Third Culture Kid(s)

Okay, so, I signed up for Nablopomo, for two main reasons:

1. I’m 32 weeks today. This could be a quiet month (won’t quite be at term by the end of the month), or - given my past history and blood pressure issues - it could be a more eventful month. I thought I’d track my daily progress this month, just for the hell of it.

2. I really, really need to try to get a dissertation chapter draft done this month. I told my ever-patient advisor I’d have something for her by November, but since I didn’t specify when in November, I’m going for end of the month. I thought I’d also track my daily progress this month on that front, as well - any cheering/encouragement would be more appreciated than you know.

Some background:

Pregnancy - I was diagnosed with high blood pressure about a year before I got pregnant with MM. I’m an older mother (just turned 41 last week - ack!), and I’m a dissertating, living-away-from-campus PhD student, so stress - and the physical inability to handle it well - are kind of built in to my life. Thus far, my BP has been terrific - at least at home. Mainly in the 120s/70s, which, for me, is about as close to ideal as it comes. I’m on a pretty low dose of methyldopa (Aldomet) right now. My home blood pressure monitor was calibrated against the manual one at my dr.’s office last week (during the Blood Pressure Raising Event), and it passed with flying colors, so I’m pretty confident in my home readings.

I’ve noticed that the systolic (bigger number) reading has been going up over the past few days, so things might be changing on that front. Other than that, it’s been an uneventful pregnancy so far - 2.0 moves all the freaking time, it seems like, which is so different from MM that it’s got me worried (I worry about him getting tangled up/strangled in the umbilical cord, since it happens more than you’d think), but other than that it’s been pretty quiet. The official due date is Dec. 27, but since this will be a repeat C-section, we’re aiming for Dec. 17. If I can get us through Thanksgiving, I’ll count us lucky.

Dissertation:

I passed my comps in June, 2004, and my dissertation proposal was successfully defended in November 2005 - so I’ve pretty much been spinning my wheels for two years now. I’ve got a lot of freewriting, some bits and pieces of two chapters, and some reading notes to show for it, but trying to write with toddler underfoot - even with the generous childcare support that my parents (mom) have given me - has proven difficult at best. Lately, the difficulty has been compounded by my feeling so. damned. tired all the time - I’m guessing because 2.0 is sucking the life blood out of me. So the challenge this month is to overcome the exhaustion and try to get something like a chapter draft finished and off to my advisor, so she knows I’m still in the game.

Special Challenges:

1. MM has become an insomniac. Her timing couldn’t be better (/sarcasm), but ever since she discovered monsters and other scary things (thanks so much, retail world/TV, for introducing that into our little universe), she’s had darkness issues at night. I’ve gotten a pattern down that gets her to sleep well enough (we check everywhere for monsters, then turn off the light and name the shadows and lights), but she keeps waking up, dammit. Mostly to have me fix her blankets. And then she wakes up for good sometime between 5 and 6. Needless to say, I’m not looking forward to the end of Daylight Savings time, when her little internal clock will think it’s six when the clock says five.

2. M.’s gotten incredibly busy at work (projects from hell) and this month at school also looks to be very busy. He’s got two projects that will be due around Thanksgiving, and since we’re trying to get as much of his schoolwork out of the way before 2.0 makes an appearance, he will probably be pretty scarce around here this month. Which means that childcare will be pretty much entirely up to me, and I may never sleep in again. Weep with me.

Those are the big obstacles. The fact that it’s gotten very difficult for me to move - you know, physically - probably works in my favor at this point, but other things are conspiring against me. So, you know, join me, won’t you?