It's a Girl!

I'm a little late on the update here but it's been a week of adjustment and catching up on sleep. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

On Monday December 14th, 2009 at 6:49am, Kate and I welcomed our beautiful daughter into the world. Her full name is Teresa Claire...though we plan on calling her Tessa. Her birth was easily the most wonderful thing that I have ever had the privilege of witnessing. Her addition to our home truly makes us a real family...and I for one count myself as immensely blessed.



When I got home from hanging out with my hoodlum friends on Saturday night, Kate mentioned that she was feeling something that could be contractions. We noticed that her belly got very tight when she felt these contractions...but we didn't want to jump the gun just yet. Instead, we decided that we would go to bed as planned and just see how the contractions progressed through the night. This was especially because at the time the contractions were very irregular and spaced pretty far apart. We were hopeful that this was Early Labor and that we would soon be entering the downhill slope toward childbirth.

The night was rough - the pain of the contractions got to the point that Kate was having trouble sleeping (which is saying something!). We got ourselves out of bed (having had minimal sleep) around 6am to start timing the contractions. After about an hour, we were fairly certain that they were regular enough to warrant a call to our midwife.

As it turns out, the midwife on duty (Dian) was already at Poudre Valley Hospital, having finished delivering someone else's baby the previous night. There was a little trouble getting in touch with her but when we finally got her on the phone, she wasn't absolutely sure if Kate was needing to come into the hospital yet. She instead suggested that we meet her at the Womancare clinic so she could give Kate a physical examination and make a judgment call at that time.

At the clinic, Dian told us that the baby's head was very low (the +2 position), meaning that we were well on our way toward the baby's birth. However, Kate's cervix (think of it as the exit door to the womb) was positioned behind the baby's head. That meant that the baby was pushing against the wall of the womb but wasn't putting any pressure where she should be. Dian suggested that we head home and try a few techniques to get things adjusted inside Kate. She also said to call if things got really strong; otherwise, she would check in with us at noon.

At home, Kate tried several different positions, always breathing, trying to get her interior adjusted properly. We discovered that a hot bath did wonders for helping her withstand the pain of the contractions...and she was even able to doze off for a half hour or so. By the time Dian called us at noon, though, the pain of the contractions was to the point that Kate was having some trouble walking and talking. I was really ready to take her to the hospital...if only so that there would be some professionals to help us evaluate what was happening inside her. Dian agreed and called ahead to have a birthing room ready for us.

We drove down to the PVH with our pre-packed labor bags and headed up to the birthing center. The nurses were expecting us and ushered us into our room...which we were glad to see came with its own jacuzzi-bathtub. The nurse (Patty) hooked Kate up to some monitors which let us see the baby's heart rate and the strength and pattern of Kate's contractions. We were glad to see that the baby was perfectly calm inside of Kate, even during the worst of the contractions. However, little progress had been made in shifting Kate's cervix around to the proper position.

A few hours passed, with Kate walking about, trying out different positions, soaking for almost an hour in the jacuzzi, and doing wonderful with her breathing techniques. I tried to stay close to her at all times, offering encouraging words or touches. To my surprise and disorientation, at some points during her contractions, Kate did not want me to touch her! This was jarring as in the past my touch has always been enough to calm Kate down. She would explain to me later that her body felt so under pressure that even my lightest touch felt like a lead weight on her body. She never snapped at me or anything...and made it very clear that she still wanted me nearby...but I only rarely tried touching or holding her.

Early into the evening, Dian reported that the cervix had finally moved into a good position. Now we would need to hope that the contractions would start putting pressure on it and force it to dilate properly. Kate was at about 1-2cm around Sunday evening. The nurse (Brittany this time and later Dorothy) and Dian left us alone to try to get some sleep and to let Kate's body do its thing, stopping in every now and again to check the baby's heartbeat.

Kate and I didn't get much sleep. The contractions were enough that Kate only managed some real rest when she was in the hot water bath. I managed an hour late into the night...but the adrenaline really didn't let me relax. I did partake in the complimentary room service that the hospital provided, ordering up a burrito with green chili for dinner. That was the first real meal I'd had since about 9am that morning. Kate of course wasn't hungry at all, though we did manage to get some smoothie and a strawberry milkshake into her system. In the meanwhile, she was drinking about two or three cups of water every hour. That was one of my jobs...to make sure she had plenty of water to keep her hydrated.

Around midnight, we discovered that after four or five hours, Kate had only dilated about 1 or 2 centimeters. This was distressing as we had been hoping for more progress than that. Everything seemed to be taking forever! Dian was very calm and told us that we had a couple of options. First, we could keep doing things naturally and see if Kate would dilate normally...though the current rate of progress indicated that this could potentially take another twenty four hours to get to the serious part of Active Labor. Second, Dian could manually break Kate's water, which would very quickly kick her labor into high gear. Dian warned that while this would speed things up, it would also mean a lot of pain in a short time.

Kate and I chose to stall a bit. We continued to have Kate soak in hot water, try different positions, and so forth to see if we could get things happening on our own. Sadly, after about an hour or two, Kate had only progressed about half a centimeter. Knowing that another day of this kind of work could leave Kate too exhausted when it came time to push, we opted to have Dian manually break Kate's water. We did have the option of having Kate take some narcotics to let her sleep and regain some strength, but we couldn't be sure if that would really help...and it still meant a longer period of Active Labor.

