Day 5 - Back to work for K

Day 5

I went back to work today, so not much to report on the kiddo from my end. He woke us up a few time through the night, so I was a bit spacey all day. When I got home Ilana was dealing with changing him, somehow he managed to get poo on his back all the way up to his neck… How does that work? Barbara did a photo-shoot with Alden today, so there are some pictures (big files). I’ve noticed Alden can only move his eyes to the right, but not the left, and he is starting to show an interest in light sources.

Alden comes home - day 4

Day 4

Today we got the word that we could go home. It turns out that Alden has no infection and the IV drip was just a precaution that gave him bad gas. Getting out of the hospital took some time. We got the check-out leave at 1:30, but the antibiotics called for a second hearing test (everything is okay) and then Alden wanted to feed, and then we had to get all our stuff to the car get everyone dressed, and figure out the car seat… We left the hospital at 4pm.

I realize that I'm writing more about our birthing experience than anything else on the this Blog so far. Having a kid is definitely the most interesting thing I've done in awhile. The best thing I can equate it to from the non-kid world is that its like working on a really cool project that you are enthusiastically into and don’t mind not eating or sleeping to work on. The kind of project that is challenging, but rewarding in the process as well as the intended result.

It was good to be home with everyone not dressed in hospital-gear. We ate supper, Grammy Barbara is staying this week to help out with things. We built a fire because it’s getting cold out, drank some wine, and went to bed.

Day three for Baby Alden

Day 3

Today started off rather slowly. We were all basically waiting for the I.V. drip of antibiotics to work their way through Alden’s system and get the results from the lab to see if he’s sick or not. From wake up time till about four, we hung out perfecting the breastfeeding, diaper changing, baby dressing and holding and bathing. Both Ilana and I are pretty tired so the day seemed to move slowly.

Alden has continued his womb hic-ups in the outside world and it is both tragic and hilarious. His eyes are opening more and he is starting to look around with greater frequency, although one of his eyes is puffy and bigger than the other… again tragic and hilarious. His right hand is bandaged with the I.V., but he doesn’t seem to care. It’s interesting to have a kid on a tether and I keep worrying I’ll trip on the tubing. Funny and hilarious?… They keep taking blood samples from his feet, which I imagine sucks for him, but he is being a real trooper about it.

At around four Grammy Karen visited, followed soon by Grammy Barbara, Unky Ben and Ellen, and greatgodsomethingorother (on Ilana’s side) Jeff and Renee and greatgodsomethingorother on my side James and his friend Nancy. Jeff, Renee, and James are the family friends that knew either Ilana or I since were we’re born and are really awesome folks. It was great to see them and everyone brought gifts, which was very sweet.

Second day for the kiddo -

Day 2
01-19-08



This is really just an extended day one. Neither Ilana or I got much or any sleep. We were up being with Alden while the nurses got him ready for the world. He got a bath, goo in his eyes, injections, and his parts got checked out. All in all, everything looks really good. We were a little worried because ultrasounds showed some abnormal bone development in his arms, but you wouldn’t know it to look at him. We will have him x-rayed next week and see if any kind of treatment is necessary. Right now, he is strong and everything looks fine so we are cautiously optimistic. For a guy who doesn’t say much, he’s pretty fun to hang out with. He’s been very calm and makes cute little noises when he sleeps.

Ilana and Alden spent a good deal of time figuring out the breastfeeding thing. At the start he preferred only the left breast, but it got sore quickly and we worked on making Alden ambibreastrous, so he can use either with the same amount of ease. By the end of the day, they both had it down pretty well.

Loads of visitors came today. Yesterday was a regular family reunion. Both Ilana’s parents and my mother paid a visit. Today Gillian and Ian, our fabulous friends in Gardiner stopped by to meet the little one, and the new grandmothers returned for a next-day-peep. We’ve been enjoying the company as it breaks up the monotony of sitting in a hospital room all day. Towards the middle of the morning Alden started showing elevated breathing rates, so he had some blood work done. They found slightly elevated C-reactive protein levels. C-reactive protein is an inflammation indicator, so the doctors were a little concerned about the possibility of an infection setting in. CRPs can also be elevated when one is bruised (and he certainly was bruised from the birth) so it may also be nothing. They need a 48 hour blood culture to know if he has an infection and by that time, if he had a bug, he’d be in rough shape. So, the doctors preemptively put him on an IV drip with antibiotics. The IV was put in at 3 pm and it has to drip for 48 hours. The tests will come back tomorrow, but we won't be able to leave till Monday at the earliest. If he has caught something, he’ll need to stay at the hospital for a week for a full course of antibiotics.

