Jack in Full Effect

Just some randoms from recently:

 

  

  

  

 

Open For a New Kind of Business

I can understand the desires of the early bloggers, to keep their real identities unknown to their readership and to have a forum where transparency would not become a burden on their real lives. I've never understood it before, because I always thought I was bold and daring. And I might have been.

But then I got old and married, babied and jobbed.

So, I thought that delicate allusions to what I was actually feeling, mixed in with anecdotes that might highlight some of the more secret thoughts, would be a good path to follow. I mean, who knows who is reading this blog? And I never wanted to make it a Members Only kind of deal because I love being public.

Or I did. Until things got too real.

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It turns out those allusions? They're confusing to people. If you are one who has been confused or misled by one of them, know that I was trying to spare the feelings of all involved. I feel like I went from having to answer to no one to having to answer to anyone and everyone. And I tried. And failed.

Transparency.

I'm making this blog a Family Photos Only blog. No words, other than photo descriptions. No stories, none at all.

And don't try to follow me to the new place. There are many people who read this blog who won't appreciate the new transparency that will abound there. Loads of translucent, lucid, blunt & delicious thoughts. Cutthroat.

The comments will always be closed.

The Story of Jack, as Told by Caleb

On Sunday morning Holly woke up like normal, but all of the previous night she had been having some pretty intense contractions about every 20 to 30 minutes which basically kept her up so she was incredibly tired. She ate breakfast and then the contractions came back. This time they were 10 minutes apart and stayed that way for about five hours. It meant we didn't go to church because we weren't sure if they would get closer together and Holly obviously didn't want to deal with the scene of having a bad contraction in public, who can blame her.

Anyways, at about 3:00pm she fell asleep on the couch from the exhaustion of being awake the entire night and the contractions slowed down quite a bit. They were just scattered throughout the rest of the day, but never consistent until about 8:30pm when they came back with a vengeance.

By 10:00 she had been having them 5-7 minutes apart for almost two hours, and I called the hospital to check what we should be watching for before driving over to check in. They said to wait until midnight and if they stayed at the same pace to come in then. That's what we did and by midnight she was 3-4 minutes apart and getting more pain from the contractions.

So, we grabbed the packed bag and pillow and headed to the hospital. We took the elevator up to the 5th floor where the Labor and Delivery area is and on the way Holly's water had broken. By the time they got her to sign one or two papers and changed into her fancy hospital smock she was dilated to 5cm and well on her way to having a baby. She was relieved because she was worried that they were going to send us home and she'd have to deal with the contractions at home all night long before taking finals the next morning. They told her she was going to be having a baby before the sun came up, which made her pretty happy.

The nurses got her all situated with an IV, heart and contraction monitors, etc and then settled down to watch her and check her progress. After another hour she was dilated to 6cm so the guy showed up to give her the epidural and make sure that was ready to go. Not too long after the epidural kicked in, Jack started to show some weird signs of stress as his heartbeat started to do some funny stuff following each contraction. Apparently they don't like that to happen because within minutes every single one of the 8 nurses on duty that night were in the room doing something. They had to turn Holly from side to side to see if they could get Jack to calm down and at one point they even had her up on her hands and knees to see if that would work. They wound up calling in the Dr. Harrison early just to be safe because they thought they might have to do a C-section if Jack's heart didn't start behaving.

Eventually the shot they gave her to stop the contractions got him back to where he was supposed to be and as it wore off over the next half hour or so he didn't act up, just dealt with it like he was intended to. That's when the nurses and Dr. Harrison said to just take it easy and go to sleep.

While we were asleep until about 5:30am Holly finished dilating from her 6cm all the way to the full 10cm and the nurses quickly got the stuff ready for Jack to arrive. Holly started pushing at about 5:50am and had to push three times each through about 15 contractions and Jack was out and in the world.

He arrived at 6:27am and weighed 7 lbs, 10 oz while measuring in at a healthy 19 1/2 inches long. He was quite purple when he got here, just like all babies are, and his hands are quite large for a newborn, so who knows what is going on with that at the moment. He has passed all of his fancy tests and hasn't had any problems so it looks like we should be heading home either this evening, or tomorrow morning unless a new complication arises.

