Laboratory Reproduction

There is something mysteriously fertile about my lab.   In the four years in which I have been in the lab, three babies have been born, and we are not a particularly large lab by many standards.  I do not know the status of one, one was a completely unplanned surprise, and one was a truly sought-after “miracle” baby in which the couple had tried for quite some time for a child and had been discussing adoption as an alternative when they discovered they were pregnant (see? mysterious chemical in the air to aid with fertility!).  On one hand, this ability to magically impregnate anybody could be quite useful as I know I will have quite a difficult time when Husband and I do decide to have children.  On the other hand, having a child by myself while working a bazillion hours a week towards my Ph.D. with a husband living 3 hours away in a residency program sounds less than ideal.  That said, my mother-in-law has so generously offered to move down here to D.C. and live with me to take care of any children we may have, while my husband remains up in Philly.  Hmm, raising a child with my MIL instead of living with my husband?  I think I’ll take my chances and wait for children until AFTER I’m done with graduate school and have moved up to Philadelphia, thankyouvermuch.

That said, last month the lab had a baby shower for the post-doc who most recently gave birth just this week to the newest lab baby, who made his appearance a full month early.  Thankfully, it sounds like both mother and son are doing well, though the wee one has quite a few pounds to gain since he came into the world sooner than expected.  As as become my tradition for everyone I know, I crocheted a baby blanket as a gift for the parents-to-be.

I have to confess that I was a little nervous – in the past, I’ve always gifted blankets to extremely close friends or family members; the kind of individuals who would naturally appreciate something handmade, just because of how close they were to me, regardless of the actual gift itself.  I’ve also always had to mail out the blanket since they’ve always been sent to a friend far away, so I’ve never had to be there to see someone open it and perhaps see the look on their face if they were disappointed with it – this was my first “live reveal”, and in front of quite a number of people to boot, including both the PIs of the lab.  Honestly, a little part of me was wondering if they would think that if I had time to be crocheting blankets, then clearly I wasn’t spending enough time in the lab, and needed to be working harder.

I had nothing to worry about.  The blanket wound up being a huge hit at the shower – in fact, it even inspired my PIs wife to run upstairs and pull out the baby quilts that friends had made for her children and she had hung on to, and she went on and on about how meaningful handmade gifts are and how she would never be able to get rid of them because they were so special since someone made them specifically for her children.  The post-doc loved it, especially since I make my baby blankets super-sized (this one was 4’ by 4’) so it will be big enough for both her and her son to fit under together for years to come in the winter.  The women in attendance all marveled at my craftiness and discussed how their mothers/grandmothers/other relatives knew how to knit or crochet and they wished they knew how, and the men all sympathetically asked if Husband wound up having to spend a lot of time driving me to craft stores (fortunately for him, he doesn’t; I order most of my yarn online).  And as for my PI; well, he didn’t even notice that I made a baby blanket.  He was so busy playing with the son of a former graduate student in the lab that he saw the blanket out of the corner of his eye and thought that I bought it, and missed the 20 minutes of conversation that followed about the fact that I made it.  Apparently, his wife continued to discuss the blanket later that night though, which was when he realized that it was handmade, and the next day in lab he pulled me aside to state that he was so impressed that I have so many hidden talents and am able to lead such a balanced life.  As Husband loves to describe me… jack of all trades, but master of absolutely nothing useful whatsoever.

But now, for the first time in 3 years, I have no friends or family members who are pregnant, so my baby blanket sweat shop has come to a temporary close until I get word from the stork that there will be a delivery on the way.  In the meantime, I guess that means it is time that I get busy making something for the recipients of my crafty giveaway!