Baby Babble » krishill

Explosives, teeth and more

krishill — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 22:32:28 +0000

Not surprisingly, the past two weeks with Lyla have been eventful and busy.
On Monday, June 28, she cut her first tooth. The whole weekend before she was fussier than usual, crying in spurts of two hours or so at a time on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. She’s not really one to cry for extended periods of time. So, we were a bit puzzled by this.
I went to work that Monday morning having not had much time with Lyla so, when I got home, imagine my surprise when Ellie said, “Your daughter has cut her first tooth!”
We’ve been waiting for this milestone for months. I would guess she had been teething for about a month leading up to the tooth finally cutting through the gum.
Once I got settled in after getting home, I scooped Lyla up, cuddled her and tried to get a look at her first tooth. She wouldn’t let me. Figures. So, I ran my finger over her bottom gum and there it was, a pointy baby tooth sticking up on the lower left side.
It was soooooo cool. It reminded me a bit of when I lost my baby teeth as a kid and my adult teeth started coming in.
And the upside was that the fussiness was gone. Woot!
Just a few days later was Independence Day, Lyla’s first Fourth of July.
In Maple Valley, where we’ve lived for a little more than six years now, lighting off your own fireworks is legal. The first two years we lived here we didn’t light off our own at home but eventually we decided to do like our neighbors and set off fireworks in front of our house.
From my home we can also see to the southwest the city of Black Diamond’s show at Lake Sawyer right over the rooftops in front of us and behind us to the north we can the city of Maple Valley’s fireworks display at Lake Wilderness.
By the time those start, though, things have been booming in Maple Valley since fireworks went on sale on June 28. We only light fireworks off on the Fourth of July, safe and sane fireworks, of course. We like to buy Black Cat products.
I really had no idea how Lyla would handle it because for those of you who don’t live in Maple Valley, let me explain to you what it sounds like on the Fourth of July…
it is as close to a war zone kind of atmosphere I have experienced. I know a couple of Iraq War veterans who live in the area who prefer not to be here on the Fourth because it just brings back unpleasant memories.
And if you don’t believe me, I have videos I shot.

As you can see, Lyla wasn’t fazed by the fireworks at all, in fact she fell asleep around 9:30 p.m. She woke up when I took her out of her stroller after we were all done around 11 p.m. but she was out again about a half an hour later and slept until 10 a.m. the next day. Which is crazy. She never sleeps that late!

This past weekend was pretty eventful as well. We took Lyla to the 23rd Annual NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways. It’s probably the biggest event at Pacific Raceways each year and tens of thousands of spectators attend the race. It can be loud, especially with the nitromethane-fueled funny cars and top fuel dragsters which run at 300 MPH and generate 7,000 to 8,000 horsepower. My friend Bambee lent us a child size headset to protect Lyla’s ears.
We slathered her with 100 SPF sunscreen and sat in the stands for about an hour and a half. She did pretty well but eventually due to the fact she couldn’t really get a good nap (I knew we should have brought the stroller!) and couldn’t hear much due to the headset she finally had enough. Once we got a little bit of distance between us and the drag strip, we took the headset off, just as a pair of nitro funny cars did their burn outs then made the run down the strip.
My mini adrenaline junkie smiled, giggled, kicked her legs and waved her arms in a display of what I can only describe as joy. That’s her happy dance. Heh. It will be interesting to take her to the track next year when the NHRA comes to town and she’s almost 18 months old. By then she’ll surely be walking.
In fact, I think it may be sooner than later.
Lyla hasn’t really expressed much interest in getting around on her tummy, no crawling, creeping, scooching, nothing. She’ll roll around and even lay on her belly, push herself up off the ground, kick her legs and look around before rolling over onto her back.
She does, however, love to stand. She’s been bearing weight on her legs since she was barely two months old.
On Sunday, Lyla and I visited my mom in Bellevue. We had lunch, I took my mom to run an errand then we went back to the condo she shares with my sister, Elizabeth, and my sister’s boyfriend. For months my mom has been trying to get Lyla to take a step or two while standing supported. Basically baby girl would just get all stiff and stand there.
This time, though, my mom stood Lyla up on her bed and she voluntarily took a few steps while grasping my mom’s fingers. It was SO cool to see.
For the past month Lyla has been sitting up really well on her own. It’s only a matter of time before she starts pulling herself up on the couch and cruising. She may still crawl since unsupported sitting is a key milestone to hit before crawling but it’s apparently common for babies these days to skip crawling altogether.
I showed Ellie this trick this morning before I left for work and I wouldn’t be surprised if she works with Lyla on taking steps and learning the basic mechanics of walking during the coming months.
I was walking at nine months. I won’t be surprised if Lyla is, too, but I won’t be disappointed if she doesn’t walk until later.
Either way, baby mobility is looming near and I really need to get cracking on baby proofing.
Life is just always busy with Lyla and it stands to reason it’s only going to get busier. I can’t say that I mind.

Dental Work

krishill — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:18:38 +0000

This morning I was laying in the dentist’s chair — actually, he’s a specialist of some kind but let’s say dentist for now — waiting to have my aching upper right teeth looked at in order to figure out why they’re aching.
The dental assistant, Hannah, was asking me if I had any work done on that area lately and I said, ‘No, my last fillings were on the other side of my mouth. I didn’t have any work done there last year because I was pregnant.’
And before I knew it we were talking about babies.
Hannah said the dentist she works for (who was minutes away from torturing my aching teeth) has a 2 year old, so, she’s heard about parenting from him thereby getting the dad’s perspective. But, she was curious, as a woman, ‘how much of it is instinct?’
For me, so much of it has been instinctive, and whatever I didn’t know I could look up on the Internet.
“The first time we gave her a bath,” I told her, “I looked up a video online on how to do it.”
It’s true! We set up the infant bath tub on the dining room table just as the video instructed us, then we took the laptop over to the tub, and went through it just as the video instructed.
Hannah thought it was brilliant yet amusing.
As we were talking, the dentist comes in and asks, ‘Are we talking about babies?’
Oh, yes. And to be honest, I love talking about being a mom so much I can’t help but work it into conversation more often than not.
“Coming from someone with a two year old,” the dentist said, “it just gets better.”
We talked about various other things after that, but, my favorite part was impending mobility.
“When she starts to crawl, knock her over, don’t let her walk until she’s 12,” he said.
His daughter, he explained, starts running without fear the moment you pull her out of the car seat. She has no concept of consequences, he explained, and an insatiable curiosity.
For example, he and his wife and daughter rented a house in Chelan, and next thing he knows his toddler is climbing up the ladder to a top bunk.
Horrifying enough as that is to this dad, it was watching her try to get down without understanding how to go in reverse, that freaked him out.
Luckily, he was there to catch her when she miscalculated her ability to reach down two steps instead of one.
Dude, we really need to get cracking on baby proofing the house.
Oh, and I get to have a root canal. And I need a crown, too.
At least I can learn more about life with a toddler next week when I go back for the root canal.
Sigh.

Father’s Day column

krishill — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 18:47:40 +0000

I am putting this on my blog for those of you who may not read the paper regularly, either because you don’t live in our circulation area or because you don’t pop onto the website, because I wanted to share this with you all. I just read it again (I wrote it last week) and I have to say I got a little choked up. That’s a rarity, to be sure.

Father’s Day through different eyes
This Sunday is Father’s Day and this year I am looking at it in a whole new way.
After my dad died in 1986, Father’s Day became a non-holiday, there was no reason to celebrate it.
My husband’s family has embraced me from the start, so by my early 20s I came to look at Father’s Day as a bittersweet time. We would celebrate my father-in-law by grilling delicious hunks of meat, corn, eat potato salad, pie or cake or ice cream and generally have a great time. My father-in-law would get tools and barbecue accessories or firefighter paraphernalia — he retired May 3 after 25 years as a professional firefighter — or a Home Depot gift card, maybe something for his Jeep, the kind of stuff you’d get a man’s man.
Quietly I’d think about my dad, try and remember him, all while chuckling at the fun gifts and silly cards and recovering from a good meal.
In some ways this year will still be bittersweet because my dad, whom I adored and whose death broke my 7 1/2-year-old heart into tiny pieces, is not here to celebrate as a grandfather.
But in other ways it will be completely new and wonderful because we can celebrate my husband. It’s his first official Father’s Day. At some point when my father-in-law can mesh his schedule – which is filled with a mile long honey-do list – with that of his sons, it looks like they’ll go for a round of golf. That makes me happy because my husband loves to golf and I don’t want him to miss out on those things just because we have our pretty baby girl, Lyla.
I am looking forward to celebrating Jason as a daddy. We’ve always been a team, trying as much as possible to split things down the middle, though it hasn’t always worked out that way. When it comes to parenting, however, my husband is a great teammate.
Before Lyla began sleeping through the night — blessedly that started when she was 10 weeks old — we would take turns getting up with her for the 2 a.m. feeding and the hour and a half rocking her back to sleep.
There were some moments of strain due to sleep deprivation, but generally speaking we worked together pretty well through that period.
Now we take turns feeding her, changing her, getting her dressed, carrying her around, we work together to bathe her, but there are some special daddy and Lyla moments.
Every night he rocks her to sleep and puts her down in her crib. That’s daddy time and he loves it.
Jason has a goatee, which I love, and nowadays he will rub his beard against Lyla’s neck to make her giggle and squeal. Funny thing is when he kisses the back of my neck it tickles me, too.
Earlier this month Jason and I took a week off. We took Lyla to her first Mariners game. Daddy carried her all around the ballpark strapped into a baby carrier, her head to his chest, her feet dangling around his belly button. She enjoyed walking around the ballpark looking at everything from the viewpoint of chest high on Jason, who is 6 foot 3.
On a side note, the Mariners were really awesome to us. When we got to the park, the folks at the gates asked if it was her first game, and because it was they directed us to Guest Services. Once there, the nice Mariners employee filled out a certificate for her baby book with the important details about her first game, as well as gave us a Mariner Moose card.
“Oh, look at you,” the woman said, “all pretty in pink!”
Yes, she was wearing a pink Mariners ball cap, a pink Mariners onesie, jeans and pink socks. Pink is officially a neutral color to me these days.
Later on we visited the Moose and snapped a few photos. The nice person in the Moose costume even sat down and held Lyla, who was enthralled with his nose, so we could get a photo of just the two of them together.
The next day, June 1, we took her to the Seattle Aquarium after lunch at Elliot’s Oyster House on the waterfront. Again she was strapped onto Jason’s chest in a baby carrier.
Lyla loved the fishies and I think she really enjoyed being close to her Daddy all day. She would reach up every now and then and touch his beard just, I think, to be sure of him.
Another cool thing my husband has done for Lyla was make from scratch her first solid food — oatmeal seasoned with cinnamon.
Lyla took to it immediately and Ellie, Jason’s grandmother, tells our little girl that “Daddy made this oatmeal just for you. Yummy”
Oh, I wish you could see the look on his face when he holds her, when he makes her laugh, when she’s sleeping in his arms. It’s wonderful.
My husband is a great father and I don’t think Lyla could ask for better.
Now, when he grounds her again for getting into trouble when she’s 15, Lyla may feel otherwise.
But this year, on Father’s Day, I am thrilled to celebrate my husband, the father of our beautiful daughter.

Getting mushy

krishill — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 21:00:15 +0000

Solid food has begun!
Well, in truth, baby’s first foods are not solid… they’re just less liquidy.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I spent quite a bit of time thinking about the transition to Lyla’s first solid foods, and talked about making some of my own.
Jason, my awesome husband, made a big batch of oatmeal using steel cut oats. He said he used the recipe on the package of oats, added just a touch of cinnamon for flavor, then divided the batch up into eight little re-usable plastic containers.
On May 21, just a few days after Lyla hit six months, we put her in the brand new high chair I bought a couple weeks earlier and gave her some oatmeal.
Well, Ellie fed it to her. I missed it. I was in the shower getting ready for work. I have, however, fed her oatmeal often since then and she took to it quite quickly.
Here she is in her high chair the first time… but before we gave her oatmeal.

After that we went to peas, then carrots, which I haven’t fed her personally yet but Jason’s grandmother, Ellie, says Lyla loves carrots and enjoys the peas, too. They just need to be warmed up a bit.
I did get some Gerber Organic baby food because I found it for a good price. And just in case she didn’t like what we made.
Jason recently made a batch of sweet potatoes, though, and on Sunday I picked up fresh carrots, green beans and two avocados. On Sunday I mashed up the avocado and fed her some around dinner time to see how she’d take to it.
Lyla wasn’t terribly keen on it. I think it was the texture. Next time, I’ll puree it.
Last night I steamed then pureed the carrots and the green beans. I got four small containers, about two ounces each, of carrots and four containers of green beans. That should last a while. Jason just needs to make another batch of oatmeal. But, that first batch lasted a month, so I am happy with that.
Carrots before being steamed and pureed…

Carrot puree for Lyla!

I am not sure how Lyla will take to the green beans but we shall see.
Here they are before:

And here’s the green bean puree:

All together it took me about 30 minutes to whip up eight containers of baby food. I am really stoked about how easy and fun this was plus it’s cheaper than buying the food. Commercial baby food these days really is just fine, especially with first foods, but I feel like this is something we should do for Lyla so that eating food we make at home will be second nature. That’s what we do, we cook our own food at home as often as possible, it’s healthier, more cost effective and it’s even fun. Looking down the road at the commercial prepared foods for older infants and toddlers, I think that I want to avoid going that route, it looks more processed and frankly some of it looks gross. So, I think it’s good for us to get in the habit of making food for Lyla now, then it will be second nature for us, too.
The coolest thing I’m discovering is that many of my mom friends make or made their own baby food, too, so they are great resources and support. Plus there are tons of resources on the web and great books out there, so, there’s really no reason not to do it ourselves as often as possible.

Let’s catch up a little bit

krishill — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 23:02:55 +0000

Man, I’ve been slacking lately and I apologize. The end of the high school sports season (I spent a lot of time covering softball games) was kind of crazy and took up a lot of my time.
I’ve got a few different blog posts stored up but I figured I’d start with a recap of Lyla’s six month well child check. OK, I know, it was a month ago but better late than never, right?
We took Lyla in for her six month check up with our family doctor on May 20. She weighed in at 13 pounds, 10 ounces, was 25 1/2 inches long and her head was 16 1/2 inches in circumference. She’s still hovering in the 10th percentile for weight but approaching the 40th for height.
During the exam, she was down to her diaper as usual, and Jason was holding her in his lap while he sat on the exam table.
As the doctor approached her with a light to look in her ears and check her vision, Little Miss Grabby, I mean Lyla, was reaching for the light and grabbing at his stethoscope. It was kind of hilarious.
Then the doctor grabbed a tongue depressor and as he approached Lyla, she opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue, all she left out was saying, ‘Aaahhh.’
“Wow, normally babies aren’t this cooperative with me,” the doctor said.
We talked with him about the fact we were about to start solids. He advised that we try one new food a week in case she’s allergic to something it will be easy to isolate and identify what caused the reaction.
He also reminded us not to prop up a bottle while feeding Lyla formula. I mean, that’s just common sense, right? I had to stop myself from saying ‘Duh’ but obviously there’s someone out there who has done it (and if you’re reading this and getting annoyed with, I apologize, but come on, you don’t want your kid to choke, right?) so we have to be warned accordingly.
And it’s important to be sure to give her an iron fortified formula. As far as I can tell, they all are iron fortified, however I could be wrong.
Otherwise, the doctor said she looks great, and that we’re doing a great job. Yay!
Then came the shots. First she got an oral vaccine then two shots, one in each thigh, and I held her down gently on the exam table while the nurse administered the shots. Jason is a bit squeamish when it comes to needles and I know it must be hard to watch her get shots, so, since needles don’t bother me and I am able to stay calm while Lyla gets them I hold her.
It works out, then, because Daddy gets to make it all better when it’s all done. I couldn’t get her to calm down right away or as easily as at the four month check up so I handed her to Jason and she calmed down almost instantly. We are already playing good cop, bad cop as parents. Oh, boy.
So, we’ll take her back in late August or early September, depending on our doctor’s schedule. We can’t take her in at nine months as recommended because our doctor will be on vacation. The nerve! I’m kidding, of course, we all need time away from our jobs.
Next post I’ll talk about making baby food and starting solids. After that I am going to share the column I wrote about Father’s Day.

When I think of Mother’s Day I…

krishill — Sun, 09 May 2010 22:17:47 +0000

So, this is part two of my Mother’s Day themed posts this week. Up until about two weeks ago I hadn’t been thinking too much about Mother’s Day.
As I mentioned in my previous post this week, I realized that I don’t really want much for Mother’s Day, just to be acknowledged. Oh, and someone to clean my super dirty Mustang.
This week I also asked my mom friends on Facebook to finish this sentence: “When I think of Mother’s Day I…”

There is something bittersweet about Mother’s Day for two of my friends who responded and another friend whom I talked to a bit about Mother’s Day this year.
For some moms, it’s harder than others.
My friend, Rachel, for example is having a bit of a rough Mother’s Day weekend. Her response wasn’t sentimental about flower bouquets or handmade cards. But, it was real, and I appreciated that.
When Rachel thinks of Mother’s Day she feels “very alone and forgotten. As the single mother of a young child, I get looked over on this day.”
Well I know that she is loved but right now she is in the middle of moving into a home she just bought while her significant other and his kids are far away. It’s rough and I hope she has some sweet surprises on Mother’s Day because she deserves it. Her little boy, Chase, is very loved. I’ve sent her Disney DVD codes so she can get him movies and merch for free. It’s a win-win because it makes her son happy and she doesn’t have to give up her hard earned money.
Another friend of mine is going through a divorce. She had been a stay at home mom. Like Rachel, she is working hard to take care of her son on her own, and she doesn’t get to spend time with her son, the reason she celebrates the holiday because she has to work to pay the bills.
On the other hand, the holiday can also bring back fond memories.
This is what Karen Evans said in response to my request.
“When I think of Mother’s Day, I remember my first Mother’s Day when my son Matt was born. For the first 1 1/2 weeks he was fussy and could not be put down without crying. Even when held he would cry, so I had to walk with him all of the time. On that first Mother’s Day, I sat in a rocking chair with him, eyes wide open, calm and not fussy. I felt like I had gone to heaven! We rocked like that for over an hour and a half. It was a miracle!”
When I think of Mother’s Day, I will always think of last year, the excitement of sharing the news that I was pregnant with our families. We celebrated on Saturday with Jason’s family and shocked everyone at the table when gifts were open after dinner.
I found my mother in law a Winnie the Pooh photo album, and on the front it said, “Grandma’s Brag Book.”
At first she was confused when she looked at it then I saw the light bulb go on over her head.
“Are you pregnant,” she asked.
All I could do was nod and grin like a fool. She almost had a heart attack and cried tears of joy.
It was totally awesome.
Ginger Passarelli, whom everyone simply calls “Mama,” Mother’s Day makes her “think of how thankful I am that mine are grown and making me grandbabies!”
And boy does she have some cute granddaughters. I met one of them last summer while I was pregnant. I was writing a story about the ladies of Baked Goodies who were one of the many wonderful vendors during the inaugural season of the Maple Valley Farmers Market last summer. They used Ginger’s kitchen at her restaurant, Mama’s Steak and Pasta in Black Diamond, to bake their tasty treats they sold at market. So, I visited one day while they were baking up a storm and Ginger was there getting ready for the dinner service and one of her daughters and sweet little granddaughter was there.
Just look Ginger up on Facebook. You’ll see I’m not exaggerating. She has cute grandbabies!
For my friend Emmily, the response was a reflection on the past and an opportunity to ponder future Mother’s Days.
“When I think of Mother’s Day I feel joy and excitement for the first time in my life. I am due to become a mother on May 21 (but maybe any day now!). I could hardly sleep last night just thinking about meeting my new baby and the transition into a whole new role and life! But the flip side of this is that this comes after a lifetime of difficult years and now estrangement with my own mother. Typically, Mother’s Day was one of heartache for me because of how damaged and dark that relationship was/is. I wish things were different, especially now as I approach this new chapter in my life. It hurts when people ask me, “Has your mom been helping you get ready?” That’s not my path. But what I do know is I won’t let that happen between me and my child. And I am already so filled with love for my “Little B” that I know it never will.”

