Wow So Much Has Happened...

It has been crazy at work and home that I haven't had time to post anything. I'm sorry I haven't posted pics from Thanksgiving, Christmas and the snow - I still haven't posted pics from Melanie's wedding! I was going to do something this week but things took an incredible turn when baby Oliver decided to come and hang a little earlier than normal. Here's the story:

We went to CDA the day after Christmas to make Crista and Joe's wedding. We stayed an extra day and came back Monday, December 29th so that we wouldn't have any problems with the pass. The roads had been extremely icy and we didn't want to hit the pass at night. The drive was great and we didn't have any problems with the pass, thank goodness, and got home around 7:45-8:00pm last night. After unloading the car and unpacking our suitcases my water broke so we had to reload up the car and get down to the hospital. My water didn't break on its own when I had Kate so all I had to go off of was descriptions from books, the internet and other people. Turns out I was right and I was having the baby that night!

After getting checked into our room and phone calls made to the family I found that I was only 2 cm dialated so we knew that we were in for the long haul and it was going to be an incredibly long night. I had a feeling that because my labor with Kate was so easy this one was going to be a lot harder however that was farthest from the case. This labor was even easier than Kate's - less contraction pain, the epidural only took 5-10 minutes to insert (as opposed to an hour the last time), and I jumped from 5 cm to 9 cm dialated in less than 30 minutes. By 4:45am I was ready to push; four contractions later and out pops Oliver. He arrived at 4:52am this morning weighing 6 lbs, 4 ozs and 17 in long. It was so fast that Scott had driven over from CDA the minute my water broke and he got to the hospital 5 minutes before Oliver was born! :D

Here are the first pics of Oliver:






































And of course Kate and Lucky passed out on the sofa bed after a long exhausting day driving and hospitals:

Congratulations All Around!

First of all, today is Kate's third birthday so I'm trying to get this blog post out the door before I leave today. We are going to Chuck E Cheese tonight for a little party and Kate can't stop talking about it. I found my camera charger so I'm able to download pictures again and when I have a spare second I'll post some here.

Second, I have been meaning to post an article ran in the first issue of Northwest Tattoo Magazine. Lucky's work was a part of an article about employees with tattoos and the reporter interviewed Sam - who has the incredibly large tribal tattoo that wraps around his entire upper body. The article is not on the website but you can view it below. Congrats, Lucky, you are now a published artist - in a roundabout sort of way.

For Lucky

I want to go back.

This Last Weekend

Kate and I had a busy day on Saturday, starting with driving down to Kent to buy a dresser from a lady that I found through Craigslist, and then going to Ikea to settle my nesting crazies.

I was looking for a 6-drawer dresser (3 drawers down x 2 across) to use for both Kate and Oliver. Their bedroom is going to be cramped with a baby and toddler stuff so we are having to get creative with storage. I knew that there was no way we were going to get two dressers and a changing table in a room that already has a toddler bed, crib, wagon, art easel and stuffed animals. So I decided that I was going to get a 6 drawer dresser and use it for both Kate and Oliver as well as a changing table.

The first dresser I found on Craigslist seemed perfect. I was kind of nervous because if this thing went through this would be my first CL purchase. Especially for a pregnant chick and her child with no real protection if anything happened. It just so happened that when I go to this house the lady was really cool and her husband actually put the dresser in the back of my car for me. The dresser was perfect - in color and size. When we got it into the room last night it couldn't have been better.

I was so excited about the dresser that I really wanted to buy more items - which I knew wouldn't happen with my lack of money - but that wouldn't deter my nesting crazies and Kate and I decided to brave the long lines and massive crowds of Ikea.

Things started out ok when we found a parking spot right across the parking lot from the front door - I couldn't believe our good luck! There were people parking around the corner in the employee area as well as across the street in other company's parking lots. I had good feelings about this trip.

Good feelings gone the instant we get inside.

The first thing we see is the kiddie play area with the long line out front of people wanting to hand off their kids. I looked that that line longingly counting down the days until Kate could go in there. Kate was looking longingly as well - she threw a fit when she couldn't go in. Poor baby has to be potty trained and 3 years old. She's got the hard part down, it's only the waiting part now until Kate's three. Only a few more weeks. So Kate decided that she wanted to "show me something" every time we walked past a piece of furniture. We didn't get out of the first living room showcase for 10 minutes! This wasn't going to be easy getting through the whole store. I had to threaten her with a spanking a couple different times in the first 30 minutes alone and we weren't even out of the couch section yet.

Things were looking better when we got to the bed section, Kate decided it was nap time and wanted to climb into every bed that had covers on it. I finally let her lie down in one bed near the frame I want to buy for her and people were walking by laughing at her and commenting at how cute she was. I had to snap a pic of her in the bed, she looked incredibly comfortable and tiny in the giant bed.

