Friday, August 27, 2010

Sick house

One of my nieces was sick yesterday. Cold symptoms. We kept Natali away and broke out the hand sanitizer. Today another niece and my father in law are sick. Ugh. Hoping Natali doesn't get sick as we wouldn't be able to fly if she is all clogged up.

Beyond that Natali is getting a little more fussy. Till the last few days she was taking in just 2 ounces at a time. Now she's taking 3-4 ounces per feeding. We start with 2 and wait. She gets very fussy....crazy fussy....and wants more right away. Beyond that she's doing well. Growth spurt?

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

First family photo

We took a drive...long drive....to Crater Lake yesterday. Took our first "trademarked" photo.

Each time Kelli and I travel to a new city we take a photo with my arm out stretched. It started because...well there was often no one else to take the photo. Since then it's just a tradition.

Natali didn't dig all the sun, but she did fine. She is two weeks old today and still perfect. Very rarely fussy. Just happy to be alive. We are very lucky to have such a wonderful baby.

[nggallery id=8]

Sunday, August 22, 2010

First Flight....okay

Our first flight with Natali was perfect.



I've taken notes on all the mistakes parents make when going through security. I preplanned the "simple" task of clearing TSA and went thru mental simulations multiple times. From start to finish we all cleared the TSA in under 90 seconds. Awesome!

Kelli had a "real" ticket. The plan was for Natali and me to non-rev and hopefully sit with Kelli. As a backup Natali would ride in Kelli's lap and I would ride in the cockpit jumpseat. Luckily that wasn't needed.

We checked both of our suitcases (since I work for an airline, no baggage fees!). I carried on a small bag with our electronics (1 Macbook Pro, 2 Ipads, 1 Kindle DX and a Zune). Kelli had a backpack with her purse, baby Bjorn and small amount of baby stuff. Kelli also carried the diaper bag.

The plane was fairly open. The gate agent was very nice and linked up Kelli and her "real" ticket with Natali and I who were non-reving. The agent then gave us a row to ourselves.

Kelli paid extra to board early. Natali and I were in the last group to board. This worked out great.

Our baby seat has two pieces. One piece (the base) to belt in and the seat clicks in. This makes it easy to have a base in each car.

Kelli boarded first and belted in the base. I came in, snapped in the car seat and pushed our bags under the seats. Done.

The car seat was a tight fit. We were in row 8. Natali was seated by the window. The poor guy in front couldn't lean back. It was a 4 hour flight. Thankfully he was nice and said he didn't want to lean back anyway.

Natali was perfect. Flying is in her genes. She didn't make a sound for 3 hours and 58 minutes. Two minutes to go she let out a 12 second cry. A pathetic one at that.

We waited for most of the plane to deboard before we stood up. It would take a few minutes for the ground crew to bring up the stroller base anyway. As passengers got off many commented on how quiet Natali was and that they had no idea a baby was on board. Nice!

Getting through the airport was fairly easy. I rented a car from the one of only two companies that was off-site. No big deal.

We are now at my inlaws house. Earlier in the week we bought a 'Pack N Play' from Amazon and had it shipped here. It was $69.99 with free two day shipping. Kelli and I LOVE Amazon and our Prime membership!!!!!!

Friday, August 20, 2010

Out and about with Natali

We took Natali out for the first time on Wednesday, when she was a week old.  We walked around the mall for a bit and then we stopped for frozen yogurt at a new place called "Yogurt Story".  It's no Big Spoon (in Sacramento), but it was pretty good.  They have a yogurt flavor called "red velvet cake" that's probably the best flavor I have ever had. :)  Thursday we went out again.  We had Sweet Tomatoes for lunch then did a quick trip to Kohl's so Darren could pick up a couple of things for himself before our trip to Oregon.  Natali was excellent on all of these trips.  On Wednesday she slept through the entire trip, from the car ride, through the mall, and at the yogurt place.  She didn't wake up until we got home again.  Thursday she slept through the car ride and lunch, and then woke up when we were in Kohl's.  I took her into the bathroom to change her diaper and then she decided she was hungry so I sat in there for a few minutes to feed her a bottle.  That's where the comments started.

