Well, this three-day weekend is off to a good start.
Kate and I decided that we would take this Friday as a family day and decided that we'd head down to Denver to do...something. It was a toss-up between the Denver Zoo and the Children's Museum. We decided that this would be a seriously low-key outing, with no timetables or need to be somewhere at a particular point. We would just head south and see what happened.
We didn't even bother to truly decide where we were going until we hit the north edge of Denver. At that point I decided that I wanted to take Tessa back to the Zoo. We have a membership with the Zoo so it wouldn't cost us anything to get in. Since we'd been to the Zoo a few times this year, we wouldn't feel like we HAD to see everything and read everything and so on within the time of our visit. We would just pop around and see what we really like to see and call it done.
So if you've never visited a zoo when the weather is cool and cloudy, this is me advising you to give it a try sometime soon. The cooler weather meant that many more of the animals were out and active. (As opposed to the summer time when it often too hot for most critters.) We made a beeline through the Great Cats as saw the likes of servals, a leopard having a meaty bone for lunch (Tessa: "Big cat eat rock"), a several tigers. We took Tessa through the Tropical Discovery building - one of her favorites - where she was fascinated by fish, turtles, frogs, and komodo dragons (which she can now say). She was frightened by an iguana, and I watched another lizard fall out of its tree then lunge at the glass to try and get me.
We took a look at some of the arctic/sea creatures, and it was the first time I'd ever seen the arctic foxes up and moving. The sea lions were also active and we watched them from the underwater viewing area, though they made Tessa a little nervous. We popped over to see the wolves and watched a single white wolf pace the length of its habitat. We then doubled back because Tessa wanted to see bears. We paused at the giraffes and the lions...and the male lion started roaring, and Tessa decided she was done here.
We took lunch at the Samburu Grille, with Kate having a grilled cheese sandwich, Tessa having a pizza slice, and me having a chicken quesadilla and nachos. We then cruised through the elephants, a few hoofed animals, the monkeys and finally the bears. Oh, we'd also seen the mongoose pack and a pair of enormous African (Asian?) porcupines. And by this point it was getting on to 3pm and we were about done with the Zoo.
My other reason for picking the Zoo was that I was hoping we could duck over to the Museum for part of the afternoon as well. We waffled a little bit about paying full price admission for only two hours of time, but then we just went ahead and did it. I really wanted to take Tessa through the Museum because she's getting to an age to actually notice and be interested in certain exhibits.
We visited the Discovery Center first, where Tessa got to play with magnets, blocks, puzzles, a see-through piano, an air tunnel with mesh scarves, giant foam blocks, a dinosaur pit, and several types of tambourines. I have to admit that some of my favorite moments of parenthood involve just watching my daughter discover, explore, and play. There is really nothing quite like it.
When the Discovery Center closed, we took Tessa through the Wildlife dioramas, which she found more engaging than we initially thought she would. Lastly we took a quick run through the Space Center and let Tessa try out a few things. I personally found the infrared camera to be the coolest thing - it showed that Tessa is one hot-blooded little girl, as opposed to her somewhat refrigerated mother. :-)
We left as the Museum closed and headed off to our planned dinner at Sweet Tomatoes in Westminster. If you get a chance to try this place, it's just fantastic. It's a major league salad bar with a wide soup bar, plus some pasta, bread, baked potato, and dessert options. Very cool. Tessa gobbled down peas, beans, noodles, mac-and-cheese, cheese foccachia, green peppers, grapes, and raisins. I personally managed to have two salads and minimal pasta - for a change.
After dinner we headed back north to Fort Collins, where we put effort into keeping Tessa awake on the drive. We succeeded and Tessa was a relative snap to put to bed. The kid was actually really, really good all day. She had only one semi-meltdown and it was obvious that it was only because she was so tired at that point in the day. We were able to calm her down in just a couple minutes.
We also did the whole day without a stroller. Tessa either walked on her own or was carried by me or Kate. Less to lug around and maneuver, making us more flexible in what we did.
So I'm chalking this up to a really great day. We get so few chances to go out and do something non-stressful as a family. It was wonderful to give ourselves this opportunity.
Naturally, tomorrow we're going to try to get a few things done around the house, including grocery shopping and a Goodwill run. Plus some reorganization if we get the chance. If we can get our meager to-do list done tomorrow, it might mean another day of rest come Sunday...which would be seven flavors of awesome.
As always, thanks very much for reading...and I hope you and yours are having a great day!