To all my mom friends, I want to wish you a Happy Mother’s Day, whatever stage of parenthood you are in now.

A year ago I could never have guessed how amazing it would be to become a mom. I knew it would be awesome but I had no idea how awesome. I’m looking forward to spending the day with my mom and sister eating Indian food for lunch then do dinner with Jason’s family. It looks like it’ll be sunny and warm. I couldn’t ask for anything more.

Well, except for a clean car. Oh, and one other thing — could somebody else go to Costco for me next time? OK. Thanks!

I am SUCH a mom.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Momma in a Mustang

krishill — Wed, 05 May 2010 05:17:50 +0000

Up until a few days ago I hadn’t thought much about Mother’s Day as how it pertains to me as a mom.
Then I realized no one had asked me what I wanted to do, if anything, for Mother’s Day. And I realized no one asked me if I wanted a gift for Mother’s Day.
And I started to get annoyed.
This is my first Mother’s Day as a mommy.
OK, I was a mom-to-be last year but I had just found out I was pregnant and we were so focused at that time on breaking the news to our families not to mention the impending joy of being parents as well as the insanity that my high risk pregnancy was going to be for the next many months.
Last year I wrote a story for our print edition that came out the Friday before Mother’s Day. I visited with a co-op group who was touring a fire station in Maple Valley and asked a mom who was pregnant with her second child and was in the group with her pre-school aged daughter about the holiday.
She basically told me that even though she’s a mom the day is still more about her mother than a day to celebrate her mommy-hood.
At the time I didn’t get it.
Now, though, I totally do.
I’ve just been pondering how to celebrate with my mom as well as Jason’s mother and grandmother.
But, I do want to be acknowledged. I don’t want some great big party. Up until this morning I wasn’t really sure I even wanted a gift.
Then, as I got into my filthy 2000 Ford Mustang this morning to head to work, I realized what I want for Mother’s Day — someone to thoroughly and lovingly detail my beloved Mustang.
This car is 10 years old. It has nearly 150,000 miles on it. And it is not a family car by any stretch of the imagination. It is, however, my dream car. I was 23 when I got it, just three months after I was diagnosed with diabetes while living in Las Vegas, and for years I had driven junkers and hand me downs.
This is the first nice car I’ve ever owned. I love my Mustang. And now that it’s paid for, I want to take care of it, but it’s hard as a new mommy. It gets regular oil changes and all but hand washing the exterior and carefully wiping down the interior is quite low on my priority list.
So, it would be super awesome if someone would be willing to detail my car and make it sparkle like a blue jewel.
Yeah, I’m a momma in a Mustang. When I drive around with my baby I want it to look gorgeous.
Now, to point Jason to this blog post… a nice subtle hint for what I want for Mother’s Day. Heh.

Parenthood has …

krishill — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 22:53:15 +0000

Something I’ve recently noticed is that being a parent has brought out two things in me: my inner crafter and my inner coupon clipper. Allow me to explain.

The inner crafter
During the holidays shortly after Lyla was born I got into making stuff. Crafty stuff. The kind of stuff that requires going to Jo-Ann’s or Michael’s. I’ve bought things like stamp pads and scrap book paper and the like.
For example, with the stamp pad I took a picture frame that had some spiffy matting with pink highlights and a white space to the left of the opening for the photo. So, I put a photo of Lyla and put that in there, then I took her footprint with the stamp pad and put it on the white side of the matting. The finishing touch was her name in black letters that I grabbed from the scrap booking section at Jo-Ann’s.
Another thing I did with the stamp pad was make a footprint “Daddy” tie for Jason. I got a lilac colored silk tie from the Nordstrom Rack at the Super Mall and put Lyla’s footprint on it. He loved it. And I think the whole thing cost me about $12. Oh, but, I’ll get to the cheap skate, er, I mean inner coupon clipper in a bit.
I had also hoped to make a blanket for my sister-in-law for Christmas. Got all the stuff for it, but, just didn’t get to it. Maybe I’ll get it done by her birthday in October.
About a week ago I took some of the wallet size photos of Lyla from the Our 365 photo shoot and made a photo collage. We had purchased a bunch of frames for the photos from that session. One of them was for an odd sized 10 by 13 photo collage so we bought dusty rose colored mat board so we could custom cut it for a frame. Jason cut the mat out and put that together. There was a square of board left so I decided to make the photo collage. Got my hands on a glue stick, more scrap booking stickers, and put it all together. I posted a photo of the finished product that I put in a floating frame and offered it up. My sister claimed it.
My next little project will be putting some iron-on transfers I got from Jo-Ann’s onto onesies and T-shirts for Lyla. One says, “Party At My Crib.” Another one has guitars with the necks crossed and so on then it says, “Sleep, Hugs and Rock n Roll.” Totally cool.
I haven’t done this much arts and crafts stuff since I was a teenager working as a counselor at Camp Orkila. If I start trying to do pottery again, someone haul me back from the edge. OK?

My inner coupon clipper
I have always been a fan of scoring a good deal but I found clipping coupons or buying gently used stuff generally abhorrent.
Then I had Lyla.
Buying stuff for a kiddo can really leave a hurtin’ on your wallet, especially if you buy everything new.
Luckily I did a story on Kid to Kid in Covington shortly before I got pregnant. That has been a great resource for all kinds of cool stuff. I’ve saved money on clothes and other items there, not just for myself, but for friends who have had or will have babies in recent months.
I’ve also signed up for the coupon savings e-mails through Carter’s, Osh Kosh B’Gosh and The Children’s Place. In mid-March my mother-in-law and I went shopping for clothes for Lyla to wear from six to nine months to add to the handful of things I had already. Beyond newborn and three to six month stuff, bigger clothes were few and far between, something I suspect a lot new parents encounter.
We got Lyla plenty of clothes during the shopping spree to get her through spring and summer. The way she outgrows clothes is in height. She’s not yet been too heavy for anything. Even now, as she approaches five months old, I’m starting to think I’m going to have to move her to six to nine month size clothes because quite a few things are not long enough.
Anyway, I had coupons and there were a bunch of sales going on. For me, I have taken bargain hunting to a whole new level.
With how quickly she’s growing at this point, it makes no sense to buy everything full price, to not take advantage of coupons and sales. It’s simply smart and cost effective.
Since Lyla is also formula fed, I’ve signed up for Similac’s Strong Moms program. Basically, that entailed giving them some personal information online. In exchange, I’ve gotten about $30 worth of formula from them and already $10 in coupons, which I will use next time I buy formula for her.
Maybe I should sign up for coupons from Pampers, too, since babies go through a couple thousand diapers in the first year of life, give or take a few hundred.
Next, though, I’m trying to find the best deal I can on the high chair I want to get. I foresee a trip to the SuperMall in the near future as a trip to Kid to Kid was unsuccessful and searching on Craigslist didn’t turn up what I was looking for, either.

It’s interesting to discover the ways in which parenthood has changed me or brought to the forefront qualities I had but in ways I never would have previously imagined.

It might be a little ambitious

krishill — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 05:09:51 +0000

Lyla will be five months old this Sunday which means solid food is just a month away.
I am a planner. I like structure. I am organized.
Therefore, this weekend I am hoping Jason and I can make some first foods for Lyla and put it away in the freezer so we can have it ready to go in May when we decide to start feeding her solid foods.
So, here’s my plan, and I am hoping it’s not too ambitious.
After doing a fair amount of reading (remember how obsessive I was while I was pregnant, reading books, articles on the Internet, mommy blogs and so on? Yeah, so, no surprise here, right?) on first foods I’ve made a few decisions after talking it over with Jason and our family doctor.
Our family doctor told us we could begin solids at about five months if we wanted to, though I told him we’d rather wait until six months, which he said was just fine.
I also told him I’d rather do oatmeal than rice cereal and he was also fine with that.
So, I’ve looked up how to prepare baby appropriate oatmeal. Jason likes to cook. He is a big fan of Alton Brown’s show, “Good Eats,” which is on Food Network. There is an episode of “Good Eats” about oatmeal so Jason has an oatmeal recipe. Turns out we even have rolled oats in the kitchen. Awesome!
All Jason has to do is grind up the oats to a finer consistency then cook up a batch. We can season it with some cinnamon, maybe some allspice, and then I’m thinking we can divvy it up into little containers then pop them into the freezer.
Next one should be fairly easy. I love bananas and they are another doctor-approved, baby tested and mom endorsed first food. Fantastic. We always have bananas in the house because I like to eat at least one a day. I also like to give the really ripe ones to my beagles as a treat. Everybody loves bananas!
We’ve got a food processor. So, just puree some bananas, spice them up just like we plan to do with the oatmeal, divvy up into containers and there is another great option.
Finally, I want to get a sweet potato, steam it, mash it then puree it. Sweet potatoes are really good for you. Tons of great vitamins and minerals, just all kinds of healthy goodness, and seasoned right they taste delicious
We had sweet potatoes for Easter dinner at my in-law’s house. I love sweet potatoes. Mmm. Mashed up with cinnamon and brown sugar, my father in law also used Splenda to sweeten it, then some marshmallows on top. I don’t like marshmallows much unless atop sweet potatoes or in s’mores.
After we finished eating I put the tiniest dab of sweet potato on my index finger and gave it to Lyla to see what she thought. OK, maybe an ill-advised experiment, but I was curious. She pushed it out of her mouth. A few minutes later I tried one more time and she tasted it but I didn’t see a significant reaction one way or another.
Maybe she’ll be more into it next month.
But, that’s my homemade baby food plan. Now, I’m realistic, I know that we’re not going to be able make food for her all the time so I plan on getting some Gerber Organic food, as well. I just really feel like it’s important given the extensive history of diabetes on my side of her genetic balance sheet to be careful about her food now.
The other part of this puzzle is finding a high chair. I have one in mind but I am always open to suggestions.
And I know I got some baby spoons at my shower but I have no idea where they are … well, I know they are in Lyla’s room, I’m just not sure where they are in her room.
But, I guess I have a month or so to find them, so I should be fine.
I suspect, however, I will tear her room apart this weekend to find them.
I have mentioned I’m a little obsessive, right?
OK. Good.
I’ll let you know how the baby food experiment goes this weekend. I’ll try to take pictures, too.

my love/hate relationship with doctors

krishill — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 20:17:27 +0000

Note: I wrote this post about a month ago, not aware of the swirling controversy regarding the impending vote in Congress on health care reform. I wrote another blog more specifically about Lyla and posted that instead, hanging onto this for another time. I’ve decided to finally post this now that things have quieted a bit on the health care reform bill as I am not keen on making political statements in the interest of maintaining my objectivity. In other words, I have no political opinions, so please don’t ask. But, as you will see, I have strong opinions about our health care system. So, keep that in mind. Thanks!

Doctors were a big part of my life last year.
If I counted right, I saw at least nine different doctors last year, though most of that was related to my pregnancy.
On one hand, I like the doctors I deal with regularly, especially my OB and our family doctor. I am not too fond of my endocrinologist and am seriously considering firing her and just having our new family doc here in Maple Valley manage my diabetes.
On the other hand, though, dealing with doctors drives me crazy. I am always asked to show up 10-15 minutes early to fill out or sign paperwork as well as deal with anything else that may come up.
Then I wait. Sometimes it’s just a few minutes. Other times it has been as long as an hour. Usually I wait about 15 minutes on average to see any of my doctors.
And then if I’m lucky I get about five to 10 minutes of the doctor’s time. I give up a lot of time to get to the appointment, to be early, to fill out paperwork, to wait, to then only get a little bit of face time.
During the third trimester of my pregnancy I spent some time really reading up on what a doctor has to go through just to get to a point where he is allowed to practice medicine, particularly the training required for an obstetrician/gynecologist. I realized I didn’t really have a clue so I started reading up on it because that’s what I like to do with my free time and the Internet enables this obsession. Thank you, technology.
So, you spend four years as an undergrad, three years in med school (I think), then another four years in residency after which you go out and make your way in the world as an OB/GYN.
Now this gives me a greater appreciation for my OB, of course, and doctors in general. Then I read about the fact that med school grads have upwards of $100,000 in debt. Yikes.
While I was on maternity leave I read an article that I can’t find now that said something to the effect that doctors have to see 20 to 25 patients a day to make any money.
Then I read this blog by Dr. Vance Harris which outlines how much money he gets for dealing with various patient scenarios.
Wow.
Another article that turned up mentioned something I’m seeing that I had no awareness of is this growing shortage of primary care physicians. Up until last fall when I went looking for a doctor for Lyla, I basically just saw my endocrinologist as my PCP, and if I got sick I’d just make a quick trip to the Urgent Care center at the MultiCare in Covington. It’s been a while since I was really sick, about four years, and needed to go to urgent care in Covington. Yay?
So, I was reading this article on Mother Jones online about health care reform and so on, and it was pretty eye opening.
It’s no wonder I have a love/hate relationship with doctors. And all this reading has led me to realize that I have no idea how to make this system better. Some of the stuff I’ve read has raised more questions than answers because as someone with a chronic disorder, I am between a rock and a hard place, I need my doctors to stay healthy.
In order to see them, though, I have to put up with the fact that I will only get 10 minutes of their time if I’m lucky.
In fairness, our new family doc spends quite a bit of time with us when we take Lyla to see him, which is really nice. He’s soft-spoken, laid back and has tons of experience. I know I can trust him with Lyla’s care. So, I put up with it if he’s running a little late.
And it seems like I’m not the only one based on this series of surveys on Gallup’s Web site about patient satisfaction.
One of my favorite doctors ever was Dr. Ashit Patel out of Proliance Surgeons in Bellevue. I was referred to him by a PCP I was seeing in Bellevue shortly before we moved to Maple Valley in 2004. I had a bulging disc in my lower back between my L4 and L5 vertebrae. It’s an old injury that I re-injured twice, in 2000 and 2003, before I finally had surgery in 2006 to repair it.
Dr. Patel initially did the fast-talking-I-need-to-see-10-more-patients-today thing during the first couple of visits. But over time he started asking me questions and when he found out I’m a reporter, we started having conversations, and I actually enjoyed seeing him. I feel like his understanding of and interest in what I do for a living helped him treat my injury better.
So, I was saddened to receive a letter 18 months ago from his office that his practice had chosen to no longer work with the insurance provider my company was using. Luckily, I had just completed the last round of physical therapy post-op and my back was feeling awesome, so I decided to cross my fingers and hope I wouldn’t need to see him again.
Recently our company changed insurance providers. Our new cards were sent out a couple months ago. And, of course, mine got recycled on accident. While digging around on the new insurer’s Web site to find out some information I looked through the providers list and saw that Dr. Patel takes my new insurance provider. Woohoo!
For the past month or so, I’ve been thinking I really need to do some core work to strengthen my abdominal and lower back muscles, having a baby can really mess up your core function!
But, I didn’t know if I wanted to go to a gym, just look up some exercises online, find some other solution or what. Now I’m thinking I may just go see Dr. Patel and see about some physical therapy. It seems to me this would be good preventative medicine. Getting stronger post-baby would minimize re-injury of my back during any kind of exercise program I may start up someday when I find the time.
So, I will go through all that insanity of calling to make an appointment for a month out, drive to Bellevue, fill out paperwork, sign stuff, and wait around to see him.
It’s worth it, though, right? I mean, it’s become clear to me the system needs help, I don’t know how to fix it so I guess I’ll just make the most of it by finding good doctors who are worth the time and effort of working within the system to see.
This way Lyla has the healthiest mommy possible.
And the love/hate relationship continues.

Did I mention it’s awesome?

krishill — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 04:54:05 +0000

I remember reading an article covering Steve Sarkisian’s first press conference as coach of the University of Washington football team. As a graduate of UW, I was keenly interested in what this guy was like since I knew so little of him, aside from working for Pete Carroll as offensive coordinator for USC.
What I took away from the story was that Sarkisian likes the word “awesome.” The reporter may have been exaggerating, but, I seem to recall him writing that Sarkisian said “awesome” upwards of 50 times in the press conference.
I’m starting to feel like Coach Sark these days.
Whenever anyone asks me about motherhood — What’s it like being a mom? How’s the baby? How do you like motherhood? — I say almost automatically now, “It’s awesome!”
There’s no other way to answer the question.
I mean, I love being a mom, I love Lyla more than words can convey but it’s so freaking hard to say that succinctly.
Think about it, when people ask some variation of that question, they don’t really want every little detail. I could literally talk about Lyla for an hour. More if prompted with the right questions.
But, the socially correct thing to do is to just say something short yet packs a powerful punch in order to get the message across that I am head over heels in love with being a mommy.
Anyone truly interested in knowing more will ask pointed questions like:
• How big was she when she was born? What’s she up to now?
• Is she sleeping through the night?
• Have you thought about solid foods yet?
• Are you nursing? (And, that, of course generates a half an hour long explanation…)
• How did she do at her last doctor’s appointment?
• Is she rolling over yet?
• Have you gone back work?
• Oh, so, who takes care of her when you’re working?
• And my personal favorite… Are you thinking about having more kids?

On that last one, I decided I wanted to have another kiddo while I was in the third trimester with Lyla. Pregnancy wasn’t too bad. I would like to give our little girl a sibling since Jason and I both a sibling growing up. It’s just a matter of how long before I start working on Jason about future offspring. We will only have one more. We agreed long ago that we would have two kids and with my diabetes I think that’s about as much as I could handle physically.

Every moment with my daughter is amazing. I just adore her. I have eight pictures of her in my wallet. One photo is the wallpaper on my computer at work and I have four others on my desk. And don’t forget that I have her name tatooed on my left shoulder. And as I have mentioned before, she’s just an awesome kid. Oh, there’s that word again! But, it’s true. In the morning she wakes up laughing and chattering happily. When I lean over her crib she smiles and squeals with delight at the sight of my face. And she’s been sleeping through the night for two months now. How can I not love being a mom?
Being a parent is amazing beyond anything I could have imagined or hoped for and I hear it’s only going to get better.
As Sark would say, it’s “awesome!”

