Florida Wrap

We're back. Our last three days in Florida were spent at the beach, and at Disney World. It has been years since we were at Disney, so we had a great time seeing all the updates. We made the most of our two days there; we visited Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Magic Kingdom. We rode the new Toy Story ride (SO COOL!), saw Fantasmic, the SpectroMagic Parade, and the MK fireworks. We stayed out until midnight yesterday, even though we knew we had to get up before 7:00 to leave for the airport.

Florida was amazingly fun, but we were very ready to get back. We were both pointing out babies around Carina's age all the time in the parks. Carina was asleep when we got to Grammy and Grandad's, but she didn't make us wait too long. I heard her talking in her crib, so I cracked the door and stuck my head in. At first, she just stared at me. Then her eyes got huge - I mean HUGE - and she started running in place. Very satisfactory reaction. :)

So, now we're home, and tomorrow I go to work to see if the fact that we're flying means I'm less behind than I normally would be... I can hope. We actually got back home at around 4:00 this afternoon, so I have at least had time to do some stuff around the house.

Happy Birthday, Baby

One year ago today (in about 3 hours at 12:45 PM), Carina arrived. It is absolutely unbelievable that it has been that long. And yet, also unbelievable that we ever existed without her. It seems like her little arms around my neck and her little face snuggled into my shoulder are as necessary to my existance as breathing.

Her party yesterday was a huge success. She pulled in quite a haul, as expected. Everyone loves shopping for kids. In addition to enough clothing from Grammy and Grandma to keep her dressed to the 9s for the next year (or at least 6 months) of her life, she got some very cool toys. There were several aviation-themed gifts, including this Elmo ride-along airplane that has more buttons on it than Cari's Prius. This was both an adult and child favorite; Becca set about getting it out of the packaging right away as Aerik was fascinated.

The slip-n-slide got lots of use. ("Not for adult use", whatever. I think we proved that thing is fun for ages 3 to at least 31.) They've gotten quite a bit more sophisticated since our Version 1.0 we had as kids. I remember it was always a challenge setting up the sprinkler to evenly wet the slide, but that has been taken care of by the addition of an integrated sprinkler tube on the side. And then there is the splash pool at the end - definitely satisfying. The water in the wading pool was also dirtied with grass clippings from all the comings and goings. I never turned on the sprinkler as it didn't seem to be missed.

Carina opened her presents, and then had to go take a nap. She woke up in time for cake, but she was still groggy and wouldn't eat any of it. She did play with the frosting a bit on her hands, thoroughly decorating the table in front of her. No cake on the face, unfortunately. Maybe we'll try again tonight with a smaller piece.

Don't Blink

Don't blink
Just like that you're six years old and you take a nap and you
Wake up and you're twenty-five and your high school sweetheart becomes your wife
Don't blink
Just might miss your babies growin' like mine did
Turning into moms and dads; next thing you know your better half of fifty years is there in bed
And you're praying God takes you instead
Trust me friend, a hundred years goes faster than you think
So don't Blink
- Kenney Chesney

I've been feeling like this is the soundtrack of my life right now. Carina turns 1 in a little more than two weeks, and I can't believe it! It seems like just last month I was driving to the hospital with enough adrenalin in my system to make a horse jumpy. And just the other week she started eating people food. And just yesterday that she started crawling. In about 2 seconds, she'll be walking.

The problem is that blinking is an essential human function. I would be happy to remember every second, but no matter how hard you try it just blurs together. I can practically see her growing every time I watch her for 5 minutes straight, and time will not SLOW DOWN for me. So I take a lot of pictures and try to stop blinking.

Blink.

Damn.

Left Foot, Right Foot

Carina is learning to walk, and boy does she love it! Sunday, we had her in stitches by sitting a few feet apart and encouraging her to walk back and forth between us, holding Gavin's hands and then mine. Then last night, I stood her up holding on to this pushalong/ridealong car she has, and she walked 5-6 steps with it. Tonight she crossed the floor a few times with it. We've both seen her stand unsupported for a few seconds.

As always, she's being careful Carina. I remember when Caroline was around this age and learning to walk with her pushalong elephant, she had to keep walking faster and faster to keep up with it. TOTALLY out of control! Carina is keeping her balance, though. The car has gotten ahead of her a couple times, but she's always stopped and rocked back to get it in a more stable position.

I thought about getting a video tonight, but my camera was out in the car. Soon - gotta capture those first steps.

Lemons

It's funny to find instances where Carina takes after one of her parents. This time, it's lemon slices. Dad likes to suck on them. Who knew she would too?

Hickory Dickory

As I am getting ready this morning in my hotel room, from the next room over I hear a small voice floating through the wall.

"Hickory, dickory, dock
The mouse ran up the clock"

I smile, then sniff. Suddenly, I miss Carina so much I have to sit down with my laptop and shuffle though the last set of pictures I have of her.

In some ways, I've been enjoying this trip away from the baby. We've been out at dinner every night until 10:30 or 11:00. When I get back to the hotel after work, I can just sit down and relax rather than feeding, bathing, and putting down an increasingly tired baby.

But I have also been finding myself daydreaming about chubby cheeks, gummy smiles, and babling voices. I have missed my evening cuddle. I wonder what she's doing new today.

*hugs* to Carina

Baby's First Ski Trip

In spite of hurting my knee, the ski trip was not a complete failure. Our one day of skiing together was quite nice. Here's Gavin at the top of a couple double blues we tried early in the day. I have another nice panoramic shot from the top I'll have to add at home after I stitch it together.

And here's pictures of the both of us with Carina watching the Rusted Root concert from our balcony. She liked the music just as much as either of us. She didn't seem to mind the cold air, either, or the snow. That girl just rolls with it.

Back Home

It's nice being home after being out west for a few weeks. Roxy is curled up at my feet, snoring softly. The trips out to JPL were both great, I got a lot out of it. And some cool pictures, which will be posted later this weekend. Utah was fun, even though Jen bummed her knee. And I got a kick out of showing some pictures of Carina around. Lots of 'awwwws'.

(Lack of) Sleep

Carina had a rotten night last night. She got home from daycare completely exhausted, but she just sat and played in her crib for 40 minutes instead of sleeping. So, at 6:30 I got her up, fed her dinner, gave her a bath, and by 8:00 I was putting her back down. She slept until about 9:30. Then she got up again and cried. I took her a bottle. She sucked it down and cried when I put her back in her crib. I changed her. She smiled during the diaper change and cried when I put her back in her crib. I let her cry. She cried. I gave her another half bottle. She drank most of it, and then wanted to play. I put her down again and she cried.

Finally at about 11:15 I gave in and let her get up and play for about a half hour in her room. I was majorly irritated by that time, and had determined to let her play but not interact with her. That lasted about 10 minutes until she, in an effort to engage me, crawled up and stuck her smiling face right in mine for a kiss. I laughed in spite of myself. I love that kid, even when she’s keeping me up.

She finally (after some more crying) went down at 12:30, slept about an hour, woke up and fussed for another hour. Then at 2:30 AM, finally went to sleep for real.

The thing is, every time I went in there, she would want to get up and play. Not at 1:30 AM, girl! I am sooooo glad she’s normally a good sleeper.

Design Block

The other night I was amusing myself and exploring PaintShop by working on a custom design invitation for Carina's 1st birthday party. I like what I've done so far, but I'm at a loss as to what to do with the background. Maybe a couple catapillers? Flowers? What goes with alphabet blocks? And an apple?

(Completely random aside - I just saw a trailer for a new movie with Jackie Chan AND Jet Li in it. Gavin's head is going to explode!)

Anyway, back on the invitation... I welcome all ideas. I thought about just sending it to Sarah and seeing what she came up with, but I'm having fun doing it. I just need help getting past a little creative block here.

Yummy Leaves

I've been disbelieving the parenting literature that says to start trying to teach babies Carina’s age about limits. Surely she’s still too young to understand "no". The word is often met with an innocent smile and a repeat offence. However, I saw something this weekend that makes me think maybe it is possible.

We went on a walk Sunday afternoon, and after getting back to the house I put Carina down on the lawn to play for a bit. She had a grand old time feeling the grass and the dead leaves that have reappeared all over the lawn after my grand raking day last month. Anyway, since she’s still in the stage where her tongue is used to explore as much as her hands, I was keeping a sharp eye out for the grass and leaves going into her mouth. Every time she started to put a leaf in there, I’d place my hand between the leaf and her mouth, say "no", and move her hand down. When I did it, she’d get a concerned look on her face and then offer me the leaf as if to say "Oh, do you want it, Mommy? Here you go." Then I’d smile, take the leaf, say thank you, and tell her what a good girl she is.

Do you see it coming? Twice, right before we went inside, she started to put a leaf in her mouth, but before I could get my hand into position and say "no" she stopped, held it out to me, and smiled! Once might have been coincidence, but twice?

Easter Photos

Carina's grandad took lots of great pictures on Easter weekend.

I love my Grammy, and Grammy loves me!

We got her "Easter toys" instead of Easter candy.

You guys, this dress totally messes up my crawling!

Grandad labled most of these "Carina Happy". I guess that pretty much summs it up.

She's starting to climb, people!

Shona is way more willing to get up close and personal with Carina than our dogs. Carina loves it usually, but that nose is cold!

Dustbuster

Carina is enjoying her newfound mobility. She’s starting to get annoyed when you want her to lie still, say for a diaper change. She’s also very good at finding dirt in the corners of rooms. She will crawl over, pick up some dog hair or a piece of grass and hold it up to me as if to say “Mommy! Look what I found! And guess what? THERE’S MORE!”

