Getting closer...

This weekend, we worked on getting Emma's room ready for her, and on cleaning up the place and just getting it all ready for when our new baby arrives! Even with all the gifts we received, we still have to get a few things, so we are headed to Target to pick up a diaper pail and a few other items. It's amazing how many things a little baby needs, and how many choices there are in the store. And of course, one brand of pump doesn't fit another brand of bottles, so we either have to choose one or buy both. Same thing for diaper disposal systems, car seats, and just about anything else baby-related.

I will probably be putting together the bassinet soon, since the crib is already set up and the rest of Emma's room is nearly done. We plan to let Emma sleep with us in our room when possible, which is why we're using the bassinet as well as the crib.



The baby seems to have "dropped" a bit just recently, so we're definitely getting close. we're both very excited about meeting our little girl! Tomorrow we are having another ultrasound -- the doctor wants to see just how big she is getting -- and then going to meet the doctor who may be our new pediatrician. Maybe we'll have more ultrasound pics to post.

In addition, we are going tomorrow night to the Sarah McLachlan concert at the Palace. It will be Emma's second concert. I am guessing it won't sound nearly as good to her as the Van Halen concert did. ;)

More from the baby shower

Gifts received by people who could not attend include:
* Aunt Joyce (a beautiful handmade quilt)
* Heidi F. (the sweetest, silliest stuffed fish)
* Heather E.
* Charity G. (cute leather slippers and a bellybutton "piercing" onesie)
* Evelyn G.
* Aunt Shirl


This quilt we received is absolutely beautiful, and
must have taken weeks to complete!

By the way, for anyone interested in the Anagram Game, there are more than 520 -- yes, 520! -- common words of 3 letters or more that can be found in Emma's full name, Emma Hope S__________, not counting place names, personal pronouns, foreign words, or plurals and possessives. Only two people who played the game listed the word 'hope' as one of their words, by the way :)

Doctor Visit 8-16-04

Today Nichole and I went to our regular weekly doctor visit. He measured the uterus with a tape measure (at least I think that's what he was measuring) and it measured 40 cm. According to their "rule of thumb", the size they measure should roughly match (with 2cm either way) the number of weeks. Up until last week, we were in the same ballpark. According to today, though, the baby is measuring 40 weeks (+ or - 2cm). The doctor did a quick pelvic exam and said that although Nichole is not dilating yet, she has begun to efface, and the baby's head has moved down closer to zero station and birth position... so it shouldn't be long! (Although, as they cautioned us, it could be today, could be tomorrow, but more likely will be a while yet... and that we could go early OR go late.

One thing the doctor did mention is that I should probably stick fairly close to home until the baby is due, since it could happen soon, and although we'd probably have plenty of time to get where we both need to be, there is no sense adding the extra pressure of being out of town to the whole experience. And I would want to be there from the moment she starts labor, anyway.

Our next visit is scheduled for next Monday, August 23. And the doctor felt we should be scheduled for an ultrasound that morning, just to see exactly how big this baby is getting!

The Baby Shower

Nichole's baby shower was today at her mom's house.

Nichole at the baby shower. 4 more weeks until the due date!

We received many, many wonderful gifts... including a bassinet, a couple of different types of "bouncers", a Boppy, lots of beautiful little girl clothes, a fuzzy faux-fur pink coat and hat, and lots more. So THANK YOU to everyone who brought us a gift... they are all very much appreciated and will be very useful. We are so grateful to have friends and family like all of you.

Thanks to everyone who came! Here is a list of everyone who was at the shower:

Helen D., Amy H., Suzanne G., Barb C., Kristie C., Connie E., Donna L., Tricia S., Stephanie S., Jennifer S., Brooks L., Alicia H. (winner of the Anagram Game), Susan R., Lindsay R., Mary Ellen M., Jane B., Nicole K., Barb S., Karen C., Krystal C., Jenny Chakroff, Andrea S., Vicki H., Kayla H., and Carolyn M.

And of course... Nichole (with a special appearance by Eric as emcee of the Anagram Game). Thank you again to everyone for the wonderful gifts and wishes, and we hope you had fun!

Happy Birthday, Mommy!

Happy Birthday, Mommy!

Happy Birthday, Nichole... from Eric, Jordan, Abbi, Romeo, Chip, Lily, and Putter. We all love you very much, and hope you have a great birthday!

Friday the 13th!

