"Dear God Please Help Me" - morrissey

It looks like Paisley's prayers have been answered as today marks the one week anniversary since she came home from the hospital. That means that we have somehow managed to keep her alive outside of the watchful eyes of the nursing staff. Forgive us for patting ourselves on the back for a moment.

Since we haven't been able to keep up on the blog for the last 2 weeks or so, we thought we'd hit some of the highlights. We ended up going to the hospital at about 2 am on the morning of the 11th. They got us settled into a delivery room and by about 4 am, we were finally able to try and get some sleep. They had hooked Brandi up to a pitocin drip to try and initiate contractions but we really weren't able to make much progress until they decided to break her water at about 9am. It was at about this time that Brandi was able to answer a long nagging question: How do labor contractions differ from Braxton Hicks contractions? It wasn't long after that where we were introduced to the modern miracle of epidurals. For the next several hours everything seemed to progress smoothly and before we knew it, they were telling us that Brandi was dilated to the magic number of ten. It seemed that the only issue was that Paisley was face up and so in attempting to turn her face down, they kept Brandi rotating from laying on her left and right side. Which was pretty tricky since the anesthesiologist gave her so much extra juice to compensate for her extra height (5'10" isn't really that tall, but Brandi wasn't objecting) that she was a virtual paraplegic. Not so good for lower limb management, pretty great for labor. The rest was just like the movies. A little "push, push, push" followed by the supportive "You're doing great, Breathe!" There was a little concern when they had Brandi start pushing before the doctor showed up and Paisley's heart rate would drop to half its normal rate but would recover fairly quickly after the contraction. The doctor finally showed up and thought it was an issue of the cord being around Paisley's neck but didn't seem too concerned and so we pushed on.
















As previously reported Paisley made her world debut at 2:49pm weighing in at 7 lbs 1 oz and stretching out to 19 inches. In a follow up visit, they've shrunk that to 18 1/4 inches which was surprising but she's got arms, hands, and feet that give us faith that she will soon enough grow into her full potential. For those who don't know, Tim is 6'6" tall. But for now, she's so cute and little that even her smallest outfits drown her. We stopped into Baby Gap the other day to pick her up a few preemie onesies. As also suspected, she came out with a full head of hair.

Mom and baby were released from the hospital last Friday morning and we've been hanging out at the house reading, making progress and a few mistakes but really enjoying the time that we've had to get to know each other. We've had some family visit from both sides which was nice and helpful while Tim has been able to take time off work to help a little as well.

Paisley has been such a good baby. She sleeps quite a bit and very seldomly cries. The feeding sessions have been the cause of a little frustration but not nearly as bad as the ones in the hospital with the nursery staff and their very hands-on, over-the-shoulder approach. Even though she's been working us over with her diaper situation, we're just so in love with this bundle and are excited for all the time that we'll be able to spend together while she grows up.

Day 3

Hiccups 1 day old

Paisley Sage

Paisley Sage entered the world on July 11, 2007 at 2:49pm. She weighed in at 7 lbs. 1 oz. and measured 19 inches although she refused to stretch her legs, so we're pretty sure she's longer. Mom and baby are doing great and everyone was released from the hospital Friday just after noon. We think she's really cute and here's a picture of her leaving the hospital just to prove it. Of course we're just getting started and there will be plenty more pictures, stories, and movies once everyone gets settled. Thanks for all your congratulations and comments.

Lucky? Sevens

This post has been percolating for a few days now but we just haven't had the time to sit down and relax long enough to put the words together. It started on Saturday with the alignment of July 7, 2007. 7.7.07. There's been a whole hoopla about the date and it was supposed to be a great day for a major life event. The event getting the most coverage seemed to be weddings, due to the fact that it's one of the easier ones to plan around. Anyone take the plunge?