The breaking of Kate's water was pretty straight forward; it didn't even cause her any discomfort. As Dian predicted, Kate's contractions started getting extremely strong and steady. The pattern was obvious and she did get a few minutes to catch her breath between them. (Before this, Kate might have a strong contraction but it wouldn't fully go away, leaving her with a dull and constant pain for hours that would occasionally spike with a contraction.)

Kate was amazing. She kept moving. She kept drinking water. She kept up her breathing. She tried standing and swaying during contractions. She lay on her side during some of them. She did at least one more hot water soak. After just a couple of hours, Dian reported that Kate had made great progress, dilating to around 7cm in that time.

It wasn't too long after that when Kate said she was starting to feel the urge to push. Within an hour of Dian's last check, we were getting Kate onto the bed and into a good pushing position. Kate ended up pushing for close to four hours! This was the hardest thing for me to watch because it was so obviously painful for Kate. But when I saw the very top of the baby's head, I doubled my encouragement to her. I know that she was getting frustrated with our constant declarations of "I can see the baby's head! You're almost there!" For her, it was as if we were lying or that she wasn't getting anywhere. She was being hampered by the cycle of contractions - she would have a good strong one then a long gap before a fairly weak one...and then it would repeat. It was hard for her to make real progress for a while.

After a couple of changes of position, Kate started to get the hang of pushing. The main issue was that she would push hard, then take several gulps of air...which somehow drew the baby back inside a bit. She soon learned how to just grab a big breath and push again. It seemed like Kate would be pushing forever (and had been pushing forever) when suddenly...and I do mean suddenly...there was the baby!

As a side note, I should say that my first inclination was not to watch the actual birth of the baby. But when it started to happen, something came over me...and I had to watch. I'm glad I did because, as I said above, it was the most amazing thing. It was a miracle actually happening before my eyes. I'm never going to forget it.

Dian immediately placed the baby on Kate's belly...and the look on my wife face at the moment - all gasping and laughing and almost crying - was almost as amazing as the actual birth. The nurse Dorothy told me that I could check the gender of the baby and we found out that we had a beautiful, healthy little girl! Kate asked me which of our name ideas I wanted to use and that's when we chose Teresa Claire...or Tessa for short.

Tessa was immediately hungry and so Kate (with some help from Dorothy) started to nurse. Meanwhile, Dian had me cut the cord - another thing that I wasn't sure I wanted to do until that very moment. There was also a good deal of blood and Dian was soon calling in a couple of extra nurses. As it turned out, there was still some pieces of membrane that were still stuck inside of Kate so Dian had a doctor (wish I could remember her name) come in to 'clean out' the stuck pieces. There was also a small bit of tearing so Dian added a few stitches to finish Kate up.

While Dian and the others were working on Kate, I remember thanking God that Tessa had arrived safely and praying that I wouldn't lose Kate at this point either. Turns out I shouldn't have worried as Kate was in excellent hands. In truth, it all looked worse than it probably was.

Tessa was measured and checked and got her first bath (more of a sponge-bath) from the nursery nurses. She weighed in at 7 pounds and 6 ounces, which was a great weight. Kate was expecting a bigger baby given our family histories. Tessa also measured 19 3/4 inches long...so all in all, a really good size!

Once Kate was cleaned up and resting comfortably and all the initial checks were done on Tessa, Dian and the nurses left me and Kate alone for a little while to give us time to bond with our new daughter. I don't mind admitting that at this point the enormity of what we had been given finally hit me. Combined with the physical and mental exhaustion, I simply broke down and wept. I told Kate that I was so proud of her and amazed by what God had given us. I told her that I was terrified of the responsibility that we now bore. I almost couldn't believe how beautiful our daughter was. Bless her, Kate just held us both and told me that she had absolute faith in our ability as parents...and that God would never give us a burden that He didn't think we could shoulder.

After a couple more hours and a few more checkups, Kate and I were transferred to the recovery ward. I remember that the first thing I noticed was that our new room had a window; I hadn't realized how long I had gone without sunlight until just then. We settled in and a series of very friendly nurses came by to take care of us. It was at this point that I started trying to make phone calls and emails to friends and family to announce the good news.

Kate's appetite was back in force within a few hours of the delivery. Fortunately, the PVH cafeteria has some excellent options for the room service...and there was even a special menu for new mothers and fathers. We could both have a 'gourmet' meal on the house. Kate ended up devouring a generous lobster and steak plate while I had a stuffed chicken and rice meal. I ducked out that afternoon to tend to the cats at home (it's nice to live only five minutes from the hospital!) but came back to stay the night with Kate and Tessa.

That first night was a little rough. Tessa cried for a while and refused to be consoled. Kate and I were so tired that we were at our wit's end and actually called the nurse for help. The nurse swaddled Tessa up tight and held her a short while...and Tessa calmed right down. Or at least enough that Kate and I managed a reasonably decent night's sleep.

We checked out of the hospital the next day. Our intention was to check out in the early afternoon...but a mis-communication with our family practitioner's office delaying our doctor from visiting. Dr Kauffman came rushing in around 6pm, apologizing for the delay, and gave Tessa her final checkup. After getting the thumbs-up, we took our baby home.

