Merry Christmas

It's 8:30 PM on Christmas Eve and I'm watching It's A Wonderful Life. The Baby is sleeping alone in her room, the little dog is sleeping in her bed and Tom is looking at the funky 300 mile a gallon car on the Internets. There are presents under the tree with the twinkle lights twinkling. Earlier the baby met our neighbor, Tom's friend and bandmate,


Dan.

Then she met Santa.










It is a wonderful life!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I Think We Are In Trouble

The other day I was at the grocery store waiting to check out, when two men came up to stand in line behind me. Elean had been fussy so I was holding her over my shoulder. Right away she started smiling at the two men and they interacted with her. I wondered if she probably thought one of them was her father, just the way Trilli, thinks all men are Tom. Then a couple of days ago I sat with her to watch Tele-tubbies, and by watch I mean she will pay attention to it off and on for about a minuet at a time. Only it wasn't on and Blue's Clues was. I watched as she stared and then smiled at the TV, I looked up and there was Steve's face taking up the whole screen. She loved it! She is on the verge of laughing and so she makes these little sort of gasps and then squeals. She was mesmerized by Steve. So I sat her in one of her chairs. The same chair she doesn't stay in that long anymore, but she sat there and smiled at Steve every time he was on the screen.







A few days later the Colbert Report was on and she starting smiling at Stephen Colbert. I couldn't believe it. It wasn't the same exact response Steve (Blue's Clues) gets but Stephen Colbert doesn't sing and dance.


This baby is a flirt! And she already has a type.

I Hope This Works

Sleep training.

As I mentioned before, Elean is in sleep training. Today is day four. Its 7:19 PM and she is asleep. The reason we are in sleep training is because she is so unpredictable. I guess she's that way because I am so unpredictable and never laid out a solid routine. I'm finding it hard to do much with out it ending in an all out screaming/crying session. I have to take her with me everywhere because I can never seem to find the time to pump some breast milk. So hopefully a regular schedule will help and I will finally be able to do the shopping with out rushing though the grocery store enduring the disapproving stares of people while she screams, or alternatively with her suctioned onto my breast. The only pro about having a screaming baby in a grocery store is people hear you coming and move out of your way.

So as I often do before beginning any new endeavor, I consulted the great google oracle as to how to go about getting her on a sleep schedule, and I found a sleep sense web site that "guaranteed" to get my baby to sleep though the night. It was a program that you purchase on-line for $50.00. I tried to see if it was available in a book format (maybe I could borrow it from my local Library for free), but I wasn't able to find it. This made me very suspicious, because I have purchased other on-line "programs" before, only to be severely disappointed. Like the one that tells you how to make money by doing on-line surveys. All I got from that one was a bunch of junk e-mail. There was another one I once bought that promised to get you organized. I still have the organizational binder shoved on shelf under a stack of recipes and magazines. What can I say I like on-line programs almost as much as I lover infomercials. I am a proud owner of:

a GT-Xpress 101,



I loved this thing! Only now, my counter top space is limited so it is put away and hardly ever used.

a Scunci Steamer,



I loved this thing as well, I use it when ever I don't want to iron clothes.

a set of Smartware bake ware,



This stuff is great (ask my Mom)! I use it when ever I remember I have it.

a Magic pasta maker,



The only one that I don't sing praises for. Once you boil that much water you might as well though the pasta in the pot you used to boil the water.


and a Magic Bullet Blender.



I loved and I mean LOVED my Magic Bullet Blender. I used it at least twice a week and then just before reaching the year mark of ownership the motor died, probably because I kept making chicken salad the consistency of Spackle in it. I guess you could call it a chicken spread. I called the Magic Bullet people up and thy sent me another base, sadly I burned up that motor too, I really eat a lot of that thick chicken salad.

So back to the main point, I love infomercials and on-line books, but am weary of online programs because they never seem to be worth what you pay. After a bit of digging I found that the sleep sense program basically was a cry it out method. I endure enough crying while driving to and from work or any other place. So I looked a little more and I found a book touting itself as the no-cry solution. In the book after doing an assessment of your baby's current sleep patterns you evaluate your motives, decide on your dream sleep goals and the goals you could live with. Then using the various techniques you lay out your plan. Implement your plan for ten days, take another assessment, make adjustments, tweak your plan, implement said tweaked plan for ten days, assess again, and so on and so forth. The key to changing your baby's sleep pattern, with no crying, is you take very small baby steps and only implement a few techniques at the same time or even just one at a time, so as to not over whelm your baby.

