Poll

Mom informed me of an old wives' tale about heartburn and hair. If you have heartburn during pregnancy, your baby will be born with thick hair. I wrote it off as a myth like almost all other wives' tales, but I stumbled across  this gem:

Pregnancy folklore revisited: the case of heartburn and hair.

Costigan KA, Sipsma HL, DiPietro JA.

Source

Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, Maryland 21287, USA.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Folklore can originate by detection of actual associations between seemingly unrelated events and perpetuated through oral tradition. The objective of this study was to determine whether a common pregnancy belief that women who experience a lot of heartburn give birth to newborns with a lot of hair is accurate.

METHODS:

Sixty-four pregnant women ranked the severity of their degree of heartburn during pregnancy. Independent coders rated newborn hair volume using 2 photographs of the infant's head, taken shortly after birth.

RESULTS:

Most (78%) women reported some degree of heartburn. Symptom severity was unrelated to fetal sex and maternal characteristics including parity, age, or weight. The simple linear relationship between heartburn severity and hair volume was significant r(s)(62) = 0.40, p < 0.001. Categorical analysis by severity score and hair ranking revealed a similar association (chi(2)= 23.93, p < 0.05). Most (23/28) women who reported moderate or severe heartburn gave birth to babies with average or above average amounts of hair, and conversely, most (10/12) women reporting no heartburn had babies with less than average or no hair.

CONCLUSIONS:

Contrary to expectations, it appears that an association between heartburn severity during pregnancy and newborn hair does exist. We propose a shared biologic mechanism involving a dual role of pregnancy hormones in both the relaxation of the lower esophageal sphincter and the modulation of fetal hair growth.

This study was done by Johns Hopkins and it was on Pubmed, so we know it is reliable information. The sample size was small though, so I'm trying to remedy that by polling people who read this blog. In your experience (or the experience of people you know) is this wives' tale true?

If it is, I'm going to give birth to an ape.

Finally!

We finally got new carpet installed! That means no more pink carpet, no more purple carpet, no more being afraid to walk in bare feet, and no more wondering where those ugly stains came from. Brian did an awesome job pulling up all the old carpet, padding and staples. It sure was dirty, especially on the stairs and upstairs. When the underside of the carpet is brown with stains, it makes you wonder what you have been walking on. Now we'll have the satisfaction of knowing that any stains came from us (except that little one the carpet installers left.)

The former pink room

The former purple room

Non-pink baby shorts I got for a dollar. Walmart clothes are pretty cheap anyway, both price and quality wise, but I couldn't help myself. The baby already has way too many clothes.

The stairs

Upstairs in the family room

Living Planet Aquarium

We wanted to do something exciting for a change, so we splurged and went to the aquarium. I must have been feeling rich that day or something, because the admission price was steep. I don't think it was worth the price we paid to get in, but the aquarium was definitely cool. 

There was a special exhibit with river otters, but all they did was sleep in the corner of the tank/cage. 

The best exhibit was the penguin exhibit. They were fast swimmers and they could just sort of pop out of the water on their feet on shore.

Brian's phone couldn't take very many pictures, so this is the only one we got inside the aquarium. Those fish in there are June suckers. If you know the significance of the June sucker, congratulations. If you don't, you probably haven't been to Utah Lake recently.

We learned that bizarre creatures live in the sea. And trout live in Utah.

Glider and pictures

I'm really proud of this. I also packed my sewing machine away when I was done because I sewed myself out. We found a glider at Saver's for $20. It had gross, faded and stained denim pads on it, so I used some fabric I had to recover it. And now it matches the valance I made. I didn't take a before picture, but it looks way better now. It could still use some paint touch ups, but I'm not going to worry about it.

And for your viewing pleasure, here are some slides we've scanned.