Back to work

Tomorrow it's back to work for me after taking paternity time off for Jane's birth. Even though having a newborn baby at home has been a big adjustment and tough at times, I don't feel ready to go back to work. My company has a great paternity leave benefit so I took off 2 weeks, and it's been great. I've been able to do stuff around the house and take care of chores, etc. I'm hoping that Liz can do okay on her own w/ Jane after I go back. It's been particularly hard on her since she's the one that has to feed Jane -- no bottles yet. But I guess we'll adjust and do fine just like most everyone else. And at least I was able to spend all that time at home w/ Jane and Liz. Now back to real life...

Jane Audrey Fisher

One week ago today on May 9, 2007, our baby daughter was born. It was a bit of a surprise since she came almost 2.5 weeks early, and we were expecting her to be late considering that the commonly accepted expectation is that most first babies go past their due date. And we still thought that even though Liz's doctor told us that there was no real evidence that first babies are usually late. So, we had to cancel a bunch of plans including a birthday party that Liz had planned for me. But that's okay, because Jane was a great birthday present!

Liz's water broke last Tuesday night at about 8:45pm without any noticeable contractions beforehand. So we called the hospital (Sibley) and they told us to come right in. Apparently, if a woman's water breaks, there is a risk of infection to the baby. But since this was completely unexpected, and we had no contractions to warn us that things were happening, we were scrambling around trying to get things together to go to the hospital. We packed bags, called Liz's mom to take the dog, Liz was sending off emails to work to let them know that the things were going down, etc. Quite hectic!

Once we got to Sibley, things were progressing but slower than what the doctors liked considering the whole infection risk thing. So Liz got some pitocin to speed things up, then got the epidural at about 5am. After she had the epidural, she went from 4cm to 9.5cm dilation in about 1.5 hrs. So she was ready to go. Apparently the epidural allowed her to relax. Then at about 7am, the doctor checked her out and told us that she thought the baby was in position to be born. Liz pushed for about 10 mins -- yea, 10 mins! -- and out came Jane! Amazing! We were both expecting things to last much longer given what usually happens with first babies (I think in this case there *is* evidence to support that first babies take longer to deliver). So, from the time of Liz's water breaking to Jane's birth, it took 10.25 hours. I watched the whole thing and cut the umbilical cord, which squirted blood a bit, but I was so dumbfounded and blown away by everything going on that I didn't care. Because of the lack of sleep and the quick progression of the labor, it still seemed very surreal. It was the most incredible thing I have ever seen. Liz was so great and calm throughout the whole thing.

Now I said "out came Jane," but we didn't have a name picked out when she was born. For whatever reasons, we thought we were going to have a boy. We had a short list of names for both genders, but we hadn't made any final decisions -- we thought we had some more time to decide! So, it wasn't until Jane was about a half hour old that we decide on her name. Up until then, she was officially known as "Babygirl".

Jane's first week has been really good, although not without some (to be expected) bumps along the way. When we brought her home on Friday, she was very fussy throughout the weekend, crying for inconsolably for half hours at time. It was intense -- she was screaming like some sort of heavy metal singer. Rob Halford comes to mind, although Jane was only wearing blankets, no leather. And she was flailing her little arms and legs around and turned bright red. It really, really made us feel horrible. We called the pediatrician three times over the weekend, and tried some remedies he recommended, with a bit of success. It seems the problem was the nefarious "gas issue". So by the time Monday came along, we were practicing the tips that we had learned and things seemed to subside quite a bit. This week has been much, much better, but one lesson we've tried to take to heart is that every day is a new day.

We're adjusting to Jane and her schedule, and she's adjusting to us and our lack of knowledge. Hopefully, our rookie status will not p*ss her off anymore, but it probably will. :-) It's hard to believe it's already been one week! She makes me smile everytime I look at her. Well, except when she's doing her Judas Priest karaoke...

Baby Countdown

This past Friday, Liz and I hit the four week mark: four weeks until Baby Arrival. Well, probably not exactly four weeks, but that's all we have to go on.

All is going as planned, and that's easy when you have no plan! Just kidding. This weekend, Liz sorted through her baby shower gifts. That was good because I got to see all the little, tiny baby clothes and other paraphernalia. (Almost lost one sock while transferring it from the washer to the dryer. Those things are small!) We have many clothes in green, yellow, and white, due to the fact that we are not finding out the gender of the baby. But, really, we will know what gender the baby is, so I don't feel I need color cues to help me remember. Although, they say we will be severely sleep-deprived so maybe I'll need another method to help me remember. I could write it down -- on the baby's forehead. Or maybe I could put signs up all over the house. I'll come up with something.

We also put the crib together. Sort of. It appears we're missing some hardware (some friends gave us their crib), but most of it is standing up. We'll get the missing parts from the manufacturer. I feel confident.

