We are at the beginning of a week long heat wave, with temps expected to reach 100 degrees on Monday. Bad news for a couple of reasons - it's going to be a long week at work without air conditioning, and we can't take Cal for a walk or anything outside. All I have to do is make it to the weekend, and then we have nice weekend planned in Duluth. We plan to take Cal on his first road trip and stay at a hotel on Lake Superior. Hopefully it will be cooler, especially with the breeze coming off the water.
We hit the State Fair for a few hours yesterday, before it got uncomfortably hot. We ate some cheese curds, sunnies in a boat and finished with a twist cone from the dairy building. I snagged a nice pair of Minnesota Wild lounge pants (on clearance) at Fan Central, and a few other free goodies from the DNR building. We had planned on doing the Renaissance Festival this Saturday, but decided to push it back until late September when the temps are more fall-like.
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Calvin & Jobbes
Cal is 7 weeks old today! It’s already amazing to look at pictures we took and see how much he’s grown. We now have a pretty good idea of what he likes, but more importantly, what he doesn’t like. Sleeping would have to be number one on the dislike list. He is capable of sleeping of more than two hours at a time, but for one reason or another he just doesn’t do it. Perhaps it’s the size of his stomach, gas, the temperature outside, or maybe the fact that he loves us so much he wants to stay awake. Either way, it’s something we hope will eventually work itself out in due time. In the meantime, he loves bath time and going places in the Baby Bjorn carrier, he eats like a champ and craves activity and stimulation. He just has a hard time being idle for long periods of time... who does that sound like? Angie is convinced she gave birth to me!
In other news, work is really dead. Ever since the week before the 4th there hasn’t been much to do around there. I continue to look for new employment opportunities, specifically a place that offers 401k match, annual performance evaluations, air conditioning, and a lunch room. Just today I applied at large format digital printing company near downtown St. Paul. The main problem is my job doesn’t have one universal title, it’s been classified as Printing, Desktop Publishing, Production, Graphic Design, Marketing, and everything else in between.
I’m really excited to go out fishing for the first time this season, and maybe even more excited that our friends Steve and Jess just picked up a small fishing boat! I recently purchased a new Shimano Citica baitcasting reel which I’m anxiously awaiting to arrive. I also picked up a new St. Croix medium casting rod to pair with the reel. Consider the fact that most of my xmas and birthday gifts from last year were fishing lures and you can see how anxious I am to get on the lake. Once my new rod and reel is setup, I was thinking about going down to the river to get it fine tuned, maybe even catch a fish or two in the process.
Friday, June 14, 2013
One Amazing Gal, One Amazing Cal
It's been over two weeks since our son was born, but the details of our special day have yet to be shared. It's hard to find the time lately to sit down and write, but it's friday, my boss is out of the office and it's almost quitting time, no better time than right now.
I remember being woken up by Angie at about 3am on May 28th. It had been roughly a day since we'd been in for a baby check-up, and we'd both gone to bed that night thinking labor could get serious at any moment. As it turned out, labor was getting serious for about three hours, but Angie was too nice to wake me up until now. She was having regular contractions about every 5-10 minutes, so I decided it was time to call our Doula, Jessica and let her know that things were happening. After laboring at home until about 5am, we both decided that it was time to get to hospital, before it became too uncomfortable.
We drove to hospital just as the sun was coming up, listening to classical radio and watching people go to work like any other day. I remember thinking that I wasn't that nervous, and Angie didn't seem visibly uncomfortable. Strangely, the only thing I was worried about was that Angie wouldn't be far enough along and we would be sent back home.
We arrived at the hospital in less than ten minutes, pulled up to the emergency entrance and slowly made our way to the birthing center (we both assumed the hospital would meet us with a wheelchair and assist us, but that didn't happen. Perhaps we looked like we had everything under control?). After checking in, Angie was placed on a monitor and told to wait until a midwife could perform a check. Shortly after this, Jessica arrived and made Angie more comfortable while we waited. Good news! Angie was already dilated to 6 cm, the result of her many hours of uncomfortable labor at home. At this point, we moved to the labor room to continue the process.
The labor room consists of a fancy hospital bed, bathroom, and a whole bunch of medical equipment. In our case, it also came complete with a birthing tub, 2 nurses and 1 midwife. It was still early morning and we had just started what was going to be a very long day.
