GTKY Thread for ~pi (Maria) 11/8 to 11/14

[HaveWool~Will Felt]

OK mama!!! Here we go....

Are you married? If so, for how long?

How did you and your dp meet?

Do you have other children? If so, tell us about them!!!


:thumb

[paisley]

What are you studying in school?

[~pi]

Oh, neat! I had no idea I'd be first. Yay for the tilde in front of my SN. :) IRL, I never come first alphabetically.

Are you married? If so, for how long?

I am married; we've been married for a year and a bit now. And here's a cool piece of information: we flipped at the ceremony to see whose last name we would both take, and I won! He took my last name and we both took his last name as a middle name.

How did you and your dp meet?

We met at a very appropriately named "pick up game" of ultimate frisbee. We both played very competitively (Nationals level) for a little while and are taking some time off now to (a) grow a babe and (b) have some time for other things. It's a very time-consuming sport at the competitive level.

Do you have other children? If so, tell us about them!!!

No other children; this is #1.

[~pi]

What are you studying in school?

I'm studying Human Factors, which is an obscure little branch of Industrial Engineering. It has to do with the relationship between humans and technology. It incorporates engineering, psychology, cognitive science, and statistics.

I am specifically looking at Human-Computer Interaction in the context of chronic illnesses. Things that I look at include health information-seeking on the Web, health decision-making as a function of online information-provision, etc.

It means that I straddle the worlds of engineering and medicine, which makes for some interesting situations. My undergrad was a double major in math & engineering.

[mimi_n_tre]

How long have you been going to school for?

[~pi]

How long have you been going to school for?

Forever? :lol

Seriously, I started my Master's 2.5 years ago and fast-tracked to a PhD a year ago.

[PancakeGoddess]

Do you have siblings? older or younger? are you close? Do you live near your parents and/or your spouse's parents?

[jinkel]

Okay, I LOVE the last name thing. LOVE it!

So, do you two have any pets?

[Mama2ABCD]

if you could get away for a weekend, where would you go?

what is your favorite time of year?

[~pi]

Do you have siblings? older or younger? are you close?

I have one younger sister and we are very close. She is the only person IRL (outside of DH and my medical team) whom I have told about this pregnancy. She and I have a bad habit of living in the same place for a while, getting really used to having each other close by and then moving far away. I’ve taken off to live in the Bahamas and Bolivia, she’s gone to live in the Netherlands and New Zealand. She is now in Switzerland and I miss her a lot!

Do you live near your parents and/or your spouse's parents?

FIL – 45 minutes away. He still lives on the communal farm where DH grew up.
my mom – 1.5 hours away. She lives on a lake in cottage country.
MIL and SFIL – 6 hours away. They live up north on 70 acres bordering two rivers and a provincial park.
my dad – a 4 hour plane ride away. He used to live in Norway, then he was in Yellowknife (several hundred km east of Alaska) until he retired; now he lives near Banff.

Okay, I LOVE the last name thing. LOVE it!

Thanks. :) I love it, too.

So, do you two have any pets?

No pets. We figured we would practice with kids first. :lol

if you could get away for a weekend, where would you go?

Right now, I would go backcountry canoeing one last time before I’m too big to portage a canoe. :wink

what is your favorite time of year?

Whatever time we’re currently in.

[HaveWool~Will Felt]

Maria,
You are amazing!!!! Thank you thus far for answering all these great questions.

:love

[~pi]

:shy Thanks, Jackie.

Thank you thus far for answering all these great questions.
No need for thanks; these are super fun questions to answer! :)

[Mama2ABCD]

What general area do you live in Canada?


What PP does your in-laws next to?

And if i told you i love listening to the McKenzie Brothers every so often (i've got a cd), would you be offended as you think they are a poor represenation of Canadians, or would you laugh because you think they are funny too?

[lotus.blossom]

Maria, you seem like a very smart and driven person.

Do you have any guilty pleasures?

[sewaneecook]

What is the most random/spur-of-the-moment thing you've done?

[~pi]

What general area do you live in Canada?

