Life is Good

My Mom has stated that when their baby is 6 months old, parents often start to think, "I can handle this, I could do this again!". I was recalling this as I was thinking how this is probably the easiest time in a kid's life to be a parent. Owen is sleeping better now (he can sleep 6-7 hours at a time; we just need to get him to start when I want to go to bed). We don't have to keep an eye on him all the time since he's not mobile (he just turned over for the first time this week!). He doesn't eat solid foods yet, so he doesn't make a mess and his diapers are still relatively tame (although you should ask Keith about his recent experience!). I'm back to my pre-pregnancy weight and most of my pre-pregnancy activities (Ultimate practices). And he's as cute as ever with his smiling and babbling.

I think the only really tough thing right now is that I have to watch my diet. Owen is lactose intolerant and gets fussy if I have peanuts. It's amazing how much that limits my food choices (I feel for you Jason!). The good news is that he will probably grow out of it, although I'm not sure when.

So right now I thank God daily for giving us such a wonderful gift, realizing that I will soon wonder what the heck we got ourselves into!

In the Woods

Two topics to talk about today - one I've been meaning to write about for a while, and one more current.

First, golf. If someone says that golf is boring to watch, they didn't watch the US Open this weekend. I've never been a fan of Tiger Woods (too dominating, too much of a following, too whiny about the Phoenix Open...), but after watching him play on Saturday, I jumped on the band wagon (albeit just for a weekend). For someone to be playing in such pain and end up in the rough/crowd so many times and then make 3 Eagles and end the day in the lead was just fun to watch. I've had my share of injuries, including to the knee, so I know how much it affects your game, (whatever that game might be), both physically and mentally. How he could bounce back from the pain and still manage to win a tournament that ended up being 19holes longer than normal, is crazy. The TV crew showed a slow motion replay of one of his tee shots and said that they could find absolutely nothing wrong with his form. How in the world do you do that with a bum leg???

Now, don't worry, I still rolled my eyes when they announced that you could check out every single shot that Tiger made this weekend at NBC.com. And by the end of Sunday I was kind of hoping that Rocco would win (how could you not like his personality and the fact that at 45 years he was the oldest guy there?). But for a while there I bought into the hype.

Now to a different woods - Owen and I went to Flagstaff with my parents May 31-June 3rd. My parents own a time share in Sedona and traded their week for the Wyndham resort in Flag. I was worried at first that Owen would not like being away from home and that the elevation might bother him. But apparently he enjoys going on vacation to a cooler clime. He didn't cry hardly at all, and slept better than he had ever slept before. By the second day I was able to relax myself. It was a very laid back vacation, as we didn't feel like we could go out for more than 2 hours at a time (Owen is eating every 3 hours during the day). We had lunch downtown, went to Walnut Canyon National Monument, walked around the Flagstaff Arboretum (where we saw a really neat bird show), went on walks around the resort, and enjoyed the hot tub (my first time being in one since before my pregnancy). Owen cried a little on the way home and then wailed when we got home - it was like he knew vacation was over!!

In other news, Owen is sleeping better now - he is close to "sleeping through the night" (the books define that as sleeping 5-6 hours). After the last feeding at 10 or 11pm he sleeps until 3 or 4am. We're still trying to figure out what to do for daycare, so I'm still working part time. The Grandmas come over a few days a week to let me go into work a couple of hours. Owen is getting bigger and bigger, and is smiling & talking more and more!

"Congratulations, you're no longer a pagan!!"

This past Saturday was Owen's baptism. The whole affair was a lot less formal than I thought it was going to be. Which was probably mostly due to the fact that it was run by Deacon Dutch, who is constantly making jokes ("I've got more chins than a Chinese phone book!"). It's a good thing I didn't spend $45 on a fancy outfit on Owen that probably would have been huge on him. It was a night of connections: my friends Clint and Deb were there for two baptisms; the third baby being baptised was the grandson of a family that we did Religious Education with growing up; my parents had Nebraska and Virginia in common with my friends Mark and Lois - just to name a few of the many. The biggest surprise of all was seeing Jason from the Burque (Albuquerque) show up during mass after he responded to the evite that he couldn't make it. It was also great to have my brother Ken and his wife Katie in town from San Diego to see Owen for the first time.

