The vocabulary of new parents

SO I'm learning everything about being a parent right now. When Lynette says that she feels bad about breastfeeding, I can tell her she is wrong until I'm blue in the face. But there are a couple of things wrong with that. First of all, you can't tell someone with extreme lack of sleep + post-partum that they are wrong about anything. Second, I have as much experience with children as she does and me telling her about what her body is going through is silly and wrong. The only way she'll listen is if you have an MD/RN in front of your name, or if you have gone through the exact same thing. So I searched for a friend who knows the hardship of breast-feeding.

The funny thing is that when I went to find someone who has been through the same uncomfort, helplessness and failure Lynette has felt while breastfeeding, the only criteria was a mother who breastfed and was awake at the time. I called my dear friend Sarah and boom! She said exactly what I already knew. Lynette was only feeling what any and every other mother has felt.

But as far as the termanology of being a parent, I'm picking up. I'm learning the difference between a sleeper and a gown. I know that a dirty diaper is not any 'used' diaper' because there is a difference between a dirty diaper and a wet diaper. I know that gas only refers to something that is coming out or needs to come out of our daughters mouth. (I don't know the nice way to refer to the gas that comes out the other end) And I know that you can never refer to your wifes breastmilk as 'boob-juice'

You know, the knowledge that human urine is sterile was always a fun fact and a wee bit of useless trivia for me. Once you have a child, that useless trivia becomes a huge relief when you have it all over your hand and can't leave the baby by herself to wash up.

"I know I wiped, but there is still a little bit on the diaper itself. Ahh, that's OK, it's totally sterlie."

But all-in-all, I love little Sophie more than anything. The only worry I have right now is providing for my little one and making sure Lynette knows that my love has grown to include Sophia, but still is just as strong for her.

Name and all, she is home.

It's been long and grueling, but Lynette, myself and Sophia Louise are home. I don't understand how single mothers survive. Lynette needed me. I stayed to be with her, I left to get everything set up for her. Mom and Jason & Sarah, and especially my darling sister Jessica all came over and helping clean the apartment, do dishes, laundry, made some food for our fridge and decorate the apartment with coming home decor. Even with all their help, it seemed like I was run ragged the entirety of Lynette's hospital stay.

Little Sophia is fine. There is a little bit of jaundice, but that is probably from the Hep B vaccination she recieved. Nothing to be worried about. We still have a perfectly wonderful little girl. The only thing she has to worry about is the emotional problems I will give her later in life (for some reason she might learn the phrase, "Ken is a dork" instead of a single first word)

Here are more of her from the hospital, and the first pictures of her coming home. Also, the first picture of our little girl with both of her parents. And her cousin Grant, who loves her very much.

Baby [Insert name here] is here

So we haven't had much time to talk about names. But that's only because we have been cooing over our new little one. She is perfect. 10 fingers, 10 toes, the smallest amount of brown hair. And a solid 9 lbs 0 oz. But just in case I made a bet with anyone about how she would be more than 9 pounds, she officially was 9 lbs 0.1 oz. She is 21 inches long and her and Lynette are perfectly healthy and where they are supposed to be.

Here are some pictures, with much, much more to come.

"Hello. How are you?
Have you been alright, through all those lonely lonely lonely lonely lonely nights
That's what I'll say. I'll tell you everything
When you come out to see us today yeah yeah yeah"

There's a little altered Electric Light Orchestra for you to get us ready for today. I have a moral problem with the Happy Birthday song ever since I found out it is not public domain and it owned by a Japanese corporation. I think they are something like a real estate corporation and has nothing to do with music. But even then, it's a birthday song and not a birth day song. So I made up my own. Thank you ELO.

I'm proud to say that regardless of being as excited as 10 Christmases rolled into 1, I slept through the night and got a full 7+ hours of sleep.

Now it's just a matter of keeping Lynette away from food for the next 4 hours and seeing what we can accomplish between now and then. We're thinking of heading to Blockbuster to check out a thing or two.

I'll post some pictures today or tomorrow. See ya later.

I promised some stories

So here I go. Sorry I don't have all the time in the world to go through all the side-stories. But here is what I promised.

So Lynette and I went to Parkville for the 4th of July. They had a lot of activity goings on at the time. On top of all the regular stuff they always have (it's a variable square of commercial activity) they also had a carnival, a row of carnival style food and more. Before the fireworks we had a bathroom problem and Lynette was able to sneek into the Power Plant Brewery and use their bathroom without a scene. Seems that pregnant women have a free reign of any bathroom they choose.

So we set up camp and waited and watched fireworks and they were wonderful. We were so close that we not only saw all the fireworks, if it weren't for the slight hill and the downward incline, we would have seen the people shooting off the fireworks.

