9.29.2011

fascinating graphic of job gains and losses

Brent sent me this link. What a great visualization. Worth a click:

Job Gains and Losses in the US over since 2000.

9.28.2011

more from the new baby blog

The other day we were hanging out. The doctor told us to introduce a bottle so he knows what to do with it. Once a day. So Brent decided to try. I should have given Brent more direction. I finally realized this and then Brent took the baby in to the bedroom to feed him. I was on the phone.

Brent comes out some amount of time later with a crying Oksar and says, "it did not work." Ok, give him to me. I feed Oskar. Oskar wants both boobs. Strange, but ok. Oksar then proceeds to spit up milk in a fashion not dissimilar to that of Niagara Falls. It goes everywhere. On me, on the couch, on him, everywhere. So bath time here we come. Before that I casually ask Brent, "what did you mean by it did not work?" "He did not drink the whole bottle." "How much did he drink?" 2/3rds of it! Only 1. 4 ozs or so.

Ops. Rookie mistake. (And to be fair, Brent may remember this completely differently than I do...)

While Brent is holding the naked baby, said naked baby pees on him. HA. Brent says, "now I hope he does not shit on me."

Bath time is a win.

Cut to today, early, say 7 am. Brent is up changing the baby. I am asleep. Brent yells, "SHIT." I spring out of bed. "What is wrong?"

"The baby just projectile shat on me and everything else. It just came out with such force. I had no idea I had to watch for that."

Poor guy. I felt horrible for Brent. He took it mostly in stride.

9.27.2011

time

Time has become fungible. It is so strange. How did it get to 12:18 already?

I have things to do:

1. Keep baby happy and alive.
2. Laundry
3. Eat
4. Blog
5. Do training for work.

Trying to get it all done in 45 minute to 2.5 hour amounts of time while Oskar sleeps. Oh and I would love a nap.

Sorry folks, it is a baby blog now. Our regularly scheduled program will resume in some amount of time.

9.20.2011

oskar's first bath!

What a cutie!

9.17.2011

vituary: deni

Spending all this time with Oskar has me thinking a lot about my childhood. I spent my summers at Girl Scout camp, outside Augusta, Montana. Linda would put me on the plane, remember my father was a pilot so I could fly for free, and when I got to Montana someone from the Girl Scout council would pick me up. I was the camper who never went home on the weekends. I think Linda needed a break from me. Or maybe she wanted to get me away from some bad influences that existed at home...we will never know for sure.

I think back to that person and realize I was precocious and I am not quite sure I would have wanted to spend a lot of time with me. On the one hand, I was capable of flying alone across the country at age 9, but on the other, I was a know it all (still am).

My fondest memories of camp are with my most favorite camp counselor, Deni. I had lots of great female role models growing up. But Deni was the first woman to actually tell me and show me that I could do anything boys could do other than write my name in the snow with pee! She taught me how to use a knife, a hatchet, a scythe, and how to start a one-match fire. I learned how to flip a pancake with one hand over a fire with her. I went on my first back country hiking trips in the Bob Marshall Wilderness with her and learned how not to lose your shit when you were a) not where you were supposed to be when you were supposed to be there and b) confronted with lots of bear shit on the trail when you were not where you were supposed to be. We biked up and down and all the way around Lake Koocanusa, on the border with Canada. I learned to feel empathy for the camper among us who complained the loudest after learning she had lost her mother. I drove a car the first time with Deni. But most of all, we had fun together. She took me home to meet her parents. (Side story, her father was a trucker, as I remember, and when his trucking friends had clothes that needed to be mended, they could throw them out the window in front of their house and her mom would collect them, mend them, and then the guys could pick up the clothes on their way back. Lovely.)

Because I did not know that where were limits placed by society about what I could or could not do Deni was a perfect role model. I am sure there were times when she was probably tired of me, but I don’t think I ever tired of her. All told we spent 7 summers together.

Really, I want to say thank you for putting up with me and for teaching me survival skills that transferred way beyond Girl Scout Camp.

9.11.2011

birth story: oskar edward



As many of you know, we had a planned induction for Wednesday morning, but I was not looking forward to that. Naturally, that morning at around 5 am I started having contractions. Brent and I got up and went downstairs for a walk in the rain/mist. I tried going up and down the stairs. We called the doctor and the doula, a type of birth coach who helped us with the pregnancy. Both thought we should go ahead to the hospital.

I did not realize that our doctor would be there to meet us and wrongly, it turns out, assumed that everyone was late to their induction appointments. I had not been able to get moving that quickly that morning. So we missed seeing our doctor.

Once we got there, Claudia, our doula, met us there and asked right away what our plan was. All along I had not wanted to be induced, and since I was in labor, I felt like we could go home and labor. So we told the nurse that when she came in. She was not happy. The nurse evaluated me and I was at 2-3 centimeters dilated. However, the blood pressure readings they were getting for me were VERY high. The day before at the doctor’s office it had been 120/80, and now they were telling me it was 176/104. Just not possible. I asked them to manually take my blood pressure because I had had problems with these machines before. So for two hours they searched high and low in the hospital for a blood pressure cuff. They finally had to buy one! They got the same reading.

The doula explained that if the hospital thought this was indeed my blood pressure a c-section was in the offing.