After the ceremony we invited our Catholic friends and family over to our house for food. It was great to visit with everyone. Owen's favorite part was probably Evelyn's (multiple) goodbye kisses. Which led Keith to comment that Sarah must be teaching Evelyn to go for the younger men. Josiah pointed out that Evelyn was robbing the cradle - literally!

Sunday was my very first Mother's Day as a Mom. How special! Keith made me an omelette for breakfast and made sure that I didn't change hardly any diapers all day. He is also getting me a digital SLR camera, which has me really excited. In college I took a b&w photography class which turned out to be one of my favorite classes in college. It was a lot of work, but I started seeing the world around me in a new way - I started freeze framing my daily life. I pulled out my old textbook to freshen up on concepts and terminology, and am researching the web for more digital-specific subjects. Keith has done most of the research (surprise!) on the actual camera to get. We are currently debating the Canon XT, Canon XTI, or Canon 30D. Once we get that figured out, we get to have fun with lenses! Anybody who has any thoughts on the subject, please let us know.

It's so E.A.S.Y.

One of the cards we received at our shower had several pictures of babies crying on the front. The captions for each said "Hungry", "Hot", "Cold", "Wet", etc. It was meant to be a guide to understanding your baby. Of course, every picture was exactly the same. As Keith would say, "It's funny because it's true!".

When we were in the hospital (the first time), the nursery had Owen on a 3 hour eating schedule. They/I would feed him at 11:00, 2, 5, 8, etc. It was fairly easy to do because he would sleep most of the rest of the time. When we got home, we quickly got off that schedule. He appeared to be hungry every 1.5 to 2 hours, sometimes wanting to eat for an hour or more. The pediatrician told us to see a lactation consultant. We did, and $70 later, we still weren't getting more than an hour of sleep at a time. (Not to say she wasn't helpful; she did help me work on my form.) The good thing was that Owen was gaining weight, so we didn't have to worry too much about that.

Then our friend Jill let us borrow some books by Tracy Hogg, the "Baby Whisperer" (Keith calls her "The Hogg"). While I don't necessarily agree with/like everything she says, we learned some very important information. The most helpful to me is how to interpret you baby's cues. For example, if he is sucking his tongue, he's not hungry - it's self-soothing. We realized that we were probably feeding him when he wasn't hungry. He wasn't going to refuse the breast - he can use it as a pacifier. The main point of the Hogg's books are that babies like to be on a routine: Eat, Activity, Sleep (E.A.S.; the Y stands for You time while he is sleeping.) The whole routine would repeat in so many hours, depending on his age. The idea is that if he starts crying at hour two in a three hour schedule, he's probably not hungry; if he hasn't been sleeping yet in this rotation, he's probably overtired. Or, if he was sleeping, he may be wet (butt moving side to side), cold (bottom lip quivering), or he has gas (pulling his legs up).

The Hogg also has suggestions on how to get a baby to sleep for longer at night. She promotes doing a cluster feeding and a dream feed. A cluster feeding means feeding him before the normal time (2 hours on a 3 hour schedule; say at 5 and 7pm) and then feeding him without waking him up right before you go to bed (at 10pm).

I am happy to report that some of her strategies are apparently working for us. We are now on a 3 hour schedule fairly consistently (which is normal for his age). I have employed the cluster feed and dream feed (although I don't think he necessarily has to be asleep), and he is now waiting until 4 or 4.5 hours before he wants the next feed. Still some room for improvement, but things are getting much EASIER!

Other developments: Owen now has some tears when he cries (they don't start off that way). He is also showing more interest in visual things. When we put him in his rocker with the hanging toys he will first look at the dog, and then the cat. He will also turn his head to see who is talking. Every once in a while he'll give a look that appears to be a smile (not quite a conscious smile yet, but we'll take it!). His neck strength is also getting better day by day. He is getting better at getting his thumb in his mouth. Overall, he's getting cuter and cuter!

How's it Goin' Owen?

Catchy, isn't it? This is one of our favorite things to say to Owen, perhaps only second to "You're a cutie! Yes you are!". (It's no wonder he's got a big head.) I once said "What's up, Doc?!", but then Keith reminded me that the cost of schooling would be outrageous, so I changed it to "What's up, Engineer!"

