Yezzir! 4/29/08

Got this email today

Dear Shawn,

Please get the IP to me–first draft and second draft–as soon as you can, even if it is April 23rd. I must read all of them and evaluate them by the 30th or else I cannot meet the College deadline for a May graduation.

Sincerely,

Fran

Can’t believe its finally done. I started this degree program at Teachers College in the Spring of 03, and took 1-2 classes a semester. The people I came in with are all long gone, but hey at least my education was F-R-E-E while theyre prolly still paying off 30k in loans. I dont think I’ll ever go to school part time again (if I ever go back). With baby on the way i guess I can never really be a full-time student but having a full time job while going to school (even parttime) makes the experience a lot less fun and fulfilling imo. Even though my job gave me the time and space to study and do work, it was just hard to go home after being out all day and study or do schoolwork. Also, I wasnt able to take advantage of all the things the program offered liek traveling abroad. Oh well its done. baby will have to be the first in the family to get a Ph.D. unless his mom beats him to it.

Done! April 23, 2008.

I turned in the final draft for my Masters thesis today. It feels good to get that burden off my back with the baby on the way. I didnt want to be working on it still when baby was born. Hopefully all goes well and its approved and passed. Ive been spending a lot of the last 2.5 weeks on it while also trying to find a new place.

There were a lot of corrections to make but I think I covered them all. I basically rewrote the paper.

ack!

finding a new place for baby

all this house hunting has got me reflecting a bit on parents–and finding homes for their children. I hope we made the right choice moving to Brooklyn. Shortly after I was born in Los Angeles, Ca. My parents used their savings to buy a home in Cerritos, Ca.

Even though I bashed Cerritos earlier for being a place nobody knew about it really was a great place to grow up. Sure it was suburban and things closed by 9, but it was safe, had great parks, schools, and youth athletic leagues, not to mention the WORLD’s GREATEST PUBLIC LIBRARY.

If you dont believe me click around on that link or go by. sick!

Anyhow, my parents made a great decision. In the years since they bought the house, the value of the home has increased almost 10-fold. I’m not sure if it was just luck, coincidence, or a really well thought out decision, but im grateful for it.

We got a place! late march-early april.

So after what seemed like months of looking for a place, we finally got one in PLG.

Its in a small 3 story/3 family apartment building, and its owned by some of the coolest people I’ve met recently.

The apartment is a little smaller than our current place but has a washing machine!

The owners Bob and Jane live above our apartment (on the second floor) andhave lived in the neighborhood since the 60s.

Bob is 80 years old and has ridden his bike on solo trips all over the world. matter of fact, this summer he’s going to Germany on a solo bike tour. Bob maintains that when you travel to different parts of the world,m you have to do homestays because thats how you really get a chance to experience those places and people. Bob is also a community activist and is really involved in fighting increased rents and gentrification of the neighborhood.

Jane on the other hand is a very active woman whos had 2 knees replaced but still moves around pretty well. Im not sure how old she is but she runs the place. Shes really in charge of the apartment and she holds it down when Bob is gone on his 3 month long Treks.

NAY GUY! apartment hunt recap: missing out on 2 apts in a 3 week span.

So we missed out on 2 apartments we loved within a 3 week span. Wack!

The first place someone put in an application before us and the owner was deciding between us and the other couple. It took the damn owner 2 weeks to decide and afterall that time (they kept saying we’ll getback to you tomorrow) they took the other peopel because their application was in first. The rent for this palce was $1475

The second place really sucked. Because we went to see it, chopped it up with the owner for like an hour, and left with the broker to go to a cafe down the stret to work things out. Within 15 minutes we had decided we wanted the place, but when we called back, the owner had given   a couple who came to see it as we were leaving. As it turns out that couple had come to see it on the previous Friday and were interested–so the owner had been trying to get them to take it all weekend. They came back with the cash and took the place. We tried to convince the owner to reconsider, buthe ended up just giving it to them.

arghhhhh apartment hunting sucks.

