|  |
|
| |
By: Da Sissop
Date: 12/25/98 8:18:07 AM
# Replies: 36
Something I was curious about... I heard on the radio a story about those octuplets, and the smallest was described as being "small enough to fit in the palm of your hand."
My first thought was, was that an open hand or a closed hand? I was having trouble visualizing the smallness. I could kinda see a doctor holding the little octuplet in his palm, with another doctor nearby saying "Now see if you can close your hand!"
My second thought was, what other examples could the announcer have used to *better* convey the smallness of the smallest octuplet? Small enough to fit in your mouth? Up your nose? Small enough to fit in your wallet?
Response #1
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 12/25/98 4:28:08 PM
What about people with big hands? How will THEY understand the truly astonishing smallness of the itty bitty baby?
On the other hand.... (chortle) It always makes me sad to hear about babies in incubators. I was a preemie, and a blue baby to boot. They put me in one of those incubators, and there was no carpeting, no television, no video games... How is a baby supposed to grow up to be a healthy member of modern society without complete overstimulation from day one?
Response #2
By: rorschach
Date: 12/25/98 4:58:22 PM
well, consider this for a moment, the smallest was approximately 11 oz if I recall. imagine how large 11 oz of flesh would be. thats pretty damned small....
Response #3
By: sooz
Date: 12/25/98 5:09:39 PM
One hospital spokesperson compared the wee one to "about the size of a beanie baby." That might help the visualization process. Where's Sharky?
Response #4
By: Seventh of Seven
Date: 12/26/98 12:26:33 AM
what really gets me about this is, why did those septuplets get so much media coverage, while this octuplet story didn't make the newspapers until the kids were actually born?
Response #5
By: sooz
Date: 12/26/98 12:20:56 PM
The McWhatcha's with the septuplets did interviews and whatnot during the pregnancy, readying the world for the arrival of the septuplets.
The Houstonian Octoparents did the opposite, preferring to stay private during the pregnancy. It was only 2 days ago that the father showed up for a press conference. Maybe they just like privacy, or maybe he didn't feel like answering those pesky questions about the assault charges his mother-in-law filed against him.
At any rate, the Houstonians say their domestic troubles are in the past, and thanks so much for the prayers and gifts and positive thought waves, but they'd still like some privacy,please.
Response #6
By: Da Sissop
Date: 12/26/98 12:36:21 PM
Not until we figure out exactly how many of those babies we can fit into a coffee can.
Response #7
By: Seventh of Seven
Date: 12/26/98 12:45:56 PM
what's grosser than eight babies in three coffee cans?
Response #8
By: Gowan McGland
Date: 12/26/98 10:12:50 PM
Oh, yeah, and please send cash.
Response #9
By: sooz
Date: 12/27/98 11:12:55 AM
See there? You people made fun of those folks and now one of the babies has died. SEE WHAT YOU DID!!??!!11!?? YOU"LL BURN IN HE11!!!!!!!!!
Response #10
By: Da Sissop
Date: 12/27/98 11:32:20 AM
Yeah... I heard the news this morning and winced. I'll stop making fun of 'em for a little while now until they're all stronger.
Response #11
By: The Sorcerer
Date: 12/27/98 8:06:14 PM
Geez Jim, pick on somebody your own size!
Sorc'(Rev)
P.S. I wonder what Tess thinks about this?
Response #12
By: sooz
Date: 12/28/98 4:38:16 PM
I was joking about the hell part, honest.
Response #13
By: Seventh of Seven
Date: 12/30/98 7:38:28 AM
if we pretend they were chihuahuas, we can still make fun of them.
how many chihuahuas can you fit in a pringles can?
Response #14
By: Da Sissop
Date: 1/2/99 10:21:52 AM
Once you pop, you can't stop!
Response #15
By: Tess Trueheart
Date: 1/10/99 9:04:26 AM
I think it is natures way of telling people to stop breeding like dogs. A woman is not meant to carry 6 or 8 babies. It's an unfair start in life for the children since they are not carried to term, their tiny bodies not fully developed, unable to substain life on their own, more at risk to illness and disease. The media maddness that surrounds these cases incourages others to try and beat the current record. I feel sorry for the children. But this is America, where we have the right to bare arms and the right to arm bears. Just one Woman's opinion..
Response #16
By: sooz
Date: 1/10/99 11:10:31 AM
The multiple birth thing happens in all countries that have "modern medicine."
I'm pretty certain that the Houston couple didn't set out to have 8 babies. For those of us that are trying to have children without much success, fertility medication can be a godsend. When the "low dose" stuff doesn't work, it makes sense to try something a little stronger. These medications are given out under close supervision of physicians... you don't buy 'em at Wal Mart. But human bodies don't always act like we suspect, and the Houston woman produced 8 eggs instead of one that month, and her husband apparently had 8 strong swimmers to match. I commend them for dealing with the results and not aborting random babies while keeping others.
Before tossing stones at parents of multiple births, try to look at it from their point of view. They took the same medicine a lot of other folks did that produced one baby. What SHOULD they have done when 8 little spermies met up with 8 little eggies?
Response #17
By: Seventh of Seven
Date: 1/10/99 11:31:39 AM
or adoption is a good way of having kids and not contributing to that pesky overpopulation problem. lots of russian orphans needing families, you know.
Response #18
By: sooz
Date: 1/10/99 5:03:41 PM
Sure, if you're not already in your mid-30's and don't mind waiting on a list for several years, and provided you have a lot of extra money (on top of what it costs to raise a child) to blow on attorney fees.
