I’ve been the WORST blogger lately. Sorry. I’ve been lousy at both posting and commenting, and the reasons for this will hardly elicit any sympathy. They include such winners as, “Really busy with work,” “We’re away every weekend at the cottage,” and others I won’t even bother with. And because there’s nothing worse than following up a blogging absence with a disorganized series of bullet points, I am totally going to give you a thoughtful, Pulitzer Prize winning essay on — oh wait, nope, gonna hit you with bullets.
– BABY CAKES. I’m not having a baby shower (at least, not a shower in advance of the baby arriving — we’ll have a party once he’s here), and this really merits a whole separate post about how Judaic superstition and infertility PTSD totally go hand-in-hand, at least when it comes to not wanting to jinx things by celebrating too early. Anyway, one of things I may have to consider whenever we do choose to celebrate will be what food to consume, and for many folks, that food is cake. For some folks, that cake is shaped like a baby. Often, it looks like a baby is trying to escape through a hole, much like this:
But other times, it’s just a cake shaped like a full baby, which starts to get kind of creepy, especially when it looks like this:
But what I never really considered, until the geniuses behind Cake Wrecks called it to my attention, was that eventually someone at the baby shower will be expected to CUT such a cake, so people can eat it. And how, exactly, do you cut a baby? Let’s just say it gets really disturbing (like, REALLY):
Seriously, if any of you are ever considering getting a cake in the shape of a baby, this is your official warning. You cannot un-see a sliced baby face.
– CORD BLOOD. Don’t worry, this bullet won’t be as gross. Basically, I’m just curious how many of you chose to bank your baby’s cord blood versus toss it into the biohazard bin. Thoughts? I ask because we’ve decided to not bank it privately (too expensive, and the pediatricians and OBs I’ve spoken with say we shouldn’t bother), but I also didn’t want to waste potentially precious stem cells. So I started to look into donating it and turns out Canadian blood banks haven’t quite got their act together, so while some collection of donor cord blood is happening, it ain’t happening in Toronto. I got a tip-off that the Albertans were super on top of this — sure enough, they are, but they’re super snobby about which cities they’ll accept cord blood from, and surprise surprise, they really stick it to Toronto. So THEN, I found a small organization just north of the city that apparently will take it, but this requires a ton of paperwork and I have to somehow figure out how to ship it to them ASAP once the cord has been cut. “Um, hi, FedEx? Is there a protocol for shipping human blood? Can I get same-day delivery if I pay extra?” (Actually, it seems like maybe this isn’t so crazy, considering what happens if you Google “FedEx” and “Blood”):
– PINS AND NEEDLES. Last bullet, I promise. Have any of you PAIL-ers ever suffered from pins and needles in your hands? Is this a pregnancy thing? Because I’ve started to experience it in my left hand and it seems to be a sign of heart attack stroke early-onset Parkinsons either carpal tunnel syndrome or perhaps the result of an awkward sleeping position. I had a chiropractor friend of mine do some arm and shoulder adjustments, and she mentioned something called “thoracic outlet syndrome“, but the treatment seems to be a lot of stretching (bo-ring). Am I on my own here? Anyone? Bueller?
Yeah, Science! 
Think horses and not zebras- carpel tunnel syndrome is common in pregnancy! Let me know if you need treatment that doesnt involve stretches!! Love mum
so good to hear from you! post pictures of the cabin and the bump! maybe the bump at the cabin? dont get a weird cake. please. get tiny cakes and call them baby cakes. no insight on the chord blood or pins and needles, but happy to hear you are doing well growing that human!
I’ve had the pins and needles thing! I figured it was carpal tunnel. I was careful not to Google it because that usually leads to me in the fetal position in a dark corner.
We banked cord blood (through Insception), from both Mt Sinai and our home birth. At home, we kept it in the fridge overnight and a messenger picked it up at 6a.m. Feel free to email me on specifics!
Pregnancy carpal tunnel is super common. I had it with my first pregnancy and came back worse after Bup was born. (He was a heavy baby who I picked up a lot.). Wearing wrist supports to sleep helps.
*already having baby-cake-sliced-face-nightmares* (seriously, what are people thinking?) (also that photo is tremendous)
Have totally had intermittent pins and needles in my fingers and elbow pain. A physical therapist friend diagnosed golf elbow. Which is awesome because such an injury makes me sound EXTRA cool. She gave me stretches to do which, as you say, boring, etc. So… I continue to suffer and sulk. Ha.
Glad to see you’re back! I am going to respond with bullet points :)
-I am superstitious too, and only want to celebrate after the baby is here. I won’t even “pin” baby stuff on pinterest until I get pregnant or get an adoption referral.
-That baby cake was cray-cray
-I would totally donate the cord blood, I wonder if its available in Regina…
OMG -you truly have the funniest stuff on your blog. That baby cake is seriously disturbing. If pregnant, I would never attend a baby shower for myself. Baby showers are torture and I don’t want to expose anyone to that hell. Most importantly myself.
Re: cord blood -you would never stop kicking yourself if something were to happen and it could use cold blood -do it if you can!
Oh, that baby cake is disturbing!! So wrong. It’s like garbage pail kids stickers.
I did have tingling in my arm/hand when I was pregnant! I can’t recall what it was with my mom brain… But it was pregnancy related and went away after delivery. I don’t think I ever talked to my doc about it.
I had carpal tunnel with my pregnancy with my daughter. Couldn’t really feel my hands during the third tri. I had to go on light duties at work- I didn’t think my patients would want me sticking them with needles when I had such limited use of my hands.