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Friday, November 11, 2011
Sunday, December 20, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Activities and Visits
So last Saturday was the grand opening of the Council Tree Library branch that I've been going on about. It was (predictably) a madhouse! Kate insisted on stopping by in the morning to help get some last minute details worked out. (I think it was something to do with newspapers.) And we both ended up helping out for the first hour and a half. I shelved some media before the opening and made up some signage. Kate did a little bit of everything near as I could tell. :-)
We heard recently that the library had over 3,000 visitors that day with over 9,000 items checked out! Wow! In particular, the shelves of DVDs were ransacked - there were reportedly less than a dozen left on the shelves!
Here's a shot of the opening ceremony, where Mayor Hutchinson says a few words before the official opening:
A picture of the crowds moving in:
A shot from the stairwell looking down. You can see Kate and Erin making their way up:
And just because I think it's terribly funny - this was the current hold shelf at the time of opening. All those empty shelves past that small group of books should be filled before too long:
The library provided entertainment in the form of a group of Native American drummers that played and sang for the first hour:
Nearby, Kim and Crystal had a station set up specifically for new library cards:
When I was FINALLY able to drag Kate away from helping out with the opening craziness, we stepped out for lunch at the nearby Five Guys Burgers. Unfortunately, they were really swamped due to spillover from the library's opening. Instead, we walked over to McAlister's Deli, which was truly excellent! I didn't have room to try everything that sounded tasty - so I guess that means I'll need to make another stop sometime! :-)
After lunch, we drove down to Denver to meet up with Kate's siblings - Aileen, Glynnis, and Dan were visiting Colorado for a few days and Emily decided that it might be fun to meet in Golden and visit the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave.
There was still snow on the foothills as we drove up to Golden, which was really pretty:
We started here...
...and drove up a twisty-turny road up to the top of Lookout Mountain, where we met up with Kate's siblings. We visited the museum first and it was actually pretty cool. Buffalo Bill sounded like quite the showman - though I suspect he rather had trouble focusing on one thing at a time, flitting about from job to job and idea to idea. But he led an interesting and eventful life - for better or for worse - and it was a really neat look into the man's life.
I think what I liked best was that Buffalo Bill was one of the first businessmen to really give women and Native Americans a fair chance. He never seemed to appreciate demeaning either group and advocated more even treatment and greater understanding of them. Very, very awesome in my book.
A view of Denver from the top of the mountain:
Following the museum, we took a walk around Golden a bit, mostly focusing on a charming bridge and walkway - but also having a look at some of the shops and art around town:
Afterwards, we headed into Idaho Springs for dinner at the local Beaujo's. It looked like a bunch of folk had just come down from ski trips in the mountains so the place was packed, but we were patient and had quite a yummy dinner. (Kate and I SOOO love Beaujo's!) :-)
Kate and I headed back home after that.
On Monday, Kate's siblings came up to join us in Fort Collins. I had to work but apparently they entertained themselves by playing Soul Caliber 3 on our Playstation 2. Kate made a big meal of fajitas and lentil tacos - and even Betsy was able to come over and join us for dinner. We sat around and kibbitzed 'til late then finished off the night with rousing games of Last Word and TV Scene It!
Today (Tuesday), Dan and I played a little Halo 2 while waiting for Aileen, Glynnis, and Emily. We then all went over to Hunan's for lunch then popped over to the Council Tree library to show it off. I'm pleased to say that the siblings-in-law were quite impressed with the hip chic of the new library.
Here you can see all the siblings "ascending into tranquility" - as the adverts say:
After a brief tour of the library by myself and Kate, all of us settled in to do what you're supposed to do in the library: READ! :-)
Hm. That may not be the best picture I've taken of Emily. No one tell her this is up here, okay? ;-)
I had to head off to work my night shift shortly after this. So leaving Glynnis, Aileen, and Emily to wander the three shoe stores near the library and Kate and Dan to prep dinner and play vidgames at home, I headed down to Longmont.
By the time I got back, Glynnis was still reading:
And there was a Walrus ice cream cake (chocolate cake and bing cherry flavor with vanilla frosting and chocolate waffle cone crust) waiting. It was a celebration of all the siblings' birthdays! Oh, and the cake was delish!
It was great hanging out with the siblings-in-law. I'm more than a little bummed that I have to work again tomorrow and thus won't get to see them off. Oh, well, I guess I'll still see 'em all come July for the O'Connell family reunion in California. Looking forward to that!
It's far too late but I had to finish this blog post. How's that for dedication, huh? :-)
As always, thanks for reading and I hope you're having a great day! (Or night!)
We heard recently that the library had over 3,000 visitors that day with over 9,000 items checked out! Wow! In particular, the shelves of DVDs were ransacked - there were reportedly less than a dozen left on the shelves!
