A Recap from Last Time!

I think it's been about two weeks or so that we have been living in our new house. Things have been so busy that everything is a blur. After I returned to work from maternity leave, Eric began to work extra to finish a huge project. When I asked when he would think he would be free again, he would say Valentine's Day. Well Valentine's Day turned to my birthday, my birthday turned to "end of April" turned to "middle of May." Finally I just gave up. Suddenly, one day, he was free, but then we found out that my uncle had moved out of our house and it was time to start packing and start moving!

However, we ran into a lot of issues. Like...the house smelled like smoke. My uncle didn't smoke in every room but even opening all the windows wasn't enough to get the smell out. Finally, Eric did his researched and found out that we would need to wash the walls, prime it, then paint it. Luckily, my dad and one of the tenants that owes my parents some money worked on getting it all done (along with Kevin, his friend Gerry, Eric, and his cousins Vanessa and Jeremy). It took longer than anticipated, but we invested a lot of money in getting the smell gone. There also happened to be two leaks in the foundation, a squirrel hanging out, and bathrooms that had no towel racks, carpet to be ripped out, flooring to be replaced. Needless to say, Eric and I invested a lot of money to make this new house our home. We're still unpacking and of course, Eric is back to working "half days" also known as 12 hour days at work. I hope we see the light of the end of the tunnel soon. We had hoped to have a House Warming Party for Labor Day weekend but I'm too overwhelmed to even consider that as a possibility.

I promise pictures of the house at the next blog posting. So many little things to do while trying to balance the needs of our two little kiddos. Here's a picture of Ellie during a recent trip to Stacy Park near our home.

Testing Google Blogger via Cell Phone

Well, it looks like I may start blogging more if blogger works out my phone. I take more pictures with my cell than our expensive camera. So, this is a dry run to see how everything works and if I can keep it up. I have so many thoughts going through my head, I need an outlet.

A picture of Katie, smiling so big you can barely see her eyes.

Katherine Childrey's Arrival

Katherine "Katie" was born on 10/16/12 at 9:51 p.m. However, unlike her older sister, her arrival to the world was a unique one.

As many of you may already know, I had Katie at home. Not by choice. However, before I go into this very long story of her arrival I want to share my views about "those who did make it to the hospital in time." You know those news stories where a woman gives birth in the car, home, or ambulance? I always think "well, why didn't she leave earlier?" Now that I have walked through their shoes, I can say I understand and hopefully with my story you will understand too.

At around 6 p.m. when I started making dinner I started having contractions and couldn't finish making dinner or help Ellie get ready for dinner. So Eric took over while I sat in one of Ellie's tiny chairs. Eric downloaded a contraction app on his phone so we decided to start recording the contractions.

At around 8 p.m. the pain became so unbearable I told Eric that I wanted an epidural. He looked at his phone and saw that there was really no pattern. I would have contractions lasting 30-60 seconds that were about 2-6 minutes apart. So Eric did some googling and thought that maybe it would be time to go to the hospital. Eric helped me call the hospital and speak with a nurse. She said that they should be one minute contractions, 5 minutes apart, for ONE hour before coming in.

I began to think that maybe I was a wuss and that I couldn't handle this since she made it sound like I still have a ways to go. So I laid down watching a previous episode of Dancing With the Stars while Eric frantically began packing the hospital bags. We also called my mom to let her know that she should be ready for a phone call any time.

Then at one point the pain became so intolerable I told Eric that I HAD to go to the hospital. So he called my mom. During his phone call something felt wrong and I looked at Eric and said "I have to go to the hospital NOW." So he went downstairs to ask Jesse, one of our neighbors, to stay with Ellie (she was asleep) while my mom was on her way. When he came back he found me on the toilet because I felt like I had to poop. I said to him "Eric, I'm having this baby NOW." He immediately called 911 and said to me, "DO NOT PUSH." I sat on the toilet and had a contraction where something gushed out of me (I'm assuming now that it was my water) and another contraction where something much larger came out.  I didn't think it was a baby, but Eric set down the phone and said "IT'S THE BABY!" He pulled the baby out and thankfully she let out a cry.

I was very, very frantic, I wasn't expecting to give birth outside the safe confines of a hospital.  My back was turned to Eric, and couldn't really turn around, so he did the only thing he could think of. "JESSE! HELP!"  She snapped into action doing what the 911 said.  Getting her wrapped up, cleaning her nose and mouth, and getting the umbilical cord tied off with a shoe string.   I asked Eric how the baby was, and he assured me that she looked great, and was beautiful. I didn't believe him, who gave him a medical degree?! Jesse ran off to let the paramedics in while Eric and I shuffled to the bed so I could lay down, we had done as much as we could for the baby.

The paramedics got in the room and I asked the first one in how my baby was.  He paused and yelled "GET SOMEONE IN HERE!"  It seemed like none of them were really ready for what they had encountered here. Finally someone came in the room who got the cord cut and got us down the stairs to the stretcher outside.  To my embarrassment a lot of our neighbors had come outside to see what the ambulance and fire truck were up to, meanwhile all I was wearing was a shirt and a blanket, hopefully it was dark enough and no one could see anything.  As I was being loaded into the ambulance Eric came out with the hospital bags and saw the crowd and did the only thing he could do. "IT'S A GIRL!"