Tomorrow, August 13, is Nichole's Birthday. We've got some special gifts picked out for her and the three of us (Jordan, Abbi, and I) have been working hard on hand-made birthday cards. We even have a present to give to her from Emma! She won't be able to pick out her own gifts for Mommy for a few years, so I figured I might as well pick one out for her now. Emma will probably miss her Mommy's birthday this time around, although with the hospital visit on Wednesday night we weren't too sure.

By the way, did you know that the cesarean section procedure has been around for hundreds -- maybe thousands -- of years? It's amazing what you can find on the Internet. Here is an extensive page about the history of the cesarean section. Even though things have come a long way since the 1500's, we're still grateful that the doctors didn't need to do a cesarean this week. I'm betting there is nothing more depressing than being in the hospital after a cesarean section on your birthday!

Nichole doesn't have any idea yet that this site has been created, so this is going to be part of her gift in addition to the "real" presents. I also figured we would have it done in time to post pictures from the baby shower, pictures of Emma in the hospital, and her first pictures when she comes home. It's been a labor of love for me to give to them both... I hope Nichole likes it, and I hope Emma will be able to read and enjoy it when she is older.

Racing heartbeats

Nichole just called, and I am going to the hospital to meet her. She went for a doctor appointment, and the baby's heartbeat was measured as 200 beats per minute right now, so she may be in distress or have some other reason for an accelerated heart rate. I hope everything is okay. I'm leaving as soon as my niece Krystal gets here to watch the kids. Saying a prayer.
---
Update: Back from the hospital now, and everything is fine. Apparently when they measured the heartbeat, it was just during a period of "extreme fetal activity". In other words, she spazzed out in the womb for a minute or two. It's similar to if you ran up the stairs really fast... your heartbeat would be racing too.

Click the play button above to listen to Emma's heartbeat!


They kept Nichole for 30 minutes or so and kept her on a monitor and everything seemed to be fine. The monitor did show that Nichole had at least one good-sized contraction, but I don't think we'll be heading back to the hospital tonight, and things seem to be okay with the baby. But at least for a short while today, Emma's wasn't the only heart that was racing.

33 Days To Go (plus or minus)

Well, only 33 days to go to our due date... less than 5 weeks! Emma is moving a lot right now (or so I hear) and we're both getting anxious to meet her. We still have a lot of work to do around the house, especially getting my office moved to the basement and Jordan's room cleaned out. We have wayyyy too much stuff, so minimizing that clutter would be great. I wish we could get one of those Clean Sweep-type shows to come do our house!

Nichole seems to be sleeping fitfully -- she gets up constantly -- and as a result I'm not sleeping well either. Maybe it's God's way of making sure we're prepared for many sleepless nights to come. I've been burning the midnight oil as well... partly to make sure I have my work caught up before I take paternity leave, but also I've spent a lot of time polishing this site and the only time I can work on it is after Nichole's fallen asleep. It means I get a lot less sleep than I would like, but I think the results will be worth it!

The kids are a little bummed because they might not be around when the baby is born. I confess we're of two minds about this... it's one less thing to think about if they're not here, but they wouldn't get to have the full experience, or see their little sister on the day she enters the world, or participate in all the craziness. On the other hand I think Nichole and I will need the time alone to bond with the baby, sort out some semblance of a schedule, and not have to worry about much else.

I find myself looking at the 3D ultrasound pictures constantly. It's hard to believe how much detail you can see there. (They are posted in a previous entry, or you can also see them at Eric's other web site along with the heartbeat sound.) I wonder how much Emma will look like her "photos"? I think she already has her mommy's nose.

The baby shower is this coming Sunday at Nichole's mom's house. We're registered at Target, and at Babys 'R' Us. Looks like the shower should be fun... last night we even went on the web to research a game for the shower. More on this later (don't want to spill the beans). I'm going to be playing golf with Joe and Aaron at the Preserve before that, but hopefully I won't miss the whole shower!

Breastfeeding class

Tonight we went to a breastfeeding class at the hospital. We had an impossible time finding the room, and the woman who was teaching the intro to childbirth class didn't have e clue either. It's a small hospital, but it's kind of like a maze. I hope when the time comes for the baby to arrive, we don't have as much trouble finding the right place!