So, things are coming along, and we're feeling good (ignorance is bliss I suppose). Now if we could just come up with some names!

Liz at 33 weeks

Here are some new pics of Liz at 33 weeks.

Week from hell

I've been meaning to tell about a truly wretched week that Liz and I had about 2 weeks ago. But I'm just now getting to it... not the best at this blog, I guess. Anyway, I had just gotten back from a guys trip to NYC, which was not wretched, btw. Liz and I had just found out that the tumor removed from our dog, Lucy, was in fact cancerous but necrotic, or dead. So, it was quite a shock to learn that it was a cancerous tumor, but good news that it was necrotic. Honestly, I think we both realized that the chances of the tumor being cancerous were pretty fair, but you always try to hold out hope. Lucy seems pretty healthy though, and the prognosis is pretty good. We just need to watch the area where the tumor was removed to see if anything develops there again. So ... we're holding out hope.

So we had the cancerous tumor in the dog. Then come Monday when I got up to go to work, I felt terrible -- really sick. My boss, however, was on business travel, so I felt I had to go in no matter how crappy I felt. The next day, I felt so bad that I could not go in. 102 degree fever -- laid out. Liz then got sick, which was probably the worst thing that could've happened because since she's pregnant the only drugs she can take is Tylenol, pretty much. And she got it way worse than me. She couldn't keep anything down, had a nasty cough, and the fever. And of course when I did go back to work on Thursday, it was all hell craziness busy going on. Liz got it so bad that she had to go to the hospital on Friday because she was dehydrated and her fever would not subside. They hooked her up to an IV and she went through four bags of fluid. Needless to say, I was really worried.

The baby seemed to be doing okay -- they had Liz hooked up to a baby monitor the whole time. I was finally able to get away from work, wheeled over to the hospital, and luckily just as I got there they told her she could go home. So we did. Gladly. And on top of that it was rainy, cold, and then started sleeting on the way home. I seriously wondered if about 4 other shoes were gonna drop that night. Or at least I thought for sure my basement was going to flood. But it didn't, thank God. It was that kind of week.

Liz is now doing much better, I'm feeling much better, my boss is back from travel, which is good. The baby is still doing well, and Lucy is too. So all's much better now. But, boy, I felt the proverbial black cloud was over us that week. Quite a scare.

Liz at 25 weeks

Here are some pics of Liz at 25 weeks.

Baby moment

Tonight, for the first time, I felt our baby move. Liz has been feeling the baby move around a lot in the last few weeks, and when we're at home or together and she feels it move, she puts my hand on her stomach so I can maybe feel it as well. Never happened before. But tonight it did. Gotta say, all cliches etc recognized, it was amazing. Doesn't really make sense in a way. It really starts to make this whole thing more real though. Guess that's a contradiction, but it's a strange (and exciting) feeling.

Gettin' busy

Man, things have been busy for us in the new year so far. So, here's some stuff that's been going on... it's been a while since the last post.

Baby stuff: Things are going well so far. We had the 20 wk sonogram, and everything is looking normal. Liz and I are just hoping for a healthy baby. But otherwise, Liz's friends and family have been great -- donating hand-me-downs clothes and baby gear, furniture, etc. Liz is feeling good and starting to show, although she's been knocked-out tired at night. We've decided not to paint the nursery room in the new house -- bright green is an excellent color as far as I'm concerned (and don't have to paint). Speaking of painting...

House stuff: I've been trying to get painting done in our bedroom, but it's been slow going. We finally decided on a color, but had to use primer to cover old paint. So, I managed to get the primer up while it was so warm, so we could air out the room while it dried. (The doctor says Liz should avoid breathing in paint fumes.) Now I'm very close to having the room all taped up and ready for the real stuff, but still need to worry about the fumes. So gotta figure out best time to do that.

We're zeroing in on a couch for the basement. There's been much thought and time spent debating what the right one should be -- most of that done in my head w/ Liz getting annoyed on the sidelines. Oh yea, and more painting to be done in the basement. Trying to get it ready for TV room/rec room use.

Did some spackling (!) to patch up the walls from previous owners' nails, hangers, etc, and repainted that as well. Then, there's pictures to hang. Oh yea, still gotta finish installing a towel rod and shelf in the upstairs bathroom. Never would've thought I'd want to/have to do all this stuff! I guess it can be fun... not the painting really.

Plus, on top of those (mostly self-imposed) projects, we still are trying to rent or sell our condo. That is the first thing that needs to happen. And we've also got to get our cars registered in MD (and get MD driver's licenses). Whew.

But, I was able to take a sort of last minute trip up to NYC w/ Scott to visit Tom, my nephew Isaac, and his dad, Errol. It was a fun trip. It was freezing up there this weekend though. I was hoping the warm spell might hold out while we were there but it pretty much ended right before the weekend. Me and bunch of friends are heading back up in March.

That's the latest for now.