I woke up this morning with lots of energy, and started to write that birth story I've been promising. It's harder than I thought! I even have notes (because I knew I'd forget details and the timeline) but there's just so much to say, and I want to make it worth reading.
In the meantime, I shot another video and edited it down to only the good stuff this time. I know people have an insatiable for baby pictures and videos (especially grandparents)... so here it is!
You can download the videos directly either H.264 or Theora, and my video player of choice: VLC.
In other news, Mr. Adam is barely fitting in his laundry basket. He has a moses basket on the way which should hold him up until we're ready to use the co-sleeper -- at least, that's the plan! Hard to believe he's already a week old. I know, relish/cherish the moments now while we can!
I'm going to make this quick (as I always think), but here goes:
The nurse came to the house and declared Adam as doing basically as good as could possibly be. We went to the Pediatrician for that first visit on Wednesday and same story there too! Btw, I love our pediatrician, very laid back and uses the word "totally" at least 5 times in 10 minutes.
Wednesday night was very difficult, Adam is so confused with the days & nights. He was alert and ready to eat from about midnight to 4am, nonstop. I kicked Kristen out of the room so she could get some sleep (on the couch). Finally I found the combination of soft rock music and holding him just so to calm him down and get him to sleep at about 4:30am. I continued sleeping from then until 11:30 basically nonstop! Last night was much better, we kept Adam up more during the day and instead of being fussy at midnight he was a little fussy at 10:30pm, and but only for about half an hour. He only woke up twice to feed during the night and went back to sleep easily!
Up Next: Birth Story
First, I apologize in advance, this is the first time I've attempted to post a video to my blog, or anywhere on the internet not using Youtube. But, since I'm in an anti-internet-services mood lately I thought I'd try the new HTML5 video posting capabilities to show you a bit of Adam squirming around. So, here goes nothing:
Update 7/29/2010: Video is working now in Firefox 3.5+ and Google Chrome, and it should work in IE8+ as well via a java video player if nothing else. Hopefully you can get it to play! I promise the next videos won't be quite so long. Next on my list of things to learn: video editing in Linux.
*Video should be working in Firefox & Chrome, possibly others too. You can download the H.264 version or the Theora/Vorbis version (if you don't know what that means, just try one and if it doesn't work try the other) and use a video player (Dave recommends VLC) to play it on your computer.
I just wanted to let you know that I started a new album on the website, and put up some "going home" photos. Here is the link to the main photo page; you can find the albums there: http://david.thetyphoon.net/photos/
I am taking the rest of this week off work. We have a nurse coming to the house tomorrow to do a quick check on Adam (a benefit of the NICU stay). I believe we go to the pediatrician on Wednesday for the first visit with him with the baby. We did have a chance to meet with him ahead of time, and we both liked him quite a bit. In fact, I'm changing my insurance so that Adam can go under my plan (instead of Kristen's) so that we can keep him as the pediatrician. Feeding is going well (as are the other things associated with that). Kristen will go back to work after 6 weeks, but only has one 75-min class per day this coming semester, plus office hours and department meetings on the schedule. With that, I don't think I'll be sending any more updates unless there's something significant, but I will let you know when we've had a chance to write up the details on Adam's delivery. If you want to stay up on things, I'll probably be posting to the blog occasionally.We just got back from the NICU, they are going to be discharging Adam today; we should be going home around mid-day! Now we need to get Kristen discharged at about the same time and we'll be good to go. Adam's feedings are going well; as long as he is awake and ready to eat he does wonderfully, but he is a real sleepyhead! A cool washcloth somewhere on his body usually does the trick, but sometimes we have to keep waking him up while he's eating too. Mommy is just too comfortable!
Kristen is a bit of a zombie, she really needs to catch up on her sleep! She's been very nice about going to feed in the middle of the night by herself without waking me up, so I'm feeling reasonably rested. I think once we're home it will be easier for her to sleep in between feedings. The doctors and nurses in the NICU have all been exceptional and in some ways it was nice to learn from them, but having to make the short journey down there seems to make the time in between feedings just that much shorter!