My "Dream" Sleep goals for Elean are as follows:

One, two hour nap in the morning
Two, one hour naps later in the day.
Get her to go down for naps with out aid of any of the following: baby swing, blow dryer, vacuum cleaner, static on radio
To sleep no later than 7 PM
Get to sleep with out nursing
Sleep through the night in her crib with out nursing

So I have started, she is regularly taking a morning nap and afternoon nap but she still does it with the swing and blow dryer/vacuum.

At 6:30 every night she gets a bath and then I nurse her in bed, while soft music plays. But she doesn't go to sleep some times until 8:30. She wakes up during the night to nurse anywhere from three times to once every hour. Luckily the once every hour doesn't happen very often.

Oh so you don't really care about all that you just came to see cute baby pictures...





...


haha!

ok ok




This costume actually belongs to the Dog.

You know what I like to eat...

Hi everyone!

Elean is four months old today. We are in sleep training. I would love to sleep in my own bed again. For Thanksgiving Elean was so cranky that we decided to eat her instead of the turkey.


... Pot O' Baby, uummm yyuuummm!

Are you sure you want one dot com

Hello, every one. I know I haven't written anything in months. But this feels like the first time that I've had a chance to sit here and compose.

Elean is now nearly 4 months old.

She is doing wonderfully. Theses days she is very into drooling,





gnawing on her hands




and screeching for fun (or to demonstrate any other emotion). We recently got her a Johnny Jump Up, she tries to eat it. She does try to "talk" to us, unfortunately we sometimes miss her cues and she gets frustrated.




The first couple of months were very difficult. She cried more than not.



Does she remind you of anyone?

I think that when she started to smile she became much more enjoyable. When she is cranky



and nothing will help, Tom and I say we are going to start one of those 24 hour a day live web cam blogs on her called "Are you sure you want one dot com?"





So some things I have learned over the last four months....

Make back up copies of all your photos. My computer crashed and I lost all the photos I had of Elean from birth to about 2 1/2 months.

A very good program if you loose everything on your pc is File Recover. This is what we used to retrieve some lost photos.

There is a program that can recover deleted photos from a camera card. Card Recover.

Babies should not watch TV. They don't sleep well at night when they do and have a tendency to fall asleep in your lap during the day.








I'm trying to figure out how to get video up well I have figured out how to put some on you tube but I have to figure out how to edit it. So soon there will be video here.

She's Here...

Welcome! Keira Elean



... and boy is she hungry and sleepy. She nods off while nursing and then she wakes up just as I get into doing something else and wants to eat again. She does however give me either a couple of 3 hour or one 5 hour stretch of sleep after 10 PM so I feel pretty rested. The first week she was home we went shopping a lot. She loves riding in the car and shopping carts, she falls right asleep.

The labor was sort of long around 24 hours from the time I had steady contractions until she was born. I was stalled at 3 centimeter dilation from about 12 noon until about 8 pm. At 7 pm the Dr. had punctured my water membranes and the contractions immediately became stronger and closer together. After an hour of that they said they wanted to give me pitocin. I was having trouble with the contractions at that point, I think I stopped breathing and was just screaming. So I asked for the sweet and wonderful drugs, they gave me an epidural and I fell fast asleep. At some point after the epidural they gave me the pitocin but I didn't even know it. Then they told me it was time to push, the epidural had begun to ware off but not much. I could barely feel the contractions. I pushed for about and hour and fifteen minuets, the Dr. showed up at the last minutes and before I new it Keira Elean was here. She was so alert. Before I knew it she was nursing and did so what seemed like continually for the next two days. We stayed in the hospital for two nights.

Now we are home and getting into a routine.

In other news Mom's been hard at work and now is presenting the worlds fanciest diaper bag...

Early Labor

My Mom is here! I went to pick her up on Wednesday.

On Friday, we went to see my Dr. expecting to get in and out of there like I always had. Only this time the Dr. was having a hard time locating the heartbeat of the baby. When she finally did it sounded slow in comparison to all the other times. She listened for a long time and then she said she wanted to send me over to the hospital to have the baby monitored. As far as effacement and dilation there really hadn't been any progress since last week. The Dr. said I might be having my baby that day as a low heartbeat was a sign of trouble. Mom and I headed over to the hospital. They put the monitors on and listened for a while they gave me some water. The babies heart rate was going up and down. After about 30 minutes the Dr. showed up and looked and the reading and said it was textbook, nothing was wrong and we could go home. It was scary. At that point I totally didn't feel ready. Afterward we went to get a bite to eat at a place the nurse recommended. Then we went shopping.

