Introducing Indigo Joy

The following post contains details of labor and delivery. Do not read if you will be put off by details, but I know many of you are interested in this stuff.

It all started at 5:30 AM on Thursday, August 19.

I went in Ryan's room to "tuck up" his covers which he had removed so he could go back to sleep. He has been asking for the baby's crib for the past few nights, and we have been accommodating. Maybe he knew that Indi was on her way. As I bent to cover him, I felt a flush of amniotic fluid, not a gush, just enough to get my attention. I woke Jeff, took a shower, and called the triage nurse. She said to head on into the hospital, even though my contractions were very light and more than 10 minutes apart. We took our time going, stopping for coffee and a scone from Starbucks on the way. Ryan does not like to get up in the morning, so we packed him up in PJ's and managed to forget his shoes at home.

We arrived at triage at 8:15 AM, my contractions were a bit heavier, but still not very painful. I just took some deep breaths and focused on whatever inanimate object caught my attention at the time to get through them. After assessment, I was declared "admitted" at 5-6 cm of cervical dilation (you have to be 10 to have the baby). We were escorted by soft spoken nurse Shirley to our room on the next floor. I had a few more contractions, and sat up in the bed as my midwife, Rebecca, came into the room. I felt a "pop" which I thought was audible to others, and the rest of my water broke. It was 10 AM. I went to the restroom and had a huge contraction. When I returned to my bed, nurse Shirley put an IV access into my arm-just in case. Nothing was hooked up to it, and she noted the time on the bandage, 10:15. I then had the worst contraction, which caused me to yell and cuss and ask for medication. I had another contraction and was yelling for meds. Rebecca said, "We need to check you first". Well, I had dilated to 10, and was ready to deliver the baby, so no pain meds for me!! Just yelling (enough that my throat was sore later) and crazy amounts of pushing. I delivered my daughter while laying on my left side. Poor Jeff was contorted onto the bed in front of me, supporting my top leg and helping my pelvis to maximize the stretch for Indigo to pass through. Rebecca placed my hand on Indi's head, and I pushed into my hand. It was surreal. Indigo was born at 11:01 AM. Our birth team was amazing. They followed my birth plan to the letter without question--no lights, no meds for baby, no bath, skin to skin contact as much as possible, and Indigo stayed with me the entire time.

Indigo has beautiful dark straight hair, and cloudy blue eyes. Her head is perfectly round, and her petite body is perfect in every way. We came home on Friday afternoon, and have been blissfully snuggling, bathing, and learning to eat since then.

Thank you to all our well-wishers and friends. We are a very blessed family of FOUR.

Nugget of Joy

I have been rather tightlipped on the internet of late, as I have had a BIG secret since Christmas Day. A new member of our family, Nugget, will be joining us at the end of August (30th official due date). I wanted to wait until all family and work associates were informed of my condition, so no googling gave up any surprises. We're doing a journal, including weekly photos to minimize the second child syndrome of no photos or pregnancy memories that many people experience. Below are a few of my favorites. The first is six weeks, the second is 10, and the last is 12 weeks (blurry Hawaii shot). Today marks the beginning of week 14, but my photographer and assistant are both taking a late nap, so we will take that photo tonight.

As you can see, Ryan is getting into showing off his belly too. He informed my yesterday that there is a baby in his tummy too, and that his name is Baby Emmett. (our close friends have a 5 month old son with this SAME name, coincidence?)

We're not hung up on the gender of this kid, we just want a full-term and healthy pregnancy.

More Indiana Photos

Merry Christmas! We spent a leisurely day in our PJ's opening gifts and eating at will. We had a fire in the fireplace and I played with dinosaurs, a fire truck, an airplane, and took a nap. A highly successful day overall.

Here are more photos from our Indiana trip. Enjoy!

Christmas Trip

We're back! We survived the flights, cold weather, and bad tempers to visit our family for an early birthday/holiday celebration last week. Here are some highlights.