No thoughts on cord blood banking, though I did attend a delivery tonight where the OB was doing it. Since we do it so infrequently here in Ontario, I had the distinct impression (perhaps because the nurse was reading the instructions) that he wasn’t 100% sure of what he was doing. Apparently, there are a variety of collection agencies, and they all have different instructions… just to confuse the poor docs at the bedside.
Oh… very creepy baby cake. I might just have nightmares tonight.
Hi,
De-lurking from VERY far away here. My personal experience with pins&needles (which, sorry to say, turned into full-blown “please cut my hands OFF right naaao as I can’t stand the misery anymore” non-stop pain+heat) in Tri 3 was attributed by my OBY/GYN to Carpal Tunnel. I’m sending you my best wishes for your issue to remain in the pins&needles phase, but if it gets much worse, you don’t necessarily have to worry too much about its permanence or consequences.
My husband had to basically get me dressed and undressed daily for about 8 weeks, put my shoes on, sometimes cut my food into little pieces, brush my hair; driving was impossible as I could not grip the wheel. On the plus side, it meant serious “life with a baby” training for him. On the negative side, the only thing providing some modicum of temporary relief was cold water (cotton gloves soaked in water and kept in the freezer until they stiffened=MAGIC!). My doctor shrugged and said he has no treatment suggestion, not many women get it that bad, and it will “go away once Baby is born”-which was entirely correct. I do truly hope it will be the light version for you, but do know that, as other mums said above and as many of the weird moments of pregnancy, this too will go away.
My very special thoughts for you during your journey, I really enjoy reading your blog!
Oh man that is a scary, scary baby cake! I hope that no one decides to get a baby cake at either of my showers….I certainly won’t be cutting into it!
I haven’t made a decision on the cord blood stuff. I swear I get at least a weekly email and then lots of stuff through the mail on doing cord blood now. I will have to talk to my doctor about it.
Those baby cakes are creepy!!
We have not made a decision about cord blood yet – I am thinking of donating it rather than paying to store it. One more thing I need to look into. :)
Oh, the cake wrecks you shared were nothing to the one that she censored all of but the baby’s head here: http://www.cakewrecks.com/home/2012/8/10/the-miracle-of-birth-with-a-side-of-raspberry-jam.html
Sorry about the needles and pins, I had that with my first, and it was carpel tunnel– I wore wrist braces and once she was here, it was gone.
Good luck with the cord blood decision!
OH. MY. GOD. OK, that post was EPIC!!! Just died laughing at the final image in all its glory (yes, I clicked through to see it all)… wow… never thought fondant could be used to recreate a baby crowning… how far the baking world has come.
As a fellow Heeb I totally wish I had not done a baby shower. Not because I’m that superstitious but because I get stressed when parties are thrown for me! In regards to cord blood banking, we have decided not to. Its a lot of money and we are not prepared to shell it out for something that isn’t guaranteed. Tingling hands is a sign of carpal tunnel. I have had it since 7 months. I mainly have joint pain and difficulty opening and closing my fingers in the morning.
I want to bank the cord blood too. But I also like the idea of not cutting the cord and letting the blood all pulse into my baby right away. Not sure, but logic tells me I can’t have both? I asked B about banking and he said, “so just on the slim chance that something could go wrong?” and then I brought up donation and he said “so someone else’s kid can use it and then ours might get sick?” God. That was helpful! So, basically, dunno what I’m doing here.
Also…baby shower cakes!! Sliced baby face!!! I have to share this in response:
HAHAHAHA… omg, these cakes are killing me! Wow, they even used a blotch of chocolate sprinkles for the bum hole. How do you EAT that?!
From what I’ve heard, the chances of you needing your baby’s cord blood are incredibly slim and you’re paying a substantial amount every year to keep it… and in the mean time, it could probably be helping someone who actually needs it (or, at the very least, helping scientists research stem cells). So with this in mind, I’d really prefer to donate it — and I’m fairly certain you don’t have to cut the cord right away, though I’ll look into it.
Eeek! These cakes are creeping me out as it is, but the thought of cutting them… ouch.
Where I’m from we don’t even have baby showers, so I probably lack training in that department.
Ok, so this is not related to your post on cord blood and baby cakes (wait, did you really write a post about those two things together??), but I thought of you today because I was at this custom baby store and they told me that they make custom changing pads for any surface. It’s not even that expensive. You just measure how big you want it (in our case we’re going to do half of the dresser surface) and they make a foam pad that velcros somehow onto the back of the dresser (not sure about the specifics). Then you pick fabrics and they’ll make you covers to fit. I’ll let you know when we get the quote. It’s an LA-based store but I’m sure there are other places that do it. Or you could call in and have them ship it to you…
You said to have to somehow figure out how to ship it to them ASAP once the cord has been cut“. This is something you indeed definitely will want to plan well in advance. There are courier companies that specialize in these type of shipments; we for instance are a recommended courier for the CreATe Cord Blood Bank in Toronto. Give us a call. :-)
We did bank Nora’s cord, and planned on it with this one too, but with the emergency c section and post rpl denial of the pregnancy actually giving me a baby I didn’t have the kit with me when I was sent to hospital . I was upset at first, but now totally fine without banking it again.
I worked as a pediatric transplant nurse for several years. Our docs wouldn’t even consider using privately banked cord blood because the conditions the cords were stored under were highly questionable. Donation is definitely the way to go. Cheaper to bank karma than cords.