This morning when I got out of the shower I noticed that my belly was hanging lower. In the afternoon I started to feel contractions. There were mild at first like menstrual cramps. Now they are much stronger, strong enough to wake me up. They are lasting about 45 seconds and are occurring about every ten minutes. I have to say that laying down is the worst position to be in when you have a contraction. I feel better prepared now than I did on Friday amazing what a difference a couple of days can make.

16 days to go...

This morning right before I woke up I had a dream that Tom and I were on sinking ship, luckily we were very near shore and able to get off safely, I hope it's a good sign.

At my Dr's appointment today my Dr. told me my cervix is thinning out about 75% of the way and I am dilated 1 centimeter. I was totally surprised. I haven't felt any painful contractions, just the usual braxton-hicks. All the books say that you really aren't in labor until about 3 centimeters and that it is normal to dilate a bit, two to three weeks before the birth. Although my Dr. said it is unusual in a first time pregnancy. I hope it's two weeks since that would put me right on schedule for my due date. My Dr. did say that Tom and I should go out, she suggested dinner and movie and that I should get a massage from Tom too. She even offered to write a prescription for me. I wonder if she knows something we don't know. Perhaps we should pack our bags and commit to our birth plan in writing.

Last week I met a pediatrician I liked, but I am scheduled to meet with another one later.

We are trying to get the baby's room together. Tom's friend Dan painted it for us, he did a wonderful job, I have to think of a way to thank him. We still won't have the crib until next week or later but the baby will sleep in our room in a bassinet at first anyway.

Yesterday was last day of work and now I will work from home. My bosses surprised me with cake and ice cream.

We have chosedn Elean for one of the names, it could be the first name or the second name. Some other names we are considering:

Calissa

Emily

Faith

Kaitlyn

Keira

Lillian

Marilyn

Olivia

Obviously I only got through the O's

I am now taking suggestions for appropriate music to play during the birth.

Some things never change....

.....except the size of my belly, pay no mind to the butt almost as large as the belly.
This photo is at 34 weeks and 5 days. We have been going to labor preparation classes for the past two Thursdays, well actually I went to the labor prep class alone last night because Tom was being a crabby-crab. I swear when he's old and I'm gone, all the kids in the neighborhood are going to call him crabby old Mr. Coon. Again he was agitated while getting ready for the class and this really makes me angry, like it's such a big inconvenience. So I hear him muttering and something like "stupid class" and that was it! I said "then you can stay home!" So while he was getting dressed I got in the car and left. I was so angry and really fighting back the tears because I knew I had a class of happy, supportive couples to face. So I made it there and though the class with out crying but after I left, I broke down. So to make myself feel better I decided to go buy the bassinet we had picked out together. When I got home he was stewing on the sofa. He said I was lucky he didn't get on his bike and chase me to the class and show up all sweaty and madder than a hornet's nest. When I confronted him on his behavior he said he was mad because I rushed him to get out of the bathroom (I'm pregnant I had to go) and he messed up while shaving (I can understand being upset about crooked facial hair, sort of like a bad haircut). I said, ...still, I didn't need his attitude. This reminded me of another time we had a similar type misunderstanding...





Other than this everything is going fine with my pregnancy

Two GGT disasters narrowly averted

We really enjoyed our trip to Texas. We picked up something very special while we were there, our puppy Trilliann.

She is doing great she sits and whines in front of the door when she has to go. She's been making friends with other puppies and she even has a boyfriend El Nino.







My belly is getting bigger, I have to wear maternity pants now.