Those who adopt are quite noble. It's a good consideration for all involved. On the other hand, should it be illegal for one to pursue the medical possibilities of having ones own biological children?
Response #19
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 1/11/99 5:16:27 AM
Who said it should be illegal? (Besides the Chinese government, of course.)
So you spend a few years waiting for the baby, either waiting for the social and political red tape of adoption or trying to find the right fertility drug. You spend a bunch on lawyers or you spend a bunch on doctors and meds.
I think it's good to want kids, but I also think that it's good to consider that there are already more people than there need to be.
Response #20
By: Tess Trueheart
Date: 1/11/99 5:50:06 AM
Sooz.. I didn't throw stones at mulitple birth couples, I said a womans body is not made to carry 6-8 children and it's not good for the children. Would it be better to abort some of the eggs and have two or three full term babies who have a stronger start in life..or have several premature children and watch some of them die after you have witnessed that life? Once again, this is just one womans opinion.
Response #21
By: Da Sissop
Date: 1/11/99 7:20:47 AM
And is this a matter of the woman popping a pill and BANG she's got eight eggs, or are they actually still fertilizing eggs outside the womb and implanting the results? If the latter is the case, maybe with the improved results of the drugs it's time to start cutting back on the number of eggs they're implanting.
Response #22
By: sooz
Date: 1/11/99 1:04:05 PM
She got injections, and poof, produced 8 eggs.
When the kids are about 20, ask them which of them should have been aborted so that the others could have had a "stronger" start.
Obviously, this is a pretty sensitive topic for me. It occurs to me that those advocating adoption are those that have never experienced the unparalleled joy of being pregnant and giving birth (or participating in one's biological child being born).
Adoption is a wonderful and important thing. We may do that. But if we're able, we'd like to ahve our own. If the medicine produces octopuslets, I'd hope to receive more support than criticism.
Response #23
By: Da Sissop
Date: 1/11/99 6:36:41 PM
If you do have octapuslets, could ya maybe mention the URL to the WebNuns at one of your press conferences?
Response #24
By: sooz
Date: 1/12/99 10:23:38 AM
Well, sure, if you had a COOL URL. This 206.109.172.hell.damn.stuff is just icky. :-)
Response #25
By: The Sorcerer
Date: 1/13/99 7:19:18 AM
Lookout! I'm gonna URL!!
Response #26
By: Tess Trueheart
Date: 1/14/99 5:20:03 AM
What is a URL?
Response #27
By: The Sorcerer
Date: 1/14/99 6:05:44 AM
URL = Uniform Resource Locator
A URL is essentially what they call the "www.hereIam.com" location of a website. Your bookmark list is actually a list of URLs that show your browser how to get back to those websites.
If you notice, when you are on The Nunnery, the Location area near the top of your browser says something like "http://206.109.172.125/cgi-win/webgrun.exe/...". That's because The Nunnery doesn't have a regular URL like www.nunz.com or something, it just has the numeric address of Jim's computer.
Clear as mud? :)
Sorc'(Rev)
Response #28
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 1/15/99 12:36:10 PM
<pedant>
Uh, the numeric one *is* regular. In fact, back in the days before DNS (there *were* days before DNS), 'www.webnuns.org' wouldn't have resolved, cuz there was no such thing as name resolution. Of course, back in those days, the idea for a URL hadn't been codified, so it wouldn't matter, would it?
So what am I saying? Nothing. Nothing at all. Just leave me alone.
</pedant>
Response #29
By: Seventh of Seven
Date: 1/15/99 7:46:37 PM
i'd like to metion that people like those who made the previous comment are the exact same ones who like using things like lynx.
Response #30
By: Homer The Brave
Date: 1/15/99 7:57:29 PM
Lynx rox.
:-)
Response #31
By: Da Sissop
Date: 1/16/99 1:24:36 AM
Well okay, now you can type http://come.to/webnuns in your browser instead of the numbers. Happy? Maybe I'll turn up on search engines now....
Response #32
By: The Sorcerer
Date: 1/16/99 3:51:00 AM
[k0f!]
Response #33
By: Da Sissop
Date: 1/16/99 10:03:13 AM
It was only 18 bucks.
Response #34
By: sooz
Date: 1/16/99 7:16:58 PM
I got the come.to for free. Did you pay so's you didn't have to put their little icon up? i use start.at/texasbands welcome.to/zew travel.to/venues listen.to/richiel listen.to/jacques yes, I'm a come.to customer. Don't pay for any of 'em.
Response #35
By: rorschach
Date: 1/23/99 9:39:31 PM
I gather sooz that you and ritchie are in baby makin mode? cool, and good luck too. becky's been hounding me to consider another too. i think in about 6 months we'll start the festivities as well. don't want the first born and the sibling-to-be-named-later to be too far apart.....
and fang, FYI, they still do both, as well as other processes as well, because the causes of infertility are all over the map so the treatments are varied as well. everything from the "mix it in a test tube and do the turkey baster thing" to actually INJECTING the sperm into the eggs, to taking the nucleus out of the parent's egg, injecting it into a donated egg that has had the nucleus removed then injecting sperm into the newly reconstituted composite egg. to stimulating the woman to generate multiple eggs when there is a problem with adhesion of the the zygote to the endometrium.
Response #36
By: Da Sissop
Date: 1/31/99 9:32:31 PM
To heck with all that fancy science stuff... what the wimmins NEED is just one night with ME.