OKAY... Now I'm wondering:
I didn't renew my SG membership, so who got me a new one...?
In other news:
Lorelai went into the hospital Tuesday, February 5th for an exam to decide when and whether to induce labor. Well, they decided to induce. This is not extraordinary news, this kind of thing happens all the time. Luckily for me, I put in for the vacation time jsut for this occasion that very morning. My foreman comes back to my area and asks "So, are you ready to be a daddy?" Not getting his hint, I replied, "Is anyone? Ever?" And his next statement: "No, I meant like, now."
OKAY... So, I get my stuff and get a ride to the hospital by way of my place-- Lorelai forgot her overnight bag. No big deal, she really didn't think she'd need it just then. This wasn't the frustrating bit. The frustrating bit was the guy giving me the ride. The guy is a nimrod of epic scale. He'd point out the window and spout some irrelevant trivia about such-and-such location, while only nearly getting us into a wreck. This happened a mere five or six times. So I get to the hospital, and it's all good for now. Mishu and Dawni showed up for the occasion, much to our delight. The doula was also there, pulling out all the stops from aromatherapy to visualization to pressure points, and I swore to god that if she broke out in a ceremonial raindance or some other shit like that, I was gonna scream. Several doctors came in, each with their own idea on how this should go, and each one acting like they were in charge. This did not much more than frustrate me and bring me to the conclusion that this whole thing would culminate in an emergency C-section. They put Lorelai on pitocin, a contraction-inducing drug, broke her water, and dilated her cervix to 4 cm using a foley catheter. This is about as far as it got when it came to the conventional methods. The doula redoubled her efforts, and when this all failed, Lorelai caved in and requested an epidural. They gave it to her, but all the jostling and noise from teh monitoring devices got the baby so irritated that her heart rate plummeted. This was due to the umbilical cord wrapping twice around her neck. This culminated in-- Yep, You guessed it!!!-- an emergency C-section. Both Lorelai and Elizabeth Laurie Wilcox are fine, and while Lorelai was still out, they presented me with this little darling, so swaddled up that she looked like one of those glowworm dolls from the 80's:
And a GRUMPY one at that! The stats: 22 inches, 9 lb 8 oz. Guess I grow 'em big.
Not too late into the second day of her life, we took these:
One final bit of interesting info: She chose not only not to be born the easy way, but also while developing, decided to make herself a bit more rare. Not only was the umbilical cord wrapped twice around her neck, but she also managed at one point back when she was small... To tie it in a KNOT!!! Seriously, look at the end on the left:
Apparently, she'll have a knack for doing it the hard way, I guess.
I'm sure you'll appreciate this, given that it's worded better and more thoroughly details the events that led to Elizabeth Laurie Wilcox arriving in this world, naked and screaming. There are parts that are funny, frustrating, even angering, but it was all part of that day's events. It was all part of how our daughter came to join us. Do enjoy your read.
http://merripan-serena.blogspot.com/2008/02/catching-up.html
And in further news:
This was me at the end of performance season last year. I can't say that I was happy with the way I looked, and that is even after I lost weight by performing my ass off. Now I won't lie, I was sucking in and attempting to flex what abs I had left for a better picture. I estimate my weight at 240 pounds in this picture. Eric Rice, AKA Dawlmesh the Imagemaker, did what he couild to compose a good shot. I don't think there is a photographer alive that could have made this shot look good:
Now, in November, I started going to the gym, along with Lorelai and our friend, Dawni. I immediately started working on my main trouble areas: Abs, back, pecs, arms. I do work my legs as well, not that they need the help all that much. Basically I have been killing myself three times a week for the last three months. Recently, I realized there wasa scale in the locker room. I'm down to 208 pounds. You could have knocked me over with a two-by-four. I wouldn't have thought to duck.
This morning I took a couple pics to show my progress, so I can keep track of how far I've come. This is me, unflexed:
Clearly I look a helluva lot better now, even though I am not doing anything to make myself look more fit for this picture. No upper lighting to cast shadows, no sucking in, just standing up straight.
This is the more telling of the two pictures. I flexed everything in my torso, but not my arms for this shot:
I am getting in a whole lot better shape as a result of my time at the gym. If all goes according to plan, I'll be back in my old fighting form (which I last had in my twenties), only bigger. I know I will never get down as small as I once was, as my metabolism has changed. But I don't mind being a bit bigger, so long as I'm lean, not fat. Still got love handles, but I'll see what I can do about that... <smirk>
Come tourney season, I plan to look scary.