The breastfeeding class was interesting. My two other children were breastfed, but a lot has changed even in a few short years. It used to be they wanted no more than "10 minutes on a side", but the thinking now is that the best food for the baby comes later in the nursing cycle, so you should let the baby nurse as long as it wants to (up to half an hour) without changing sides. They also showed us that the "football hold" with the baby's bottom up against wherever the mother is sitting is the preferred position for first-time nursing mothers, since it allows the mother to see the baby's mouth more easily and see whether the baby is latched properly. Probably the best piece of advice: if it hurts, you're not doing it right.

After the personal instruction -- she used a thing that looked like a beanie baby shaped like a boob -- we watched a movie. I think the movie was from the 80's, because the doctors had big hair, wore pink dress shirts with pink ties, and looked as cheesy as can be. It was good to see what the baby's mouth should look like when it is ready to nurse and in the proper position, but I don't think either of us could get past the creepiness of some of the video... in a couple of scenes, the woman teaching the technique to the new mothers put her fingers right on the new mom's nipple, to show her what was happening. I don't think I would be comfortable with that.

Tigers Game

Today we went to the Tigers Game at Comerica Park. Nichole had tickets for the four of us plus Dennis, Michael and Andrew. It was probably the hottest day of the summer so far, and so we only sat in the stands for a couple of innings. Nichole and I did the usual ball park hot dog thing, and also bought frozen lemonade. We also shared cotton candy among the four of us, and Nichole said the sugar really was making the baby move a lot.




We left before the end of the game -- it was just too hot to stand around or sit in the sun -- and then Jordan, Abbi and I walked extra-fast to the van to pick up Nichole closer to the ballpark, so she wouldn't have to walk so far. Afterwards, we all went swimming at Grandma S's house!

Doctor Appointment

Went with Nichole to the doctor appointment today. The doctor said Emma is probably 5.5 pounds or more already! Everything checked out just fine.

I'm in Florida; Nichole's in pain. :(

Today Nichole called me while I was at my sales meeting in Miami. I could tell it must be something fairly urgent because my cell phone buzzed two or three times, and then I got messages on my blackberry. I stepped out from the meeting to take the call.

Nichole said she had been feeling some painful contractions at varying intervals, and they were painful enough that she called the doctor, who had her come in. After examining her there, they sent her over to our hospital (nearly an hour drive from her office) to have a monitor put on and for observation. Luckily, the contractions subsided, and were never really strong enough to be considered false labor apparently, but I was still very nervous. Nichole stayed at the hospital for 2 hours with the monitors on, and then went home to rest. They say she can go back to work tomorrow if she is feeling okay, so I guess it was a false alarm. I'm glad... I hated to be away when she is this far along anyway, and this just made that feeling worse for me. I hope I don't have to rush home... getting out of Miami in a hurry and back to the Detroit area would be very difficult with the airline schedules the way they are.

July 16

Went to the doctor with Nichole again. Everything is still fine. She's not gaining much weight, her blood pressure is incredibly normal, the glucose tolerance test came back with no problems at all, she's not having much back pain or fatigue (of course, she goes to bed around 9 or 10 at night, so she is getting plenty of sleep), and everything seems to be on track. Our next appointment is for July 30th before our planned trip up north. I wonder if we'll see another ultrasound before the baby is born?

Emma's first concert

Well, we can officially say that Emma's first concert was Van Halen! Nichole and I went to the Van Halen concert/reunion tour at the Palace of Auburn Hills tonight with Vicki and Dennis. It was loud, very loud... but Sammy Hagar was in terrific form. Nichole actually checked with the doctor on our last visit to ask if the loud music would be a problem. The doctor laughed and said it wouldn't, and then added that he'd love to go. Nichole would have probably given him her ticket, but since it was my birthday present, she got to go. And therefore, so did Emma. Wonder what it sounded like inside the womb...?

Now if I can only find a baby mobile that plays "Panama"...

Emma in 3D

We had this "photo" taken at Oh Baby in West
Bloomfield. It's a 3D ultrasound!


Another 3D picture of Emma from our
ultrasound on July 9th. Isn't she cute?

Birth Class, July 8

Went to the birth class tonight, and got a tour of the hospital. Really, it didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary. It's certainly a nice birthing room, and it's nice that the hospital believes in "rooming in" with the baby and the Daddy in the same room with Mommy all night, but it's still a hospital, no matter how much they try to make it look like home. (Unless, of course, you have a warming tray and lucite crib in your house. My apologies if so.) The good thing is that it seems very quiet, appears to be very new inside and out, and does seem to have the latest in medical technology. As for the non-medical technology, they say we can even access the Internet and email from the birthing room, which sounds pretty convenient. Maybe we'll post an entry from there! It's only $9.95 a day, which is about what you'd pay for the same thing at a hotel... not a bad deal as hospital prices go, considering what they charge for other items.