Yes, Owen, your parents are weird.

So, to answer the question, he is doing well. He had a good visit with our friend Amber yesterday. He also had a very brief, but important, visit with JT. (Don't worry, JT, there will be many more chances for a longer hold.) We had a group of people over to visit with Jim and Amber, who were visiting from Florida. It was great to see Jim and Amber and many of our friends. For me it was also a big step in a return to normalcy. Don't get me wrong, having a baby is great, but for a while there you think that you will never get your old life back. I realize that you don't ever fully get your life back, (which is a good thing imo), but pieces of it can return. I always like hosting, and our house is finally somewhat clean and orderly. I'm also starting to play Ultimate again, and getting out of the house more.

I'll also start working part time from home in a week. I have to work 20 hours to keep my benefits. I really don't know how anybody could go back full time at this point. Even if you do use daycare, it takes too long (about 10-12 hours) for me to get a good night's rest.

Speaking of daycare, we visited Bright Horizon's near my work last week. They had an open house with food and games for the kids and tours for those interested. It looks like a great place except for the price - over $1K a month! We're going to look into other options, including using the grandmas and working from home 1-2 days a week in order to delay daycare. But there are some pros to using daycare, but I'll leave that topic to another post.

Other things happening: We're still dealing with Owen's gassiness (which is apparently painful to him and smelly to us!). I gave up dairy to see if that helped. I'm not sure it has, although I haven't exactly done a good job at getting rid of all dairy (I still use some cheese). I think I'll drink a big glass of milk this week and see what happens. It could also be caused by other things in my diet, which I am also trying to cut out (excessive citrus, iron, peanut butter). The list of possible suspects is pretty long. Hopefully Owen's digestive system will mature soon!

Owen's Birth Story

(Written by Joanne)

I know this is pretty long, but I wanted to get the details of the birth down on paper before I forgot too much of it. I was really interested in hearing other birth stories when I was getting to the end of my pregnancy.

On Sunday, March 2nd we went to bed excited that the next day we would get to see LBA – we had an ultrasound scheduled for Monday morning. Little did we know!!

At 6 am Monday morning I started getting ready. I had actually spent the night in the guest bedroom since Keith had just stained the trim around the recently-installed windows in our bedroom and we didn’t want LBA to get any fumes. I noticed something was a little different when I went to the bathroom, but I wasn’t sure what was happening. Pretty soon it became very obvious – my water broke! (I had read that it can be helpful to have some adult diapers on hand for this occasion – they weren’t kidding!) Other than that I felt fine (no contractions), so I wasn’t freaking out. I woke Keith up, got dressed, and went downstairs to have breakfast. From the tour we took of the hospital the week before I knew that once they gave me any medication they wouldn’t let me eat anything. So I sat on the toilet (still leaking!) eating cereal and was telling Keith what to pack. I had meant to pack the hospital bag that weekend, but I wasn’t in a big rush so I didn’t get around to it. I had some thoughts that I would go into labor early, but I didn’t think it would really happen!

Surprisingly, neither Keith nor I were very nervous. We had an enjoyable car ride to the hospital, (despite the 7 am traffic), making jokes and getting sentimental. I didn’t really think I was going to have the baby that day. I thought that they would stop me from going into labor. Once we arrived at the hospital I checked into triage. When they checked me in I had high blood pressure and they kept asking me if I was nervous. I was going into labor 6 weeks early, of course I’m nervous!! But actually I wasn’t that nervous, I was just kind of going with the flow. Keith was also calm and in a good mood, which helped me a lot. The nurse in triage also thought that they may keep me from going into labor, but it really was up to the doctor. It just so happened that the doctor I had seen the most at my OB/GYN was on call that day (Dr. Frausto from Today’s Women’s Health Specialists). He said that the risk of infection went up when the water breaks, so since I wasn’t extremely early, they would induce me. Wow, we’re having a baby!!