We ended up choosing the date September 6, 2006 when we got married. 9.6.06 had a sort of sing songy ring to it and so we thought it would be an easy date for others (read: Tim) could remember. The actual number combination though didn't play any role in our decision since we were just trying to find a date that would work well for family members coming from out of town but mostly in reserving Red Butte Garden for the reception. (Turns out reserving the Salt Lake temple wasn't difficult at all.) In the end, we've heard several accounts of people trying to show up on the 9th while we were already in Mexico. Oh well.

All the excitement of 7.7.07 has got us thinking about dates and astrology and such. Unless this becomes a tortuously long labor for mom and baby, little Paisley should emerge from the womb at some point on July 11th. This would make her a Cancer. We did a little research the other night and it sounds like Cancer is a healthy mix of our Pisces and Virgo personalities. And if triple sevens is the luckiest day in history, 7.11.07 has got to be worth something. We were thinking that maybe she should be sponsored by 7-Eleven, aka The Sev. Slurpees for life! Just as soon as we dreamt this up, the whole franchise goes off on some Simpsons publicity stunt and changes their name to Kwik-E-Mart. Lame.

But after all is said and done, for a pregnancy that had zero planning behind it, one can't help but feel extremely lucky when Paternity Leave and the Tour de France happen at the same time. Viva la Tour!

But It's A Dry Heat

This is a cell phone picture of the rear view mirror on Tim's car this afternoon. It's hot throughout the West. Here in Vegas, it's nothing short of hooves, horns, and pitchforks. Granted, the thermometer tends to be more affected by the pavement and notches up a few degrees when traffic slows, but the official high was still 116. The National Weather Advisory has issued something called an Excessive Heat Warning.

Running around the office today, Tim was asked several times, "Do anything fun for the 4th?" Typical polite office conversation where no one really expects a real answer, but still, let's use a little judgement. Brandi is a week away from giving birth and it's an absolute sweatfest, when you're not pregnant. But when you've got a full sized Easy Bake Oven strapped to your chest, it becomes a major health concern. There aren't exactly a lot of options for us on such a traditionally outside holiday. We couldn't even come up with the patriotism to spark up the barbecue for a couple all American burgers and ended up ordering a pizza. Something "fun" for us these days consists of a single word: surviving. Each day we don't end up in the E.R. with heat stroke IS a holiday. Happy Birthday America!

Green Means Go

The last week can only be described as physically and emotionally exhausting but there are a few pieces that are worth mentioning here.

The first story is just the absolute irony of life. Last Tuesday we were racing from Las Vegas to Salt Lake to catch Tim's ailing father in time but only made it half way before the dreaded phone call. As we pulled off at the next exit to have a cry and collect ourselves, Brandi noticed where we were. Cedar City. The exact exit of the fateful event that started this whole blog. Practically under the shadow of Applebee's and Walmart. This place must be our Bermuda Triangle where life appears and disappears.

Had we not been so close to the beginning of one life, we would have easily made the end of the other. Tim's mom had informed us Sunday afternoon that his dad had been admitted to the hospital early that morning because of some shoulder discomfort. This development wasn't too unusual and he was scheduled for several tests the next few days to get a better idea of his recent lack of energy. By Monday morning the situation had deteriorated greatly and a tearful call from Tim's aunt signalled the decision to head to Salt Lake as soon as possible. Being so close to Brandi's due date on top of an already high risk pregnancy, neither of us felt comfortable making the trip without an okay from the doctor first. The doctor's office wasn't able to fit us in on Monday so we were forced to wait out for Brandi's previously scheduled appointment Tuesday morning.

After the appointment Tuesday morning, we received two exciting pieces of news. The first was, after giving us a copy of Brandi's chart, we got clearance to make the drive to Salt Lake. The second piece of news was that the doctor wanted to schedule a date to induce Brandi. I hope everyone is ready for this, because it appears that Paisley Sage will be joining our little family on July 11. So yeah, in like a week. As described previously, we have a history of performing well with deadlines, but this might be a little too tight. With all of the excitement we lost 2 weeks of our growing "To Do" list. Tick tock. Tick tock.