Ryan loves riding horses and tractors. Grammy and Grampy have two horses, Sabi and Jewel. He just had to ride BOTH of them! The tractor would not start due to the cold, but the horn still worked, much to his delight. The bottom two photos are Great Grandad getting "nosies" and Great Grandma holding Ryan.

I just downloaded 93 photos from the last two weeks, so more posting to come!

Thanksgiving 2009

Our family was very thankful this year to get away from it all at Mount Hood. Some friends of the family have a house there that we used to rendezvous with our Burghdoff friends for some fun in the snow. We attempted a snowshoeing expedition, but do not have photographic evidence. It was tough, as Ryan could not ride in the backpack due to his recent surgery, so we had to haul him along on a sled. The trail was not groomed, so there was more child carrying than riding. But this little guy LOVES the snow!

Pumpkin Carving

Ryan and Jeff did the carving, I did the dinner preparation and seed cleaning for roasting. Photos of the completed pumpkins will be done later, as the largest pumpkin is not quite finished. The maestro got tired....

Photo catch up

We visited a local farm this past weekend to see some animals and pick out our pumpkins. Ryan really liked the goats the best. Photos of pumpkin carving coming soon.

Tomato Bandit

We're having great success in the garden this year-probably because it is the hottest summer on record in Washington, therefore the tomatoes are maturing now instead of in October, like the did last year.

I'm having a hard time getting the tomatoes into the house. A bandit has been eating them. This is what they look like when I get to them. And here he is in action. This is two days worth of action-note the different shirts.

I'm so glad he is getting good food that I grew. And the dirt that comes with the tomato is supposed to be good for preventing allergies. Apparently kids today are too clean and don't ingest enough dirt to help their immune systems. Not so around here. It's not a pig farm, but we do have dirty veggies-almost all you can eat!

Adrenaline Junkie

I've had a heck of a week. Jeff's parents are visiting from Indiana, so we have spent lots of time with them, at our house and at a vacation rental on Whidbey Island. We're at the end of a record heat wave for western Washington, where homes do not typically have air-conditioning, as it is not NEEDED--except this week.
I scurried Ryan from place to place with A/C, we did the library, several trips to Baskin & Robbins, "shopping" in the toy aisle of Wal-Mart for an hour, etc. But I've had a big round of three bad things happen to cause my adrenaline to rush and stress me out for a bit.

1. A nice old man scraped the bumper of my 2009 Forester while I was parked at Trader Joe's. An alert lady let me know what happened. I waited for the man in 98 degree heat, with frozen foods and milk and Ryan in the parking lot to discuss it (not fun). I also called the police to file an official report. Luckily, the man was honest, and my car will be repaired soon.

2. The next night, I was attempted to bed down in my 85 degree house at 11PM. Jeff was doing laundry (not a common occurrence) in the garage. All of a sudden, there was a POUNDING at the front door. My first thought was, "why did he go outside, and why is he pounding on the door? He knows that Ryan is asleep!" Then the door knocker yelled "Open the effing door! (he said the word though). I yelled back through the screen near the door--WHO ARE YOU? He replied "Jeff" and I said, "NO---you're not." (not MY Jeff anyway). I was dialing 911 during this exchange. I said, "Go away, I'm calling the police." He mumbled something about Christine, which I think is my trashy neighbor's name. He then started begging me to NOT contact the police. I told the would-be intruder to go away and the police would not come. He complied with my request, however; I was left with a serious case of the shakes, and it took me a good long while to fall asleep that night. We think he meant to go next door, but I haven't found out, and I'm not sure how to ask my trashy neighbor about it, since we have suspicions about activities at that house, and this theory would support it. Too bad you can't choose your neighbors.

