7 months

So, our little Ellie celebrated her 7 month birthday last weekend! Here is a pic that I took on her actual birthday. (I need to brag about that accomplishment, as I'm rarely so on-the-ball.) Of course, I still failed to post the photos on her actual birthday, but let's accentuate the positive here.


She has started really rolling around, which is a lot of fun to watch, but is an obvious distraction when she should be napping. "Object permanence" is developing, particularly when she drops something from her chair or exersaucer onto the floor; now instead of immediately moving on to another toy, she peers over the edge, trying to spot the dropped object. As of now, she does not scream to have it returned.

As I was sitting down to download the pictures from the camera, I remembered how I used to freak myself out using the laptop while I was pregnant. I would balance the computer on my big tummy and I worried that I was transferring some sort of weird electronic wave into the growing baby. To a lesser degree I also worried about carrying my cellphone in the pocket of my hoodie sweatshirt, right on my tum.

Anyway. Thanks to Marnie for turning me on to The Pioneer Woman. Marnie recommended The Pioneer Woman Cooks, which in turn led me to Confessions of a Pioneer Woman. I am one of the people who is, for better or worse, hooked on this woman's periodic recollection of meeting and marrying a cowboy.

This leads me to my own cowboy, who is actually in no way, shape, or form a cowboy. We've had a rough couple of weeks with all of us being sick, dealing with the winter blahs and blues, feeling our own ruts at work, and generally not having much energy left over for ourselves every day. I think I'm not too far off base when I say that we both feel somewhat under-appreciated by each other lately. With that said, here's a short (not at all exhaustive!) list of why I love BK: He does all the shoveling, whenever it needs to be done. This includes nearly every square inch of our driveway, which is pretty extensive as compared to other suburban driveways due to it wrapping around the garage into the back yard, where it meets up with the shop. Shoveling also happens on the deck, and most recently on the roof. Here is proof.
As you can see in the following photos, first he slogs through the knee-high snow on the deck to clear a portion of the roof. Next, he starts to shovel himself out. Then, he works on clearing the deck. This is the form of manly which my man takes on. Suits me just fine!






Other reasons I love BK: He's been working tirelessly to fix up an old snowblower given to us (sweet success just last night!). He stays relatively calm, most of the time. He's supportive of me and Ellie jetting to Miami to see Al, Mitch and new baby Azalea. He vacuums. He vacuums the rugs in 'my' bathroom. He works a second job at night, but always takes a break to watch LOST with me. He looks hot when he throws sparkies and lays darkies (you may not know what that means, but BK does, and I better get a nice little neck nuzzle for having it on the list!). He's getting more and more into feeding Ellie, now that mama is not her sole source of nourishment. He's a good daddy. I love you, BK!

Back into the swing

It's been a long time. Heavens, our beautiful baby girl is closing in on seven months! She's everything we hoped she'd be, and so many things we could never have expected.
The neighbor dude used to chuckle and tell me I wouldn't be able to wait to get home after work...just to see our sweetheart. The sweaty man holding a garden rake, resting his free hand upon his beer belly was absolutely right. He'd been through the four births of his children, and had plenty of stories to share with me prior to ELK entering our world. Looking back on that, I'm glad I took the time to turn off the lawnmower and pick his brain a bit about what to expect.
I love that she has my eyes. Well, not the cruddy, blood-shot and red-rimmed part of my eyes...the beautiful clear blue. Her cousin has electric blue eyes that will put you in a trance, but hers are more subdued, begging you to look closer to see what else they'll tell you.
My brother was right, baby farts are one of life's sacred pleasures. I can't wait to teach her to laugh at those!

JULY 24, 2007

On July 24, 2007, our lives changed forever. Beautiful little Elizabeth Lindy squeezed her way into this world. To put it bluntly, we are smitten.

To catch up a little bit since the last post on July 18, 2007... Life was just clicking along. There are remnants of those feelings of excitement, wondering what day my water would break, or when I might start to feel real contractions. I remember spending a lot of time online, trying to look for clues to the puzzle of the birthing process. I dragged information out of other moms and dads, comparing my pregnancy to others, grasping at similarities and tossing out anything that might mean our little girl would wait more than another few days to appear in the flesh.