Although most of the labor has become foggy to me at this point, the strength, courage and calm that Angie showed me is impossible to forget. She labored in the birthing tub until the water was no longer hot, more times than I can remember. She walked in the hall, the pain stopping her in her tracks. She labored in the bed, in the bathroom, but no matter how much pain she felt she pushed through it. Throughout 12 hours of pain and uncertainty, without any intervention whatsoever, she pushed through everything. Unfortunately though, our baby just wasn't in the right position and we had explore other options.
The plan was to administer an epidural, in hopes that with the aid of pitocin, her "super-sized" contractions would allow things to move forward. That never happened. Our baby was sending us a message, something just wasn't right. Again, we had to explore other options.
Deciding to move forward with the cesarean was difficult. Angie and I were very emotional, it didn't seem like the ending she deserved, she who worked and fought and pushed through so much pain. Why couldn't she push now, when it mattered most? It's hard to describe the feeling we shared, but it felt like this wasn't what we planned and that somehow we had failed.
All of those feelings faded away the first time I heard our baby cry. He was finally here, and he was so beautiful. I remember I thought he had his mommy's eyes the first time I saw him. I still think that. I still think that in the end, our plans were just plans and we didn't fail. We experienced something we will never forget and were rewarded with a handsome little baby boy that we named Calvin Charles McDonald.
I remember being woken up by Angie at about 3am on May 28th. It had been roughly a day since we'd been in for a baby check-up, and we'd both gone to bed that night thinking labor could get serious at any moment. As it turned out, labor was getting serious for about three hours, but Angie was too nice to wake me up until now. She was having regular contractions about every 5-10 minutes, so I decided it was time to call our Doula, Jessica and let her know that things were happening. After laboring at home until about 5am, we both decided that it was time to get to hospital, before it became too uncomfortable.
We drove to hospital just as the sun was coming up, listening to classical radio and watching people go to work like any other day. I remember thinking that I wasn't that nervous, and Angie didn't seem visibly uncomfortable. Strangely, the only thing I was worried about was that Angie wouldn't be far enough along and we would be sent back home.
We arrived at the hospital in less than ten minutes, pulled up to the emergency entrance and slowly made our way to the birthing center (we both assumed the hospital would meet us with a wheelchair and assist us, but that didn't happen. Perhaps we looked like we had everything under control?). After checking in, Angie was placed on a monitor and told to wait until a midwife could perform a check. Shortly after this, Jessica arrived and made Angie more comfortable while we waited. Good news! Angie was already dilated to 6 cm, the result of her many hours of uncomfortable labor at home. At this point, we moved to the labor room to continue the process.
The labor room consists of a fancy hospital bed, bathroom, and a whole bunch of medical equipment. In our case, it also came complete with a birthing tub, 2 nurses and 1 midwife. It was still early morning and we had just started what was going to be a very long day.
Although most of the labor has become foggy to me at this point, the strength, courage and calm that Angie showed me is impossible to forget. She labored in the birthing tub until the water was no longer hot, more times than I can remember. She walked in the hall, the pain stopping her in her tracks. She labored in the bed, in the bathroom, but no matter how much pain she felt she pushed through it. Throughout 12 hours of pain and uncertainty, without any intervention whatsoever, she pushed through everything. Unfortunately though, our baby just wasn't in the right position and we had explore other options.
The plan was to administer an epidural, in hopes that with the aid of pitocin, her "super-sized" contractions would allow things to move forward. That never happened. Our baby was sending us a message, something just wasn't right. Again, we had to explore other options.
Deciding to move forward with the cesarean was difficult. Angie and I were very emotional, it didn't seem like the ending she deserved, she who worked and fought and pushed through so much pain. Why couldn't she push now, when it mattered most? It's hard to describe the feeling we shared, but it felt like this wasn't what we planned and that somehow we had failed.
All of those feelings faded away the first time I heard our baby cry. He was finally here, and he was so beautiful. I remember I thought he had his mommy's eyes the first time I saw him. I still think that. I still think that in the end, our plans were just plans and we didn't fail. We experienced something we will never forget and were rewarded with a handsome little baby boy that we named Calvin Charles McDonald.
(more photos on my Flickr, which can be found on the right sidebar)
