Running

I haven't mentioned my recent running escapades much. Maybe for fear that, like past attempts to get back in to running, it would go out with a whimper after a few weeks. Maybe because it's fun to casually throw in statements like this:

Gosh, I'm tired today. Maybe it's because I ran 16 miles yesterday.

And those statements work better when the other person is unsuspecting. In March I ran the Rex Lee Run as always (at perhaps my worst time yet for the race) and our stake had a not-quite-5K race in April. Then, somewhere around the first of May, under the influence of a few friends, I did something stupid. I signed up for the St. George Marathon. As a Washington County resident, I'm guaranteed a spot in the race. So, I've been running ever since. In the last 3 months I've run 215 miles. And spent somewhere north of 30 hours doing. Once you add in the stretching time, the cool down time, and the lying-prostrate-on-the-grass-in-a-state-of-exhaustion time, that number grows quite a bit. So, it's finally time to start blogging about what I've been doing with myself.

I've been quite surprised, really, at how easily I've been able to run longer distances. (So either I'm awesome, or I had expected it to be much harder than it really is.) Before this year I had never run further than about 7 miles. I hadn't run more than 3.1 miles in several years. Now I've topped 10 miles 7 times. As expected, the hardest part is just getting out the door in the morning. (Oh, and the heat. Let's not forget that.)

Today we ran from Veyo to St. George which is part of the marathon course. There was a head wind most of the way, and it was cloudy, so we traded heat for humidity. The first 14 miles went really well, and the last 2 seemed to have way more hills than I remember. Felt like it took forever. But I made it. 63 days until the marathon.

Butter

Time for a whole blog post about butter.

First off, when I was a kid, "butter" meant anything that came in stick form and was used for cooking.  "Margarine" was whatever came in the tubs that was used for "buttering" toast or other things.  (At least, that's what I remember.)  I recognize that it was all margarine, but that's what we tended to call it.  (I now live in fear that my sisters will all comment and refute this claim.)

My other memory of butter is that back in the day, it was a solid.  Our tubs of blue bonnet margarine could sit on the counter for hours and it was fine.  It softened up a bit and was easier to spread around, but it was still solid.  These days, not so much.  The various brands we've purchased over the years (personal favorites: "A Change for the Butter" and "Butter It's Not") are all very similar.  They are very, very soft.  Even right out of the refrigerator they are quite soft and easy to move around anywhere.  But if you leave them out for more than a few minutes (particularly on a hot St. George day) look out!  They melt and get very soft.  It just starts soaking into your dinner roll.  And by the end of dinner, it's turning liquid and separating.  And once that happens, it's just yucky.  It never quite solidifies up the same.

I suspect that the problem is caused by the progressive move away from anything that is partially-hydrogenated, or mono-unsaturated.  The world is so afraid of certain types of fat, that we've switched to butter substitutes that don't have them.  End result: runny butter.  I just want my regular Blue Bonnet back from 20 years ago.  Something soft enough to spread even when right out of the refrigerator, yet firm enough to be identifiable as a solid.  At the rate things are going, I'll just be squirting some vegetable oil on my toast in another decade.

(Oh wait, we already have that, it's "I Can't Believe it's Not Butter Spray")

The Pink Stick

We went swimming tonight with my family who is in town. One of my sisters had some sticks that sink to the bottom of the pool for diving fun and Julia was playing with the pink one. She still had it when we left the pool, but it vanished by the time we reached the hotel room. We searched the pool area, the halls, the rooms and both elevators. We even checked to see if someone turned it in at the front desk. But no pink stick.

So now it is 10:30 at night and Julia woke up sobbing. After 5 minutes she finally managed to get out the she wants the pink stick. 15 minutes of crying so far. All this over a pink stick.

This is why we can never have pets.

Ella Update

No pictures today, because while our baby is adorable, any possible square inch of our house that might appear in the background would be unsuitable for others to view.

There are so many little things that are so easy to forget when you don't have a little baby.  So, I'm making a list.  For those who remember some that I've forgotten, feel free to add on.

1: They tend to come out all mixed up between day and night.  So what few hours a day Ella does spend awake tend to be at 3am.

2: Somehow, they can tell the difference between walking and anything else.  I have never found any bouncing, swaying, rocking or swinging motion that is a successful imitation of walking.  So while Ella is awake at 3am, she wants me walking (stumbling), and simply won't stand for anything less.

3: Babies are so little.  They roughly triple their weight in the first year.  Even tiny little PJs are just so big on her.

4: Babies are yellow.  Well, at least my babies are.  As with Julia we were back doing another Bilirubin test.  Whereas Julia's was low enough that they were satisfied, for Ella we will be going back tomorrow so they can siphon yet more blood from her feet.  So, she is kinda yellow.  Of course, any pigment added to the naturally white pallet she inherited from her parents would be expected to show up pretty well.

5: Beware the post birth hormones.  (In mom, not the baby.)  I'll be ok posting this because Shannon recognizes that she's kinda all over the place the last few days, crying every time a hat drops.