While I was in the bathroom a couple of women came in.  The first 2 were very nice and made some sweet comments about Natali, but the third lady made a rude comment about me taking my baby out when she was so young.  Now, I'm not a perfect parent.  I don't claim to be, and I would never make judgmental comments about another person's parenting skills.  Well, I take that back.  I have made some comments when I see blatant bad parenting such as babies not in car seats, or the stupid parents letting their kids do whatever they want while they pay absolutely no attention.  I am very judgmental of the girls on "Teen Mom" (I love that train wreck).  Anyway, I really don't understand why people feel so strongly against taking a baby out of the house.  Do you expect me to be a hermit for 2 months?  I would go crazy.  Darren and I would never put our baby in a situation that could harm her, and we don't believe going out in public will harm her.  First, she was never even out of her car seat until the moment in Kohl's.  Second, strangers were not touching her or getting near her to spread their germs.  Third, its the middle of August and its not cold and flu season so there's less risk.  Natali is healthy and happy and I don't see what the big deal is.  What is the accepted age to take a baby out anyway?  I have heard 2 weeks, but what's the difference?  It's not like she has had any vaccinations by then.  I don't think her immunity is any different between 1 week and 2 weeks.  She is supposed to go to the doctor at 2 weeks.  It seems to me she is more likely to get sick from the actual sick people at the doctor's office than from just being out in public.

Anyway, being out was a good test for us since we are planning on taking Natali on a plane ride tomorrow (gasp!).  Let the judgmental people have a field day with that one.  We are really looking forward to our trip and are very excited for the family to meet our sweet baby.  We have planned our travel tomorrow very carefully so everything goes without a hitch.  We are seasoned flyers, but not with a baby.  We don't like to be stressed about things, so we have talked over what we are going to do very carefully.  Hopefully it all goes smoothly.  So far Natali has been an excellent traveler, so I expect this plane ride to be pretty easy.  She could surprise us, but I don't think she will.

In other news, I have lost 14 pounds in just over a week.  If only the rest would come off that easily.  I think I may lose another 5 or so this easily, but the rest will take some work.  I currently have about 20 pounds to lose to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight.  I also have just over 10 weeks left before I go back to work.  I'm hoping to lose at least 15 more pounds by then.  I can't do any exercise for another week, and then only walking.  I can start more serious exercise again when Natali is a month old.

Darren has decided to use his FMLA leave when I go back to work.  I am going back on November 1st, and then he wants to stay home through the end of the year.  That means Natali will be able to stay out of daycare until she is about 5 months old.  We are very lucky to be able to do this.  I made sure it was what Darren wanted to do, and he said he did.  It was his idea.  He is an amazing father, and I am extremely lucky to have him. :)  He will be an excellent stay at home dad!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Breastfeeding has failed :-(

Here is my experience with breastfeeding.  It has been rough and emotional for me, but I have come to accept that the attempt has failed and I know that I tried all I could to make it work.  Natali is healthy and happy and that is all that matters.

Breastfeeding started off going well.  They had me start nursing within an hour after the c-section.  That first session was good.  Natali latched right away and knew exactly what to do.  The next few sessions were hit or miss, but we kept working on it and things started going pretty well.  We didn't have any problems nursing.  The lactation consultant came by a few times during the time we were in the hospital, and the nurses were very helpful as well.  Things only went down hill right before we checked out of the hospital.  Right before we checked out they did one last check with the pediatrician and came back to tell me that her jaundice levels had risen to the "low intermediate risk" range and that she had lost about 10% of her body weight, so they were a bit concerned.  They said the best way to get her jaundice levels down was to make sure she pooped more, and they figured my milk wasn't in yet, so maybe I should supplement her with a bit of formula for the next day or so to get her weight going up and her jaundice levels down.  Well, this really freaked me out.  I didn't want my baby to get sick or lose more weight, so I was perfectly happy to supplement her for a bit.  They scheduled me for an appointment at the breastfeeding support center for the next day so they could check her weight and jaundice again.