Brooklyn Apartment search late march early april.

So we decided to really start actively looking in Brooklyn. I’ve been on Craigslist for hours a day going through listsings. I think the neighborhoods we have atthe top of our shortlist are:

Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, and Prospect-Lefferts Gardens (PLG) or Flatbush.

These three are at the top of our lists because basically they are in neighborhoods we can still afford.

Of the 3, PLG is probably our favorite because Tene grew up in the neighborhood before moving to Bed-Stuy, and its pretty close to Prospect Park. Being near a park is of extreme importance to us because were moving from a neighborhood with 3 great parks. Finally, the neighborhood is just a good melting pot of people from all over the place. It seems like a very good COMMUNITY, and a very family-oriented neighborhood.If you look at the map I put up in the previous post, its roughly where East Flatbush and Crown Heights connect.

Back to Brooklyn? mid-march 2008.

So we started entertaining the thought of moving back to Brooklyn. Why? you ask. Well a couple of reasons.

1) Our current building in Inwood (while big) is run down. Its such a big building (over 60 units) that its hard for the super to take care of everyone. Therefore, he’s usually real slow with fixing shit. We’ve had a messed up ceiling from the rain for like two years. Granted we don’t check up on him everyday, but I dont really have the time or energy to remind him everytime I see him. That said, with the baby on the way, we want a place that is in better shape, and just a place we can call more of a home.

2) T’s commute. T works in Brooklyn and her school is about 1.5 hours on the train from Inwood. To further complicate things, she often goes into work at 8AM and doesnt leave til 8PM a lot of times. So do the math on that and you have a lot of time away from home for her which will be harder as she gets more pregnant.

3)  Brooklyn is just cool…. “That’s why they call it the planet. Not a borough or a province, our style’s uncommon” (c) mos def. I mean I don’t want my kid to be like me and have to say “yea Im from Cerritos, its this suburb in Los Angeles not far from Long Beach. <~~~~not cool. NOPE!

I mean when people say theyre from BK, you know what theyre talking about.

besides look at all the dope folks from BK

Jordan, Melo, Larry David, Jay-Z, Basquiat, Q-tip, Spike Lee, Tupac

The week 12 genetics counseling b/w nuchal scan Mar. 14, 2008.

So genetics counseling was another interesting day. First of all, we were given two possible appointment times, 730 AM and 130 PM. Since we both had to be at work, we settled on the 7:30 exam. NYC is a whole different place in the morning. Usually I dont leave the house until 10-10:30, its amazing to see how many people are up and about at 6:30 in the morning in this city.

Anyhow, after arriving to the hospital, we were told to sit in a waiting room where there were about five other couples/pregnant women. I thought since it was called group counseling, we’d all have to share our thoughts and feelings about possible problems in the pregnancy. Thankfully that wasn’t the case at all. I guess they schedule these things in two time blocks so that the genetics counselor doesn’t have to keep repeating the same information over and over.

Anyways the genetics counselor Anya came in and explained to us that this was not the typical genetics counseling they give to women who are at higher risk for giving birth to babies with chromosomal disorders, but if we wanted that counseling it was definitely available. That counseling would include coming up with a whole family history/tree of genetic diseases etc with a counselor, and trying to determine what might be passed down to the baby. However, the counseling we were at was more to tell us about the test and test options for the day.

The main test we were supposed to get done was the Nuchal Scan. You can read more about the scan in the link I included, but basically its a scan that uses a high resolution ultrasound to measure the clear space in your baby’s neck. Babies with abnormalities such as Down’s Syndorme have a tendency to accumulate more fluid in this area, and therefore if there is a larger space, it tends to mean that there is more fluid accumulated in the area. Anya EMPHASIZED; however, that the test IS NOT an exact science. What the test does is give you the odds your baby may have Down’s Syndrome. So just because the baby has a relatively small gap DOES NOT mean the baby WILL NOT have down syndrome. On the other hand, just because the baby has a large gap DOES NOT mean IT WILL have down syndrome. The results they give you will be like “based off the results of your test, your baby has a 1/100 chance or 1/1000 chance of having Down’s Syndrome. I’ve read stories on blogs of women who tested for a higher chance of having a baby with Down’s Syndrome, then gave birth to a perfectly healthy baby. You have to remember that even though 1/100 seems high, thats still only a 1% chance.

