Dax's Journal

FYI

Michelle just called (1:40pm, Pacific Time) to let me know that she's been admitted into the Birthing Unit. More info to come....

"Changes" (Track 4) - YES 90125

It seems that the new design changes are rendering a bit funky in IE. (All's well in Mozilla, though.)

If you're using Internet Explorer and can't read anything on this main page, you can click on the "Archives" link to the right, and read the entries from there.

I'll fix this glitch within the next few days.

No. I did not have the baby yet.

Well, it is D-day (due date) and there is no baby in sight. I've been calling out to Cat whenever I have a random contraction with the blind hope that I will somehow find them becoming regular, stronger, and closer together.

*sigh*

Baby Center says, "What the hell is wrong with you, woman? You should have had the baby by now."

Just kidding. Actually, Baby Center doesn't even send me any more "in utero" updates because I told them my due date was today so they are assuming that the baby is now a "newborn". They are already all about what my newborn son should be doing this week (adjusting to his surroundings and enjoying being swaddled). They are not aware that my son apparently has other plans.

In the meantime (and because we don't have a new baby to introduce), Cat has been making some design changes here. He has loads of cool stuff in store for when the baby actually arrives. But, for now, you'll just have to enjoy the new layout.

Mongolian Barbeque and the Invisible Baby

When we left the house last night for our evening walk, Cat opened up the side garage and brought out the three-wheel stroller we got from Quincy Engineering. I thought he was just kidding around.

He wasn't.

We walked around the neighborhood with our empty stroller as passers by looked at us as if we had completely lost our minds. When we got back to our block, some of our neighbors were out front. Tabitha greeted us with, "Oh! You had the baby!" But then she noticed my belly and took a closer look at the empty stroller. Do you think anyone can tell that Cat is a little bit excited for his son to arrive?

We've gotten several recommendations on how to get labor to kick in. Nothing has worked so far. Admittedly, I haven't tried ALL of them. For example, I will NOT be drinking castor oil anytime soon. But today one of Cat's coworkers told him that a local Mongolian Barbeque joint is responsible for starting labor for at least two women. So guess what's for dinner tonight. Maybe some Mongolian Barbeque and another walk with our "invisible baby" will get things going.

Grumpiness

From the time I was told that I had to take insulin for my gestational diabetes, I was told that the baby would not be allowed to go past his due date. When I was in last Thursday, they seemed to be hedging a bit. Today? Total change of plans.

I was told today that they will not induce now until I am at least a week past my due date. The reason, they say, is that inducements frequently end up in C-sections and they want to avoid that. When I asked if waiting longer and allowing this baby to grow ever larger isn't an equally risky approach, I was reminded that the ultrasound showed the baby at 7 pounds 14 ounces. No, they do not take into consideration that their measurements could be off. No, they do not take into consideration that the baby is still growing. While I'm listing things they don't care about, let me include the following: the fact that I'm about to go insane, the fact that my mom needs to buy a plane ticket, the fact that my blood sugar levels are increasing by the day, the fact that I expected to have my baby in my arms by the 28th.

Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that they baby is doing well. If he wasn't, they would be more supportive of inducing. I'd much rather be facing a situation where the only thing in danger is my mental state.

I have fetal monitoring on Thursday but I won't have another appointment with Marion until Monday. In the meantime, I'd appreciate it if everyone would send labor vibes my way.

Parallelisms

"My way or the highway." This will NOT be the mantra Michelle and I will be incorporating in the upbringing of Embry. Michelle has alot of experience dealing with the squirmy newborn and infant/toddler. She has an idea on how to handle them in certain situations and what might be causing their discomfort at the moment.

I, on the other hand, do not have too much experience with kids. I tend to freak when an infant is handed over to me. Well, freak isn't really the proper description, it's more like, "I've Just Been Handed This Little Kid So I Better Not Drop Him And The Best Thing To Prevent Him From Falling Is To Squeeze Really, REALLY Hard So That He Doesn't Slip From My Grasp." It's my natural reaction.