Tomorrow is my last shift. It will be Undocking day. I’m glad the mission is winding down – I’m ready to get back to normal working and family hours. Working in the office again after a mission is always a bit of a letdown, though. We have skiing plans for the first weekend in April, though, so it will be all good.

If you’re in the Houston area, set your watch for 8:28 PM Tuesday night. Go outside and look to the Southwest. Three space vehicles will be passing over: ATV, then ISS, then Shuttle. It should be a really cool sighting.

Inspecting

I have three more shifts left during this mission after today. It has been a long, long mission. March has almost completely passed me by while we've been in space.

Today is the "late inspection" day. We're taking pictures of the Shuttle's wings and nose to look for any damage from orbital debris hits. After today, my console is on the downslope of the mission. It will mainly be about getting ready to undock and land. In non-trajectory world, though, there is still one EVA to accomplish tomorrow.

I'm feeling a bit blue about working this weekend. Meg and Mike are down to celebrate Easter with their grandchild (Gavin and I barely enter into the equation anymore!) :) I'm kind of bummed that I didn't get to see their reactions to seeing Carina crawl for the first time, as I was already at work when they arrived. Oh well, it looks like my parents will be here in a couple weeks, so I'll get to see that.

Saturday

Today was nice. Stayed up until 2am playing online. I lost my spaceship to a catastrophic hail of lasers and missiles, and lots of my friends lost theirs, but we had fun. Slept until 0815, did some dishes and then went upstairs to check on Carina. She was awake, just laying quietly in her crib and playing with her feet. Big smile for daddy. Back downstairs I surprised her with a bowl of rice instead of the bowl of oatmeal she's used to. Several more big smiles. More big smiles for mom, for dogs, for sunlight, for dinner time and feeding herself chicken and brocilli mush from her bowl, and then after bath time there were smiles and stares of wonder for moonlight and the sounds of dusk.

In a nice contrast to most of this week, nearly every time today Carina went to sleep without a fuss. Even though she's only spent a few hours a day at day care in the afternoon, it's been hard getting her to unwind at the end of the day. Some evenings were spent with her crying loudly except for A) bites of food, B) some gulps of milk, and C) bath time. Given all that took a few hours, it was a lot of crying. But today she was great.

Today was nice.

Sploosh

9:47 PM and it actually feels like the middle of the afternoon to me. Missions do strange things to my internal clock.

I'm very much looking forward to the weekend. I'm excited that I'll get to see Gavin for more than 2 minutes. I'm also excited that he'll be there to get up with Carina so that I can get my first 8 hour stretch of sleep since last Friday. I got through this week by telling myself that I went through a worse spell of interrupted nights last June, but you do forget how tired you were with that newborn.

Becca and I went out to lunch today (had the best bread ever at Tuscany Bistro, by the way). By the time I got back home, Carina was getting a little tired, but I needed to take her to the daycare anyway in about 20 minutes. So in order to keep her up and happy while I got her bag ready, I sat her in the kitchen over by the fridge and gave her my car keys to play with. She sat there jingling them for a few minutes while I started making here a couple bottles to take, and then I realized that I didn't hear them anymore. I looked to where she had been, and she was no longer there. I looked the other way, and there she was - crawling very deliberately across the kitchen floor. I proceeded to watch, bottles half made and formula powder everywere, as she crawled straight up to the dog dishes and SPLOOSH! plunged both hands into the water bowl giggling madly at the huge fountain of slobbery water that fountained over her head and onto the floor.

No doubt the idea of my baby daughter playing in the dog water and later sucking on her fingers is just something I'm going to have to get used to. For today, I was unable to restrain my yuk response entirely, and those little hands got dried as soon as the bottles were capped. I think we are officiall into the "getting into everything" phase, though.

Approaching the Ides of March

It's been a busy couple of weeks. Jen's working the mission and it's coming along pretty well. They've had a few pieces of space junk to avoid, and that's about it. She gets home a little after midnight so I get to see her for about 5 minutes before we both fall asleep.

Carina is feeling better, after her 104+ deg fever over the weekend. She still has a runny nose, but, it's not very bad. Attention, oh unsuspecting world: she is now crawling! Last night she crawled 5 feet towards me in the kitchen while she was very unhappy and hungry. Tonight she was crawling around in the room upstairs, chasing the dogs and me. We've been trying to get the dogs ready for this over the last few weeks, and I think they're doing pretty well. Roxy let Carina climb a little on her without getting grumpy, and then Carina left her alone and went on to something else. Zoya's pretty gentle with her now too. We're also working with Carina to get her to softly pet the dogs, instead of fiercely grabbing their fur and skin.

No one likes the fierce grab. She's pretty strong!

My work is coming along. I'm splitting my time between the Mars Science Laboratory mission I've been working on since I graduated and the Orion capsule that we'll fly after we retire the Shuttle. For the Mars mission we've been spending time figuring out what crazy scenarios can break the entry guidance while it tries to get us within 10 km of the target, and how we can counter that without hamstringing the guidance. The desire is to have a robust guidance that still delivers the spacecraft to the target on both good days and bad days. Some of this is done in the flight software. Some of this is done in how we operate the spacecraft. Many of these ideas we've been carrying of for a few years but haven't had time to really start looking at them until now. Meanwhile, the project pushes forward with successful parachute tests in wind tunnels, with flight software being tested in thousands of simulations, and with flight hardware being delivered and assembled. Launching in Summer 2009 doesn't really feel that far away now. :)

The Orion work I'm involved with is interesting, mostly because its new for me. I'm not doing much guidance work with it because I don't have the time available to really sink my teeth into it. But a few weeks ago there were some URGENT! items that had to be addressed pretty quickly as the design settles down for this year's Preliminary Design Review. I've been working with some people to figure out some of the ops concept for the capsule entry and recovery, how often we would try to splashdown where, where should we go if we can't wait in orbit for some reason. It's working with maps and orbit dynamics and constraints such as ensuring the safe disposal of rocket debris, acceptable weather for the capsule to splashdown, where our recovery forces may be, and getting enough sunlight prior to spacecraft return so the batteries have enough juice to last through entry and the time spent bobbing in the water afterwards. The last few days we've been chasing after an issue where one system team's assumptions turned out to be too constraining for us to fly missions, so we had to work out a reasonable constraint that balances our ability to fly the spacecraft and also doesn't drive their system to an extreme.

It is fun designing a spacecraft. It is also a lot of fun figuring out how best to fly one whether it's at Mars or at Earth. That is why I'm pretty glad to be where I am in Mission Operations, getting to help out with both.

Besides work and playing Carina, I haven't done very much lately. We went out on Sunday for steak with Becca and friends in celebration of Becca's birthday; Carina tried to eat the crayons. Jen and I also watched Innerspace on cable. Jen had never seen it. That took me back to some memories when I was a kid. I totally forgot Meg Ryan was in it... must have been one of her first movies since she didn't headline it.

Patacake

I know I just posted videos, but I'm so proud. Look what my girl learned to do!

Laughter is the Best Medicine

Amazingly, I had a few minutes today to put together some recent baby pics and movies.

She can stand up now herself by holding on to us or the furniture.


Gavin really liked this one. He seems to have a thing with me wearing stupid stuff on my head.


And then for movies...

This first one is several weeks old - just to capture her laugh.


This one is more recent - just having fun.

Best Friends

Oh boy, have I been working hard. Not as hard as some people I could mention, but pretty darn hard. I've done document or presentaion editing at home every day this week except one. I hardly dare mention it, in case I invite a catastrophe tomorrow, but at this point I still think I'll get the weekend off.

When I dropped Carina off at day care this morning, I spent a few minutes talking with the teachers about starting to feed her the school's food. While we were talking, one of the other babies crawled over to the spot where Carina was sitting. Now, I've been told that Carina and Mackenzie are good friends, but I haven't had a chance to watch them together much before. They weren't doing much, just looking at each other and reaching out to touch each other a couple times. But, it was unmistakably social interaction.

I found myself a bit jealous of Mackenzie. Unreasonable, but I'm sort of used to being Carina's only "friend" (well, besides Daddy). It made me start thinking that one day she'll be a teenager, and will probably not consider me a friend at all. She'll rather spend her time with her Mackenzies than me. Another reminder that I need to appreciate every day.

The Stumbling Edge

We went ice skating today for Cari's birthday. It was really fun, but I'm not nearly as good at it as I remember being. Not that I was ever good at it, but I used to be able to not look too awkward.

After skating, we went to eat an early dinner. By this point Carina had been up for four straight hours. We were hoping she'd nap in the restaraunt, but no dice. Dinner took quite a while, and by then end it was 7:00 PM and she hadn't slept since 1:00! For all that, she was still her happy self while we were there.

The problem, of course, comes after we get home. She's overtired and fussing instead of going to sleep like she needs to. I think she just now finally settled down - no crying for the last 10 minutes or so.

I'm going to try getting in my first solo cross-country tomorrow; the weather didn't cooperate today.

Making Friends

We've had a pretty social month. First, Kennda was in town for a few days. We got together with her, Becca, Cari, and the Pettys. Carina and Aerik got to know each other a bit.


Then last weekend, Carina had a play date with Lily. Here they are playing in their nearly identical exersaucers.


Carina had fun helping do the laundry this morning.

Bad Cooking?

My cooking made Carina throw up last night.

All right, it probably wasn’t the cooking. She still has issues with texture, and it was new and probably a bit too lumpy for her. Still, she took a few spoon fulls, made a face, gagged, and threw up.

Anyway, Carina is officially 8 months old now. 8 months! That’s 2/3 of a year! It definitely doesn’t feel like it has been that long since she was born. Although I am starting to get nostalgic about when she would happily cuddle in my arms. I get about 5 minutes when she first starts sucking down a bottle, but that’s about it. Even though she isn’t crawling yet, she doesn’t really want to sit still. The favorite passtime is now bouncing.

