Milestone

Well, we've had our first milestone here: During "tummy time" yesterday, Annika's cord stump fell off. It was kinda gross, and she seemed a little traumatized (she has no idea what it is, of course, but it might not have felt that great!), but it was about time.

Meanwhile, she's getting her fingers in her mouth more consistently (yay!), and she's thisclose to rolling over from front to back ... that one's a little scary -- gotta keep an eye on her!

Annika's Day Out

Little girl was a pill all day yesterday, with the whining, the crying, the whiny crying, and the like, but today, she's 100% better. Therefore, we had the time and leisure to make our first solo outing: to the Chit-Chat Cafe, a coffeshop two blocks away, with a million-dollar view of the ocean for the price of a latte. First we stopped off to mail some things at the post office, then we went in to get ourselves a caffeine fix. Annika decided she was fine, no need for her own order (in fact, she was completely asleep), so I got myself a cafe au lait and parked us by the window. She stayed asleep the whole time, looking absolutely adorable and angelic, and when I was done, the weather was so nice that I decided to walk another block to the farmer's market store and get us a roast chicken for dinner. Again, not a peep out of the sleeping baby -- she is a very obliging baby in general, I must say.

V. successful outing, will do again soon. :-)

So -- anything going on lately?

A lot can happen in a week, y'all ... here's the story so far, with pics to follow as soon as R. shows me how (I ... can't ... process .. . the, like, Internets? right now?). Enjoy!

---------------

We were scheduled to be induced on Tuesday, as you know, but I could not get to sleep Sunday night, and by 3:30 Monday morning it was clear we weren’t going to need the induction appointment. At around 6:30 a.m. I was admitted, and yada yada yada GIVE ME DRUGS, MAN. Which they did – your basic injectable heavy-duty narcotics – but very shortly thereafter, the epidural, at my single-minded and increasingly loud request. Many hours of labor followed; we watched the frickin Yankees go dead once again, which at least provided some distraction (one doc just about died laughing when I came up out of the pain + druggy haze to say something like “Jeezus, 0 for WHAT in the series? That asshole can’t BUY a hit!”). Pitocin-aided progress was slow but constant until I stalled out at “nearly there,” where we stayed for a long time. Finally they told me I could push … which I did … for three hours.

At last, lil’ stubborn came out into the world at 5:44 a.m. on Tuesday, October 9 – 8 pounds, 4 ounces, 21 inches long, a baby girl with a full head of dark hair and the sweetest dark blue eyes you ever saw. She had a lot of fluid in her lungs, so R. went down the hall with her to the NICU to get her lungs suctioned out. Couple hours later, there she was again, and seriously – this is going to ruin my gangsta rep here, but – LOVE, y’all, nothing but love. My mom arrived around 7:00 that night, and stayed with us overnight in the recovery room; baby girl spent part of the night sacked out in her grandmother’s arms, allowing us almost four hours of sleep, bless her. Aunt A., Sonic and Babygirl visited Wednesday afternoon, and brought cookies (thankyou thankyou thankyou, A.!) The kids were a little wary of such a tiny thing, but we're sure the cousins will get along like gangbusters in a few years.

It took us another whole day to narrow down our list of names to one of our longstanding Scandinavian front-runners, and when we realized (thanks to several of y’all!) that October 9 was John Lennon’s birthday, which she had apparently waited two extra weeks to hit, we had a winner: Annika Lennon M.!

Anyway, we brought Annika home Wednesday night, as soon as we were allowed; we could’ve stayed an extra night, but she was doing great, the fever I had spiked had disappeared, and as awesome as the Kaiser people were (every doctor, nurse, anesthesiologist, consultant, aide, and random person we saw was FABULOUS, I mean it!), it just felt like time to get on home. She was (and is) mesmerizing – we just couldn’t take our eyes off of her. Still can’t. In fact, gotta wrap this up – gonna go watch her sleep some more. Best show we’ve ever seen – she’s worth every minute of the wait.

We are on the schedule ...

Got a call from Kaiser SF Labor & Delivery this morning about induction, so we are now scheduled for Tuesday, October 9 -- which would be 42 weeks exactly -- if nothing has happened before then.

Here's hoping we don't need this appointment after all! Maybe the excitement of today's Yankees/Indians game will kick it off ...

Still waiting ...

No change, folks, none at all. Had a mild freakout moment this morning when I got a call from Kaiser, but it was just the Blood Sugar Police calling to get all my readings for the last week, as they do every Wednesday.

But hey, at least I've gotten word that my leave is actually certified to the original dates (to 11/6 for disability, and 1/28 for newborn care, all of which will shift later when I report the eventual birthdate). My boss, bless his heart, has been on the horn with the leave administration "service," as have I, and it looks like everything's ok for now. Yay!

And now, back to ... waiting.

Finally, some news!

Hold your horses, I'm not in labor! However, the dr. appointment this afternoon did finally produce some results.

First, the ultrasound and the nonstress test went very well, baby is doing great, etc. But, since I'm almost a week overdue, and they don't want to let you go two weeks over, we will have an induction date in the next few days if nothing's happened on its own -- in other words, one way or another, this kid will be here by Tuesday at the latest.

Now, do understand I mean next Tuesday, not TOMORROW (unless the kid decides to come on out after all). So if you don't hear from us tomorrow, don't assume anything, mkay? ;-) We promise -- PROMISE -- you'll get an update when it looks like anything's happening.

The kid abides.