I had a surreal experience going to the store tonight. I wanted to pick up a few things for Ilana and left the hospital for a strip-mall type area. It was a strange feeling to be out of the hospital room and in the big world. I think it was because I feel like I'm only a father in the context of the room where Ilana and Alden are staying. Being out by myself in the world felt different knowing I was a father, but my fatherhood was confined to that little room in the hospital. Also, residing in one dimly lit beige room for a couple days (and having my world-context change in that room) made the outside feel bigger and broader. I'm sure my new agoraphobia will change once we get home, but for now there is that interesting schism. Newborns have an incredible startle reflex that will sometimes kick in simply because the world is so much bigger now than before and they aren't used to their arms and legs dangling in all that space. I can really relate to that feeling now.

Baby Alden Michael says hello to all his fans

Day one
01-17-08 – 01-18-08

This was a regular day until about 10pm. I worked at the office and Ilana skipped off to her job to borrow a laptop because ours had a hard drive failure. Rest in peace IBM T23 hard disc. When I got home I did some work on the kitchen lights and we made sweet potato quesadillas. Around 10pm Ilana went for a pee and lost her mucus plug…eeew. I got really excited and wanted to go to the hospital, but Ilana said she was feeling fine and that in some cases the plug comes out days in advance. We timed her contractions but they were not particularly regular or painful, and by 11:30 we headed for bed.

I began to drift off and then Ilana got up with a start – her water had broken – it was about 11:45. We called our doctor and got the answering service. We told the answering dude who we were and what was going on. He said he would notify the hospital and we should hang tight and wait for a call. I did not trust the answer dude, and we left for the hospital by midnight… I have still not received a call telling me to come to the hospital – Never trust a dude whose life-path has lead him to a job of answering telephones at midnight.

After her water broke Ilana began feeling discomfort with her contractions (before this there were not uncomfortable). We got to the hospital just after 12:30 and were shown to our room. The nurses on the floor had not been informed of our arrival and made a call to the on-call doctor who I suppose was at home sleeping.

To make a short labor even shorter, at 2:43am little Alden Michael was born. The labor was swift and intense. He was delivered by 3 nurses. The doctor did not arrive till the very end to help remove the placenta and cut the cord. We spent the next several hours getting to know each other. Alden Was 8 lb 8oz, was 20 1/2” long and had a full head of light brown hair. The swift birth was kind of hard on the fella. His face was bruised and he had a puffy left eye and his right was swollen shut. The left half of his bottom lip was three times the size of the right because one of his hands was against his face inside Ilana. His right ear was sticking straight out from his head, because it was folded against the womb. He looked like he had been in a fight…. Which I suppose in a way he was.

He looks a lot like me- ears, nose, eyebrows, and eyelashes, are all from my genes. Chin is questionable (he has the puffy baby cheeks right now) as are his eyes (swollen). Oh yeah, the poor imp has my hairline as well.

The kid had great timing. He broke the membranes before we were sleeping, and we got to the hospital before a 2am freezing rainstorm had begun. I called into work to get the Friday off, and Monday is the Martin Luther King Holiday. Thanks kiddo.

We have loads of pictures, but I don’t have my camera to computer chord here at the hospital. I will post them soon.

Mug Shots

Since there are more belly fetishists out there than I'd previously thought, I've caved to requests for updated photos. Here I am, gut and all.... or should I say, all gut. Yeesh. My doctor told me today that I'm already 1 cm dilated and 80% effaced, which is great because I feel like I've made progress for free. I have been experiencing contractions, but they aren't the real thing yet. They feel like a tightening high up in the belly. From what I've read, that's just the uterus practicing for the big day. It seems to practice a lot - like every 10 minutes or so sometimes. I guess that means this kid is going to happen any day now. I'm really ready for him to come out. His head is so low in my pelvis that I can feel it in my hips. It’s a really odd sensation, for those of you who haven’t experienced it. Like walking with a grapefruit between your legs. Try it if you'd like to see what I mean.