Our next note will come from home!
With love,
-D&K&A
Lots of good news this morning! First, they've taken out the IV from Adam, and the lab results were good and trending better. He's lost weight so he's not retaining the fluids as much anymore. He fed three times during the night, and his most recent feeding went very well. If he continues to feed well and his labs tomorrow morning are good, then he'll probably be going home with us tomorrow. Speaking of which, they gave us the thumbs up for staying another night, which will make feeding much easier. Kristen is still tired and sore, but there's light at the end of that tunnel. I slept well last night, and am feeling pretty good at this point. We'll keep you posted on any further developments. Also, I just loaded a few more photos on the website. -D&K&A
Below are the first three updates. Birth story to come later when we have some time to write it up.
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The stats: Arrived @ 1:30AM on 7/23/10, 8 lbs. 12 oz., 22.5 inches, with boy parts :-)
The facts: Baby and mom are doing well. He gave us a scare by breathing in meconium just as he came out and was therefore not able to breathe normally, but the nurses and doctors acted very swiftly and were able to clear out the mouth and throat. Baby is doing well now, in observation in the NICU. K & D are completely exhausted from a very lengthy intensive labor. K lost her voice and of course is sore, but is doing well otherwise.
And finally... the name: Adam Irwin Diepenbrock
With the excitement of the trip to the NICU, we haven't been able to take any pictures yet. When we do, they will eventually be posted on Dave's website, http://david.thetyphoon.net/photos.
We're so grateful for your encouragement -- thanks for your continued support and prayers as we move into life-as-three!
~ Adam, Kristen, & Coach Dave :-)
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Time goes by so fast here, I can't believe its been almost 24 hours! We "just" got back up from the NICU, Adam is doing wonderfully. The nurses down there are very superb too. We'll see the neonatologist in the morning and try to start breastfeeding. Adam was showing very strong rooting reflex while we were there, so we're even more excited. Maybe then we'll have an idea of how long they expect Adam to stay in the NICU. K is using a breast pump for now to get ready. As much as we'd love to have him up in the room with us, I at least am happy to have one last chance to get some good sleep.
We had a nice visit earlier with Mom Susan & Aunt Tricia and they were able to go see Adam too, it was nice to see some familiar faces in a land of countless nurses. We have deep & inexplicable gratitude for Amy in her excellent role as "assistant coach", helping me take care of all sorts of things so I could focus on being with and assisting K during labor - especially in keeping all those nurses in check, and the Jack in the Box delivery was crucial to my sanity too. Also clutch in the success of the burrito exit was our nurse midwife Cheryl who delivered Adam. K was much calmer and labor was significantly more productive anytime she was in the room.
At some point we'll write up the "story", but we're saving that for another time when we're better rested. For now, enjoy the photos!
-Daddy Dave (and Mommy Kristen)
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A quick (or not so quick) update:
Going Home: We think they'll discharge Kristen tomorrow sometime; she's recovering well but there is still quite a bit of pain all over. There's no time frame for Adam: it could be tomorrow (although that's unlikely) or it could be in two weeks; it just depends on how comfortable the NICU doctors are with his progress and how his lab results come back. We're not sure exactly how going home with Adam will work -- we'll have to talk with the NICU folks about that tomorrow once we know more.
Adam's Progress: Speaking of Adam's progress, because of the meconium in his mouth and throat, they are running blood test for any infections. The results should come back tomorrow on that. He's been on an IV since a few hours after birth so he's well hydrated, but he is retaining fluids a bit; it's likely just the kidneys taking a little bit of time recovering from the birth, but they want to make sure about that. The good news is he has urinated some and he's had one bowel movement so far.