At this point, we're still getting used to Tessa's habits and patterns...and I think she's getting used to ours. We were fortunate to have Kate's Dad Brendan visiting for that first week to fix us dinner and generally take care of anything we needed. By the end of the week, we felt fit enough to start making the rounds of local friends and show off the wondrous creation we made. (Although we've since been instructed by Dian to have Kate take it easy a bit more!)

I continue to be surprised at how natural it's become to care for Tessa. It's hard for me to imagine a time that I was cautious and frightened of a little infant. She's easy to carry and hold. Changing diapers and cleaning spit-up doesn't faze me. I figure there must be something pre-programmed in our brains that kicks in when a child arrives, but Kate says that it's because I was meant to be a Daddy. :-)

Looking back - even after just a week or so since her birth - it's already hard to remember the worst aspects of the labor and birth. The joy and love that has filled our home now just pushes all memory of painful ordeal right out the window. We really do consider ourselves blessed to have such a beautiful miracle as part of our lives. I for one intend to spend the rest of my life making sure we deserve her.




Thanks for joining me in welcoming Tessa to the world and to our family!

And as always thank you for reading and I hope you're having a very good day.

Pregnancy Update 4

As of this post, Kate and I have roughly a week or so before Baby's arrival. That's assuming that Baby agrees to pay heed to the scheduled due date...which I'm fairly certain he/she will not. In fact, if Baby has his/her parents' knack for timeliness, Baby won't make an appearance until Christmas! :-)

Kate's doing very well. She hasn't had any discomfort that the pregnancy books say can be normal. She does get tired very quickly...and seems to need a sit-down rest after even 10-15 minutes of activity. The only ailment she's suffered from recently is a PUPPP rash, but a little cortisone and some benadryl and she was fine in a couple of days.

Here's a pic of her from this week:



Getting big, isn't she? :-)

It's been extremely cool to be able to feel Baby moving around in Kate's belly. I've been able to feel feet, legs, and even Baby's rump pressing up against Kate's skin. Baby still tends to keep quiet when Kate's moving...but gets active when she's sitting still. Baby also reacts to noise, particularly music...but a couple of times he/she gave a twitch at Daddy's voice. :-D I'm also able to 'play' with Baby by poking or tapping Kate's belly and getting a kick or twitch in response. Oddly enough, Kate doesn't always like this game. ;-)

Another amusing twist is that Kate hasn't hit any sort of 'nesting' phases. In fact, it's been yours truly that's been anxious about making sure everything is ready for Baby's arrival. I was starting to scheme up complex plans to re-arrange the entire living room and office...and I was panicking because I didn't know how I was going to get everything done! Fortunately, Kate was able to talk me down and remind me that we don't need a huge re-structuring of the house just for one tiny tot. With that in mind, I reined by in plans to something simpler and much more manageable, which we finished up last weekend.

We're pretty much ready with furniture and supplies, having stopped at Sam's Club to pick up diapers and Babies-R-Us for other tools of the parental trade. In addition, our friend Deb and Rick gave us a changing table (which the cats think is a new fort to play on) and a car seat for the kiddo. And (best of all) my folks made us a new rocking cradle for Baby! They also brought up a glider chair for Kate, although Chiral appears to have adopted it as her own chair.

Here's some pictures:







We've finished our childbirth and breastfeeding classes (although we'll have a few weeks of postpartum classes sometime in January). We've also got Baby's baptism all scheduled out - I believe Kate's folks will be out for that event.

At our last visit to the midwives at Womancare, we were told that Baby was doing well. His/her head is pointed downward, but his/her face is looking forward. But there are some easy exercises that Kate's been doing to help encourage Baby to turn around and face the proper way. Other than that, the midwives have pronounced Baby as perfectly healthy...and looking pretty comfortable despite the squashed living space inside of Mommy. :-)

So all is well right now! We're both very excited about Baby's upcoming arrival...but Kate admits that Baby is probably easier to manage where he/she is right now. :-)

Hopefully, the next post will be a birth announcement!

As always, thanks for reading...and I hope you're having a great day!

Four Years With Kate

Kate and I have been married exactly four years today! :-)



We were just talking last night about how it both doesn't seem like we've been together that long...AND how it feels like we've been with each other forever. We've had a wonderful marriage. I won't say we didn't have a stumble in the path now and again, but love each other very much and always make things work. That's what it's all about.





So happy anniversary, my love! Thank you for giving me four wonderful years of love and companionship! You honestly make my life complete...and I hope to make you happy for decades to come - just as you have made me happy since the day you told me "Yes, I'll marry you."

(Okay, in actuality, Kate said, "Well, if you really want me to" when I proposed but that's beside the point!) :-)

For those of you curious, Kate and I are taking a half-day at work today. If the afternoon is pleasant, we'll be out for a nice long walk. Then tonight, we're going to see "The King and I" at the Union Colony Dinner Theater down in Greeley. It should be a blast!

Thanks for reading...and I hope you're having as good a day as we are. :-)

Pregnancy Update 3

Okay, I have to admit that at this point in Kate's pregnancy, there doesn't seem to be a huge amount of 'wow-bang' activity. The visits to the midwives at Womancare are getting, well quite frankly, a bit dull. We walk in, they take a few measurements, check the heartbeat, ask if she's having any troubles, and off we go!