I live in Toronto. I was not sure about the city when I first moved here. I grew up Saskatchewan, which is north of North Dakota, so it was quite a change! I doubt we'll be here forever, but I love all that the city has to offer. In terms of starting a family, it's pretty great. Toronto Public Health does cool things like run bfing and GD campaigns, organizes parent groups, will send a public health nurse out to your home after birth to check how bfing is going, etc.

What PP does your in-laws next to?

Sorry, if I told you that I would lose all anonymity! I will tell you some interesting things about their place instead. They bought their place from a Buddhist couple who used it as a weekend retreat. It was a 22' x 22' cabin with no running water. They lived with that for a year and a half. They showered and did their laundry at the park or at friends' houses and had a very nice outhouse nestled in the woods. Last year, they expanded the place to 22' x 44' and added a flush toilet. It was a very luxurious winter visit when they finally had indoor plumbing!

And if i told you i love listening to the McKenzie Brothers every so often (i've got a cd), would you be offended as you think they are a poor represenation of Canadians, or would you laugh because you think they are funny too?

:lol All of the above. And I would recommend The Vinyl Cafe as another set of Canadian comedy CDs to check out.

Maria, you seem like a very smart and driven person.

Thanks. I never feel like I'm driven enough, but I am told that is common for grad students and academics, so I had might as well get used to it!

Do you have any guilty pleasures?

Absolutely! A few of them are:

(1) Spending too much time on the Internet rather than working.

(2) Reality television shows. I lived for years without a TV and now that I have one again, I can't get enough of ridiculous, trashy shows like Survivor, The Apprentice and America's Next Top Model. DH refuses to watch them with me, which moderates my viewing a little, at least.

(3) Cheesy dance music. I have a standing desk at home and you will often find me with my headphones on, bopping along to bad, bad pop music. (We're talking bad. Yesterday I was dancing to S Club 7.)

What is the most random/spur-of-the-moment thing you've done?

Gosh. I'm not very spontaneous in general. I think being diabetic takes away from that a lot. I always have to make sure I have my test kit, glucose tabs/food, backup pump supplies, etc. with me and I plan my basal insulin according to my daily activities.

I guess I would say quitting my job and leaving to go hiking for six weeks in New Zealand with my sister, not knowing whether I would have to sell my house to pay for it upon my return. The trip was planned in advance, but it was based on the idea that I could get a leave of absence from work. They wouldn't give it to me because I had only been there three years, but I decided to leave anyway and deal with the repercussions when I got home. It was a great trip and completely worth it. I got home three days before my birthday; on my birthday, DH proposed and I was offered a fellowship that meant that I could afford to start grad school full time without selling the house. Best birthday ever. :D

[HaveWool~Will Felt]

You are so interesting to get to know!!! :thumb

[ma_Donna]

With your description of having to have so many things in order for your diabetes, being a Mom will be a breeze!

At my 6 week post partum checkup I forgot the diaper bag. The midwives wanted to get his weight (just for fun and to check out all his little babiness), he was wet. Good think I had him in a cloth diaper with a cover, they improvised and put a newborn sposie diaper (which he was too big for) inside the cover and he was good to go.

That's just the first time I forgot to bring stuff for him!

[homemademomma]

what are your birth plans for this baby?

[~pi]

what are your birth plans for this baby?

I'm still not 100% sure. I posted here about how heartbroken I was that the midwife practices I contacted refused me flat-out. According to provincial midwife policies, I am an automatic transfer patient because I have type 1 (juvenile/autoimmune) diabetes and therefore I automatically use insulin.

Through MDC, I actually found a midwife whose practice has worked with type 1 diabetics before. :rocks I met with her yesterday, and am very much leaning towards working with her and her practice. They handle "high risk" patients like me by partnering with an OB at a nearby hospital. The OB would be the primary care provider, but they would work together and share my care. I will also be working with my endocrinologist, CDE and nutritionist on all the diabetic stuff.

