11/29/2006
The Wii Elusive Capture
After a tiring workout over lunch yesterday I returned to my desk at work to find a half eaten cookie next to my mouse. Odd, I thought. I peered around my cube discovered my desk had been ransacked. My papers had all been moved around, my stapler had been moved from the LEFT side of my desk to the RIGHT side. Something was up.
That's when I noticed a trail of tiny Post-Its leading out of cube, down the hallway. I poked my head up to see if anyone else had noticed this. I quickly followed the trail down the hall to the coat closet where the paper trail ended. I took a deep breath and opened the doors. A pair of white eyes peered back at me. "GO NOW!" came a voice. "Who? Who are you?" I questioned. "There is no time!" He shouted, "You must make the voyage now!"
Unfortunately this mysterious voice had caught me at a bad time.
"Where must I go?"
"You know what you must seek. You know your destination. You must hurry!" Riddles, I had no time for riddles.
"But I am working right now. I can't just LEAVE." I told him.
"You must send someone then, you have no time!"
I heeded the strange man's advice. I called my wife and informed her of the strange situation.
She said to me, "If this is about the Wii I want no part." I told her for the sake of our child this must done now. Luckily she had needed a few things at the store anyways and could swing by to see if the strange little voice was correct, that I might finally get my Wii.
For the sake of my life and humanity as a whole Courtney was able to find the holy grail. When I returned home last night I had finally gotten my Wii. Courtney had endured hours of torturous screeching from the man-child Riles while fending off the oogles of nerds. I owe her a debt of gratitude for her conquest.
11/28/2006
The Unofficial Parental Survival Guide
It's no surprise to anyone around us that Riley has been a handful. From the first day he came out screaming and hasn't stopped since. 7 days ago that all changed.
During one of our baby classes an instructor mentioned the book The Happiest Baby on the Block as a good resource for parents. It's chock full of tips and techniques for soothing a angry baby. At our wits end, we picked it up last week.
The main technique the book outlines is a 5 step process for calming your baby down. Court gave it a whirl last week and had the kid quiet within minutes.
We were absolutely astonished how well the techniques worked. For the last week we have been practicing them religiously and Riley seems to be responding to them. We had started feeling like we were failing as parents. When your kid will only give you the stinkface for 3 weeks straight it's hard not to take it personally.
One week ago, today, Riley was waking up 3 times a night. He never went longer than 2 1/2 hours without fussing. We had a hard time putting him in is bassinet because he cried every time he was out of our arms.
Last night Riley slept for 5 1/2 hours straight, in his crib. I was flabbergasted this morning when I woke up at 3:30am. I did a double-take to make sure I wasn't dreaming. I was so excited that I couldn't fall back asleep.
11/27/2006
Listening to My Wife + Wii Update
The short version of the Wii struggle is: I still don't have one. There's no need for me to bore you with the details. Let me just say that it's been a very frustrating hunt this weekend.
Wednesday night I thought it would be great to wash Dottie's dog bed. Over the past week she's had some "issues" that had left her bed a little worse for wear. Her bed is so big, though, that it cannot all fit in the washer at once. I got a great idea to take the polyfill out of the bed and wash it separately from the cover.
An hour after the washer began I came down to a smoke filled laundry room. It seems that I had filled the washer too high with the polyfill and burnt out the washer engine. Wednesday night we went washer shopping.
This capped off a week (a short week nonetheless) of situations where Courtney had suggested that I not do what I was about to do. It started on Sunday when I was about to give Dottie some ibuprofen for her hip. Court said, "Are you sure that she is supposed to have that?" "Why not?" I said. One trip to the vet and $350 later I discovered Courtney was right, dogs aren't supposed to have ibuprofen.
The ibuprofen caused Dottie to start having bladder and kidney problems. These problems caused her bed to be soaked in leaked pee. The soaked bed was the reason I was trying to wash the polyfill. Court asked me before I started dismantling Dottie's bed so I could wash it, "Are you sure you should wash polyfill in the washer?" "Why not?" I said. One trip to the appliance store and $450 later I discovered Courtney was right.
