Babes and Beer |
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Drinking beer, being married, and raising kids.  A Nosuch affiliate. 
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Friday, May 31, 2002
Losing a post saps my will to blog. I am too lazy to use Word or Notepad and copy/paste, so I get what I pay for.
My heart has been beating weirdly lately. Sorta a stutter or something, feels really weird. I don't have any of the signs of a heart attack, so I am probably OK, but I need to go to my doctor and have her listen to it. I hope it's not something fatal. Probably stress and lack of sleep. I don't feel stressed, however. Hrphm. Harry is filling out nicely, he gained 2 lbs in his first two weeks. Isabel's first birthday is Sunday, lots of relatives here in town for that. The first anniversary of my blogging was last week, I missed it, oh well.
Cool! Went up to visit the stinky rotting corpse flower at the UW's greenhouse. This is the third time they've gotten one to bloom, they've bloomed in the US less than 25 times ever.
Here's more info Wednesday, May 22, 2002
Misc comments on being a new dad again:
Babies haven't figured out anything yet. Take breathing, he breathes weird and heavy. Isabel did the same thing, it just takes them a while to figure it out. Seems odd, though. He's so freakin' tiny, especially compared to Isabel, who is 23-24lbs right now, a definite SuperChunk(tm) baby. Nice fat chunky legs, very cute. His little legs are starting to plump out, but he still looks like a little old man. I haven't seen the new Star Wars movie yet. I need to sneak out and take care of that. heh. The double stroller is longer than crap. It manuevers pretty well, but lots of places are too narrow or too tight for it. I've been eating like a pig lately. Uff-da. Lots of good tasty food around. This is the first time I've taken two weeks in a row off work ever. Last week I helped my two brothers down the street pitch their Tipi. It's 14' high by 16' in diameter, and now has a fire pit inside. Dan's been sleeping in it since it's been up, wouldn't surprise me if he sleeps in it all summer. I suspect they're running low on firewood too. It was sorta a pain to erect, since they have poles 32' in length, easily 50% longer than needed, but Dan sez longer points earn style points, and it does look cool. Three main poles, with about 12 other poles forming the frame and two additional poles controlling the upper smoke flap. I should post a picture, it looks awesome. I can't wait for their tipi party. Last time we had 25 people inside sitting around the fire passing the peace pipe. (I didn't partake, I never have smoked peace pipe. I was a geek in high school (well, still am heh), plus my older brothers smoked and ended up losers, and then I was in the Marine Reserve and got piss-tested almost every month, and since then I'm not super interested...) They also got a free trampoline from somebody. It's a big-ass round one, maybe 3m or more in diameter. I'd never played with a full-size one before, it's a lot of fun. Tuesday, May 21, 2002
Wow, it is hard to find time to blog when you've got a new baby.
Lil guy is doing great. Having a second baby is WAY easier than the first one. We're so much less stressed about everything, it's mostly stuff we've seen before, not brand new stuff. He sleeps a lot more than Isabel did, and is less demanding. He's already sleeping in his crib, and goes good 3-4 hour blocks at night, so we're getting OK sleep. Can't complain, really. Isabel is walking more and more. She is so proud of herself, it's very cute to watch. This morning I was feeding her breakfast (cottage cheese with wheat bran) and she kept grabbing for the spoon. I finally dragged the highchair into the kitchen (linoleum floor vs carpet in dining room), loaded the spoon and set it on her highchair tray. She grabbed it and stuffed the proper end into her piehole. She was SO thrilled! She loves the control she's getting over her life. We kept that up for a while, she loves feeding herself. Sure some of the contents of the spoon didn't make it into her mouth, but that's OK. Things are going great! Wednesday, May 15, 2002
Woooo! Isabel took her first steps today! She's been walking all over the place holding onto stuff, but today I was holding her hands as she walked towards her grandma, and let go a few steps away, and she walked the last few steps by herself! SO exciting! Her first birthday is two weeks from this Sunday. Tuesday, May 14, 2002
Uff-da. Tired, but not as tired as Bridget.