Don't get me wrong! I'm glad that the pregnancy is thus far rather 'boring.' The idea of impending parenthood is exciting enough without an extra-special 'thrills.'

I will however share this picture of Kate and her growing belly. This picture was taken on Oct 1st and Kate is about 30 1/2 weeks along.



This puts her into her third trimester, which means we're on the downhill slope to baby's arrival in December. As such, since Kate's a big fan of being prepared (I am as well; she's just better at it than me), we're starting to get some of our ducks in a row before baby makes his/her appearance.

For one thing, we've signed up for birthing classes through the Foothills Childbirth Education Association. We had originally hoped to get into a specialized class that taught the Bradley method of husband-coached childbirth, but the scheduling and timing didn't work out. So instead, we're reading a book entitled "Husband-Coached Childbirth" and taking this class through the FCEA for a general introduction about what to expect from the birth.

The class actually had its first session on Wednesday this week...and it was very informative! Okay, so sue me...but I honestly had no idea how the internals of a woman's body worked during childbirth. In this first class, our instructor Krista gave us a crash course in the bodily functions that occur during childbirth. I won't go into it all here, but I have to admit, I am seriously impressed with how God has put women together to allow babies to be born! Everything just operates like a smooth machine. Sure, there's always the chance of a glitch, but it's almost beautiful how it all functions.

Sorry, I'll skip over the waxing poetic here. :-)

So we went over the physiological aspect of childbirth and some general talk about relaxing during childbirth. Krista didn't lie to us - she told us that childbirth would be messy and painful, but there are things we can do to help ease the pain. The key seems to be to trust that your body knows what it's doing...so just let it. Don't focus on the part that's automatic; concern yourself with anything else that adds to your comfort. Krista and the FCEA seem to be big fans of husbands and partners helping with the birth and with minimal use of drugs - basically as natural as you can if what they'd prefer.

Krista finished with an anecdote about how one never forgets all those details related to the birth of one's child. Even when the child is grown up and getting ready to graduate from high school like her daughter is. She got rather sniffly and teary-eyed during this story...and none of us could blame her! It really hit home the kind of love that we're going to be bringing into our lives.

Oops - waxing again. Moving on. :-)

We've also started talking with our church about getting the baby baptized. We met last night with Deacon Bill and his wife from SEAS Parish. We'll need to go to a class at the church next month, and after that we'll probably plan on having the baptism in January. We're still debating whether we want to have the baptism during a regular Mass or a private ceremony. We're leaning a little bit toward the public one. We would have liked to set it up so the baptism occurred on a holiday weekend - to make it easier for Kate's mother to visit - but sadly, I'm scheduled to work both holiday weekends in January and February. In any case, we'll figure something out.

As part of the process, we chose our friends Debbie and Rick to be godparents of our baby. They are wonderful, good-hearted people that go to the same church as we do. Debbie worked with both me and Kate at the library for some years before Jason - their charming boy - was born. We've made an effort to stay in touch, get together for dinner, that sort of thing.

Here's a picture of Deb, Rick, and Jason at one of their friend's wedding:



Other than that, it's business as usual. Kate regularly feels the baby moving, usually when she's not. It's too the point that occasionally I'm lucky enough to feel a kick or push when my hand rests on Kate's belly. It's the coolest feeling! :-)

That's all to report for now.

As always, thanks for reading and I hope you're having a great day!

Happy Anniversary to Mom and Dad

Wishing my parents a Happy Anniversary today!

Love you both!

Your Son,
- Michael

Happy Birthday to Dad!

Just taking a moment to shout out a quick "Happy Birthdy" to my Dad!

Thanks for everything, Dad! You're the best!

Love,
Your Son,
- Michael

September Updates

Just some quick notes - stuff I've been meaning to post. It's been crazy busy at work the last couple of weeks...and I've been dead-to-the-world tired for most of this one. I wonder if that has something to do with the long weekend for Labor Day. Ah, well.

First off, I want to mentioned the passing of my great-uncle Pone. My Mom mentioned that he'd passed away on Wednesday night. In truth, I had no idea that I even had a living great-uncle. Sadly, I never had the chance to meet him or know anything about him. I had the same feeling when my Thai grandfather passed away some years ago...that sense of regret that I wouldn't have another chance to know him. I know that Mom is sad that she won't be able to get to Thailand for his funeral...and she says that Yai (that's Thai for "grandmother") is pretty broken up about losing her younger brother. Pone was only 61.

If you could spare a prayer, our family would appreciate it.

Next, I'm happy to say that our wasp problem seems to have been dealt with. Last week, Kate and I noticed something like two dozen wasps buzzing about our back porch area. A large number of them were congregating in the fence that divides our back porch with our neighbor's...which meant that the nest (nests?) was actually inside the fence. This was really annoying for me because...one, I hate wasps...and two, I'd been planning a barbeque for Labor Day. I had grand plans for a kabob theme...but I sure as heck couldn't work the grill with a swarm of aggressive insects buzzing about. And since it was just before the weekend, it was unlikely that we could get an exterminator in before the holiday. I ended up having to ditch the grill idea.