After some back and forth with our doctor, we decided to check out. I signed myself out. On the way to the doctor’s office I called Erica. She almost fell off her chair when she heard we had left the hospital. Apparently people NEVER do this. Carol, Brent’s mom, is here to help us and was also a bit surprised at our decision.

At the doctor’s office my blood pressure was elevated, but nowhere near their readings. 142/75. Not in the danger zone. I saw the doctor. She evaluated me and urged me to go back to the hospital.

We had an appointment with the acupuncturists at 2:45. At this point it was around 11 am. We went home to get lunch, and my contractions came stronger. Our doula had asked us to call her when we left for the hospital again, and regrettably, I was freaking out and just told Brent we had to leave. We called her when we go there.

I thought I had wanted a natural childbirth. I really liked the idea. But above all I wanted not to have a c-section.

Claudia got to the hospital and told me right off the bat, “Well if this is going to be your attitude then you might as well go home. Our game plan has changed for today. No natural childbirth.” That was just what I needed to hear I think. Things had changed. OK.

I was in a lot of pain. “Claudia, is it normal to be in this much pain, this early?”

No, she said...but I get the sense she did not know if I was just a wimp or really in a lot more pain than the average person. HA.

At this point an epidural was suggested. I jumped all over that. I honestly did not know if I could get the baby out. Claudia was great at calming me down. I felt hysterical. She kept telling me to ride the contraction’s wave. Up and then down. I did this while I waited for the anesthesiologist. I had not wanted an epidural because women who get them are more likely to have a c-section. Now I should mention that the hospital where I delivered has a 40% c-section rate, so the odds were not really on my side here. I was also very afraid of having something put into my back. I have heard some really horrible stories about this.

Anyway, at that point I would have done anything. Putting it in went really well and from then on out I did not feel the contractions. I did not feel good and was hooked up to all kinds of machines to monitor me and the baby, but I was not ready to give up.

And then we waited. I had made it to 4 centimeters dilated on my own. I needed to get to 10. I was not progressing, so the doctor recommended that I start pitocin, a drug that mimics the hormone your body makes when in labor, oxytocin. At this point I would have done whatever they said...so we did that.

A few hours later and some other unpleasantness, I was ready to push. I could tell. It was 2:34 in the morning and I decided I wanted the baby out before 3 am. The doula told us that most women push on average for 2 hours, with first time moms pushing for an average of 3 hours.

The doctor checked and decided it was time. I started getting sick. I pushed three times, and on the third push my doula told me to stop throwing up, I was not sick and I needed to watch my baby being born. She took the throw-up bin away and I stopped and looked down just in time to see little Oskar join us. At 2:54 the little guy was born.

September 8th was Carol’s husband, John Gordon’s birthday. He passed away this year so it was very fun to have Oskar on his birthday. I am sure he and my mom and dad were watching over us.

Oskar Edward Lattin
Born 9.8.11 at 2:54 am. 21 inches long and 7 pounds and 12 ounces.

Photos of Oskar available here as they are available!

9.06.2011

better day at the doctor's office

Went in today with a list of things to discuss and felt much better. The doctor even offered to call and change the induction date if possible. We are going ahead with tomorrow at 8 am though. I just felt better that she was listening to my concerns, etc. And now she knows how we feel about natural child birth, etc. I think in DC especially, lots of women want to be induced and have planned c-sections...so I just needed to be clear that I was not in that group.

9.02.2011

rant coming: PIC, the pregnancy industral complex

Just back from the doctor. I am annoyed at the pregnancy industrial complex...

I am going to lay this out once and for all and then try to let it go. Brent has heard me rant about this too many times already.

Here are the facts:

1. Earlier sonograms are more accurate at predicting due dates of babies.
2. My first sonogram said I was due September 2nd, today.
3. Subsequent sonograms said August 25th and 26th.
4. My doctors believed the earlier dates.
5. This matters because they will only allow the baby to gestate 12 days past its due date. Then they induce the labor.
6. 85% of first time pregnancies go past their due date.
7. If a birth is induced this greatly increases the chances of a c-section.
8. I DO NOT WANT A C-SECTION. No one in my family has ever needed one. I don't need one.
9. If the doctors had gone with the more accurate date of September 2nd, which was clearly accurate because I HAVE NOT HAD THE KID YET, then I would have 12 days from today to get the kid out.
10. As it is, I only have until September 7th.
11. The doctor stripped my membranes without asking me first today.
12. We had to pay for yet another sonogram and other test because they insist on doing this once you are past your due date. (And I have recently read that there is some correlation between autism and sonograms...)

Finally, I guess I just don't trust doctors.

Everything is fine. Things are progressing normally. I just hate that this made up due date is dictating what will happen and when...

Everything will be fine. It always works out in my life.

Deep breaths.

Thanks for listening.

9.01.2011

mini book review: My Korean Deli


by Ben Ryder Howe

Cute book...Mr. Howe's wife decides that instead of buying a house she will repay her mother for all of her sacrifices with a deli in New York. The book chronicles their going about finding, running, and well, eventually, selling their Korean Deli.

What the back of the book does not mention is that the book is also about Mr. Howe working as an editor of the Paris Review. Super interesting, that part! He is basically living a double life: working at the review by day and the deli by night.