Eric here, though some of the above was ghost written by me.  While terrifying, this was one of the amazing experiences of my life, holding my daughter still covered in blood and vernix is something I'll never forget. I had half seriously talked to Nancy about "catching" Katie.  If we have another kid I intend to catch him/her, though in a more controlled, and sterile, environment. When Nancy asked how she was, I truely meant it, she looked perfect. She was active and breathing, and didn't have any porcelain induced damage.  There wasn't a doubt in my mind that she was OK.

If Jesse ever babysits again I'll be shocked.

Blog is Dead

I think it might be time to shut down this blog as you can see I've hardly had any time to blog on here to give you updates on our family. Really, nothing new but the ordinary has happened and I like it that way. Maybe one day when I finally get to be crafty I'll start blogging again.

Happy 2012!

Classes start Monday!

Wow, this summer sure did fly by! I can't believe Ellie will turn nine months on Sunday!

I'm feeling more nervous about this upcoming school year than my previous years. The university where I work at has decided to change a few things on us. First, students are able to make appointments to see advisors through a calendar system. However, this system was suppose to be up and running yesterday but instead they pushed it back to the first day of school. In the past we've done appointments by having students sign up on a sheet of paper. We've been told by leadership that we can't do any in-house marketing until it has been released. I'm nervous how this will affect things for me since we need to keep notes there and notes in our files. I feel like it's double the work.

Second, the FERPA process has changed. FERPA is a law (in a nutshell) where students have to give permission for a parent to call the university to find out any kind of information about the student. Previously, this permission was given on paper and we then sent the paperwork to the registrar's office and we could see in the system who was granted access. Since Linda could really be Jane, there's now a 4 digit code parents have to give to us to verify that she is indeed Linda and not Jane.

So all summer long parents kept calling us and we had to be very careful on how we disclosed information. Luckily for me, most of my students called me when they had a problem.

Third, this year we were asked to pre-register international students. I, unfortunately, had two transfer international students. You cannot imagine how much more difficult it is to build their schedule. I mean is biophysics our equivalent of Engineering Physics? Let me take a look at the course description...oh it's written in Spanish. *sigh* So needless to say, courses aren't getting articulated and classes are filling up.

We have huge enrollment numbers this year which is really a great thing but not enough seats. Chemistry Lab is completely filled. I have two students that need to get into a lab. There aren't enough Chemistry seats either so we're being allowed to just "push them in." Whether they get a seat in a chair is another story. I say let's just move Chemistry lecture to Chaifetz Arena (our university arena) or open up the Chemistry section for just chemistry majors to all students.

In other news, Ellie is now mobile. Well sort of. She does prefer to sit up but if she's on her tummy she will scoot around. I'm wondering when she'll get to crawling. We have to be super careful with her. All in one week she fell off our bed and while Eric was holding her, she decided to lean back and push away from Eric, startling him and he could not catch her in time. We started nicknaming her "Evel Kni-Ellie."

Feeling Disappointed

I know it's been a while since I have posted on my blog here. This summer flew by. June was consumed with Freshmen Orientation at work and I began an eight week summer course. July was overtaken with the summer course involving intense research. I sighed a huge relief when I turned in my paper on July 29th and rejoiced in early August when I found out that I received an A in the course.

Ellie is now 8 months old, scooting around, displaying signs of separation anxiety (luckily it doesn't last long), and has six teeth! She is Eric's and mine's pride and joy.

Unfortunately, the past couple of weeks I've hit a roadblock. For the past several months I had been proud to be able to provide Ellie with breastmilk. It helps me with the guilt of taking her to daycare. Although I admit I could not be a stay at home mom. I love the idea of working part time to spend more time with her.

However, the past week all of the sudden I've stopped producing as much milk. So I went back to my regime of drinking nursing tea and Fenugreek. I had a couple good days and then back to where my problems began. If I was still in school or if it was freshmen orientation I would understand or have a reason for this. However, at this point I don't. I'm trying my hardest not to be so hard on myself and not to get disappointed that mother nature has a different path for me.

Daycare

It's interesting when you talk to other moms about childcare. One person, not knowing my situation, stated that her mother in law from India was watching her baby and does not trust daycare. Luckily, I'm able to keep my nonjudgemental look that I learned through my counseling days. However, I think a lot about the pros and cons of daycare.

I personally cannot see myself as a stay at home mom. I wish I was a part time stay at home mom with the ability to go to work part time and stay connected to the adult world. Eric and I aren't rich enough for a live in nanny, so we're happy with daycare, even though the amount we pay per week makes us cringe.

I admit I wasn't happy with our daycare in the beginning, mainly due to administrative reasons. First, it took forever for us to get a tour and for someone to call us back. Then, the business manager didn't know how to do math. Third, it took a good two months to get a door code. Eric stated the entire time that the most important thing was Ellie's care. She was in great hands. I cannot rave enough about the teachers that take care of her.

Yesterday, I dropped Ellie off in the playroom. It's a large room where the little kids get together from other rooms to play. It's kind of like recess, but indoors. There was someone that I did not recognize, Ms. Kim. One of Ellie's daycare teachers, Miss Charlene explained to me that Ms. Kim often comes in to hold Ellie and she works with the older kids. Which explains why Ms. Kim's eyes lite up when I brought Ellie in and quickly gave Miss Charlene a boy (the newest infant) she was holding and took Ellie instead. Ellie is clearly Ms. Kim's favorite little girl. It warms my heart that Ellie can brighten the days of so many people, I know Eric and mine's for sure! Even if it's at 4:30 a.m!