I have but a moment...

It's 5:48 am on Thursday morning. All is quiet for the moment, but I hear Kiki stirring over the monitor. I have been up for an hour, am eating Crispix and taking a minute to read the news.

Our days have been hectic lately. As you may imagine, we've been busy with the house. Ray and I take turns running to do a little of this and that. We can't really take the baby over yet. She gets too bored and probably shouldn't be exposed to the paint and cleaning products (in the hectic life of a new mommy, I've given her VERY LITTLE exposure to cleaning products thus far.) Hopefully this weekend we will be able to complete most of the remaining repairs and updates necessary. (Come one, come all, who wish to lend a hand!!)

Things are really busy at work as well. Still trying to get caught up from when I was on leave. Long/early days this week and next. Ray's car has been in the shop, so Kiki and I have been dropping him off on our way to work/school. Kiki is usually first to arrive at school each morning. I can usually get the best spot in the parking lot.

Kiki is growing fast. For those that were wondering how it would pan out, her eyes are beginning to turn a dark brown, just like her dad's. She discovered her hand last week, and often looks to be acid tripping as she ponders the meaning of it all. She has also learned to scoot. Although she isn't really doing it during floor play yet, she moves around her crib like crazy. Imagine my surprise when I put her to bed with her head on one end of the bed, and got her up the next morning with her completely turned the other direction!!

There is the 6:00 alarm. There is a baby to dressed, a husband to be awakened, bags to be packed, bottles to be fed. But this was a great morning moment for me!!

What's New in the 'Hood?

Elena had her 2 month check-up today. Lots of pokes (boo), a new weight (11 lbs 4 oz), and a belly button check (the infection is gone, inside and out). She was a brave little girl for her Papa and only cried for a short while. Her doctor is very happy with her progress. Next appointment is in 2 months. Hopefully we won't have any illness between appointments this time (knock on wood).

We have the signing for the house on Friday morning. Renovations begin promptly Saturday morning. We have roughly 4 weekends and a few after-work hours to do everything before we have to be out of the apartment. Hopefully things will move along quickly and we start moving our stuff in mid-March; definitely by the end of March.

We have a solid date for Elena's baptism. For those of you interested, plan on April 13 at 1:00pm. I'll be sending out info regarding the location of the church and directions to our new place (cuz we gonna PARty after!)

Elena has found her smile and is working on her laugh (she sounds a bit psychotic when she tries). We are trying to get a good minute or so of smiles on video, but she clams up when the spotlight is on her.

Elena is also beginning to recognize faces. I'm putting together a project for her new room so she can start to learn faces of family members that live far away. If you have a good, clear shot of your face, send it my way. Digital pics sent via email or flikr link are best, since I can print a large size. I hear that babies especially like pictures of other babies' faces (hint, hint, M and L) Thanks in advance for all donations!!

Superbowl Baby

I know this is a little late, but here is a picture of Elena's first Superbowl. As you can probably tell, the picture was taken a few moments before bedtime.






Jersey courtesy of Uncle Jeff. Football courtesy of the Detroit Lions.

Did I ever tell you...?

So, in the excitement of Elena's birth, I don't think I ever told the story of what REALLY happened when I went into labor.

It was a Wednesday. I came home from work early that day. There wasn't much to do at work, as all elements of my job had already transitioned to the temp that would be filling in for me. I was to the point in the pregnancy where my energy was tapped by about 3pm everyday, so I was grateful that my supervisors were flexible enough to let me go early.

I had eaten two frozen burritos for lunch when I got home, and then rested through the afternoon. After Ray got home, the evening progressed as normal. By 10pm, I was in bed. I needed plenty of sleep to recoop and get up for work in the morning.

Unfortunately, those burritos had come back to haunt me. I was having some pretty annoying lower abdominal pressure. "I really need some sleep tonight. This is just great," I thought. "I hope I can sleep this off."

By the time Ray went to bed, the pressure was no better. At midnight, I was up and walking around, trying to relieve the pressure somehow. I was a few days overdue at this point, so I figured I might as well put some of those techniques from the child birth classes to use for SOMETHING!! I walked, I massaged, I walked more. No relief; it was worse, if nothing else. By 2, I thought, "This doesn't feel the way labor is described, but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'd better start timing these pains."

So I started timing. The pains came at odd intervals. 8 minutes, 6 minutes, 10 minutes. No, this wasn't labor. This was bad burritos. More walking, more massaging. God love Ray, he got up every now and again to check on me. I'd tell him there was nothing he could do to help. He'd go back to bed, only to get up a half hour later to check again.

Finally around 4am, we decided to go to the hospital. Maybe the Birth Center in town could give me something to help with the pain. So off we went to the hospital. of course we took all our "going to have a baby" stuff, but this was just bad burritos.

When we arrived at the hospital, I told the nurse that I was having gas pains and just needed an assessment. The glance that passed between nurses was not lost on Ray or I. It was a knowing glance. Here's another woman who is having "gas pains."

A nurse took me into an exam room, strapped on the monitors and within a short time told me that my contractions (contractions?! What?! No, gas pains!!!) were 4 minutes apart. How could this be? When my contractions are 10 minutes apart, I will leave for Ann Arbor. That is the plan. We planned this. This plan has been in place for months. Nope, back up, do over.

At that point everything went into fast forward for a few hours. I needed to get to Ann Arbor. Would we make it? The doctors weren't sure. If we were going to go, it would have to be with some speed. More speed that we could legally do on our own. So the ambulance came, the "going to have a baby" stuff stayed in the car, and we rushed off to Ann Arbor.

Once we got to Ann Arbor, fast forward ended, slow motion began, labor progressed SL-O-O-O-WLY, 19 hours passed, and the rest is Elena's history. As stressful as the situation was at the time, this was a really good lesson for me at a critical time. As a result of this experience, I realized very quickly that I would not be able to plan my life the way I had in the past. I realized that life with Elena would be VERY different!