Peter, the nephew, has first hand experience from when he was a few months old. About a half hour after "Holding" him for the very first time, I went to hold him for the second time. As he was being handed to me, he stuck out both arms and both legs as if to say, "NO...I don't want to go through that again." I'm positive, though, that I will grow comfortable with holding a child as most other newbie fathers do. Michelle is sure that I will come up with an unorthodox way of holding a child, but yet is totally comfortable for the child and me.

Being a newbie father, Michelle asked me the other day if I knew how to wrap a blanket around a baby in a "Baby Burrito" fashion. I took the initiative by getting one of her stuffed dolls and proceeding to wrap it in my version of the "Baby Burrito." At first, she looked on in a disapproving manner. I could see what was going on in her head: "What the heck is he doing?" She then proceeded to show the proper way to fold the blanket. I said that her version wasn't far off from what I had originally done. After a little discussion, Michelle came up with an idea. She said that I could do things on my own at first to discover what works for me. If it's different than the norm, so be it. I'll use some common sense, of course, but if it still doesn't work out for me after several attempts, I'll ask for Michelle's help. She won't force her opinion on me unless it's obvious that the method I'm using will harm little Embry...then she'll intervene immediately and let me know why that particular method won't or shouldn't be used. There won't be an immediate correction though just because she's not used to seeing it being done that way.

This idea helps me tremendously. I won't feel as if whatever I do is being scrutinized to the Nth degree and should make me feel comfortable being with Embry.

Week 39

American Baby says, "He's reached his birth weight (typically between 6 and 9 pounds) and length (18 to 22 inches), and all systems are go! Since only about 5 percent of women give birth on their due date, baby could be making his appearance at any moment."

I'm good with any moment. Like....this one! And....this one! Now, now, now, now, now.

This morning Cat and I took a ton of cans and plastic bottles to one of the recycling centers in one of the shadier sides of town. After about 10 disgusting minutes of feeding sticky, buggy recyclables into the machine we were rewarded with $24.80. Woohoo! I was squealing like a pampered little princess about the whole ordeal (Ew! Ew! Ewwww!) but it was worth it in the end. I practically had to bathe in Purell* when we were finished. (This is what happens when you are expecting a baby and one of you is not going to be working for several months. Recycling takes on a whole new meaning. Sure, we care about the environment. But what about some moolah?)

By the way, if our baby wants to be a Leo then he needs to come out by tomorrow.

* Might I suggest you purchase some stock in Purell? Cat has been a huge fan of this product for as long as I've known him. Now, with the impending arrival of our baby, anyone who comes near us is going to be introduced to The Purell Experience. Don't worry, it won't hurt a bit. And we have plenty. My doctor's office keeps giving me samples as a subtle hint that we should not let the germy too close to our infant.

Genes

Cat just wrote an entry revealing his tendency to procrastinate. He's not kidding. He is King of Procrastination. As a result, he is chronically late. Me? I'm always early. I hate to be late.

I'm getting concerned that our baby may have inherited his father's procrastination gene. I figure if Embry had inherited his timeliness gene from me, he'd be here by now. I picture him kicking back in there thinking, "Hey, I've got time. My due date isn't for another week. Why rush?"

We talk a lot about "genes" and what Embry will have inherited. We talk about whether he'll come out with my pasty, sunburn-prone skin. We talk about whether he'll have an inexplicable love of math, a gift of creativity, athletic ability. We talk about if he'll have his father's agility or my klutziness. Will his ears stick out like mine do? Will his eyebrows grow funny like his daddy's?

This is what is making this end part of my pregnancy most difficult. I'm so excited to meet this baby. I say, "I can't wait!" and it feels true. It feels like I physically can NOT wait another moment. This is like Christmas Eve, first-day-of-school, waiting-for-spring-break excitement all wrapped into one.

