Clyde James

9.28.2013

7 lbs 12 oz & 20 inches

boy!

We had our ultrasound a while back and found out we're having a little boy! We are excited & nervous at the same time. But luckily we don't have to think of a name now that David's nephew has already given us one.

Introducing... Fire Hydrant! Coming this September. (or October...)

more pregernauting

Once again I am the pregernaut: Boldly going where I have gone once before:)

Due September 30.

the end.

The Obligatory Child Birth Post

It occurred to me that I have been remiss in following the blogging tradition of giving a detailed account of child birth.

Here are the facts, which may or may not be detailed.

I was induced at 41 weeks along at my doctors recommendation. I arrived at the hospital the afternoon of December 26th, and left the morning of December 30th. I had dinner on on the 26th, but didn't eat for the next 36 hours, which was not very fun. Labor technically began on monday night with the first induction part (cervidil) but not really in earnest until early the next morning when the pitocin drip started. I did get an epidural even though I really didn't want to, but it was mostly worn off by the time baby arrived. I'm hoping for spontaneous labor and a natural delivery next time around.

Labor hurts a lot. During labor I enjoyed these activities: eating ice chips, listening to David read, playing a card game with David, attempting to move around to manage pain but being put back in bed because the baby heart monitor would not cooperate, getting my water manually broken (which made labor much more painful I might add), and arguing with David about why he should go to the cafeteria and buy breakfast, then lunch, then dinner for himself. I think I won the breakfast and dinner argument, but not lunch. Poor David ate some granola bars instead. Also, I enjoyed dragging the IV stand around with me to and from the bathroom an infinite number of times.

Labor was around 20 hours (starting from the pitocin) including 3.5 hours of pushing, ending in a forceps delivery (which I was grateful for since the alternative was a c-section!). And then the baby came out and she was HUGE and no wonder her head got stuck! My first observation was my stomach deflated quite dramatically. My first question was whether she was really a girl (I did not totally trust the ultrasound..), but was ignored and I had to ask twice.

And then a lot more stuff happened and I was beyond tired and a complete basketcase for the next week or so.

But it turns out I had a really cute baby. And I love her. And she has AWESOME hair.

the end.

Ila Miriam

12.28.2011

9.0 lbs & 20 inches

still empty...

DH likes to look inside the car seat cover when he gets home each day. I've been meaning to put something in it for a joke, but keep forgetting. Meanwhile...

It is still empty!

More side views with the standard control group

This is a continuation of this post: http://laurahasathought.blogspot.com/2011/09/pregnant-side-view-control-group.html
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34 weeks and 4 days along. (11/12/2011)

We forgot to take a control picture of DH, so here we are the next day:

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34 weeks and 5 days along. (11/13/2011)

Notice how DH remains in control. And how happy he is about it:)

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37 weeks and 4 days along. (12/03/2011)

This style of skirt should look familiar! Its all I wear...

In control and SO excited about it...

DH and his bro, looking a touch lopsided.

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38 weeks and 5 days along. (12/11/2011)
Note the slant at the bottom of the dress. This is what happens when you pretend your dress is maternity...

 Still in control...but not QUITE as thrilled about it...

Running as the pregernaut + ironman delight

So I kept up with my running schedule (with lower intensity/distance) until the end of my 2nd trimester (around week 27). At that point I started to get side aches and would have to slow to a walk. I wasn't even running that fast, just jogging and plodding along. I was hoping to run longer into pregnancy, but oh well. Being in good shape before and during pregnancy and having strong abdominals has made it so that I haven't had any lower back pain. I think having good posture has helped too.

After I stopped running I was planning on walking for exercise or going to a gym to use their machines if walking didn't do enough. Unfortunately I got really sick right after I quit running and that lasted for 2 months. I am finally well enough now to expend energy on exercise and so am wanting to start up again with something.

I am planning on running a half-marathon next summer sometime. I think I need a goal like that to help myself get back into the running habit and get back into shape. I am really excited to use the running stroller I purchased. I got it used and at a discount (yay!). It also has an awesome name: THE IRONMAN.

Woo!

Christmas

David and I have been thinking about Christmas much earlier than usual this year. With the baby due on Dec. 20, it is probable it will arrive before the holiday. The men in David's family have a tendency to go Christmas shopping at the last minute. (like Dec 24...) I pointed out to David that this tendency may be inconvenient with the expected arrival date of our tot. He agreed and did the uncharacteristic thing of buying presents 6 weeks in advance. (Some of them, at least. He is not done yet..)

Because of this early Christmas movement, David is getting in the Christmas spirit. I am definitely a Grinch, so he is deprived usually. He wore a Christmas tie to work last week. And he is using a Christmas mug for his peppermint tea. And he sings Christmas songs all the time now. And he giggles about it (in a manly way). We might even put up the Christmas tree in November instead of the week before Christmas. (This may cause all who know of my grinchness to faint with shock).

