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since i am home this week, and probably next week too, i can actually do a mid-week update :-)
but there's not a whole lot to say, so i'll just get down to brass tacks, the pictures *grin*
travis checking out his own pictures on facebook:
safe in the arms of mommie:
a slightly censored version of one of travis' more well-filled-out diapers:
a total fail in technical photographic terms, but one of my personal favorites:
his little and yet slender fingers:
travis in his typical position, ass in the air, like he just don't care:
a thoughtful moment:
his tiny toes:
and another shot of his tiny toes (because i know that denise wants to eat his toes *omnomnomnom*):
travis showing off his most pathetic sad litte face, while getting a bath:
right after being taken out of the bathtub and wrapped in a towel it still takes a few moments to calm down:
in other news, i received an invitation for initial interview for my green card application. the word initial kinda has me worried, because how many interviews will there be and how incredibly redundant are they going to be and how much of my time, and denise's since she has to be there, too, is it going to waste? but, i have 6 weeks to prepare for it, so that gives me plenty of times to find out what denise's favorite color is ;-)
more news tomorrow, but then strictly related to my travels ...
wednesday, july 1, 2009
another week has passed and it seems that time just flies, whether i am at home or whether i am away on business.
on sunday evening i took another couple of shots of travis (currently i have about 550 pictures of him!)
comfortably asleep in denise's lap:
sucking on the hospital pacifier, so far the only one he wants to suck on:
"You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talking... you talking to me? Well I'm the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you're talking to? Oh yeah? OK." - travis "bickle" wirtz:
did i mention already that i love my new prime lense?
monday afternoon i left for a long stint in cedar rapids and this time, i drove myself to the marta station in the pt cruiser. it was the weirdest thing, to pull out of the driveway and leave my beloved wife and our much loved baby boy behind ... i'm sure it will get easier over time ... it has to ...
my working week in cedar rapids was full. this week was pilot week, where the core team had to be trained and then perform a series of tests to see if they could do anything they currently do in their job (in different pieces of software) and if anything performs exactly the way they are expecting it.
i spent most of tuesday between troubleshooting issues with the database, while my colleague was training his segment of people, and writing a 45 page training manual i would be using on my training session on wednesday. oh, and prepping the database with a number of leases that were not yet finished.
my wednesday was pretty much a disaster. not because of me or my training material, but because of all sorts of technical issues. the first thing i had to deal with was to stall time, so that their IT people could install a service pack. i needed this service pack, because otherwise my training would fail right there and then. i started at 9am with some other things first. at 10am the install would be ready, so i planned a 30 minute bio break at 10am. of course, at 10 it wasn't done, so my colleague came to the basement training room to do a dog and pony show for about 30 minutes at 10.30am, because they told us the install would be ready at 11am.
at 11am it still didn't work, so we decided to go an alternate route and give everyone in the training room access to our sales database. no sooner i had started creating user logins, both client databases went offline, meaning they were actually doing something to it. so i paused for a moment and then word came that the service pack was applied. and lo and behold, it worked. so after more than a 1 hour long break i was able to continue my schpiel. everything went fine till lunch.
during the lunch break i did some other quick checks to see if the database was working as i hoped it would. and it did. but then i looked over my shoulder at the projector screen, only to see a large dark blob in the middle. and i smelled a funny smell: the projector bulb was burning out.
when i mentioned this to the client's project coordinator she started grinding her teeth. apparently, their facilities group doesn't keep a projector bulb in stock, and that it would took an act of congress to get one replaced within the lunch period. she logged a call and indeed they did not have a replacement bulb, which meant that she would get another projector to use. not a problem, you think?