I love the idea of having a midwife involved. If I weren't high risk I would be planning a homebirth, so having someone who understands that viewpoint would be a big plus for me in making the hospital birth as homelike as possible. I also love that midwives provide pp care and bfing support.

The only real downside to that setup is that it is very far to go to for appointments. It will mean that appointments are a full half-day's outing, and that's providing that our car continues to run through the winter. If I were seen at one of the hospitals/practices near my house or my lab, it would be an hour max. I live in the east end of town and I bike 20 minutes west to my lab, which is literally minutes from 7 teaching hospitals. I work and take classes at some of those hospitals, so I'm there all the time anyway and it feels kind of counterintuitive to be thinking about having frequent, regular appointments 40 minutes by car east of my house. Because of my disease, I often have medical appointments, and I have never before had a one I couldn't walk to. If I knew for sure that our car would make it through the winter, I would just suck it up, but having to take public transit out for an appointment (and to deliver!) would turn it into a huge trek, so it is giving me a little pause.

So that's the novel about my plans for the care providers. :lol

As for other aspects of birth, I'm planning a NCB. In addition to concerns about risks to the babe, I have never responded well to painkillers or anesthetic. I start throwing up and/or my blood sugar goes crazy. The former may happen anyway in labour, but I really want to avoid the latter.

And I wish that I were less childish than this, but I also want to have a NCB because both my MIL and my mom had them. My mom, in fact, birthed my 11lb+ sister in a 2-1/2 hour NCB. So I've got a little family pride on the line, too. :wink

I'm not sure what type of approach to NCB we're going to take yet, I still need to talk to DH and do more research about that.

[Mama2ABCD]

besides school, what project/projects are you working on?

[~pi]

besides school, what project/projects are you working on?

I am making a quilt (log cabin) for my MIL and SFIL for Christmas, getting our holiday DVD ready (we send a short DVD in place of a letter), finishing the curtains that match the new colours we painted this summer and working to finish all my outstanding photo/video projects -- of which there are several -- before the babe arrives. I'm also finishing writing up a study for an organization in Bolivia.

I also plan to make a quilt (iris appliqué) for my sister and her DH. That was my original plan for their wedding gift until they asked me to do their video as their gift instead. Then her DH had so much fun making the slideshow they showed at the wedding that he decided that he wanted to learn about video editing and do the video himself, so now I am back to the quilt idea.

I love projects, but I have a bad habit of taking on new ones before I have the old ones finished. The major life change is providing great incentive to get all those 90% done projects completed.

[ilovemyavery]

If you had one wish, what would it be?

[paisley]

Through MDC, I actually found a midwife whose practice has worked with type 1 diabetics before. :rocks I met with her yesterday, and am very much leaning towards working with her and her practice. They handle "high risk" patients like me by partnering with an OB at a nearby hospital. The OB would be the primary care provider, but they would work together and share my care. I will also be working with my endocrinologist, CDE and nutritionist on all the diabetic stuff.



Yea!!! I'm so excited that you found a mw! :love Bummer about the long drive, but I hope it proves to be well worth the extra effort.

[Miss Juice]

Do you have any guilty pleasures?

(2) Reality television shows. I lived for years without a TV and now that I have one again, I can't get enough of ridiculous, trashy shows like Survivor, The Apprentice and America's Next Top Model. DH refuses to watch them with me, which moderates my viewing a little, at least.



MMM....Survivor. I could live without a television if not for my addiction to Survivor. I've never gotten into any of the others (probably because I just don't have the time) but I do love that show. Except for some reason this season seems a little weak on the scheming...oh well I love it anyway.

[~pi]

If you had one wish, what would it be?

It would be for everyone to be secure in themselves. Of all the things I can think of, that's the one that I think would have the best global impact. I think people would share better, be less aggressive, be kinder to others, etc. if they felt 100% confident about their own self-worth.

Jen, thanks!

Jessica, I'm with you. :wink

[HaveWool~Will Felt]

Thank you Maria for doing this GTKY thread. It has been a pleasure getting to know you!!!! Thank you to everyone who participated!!!

:love