So, we went home and I began giving Natali formula.  We got a bunch of formula for free in the mail, so we have plenty to give her.  I didn't mind doing it.  I also got myself a hand breastpump.  I had an electric one my sister gave me, but I didn't have the tubes I needed for it and I could only get them online.  The hand pump would work for a couple of days.  I started to pump to try and bring my milk in.  At every session I could only pump about .5 ounces between both breasts.  It was pretty sad.  They say it can take up to 5 days for your milk to come in, so at this point I still wasn't concerned.  My appointment the next day was pretty good.  The supplementing worked and Natali had gained 4.5 ounces from the previous day.  Her jaundice levels were still a bit elevated, but they decided to just make me another appointment for the very next day to check her again.  In the meantime I was still supposed to supplement her and feed her everything I could pump out.  They even gave me the tubes I needed for the electric pump.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get the pump to work properly.  I figured I must be doing something wrong, so I just set it aside and used the hand pump.  I took the electric one in with me the next day to see if they could help me with it.

When I went in for my appointment on Monday morning Natali had gained another 2 ounces, and her jaundice levels had dropped significantly.  Then I learned that the motor on my pump had failed and couldn't be used.  My milk still hadn't come in by this point and I was getting frustrated.  It was 5 days after delivery and I should have something by now.  The nurses said to just keep trying and pumping and it should work.  I went ahead and rented one of their electric pumps because I couldn't take hand pumping anymore.  So, we kept up with the formula and I kept pumping and feeding her all I could.  I would pump every 3 hours, and the most I ever pumped in a session was 1 ounce.  Most of the time it was around half an ounce.  Natali is supposed to be drinking around 18 ounces per day, so I was giving her almost nothing.  I still had a shred of hope at this point, but the pumping was really getting annoying.  I tried all day Monday, and Tuesday and never could get any more.  The amount I pumped even started to decrease.

Well, today Natali is a week old (yay!) and I tried pumping one last time this morning.  My milk production now is almost non-existant, so I am calling it quits.  I gave it my best effort, but apparently I just can't produce milk.  It is disappointing, but I'm over it now.  Formula works just fine.

I really think my body just isn't meant for having children.  It seems there is a roadblock at every turn.  First it was the miscarriages and I had to be on blood thinners and extra medication just to maintain the pregnancy.  Then, I couldn't have a natural birth.  My doctor says once she opened me up she noticed something about my uterus that would have made it impossible to ever give birth naturally.  I can't remember exactly what it was, but I believe she said my cervix extended up into my uterus, so it wouldn't ever fully dilate and that's why my labor never progressed.  Now, added to all that is the fact that I can't produce milk.  If all this modern technology didn't exist I wouldn't have my pretty little girl.  I am extremely thankful for my wonderful doctor for getting me through all of this!  I feel like maybe I shouldn't push my luck though.  If it has been this difficult to get here, maybe we should just quit while we're ahead.  I know Darren just wants one child, but I can't say that at the moment.  I can say it would be at least 3 years before I would want to try again.  We'll see.  I'm just happy for the baby I have right now though.  We are going to enjoy every minute with her. :)

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

I am still alive and almost well again

I know I have been MIA for a week.  Darren has been doing an excellent job of keeping updates while I recover and deal with various issues that have cropped up (breastfeeding!!).  I will discuss these other issues in detail, but for this post I want to just say how blessed I am to have such a beautiful, perfect daughter and the most wonderful husband ever!

Natali is an absolute doll!  She is pretty perfect in my opinion.  She is an extremely content baby.  She has long sleep periods, midnight to 5am last night (yay for me!), and really long awake periods where she just hangs out and takes in the world.  She cries only rarely, mostly when she has gas or is upset about a dirty diaper, which are both perfectly valid reasons to cry. :)  I am still recovering from the c-section, but it's definitely easier to recover when your baby is so good, and when your mom and husband are so helpful all the time.

Darren has been the most perfect father.  I always thought he'd come through in the end, but with all his talk you just never know.  I could never have guessed how wonderful he would be with his daughter.  He is so in love with her it's crazy!  He really is a baby hog and never wants to put her down when he is home, which is absolutely fine with me.  She needs her daddy.  He makes bottles and feeds her, and changes diapers really well!  That is the most amazing part of it all.  I never thought he would be so good at diaper changes.  He changed a poopy diaper from the very first night.  His only squeamish moment came when Natali decided to continue pooping after he had already taken the dirty diaper off.  I had to jump in and rescue him on that one, but otherwise he has been great.  We definitely make a good parenting team, and with all we have been through in the last few years, and this past week, it makes me love him even more.