Here are some still photos that my friend Thommer took. I didn't get a chance to put up any DV cam footage to post movies yet. Took HG to his 3-day doctor appt. He's got a bit of jaundice, so they had the biliruben level of his blood tested, which involved them cutting his heel to get a vial of blood. Poor lil guy. They need to check again tomorrow to make sure his liver is working OK, if it hasn't stablized they'll make us put him under some bili-lights, like a tanning bed for newborns. Apparently UV helps break down biliruben, which is apparently excess red blood cells being broken down and peed out. Speaking of peeing, damn that kid can pee. It's a good sign that he's getting adequete breastmilk, but since his handy hose attachment points up, and his newborn diapers have a handy cutout right above so as not to disturb his healing umbilical cord chunk, he basically wizzes right out of his diaper, bypassing any absorbtion. We got him circumcised. Apparently people have strong feelings one way or the other, but I was sorta on the fence. Virtually everyone in gym when I was in school was cut, but they say it's more like 50-50 these days. Dan Savage wrote a bunch about the topic when he and his partner were adopting a boy, I think Dan ended up not doing it, but he did mention "cut cock tastes better", so maybe I'd done the boy's future sexual partners a favor. Bridget is holding up really well. She's had two good bouts of post-partum emotial crying breakdowns, perfectly normal. Good to work through those emotions. Sunday, May 12, 2002
He's now officially Harold Gilgamesh Lundquist. Still very cute. He was awake basically all night, not sleeping for more than 20 minutes at a stretch, but he's had some serious gas. Lots more burping required with this lil guy. Of course, he's sleeping like an angel all day today so far.
We went over to a friend's house for a big Mother's Day brunch. Bacon, sausage, waffles, eggs, hash browns, mimosas, coffee... Mmmm coffee! Harold has had his first outside-the-house trip. Bridget is calling him Harry. I've been alternating between Harold and HG. Saturday, May 11, 2002
Ok, things are calming down, time to post the baby story as best I can remember it, before I forget.
Short version: This was much different than last time, as expected, but much much easier, and last time was pretty easy. I'm not going to explain birthing concepts in much detail, because I am tired and there are people who are way better at it than I am. Hopefully this isn't all greek. On Thursday, we went to see her OB. She said Bridget's cervix was dialated 4-5cm, and 50% effaced. (10cm is fully dialated, baby launching eminant). She "stripped the membranes" which involves her sticking her finger between the cervix and the placental sac and seperating the two. This often stimulates labor, which we were more than ready for. We went home and had a "nooner", which also stimulates labor, and I went back to work. That evening Bridget started having some pretty good contractions, so we called her mom (Peggy) in Olympia (about an hour drive south of Seattle) and her aunt Eileen who is a doula (professional childbirth assistant). They decided to drive up. We also called her sister Annie in Spokane (five hour drive) who also drove over with her husband Kyle. For about an hour or so, maybe more, she had contractions about every 5-7 minutes, but then they tapered off and stopped. After watching ER we went for a walk to try to stimulate labor, but while she had a few contractions during the walk they didn't continue. We decided to try and get some sleep. Friday we woke at 6am, and got up. Still no contractions. The house was full of people. I put on a pot of coffee for Eileen, and Kyle and I went to the store to buy some OJ and donuts for everyone. Kyle just got a 1996 Dodge Ram (full-size) pickup, I really want one. It's extended cab is big enough for the baby seats, unlike my mid-size Dakota. I need to sell that Dakota and buy something practical, that can carry the kids. When we got back Bridget had started to have contractions. We sat around talking and timing the contractions, and around 10am we called the doctor's office. Our OB doesn't work on Fridays except when she's on call, which she wasn't this weekend, so once again we totally missed out on her delivering our baby. They told us to head on down to the hospital. I was a little concerned, last time we were at a seemingly similar state of contractions and went in, and got mocked out of triage and sent home. A few hours of contractions later Bridget would moan loudly through each one, lasting 60-120 seconds. THEN it was time