Deadlines

Even though Embry's due date fast approaches, I have yet to pack a bag for the hospital. Procrastination...it isn't a fad, it's a lifestyle. In my mind, I see myself throwing together some clothes into my messenger bag at the moment Michelle starts to go into some serious laboring. Why would I do this? It's because when I'm under pressure that I tend to do my best work.

The procrastination pretty much started during the early years of high school. Instead of doing homework immediately after school, I would instead wake up early the following day (4:30am-5am) and get it done then. During college, it wasn't uncommon to get term papers researched and done in three days or so. Birthday gifts? Those get purchased on the same day.

Embry, though, will develop good study habits and such. Michelle and I will enforce the law and hopefully develop Embry into a non-procrastinator.

Whew!

I'm pleased to report that our little one is a tad bigger than average but he is NOT enormous. WHEW!

According to Baby Center, the average baby at 38 weeks weighs 6.80 lbs. Embry (allegedly) weighs about 7 pounds, 14 ounces. They also gave us the measurements for his head circumference, abdominal circumference, and femur length. None of these meant that much for me except for this: Oh, holy Lord in heaven, childbirth is going to be excruciating!!!!

We also got confirmation that Embry is definitely, without a doubt, a boy. So there will be no delivery day surprises resulting in Cat having to rush home to repaint the nursery and return all the boy clothes we have.

Movin' and a groovin'

South Park. You know the show...the one with the animated 4th graders who tend to cuss alot. In the "Casa Bonita" episode, Butters sings the Chicago song in his out-of-tune, high-pitched, nasal voice: "...but if you leave me now, you'll take away the biggest part of me...ooooo-oooooo-ooooOOOO-OOOooo-girl-baby- please don't go..." I love this clip so much that I downloaded it onto my laptop.

++ Butters entering the Nuclear Shelter ++

Anyways, when Michelle does Kick Counts, it takes about an average of 6 minutes for Embry to move and kick 10 times. One day last week, Embry was taking a bit longer to kick, so Michelle asked me to talk to him with the hope of making him more active. So I started talking to him. And in addition to that, I started to play the Butters clip. I also sang along with Butters. I think there was something with the high pitch that made Embry start rockin and a rollin, because he started to groove so much he wouldn't stop. As a result, Kick Count completed.

A few days later, Michelle is laying flat in the chair at the orthodontist's office. She's getting her braces torn off of her now-straight teeth. So, picture if you will, Michelle's pregnant belly in plain view of the assistant. When the original Chicago starts to play in the overhead speakers..."But if you leave me now, you'll take away the biggest part of me...." Michelle's stomach starts churnin' because Embry apparently hears the music and starts to groove. The assistant had to stop what she was doing and say "oh, my" as she watched the turbulent belly.

From what I could tell, Embry has a really diverse taste in music. He likes the Beastie Boys, Chicago, Mussorgsky, and BNL. When I've played old-school Metallica, Embry does move around quite a bit, but Michelle says that it's because he hates Metallica and is trying to get away from the "horrendous music". I think it's because he's headbanging along to "Whiplash" and "Damage, Inc."

Week 38

Week 38 finds me a complete mental case. I can't remember anything. I drop everything. I cry at the drop of a hat. I'm having the most bizarre dreams imaginable.

The nesting phenomenon has kicked in full strength. On Friday, I vacuumed the dryer and washed the washer with a toothbrush and Clorox wipes. On Saturday, I tried to get Cat to take a bottle of cleanser into the shower with him so he could "shower and clean at the same time". Speaking of my dear hubby, he has had to move the furniture in the Great Room about a billion times. We've spent this entire morning "decluttering" the house because it is making me insane.

I read that this "nesting" indicates that labor is imminent. To help it along, we've been doing a lot of walking and wandering around stores like Babies R Us, Target, Dimple Records, and Home Depot. I do get some pretty good "practice" contractions going but nothing that indicates "imminent" labor.