So, funny story …

krishill — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 22:49:28 +0000

First, I have to apologize for not blogging in nearly three weeks. Everything has been crazy busy here at work and crazy busy at home. Being a working mom has taught me the true meaning of “busy.”
I do have a funny story for you, though.
On Feb. 23 we had a photographer named Chris come to our house to shoot some more photos of Lyla. I freely admit I’m a sucker at times. He’s with the company Our 365 which shoots newborn photos at Valley where Lyla was born. So, apparently they have a free sitting and 8×10 deal they do anytime after the baby is a month old. Now, obviously the idea is to come take photos of your kid, then sell you a package of adorable, “awww” inducing photos.
Even though we had just gotten photos taken at Yuen Lui when Lyla was two months old, well, I’m just a sucker.
So, Chris came in, got set up in our formal living area that we never use — it seemed like a great idea to have that when we bought the house — then went to plug in two studio lights.
He promptly blew out a number of circuit breakers in the house and we weren’t able to get our hallway, dining room or laundry room lights back while he was there.
After getting some great photos of Lyla with Ellie, Jason’s grandmother who also takes care of our baby girl while we’re at work, Chris decided to put her on her tummy.
The next 20 minutes or so were totally downhill because she loathed being on her tummy at the time and just melted down. Somehow, he managed to get some awesome photos of her, especially with my husband.
Two weeks later, a nice woman named Robin came back to the house and we dropped $400 on a photo package, got a bunch of wallets, 8X10s, the works. We’re nuts. I mean, we’re first time parents of the first grandchild and niece for either side of the family, photos are in high demand.
At that point, we still hadn’t gotten the lights working again.
For more than a month, I did laundry in the dark.
We had been giving Lyla baths in the baby tub on top of a towel on the dining room table but no dining room light meant after about two weeks I finally moved the tub to the sink and scrubbed her down by myself while Jason was at work. On a side note, you would not believe the amount of gunk that can accumulate in between a baby’s toes, fingers, under her neck or arms. I had no idea something so tiny and immobile could get so dirty!
Finally, my father in law brought his friend Steve Montgomery down to our house to see if he could shed some light, literally, with his greater breadth of knowledge of electrical stuff. This is one area my very handy father in law, Art, doesn’t know as much about. Thank goodness for Mr. Montgomery, who has been a friend of Jason’s parents for years, going back to when his son was in Boy Scouts with Jason.
Finally, at the end of March we had light again, and a week later the photos arrived via UPS at our house.
This past week I’ve spent framing up all the different photos from the Yuen Lui and Our365 shoots for display in our home as well as to give to family members.

Here are some of my favorites. Oh, one of the perks of the package I bought was all the photos on copyright released CD, so I am going to share with you to make the most of the money I spent. Enjoy!

That pretty dress I bought for her to wear for Christmas was still too big when she was three months old …

Angry Lyla…

My personal favorites!

Sweet sleepy girl…

And Lyla with Great Grandma Ellie — I gave this one and the first one of her in the red dress in a nice frame to Jason’s mom, Gale, on Easter and she choked up over it. It’s a precious memory of the blessing that both Ellie and Lyla are to our family.

Four months and counting

krishill — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:54:58 +0000

Wow, where has the time gone?
Today, Lyla is four months old.
And, naturally, we took her for her four month well child check this morning. She was weighed, measured, looked over and got her shots.
At four months old she weighed in at 11 pounds, eight ounces (there are 16 ounces in a pound for the math challenged) and was measured at 23 1/2 inches long. So, she has put on two and a half pounds in two months and grown two and one-quarter inches since her last appointment in January. She’s still on the petite side, but, our doctor says she’s “gaining steam” and “appears to be thriving.”
Our family doctor also asked us about various milestones such as vocalizing, “Has she laughed yet” and “Does she grasp objects?”
He was pleasantly surprised when we told him she’s sleeping through the night which, of course, is a good thing for our sanity.
She was happy, smiley and pretty mellow. It was great. Everybody at our doctor’s office thought she was cute and sweet.
The doctor mentioned that we could start giving her cereal as a first food in a month or so, but, I asked him if it is OK to wait until she’s six months old before starting her on any solid foods and he thought that was just fine.
He gave us some hand outs on four month olds, which I’m sure will be helpful, then headed out the door to see his next patient. As he left, he told us we’re “doing a great job.”
Yay!
Oh, and a nice girl named Nicole would come in and give Lyla her shots.
One of the three sets of vaccines was in an oral form, so, I attempted to give it to her but while waiting for Nicole to come into the room, Lyla passed out. It was time for her morning nap. So, when I tried to give her the oral vaccine, she just spit it out. We had to get another one and this time Nicole did the job.
Nicole said Lyla was so cute and relaxed, she felt bad giving her shots knowing she was going to make our little darling cry.
I wasn’t too worried because Lyla handled the shots at two months really well.
So, she whimpered a bit after the first shot, then had a full meltdown after the second one. We soothed her and gave her a pacifier and within a minute she was back to happy, calm Lyla.
I suspect that this is one area where being a diabetic pays off for me as a parent. Nearly eight years ago I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. Doctor’s visits and needles are par for the course. Add to that the fact I’ve had an emergency appendectomy and back surgery as well as given birth in the past seven years and the whole vaccination thing is no big deal to me.
Though I haven’t had a chance to research my theory to see if calm parents equals calm baby when it comes time for the shots, I hope there is some empirical evidence out there to support it, if not at least anecdotal evidence.
From my perspective, at least, I figure if we don’t make a big deal out of it and remain calm then, of course, she’ll be calm too.
I took this picture literally two minutes after she got the shots, one in each thigh. You wouldn’t even know it based on this photo.

One of the women in the reception area checking patients in commented on the fact she was so peaceful and calm as we were making her six month appointment.
“Usually babies come out still crying,” she said.
Not our Lyla. I knew from the beginning she was going to be awesome.
Just having Lyla in my life makes me feel like the luckiest person on earth, but, knowing what a calm, happy baby she is really makes me feel blessed.
And I keep hearing it just keeps getting better from here.
Really?
Sweet!

Another eventful weekend

krishill — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:24:51 +0000

Lyla and I were quite busy this weekend while my husband was working.
On Saturday, we went to Ginger Passarelli’s soup class at her restaurant in Black Diamond, Mama’s Steak & Pasta where we learned her famous beef stroganoff recipe, among others.
Ginger is also founder of The Soup Ladies which is a fantastic non-profit I seem to be writing a lot about recently, go here or here to read more about it.
Lyla had a great time watching Ginger cook up four different soups that featured beef and at one point while I was taking notes, she grabbed my pen and examined it closely, trying to determine what exactly that thing was supposed to do.
After about 45 minutes of that, she took a power nap, then woke up to have a little face time with Ginger, one of Lyla’s many fans. Turns out that Ginger’s mother’s name was Lila, so, maybe she has a special place in her heart as a result.
From there, Lyla and I went to Fry’s to pick up a Crock Pot, as I have decided I need to cook up food at home and in the easiest, least messy way possible. I see my mom friends post about their awesome Crock Pot meals on Facebook and figure it would be a good thing to invest in.
On Sunday we spent time with her grandmothers. My mom came down to visit and we had lunch together. After my mom left, my mother in law and I took Lyla to the SuperMall to use some coupons I had for Carter’s.
We put Lyla’s car seat in the stroller and walked all the way around the mall. We stopped at Old Navy, The Children’s Place, Burlington Coat Factor’s Baby Depot and finally Carter’s.
While at Burlington Coat Factory we were looking at pretty Easter dresses for Lyla. I pulled her out of the car seat and we walked around looking at all the dresses and baby clothes. She checked out toys and other children. She seems to be quite the curious little girl.
About halfway through the mall we stopped to hit the bathroom, change her diaper then feed her. After she ate, Gale, my mother in law was burping her so Lyla was sitting on her knee and watching every little thing happening around us. Maybe all babies do that but it was fascinating to watch her people watch.
She seems to do pretty well with running around with me, she didn’t really fuss or cry at all either at the class on Saturday or during any of the shopping, in fact she seemed to really enjoy it.
It used to be that she slept through errands but now she doesn’t seem to want to miss a thing. She smiles and giggles at strangers who coo at her which immediately endears her to anyone who stops to check her out.
So, anyway, we bought a pile of clothes for Lyla. Gale and I split up the purchases but we did quite well. My goal was to stock up on summer essentials and with the sales and coupons we did really well. And, of course, we found her the sweetest dress for Easter. I’ll post pictures when we get her in it.
And, boy did Lyla get worn out. Not five minutes after we pulled out of the SuperMall parking lot she was fast asleep.
When we put her down for the night, it was 10 p.m., and she slept until 7:30 this morning.
I have realized recently how lucky I have been with Lyla. She’s not fussy, she doesn’t mind strangers much, she loves going places with me and enjoys seeing all kinds of new things in new places, she sleeps through the night and in her own crib.
OK, now I’m just bragging. I’ll stop. Heh.
Now we just need to get her into tummy time so she can start figuring out how to get mobile. My mom says I was crawling at about five or six months old and walking at nine months.
I guess while we work on tummy time we should start thinking about baby proofing the house.
Life with Lyla is just one adventure after another and I can’t even begin to say how happy I am to be going on these adventures with her.

growing like a weed

krishill — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:37:45 +0000

Lyla is getting bigger all the time, as any baby would.
It’s funny, though, because she seems so big to me now compared to how big she was at birth — just 6 pounds, 9 ounces and 20 inches long — yet people out in the world see her and think she’s little.
For example, a couple weekends ago I went to a big baby/kid stuff consignment sale at Pickering Barn in Issaquah, and a group of ladies were cooing at her and gushing about how adorable she is and all. This sort of thing happens all the time, of course, and I’m getting a big head about it. Heh.
One of the women mentioned that Lyla was little and motioned her friend over to come see “the tiny, adorable baby.”
People are always surprised when I tell them how old she is because she is still small for her age. At her two month appointment she was 9 pounds and 21 1/4 inches, putting her in the 10th percentile for weight and height.
Lately, though, I’m sure she’s got to be around 11 or even 12 pounds. Jason’s grandmother, Ellie, who takes care of her while we work has thought Lyla was up to 12 pounds a few weeks ago.
One thing that really made me think Lyla has gotten bigger was when I put her in a University of Washington onesie I bought Dec. 22. It was part of three pack of 3-6 month UW onesies that are really cute and even pretty. I am a UW grad, having earned a degree in Communications in 2000, so she’s got to have Husky gear.
About three or four weeks ago I tried to put her in one and she swam in it. I knew when I bought them it would be a while before they’d fit her, but, I figured at three months it would be pretty close.
Yesterday morning, just for fun, I told Ellie to see if one of the UW onesies would fit her. When I got home, there was Lyla, wearing one.

And it fits really well! She still has room to grow into it, though, which is good.

Next Thursday Lyla has her four month well child check up with our family doctor, so, we’ll know then just how much bigger she’s gotten. She may always be a petite girl, or, she may well catch up to her peers. I have no idea and I won’t even try to predict how she’ll grow. I’ll just sit back and watch.
And who wouldn’t want to do that … I mean, just look at this precious angel!

Daddy’s girl

krishill — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:11:37 +0000

Today is my dad’s birthday. I think fondly of him on this day. Our birthdays are exactly six months apart, his on March 8, mine on Sept. 8. For some reason I always thought it was special.
My dad was 39 1/2 when I was born. I am his only child. It should come as no surprise that I was a daddy’s girl. Somewhere among my mom’s photo collection is a picture of me in a nightgown at about 4 years old that proclaimed, “Daddy’s Little Girl” on it.
My parents, who did not marry, split when I was 4.
It’s interesting to me that this year the anniversary of his death in mid-February slipped by without my noticing it, but, even some 25 years after his death I still remember his birthday.
This year on his birthday I wish he could see his granddaughter. I have come to accept that he missed major milestones in my life such as high school and college graduations and my wedding.
But, I think that if he could hold Lyla, he would have such a big smile on his face.
My father was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was 12 years old. He lost his eyesight before I was born but he would touch my face and tell me I was beautiful — this was particularly important to me just weeks before his death when I got my first pair of glasses and was suffering taunts of “four-eyes” and the like at the hands of my second grade classmates.
Even though he wouldn’t be able to see her, I know he would touch her face while holding her, and proclaim she’s beautiful.
Who I am was forged by his presence in my life and his absence after his death.
It is unlikely I would be a writer were it not for his insistence on giving me book after book well before I could even read. He gave me Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries, the Little House on the Prairie series, Treasure Island and my favorite, Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein.
I was already well on my way to becoming a bookworm before he died and afterward, I sought sanctuary in books, taking out stacks of tomes from the public library once a month when my mom would take me.
Already I had a temper when he died and afterward, when I wasn’t holed up in my room reading, I would act out angrily. To this day I still have a hard time controlling my temper or being patient.
But all that reading and pent up anger eventually led to writing which in turn became an interest in newspapers in high school and finally allowed me as a sophomore at Interlake to determine this would be my career.
I am hoping that his parenting style will also influence how I am with Lyla, patient, doting, but focused on encouraging her intelligence and natural curiosity. Between time in a montessori school thanks to my mother and the books my dad gave me, I started reading and writing around the age of four. I don’t have those kinds of expectations for Lyla because that’s unfair, but, it would not surprise me if she was smarter than me.
My dad gave me a lot of gifts and I so wish that I could repay him with the gift of his granddaughter.
Today is his birthday and all I can do is say happy birthday, Daddy, wherever you are … with love, from Lyla and I.

Finding her voice

krishill — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:10:17 +0000

In recent weeks, Lyla has had more and more to say, that is she is really becoming more vocal. It started with little coos and now she’s added squeals as well as giggles and other noises to her repertoire.
Her jungle animal bouncer is one of her favorite places and last night she was particularly chatty and active, so, I grabbed the video camera I got for Christmas and shot a little over a minute of video. I apologize that it’s a little dark, I’m still new to the video camera stuff, but it’s so much fun watching her. I got a little misty eyed watching it again after I uploaded it.
So, without further ado, here’s Lyla:

Where we’re going

krishill — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:11:58 +0000

A few weeks ago I spent a couple of hours talking with Ron and Colleen Starr, who manage Vine Maple Place here in Maple Valley.
What they do at Vine Maple amazes me. They take in homeless families and they provide transitional housing. Beyond that, they provide child advocates, financial classes, parenting classes, connection to educational opportunities and more for the single parents and even two parent families that seek them out.
This year is Vine Maple Place’s 10th anniversary. For a small, grassroots organization which is supported almost entirely by the community — churches, individuals, business — that is quite an accomplishment.
One of the very first stories I did for the Covington-Maple Valley Reporter was about Vine Maple Place back in September 2005.
I remember when I first sat down with Colleen Starr to learn about the organization, I was blown away by what they were doing, but I also could completely relate to the people they were helping.
Growing up, we very well could have sought out the help of VMP, because we always lived hand to mouth. We were on the verge of homelessness probably my entire childhood.
Carra Purvis, a staff member at VMP who was also part of the meeting, told me that many of the families have moved a number of times and the children had switched schools often, as well. I think I went to four or five different elementary schools. I begged my mom when I was in seventh grade not to move again until I got through high school. We moved twice while I was in middle school, but, I didn’t have to switch schools. I just rode my bike a bit further to get to where I was going, Highland Middle School in Bellevue.
There are times I wish we had been scooped up and transformed by something like a VMP when I was a kid but I think that no matter what, I have a great appreciation for what I did not have, which has given me a strong determination to provide for Lyla all the best that I can offer and so much more than what I had.
And while it is important to me to provide her with essential material possessions such as a nice roof over her head, decent clothes to wear and whatever extras a little girl might want — what is today’s equivalent of the Cabbage Patch Kid? — but I also want to give her the intangibles I didn’t have, like a stable home, two parents who love each other and their child, an extended family that basically gets along despite our differences and opportunities to live life, not just exist day to day.
I see that VMP is doing that for its families and that is why it is so easy for people in the community to support its mission. As of early February, they had helped 191 parents and children, not just survive but thrive by providing them a foundation in all the things they need to be successful in life.
Those were things I had to learn on my own, the hard way, from the mistakes of others as well as my own.
But, don’t take my word for it, read about it right here.

Milestones

krishill — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 00:56:01 +0000

Part of my job requires me interviewing high schools students fairly frequently and it’s interesting talking to teenagers now because when I first started out in this profession I was barely 22 years old and could totally relate to those kids.
Now, though, fast approaching my 32nd birthday I enjoy talking to teens but I can see the generation gap growing.
One thing I often observe is how much of a rush these kids are to grow up. But, not just teens, even kids I see in grade schools.
I had this revelation a couple days ago that illuminated why kids are in such a rush to grow up — it’s our fault as adults.
Well, this may not be the case with all parents or adults in a child’s life, but with Lyla even now at three months old it seems like we’re all in a big hurry for her to sit up on her own, get her first tooth, talk, crawl, walk, get her freakin’ driver’s license already.
Oh. My. Gosh.
She’s three months old!
But, those developmental milestones have become a huge focus in my life, our life, and it’s funny because Lyla is the only one who couldn’t care less about them.
Everyone else, well, we can’t wait till she’s crawling — that’s assuming she doesn’t go straight to walking — and wow, how fun will it be at Halloween this year and Christmas this year and this summer think of all the things when can do when she can sit up by herself and man, I better start thinking about a high chair and starting her on solids…
Her life is going to go by too fast. One day, I’m going to blink, and she’s going to be graduating from high school.
So, I need to slow it down and enjoy the things she’s doing now, the milestones she’s achieving now at her own pace which is plenty typical of babies her age or else I’m going to wonder if I’ve missed all the important stuff.
This reminds me of a strategy I employed when Jason and I were on our honeymoon in Hawaii nearly 10 years ago. I didn’t take a single picture the whole nine days we were there. Yep. Nine whole days and not a single obligatory happy vacation, look we’re on our honeymoon, photo.
Now, as you know, I like to take lots of photos of Lyla and I promise I won’t stop doing that but I think the idea of no photos from Hawaii was that we were so busy enjoying our trip — it was the first time I’d been to Hawaii — that we didn’t stop to take pictures. We had a camera. We just … didn’t use it.
So, I want to be busy enjoying Lyla grow up, each precious moment, rather than spend all my time taking pictures and video or looking up the next milestone she’s going to reach. Lyla will get there when she gets there.
I mean, she’s in no hurry, so why should I hurry her there?
Then again, that doesn’t mean I won’t encourage her development.
I’m working on tummy time to help her eventually achieve independent mobility even though she haaaaaates it.
I also want to get an exersaucer since she really is getting stronger all the time with her head and neck muscles.
Then there’s this:

It’s a Bumbo babysitter for infants developing those all important sitting up skills.

So, I guess I’ll have to walk a fine line between encouraging her development and rushing it.
As long as I tell her I love her, that she’s beautiful and amazing every day, the rest should kind of fall into place. I think.