I got some cute pictures of her and Lily at their playdate this weekend. I don’t have them downloaded yet, though. I’ll try to do that tonight.

Yes, She Was Indeed Born

I finally got Carina a birth certificate, nearly 8 months after she was born. You'd think that pretty much everyone would need/want a birth certificate for their baby, and that the certificates would therefore be easy to order. Not so.

I realized a few months ago that, hey, we never got one of those! Remembering that we filled out some paperwork for a birth certificate at the hospital, I called them. "Oh, you need to call the county and order it; here's the number."

So, I called the county. The lady asked if I needed a real one. Uh, yes?! "Oh well we don't issue real ones here, but we do have a computer printout that's good for most things." Like passports? "Oh, no. You'll have to order one from the state; here's the number."

So, I called the state. 5 phone menus later, I'm told that I need to either come in person to the office downtown, or I can go to the web site and mail the form in. I mail the form in, after following all the instructions. It gets returned because I didn't include a photocopy of my (the mother's) ID. That wasn't in the instructions. (Aside: Why only the mother's ID? It's like fathers don't exist in our baby culture.) I return the application with a copy of my drivers liscense, and finally we get a birth certificate out of it.

I'm glad that I thought to do that before I really needed to. All-in-all it took a couple months. Now, I need to start the passport rigamorole. I think I'm going to start working on Gavin to agree to a trip to Europe this summer.

Losing Sleep

One of the frustrating things about having a baby is that every once in a while there will be a day that's completely different for no apparent reason. Case in point: Monday night. Carina woke up 6 times - crying, wanting to be held, unwilling to be put back in her crib. The last time at 3:30 AM, we decided to just let her cry for a bit. She probably cried 10-15 minutes before going back to sleep.

The next day, she went back to her normal 12 hours straight sleep.

What the hell?

I'm glad that she's normally so happy, but it always makes me feel like she really, really needs something when she cries. It really sucks when you can't understand what she needs.

Twist and Shout

Unfortunately, this came out a bit dark, but it is hi-larious! Turn on the sound or it will only be mildly funny. :)

A Real Trooper

Carina is the best baby. I mean, she is sooooo good. She went to sleep about 10 PM in the airport, and she slept all the way to Oakland. She woke up in the airport in Oakland until we got the car, but then she went back to sleep for the night. Not once did she cry while we dragged her around the country in the middle of the night. She woke up this morning her smiling self and is only a bit more tired than usual.

I'm thinking this means that Carina travels well. So, now I'm asking myself, where should we go this year?

Snoozing

I think Carina inherited her sleeping habits from me. When we don't have the daily necessity of getting up in time to get to day care, we tend to sleep later every morning and stay up later every night. Gavin says that we're just getting her on Pacific time early, but by the time we head back to home she's going to be on Hawaii time at this rate.

I bought my brother-in-law a game called "Masons" for Christmas. We played it a couple nights ago, and it was pretty fun. It's sort of in the "Settlers" category of games. It doesn't have the trading aspect of Settlers, which is one of my favorite things about the game. Masons can be played by two people, though, which could be very useful.

Howdy from WY

Well, we made it to Wyoming, finally. Carina did very well on the airplane. We took her in to the doctor today, and her ears still have fluid in them. They may or may not still be infected, so we started her on a new antibiotic. She's still feeling well, though, so it's all good.

We've had like 18" of snow since we got here. There was about 15" at my parents on Christmas Day. Then we got a few more today. Carina doesn't seem to like the cold too much. Especially if it's windy.

There are tons of kiddos around this year. But we can't seem to get them all awake and happy at the same time for a picture. We definitely need to do that soon.

It Never Rains...

Apparently, it's not enough that Carina's fighting off an ear infection AND a terrible cold. You see, about a week ago (right before she got sick), she learned to roll over from her back onto her tummy. She hasn't figured out how to roll back yet, though. What this means is that when she's asleep, she'll roll onto her tummy, wake up, and start to cry. It also means that swaddling, which we've been doing since day 1 as a means of comfort and also a means of keeping her pacifier in her mouth, no longer works. About all it's doing is trapping her arms so she has no chance of rolling herself back over.

Now the dilemma is that she has to learn to either sleep on her tummy, roll herself back over, or not roll over in the first place. But, I'm also kind of reluctant to let her fuss too long because she needs her sleep to get over the sickness. So Gavin and I have been going in to flip her back over and put the paci back in periodically. Did I mention that this has currently been going on for about half an hour? With no signs of slacking? And that we've been doing it for a week?

Oh yeah, and I think she gave me her cold. :P

Better

Carina feels a lot better today. Her fever is down to between 100 and 101. She stayed up for more than 20 minutes at a time and wanted to play. She smiled. :) We still have lots of boogers, but she'll get over that.

We are going to have to delay leaving town until Monday. Plane tickets between now and then cost about $1100-1200 per ticket. I'm kind of bummed - this was going to be the longest we'd been in Casper for years. We'll still be there for a week, though. And we'll have a happy and healtier baby.

Meanwhile, I "get" to go do the things at work that I was going to miss by leaving Wednesday. Including a sim at 8:00 AM tomorrow. So, it's bedtime.

Ear Infection

After another really tough night last night, it was obvious that we couldn't get on an airplane with Carina today. She was obviously completly miserable, and her temperature had spiked to 103 deg. So, we cancelled our tickets and took her to the doctor instead. Turns out she has an ear infection. So, now she is on antibiotics, still feeling pretty miserable, and we don't know when or how we're going to be leaving for Christmas.

Our original plan was to fly from Houston to Casper today. Then we were going to fly from Casper to Oakland on the 31st and spend a few days with Gavin's grandmother. We were returning directly from Oakland to Houston on Jan 4.

Recreating that itinerary is now going to cost us no less than $760 each. Not including the $200 we forfeited for cancelling the flight today. With 5 fewer days in Wyoming.

:(

Tears

Carina is sick, I mean really sick, for the first time. Runny nose, cough, presumed sore throat, temperature of 101.6. So tired she can't keep her eyes open, but keeps coughing and waking up. And crying, crying, crying.

I know that as the parent of a non-crier, it's kind of bad form to complain about the few little spats we do have. But, when your baby almost never cries, you know that the tears are actually about something. She's tired. She's hungry. You pinched her finger in the seat buckle.

I'm just not hardened to seeing my little angel's face all red with big, fat tears running down. It breaks my heart, and I would do anything to fix it.

For Tracy...

Apparently, I've been terribly remiss in posting photos of the Chunk-A-Monk. Let's remedy that a little.

This one I like to call: I'll smile when I'm on my belly, but only if that other baby smiles back!


She won't consider washing dishes entertainment for long.


I love the doggie, and the doggie's scared of me!


Isn't that cute? With the slobber all running down her chin?

18 lb 6 oz

I was pretty close. We went to the doctor today, and I thought Carina would be about 18 pounds or so. Babies are supposed to double their birthweight in the first 6 months. Carina did a bit more than that. :) She's supposed to start growing a bit slower now, and have a smaller appetite. I would never have known that from how she ate tonight. I couldn't spoon the peas and carrots out of the bowl fast enough to satisfy her.

I'm Thankful For

We had a great time in Conroe for Thankgiving. We didn't do much; ate some yummy turkey; watched some football; played with the baby. It was perfect.

Just last Wednesday I was having trouble believing that it was actually Thanksgiving. Today, I'm having the typical post-holiday reaction: "I can't believe I have to work tomorrow." And have to work, I do. I have so much to do in the next three weeks or so before we take off for Christmas, it isn't even funny. I'm also a bit worried about being lead for the first mission after the holidays and taking 2 1/2 weeks off, but I'm trying to sooth the guilt with the idea that nobody else will be at work then either. I do expect that it will make January that much more hectic, though.

Auntie M and Auntie L

I can't belive that Thanksgiving is over already. This fall has gone by so quickly. Carina had fun having her Thanksgiving dinner (squash and peas) at the table with us while we had dessert.



Lauren and Melissa have been having fun getting reacquainted with Carina. She's so much bigger than the last time they saw her.

My flying plans for tomorrow are pretty likely to be scuttled by weather. It's hard to be terribly upset about not having to drive 1 hr each way to get there, though. Here's hoping for next weekend.

Camping Recap

Camping with Carina is definitely different. We picked out a camp site and set her down in the shade to watch the trees for a bit. Gavin and I started pulling stuff out of the car, but before we could start setting up the tent Carina decided it was time for food! Meanwhile, another car had shown up and parked in the camp site right next to us. I was kind of hoping that when they heard the baby crying they'd choose to head down the road (there were plenty of open sites). They stayed, though.

Well, at least they knew what they were in for. Carina came down with a cold that night. Her nose was getting all stuffy, and about every four hours during the night she woke up and fussed for 15-20 minutes until she made her nose run enough to clear out. Gavin says that they actually packed up and left about 1AM when it threatened to rain. (They had no tent!)

Fussy night aside, we had fun. We found our way down to the cove near the camp site and Zoya went swimming (there was a little lip, and Roxy wouldn't jump off it). We tried walking the other way a bit, but the dogs were getting burrs in their feet. Carina was tired anyway, so we went back to the camp site.

The next day, we drove to the other side of the pinninsula where there were beaches. I dangled Carina's feet in the water, and she seemed to really like it. I think she's going to be a water baby! I didn't put her all the way in; it was a bit cold.

All in all, a mostly sucessful first outing! Many more to go.

Camping with Baby

It took us one more month that I thought, but we're going to take Carina camping tomorrow. One night only - we figured it would be better to start small. The first thing we debated was where she should sleep. We finally decided that the family bed concept might be best for camping. I had to go get a car roof carrier since we can't fit all the equipment in the car with the baby and the dogs. I think we've got it all set, though. I'm excited!