Tomorrow is our ultrasound where we will find out how big the baby is. (Well, sort of... I guess the margin of error is pretty large). The ultrasound is in the morning and then I have appointments in the afternoon to talk about whatever we find out in the ultrasound.

Big

I had another appointment today. The baby passed his non-stress test with flying colors (despite developing a serious case of hiccups right at the beginning). I also found out that the baby has dropped, that I'm 50% effaced, and that I'm starting to dilate.

Too bad I can't follow that up with, "The baby will be born on (fill in date here)." His ETA is still a giant mystery.

Do you know what else is "giant"? The baby, apparently. At least that's what it feels like. Marion also says that he "feels" big. The weird thing is that she doesn't think his size is due to my gestational diabetes because my blood sugar levels have not been too bad. She asked me today if there are big babies born in the family. (Hmmmmm. Let's ask Johannah about those nephews of mine.) So, at this point, if my baby is enormous, I get to blame those damn Murphy genes.

We will have a better idea of just how big he really is after they do the ultrasound next week. Marion says that if he looks to be 10 pounds or more, they will talk to me about a cesarean. She also reminded me that I will not be allowed to go past date. If I get into the last week and it doesn't look like anything is happening, they will schedule a day to induce. In the meantime, we're all just really hoping that this child will decide to be born early.

Week 37

Woohoo! Our baby is full-term today! In honor of this, Cat and I have had a very productive weekend. I guess it is really hitting us that there will be an actual BABY arriving soon.

We finished the nursery. Cat put together the Pack and Play. I started to pack my hospital bag. I finished the birth plan. We bought a pre-paid calling card so we can make calls from the hospital.

We also bought this killer Travel System. We were really torn on whether or not to get one of these but everyone we talked to in the past couple of days insisted they were worth every penny.

I can tell that Cat is getting very excited about the baby because he's been pushing this stroller around the house all day.

Cat's workplace had a shower for us on Friday. First of all, I have to say that Cat's coworkers are the nicest people. They are also happy and funny. This is a foreign thing. Nice, happy, funny people in an office building. No wonder he loves working where he does.

They had a yummy potluck for us and gave us THIS most excellent shower gift.

So we are very excited that our child will be riding in style, no matter what terrain we are on.

Gee, the only thing we are missing at this point is the baby. People are starting to place their bets on when he will arrive. I'm having contractions and starting to feel that "nesting" compulsion, but there are no other indications that our little one is ready to appear.

Bells and Whistles

Yup...I was trying to devise and implement additional safety procedures to insure that Embry does not leave the hospital with another individual.

One idea that I liked was the permanent marker method. The permanent marker idea came about from the thought that I could mark the bottom of Embry's foot with a pattern of dots that only Michelle and I would recognize. This would assure me that the nurse did not bring back a different baby if they needed to take Embry away from our supervision.

The cool thing about UCDavis though that has put me at ease...they're the ONLY hospital in the area that can boast of "No Stolen Babies". Every other hospital in the area has actually lost a baby. UCDavis incorporates a security system where if the baby starts to even get close to the sensors, a hospital wide alarm sounds and every person on duty goes to every exit. At this point, no one leaves the hospital.

Although, when we do have Embry home, don't be surprised if Embry's foot is still marked up with some sort of ink.

Noggin Cam

This is what Embry is asking for his upcoming birthday:

++ Helmet Cam Link ++

He says it will be great for when he's napping (Nap Cam) and for when he starts to crawl (Crawl Cam). Embry also suggested using it as a Car Seat Cam.

He also is giving Father To Be, Cat, permission to use it when he goes on his mountain biking trips.

Birthing Suite

We toured the UC Davis Birthing Suites tonight. The point of the tour is so that you are more familiar with how everything is going to work and where you are going to go so that you feel more at ease about the whole process.

It was definitely educational and the suites are pretty nice. But I'm feeling far from "at ease" now. In fact, I have even more concerns and questions.