Here's a shot of the opening ceremony, where Mayor Hutchinson says a few words before the official opening:
A picture of the crowds moving in:
A shot from the stairwell looking down. You can see Kate and Erin making their way up:
And just because I think it's terribly funny - this was the current hold shelf at the time of opening. All those empty shelves past that small group of books should be filled before too long:
The library provided entertainment in the form of a group of Native American drummers that played and sang for the first hour:
Nearby, Kim and Crystal had a station set up specifically for new library cards:
When I was FINALLY able to drag Kate away from helping out with the opening craziness, we stepped out for lunch at the nearby Five Guys Burgers. Unfortunately, they were really swamped due to spillover from the library's opening. Instead, we walked over to McAlister's Deli, which was truly excellent! I didn't have room to try everything that sounded tasty - so I guess that means I'll need to make another stop sometime! :-)
After lunch, we drove down to Denver to meet up with Kate's siblings - Aileen, Glynnis, and Dan were visiting Colorado for a few days and Emily decided that it might be fun to meet in Golden and visit the Buffalo Bill Museum and Grave.
There was still snow on the foothills as we drove up to Golden, which was really pretty:
We started here...
...and drove up a twisty-turny road up to the top of Lookout Mountain, where we met up with Kate's siblings. We visited the museum first and it was actually pretty cool. Buffalo Bill sounded like quite the showman - though I suspect he rather had trouble focusing on one thing at a time, flitting about from job to job and idea to idea. But he led an interesting and eventful life - for better or for worse - and it was a really neat look into the man's life.
I think what I liked best was that Buffalo Bill was one of the first businessmen to really give women and Native Americans a fair chance. He never seemed to appreciate demeaning either group and advocated more even treatment and greater understanding of them. Very, very awesome in my book.
A view of Denver from the top of the mountain:
Following the museum, we took a walk around Golden a bit, mostly focusing on a charming bridge and walkway - but also having a look at some of the shops and art around town:
Afterwards, we headed into Idaho Springs for dinner at the local Beaujo's. It looked like a bunch of folk had just come down from ski trips in the mountains so the place was packed, but we were patient and had quite a yummy dinner. (Kate and I SOOO love Beaujo's!) :-)
Kate and I headed back home after that.
On Monday, Kate's siblings came up to join us in Fort Collins. I had to work but apparently they entertained themselves by playing Soul Caliber 3 on our Playstation 2. Kate made a big meal of fajitas and lentil tacos - and even Betsy was able to come over and join us for dinner. We sat around and kibbitzed 'til late then finished off the night with rousing games of Last Word and TV Scene It!
Today (Tuesday), Dan and I played a little Halo 2 while waiting for Aileen, Glynnis, and Emily. We then all went over to Hunan's for lunch then popped over to the Council Tree library to show it off. I'm pleased to say that the siblings-in-law were quite impressed with the hip chic of the new library.
Here you can see all the siblings "ascending into tranquility" - as the adverts say:
After a brief tour of the library by myself and Kate, all of us settled in to do what you're supposed to do in the library: READ! :-)
Hm. That may not be the best picture I've taken of Emily. No one tell her this is up here, okay? ;-)
I had to head off to work my night shift shortly after this. So leaving Glynnis, Aileen, and Emily to wander the three shoe stores near the library and Kate and Dan to prep dinner and play vidgames at home, I headed down to Longmont.
By the time I got back, Glynnis was still reading:
And there was a Walrus ice cream cake (chocolate cake and bing cherry flavor with vanilla frosting and chocolate waffle cone crust) waiting. It was a celebration of all the siblings' birthdays! Oh, and the cake was delish!
It was great hanging out with the siblings-in-law. I'm more than a little bummed that I have to work again tomorrow and thus won't get to see them off. Oh, well, I guess I'll still see 'em all come July for the O'Connell family reunion in California. Looking forward to that!
It's far too late but I had to finish this blog post. How's that for dedication, huh? :-)
As always, thanks for reading and I hope you're having a great day! (Or night!)
Monday, March 23, 2009
A Relaxing Weekend
Kate and I spent the weekend down in Colorado Springs with my family. And after the crazy-busy couple of weeks at work that we've both had, this was a welcome break!
By working a little extra in the week, I was able to duck out a few hours early on Friday so as to make it back to Fort Collins, pick up Kate from work (though she "made" me help finish some projects), and gather up our overnight bags. We took the E-470 toll road to bypass the Friday afternoon rush hour through Denver - and actually made good time down to the Springs. We stopped at Whole Foods to have some soup and bread for dinner then headed over to my sister's house.
We hung out with Heath, Dianna, and Joe (Heath's chum) that evening - mostly just gabbing back and forth. Kate and Dianna went out grocery shopping (getting in at 1am!) while Heath showed me and Joe how to play "Rock Star" for the Playstation. (My only comment is that it's a good thing I didn't try to go into music!)