My parents flew through Houston today on their way to the Caymans for a dive trip. Thanks to all the airport security these days, it wasn't really practical to take Carina up there for a couple hours to see them. It seems like such a wasted opportunity, though. Mom called me from the airport; I could tell it was killing her to be so close to her granddaughter without seeing her.

Conciousness

Everybody pray/hope/whatever for good weather at KSC on Wednesday. I'm ready to be done with this one. I totally got cheated out of my good hours. I was only supposed to have to do 4:00 AM once this mission, but I have to do it again tonight, and the night after that. And the night after that if we don't land on time. And crazy people are even talking about another day of extension if the weather doesn't cooperate.

I want to sleep at night again.

Carina is starting to really amaze me with her emerging abilities. She's started reaching for and grasping things now. And then trying to eat them. She can sit by herself for a short time, but she gets tired/bored of that pretty easily and topples over. And cries if you aren't there to catch her. She's decided carrots are OK. Mommy needs to make her something else to eat soon. You know, once I'm not keeping the vampire hours anymore.

I got in some flying today. I had to call my instructor for advice on whether the rough running I felt was OK or not. He told me to run the engine at high RPM for a bit to see if it was just a fouled spark plug. It was. It was rather hazy today, and a bit tough to see the horizon. I did pretty good, though. I practiced steep turns and did much better on them. I also landed in a higher crosswind than I've seen recently very well. I was proud of myself.

OK, I'm sure this just sounds like rambling. I tend to go stream of conciousness at 2:00 AM.

she has good taste in movies!

Last night AMC was playing The Hunt for Red October, so we watched it. Carina was fascinated by the movie! Maybe it was the sonar sounds, or the ocean cloaked submarine profiles, or Sean Connery's accent, but Carina had a great time.

And then, for an encore, AMC played a widescreen version with tons of factoids on the bottom of the screen! If only I had known before I had spent two hours watching it. Oh well. I guess I had to watch it again. Not many people can say they've watched 5 hours of The Hunt for Red October in one day. Except, perhaps, the film projectionists. And the people that made the film. And Sarah's family.

Did you know that:
- Sean Connery often felt sea-sick when they tilted the submarine control room?
- The principle screenwriter was offhandedly offered the Chief of the Boat (CoB) role on USS Dallas, and consequently kept writing his character into more and more scenes? The screenwriter and director together acted out scenes before cutting the shooting script.
- The sub yard that Jack Ryan visits was a real submarine drydock in San Diego, the first time the US Navy had ever let a film crew in to see one? They draped tarps over the propeller section since its design was (and is) classified.
- They used many US Navy crewmen for the Dallas and Reuben James scenes?
- They used Russian immigrants and US Coast Guard crewmen for the Red October?
- Most of the Russian immigrants refused to sing the Russian national hymn?
- Sean Connery wasn't the first choice for Ramius, but the previous actor had to withdraw when production was delayed?
- The director wrestled briefly with the selection of Connery? He wanted the audience to question Ramius' motives for much of the movie and he was worried that with Connery, no one would believe he was a bad guy. But he decided, hey, it's Sean Connery, we'll live with him!
- Once James Earl Jones signed on, a lot more actors came out of the woodwork to try to join the cast?
- The movie was being produced as the Berlin Wall was crumbling? The director had already thought to make the movie like a second Russian Revolution (homage to The Battleship Potemkin classic), and the real world events just prior to the release of the movie really hit home.
- Clancy loosely based his story on an article he had read concerning the Soviet frigate Storozhevoy that attempted to defect? The Russians declassified the 1976 incident just as the movie opened. The frigate had made it to within 21 miles of Sweden before being forced to surrender.

Beautiful Baby

Before going to work tonight, I took Carina out for a walk around the neighborhood in the stroller. Every time I'd look at her for a little while, she'd smile as if to say "Hi, Mommy! I love you!". And then she'd go back to staring at the trees with a tired look on her face as if to say "Why am I not in bed right now?". That girl would do nothing but sleep if she didn't need to eat 5 times a day.

This is the second weekend of the mission. This is right about when I start thinking that I've been working an awful lot lately and I'm glad it will be over soon. The EVA went well today, so we should be trying to land next Wednesday as planned. Much work is still ahead of me, though.

Back to the grind

One hour until Carina goes to daycare for the first time in a week! I don't know how she can possibly sleep as little there as she does. Her schedule should be stabilized now, and she had a 2 1/2 hour nap this morning. Then she got up for a bit less than an hour to eat and she's back in bed already! That's more than she sleeps all day at daycare and it's only 1:00 pm!

Meanwhile, I just love October. The weather is soooooo nice. I hope we don't burn all of the nice fall weather during the mission. I'd like to squeeze in a camping trip before it gets cold.

A Marvelous Bowl of Blended Carrots

Carina tried carrots tonight. The first few bites were her usual "must-eat-as-fast-as-I-can" faces, and then she started to look a little puzzled. A slightly apprehensive look dawned on her face as she doggedly chased the next spoonful. After a few more bites, it was a race to see if I could scoop up the carrot mush as fast as she was spitting it out. She was still a trooper, though, she didn't refuse to eat the mush until it was almost all gone.

One door closes

For what seems like the kabillionth time, I had to cancel my flying lesson today because I've got a head cold. I swear, I've been getting almost as many as Carina. Am I not supposed to have a functioning immune system by this time in my life?

Except for the cold, today was a good day. Gavin, Carina, and I spent most of the day holed up in the game room. We played with the baby. I watched some football, and Gavin played some computer. The dogs alternately slept and stuck their noses in our faces looking for pets. Sometimes, just staying home is the best thing.

Cute Butt

I'm not sure why, but it seems that people greatly enjoy seeing babies in clothing with cute things on the butt. Carina has had clothing with the following things on the butt:

- A giraffe
- A teddy bear
- A frog
- A jack-o-lantern
- The Star Wars logo

The other night at fish night, Sarah took a picture of the jack-o-lantern butt. It is a very cute sleeper.

I sometimes surf the bulletin boards on Babycenter.com, and there is one woman who has as part of her "signature" a collage of pictures of her kid's butt with different patterned diaper covers. No joke. What is it about those tiny little tushies that we love so much?

What do you know?

Well, what do you know? An on-time launch! I was so sure the weather wouldn’t allow it. Now for 14 days of flying in space.

Carina is sick again, and I think she gave this one to me. I have a pretty stuffy nose. Fortunately, if I can make it through tomorrow, I get Friday and Saturday off. Hubby should get home Friday afternoon, so I can sleep extra if I need to.

The Rockies aren’t doing so well in the first game of the World Series. 13-1 in the 6th – yikes! I hope all that time off didn’t kill all the momentum.

Thirty-one

Before I started writing this post, I went back to look at what I'd blogged about on my last few birthdays. Uh, nothing. That's right, this is the first post I've actually written on my birthday, EVER. I'm not sure if that's a sad comment on this year or not.

On the whole it has been a good, though unremarkable day. I woke up with hubby still in bed beside me for the second time this week, which is a very rare occurance, indeed. A nice one, though. I went to work, where I am insanely busy getting ready for STS-120 and doing early work for STS-123 and talking to those crazy military types. I picked up Carina from day care, and had fun feeding her cereal (although she doesn't seem crazy about it - maybe she'll like oatmeal better than rice cereal). I gave her a bath, which she loves. I made her laugh, which I love. I let her play beside the computer for a bit and then put her to bed just now.

I've been thinking lately about that thing that everyone with kids tells you when you're about to have a baby. "You won't believe how much they change your life." I always thought they meant things like seeing movies, traveling, and sleeping at night. Now I think I realize that's not what they were talking about at all. It's about what you live for. That smile. That little voice. The next new thing they learn. That hug.

John Stewart had a guest a couple months ago that wrote a book about how Americans aren't very good at identifying the things that make them happy. He said that people think they're happier with kids, but that they're actually happier thinking about their kids than actually being with them.

I feel bad for him. He has absolutely no idea what he's talking about.

Backlog

I found this post that I started writing a couple weeks ago and never published. The outcome of the story is that I won't be in danger of getting arrested for abandoning the baby at home. It will require a lot of coordination, though. AND, there's only a 10% chance that weather will allow a launch tomorrow. Which means multiple pre-launch shifts. Joy.

-------------

Working with a baby is tough. I mean that in the every-day sense, and also in the special circumstances sense. You see Gavin is going out to JPL for a week the same week that STS-120 launches. My shift is ~2PM to 10PM, so Carina definitely can't stay at day care that whole time. We had asked Gavin's mom to come help us for the week. She very obligingly rearranged her vacation schedule so she could stay with us for that week, and then she had a little accident and broke her leg!

She's drafted my father-in-law into service for diaper and lifting duty, so they will be able to cover us Monday through Thursday at 7:30. I think Cari will be able to come over Thursday night. Then either Gavin will figure out how to get back for Friday, I will have the day off or ??? I really don't want to pay a full week's tuition at day care for 4 hours on Friday, but I'm not sure what else to do. Many of the folks that I know are home during the day are going to have their own stuff going on that week.

Baby Food Face

We took Carina to the doctor today. She weighed in at 14 lb 9 oz! The doctor said to start giving her solid food, rice cereal first. So, tonight we put her in her Bumbo (love that thing!) and made our first foray into spoon feeding. It probably didn't go as well as it could have, since she also had shots today and was feeling a little under the weather. We got baby's first food face on camera, though.



I've been intending for a while to post some video of her splashing in her bath. Once she figured out how to do it, she got really into it.



And to round out the baby show, here's her playing with one of her toys. I think it's still a bit of a mystery to her how it works. Gotta work on that cause and effect reasoning!

