In Norwegian, the word hoygravid means “high-pregnant”, or extremely pregnant. I only recently discovered that there’s an official definition of the word: when you have 40 days until your due date, you’re h¯ygravid. Or at least that’s what the word is on the Norwegian pregnancy websites.

pregnancy calendar

So today is the day. I’m h¯ygravid – extremely pregnant. Our baby’s due on April 14, which is just 40 days away. My maternity leave starts on March 24, which, what with Norway’s lovely extensive Easter holidays means that I only have twelve work days left, including today. This is clearly a good thing, as it’s getting harder and harder to concentrate on work. Quite apart from the rather frequent need to nap, my mind seems far more into babies than the web these days – unless the web helps me think about the babies, of course. I’ve been ignoring my RSS feeds lately (very weird for me) and instead reading Barnimagen.no, Babycenter.com and doing numerous googles for topics like “acupuncture in preparation for birth” or “sleep and newborns”.

I think instead of guilt-tripping about the lack of blogging I’ve been doing and my utter disinterest in my RSS feeds I’m going to just succumb to all these mothering hormones and assume that in time, I’ll once again find news about web 2.0, social software, blogging, online narratives and so on intensely interesting.

Until then – well, I’m sorry but I don’t think there’ll be a whole lot of blogging going on here… I should of course have blogged Hanne-Lovise Skartveit’s most excellent defense of her PhD last Friday (congratulations!) and our new exchange and network agreements with Raine Koskimaa and Kimmo Lehtonen’s MA in Digital Culture at the University of Jyv‰skyl‰ in Finland and with Lissa Holloway-Attaway, Maria Engberg and Talan Memmott’s BA in Literature, Media, and Digital Culture at Blekinge Tekniska Hˆgskola in Sweden. I would have blogged that I got the proofs for my Blogging book, too – proofreading that is my last major task before I’m out of here.

I’ll be back from maternity leave in January 2009. And I have no idea how or whether I’ll blog between now and then. We’ll see 🙂

12 thoughts on “høygravid!

  1. Mitsu

    Congratulations and good wishes. Hope to see you blogging again as soon as you feel up to it!

  2. Mitsu

    Congratulations and good wishes. Hope to see you blogging again as soon as you feel up to it!

  3. Siri

    Hi Jill, best of luck with your baby. I have three and the best advise I ever got was from a yupiq in Alaska; think of yourself as a cat – stretch and relax and the contraction can do their work without you fighting them. It is so amazing, how can one have sex, eat bread and drink tea and out comes a complete new person. Love fra Siri

  4. Toril

    I’m so happy for you, Jill, and enjoy your maternity leave!! I’m sure you’ll enjoy it to the fullest 🙂 I hope the baby comes April 14 as I will always remember it then as my one and only niece is born on that day – Emma Louise – and she turns 5 years old!!!! How time flies… Good luck with everything, it’s all a lot easier the second time around 🙂

    I work at the Faculty of Psychology now. I’m the International Coordinator, and I love my job!! I go to work with a big smile on my face every day – nothing is boring – just fun!! Never realized work would be so much fun 😉

  5. William Patrick Wend

    I am sure I speak for many in saying that we will keep a chair unoccupied and warm for you! Best of luck with the child to both you and Scott.

  6. Deena Larsen

    Congrats. MJ and I are sending energy your way…but I’m rooting for exactly April 14– my birthday 🙂

  7. Deena Larsen

    Congrats. MJ and I are sending energy your way…but I’m rooting for exactly April 14– my birthday 🙂

  8. Clancy

    I had no idea you were pregnant, much less that we were so much in tandem. I’m due May 2, so almost h¯ygravid but not quite. I’d love to have your sweet maternity leave deal…

  9. Christina

    Hei,

    f¯rst og fremst: gratulerer! pr¯vde  sende epost til jobbmailen din, men den er p autoreply. Jeg skal ikke mase, men bare si takk.

    jeg fikk jo ikke snakket med deg f¯r du dro. Jeg ville bare si tusen takk for at du er sÂ
    snill og lÂner bort kontoret ditt til meg, det setter jeg kjempe pris pÂ. Mac-en er
    sikker og den blir ikke r¯rt:)

    nok en gang, tusen takk!

    ha en fin dag og lykke til.

    hilsen,

    christina

  10. katla

    Gratulere s mye.

    S forresten at det ikke finnes noen artikkel om h¯ygravid p den norske wikipediaen, men at den var p ¯nskelisten.

  11. Jill Walker Rettberg

    Virkelig? Jeg fÂr kanskje hjelpe til…

  12. Susana

    good luck, dear jill! wish you all the best for the birth and the family! 🙂

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