but there was, because the video cable was not nearly long enough to reach from my presenter desktop machine to the location where the projector needed to be positioned. fine, i would use her laptop instead of the desktop to do my training from, but then we found that the network cable didn't reach all the way over to where we could position the laptop. great. she went out and found a longer network cable, so we hooked everything up, only to find out that for some bizarre reason her laptop refused to display her screen onto the projector. bizarre, because she uses that combination of laptop and projector almost on a daily basis without any issues. fantastic. so, we decided to use one of the trainee desktops as a last resort to keep going and finally i was able to project my screen onto the projector. of course there had to be a downside and that was tha because i was using the monitor port on that desktop machine, i could not see what i was projecting right in front of me on the computer screen, so i had to turn my head from the projector screen to my audience.
and oh yeah, my audience was a very diverse group of over 20 people. and oh yeah, did i mention the training room being in the basement? with no windows? with a very noisy airconditining unit that really couldn't handle the heat that all these people were generating?
yet, i pulled it off and i received more than one compliment for being able to dance around all the issues of that day. but let me tell you, it totally drained me. and i was already operating on 6 hours of sleep after a 14 hour working day, after a night of only 5 hours of sleep, because my flight from atlanta was delayed with 3 hours, meaning i only got to the hotel at 1am.
suffice to say that on thursday i woke up with a killer headache. i tried to stave it off with drinking coffee, because usually caffeine gets rid of my headaches, but not this one. luckily, i only had to do a half day in the training room and i only spent 30 minutes going over the test scripts and then my trainees had to perform the things they need to do. i was there to field any questions. i was happy that everyone in the room had at least 1 question and afterwards i heard how great they thought it was for them to finally log on and see their own data. and they were liking what they saw, so even though, these days felt like a failure, they may turn out to be really good. to hear that was a huge relief.
on thursday afternoon i finished the training manual, because it was missing some key screenshots. my colleague and i left on a decent time as well, because i wanted to go to a balloon glow event on the brucemore estate close to downtown cedar rapids. we went out to dinner at an italian restaurant a little ways down the road from our hotel and it is very likely we'd be returning there: good food, very reasonable prices.
i went to the balloon glow thing by myself and i must say that it may very well be the best $1 i have ever spent. i ended up shooting 882 pictures, 882 saved pictures that is!
friday turned out to be a very relaxed day. in the am we worked at the office, tying up some loose ends, planning for the near future, etc. at noon i drove my colleague to the airport and since our client is on a summer schedule, letting out at 1pm, i did not go back to the office, but instead went on a shooting spree again.
i drove through the corn fields to the amana colonies, then back through the corn fields back to downtown cedar rapids, where i roamed about for about 45 minutes before heading back to the hotel.
when i got back to the hotel, to my surprise, i found there was a chevy nova convention, so i hung out there for almost an hour, took 80 pictures of some of the coolest nova models i have seen, before retiring to the hotel lounge.
there i drank a couple of beers, downloaded my pictures, had dinner, and just fiddlefarted on the computer till it was time to go to bed. and i had planned to go to bed early, since i had to get up at 3.45am to catch my 5.30am flight home. of course i didn't really go to sleep till after 11pm, so i was glad i actually woke up at the alarm.
the flight home was uneventful and we actually arrived 30 minutes before eta, so i actually made it home just a little after 10am. which was great, because i had missed travis more than i thought i would. i spent the rest of the day more or less snuggling with travis, which was glorious!
we had a late dinner, just the two of us, because campion first hung out at a friend's pool and then at a school play, which meant i had to let him drive to the pool first then pick him up to let him drive to school.
at dinner time i took a couple of pictures of travis that shed a different light on our perfect baby :P whenever he is hungry or when he has a dirty diaper, he can get pretty stroppy :D
this is him after he went from a smile to a yawn to crying:
this is his lower lip quiver, which i'm sure is purposefully designed to be so damned adorable that all you want to do is pick him up to console him:
and this is him opening his eyes mid-cry to see what is taking the mommy and daddy so long to pick him to tend to him:
pretty irresistable *LOL*
on sunday i was actually able to sleep in and boy did i ever need to sleep; i remember barely being able to say goodnight to denise when we got in bed; i just slipped into a very comfortable coma the minute my head hit the pillow.