The Swaddle

I think Carina is growing out of “the swaddle”. I tried wrapping her up like normal for bed last night, but she started struggling and crying. I unwrapped her, and she smiled and went to sleep. The only problem with leaving the swaddle stage is that we were using the blanket to keep the pacifier in her mouth until she fell asleep. Now we may have more false starts. The good news is that we don’t have to do it at 2:00 AM anymore.

We were thinking about taking Carina to spend her first night in a tent this weekend. I’m looking at the weather forecast, though, and I’m not sure what to make of it. Saturday night and Sunday are listed as “Slight (20% ) chance of thunderstorms”, but then the little icon they are using is a dark cloud with buckets of rain coming out of it. Now, normally I don’t let a little thing like a rainy forecast cheat me out of a camping weekend. With the baby for the first time, though… I don’t want the dark cloud, but a little thunderstorm wouldn’t be terrible. I don’t know.

Speaking of weather, though, it’s turning out to be a nice day here. 82 deg outside right now, and even better the heat index is only 82 deg. Yea for it being October!

Welcome, Jackson!

I'm an aunt again!

Jackson Sheppard Weiss
Born ~12:00 PM 9/24/07
5 lb 12 oz
19" long

Jackson is in the nursery now because his blood sugar is slightly low. He nursed before he left, though, so he's in pretty good health.

It's amazing how things change. First, there were no kids. Then Caroline came along. Now all of a sudden, there will be three little ones running/crawling/rolling around when we go to Casper for Christmas. That's a lot of kids!

Nephew on the way

My sister is having her baby today! They went to the hospital at 1:00 AM last night. Soon Carina will have another cousin.

What to do in Austin?

Does anyone else think it's strange that your Google account user name is another e-mail address. I mean, it seems like it should be your Google address, if anything.

Life is flying by, as usual. I booked a hotel room in Austin for this weekend. A suite, actually, so that there is a door between us and the Baby Who Makes Noise All Night. I think that's the one thing I learned (again) from our ND trip - it's hard to sleep in the same room as Carina! I knew that from when she was bitty, too.

We are going up for a baby shower, but I didn't want to drive there and back in one day. So, I'm trying to decide if we should try to do anything else while we're there. Maybe a short hike the next day? What's that BBQ place that everyone says is so good?

Why I'm so silent

Yeah, I haven't been posting much lately. I'm pretty busy, work and home, and the only thing I have to talk about is baby stuff. How many posts can you possibly read about how Carina is now *almost* sitting up.

People do like photos, though, so here are some of our 3-month-old.


Oh yeah, I also broke the plane last week. Nothing dangerous - I backed the elevator into the side of the hangar when I pushed it in. :( I'm trying not to think about it.

Back from ND

I have soooo much going on right now! I'm going completely crazy.

We had a good time in ND. My grandmother keeps her house a little warm for my taste, but after we convinced her to use the A/C, it was nice. My parents were able to come up, too. Carina has her grandma wrapped around her little finger! :)

The best part is that Carina did really well on the airplanes. All four legs went by with very minimal fussing. And the fussing she did was because she was hungry and her mean parents didn't want to feed her until the plane took off.

lit'l drummer girl

Carina's been doing well today. Still has a head cold but she's in good spirits. She was spoiled with lots of snuggle time today after her feedings. After her late afternoon feeding I brought her upstairs and played some music on the computer while she laid on a blanket with one of her toys. When Eileen Iver's fiddle music started playing I got up and "danced" (jumped?) around the room, much to Carina's amusement. Then later for Hotel California I brought out the bongo drums and she watched those intently for several minutes as I "played" (banged!). I suspect she'll show more of her mom's musical talent than her dad's lack of talent.

Freak out!

So, everybody is freaking out about Hurricane Dean. I can't work up much excitement yet. It could basically end up anywhere from Louisiana to Mexico. I figure our chances of another evacuation only 2 years after Rita are probably slim.

Nevertheless, it has prompted me to consider our evacuation supply situation. In the past, we've always just said we'll throw the camping bins in the car and then pack up all the non-essential but important stuff like our computer hard drives and photos. We definitely need to update the bins for the baby, though. It wouldn't be good to evacuate and then realize we didn't have any diapers or formula with us. So, I think that will be my project for the weekend.

Carina got my cold, but she is such a trooper! You can hear all the congestion in her head, and she gets fussy sometimes. But, overall she's still the happy little girl we know and love. We still get smiles when she's done eating. We are soooo lucky she's such an easy baby!

Exhausting

I'm so exhausted. Carina caught my cold, and she was a bit fussy last night with all the congestion. She kept me up from about 4:00 to 5:30. Fortunately, Grammy and Grandad Mendeck were down for the day, so she didn't have to go to day care. She didn't sleep much, though, so she's pretty exhausted now. Maybe she'll sleep all night.

My two shifts for the mission were just about right. Working console is much more fun than working in the office, but it's just a bit more time, a bit more stress. I don't really need either right now. I'm trying not to speculate on what the big gouge in the belly is going to do to our ability to launch again soon, not to mention any problems with the entry for this mission. I just hope the analysis comes back and says this isn't a problem.

Different Life

As I was putting Carina to bed tonight after dinner out with Becca and Cari, I was thinking about some of the things that changed in my life after becoming a parent. At dinner Carina spit up on me, which caused Becca to make the comment "babies are gross". So started my list of things that change when you become a parent. Any parents out there have ones to add?


Things that change when you become a parent
-----------------------------------------------

Spit-up is no longer gross, but a fact of life.

Milk is no longer something that just comes from cows.

You believe making a fool of yourself by buzzing like a bee is worth it for nothing more than a smile.

Bottles are now evil things that have to be washed with much greater frequency than the other dishes.

"Poopy" becomes part of your daily vocabulary.

Doing laundry every day no longer seems excessive.

Your criteria for wearing pants again becomes not if the baby spit up on them, but can you tell the baby spit up on them.

You make a list like this and then say in all seriousness - it's great!

Show-Off

Aren't I cute? Would you like to see more? Well, you're in luck. My mommy loves to show me off.

Letting Go

I’m rather depressed today. Carina had her 2-month checkup yesterday, and the doctor wasn’t happy with the amount of weight she’s gained over the last few weeks. He suggested that after I nurse her, to try giving her a bottle and see if she will take a significant portion. So this morning, I nursed her for her typical 40 minutes, and then gave her a bottle. She drank 5 oz; that’s pretty much a whole feeding. Basically, she's playing with me because she likes being close, but waiting for the bottle to eat for calories.

The upshot is that we’re probably about at the end of the breastfeeding journey. I can’t see myself nursing for 40 min and then bottle feeding for another 20 min. This is kind of ironic, because back when I was feeding her 6 times a day, I wasn’t enjoying breast feeding too much. It was too much time, often in the middle of the night, I was too tired, etc. Since I went back to work, the number of direct nursing sessions has been cut down to two - one in the morning and one in the evening. Since that reduction, I’ve been quite enjoying breast feeding. Enough that I haven’t really minded the pumping at work, etc. So, when I was doing it all the time I wanted to quit, and now that it looks like I may not be able to do it anymore I’m going to miss it.

And so begins the mother's lament - My baby is growing too fast!

Smile!

We finally got a picture of Carina's smile. She's been doing it for a couple weeks, but it has been tough capturing it.



I'm going flying tomorrow, if the weather is OK (knock on wood). It will be good to get out again. Some progress has been made on the written test front. I'll get there, eventually.

Sleeping Through?

As I'm now back at work, we decided to start Carina on one formula feeding a day. My intention was to start sharing the 4:00 AM feedings between us so that I could get a full night sleep at least every other day. However, we somewhat optimistically decided to start with her 10:30 PM feeding on Friday night. We did this because it takes babies longer to digest formula than breast milk, so there was a chance Carina would sleep longer with the formula. Here's the results:

Thursday (all breast):
10:30 PM feeding (40 min)
4:00 AM feeding (40 min)
6:45 AM feeding (40 min)

Friday:
10:30 PM feeding (15 min)
6:30 AM feeding (40 min)

Saturday:
10:30 PM feeding (15 min)
4:30 AM re-swaddle and stick pacifier in mouth (5 min)
7:30 AM feeding (40 min)

Sunday:
10:30 PM feeding (15 min)
2:30 AM diaper change (15 min)
5:30 AM re-swaddle and stick pacifier in mouth (5 min)
6:30 AM feeding (40 min)

I have high hopes that the re-swaddle waking will go away soon and that we'll be consistantly going from 10:30 PM to 6:30 AM! I would never have believed that I'd be excited to get to sleep in until 6:30 AM, but there you go.

On a somewhat related note, Katie had her baby shower on Saturday. My life has taken such a right turn, it seems like she should have had that baby a long time ago! Anyway, I got a lot of enjoyment watching Becca's smile freeze on her face every time a new game was announced. :) I actually enjoyed the "dress the baby blindfolded" game, although I lost my heat by wasting time feeling for the 3rd snap on the onesie. Turns out there wasn't a third snap. Who knew? All Carina's onesies have 3 snaps!

New Beginnings

I am writing this on my brand new laptop! I got a Dell Inspiron. It's not fancy, but it is new and runs quickly. The only thing that's annoying me is that it came with Windows Vista, which is trying way too hard to help me set up.

Halfway through my first week back at work part-time, I think that things are going well. I'm definately happier getting out every day and contributing to our nation's space program! Even though I miss Carina the whole time I'm at work, that's less emotional stress for me than the cabin fever I had at home.

I'm having some growing pains with the day care. I think Carina isn't getting as much sleep there as she does at home. I think maybe they're getting her up and changing her every time she stirs in her sleep. She's exhausted after being there for 5 hours. Hopefully, I'll be able to get the ladies that work there to go more to the schedule we have her on at home.