All in all, things are going reasonably well though.  Julia is always super excited to do anything to help out baby Bing.  Yeah, she primarily calls her Bing still, and we aren't fighting that.  She at least doesn't object to us calling her Ella, and will sometimes call her Ella, too.  She said today that she was waiting for Ella to say "binkies, binkies, binkies" and then she would bring her binkies.  All day long she is fetching burp clothes, diapers, toys and blankets, whether we've asked her to or not.  And she loves to hold her little sister (though her attention span for that is only a minute or two).  It's all really quite adorable.

Ella Joy

We present to the world

Ella Joy Blockburger

Everyone wants updates on the baby, but other than finally having a name, there isn't a whole lot to say. She's got a cute hat, which is covering up her blonde hair. Some people have still tried telling us there is some red in there, but we're too smart to fall for that trick twice. If anything, it is just her red scalp shining through. She doesn't cry much, and seems to be eating and pooping about on schedule. Julia bounces back and forth between being excited and nervous. She really wants everyone to come home, but woke up this morning saying "I don't want to be a big sister" and "I don't want to hold any babies."

Pictures of Baby "Bing"

I'm not sure how, but the blog post pronouncing the birth "baby!" somehow passed up the previous entry. I can see how that could be confusing. It's a good indication of how quickly everything happened. We can tell stories about it later. I know that everyone wants pictures.

We are now a family of four. We had to take a break so everyone could eat, because I'm the only one who had eaten more than toast today. The hospital meal was tasty.

Our little girl looks great. She seems to have long fingers, but not long eyelashes. (We can't remember if Julia had long eyelashes birth. She sure has them now.) She had her first bath, so we can say that her hair isn't obviously red. It looks mostly blonde, but who knows on that front. She's had a go at eating, which worked reasonably well, I think.

Shannon is doing great. They are keeping us in the labor/delivery room, possibly over night. As long as she is here, they can have her heart monitor beamed over to the other hospital campus in town (babies in St. George are all born in the "old hospital") where someone continuously monitors the heart patients. Julia will be coming over soon to say hi.

The pediatrician just got here to check her out. Things look ok, except for that nasty tar spill that seems to have happened in her diaper.

19.5 inches. 7lbs 6oz.

4:10pm -- She's got the shakes and is going to try the first push just to see what it's like. Contractions are certainly more substantial in the last 5 minutes.

The nurse is very confident that there will be a baby before she gets off her shift at 6pm. And that was before the last 5 minutes. So, things look very promising. And the blogging may get fast and furious. Right up until the point that it stops completely because I've got more important things to do!

baby!

Baby Bing still doesn't have a definite name yet. Her middle name is almost 100% decided, but not her first name. The nurses just asked, and Shannon told them the top three names, and mentioned that she has eliminated the rest that we had still been considering have been eliminated. So I guess we're down to the final 3. I'm certain that we'll be waiting for her to be born before picking anything. It will probably be sometime tonight.

3:57pm -- Shannon is at an 8/9. I guess she gets up to 9cm during contractions, but backs off to more like an 8 when the contraction ends. Things are getting a bit bloodier, so I don't look much. (Don't worry folks, I stay firmly planted on the couch they have for me.)

The doctor was just in here to check on things. Whatever hand/elbow/whatever might have been up by her head earlier is no longer there. The doctor said that her cervix may have torn slightly, but that doesn't seem to be a big deal. (Of course, I've never heard him talk like anything was a big deal.) Shannon is now on oxygen. The baby isn't quite facing the right direction yet, so they pitched Shannon up on her side to try to get her to rotate a bit more. (Her head is down, don't worry folks. But we want her facing backwards, not sideways or something weird.)

I still have a very hard time fathoming 10cm of dilation. At work we make wafers that are very precisely 10cm in diameter, so I have a very good idea of just what size that is. Wow.

We appreciate all the comments and good thoughts from everybody.

3:28pm -- Slow and steady. Cervix is at about 8cm. Evidently Bing has a hand up by her head. She clearly isn't going to get out that way. (or it might just be an ear) Things down there are now "super stretchy" according to the nurse. I guess you're supposed to go about 1cm per hour, so we're in that general ball park. Shannon remains mostly comfortable, other than being hungry. There is some bleeding, but I suppose that's normal. Last time Shannon had the shakes, and threw up a few times and was generally more unhappy. So things are much improved this time.b

2:19pm -- Nothing real major going on. Nap time for Shannon, internet time for me. We've already played Phase 10 (a labor tradition for our family!) and done the crosswords from the Sunday paper. I'm munching on the snacks I brought and looking for a good time on the interwebs. It'll be a handful of hours yet.

12:32pm -- And, her water is broken. I now see how we missed this last time, as it was pretty darn boring. Maybe if she wasn't numb it would have been more eventful. Dr Fagnant checked things out and put her at 4cm and still 80% effaced. His exact words were, "Not as stretchy as I'd hoped." He says we've still got a ways to go. Pitocin will very soon be increased to 30 mL/hr. Clark remains chilly. Shannon feels warm. I'm munching on granola bars, Shannon gets ice and suckers! Julia seems to be having a good day with the Martinsens.