to go to the hospital. This time she wasn't anywhere near the moaning stage, so I was apprehensive. We loaded B into Eileen's van, and told Peggy and Annie to wait with Isabel for about 15-20 minutes. Isabel doesn't mind us leaving, but if we all left at once that would cause issues. Sneaking out like this was the key. Bridget's friend Sophie rents our basement apartment and was keeping Isabel for the day with Kyle's help. At the hospital we went up to the labor triage room where they assess where you are at. The nurse there did a pelvic and said her cervix were 90% effaced (thinned) and 6cm dialated, so we got hussled to a birthing suite pronto. No getting mocked this time! Many women take hours and hours (sometimes 24+ hours) to go from 2cm to 6cm. Swedish has these lovely birthing suites, all pretty wood with private bathrooms that have jetted tubs. We got settled in the room, Bridget got an exam, her bag of waters had not broken yet. She was still progressing. They gave her an IV to hydrate her, and after the first liter of lactated ringers she was hydrated enough to give her the epidural that she wanted. Mmmm drugs. I can't say that I blame her. The epidural is a needle installed in her spine on her lower back, and they hook some tubing up to a pump that drips anethetic into her causing her to go mostly numb down below the waist. Very nice. They also hooked her up to a variety of monitors, a blood pressure cuff, a fetal heartbeat monitor, and a pressure sensor that showed how strong each contraction was. His heartbeat was strong and regular, just perfect. After a while the doctor decided things were ready and that the thing to do to get more progress was to rupture the bag of waters manually. This is done with what looks like a knitting needle, the hook on the end is inserted and used to snag a tear in the sack, letting it drain. Gooosh! By 2:45pm we were all ready for the baby to come out. The doctor on call was paged, and he asked if he needed to walk or run, heh. He showed up, and everything was set by 3pm. Bridget started to push, and the baby started to come out. Five sets of pushes later, at 3:07pm, our baby boy popped out. Amazing. Last time she had to push for an hour and 40 minutes to get Isabel out. I like to call this labor "two coughs and he�s out" Just glad it was at the hospital and not at home! Ok, I am too tired to write more. Tomorrow I hope to post some video and stills of our cute lil guy.
Baby baby baby baby!
He's so CUTE! I need to get some pictures up. We're home from the hospital now. He's not quite 24 hours old yet. Friday, May 10, 2002
Woooo! Baby baby baby baby baby baby!
Back home for just a sec. Had an AWESOME baby boy at 3:07pm. 8lbs, 14.5oz, 21.5" long. All are doing awesome. Bridget had one of those "cough twice and out comes the baby" deliveries, very nice. No name yet, still debating between Gilgamesh (Gil) Harold or Harold Gilgamesh... Or maybe something else. Right now he's just Baby Boy Lundquist. He's got a ton of hair! WAY more than me! Very cute! We'll be coming home tomorrow afternoon.
Bah. No baby yet. Her contractions slowed down to about one an hour, so around midnight we finally went to bed. Time to take her for another walk!
Thursday, May 09, 2002
Wooo! She's having contractions about every five minutes or so. Looks like we're having a baby sometime tonight or early tomorrow morning!
T-minus 3 days and counting. Went to B's OB today, her cervix is dialated 4cm now, so hopefully the baby will come SOON! Wednesday, May 08, 2002
T-minus 4 days and counting. No progress.
Isabel is definitely feeling better, which is a great relief to Bridget. Biking to work on a sunny glorious spring morning is awesome. This morning we're signing paperwork on a refinance of our main house, we're combining the current first and second mortgages onto one new low-rate mortgage now that they're raised the limit of non-jumbo mortgages so they both fit onto one. Whee! We'll save $150/month, which is definitely needed. Tuesday, May 07, 2002
T-minus 5 days and counting. No progress
Isabel's doctor visit yesterday confirmed that she doesn't have an ear infection or a urinary tract infection, but she seems to be getting better. Bridget is less stressed, she didn't want to go into labor and have to leave a sick baby for someone to care for. Monday, May 06, 2002
T-minus six days and counting. Bridget's best friend had her baby this morning, she was due June 3rd. A girl, something like 6lbs 11oz. No progress on our baby front, but Isabel has been sick with a fever all weekend so B doesn't want to have the baby right now anyway with a sick child at home.
