Week 2- sleeping and party time

Well we survived another week and the excitement of the week was the birthday party we had at the house on Friday night. It was Andy's 31st birthday on Thursday, Murphy will be 5 on July 4th and Kellen was 2 weeks old. Great fun was had by all!

Andy and I went shopping in La Crosse and although it this isn't Kellen's first camo outfit, it is the first one that fits.

Kellen got to meet his Aunt Kari this weekend and enjoyed spending time with her. He is looking forward to meeting all his Iowa relatives and friends this next weekend. He hopes Grandma Mac is up for the night shift again for at least one night :)

As you can see by the daylight in the photos we do a lot of sleeping during the day time and not so much at night.

Week 1--- 17 years 51 weeks to go.

Now it seems as though the countdown starts over- we begin counting the weeks as parents and although having a dog was supposed to kind of prepare you in some small way for this no practice in the world could do the trick.



My first thoughts as I signed that our kid really was ours as we left the hospital is "they really let you just leave with this thing". Getting a dog at least involved some background checking-- why in the world would an educated medical professional let someone as stupid as us out into the real world with the responsibility for this kid? Thank god that Andy is an old pro and knows what to do 99% of the time and has been a very patient teacher.



This week we broke every rule in the book and I vow to never say never. After reading faithfully Baby Wise (a book on how to establish a sleep pattern for life) we abandoned anything it suggested and have brought Kellen to bed with 7 out of 10 nights so far (he slept with my mom 2 of the other nights). He did sleep in his bassinet last night so hopefully we will get on the right track this week.

Week 1 was filled with lots of firsts for Kellen, Andy and I. The week flew by and somehow we are all still alive and speaking to each other. My mom came for 3 nights which was a great relief and Andy's mom has been able to stop by lots of days and help out too. Kellen got his first bath which he seems to enjoy for the most part and even though it is probably just chance, I am convinced that if he gets a bath at night he sleeps better so here starts the rule breaking again- he is getting a bath every night if that is what it takes. Other notable firsts include...... (in no particular order)

1. First camo outfit thanks to the fact that Cabella's is in route from Dubuque to Winona (thanks alot Grandma Mac)


2. Dad's first day at back at work (not sure who was more sad, Dad, Mom or Kellen)


3. First jackpot find on clothes thanks to a friend from mom's work who had a boy a year ago and was kind enough to give us everything and then some.


4. First trips to Walmart, Target, Winona State, RTP, consignment store, TGI Friday's, Culvers, and Hy-Vee
5. First happy hour (probably not the last either)with the ladies from Winona State at Bub's


6. First truck ride to Grandma Becks and Grandpa Dano's to fix a wagon to load our hay on


7. First trip to Grandma Donna's house and sure enough she was baking (not so good for Mom's diet)


8. First 4-wheeler ride to go visit Grandma Jaye and Grandpa Harry (and help dad fix a flat tire on the baler)


9. First night sleeping from midnight until 6:00 last night (yeah :)


10. First rainbow today while mom and dad were arguing about where to place the transplanted perennials from the Kansas Street house.


11. Mom's first step on the scale (what a frightening thing)-- even though the idea of it being summer and not having to tie my shoes because you could wear sandals seemed ideal towards the end of pregnancy, winter and baggy sweatshirt weather can't come fast enough now.


12. First time in my life that I did not want bigger boobs- and I thought the pregnant boobs were bad- I could have got a job dowtown with these things earlier this week. If I ever consider the idea of a boob job in the future someone please remind me of these days and I will quickly come to my senses.

So a busy week for all of us. In addition to the Kellen milestones, we think we sold our house on Kansas street. Accepted an offer and they had an inspection on Saturday so we will cross our fingers and say a few prayers that everything turns out this time. We would close on July 14th which would be great. Although this weekend was steamboat days and we didn't not fit in our usual beer tent times and fireworks on the river, we had a great week being parents and are looking forward to what's ahead this week!

Liars and the hospital stay

Well this is going to be a long one....... I actually was in the middle of writing a post last Wednesday night when my water broke, the computer got left on the bed, the battery went dead and the submit button never got pushed. That was only the beginning!

