a dream of a pig

A dream of a pig means wealth or luck.

The year 2007 is the "Year of the Pig," but it's not an ordinary pig year, which comes every 12 years, it is the "Year of the Golden Pig," which comes every 600 years, according to fortunetellers.

They say babies born in the golden pig year will have comfortable and wealthy lives.

In line with the myth, signs point to a baby boom. Obstetrics and gynecology clinics are counseling more about pregnancy and related industries are eagerly promoting baby products. Condom sales are down 16 percent and the birth rate is expected to rise by about 10 percent.
--Seoul Times

marketing formula to fetuses

After longtime family friend Mary Brent's most excellent gift of Swimmy by Leo Leoni, the first entity to congratulate me on my pregnancy with a gift for the new baby is... (drum roll) SIMILAC!

Yes, indeed. I am 13 weeks pregnant and I just received a tub of powdered infant formula from the nice folks at Abbott Laboratories.

I guess the stuff might come in handy should I for some reason not be able to breastfeed (a booklet that comes with the formula does remind me that "breastmilk is best"), however! It ddoesn't warn me that if I feed my newborn this stuff, I'll actually inhibit my own milk production, causing me to suddenly NEED more of the powdery product. Good thing they also included a coupon for another tub. Ug.

no sushi?!

Seems like there's no end to what you can't do when you're pregnant.

Seventeen years ago in Italy, they just told me "try not to drink and smoke too much."

This time it's no drinking, no smoking, no sushi, no soft cheese, no green tea, no black tea, (but Good Morning America says I can drink coffee!), no getting a tattoo, no dying my hair, no bleaching it, no sauna, no hot tub, no worrying... I'm sure I've forgotten the most of it.


(12 weeks... and getting rounder by the day)