So I vowed after this weekend to listen to Courtney more. She seems to have some good ideas, or at least cheaper ideas than I have.
11/20/2006
No Wii for Mii
Yesterday the Nintendo Wii was released. I had hoped I would be able to waltz into the local Target and swipe one up. Unfortunately, that was not the case.
I started my half-hearted attempt at procuring a Wii about a month and a half ago, on the pre-order day at Gamestop. I ran into a Gamestop at 7pm, and asked "Am I too late for the Wii pre-order?!" I was greeted by curious looks by the pimply-faced employees. I was told "Yeah, uh, about 10 HOURS too late!" Their suggestion (and this is a direct quote), "Maybe if you had a time machine you could get one." Followed by the most helpful advice yet, "Or you could go back even farther and get one when it was called the 'Revolution'"
Fast forward to Sunday morning. Rumors abounded all week about a decent stockpile of Wiis at most retail outlets. I wasn't about to waste too much of my life on being one of the first with a Wii but I figured it would be nice if I could get one. At 7am I handed a screaming baby back to Courtney, bundled up and headed over to my local Target.
There was a very decent sized line in front of Target. Unexpectedly to me, there was even a few tents. With coffee in hand I joined the end of the line. Not wanted to get my expectations too high I asked the guy in front of me if the person count was above 20. "Yep," he told me. Crap, I knew my chances were quite dire. My Target only had 24 of them.
5 minutes later a Target employee came out and handed out tickets to the lucky few and I was not one of them. The last guy to receive one had been out in the cold since midnight. So I didn't feel so bad about not getting a ticket. At least I slept in a warm bed.
Not content with my efforts I wandered over to the local SuperTarget in hopes of striking it rich a little later in the day. As I was walking towards the electronics department with Riles (yes, I take my children on my crazed tech hunts) I heard a gaggle of employees have the following conversation:
EMPLOYEE 1: "What are they all doing?"
EMPLOYEE 2: "They probably looked it up on a site somewhere."
EMPLOYEE 1: "Well, someone should tell them"
EMPLOYEE 2: "Yeah, I know"
EMPLOYEE 1: "We don't have anymore"
After that exchange I figured my chances were slim. I was correct. I had struck out again on my hunt for a Wii.
Today, Monday, I am Wii-less. I don't plan to stay this way for long. My hunt continues.
11/13/2006
Riley Watch: The Two Week Mark
Okay, so I'm posting this one day early. But saying "Two Weeks" is a lot easier than "One week, Six Days, and Four Hours."
First off, Life with Riley has been awesome. Regardless of any story I might tell you, this kid is the greatest thing in the world (minus tacos, Manwich, and my wife). Riles spends the majority of the day being a perfect little soul. He hangs out, makes funny noises, and poops his pants. He has somewhat of a permanent scowl which I can only assume he's inherited from me. I'm hoping he grows out of it by 4 months. I make sure to not scowl in front of him too much.
Now, the not so great part.
Riles is turning a tad colicky. From Day One this child has not been a big sleeper. He likes to be awake. He really likes to be awake at 2am. And if you are boring him at 2am when he is awake he likes to tell you so by screaming. We had hoped we dodged the colic bullet. The first few nights, while frustrating, did not include a screaming baby. But the last couple have had us reaching for any book possible to find out what we can do.
We found out that colic doesn't set in for a few weeks. Colic isn't anything to "cure" necessarily. It just means the kid cries for no apparent reason without any way to comfort him. The medical definition of colic is a child that screams for 3 hours a day for 3 days a week (or 3 days in a row, I can't remember). We are far from the medical definition but closer that we would like.