But I must point out that it does not bother me at all to have my husband sing Christmas songs around the house. It only bothers me when other people do it. Like Celine Dion. But clearly I am biased. (Although I cannot understand why anyone would prefer Celine Dion to DH's tunes.)

the end.

Shakespeare + important evidence of game loss

David and I went to the Utah Shakespeare Festival last weekend. Unfortunately I was sick. But we still had a good time! We saw three plays and got to sleep in a king sized bed, which is so so nice. It is the first trip we've gone on in over two years if you exclude visiting family. And it is probably the last trip for a while because of the alien invader. Here are some pics of us around the festival statues/benches:

This is what happens when you put the camera on a table and try to do a timed shot.

In case you are wondering, David is pondering Yorick's skull. 

I forget the inspiration for this shot. But this is the "Women of Shakespeare" bench and they are all very scary women. And I think I'm supposed to be dead.

David rents his shirt like King Lear. Yeah. (or is it rends?)

And remember how Utah won the BYU/Utah football game? Well, David and his brother Jonny always do a tie exchange depending on the game result. With this year being a loss for BYU, David was lucky enough to get to wear the Utah tie bestowed upon him by the noble Jonny. David wore it to work (at BYU) on a day he teaches two classes! I was hoping he'd get a few dirty looks, but he says not. Psha. But clearly he is VERY excited to be wearing the tie:)

Divided House

Last Saturday was the Utah-BYU football game. I am a Utah fan and David is a BYU fan. Naturally it was important for me to wear my red Utah shirt and David to wear his blue BYU shirt. We had a bunch of errands to do that day, and we got some hilarious comments from random people in the town. I've never been in "enemy" territory like I am now, and I really enjoyed dressing up in my Uteness.

Here we are in our abode:

And here we are at the game. Look at all that blue behind us! I was one of a handful of Ute fans scattered throughout the faculty section at the stadium. People were nice to me anyway since I wasn't particularly irritating and I looked pretty harmless with my big belly and all. It was fun getting attention.

 David thought this was important to get a picture of. It's the biggest flag ever!

I had two favorite parts of the day. The first was when we were at Walmart and we passed an older couple in the aisle. The husband looked at us and said, "the red one is the smart one!" We laughed and then watched his wife swat his arm and tell him he was in big trouble. Ha! It was like a vision of the future, me and DH 40 years from now.

The second favorite part was near the end of the game. A lot of people had left early (due to BYU's lame performance) and we spotted a couple with a baby a few rows down. The wife was in blue and the husband in red. David and I had been discussing how we should dress up our baby at future Utah/BYU games. I thought a purple shirt would suffice (you know..red + blue = purple) but david liked the idea of a half red half blue onesie (but which is unlikely to be sold anywhere). But this couple we saw, they had their baby dressed up in a red and blue stripped onesie! We thought it was genius.

the end. (+ go Utes!)

pregnant: the side view + the control group

David has taken three pictures of me so far while pregnant. And he chose to use himself as the "control."  (HA!). So whenever I remember, I prompt him to take a picture of me, and then I take one of him. Here is what we have so far:

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17 weeks and 3 days along. (07-15-2011)

Here I am from the side. 

This was the day Harry Potter 7 part 2 opened in theaters. Hence my special shirt!

And here is DH. The "control" group. 

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20 weeks and 5 days along. (08-07-2011)

I'm in a dress so I don't look that much different than before. And my facial expression is definitely on the weird side.

DH again. In control.

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25 weeks and 2 days along. (09-08-2011, today)

Yes my hair is still wet. 

And here is DH maintaining control, wearing an AWESOME pink shirt.

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And that's all for now. According to one of David's colleagues, I am "great" with child (and that was 2 weeks ago!). I can only imagine what I'll be at the end. Probably magnificent with child. Or titanic. We shall see.

It's a girl!

David was right. Though I'm sure the baby will love blue towels:)

My family is especially excited since it's the first granddaughter after a slew of boys. Woot!

The end.

Predictions

So. Tuesday is the day DH and I will find out whether there is a little emperor or a little eppie growing inside me.

As fun as we thought it would be to leave it a surprise, we are now going to find out what IT IS. I still think of IT as an alien invader, living in my body and making creepy, sneaky, fluttery movements that I always assume to be gas. If I let myself think it is not gas, then it sort of weirds me out and makes me feel like I ate a spider or something. Ew. Yeah. So, I admit to being less than maternal. But I also admit that it is probably a human fetus.

And now for the requisite predictions. Boy or girl? For the sake of having a prediction (which DH insists is very important), I am going to say it is a boy. And also for the sake of the prediction, DH has agreed to do the opposite and say it is a girl. So there it is.