My mom has been in town since we went into the hospital, and she has been absolutely great to have around.  Darren and I have been doing our best, but we are totally clueless about babies.  Mom has been a great source of information on what to do in any situation.  She had 4 kids of her own, so we listen to her for the most part.  She definitely knows what she's talking about.  She has been very helpful feeding and changing, etc. too, and she has been doing laundry and organizing Natali's things in her room as well.  She drives me around to my appointments or quick errands too.  Darren has been working still, so I couldn't do much without her.  She leaves tomorrow morning and then I will have Wednesday and Thursday when Darren works and I will be on my own.  I think I'm well enough to handle it.  Darren is off Friday, and then we leave sometime on Saturday for our big trip and I will have lots of family around very willing to help out. :)  I'm looking forward to it!

I think the hardest adjustment has been for the dogs.  They have all been very good for the most part, but they are in the way sometimes.  The poor things have been sent to their beds more often than they are used to.  I think once Natali has been around a while and we have a routine down they will settle down around her.  Doogie is the worst offender.  He just wants to be near Natali and lick her, but he doesn't really know how to be gentle enough.  We are constantly pushing him away, and he likes to jump up when we are standing and holding her.  I think he too will settle down, but it will take some time and patience with him.  I was concerned that Darren would totally lose any patience he used to have with them once Natali was around, but he really hasn't.  The dogs aren't going anywhere, so we really need to make an effort to integrate them in our new schedule.  I'm confident it will all work out though.

I will update on other things in another post.  It has been an emotional week and while everything is great, there have been issues with breastfeeding and jaundice and recovery that have been rough on me.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

First Day at Home

Very nice day. She is still very quiet, just a handful of short lived flare ups of crying. Kelli had a bit of a rough day emotionally, but I will let her elaborate on that if she choses. Finally, Just a few photos from her first day at home. Click on them for a larger image.

[nggallery id=7]

We're home

Yesterday was busy. Last night in the hospital was the best. Natali is a very sound sleeper. Only waking up when we want her too for the most part.

The nurses stated we would likely be released after noon. I had to go to work to fly a Cleveland turn. That left Kelli and my mother in law to take care of things.

Kelli was a bit overwhelmed with all of the information being given from various nurses. Natali was a little jaundice. At the last minute they stated she might have to stay overnight. They gave her a blood test and the results showed she was okay to go home, but has to go back today for a checkup.

The first night at home was great. Natali slept the entire night except when we woke her up too eat. We did have to start using formula to help with the jaundice. Kelli isn't producing much milk yet. Formula as a back up.

At first I enjoyed Natali being so relaxed. Now its a bit annoying took an hour of moving, proding, talk too and walking around to wake her up. I finally had to resort to using a small piece of ice on her thigh. Even then she only stayed awake for a minute or two.

Kelli should be posting a nice long post today or tomorrow. Still fairly tired.

Friday, August 13, 2010

Day 3

Natali is 2 days old as of 20 minutes ago.

Sleeps a lot.  Cries very little. Stretches a lot.

She spent a good deal of time on my lap as I played on my computer.

Kelli is more mobile. No more IV's, or anything else. Showered and is wearing normal clothes. On pain meds. Having a problem with bowel movements and gas. Hasn't eaten much. She's looking forward to going home tomorrow.

Today was another amazing day.

[nggallery id=6]

The Name

Natali Amelia Winnell Byrd....quite the name eh? Two middle names? Well I had two middle names growing up so I figured my daughter should as well.

Natali - we agreed on this name a few months ago. I got the spelling from Natali Del Conte who is a technology news reporter for CBS and CNet TV.

Amelia - I love flying. Kelli loves the name. Thus Amelia after Amelia Erhart.

Winnell - my dear mothers name. My mom passed away 10 years ago, the day after I came home from college. I was very close to my mother. Growing up my mom started and ran her own adoption agency. She loved babies. I am very much a product of my mother in more ways than the obvious.

Byrd - Seems to fit as this is the last name Kelli and I use.

Fewer interruptions

Night number two with our daughter was better than the first. Kelli was no longer hooked up to monitors and oxygen which meant fewer people coming in to checkup on her. Thus fewer interruptions.

Natali slept very well. Just woke up twice when she was hungry. After she eats it takes a little to get her back to sleep....about 10 minutes. I "appear" to have a system of calming her down. Time will tell.

I have done all the diapers so far. Kelli has offered, but I'm much more mobile. She will likely change 3X the number of diapers over time anyway.