Let me tell you a little story. I think it's a good one. On Friday, July 20, BK and I hooked up with some of our good friends and stormed the Dane County fair. I did a lot of watching and eating, as might be expected of a responsible pregnant woman at the fair. BK and the rest had a good time on the "Shocker" (jokes aplenty were made, trust me), until some stupid kids started yelling for a second go, and the Shocker Jockey obliged. After that it wasn't much fun. BK squealed, tried to keep the smile on his face, and then eventually gave up and just looked blank. The rest of the gang fared better. Next was a 22-second ride through what they described as the most lame spookhouse in the whole big world. Then some more food. Then Tommy and BK irritated a carnie by speaking loudly about how the basketball hoops were slightly oval, therefore preventing the round basketball from swishing through. More food. And one more ride. The "Tornado" or something. This one made Tommy sick. He was pretty quiet for the rest of the night. It would have the the optimal moment for the carnie to exact some revenge. Then somebody won a little orange goldfish, which just so happens to still be alive and loved at Tommy's house; their three cats have not eaten him yet. I think we finished off the night with some ice cream. As a collective, we noshed miniature donuts, frybread, popcorn, corn on the cob on a stick dipped into a glorious vat of melted butter, sno-cones, soda soda soda, and the ice cream. I love the fact that I went to the fair 9 months pregnant.

I don't remember Saturday. (Hopefully we didn't do something totally fab and I've chucked it into the garbage bin section of my memory.) BK and his gang of motorcycle beasties spent Sunday the 22nd cruising (ha) around, obeying all speed limits and other state highway laws. I remember that Emily and I had talked about going shopping, and by 10 am I was hoping she had forgotten because I was so tired. By 11, I was set on staying home. By noon, I had been on the couch for two hours, and had very consciously decided that I was going to spend the rest of the day on the couch reading or snoozing or both, based on the fact that it may very well be the last Sunday where I get to lay around and do nothing. I heard from several moms that they did things like go crazy and clean the whole house, and their baby was born the next day. Or they finished up a project at work and BOOM: baby time. I love the fact that my omen manifested itself as a conscientious decision to be lazy, that my baby time radar said "Hey, you, hobbit foot, take it easy today. You're gonna need your rest."

On the ride to work the next day, Monday, July 23, I kindly asked BK to stay home from his Sunday rides until after the baby's born. I mean, here I am, 9 months preg, and he's out tearing it up. We had a whole plan that involved texting and leaving voicemails, and what those messages would say if it was urgent (water breaking) or not so (light contractions), and who I would call in case of emergency (I had a mental map plotted out of which friend lived closest versus who was the most likely to be home to drive me to the hospital). Anyway, BK's response was that of course he was done riding until after the baby was born.

Warning: graphic pregnant woman/the beauty of the weird things a woman's body does to get ready for the baby scene ahead.

