Play Ball!

We interrupt this blog for a non-baby-related post...

My church has a softball team, and for the 2nd strait year I'm on it. Having never played before last year, it's an easy guess to say I'm not all that great. It's not that I'm bad, I just can't hit, run, catch or throw! Yesterday was our first game, against the Main Street Methodists. Unfortunately, we lost 11-4. Personally, I went 0-1, just a step away from reaching first on a grounder to the third baseman. In the field, I played a flawless right field. (Easy to do when no balls are hit to you.) I was actually kind of nervous playing RF. I normally play third, and greatly prefer the corner infield because I'm not a fast runner. I hoped I didn't have to run down any balls my side of the outfield, because there's no way I'd catch up to it. All in all it was a good first game, and I'm eager to get back and try again. Hopefully this time I get a hit.

Meet The Family

This past weekend, my parent and 3 of my siblings made the trip down from New York to meet the newest addition to the family. Busha (that's Polish for Grandmother), Grandpapa, Aunt Abbey, Aunt Tess, and Uncle Nick were only here for the weekend, but every minute of it was time well spent. They'll be back Memorial Weekend for Victoria's baptism. As if I wasn't lagging behind on my photograph organizing, now I have twice as many to deal with!

Victoria's First Week

Time sure does fly! It's already been a week since Victoria was born! Some info that I didn't mention last post:

• born at 11:17pm on 4/13
  
• 6 lbs, 12.8 oz
  
• 20 in. long
  

As for pictures, they're coming, slowly but surely. The plan is to combine all the photos from the digital camera, my camera phone, and from grandfather's camera into one convenient folder, then put it on Flickr. Major updates to Victoria's MySpace Page is planned too. For now, enjoy these favored photos:

A picture of Victoria's first few seconds of life in the outside world. We had to stay behind the blue screen while the doctor performed a C-Section, and held her high for us to see when she arrived. Rather than tell us "It's a Girl!", the staff had asked us the names we picked and told us they'd call out the proper name. I can still hear the chorus of "Victoria!" whenever I see this picture.

One of the first pictures of the three of us together. It's amazing how she reacts to the two of us. She's so animated!

A close up of Miss Victoria. The general consensus is that she has my eyes and Meredith's mouth. We're still trying to place the nose.

As I mentioned before, poor Victoria has jaundice. As part of the treatment, she had to be placed on this bed with lights under it. A sticker sensor was placed on her forehead so the nurses can check her progress. As you can see, the whole thing made her look like a Space Baby. (Sound familiar, Paul and Jess?)

Introducing Victoria Grace

On Friday, April 13th, my daughter was born into this world. We finally got to bring her home today.

We went in to AMC at 8am Friday morning for induction. They started my wife on pitocin, and later broke her water. Things were going good for awhile, but unfortunately Meredith never fully dilated. The doctor decided to do a C-Section. They prepped her for surgery, while I put on surgical scrubs. When they led me into the room they had already started. My wife was strapped down, and there was a cloth separating her head from the rest of her body. It happened very quickly, and at 11:17pm Victoria was born. I'm still in awe from the whole experience.

We had a longer stay in the hospital than expected. C-Sections require a minimum 3 night stay, and had Victoria been born 43 minutes later, that first night wouldn't have counted. On Monday we were all set to bring our little bundle of joy home when she developed jaundice. We had to keep her another night and put her on a "Billie bed" which made Victoria look like a space alien. The jaundice wasn't gone by today, but they let us take her home with our own little billie bed to finish the treatment.

Jaundice aside, baby is very happy and healthy and is already displaying traces of personality. My wife is recovering well, but as anyone who has had a C-Section can tell you, the healing process is a slow one. More details and photos to follow soon!

Big Day Tomorrow

Well, it's finally here! Tomorrow morning, my wife and I will be on our way to the hospital. They'll induce her, and before the weekend's out, we'll be a family of three. it's a weird feeling. I can only explain it as a cross between waiting for Christmas as a kid, and entering a dark room and not knowing what's in there. Can't imagine what it'll be like. Keep us, especially Meredith, in your prayers. Next post will be a big one!