We got new furnishings for the living room(s) and set up our computer today, so things have been rearranged quite a bit since I last updated the blog. Here's Kerstin watching YouTube videos in the new office section of our living room. Like the rug? It's a birthday present from my favorite aunt and my mother. I think it really ties the room together. Thanks Mom and Kay!

Settling In

After doing lots of little finishing projects, we've finally settled into our little home. Kerstin made this wonderful little island in our kitchen which really classes up the place and gives us much needed countertop space. The bathroom still needs a bit of work (shower doors and a heater), but other than that, everything else that we set out to finish this year is finished. Now we're switching gears from getting house done to getting ready for baby. I'm pretty enormous at this point and things are pretty uncomfortable now. Sleeping sucks, for example. Lots of aches and pains in the hips and lower back. And bending over... only a faint memory now. I for one am looking forward to getting my body back and meeting the little fellow that now fills every square inch of it. There have nonetheless been several requests out there to see photos of my belly, so I'm including a final picture of me to placate the masses.

I have intentionally cut off my head in this photo because there really is nothing nice to look at above the shoulders. That whole "beautiful glow" of pregnancy that everyone talks about is a crock. I am puffy, red, and full of acne. It's pretty frightening. I hope that I'll return to my former self once the baby arrives. Until then, no face shots!

First snow

We had our first snow fall December 3rd. About a foot accumulated. We were all toasty-warm in our house, doing chores and installing door-casing and kick-molding. The trim in the kitchen coming together, but it’s psychologically challenging. The trouble is that I have to mill every piece of lumber to form. All the wood I’m using is left over from the demolition. Its nice old pine, but it only has one finished surface and is 7/8 thick. Instead of grabbing a board – cutting length to size - nailing it to the wall – and painting it . I grab a board, check for nails, cut length to size, cut width to size, plane it to proper depth (3/4), do a quick sanding, nail it to wall, patch flaws, paint it. It takes more time and the garage is really cold these days.

We are sleeping in the house and slowly getting our things out of boxes. We don’t have much furniture or shelving yet, but the house feels good and we are making due. The living room, kitchen, and master bedroom are pretty much habitable. Other rooms will be habitable once we unpack the boxes. We are still waiting on part for our new stove too, so we can't use the cook-top. It's good to be in the house though, two thumbs up.

Nearing move in

I'm not sure what stage of the game this renovation is at now� near the end maybe?

We've put some boxes in the living room and have a new fridge and stove, but the kitchen walls still need to be painted and there are countless tiny/ not-so-tiny projects that are on my list. Overall though, I think we can move in this weekend - defined by spending the night and sleeping in the house. (as opposed to spending the night working on the house all night).

I would say at this point all livable space is over 90% complete, but nothing is completely done. We are still dealing with pig-tailed bulbs for lighting (but they are all switched). The bedroom closets need the sheet-rocking and paint. Master bedroom door needs casing. The bathroom needs casing around the window, shower, and door and we need a custom shower door. Kitchen needs loads of casing and kick molding and I need to run some new electric for the new stove. So when I say 90%. I'm only talking about the facilities never mind curtains, carpets, and couches.

The kitchen floor was the last big project. It came out pretty well, as long as the material continues to last. The engineered parquet did not inspire confidence in its durability. The parquet tile is pretty thin and the pieces are held together with hot-melt-glue and some soft-metal wire (no joke). The dude at the building supply place said we could either glue it down or pin it with narrow gauge staples. I figure if I pined it, it would last about two months before all the parquet pieces start shifting and lifting and breaking, so I used the glue so all the pieces would be held in place. I then put two coats of urethane over the already finished top surface for extra wear protection. I think the parquet durability was more intended for some 2nd den, rather than a kitchen application� I hope it lasts.

I also had a chance to do a repair the other week. I patched a leak in the roof. The tar seal around the chimney was a little punky.

Also, a picture of the sunset in October.

Kitchen Renovation Continues

We had our stove installed last week and it works great. We're really happy with the way it fits into the space. There's nothing like a roaring fire on a cold November day.


Now Kerstin and Burris have moved on to the kitchen in earnest. They've put sheetrock over almost all the walls and plastered over another wall (with the baseboard heating). The doors have been hung and the new wiring and can lights are in. We even got a second-hand fridge that's living in the dining room at the moment. Now we're on the prowl for a stove and dishwasher. Kerstin is hoping to finish the walls within the next few days and put the floor in by this weekend. If all goes well, we'll move in this coming Monday!