7:30 am: conversation as described above about BK laying off the Sunday fun for awhile.
8:00 am: arrive at work. go to bathroom. notice something a little weird, but decide to ignore it.
9:00 am: go to bathroom (yes, again, shut up). notice weird thing is still occurring. hmm. decide to ignore it for one more hour.
9:15 am: talk to my mom. she says to not go into labor until she finishes her laundry. i don't tell her about the weird thing.
9:30 am: talk to BK, probably. don't tell him about the weird thing.
10:00 am: go to bathroom. ok, weird thing still occurring. tell myself that i've been calm for most of my pregnancy, maybe now it's ok to wonder if maybe i'm leaking amniotic fluid.
10:05 am: sneak into conference room to call nurse. describe wetness to nurse. nurse confers with my regular nurse that based on my description and the fact that i'm 9 days from my due date, i might as well come in and have fluid tested. can i be there at 12:30? oh, for sure. see you then.
10:10 am: call BK. his voice trips. i can hear a definite flinch through the phone line. and then he's ok. see you at 12:15.
12:00 noon: tell my boss what's up. excited! will keep in touch.
12:15 pm: pick up BK. he's a little crazy-eyed, but overall calm.
12:30 pm: arrive at clinic, get weighed (ugh), get blood pressure checked (great!), talk to nurse some more.
12:45 pm: see dr kate sample, the ob/gyn on call that day. nice doc; we like her. she checks the fluid three ways: the consistency, visual observation, and a ph test. based on consistency and visual, she states that she thinks it's just discharge and not my water. BK and i sigh. she announces that she will run the sample down to the lab and will be back shortly. BK and i stare at each other for a few minutes, then relax and get chatty and talk about what to have for lunch before we return to our respective offices.
1 pm: dr sample returns with the results from the sample. it's my water. i say "holy shit." BK and i smile crazy smiles and i for one don't know how to process the fact that we'll be birthing a baby within the next 24 hours. dr sample asks when i noticed the fluid, as the baby should be born within 24 hours of a leak. i say 8 am. that means we'll be birthing a baby within the next 19 hours. gulp.
2 pm: we leave the clinic after having some little tests done, like counting heart rate and kicks, etc. i call mom and ask if her laundry is done. she freaks out. we call everybody else, then go home and pack our bags.
6 pm: arrive at hospital. go right to our birthing suite. talk to nice nurses.
8 pm: am hooked up to pitocin, as there have been no real contractions.
8:15 pm: feel real contractions. fun.
8:30: water breaks. yahoo!
9:00: lots of real contractions. less fun now.
the next few hours consist of walking, bouncing, and requesting whatever narcotic they can give me to help ease the pain. the narcotic wears off. the sucky thing about the narcotic wearing off, is that while you are enjoying the narcotic, the contractions are getting worse. only you don't know they're getting worse. but then you find out just how bad they've gotten when the narcotic wears off. i can't remember when i asked for the epidural, but i do remember that it took the anesthesiologist 4 tries. 4 pokes. 40 minutes later, the epidural is placed.

my mom arrives. we take a 20 minute break, and then start pushing. i don't remember how long i pushed, but it's not as long as many women push. throughout the pushing, i would suddenly become aware of my surroundings because everybody starts moving and talking and rushing around. the baby is in distress. page the doctor for fetal heart tones. move the monitor. move back to your left side. alright. let's push. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. quick breath in 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. whewwwww. wait for next contraction. do it all again. page the doctor for fetal heart tones. i turn my head and ask BK what's going on. "they're trying to find the baby's heartbeat" he tells me. ok, there it is. on and on, more pushing, breathing, existing in this floaty, cloudy space where i'm not asleep but i'm not awake. not until the next contraction, and the next, and the next, and too many times they page the doctor for fetal heart tones, and then they check and the baby is not out far enough. dr kate sample tells me that we need to make a choice between the forceps and the vacuum. i insist on no vacuum (remember that i see malpractice cases for a living, and that's all i'll say about that). i ask dr kate sample if she's ever used the forceps (it's the best i can do to credential this physician on-the-spot). she gives me a gentle smile and says "many times." the forceps team is called. the forceps team arrives, excited to be needed. they rearrange me from my left side to my back and scoot me to the bottom of the table. WHOA. the baby's head is suddenly very far out, like most of her forehead is showing. stop pushing, dr kate sample quickly tells me. i didn't do anything, i say. i get to feel the top of the baby's head. i'm awake now! the forceps team leaves the room, obviously dejected. everybody in the ready position. two more easy pushes and baby girl is in my arms. she looks right at me. right at me. me. her mom. i'm now a mom, and my baby is in my arms.


It's 4:55 am on Tuesday, July 24th, 2007. The day our lives changed forever.

That's the beginning of the story. There's much more to come. Now I'm crying. Not now, as in now in the story, although it's true I was crying at this point of the story. I'm crying right now, as I type this. I love her so much. Every day my love grows exponentially. Parents talk about how hard it is, how tired they are, how much work it is or how scary it is. No one tells you that your heart will be filled to the brim with nothing but the purest love you've ever felt, love you never understood you could feel, love you never knew existed. But you know now, and you will never let go, ever.

A fortnight.

