Jinjer 40: Still Waiting for the Baby

[NachosFlandersStyle]

13 hours ago, QuiverDance said:

While catholic schools perhaps were not set up for segregation, I can assure you that where I grew up, in South Louisiana, they are de facto segregation academies. The area is predominantly Catholic. White Catholic (and some Protestant) parents send their children to Catholic schools precisely because so few black students attend. 

I think this is true in many places, even if the institutions themselves aren't trying to operate that way. Full disclosure: my mother teaches at a catholic school, but I transferred to a public school in order to take advantage of a specialized academic program when I was in high school. We have had so many fights about it, then and since. And at one point I told her, it's not just about the program, I also enjoy taking classes with a large and diverse group of people, not just the little bubble of lily-white upper-middle-class suburbanites who were always up in my business 24/7 at the parochial school. And she was absolutely mortified, like "what do you mean, lily-white? I have THREE black students in my homeroom this year!" She really thought the school was doing a great job diversifying, but going from one to the other, the difference was so stark.

And that was in a city with far less racial strife than where I live now. Here, in a northern city with a large and embattled black community, it's so overt. Catholic schools are huge here and white folks don't try to hide why. You can pay well upwards of 10k/ year for schools that, anecdotally, may not be anything special academically-- all because "I would never want my kid going to school in *this kind* of neighborhood." And I'm sure that many of those schools are staffed by progressive Jesuits and guitar-playing nuns who would hate to think that that's what's going on, but that's just how it is.

[Gillyweed]

I grew up in an extremely diverse area, with a high school that represented that. I definitely did not appreciate it until I got to college, and so many kids were saying "this is so much more diverse than my high school!" whereas it was less diverse than mine.  If I ever have kids I hope their school is as diverse as mine was. 

[ElToro]

21 hours ago, Jinder Roles said:

Wow, Christian schools are so different in the US than in the (English-speaking) Caribbean.....

...In Jamaica specifically, many of these high schools are all-girls or all- boys. 

And Jamaican schools are STRICT! My bro-in-law went to one (having been previously in the UK) and never got over it!!

When I was there (a while back), it shocked me to see how militaristic the school uniform is for boys.... (and it had better be clean or else...!!)

[justoneoftwo]

Like most things, I think the school issue is really regional.  When I was little I went to an Episcopalian school because it was more diverse both religiously and racially.  The school has since become independent, but that was a thing.  

We are looking at schools now, and again the private options are more diverse.  I will also say people's opinions on religious schools can very widely.  I tend to think that some are great for education and the religion is a side issue, my headship says no way will he send our kid to a religious school, as religion and education should not mix. . . 

[tabitha2]

Depending on the number of children and the spacing of them I see Jinger and perhaps Joy HS till maybe first or second grade then packing them off to a very Conservative Christian school. They don’t seem school ma’am types at all. Jessa was the headmistress of the Dining table academy and was good at it, liked it so I can see her HS the whole way. Anna as well.Jill will HS  because she is stubborn and thinks she can for better or worse. No idea about Kendra or Lauren yet.

[finnlassie]

I'm leaning towards putting my children into a christian school, but that'll only happen if there's one available. They have to teach the exact same curriculum as rest of the Finnish public schools, and the religious aspect really only comes out with evangelic lutheran religion classes being denominational, daily prayers and in different Christian holidays (hymns, nativity is present, etc). The schools usually just run from 1st to 6th or 1st to 9th grade, so their second level education (upper secondary or vocational school) will be non-denominational.

Though, I've heard some schools condemn evolution as a whole and teach creationism instead... I do lean on intelligent design, but I'm gonna be absolutely horrified if evolution is not going to be taught in a proper manner. AFAIK those schools have gotten a fuckton of backlash from the board of education as well as a lot of parents, which is good.

But eh, if there's no christian school near, I'm not gonna go out my way to transport my kid every day for an hour somewhere, the public system's good. Ain't nobody got time for that lol. Or if the school does crap on teaching evolution, I'm not gonna put my children there...

