Watched Sarah's belly vibrate today. It looked like when you throw a stone into a still pond, and the splash ripples out to the edges...

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Watched Sarah's belly vibrate today. It looked like when you throw a stone into a still pond, and the splash ripples out to the edges...

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Watched Sarah's belly vibrate today. It looked like when you throw a stone into a still pond, and the splash ripples out to the edges...

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Ad Categories: City Life

Week 37: Bare-Assed and Pregnant

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I’ve spent much of my life avoiding women who appear to be pregnant, because they scared the hell out of me. What if I said the wrong thing? I had nothing to offer them, conversation-wise, beyond “So, what’s it like being pregnant?” Now everything is different. Today at the gym I asked the pregnant woman on the cross-trainer next to mine how she gets her recommended daily calcium intake.

Watched Sarah’s belly vibrate today. It looked like when you throw a stone into a still pond, and the splash ripples out to the edges…

Snow Day

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In honor of school closings all across the area today, a babysitting suggestion from the brilliant Saverio Truglia (flickr alias: The Dark Slide). According to Truglia, the Ace Hardware brand of duct tape works best for all of your child-rearing and furniture-building needs…

Week 37: Ten True Things I Wouldn’t Have Believed a Year Ago

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1. By the last trimester, a pregnant woman’s breasts may leak a few drops of colostrum (practice milk). It’s thick and yellow and has the consistency of wood glue.

2. Sometimes a drop or two of blood leaks out. Blood.

3. During pregnancy, the average woman’s uterus expands up to five hundred times its normal size…

Bowing Out

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With news that John Edwards will drop out of the presidential race today, we present this somewhat prophetic shot by Flickr user Mona T. Brooks (alias: mona, eh) at the YearlyKos convention in Chicago this past summer. Alone backstage, away from the bright lights and TV cameras, Edwards displays a look of pensive uncertainty.

The photo was to be part of our “Net Pix” feature in the February 2008 issue, but it got away from us…

Week 36: Puerto Rico, You Lovely Island…

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Our condo in Fajardo, a town on the country’s breathtaking northeastern coast, was lovely. We had a panoramic view of the ocean and palm trees—and our airy apartment had everything we needed. When the toilet became a little volatile one afternoon, Isaac decided to buy a plunger, and when he came home, he realized we already had one. Two plungers: now that’s the lap of luxury.

I was left alone to babysit Lillian one day. We had masses of toys at our disposal, but for two hours, she was interested mainly in three things: a book called Huggy Buggy, a tin that once held a deck of Seinfeld playing cards, and my facial hair, all of which she endlessly studied and put in her mouth…

Happy Monday

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Nothing chirps “top o’ the morning to you” like a giant sinkhole on a major North Side street.

Workers today will finish pouring the concrete to fill the giant crater left by the water main break on Montrose and Honore last Tuesday. The sidewalk is expected to open tomorrow and the street on Thursday, according to Chicago Water Department spokesman Tom LaPorte.

We thought we’d share with you some oddly beautiful photos of the mess. Kudos to Flickr users c.hiltz and absenter for capturing the collapsed street in…

The Chicago Slushie

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Who isn’t sick of winter already?

This photo by Matt Maldre (Flickr alias: spudart) stood out among the hundreds of Chicago winter scenes I perused to find a visual representation of my mood while de-thawing from the morning commute. I could have easily shared with you an artsy shot of the frozen river or a beautifully lit skyline shown through winter fog. But this photo said so much more about my current attitude toward winter in Chicago: dark, yucky, and yet still beautiful. Maldre describes it well: “a cast of characters huddling together in the urban coldness.”

Week 36: Flight or Fight?

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Several airlines refuse to allow a woman on board if she is more than 36 weeks pregnant. What do they do, measure the fetus at the gate? I assume this policy exists because airlines fear for the safety of a lavatory delivery at 20,000 feet. Nope. It stems from the high cost of diverting a plane for an emergency landing. Ah, the friendly skies of United. We got in just under the wire on our flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was Sarah’s family vacation, and my traveling companions were an older man, a pregnant woman, a 9-month old baby, and a mother and father obsessed with the 9-month-old baby. The most reliable member of the crew was the baby…

The One That Got Away

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All too often, I spend what seems like hundreds of hours looking at photos that never make it into the magazine for one reason or another. I fall in love with an image only to find it on the cutting-room floor when it comes to print time, and my heart breaks over and over again. Welcome to Snap, therapy for my heart and a way to share the ones that got away—as well a bunch of other great photo-related stuff.

The February 2008 issue of the magazine includes a feature showcasing 13 great photos I culled from Flickr…

Week 35: Guilt, Misogyny, and Vaginas

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Why the hate? That’s what I want to know. Misogyny is alive and well and living in male-oriented books about pregnancy. Take a look at these excerpts:

•”There are many reasons to resent your wife when she’s pregnant.”
•”[Y]our wife should be treated like any other savage creature ready to attack.”
•”Instead of acting like a temptress, she’ll act more like a toddler. Once you start thinking of your wife as a baby, not a broad, you’ll notice other similarities as well.”
•”[T]hink of pregnancy as a nine-month stint at a prisoner-of-war camp . . .”
•”Sure, living with a pregnant woman can’t kill you, but it sure can take the fun out of living.”

Boy. No wonder so many men bail out just after they’ve pulled out…