I did some looking online and found a few ideas for homemade wasp traps...but most websites suggested either using poisons or just calling a professional. I tried my hand at making my own wasp trap using a soda bottle, some corn syrup and a few pieces of watermelon (since wasps are attracted to sweet smells). It didn't work. Kate's theory was that the critters were very, very focused on trying to finish their nest before the cold weather set in and didn't have time for snacking. Whatever the reason, I didn't kill a single wasp.

Thankfully, Kate and I noticed yesterday when we got home that our fence had been tagged by the exterminator used by our HOA. Kate had called our HOA rep on Tuesday and she was told that a professional would be called and that it was all covered by our HOA fees (since the nest was outside). Last night, we found the tag and a number of dead wasps lying on the porch. Huzzah! Now I can resume my plans for grilling.

And in case you were wondering, we did have a big get-together on Labor Day. We usually have a monthly gathering of friends from the libraries in order to gossip and play board games. Since we missed the August session, we decided to hold a big game night on Labor Day, assuming that most folks would have the day off. Since we couldn't do my grilled kabob plan, we instead switched to a semi-Mexican theme with Kate making lentil tacos and me trying a pork green chile recipe. As usual, we overdid it on the food and we had tons of leftovers! That's okay though; we were starting to run low on decent leftovers.

We had our ever-faithful chum Erin show up and a brief visit from Sarah R. and her family. Giny also made an appearance...and our non-library friends Ron, Dawn, and Josh also visited. It was great fun, especially since we actually managed to play several games, including Fluxx and SceneIt. Our next game night will be in October. We're not sure when exactly...since October includes our anniversary, Halloween, baptism and birthing classes, and a possible visit with my family (though that might wait until early November).

At what point did we develop such a complicated social calender? :-)

That's all from the Fort Collins front for now. I probably owe our good readers an update on Kate's pregnancy...but I'll save that for its own post.

In the meantime, thanks for reading and have yourself a great day!

Happy Birthday to Dianna!

Wishing a very happy birthday to my "kid" sister Dianna!




Love you, Sis!

Pregnancy Update 2

There are no new pictures in this update, I'm afraid! :-) Just wanted to give folks a few tidbits.

We had an appointment with the midwives last week and got a confirmation that everything looked great physically for Baby. The anatomy looks good - arms, legs, head, brain, heart, lungs, kidneys, etc. I forgot to mention last time...but when the technician did our last ultrasound for us, she mentioned that Baby's skin is pretty thin right now...and it was fairly easy to see Baby's skull through the ultrasound. Creepy! :-) But overall, the baby looked very healthy so far to the doctors.

Kate is also starting to feel the baby move. For a couple weeks now, she's been assuming the mild feelings in her belly were just gas or fluids shifting around...but while at the midwives clinic, Dian (one of the midwives) was checking for a heartbeat and we all heard a scratching feedback kinda noise. Dian told us that was the baby moving around...and it coincided with that odd feeling with Kate. So now, Kate knows that when she has that feeling, it's actually Baby moving around!

After Kate's next appointment in early September, we'll be expected to stop in every two weeks rather than every month. The next visit will involve some sort of glucose test and more blood being drawn. More on that after the appointment.

We also learned last night that Baby can apparently hear, especially loud noises. Kate and I went to see the G.I. Joe movie last night, which was full of loud gunshots and explosions and hard music. Every time there was an action sequence or a stretch of rockin' music, Kate says that Baby starting bouncing around. Does that mean that Baby's going to love action flicks like Daddy...or did I just traumatize my kid with the high-octane, pulse-pounding beat of that movie, thus dooming Baby to a life of easy-paced chick flicks? Guess time will tell. ;-)

Kate and I did manage a trip to the local Babies-R-Us store in the Front Range Village. We discovered that there are a lot of kitchy-cute gadgets out there that we probably won't really need...but there are also a goodly list of items that we realize we WILL need. We're hesitant to go too crazy because of our lack of real space...but maybe with a little finagling we can make some decent room. We've also had very generous offers of gifts of used-but-still-serviceable furniture from friends and family - particular my sister, my parents, and our friends Deb and Rick. We still need to take a good look at the offered items and compare 'em to the space we have.

(Now that I think of it...we were just down in Colorado Springs visiting my family and I forgot to get the dimensions of the crib that Dianna was offering us. D'oh!)

My Dad says he's going to try to build us a rocking cradle for Baby, which would be great. We're thinking that we can put it downstairs both as a spot to put Baby down for mid-day naps...and as a way to show off my Dad's woodworking skillz.

Kate is still getting used to the changing dimensions of her belly. She told me that it was weird how her bellybutton has gone from an 'innie' to an 'outie' in the last few weeks. She's taken to putting a band-aid over it to keep it from being rubbed raw against her clothes. And speaking of clothes, our aforementioned friend Deb brought over two large plastic tubs of maternity clothes for Kate to try on. Kate hasn't had the chance to do so yet but it looks like she'll have a ton of options!

