Our Life

corinn-march08-199.jpgHere’s those pictures I promised.

Here are some cute Pictures of Corinn at the swing. She’s started crawling and generally getting into and pulling up on everything she can. She a handful now, but she is much happier now that she can get where she wants to go. She’s pulling up on everything and is pretty close to walking.

We’re going to have to figure something out for the rabbit, as Corinn seems to think his poo is a tasty treat. YUCK! The joys of an almost 8 month old!

There have been a few things that went on from the last post.

* Chris had a birthday – there  is some complex math there, I think Quantum.

* I have been given another job opportunity at my current employer.

*Corinn has gone to the doctor for 4 mo checkup (read: more shots) and is healthy. There is worry that her hip socket cartilage is not forming right, coz they click, but an ultrasound did not show that this was the case.

* I have a new Job title, making me a Technical Account Manager.

This last part is new, and is frustrating till I can pick up how things work in this department.

There are some ther things I could write, but needed to get back to work…

Had a great time at Corinn’s first Thanksgiving. Momma had the turkey, stuffing, and sweet potato pie…. while Corinn got the Boobie-juice.

More posts later.

CC&C

My Family has been going to this particular spot for vacation for 20+ years (I think). Vacations were a week there… and as my parents got older, they extended it to 2 weeks, with the kids (my sister and I) only invited for the last week. As our collective lives got more complicated (job schedules, family schedules, time off request timing, work load, other obligations) it has come to “We will be down there these weeks, come when you can.”

Chris, Corinn and I went last week. We consulted our friends, family, and extended family for advice on the travels with the WeeOne. Some said “go at night, they will sleep”, others said “dont go at night thinking they will sleep… the car noise and streetlights, etc, will keep them up.” With the advice pretty much 50/50, we went with the gamble of Night Travel. It worked for us. Sure, we got up at 0400 to drive 6 hours… and we were tired. Travel, it seemed, was a piece of cake.

Pics of Corinn at the beach Pics I took at night

What no one did warn us about, was that “Vacation” no longer means what it used to mean. With Corinn @ 10 weeks, and breast feeding exclusively, the “Vacation” was more of a change of location for the backdrop of the same ole same ole. Still the feeding, still the crying, still the changing, everything but “where” was the same except: Grandparents! Whoopie! So, occasionally it was “Feed.. she’s napping! WERE OFF!!”

We would then run down to the beach, and hop in. After a little bit, I would run back to check (I like being in the sun the least between Chris and I) and signal from the deck if Mommy needed to come back in.

The grandparents were funny. We heard them go through the same confusion about Corinn’s crying as we did:

• “Oh, she must be hungry!” nope just fed her…
• “Oh, she needs a diaper change!” nope, was just changed…
• “Oh… uhhh… HERE MOMMY!” hehehehe…

At the end of the week, they found the Groove too.

We didn’t want to leave. We had to, I had to go back to work. We left 2200, after last feeding. She slept the whole 6 hour drive, minus one stop to eat.

And so I went back to work today. All the frustrations, issues, and stresses – waiting for me to return.

Luckily I was warned ahead of time. “Be prepared for the most ‘pierce you in the heart’ cry when she gets shots”. It was true.

She got the shot, and did one of those things where the wind up to the cry to follow was silent… and when the wave crested, the cry that spilled out was agony to hear. Worse still was the face she made.

The doctor needed to put her on her stomach, to check some things, and said “yer not gonna be happy… yer going to be face down on the mat for a bit…” Little did she know Corinn can hold her head up, and hold herself off the ground. She was a bit surprised: not a lot of babies can do that @ 2 months. She was also impressed at the controll she has over her head.

She said that the muscle control, and tone, is a characteristic of high intelligence babies. I see the “why?” game being a challenge for us, later.

Corinn is almost 2 months old now, and it only feels like a month. We were looking at some pictures, and wow! Corinn is getting so huge! We go for another well-checkup next Friday.

She is starting to smile a lot, and sleep a bit more. We like that. She has also developed some other cries, other than the ONE she had when we brought her home.

Oh, and I updated the blog software.