I've been feeling the baby move and also experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions although I didn't realize that's what it was until I experienced one while at the Dr's office and the Dr confirmed that's what it was. I had to take a glucose tolerance screen. You don't fast, you drink the drink and then they draw your blood one hour later. So a few Fridays ago I went to have that test done, as usual the lady phlebotomist was very nice. She registered me and gave me the drink. It wasn't that bad. She told what time to come back. I went to take the little dog for a walk. All of a sudden I realized I had to get back. We rushed back. When I got in the Dr's office the staff seemed concerned. I sat down in the chair and lifted my sleeve and asked the lady how many times I was going to have my blood drawn she seemed confused and said only once, and I said oh well it's only been 30 minutes since I drank the stuff. The light went on in her head and she realized that she had calculated my draw time incorrectly, she apologized profusely. Whew, disaster avoided. My screen came back slightly high so now I have to take 3 hour glucose tolerance test. I called the lab after leaving my Dr's appointment on a Wednesday and was told that they couldn't schedule me for Friday because they already had some one scheduled and they can only do one a day. The had a spot available on the following Friday. WTF? I used to be a phlebotomist, we used to do multiples all the time all you have to do is make sure you stagger them if there is only one phlebotomist. I called my Dr's office and asked if I could wait until the following Friday. The Dr. called the lab directly and said that I should be there between 7- and 8 am on Friday. I fasted to get ready for the test. Fasting wasn't that hard, I found it harder to not drink water. I usually wake up in the middle of the night very thirsty. Then I got up early to be at the Westerly Hospital before 8 am. I packed up my computer two books and a movie, the baby dog and some food for later. I arrived and there were several people waiting to be registered. I took a number. I was called up to be registered. The registrar saw my order and went to talk to the phlebotomists. I was told that I had to schedule an appointment. I said my Dr's office scheduled the appointment directly with them. She told me I wasn't on the schedule and they already had one person doing one. Great I thought, I should have known there were going to be difficult, I'm gonna have to go all the way home and then come all the way out here again. Why am I having so many problems with the lab people. I asked if I could call my Dr. Of course since it was 8 in the morning the Dr's office wasn't open and the answering service answered. I explained the situation and told her that Dr. Cacio and or her assistant Morene had shcedueled the appointment. She put me on hold while she tried to contact the Dr. At that point an angel from heaven with dark long hair showed up and said that they had to do my test. The answering service came back on the line and I told her they were going to do it. Thank god! I was about to really spaz out. The register said I was lucky she(dark haired angel)showed up. I told her sheeeee was the one that was lucky. She laughed and asked if I was going to bitch her out. I said I knew it wasn't her fault, but some one there would have got an ear full. I took the test and four blood draws later it was normal. Every night the baby has a party in my belly she dances and plays the drums, well at least that's what it feels like. The only other thing I can say is HOLLY HEARTBURN! Bring on the extra stregth tums!

Lately I've been able to feel the little critter's movements more. Many bumps and thumps, and flutters. Sometimes it even feels like the critter is trying to crawl up under my diaphragm.

Yesterday we went for our third sonogram, this time it was for Gender ID. After going to an imaging specialist, the Obstetrician's sonogram just seemed such lower quality. We were in the office and the Dr. was manipulating the image because the little critter had its legs crossed at the ankle so we couldn't get a good view of the bottom. Dr. Small showed us the head and took some measurements of the head, leg and body.



The little critter waved at us, or maybe shook a fist at us.



Dr. Small said he was 95% sure of the gender.



Finally the little critter revealed its secrets,and Dr Small committed to call it.

Tooth Brush Incident

I found this old cartoon I created back in December of 2005. this reminds me of something... Imagine how it will be with a baby, enjoy.

To know or not to know....

I've noticed that in finding out I'm pregnant, there are various questions people like to ask.

1) When is your due date?
2) Is it a boy or a girl?
3) Have you picked any names?
4) Are you excited?
5) WHAT!?

If you didn't already know, the answer to question number one is July 29, 2007. There is a count down ticker above to illustrate.

I'm so tired of hearing question number two, because to me it doesn't matter. I don't care what it is as long as it's a healthy and happy baby. Is it going to matter to the person asking? I can't imagine how it would affect them. Wouldn't they be happy either way? Maybe I'm also tired of having to answer, I don't know, to this question.

Regarding question number three I haven't picked any names, I think knowing the answer to question number two will help me better focus on this one. The only things I have come up with are middle names, King for a boy and Elean for a girl. The King name was shot down by one of my closest friends who said he hated his inanimate object middle name (which I always thought was cool) and he responded so vehemently towards it that I wondered if I was offending him personally in some way. He asked how I could do that to my child. Please tell me if Blank King Coon is offensive so I can apologize to him. The Elean name is a combination of both of the grand mothers middle names, Elena and Jean. I'm trying to keep some family traditions and honor both grand mothers here.