Kate's actions continues in this "happy mode" through the toy section and after we left that area she started back up with the "I want to show you something" line. I was done by this point and was relieved when we got to the middle of the store around the back side of the play area. I decided that enough was enough and we were done with all things Ikea. I had to drag Kate away from the play area again, which was worse than the first time, back to the car (which, thank goodness, was right across the way from the front steps). Kate didn't stop crying until after we got home and I put her to bed - she needed a nap but I didn't put her down any later than usual. FINALLY I got to enjoy some peace and quite for the next couple of hours and then Kate woke up as happy as a clown.

Ahh, the joys of being a parent.

Like Father Like Daughter

Yes, that is a Wizard magazine Kate is reading....

Halloween Times are Upon Us

We went to a pumpkin patch this Sunday so Kate can pick out her very first pumpkin. It was the most amazing day and perfect weather to go. We had a blast tromping around acres of field to find the perfect pumpkins followed by having some roasted corn for a snack and picking up some corn and apples to take home. Kate had so much fun that besides Christmas this is her favorite holiday.

Looking at the daunting task ahead of her trying to decide which pumpkin to pick...


Kind of Children of the Corn-like huh? Kate loved the corn maze.
Kate and Daddy carving pumpkins. The two pumpkins we picked are the largest pumpkins I have ever carved! That was normal size at the pumpkin patch...

Kate's final product. She loves this thing!

Thanksgiving

We were planning on going to Coeur d'Alene for Thanksgiving but it looks like Lucky can't get out of working. Oh yeah, I think I forgot to mention that he is now working at Borders part time to supplement the income that is not walking into the shop. He's not taking a supervisor position and has already demanded a specific schedule and time off when Oliver comes. So now that means to time off for holidays. I'm ok with it but I have a feeling my parents aren't going to like it too much. And because they won't get their asses over to this side of the state to see us, they are screwed. Sucks to be them.

Do you want to know what my world had been like the last couple of weeks?

It is all about the T-Mobile G1 baby!

We sent out 79 devices to our top editors/reviewers today and it was quite a process. We had about an hour left after the packages left and we didn't really know what to do. Shelby and I just kind of sat at our desks staring at our computer monitors, heads completely blank of what we had to do next.
















The FedEx guy got all the packages in one load however. Talk about the right person for the job!

Yeah, I don't really know what else to write, my head is blank and I have 15 minutes before I go home. It is raining here - I don't know why I like driving in the rain but I do. Wow, I'm yammering.

I'm leaving.

To Lucky

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight.
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

Where the Sidewalk Ends
~by Shel Silverstein

I love you
~Erin

Potty Training and Just Plain Cuteness

OK, yes, I'm trying to become one of those moms that blog non-stop about their adorable kids but that is just because my entire family are in different states and I hate the phone. :) I've been recently talking to everyone about potty training Kate and how it has been something I have been dreading since before she was born. A lady I used to work with at Avista gave me some great PT advice informing me that the quickest way to get a child trained was to ingrain it in her head. Everyone out there in blog land is rolling their eyes going, "Duh!" I would like to say that piece of advice was easier said than done and go off on a huge rant about how difficult it was to potty train Kate but that was simply not the case.

The advice given to me was to take our kid to the potty every 15 minutes, whether she has to go or not, to let her know that this is where she goes pee pee or poo poo. It took a few tries but Kate picked up the habit, yelling in terror that she has to go potty and then I would drop everything I was doing and we would bolt into the bathroom to make sure she made it without an accident. Once she understood the bathroom concept, she would follow Lucky and I in or push the door open to grandly inform us that we were going potty. She would even clap for us and say "yay!" in congratulations. Do we really look like that when we congratulate her??? Needless to say, we haven't gotten any privacy in the bathroom since.

I also had the idea of making Kate a chart to show her potty progress and awarding her after so many successes. After every time she went in the potty, she got to put a star on her potty chart. After 10 stars she got a prize, ranging from ice cream to a new coloring book to a new dress. It has been going really well, and we figure that after she completes the chart she will be fully potty trained, but Kate has been filling up the boxes a little too fast. In one trip to the mall we had to buy her a new shirt, a coloring book and get her a cookie...So now instead of getting a star after every trip to the bathroom, she only gets a star if she goes #2 in the potty at home.

Here is a picture of Kate's potty chart.

Here are some more pics of Kate being stinking cute this morning.

Welcome!

Although I have known about the site for a while, I just added Christy Powers' blog to my blog list on the right-hand side. She and her husband Jason are expecting their first child on January 19th so she is my pregnancy buddy on the East Coast.