Note to self: Next time, bring a jacket. Or wear long pants. It's cold in here.

Dr. Fagnant is in surgery for another 45 minutes or so, at which point he will come break the water. In the mean time we're just hanging out.

11:43am -- Dilation is at 4+ cm.

11:35 -- Epidural is in. I didn't watch, but things seemed to go well. Not real sure how the contractions are going now, because they are a lot easier for Shannon to ignore now.

Next up is a catheter, and then a check of how things are going. Then we'll have to get the doctor in here at some point to break her water. Its funny that we have no idea when her water broke last time, because it was in the middle of the night and we were both partially asleep.

We're on to the Food Network on TV. This all seems somewhat less exciting than last time.

Oh, and now the catheter is going on right now. I'll just keep typing and not pay too close of attention.

10:25am - Pitocin is up to 16mL/hr. Saline is steady at 125mL/hr. We are nearing prep-time for the epidural. Normally when you go have a baby (from what I hear) they pump you full of fluids when you arrive, and then can do the epidural any time they want. In Shannon's case, lots of extra fluid means extra work for her heart, so they don't do that. They do however need to give her a bit of fluid before doing the epidural (which can cause drops in blood pressure). The real impact of this is that they have to give her the extra fluid 30 minutes before they can do the epidural, so we have to plan ahead. Contractions are about 2 minutes apart. Shannon's heart rate drops during the contractions, the baby's is pretty constant.

Shannon now updates me that she's gonna do one more contraction and then hit the button for the nurse to start the epidural clock. She is now dilated to 4cm.

As for how I'm doing, I'm kinda hungry, and we're watching GSN, because the hospital has cable!

We arrived at the hospital around 6:20. First, they hooked Shannon up to every monitor they could think of. They've got her heart monitor hooked up, and are beaming the signal over to the other hospital. Evidently there are people over there who sit around all day and watch everyone's signals. So, I guess if her heart stops or something, they call over here and let us know. Then there was the mundane urine sample, blood samples, medical history questions, weighing, blood pressureing and everything else. (It was fun when they set up the machine and then it took Shannon's blood pressure 7 times in a row.)

At about 8:00 they started the IV with pitocin (oxytocin) which should get things going. She is currently dilated to a 2+ and is 80% effaced. The monitors are showing regular contractions every few minutes that last a minute or two. Pretty much there are plenty of graphs around to keep me entertained.

We have heard the call

And are heading for the hospital at 6:00. Shannon may have slept last night. I'm not quite sure.

Late to bed and early to rise

Makes a man stupid and blind in the eyes.

Heading to bed assuming that we will get a phone call early in the morning inviting us to have a baby. Our bags are packed, and all that's left is for Shannon to keep fretting over everything. Julia is at a friends house for the night. Our entire ward has been very generous to offer us more help than we can figure out how to accept. I know I will sleep ok tonight, let's hope Shannon can, too.

Overheard

We were at IHOP last night and got to hear this from the table next to us:

Customer: "Do you have any Russian dressings?"
Waitress: "No we don't. This is IHOP."

Um, remind me what that 'I' stands for again?

Baby Planning

Turns out, we haven't done much of it.  And the baby is somewhere around 48 hours away.  Time to get cracking!

Today we:

 - got the desk out of Bing's room and into the garage.  It's listed on Craigslist, and we think someone should buy it.

 - moved Bing's dresser into location and loaded it up with clothes.  Not as good as our other Ikea dresser, but sadly there isn't one within 4 hours of us.

 - vacuumed.  Turns out it still works after all this time!

 - dusted

 - re-discovered the floor in our house.  (obviously a pre-requisite for the vacuuming.)

 - did the dishes.

 - bathed Julia

Pretty much the theme here is finding things we haven't seen in much to long a time.  (floors, counters, Julia's natural skin color, etc.)

And it's not even NOON!  (plus, I went and attempted to run much, much further than my body wanted to this morning.)

So, we're feeling reasonably prepared, though we are still undecided on a name.  It's proving more difficult than last time, and I haven't been much help.  So far my best idea is to name the next one Julia, too.  (or maybe Julia Two?)  But I'm sure we'll come up with something. 

Finally, don't forget the live baby blogging to start early Monday morning (probably).

Baby Live Blogging!

My blog has been around for a few years, but I think about 50% of all traffic and comments over that time came during one 36 hour period in April of 2008.  Well, we here at Bethletard want to do whatever it takes to increase viewership, and apparently what the people want is more babies.  With then end in mind, we're having another baby, who is currently scheduled to be induced on Monday, July 12th.  So get ready to hit the refresh button folks, because Bethletard Baby Live Blogging is back!

Of course, that baby could come earlier, but at the very latest labor should be induced early Monday.  (We're praying for early, so we can avoid another 5:30am thing like last time.  I explained to the doctor that it probably cost me a half dozen comments at least.)

This post is also serving as a test of the Email Blogging System.  (To go with the previous Text Messaging Blogging System.)  We're getting more technologically advanced with each kid!

This is a test of the text messaging blogging system. This is only a test. If this were an actual blog post, I'd have a better joke than this one. Thank you.