I didn't renew my SG membership, so who got me a new one...?
In other news:
Lorelai went into the hospital Tuesday, February 5th for an exam to decide when and whether to induce labor. Well, they decided to induce. This is not extraordinary news, this kind of thing happens all the time. Luckily for me, I put in for the vacation time jsut for this occasion that very morning. My foreman comes back to my area and asks "So, are you ready to be a daddy?" Not getting his hint, I replied, "Is anyone? Ever?" And his next statement: "No, I meant like, now."
OKAY... So, I get my stuff and get a ride to the hospital by way of my place-- Lorelai forgot her overnight bag. No big deal, she really didn't think she'd need it just then. This wasn't the frustrating bit. The frustrating bit was the guy giving me the ride. The guy is a nimrod of epic scale. He'd point out the window and spout some irrelevant trivia about such-and-such location, while only nearly getting us into a wreck. This happened a mere five or six times. So I get to the hospital, and it's all good for now. Mishu and Dawni showed up for the occasion, much to our delight. The doula was also there, pulling out all the stops from aromatherapy to visualization to pressure points, and I swore to god that if she broke out in a ceremonial raindance or some other shit like that, I was gonna scream. Several doctors came in, each with their own idea on how this should go, and each one acting like they were in charge. This did not much more than frustrate me and bring me to the conclusion that this whole thing would culminate in an emergency C-section. They put Lorelai on pitocin, a contraction-inducing drug, broke her water, and dilated her cervix to 4 cm using a foley catheter. This is about as far as it got when it came to the conventional methods. The doula redoubled her efforts, and when this all failed, Lorelai caved in and requested an epidural. They gave it to her, but all the jostling and noise from teh monitoring devices got the baby so irritated that her heart rate plummeted. This was due to the umbilical cord wrapping twice around her neck. This culminated in-- Yep, You guessed it!!!-- an emergency C-section. Both Lorelai and Elizabeth Laurie Wilcox are fine, and while Lorelai was still out, they presented me with this little darling, so swaddled up that she looked like one of those glowworm dolls from the 80's:
And a GRUMPY one at that! The stats: 22 inches, 9 lb 8 oz. Guess I grow 'em big.
Not too late into the second day of her life, we took these:
One final bit of interesting info: She chose not only not to be born the easy way, but also while developing, decided to make herself a bit more rare. Not only was the umbilical cord wrapped twice around her neck, but she also managed at one point back when she was small... To tie it in a KNOT!!! Seriously, look at the end on the left:
Apparently, she'll have a knack for doing it the hard way, I guess.
I'm sure you'll appreciate this, given that it's worded better and more thoroughly details the events that led to Elizabeth Laurie Wilcox arriving in this world, naked and screaming. There are parts that are funny, frustrating, even angering, but it was all part of that day's events. It was all part of how our daughter came to join us. Do enjoy your read.
http://merripan-serena.blogspot.com/2008/02/catching-up.html
And in further news:
This was me at the end of performance season last year. I can't say that I was happy with the way I looked, and that is even after I lost weight by performing my ass off. Now I won't lie, I was sucking in and attempting to flex what abs I had left for a better picture. I estimate my weight at 240 pounds in this picture. Eric Rice, AKA Dawlmesh the Imagemaker, did what he couild to compose a good shot. I don't think there is a photographer alive that could have made this shot look good:
Now, in November, I started going to the gym, along with Lorelai and our friend, Dawni. I immediately started working on my main trouble areas: Abs, back, pecs, arms. I do work my legs as well, not that they need the help all that much. Basically I have been killing myself three times a week for the last three months. Recently, I realized there wasa scale in the locker room. I'm down to 208 pounds. You could have knocked me over with a two-by-four. I wouldn't have thought to duck.
This morning I took a couple pics to show my progress, so I can keep track of how far I've come. This is me, unflexed:
Clearly I look a helluva lot better now, even though I am not doing anything to make myself look more fit for this picture. No upper lighting to cast shadows, no sucking in, just standing up straight.
This is the more telling of the two pictures. I flexed everything in my torso, but not my arms for this shot:
I am getting in a whole lot better shape as a result of my time at the gym. If all goes according to plan, I'll be back in my old fighting form (which I last had in my twenties), only bigger. I know I will never get down as small as I once was, as my metabolism has changed. But I don't mind being a bit bigger, so long as I'm lean, not fat. Still got love handles, but I'll see what I can do about that... <smirk>
Come tourney season, I plan to look scary.
Welcome back.... I was gone too long myself.. Oh well