It is funny, and a little eerie, about how their lives wrap into ours. Check this out:

• Jason has been a friend of Lucky's for years down in Grass Valley and when he moved up to Seattle to go to art school he was close enough to be able to attend our wedding in 2003.
  
• When I was pregnant with Kate (which isn't saying much because unbeknownst to me I was two weeks pregnant at our wedding) we drove over to Seattle to see Jason and Christy get married at the compass on the hill top of Gasworks Park. That was Lucky's first experience in Seattle, our first roadtrip together, and first time we met Christy.
  
• At our first wedding anniversary we spent the evening of St. Pattys Day with Jason and Christy up on Capitol Hill and that was the night that we realized that we wanted to move to Seattle. (of course, I think J&C knew this because they immediately moved to NYC after we told them about our Seattle plans...) :)
  
• Now, we come to find out they are pregnant and due around the same time we are!

Only a bunch of coincidences but fun just the same.

It's Been a While

Yes, I know I have been slacking on my blog duties but I want to let you know that although I haven't written anything lately I have been thinking about writing a few blog posts lately. :) It has been really hectic around the office as of late and I hope you understand that when I say busy - I mean busy. We just unveiled the T-Mobile G1 phone last week and I don't really know what I have done in the past month that wasn't associated with this unveiling. From hotels to flights to 37 briefing books to being here until 11pm on Friday, September 19th, it was crazy. Good news is now the world knows about the phone and I hope you go to http://www.t-mobileg1.com/ for more information.


Now, onto more exiting stuff. On the 18th I went in for my regular monthly checkup and everything is right on schedule. I had my last ultrasound to check the stomach because the tech couldn't find that part last time, which is fine because I have never had so many ultrasounds in my life and it is always nice to re-confirm that the baby is actually there. It is really weird how my mind is playing tricks on me - I know that we are having another baby but it still kind of feels unreal. I made this tech check to make sure the gender was the same and lo and behold, we are still having a boy. Whew!


Here are some pics from the ultrasound.



















Now, a week and a half later, I am at 25 weeks and my stomach is the size of a soccer ball. Oliver is about the length of an ear of corn and is going to gain another pound and a half in the next week or so. Lucky finally had to break down and buy me some pregnancy pants because the ol' rubber-band-on-your-jeans-button trick was getting a little too difficult to pull off.

On another note, Kate is almost completely potty trained but that is going to be for the next post. I have to get some pics first and will post when I have a chance.

A Softer World

Dude, I found this web comic through another blog that I read and thought the humor was right up my alley so I have to share. It is called A Softer World and I'm definitely subscribing to their RSS feed!

These are some of the funny ones that were called out to me:
Oops
Meet Me in the Streets
Happy Mother's Day
The Tasty Side

Baby Loves to Dance

So I had to tell you, I am a little over 19 weeks and I can feel Oliver kicking and rolling around. The crappy part is he likes to sit on my bladder and loves loves loves to kick it every chance he gets. I knew I was going to have to go to the bathroom a lot but this is a little rediculous. I'm wondering what the last couple of weeks are going to be like.

Speaking of him rolling around, Oliver must also be close to my stomach. Each time he rolls it feels like I was sucker punched - without the pain. I am almost nauseaous every time he's there. That made me remember that in the delivery room the nurses give you a vomit bucket because you're about ready to hurl for half the experience. I have a feeling that this time it might actually happen....

Ahhh, love my little parasite!

Someone Else Who Gets My Way of Parenting

I have to pass along a blog that I read called "MetroDad." His blog is listed along the right hand side of my page so you have to check it out some time. I love this guy; he is funny, straightforward, and just gets it when it comes to parenting. I know that I am not the greatest parent in the world but there are some things that I feel my kid needs to know. MetroDad couldn't have said it better in his latest blog:

Use Your Words: How We're Raising a Nation of Pussies!

Walk into any playground or classroom in America and the most common phrase you'll hear parents and teachers say is "Use your words!"

I hear this phrase EVERYWHERE. Essentially, it's a mantra that enforces the idea that children should never hit or push one another. Nonviolence should be practiced at all times under every circumstance. And there is no problem that cannot be solved by open communication.

Want to know what I think? I think it's a bullshit mantra that only helps raise the next generation of pussies.

You want to know what I teach the Peanut? That actions have consequences. That one must always take responsibility for one's own actions. That words are sometimes not enough. And that, frequently in life, people need to be taught tough lessons.

Don't get me wrong. My daughter is a sweetheart. She's kind. She's caring. And she's extremely empathetic. I don't encourage her to go around indiscriminately hitting people. However, I do teach her not to take shit from anyone. Whenever another child pushes her, I tell her to politely tell that child that you don't like being pushed. But if he does it again, she has my full permission to shove his ass to the ground as hard as she can.