my parents called me in the beginning of our afternoon (the beginning of their evening) and while i was on the phone, sadie braved the odds and climbed into denise's lap while travis was in her arms:
she's the cat that is not afraid of this new crying, smelling, small new humanoid in the house. lily is still very careful about being around travis, avoiding him pretty much. sadie is more comfortable around him. which is fine, just as long as neither of them become aggressive around him. but i'm sure they won't, because both cats just have too sweet a personality.
and for now, i'm gonna take it easy the rest of this sunday, only going to post-process the 80 shots from the nova convention to burn those to a disc to send them to the organizers. other than that, restfull bliss :-)
sunday, june 28, 2009
happy solstice!
it's been a week since my last update and since i have started traveling for my work again the updates are likely going to be weekly. it was very weird going back to work again, after spending so much time at home, with travis. i spent time with the others, too, but tj kept us pretty much occupied, because he is still struggling with day and night.
monday was an especially hectic day, because campion had to be driven to summer school, travis had an appointment with the pediatrician and pepper had an appointment with the orthodontist. all pretty much at the same time. denise drove campion to school in the mazda to go to the doctor after that and i took pepper to her dentist in the pt cruiser. when we were done there i asked for a few more bags of elastic bands for her braces, since later that day she was going on vegetation with her dad for six weeks.
around noon i left for south pittsburg, tennessee in the mazda, alone with pepper. (i had transferred the car seat into the pt, so denise could pick up campion from summer school.) it was an odd ride, just the two of us, but it was kinda cool. we talked, a couple of times we sang along with the radio and we had a few discussions on a range of topics.
we arrived at the drop-off/pick-up point about 20 minutes before the scheduled time, so we had to wait. when her dad arrived, pepper actually reluctantly got out of the car and i could see she was dragging her feet. she was unsure if she wanted to go on visitation or not, moreover since she likes hanging out with travis and i think the thought of not seeing him for 6 weeks was not something she was looking forward to.
but, she knows that her dad loves her and that he wants to spend time with her as well.
i rolled her suitcase over to his car and asked if he could please make sure to have pepper brush and floss her teeth twice a day and he mumbled what sounded like yeah while not directly looking at me. because i rolled the bag over, pepper and i didn't have a chance to say our goodbyes and we found out later that she was bothered by that. but she shouldn't be, because i will not hold it against her. i know her dad makes her uncomfortable showing any kind of affection towards me, because he has repeatedly told her that "i am not her dad". thing is, i never claimed to be her dad, nor will i ever.
but someday soon he will have to deal with her reaction to him stifling her and then he has nobody to blame but himself ...
the ride home was kinda lonely, but at least gave me a chance to test out the car and its stereo *grin*
the rest of the monday was quiet.
on tuesday i worked from home and prepared for my travel to cedar rapids. in the afternoon denise took a nap and that is when i snapped the following shot:
at 5pm we left for the airport. i know i could use the pt as my airport car, but i wanted to maximize the time i had with denise and travis, so i drove myself to the airport. saying goodbye was a lot harder than i thought it would be and i actually kinda rushed it, because i got the feeling that if it would take too long i might have been tempted to get back in the car and go home again.
i didn't, so i got on my plane to cedar rapids to spend the next two days on-site with my client. missing travis. meh. at least i was "distracted" enough not to break down. next week is going to be much harder, because i will be gone for 4 full days and on top of that i am going to be busy as hell. perhaps that is a good thing ...