[Glasgowghirl]

The two Catholic schools I went to, primary and high, had both pupils and teachers from non Catholic high schools. My high school had a few gay teachers and also teachers who were single parents or divorced. The only difference between my Catholic high school and a non denomational high school was one extra RE lesson per week and the odd Mass. 

Their is some controversy surrounding faith schools here in Scotland but in my experience I don't feel it was a cause of the sectarian problem in Glasgow, my school and non denomational schools in the same area mixed and in the final year pupils went to other schools to certain subjects if the high school they went to didn’t offer it. Other people may have different experiences but mine was mostly positive, I do believe that kids need to interact with others from different backgrounds, in school and outside school. Most of the bigotry here starts in the home. A priest last week was attacked in Glasgow, he was assisting parishioners after mass, when the orange walk passed the church, he was hit with a batton and verbally abused. 

 

[finnlassie]

@Glasgowghirl I used to study Primary Ed in Strathy for a couple of years, and it was always interesting when the debates went to Catholic vs non denominational schools. Some had horrendous experiences from certain Glasgow area catholic schools, some did not. IIRC most Primary Ed students from Catholic schools went to Glasgow uni tho.

Related, a kid in my first placement school asked if I support Rangers or Celtic - something we were often warned about. Being Finnish I was lucky, as I just said "nah, I'm Finnish so I just follow ice hockey".

 

My friend woke up to the Orange walk last week and was rightfully pissed off. Fucking hate that  And I don't miss them AT ALL. I used to live at the Strathy campus and on one of the old tenements on High st, so it was a rather prominent thing that you just couldn't escape. We had a meet up at a pub for this RPG forum and as we had the meeting, a bunch of walkers came to the pub after the march .... we were in a reserved space at the back of the place, but going for a meal was really unnerving.

[VelociRapture]

“Any day now we will be holding our little Rufus Take the Wheel Vuolo in our arms!”

I made it better. 

[Dandruff]

I suspect this will not be a small baby.

[Rachel333]

I thought she was in a hospital gown at first!

[RavenclawPajamas]

I went to a Jewish school for K-4.  We had a half-hour prayer service every morning, led by kids.  Half the day was Jewish studies (Hebrew, Jewish History, Torah, prayer) and half was general studies (we called it "English" but it was Social Studies (history), Language Arts (English), Science, and Math).  The two weren't really mixed together, and in fact several of the general studies teachers weren't Jewish.  The Jewish studies teachers were all secular Israelis which in retrospect is pretty amusing because they were the ones in charge of teaching most of the religious content.  I wonder how they felt about that. 

I don't know what happened in terms of sex ed because I left after fourth grade.  They'd taught us about puberty though.  I don't imagine they would have censored sex ed due to religious reasons.  Actually, even in public school, while they taught us about contraception and STDs, they taught us very little about sex itself.

There was a ton of non-academic Jewish stuff too -- we got days off for all of the Jewish holidays where you're not allowed to work (which is... a lot), had a Chanukah show where each class did a performance, had a Field Day on a a minor holiday called Lag BaOmer where it's traditional to do outdoorsy/celebration-y type things, and fed us kosher food.  In the younger years they encouraged us to wear white on Fridays because it's traditional to wear white for Shabbat.  They also had a mini Shabbat service on Friday afternoons at the end of the day, and they did early release on some Fridays.

[Cheetah]

25 minutes ago, Rachel333 said:

I thought she was in a hospital gown at first!

There was a pic of the two of them the other day with her in this dress that got a lot of comments both positive and negative, but I thought the same as you... or more, I thought that someone took scrub fabric and made a more stylish hospital gown that you could wear out to dinner, to Target, and then to your labor.  

[Set Free]

46 minutes ago, Rachel333 said:

I thought she was in a hospital gown at first!

She probably wishes she was in a hospital gown!  That is if she decides against a home birth. This last stage of pregnancy is showing in her face;  she is truly 'great with child.'  Praying a safe delivery for Jinger and their baby girl.  Edited to add: Maybe this dress is the only one that fits now! 

[meowfundiecatz]

Does anyone know where her dress is from? I know Jeremy got his dress shirt for their gender reveal at Brooks Brothers per their instagram, but I haven't been able to find that dress. I'm not sure if it is Brooks Brothers or a different brand.