So back to the three options.

-Option 1: is to just get the Nuchal Translucency exam and leave with those results. (for most younger couples this is fine, and usually gives you a pretty accurate picture). Many doctors and hospitals just offer this option unless there is the sense of some other issues.

-Option 2: is to have the Nuchal Translucency exam and a blood test that same day, but you don’tget a good idea of your results because that particular blood test goes hand in hand with providing the numbers for that ultrasound.

-Option 3: Was to getthe Nuchal Translucency scan, a blood test, and a follow up blood test a few weeks later. This option is the most accurate, but it requires coming back in another day. The great thing with this test is that it allows you to leave with some idea of your numbers that first day.

We chose OPTION 3 and decided to get the Nuchal Translucency scan, a blood test, and a follow up blood test that would give us the most accurate picture. We figured “why not?” Since it all costs the same price, Free!

So the Nuchal Translucency test was fun, the screen was a lot higher resolution than the one at the doctor’s office. The interesting thing is that they also put up a big screen so the pregnant woman can see the scan, but that screen is a lot less clear than the screen on the actual machine which is easier for dad’s to see. Anyhow, we got more time to see the baby because he/she wouldn’t cooperate. Uh-Oh a stubborn baby! The ultrasound tech kept using the scanner to try and manipulate T’s uterus so the baby would move into the proper position. For this exam, the proper position is to have the baby on the screen look like its laying on its back and facing up so you can get a clear measurement of the space behind the baby’s neck. Our baby wasn’t having it at all. After pushing and prodding for 10-15 minutes, and not being able to get the baby in the proper position, the clearly frustrated tech called the doctor in for help. The doctor came in and tried his best for 5 minutes, but to no avail. He suggested T go for a walk and come back in about 20 minutes, and hopefully the baby would have moved. So we went for a walk down to the cafeteria, got some food, and T did some stretches. We were gone for about 35 minutes and when we came back up we had to wait for about another 25 minutes for the tech to finish up with other patients.

After going back into the room, the tech was able to finally get the baby into the right position and took the measurement. She said everything looked pretty good and gave us a high resolution printout of the baby!

Now that the scan was over, all that was left was the blood test. We finished the blood test, and T was reminded she had to come back the week of the April 21st.

What a day!

Second Dr.’s Appointment. March 11, 2008.

The second doctor’s appointment was pretty uneventful compared to the last one. It was pretty quick. Dr. Teawia just asked if everything was okay and if we had any questions. Since T was fine and we didn’t have any questions, we were there for less than 30 minutes. We did a quick ultrasound to make sure everything was okay, but Dr. Teaiwa didn’t give us a printout because she said we’d get a better higher-resolution picture of teh baby at the genetics counseling later this week.

The great thing is that they told us we wouldn’t have to pay any co-payments anymore until T’s first visit after the baby was born. We were actually under the impression we’d have to make that $20 co-payment every month so make sure you check with your doctor or insurance.

Thesis draft due and more waiting…February 24-Mar 10, 2008.

So now that we’re back its just a waiting game. I’m counting down the days to our next appointment. This month is pretty big because we also have to go in for a “group” genetics counseling. In some places, they only give genetics counseling to women who are older or of a certain demographic to check for chromosomal disorders such as Down Syndrome or Tay Sachs disease. However, our doctor’s clinic has all women go in to get the counseling which I think is pretty cool, but also makes you a bit nervous.

Anyhow, I don’t have much time to worry because the first draft of my M.A. thesis is due by the end of the month. With the baby on the way, I’m really trying to push and graduate. I don’t want to have to worry about the paper once the baby is born in September, that would suck.