Separation Anxiety

Carina started day care today.

Everything was going fine, and she was very happy, until she pooped in her diaper. That was actually a good thing - I'd wanted a chance to show the staff about the cloth while I was still there. However, she doesn't like getting her diaper changed, and it took a bit longer than normal since I was teaching. So she got upset. Then she got upset when the lady tried to put her down with some toys. And then another kid started crying. So, as I left the worker is holding Carina in one arm, and rocking a crib with the other arm. Carina actually watched me go out the door with a sad-crying face on. :(

First off, I didn't think she'd focus on me leaving like that at this age. She's still supposed to be happy with any adult comforting her. Secondly, that's the image that's been in my head all afternoon, rather than all the smiles she gave me at home. *sniff*

I Heart Google

I started this post about 5 days ago. I need my new laptop! (Which, BTW, should be here tomorrow. Yea!)

----------------

Don't you just love Google? I mean, what did people do for fun before you could go google your name to see what comes up? Or alternatively, if you have a 7-week-old and are obsessed, you google her name. What do you find out?

- Fred has a webpage and posted pictures of her.

- Carina's Baby Countdown webpage actually registers on Google.

- There is at least one other Carina in Houston, and she ran the same 5K as Gavin's dad.

Back in the Saddle?

Flashback to two months ago (it seems both longer and not that long). Here I am in all my 37 weeks pregnant glory, sitting in the cockpit of the plane that I'm about to fly. I am very proud of this picture.


People keep asking me when I'm going to start flying again. The answer is any day now. I intended to see if my instructor had some time this weekend, but then I got a sore throat and decided that was a signal to slow down a bit. So, I've been sitting on my butt all weekend. The house has not been cleaned. The laundry, well that got done - that's not so much an option as a necessity these days. But, I decided my first lesson back has to wait one more week. This was especially hard after reading about Jose's first cross country. (Go, Jose!) I'll get back in the cockpit soon, though!

Blessed Silence

Well, the guest onslaught is over. Both Gavin and I are missing our niece today, but it is rather nice to have a quiet house again. Three-year-olds have tons of energy and no volume control. I'm not sure whether I miss being followed around constantly being asked "Whatchou doing?". A typical conversation would go something like this...

Caroline: "Whatchou doing?"

Me: "Feeding Carina."

Caroline: "What's Carina doing?"

Me: "Eating milk."

Caroline: "She drinking the milk?"

Me: "Yes."

Caroline: "Whatchou doing now?"

Despite some concern that she was fussing more than usual yesterday (and her rude inauguration of Cari as babysitter) Carina slept well again in her own room last night. I got 5 full hours of uninterrupted sleep last night between a 12:30 AM feeding and a 5:45 AM feeding. And she's been down since 2:00 PM this afternoon for a good nap.

We saw the new Harry Potter movie last night, and I was pleased. Since I've read the books several times, I was concious of the moving being a little thin relative to the book. It's unavoidable as the books get longer and more involved. I think they did a pretty good job with the movie as far as removing the details that weren't essential to keep the run time reasonable.

I've got a hint of a sore throat today, which scares this new mother. First of all, I don't want the baby to get sick. Secondly, I don't want to be sick and have to take care of the baby. I have enough trouble getting things done as it is. Must get a maid...

Caroline and Carina

Here are a couple shots I took with my new camera of Carina and her Cousin Caroline.

Photos

Pictures of Carina during the last couple weeks.

Pictures of Caroline (and others) during her visit.

Scheduling

Roxy's pawis swollen again, so I called the vet this morning.

Receptionist: Hmmm... Well, I don't suppose you could get here by 10:30?

Me: Um, no. (It's 10:20.)

Her: Well, I don't have any other appointments open. Do you think you could leave her for the day, and they'll look at her between appointments?

Me: Sure.

Her: OK, can you get her here by noon?

Me: Maybe...
(Thinking - Carina will wake up at about 11:00, and I'll need to feed her, change her, get her and Roxy into the car...

Me: It might be a bit later; I have to feed the baby at 11:00.

Her: Well, it would really be better for us if you're here by noon.

OK, lady. I'll try to tell the 1-month-old about YOUR busy schedule.

Bring on the Bottle

More Carina photos...

My mother-in-law just cleaned my whole house for me. It's pretty nice walking around barefoot without getting dog hair stuck to my feet. Thanks, Meg!

We're going to Texas Roadhouse tonight with Carina to have dinner with Sarah in honor of her mom being in town. Carina had a pretty big crying spell just now, so we'll see how she does tonight. We're going to pack a bottle, just in case.

Carina is 4 weeks old today, so I'm going to start pumping enough for at least one feeding a day. Then Gavin gets to get up and feed her at 5AM instead of me. :)

Selective Memory

I was thinking about it today, and I've already really forgotten how much labor sucked. I feel basically healed, and with that last bit of physical evidence of the trauma of delivery out of the way it's starting to seem like it was no biggie. That took less than 4 weeks, for the record.

Meanwhile, I'm finding the early stages of parenthood less than totally thrilling. She isn't doing a whole lot yet to be interested in, but all that not doing much is taking up all my time and energy. I had hoped to set up dinner for tonight, but that kind of fell apart this morning when she decided not to take her morning nap. She wasn't a very happy awake baby, though, and I was feeling pretty much at my wits end when she finally went down at about 1:00 PM. Then I had to do laundry because we were out of plastic pants and she'd need a diaper change when she woke up. That meant I didn't get to take my nap right then, which is bad because she's usually fussy after her 3:00 feeding. Thank God, Gavin came home a bit early and was able to entertain her after that feeding while I grabbed an hour of sleep. By then it was 5:30, and she was wanting another meal. I considered it a triumph to shove her back in Gavin's arms and head out to the pharmacy and Quiznos to pick up dinner. Yes friends, the highlight of my day was driving to Walgreens.

Actually, that's not true. The highlight of my day was the few precious minutes of cuddling her after she'd eaten and was content. I'm sure when I look back on this in a month or two, what I'll remember is that cuddle and not the near-despair of the next two hours. Memory is funny that way.

Bathtime

Carina's umbilical cord stump fell off a couple days ago, and tonight we gave her her first "real" bath. In the infant tub, of course, but she actualy got to sit in the water. I think she liked it a bit better than the sponge bath - she didn't start really screaming for a few minutes. It may have taken us a bit too long, though, because I think she was a bit cold when she came out. She's been sleeping like a dream this evening, though. :)

Last I wrote, I was starting to plan my first Astros outing since the birth. A) I needed a break and B) it was the Mariners! Sarah was out of town this weekend, but Jason thought he'd be able to go. The idea grew on me to the point where after I found out Jason was going to be stuck at work and couldn't find anyone else to go with me, I went anyway. It wasn't bad. All the season ticket holders around us wanted to hear about the baby, so it wasn't really like I was there by myself. I had to leave at the 7th inning stretch because I really need to get to bed early these days. But, still, go me!

More Baby Photos

Because, at the very least, her grandparents will care...


Photos of Carina in the NICU and at home are posted on her web page. The NICU photos are a little sad with all the tubes coming out of her, but it's all good now that we've got her home. :)

Same old, same old (or same new, maybe) here. I got out of the house to go to lunch with Becca yesterday. I'm considering trying to go to part of the baseball game on Saturday. I'll probably have to leave early, because 9:00 is a pretty hard bedtime for me right now, but it would be nice to use a ticket.

First Outing

Yesterday, we got adventurous and took Carina to a wedding. It was close to home, a short ceremony, and no reception just cake and punch at the church. We were there less than two hours. She got hungry after the ceremony, and I had to retreat to a stifling hot bathroom to feed her, but otherwise it went OK. I had a very, very strange moment, though, when she started crying during the ceremony and I ended up in the back of the church with other parents who's kids weren't sitting still. I suddenly looked around and realized that I was one of those mothers who were only paying half attention to what was going on because they were concentrating on keeping their kids quiet. Very weird.

I'm having this strange thing where I keep wondering when this little experiment is going to be over and someone is going to come make this seem more normal. Or like she's going to go home soon or something. I'm finding it hard to believe (and rather intimidating when I manage to believe it for a bit) that this thing is FOR LIFE. I mean, she's here until she grows up and goes to college. That's a long time. I'm not sure I ever really got that into my head before.

I keep feeling like I should write about something else, but there's nothing else to write about. I've been doing baby, baby, and more baby. At least that won't last forever.

The Silver Lining

We've been getting questions about when people can visit. Basically, we're good to have visitors any time, just call ahead and check that we're not napping or something. Nap times for the parents tend to be in the early-mid afternoon.

Carina had another rough night last night. She ate about every two hours, and fussed in between.

Breastfeeding has been very frustrating for me. Carina is impatient, which makes waiting for the right moment to latch hard. She's not latching right, and I'm sore as a result. Even though I know there's a problem, it's been hard to do anything to correct it.

The silver lining is that I've been dropping weight like crazy. I went in to the hospital for delivery at 233 lb. The day I came home, I was 220 lb. In the next 24 hours, I dropped 5 lb. Today, I'm right about 200 lb. I never thought I'd be excited to get back under 200, but I am. I've been going out for a walk once a day. I can't go far yet, but I figure establishing the habit is good.

Sleep is Good

I'm feeling much better today. After a minor mental breakdown yesterday afternoon when I was convinced that I was failing at this whole breastfeeding thing (aided and abetted, no doubt, by the 10-day-post-pardem hormones), Carina slept in 4 hour chunks all night last night. I also went to bed at around 9:00 PM, which I'm sure helped tons.