After they were over we waited for the shuttle to take us back to our car, but the traffic was so bad that we had to wait... and wait... and wait. After 30 minutes of waiting and still seeing the bus that was too full for us to travel upon sitting only a few yards away, stuck in traffic. Lynette was a little too tired to decide to walk to our car, but her bladder decided that we should walk. So we trecked the 1/4 or less mile to our car, got in and waited... and waited... and waited. All in all, it was almost 2 hours between the time that we waited on the bus and the time that we got home. So later Lynette was told by her doctor that she had a bladder infection. The only thing we can spot as the reason is Lynette's 2 hours that she held it in. I offered to stop at the first opportunity, but it was only an additional 10 minutes beofre we got home. We sat so long in traffic that Lynette has a little long-term damage.

The other story that I wanted to tell is how The Capsules have our song almost ready for it. They apparently have the song done, it's just a matter of recording. In fact, on a recent e-mail they sent to us we realized that they were also at Parkville for the fireworks. I don't believe we saw them there, but if we did, I'm sure that we would of said something like, "That looks like Julie Shields, The Capsules lead singer." Without even considering that it could be them. I rencently met Peter Coyote, but because I wasn't expecting to see a famous Hollywood actor I didn't even think that I knew him from movies like Erin Brokovich, Jaged Edge and E.T. So I just thought to myself, 'Hey, he looks familiar, oh well.' Though I didn't even meet Julie and Jason Shields at the Parkville fireworks, I'm sure it would have been the same situation.

Anyway, they say that our song is done, they only need to record it, and that should be done on or about the 19th, when our child is born. So I'm excited to hear it finally, but at the time, I'm sure the the birth of our child will push the song to the background of the excitement in my life.

The final word on a date... kinda

We talked to the doctor more yesterday (Friday) and we did leave with more answers than questions. Seems that in the doctors eyes, there are 2 types of surgery, elective and emergency. There is a specific medical reason that she is having a C-Section and we need not worry about the insurance seeing the word elective and not paying. She told us the medical term for "big baby" but we forgot. But this is elective surgery by the doctors definition and she explained that she always has to be careful with insurance forms not to use the word elective, because they always look for a reason not to pay. But as for my worry that having a baby would cost us a few thousand dollars, I need not worry.

With that out of the way, Lynette still had reservation about a C-Section, because her only exposure was when her sister had one... After 20 hours of failed labor. But she's realized that the extreme pain in that situation was not due to the C-Section, but rather the fact that it followed such a difficult labor.

So after those problems were solved, we said yes. July 19th at 1:30pm we are scheduled to have a baby! That is, unless Lynette goes into labor naturally before then. She still wants to go naturally if she can. But the date is set and we are good to go!

Speaking of Lynette wanting to go into natural labor. The doctor did check her to see how she was progressing. Apparently she is starting to dilate, but she is not very far. In fact, the doctor labeled her at a fingertip. I guess that's the term for dilated between zero and one. Though it is possible for her to go into labor soon, it's not looking likely. Though the baby is progressing fast, Lynettes body is perfectly on schedule.

In other, sad news. This week my grandpa died. It would be a lot more heartbreaking, but it was his time, so knowing that, it's very easy for me to accept. We also talked to the doctor about Lynette's ability to go to Joplin for the funeral. The doctor wouldn't recommend it for other reasons, but for this reason, she said that we just need to make sure to get out and stretch a couple of times during the trip and we will be good. Thanks to generosity from Mom and Dad we will be staying in a hotel room so we don't have to make the trip in such a hurry. We will be leaving on Sunday afternoon and coming back Monday evening. To put a happy face on an otherwise bad situation, we will also have this chance to finally meet Caden.

I do have other stories about Lynette's bladder infection (yes, it's kinda funny) and update on our song by The Capsules (They said their deadline to have it recorded and done is July 20th, but Lynette and I have plans on that date) So I hope to have a chance before I go to Joplin to write more.

Jae is right

So I haven't been posting as much as I should recently. But here we go again. It's not really for the lack of things happening in my life, more because I just didn't really have things to say.

So Lynette went to the sonogram last Thursday and we had some pictures taken. The doctor said she weighed 8 lbs 3 oz. The following day she went to the OB and they were talking about inducing and C-Section and everything. Looks like the OB wants to pick a date near the 20th for the C-Section, but we will wait and see what happens before then.

Lynette has been having about 5+ contractions per day, not Braxton-Hicks but full blown. We'll find out more about what this means tomorrow when she sees her doctor again. We also have questions about how "elective" it is when she says she strongly urges Lynette to have an elective C-Section. Doesn't 'strongly urge' and 'elective' contradict each other? Ah, we'll hopefully leave tomorrow with more answers than questions.