An ounce of prevention

krishill — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 21:25:34 +0000

During the crazy whirlwind that was the first 24 hours of Lyla’s life at Valley Medical Center, one of the bajillion people that came through to check on us, talk to us about things we needed before left, ask us to do this or that, take our picture and so on was a representative from the Pacific Northwest Research Institute.
I can’t remember her name, I just know it was a woman, and she asked us if we would be willing to allow them to use some of the blood taken after Lyla was born for a study on Type 1 diabetes.
I am a big fan of research. My father had Type 1 diabetes, a disease that killed him much too soon, so I am happy to help in any way that I can.
About a week and a half ago we got a letter from PNRI.
“We would like to thank you for taking part in the TEDDY Study on type 1 (juvenile) diabetes. We have the rest results for your child’s sample that was taken while in the hospital shortly after birth.
“Lyla’s blood spot tested negative for the genetic markers of type 1 diabetes. This does not promise that Lyla will never get diabetes. The good news is that Lyla’s risk is not more than that of the average child, who has a chance of about 1 in 300 or .3 percent of developing type 1 diabetes.”
It went on to thank us again, that no further participation on our part is necessary, but if Lyla is diagnosed someday with Type 1 to contact them as it would be helpful for the study.
I was definitely relieved to see that Lyla does not have the genetic markers for Type 1.
Since I found out just how important it was to have tight control over my blood sugar while I was pregnant for Lyla, I have tried to do everything I can to make sure I could minimize the potential she would get Type 2 as well, and luckily she was not a big baby.
And the more I talk to my mom, the more horrified I am by the stuff she did when she was pregnant with me, it’s no wonder I’ve struggled with my weight most of my life and that I developed Type 2 at such a young age.
Now, I have to take responsibility, too as I ate junk food and sweets without thought of the consequences and didn’t stay active when I went to college.
But, it certainly didn’t help that my mom ate chocolate ice cream daily during her pregnancy which led to my birth weight being nearly 10 pounds.
Yesterday she came to visit and was asking me about when we might start Lyla on infant rice cereal.
Mom was telling me that she started feeding it to me when I was two months old because I had such an epic appetite — shocker, I was a big baby who survived on sugar in the womb, hmm — so she had to supplement because breast milk supplemented with formula wasn’t enough.
I told her I wasn’t sure yet, since Lyla seems perfectly content to eat four ounces of formula every two hours, and she’s nowhere near as big as I was so I hadn’t really thought about making any changes to her diet. I did just put her on soy formula a couple weeks ago and that seems to be working well now so since it ain’t broke I don’t see any reason to try and fix it.
I added that we can ask our family doctor when we go in for Lyla’s four month well child check up on March 18.
Later on yesterday I told my husband about it and decided to do some research on the topic.
What I found about infant rice cereal was not comforting. From my perspective, it’s not something I want to give my daughter, who is at risk already for developing diabetes because not only is her mother diabetic, but so are both my parents. Commercially produced rice cereal apparently is just sugar and other junk I don’t want to give her. Some parent testimony I read, including from a doctor, said it is essentially a “rice brick” sitting in a baby’s tummy.
Now, some parents like that it creates a fullness which breast milk or formula can’t provide, as some anecdotal evidence from parents points to that helping babies sleep through the night.
Lyla already sleeps through night and I’m not sure I’m keen on starting her on anything before the six month mark even though plenty of pediatricians say infant rice cereal is fine for babies at four months.
Now, I’m not some kind of organic, whole food freak but growing up with an older sister who is a vegetarian that introduced me to organic and vegetarian food when I was in grade school I do enjoy that kind of thing.
Ultimately, I would like to make Lyla’s first solid foods myself. Things like mashed sweet potatoes, bananas, avocados and the like appear to be good options at the six month mark and if we want to add some kind of grain, homemade oatmeal would be a good way to go.
We do have a Cuisinart food processor. It’s totally doable.
But, maybe not all the time … so, maybe I’ll get some organic baby food, too. I’m not sure, though, since the “organic” label can be misleading. Luckily being diabetic, I am a master label reader, and I have also learned a bit about what to look for on baby food labels, too. So, I’ll be that mom in the Safeway at Four Corners standing there reading the baby food label jars. Probably not the only one, though.
Either way, I plan to add some spices to her food because I’ve read quite a bit that babies who eat flavorful food are less likely to be picky eaters as they get older. Sweet potatoes and bananas can have some cinnamon and maybe a little vanilla, for example, so that’s something we can try.
It just is so important to me that she learns to eat right from the beginning and that she enjoys eating all the good stuff. Plus I would like for her to be an adventurous eater. I don’t want her to turn her nose up at the thought of sushi or Vietnamese food or even leafy green vegetables.
For me, I was lucky that my sister is an adventurous eater and encouraged me to try things outside my comfort zone when I was young. OK, she teased me into it at first, but as I got older I was enthusiastic. I never would have had sushi at 13 for the first time, eaten Vietnamese, Korean, Malaysian, Moroccan or Indian food (with the latter being one of my absolute favorites) were it not for my older sister Elizabeth.
Hopefully I will be a good model when it comes to eating and that will be a major step toward preventing the health problems I’ve experienced in my life.
That’s just one of the ways I want to provide my daughter with the things I didn’t have growing up. My body started to fail me when I was 19. If there’s anything I can do to help Lyla have a healthy life, then I’ll do it, even if it is kind of inconvenient. She is SO worth it.

Sleep is a precious commodity

krishill — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 22:06:05 +0000

Everyone has heard the horror stories, er, the tales from parents about the joys of the early days that are defined by sleep deprivation, lack of time for hygiene or food, and a renewed appreciation for coffee.
My mother-in-law, Gale, for example has said often that the only way she could get my brother-in-law to sleep was to spend hours in her rocking chair. Often, her mother would arrive on weekday mornings to find Gale and Dave snoozing together in the rocking chair.
With both Jason and Dave, my mother-in-law recalls being exhausted, and just trying to get through work in a zombie-like state for the first nine months of their lives.
Now, my mom has long said I was a good sleeper, and that I was sleeping through the night by about three months old.
During the past 10 days or so, Lyla has gone from sleeping six or seven hours after being up well past 1 a.m., to conking out for the night around midnight and sleeping about eight hours. Sometimes we’re lucky and she sleeps a little more.
Up until two days ago, she had slept in our room in a bassinet, which was graciously provided by a friend of Gale’s. Had we not been given a bassinet, we wouldn’t have had one, as I had no intention of spending the money. I am quite thankful for the gift as it has been well used.
She has pretty much outgrown the bassinet. Lyla is a bit bigger now than she was in this picture, which was taken Feb. 9. Well, she’s longer, taller.

So, two nights ago Jason put her down in her crib. This is how I found her around 7:30 this morning. She fell asleep for good around midnight. She was still asleep when I left the house around 8:20.

It’s weird that she’s not in our room. Especially now that she’s sleeping pretty well — a trend that I hope continues — we had adjusted to her sleeping in the bassinet.
Last night after we crawled into bed, Jason was initially on high alert for cries of distress coming from Lyla’s room, but whatever noise he heard was likely one of our beagles or our evil orange tabby cat.
I think we should invest in a baby monitor now.
I am glad, though, that she’s finally in her crib and in her room.
But, now this really forces me to clean it up. Her clothes need to be reorganized as she’s outgrown all the newborn stuff finally and I need to get a few other baby items put away. Plus we have stored our Christmas wrap under her crib but it so doesn’t work because the storage boxes don’t fit underneath it. So, you have to try not to trip when approaching the crib.
In the end, though, I guess these are all good problems to have.
And maybe now that I’m getting more sleep I can wean myself off coffee again.
Ah, the joys of parenthood.

Who does Lyla look like?

krishill — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:22:43 +0000

Since she was born, friends, family and co-workers have looked at me, looked at Jason, then looked at Lyla and pronounced whom she looks like.
Jason’s grandmother, Ellie, says simply, “She looks like Lyla!”

But, what do you think?

Here’s Lyla, snapped with my cell phone camera just moments ago:

Then there’s me. Both photos were taken when I was four months old. This one is with my mom at Christmastime. I hear I was nearly 10 pounds at birth. So, compared to Lyla, I was huuuuuuuuge!

And this one is with my dad, Nick. I hear I loved riding around in the backpack with him.

And then there’s my husband, Jason, when he was a baby. Turns out he was 8 pounds, 3 ounces when he was born. I’m not sure how old he was in this photo but I’m guessing about three or four months old.

So, now that you have seen the photographic evidence, who does Lyla look like?

Busy weekend

krishill — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:19:03 +0000

Lyla and I had a busy weekend.
On Friday, she spent some time with her grandparents, Art and Gale. She hadn’t seen them in a couple of weeks and she cried a bit when Gale held her so I guess she’s at a point where she doesn’t like being held by whoever wants to hold her. I guess after a while she settled down but it was a little tough at first.
As you can see in this photo of Lyla with her Grandma, she was just fine…

Friday evening my sister, Elizabeth, drove down to visit us. We had dinner at Hacienda del Mar and then went back to my house just about a mile away and hung out. We talked and talked, my sister and I, which was great. Lyla was very unhappy. The first two days or so on the soy formula, our little girl didn’t like it too much as it constipated her a bit, but by the end of Sunday she was fine. But, unhappy Lyla didn’t want to be held by her auntie, either.
Saturday afternoon I ran down to Mama’s Steak and Pasta (formerly Mama Passarelli’s Dinner House) in Black Diamond so she could meet Mama herself. She did pretty well getting a little time with her honorary Nona Ginger, who got her smiling and giggling, but she did seem a little unsure at first. Ginger is clearly an experienced Nona (I understand that’s the Italian word for “Grandmother”) and I look forward to Lyla, Ginger and I having lunch together sometime soon, especially so we can talk about The Soup Ladies (an organization Ginger helped start a few years ago to feed emergency responders who handle disaster response) who will be recognized for work they did in Pierce County in the past year.
Coming soon will be a photo of Lyla in her very own Mama Passarelli’s onesie.
On Sunday my friend Nancy, her husband Ryan, their son Tannis, 8, and daughter, Jerrin, 6, came over for the Super Bowl. In addition, my friend Bambee, and her three year old son, McKailen, also came over. We ate, we drank, but Lyla still didn’t want to be held by anyone else.
Jerrin wanted to hold the baby, so, I had her sit on the couch and she did a great job holding her but after a few minutes the crying began so I took her back and she quieted right down.
Later, I handed her off to Bambee so I could have something to eat, and she cried the whole time. Within moments of me taking Lyla back after I finished scarfing down some of our tasty Super Bowl food she settled right back down.
It was one of those days where I just couldn’t put her down. It was all about mommy. I even tried to put her down in her crib after she passed out. As soon as I did that, her eyes snapped open, so I picked her back up and by the time I had gotten back out to the family room to sit down and watch the game she was asleep again.
I keep reading that you just have to follow your baby’s lead and this was one of those times where Lyla was happy only in my arms. Alrighty then.
After everyone left, I watched some of the Super Bowl highlights to catch a few big plays I missed while tending to my little girl, thank goodness for technology and our desire for on demand everything and instant gratification.

On another note, I wanted to show you a couple of other photos.

Here’s one of the pictures from our photo session a couple of weeks ago at Yuen Lui:

And this is Lyla laying on her new quilt, handmade by Victoria Laise Jonas, Maple Valley Deputy Mayor and driving force behind the Maple Valley Farmers Market which started last year, something I’m very excited to take Lyla to on Saturdays this summer and fall. She went with me to almost every market over the summer, anyway, while I was pregnant.
Anyway, I just wanted to share a peaceful Lyla and her quilt. It’s a sweet photo.

Bits and pieces

krishill — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:56:37 +0000

I promise all is well in the land of Lyla, I’ve just been crazy busy recently, so I apologize for not writing a blog post in almost two weeks. My mom and husband’s birthdays are just four days apart so the end of January is always nuts. Tack onto that the fact that I’ve just come back to work and get busier here with the paper with each passing day, well, it’s been hectic.

I don’t really have a theme for this post, I just want to post about some things that have been going on to just so everyone knows what’s going on with our kiddo.

Food
Now that I’m back at work, I’m eating much better than I was while on leave because I have structure to my day and I don’t feel guilty taking a break from work to eat, because work doesn’t mind if I put it down. Granted I eat at my desk most of the time, but, at least I eat.
It kind of pains me to admit that I gave up nursing about four weeks after Lyla was born but she wasn’t gaining weight and I just wanted to her to be able get enough to eat, which wasn’t happening with nursing. She’s a stubborn girl, like mommy, and I think the tongue tie issue just set us on a different path from the start whether I liked it or not.
So, we started out with this ready to eat formula that they sent us home from the hospital with:

But it’s $10 for a box of six bottles, which lasts about three days now — Lyla’s drinking four ounces per meal now, yay — so we switched to the powdered version.
Basically this (I don’t have my own image, so, I grabbed this one from another photobucket account)

Today I picked up a soy based version at Costco because Lyla gets really uncomfortable gas and even with burping and passing gas she can be pretty fussy. She fusses badly when she’s hungry and has painful gas, otherwise, she’s a pretty happy baby.
So, this is what I got today (thanks Mom, for the $100 Costco card for Christmas)

We’ll see how the soy based formula works. I’ll report back on that in a week or so.

Development
Jason’s grandmother, Ellie, has been taking care of Lyla while we’re at work which I have previously mentioned. Every day when I get home, she tells me all about Lyla’s day, new things she’s doing and all the things she does with Lyla.
She puts Lyla in her activity gym so she can work on developing her coordination and plays music to help stimulate her growing brain.

Ellie also is doing a little bit of tummy time with Lyla every day so she can build up strength in her neck and arms so that she will be able to eventually sit up on her own as well as roll over. These things lead to eating solid foods, crawling, and all the other skills Lyla will need to be a self-sufficient person. My mom and Ellie think Lyla will be walking early and suspect she’ll skip over crawling altogether.
Lyla already has awesome head and neck control for her age. She blows me away.
Ellie told me yesterday that she is surprised by how alert and active Lyla is at 2 1/2 months old. Usually babies her age spend most of their time eating and sleeping, she said, but not our girl. She’s curious and looks around as well as just likes to see what’s going on.
Lyla likes it when Ellie reads books to her. Jason’s parents got her a box of “Baby’s First Books” with small cardboard and bath safe books.
A new favorite activity is playing with her pink elephant rattle which plays music when you pull its tail. She smiles and giggles at that.
Many mornings Jason and I will sit with her on our bed and sing along with music on the radio or his iPhone. We just got a Phillips alarm clock radio with an iPod/iPhone dock so we can play her our favorite tunes or the playlist Jason made while I was pregnant called “Lyla’s Songs.” It starts off with, “Lyla,” a song by my favorite band in the world, Oasis.
Jason was telling me this morning that he was singing to her yesterday and she really enjoyed it, she was laughing and smiling at him. That makes me happy. We’re both musicians (he played clarinet and I played viola — he plays guitar now) so she’s going to grow up with lots of music. I hope she takes to music and wants lessons of some sort when she gets older.
And we know music is good for her … I play jazz and Mozart for her, especially when we’re in the car, we listen to Miles Davis and Thelonius Monk.
Every day is so exciting with Lyla.

People ask me all the time how she’s doing and I could talk endlessly about everything she’s doing since every day is a new adventure. There’s a reason the blog is called Baby Babble!

Growth
This is the last thing I’ll talk about today. Lyla is getting bigger all the time but she seems to just be getting taller more than anything. She’s finally outgrown her newborn clothes and is filling out 0-3 month size items.
A growing Lyla also means making a change in her sleeping arrangements. We got a bassinet from a friend of my mother-in-law’s before she was born. I had zero intention of her sleeping in our room but once we got her home there’s now way I could let her sleep anywhere else.
Ellie has been putting her down for naps in her crib the past couple weeks so that when we do start putting her in there at night it’ll be an easy transition. Right now, when Lyla stretches her arms out, her armspan is too wide for the bassinet and in a couple weeks she’ll be too long to fit in it.
I had planned to put her in her crib last Friday night but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it! At this point I don’t wake up every couple hours to make sure she’s breathing — I’m such a new mom! — but we don’t have a baby monitor system so I’m still kind of nervous letting her sleep in her crib at night even though she’s only about 15 feet away from us.
Pretty soon, though, I won’t have a choice. I better get a monitor so I can better handle the transition. She’ll probably be just fine.

So hopefully in the next day or two I’ll post some videos of Lyla here on the blog so you can see why I am already planning to sign her up for martial arts — Bill Woodcock suggested tae kwon do, of course!

Till next time.

The question of the week

krishill — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:52:50 +0000

It’s been almost three weeks since I came back from maternity leave and whenever I talk to one of my regular sources, I get the same question:
“How does it feel to be back at work?”

Every morning I have to tear myself away and go to the office. This week my husband suggested I get up half an hour earlier than I need to so I can spend some time with Lyla before I leave. Jason has been off for the past three weeks spending some quality time with our daughter since he only had about four days with her after she was born. So, that gives him a bit of a reprieve in the morning while I change her, get her a bottle or feed her so he can get a little extra sleep or do a couple other chores around the house.
I have found that it’s a bit easier to head out the door after taking the extra 30 minutes or so to spend with Lyla.
Once I get to the office and get focused on work, and I hope this doesn’t sound horrible, but for a little while I forget I’m a parent.
During the past three weeks I’ve been getting re-connected with the communities I cover and all the wonderful people I work with as well as meeting new people. I am reminded daily what I love about my job.
Basically I get paid to talk to awesome people about awesome things they are doing or awesome things that are happening in the community, take pictures, write about all of it then put that work onto a newspaper page or upload it to the Reporter Web site.
For me, there really isn’t a better job.
And at the end of the day I get the reward of going home to my beautiful daughter and wonderful husband.
It keeps everything in perspective and so far, I seem to be finding a balance.
Have I mentioned how lucky and blessed I am lately?

Busy day for baby

krishill — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 05:55:24 +0000

There is probably nothing more startling for a baby to wake up to than a needle being jabbed into her thigh.
And that is exactly what happened to Lyla this morning after she got the once over by our family doc for her two month well child check up.
After she was weighed and measured — she’s 9 pounds now and 21 1/4 inches — our doctor checked all her vitals, reflexes, we talked about how she’s eating, various developmental milestones, whether or not the water at our house is fluorinated (probably not, it turns out) and other important baby health issues.
After he left with instructions to come back in two months, we had a bit of wait, then the nurse who weighed and measured Lyla returned to give her the immunizations — a pair of shots and then an oral medication.
From there, we headed home and left Lyla in the care of her great-grandmother, Ellie.
We got our hair cut, then I grabbed lunch then headed to the office. While I was working Ellie was able to get Lyla to nap in her crib. That’s a pretty big thing since she’s primarily slept in her bassinet or cuddled with a family member. We’re hoping daytime naps in the crib will help her transition to it more easily at night because she’s going to outgrow the bassinet very soon.
After work we headed to Yuen Lui photography studio in Kent. My in-law’s bought a family plan four years ago that came with four sittings and we only used one so I figured we should take advantage of the sittings to get a nice family portrait as well as professional photos of Lyla.
While I am a good photographer, I’m not a portrait photographer, nor do I have the equipment to take good portraits or the training, really.
I can’t tell you how much I love the pictures. Technology is great because we were able to view and order the photos 10 minutes after the session was finished. Normally I hate pictures of myself but the photographer did a great job of picking poses that made me look good.
And Lyla looked adorable, as always.
She was fussy and we weren’t able to totally settle her down to feed her but we got her calm enough to get pictures. They really show off her big baby blues.
Once we finished the session, we fed her, and by the time the photos were ready to be viewed she passed out. She’s been asleep since and that’s no surprise considering what a busy day it has been but it was well worth it.
Days like this remind me what a wonderful life I have with my own little family. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

It takes a village, right?

krishill — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 08:06:04 +0000

OK, so, I must profess that I don’t actually know anything about the book, “It Takes a Village and Other Lessons Children Teach Us” by Hillary Rodham Clinton that I referenced in my blog post title.
I do, however, think the concept of having lots of awesome people taking part in your child’s life is important.
Having my family and friends involved in Lyla’s life is critical. When I was quite young, we spent a lot of time with my mom’s family, but as I got older she drifted from them as my cousins grew up and moved away, as things changed and as I grew up. By the time I was 15, I lost touch with all but my most immediately family, my mom and my sister.
I was close with my best friend’s family, Mike is the fifth of nine children and I spent a lot of time with them after we started hanging out in sixth grade.
After Jason and I started dating, I was blessed that his family is so wonderful, now I’m not saying there weren’t bumpy patches since I was 17 when we started dating and 19 when we got engaged but as we’ve grown up our relationships with his parents, his brother and his grandmother have gotten better.
One reason I was so dead set on moving back to Washington state after we lived in Las Vegas (where Jason attended UNLV and earned his business degree) was so that when we did decide to start a family we’d be near our own relatives. We knew there would be plenty of baby sitters.
As I’ve discussed in previous posts, we agonized over what we were going to do about child care.
In mid-December, Jason’s grandmother, Ellie was at our house with one of her sisters, Rae.
During the visit, Rae asked, “have you figured out what you’re going to do about child care?”
Oh, boy. This was a tough question while I was on maternity.
“We’re not sure yet,” I admitted.
“Oh, I’ll take care of her,” Ellie said.
She had a big smile on her face. I was thrilled. Having a family member take care of Lyla would be ideal but Jason and I had thought his mom would have retired (she’s got more than 35 years in with the Bellevue Fire Department) and would be available. We didn’t think Ellie would be available and we definitely didn’t know if we should even ask her to take on such a task.
Believe it or not, up until little more than a year ago, she was working. In fact, she was taking care of Jordan and Madison, providing in home care for those kiddos from the time Jordan was a little boy. They were the ring bearer and flower girl in our wedding.
They’re teenagers now and changes in the family left Ellie without work.
It must have been meant to be … just a few months later I was pregnant.
So, starting tomorrow, she’ll come over and help us out. Jason goes back to work next week so she is going to spend this week with him learning about what we do, where everything is, and so on.
No one is better qualified. She’s the second oldest of eight children, raised two children of her own, helped take care of my husband and his brother then later took care of Jordan and Madison.
What’s more, she only lives about 20 minutes away from us off Issaquah-Hobart Road, about halfway between Four Corners and Issaquah.
I am stoked.
Jason tells me she’s pretty excited, too.
Maybe it doesn’t take a village, it just takes a great family, and I feel so blessed that we can give that to Lyla.