Yea, for those of you that have kids, you are thinking “4 weeks and this is your first diaper change!?? Slacker!”

Those of you without kids, you may be thinking “EEEWWW!”

I held out as log as I could. Chris knew that going into us having childern, diapers and poop and vomiting would be major stress points for me. Most of the trepidation I had about infants are those events. When visiting anyone with a newborn, they would say to me  “Wanna hold her!?”, and you could see it in my face: panic. I would see the projectile milk-vomiting baby’s on America’s funniest videos. While others laughed, I would just look in horror. Poop? I didn’t want to think about it.

She has been very gracious by not FORCING me into changing Corinn. She has given gentile hints, but never made it an issue. I guess, hoping I would come around…

Last night, I was expressing my frustrations at being a father, to an other co-worker, James. I was expressing that I feel I don’t have anything to offer this newborn. I can’t feed her, as we are not bottle feeding expressed milk (yet). When mommy has calmed kiddo down, she wants me to hold her while calm so I can have some positive interaction with her. Seems every time I get her in my arms, it is full-tilt “10″ on the crying scale… This is really discouraging for me. “You were fine not 2 seconds ago! Why do you only cry in MY arms!??” I wanted the fun, giggling, adorable bonding moments you hear about. I felt like I was no good, nothing to offer.

“You’re right, but that’s not true… You can’t calm her like mommy can. If you guys are breast feeding, you don’t have that going for you. But, if you don’t DO anything with her, like just give her back to mommy when she start crying, she doen’t like you because you realy DON’T have anything to offer her.

It happened to me too. What I did, was I started changing my son’s diapers. He got used to “that other person can’t feed me, but he can change me…”  So I established myself on the “Good” list. The more things, even if they seem small to you, you get on that list, the better you are going to feel.”

So, this afternoon, after a “fart heard round the house”, I got mommy to supervise me changing a diaper. It’s exactly as you think it is. Messy… all over everything… smelly… I have been told that soon I will miss this type of smelly, as once they get on solid food, the smell progresses from what we have now, lets say a 2, to a 10. Whoo hoo!

Baby steps…

As I write this, we are 2 hours away from “1 week old”. Seems like such a short time we were going to the hostpital… getting out of the hospital… getting home… that first sleepless night…

Monday, we had our first Pediatrician’s visit. I really have to give it to Chris’s opinion when she has done research. We found a few Pedi’s in our area, but Chris didn’t just pull one out of a hat or a website, oh no. She called them all. If you did not return her call, yer out. Of the people that returned her call, she asked to speak to the doctor’s directly. Doctor too busy to speak to a new client? yer out. Your office staff may not be the best indicator of you. My doctor, for example, has office people that are a challenge. Once you are in there, he is awesome. So Chris interviewed them, and picked one that matched our values. The interrogation was intense. I will spare you the 10 open-ended questions she asked.

The Pediatrician she chose can most easily be described as a “Hippy”. Corinn has a scab on her head from the Vacume assist attempt, and we were putting Neosporin on it. “I don’t like to use chemicals on the baby unless we have to. Try putting some Tea Tree Oil on it. Its a natural antiseptic, so can help with healing. It also can be applied directly. If you need moisture, use Coconut Oil. Check to see if she is allergic first.” She seemed to be “holistic first, then fall back on medicine if needed”. While the holistic approach can sometimes come of as quackery, she was approaching it purely on a “fewer  man-made chemicals, more natural things”. She was patient, and answered all of our questions, and assured us our first-time-parrent fears are ok. Corinn is doing OK, we are doing OK, if we have any questions please call her.

Corinn has lost some weight, 9Lb3Oz. This is normal, as the baby uses up the stores they put on in the womb. Her sneezes are normal, they are to clear the airways and get everything flowing.  The poop has progressed to the “Gorrin’s Mustard with Sesame Seeds”. I asked what the Sesame Seeds were, but not even modern science knows. This indicates we are surviving off of breast milk. Kinda facinating.