The hospital said they have somewhere between 25-30 birthing rooms (they actually told us the number, but my memory fails me now) and that at any given time up to 20 of them can be occupied with new mom's and moms-to-be in labor. I think their nurse-to-patient ratio ends up being like 5:1. It sounds like it will be a good place to deliver. Assuming nature cooperates and we deliver where we're supposed to!


A birthing room at the hospital

Planning for the ultrasound

Today we called "Oh Baby", a business on Orchard Lake Road that actually does what they call "pre-birth imaging". In other words, they take a 3D ultrasound of your baby before it is born, and then you can purchase photo packages complete with albums, a CD-ROM, and prints. It seems pretty cool, and Nichole and I decided that for the price (around $250 for 2 "poses") it would be something we had to do... when would we ever have the chance to see our baby before she is born?

I've posted the link to the company's web site here as well. Packages start at $180, and it feels like a day spa... they have water and fruit juices, small snacks, and they'll let your whole family (or friends) watch the ultrasound in process.

Back from up north

Back from the cabin tonight. We had a great weekend, but I think some of the hormonal changes and crabbiness that come with being pregnant reared their head this weekend. The kids and I kind of wanted to see the fireworks in both Harrisville and Barton City, but Nichole nixed that idea and we ended up only seeing the Barton City fireworks, which were pretty impressive, especially after the nasty weather we had all day. We were lucky we saw any at all, frankly.

By the time we got to the fireworks, Nichole was pretty cranky. The kids and I finally settled on a place near the side of the road to watch the show go off over Jewel Lake. Nichole stayed in the car... not sure if it was because she was mad at me or (more likely) she was just more comfortable sitting there instead of on the ground. I don't know how she manages to sit in the car for as long as we have had to this weekend, with the trip here and the trip tomorrow going back home. I guess if she can do that, we can all put up with a little crankiness. :)

Emma, if you are reading this, remember... don't push your mom's buttons too far. She's liable to turn that car right around. ;)

A busy evening

Tonight we had our doctor appointment at 5pm. Everything was just fine, and we got to hear the baby's heartbeat again. I never get tired of hearing it. The doctor turned the volume up kind of loud, and it sounded like elephants marching in a cartoon. Pretty neat.

After the doctor appointment we went to our second "Birth Awareness" class. Why do they call it birth awareness, anyway? It's not like we're not going to be fully, completely aware that there is a birth going on. And Nichole will be more aware than anyone! Anyway, the second birth class was basically almost the same as the first. Same video, and much of the same instruction... that's what happens when you have two different instructors, I guess. The baby in the video looks all white and slimy from the vernix caseosum, which is the coating many babies have on their bodies at birth to protect them in utero. Apparently some babies can even be born en caul, which means still in the amniotic sac. Doctors must have to learn a lot of Latin. Or maybe the videos just use these terms to sound professional.

We'd hoped to get the grand tour of the hospital tonight, but apparently that's a different night with this instructor. It's a pretty small hospital though, so I doubt we'll get lost when the time comes. And we wouldn't do anything about it if we didn't like the hospital, anyway, at this point... we certainly wouldn't switch. I think with or without a tour, we'll be just fine.

On top of everything else tonight, we packed to go up north to the cabin tomorrow, for a long 4th of July weekend. I'm dead tired. Looking forward to the vacation, if not the drive to get there.

Birth Awareness Class

Tonight we went to our first Birth Awareness class. Nichole felt bad because she thought she was the oldest pregnant woman there, but I don't think that's true... and she was certainly the prettiest.

It was an interesting class, mostly. OK, it was kind of boring. I'm being honest. It lasted nearly 3 hours, and they could probably have cut it down to 90 minutes at most. We watched one of those birth videos (very graphic) and they told us all about what to expect. Of course, no two births are the same, so telling you what to expect is a bit of an oxymoron, since you can't expect anything to be the same for you as it was for someone else. Your mileage may vary, and all that.

We have to go to class on a different night next week, and it's supposed to be a different instructor. Wonder if it will be any more interesting?

April 26, 2004

The ultrasound from April 26th. In this shot, the baby appears to be looking up, and it's a side view. You can make out the structure of the skull and possibly the jaw. The fairly straight, bright line just right of center is most likely an arm.