on friday i flew back home and after pizza for dinner, we took travis out for his first walk around the block:
of course, he loves the motion, so he was very comfortable and very asleep for all of the two rounds we made:
saturday was a pretty uneventful day. we slept in (me more than denise, because i slipped into a coma almost the second i hit the bed) and pretty much just lounged around. in the afternoon i let campion drive himself to yet another girlfriend he'd be accompanying to get her pierced somewhere. for him it was a fact-finding mission, because his birthday present consisted of getting him a navel piercing *rolls eyes*
when i got back, denise was taking a nap on the couch, which give me a chance to play around with my 50mm lens some more:
after dinner i went a little up the road to take pictures of hay bales in the field next to the road that leads to our subdivision. i saw them when campion and i drove by earlier and i had never seen that so close. i parked my car in someone's driveway and not minutes after i walked into the field a bit i was approached by redneck #1. he told me that i was free to roam the field if i wanted to, but clearly he was just checking me out.
a little later, redneck #2 wandered over from out of the house across the street. that actually turned into a nice conversation, because he is an artist of sorts (a sculptor designer for large installations) and all he really wanted to do was warn me about the location where i had parked my car.
i got some good shots of the bales of hay and after that i returned home and vegged out for the remainder of the evening.
next to being the official beginning of summer today is also father's day and i received no less than 3 father's day cards. that warmed my heart. and i still have got to get used to being a father, since now i really am one ... it still is weird to me.
anyway, enough rambling for now, i'm gonna see if i can spend some quality time with my wife and my son (the other son has left for one his friends, so it is just the three of us this afternoon).
sunday, june 21, 2009
pssst, don't forget to scroll up & down for new & previous posts about travis
unfortunately the time has come again to go back on the road again. i'm gonna be missing travis, and denise (and the others) of course, a lot ...
june 16 in the am work @ the home office, in the pm travel to cedar rapids, ia (staying @ cedar rapids marriott)
june 17-18 work @ client site in cedar rapids, ia
june 19 travel back home
june 20-21 weekend; no plans
june 22 in the am work @ the home office, in the pm travel to cedar rapids, ia (staying @ cedar rapids marriott)
june 23-26 work @ client site in cedar rapids, ia
june 27 travel back home on red-eye flight
june 27-28 weekend; no plans
june 29 in the am work @ the home office, in the pm travel to cedar rapids, ia (staying @ cedar rapids marriott)
june 30-july 1 work @ client site in cedar rapids, ia
july 2 travel back home
july 3 work @ the office and/or @ the home office
july 4-5 weekend; no plans
july 27 travel to san antonio, tx (staying @ undetermined)
july 28 work @ client site in san antonio, tx
july 29 travel back home
mainly, i will be traveling to cedar rapids, because i will be spending about 66%, or more, of my time for that particular client. the biggest downside to travel to cedar rapids is that there are not too many flights and the departure times are kinda strange as well, so i will always lose a day and a half just to get there and back again.
everything is progressing as it should, even though not as fast as i would like. travis still has night and day confused, which leaves us very little sleep. and of course, during the day he sleeps like a rose:
on thursday evening, travis got his real first bath, since he lost the last part of his umbilical cord on tuesday night or wednesday morning. he wasn't too fond of the sponge baths he had before and he didn't care much for his bath either:
at first he screeched, but once he got used to the water he kinda mellowed out a little, still not fully liking it though:
and of course, after the bath, he was crying again, because of the transfer from the nice and cozy bathwater into the airconditioned kitchen:
on thursday night we went out to dinner at ichiban to celebrate 3 birthdays (and if travis could really participate, 4 birthdays): denise, campion and myself, all within the same week. this was travis' first real trip outside of his home cocoon and he didn't fuss or cry at all, not even when the cook set fire to the cooking plate, generating lots of light and heat. not bad for a baby of 12 days!
friday was a busy day for me, with dealing with grocery shopping, laundry and several errands. and i did these with help from pepper, because in the morning denise was feeling sore, and later in the day, after a nice long nap, she put her back out on top of everything else, so i pretty much put her on couch rest.
we received a buttload of clothes in the mail today, an entire washing machine full, actually:
but i also got my "birthday present" of sorts: a home theater surround set (with multi-region dvd player) :-)
in the evening i snapped a great facial expression while travis was being fed:
the degree of sarcasm and glee is just awesome!