Today, I hope to escape the house for a bit. OK, fine, I'm just going to go to Target to get some more nursing bras, but it feels like I've been home all the time forever. Just perception, of course. Yesterday was really the first day I haven't gone out for anything.

Honeymoon Over

On Carina's first night home, we only delt with one slightly fussy period between 1:00 and 2:00 AM. Last night, the fussiness lasted from 2:00 AM until 5:00 AM. As close as I can tell, she has her days and nights mixed up and wants to eat every 3-4 hours during the day and every 2 hours at night. Not so happy for Mom and Dad. Hard to tell if it's a pattern yet, though.

We went to the pediatrician this morning for a post-NICU checkup. He says that she looks great. Carina showed her displeasure at the rectal thermometer by peeing and pooping all over the exam table.

One of the interesting things we've experienced is that we're getting different advice about things from different healthcare people. Clean the cord with alcohol. Don't clean the cord with alcohol. Feed every 3-4 hours. Feed when the baby wakes up. Feed every 2 hours during the day and 4 at night (would be nice). Use the breast shield to help her latch on. Don't use the breast shield; it does more harm than good.

My conclusion: Everybody just wings this parenting deal. Which isn't going to help me get more sleep tonight, but there you go.

Carina Comes Home

She's home! We went to the hospital for her 1 PM feeding, and while we were there the doctor came by and said she was ready to go home. The process of discharging her was kind of long, and we were all exhausted when we got home.

We were really excited to see how the dogs would react to Carina. We cooked up a plan on the way home to leave her in her carseat on a high surface, let the dogs in, let them smell her hat, and then get her out of the seat and let them meet her.

Well, we let the dogs in, and Roxy's nose started going as soon as she came in through the door. She sniffed around right up to the table in the living room where we had the car carrier. Both dogs were trying to see into the carrier to figure out WHAT IS THAT? I got her out, and sat down on the couch. I don't think I've ever seen them sniff something so much, ever! Interestingly, Zoya seems more intrigued that Roxy at this point which is opposite what I expected. Zoya actually looks at her in much the same way as she looked at Nick's bird. Hmmm...

Expected Homecoming

Carina is doing very, very well. She's been put into the level 2 NICU now, so we don't have to wear gowns to visit her anymore. She's taken all her feedings very well, and I was allowed to breastfeed her directly tonight. The nurse told us that they're considering letting her come home on Monday.

Our little girl is quite the eater. I thought she was going to suck my breasts right off tonight! I knew I was in for it when we visited her the other day, and she was making these very loud sucking noises on the pacifier. The couple across the way thought it was us blowing kisses at her! :)

I can't say how thankful we are that she is OK, and that we're going to have her home soon. It's too bad that she had to go through all this, but at least we're sure she's OK now.

By the way, if you follow the "Baby Countdown" link to the left, there are now links to photos of Carina.

Carina Update

We spoke again to one of the neonatologists this afternoon. They have started her feedings again; the first one was at noon. They will be weaning her onto food slowly. If she tolerates the feedings well, they will gradually increase the amount over the next few days. Gavin asked the doctor we spoke to today (we've spoken to three different docs so far) what his speculation is as to the problem. He told us that because she's been in such good shape otherwise it may very well be that the blood was swallowed during delivery (perhaps the placenta tore, which would cause the labs to show it as fetal blood). So, there very well may be nothing really wrong with her. Other possibilities are a stomach ulcer, or a bowel problem, but they've seen no evidence of either yet. They're being careful, though, and they expect to keep her for observation at least through the weekend. Gavin and I are visiting her in the NICU twice a day, can hold her while we're there, and are expecting to start giving her some of the feedings ourselves.

We're hanging in there. Every indication is that she's going to be just fine. Thanks for all the good thoughts.

Carina Arrives

There's so much to say, but I can't do it all right now. Here's the short version:

Carina Faye Mendeck was born on May 27, 2007. She weighed 7 lb 11 oz, and was 19" long. She is a beautiful, active, precious little girl.

I've been discharged from the hospital. I'm feeling quite well, if a bit tired and emotional.

Carina has been spitting up blood, and the doctors determined that the blood is hers, not mine. They admitted her to the NICU last night at 3:00 AM. The source of the blood has not been found yet. In order to figure out what's wrong, they are only feeding her intravenously for now. It will take at least 3-5 days in NICU to finish the diagnostics. Until then, we can visit her there as much as we want. She is doing well despite the problem. She is active, not anemic, has good blood sugar, and all her x-rays have looked completely normal. The doctors are hopeful that the issue is one that will work itself out with rest.

Obviously, we are very diappointed that we couldn't bring our little girl home tonight. I was crying so much leaving the hospital that I'm sure people thought we lost the baby. We have every reason to believe that everything will be OK soon, though.

Thanks to all our friends and family that have already welcomed Carina into the world. We are so lucky to have you all.

A parent?

With all the preparations I’ve been making for Baby, one would think that by now I’d realize what is about to happen. But, over the last week I’ve been trying to imagine how my life will be in a few short weeks, and I’m finding myself completely unable to conceive of it. In a couple weeks, I will be a PARENT. As in what my mom is. As in there will be a tiny human being completely dependant on me for its every need. A real live baby, and it will be mine. I can’t wrap my head around it, really. I guess this is one of those things that’s so huge that the human brain simply can’t imagine it until you have the personal experience.

Everyone with kids keeps telling me how much my life will change. And I know it will, but on the other hand I can’t think how. I’ll still eat, drink, go out for walks. Sure, there will be a kid in tow, but how much can 10 pounds of baby really change things? Intellectually I know everything will seem different, but how? And why am I just now realizing that I haven’t yet really appreciated what we’re about to do?

I hope I don’t turn into one of those people who refuse to leave the house with their baby. I fully intend to take the baby to ball games, hike with the baby, travel with the baby. In short, I intend to keep my lifestyle - modified to include Baby, but not defined by Baby. Too ambitious? I guess only time will tell.

Blame

Me to Gavin about an hour ago...

"YOUR CHILD has strong legs, and it's trying to push one of them through my belly."

Flying by Feel

Baby Watch Update: As of this morning, the doctor says I’m 60% effaced and 2 cm dialated. He says that things are “right on track” for my due date. So, we may be waiting a couple weeks yet. This turns out to be a good thing as he’s going out of town next week. I know from watching my dad that you can’t count on getting your own doctor for a delivery, but it would be nice.

I went flying yesterday for what I decided would be my last time before Baby. I’m just getting more and more unwieldly every day. My instructor took a picture of me in the plane, so when he e-mails it to me I’ll post my “Jen in the cockpit 37+ weeks pregnant” picture.

The lesson was good - I did instrument work for most of an hour. Luckily I, like Jose, seem to have no trouble with getting sick under the hood. It was rather bumpy, too, so if that didn’t do it… My instructor even did this thing where he made me close my eyes and fly the plane for a minute by feel. I then opened my eyes to see how off I was. I could tell while I was doing it that I had a tendency to let the nose drop, because I could hear the airspeed pick up. Then when I opened my eyes, the horizon was rolled about 20 deg right wing down. He told me he has people do that to disillusion them that they can fly by feel. I assured him that I wasn’t surprised at all that I couldn’t fly by feel! I have trouble doing that test where you close your eyes and stand on one leg.

Anxiety

I think I had my first pre-parent anxiety dream a couple nights ago. Warning: this is about breast feeding. Becca - you may want to stop reading. :)

I was nursing our baby. The baby was only supposed to be a few days old in the dream, couldn’t hold his head up, but was like 2 1/2 feet tall and must have weighed at least 25 pounds. Anyhow, in the dream I was still trying to get the hang of breastfeeding and it took a few tries to get going. Once, he choked on the milk, scaring the living hell out of me. Then he finally got on an nursed until he was full.

Here’s where the dream gets weird.

After he was full, I couldn’t get the milk to stop coming out. It just kept coming. I was soaking towels with it. Getting it all over everything. Meanwhile, I can’t clean off in the bathroom, because my brother-in-law is in there cleaning the mud off the paws of Dooce’s dog. (Why was Dooce’s dog there? Who knows?)

Eventually, the stress of the never-ending milk woke me up. And then I couldn’t get back to sleep for an hour and a half. Which has also been a theme recently.

Getting closer

Doctor’s appointment update: My cervix is in the “mid” position, and I’m about 1 cm dialated. He says that he expects I won’t go into labor before our appointment next week, but that I’m starting to get ready.

Some of our friends had their first baby on Friday. They named him Aerik, and he’s adorable. So, Baby M has a playmate already.

I might be nesting. I cleaned out our junk room to make it usable as a 2nd guest room when Jessica, Pat, and Caroline come this summer. Gavin was at work Saturday, and I found myself unable to sit still for more than 20-30 minutes.

Work and Pregnancy

I was sitting in a conference room yesterday, waiting for a meeting to start. Someone walked past, and seeing that it was just me and another woman in there and that we didn’t look like we were talking business yet, he stuck his head into the room.

“Be careful hanging around her,” he says to the other woman, pointing at me. “That could be catching.”

Normally a comment like that wouldn’t bother me. Ha, ha, pregnancy is catching. But, there are two circumstances that made it bother me this time.

1) A few weeks ago when I was lamenting that my due date is at a particularly inconvenient time relative to some things going on at work, he said to me “Well, you chose to have kids.” Like I just got pregnant without any consideration of the consequences to my professional life, which, as people familiar with this blog must realize, was not the case at all.

2) I happen to know that this other woman has been trying to get pregnant for a year and that she’s having some serious fertility problems. She’s handling it well emotionally, but I know how crazy waiting made me. And, I wasn’t in a place yet where I thought something might be wrong. She knows there’s something wrong.