Feeding is coming along. Mom and Baby are getting their teamwork down. She still wants to latch kinda shallow, and bites some. Mom is getting frustrated with these! We have called some family members that did breast feed (a lower amount than you would think!) and the frustrations and fears are all justified, but are really non-issues. It will take time.

The sleepless nights are starting to develop a pattern now. Poop – Cry – boob1 – burp – boob2 – burp – sleep. They are starting to be longer. She feeds longer, she sleeps longer. Long as we watch her for “I’m hungry” signs, we can keep crying to a minimum too. We are all learning.

We were released from the hospital yesterday. It took a little longer than expected, as our nurse, Kathy, was attending to some ladies that were in a lot of pain. We understood.

On the drive home, Chris asked me “does it feel any different, driving with our daughter in the car?”. I responded “I was just thinking about that… did it feel any different… did I drive any different… Nope. I feel like I drive any time we have precious cargo. Turns are gentle, bumps are avoided, not in a hurry…”

We got home, and the dogs were NOT pleased. Chris wanted me to just let them in. The New Father in me said “these dogs are not getting near mom or baby till _I_ feel it is safe, and they are ready”. So, I kept them in the basement with me for a while. Glad I did. Jules, the little female, has a way of saying “HI!” by leaning up against you. She was so excited, she would do that from 10 feet away, almost knocking me over. You stay away from mommy. Sirius was just a spaz. I kinda expected that. Nothing dangerous, mind you, but could knock things over.

The next door neighbor came over with a gift. She said “I was talking with my husband… ‘you know, I haven’t seen the car in over 24 hours… I bet it’s happening!’ and sure enough!” She gave some advice, and empathy.

Gram came by with Enchaladas for dinner. It was miles away from Hospital food, which really has improved since last I remember hospital food. It was nice to not have to cook, or worry where to grab food while leaving mom and baby here alone.

Or first night alone was stressful, though not nearly as much as first 24 hours alone. Chis did awesome, only stressing out and snapping at me after about 3 hours of screaming baby. But, as I told her, yelling at me for what she wants helps me way more than just crying or just yelling “do something!”. I am learning too. Now that I see the things she needs, I try and anticipate. We are starting to function as a team!

Corinn, for all the need she has for the nutrients, is not getting the feeding thing. She is now latching well! Just, after latching, she doesn’t seem to get the right motion to get nourishment. This may also be just a perception thing. I may devise a way to weigh her before and after feeding so mommy knows she is doing well.

I got some pictures up of labor, delivery, and recovery. Nothing graphic in these. Take a look!

There was some pelvic separation from the delivery, so Chris is on 80% bed-rest. So, I will be here with her for a while. If you want to stop by, by all means come visit. Give me a call first, so I can make sure Mother and Baby are up for visitors.

Sorry for the delay. I know, I left a cliff-hanger of a last post. I had things to do!

It’s a girl!

After 47 hours of labor, at 5:57PM on 7/18/2007 – Corinn Ellen Akridge was born to Chris and Cliff Akridge. (hey thats me!)

Weight: 9 pounds, 6 Ounces. 20 3/4 inches long, with a 14 1/4 inch head.

She was born in the normal way, but did need the “salad tongs” to actually get her through and out of the birth canal. Chris is fine. Happy baby is finally here, that we got the latching thing down, and that she no longer has to push.

Thank you everyone, from all of us, to those who said prayers, kept happy thoughts, called or came by. It shows us the support of the family, related and extended, we are bringing our daughter into. We will speak others that we forgot to call or contact, very soon.

A note about some upcoming posts:

This blog is an outlet. As such, I don’t feel a need to censor it. However, I realize there are a few interest levels for information about childbirth. I know this, because I have now been on both sides of the information and the interest. As such, there will be some posts upcoming that are password protected. I will share this password, but you will need to find it, and enter it, in order to read the post. For those that do not want the details of the labor, delivery, and birth, steer clear of them. For those that have been through it and want to see what we went through to get here, go ahead. Or, even if you are just curious. I am not sure what level I am going to share, but if you haven’t been there or have an interest, you probably don’t want to read them.

I will also give some general-consumption details of the time-line of how things went.

And yes, I am writing this post on the Hospital wireless!