Analyze This

I'm having a big problem lately with people telling me what to do.

I thought that it was an emotional thing, seeing as the people who were telling me what to do are related to me. And then I thought that it was lack of sleep, but Jack has been really kind the last few nights. After that, I figured it must be the stress of moving and rearranging and cleaning and adjusting - turns out that I am more happy these last two days than I've been the last six months.

So, I'd just written it off. Maybe I'd gotten past whatever personality slump that had put me in such a defiant place.

Then, this evening, some BYU Wymount custodial guy came and yelled at me for misusing the garbage disposal and causing a back-up to multiple other sinks in the quad. I said to him, "I haven't even used the disposal, so you're mistaken. Also, I've lived here awhile and I know what I'm doing."

I shut the door. I sat on the couch. I bawled in frustration.

There's gotta be something else going on.

And the Winners Are...

Cecilia Tauteoli!

Shelley Allison!

Julie Chatfield!

Whitney Hardie!

and

Diana Waite!


Congratulations, girls - I am so excited to make something special for each of you! Please email me your address at luxurious@gmail.com and get ready for a surprise to show up on your doorstep someday!


And thanks to random.org for making the choices truly random.

Handmade Ambush

The deal: I will draw 5 random people who comment on this post and they will receive something made by me. To you! It will be my choice and made especially for you. Leave your comment here before 11:59 pm MST Tuesday. Just so we’re on the same page, here are the rules.

The details: No guarantees you will feel absolute true love, but possibly happiness, fervor, or chocolate. What I create will be just for you. It will be done sometime this year. You have no clue what it will be… it may be a story. Maybe poetry. (Well, probably not either of those.) I may draw or paint something. It will most likely be a wicked mix CD or a home-sewn Mystery Hero Bunny. But I may bake something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you! That’s for sure. I reserve the right to do something extremely kooky.

The fine print (which is actually the same size, but whatever): If you are chosen, you may re-post this on your blog and offer the same to 5 people who do the same on their blog, if you'd like. When you get your lovely homemade goods from me, post a picture on your blog so I know my love arrived without a hitch.

Before you type in your name I think that you should know a few things.
#1. Do I care if you actually follow the rules? No...but Karma will.
#2. Do I care if we know each other? No, but you will be subject to my taste!
#3. I love this idea.

Feeling Inspiration

We're about to embark on a new adventure. I'm pretty sure we are, anyway. And, in thinking about this new adventure, I've been really inspired to turn a new leaf and do things a new way. New new new.

Here are my inspirations for the day:

 

A thought bubble chalkboard from Red Velvet Art. The thought of having a message board that can be positioned for really fun pictures and silly moments has inspired me to get crafty with the chalkboard paint. 

 

The Rex Lee Run at BYU is mid-March, and Julie and I are going to participate this year. Having a goal like this has inspired me to start taking care of myself post-pregnancy and having Shelley and Julie as examples is so awesome. 

 

This crocheted heart garland is so beautiful and accessible for me, someone who doesn't consider herself crafty in the slightest. And upon seeing it, I thought the old "Someday...." Well, this inspiration leads me to stop "somedaying" myself and start "todaying." 

 

This book came into our lives, and I've been reading it pretty voraciously. When we picked it up, I didn't realize that it was so closely tied to the values of Objectivism, a philosophy started by Ayn Rand, who is the author of my favorite books. Anyway, after poring through it, I'm inspired to be more self-accepting and living more purposefully.

 

This monthly playlist idea has completely altered the way I look at my music now. I've always known that I've gone through phases, but I'm intrigued to see how the weather, time of year and experiences of each month will affect what I listen to. So far on my February 2009 list: "Anyone Else But You" from the Juno soundtrack and "Robocop" by Kanye West.

Even though the weather's yucky and we may have a stuffy nose disease running through our house, things are looking up.