12.31.09
Posted in Family, Transport
at 10 am
In bullet point form:
* Three early morning feedings, pre 7am
* 7am: Amy in horrible acute pain
* 8am: All of us out the door and to the OHSU ER
* 11am: Discharge from OSHU following IV pain reliever and ‘possible’ diagnosis
* 1pm: Sudden snowstorm sweeps into Portland
* 2:30pm: James and I head out to Hillsboro to get cash to make up for my skipped pay check (Unpaid Family leave)
* 4pm: 30 minute drive takes 90 minutes today. (Having a credit union with offices near where you work makes more sense when you’re actually working at the office.)
* 4:30pm: Head home from Hillsboro, via TV Hwy, hoping higher-traffic roads will remain safer.
* 6pm: 4 miles and an hour and a half later, James and I stop at @jockmurphy’s home and have a spot of hospitality.
* 7:30pm: Back on the road, decide to take the more-flat Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy rather than chance the elevations of the Sunset Hwy.
* 9:30pm: Averaging 5 miles an hour our jouney finally finishes back at home.
This was crazy. I couldn’t believe some of the insane drivers both too cautious and overly confident.
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11.26.09
Posted in Family
at 11 pm
Number One Fan: One of the items I took to the hospital while my wife was getting ready to give birth was a small fan. Amy is prone to opening windows for fresh cool air at home; for the induced labor she was getting various drugs that were cranking up her internal thermostat.
Leading up to our big day Amy and I had watched a number of TV shows about births. In one show I caught sight of a small clip-on fan on the back of the bed over the new mother’s shoulder. As I rushed back home to grab some supplies, this came to mind. And it was a life saver. Amy’s room had sealed windows and she was sweating as things got rolling. I was able to bring out and adjust the fan continually through out the labor and the recovery after the C-section.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, a broken camera is a thousand regrets.
You should take a camera, but maybe not a video camera. I can guarantee that you will want photos for family and friends and for yourself. We bought a good Canon point-and-shoot camera in preparation of having a baby and I worked with it for a few months before the big event. I felt quite comfortable with it, I had extra batteries and the recharger in the room ready to go if needed. As my boy got whisked from the OR to the receiving room, I grabbed the camera and started shooting some stills. I switched to video mode and then it happened.
“Memory Card Error”
Here I am recording the first moments of my child’s life, hoping to bring the images back to Amy and save them for posterity and the camera goes belly up on me. From what I can tell now, the memory card itself may have been at fault rather than the camera, but I did NOT have time to diagnose the problem. So as they say, the best camera is the one you have with you (and WORKS). I took out my iPhone and started taking picture with it. Mine is a 3G, not a 3GS, so I didn’t have video recording, but at least I could bring up the voice recording app and capture some cries.
The moral of the story is to have a backup for the irreplaceable stuff, the stuff that can only be captured once. The camera or video camera or whatever. Also, make sure it is small enough to fit in your pants pocket. I’m hoping that someday we will get an iPod touch with a video camera with a half dozen megapixels, but even then, I will still want a second one in back pocket for this sort of event.
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11.20.09
Posted in Family
at 1 pm
In case you hadn’t noticed all the Twitter activity, our new baby, James, is getting the full web-enabled treatment at http://www.jamesrolson.com/ and you are invited to stop in.
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07.30.09
Posted in Family
at 6 am
Amy and I went to the 18-week ultrasound appointment and found out that we’re having…
A boy!
So this means he will get paid for playing professional soccer, but he’ll be stuck on the US Men’s team…
That will probably be the last big piece of news to post until it’s time to sit and deliver. Things will probably be pretty quiet here for a while.
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06.21.09
Posted in Family
at 9 pm
Amy and I are excited to announce that in the next few months, a new member will be joining our family. We’re not sure about gender or really too much about the pregnancy so far, but we have gotten through the first round of ultrasounds. At week 12, the whole thing is looking pretty good. In late December, we’ll be waiting for Santa to drop off the whole package.
I’ve been keeping some rough notes as we’ve gone along:
Week 3-6: At-home pregnancy tests are coming up positive. 10 to 12 off-the-shelf home tests used.
Week 7: 1st prenatal appointments made for week 8. Massive blood loss on Wednesday evening leaves us thinking we had a miscarriage. Canceled the prenatal appointments.
Week 8: Miscarriage expected, baby found instead. “Strong heartbeat”, says the doctor. First time we saw the heartbeat on ultrasound.
Week 10: Ultrasound shows 2 weeks of growth in 2 weeks. Saw arms and legs move on ultrasound. Looks like corpus c. is on right ovary.
Week 11/12 plan: High-tech ultrasound screening scheduled, geneticist consult scheduled, blood sugar check, nurse practitioner mtg.
Week 12: Nurse (blood sugar/insulin), genetic consult, need insulin supplies. Call this week. Nuchal translucency ultrasound screening set for for Friday. That Friday: Full scan done too. Nasal bone looks good. 12wk4d by measure. Screening is clear.
So we’re heading into week 13. As Amy and I are relative late-comers to this whole parenting thing, we’ve been very concerned about the possible genetic issues that might occur; it looks like we’re clear. This was the reasons why we’ve taken so long to mention it, and one of the big reasons I haven’t been posting to my journal here.
I’ve got a ton of people to let know and if this is the first you’ve heard about it, don’t be surprised or put off. We’ve been keeping this more quiet than normal and as you might imagine, we’re putting a lot of plans together to prepare for everything.
I may document some more stuff here later, if I think it will be interesting to all four of you who read this. We’ve got 20 or so sonograms that I can share with you if you’re interested in looking at blurry grey dots on a black background that may or may not resemble some under-developed body part. I, of course, have already set one as the background on my phone.
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01.12.09
Posted in Family
at 11 pm
This morning’s conversation:
A: Someone should make a mash up of [New Order's] Blue Monday and Ministry’s Halloween.
R: Is that really good idea?
A: Well, they could call it ‘Blue Halloween’…
R: Oh, that’s much better than what I was thinking of… ‘Everyday is Monday’!
That’d send chills down your spine!
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