Heath and Dianna's cats (Grey, Sally, and Simon) also kept us company:
On Saturday, Kate and I took Julie and Everest out as a late birthday present for Julie. We gave Julie the choice of either the zoo or the library and the park. She chose the library and a visit to Cottonwood Park.
At the library, Julie picked out a couple videos and a handful of books for herself and a couple more videos for Everest. She was very focused on acquiring her items and getting checked out. She even knew how to use the self checkout machine all by herself.
We then stopped in at Cottonwood Park (actually it was supposed to Palmer Park, but I got locations mixed up) and let the kids play around for about an hour or so. They seemed to like the slides the best. :-)
Here's a compiled vid of the kids (mostly Everest) going down the slide. My apologies - it's my first go at using Windows Movie Player. :-)
After the park, we dropped Everest off at home for his nap then Kate and I took Julie out to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. There was a birthday party happening in the back so the cow mascot was roving the place - which delighted Julie, who got a hug and a pink balloon.
We dropped Julie off after lunch and headed over to my parents' place. When we got there, we found out that Mom and Dad were working on a new tent-style gazebo for their deck. We offered to help out with the 'roof' of the gazebo and got most it taken care off - just before the wind really kicked in! :-)
That evening we all went out to the Olive Garden for dinner and then most of us came back to Mom and Dad's place to hang out and play a rolicking game of Monopoly. (Kate won - even though she was half-asleep at the time.) :-)
On Sunday, Kate and I joined Dianna for services at Pulpit Rock Church. Afterward, we came back to Mom and Dad's place for some really dynamite chicken and shrimp scampi. (Mom, I may need that recipe!) Then we finished up the gazebo and played around with the kids.
We headed back to Fort Collins late in the afternoon, did a little grocery shopping when we got into town, then came home and crashed. :-)
It was a great weekend - just what we needed. I'm not sure if I'm quite rejuvenated enough to go through another work week, but I'll give it a go anyway. :-) Thanks to the family for showing us a good time!
And as always thanks to all of you for reading! Hope you're having a great day!
By working a little extra in the week, I was able to duck out a few hours early on Friday so as to make it back to Fort Collins, pick up Kate from work (though she "made" me help finish some projects), and gather up our overnight bags. We took the E-470 toll road to bypass the Friday afternoon rush hour through Denver - and actually made good time down to the Springs. We stopped at Whole Foods to have some soup and bread for dinner then headed over to my sister's house.
We hung out with Heath, Dianna, and Joe (Heath's chum) that evening - mostly just gabbing back and forth. Kate and Dianna went out grocery shopping (getting in at 1am!) while Heath showed me and Joe how to play "Rock Star" for the Playstation. (My only comment is that it's a good thing I didn't try to go into music!)
Heath and Dianna's cats (Grey, Sally, and Simon) also kept us company:
On Saturday, Kate and I took Julie and Everest out as a late birthday present for Julie. We gave Julie the choice of either the zoo or the library and the park. She chose the library and a visit to Cottonwood Park.
At the library, Julie picked out a couple videos and a handful of books for herself and a couple more videos for Everest. She was very focused on acquiring her items and getting checked out. She even knew how to use the self checkout machine all by herself.
We then stopped in at Cottonwood Park (actually it was supposed to Palmer Park, but I got locations mixed up) and let the kids play around for about an hour or so. They seemed to like the slides the best. :-)
Here's a compiled vid of the kids (mostly Everest) going down the slide. My apologies - it's my first go at using Windows Movie Player. :-)
After the park, we dropped Everest off at home for his nap then Kate and I took Julie out to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. There was a birthday party happening in the back so the cow mascot was roving the place - which delighted Julie, who got a hug and a pink balloon.
We dropped Julie off after lunch and headed over to my parents' place. When we got there, we found out that Mom and Dad were working on a new tent-style gazebo for their deck. We offered to help out with the 'roof' of the gazebo and got most it taken care off - just before the wind really kicked in! :-)
That evening we all went out to the Olive Garden for dinner and then most of us came back to Mom and Dad's place to hang out and play a rolicking game of Monopoly. (Kate won - even though she was half-asleep at the time.) :-)
On Sunday, Kate and I joined Dianna for services at Pulpit Rock Church. Afterward, we came back to Mom and Dad's place for some really dynamite chicken and shrimp scampi. (Mom, I may need that recipe!) Then we finished up the gazebo and played around with the kids.
We headed back to Fort Collins late in the afternoon, did a little grocery shopping when we got into town, then came home and crashed. :-)
It was a great weekend - just what we needed. I'm not sure if I'm quite rejuvenated enough to go through another work week, but I'll give it a go anyway. :-) Thanks to the family for showing us a good time!
And as always thanks to all of you for reading! Hope you're having a great day!
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