Here’s Ellie and Lyla the day our baby girl was born.

Change

krishill — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 23:28:13 +0000

For months people would say to me, “Just wait, your whole life is going to change.”
Duh. Can you hear me rolling my eyes?
Isn’t that the point? To change your life, start or expand your family, and so on when you get pregnant?
People can get so melodramatic when you tell them you’re pregnant. But, you’ve heard all those complaints.
Obviously — and to all of you reading this who told me my life was going to change, forgive me — I just nodded my head, smiled and said, “I can’t wait” while silently dismissing you.
Don’t you know that until someone is in the parenting club there’s no point in telling them that? They’re not going to listen. That’s like trying to tell a teenager there’s no reason to rush into adulthood because there’s bills and work and chores and other mundane responsibilities. All they see is freedom.
And all an expectant parent sees is the wonderful, adorable baby they’ve envisioned in their mind.
So, obviously I was expecting my whole life to be turned upside down, to go through some major upheaval and need beta blockers or valium or both to manage the insanity.
Granted, the first week home with Lyla was challenging, but it really didn’t take long for her to fit right into our life.
Yes, there’s change, but it’s incremental … almost like weight gain, before you know it you’ve put on 20 pounds.
Or, with a baby, before you know it there are toys everywhere, making a bottle or changing a diaper is second nature, you reach into your pocket for something and discover a pacifier and after the first couple trips out of the house that took an hour to get ready, suddenly you can be out the door almost as quickly as when there wasn’t a bundle of joy to strap into a car seat.
Sometimes when people would tell me “your whole life is about to completely change” it almost sounded like an ominous warning tinged with a bit of resentment and wistfulness.
There is something about pregnant women that makes people, especially veteran parents, want to scare the crap out of them. What is up with that?
Parenting so far has been wonderful. I wonder to myself, “Why didn’t we do this sooner?”
And I’m already plotting what I need to say to persuade Jason to go for no. 2 in a couple years. I don’t want to wait too long, I’m 31 and high risk as it is, plus I don’t want to have a huge gap in age anyway. My sister and I are nearly 12 years apart while Jason and his younger brother are separated by more than six years.
So, yes, life has changed. For the better. And in ways I would never have expected, which is what I suspect everyone was trying unsuccessfully to articulate.
I enjoy changing diapers, even stinky poopy ones, and feeding Lyla and trying to soothe her when she’s fussy. Every moment is awesome when it’s challenging.
Therefore I hereby promise to NEVER tell an expectant parent, “Just wait, your whole life is going to change.”
I know better because I have officially joined the parenting club. Like every pregnancy and every baby, every parent is different, and every parenting experience is different so I’ll just let you expectant parents find that out in your own way and time.

And now, pictures of Lyla.

Visions of Lyla’s future?

krishill — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 01:29:41 +0000

On Monday I was at Lake Wilderness Elementary School in Tina Newberry’s fifth grade social studies class. I was there to witness students using netbooks for the first time in the classroom.
It is part of the Tahoma School District’s efforts to help students at all age levels have access to the best kinds of technology tools with the idea that the skills learned will help them after they walk of the stage, diploma in hand, ready to head out into the world that is increasingly wired and wireless.
This kind of thing is funded by a technology levy passed in 2006 — a levy that took three attempts before it finally passed — which over its four year life will collect $10 million in taxes from residents of the district.
I have no problem admitting that as a resident of the district, I voted for the levy, and would do so again. At the time we didn’t have kids and hadn’t decided to have kids. But, there’s a whole lot of kids in Maple Valley, about one-third of the city’s 20,000-plus residents are under the age of 18.
And a handful of them live on my block not to mention the hundreds of youngsters that live in the surrounding neighborhoods.
My thought process then was if the kids who live around me are getting a good education and have plenty of opportunities to do the right thing they won’t go breaking into my car or my house.
Now, though, I realize that someday my own kid will be using these tools. Whoa.
As I stood next to Kevin Patterson, the district’s spokesman, and talked with him about how far technology has come just in the four years since the technology levy originally passed (which I wrote about then, too, and that’s crazy for me to wrap my mind around having been working in this community that long).
Then I thought, man, imagine what kind of cool stuff kids are going to have when Lyla is in grade school. Right now students are using netbooks to draw maps, create PowerPoint presentations — a skill I do not have and I consider myself quite tech savvy — and do online research.
And not just kids at Tahoma High, no, all the kids at the elementary level have access to these netbooks and eventually there will be 1,700 of them throughout the district.
Considering less than six months ago I bought myself a Toshiba netbook to tote around in my camera bag for doing interviews and other handy work-related things, this puts Tahoma on the edge of technology, not quite the bleeding edge because netbooks have been available for a few years now but in the past six months or so have really come into their own.
I am trying to envision what kind of cool stuff Lyla will be doing in kindergarten with technology, in fifth grade, in high school. It blows my mind.
My dad was an engineer, an O.G., and by that I mean original (tech) geek. When I was five years old I was playing video games on a black and white screen monitor on a computer my dad had at home. He had a VCR and a microwave in the early 1980s when they were still novelties.
I remember sitting next to him on the couch when I was 7 years old, watching “Dennis the Menace” on Nickelodeon, nodding inattentively while keeping one eye on the TV as he explained how batteries worked.
So, here I am, 31 years old. My dad is long gone. But the geek factor is clearly an inherited trait.
Look in my camera bag for an example. Inside is a Nikon D80 with an 18-135mm lens attached, a speed flash in another compartment, and a Sigma 70-300mm telephoto lens. Also in there is my netbook, a digital voice recorder (the high tech version of a tape recorder minus the tapes) and my 120GB iPod classic with Bose TriPort headphones.
If someone got hold of my camera bag they would have well over $1,500 in gadgets.
Add to that my love of cell phones. I have the newest BlackBerry available, the Bold 2, which replaced my year-old Bold. I ordered it from at&t with my upgrade the day before I went into the hospital to have Lyla. It was waiting on my door step when we brought her home.
Normally I would have torn into that box right away and set up my new toy.
It took me almost four days. A newborn is kind of hard not to focus on.
Quite a few folks jokingly asked what cell phone Lyla would be getting. Heh.
Oh, I already have a couple cheapo spares ready for her to play with when she starts reaching for my BlackBerry. And she will.
Now I also wonder how much will she be into technology.
According to a guy name Ian Jukes who spoke to Tahoma teachers a couple years ago, kids these days are “digital natives” anybody over the age of 25 is a “digital immigrant.”
Pfft. Not me!
But, anyway, the point is this tech stuff is second nature to kids these days.
So, if I’m lucky, we won’t blame any tech geekiness on my genes and simply say Lyla’s just one of them “digital natives” Mr. Jukes talks about.
Meantime, how young is too young to give a kid their first cell phone?
Oh, you think I’m kidding. Ha. Ha. Ha.
The conversations I’m preparing to have with my daughter. I have to be prepared because every parent I know says time flies and before I know she’ll be graduating high school.
I think I’m going to stop envisioning the future of technology in Lyla’s lifetime and just enjoy her being a baby.
The rest of the stuff, I’ll deal with it when the time comes. Yeah.

Ink

krishill — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 22:24:56 +0000

Many people say tattoos are addicting, once you get one, you’ll want more.
For me, this has been quite true.
My first tattoo was one I thought about for a long time. When I was 16, a junior in high school, I decided I wanted a feather quill pen on my right forearm. Then I went to college and thought about it some more. I realized I couldn’t have a tattoo there and get a job in an office. Since I decided I wanted to be a journalist before I settled on this tattoo, I didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize getting a job in the business, so I figured I’d get the ink on my right arm in the bicep area.
Then I moved to Las Vegas after graduating from college where sleeveless shirts in the summer are a must, at least for women, so I decided the final placement of my first tattoo would be on my right shoulder blade.
With no knowledge about how to select an artist, I went to the nearest place I could find to get the work done, Diversity on Maryland Parkway across from UNLV. Our apartment was just a half mile away.
I set my appointment for my birthday, Sept. 8, 2002. I turned 24 that day. It took eight years from initial thought (though legally I couldn’t get one for two years after I came up with the idea) to finally going and getting it.
Much to my dismay, the kid who did the tattoo showed up an hour and a half late, he barely grunted more than a few words to me during the process and not long into it I found out he had only been tattooing for about nine months. I paid $150 for my tattoo, about double what I would’ve paid anywhere else.

My second tattoo was a much better experience. In October 2007 I decided to write a story about Maple Valley Tattoo next to Gloria’s on Maple Valley Highway. I decided a great way to write the story would be to get a tattoo. I had wanted to get a memorial tattoo for my dad, who died when I was 7 1/2, because my mom scattered his ashes but doesn’t remember where anymore. At the time, she wouldn’t tell me, so I guess I’ll never know.
So, I decided to get a triquetra knot, also known as the trinity knot. It’s common design found in Celtic knotwork. It seems like I have a lot of Scottish stock in my ancestry, particularly on my dad’s side, which seemed appropriate. Another reason I picked the triquetra is because it looks like three fishes, or pisces, and my dad’s birthday is in March, making him a Pisces. Plus, I just liked the way it looked. His name and birth date are also part of the tattoo.
Eddie Campion did the work and I love the way it looks.

My third tattoo was done by Jay Hand in June 2008 while he was at Ancient’s Arts tattoos in Renton. It covers up a scar on my lower back that remained following surgery I had in March 2006 to repair a bulging/herniated disc. By the time I got this piece done I was totally pain free and felt like that was a good time to cover up the scar. It was closure. I just like fleur de lys. I know I had some good reasons for why I picked this, but, first I figured it was different plus there’s some strong connections to this symbol from my teen years as well as some more connection to my ancestry, both French and Scottish.

Finally, another very personal tattoo. I got this one done yesterday. Not long after I found out I was pregnant, maybe a month or so, I decided I would get the baby’s name tattooed on me as soon as the opportunity presented itself. I tracked Jay down at Kya’s Underground Ink in Auburn via Facebook.
I got a time set up with him after talking over the idea on the phone. I told him what I wanted in sort of vague terms and somehow I got exactly what I was looking for from him, but, given how awesome my previous ink came out this wasn’t at all surprising. I love it and hope Lyla does, too, when she’s old enough to realize what it means.

What will I do someday when she comes to me wanting a tattoo? I’ll tell her she better wait till she’s 18. Then I’ll talk it over with her, what does she want, where does she want it, will it have an impact on any future career plans and go with it from there. If she seems dead set on it and it won’t create an obstacle for her, as well as if it means something, then I wouldn’t try and stop her — at least that’s how I feel now. I can only hope that my own thoughtfulness in the process to getting each tattoo will inform her own thoughts on the matter. For all I know, she’ll hate tattoos and never want one. We’ll just have to wait and see.

For now, I can only hope that she understands that I put her name on my shoulder so she’ll always be with me, because I am so proud to have her in my life and that I love her more than I could ever express in words.

Back to the grind

krishill — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 23:06:34 +0000

Yesterday morning I rolled into the office to work for a living for the first time since the middle of November.
It was a little weird to be going work after more than six weeks away from the place but once I sat down and started talking to Dennis about everything that’s been happening around here (and it’s been a whole lot, good, bad and otherwise) it felt like I’d never left.
We went over some of the more interesting stories that broke while I was gone — I swear, all hell broke loose, people getting fired, quitting, resigning mid-term, developments changing their construction schedules, and so on — as well as talking about what we would be dealing with this week as far as getting the paper out.
Dennis is a great boss and definitely did what he could to ease my transition back. I totally appreciate that … but don’t tell him I said that to you. I would *never* give him such a compliment in person because then he’d want to don a cape and mask pretending he’s a superhero. Or worse.
But, I digress.
Colleen Starr from Vine Maple Place stopped in yesterday afternoon to drop off some calendars bearing the name of the local non-profit she founded. VMP helps single homeless parents transition from a tough situation to permanent housing and as a Christian based organization supported by the community and local churches, they help through faith, counseling and education.
One of the very first stories I wrote after we started the Covington/Maple Valley Reporter was about Vine Maple Place and Colleen is one of the first people in the community I met, so, I was happy to see her on my first day back to work.
She asked me how motherhood is treating me.
I love it. I love being a mommy more than I could have ever imagined.
So, as you can imagine, it was a challenge to leave Lyla at home yesterday morning. I have to admit, I had to hold back a few tears, but I took a deep breath and kissed her and my husband goodbye for the day.
There is no doubt that I was torn. I have loved journalism since I first got into it when I was a sophomore in high school. The longer I’ve done it, the more I love being in the business, and I’m thankful to be working here because my office is only two miles from my house. Plus, it’s just fun covering these communities, especially now that I’ve been doing it for more than four years.
That’s why I blogged while on leave. I had to stay connected and keep writing. Ultimately, the core of my identity is the fact I’m a writer, even if I weren’t a reporter I’d still be a writer.
But, now, another significant part of my identity is being a mom.
Somehow, I have to find a way to balance both. I am pretty sure I can do it, especially with the help of Jason, as well as our family. Heck, even our friends are awesome and supportive.
For example, I bought U2 tickets for the show at Qwest Field that’s coming up in June, and I posted on Facebook that I got the tickets. A couple wonderful ladies were offering to babysit when I mentioned I’d need one. It was bordering on a friendly competition. Heh.
Lyla is blessed to be so loved.
And that’s what makes it easy for me to be back at work, the knowledge that she is well taken care of when I’m not there, that way I can make a living to make sure she never wants for anything.
But, she is the wallpaper on my cellphone, because I do miss little Lyla terribly. It’s all I can do not to pester Jason (who is off for a few weeks to spend time with her now that I’m back to work) constantly to find out what she’s doing.
Tonight when I get home from work I’m sure I’ll rush in the door and scoop her up then shower her with kisses and coos and hugs.
That’s me, journalist, wife, working mom. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Six week visit

krishill — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 05:16:25 +0000

It’s been nearly eight months since I first met my obstetrician at Valley Women’s Clinic. I had been a patient there for a few years but my annual exam had been done by a nurse practitioner, Barb, whom I like quite well. Since things generally looked good there hadn’t been a need to see one of the doctors.
Then I got pregnant and after the initial once over by Barb in May, I finally met the OB who would handle my pregnancy, and as I didn’t have a preference they assigned me one seemingly arbitrarily.
Now, I had done my research and not only had I found that I liked all of the docs in the practice on paper, but I’d had nothing but positive experiences with the clinic staff so I wasn’t stressed — especially when Barb reassured me that this doc has a ton of experience with high risk pregnancies, more than 20 years in fact, and that other OB/GYN practices sent their high risk patients to VWC.
Cool.
The first time we were supposed to meet the doc, he got called away to deliver a baby, so when we finally got to (Jason went to all but a handful of appointments with me) meet him it was a relief.
He walked in the room and said, “Hi, I’m Jim Rice,” then shook both of our hands. We talked some things over and from the start he was serious about making sure I got my diabetes under control.
For some time I was sure the man had no sense of humor. I realize now that because of his approach I probably did a better job managing my diabetes and ultimately the pregnancy than I might have with a more lenient doctor.
And now that Lyla is here, Dr. Rice is totally different, well he even showed his humor when I was in the hospital. In fact, I wanted to tell him at one point that it’s nice to know he’s such a smart aleck.
Last Wednesday I went in for my six week post-partum appointment and I would dare say he was almost relaxed.
Right after, “How are you?,” he went straight to asking about my blood sugar.
I paused for a moment, seriously considering bluffing my way through this conversation, much like I have with my endocrinologist over the past three years.
Instead, I realized I respect him too much to lie, so I came out with it.
“I don’t know.”
And he lectured me a little bit but I explained that I had an excuse. I broke the lancet pen on one of my meters and I couldn’t find the other one.
He said that he’d order me another one but he couldn’t because I’m not pregnant anymore. I promised him I would get another one and I would get back to it because he’s right, it is important to keep my diabetes under control still.
Luckily, I stopped at my office that afternoon and discovered that my extra meter was in my desk drawer where I had left it, instead of lost somewhere because I thought I had put it in my camera bag and brought it home before I went on leave.
Had I not found it, though, Jason would have picked one up for me … he can get me a meter for $15 at the pharmacy he works at so no excuse for not testing.
Now, if I could ever get more than quick answers out during appointments, I would have explained to him that I remember vividly how sick my dad was before he died of complications from Type 1 diabetes when I was 7 years old. His feet were purple due to loss of circulation, he was blind, and generally miserable, not to mention grossly overweight.
That is the kind of thing that motivated me to take care of myself while pregnant and will continue to motivate me during the rest of my life. Not only do I owe it to myself, I owe it to my husband and more importantly, to my daughter.
But, I digress…
After discussing birth control — hey, there’s no reason to get pregnant again right away, hopefully everyone understands — and settling on a new method since the pill made impossible for me to lose weight there was the joy of the full on exam. I’ll spare you the details because the conversation was more interesting anyway.
Becky, his assistant, asked how was Christmas with her.
“It was great,” I said. “She slept through most of it and was passed around from relative to relative.”
“I bet she got her weight in gifts,” Dr. Rice said.
“Oh yes, toys she can’t play with yet and clothes she can’t wear, but that’s OK. That’ll come in handy later.”
Something he mentioned related to the new birth control method we agreed on led me to say something about how it would be ideal to have some space between child no. 1 and child no. 2, though it did take me almost nine years to talk my husband into having no. 1.
“Now that you’ve had her,” he said, “and she wraps him around her little finger, it won’t take nearly as long the second time around.”
Sounded like he was speaking from experience. Heh.
Becky also kept commenting on how cute Lyla is — I hear this a lot so my ego gets bigger all the time — and my favorite moment of the appointment came.
“She is precious,” Dr. Rice said.
Yay!
I have to think that getting to this point is one of the reasons he does this job, which from what I’ve read requires some of the most hours put in of any specialty, at least 55 to 60 hours a week on the low end with many OB/GYN’s putting in upwards of 100 hours a week.
At the end he said that everything looked good and he’d see me in a year.
He put out his hand and shook mine again, closing with “Happy New Year” before turning to leave.
What a New Year for me, the first time in my life I haven’t minded watching the holiday season and the old year slip away as I trudge forward into the dark and dreary dead of winter.
And to think, this time last year we were just planning to start trying, with the hopes I’d be pregnant by Christmas.
Now we have our little family, I’ve got the clean bill of health, goals for taking care of myself and I’m happier than I’ve ever been.
Let’s see how long this lovely glow lasts.
Tomorrow, I go back to work.