After working in Rochester all day on Wednesday, I came home, watched super nanny, had a pb and j and then was doing some computer work when it occurred to me that I had either pissed the bed or something else was going on. After determining that I had not pissed the bed, Andy got home from work and we packed up our stuff and off we went. Got checked into the hospital just after midnight and spent a few hours walking around, watching some late night cable TV and had about enough at 3:00 am and went for the epidural (little did I know it would be one of four). Even though they give you the little button when you feel like you want more pain meds, by 8:00 a.m. I decided either the button didn't work or I was really going nuts. After some evaluation, they redid my epidural (which made for 3 attempts because the first try didn't get into the right spot). Spend the rest of the morning trying to rest and prepare for what was ahead. Amazingly I had been up since 5:00 a.m. on Wednesday but somehow the eyelids were still open.

By noon the midwife had decided it was time to start pushing-- for all of my girlfriends who didn't tell the real story about pushing- God will catch up with you someday. Although I wish I could explain some of the maneuvers that were involved with this process, lets just leave it at that I am no gymnast and this part just sucked overall. After about 2 hours of this nonsense, the midwife said that she had one more idea that she hasn't used in a long time- sitting on a commode. So in the nurse comes with a portable toilet. I think the idea was to just use it to make some progress but after about 2 minutes of this technique, I told her and Andy that I thought the head was out, and sure enough it was. Good deal you may think, but remember my legs don't work at this time so we went from 1 nurse and 1 midwife in the room to about 15 people in no time! So Kellen's story begins, he was born with his head in the toilet at 2:12 pm.

The rest of Thursday afternoon was spent in clean up mode (who goes to nursing school for 4 years to have do deal with that mess?). Both of our parents were able to join us by about 4:00 and although at the time I thought I had survived this all in one piece, when I look at the pictures from that day, clearly the drugs must have still been affecting my perception! Some friends from work stopped by and in hindsight I have come to realize they too are liars as they said I looked great and it couldn't be farther from the truth :)

Andy came home Thursday night to take care of Murphy and introduce him to a blanket we had wrapped Kellen in. Needless to say Murphy pissed on the blanket and has been pissed at us ever since.

Friday was filled visitors and the day flew by! All in all I was coming to terms with the fact that my body not only looked (but in fact felt) like it had been through hell and back. An innocent 4 year old friend asked why my belly still looked like there was a baby in there and I was wondering the exact same thing (still am).

Saturday we planned on coming home shortly after lunch but our stay got extended when I got a spinal headache from the epidural. What a joke-- lying flat in bed was the only option for most of the morning. I got a blood patch which involved getting another epidural and then drawing blood from my arm and putting it in the epidural to cover the other 3 holes in my spine. Not the most pleasant of processes but within about 5 minuites the headache was gone.

The rest of Saturday invovled getting checked out of the hospital (you might be able to get checked in there quick but getting out is no small task) and we got home around 4:30. Murphy really wasn't sure what to think and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening smelling, licking and just looking over his new roomate.

That is where we will leave the birthing process chapter of this story--- my girlfriends are all liars, I think people who do this au natural need an non-au natural examination of their heads becuase they have scientifically altered brains, and if Andy ever thinks of looking at me in any such way (drunk or not) that might lead to this same outcome the world will be minus one 30 year old man.

Week 37

So the month of June is finally here- although the weather is no indication of such. Thank god most days it is okay to wear sandals as tying the shoes is so a thing of the past . Had a great weekend with the fam. My parents came to visit on Friday and thanks to the McDermott baby fund we got a crib mattress and bedding. Had some funny moments looking through some of my dad's baby clothes. Who the hell has baby clothes that are 56 years old is beyond me since I can't seem to find my clothes from moving just 6 months ago. Ironically many of the outfits have a Murphy dog embroidered on them which is hilarious.

Tried to do some decorating in the nursery but Martha Stewart's force was not with us and we didn't find much of anything that would work. But for all of those who are so damn nervous that I am not prepared I now have a crib, bedding on the crib, one package of diapers, one can of formula and a bottle which from what everyone says IT just sleeps, eats and shits so we should be covered for the first week.

JB and Andy worked on the deck railing so when the little beast is mobile it will no longer fall 20 feet to the yard. Which is good for a mom that might have too much to drink on occasion after a hellish day with a screaming kid. Than again Murphy has to think of a new suicide plan if he just can't take the lack of attention and jealousy.

Had an appointment today and things are moving along (literally). IT's head is down where it is supposed to be which they said is a sign it has dropped. A guy MD must have come up with that- there is only so much room in there at this point and dropping to me would mean that the soccer player would stop kicking the crap out of me and drop on out into the world.

Had some of the "fake" contractions. Another concept only a man could come up with. Nothing too fake about them to me when they wake me up at 5:30 a.m. All I have to say is epidural, epidural and epidural.

And on those famous last words off to sleep we all go!