The Ipad is a great device for new moms. Easy to hold and use. Long battery life and small. No way Kelli could have used her Macbook the way she's using her Ipad.

Another day of hanging around the hospital. Natali is getting checked out by the Pediatrician again (2nd routine test) as well as another hearing test. Beyond that....status quo....which is a great thing.

Morning with my Daughter

[nggallery id=5]

Thursday, August 12, 2010

The First Night

We didn't sleep well our 1st night in the hospital. Both of us were full of adrenaline and I was on a horrible chair/bed.

Last night wasn't much better.

Moved to a different room. Natali is extremely quiet. Crying only just enough to let you know she can. I find it ironic the nurses say rest up and get sleep, but every hour or so some random nurse/assistant is coming to check on Natali or Kelli. Kelli is attached to an oxygen monitor. If she lays wrong and reduces her intake an alarm sounds. Then someone comes in.

One bright spot. We got a wonderful flower delivery yesterday from a friend of Kelli's from Alaska. Shelbi and Kelli "met" via an online message board concerning the issues Kelli had with blood clotting. Amazing how technology connects people thousands of miles away. Another reason I love having a blog.



So yeah we didn't sleep much. Not due to Natali. She didn't cry much at all.

Sometime during the night I earned my "brown" badge. First poopy diaper. I changed it quickly as it was a means to an end meaning me going back to sleep on a bigger...but still more uncomfortable chair/bed.

It's 7:18AM. Kelli is nursing. The first breast feeding went very well. The second not so much. Third eh. Fourth pretty good. I think this is the fifth. Going well.

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Our Journey.....the video

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HceBe6cuR90

Welcome Natali

[nggallery id=4]

Natali Amelia Winnell Byrd

C Section it is

Only went from 1 cm to 3 cm from 7 AM to 5PM. Doctor ordered up a C-Section. Will be done within the hour.

The Drugs are In

Long day. Both are pretty tired. Lack of sleep does that.

Peggy, my mother in law.....Kelli's mom of course, stopped by for a bit. She noted how different things are than they were when she had her four kids. I still can't believe how manual it all is. The waiting....even with the drugs to help get things going....annoys me.

Kelli hasn't eaten since last night. I would be going nucking futs right now without eating. I feel bad when I have to eat. Eh.

The contractions got pretty intense for a while. Kelli started the morning with a 3 or 4 pain level. Around 11:30 it rose to 7. We were waiting for her Doctor to stop by and examine her prior to the epidural. After about an hour the nurse examined her and then the Doctor authorized the epidural. I felt pretty helpless seeing Kelli in pain and not being able to do anything. Not a situation I wish to repeat.

Around 1PM the epidural was started. Kelli's pain went away. She's much happier now.

Her mom went home. I got lunch and stopped by the house for a minute to grab her chapstick, reboot the server and grab a cable I need. It's VERY nice having the hospital just 1.8 miles from our house.

Now the waiting continues. Her Doctor stated if Kelli isn't ready by tonight.....it will be slice and dice time....yeah C-section. Right now we are hoping for a normal delivery.

In the hospital

The waiting game has begun.



We checked in last night at 8PM. Initially Kelli was going to stay here by herself and I would join her the next morning. I changed my mind. Decided to stick around. Eh.

She took an Ambein to help sleep. Didn't work. She slept very little. I tried to sleep but the bed for men....not comfy. It's a small chair the expands out to a bed. Eh.

This morning we were both awake around 5AM. I left to get coffee and told Kelli to not have the baby while I was gone. She complied.

Around 7AM her Doctor arrived, examined her and then broke her water. I turned my head for that event and every changing of the pads after that.

Felt bad eating in front of Kelli as she can't eat till it's over.

It's now 11:45AM. Contractions about every 2 minutes. Only 1 CM at 7AM. Will be getting checked again shortly.

We have plenty of tech to keep up busy. Two Ipads, Macbook Pro, Two Nexus One smartphones and one Zune.

One thing about being preggo. Ya kinda have to give up your privacy. It's only one nurse and her doctor. The nurse is extremely nice and helpful, but I couldn't be preggo. Having someone "take a look" under my gown every now and then. Eh.

Next update when something changes.

Monday, August 9, 2010

38 weeks - only 2 days left!!!!

