with some netting. We thought we had solved the problem and were sitting pretty as this year’s spring wore on. Then, a few weeks ago, even as the sweltering summer weather had begun, I noticed one day as I was leaving the house through the front door that a bird had started to collect a pile of grass in this space, even behind the netting! As I came and went, I observed what was happening for a few days and discovered that a bird had managed to squeeze itself up through the awning into this space. I feared the worst again—that there were already eggs in it, that it was already a complete nest that was incubating new life. I tried denying it for a few more days, but I finally hoisted myself up high enough to see that, indeed, there were already five eggs there. As I observed the bird at other times during the day, I could see that she was truly sitting on these eggs to warm them. Even keeping the porch light on all night did not seem to bother her. I told Sarah about this, who was equally dismayed, but when Lexi heard, she was curious and even a little delighted.
We had hoped to avoid all of this by giving Lexi a birdie house, as she called it, for Christmas and hanging it in a visible spot in the back yard well in time for young bird couples looking for a new house to start a family. But no birds had taken residence in this new house, but they had chosen to return to their old spot (if it was the same family from last year), even if it had meant they needed to work extra hard to occupy the space.
Our struggle with what to do with this nest of eggs is even harder this year because of one irony: Not only is the young bird couple outside our door pregnant, but so is the human couple who lives inside the house. This spring and early summer, we find that we are both expecting babies. Do we want to become killers of babies again of some smaller, helpless creatures in an effort to keep our front porch clear of bird poop and other waste from a whole family of birds? Would we want some larger, more powerful creature terminating our pregnancy? Is there a difference between baby birds and a baby human? We’re not sure what to do. We’ve been trying to find a place in our yard where this year we could move the nest of eggs to allow them to hatch safely rather than letting them die before they hatch. But so far we haven’t found one, and we know well how babies’ due dates keep approaching. In the meantime, however, as I spy on that mother bird warming her eggs in that nest, she makes me feel guilty for wanting her out of that spot because I see my own wife incubating our own baby and knowing how much we will love this child.
Yes, a pair of birds had built a nest in a small space tucked under the aluminum awning that covers our front porch (yet another reason to hate it besides its aesthetic qualities). We hadn’t discovered the nest until it was almost too late–when they had already laid a few eggs in it. We agonized a bit over what to do, but in the end, we decided they could not stay, so I moved their nest down to the ground, which essentially meant an end to that year’s hatchings. I continued to feel guilty, like I had performed an abortion on several baby birds.
Soon after this, Sarah covered the area with some netting. We thought we had solved the problem and were sitting pretty as this year’s spring wore on. Then, a few weeks ago, even as the sweltering summer weather had begun, I noticed one day as I was leaving the house through the front door that a bird had started to collect a pile of grass in this space, even behind the netting! As I came and went, I observed what was happening for a few days and discovered that a bird had managed to squeeze itself up through the awning into this space. I feared the worst again—that there were already eggs in it, that it was already a complete nest that was incubating new life. I tried denying it for a few more days, but I finally hoisted myself up high enough to see that, indeed, there were already five eggs there. As I observed the bird at other times during the day, I could see that she was truly sitting on these eggs to warm them. Even keeping the porch light on all night did not seem to bother her. I told Sarah about this, who was equally dismayed, but when Lexi heard, she was curious and even a little delighted.
We had hoped to avoid all of this by giving Lexi a birdie house, as she called it, for Christmas and hanging it in a visible spot in the back yard well in time for young bird couples looking for a new house to start a family. But no birds had taken residence in this new house, but they had chosen to return to their old spot (if it was the same family from last year), even if it had meant they needed to work extra hard to occupy the space.
Our struggle with what to do with this nest of eggs is even harder this year because of one irony: Not only is the young bird couple outside our door pregnant, but so is the human couple who lives inside the house. This spring and early summer, we find that we are both expecting babies. Do we want to become killers of babies again of some smaller, helpless creatures in an effort to keep our front porch clear of bird poop and other waste from a whole family of birds? Would we want some larger, more powerful creature terminating our pregnancy? Is there a difference between baby birds and a baby human? We’re not sure what to do. We’ve been trying to find a place in our yard where this year we could move the nest of eggs to allow them to hatch safely rather than letting them die before they hatch. But so far we haven’t found one, and we know well how babies’ due dates keep approaching. In the meantime, however, as I spy on that mother bird warming her eggs in that nest, she makes me feel guilty for wanting her out of that spot because I see my own wife incubating our own baby and knowing how much we will love this child.
June 12, 2011
Feeling large
I feel really large now. I don't remember exactly if I was this large at 24 weeks along with Lexi. Looking at pictures, I can definitely tell I had a belly but hard to judge if it was in this range or not. Sister in law Jen had given me a lot of maternity tops - and several of them don't fit any more. I hope I can make it to the end without running out of clothes that fit!
The heat and humidity are also dragging me down. I feel like I am moving slower than usual. My ankles are also rather swollen at the end of the day.
The ultrasound last week indicated that this is going to be a big baby. Neither Stephen nor I remembered Lexi as being big but when I looked up her birth weight, it was just over 8 lbs which isn't small. They still had trouble looking at baby's spine at the exact angle that they wanted to so I have to go back in 4 weeks for another ultrasound. I know some people don't have many of these and so think it is a thrill to have an ultrasound, but the thrill has pretty much worn off for me.
The heat and humidity are also dragging me down. I feel like I am moving slower than usual. My ankles are also rather swollen at the end of the day.
The ultrasound last week indicated that this is going to be a big baby. Neither Stephen nor I remembered Lexi as being big but when I looked up her birth weight, it was just over 8 lbs which isn't small. They still had trouble looking at baby's spine at the exact angle that they wanted to so I have to go back in 4 weeks for another ultrasound. I know some people don't have many of these and so think it is a thrill to have an ultrasound, but the thrill has pretty much worn off for me.
June 9, 2011
Lexi and the pony
Lexi continues to amaze us. While in Wisconsin at a family reunion for Sarah's parents' 40th wedding anniversary, we visited the Circus Museum where Lexi wanted to ride a pony. There were 4 ponies attached to a rotating wheel that just walked around in a circle with kids on their backs. She asked several times and while we really thought she wouldn't do it, we decided to see what would happen. She happily round on the pony with Dad walking along beside her - she wasn't as happy when he stood off to the side but she did great. Once we get the photo off the camera we will post it.
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