The sound of.... silence?

I love the first days and weeks of a childs life. Most children, after their lungs have grown, go through some pretty amazing vocals. However, some children are also like that beforehand. Not Kaitlyn.

She has cried for, maybe, 5 minutes from 7am this morning until now, which is 11:30pm. Why the 5 minutes of crying? Daddy took a very long time to change her diaper, and change her clothes. We've been on a pretty good schedule, which her only being awake about 4 hours in the middle of the night, and she continues to sleep or otherwise quietly "hang" most of the day.

In the hospital, this knack for quietude had me so nervous that I kept asking if the baby was OK... shouldn't she be making any noise? The nursery nurse just told us "no, it is OK, count your blessings as you have a baby with a sweet disposition".

So, as instructed, I am counting my blessings because my baby has a sweet disposition. Two days at home and Linda and I are well fed, well rested, and happy. I'm not nieve enough to think that this will continue for the next several months, but it is the order of today and we are enjoying it to its fullest.

Oddly, I think some of my friends and family are "staying away" because they are concerned about how we are adjusting to this time. We had dozens of people visit us in the hospital, and we had a big party on Friday evening when we came home from the hospital. Then.... almost no visitors at all over the weekend. 8(

We've always been social people and are anxious to show Kaitlyn off, especially when she is being so very sweet and friendly. Hopefully by the time people start coming around, she hasn't hit her lung-growth-spurt! 8)

-Ed

The Story Of Kaitlyn Isabella

We have been home since Friday, introducing Kaitlyn to her new digs. If I interpret her crying correctly, I think she is complaining that we have not yet procured a big-screen, flat-panel television for the living room.

Kaitlyn has fed, and is down for a nap. Linda is also down for a nap. And I wanted to take this chance and relate the story of Kaitlyn's birth for you, for me, and for posterity. For many of the friends who have already heard this, I apologize. For those of you who lost money in the betting of how long it would take me before I posted this story, I also apologize.

---

Linda and I decided to induce Kaitlyn. We were not due until the 26th of September but, on a doctor's visit a few weeks ago Linda was 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced. The next week, she was 2cm dilated and 75% effaced. The Monday before we induced, she was 3cm and 90% effaced. Our doctor recommended inducing because, given how quickly Linda was progressing, there were very few dangers of a C-section and it would allow us to schedule when the baby came. Scheduling is nice in that it allows us to prepare the house and make sure that our doctors were there through the process in case anything went wrong, or if we got nervous.

So, here is the play-by-play of this past Wednesday:

4:00am : Linda and I get up and pack the rest of the van and head to the hospital.

5:00am : We arrive at GBMC and check in.

6:30am : Linda is all tucked into her hospital bed, with an IV of electrolytes and some petosine (sp?) which will induce contractions.

7:00am : Our doctor stops in, confirms that we are at 3cm still, and breaks Linda's water. She then heads off to do a 7:30am general surgery and gives orders not to deliver the baby before 9am. She thinks she is joking.

7:15am : Linda opts for an epidural and, as luck would have it, the epidural guy is in the room next door to us. The procedure is painless, took less than 5 minutes, and afterwards Linda felt no pain. In fact, she felt no pain at all until we had delivered the baby and were resting comfortably back in the post-partum area of the hospital.

8:40am : A nurse stops in to check on Linda, who has been hanging out in bed chatting with me and a few "rn's in training" who are stoping in to learn the ropes in labor and delivery. We are shocked to learn that Linda is now 8cm dilated and 100% effaced and that the baby will be coming out in the next hour. Our original doctor is paged out of surgery, but our original, more senior OB is the one who shows up.

8:40am - 9:30am : We see alot of drops in Kaitlyn's heartrate, going as low as 54bpm (110bpm is the lowest they want it to be). Our OB decided this is not good and we begin a pattern of moving Linda side to side, rubbing the belly, poking the baby, and generally trying to do all sorts of tricks to keep the baby's heartrate up. These, though frightening, did a pretty good job.

9:45am : PUSH! PUSH! PUSH! PUSH!

10:30am : Linda did a great job of pushing and, left to her own devices, would have given birth to the baby in another 20-30 minutes or so. But, the heartrate was still dipping low every once in a while so our OB decided to use lower forceps. One nurse jumped on the bed and started pushing on Linda's stomach with both hands to help Linda push and, at 10:31am Kaitlyn was born, wisked to the baby station, cleaned off, and declared healthy. The cause of all of our stress? A cord wrapped around her head and lots of fluid in the lungs.

10:45am - 2:00pm: An emotionally exhausted mom and dad spend some quality time with their new daughter before heading over to recovery. It was one of the fastest "first births" many in the ward had seen, and we were greatful for that, but it was also an emotional roller-coaster until we knew that kaitlyn was going to be OK.

