free_by_grace's Xanga

The day of my second daughter's birth

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 05:12:12 GMT

This last tuesday night I noticed my wife was having some different breathing patterns while we were sleeping. Around 5:30 she taps me on the shoulder and says, "I think today is the day. The contractions are close." So I spent the next hour jotting down contraction times and we decided that yes, indeed they were at the interval where we needed to call our doctor and start getting ready. So as we were going through that hour I decided to get dressed and start getting ready for the day to start early.

Having not expected Wednesday to be "The" day I hadn't closed out certain tasks for work, so I needed to log in to work as part of this prep and get things communicated so that the show could go on as I started Paternity leave.

We found the "To-do" list that we had put together for delivery and started getting through the details... pack clothes, pack daughter's suitcase, get together the technology pieces we'd take with us (cell phones, chargers, laptop, video camera...) and so on.

So we called the doctor and they agreed that we needed to go ahead and head in for the big day. Oddly enough our (older) daughter slept in relative to what she normally does, but when she came in we had been up for an hour already and dealing with getting things done in between the contractions. No water breaking, but contractions were getting more pronounced. So when daughter finally came in to say good morning we told her, "We think today is the day that little sister is coming." "She is?" "Yes, she is, and you'll get to go to grandma's" It's hard to know for sure if she was more excited to be going to grandma's or having sister come.

So we kept on going through the prep/packing process and calling grandma to know that yes, we were bringing big sister over. I set my "Out of office" and closed out work-related issues... texted my boss to let him know to start the Paternity Leave clock.

We dropped off big sister at grandma's, and we were on our way... through the snow.

Did I mention the snow? The storm had started the evening before, and wife was scheduled for a dr's appointment, so we had gone to McDonald's and fueled up the SUV to make sure we could be as efficient as possible to get to the Dr's safely with the storm. They had predicted 8" to 18" snowfall... in the end it would be over 24"... but not before the morning. In the morning the car had 4" to 6" of snow on it, so I had to take some time to brush off the car and have it ready to go. I think God helped melt some of the snow and loosen it from the car because clean-off went amazingly well.

The roads were somewhat slick and there was several inches of snow in most unpaved places. Colorado street plows do an excellent job, especially on the main thoroughfares. It was after 8:00 a.m. and we were headed to the hospital from the in-laws' house. There were a few starts at corners where the all-wheel-drive SUV fishtailed, but nothing that felt out of control.

At the hospital we entered through the ER, which is the normal protocol when you come for delivering a baby. We hoped there was nobody in there with H1N1... and we were the only people in admitting. I parked the car and we were off to head upstairs to Labor/Delivery. We got settled in about 20-30 minutes after the scheduled appointment my wife had already scheduled.

We settled into our Jacuzzi room (bathroom had a jetted tub) and got hooked up to monitors to see how things were going. Baby's heart rate was great, and contractions were getting a little farther apart (3-4 minutes) than they had been in transit (2-3 minutes). I made sure to be at my wife's side when each contraction was in it's strong phase.

She got a chance to spend time in the hot tub, and that felt really good, but eventually we had to get up and back into the room. We hooked back up to the monitors and continued to watch things progress. As discomfort increased we changed positions and also took advantage of the exercise ball (one that's about the height of a chair). But eventually that got to be too much and we decided it was time for pain management. The nurse called in the epidural and we got the pain under control. Epidurals tend to relax you and make you a little more lax, so my wife lay down for a while and the nurse sent me down to get lunch.

So I went down and got my lunch and returned (Can I say that Odwalla Pumpkin Protein is quite a good drink?) to the room. About 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hours later my wife started complaining about discomfort down south, so we called in the nurse, and things accelerated from there. She felt like she needed to go to the bathroom, and the nurse decided to take a look.... we had gotten to the "time to push stage" in that hour or so of epidural. She called in the delivery staff ASAP, and it was time to get things rolling. Three pushes later our daughter was out... just a matter of minutes since my wife complained of the discomfort. After the head came out they said something about cord around the neck... twice, so they did the first cord-cut to make sure baby would not have it around her neck, and when Dr. cut the cord it splattered the nurse's face, which was a nice comedic moment. I asked about APGAR numbers, and she was 8/9, which is very good for this high of an elevation in mile-high city. Delivery went so fast that they didn't even get the scale in to weigh her until after all the delivery steps were done.

In my own demented way I got out my camera and took baby pictures and took a little video and talked to my little daughter and made sure to grab my wife's hand as she went through the later stages of labor that nobody talks about. The dementia shows itself when I took a photograph of baby's delivered placenta. I have one for both of my daughter's deliveries. It may be gross and odd to most people but I look at those things with such fascination because of how central they are to my daughters' prenatal development. Most fathers would be at least queasy with those parts of the delivery, but I enjoy them.

I got to cut baby's cord closer to the clamp in the traditional ritual, and about five to ten minutes after delivery the nurse finally handed our baby to me and I took her over to meet her mommy. Now it was prime time for me to get those videos and photographs taken and enjoy the time. About 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hour later we finally got to head over to post-partum for the rest of our vacation stay at the Hotel-spital.