I guess the parenting mantra I'm trying to reenforce with her is, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

Because I'm such an easy-going guy, people are often surprised when they hear my philosophy on this subject. Last week, I was at daycare with the Peanut when an older boy came over and grabbed a toy out of the Peanut's hand. When she kindly asked for it back, the boy pushed her. The Peanut then turned to the boy and said, "Please don't push me. I don't like being pushed."

The boy's mother witnessed the whole thing and gently admonished her son, saying that it wasn't nice to push one's friends. What does the kid do? He hits the Peanut and pushes her again! Before the boy's mother can do anything, I calmly turn to my daughter and say, "You know what to do, kiddo."

The Peanut immediately runs up to the boy and shoves him so hard, he falls down on the ground. Predictably, he starts bawling his ass off. The mother looks at me with shock and yells at me, "how can you tell your daughter to push my child?"

I calmly reply, "My daughter very politely asked your son to stop pushing her. You yourself told him to stop pushing her. And what does your son do? Not only does he push her again but he also hit her. Do you think your way was working?"

At this point, I turn to the boy and say, "Are you ever going to push the Peanut again?"

Still choking back tears and clinging to his mother, he says "No. Never."

Five minutes later, the two kids were hugging each other and playing in the toy kitchen.

I don't know why, as parents, we've become so overprotective of our children. We coddle them. We hover over them. We don't allow them fail or to learn life's lessons on their own. And most importantly, we fail to discipline them. It's almost as if we're afraid of doing so.

As I said earlier, the most important lessons I want to teach the Peanut are that (1) actions have consequences, and (2) you should always accept responsibility for your actions. Somehow this seems to have faded from our nation's consciousness.

Look around us and you'll see adults everywhere who no longer hold themselves personally responsible for anything! From the adult who sues for wrongful termination because the employee manual didn't say that Xeroxing your bunghole was against company rules to the politician who blames his embezzling funds on the fact that he had an undiagnosed allergic reaction to mangoes, you'll notice that we've become a nation of pussies.

Don't you think it's because we're raising our kids to BECOME pussies?

Back when I was a kid, you learned your lessons the hard way. If you mouthed off to the wrong guy, you got your ass kicked. You sucked it up and walked it off. Nobody gave a rat's ass about your self-esteem or your gentle demeanor. You made a decision and that decision got your ass kicked. That's an important lesson to learn in life, don't you think?

Do You Want to Know What We Are Having?

We finally had our second doctor’s appointment this morning and I was kind of nervous because I was curious if my placenta had reattached to my uterus or if I was going to have problems later on in the pregnancy. It turns out that the placenta has in fact reattached so I was relieved that I had been careful enough to endure that happened. I have to admit there were a few times when I wasn’t as cautious, like when we were at the Nevada County Fair and they guys were trying to break up a fight. Lucky threw Kate at me so I was holding her away from the crowd while they did their thing. But that’s another story for another time.

Lucky went to the appointment with me so he got to be there when the technician told us what we were having. Want to know what we are having?

Drum roll please…….

We are having a BOY!

I am 18 weeks and 4 days with a due date of January 15th. All of our family and friends are going to be in town so this kid better be on time!

Lucky is telling everyone the name so I will put it here. His name will be Oliver Quinn Joseph Barnard. Don’t make fun of the two middle names, we were going to name him just Oliver Quinn but after we found out it was going to be a boy we were waiting for the doctor and Lucky asked me if we could put Joseph in there as well. Joseph is a middle name tradition on Lucky’s real dad’s side of the family and I can’t resist any genuine family tradition so in the name goes. Check out the ultrasound pics below. I know that they can look like blobs to some people but I promise that ultrasound technology is far more advanced than it was 10 years ago and the pictures are clearer.

Here is a profile view of the whole baby. He has both arms out in front of him but you can still see his little nose











Watch out, he's looking at you. Can you see his eyes and nose?









The technician thought we needed a picture of the little guy's toes. I guess with Lucky as the father one can never be too careful. Yes, there are only five. We thought it was too early to see if there are claws or fangs but we noticed that it was lacking horns. Maybe they come later....










This one might be a little X-rated but for all those that may have had a question about the gender...

We’re Back from California

Ahh, glad to be back home in Seattle but sad to leave California. We had a fun time the last two weeks but living off of nothing has to end sometime. Why do they call vacations “vacations?” Why don’t they call is “time to be as busy as possible before we have to go back to work and work for a living?”

Man, we were so busy that the most relaxing times was when we were driving to our next destination. Check out this itinerary:

Friday, 11pm Decide that this is the perfect time to leave for Auburn, CA. Drive 15 hours, rest for an hour, and get into Auburn at 3pm the next afternoon.