We're still trying to work out the specifics but it appears that if we wake Riley up anytime between 6pm and midnight he will scream. We have to wake the kid to feed him at least once. Of course, he will wake on his own and start screaming as well. To remedy the situation we try to strategically plan when we wake him so that we can get a little rest ourselves.
The whole waking baby process is about a 2 hour cycle. The first hour is spent waking him up with a diaper change, changing any clothes that he pooped or puked on, and feeding him. The last hour is spent trying to figure out what will calm him down. Once he's done eating there is a 10 minute grace period before the evening's fuss-fest. Nooks, more food, rocking, holding, playing all get cycled through.
Sure, at 2am when all hell seems to be breaking loose it's very frustrating. Courtney and I do well together. If one of us is getting overwhelmed we just hand him over to the other for a break. By morning I'm typically ready to give it another go. By the evening when I'm getting home it's time to start it all over again.
11/08/2006
Diaper Champ
Do you know what's worse than emptying a Diaper Champ at 3am? Emptying a Diaper Champ at 3am that does not have a bag in it....
11/05/2006
Riley Adam: Day 1 Recap
Riley Adam
Born: 10/31/2006 at 11:20am
Weight: 9lbs 10oz
Length: 22 inches
Apgars: 8 to 9 (Whatever that is)
We arrived at the Hospital at 7am for a planned 9am c-section. The morning was filled with poking and prodding and a lot of laughter. We were bumped until 10:30am by another emergency c-section. We were glad that we had chosen to do the procedure instead of getting hours into labor only to realize a c-section was required.
At roughly 10:45am our number was called. Court, a nurse, and I walked to the operating room. The nurse gave me a seat just outside of the O.R. while they prepped Courtney. The chair was uncomfortable and the surroundings were scary. I was sitting outside of an O.R. door by myself in a hallway. The chair was situated outside of a medical closet that had people coming and going from it frequently. I spent about 10 minutes nervously waiting by myself in the hallway.
When they called me into the O.R. Courtney had been prepped. I took my seat next to her head and smiled. She had on an oxygen mask which I knew from our hours of A Baby Story watching that women are given the mask when they react poorly to the anesthesia. Courtney has a violent history of reacting to anesthesia. We had done our best to warn all the doctors and nurses about it so I was confident they had done her up right. I asked Court about it and she said, "Yeah, I had a little freak out. But I'm fine now." I looked at the nurse and she explained that Courtney had the typical reaction with the spinal tap and was unable to tell if she was breathing. A little oxygen soothes the soul.
The team of doctors and nurses went to work. Within 10 minutes Riley was born into the world. Throughout the entire operation Courtney and I talked and joked with everyone in the room. It was odd but quite easy, honestly. The doctor said there was no way Riley would have come out easily naturally which helped us feel better about it all.
The nurses whisked me away with Riley to the nursery. Once there they started measuring and doing their "thing" with the new baby. They told me I couldn't go back to see Courtney. I was struck with a gigantic feeling of helplessness. I hadn't planned to have the first moments of my child's life to be with just...me. Court knew everything and I planned on just going with the flow. Without her there I realized I had no frickin' clue what to do with a baby.
I stumbled around a bit. Picked him up, put him down, and finally took him out to meet the grandparents. The nurses assured me Courtney would be wheeled out of the O.R. shortly and then we could bring Riley to her.
After about 45 minutes she hadn't been brought by. I started to get nervous. I worried about any complications from the surgery. When they did finally bring her out they had snuck her out and into a recovery room. As we had expected she was reacting violently to a sedative given to her after the actual birth. One of the anesthesiologists thought Courtney could use a little "something" to take the edge off. Courtney spent the next 4 hours in a recovery room puking because of it.
Our first day took a minor detour because of the recovery process. What we thought would be filled with friends and family quickly became a quiet resting time for all of us. The happy grandparents left us and it was soon just Courtney, me, and Riley. Courtney laid in her bed sleeping off the narcotics given to her for the pain. I was left to figure out this baby thing on my own.