We were going to sign up for a birthing class but the times of the classes didn't fit with our work schedules. (Darn weekend shifts!) Of the two most popular methods - Lamaze and Bradley - we're leaning toward the Bradley Method. Unfortunately, since we aren't able to get into those classes, we're looking into some general classes offered through Womancare - the midwives clinic. As I understand it, these classes aren't a specific method, but a general instruction as to what to expect and what both mother and father need to do during the delivery. I believe these classes would be starting in the next month or so. In the meantime, being the library folk that we are, we've checked out a book on the Bradley Method entitled "Husband-Coached Childbirth." We're also looking at DVDs from the library, in particular one called "The Business of Being Born."

Library people do research. ;-)

We're also due to check with our church about baptism classes. We're aiming to have Baby baptized sometime in January (I think) but it sounds like we'll need to attend a few classes about what the responsibilities we'll be agreeing to. I believe we'll also need to be choosing Catholic godparents for Baby, but we've got an idea for that. And, no, I'm not telling. Yet. ;-)

We're currently making tentative plans for December. Once Baby is born and we're back in the house, we'll be opening our doors to family who want to visit with us and the new little one. Friends will probably be welcome as well but family gets priority. ;-) I know that Kate's dad - Brendan - is planning on driving down for a visit. He says he'll just be waiting for us to call around announcing that Baby is here and we're home before he heads down. I think Mary Ann - Kate's mom - isn't able to promise a visit at the same time, since we're being vague about the due date, but I think she might come out for the baptism. I know my family is eager for the third grandchild and hopefully they'll also be able to make it up here. It's been since the wedding that both sides of the family have seen each other. Might be fun!

My niece Julie is especially exciting about having a new cousin. She's even offered up options for names of the baby for us: "Lily" if it's a girl or "George" if it's a boy. I told her we'd consider it. :-)

I'm sure there's some other trivia that I ought to report but since I'm cranking this out on my break at work, I'd probably better end here and continue later. Hopefully next time, I'll have even more pictures to share!

As always, thanks for reading and I hope you're having a great day!

Pregnancy Update

Sorry for the silence - been sort of a busy few weeks, especially with the California vacation that we just got back from. Woo! What fun! :-)

I thought I'd give our readers a quick update on how things are going with Kate's pregnancy. First off, we just visited Poudre Valley Hospital for a routine ultrasound, which is apparently required at around 20 weeks. (Kate is just over 21 weeks along by the way!) The initial report from the midwives at Womancare is that Baby looks perfectly normal...no obvious problems with anatomy.

Here are some of the latest images...my apologies for the quality - our scanner is defunct so I had to use my digital camera.





The baby's growth is perfect for 20-21 weeks...although Baby's legs are apparently a bit longer, roughly equivalent to 22 weeks. Guess Baby's going to be tall! :-)

Kate is also starting to show. She often wears loose-fitting clothing, even at work, so she isn't particularly obvious just yet. This is great in that we haven't needed to pick up any new clothes for her. At this rate, she should be okay for just wearing her current outfits without the need for maternity wear. (Which is a good thing since Kate is sort of dreading having to buy new clothes - she hates clothes shopping!) ;-)



Kate is also able to eat more foods now. We find that it's not necessarily what she eats that might make her ill. In fact, she simply has to be able to eat a small meal or snack every hour or two...otherwise she gets a bit sick to her stomach. She still doesn't want shrimp though, much to her chagrin. And she can't always eat too much at a sitting - not enough room in the belly, I guess. ;-)

We're also finding that her sense of smell is really, really sharp. She's very sensitive to strong odors - like perfumes and incense. Scents that she dislikes normally now hit her really hard, making her nauseous. I discovered that my friend fast food could often set her off. No KFC or McDonalds for this baby, I suppose! No buffets either it looks like. :-)

Oh, and for those who haven't heard yet...we will NOT be finding out the gender of Baby until he or she arrives in December. We would really like to try being surprised. As such, we're making sure to dream up potential names for both a boy and a girl. So far it's been easier to come up with girl names that we like than boy names...but we're working on it.

Also, due date is early to mid December. We're deliberately being vague about the time because we don't want to feel restricted to an exact day. From what we've been told, babies can show up a couple of week before or after the 'due date' without any problems. So...to keep worries down, we're keeping it open.

I've already gotten a number of questions about baby showers and baby registries. We're still waffling on a lot of these decisions. We don't know what we want for the baby yet - just a few of the necessities. We have a number of friends who have generously offered to give or sell us their old baby furniture, which will help out a lot! We also know that we won't have a lot of room to work with; Baby will probably be in Mom and Dad's bedroom. We're pretty sure that we don't want a whole bunch of toys cluttering up the house either - in fact, we actually have quite a few baby-safe toys collected from our childhoods. Books and clothes might be a possibility...but we really need to stop in at a baby store and see what sort of things are available before we decide what we really want. There will probably be things that we definitely want...things that we didn't think of...and things that we don't want anywhere near our home. :-) We'll keep you posted.

Other than all that, things are going very well. As I said, Kate is feeling pretty good - just gets tired very quickly. I'm trying to be the good husband and handle most of the chores around the house. Kate's certainly capable of moving around and helping out, but I just like to take care of her. :-)

As always, thanks very much for reading! Hope you're having a great day!

July 4th Update

We had ourselves a really good July 4th weekend!