Sunday Drive 10 hours from Auburn to Newport Beach

Monday Hit Huntington Beach and hang at the ocean with Bree, Lucky’s sister

Tuesday Drive 2 hours from Newport Beach to San Diego

Wednesday Drive to La Jolla and hang at the beach

Thursday Lucky drive back to Huntington Beach for tattoos and come back to San Diego at 6am the next morning

Friday, 9am Leave for Newport Beach with Kyle, say goodbye to Lucky’s grandparents, pick up Anthony in Huntington Beach and drive another 10 hours to Auburn

Saturday Orchestrate massive reunion in Grass Valley for Lucky’s friends Sunday Hit up church, Nevada County Fair

Monday Go to the South Fork of the Yuba River with the kids

Tuesday-Friday Hang out in Auburn/Grass Valley while Lucky tattoos and watch the kids

Saturday, 9am Leave for Seattle and get to Renton in 12 hours

How can it take us 15 hours to get from Renton to Auburn in the middle of the night yet only 12 hours to get back in the middle of the day?? I have no idea. You’ll have to make your own decisions about that one. I do have to say that Kate was amazing on our trip and whined only about 10 minutes the whole time in the car. The whining was actually more of a sad face with big fat tears coming down because she was tired of being in the car. It was really sad to watch because we knew what she was going through and couldn’t do anything about it. For all those getting ready to go on a massive road trip with kids, a portable DVD player is a Godsend. Without the player we would have never stayed awake all night driving to Auburn and Kate wouldn’t have been as good as she was. That and Lucky and I would have never finished season 3 of Lost. We have had that season for a good month or more and never had time to watch it together. Now we only have one more season before we are caught up completely….

In Auburn we stayed with Will and Amanda and their twin boys. They boys are about a month younger than Kate and hard to tell apart when they are running around always getting into things. My mom was right when she said two kids were fine to watch but throw that third kid into the mix and all hell breaks loose. It was crazy when all three kids were together. Braen and Holden are used to fighting each other to get what they want and Kate, being an only child, is used to not having to share with anyone and only fighting with her parents. Not this time. She was beat up and had toys taken away for the first 5 or 6 days until she learned (sort of) to fight back. It wasn’t pretty. There were many times when all of us wanted to backhand her for whining and crying when one of the boys would touch her leg or something and don’t get us started about what she would do when they would take something away from her. Braen and Holden are the cutest, sweetest boys but when the three of them got together they were terrors.

At the Grass Valley Reunion on Saturday I met so many people it was mind blowing. It was quite amusing to put faces to the names and stories that I have been hearing about for years and then hear the same story told by someone I just met. Everyone was really nice, I had previously met more people than I realized, but I felt really comfortable with a select few. The hard part was keeping my eye on Kate and she always wanted to take her shoes off and go into the stream with the other boys. She was so dirty by the time we left that we immediately took a shower when we got back to the house. It was fun for the 7 hours we were at the park but tiring all the same and we all passed out the instant we sat down on the couch.

I definitely need a vacation from my vacation. Oh well, we had fun and that was what we set out to do.

Here are some pics of our trip:

Kate for most of the trip in the car.

Aunt Peggy with Kate and Caden

Daddy and Kate playing at Huntington Beach.

Bree and Daddy burying Kate.
Kate at the Yuba River.

I'll put up some more pics later but my computer is being a pain right now.

Ahhhh, A Responsible Parent....or P.O'd Movie Watcher

Finally! Someone speaks up about all those stupid people who bring their kids to the late and inappropriate movies. Lucky and I had a same experience at the 9:45pm showing of 30 Days of Night but it makes me mad every time I think of it so I won't say anything....

Blog taken from CNN.com

What are those kids doing at ‘Dark Knight’?
Posted: 11:33 AM ET
Today’s buzz revolves around two questions: Have you seen “The Dark Knight” and when do you plan to see it?

So consider this. You’ve paid $9 (or more) for the ticket, $4 for the popcorn and you’ve threaded your way to the seat your friends have been fighting to save for you. You get settled to enjoy the movie, one you’ve been dying to see. Then it happens — the crying baby, the kid asking their parents questions, the foot kicking your chair.

Isn’t this a PG-13 rated movie? Isn’t it past their bedtime? It seems like no curfew is necessary when parents are bringing their kids to adult movies. It’s as if the children are their friends.
Where are the boundaries? There are adults’ films and kids’ films. I never consider having a drink and going to see “Hannah Montana” with a theater full of tween girls because that would be inappropriate. It is equally inappropriate to bring a small child and expect that they will understand or appreciate the film they are seeing.

So what does a parent do when they want to see “The Dark Knight”? You consider that not every moviegoer is interested in being your babysitter. Leave the kids at home — and, for that matter, think before you let your preteens go on their own.