For the first 20 hours of Riley's life I was the soul support. I all of the sudden was scared t death. As Riley lay there crying and squirming I wished I had paid a little more attention to all the knowledge Court had tried to impart on me over the last 10 months. I learned to change a diaper from the nurse taking care of Court. Riley also managed to pee on me twice by the time he was 8 hours old. I would have given anything for Courtney and I to figure this stuff out together. I had a hard time dealing with it.
By 6pm Courtney was starting to feel a bit better. She was awake and was able to hold Riles for awhile. She couldn't get out of bed, nor could she hold down any food. I spent my time taking care of both of them.
By 8pm Riley was starting to realize his place in the world. Typically you hear the first 24 hours of a baby's life is a quiet time. They are tired from the birth and also not hungry quite yet. They sleep for most of it. Riley was everything but. I always joked that my kid would come out kickin', screamin', walkin', and talkin'. I couldn't have been more right. By the night Riley was in full "baby" mode. He wanted to eat, held, and changed. The entire cycle would take about an hour. Once done, he'd take a 10 minute break before starting all over again.
That first night we made the tough decision to send him to the nursery. We needed a little sanity time. We didn't want to feel like we were giving up but we needed just a little time to ourselves to sleep and come to terms with what this whole baby thing was going to take.
10/31/2006
The Baby Front Lines
Well, Riley made it into the world succesfully. Court's a little worse for wear. The c-section was tough on her so our first day together as a family has been more laid back than I thought. As of right now Courtney is doing much, much better than at noon. She's been able to hold Riley and get to know him too. As for me? I've been regulated to diaper duty. Since Courtney is bedbound until at least tomorrow morning I'm the go to guy for just everything. I'm enjoying the moment.
B-Day
Well, today is the day. It's 5am and Courtney and I are just gathering our things. We are heading to Caribou (it's early, folks) and then to the hospital. By 10am Riley will be welcomed into this world. Because of the c-section Courtney will spend a few more days in the hospital. We're hoping she'll be able to come home on Friday.
Until next time...
10/30/2006
TODO Tomorrow: Have Baby
Okay folks the big day will finally arrive tomorrow! Courtney and the doc had it out this morning at the appointment and came to an agreement to get Riley out as soon as possible. We're scheduled for Halloween morning at 9am to have Riley! w00t!
T-Plus: 3 Days
Sorry to disappoint but there was no baby this weekend.
Courtney and I spent a good part of the weekend walking around. Tired of waiting for the "miracle" to happen by itself, we started to take drastic measures.
On Saturday we went and walked around a corn maze in Shokapee. We had an awesome time. It was fun getting lost with about 500 other people. The only unfortunate part was some of the maze had been trampled down by all the running around. Regardless, we made it all the way through. It took us about an hour and a half.
On Sunday we decided to get out and walk around Lake Calhoon. Sunday was absolutely beautiful outside. It was nice to enjoy one last day of sunshine.
We bought three pumpkins earlier this month assuming we would be able to enjoy them with our new baby. Courtney spent Saturday evening carving Riley's. Instead of carving a pumpkin face she carved in "Riley Where R U" :-(
Courtney has a doctor's appointment in an hour. The doctor should finally give us a date for inducement. We're hoping it's sometime this week. If not, then the next week will be hell. I don't suggest calling...
....unless you have food.
10/27/2006
0 Day
Well, today is Riley's due date and I'm fairly certain we'll see it come and go without much fanfare. Patience is not one of my virtues.
Last night at Target I kiddingly asked Courtney if she wanted to walk down the baby isles. At this point we have those isles damn near memorized and we've bought everything in them. Court hooted and hollered about it, which was my full intention. A nearby lady snickered and said it was funny that the GUY was suggesting going into the baby section. Her husband would never do that. She went on to comment about being 5 months pregnant herself. I wanted to point out Courtney to the lady and say, "THIS will be YOU in 4 months!"