on saturday i tried to set up the new home theater set, but to no avail. everything works, we have hdtv, we have the dvd player video hooked up, but i can't get the sound through the a/v receiver. there's 4 components in the set up: the digital set top box (high def tv), the tv, the dvd player and the a/v receiver. this means that there are 4 manuals and none of the manuals actually show me a wiring diagram to get them hooked up properly. there is one complicating factor: i have 2 hdmi cables. i tried searching online for diagrams, but i have yet to find a correct diagram. very frustrating.
the other thing i failed at getting to work is my webcam in live messenger. i updated the webcam software, i updated the windows driver, but still, when i start a video chat, i can see both parties' video, but the other person on the chat cannot see my webcam. again, i tried searching online for troubleshooting tips, but i have yet to find a solution. very frustrating.
at least last night (or really early this morning) i was able to snap a few shots of travis in his bassinette:
in above picture you can clearly see his eyes are blue, even though in daylight they are slowly turning green. even with a prime lens it is really hard to shoot travis in low light, because all his limbs are very active:
and below my favorite from the pictures i took:
for today i have nothing planned, just relax to hopefully save and/or recreate energy for the week to come.
sunday, june 14, 2009
the past few days have been relatively quiet. travis is still doing great: eating, sleeping, pooping. the only problem, if you could call it a problem, is that he doesn't sleep at night. during the day he sleeps like, well, a baby, but when we go to bed, he fusses and fights, wanting to eat and, as a result of the eating, he poops and pees more.
so, our nights have been pretty short, moreover since campion has been going to summer school (to make up for his history grade) starting this week, which meant i had to get up at 7.30am each morning to have him drive himself to school and then pick him up again at 12.30pm.
in the meantime i have been working off and on as well, trying to get a nap in here and there. denise's recovery is going pretty well and as of today she is off the pain medication, so perhaps that will help both her and travis to have an easier bowel movement.
yesterday a new lens i ordered arrived and this lens will help me shoot portraits of travis better, because it's a macro lens and it's a prime lens and it shoots very well under low light conditions.
last tuesday it was campion's birthday and the dude is 17 now! he didn't know what to do for a birthday party, so we didn't arrange anything, nor did we order a cake from orna. what he did want to do for his birthday is make his own pizzas for dinner:
he made a regular pepperoni & sausage pizza ...
... but the one that stood out, was the white pizza:
olive oil, artichoke hearts, pine nuts, feta cheese and sundried tomatoes. yummy!
and here's a few shots of travis taken with my new lens:
i know the last one is overexposed, but i like the colors and focus. i'm gonna be having fun with this lens. perhaps later tonight, when he will get his first real bath. but first we go out to dinner ...
thursday, june 11, 2009
saturday evening and sunday were spent in relative rest. as is demonstrated perfectly by travis:
on sunday campion drove himself to north point mall where he met yet another girlfriend of his and on the way back i showed him the way to central high school, where on monday he would have to report for summer school.
pepper spent some time holding/cuddling travis, something she asking for at least a couple times a day now:
today, june 8, was denise's birthday: 29 years with 8 years of experience. in order to celebrate this we all went out for a haircut, some grudgingly (campion), some happily (me). travis tagged along and even though he has a full head of hair, his doesn't need any trimming, yet. but he was a trooper throughout the time we were gone from home, because after the salon we had to stop at the bank, go get some new clothes for pepper (since she is growing out of most of her clothes slowly but surely) and to our mailbox. on the way back denise decided to treat us to taco bell for (late) lunch, which meant that dinner today was at 9pm, a royal time :P
before that i caught a few snapshots of our handsome son:
and denise and i are not the only ones who think he's kinda cute; everyone who sees him, in real life or in pictures, thinks he is very handsome. he must have denise's genes then ;-)
monday, june 8, 2009
the time has come to slow down the frequency of updates. reasons are 1) the most exciting days are behind us 2) i need my time to care for this new life 3) i need my time to get in a little rest.