Old (and new) habits die hard

krishill — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 02:47:50 +0000

First, let me tackle old habits.
Hi, my name is Kris and I have a potty mouth.
There are a fair number of you reading this who are surprised by this revelation. I make every effort, especially when I’m dealing with sources, the public in general and just about anyone I encounter in my professional life to keep my foul language out of the conversation. I do this because I am representing not only my newspaper, but my company and the profession of journalism and they all deserve the utmost respect. Nothing I do should sully that if I can help it.
But, anyone who knows me outside of work knows that I can curse a blue streak.
It’s an old habit.
Growing up going to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings with my mom (she got sober two years before she got pregnant with me) I learned a lot of bad words at an early age.
I didn’t really begin to employ this knowledge until I was a freshman in high school. I was quite the angry teenager and when my fuse was lit generally how I would respond was with some inappropriate outburst of obscenities followed by stalking off with a figurative black cloud over my head.
As I got more into writing and found better, more constructive ways to express myself, this became less frequent. But it took some time.
But, the outside of work version of my speech is still peppered with a lot of bad words, and I worry that Lyla will pick up on that and eventually incorporate that into her own vocabulary.
I’m not so sure I can curb my bad language around her, but, I’m going to try. I know I probably don’t need to worry about it for a little while but I know that little ears pick up on those things sooner than you think.
As for new habits, well, my eating habits that I developed during my pregnancy are sticking a lot better than I thought they would.
Now, with a newborn, it’s been hard to eat perfectly and some days I hardly eat at all because it’s more important to me that Lyla’s needs are met.
During my pregnancy, I couldn’t wait until all the dietary restrictions were off and I could eat whatever I wanted again.
Now I’m finding myself generally making the same choices and eating the same healthy things I was eating for six months to manage my blood sugar.
I have, however, totally embraced caffeine again. Mmm.
But, some of the other things I was looking forward to aren’t as great as I thought they would be, like potatoes. I thought I missed French fries. Turns out that I’m pretty good without them. I’d rather eat fruit or salad than have fries.
Yesterday I was at Target at The Landing in Renton. I love the cheap-o popcorn they sell in the little cafe. I almost always get a bag of it on my way out. Yesterday I had no trouble resisting. In the past, if I tried to leave without buying it, I’d have quite an internal conflict.
Another thing that helps is my appetite is much smaller and it’s easier to eat better when you get full fast. Portion control is critical.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been great about testing my blood sugar. Yesterday I stopped by the office and found my extra meter was still there and not lost somewhere in my house as I had thought.
So, my plan is to start testing regularly again so I can be even better about what I eat now.
This is starting to sound dangerously like a set of New Year’s resolutions as I write this on New Year’s Eve.
But, really, these are long term goals.
I’m sure you’ve realized that I am like any other new parents with the best intentions and these things are motivated out of love for being the best mom I can be for Lyla.
So, here’s hoping that bad habits go away and the new habits stick around, not just in 2010 but for the long term because not only will I be a better person and parent for it but hopefully Lyla will benefit, too.
Happy New Year, my friends.

Obsessive behavior

krishill — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:25:08 +0000

Long ago I discovered “A Baby Story” on TLC. I was in my early 20s, not remotely ready for children and barely married, but I loved the show.
Since then, TLC and its parent network Discovery have added other new baby related shows to its stable of programming, and while I’ve been on maternity leave I’ve been consuming it all obsessively.
Take today. I got out of bed with a very alert baby at 8 a.m. and turned on TLC. The non-HD channel has two episodes of “Bringing Home Baby” from 8-9 a.m. This show documents the first 36 hours a baby spends with its family at home.
Next up was two older episodes of “A Baby Story” from 2000-2003. There goes another hour of my morning. By now, Lyla is passed out after her morning feeding, so I am entrenched on the couch.
After that, TLC in HD is on the East Coast feed, so I get three more episodes of “A Baby Story” that have been shot typically in the past two years.
At one point this morning after flipping to the HD channel, a mom featured in the last episode of the day was pushing, I found myself pushing with her. Ha!
Moving on …
There’s an episode of a show called “Birth Day” to cap that all off but those are eight or nine years old and the shows have more of a documentary feel to them and I find the impersonal touch to be a little off putting.
So, then I flip to Discovery Health to watch “Deliver Me: Home Edition.” This show follows a trio of women who all work together in an OB/GYN practice in L.A. as they work together with their patients while trying to balance their practice with their own personal lives.
This half hour episode condenses a previous hour long show and wraps up with a follow up some months later with patients to see how they’ve adjusted to life with their new babies.
For a break I switch over to Food Network and watch “Guy’s Big Bite” with Guy Fieri, and get a half hour of watching someone else cook, then back to Discovery Health for another episode of “Bringing Home Baby.”
I’m done at that point, so, I have some lunch, take a shower and generally head out to run errands. Or I do chores around the house with ESPN on as there’s about 90 minutes of sports talk analysis shows on that make for good background noise.
If you’re thinking, “Kris, you have lost your mind,” you’re probably right.
I’ve always been like this. When I get interested in something, I develop an obsessive fascination with it, which can be offputting to some people on a personal level but can also be very helpful in my job. I’ve actually had to force myself not to do it as much at work now because it can have a detrimental effect. If I get too focused on one thing, all my other stories can suffer, which I just can’t do working in a two-person shop.
But, since I’m on leave and my no. 1 job is to spend 24/7 with a newborn, this seems like a great thing to be obsessed over.
I just hope I can tear myself away when I go back to work in January.
One thing I do know is that it will be a little bit easier to leave Lyla when I go back to work now that we have the child care issue resolved. We need to work out the details with the person who has offered to take care of my precious baby girl but there’s no one in the world I would trust more with her and I am thrilled. I will come back to this topic after Christmas.
Next time, though, I plan to tackle my bad language or someday I’m going to have to tell Lyla not to repeat what I say because “Mommy has a potty mouth.”

Pretty in pink

krishill — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 04:50:52 +0000

Way back in July when I first found out we were having a girl, I expressed my distaste for pink and my hope to keep the cotton candy color to a minimum, which was like hoping for a money tree to spring spontaneously from the earth in my back yard.
Not only is Lyla awash in pink, I have found myself purposely putting her in pink when taking her out so that people have that visual cue she’s a girl, plus I have even happily purchased outfits with pink in them while exclaiming to my mother in law “Isn’t this so CUTE?!?”
Holy cow.
I’ve never liked pink. I’m a tomboy. As a fifth grader I was so deep into tomboy world that I wore my hair short, played football with the boys in my apartment complex and often was mistaken for a boy. As I got into middle school and pre-adolescent pressures to conform began to set in, I tried to be girly, something I so am not.
So, I got my ears pierced and started wearing pink, too much pink.
By freshman year of high school I swung back the other way and realized that wasn’t the path to acceptance which also resulted in my loathing of pink being further cemented. I was getting to a point where I was more comfortable in my own skin and pink was never a part of that. I wanted to be myself and not worry as much about what my peers thought.
But, the reality is that when shopping for baby clothes for a little girl or receiving gifts, pink is just part of life.
I’ve had to do a couple of trips to buy clothes for Lyla. Remember at 37 weeks the ultrasound technician told us Lyla was estimated to be about 6 pounds, 14 ounces? Well, if she was that weight and gained half a pound a week, then doing the math we figured she’d be about eight pounds.
Most of the clothes I received at my shower were for three to six months and even items my mother-in-law and I bought toward the end of my pregnancy were in that range because we thought for sure she’d be able to fit into those items right away.
Plus, I’m diabetic. I’m supposed to have a bigger baby.
Ha! I did SUCH a good job managing my blood sugar, Lyla was a dainty bundle of joy.
And, um, as a result she had next to nothing to wear.
Oops.
Luckily Fred Meyer in Covington has a nice selection of baby clothes and there’s a Carter’s outlet store in the SuperMall. A trip to each got me plenty of nice newborn items that should get us through the first couple months.
When shopping for baby clothes it quickly becomes apparent that the folks who design (for lack of a better word) this stuff generally stick to the “girls wear pink and boys wear blue” edict.
So, yeah, I have intentionally purchased pink items for Lyla because a) it’s readily available and b) admittedly pretty darn cute.
Sigh.
I’m hoping there’s greater diversity in toddler clothes.
In the meantime, if you have any thoughts on finding someone to watch Lyla when I go back to work, that’d be awesome. I’m still looking into that and forming my thoughts on the topic.

Eating and sleeping

krishill — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 00:10:26 +0000

Giving birth was much easier than I thought it would be while breast feeding my daughter has been an epic challenge which I wasn’t expecting.
After having Lyla’s tongue tie fixed last Monday by Dr. O’Hara in Seattle, I thought, ‘Sweet, now we’ll just get right to nursing.’
Nooooooooo.
It was a struggle after her tongue was clipped (the flap connecting her tongue to the bottom of her mouth was “clipped,” that is) to get her to eat. At all.
So, I called the lactation specialists at Valley and took her in last Thursday. Lyla had dropped down to six pounds before we saw the specialist and I was concerned she would lose more and I couldn’t have that.
Jane, the lactation specialist, was awesome. She gave me some great tips. I went home, tried some stuff out, and I thought we were on our way.
But during the past week it was hit and miss. One of the things that I thought worked, the nipple shield, became an obstacle instead of a help.
Lyla started eating, though, with a little time to heal her tongue and a little children’s Tylenol. It just wasn’t nursing every time, but, I tried not to stress too much because she was eating a ton and I had a follow up appointment with Jane yesterday.
First thing Jane did was get a weight check on Lyla, who had put on eight and a half ounces in a week, which was awesome.
Jane and I talked about the challenges I was still experiencing, that sometimes Lyla was all for nursing and other times she hated the very idea of it, and I also asked what other things I could do to manage some of the other obstacles I’ve encountered.
I felt a lot better after I left, knowing it would take more time and practice to get Lyla nursing, and now that I knew exactly how to work the Medela breast pump I am renting from the hospital (thankfully the insurance company is covering the rental cost through mid-February) that I could move Lyla away from formula and to regular consumption of breast milk.
So, yesterday was great, then this morning I try to do stuff on my own and I struck out. I have to remember I am determined. I am persistent.
On the other hand, I have times I want to just give up. I’m going to keep trying to nurse and pump for another week. We’ll see how it goes and I’ll decide where to go from there.
As for sleeping, well, that’s a question I get from everyone.
“How are you sleeping?”
The first week, well, we slept awful. We just didn’t know what we were doing. I mean, we sort of did, but now we’ve got a handle on sleep. We’re lucky that Lyla sometimes sleeps six or seven hours at a time, but, usually we get four to five hours of sleep then either Jason or I get up with Lyla in the middle of the night, feed her, change her and get her back to sleep. We’re trying to take turns so that we’re not both sleep deprived. When Jason has to be at work early, I get up, and when Jason has a day off, then he’ll get up. It seems to be working so far.

Next thing I need to tackle is child care. I’m leaning toward a babysitter or nanny. I just need to find one.
Then there’s the issue of clothes. Particularly the fact that no matter how much I hate pink, it is now part of my life, and since Lyla was way smaller than we anticipated I’ve been buying clothes to get her through the winter. Pink clothes. And I kind of like it.

Care and feeding of baby … and mom

krishill — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 06:15:48 +0000

Shortly after Lyla was born I tried to breast feed her but it wasn’t successful. During the first 24 hours of her life I tried repeatedly to nurse in the hospital but she just couldn’t seem to latch on.
I was determined to breast feed so I remained persistent.
But, Thursday morning as I was getting ready to be discharged and she still wasn’t eating, a lactation specialist came to see if she could help. She discovered that Lyla has a webbed frenulum, also known as being tongue tied, which was preventing her from latching on and nursing.
I was referred to a specialist in Seattle to get her tongue fixed, a quick procedure that would alleviate the issue that kept her tongue anchored to the bottom of her mouth, and I got an appointment set up. Lyla handled it beautifully, getting “clipped,” so to speak and moments later we were able to get her to nurse. She still needed some help with the supplemental nursing system I was provided at the hospital. This is basically formula provided through a tiny tube so you don’t have to use a bottle which still allows her to practice suckling using a finger or breast.

It’s going to take some practice to help her get the hang of nursing but we’re working on it. I am determined.

Meanwhile, I’m adjusting to the diet of a diabetic who isn’t pregnant. It’s weird. I can eat whatever I want now.
Wait. Let me back up a bit.
Before we were discharged from the hospital, my OB stopped in and among his instructions were to go see my endocrinologist in a week to work on the transition from insulin to oral diabetes meds.
Forgive me, doc, but I ignored that suggestion. I dumped the insulin the day after we got home from the hospital. I still haven’t been to see the endocrinologist, heck, I haven’t even called her office. I’ve been more focused on taking care of Lyla and, honestly, I don’t think it’s necessary.
Oh, I will call her this week and set up an appointment. I do plan to see her before I go in for my six week post partum check up with my OB. But, that’s the only reason why … for some reason I’m more likely to be compliant for my OB than my endo. It’s terrible.
In any case, I haven’t tested my blood sugar in a while, either. I broke the lancet pen that goes with one of my meters and totally misplaced my other meter.
I feel fine, though, and I’m basically back to the pill regimen I was on before … half a 5 milligram tablet of glyburide (a pancreatic stimulant) and 1,500 mg of metformin a day.
While I am treating myself to things I haven’t eaten in six months, I have made a point not to overdo it as I might have before, plus the weird thing now is that the change in hormones after giving birth has killed my appetite. Well, coupled with being focused on taking care of a newborn, I seem to forget to eat.
I got so used to being ravenously hungry all the time during the third trimester that not having an appetite is strange. Hopefully when I get to a regular nursing routine with Lyla that will change.
Taking care of myself and Lyla is still a roller coaster ride with its ups and downs, but, it’s a different ride than the one that we call pregnancy. But, it’s only been two weeks, and there are still more ups and downs, loop de loops and hairpin curves to come. Or, so I hear.

Catching Up

krishill — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 03:33:39 +0000

I apologize profusely for leaving you all hanging the past two weeks. Life has been busy and hopefully all my friends and followers understand. I’ve also been hoping the tingly fingers caused by pre-natal carpal tunnel syndrome would improve but I’m still waiting for that to go away completely. Since everyone has been waiting for a full update I decided it was best to just catch everyone up now.
On Tuesday, Nov. 17, I was due to be induced at Valley Medical Center. Being a Type 2 diabetic, my obstetrician was worried about letting me go too far past my due date.
At 6 a.m. I called the Birth Center as instructed. The charge nurse asked me to call back at 9 a.m. with the hope that they’d have a C-section “under their belts” as well as getting a few patients discharged. In other words, they were busy and didn’t have room for me.
We were both thankful for some more sleep. Facing the unknown of parenthood for the first time we both tossed and turned. We were both a little freaked out.
An hour later the phone rang.
“How soon can you be here?”
We were at the hospital at 8:30 a.m. We checked into the Birth Center. We had pre-registered so it was a breeze. We were directed to follow the signs but turned one corner and a nurse whose name I have now forgotten flagged us down.
“I think we’re waiting for you,” she said.
She showed us to our room, introduced herself and another nurse, Jehna, and we got settled in.
After a lengthy admitting assessment, getting into the gown, the nurses got to work. Instead of 3.5 cm dilated like my OB thought at the last appointment, they thought I was only 1 cm dilated.
I was disappointed.
Jehna told me to expect to have the baby in about 24 hours … that was about 10 a.m. on Tuesday.
Oh, boy.
Eventually a medication to induce labor was provided, it’s called cytotec, feel free to look it up if you want to know more. It’s a bit too graphic to explain how it works.
I started feeling stronger contractions but I wasn’t really dilating further. The nurse who came on in the afternoon decided not to do the second dose when my doctor wanted it to be done because I was experiencing strong contractions close together. She was concerned I would hypercontract.
But, as it became clear later in the evening that I was not progressing, I was given two more doses of cytotec about four hours apart, around 8 p.m. then midnight. Somewhere in all that Jason and I went walking on two separate occasions.
Jason and I tried to get some sleep. I had been on a monitor tracking the baby’s heart rate as well as my contractions pretty much the whole time I’d been there.
At 3:30 a.m. the overnight nurse, Celina, took me off the monitor and I was checked again by the resident, Dr. Heather Something Something. If I remember right I was 2-3 cm dilated at this point.
It was suggested we walk around again. I just wanted to go back to sleep. Jason had passed out in the fold out bed next to the hospital bed. I decided to lay down next to him for a while.
Half an hour later things started moving. Serious contractions, about 90 seconds apart, give me something for the pain, please.
Happily I was given a dose of fentanyl “to take the edge off.”
Cool by me.
Around 5 a.m. Dr. Heather checked me again and now I was making progress. I was 4-5 cm and the resident said I could have an epidural at any time if I wanted.
Sweet.
I chose to try another round of fentanyl. That lasted about half an hour, or so it seemed, and I requested an epidural.
At this point things start to get fuzzy. Time passes in a blur after I got the epidural. I basically passed out.
But, after a while I could feel the contractions again, not to mention that I was uncomfortably aware of the Foley catheter in my bladder.
My OB came to check on me. Side note, my super serious OB clearly loves being in the hospital, he was cracking jokes (he’d popped in three or four times and he started off with, “I told you that you wouldn’t be pregnant forever.” Smart aleck) and smiling, at least until he realized early on that my body just wasn’t ready to go into labor.
Luckily pitocin never came into the picture because that third dose of cytotec kicked things into high gear.
It was around 7 a.m., I think, when the OB checked on me. He had to head out to deal with some patients at his office but he said he’d try to be back in time to deliver the baby.
But, uh, I was 7 cm dilated. He missed her arrival by about half an hour.
Anyway, I was trying to explained through the drug haze to my OB that I wasn’t feeling so awesome, but I suspect I wasn’t terribly coherent.
In any case, the nurses got the anasthesiologist back into the room, and he initially tried to explain to me that I had to suck up and deal with the Foley catheter discomfort. Then he decided to do the epidural over again and in the process realized the pump with the epidural meds had clogged up somewhere, hence the problem.
During this I had three strong contractions and was relieved when the epidural kicked in again. Jason helped me focus on breathing — that birth prep class was worth every penny just for the breathing exercises! — to get me through it.
I was knocked out again, the epidural made me barely functional, but next thing I knew I felt the urge to push.
After watching what seems like a million episodes of “A Baby Story” on TLC I thought I would recognize this but I blame being zonked out of my skull for not realizing what was going on.
I told the nurse that no, I couldn’t feel the contractions, but man did I ever feel the urge to push — something out.
This was a good sign, I was told, and all I really remember next was a flurry of activity as the team prepared to deliver the baby.
Flat on my back, feet in stirrups, somehow I thought to have Jason go get his mom. Everyone else had been cleared out of the room except for him and my mom. I had promised my mother in law she could witness the birth of her first grandchild and I was going to make sure that happened.
They got back just in time.
Jason was on my left side, and he took over the oxygen mask duties before I began pushing, putting the mask on my face between pushes. My husband hates hospitals and kind of freaks out at the sight of blood. On this day, he was awesome, just as I knew he would be and he kept me calm and focused.
Then the nurses and the on-call OB, who thankfully I knew a little bit because he is part of the same practice as my OB, told me to push.
About a half dozen pushes and 10 minutes later, with a little assistance from the vacuum as the baby experienced a little bit of distress at the end, our baby girl was born.
All in all it was seven and a half hours of active labor then 10 minutes of pushing. It was almost too easy and I barely felt a thing.
At 11:04 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 18, Lyla Elizabeth Hill came into the world. She weighed 6 pounds, 9 ounces and was 20 inches long.
Because her heart rated dipped a bit during labor, a neonatal nurse and doc looked over and cleaned her up, so I had to wait a bit to see her but oh, I could hear her cry and it made me cry, too. It was a joyous noise.
When they laid Lyla on my chest wrapped up in a receiving blanket I couldn’t believe how tiny she was after all the worries we had about her getting too big. I was convinced she was going to be at least a pound heavier.
I was blown away by how adorable she is, yes I’m biased but I really wasn’t prepared for this, and everyone who sees her just fawns all over her now. That’s not good for my ego. Heh. But, that’s a topic for another blog on another day.
Our family has fallen in love with her and I can tell they’d do anything for her.
So, that’s how she arrived in our life.
I’m going to tackle a couple other things in the next post tomorrow including the challenges we’ve faced in feeding her and what we’ve done to resolve that as well as the transition from insulin to oral meds.
For now, that’s enough and hopefully my recollection was clear enough to put you there.