We are in the final stretch before delivery day.  I have today to do some cleaning and get the dogs ready.  They got baths yesterday and today is the dreaded nail clipping day.  I also need to do some general cleaning before mom comes tomorrow.

Tomorrow is a big day.  I may be in the hospital at the end of it, or I may have one last night in my bed.  I have a car seat safety check at 11am.  I had signed both Darren and I up for it, but Darren is working and he has been flying so much lately there is pretty much no chance he will be available.  It kind of sucks because he is the one who installed the car seats in the first place.  I'm hoping he did it right and I don't have to correct him.  Things always get lost in translation when I try to explain things to him.

At 1:30 my mom is flying in.  I'm really hoping her flight is on time because I have a doctor's appointment at 2:30.  I didn't think I would have another appointment, but it seems I do.  The doctor wants me to come in during the afternoon so she can check to see if I'm dilated at all.  If I am dilated to 3cm or more then I don't have to go to the hospital tomorrow night.  They will just check me in Wednesday morning and start the Pitocin right away.  If I'm not dilated at all, or not enough, its off to the hospital tomorrow night so they can start me on the medicine to help dilate my cervix.  I will get that medicine all night and then the Pitocin will start early Wednesday morning.  Cross your fingers that everything works the way it's supposed to!  My doctor says once the Pitocin starts I should have a baby by the evening.  If it gets too late in the evening on Wednesday and nothing is happening I will be having a c-section Wednesday night.  I hope I don't end up there, but I'm prepared for it.  I have had several people ask me if I'm nervous about it.  I am not nervous at all.  I am very prepared for what's coming and it doesn't scare me in the least.  I'm ready for whatever comes.

I had one final ultrasound last Thursday for a last check of the baby's size.  The previous one had her measured very large, in the 90th percentile, so I was expecting the same this time.  Fortunately for me she was measuring pretty average, about 7 pounds.  I was concerned at first because of the disparity in measurements, but the doctor assured me she looks great.  These are just estimates and can be way off.  She thinks the last measurement may have been wrong.  I'm not meant to have a huge baby anyway.  She said if I was still measuring that large I would have just been scheduled for a c-section anyway.  I'm glad she isn't that big.  In light of this news I have revised my weight guess at birth to 7 pounds, 7 ounces.  Darren is still convinced she will be 9 pounds, but I sincerely hope he is wrong.  We will find out in 2 days!

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Names

So every week I think of a new name for the thing hanging out in Kelli's uterus. The B word will never be a name. Check back each week for the new name. My weeks don't coincide with the number of weeks it's been hanging out but to the number of weeks I've known it was in there.

Week One - Offspring

Week Two - Money Pit

Week Three - Parasite

Week Four - B-Pain (for Breast Pain)

Week Five - Chastity (not a nice name)

Week Six - Energy Sucker

Week Seven - Up Chucker

Week Eight - I-Mixed (Apple I-Pad came out last week)

Week Nine - Anti-Coupe

Week Ten - Elasticity

Week Eleven - Arbez (read it backwards)

Week Twelve - The Thing in Kelli's belly

Week Thirteen - Moombassa - a little late...for Black History Month

Week Fourteen - Spore

Week Fifteen - Bon BeBe

Week Sixteen - Forty Two

Week Seventeen - Fluffy

Week Eighteen - Bumpin'

Week Nineteen - Mookie

Week Twenty - Fooderator

Week Twentyone - Blackjacqueline (cause it's 21)

Week Twenty two - HoldOnIGottaPee

Week Twenty Three - NoMoFlyin' - Kelli has been grounded till August

Week Twenty Four- Penelope

Week Twenty Five - Sugarbaby

Week Twenty Six - Dijon

Week Twenty Seven - Rib Kicker

Week Twenty Eight - Avantika - Indian for Princess

Week Twenty Nine - Helvetica

Week Thirty - Lil'Firecracker (July 4th!)

Week Thirty One -Vuvuzela

Week Thirty Two - Thunder down under

Week Thirty Three - Funky Cold Medina

Week Thirty Four - Serendipity

Week Thirty Five - Natali

Last Post as a regular guy

Sometime Wednesday I will be able to use the saying, "As a parent,". Looking forward to it. All the new statements about life I can make, "As a parent I think it's vital to teach Republican values to your child, so they can live a full and prosperous life."