So they moved me into a Labor & Delivery room, which are actually very nice and large at Chandler Regional. At this point (about 9 am) I measured 3 cm dilated. The nurses inserted an IV of Pitocin to get the contractions started a little before 11 am. I called my Reflexologist, Robin, during the wait to see if she could visit me in the hospital. I had heard that Reflexology (the massaging of pressure points in the feet) could help move labor along – a sort of natural inducer. She was thrilled to help out, and got to the hospital about noon and worked on me for an hour or so. Between the reflexology and the Pitocin the contractions were getting stronger. Since I was hooked up to the IV I couldn’t walk around that much. Keith was in deep study to prepare for what was to come, primarily by reading The Birthing Book, which came in handy for him. The first suggestion he made was for me to use a birthing ball, which is really just an exercise ball. Sitting on the ball really helped my back. This also allowed Keith to apply counterpressure to my lower back (the book he was reading said emphatically “if you learn anything from this book, learn counterpressure”). He would push on my lower back during a contraction, which helped at first, but once the contractions got really strong I couldn’t tell if it helped or hurt.

Keith’s parents had arrived at the hospital a little after 2 pm (despite getting lost, which is another story). It was nice to visit with them, but by 2:30, the contractions were very strong, at less than two minutes apart with very little relief between them, so I wasn’t up for visitors. I really wanted to avoid an epidural, but I wasn’t sure how much more I could take. The nurse could see I wasn’t getting relief between contractions, so she kept lowering the dosage of Pitocin, eventually shutting it off altogether. At about 4pm they measured me at 6 cm. Only 6?!! I was hoping for a lot more than that. I really didn’t think I could take a long labor if it was this difficult, so I asked for the epidural. It seemed like it took them forever to get everything set up. They gave me the epidural around 5:30 pm, but it didn’t seem to help me at all (a nurse later told me that was probably because of my high blood pressure). It did make me vomit though, which I had read speeds up delivery. I don’t know if it was the epidural or the vomiting, but when they measured me again at 6pm, I was fully dilated at 10 cm! So the doctor and all of the support staff (a nurse to help me and 3 people to take care of the baby since he was a preemie) came in the room and I started pushing at 6:10 pm. I could still feel the contractions, but couldn’t really feel the pushing, so I had to follow their instructions. I had told Keith previously that I needed him to keep a positive attitude and encourage me along the way, and he did an awesome job of that. While I was pushing he kept saying “You’re doing great, you’re almost there!”. Even though I wasn’t actually almost there! J (Keith says: my excuse was that I was seeing the back of his head, not the top. So for about 20 minutes, the head was basically rotating out and getting bigger, so I thought she was really close. Hey, it was my first time!). I had my eyes closed during each push, but I could tell from Keith’s voice how emotional he was getting. It really kept me going to know how excited he was since I was in too much pain to fully grasp the situation.

Finally, after 45 minutes of pushing, LBA’s (he was named later) head was out at 6:55, and the rest of him was out soon thereafter. He arrived into the world at 6:56pm to a very proud Mom and Dad (who was able to cut the cord). Since he was a preemie, they had to take him to the heater in the corner of the room to check him out, which was fine with me since it gave me an opportunity to rest. The placenta came out without a problem, and then the doctor sewed me up from the episiotomy which he performed (which I didn’t feel due to the epidural). After he was checked out and wrapped up I was able to hold him. Both sets of Grandparents were then brought into the room and we got our first Aspinall family photo taken.

I would’ve liked to avoid the epidural and episiotomy, but I now realize that the details of how he came into the world don’t matter all that much – as long as Mom and baby are healthy, that’s what is important!

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

But a picture doesn't always tell the whole story.

I'm not sure if blogspot shows who the author is, so I'll start off by saying this is a guest post by Joanne (just call me Caffeine Free).

When I announced I was pregnant at work, one of my coworkers gave me a journal to use during pregnancy. It had various questions to answer for each month and space to write in. I've never been much of a journal/diary writer, so I wasn't that into it at first. I kept up with it for the first couple of months, then ignored it for a while. At some point I realized how important it would be to remember everything I went through, so I started up again. Well, as you all can guess, the section for the 9th month is completely blank. :-)

Now I have come to realize that remembering everything that happens after the birth is equally important. Sure, we have lots of pictures to remember by (we post them to http://picasaweb.google.com/keithaspinall/Owen), but there is more to the story than just pictures. So I've made it my goal to start writing more of the story. At first the idea was to have some journalling for his scrapbook. But then we received more requests for updates from friends and family, so I am now entering the world of blogging. Owen is six weeks old today, so I have some catching up to do!