3. Ryan spent a nice day at the Children's Museum with his Granna and Grampa on Thursday. It is just two blocks from my office, so I met them for lunch at a cafe. All was going well until I received a dreadful phone call at about 2:30 from my MIL saying that Ryan had hit his head and she thought he needed stitches. They came to my office, we loaded up and went to the doctor. My little guy now has 2 stitches in his forehead. No photos yet, it's under a bandaid until it can stop being all gross and weepy. In the course of this experience, I was asked by the nurse to pin my baby down in a sheet swaddle. Besides his writhing body and blood curdling screams (supposedly his wound was numbed, but I don't think the stuff worked) he stopped asking for me and started asking for his Grampa. I got woosy and had to lie down. Basically, the nurse pinned me on top of Ryan, which wasn't helping my woosyness. I eventually flipped over and laid him on my chest, making it MUCH easier to breathe. After 10 minutes of laying there, another nurse took my blood pressure, which was only 94/70. I felt like such a wuss, but I think the week's events culminated there on the treatment table. Seeing and feeling my baby hurt was the last straw.

You will be glad to know now, faithful blog followers (all 4 of you) that I am now home ALONE for the night. It is my first night away from Ryan, he and Jeff went back to Whidbey to stay with Granna and Grampa. I will join them tomorrow, but I'm taking tonight for ME. I don't have a car, so I'm not going anywhere. So far, I've laid in the hammock, while sipping a cocktail and reading a book, cleaned the kitchen uninterrupted, cooked zucchini bread from homegrown squash, and am now writing a very long blog post. Oh, I also did one load of laundry. So much for a glamorous evening alone! I plan to get a FULL NIGHT OF SLEEP for the first time in a LONG time. Woo-hoo!

Colorado Pics

Here are some more photos from our trip.

Colorado Cruising

We just returned from a week long roadtrip through southern Colorado with my parents. We had a fabulous time and saw some amazing bits of the country. We went to the top of Pike's Peak, visited 3 different natural hot springs, toured ancient Anazasi ruins at Mesa Verde National Park, and saw lots of farm animals and tractors along the roadside--all of which were pointed out by Ryan. Ryan can now say "Grammy" and "Gym" (grampy?) My parents were positively basking in the glow from their time with Ryan. Here's a sampling of the photos.

Lessons Learned

Things I learned today about my son:

1) The space between Ryan's front top teeth is exactly the same as the width of a penny. He lodged one there this morning. :)

2) He can sing! He started to sing the ABC's today, except he says C B and then hums a bit. I think H and I are in there too, but I was so impressed with the singing, I forgot to listen for real letters.

3) He recognized broccoli as such, without a prompt. He hasn't eaten as much broccoli as other veggies, so it is worth mentioning. This is also a word that someone not used to translating could understand. Hooray for English!

4) He started asking for T.V.--specifically Elmo DVDs. Except he pronounces it D.B.

We had an awesome Father's Day, celebrated on Saturday. We went to the Washington Brewer's Festival in Kenmore . We got several tastes of yummy beer, ate good carny food, and soaked up some sun and tunes. Ryan got to hang out with us, and figured out how to climb in and out of his stroller on his own. He also experienced his first bounce house. Good times all around. Jeff has requested the Beer Fest again next year.

Our Hard Work

I haven't been blogging because I've been out DOING! We've had AMAZING weather for Seattle in May/June, and it's showing in my gardens. We have lived in this house for 3 years now, and this is the BEST the gardens have looked! We were blessed with a good base of plants and bushes that came with the house, but have been inundated with weeds and grass between the plants each summer. We attacked early this year with 1 1/2 cubic yards of mulch.
The veggie garden at the south side of our house is new this year. And it's grown twice as big since I took these photos a week ago! (I counted three baby yellow squashes tonight on one plant) The raised bed garden is in its 3rd year also, Ryan is in charge of the watering there- and he does a great job.

We went camping on Orcas Island for the weekend. Ryan did great! The only way I could get him to wake up on Sunday morning, was to make Blueberry pancakes and tease him out of the tent with them! He enjoyed every bite.