Guitars and Graduation

My husband is officially a doctor. I am so proud of him and all his hard work that he has clocked in the past 4 years of medical school... I know I could have never survived that long. We actually laugh about it, because I always tried to disassociate myself from the pre-med students when I was in college, thinking they really had no life outside of their studies; instead I ended up marrying one and discovered that yes, they do study a lot more then I can fathom, and the road is a loooong one with many ordeals and trials along the way (but then, when is life not??) But I was dead wrong when I thought they had no life, for although not a multi-tasker, Joel has supremely displayed the ability to successfully lead a double life- one in which he studies through the wee hours of the night and the other in which he usually manages to make almost every social gathering he is invited to attend.

Anyways, in case you are wondering where I am in these pictures of his graduation in Kirksville, MO... being the ever so supportive wife that I am... I decided not to attend. Actually, it was a really hard decision and even up until the last minute it remained a possibility. My primary relationship is with Joel, but with the birth of Liam we have been given a higher calling and responsibility. And as a newborn, he is more dependent upon us then at any other time, and should we jeopardize his health (and my post partum sanity) by having me travel by myself with a two-week old?? So yah, it didn't happen. It was nice for Joel though too, because he could reconnect with classmates without having to worry about his wife and baby there.

Q: So what is a lonely life to do??
A: Go on a "shopping spree" and ignore the new budget.
Actually, it was more like my brother asked me to go shopping with him at the Christian bookstore, and while there I saw the perfect graduation gift for my husband. Joel has played Guitar Hero at various family/friends' places and it has been the main reason that he would oft times mention buying a Wii/Playstation (besides his usual quip about the study performed that showed that surgeons who played had better hand coordination-- ask him sometime about what he REALLY did while rotating at Good Sam hospital...). I have balked at that idea though, not only because it would be $300+, but also because I'm not keen on the idea of having a gaming system in my house. But at FCS, I stumbled across Guitar Praise, the Christian version of this game AND it only needs a PC :) Needless to say, I bought it (although it wasn't a surprise, because I asked his permission first to spend the $90 for it, as well as whether it was the right time to buy something else before we move) and it was awaiting my dear husband upon his arrival.

So, for the past week I have enjoyed hearing Christian music coming from the office, and no, it's not KLOVE or Air1. And my husband has already mastered the game. I worried that it would get a little bit old, but then I realized that this is the only time my husband will ever be able to play it, for once residency begins...

Joel and his classmate, Amelia Wiggins. She is an orthopod too, and will be doing her residency at St. James Hospital in Chicago (one of the hospitals where we rotated too)

Paul Tuttle, a good friend of Joel's dating back from his days at Purdue, along with Jonathan Berry.

My husband's idea of being a doting and loving father and watching Liam so I could get some work done around the house.

Diaper Disaster

So I've been officially inducted into motherhood by my little boy. On facebook, there was a comment that circumcision is one of the reasons why it's better to have a girl then a boy. I think having a fountain of urine shoot up in the air should rank really high on the list. It all started after I had given our little boy a bath. I was proud of myself, because normally Joel has cleaned him, but with him gone at graduation, it was my turn. After cleaning him, he decided to mess up his diaper. Being the loving mother that I am, I decided that he shouldn't just sit in a dirty diaper too long, and I figured I'd change him. That was the beginning of the end. Our little son just stared at his unsuspecting mother so sweetly, while she was applying petroleum jelly to his newly circumcised area. I was wondering why he wasn't fussing during this part (he normally does), when all of a sudden a stream of pee was shooting at me. Quick reflex that I never knew I had caused me to jump out of the way and flip the diaper over him at the same time to curb this reckless wayward spray. After about 10 seconds, I lifted it off thinking the damage had finished, I mean, because how much urine could a less then 2wk old possibly have in him, seriously?! I judged wrong. Not only that, but when I flipped the diaper over him, I also inadvertantly flipped his little male part so that it was pointing up and not down... thus when I removed the diaper to finish cleaning him, pee then launched the other way and started spraying my startled boy in the face, while his poor mom was frantically trying to put her hands over his face and cover it. I quickly wiped up his face with a blanket (the only thing besides diapers I had on hand), finished changing him, cleaned him again (so much for his first bath, right?!) and sprayed his face with silver shield (Aunt Clara would be so proud-- although I'm not into the natural things, there is nothing else I could think of that could "disinfect" without harming a newborn)... now its a matter of hoping that he doesn't get sick. Poor little boy. First he has a clogged tear duct and now this. And his momma learned that you can't have set schedules with little ones- even IF I had all the feeding/sleeping times down pat, one little thing can add an hour of unaccounted for activities to the day. What an awakening to motherhood. I have a feeling it won't be the last.