I always excitedly blurt out, I'm so excited, to question number four. I can't wait! But in compiling this list of questions it's made me think. Why ask this question? Question number four now gives me pause, not because I'm not excited, I'm totally excited, I can't wait! Think about it. First off if someone wasn't excited about it there must be a very good reason, and it must be a difficult and painful situation to be in, not something some one would casually discuss. Secondly, are you implying that there is some reason why I wouldn't be happy about having a baby, I'm 32, I don't have any kids, I'm in a long term, stable, functional and committed relationship, having a baby is the only logical next step. (ok to some old fashion people out there the next logical step is marriage, but this is 2007 people) I guess that question just seems sneaky and underhanded to me. But then again I have been told that I read to much into things. Also lately (yesterday)I was very indecisive and angry, I don't know why, I have no reason to be angry but I was raging at the smallest of things. For example I couldn't decide what I wanted to snack on. I asked Tom to get me the bean dip and Frito's. I ate a had full of them and was done. I asked him to put away the bean dip. Later I noticed the bean dip sitting on his desk and I got so angry I was ready to scream and yell at him, but luckily for him he was in the basement, his favorite room in the house. I swear if the the TV was in there I'd never see him. I'm looking forward to the emotional roller coaster, so far I haven't been very emotional only heartburny, but that's not really an emotion now is it? So that might explain why a well intentioned questions makes me suspicious.

So since it's the number two question and knowing the answer to it will help with the the number three question, coupled with the fact that those who know me would say that not knowing the answer to a question drives me crazy. We now have a gender identification scheduled, although something makes me think that knowing the answer to number two will bring a repeat of the number four question.

The friend who vehemently objected to the King middle name is the one who asked me question number five upon hearing the news.

By the way we are half way home people.

Kid's Got Rhythm

Well it has been a while since I wrote anything, and most likely the only reason I am writing anything here now is because I am procrastinating packing up the kitchen for our move. The gestating is progressing at what feels like a snail's pace, but I'm not complaining about that.

I've stopped having morning sickness so Amen to that. There was what seemed like a two week period in which all I could tolerate was pizza, at that point celery tasted like weeds and the smell of beef really made me want to puke. But now that has passed, in fact three nights ago I really wanted to eat chicken fried steak and I had Tom driving all over South Eastern Connecticut looking for a place that had it. We found a place but instead of serving it with cream gravy they served it with brown gravy. Now anytime I eat anything I feel like its filling up my esophagus and I get very burpy. I can belch like a teenage boy. Lately I've been making potato and egg taquitos on the weekends and surprisingly I haven't gained any weight yet which I'm not worried about since I was 25 pounds above what I would like to be before I got pregnant. No I'm not going to reveal how much I weigh.

Back in mind December we had our first sonogram. Tom accompanied me. I felt a mixture of excitement and nervousness to see the baby for the first time. I was concerned about the possibility of an an ectopic pregnancy, thrilled to actually see the little creture and excited, and at the same time terrified that there could be multiple critters in there. So after the slightly awkward inserting of the probe (it was a vaginal ultrasound) we immediately heard the heart beat, ticking away at a break neck speed. My breath caught in my throat and tears swelled in my eyes, it was amazing and profound even. Then we could make out the image. The critter didn't look like much just a unidentifiable blob, but you could definitely see the tiny heart beating away like crazy. There was only one and Dr Small assured me it was in the proper location. The he looked around inside there and showed me one of my ovaries but for some odd reason he couldn't find the other one. I hoped it was just hiding. He took measurements of the heartbeat and size and then printed out some pictures for us.

In late January we were scheduled to do another sonogram, there was a special measurement to be taken called nuchal translucency so we were directed to a specialist. We had to drive all the way out to Narraganset about an hour away. Again the mixed feelings were swelling, concern there will be something wrong and excitement to see the baby again. This time it was a non vaginal ultrasound. Did you know they now warm the gel? Right away I could make out what looked like a little skeleton, I felt the tears again and then the weirdest thing happened, I immediately started laughing and the image was lost. I stopped laughing and he tried again and there it was floating in a black void you could see the great big baby head















(I hope I'm not in trouble) and the baby body which is almost the same size as the head.
Then the little critter jumped (for lack of a better word) I started to laugh again. I said maybe I better not look because I'll just keep laughing but the Sonographer, Dr Hill (I'm not even sure he's a Doctor) said I would miss all the good stuff. He showed us the nasal bone,

















measured the length,


















and heart beat,

















took a close up view of one of the hands showing us the four fingers and thumb bone



















and finally he took the special measurement we were there for (oddly he didn't give us a photo of that). All the while the little critter keept jumping around in there. I asked if it had the hiccups and he said no they just like rhythmic movement. I also asked to see my ovaries just to make sure I had two and he had no problem locating them. He said all looked normal so that was promising, but more importantly our baby already has rhythm.