An Explosion In My Pants

A funny thing happened at work today. The bookkeeper somehow got a hold of a bag full of travel-sized cans of Edge shaving gel. Having no use for them herself, she brought them to work. They were placed in the men's bathroom, free for anyone who wanted them. While I was using the facilities, I decided to partake of one of the free cans. I took one, did my business, and headed to the sink to wash my hands. I nonchalantly put the can of gel in my pocket and turned on the faucet. No sooner than my hands had touched water than BOOM! The can had exploded. Let me repeat that for full effect: A can of shaving cream exploded in my pant pocket! I look down and see blueish foam coming out of my black khakis. Oh, and did I mention the pocket also contained my cell phone?

had my phone or my pants been ruined, I no doubt would have been extremely miffed. But the cream wiped off my phone easily, and though it took some time, my pocket was cleaned out as well. No damage done, aside from the fact I smelled of shaving cream the rest of the day.

Lesson to be learned: never put free shaving cream in your pants.

Easter Greetings

Happy Easter to all my family and friends.

For those of you who are Christian, may God Bless you on this Holy day.
For those who aren't, may the Easter Bunny bring you lots of chocolate.
Aw, what the hey, the Christians can have chocolate too!

For my part, Easter will be spent at church, then at the in-laws, with softball practice thrown in for kicks. Then I'll end my holiday watching Curt Schilling and the Red Sox beat the Texas Rangers on TV.

A Trial Run at the Hospital

We had an appointment with the doctor on Friday morning. For the past few days, Meredith had been having headaches, which we believed were sinus related. Throughout the pregnancy, Meredith has had fluctuations in blood pressure and Friday morning was no different. What this means is that the doctor has to watch out for Gestational Hypertension and Toxemia. Having the headaches made it difficult to diagnose what was serious and what wasn't, so to be cautious, he decided Meredith should be observed at the hospital overnight. Long story short, she's fine. Her BP was perfectly normal the entire time, the baby moved during the non-stress tests.

What the stay did provide for us is a small idea of what to expect. For starters, there was another woman in labor on the floor, and she let out some blood chilling screams! It scared the daylights out of Meredith, and made us both glad she's opting for the epidural. For my part, I was happy to know that:
The chair that pulls out into a bed is fairly comfortable
The nursing staff is extremely nice
The cafeteria is on the same floor, but they don't take credit or debit
The food in the cafeteria is rather good, and thankfully cheap
There's nothing good on TV, so it's likely I won't be missing anything
The toilet has a super charged flushing unit (what can I say, it caught me off guard!)

The biggest news however is that the doctor decided that if Baby K doesn't come out by next Friday, he's going to induce labor. One more appointment on Tuesday and then that's it! We have at most one week left. Wow!

Bending Space and Time

Hello, my name is Matt, and I am an internet addict. We've just gotten internet access back at the townhouse for the first time in about a week. A storm knocked out a fiber optic cable and left us without service. After 2 days without service, we called Comcast and were told that if we didn't have service by the next day to call again. Since we didn't have service, I decided that it would be a good time to move the computer. It had been in the spare bedroom, but with that becoming Baby K's new room, I lugged computer, desk, and everything associated with downstairs into the dining room. Next day comes, no service. We call, and of course, Comcast cannot send anyone out until this past Wednesday. So I set up an appointment. The tech was going to show up between 8am - 10am. Well, they didn't show. Instead they called the house phone to verify the appointment. We weren't told that they would call, and we definitely weren't told that the tech wouldn't show unless we verified. Otherwise, my wife would have picked up the phone when it rang. (99.99% of calls to our house phone are solicitations, so we never pick up. Family and friends call our cells.) So Comcast didn't show, and when I called, they said they couldn't do anything until next Monday. ARRRGGG! They didn't honor their appointment, so we have to wait longer? Make no sense to me. At least they said we'll get credit for the week we lost. And it turns out we didn't totally lose service - on a whim, I plugged the modem in upstairs again, and it worked! It's just the cable line downstairs that's messed up! So the computer is back upstairs for now, resting on a card table without any peripherals other than the monitor, mouse and keyboard.

The real tragedy of it all is that I actually had a horde of things to blog about. Lots of little thoughts and fun tidbits to share, but no means of sharing it. (I made a real effort not to surf during my lunch breaks at work.) So anyway, there should be numerous updates coming soon. And because I don't feel like repeating the phrase "Last week", I'll be backdating some of the posts. So pardon the cheating and bending the laws of space and time. It's Comcast's fault anyway.