– Audrey Irvine, CNN National Desk

Man, did this really happen?

I wanted to do a follow up to my post the other day about going to the ER. I went in for an ultrasound this morning and not only was I surprised that the baby is fine, but according to the size of the baby, I am almost a month farther along than what I had originally thought! The size of the baby puts me to deliver on January 19th – not February 13th as I had calculated. Looking back at my calendar now, it kind of makes sense…but I won’t go into detail as how I have that figured.

I can’t begin to tell everyone how much stress has been relieved from both Lucky and I. The first day and a half after this whole thing started I had no hope whatsoever but as I slowly got my pregnancy symptoms back (nausea, heartburn, constant trips to the bathroom) I slowly started to regain optimism. Today has been such a good day! I can’t stop thinking about it!

I have to show pictures of our little parasite – he was flipping and kicking around, I’m sure it’s a boy! It will be a while but he already wants to beat up Mommy…..


Here is the first picture. Can you see the small black opening on the outside of the left side of the baby sac? (Yes, I said sac...) That's what caused all the blood last Thursday. The ultrasound tech said that the sac (yes, I know) came away from the side and although said it is quite common, it still might cause me problems (with me, not the baby) if I'm not careful. I just have to make sure I don't lift heavy things and rest often. Unfortunately that means I can no long pick up Kate. :(


Here are a few more, it is discerning to know, even after already going through this once, that although my baby is roughly the size of a prune you can still see his facial features.

Things have taken a turn for the worst

Last Thursday started out fine and I went through the whole day without a hitch. I fell asleep at the shop until 7:30 or so and after a while of figuring out what we wanted to eat, I scooped up Kate to put her in the car and off we were to get Lucky some dinner. I come back to the shop and the instant I get out of the car there is a gush (TMI) and all of a sudden my pants, shoes and half the pavement is covered in blood. I didn’t want to move and I certainly wasn’t going to go into the shop that way, I grabbed my phone and called Lucky to come outside right away. I was handling the situation fine until I saw Lucky’s panicked expression on his face. That made me start shaking and crying and he was saying that he would drop everything to drive me home. For some reason he thought I couldn’t drive myself home. Yes, it was like I took a bloodbath with my clothes on from the waist down but I didn’t feel any differently so Lucky grabbed me some paper towels for my seat, I got back in the car and drove Kate and I to the house. It was hard because I wanted to cry but Kate was watching me in the rearview mirror the whole time and she was starting to tear up and kept repeating “Don’t cry Mommy.” It was all I could do not to cry to that.

We got back to the house, I rushed Kate inside and got her set up with some food, I went to take a shower before I went to the ER. I thought I would gradually work my way to the hospital during this pregnancy but that didn’t work out so we were trying to find our way to the ER amidst the construction and confusion in the panic. We finally find it and then hurry up and wait for four hours. Luckily they got me checked in quickly and let me lie down on a bed (albeit on the side of the triage hallway because they didn’t have rooms available). Dan graciously came and picked up Kate and took her home for the evening. Kate had a blast playing with all of Danica’s toys and wasn’t upset at all!

Around 1:00am or so the nurses finally let us into a room and gave me morphine (morphine!) for the cramp pain along with saline solution. I finally got two ultrasounds around 1:45am, I was totally defeated and tired and didn’t watch the ultrasounds at all. Lucky was at the cafeteria eating during the one hour they were open. My report came back around 3:30am saying that there is a fetal heartbeat. Lucky and I just looked at this nurse flabbergasted that he would say there was anything left in my stomach. He then proceeded to tell me that he couldn’t give me any further details and I have to go back to my practitioner in a week for a follow-up ultrasound. So, all that time, energy, stress and money wasted for a follow-up. Aargh!

Things are about as well as they can be, I’m not holding out too much hope that anything will survive because I don’t want to set myself up for disappointment. I’m trying to make a doctor’s appointment but of course this is the week that our minutes are used and we have to wait for the next cycle to begin making things extremely difficult… Another aargh! Right now I’m supposed to take it easy, (the person I spoke with on the phone today said to make sure my pelvis is relaxed….) and we’ll see how it goes. Well, here goes….

It's Even More Official

So the nurse practitioner from my dr's office called and left a message before Lucky and I went to Vegas. I never called her back until yesterday. She had nothing really to tell me aside from the news that yes, I am indeed pregnant, and I should make another appointment. Well, that's freakin' great because I've been sick up a storm and had to get up to pee in the middle of the night for the last week. I better be pregnant or something would really be wrong with me!