but don't worry, we're still very excited about travis and i will keep on posting about everything that is going on with him and with us. so far it is steady as he goes: eat, sleep, poop, pee, lather rinse repeat ...
two tender moments between mother and child:
travis in his bassinette, isn't he a star?
i brought the bassinette down from our bedroom to the downstairs living room, because so far he has trouble getting to sleep at night, so we hopefully are able to train him to sleep in his bassinette as well as he does in bouncy chair.
denise is healing, slowly but surely. even though she still needs to take it easy, because she did have major and invasive surgery, she can move about a lot better than a few days ago.
we enjoy travis every minute of every day; he is such an easy baby. he only cries when he is hungry and when he has a dirty diaper. once he is fed or cleaned up he is quiet and peaceful. he responds to our voices, he responds to our touch and he doesn't seem to be fazed by much.
in short, he is all we could wish for.
saturday, june 6, 2009
nothing spectacular to announce today, just another day of growth of travis and another day of recovery for denise.
thursday, june 4, 2009
last night actually went pretty good altogeter, woke up at 5am because denise was having trouble getting travis to go to sleep after feeding him. i took over the task of keeping him quiet and denise laid down in bed, with her feet elevated on 2 sets of cushions and about 5 seconds after she closed her eyes she slept.
and travis followed suit not much longer, i only had to settle him down twice with his binkie and his magic spot (yes, i found it!)
we all woke up at 8am and started our relatively relaxing day. i worked a little in between looking after travis.
during one diaper change session i made a couple of shots:
while pepper was preparing dinner (her speciality, after all, is meatloaf and wednesday is meatloaf day!), i made a picture of travis sleeping in his bouncy chair:
after dinner it was time for travis' first sponge bath. we can't give him a proper bath until his umbilical cord falls off his belly button. even though i made a manly pact with travis beforehand, he screamed throughout most of his cleaning:
and yes, in this last shot he does look like sting ... i wonder what's up with that?!
wednesday, june 3, 2009
today at 9.10am travis had his first doctor's appointment with his pediatrician. and guess what, everything checked out perfectly fine. he lost a little weight, he went from 7lbs 14 oz to 7lbs 2oz, but that is perfectly normal in the first two weeks after birth. his eyes, ears, spine and reflexes are all good, so other than being cold in the examination room, he was cool as a cucumber.
unfortunately, this was not the first thing we did today.
we went to bed at midnight and while denise was tending to her wounds travis laid on my chest, slowly drifting into dreamland, and so was i. when denise took him to feed him, i fell asleep. i woke up, with a jolt, at 3.30, to denise being bent over at the dresser, wincing in pain. i asked her if we should see the ob/gyn after travis' appointment with the pediatrician and she said she couldn't wait that long. she was in some real pain.
when she stripped she showed me that pretty much all of her body was swollen, retaining water. i packed a diaper bag with diapers, wet wipes, a set of clothes and a blanket, and i told denise we were going to the er.
downstairs i packed a bottle of formula (similac), a nipple and a full can of iced water and off we went. slowly, because denise could hardly walk because of the pain. we installed travis in his car seat, where he pretty much immediately fell asleep.
when we got to the er i jumped out to sign denise in and to get a wheelchair, because i didn't want denise to walk any more than absolutely necessary. and i asked for help as well, so as i was helping denise into the chair a nurse came out who actually took denise into an examination room. her blood pressure was measured and it was way up. they didn't take temperature, but they couldn't because she'd been drinking cool water.
after about a 15 minute wait the er doctor came in, asked some questions and, in our eyes, jumped to a conclusion. he only looked at her c-section stitches and from our answers deducted that denise probably just overdid her activities and that she just should have rested. in a large part this was true, but that didn't justify his demeanor, which we both thought was abrasive.