Breast Feeding: We started feeding this morning at 6am, and have been feeding probably about every four hours. Ideally, he'd be feeding a bit more frequently, but we think that having the IV in might be affecting that. Adam really likes to fall asleep before, during, and after feeding. He's also been taking his time -- often our feedings have lasted 90 minutes with about 20-40 minutes of actual feeding time in there. What happens is he'll show signs that he wants to feed, but as soon as we get him up and near Mom's warm body, he goes back to sleep! Mom has been very patient as we both try to wake him back up to eat, but he's a very heavy sleeper (not sure where he gets that from!)
All in all we're both doing very well and in high spirits. Again thanks for the thoughts and prayers!
-D&K&A
We're still waiting for burrito... each night it feels like the next day could be it.
In preparation, we did some cleaning of the closet (stuff we said we'd go through soon after we moved... we just needed some motivation). I ran across my old dolphin perpetual motion toy from many years ago (they're still selling these?), I believe I got it in Hawaii when I was 13 or 14, I found a battery that expired in 1998 still in it. I distinctly remembered being dissatisfied with it because the battery didn't last very long... maybe a few days, I don't remember for sure. Anyway I got it out and brought it to my desk, thinking it might be fun to play with it. Tonight I dug through my box of DC adapters and found one that is 9v, clipped the round plug off and alligator clipped the wires on to the 9v battery connector of the dolphins. Viola. Almost. It moved, but not right. I switched the red for black and black for red, and Viola (for real). It makes a bit of a ticking noise which perhaps would be distracting, but it works - and no more wasting batteries. I think I'll solder that in place permanently and maybe add an on/off switch for good measure.
If you were to adventure to the photo section of my website, you would see that there's new fanciness. My first thought was to make the whole thing one nice big happy land of AJAX, but switched to a two-page approach, one to show albums the other to show pictures. It's not done but its at least reasonably functional. The most important pieces are in place -- its easy for me to create an album and add photos to it, and you can add comments to photos. Several things aren't done: slideshow, viewing different sizes, a way for me to add a description/caption to each photo, and a way for me to add tags / user to browse tags. The code is really sloppy and there's absolutely no boundaries between model/view/controller... it's just all mush, and variables/functions aren't even named very well. But, it works and I wrote it all from scratch. Go me.
I have a new first (for me). The CPU in my desktop computer quit tonight. Yes, the processor. I've never had a process die on me. In the middle of watching the Daily Show no less! The screen got all funky, so I dropped to a shell and killed flash (because everyone knows flash + linux = problems). Back into X and I had artifacts all over the screen. I tried to monkey with the nVidia controls since so far the issue only seemed to be related to the graphics. No luck, and things continued to deteriorate so I shut down. Upon starting back up I got no further than the boot screen performing a memory test. Several more attempts with the same result.
Annoyed, I started unplugging devices until I was left with keyboard, mobo, RAM, processor and Video card. Still no dice. I was sure it was the mobo. But to test, I took the RAM, then video card to the media computer and ruled those out. Grudgingly I swapped CPUs. Desktop CPU went into media computer and I rolled the dice. No game. Could it be? A bad CPU? Not believing it, I installed media CPU into desktop (where it lived in a previous life). Success! And, failure. Turned out I had 1) plugged the keyboard into the mouse slot (didn't green used to = keyboard, purple = mouse?) and I didn't have the cpu fan installed correctly. I fixed those and viola! Here I am. Back to the media computer and found I was sloppy with the fan there as well (they just really don't install well the 2nd time it seems). I fixed the fan, and still no dice.
First I checked with amazon, my desktop CPU is only 8 months old, so even if it was a 1 year warranty I was still covered. Next on to Intel. It seems that Intel really doesn't want to deal directly with customers. I found this line Intel recommends that you contact your local dealer or distributor before contacting Intel all over the place. I did not find an email address or an online RMA form. I did find that most processors have a 3 year warranty. So tomorrow I call and see what happens.