I love being pregnant but could go without the sickness, having to get up in the middle of the night to pee or back pain. That and I want to get round so I have something to lay my hands on. Besides my tummy of course. :)

Doctor Doctor

So I went to the doctor last Thursday and he confirmed exactly what I have been telling people: I was pregnant and about five weeks along. I was kind of nervous because the conversation the night before and the morning of was all about miscarriages, in utero tumors, false positives, etc. Everything went off without a hitch however and this doctor made me feel relieved. He has probably the best bedside manner I have ever come in contact with aside from my doctor in Post Falls. The crappy part is this new guy doesn't deliver babies. Sucky! This is exactly why I went to him in the first place. He told me that no one in the office delivers anymore and I'm going to have to go elsewhere. My excitement went down a bit when he told me that because I have no idea where to go. Dr. gave me some suggestions but I hate that whole not-knowing thing. The cool thing is our new intern at work told me that her mom is a pediatrician at Valley (where I will be giving birth) and she had some suggestions for delivery doctors as well. All this put me at ease because I will potentially go to her for the new baby checkups.

As for the rest of me, I have morning sickness all day and all night. I've been waking up in the middle of the night sick to my stomach. No vomiting but really close to that. I have to have something in my stomach all the time which is hard for me because I don't eat very often. Worse now that during my first pregnancy. I'm going to have to change a lot this time, more than last because I feel that things have changed so much between now and then that it is harder this time around. I'm sure it will be fine. We are all really excited but I'm counting down the days until the first trimester is over and this sickness will be gone. 10 weeks.....9 weeks.....8 weeks.....

Yep, it's Official

Funny thing about knowing: you're right half the time. After a false alarm about a month ago, I am now officially knocked up. Although I wasn’t feeling well the previous couple of days, I knew something extra was in my tummy when I was lying on my stomach in the pillow meeting room and it felt like there was a hard mound in my uterus. After speaking with Lucky during lunch last Thursday, June 5th, he said I should check so before I went to Kaz’s house for a BBQ I stopped over at Rite Aid and picked up a pregnancy test. I didn’t know what to expect and I didn’t know how I was going to take this test with tons of people in the house but I had to try.

After picking up Kate and finding our way up to the house, Kate became distracted with Kaz’s son and his toys and allowed me to make my way to the bathroom. Of course it had to be on the other side of the wall from the party. There were maybe 10-15 people having a good time while I’m peeing on a stick. The test said to wait three minutes for a result but I had to wait no more than one before I had my answer: pregnant. I actually laughed out loud for a second before trying to figure out what to do. Being pregnant was not actually a surprise as Lucky and I have been trying for some time, but being pregnant was a surprise. It’s one of those things that you think you’re prepared for but it doesn’t hit you until it actually happens.

I knew that I had to tell Lucky first but I didn’t want to tell him over the phone and I wanted him to know before all of my coworkers. I figured I would tell him after the Erykah Badu concert when we were alone because I knew if even one of my coworkers overheard us everyone would know before the next morning. My brother Scott was at our house when I got home so I didn’t have a chance to tell Lucky before I passed out in bed-crap. I didn’t know what to do as I didn’t want to tell him while he was sleeping the next morning so I decided to put the pregnancy stick on the dashboard of the rodeo. A few hours later he calls and we talk for a few moments before I can hear him get into the car asking “What’s this?” before going “OH MY GOD!” Then silence. I wait for a few seconds before he asks if I’m pregnant and then of course we go into the whole “how far along?” schpeel. I kind of had to talk in code because everyone at work could hear my phone call and everyone listens to phone calls but I didn’t want everyone to know yet so I’m sure my convo sounded weird to everyone at the office with “don’t tell anyone….yes….no…..I’ll talk to you later about it.”

Friday night I called my entire family to make sure they heard about it from us instead of MySpace or some random person and of course Lucky had to tell everyone at the shop first. I changed my MySpace name to Mommy x2 and Lucky changed his status to announce a new baby and it has snowballed from there. I have a dr appointment Thursday so until then I think I’m about four weeks along but that can change at any time. We’ll see how it goes….

At least Kate and Lucky are as excited as I am….

Sometimes you just know

I feel a rumblin in my tumblin and it's definitely not gas! I don't know, I'm a little too hopeful yet at the same time hoping it is not true. Just a little to scary even knowing what is going on; I'm hoping for confirmation soon.

Child Welfare needs to go to Tacoma....

You know what chaps my hide? When every time someone leaves a sleeping child in the car the parent is automatically a bad person and child welfare is called on his/her ass. Did you see the AP article today about the woman who left her sleeping two-year-old in the car while she and her older two kids went five steps away to donate change to the Salvation Army? It was Christmas time, sleeting, snowing, and anyone with kids knows that those are dangerous conditions to carry a kid through a parking lot. This chick decided it would be safer for the kid if she left her sleeping in her car seat, turned on her hazards, locked the doors and armed the alarm while she was five steps away in front of a grocery store. Five steps! Some dumb traffic cop then blocked her path back to the vehicle and handcuffed her (in front of her children btw) and shoved her in the back of a police car. All for teaching her kids about giving money to the poor. There's a moral lesson to be learned here: don't give your money to the poor.