I got the day off on Friday the 3rd, but poor Kate had to work. Rather than pining away for her, I visited with Bill to play vidgames for the afternoon. Then I popped back up to pick up Kate from work. We caught Ron from Loveland and headed down to watch a showing of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" at the Union Colony Dinner Theater. As always, we loved the venue and the performance was both top-notch and hilarious, especially the characters of Pseudolus and Hysterium plus Hero and Phillia.

The next day, Kate and I did a whirlwind cleaning of the house in preparation for our friends coming over for our annual BBQ. The dinner plans inadvertently became a grilled kabob night, which was great! We might have overdone it on the amount of food both prepped and consumed. But it was all delish so who cares? :-)

Afterward, most of us headed down to City Park for the city fireworks display. It'd been raining for most of the day, which seemed to scare most folks off. We had a nice spot on top of a hill with a great view.

If you're interested, here some vids of the display...





rant on

As much as a love fireworks, I can't stand the folks who don't consider the safety of others when firing them off. The only downside of the evening was watching as people were setting off fountains, poppers, and spark-shooting spinners along the sidewalks, in the streets, and even in the crowded park over the heads of the rest of us! C'mon, people, show a little consideration!!

rant off

Sorry about that! :-)

Anyway the display was great - we loved it! The finale was particularly good in my opinion - although I was too dazzled to remember to point my camera at it. Oh, well!

On Sunday, Kate and I did some seriously vegging out. We both ended up napping through the whole afternoon before I headed down to Bill's to do some board gaming.

All in all, quite an enjoyable and relaxing holiday weekend!

I hope all of you had an equally pleasant Independence Day weekend! Thanks - as always - for reading and have yourselves a great day!

Weekend Report

Whew! What a busy weekend!

I had to work a full shift on Saturday - and it was almost painfully quiet. Only a handful of patrons and very few questions...although most everyone had a 'special situation' that made 'em want to bend the rules of the computer lab. Sometimes it's almost easier to enforce the rules when I have lines of patrons then when it's frightfully quiet. Go figure.

Fortunately, after work I was able to hang out with friends from the library in our monthly Library Game Night. I usually don't schedule our game nights on days that I work so I can get all the prep done. This time I tried doing a little of the chopping of fruits and veggies earlier in the week....then Kate (who did have the day off) took care of EVERYthing else. I did do the dishes afterward though. :-)

It was a good time. I ate a bit more than I probably should have - and I had more of the 'junk' food that I likely needed - but it was a good time. We never get around to playing games - there was just too much library gossip to be had! ;-) In fact, with me working in Longmont these days...and our friend Jolie who's out at Loveland (where Kate used to work) joining us...we had a number of libraries to talk about!

We closed shop a bit late into the evening, but fortunately Kate and I had already decided to go to the later church service so we could sleep in a bit. After church we joined Bill and Tammy at the Taste of Fort Collins event, which is a gathering of music as well as local food and craft vendors. We mostly went there for the food and to watch the Gin Blossoms perform.

The food was pretty good and Kate was actually hungry for some of it. (Hurrah!) We listened (didn't have a good view) to a local band called Motorhome play while we ate our lunch. The only thing we bought from the vendors is a small tin of chocolate-raspberry-honey that Kate thinks should be tasty on ice cream. Then we hooked back up with Bill and Tammy and sat down to enjoy the Gin Blossoms concert.

Here's some (long-distance-on-zoom) pictures of the band:







After the concert, Kate and I headed over to Mo Jeaux's to meet up with Ron, Erin, and Lindsey for Geeks Who Drink trivia night. Drew joined us a couple rounds into the night.

The first round was easy - thanks to Lindsey's knowledge of musicals - but the rest of the rounds were HARD! We should have studied better. But we still placed 6th out of around ten teams. Not as bad as we expected really. :-)

Here's the team...from left to right, Kate, Drew, Ron, Erin, and Lindsey aka The History You're Doomed to Repeat:



And after being exhausted by the busy and active weekend, it's now time to resume the work week. Ah, well!

As always, thanks for reading. I hope you're having a great day!

Congrats from Co-Workers

My 'new' co-workers at the Longmont Library got the news this week that Kate is expecting our first baby. As such, they decorated by desk with some balloons and left a dozen different w00t-style messages on my whiteboard (which I dubbed a 'low-tech Twitter board).

Take a look...




It was great to get this outpouring of excitement and support from my Longmont team. A big thank you to all of them!

Just wanted to share the warm fuzzies... :-)

Thanks for reading! Hope you're having a great day!

And Baby Makes Three!

Kate is past her first trimester, though her appetite is still spotty. Fruit snacks and white cheddar popcorn (and especially gingerbread) continue to be the least-nausea-inducing food ... and this week she's willing to let me grill some burgers and brats because those sound remotely good. She still gets tired very quickly but isn't really starting to show just yet, although she...

...

What..?

Oh yeah! Did I miss a step here? :-)

Sorry...let me start over.

Kate and I are expecting our first baby.

::insert cheers and fanfare here::

We found out around Easter and have been keeping it quiet until Kate's first couple of pre-natal exams as well as the first trimester.

(Incidentally...thanks to all of you who knew ahead of time but waited for us to spring the news on those we wanted to tell directly! Trust me, we appreciate it!)

Here's the little one's first photo...growing inside of Kate's middle:



Cute, huh? Baby must take after Mommy more than Daddy. ;-)

I think I'll leave this post at that for the moment - let it soak in and all.