Waiting game

krishill — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 04:31:25 +0000

Patience, as I’ve mentioned before, it’s not a strong point for me. As you can imagine, looking at the calendar and watching my due date come and slowly pass me by is now officially starting to irritate me. Thankfully, I am now officially on maternity leave, so my snippiness and impatience is not something my co-workers or sources have to deal with — just my family members and poor husband.
Yesterday I was restless. I felt like there were things that had to get done but I couldn’t pinpoint what those things may be so Jason and I went to lunch then walked around Southcenter Mall. From there we checked out Christmas decorations and picked up a laundry hamper and diaper bag at Babies R Us. By that point, about four hours later, I was wiped out.
Then we stopped at Walgreens to get my insulin refilled so I’d have enough to get me through Tuesday when I am scheduled to be induced. And I think this is the one big thing I was being poked to do and couldn’t accomplish because I had no refills left. Ugh.
I have to admit I had a major meltdown over this. Controlling my blood sugar has been THE focus of my pregnancy. Everything hinges on this. It’s particularly important to not have high blood sugar when the baby is delivered because once she’s born her endocrine system kicks in and overcompensates which can lead to hypoglycemia at birth. That scares the crap out of me.
Plus, no short acting insulin — that’s when I ran out of last night — really restricts my diet again.
So, by the time I went to bed last night I was exhausted physically and emotionally.
Today we passed the time with a nice breakfast, then another trip to Walgreens to have the pharmacy fax a request to my endocrinologist’s office for a refill of the insulin first thing tomorrow. After that we watched football, walked the dogs, and now we’re watching Food Network which is one of my favorite pastimes while pregnant.
I had hoped the walking I’d done in the past week would encourage my little one to drop into the pelvis and possibly get labor going.
But, alas, I am still watching and waiting. Impatient, emotional mother to be playing the waiting game.
I really shouldn’t be all that surprised though, after all, I was two weeks late. My mom says she was 2 cm dilated for a month before I was born.
I guess I’ll just try and suck it up, then, since it looks like induction is an inevitability. I’m not too worried about it, though, in fact I’m more comfortable having a time and date to go into the hospital knowing that my obstetrician will be there to deliver her.
Let’s just hope I can make it through tomorrow without losing my mind. I don’t do well with too much free time on my hands. It’s a good thing that’s about to change. Heh.
Watch for updates here later in the week. I’ll try and post photos, too.

Questions answered

krishill — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:52 +0000

People ask me three questions more often than any other:
• How are you feeling?
• Are you ready?
• How are you sleeping?

Generally speaking, I feel great. Oh, sure, there are times I am uncomfortable but it’s nothing I can’t handle. This is a question I’ve been getting since I announced my pregnancy. I told my friend Emmily a week ago before she shared news that she is expecting her first (which I am thrilled about) that she should expect this question often. She’s a recovering journalist, heh, and has a blogThe Sin City Siren with a good sized following. So, like me, she is something of a public figure. I am sure she will have many eyes, more than I have, watching with baited breath as she moves through the pregnancy experience.

Am I ready? Yes. Hell, yes. And not because I’m uncomfortable, not entirely, at least. More than anything I’m excited. Pregnancy is a long wait and we already waited nine years to start a family, anyway, so there’s is a lot of anticipation for this. I am as ready as I’ll ever be and I genuinely can not wait to be a mom. Ever since I found out I’m pregnant I’ve been excited and as the reality sunk in over the past seven months, I have realized that from the beginning I’ve been head over heels in love with the baby. When I initially realized that, it was shocking to me I could feel so strongly about having a kid, but there it is and indeed I am so I’ve embraced it. I think it’s helped me get through the rough parts of the pregnancy more easily.

The last question is my favorite. Generally moms ask me this question. It’s insightful and speaks to the experience that moms share. My nightly routine the past four to six weeks has been something like this:
Go to bed no later than midnight.
Get up and go to the bathroom about three or four hours later. Probably chomp on some Tums.
Go back to bed. Possibly get up at least once more to go the bathroom.
Occasionally get up and have a snack to combat low blood sugar. Go back to bed.
Get up no later than 8 a.m. Basically feel refreshed.

My mother in law’s best friend, Mary, told me at my baby shower that she thinks the sleeping habits of the last trimester are God’s way of getting us ready to get up for the midnight feedings and function later on four hour chunks of sleep.
I’ve heard some variation of the theory a few more times since then from moms and I’m inclined to agree.

During the past three weeks I’ve been getting one other question: “Haven’t you had that baby yet?”
Sigh. Nope. Today when I went to the obstetrician’s he checked me and said that I was “about the same as last week.” So, not much progress. Up until the past couple days I haven’t really minded that this little girl is in no rush.
Now, I am ready. Like I told Emmily on Facebook yesterday about my approach to labor and delivery, up until a few days ago I was trying not to think too much about it, but now I’m like, “BRING IT!”
Heh.
Maybe I was professional athlete in a former life. Or a soldier. Who knows.
But, all else fails, if the baby is inclined to show up fashionably late she’s coming no later than Tuesday (or maybe Wednesday if labor takes a long, long time) as I am scheduled to be induced at 7:30 a.m. at Valley Medical Center.
So, there you have it. Any other questions? Fire away.

Six weeks off

krishill — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:26:40 +0000

My maternity leave officially begins Monday, Nov. 16, and I’ll be back Monday, Jan. 4.
Part of me is really looking forward to having six weeks off to focus on the baby. But, being someone who hasn’t taken more than 10 days off in nearly seven years, having six weeks off sounds like a looooong time.
OK, let me stop you moms out there now, I know it’s not a long time. But, this is my first time, so you have to realize that I have no idea what I’m really getting myself into. I mean, I have a vague, abstract notion of what six weeks off to just be a mom of a newborn is going to be like but until I am in it then I just don’t totally know what I’m doing.
This is probably what trips me up mentally: six weeks off in the unknown.
Last time I had that much time off I was unemployed. It was great. I read as many books as I could, spent time with friends I hadn’t seen in years, shopped, ate out, went to sporting events … oh and of course I was looking for a job. After two months, I got the first gig with the Reporter newspapers, and at that point I was ready to go back to work.
Somehow I doubt I’ll get bored during this extended period of time off. That’s what made me want to go back to work.
But I’ve been loving my job so much this year, I know I will be happy to come back and keep working on making this weekly paper better than it was this time last year.
On the other hand, I know it will be a challenge for me to leave the little one with someone else, so how much will I be chomping at the bit to work?
I just don’t know. I guess I’ll have six weeks to figure it out.
For now, maybe I should just focus on having this little girl. Yep, here I am, four days away from my due date and she’s still happily ensconced in the womb.
I can’t wait to see my obstetrician’s face tomorrow when he sees me for what better be the last time in the clinic before the baby is born. He seemed sure I’d end up at the hospital before this appointment.
Everybody who knows me did, in fact, but me. And in all fairness, I was rooting to get up to the due date. But it’s because starting maternity leave on Monday is perfect — I’d be off through the entire holiday season and come back right after the New Year.
So, we’ll just see what happens tomorrow. One way or another I’ll have this baby. If not between now and Sunday, I’ll be induced on Tuesday. So, this time next week I’ll be someone’s mommy. I can’t wait!

Envisioning the future

krishill — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:25:49 +0000

Like any other expectant parent, I often ponder what my daughter is going to be like as she grows up: What hobbies will she embrace? Will she like sports? Will she want to take dance lessons? Will she be a picky eater? What color will her eyes be? Will she look like me or Jason? Will she be a creative person like myself or a number cruncher history buff like my husband? What might she want to do when she grows up? Will she go to college, join the military or back pack across Europe after high school?
Naturally I am hoping for a perfect blend of my husband and I, someone who gets math and science but loves music and art, who will be a good listener as well as comfortable carrying on a conversation with anyone, someone who is open minded and adventurous but knows not to cross the line.
Of course, I know she’ll make mistakes, hopefully she’ll learn from them and own up to them. And hopefully I’ll be the kind of parent who helps her with that and reinforces the idea that life is about learning all the time and the important thing is to take responsibility for your mistakes while not making them over and over again.
My aspirations for her are only that she has a happy, healthy life and that she finds something she loves and does it. I’m a firm believer in education and we’re preparing for her to go to college someday — my mother in law said at my shower that with parents like us she’ll surely go to college but I know anything can happen — but if something else comes along that takes her in a different direction then I’ll support her in that endeavor.
I’m not sure what my mom’s aspirations were for me when she was at this stage of her pregnancy (about to pop…but I ended up arriving two weeks late!) but I don’t know that she would’ve ever guessed I’d end up where I am now.
Journalism has suited me so well. I was first drawn to it as a freshman in high school when at the end of the year the Soothsayer was looking for reporters and editors for the next school year.
Writing has been essentially one of my defining identity traits since I was 11 years old. As a freshman in high school I wanted desperately to find a way to make a living at writing. My mom is a high school drop out, though she did get her GED, and my super smart sister who should’ve gone to college got talked out of finished her high school diploma when my mom figured she’d be better off working full time to help pay the bills.
So, at 14 years old, I was a little freaked out about where I’d end up in life if I didn’t pick a path and soon.
I applied for the newspaper and somehow ended up as sports editor as a sophomore, default, really since there were no upperclassmen who wanted to do the job.
Initially, I was terrible. I had no clue what I was doing, no clue how to write an article, no idea how to lay out pages. It was challenging. And I loved it. As a 15 year old 10th grader I decided this would be my career.
Eventually I landed at Gonzaga University where I declared a journalism major. I got to work as a sports clerk at the Spokesman-Review my second year at Gonzaga. I did some writing for the campus newspaper. I still had a lot to learn.
After my second year at Gonzaga my plans went all wonky. I had planned to take a year off but Jason’s school plans changed and after two years apart I decided to stay near him. I transferred to the University of Washington. While at UW I got a job as a news clerk at the Eastside Journal.
Jason and I got married shortly before graduation. He decided to finish school at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and it so happened that one of the assistant city editors knew someone who worked at Greenspun Media Group which owned a daily, the Las Vegas Sun. That contact told me to get in touch with Warren Johnston, city editor at the Sun, who quickly realized during a phone conversation I wasn’t qualified for any of his open beat positions. But, they could use a warm body and I was going to move there anyway, so they decided to hire me as an intern.
At 22 years old I was a newlywed living in Vegas with a shiny new journalism degree, a handful of clips, and living 1,600 miles from home. It took me about 30 minutes to realize that despite what I previously believed I didn’t have a freaking clue what I was doing.
I spent nine months as an intern at the Sun under the excellent tutelage of assistant city editor Jean Norman. While my degree and other newspaper experience was a good start, I really learned how to be a reporter working for Jean. Like my initial foray into journalism as a teenager, this was hard stuff, but it was a much more daunting challenge.
But, I stuck with it, and I realized I’m not so bad at this newspaper stuff. After my internship finished I landed across the street at what was a twice weekly at the time, the Henderson Home News, covering sports and news. My ambition had always been to cover sports for a magazine or a newspaper so after working on the city desk for nine months at the Sun I was glad to cover sports again.
For a whole slew of other reasons the 18 months I spent at the Home News was also challenging. But, I learned a lot there, and frankly I perfected the critical work ethic of cranking out as much copy as humanly possible something that has essentially kept me employed all this time.
When Jason finished school, we moved home in December 2002. It was a relief. I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes six months before he finished his degree. I was horribly home sick. I even missed the rain.
One of the editors with HBC Publishing, the family-owned company that put out the Henderson Home News and Boulder City News, had actually worked up here for a time for Denis Law. Denis, now the mayor of Renton, originally started the Reporter newspapers. He was publisher for a few months before he left the company to pursue his political career.
John Santana was the editor and he had heard about a position opening up here, a new one, in fact. The Kent, Renton and Auburn Reporter newspapers were going to hire a sports and business writer. After two months of unemployment (a much needed rest after the dues paying I did in Vegas for two and a half years) I landed with the Reporter newspapers.
Another two and a half years later, I helped start the Covington/Maple Valley Reporter, and I am the only member of the original staff who remains.
It’s amazing how far I’ve come since I first fell in love with journalism at 15.
But, I tell you what, if my daughter loses her mind and wants to follow in my footsteps I’ll intervene. Journalists are too neurotic — you either are that way to start with or you become that way after too much exposure to the job and the other crazies in the business. If nothing else, I want my little girl to be as well-adjusted as possible, and that just won’t happen in this gig.
Now, she doesn’t have to have White House aspirations, just something that makes her happy.
I can’t wait to see what she decides to do with her life … as long as it’s not being a reporter.
Well, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. It should be interesting, to say the least.

How it all started

krishill — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:27:55 +0000

Yesterday I was chatting with Elena Stowell, co-founder of the Carly Stowell Foundation , about the baby, relationships and I ended up telling her how Jason and I met.
I thought it might be kind of fun to take everyone back to the beginning to see how my own family got started.
Jason and I went to Interlake High School together. He was a year ahead of me. Freshman year we were both in Mr. Michael’s first-year algebra class. We also had biology together with Mr. Witt first semester. I remember thinking even then that he was cute in a tall, geeky kind of way.
Sophomore year he sat behind me in Mr. Rasmussen’s geometry class. He would wear shorts in the winter, played clarinet in Wind Ensemble, and never did his math homework. He got a C because he aced the tests. I got a C because he helped me with my homework while I barely managed to pass the tests. I’m pretty sure I fell head over heels in love with him when I was 15.
It just took me a while to figure that out.
Junior year I asked him to fall tolo (that’s the modern name for ‘Sadie Hawkins dance’). I had been soundly rejected by another boy and just wanted to go have fun. Jason had just been dumped by his first girlfriend and was the worst date ever. During dinner he talked about her non-stop, analyzing the relationship, dissecting it in that left-brained, logical way he has about him. Now, once we got to the dance and the music played, we had a great time. No pressure, we were both nursing bruised egos. That night remained in my memory.
About a year later, Jason was home for Thanksgiving. He was at the school for some reason while I was there for basketball practice. I didn’t play, I was the statistician/manager/gym rat who spent all my time with the girls team because I loved being around them even when school wasn’t in session. I remember walking toward the gym entrance and Jason was standing by his dad’s old red and silver Chevy van, a college boy now attending Montana State University, looking tall and handsome.
But, I was dating someone at the time.
Over Christmas break I bumped into him again, we exchanged contact information.
A couple months later, about three days after that guy I was dating dumped me unceremoniously an hour before a dance he was supposed to attend with me, I received a letter from Jason.
From there the letters turned into calls. Shortly before he finished his first year of college, I sent him a letter asking him to my senior prom, primarily because after my last relationship I decided to swear off guys. I just wanted to go with a friend and I knew after the last dance we went to that we could have fun together. Perfect.
It took a little arm twisting, but he agreed.
We doubled with my best friend Mike, who went with our friend JP (short for Jenifer Park), and had dinner at Red Robin on the pier then danced away on the Spirit of Puget Sound.
Jason and I ended up talking most of the time. By the end of the night we were holding hands. Later, I took everyone home in my 1983 Toyota Corolla, returning Jason last. I told him I’d call him the next day.
It took me all day to work up the nerve to call him. But, I did, around 7 p.m. He was dying to get out of the house. His little brother, David, who was 12 at the time was driving him nuts. So, we went to a movie, maybe had dinner.
That was May 26, 1996. We have been together ever since. We got married May 26, 2000.
We went through two years of long distance while I was at Gonzaga and he was at Montana State. I eventually transferred to the University of Washington. We got engaged when I was 19 and married when I was 21.
People thought we rushed into it but we did wait four years from our first date. We *were* young. And I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. You have to be a little crazy to get married at any age, but, especially that age. I wouldn’t change any of it, though.
We talked early on about kids, decided we wanted them someday and at most, we’d have two.
Now, here we are, 13 1/2 years after we started dating and 9 1/2 years since we got married having our first child.
It’s amazing to me how far we’ve come. I told him a few months ago that he’s been there for all the best days in my life: graduation from high school, graduation from college, the day we got married, the day we found out I was pregnant, the day we found out we were having a girl.
And soon, he’ll be there for the next best day of my life, the day our daughter is born.
Never would I have guessed that tall, quiet, cute, geeky boy who sat behind me in geometry class would become my husband and father of my child but I would have it no other way. He’s the love of my life and soon our little girl will be the light of our life.
And the best is yet to come!

Getting closer

krishill — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:37:41 +0000

Today’s appointment with the obstetrician went well.
While our little one has definitely not been in a rush to come out, she’s getting ready, almost methodically.
Jason had to work today, though he offered to switch his schedule from an 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. shift to 4 p.m. to midnight but I would rather have him home at night, so I was on my own. Hopefully I’m remembering it all correctly.
Baby girl was quite cooperative. It took no time to find a good steady heart rate on the right side of my tummy and we were even able to strap the monitor down. The medical assistant I worked with today, Dasha, said “It’s nice that you’re so cooperative.” I try.
So, I laid there for about 10 minutes listening to her heart beat, watching the monitor to see the peaks and troughs of her heart rate as well as the couple little contractions — that I saw but didn’t feel.
Then the doctor came in, told me my blood sugar numbers look good, and I told him, “I try.”
He also commented that he wants me to be careful about my weight, I’ve put on a pound or two a week and I’m a bit over what they wanted me to put on with the pregnancy, but I told him I’ve been trying to be careful. Granted, I haven’t walked as much lately since I’m really freaking pregnant. But, now that I’m really close, I’ll try to get back out there since it can help keep me from getting heavier unnecessarily it can also help move me along into active labor.
Oh, that should be soon, now.
My OB checked my cervix and said if I heard him right that I’m 3.5 cm dilated. Last week I was one cm dilated. Remember what I said about methodical progress? Yep, there you go. Just 10 days away from my due date and things are progressing, slowly, surely but steadily.
I could sit at this level of dilation until next week or even up until Nov. 17, when my induction is scheduled, or all of sudden labor could kick start in the next day or two and we could very well have our baby girl this weekend!
This may sound crazy, but, I’m in no rush. Oh, sure, if she wants to come this weekend then I’ll be delighted. If we get all the way to next Sunday, I won’t be bummed, either. She’ll be here soon enough. We waited nine years to start a family so what’s a few more days before she arrives?
Everything happens for a reason. I told my OB that I try think positive so I’m not worried about when she is going to be born.
He says he would like to see “nature take its course” and I’m on the same page there since induction does increase the chances of a C-section, among some other risks and downsides. But, I trust my OB, he’s taken good care of me and helped me take good care of our little one so I know he will continue to do what’s best for the baby and if that means a C-section then that’s what we’ll do.
Just in case, though, he had me make another appointment for next week but I get the feeling he thinks he’ll see me in the hospital before I’m in his office again.
I wouldn’t be surprised if I didn’t make to the appointment next Thursday, either.
So, cross your fingers, everyone that my maternity leave starts before the end of next week because it looks like it just might happen!