A very nice nurse named Molly gave us the tour. When we were done, I asked her a few questions about the gestational diabetes. I was told that they will test my blood glucose levels frequently during labor and that I'll be given insulin during that time as well. As soon as the baby is born, they will take him to neonatal care to monitor him for four hours. FOUR HOURS. I knew that he would have to go there...I just didn't realize for how long. And I'm not sure if Cat will be able to stay with him during that time or not. He is even more concerned about this than I am. Tonight he half-jokingly asked me if permanent marker would be harmful to a baby. Why? Because he's thinking of writing the baby's name across his forehead to ensure that he doesn't end up with someone else's parents.

By the way, as soon as the baby is born, they stop giving me insulin and they don't monitor my blood sugar any more. When they say this is a temporary condition suffered during pregnancy, they really mean it. They assume the "condition" is gone as soon as I'm not pregnant anymore. Although I will have to go have the three hour test again six weeks after the baby is born.

Apparently the four hours after birth are most critical for monitoring the baby and his glucose levels. They will be taking blood from his heel and watching to see if his sugars go too low. Because of the extra sugar in my blood, his pancreas is making more insulin than he will need once he is born. That could cause his sugar level to crash. I had read that I would be encouraged to breastfeed if that happens. However, when I asked Molly about it she said that wouldn't necessarily be so. I need to ask Marion about it because she scheduled the lactation consultant to visit us after the birth.

If all goes well, I will labor in deliver in the same room. Then, depending on how many people are having babies at the same time, I may be moved to the "Women's Pavilion". This whole time we were under the impression that all the rooms were private and that Cat would be able to stay at the hospital with me and the baby. That also isn't the case. Molly said that they "try" to keep one patient per room but that sometimes that doesn't work out. If I am the only one in the room, then Cat can stay the night. If I have to share the room, then he has to leave. We won't know until the time comes.

The baby is considered "full term" on Saturday. It would be entirely ok with me if he decided to be born then. Really. I won't mind at all. I have been having contractions. Teeny tiny contractions. Itsy bitsy, random, "warmup" contractions. But, still. Contractions!

Tomorrow I go for fetal monitoring and I also see Marion. On Friday, Cat's workplace is throwing a shower for us. I can't believe how quickly this first week of maternity leave is flying by!

36 Weeks

According to Baby Center, "Your baby is still putting on the pounds — about an ounce a day. He now weighs almost 6 pounds and is a little less than 19 inches long. At the end of this week, your baby will be considered full-term."

Sometimes when this little one gets kicking, he feels like he's enormous. Marion said I would probably start feeling like a punching bag by the end of this pregnancy and I do believe she's right. Even so, I'm still endlessly entertained by him kicking and punching and rolling around.

I can't believe how much more relaxed I am knowing that I don't have to go to work tomorrow. Usually I am sitting here on a Sunday morning planning out in my head everything I need to get done at work in the next week. When I first woke up this morning, I started to do just that. Then I remembered that I don't need to. Woohoo!

This weekend is Cat's last one in Hollister for awhile. Because the baby is considered full term at the end of this week, we thought it best if he stayed a bit closer to home until our son makes his big debut. Cat's mom crocheted a blanket and a hat for the baby that he will be bringing home tonight. I can't wait to see them.

Tosha and Eric sent the baby some gifts this week, including the softest booties known to man and an adobable soft stuffed animal that I'm sure our son will love. They also sent the cutest little two piece outfit that I think may be his "coming home" outfit. We have been looking for a two piece outfit rather than a onesie thinking that it might be more comfortable for him with his little umbilical cord stub.

This Friday, Cat's office is throwing another shower for us. Because I'm not working, I'll be able to attend as well. That's a relief for Cat because he doesn't enjoy being the center of attention. This way, I can take some of the heat for him. It will be a little awkward because this is the first time I've met most of his coworkers. I did get to meet his boss the other night when she came over to see the house. She's wonderfully entertaining and very nice. No wonder he loves working for her so much.