It's amazingly cool and I can't really find all the words to describe how I've been feeling these last few weeks.

Please keep us in your prayers...and look for the newest Baby Merrell to make an appearance in early December.

Thanks to everyone for reading...and I hope you're having at least half as good a day as me! ;-)

Memorial Day Weekend

Hoping everyone enjoyed your Memorial Day weekend. Most people seem to think of the holiday as an excuse to get out and throw together a barbeque. But it's important to remember the real reason for Memorial Day - namely to remember the brave men and women who gave their lives to preserve the many freedoms we enjoy in this country. We take a lot of those rights for granted but we should never take our fallen heroes for granted.

If we could...please take a moment to reflect and remember.

...

...

...

...

Thanks.

As to my holiday weekend, Kate and I sallied forth to pay a visit to Colorado Springs where my uncle and two of my cousins from Thailand were visiting. My aunt was also supposed to be there - but some confusion with her travel visa meant that we missed seeing her. :-(

We spent the first evening (Friday) with my sister since my parents were flying into Denver with the Thai relatives late that night. We hadn't meant to stay up so late, but when my sister, my wife, and I get to talking, it's hard to stop. I think we called it night somewhere around 3am! We tried sleeping on an air mattress for the first time and slept quite comfortably - except that Dianna's cat Simon kept Kate up with his mischief.

The next morning was a lazy one - mostly because only the kids got any sleep. :-) Kate and I played with the kids Saturday afternoon, then we all headed down to my parents' house to hang out with the Thai relatives.





A group of us decided to go do a little shopping down at Ross and Target. I even managed to find an inexpensive PC repair toolkit - which means I don't have to call the city IT department whenever someone jams a pencil into a floppy disk drive. :-)

For dinner that night, we all ventured out to the Black-Eyed Pea. I thought my steak and Kate's burger were both undercooked, but otherwise the meal was okay. We had leftovers and Julie was gracious enough to add her artwork to the boxes.




On Sunday, after Kate and I got back from church, we took a trip up to the outlet stores in Castle Rock. I found some new shoes and a new shirt. Kate got herself a new Pyrex bread pan. It was nice to walk around for a little - even though the gray clouds, light drizzle, and cool breezes were not as comfortable for my Thai relatives as they were for me. :-)






In the evening, Mom collared Dianna and me to help prep a big 'buffet-style' dinner for everyone, which turned out to be rather fun. Dianna put together a complicated-looking Asian beef salad. (There's a name for it, but I can't recall it right now.) I made a spicy pork and bean chili along with a small amount of beef paprika. Mom made some traditional Thai food as well as some snackable veggies and fruit. Quite yummy says I.



We stayed up late that night watching the Food Network. I'm still not a fan of shows like Iron Chef or Chopped that turn cooking into some sort of hyper-dramatic competition. However, I do like watching what cooks can create in a short amount of time.

On Monday, Mom ordered Domino's for a big lunch and we all just enjoyed hanging out and talking. Kate and I headed out for Fort Collins in the afternoon, enjoying the greenery of Colorado all the way up I-25.




After that, it was a quick stop at King Soopers for the week's produce and any good sales...and that ended our weekend!

It was a lot of fun meeting and visiting with my Thai relatives this weekend. I'd never met my cousin Nooy...and I hadn't seen my cousin Thooy since we were both about a year old and I beaned him with my Tonka truck. :-)





Uncle Sawadee says he and Aunt Sopa may try making a visit to the States an annual event. That'd be cool. I hope I get a chance to see them when they visit next.

Thanks - as always - for reading and I hope you're having a great day.

Parish Priests Leaving

Kate and I found out on Sunday that both the priests that serve at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish will be moving to new assignments next month. Father Larry Christensen and
Father Tadeusz Kopczynski have both been re-appointed to other parishes in Colorado. Father Larry is headed to a church in Denver and Father Tadeusz will be going to Greeley.

I admit (and Kate agrees) that I'm really sad to see them go, especially Father Larry. Father Larry presided over our wedding almost four years ago, and he was so helpful and supportive before, after, and throughout the ceremony.




In fact, Father Larry was the priest that convinced me (indirectly) to start attending church regularly again. He has a wit and wisdom that shines through when he speaks - and he's never without a funny or profound anecdote to share during his homilies. He's a great orator and a joy to listen to - his words can make you chuckle as well as make you think.

Father Tadeusz came to us from Poland, and his tenure with SEAS was supposed to be three years. Well, three years appear to be up - the time just flew by. I love Father Tadeusz because he is so earnest and honest - so happy to be spreading the faith. I've really enjoyed having his at church.

We'll be getting two new priests to replace Father Larry and Father Tadeusz. Both men are "younger," as Father Larry quips. One is 37; the other is 28. Kate tells me that she's never had a priest that was younger than she was. Wonder if that just means we're getting older? :-)

In any case, Father Larry and Father Tadeusz will be missed at SEAS, I'm certain. I know Kate and I will definitely miss them. Any parish that gains either of these men will have a very fortunate congregation indeed!

Our best wishes go out to Father Larry and Father Tadeusz! Good luck in your new parishes and God bless you both!



And as always, thanks for reading...hope you're having a great day!