I felt bad for her. And, I don’t see why me taking 2 months off work to have a baby is such a crazy thing. Some people take two months off to go on vacation. Just because I can’t control which two months this pregnancy would take doesn’t mean that I have any less professional ambition than before.

-2

Went to the doctor this morning for my 36 week appointment. The verdict: my cervix is in the posterior position and the baby's head is at station -2. Translation: the baby has started to drop into my pelvis, but it looks like it will be a few more weeks. Since we did all that work this weekend to get ready in case Baby came early, I won't be surprised if it's another month before I deliver.

I also discovered that the tingling I'd been noticing in my right hand was not my imagination. It's apparently pregnancy induced carpal tunnel. The doc says that since I developed it so late in pregnancy, it will probably go away after I give birth and stop having all this swelling. I hope so! I'm thinking about going and buying a splint to keep my wrist from curling over while I'm sleeping, though. Don't want permanent issues!

We also got our glider rocker tonight (thanks, Mom!). It was less difficult to put together than I thought. Now we have a rocker for each floor. :)

Prep Work

I spend most of the weekend in a "prepare for baby" mode. I returned the duplicate gifts we got from the baby showers, and bought up what felt like half the store to fill out what we didn't get already. Then I started down the list...

1) Pack a hospital bag
2) Sterilize bottles and pacifiers
3) Assemble stroller, infant rocker
4) Put car seat in car
5) Put toys in bins
6) Assemble / put away the rest of the stuff

I also found some time to do some things for what might be the last time until Baby is born. Get a haircut. See a movie. I'm not sure I'm satisfied with Spiderman 3 being the last movie I see before Baby is born. Although they did show a Harry Potter trailer, which was very cool.

2-5-8

Gavin and I went to meet the baby’s pediatrician yesterday. Isn’t that an awfully grown up thing to do? You’d think at 30 I’d consider myself grown up, but I find there are some things that make me feel more so than normal. Anyhow, the pediatrician was good. He seemed quite pleased that this engineer couple didn’t come in with a whole legal pad full of specific questions to ask. I always feel slightly unprepared when I don’t have specific questions, but I think it usually releives whichever service provider we’re interviewing. "Ah, a laid-back couple. Finally!"

It suddenly dawned on me this week that since you’re considered full term 3 weeks before your due date, that means that I should be ready to have this baby any time from 2 weeks from now until 8 weeks from now in mid-June. The two weeks thing really snuck up on me. Suddenly, I’m thinking about how to package projects up for other people at work, needing to pack a bag for the hospital, needing to call the diaper service and arrange for the first delivery, and on and on. And yet it’s hard to take it seriously because the due date is still more than a full month away.

I took a stadium seat with me to the baseball game last night, and it at least helped me watch the Astros lose in moderately more comfort. Really, you could see the writing on the wall in about the 2nd inning last night. It just wasn’t going to happen. And then there we were in the 9th, with Jason explaining to his friend that "I know it’s 12-2, but we have this thing about leaving the games early. As in we don’t..."

Home

I’m back in Houston, and rarely have I ever been so glad to be home after travel. The hotel had down pillows, which I normally really like. But, the down crushed down too much while I was sleeping to give the belly and the back the support they need these days, so I really didn’t sleep well the whole week. Plus, sitting in meetings all day 34 weeks pregnant is not very fun. And then there was the slight, but real, worry that I’d go into labor 6 weeks early and end up in a hospital in Colorado.

It was also disappointing to be in Colorado and have neither the time nor inclination to get out into nature at all. Under normal circumstances I would have shoehorned in a walk somewhere I could see Pikes Peak, at least. It acutally snowed the 2nd night I was there, although it didn’t stick. But it made me very aware that although I wasn’t stupid enough to go to Colorado in April without a coat, none of my coats zip up the front anymore.

After I got home last night, I fell asleep listening to Gavin suggest names for a boy. It’s getting down to crunch time now, and we aren’t very close to picking a boy name. We have very different tastes in the boy area. Gavin keeps suggesting names like Jefferson, Sherman, and Edison while I like names like Morgan, Liam, and Austin. We both kind of like Tucker, although I think Gavin was less enthused about that once he realized the name-calling potential in that one. And we came kind of close with my preference for Garrick and his for Garret.

Sigh. Maybe we’ll just call the kid “hey you”.

Social Studies

I'm off to Colorado Springs in a few hours for a work trip. I'm rather looking forward to studying the reactions of a room full of Air Force staff to the 7 1/2 months pregnant NASA rep. I actually packed clothing that I thought would make me look as un-pregnant as I can at this point. That's still pretty pregnant, but maybe I'll be able to avoid worrying people that I'll actually go into labor during the meeting.

We had a lovely weekend with my mom and sister here, as well as Gavin's aunt and uncle and grandmother. The shower was lovely, and Baby got tons of stuff! It's starting to feel like we're actually going to do this parent thing after all.

Shower, In Every Sense

Our first baby shower Saturday turned out to be, well, literally a shower. On the coldest April day I ever remember in Houston. I think the temperature was in the low 40s for most of the time we were out there. And it was raining. Did I mention that we had planned a picnic? I can’t say “thank you” enough to all our friends that braved the weather to come.

I felt like I was short-changing the opening of all the cute baby stuff, but I think people were just as happy I hurried so they could all go home and get warm. Even I was pretty cold, and that takes a lot these days.

I filled up an entire laundry basket with baby clothes, towels, and blankets yesterday. I guess that’s a preview of how much laundry one tiny baby can generate. I also did pretty well at organizing all the stuff, so it’s at least not lying all over the living room today. I put together the two little chairs we got. It made me think that putting together the crib is going to be interesting. I’m not so much bendable anymore.

New Stuff

We got our new sofas yesterday! (See a picure on my Flickr stream.) I’m very excited. As it turns out, papasan chairs are hard to get out of while you’re growing a baby. The couches are a little deeper than the old ones, so we may need to do some creative shuffling to get the arm of the big couch out from behind the love seat without blocking access to the kitchen. All in all, though, they look as good as I thought they would in our living room. And they’re very soft.

Roxy has been getting into trouble when we leave her in the house for a few hours recently. Last week she ate about half a bag of trail mix, which I had admittedly left on an end table. That made for some interesting colors in the back yard. But last night, she stole a bag of chips off the kitchen table! She hasn’t taken anything off the table since she was a puppy. Gavin yelled at her good. I think she still remembered it this morning - she was tucking her tail as she walked past the table on her way outside.

At least last night was our last Lamaze class. We had to watch a video of a C-Section being performed. Ew! I really hope I don’t have to experience that. I’m going to try to go back to not thinking about the birth again for a couple months. Let’s concentrate on all the cute baby stuff we’ll be getting at our showers. Think about putting the crib together and setting up the diaper service. Pick a day care. Anything, everything else!

Bubbles or Alien?

I realized today that I never wrote about the experience of feeling the baby move for the first time. I first felt movement in my 18th week. I was sitting in a very long meeting at work when I first realized what I was feeling. Of all the common descriptions of how that first movement feels (butterfly wings, a finger flicking your stomach, bubbles), I suppose that the bubbles description comes closest to what I felt. I actually kind of felt like I had one tiny muscle spasm in my stomach. And then another one in a different location. Other people don’t seem to agree with my description, but that’s what it felt like to me.

In all, those first few movements felt very, very natural. I was expecting it to be very strange feeling something move around inside my body. But, it really was almost difficult to believe that those sensations were the baby and not just feelings from my own body.

It’s a good thing, probably some result of natural selection, that the movements gain strength naturally. Because, if I’d felt at first the kind of movement I feel now, I’m sure I would have freaked out! I expected the kicks and jabs. Those feel pretty much like you would expect. More uncomfortable is the “stretch”. Sometimes it feels like the baby is trying to make more room in there by pushing out with all its limbs at once. The movement that always makes me jump, though, is the “roll”.

I’m not sure exactly what causes it - maybe a knee or elbow? Imagine this: take a knuckle on your hand and rub it in a 3” circle around your belly button. Now imagine that sensation being on the inside and that you’re pressing hard enough that you can see the skin bulging out about an inch where the knuckle is. It’s weird.

I was sitting in a boring meeting this morning, watching my belly bulge out in different places as the baby moved around. I’m telling you, if a primitive human felt this as the first signal of pregnancy, they’d probably assume that they were inhabited by a deamon of some sort.

Sensitive

I'm getting sensitive about sad things relating to babies. Gavin went to see 300 for the SECOND time tonight. I wasn't much interested, so I came home. Since we currently have no sofa in the living room (we think the sofa is mouse-infested, so we moved it to the garage), I decided to come upstairs and watch a movie on the old TV. I chose Fever Pitch, which I have never seen before. There's a scene where they think that Drew Barrymore's character is pregnant, and then find out she isn't. I almost cried. Then I told the baby to take care of itself and get here safely.

Considering how much I'm enjoying flying, you'd think I'd be doing better about studying. I'm not, though. I really need to make sure that I know the pre-solo questions well enough that if Jeff decides to give me the test this weekend, I can pass. That shouldn't be too hard, but it does require some review. Better go do that now.

Baby M Has a Face

It's official - I'm in the third trimester as of today. We went to the doctor yesterday and got another ultrasound. I guess the placenta is attached a bit lower than normal, and he wanted to make sure it wasn't overlapping my cervix at all. Not sure why that's bad, but there you go. Anyway it wasn't, so we're still all in the clear. The size of the baby in this ultrasound puts my due date on June 4, which isn't statistically different than the date June 6 that we've been working with until now.

This picture was really cool, because you can actually see the baby's face. Things I feel the need to point out...

1) The baby has Gavin's nose :)

2) I think I can see eyelashes

3) I believe Baby has his/her hand in his/her mouth - not fangs as some people seem to see