Funny word, innit? Fortnight? I'll have to look up the history of that one. Two weeks. That's it folks. Well, unless our little girl isn't ready to see us. I know, I really need a haircut...I'm pretty scary lookin' these days. I'll even shave my face if it'll help move the process along. BITO is ready for this. She's asking for it. We're both really excited to see how things "shake out".

Speaking of shaking out, our kitchen remodel is nearly done! Evidence below:
Some trim work, paint, backsplash, artwork, and some kitchen accessories are in our future. We may end up staining the countertop before we seal it. We have some scraps on which we can do tests.

We have our second-to-last baby appointment today. We'll update with any new info!

4 weeks and counting...

The countdown has recently shifted from "how far along" to "how much longer." It's a nice change, except when BK took me by surprise by describing to a friend that we're "8 months pregnant." I had forgotten that we were 8 months pregnant. I only knew there were a few more weeks to go.

The house keeps coming along. BK had a small freak-out about the state of the baby's room (it's put together, just not organized) but he satisfied himself by snapping together the stroller. I think he needed a break from the large-scale kitchen project, and the 4-minute stroller assembly worked perfectly. Completion, on any scale, can be rejuvenating.

The kitchen is looking fabulous. Aside from countertop and the installation of the gas cooktop, one side is done. BK and my dad put in almost all the cabinets on that side last weekend. BK's brothers are visiting this weekend and I'm guessing the other side of the kitchen will gradually materialize over the next couple days, including the installation of the new sink.

My goal is to organize the nursey, which mostly needs the three million onesies sorted by size and put away in drawers (or totes, for the 12-month sizes). I also plan to spend as much time on the sofa as possible without annoying the kitchen worker bees. My right foot and ankle are swollen due to the hot and sticky weather and the Braxton Hicks contractions just keep on comin'. On the upside, I don't have any back pain, and the baby continues to amuse me with her in-utero antics. Life is good.

Baby room...check.

I don't have photographic evidence, but the baby's room is D-U-N done! Flooring, rug, trim, walls, etc. We were going to also replace the ugly fan/light combo on the ceiling, but it works fine at this point. There will be at least one lamp in the room as well. Glider rocker is installed and looking comfy. The wimmings assembled the HUGE convertible crib, and that looks super as well.
This would be our fetus at the 30-week ultrasound. This latest shot shows the down-turned mouth of BITO's ancestors. The baby's right hand is over her face, and there's some other goo in the way of a clear shot of her eyes and nose. Tricky little thing. But such a cutie.

We're 2/3's of the way done with the birthing classes. Daddy Boot Camp was a success as well. I got to change a diaper (just a wet one), so that was cool. It was nice to be able to speak frankly with new dads about their experiences. Teachers can be only so open and honest. The real deal was very satisfying.

Clock is ticking. Kitchen remodel is forging ahead at a stately pace. The bamboo flooring is installed, and now we must get the walls filled, primed, textured and painted prior to getting any cabinets up. Oh, and yours truly didn't order enough cabinet legs...so there's another setback. *sigh*

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG SISTER BEANS!

Back 2 School

BITO and I are gearing up for our first day of class tomorrow. I'm expecting this "birthing school" to be highly entertaining. I know I'll have to take it seriously and listen intently, but in the end I know I'll forget the most important things. Then I'll just have to improvise. I wasn't very good at improv when I played string bass in grade school, so we'll see how this goes.

No, it's not lamas class. Well, it might be. But I guess it's much more than that. I think we'll learn how to handle the wee one in several situations. We'll learn how the whole breastfeeding thing works, and what not to eat. We'll probably learn about things that commonly scare parents of newborns, and other things we haven't thought about already.

Daycare is in the works. We found a reasonably-priced place in the neighborhood. Pick up and drop off should be easy, and the facility looks pretty nice. Smells like diapers, but whattaya gonna do? They have an outdoor play area that's pretty trick...and a "big wheels" course for the older kids. We still don't know if we can afford it, but it's the best we can do in the area. It will be interesting to see the things we'll have to give up to afford it. I know it will be worth it, but which things will make it through the sieve? Luckily, my bike is paid off! Oh, I'm such a prick.