A very sad time

My father, Chuck, passed away on March 11. It's very hard to believe that he is gone, and I will miss him terribly. This is a journal for Emma, and the thing that makes me saddest is that Emma will not get to meet her grandfather. She would have loved him very much.

Our Little Jellybean

The first ultrasound of our baby. It looks just like a jellybean!

Our History

Since we're planning on having a baby, it's probably a good time to document how we got there in the first place.

Nichole and I met through Matchmaker, an online personals service or dating service, depending on what you want to call it. We actually had spoken many months before we actually met, but based on circumstances we hadn't really connected. I think we had both initially ruled out a relationship because of where we lived nearly two hours apart -- and because I was divorced with two children and she had never been married and didn't have any children. It seemed like we were far apart, both in terms of distance and where we were at that point in our lives.




Meeting for the First Time
Even so, one night in the late summer of 2001, we were sending a few brief messages back and forth via the Internet, and I got up the nerve to ask for her phone number so we could talk "live". I didn't really expect there to be a connection but we spent more than 3 hours talking on the phone that night! I think we talked a time or two after that, and basically agreed that we should get together for dinner... it certainly didn't seem like we had a shortage of things to talk about. :)

To make a long story short, we met on September 9, 2001 and had dinner at Grady's in Novi. We were actually planning to meet on September 13 because I was going out of town, but decided to move the schedule forward a bit because we were both anxious to meet each other. It's probably a good thing we met when we did, because when September 11 happened everything was crazy. I for one doubt that I would have met someone new right after 9/11 if I hadn't already known them by then.




We've been inseparable ever since, and we've found we have much more in common than we had even realized in the beginning. We got married on June 28, 2003, and had an absolutely perfect, beautiful wedding.

Our Wedding

Nichole and Eric - June 28, 2004


We were married at All Saints Historical Chapel in Howell, and had our reception at Prestwick Village Golf Club. Nearly all of our closest friends and family were there, and we had a wonderful time.

Our Honeymoon

We spent the first night of our
honeymoon at Huron House in Oscoda,
and the second part with the kids at the cabin,

...and then spent a week in Key West!


Jordan and Abbi

Eric's two children are Jordan who is 12 and Abbi who is 9. They're both very excited about having a new little sister... although we think that Jordan is at the age where he sees it as some sort of 9-month-long science experiment, and Abbi can't wait to dress her up in Barbie clothes and watch Lizzie McGuire with her.

Our House

Our family lives here, with 3 dogs (Romeo, Chip, and Lily) and a cat named Putter. Sometimes it seems like that's 4 pets too many, but we love them all.

We're having a baby!

Oh my gosh... we're pregnant! We had a feeling, and took the EPT test. And it came back positive! OK, so we took TWO pregnancy tests, just to be sure. No matter what they tell you in the ads, you still somehow feel like you need to confirm things. So while we haven't spoken to a doctor yet about this, I think it's probably pretty much a sure thing. We timed the conception based on the ovulation prediction kit (medical science is so amazing) and it seems like we hit the correct window based on what we've read.

Oh yeah, and you'll notice I say we are pregnant, and that we had a feeling, and we took a pregnancy test. OK, for the nitpickers reading this, Nichole is pregnant, Nichole had the feeling, and Nichole took the test. I cannot get pregnant.

Anyway... We took the test just before we were getting ready to go see Les Miserables at the Fox, so we didn't have a lot of time to consider the implications... I think it's going to take a while for this to really sink in. I also have to go to the sales meeting in a couple of days. I'm wondering when I should tell people in my company... don't want to break the news too soon, but yet I don't know if I'll be able to contain my excitement!

The first test didn't have as dark a line as the directions on the box indicated it should have to be perfectlyh accurate, but the second test was digital and said "Pregnant". I don't think you can get more positive than that! :)


Yes, it's positive!

After we calmed down, we made the decision to tell our parents... we just couldn't wait any longer. For fun, we wrapped the actual test strip and testing unit in Christmas wrapping paper and gave it to Nichole's mom, telling her we "found one more Christmas gift we forgot to give you." She actually thought when she opened it that it was a personal electric shaver, and it took her a while to understand that it was a pregnancy test! Both Nichole's mom and her dad were very excited that they are going to be grandparents! My mom and dad were also thrilled.

So far, Nichole hasn't had any morning sickness and isn't showing any other signs of pregnancy, beyond the "lateness" factor and the obviously positive pregnancy test.