My dad pointed out the comic strip to me today. I've already gone through about 100 diapers-- only thousands more to go, right?! --and after this experience, I almost wonder whether it would be a good idea ;)

New Beginnings

So I've been meaning to start a blog for who knows how long, but have not really made the commitment to sit down and post something-- it's much funner to read other peoples' blog postings! But with the birth of our son, J decided that I needed to sit down and start it up, so here it goes...

I guess what better way to start it off then to post about the birth of our little baby boy, LM. He was born at 7:24am on May 4th, and weighed 7lbs 7oz and was an extremely long 20in (supposedly that's about average, but when he stretches out like superman I now know why he felt all over my stomach).

I went into labor at 1:30am. J had just gone to bed at 1:15, and so when I had my first contraction, my poor husband was asleep and I didn't want to wake him, thinking there was no reason because I had been instructed that the average labor is 14-17hrs long. I dutifully pulled out a piece of paper and grabbed a stop watch and timed my own contractions for the next two hours. The first 3 were 10 minutes apart, but then they started dropping down to 7 min, then 5min, and within the first hour of labor, they had already dropped to 3 min apart. It was all in my back (he was posterior) so I was on my hands and knees by the side of the bed, pushing on my own back while my husband slept. During one of my contractions, I cried out a little too loud and it startled J who rolled over to the side of the bed by me, asked if I was ok, and promptly (before I could respond) fell asleep again. A couple of contractions later however, he was awake, and he started packing his coaching bag for the hospital, while pushing on my back when I'd call out to him.

Now, we had gone through Bradley birthing classes, and wanted to try to go "au natural"-- J for the sake of not wanting the baby to have any drugs in its system, me for the sake of not wanting to fall victim to the hospital's version of acupuncture. But I was in so much pain during the contractions, and thinking "I'm only 3 hours into this 14 hour labor", and I kept telling Joel I was not going to be able to make it. He was such an encourager though and just told me to keep on keeping on! Finally though at like 4:30 am, I told him I "really couldn't take it any longer"... so my lovely doctor of a husband was going to check to see how much I dilated, but before he could do it my water broke. We decided it was definitely time to go to the hospital!

At the hospital, I was found to already be dilated 7cm! Fifteen minutes later and I was upto an 8-- so by AZ law, there went my freedom to get an epi had J even thought about letting me. Once at the hospital though, it really wasn't all that bad in terms of pain, because I had J (and my mom's) undivided attention at pushing on my back. As long as they pushed really hard it didn't hurt, but if they let up then I not only had pain in my back but in the front as well. I think the hardest part of the labor was trying to control my body from pushing out the baby when I was at 9cm (which seemed like eternity, but wasn't probably longer then a half hour).
6 hours of labor and 5 needle stabs later (trying to put in one IV that I couldn't negotiate my way out of-- even my wonderful husband tried for me, what a trooper, although he thought I was silly for not wanting one), our beautiful little Baby V was born.


One proud papa! So sinceI'm planning on creating a digital scrapbook for the baby, I didn't buy the traditional baby book, hence my husband had to improvise in terms of where to put Liam's footprints!


Here we are with our OB, Dr. Charles. Notice her Nike workout shirt. She had just gotten to North Mtn when she got a page from the hospital saying one of her patients was in labor. She knew I was at 7cm, but the nurse said that I had an epi, so she figured it would be a while before I delivered. At the top, she got another page wondering where she was because I had been at an 8 for a little while, she ran all the way down, and delivered my baby on her day off, before rushing back home to take her kids to school and let her husband know she was ok and hadn't fallen off the mountain!


Grandma. My mom was in the room for the delivery. One of us had been a posterior baby so she knew the right Rx to help me feel better during labor!

Grandpa. He had been sick for the previous 2 weeks, so he would only pop in and out of the room for fear that he would get the baby sick.


My sister not only had wanted a Cinco de Mayo nephew, but she had said that under no condition was the baby allowed to be born on Monday morning, because she had two mandatory classes that day... but the baby waits for no one! So she missed the delivery (she had wanted to see it really bad) but came shortly thereafter and was able to see him! Note Joel in the background... my dear sweet husband asked my permission to leave to get himself breakfast, and came back carrying TWO smoothies for me (yes, even after pregnancy I was still craving them!) Yummy!!