[SadieJane]

That shirt would be so much better with a 3 quarter sleeve rolled up and a belt above the belly, but fuck if she isn't rocking it out.  She looks super comfy. I'm a little jealous. Also that dress needs a collar. I think in my last life I was a maternity fashion designer.

[Shadoewolf]

42 minutes ago, Set Free said:

She probably wishes she was in a hospital gown!  That is if she decides against a home birth. SNIP

I'm calling no on a homebirth. I found this ultra Godly birth center right in Laredo that has their own free standing birth facilities with all the bells and whistles. I'm thinking it's gonna be there. Good thing is they have licensed CNM's with MSN degrees and licensed RN's on staff. And they claim their c-section rate is only 3%.

On a side note, her dress does look like a designer hospital gown but so long if she's comfortable then more power to her!

[HarleyQuinn]

I'm still betting hospital with an epidural. 

[SapphireSlytherin]

2 hours ago, VelociRapture said:

“Any day now we will be holding our little Rufus Take the Wheel Vuolo in our arms!”

I made it better. 

I was bigger than that when I had GryffindorDisappointment, and my daughter weighed 7 lbs, 3 oz. 

Jinger, like me, appeared to be slightly "underweight" (in quotes because I'm NOT body-shaming) prior to getting pregnant, and appears to have gained more than 15-20 pounds during this pregnancy (NOT BODY-SHAMING - just observing, based on her face shape and her arms). The weight she appears to have gained may be mostly Jinger, with the baby still remaining on the smaller side.

I'm still calling a small baby for her, and would be surprised if the child weighs more than 8.5 pounds. I think my guess was under 7 pounds, and that wouldn't surprise me at all.

[ViolaSebastian]

1 hour ago, Rachel333 said:

I thought she was in a hospital gown at first!

In Texas, in July, in the ninth month--I'm impressed she's wearing clothes at all. Lord knows I'd just be in a bathtub full of ice until my water broke. 

[Set Free]

23 minutes ago, Shadoewolf said:

I'm calling no on a homebirth.

Agree.  Jinger admits she's 'terrified' of labor and delivery which doesn't make her a good candidate for a homebirth.  Also, I can't see Jeremy agreeing to a HB considering this is her first baby, and given the experience of her sisters, for starters. I call the birth center mentioned above with an epidural. Hope I'm right.

[just_ordinary]

57 minutes ago, SapphireSlytherin said:

I was bigger than that when I had GryffindorDisappointment, and my daughter weighed 7 lbs, 3 oz. 

Jinger, like me, appeared to be slightly "underweight" (in quotes because I'm NOT body-shaming) prior to getting pregnant, and appears to have gained more than 15-20 pounds during this pregnancy (NOT BODY-SHAMING - just observing, based on her face shape and her arms). The weight she appears to have gained may be mostly Jinger, with the baby still remaining on the smaller side.

I'm still calling a small baby for her, and would be surprised if the child weighs more than 8.5 pounds. I think my guess was under 7 pounds, and that wouldn't surprise me at all.

Another possibility is that all the weight she has put on sits in her bump. Which seems to go out in the front a lot. Her arms are still rather slim for example. She looks big from slightly or full side angles but not so much from full frontal in my opinion.

Something I learned from Social Media (and friends as I am now in this “season of life”) is how big a baby bump really gets in the end. I obviously notice it more but you just don’t see many pregnant women after 34 weeks as they are at home at this point. My explanation is that they do the shopping and stuff when the rest of the people are at work and rest more in afternoon and evening so you just don’t encounter them a lot. I was truly shocked when I realised how big 90% get.

[SapphireSlytherin]

At home after 34 weeks?? What in the world?!

This isn't the 1940s when pregnant women were hidden away! Lol

[Sky with diamonds]

My prediction of the baby being born this past weekend was wrong.

I really hope for a safe delivery. And a hospital one at that. 

[NakedKnees]

I love that she seems to be cool and comfy. Also, Jeremy looks tired AF in that Instagram picture. It's sort of edifying to see him off his game, haha.

I'm guessing baby will be at least 8 lbs and she will not be attempting a home birth.