I'd already planned on taking today off to help B get the house ready (expectant mother's nest something fierce!) but after being up half the night with a poor little girl who doesn't feel well I probably would have stayed home anyway. We got a doctor appt this morning in a bit. On Saturday I loaded up my truck and my friend Jack's truck with branches from that beaver dam pile in my front planting strip, and went to my friend Wendell's place out in the sticks. Every spring we take Wendell's big slash pile, add to it with more fallen trees and branches and blackberry vines etc, add copious amounts of excellerants, and torch the sucker off. Heap bigum white-man fahr. FAHR GOOD! Yeah, I'm a pyro at heart. Love to make bonfires. This year I'd saved up the jugs of vegetable oil left over from the deep fat fryer so I had two gallons of that, we mixed it about 60-40 with gasoline and dumped it all on the pile, that plus another jug 50-50 motor oil and gas proved to be more than up for the task of getting the fire lit. The pile was about 8' by 8' by 8', but was mostly burned down in about 45 minutes. Once most of it was burned down, we pulled out enough extension cord and a shop vac, and taped an 8' piece of metal pipe to the end of the shop-vac hose. Set on Blow, it provides a lovely amount of air to the fire, blast-furnace style. Very useful for quickly burning large logs and other such pieces. Hot enough to melt a glass bottle in about 30 seconds, and hot enough to soften steel rebar so we can bend it into pretzel shapes. HAWT! Mmmm, love fire. Saturday night we left Isabel with grandma and went to our friend's house for a Cinco De Mayo party. For the last eight years I've hosted it, but this time was too close to B's due date. (One year we still held it the day after B's gallbladder removal surgery, she was laid up in bed hopped up on goofballs but it was still a fun party. Lotsa people hung out around her in the bedroom.) This year my friend Thommer held the party, and he pulled out all the stops. He bought a pinata (however that's spelled) and filled it with little plastic airline bottles of booze. Adult candy! Woo! Loads of fun, and I didn't have to pay for it or clean it up. Woo! I'll try to post a quick note if we leave for the hospital anytime soon. Saturday, May 04, 2002
T-minus 8 days and counting. No progress on the baby front. He was sure active and kicking a lot last night.
Bridget's mom came up for the weekend last night, so we jumped on the available babysitting and decided to go see the new Spider-Man movie, since it's got such good reviews. We hopped in the car and drove downtown, where we usually see movies. It was at the Meridian, a 3-level 16-screen joint right next to Gameworks and near Niketown and other such places, one block up from the Pacific Place mall, home of such affordable jewerly as Tiffanys and such affordable clothing like Helly Hanson and J. Peterman. Anyway, that mall had some financial sneakiness going on, and for some reason or another ( I think it was due to the Nordstrom across the street strong-arming the City by threatening to move out of downtown) the City of Seattle owns the debtservice on the parking garage under that mall. (The mall is one city block, 5 levels with a buncha garage levels). The upshot is that garage has some legalese that requires it to charge under market rate, so after 5pm it's two bucks. Two buck parking downtown rocks. We parked, went up to street level, and over to the Meridian. All six or seven screens there were sold out all night. Gaaaa! There wasn't anything else starting there at a decent time, so we walk back to Pacific Place (I walked, she waddled) to see what their theater had to offer. Nada. Oh well, it was worth a try. We head down, pay for parking, and head to the car. Getting onto the elevator was another pregnant lady, due next week too. Funny. B was being catty about the other pregnant lady having such a tiny butt, but glub, she was like 25 or less, so what do ya expect? We drove back towards home, but while driving through the U district, we remembered that the Neptune, an old single-screen theater, was also playing Spider-Man, so we went there. HUGE line, I dropped B off to find out about tickets. She got some and got in line, and I went to find parking. I found a spot just across 45th, a major street. I was just about parked as close to the Neptune as B was standing in line, but the theater seats 750 so the few hundred ahead of us were no problemo. The Neptune even still has a balcony. The movie rocked! I was most pleased. Thursday, May 02, 2002
T-minus 10 days and counting. Today is Thursday, OB visit day. No progress, looks like it's gonna be a while yet.
Sad, my lovely weather has gone to crap. Instead of 68 and sunny, it's 51 and rainy. :( Won $30 at poker last night, however! Woo! Wednesday, May 01, 2002
T-minus 11 days and counting. No baby yet.
Last night Isabel and I went to her weekly tot's swim class again. It's a heck of a lot of fun. I watched "The Osbournes" on MTV last night. That show is freakin' hysterical. Reality TV of Ozzy Osbourne's family life. He is SO feeble these days, the product of far too much partying. |
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