I was amazed at how smoothly most of the process went and have to give a lot of that credit to the Maker of the Stars. So many things that went so well I would have to say there must have been some divine influence in how things transpired.

Things have since gone relatively smoothly, and some of the biggest challenge has been with getting older sister used to having a baby sister, and that process will continue.

Be praying that we make it through any residual challenges and that Lord-willing we can avoid H1N1 for at least the near future.

Since I haven't posted in a while

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 02:45:36 GMT

I realized the other day that I haven't written anything in my blog in quite a while... and so I'm feeling a little "abandonment guilt".

Life is going well for us as baby daughter #2 is on her way toward the end of October. Our first just turned 3 recently and is quite a smart li'l girl. She craves daddy's attention when I get home from long workdays, so I do my best to invest my time in being a daddy. My wife is doing well and is staying quite involved in life even through pregnancy.

I sold my Camry a few months back and bought a used but newer Corolla. First experience with a credit union, and it's going well. The car is great, and in the process I have finally found a reputable repair shop. They did the inspection on my old car to assess its repair needs and also did inspection on the replacement car.

I am learning that I crave being on the church worship team. Recently we have gained another bassist and one of our longer-standing bassists has been more available. So with me playing fewer weekends I'm realizing how much I crave being on the team. I'm learning to cheer on the other guys when I have the opportunity to be part of the crowd. It's not about me anyway.

I find myself often wishing for more time to do the things I want to do with my life and struggling to accept that there is a lot of frivolous ways to waste my time and I shouldn't expect the freedom to do "everything". Even with that sometimes the later evenings are lost to Facebook-ing and catching up on TiVo rather than doing chores, reading good books, having time to process and think and pray and...
Perhaps it's the "beginning of wisdom".

What brought you to Xanga? What made you stay?

Sat, 18 Apr 2009 02:45:09 GMT

A friend who no longer uses Xanga (abandoned it for MySp_ce) had a link to this at the bottom of an email. I joined as a result and soon found people I knew distantly with interesting postings, and it quickly became a place I felt quite comfortable blogging. Not social networking, but actually writing down my thoughts and sharing about life.

I have since started using certain social networking sites, but none of them fits well for blogging and sharing thoughts.

Back when I joined Xanga It was less social networking as it is now, and some of the "commercializing" of it has been a disappointment to me. But with that said I'd rather blog here than on some of those other sites.

I just answered this Featured Question; you can answer it too!

Does buying an import car make me un-American?

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 02:22:51 GMT

I just bought a slightly used Toyota and have (apart from my wife's hybrid) consistently bought import cars. I have several friends who own American-made cars and strongly encourage buying American cars.

My observation is that there are a lot of American cars over the years that don't have the reliability or fuel economy of some of the imports available.

For me the reliability and fuel economy are top priorities when I buy a car. I also like the way the imports I have owned drive as well, but is it un-American to buy an import... used... from an American?

33

Wed, 08 Apr 2009 04:08:38 GMT

I'm 33 this year. It's Holy Week. Jesus was my age.

Whoa!

Family news

Sat, 04 Apr 2009 03:30:40 GMT

FYI - this ticker will stay current.

As a child, what was your favorite book? Have you reread that book since your childhood?

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 02:37:04 GMT

My favorite childhood book was "Popcorn". It was a story about a bear whose parents go off to a Halloween party. All of little bear's friends come over and bring popcorn seeds, so they pop popcorn on the stove until the house is overflowing with popcorn. Then they eat their way out of the house and go home stuffed before the parents get home.

Now my favorite childhood book is "Come and See", which is an amazing angle on the Christmas story. I have put a tune to it and hope to get it on paper and also record it some day.

I just answered this Featured Question; you can answer it too!

Picnic in a blizzard

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 02:31:00 GMT

Today we've gotten a lot of snow ... at least 8 inches here. So for dinner we had a picnic... Nachos. My wife heated up chips with cheese on top and had condiments on little plates for the three of us. We all sat in the living room on the floor and had quite an enjoyable quick supper.

Hopefully the snow will stay around long enough to go tobogganing tomorrow late afternoon or Saturday. We have two, so plenty for getting out and having fun on the slopes outside our back door.

Have you taken the dare?

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 02:52:50 GMT

We watched Fireproof a few months back, and now our Sunday School class is going through the Love Dare book.

It's a book that challenges you to learn how to love your spouse more effectively and grow in your own "loving" character in the process. The movie is inspiring in how it fills out the process and illustrates the power of growing in how you love.

Have you taken the dare?

One of the ways I "live"

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 04:11:40 GMT

In a couple weeks I get to play bass for a concert... the trio that I recorded with on the CD released a couple months ago. We have a drummer who is quite young but very rich in talent.

I was watching "The Bucket List" tonight and realized that it is this particular event which is one of the angles to my life that really feels to me like living.

I don't play much apart from worship teams, and this concert is no different. I know a lot of people aspire to be a successful musician with fame and fortune, but those who haven't enjoyed using their talent in worship probably don't get to experience the same joy as what comes in giving your abilities as worship. There just are moments when you can express your wonder, amazement, thankfulness and worship directly to the One who created you.