This weekend we celebrated Owen's due date. He was 40 days old on Saturday, but his adjusted age was 0!

The Quest for the Perfect Sound and Sight

This is a guest post by the lovely and talented Joanne Aspinall:

We've had the attached cartoon on our refrigerator for a few years now. I thought it was fitting. In the past, whenever Keith has talked about electronics using technical jargon, it went over my head. Heck, I call the subwoofer the "boom box". It still is over my head to a certain extent, but I'm definitely not bored to sleep by it. How could I be with 5 speakers blasting good sound at me? :-)

The idea of getting a plasma tv was more of a redecorating move than an upgrade for me. It opened up room to make a domino effect of changes (move the desk out of the kitchen, which allowed us to move the small table out of the dining room, which allowed us to get a nice dining room table). However, the picture quality is just amazing. I remember when we first got the tv we would watch travel shows on PBS, and I would just be in awe at the pictures of the Alps, or whatever they might be showing [AJU: that was more a function of the show being on right after 24]. Nature and sports shows are, imo, the biggest benefactors of HD [AJU: Heroes looks pretty good too, i think].

Which leads into the HD DVD. You already get some upgrade to watching a regular DVD on an HD tv versus non-HD tv, so would the DVD player be worth it? I think so. The picture is better, and the price tag not all that high (except for the DVDs themselves, but that will probably just change our renting versus buying habits, which I think is a good thing [AJU: Netflix here we come!]. There's also some other features on the player that are cool, but I'll let Keith get into those if he wants to [AJU: Surprised LTJ mentioned this--the main "cool" feature I've used is the menu access while still watching the movie, but that's HD DVDs only, not the player]. When we were figuring out which free HD DVDs to get along with our player (that was the deal through Best Buy), my first instinct was to get a nature DVD. I'm glad I decided to keep with that. We got a Galapagos DVD, which, although I haven't seen it yet, should be cool in HD. [AJU: That's a minor misrepresentation. LTJ wanted scenery, not necessarily a nature doc. I found Galapagos as one of the free option and kept it, ignoring LTJ's statement "oh, you don't have to get that."]

Sound. We finally decided where to put our surround speakers, and once Keith figured out the correct settings, we were both blown away! It turns out there was a setting wrong somewhere for the last few years, so now ALL the speakers have better sound, not just the surrounds [AJU: two factors were at play here. The DVD player had some audio output settings. The dolby digital setting was right; the DTS wrong, but I always select DTS when its available. The second is we didn't have the full 5.1 hooked up, and I discovered last week that playing 5.1 without all the necessary speakers causes the AV receiver to downmix the audio stream into Pro Logic, limiting dynamic range and absolutely killing the subwoofer]. I also really enjoy the surround sound when just listening to music [AJU: Joanne is referring to DVD music discs and the 2 SACDs we have; ie multichannel audio, not matrixed stereo. If we off the old DVD player, we lose some of that capability (the SACD, of which we have two), but we're not that invested in it.]. It definitely adds a dimension to things that were missing. Keith also went ahead and spent some extra money to upgrade the mains and center speaker with some new "bamboo" speakers [AJU: Why quotes? They are bamboo!]. I don't think I'll be capable of noticing the upgrade in sound quality, but they do look nice. I'm not sure those were worth the extra money, but that leads me into my conclusion [AJU: As I've previously mentioned I think, my income from eBay/Half/Amazon is not that far off from the recent outflow. Creative accounting maybe, but still. I do concede some concerns of whether we'll hear the full difference, but I did get them at a discount].

Keith has always dreamed about having a quality theater. One of his friend's parents have a theater room complete with projector, all the speakers, recliners, etc. I know Keith was jealous [AJU: "envious" is more appropriate I think]. Although we don't have a separate room that we can make completely dark, I think we have a pretty darn good setup at this point (perhaps a comfier couch for guests would be the only thing we could add). Heck, we even have stadium style seating! Plus, I think the timing is good. I was thinking of taking a fancy vacation as one last splurge before LBA arrives. I think this is good (and longer lasting) substitute splurge. Besides, the look on Keith's face last night once everything was hooked up was well worth it all!