I do have some reasons for thinking it might be a boy. First and foremost, it is because of Elaina's towels. Elaina is a good friend I have from my geophysics undergrad. Together with Jillian, we were up to no good. And then I got married, and Elaina gave us a present. Part of that present consisted of a set of smallish blue towels, which she said were for our first child. She said she had a hunch.

The second reason I predict a boy is because I have often pictured having a baby that was a mini-David. In the first years of marriage when I was definitely not ready for kids, I did have an occasional glimmer that if the baby looked just like him, then having one might be ok.

David told me he thinks it might be a girl just because he's thought more about having a girl than a boy.

So we will find out soon enough!

Special Announcement:
After learning I have zero intention doing the "mommy blogger" thing, David decided that he wanted to be a daddy blogger. And here is his first post: http://ailihphilia.blogspot.com. I'm not sure how crazy he is planning to get, but it is likely there will be more baby stuff on that blog than on this one.

the pregernaut + the importance of the star trek title sequence

I am the pregernaut.
Boldly going where no man has gone before.
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When I was young(er) (12 perhaps?), my parents always watched Star Trek reruns that showed at 10pm on weeknights. I think it was the James T. Kirk, but might have been Next Generation. Either way, everytime I'd walk by my parents door around that time at night, I'd hear the opening title sequence, or bits of it (this one from Kirk):

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.

Soon, I had it memorized. One day I typed it up and put it on the door of the refrigerator. My father was studying Latin at the time, and within a few days the Latin translation of the title sequence had shown up on the fridge also. It became a family joke. My parents are pretty big Star Trek fans. My mom even has some framed star trek picture with Leonard Nimoy's signature (you know, Spock). Whoa. And lets not forget the Christmas ornament in the shape of a shuttlecraft that, when you press the button, says (in Spock's voice), "Shuttlecraft to Enterprise, shuttlecraft to Enterprise: Spock here. Happy Holidays. Live long and prosper."

Meanwhile, time passed. I discovered the changes in the wording used in the title sequence for Kirk's Star Trek versus Next Generation. The most important part being, "to boldly go where no one has gone before." Apparently "one" is more politically correct.

The Latin translation was semi-forgotten. Then one day, out of the blue, a new Latin translation shows up on the fridge. My dad had a lot more Latin study under his belt, and had decided that his first stab at translating the star trek sentence was sub par. We wouldn't want that.

And thus, the story of the Latin translation of "Space, the final frontier..." earned its place in family legend.

the end.

pregnant thoughts

Of all the unusual (and mostly unhealthy) food I have consumed in the last 3 months, it wasn't until I wanted to eat a baked potato that made David exclaim, "are you a different person?"

apparently so.
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Yesterday I got a surprise delivery from my friend Jennie. She gave me my first baby present! It was so exciting. Presents! In July! Totally unprecedented. 


I would like to state that I have no intention of turning my blog into a mommy blog. That is just too much effort, and it is too much like scrap-booking (which I loathe). So you can all either make a gasp of horror or relief. Depending on your preference.
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The people in my Spanish speaking LDS ward have been waiting impatiently for 3 years for me to be pregnant. The first year and a half in the ward, everybody asked me if I was pregnant. Even men. I wondered if it was because of the high-waisted dresses I was wearing at the time (I have worn nothing but skirts the last year and a half..in retaliation). Then they all finally clued in and then stopped asking me if I was pregnant. Instead, they started asking me when I was going to have a baby. Or they would ask David. The joys of el barrio. Sigh..


So now I finally am going to have a baby, and I can finally fulfill the dearest wish of apparently every person in my ward. How nice for them. But I did enjoy finally being able to use the word "embarazada" in a sentence. Not that I can say much in spanish, but I DO remember that embarazada does NOT mean embarrassed. It means pregnant:)

David the Graduate + no more secret

Yesterday was David's graduation from Stanford. He looked super awesome in his special outfit.

You might think there is a degree certificate inside of that thing he is holding. But, no. Instead he has a certificate that says, Congratulations, You're Almost Done! (David won't actually defend his dissertation until early August.)

My parents and David's mother came to the ceremony. It was great! The commencement speaker put in all sorts of economics jokes which I even thought were funny. I guess I've been living with an economist for three years now:)

Another perk was that they gave us food. As a response, David said, "Economists know that hungry people don't donate as much money." Right. Economists are smart.

You can watch a recording of his "hooding" here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_bJa3Wr13I

As for the SECRET, it is no longer a secret. Because we are telling it. Hence, no more secret. I am having a baby and it is due December 20th. We alternate between calling it the "poor little christmas baby" and "Emperor Palpatine." :-)