These are the Sands of Time

Expect some change in the near future....

Sonics Who?

So Sunday the T-Mobile team was treated to a suite at the Sonics game to watch them play the Lakers. I couldn't pass this opportunity up again so I asked Lucky, got a babysitter for Kate, and drove my ass downtown (if anything it was because we had a suite). I had checked online to see if suites were anything worth writing home about and found that they go for about $100K per season. WHAT???? Holy crap! Then I thought: why shouldn't we have a suite? T-Mobile does sponsor the NBA so it's only appropriate that they have something nice.


The team met down at McHugh's at 5pm. (Yeah right, everyone was late except Kristen and her boyfriend, Chris.) We had a few beers and then I scuttled everyone down to the arena because this was my first professional basketball game I didn't want to miss tip-off. Our suite was catered with tons of yummy food and soda/beer/water followed up by the most delicious dessert. I watched the game until halftime (pretty much I got done eating) and then went to chill with everyone else who was watching the Oscars. Yes, there was another tv in our suite that was automatically tuned to the Oscars. From that point forward I have no idea what happened in the game. All of a sudden the game is over and I come to find out later that the Sonics lost by 20 and Kobe Bryant was ejected from the game. What? Kobe was ejected from a game against the Sonics???


After hanging out in the suite until the staff practically pushed us out the door, we went up the road to Jabu, a cute little hangout pub with table tenis. (How cool is that??) I just like the name: Jabu. It reminds me of the god Jobu from Major League and that's what kept repeating in my head until I got home.


Monday morning kind of sucked-not because I had too much to drink and have a hangover (which I didn't)-but because it felt like the game was on a Wednesday or Thursday and it should have been the end of the week. Yeah, that never happened........


Pics below.

.....and the suite......

So we're sitting here at work incessantly checking Julie's blog to see if she's popped, or at least rushed to the hospital after her water breaking. Every time I think about when I was in the hospital I get all teary-eyed and nostalgic remembering my day of horrible cramps and 45 minutes of continual pushing. Ahhh, the joys of motherhood. It reminds me of getting a tattoo-sucking while going through the process but obsessed after the memories of the suckiness fades.

Lucky and I have been discussing whether we want or are ready to have another child. Moving away from Idaho has opened our eyes to the fact that marriage and children are not life-long goals for everyone and there is more to do in the world. For example, world travel has become more of a realistic goal over on the West Coast with me checking daily the cost of tickets overseas. (Of course, we have to get our passports first which is just a nuisance delay.) Then would come the saving of the money for the trip. We seem to have more of a disposable income this year than we did last year although I checked my W-2s and there wasn't really any change in the amount we made. The cost of living is higher and we seem to go out to dinner more often to more expensive places however we still have money to blow at Ikea or new tattoo equipment, etc. We're really taking this newfound awareness to heart and are thinking of the endless possibilities we could partake.

Children is another possibility. I don't know if I necessarily want three kids however. One's pretty hard but the thought of having another kid the complete opposite of Kate is not very reassuring but having one after that is way too stressful. I don't know if we'll have the energy for three. I don't know if we'll have the energy for two! I know we want to have another one and time is getting short if we want the newbie and Kate to be close to the same age. It seemed like we had a lot of time and then Kate turned two, Julie and another coworker are pregnant, and the time is flying by a lot faster than a couple years ago. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow to get my IUD removed which is going to suck balls but be worth it. Wow, this is as close to a planned pregnancy as it's going to get and it's kind of scary. Does that mean we're adults? Does that mean we're stupid? Can both answers be yes?

Trying Out My Sidekick

I'm testing to see if my mobile blogging abilities are on par with the
rest of the blogging world. Well, maybe not on par but at least good
enough to post while travelling. Next thing I have to work on is
actually travelling.....

Cheers

1st in Hopefully a Long Line of Blogs

So this is my first blog in hopefully what will be many more to come. The title might change every now and again depending on my mood, I don't know, I might keep it for a while... I wanted some place where I can go and write about anything, not knowing if anybody will actually read these but in this digital age, it's almost taboo NOT to have a blog.

I just got a new camera a couple days ago and it has an amazing feature that will upload pics directly to blogs. I'm thoroughly excited to try this out (after a few turns in the user manual...). A coworker gave me the brilliant idea of taking at least three pictures per day to show the world what made that day worth living or at least the substantial parts of the day. We'll see how that goes, I think I might have a problem with keeping my camera's battery charged more than anything.

Well, here's to the blogging world.