Linda is doing well and recovering well. Baby has been an absolute joy. We are very, very, very proud parents to a very, very, very special little girl. I posted some pictures on our FLICKR site, but this one is, without question, my favorite:

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce you to the two loves of my life:




-Ed

my most beautiful

Kaitlyn Isabella

7 pounds
8 ounces

20 inches

Born 10:30am

9 20 06 (9 2006)

Mom and baby doing well, incredible pictures to follow soon.

-Ed

Sneaky

Hi all,

I have to apologize. So many people have been calling and e-mailing and asking whether the baby has been born yet that I put up a joke post called "New Arrival" for those who skim my blog.

Please, take a second gander at it; the new arrival discussed in that post is my flickr banner. If Kaitlyn decides not to show herself by Wednesday AM, we are going to have her induced so, fear not, you won't have to wait very long for actual news.

-Ed

New Arrival!!

I have wonderful news! After much waiting and anticipation I am proud to announce a new addition to the Ed and Linda blogging family! If you have been reading this blog for any length of time (including the previous blog about baby showers) you will no doubt have learned that we were expecting the arrival of something very special. Well.... IT'S HERE!

So, without further adieu... allow me to introduce to you something that you can already see on the right of the screen, above the sticky posts section. That will be our brand new flickr badge. Yup, we have entered the digital picture age and will start storing pictures on flickr instead of rolling them out inline in this blog. After the latest set of pictures from the blog, I realized we needed to add something to help organize the onslaught of pictures of

Kaitlyn Isabella

You all might as well get used to looking at pictures of a baby, so I pulled a random one off of google to help warm you up:



So, I hope that you enjoy looking at these flickr photos in my new photo stream. I'm hoping to avoid printing alot of them out. With the new baby coming, I'm afraid if I were to print out all of the pictures they would weigh

Eight Pounds 7 Ounces

So, please, give Linda and I a big CONGRATULATIONS! on our new flickr entry. We are really, really excited about it!

-Ed

Generosity

Linda and I were fortunate enough to have 4 major baby showers during our pregnancy. The outpouring of love and support from all of these events was truly, truly immense.

In parents-to-be terms, love and support means "lots of stuff from Babies-R-Us".

Coming home from the shower that we had at my mother's house, I was pretty shocked at the pile of stuff we received:



That is one full van.


Adding this to the presents already collected over the other 3 showers and we had a room devoted to tangible well-wishes for our unborn daughter:



We call this one "Mount Generosity"


Yes, the cows are what you think. No, they are not for the baby. Yes, I still have them. Yes, there is a story to them. Yes, I will tell it one day.


I wanted to post some of these pictures as a way of explaining just why I have been away for so long. It has taken alot of time to make room for this stuff, assemble this stuff, learn how to use all of this stuff, and put it all where it belongs.

Chances are, if you are reading this blog, you contributed to some of this stuff! And, if so, I want to say, again, thank you.

-Ed

Nesting

People often talk about "nesting" when it comes to pregnant women. Nesting is the desire, onset during late pregnancy, to clean everything within ones house to the tiniest detail, sparing no minutae. It is sometimes coupled with the sweeping desire to refurnish, redecorate, or, more simply, re-locate.

How this behaviour became named after the avian practice of building habitats out of sticks, mud, and dung... I have no idea.

I had assumed that since Linda was having a pretty even-keel pregnancy I would have been spared the "nesting experience". Heh.. haha. hahahahahahah

I got a call one day at work from my eight-month-pregnant wife. She informed me, in military style, that the entire second floor of the house has been vacuumed, shampooed twice, and then vacuumed again. She then sent me a picture of a clean entryway into our bedroom along with orders that it stay that way for the next 47 years:



Yes, Linda took a picture of our bedroom floor.


Upon returning home that evening, I found Linda performing her next nesting project. Apparently, the tops of the furniture in the bedroom will have a tendency to gather dust every 4 or 5 months or so. This is unacceptable. The only way (clearly) to handle this difficult household problem is to hand-sew custom-fitted covers over every piece of furniture in the bedroom. What else is one to do?

Well, let me tell you... the only sane thing to do is head on down to the fabric store and get that needled threaded!



There comes a time in every pregnancy where the dad-to-be-must not question. Photo-document? yes. But never question.


"How, Ed", you might ask, "does one know if one's wife is nesting?"

It is important for every dad-to-be to be able to recognize this behaviour in his wife. It is imperative that the husband not interfere with this activity -- it is akin to waking a sleepwalker. Yes, this phenomenon, like a hurricane, requires some preparation. Items that could be seen as junk (game consoles, t-shirts, cats) could be swept away and never recovered. Early warning is our only defense.