Going over the checklist

krishill — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:08:04 +0000

OK, I think we have just about everything we need. I am sure that within 24 hours after arriving home with the baby we’ll discover a dozen things we need and don’t have (but here’s hoping we don’t!) so I figured while I have a minute I’d ponder baby stuff.
I’m looking at the “New Baby Checklist” on Amazon.com. Yes, I’m aware that they’re trying to sell me stuff but it seems like a good place to start. I remember back in May when I first looked at this list it was overwhelming to even consider the sheer amount of stuff we needed to collect.
Perusing it now, I feel like I’ve got it together pretty well.
So, let’s see, we have an infant car seat and a stroller.
Next is the feeding category. Um, I have some of this stuff like burp cloths, bottles, a breast feeding pillow and a couple pacifiers. I don’t really want to buy infant formula unless I’m a complete failure at breastfeeding. I’m keeping positive about this.
Nursery items, I feel better about this category. Crib, crib mattress, sheets, bassinet, changing table, check on all those. Mattress pads and waterproof liners. Hmm.
Diapers. What the heck is an all-in-one diaper? Well, not going to worry about that right now. I’ve got some disposable diapers and wipes as well as a diaper pail. My sister-in-law has promised to get me a diaper bag so… Good to go, right?
Clothes? Heh, yeah, we’ve got a big drawer full of them and I just bought more on Sunday. Definitely not a problem.
Bathing, hmm. Infant bathtub, hooded towels, wash cloths, body wash and shampoo, yup got all that. I’m going to get a little emery board to file her nails. Yep, got the diaper rash treatment ointment stuff. Oh, yes, we already use a mild laundry detergent, so good to go there.
This next category on the list, “Baby Health,” we don’t have some of this stuff but it’s my understanding we’ll get some of these items like a thermometer and a nasal aspirator before we leave the hospital so I think we’ll be OK.
This last one, “Activities for Baby,” oh I have so got this one covered. Jason’s grandmother bought us a gliding rocking chair in July. It’s gorgeous. I’ve just received my Baby Bjorn soft carrier in the mail from Amazon this week (they had a killer price!). I picked up a Winnie the Pooh infant swing about a month ago at Kid to Kid in Covington for a great deal and way back in June I got a safari themed bouncer there, too.
So, am I missing anything that I’m going to be scrambling for the first couple weeks at home?
I hope not, but, if so we’ll find out really quick, huh?

The things that fall out of my mouth

krishill — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:40:20 +0000

Yesterday I flashed back to a blog post on the What To Expect When You’re Expecting Web site that I read a month ago about things people should not say to pregnant women. It was dubbed “What Not To Say To Pregnant Women” and at the time it blew me away.
Now parts of it are becoming my reality.
I am 12 days away from my due date. I am definitely ready for this little girl to be born but I honestly won’t mind if she arrives right on time, her due date of Nov. 15 is a Sunday, then my six weeks of maternity leave will run all the way through the holidays and have me back in the office right after New Year’s. Seems ideal to me.
Read through the comments of that blog and quite a few women mention that the closer they get to their due date the more silly things people say to them, like, “You’re still pregnant?”
Let me backtrack a minute. On Sunday, Jason’s parents, Art and Gale, came down to help out with a few little last minute details around the house. Art raked our leaves and mowed the front law — I am sure my neighbors love him for this since we had a TON of leaves out there — and Gale put the Winnie the Pooh appliques to the wall next to the baby’s crib. They look super cute and I will add a photo of that later today, promise!
Because I had a serious nesting fit last Tuesday night, I had washed and folded all of the clothes and blankets I received at the baby shower, as well as organized and put away most of the other items. Gale had planned to come help me do that. Instead, we went shopping.
While we’re driving she tells me people at her church in Bellevue have been asking, “Is there a baby, yet?” I think others in her professional and social circles have asked, as well, but I lost track.
And I’m thinking, “Um, don’t these people realize that if the baby, her first grandchild, had arrived by now she WOULDN’T be around to ask?”
Duh.
So, yesterday people were surprised I was at work. I’m telling you, the baby is in no rush, and delivering early isn’t really all that common anyway if the statistics I’ve read are correct. After the third person that asked me basically, “You’re still pregnant?” I got a little annoyed.
“Next person that asks me that is going to get smacked!”
It actually got pretty funny after that, but, I think I’ll keep that story to myself.
But, that’s what fell out of my mouth. I try to be more tactful with people but for crying out loud, she has a due date, there’s nothing saying she is required to come out early or even on time. Of course, we know that I’ll be induced if she decides to be late, but anyway…
So, my suggestion is, don’t ask the really pregnant chick if she’s still pregnant. Just a bad idea.
What’s funny is that when you’re pregnant, you deal with this in various forms the entire time. At first people want to hear about how miserable you are with morning sickness and so on, and as I had none of that, I left a lot of disappointed people in my wake. Which is strange.
Then you hear the horrible miscarriage stories. Add to that all the awesome advice you get about everything under the sun. And people predicting if it’s a boy or a girl based on old wives tales.
Then things kind of settle down a bit as you get ready for your baby shower. People just ask you how you’re feeling eight million times a day. I have a friend who is coming up to the end of her first trimester and she has not yet announced it to the world, so, I sent her a message last week asking her how she was feeling with the advice to expect that for the next six months. I tried to give her some practical insights about being pregnant and the things she’ll hear from people with the hope she won’t feel as homicidal as I did at time.
Oh, yes, I hid it well because I love you all too much to bite your heads off. I only do that to my husband, poor thing.
Anyway, fast forward to the end of the third trimester, you have your baby shower and now you’re hearing horror stories about things other people’s children did as toddlers.
Or people comment on your size. I was at my friend Leana’s baby shower a couple weeks ago and someone called her a pumpkin at her place of employment.
Yes, I know I’m waddling, yes I know I’m huge. Thank you for reminding me.
I am trying really hard to remain positive. No one wants to hear the pregnant lady complain TOO much about being uncomfortable because, well, you do KNOW this condition can be prevented. *wink, wink, nudge, nudge, say no more*
Thankfully I have not heard labor horror stories. Either that or I’ve blanked them out.
The nice thing about that blog, which is nearly a year old now, is that it and all the comments reminded me that I am indeed not alone in the insanity known as the final days of pregnancy.
Oh, man, I just got that song, “The Final Countdown” by Europe going in my head. Ugh.
Just 12 more days, 13 if I have to be induced.
Trust me, when I’m not pregnant anymore, you’ll know. So, quit asking.

Buying a car should be easier

krishill — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 22:45:54 +0000

I’m kind of fed up with financial institutions lately.
I am just going to come right out and say it, we tried to buy a car last week but we couldn’t because our credit is dinged pretty badly right now.
My husband’s credit, well, that’s partially his fault and partially the fact that technology doesn’t work like it should. The part that’s his fault is the credit card that is in collections. Once that comes off, his credit will improve, I just didn’t realize when we walked into the dealership last week that it was still an issue.
Then there’s my credit. This is where the financial institution has become the enemy. We sent our mortgage lender checks. They didn’t get them, didn’t cash them or didn’t apply them correctly to our loan. We set up online bill pay instead. They lost our payments, misapplied them or the payments disappeared into the ether. Next thing we know, despite the fact that we sent them money, we’re the bad guys because THEY lost the payments. Sigh.
So, they brought the hammer down on my credit since the mortgage is in my name and despite spending the past five months trying to resolve the issue (our bank traced five of the six payments the lender said they never received so, yeah) it is still crushing my credit. I had hoped it would be managed before the baby arrived so we could get Jason a new Subaru Outback.
As it stands, no one on earth, apparently will finance us.
Jason’s credit can probably be fixed relatively quickly so we may still be able to swing this by the end of the month. The salesman at the dealership was positive he could get us financed somehow and I feel bad for walking in the door of the place unprepared. Unlike other dealerships, this gentleman was no-pressure, plus he knew we’d come back once we got it sorted because it’s such a laid back place — for a car dealership, at least. And he pretty much bent over backward trying to help finance what we couldn’t cover with our cash down payment and trade in value of Jason’s truck.
The whole scenario frustrates me because this never should’ve happened, we shouldn’t have had to babysit our mortgage payments, but apparently we did. But now the lender doesn’t want to deal with us so we’ve enlisted the help of a counselor who specializes in this kind of thing to help us speed the process along.
All we need is the paperwork. Our loan has been re-worked, it’s a win-win for everyone, but unfortunately with the millions of people in trouble with home loans in this country lenders are swamped with people trying to save their homes. So there aren’t enough analysts to review the paperwork, put the final stamp of approval on it, then send it out. Once we get it and return it, my credit will be repaired in two weeks.
Sweet! Too bad the lender has been telling us for two months that the paperwork is on the way. Sigh. Hopefully this loan counselor can get it across that we’re serious about getting this done and that we will be here until we get it done.
Initially this was a devastating blow to my ego. All my other bills are current. My car is paid off. I have two credit cards with a zero balance. I am a responsible adult. Plus, I’m pregnant, so the hormones really let this knock me for a loop.
Friday morning I woke up with resolve. We’re getting this taken care of not because it’s important for my ego but because it’s important for us to have a safe car to drive my daughter around in and because it’s important for us to have a good mortgage situation so we can provide a home for our daughter.
It’s amazing how my priorities have changed. My focus has shifted so that everything is about making sure my little girl has the best we can afford, the things I didn’t have growing up, and I can’t believe myself. I never knew I had it in me.
So, everyone cross your fingers we can get all this resolved, not for us but for our baby.

Busy, busy

krishill — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:40:49 +0000

That past couple days have been crazy busy and will continue to be that way.
Yesterday afternoon I visited the obstetrician, who keeps insisting “you won’t be pregnant forever.”
Well, duh, you said you’re going to induce me if I don’t deliver by my due date!
In any case, we started off the visit with an ultrasound, but because baby girl has gotten so big we didn’t even get a print out of the sonogram. There just wasn’t a good image to be had. Besides, the point was to look at her size to make sure she isn’t growing too big.
I have good news, though, based on the ultrasound yesterday our little one is six pounds, 14 ounces, on the 50th percentile. She’s JUST right. I love it. If I get all the way to Nov. 15, she should be about eight pounds, not too big and not too small. I was quite relieved at this news.
My OB was happy with her size and said my belly is measuring perfectly, too, so it seems things are humming along.
I had a handful of little contractions yesterday while I was on the fetal monitor, so small I didn’t feel them, but I saw them on the graph. Heh. Our baby girl was totally cooperative for once. We found her heart beat right away, I held the monitor in place, and everything moved along just fine.
And I am now officially starting to move toward active labor. As of yesterday, I’m one centimeter dilated, so anytime now I could really start active labor. Yay! It looks like I’ll have one more appointment next week and after that I better end up in the hospital. One way or another, though, I will.
People ask if I’m nervous, excited, ready. Yes, all of the above, but I’m trying to focus on the excitement and keep a positive attitude. If I don’t, I’ll worry myself into a nervous wreck, wound as tight as a Swiss watch.
I’m working on tying up some loose ends, getting some baby gear now that I’ll need the first couple weeks, among those being these cool nursing shawls that were developed by a pair of local women. They have a business called Bellies & Beyond where the nursing cover ups, called NursEase are available. I’ve written about the pair twice over the years for the Reporter newspaper.
A week ago I contacted Marie and Joanne about getting my hands on one of the shawls, but, looking at the sizing I was a little concerned their biggest size would fit me. Joanne invited me over to try them on and I did that this morning. She has three boys, Anthony, who is 8, Cole, who turns 3 in December, and baby Sam, who was born May 5.
So, you know that Joanne knows a little something about breastfeeding in public.
My plan is to take our little girl with us pretty much where ever we go whenever we can — except to work, of course! I want to be able to feed her and be discreet about it. The product seems pretty awesome, plus, these days Joanne and Marie use organic cotton which I think is pretty cool and baby friendly.
And you don’t have to take my word or it, you can scope out user reviews on Amazon.com.
Going to organic cotton is a new thing, Joanne explained, and it makes the cost a little higher but the end result seems worth it.
Another new aspect to the business is the addition of the NursEase to the online catalog for the Australian version of Toys R Us/Babies R Us.
“We don’t have any competition there,” Joanne said.
Not a bad way for them to work on expanding their business. In the next year or so, Joanne added, they expect to start making a nice profit which isn’t bad for a business that’s just about five years old.
For me it’s cool to support a pair of local moms and businesswomen that are trying to help other women balance being moms with having a life.
Now I’ve got myself two, in fact, I picked out the same ones Joanne uses. I can’t wait to put one in the diaper bag and have one at home.
Plus, it’s kind of cool to be a part of this mom club, which seems to be really expanding for me lately. It’s exciting to connect with women on this level. I had no idea this would happen and it’s been a really great bonus.
Next time … the joys of car shopping. Maybe.

A gift for my baby’s future

krishill — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:47:50 +0000

This morning Jason and I started up a savings account at the Boeing Employees Credit Union branch at the Four Corners Safeway.
For us, this did two things that are all about taking care of our little one.
First, it is the baby’s college fund. I’ll come back to that in a minute.
Second, it gives us the opportunity finance a new car (hopefully this week) in a way that will work with our finances. We’re looking at trading in my husband’s Ford Ranger for a Subaru Outback.
Since last winter’s snows, we have had our eye on an Outback because they do well in the snow with that spiffy all wheel drive. Once we found out about my pregnancy, we knew it was a good choice for a family friendly car, unlike Jason’s truck or my Mustang (which I can put a baby seat in, but, it’s not my first choice).
The dealership we’ve chosen to purchase from has a direct lender partnership with BECU, which is spiffy, because now that we have an account we can go to the dealership, tell them what we want, fill out the paperwork, give them our cash down payment and trade in Jason’s truck. The last time we financed a car through a different credit union, it was a bit of an ordeal, so I’m excited at how easy this is going to be.
Plus, I’m really happy that we’ll have a safe car to bring the baby home in after she’s born in just a few weeks. The 2008 Outback we’re looking at has the LATCH system, which plays nice with car seats — on the advice of many mom friends and hundreds of user reviews online I selected the Graco Snugride infant car seat to start off with — and is just generally roomy.
My father-in-law, who is a firefighter in Kirkland has high praise for the safety of the Outback after he saw one come out nearly unscathed from a nasty car wreck while the other vehicle was significantly damaged.
My best friend, a mechanic for more than a decade, gave it his thumbs up from a maintenance perspective.
Plus it has tons of space. There’s room in the cargo area for all kinds of things for the baby, or, if we’re doing a full on family trip we can put the beagles back there.
So, I’m stoked.
Now, back to the savings account.
Jason and I decided right away we wanted to start a college fund for the baby. Both of us are still paying off our college loans and we’d like to put our daughter in a position to decide based on the merits of the school and not the price tag of the education. Of course, we’re assuming she’ll decide to go to college, but the general consensus seems to be that since Jason and I are so smart (heh, OK, if you say so) that our kiddo is definitely going to head off to college someday.
A few weeks after I told my mother I was pregnant, she started giving me cash, a repayment of money she used from the life insurance policy I received after my father died when I was 7. I’m telling you this in the hopes you won’t judge my mom, just more that you know the circumstances of how we were able to start saving for our daughter’s education.
My mom says she used about $8,000 of money that belonged to me. She initially invested it in a CD then put it into savings bonds. I should have had a little nest egg when I graduated from college but instead the money was gone by the end of my junior year. I used it to pay for books and living expenses while I was at Gonzaga.
At the time I discovered my money had run out prematurely, I was really angry, I didn’t know where it had all gone but could only assume I had miscalculated and spent it all.
Turns out I hadn’t but I didn’t find this out until a few years later.
My mom says she felt guilty about taking the money and always wanted to pay it back. With my daughter on the way she was spurred to action.
I told my husband about this after going out to lunch with mom some months back. I explained to Jason what I wanted to do with the money and he liked the idea. Mom initially thought I could use the cash to pay off my student loan from Gonzaga (I think I’ll perpetually owe them $8,000) but it seemed like if my dad were still around he would want me to do something for his granddaughter.
So, someday, when she asks, I’ll tell her that my parents helped start her college fund before she was born and that I couldn’t think of a better gift for her future.
Now that we’ve got it established, after she’s born, I’ll sign us up for Washington state’s GET tuition program which we can set up to draw monthly payments from the savings account.
I am really happy with this choice and I hope our baby girl appreciates it someday when the time comes.

Packed for “D-Day”

krishill — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:07:20 +0000

Last night Jason and I got my hospital bag packed for the trip to Valley Medical to have the baby, which in reality, could happen at any time.
So, there’s blankets for the baby, her little going home outfit and a couple of onesies to go under that, clothes for Jason and I — the bathrooms in the labor and delivery rooms at The Birth Center are pretty nice so I plan to shower before I throw on my Interlake sweats and head home after she arrives — as well as some toiletries, books, an iPod and a little speaker for it since I’m a big music fan, her baby book so the nurses can put her foot prints in it, as well as some other items that I can’t recall off the top of my head.
We’ll get some other items together when it gets a little closer and there are a few things we’ll have his parents bring. We decided to ask them bring snacks and change for the vending machine so Jason can keep his strength up. I will be limited to water and ice chips for sustenance, woohoo! At least while in labor. There’s a kitchen with a full menu and all that which is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. but I think it’s best to be prepared in case the little one decides to arrive when the kitchen is closed.
As Jason went back and forth between our room, the family room and the baby’s room retrieving items for the hospital bag, there was only one item that was a real sticking point: my vision.
Or more precisely, should I wear contacts or glasses while we’re at the hospital. Jason insists that I wear glasses the whole time we’re at the hospital. His reasoning is that it will be a pain if one of my contacts tears while I’m in labor and that it would simply be easier for me to wear glasses instead.
My issue is that I hate wearing my glasses for extended periods of time. It’s nice at night to put them on after a long day at work and give my eyes a rest or on the weekends for a while before I leave the house. Otherwise, they’re just not very comfortable for me.
I got my first pair of glasses when I was 7 years old. Now, while I don’t get called “four eyes” anymore, my vision is atrocious. It only stopped changing three years ago. I have coke bottle glasses, even with all the nifty tricks they can do to try and make lenses smaller, so after a few hours I just hate wearing them. They slip down my nose. I have virtually no peripheral vision. Blah.
And I will admit my vanity. I think I look better wearing contacts. Not that my vanity is going to be a major concern while I’m in labor but anything I can do to be more comfortable physically and emotionally seems like a good idea.
So, we put the decision off. I offered to compromise. If it’s the middle of the night when we decide to head to the hospital, I’ll wear my glasses, but I’d like to throw my contact lenses into the hospital bag. I wear daily disposable lenses so if I do rip one in the full on exertion of active labor (I seriously doubt it, but, Jason insists it could happen) then no big deal. Pop it out and throw it in the trash. Then I can throw on my glasses or pop in another lens.
Basically, though, it’s a game time decision.
In the meantime, we need to grab a few other items for the bag, otherwise I think we’re good to go.
We are packed for “D-Day.” You know, Delivery Day!
And that, my friends, is just around the corner, at most 20 days away. Wow.