Kelli and I are very laid back. I've read a total of zero books on parenting. Well I've read, "Shit my Dad Says" and am in the middle of "Yes, You're Pregnant, but What about me?". Maybe those count.

Still not 100% positive on FMLA leave. My employer has a multipage FMLA form that literally gets passed around to 5+ departments including an in house medical staff for review. Kelli had one form and done. Of course I work for a corporation with 50,000+ employees. She has maybe 2000 total....maybe.

Looking forward to meeting my daughter. Still odd to type. Her name will be Natali Amelia XXXXXXXXXX Byrd. The second middle name will be revealed Wednesday. Not even Kelli knows. Why two middle names? Well I grew up with two middle names....that's why.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Ok, you're right!

This entire pregnancy I have heard one thing over and over that has really annoyed me.  "Oh, you're due in August?  It's going to be so hard to be pregnant in the middle of the hot summer."  Every time I heard this it made me want to scream.  It's summer, in Texas, of course I'm going to be hot!  I would be hot even if I weren't pregnant.  I just did not understand why that would make any bit of difference.  Up to this point it hasn't.  I don't spend a lot of time outside, so it made no difference to me what the temperature was, except when I got in my car at the end of the workday.  Who wouldn't be hot getting into a hot car though?  Well, today I give in.  You are all right.  It figures that my last week of pregnancy would land during the hottest week of the entire year.  It's 105 degrees today, and I am definitely noticing.  I typically wear scrubs to work and they are extremely comfortable when I'm a normal size.  Now I have to wear tent scrubs.  They are huge on me, except around my stomach.  They are just awkward and uncomfortable to wear when they don't fit right, and they have been making me hotter lately.  This morning I put them on and immediately decided it wasn't going to work.  I took them off and wore jeans and a t-shirt with sandals instead.  The jeans weren't exactly cool, but they were much better than the scrubs.  We went out to lunch for a coworker's last day today, and it was extremely hot in the restaurant.  I was uncomfortable, but it would have been unbearable if I had been in scrubs.  I think I will just wear my normal clothes for the rest of the week.  It's not like I'm going in the lab this week anyway.  I'm just sitting at my desk all day dealing with paperwork.  I can't wait for this week to be over!

Monday, August 2, 2010

37 weeks

Some people/websites I have seen say I am officially full term now. Others say 38 weeks is full term. Either way, our baby is likely to have no problems if born now, and will almost certainly not need any time in the NICU. I would be fine with her wanting to come out any day now. I only have 8 days left until hospital check in, but I would be perfectly happy if she would like to come before that. I guarantee she is big enough now. :-)

Darren is convinced she will be over 9 pounds at birth. I don't think she will be. I'm guessing 8 pounds 3 ounces. She will still be a bit early, so she can't possibly be that big! I don't know why he wishes that on me anyway. It's a bit mean. He doesn't have to deal with the consequences of a giant baby (tearing or c-section). At any rate we are really looking forward to delivery day. Before that though, I'm really looking forward to my last day of work! Only 4 days left! We have our final doctor's appointment this Thursday. I'm really hoping Darren can make it to the last one. He has been really good about making all of my appointments up to this point, but he had to move his schedule around this month and they are really short staffed, so he has been actually working a lot lately. We are having a final sonogram on Thursday and I know if he isn't there he probably won't believe me when I tell him how big they think the baby is. We'll see. It's still a couple of days away anyway. Saturday is the only day before delivery that we are both off of work, so I think we may plan a nice dinner or something. I might see about having a nice spicy dinner. Maybe it will kickstart something. :-) I will walk until my feet fall off too. I'm really hoping to avoid the c-section.

I got my paperwork all squared away at work today. I will officially be off for 12 weeks. It works out really nicely because my first day back will be November 1st, which lets me miss 3 ends of the month. That makes me very happy. Of course, my short term disability only pays me 70% of my salary for 5 weeks. I have to use vacation for the first week, and then I am supplementing the other 5 weeks with another week of vacation. Then, I have 6 weeks off work with no pay. I've been saving for a while for this, so we should be just fine. We are spending a good deal to take this trip to Oregon though. That combined with last minute baby purchases has made my bank account look sad. I guess it will continue to look sad with daycare expenditures later too. I will get used to it I suppose. That's life.