So, study this picture. When your wife looks like this, run. It is best to have everything you value pre-packaged in a small tote to grab on the way out. It is usually safe to come back inside when you stop hearing the sound of cleaning appliances.



Don't fear until you see the whites of her eyes

The Friend Shower

Linda and I have some of the best friends in the world. No doubt about it! When they decided to throw us a baby shower they knew that we liked a little themed flair to our events and they really, really did a great job making our shower a heck of a party.

I host a poker night once a month, and have done so for (almost) the past 4 years. We thought that the July poker night was going to get off to an early start when we heard someone knocking at our door at 7pm (when the party usually starts closer to 8pm). Opening the door... Lo and Behold... several of our friends were outside, dressed like they had come from the 1920's.

We were quickly informed that the friend baby shower was happening that night, that Linda and I were to go upstairs and hang for an hour while our house was prepared, and to help pass the time, we were given an arts-and-crafts activity: to build a crib out of popsicle sticks. We were to come downstairs dressed in our best 1920's outfits, and preceede to much merriment.

The theme? Our basement was about to be transformed into....

The Roaring Crib

A high-stakes casino set in the 1920's. Woohoo!

So, Linda and I went upstairs, took showers, and built our cribs.

Linda's crib was complex and used wet sticks to get a good bend. Unfortunately, there was no time for them to dry so the glue did not adhere well:



Linda's Concept Crib


I cannibalized a hinge from the box holding our craft supplies and made a drop-side crib:



Wax On




Wax Off


Once downstairs we sat in our Living Room and received oodles of presents, but the blog about presents is forthcoming. Food and drinks were provided (huge Quiznos subs are awesome).



There was no gambling on how delicious this was (and no gambling on how campy my captions can be).




It isn't a party until you spike the punch in the inflatable ducky


After presents and fun, it was off to "The Crib" which was set up in our basement. We were each given sippy-cups filled with tokens which we were able to use for gambling throughout the night. Whoever had the most tokens at the end of the night got a door prize.



The only way to win roulette is not to play.




Craps rocks.


We also had texas hold'em and blackjack tables. Some of our friends were casino cocktail waitresses. Some of them worked the tables. Some of them were gamblers, just like us. All in all, it was an incredible night that lasted far, far, into the evening.

It makes us feel that we've done something right as friends that people will go "the extra mile" to take something that is already special and make it even more so. We are lucky to know people who are not only creative but who easily share their creativity and time for others.

Thank you all, again.

-Ed, Linda, Kaitlyn (ELK).

Linda Through The Ages

Linda will be 37 weeks on Tuesday. That means that, come Tuesday, Linda is considered full term -- that's pregnancy speak for "hold onto your britches". We have been blessed with a pretty uneventful pregnancy. Linda has been healthy, Lentilina has been healthy, and all have been active and happy for the past 9 months.

I hope and pray that our little girl is healthy and that birth goes well -- I'm sure I'm not the only dad-to-be who has thought this. I'm also sure that this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship with my new best friend: Worry.

I am often in awe of Linda. I've said several times she has such a wonderful work and personal ethic about her and she does all that she does with an air and beauty that makes me proud. In that vein, here are a few shots of my pregnant, darling wife:



Linda is 5 months along when my niece graduated Elementary School




She was around 7 months while vacationing with friends




Linda takes after her mom. From the back she doesn't look pregnant at all at 8 months.




End of 8 months at my Family's Baby Shower!




Kaitlyn has started becoming more prominent.




Scaling Mount Kaitlyn!

Organization

OK... I'm back. I think.

The problem is, I need to go through all of my chicken-scratch on my piece of paper of stuff that I wanted to write about. This could take some time to make coherent. I'd like to start with a little montage of Linda and the recent generoaisty we have all received.

-Ed

Juan Hopkins

To think that I would catch a breather.

At work I have the title of Senior Staff and, when pulishing conference papers, the particular society accepting the paper desires that the author place their job title, department, and contact information at the bottom of the first page of the work.

Now, I have read and re-read my fourteen page submission several times. Apparently, this review did not include the footnotes at the bottom of the page as, upon printing a final copy to take home with me the day after the paper was due, I realized that I had identified myself as:

Senor Staff

Of course, I made this realization 30 minutes before several of my friends arrived for Poker Night. Everyone except me had a good laugh. 8) A panicked one-hour later and the problem had been corrected and re-submitted. To date, I think that there will only be two lasting scars from this incident:


1. My nickname has become Senor Staff.
2. People now insist that I work for Juan Hopkins.

-Senor Staff