he'd asked for a nurse to set denise up with an ice pack and denise had to have her urine sampled to see if she had urine tract infection. taking the culture took forever, so denise was slowly nodding off at the hospital bed and i was nodding off with travis in my arms in a very uncomfortable chair.
in the middle of all this travis needed to be fed, so denise did that, with great discomfort, because he was laying across her belly, which hurt just as it was. but she soldiered through with a little of my help and encouragement.
the urine sample was negative for uti and her blood pressure also dropped a little, so the er doctor advised denise to take it easy, very easy: only two trips on the staircase (down in the morning and up in the evening), no lifting, no bending and keep feet elevated.
by the time we were discharged it was after 7am and we were back home at 7.30. denise fed travis once again, still in pain. in the meantime i assembled the stroller. then denise went to the bathroom. and i heard her whimper and moan and curse. ten minutes later she called me into the bathroom and what i saw still boggles my mind. i kid you not, there was a turd the size of a brick. since the colon passes right behind the uterus it wouldn't surprise me that that log pressed into her uterus, which is still sore from the c-section, which in turn pressed the stitches outwards, which were also still sore from the c-section.
after that release she instantly felt better, still in pain, but a lot less. that's when we had to leave for the pediatrician.
that visit took us almost two hours as well, so we were back at home at about 10.30am and by that time i was already starting to fade. denise put in a call to her ob/gyn asking about bowel movements. he called back saying that the epidural and the pregnancy vitamins actually cause the bowel to stop working. and whatever is in the bowels actually hardens/calcifies.
she got recommendations for two items, a drink and a suppository, and i drove to the cvs/pharmacy to find them. i actually found them, without asking for directions, and got back and much to her chagrin denise took both to the bathroom and went to work. it didn't work straight away, but after a little while she managed to push another brick, one even larger than the first one! if that was even possible!
while she was paving a road, alex and karen rang the doorbell again. they had to drop something off for when my parents come over for vacation later this summer. and i finally had a chance to show off my car *grin*
they had to leave at 4pm to go back to the hotel to check in for their flight home tomorrow and after that make their way to turner field to watch the atlanta braves play to chicago cubs.
when they left denise gave pepper instructions on how to make tonight's dinner and she did so splendidly. we had dinner and right after dessert two of campion's friends came over to ogle travis. and he flirted back. campion must already feel the competition and to travis' cuteness overload there really is no way he can win *wink*
i put on the channel that broadcasted the braves game and so far, in 6 innings there were three runs over home plate. against the braves, so they will likely miss out on the fireworks ... ah well, maybe next time ...
as for us, we're going to take it easy and go to bed early, see if we can make a decent night.
denise certainly deserves a good night, with plenty of rest in between the feedings. and i am in desperate need of some sleep too ...
i will leave y'all with some pictures i managed to take today.
these two pictures are almost identical, but i couldn't choose which one to put up, so i decided to do the ultimate thing, put both of them up ...
the cats have been curious about travis, too, but they are also very guarded. sadie is a bit more brave, she sniffed him out a couple of times already, as she is doing in the picture above. lily has been more intimidated and possibly even angry at the new intruder, so she keeps her distance, as you can see in the picture below:
and the last picture shows a very intimate moment between mother and son, it's precious:
more news tomorrow, hopefully a lot less exciting!
tuesday, june 2, 2009
i had a hard time waking up this morning so i texted denise that i had a hard time waking up and that i might not make it to be at the hospital at 9. well, t-mobile messed up my message and within a minute denise called me telling me to drag my ass in asap. the reason: denise & travis were being discharged!
so, i dragged my ass out of bed, got dressed, ate some krullers for breakfast and headed over the the women's center of northisde hospital forsyth:
denise had already packed a few items, but the first thing we needed to do was the watch a dvd with instructions on importance of the proper use of the car seat, in order to prep ourselves and travis for the car seat test.
this is no joke, we had to put travis in his car seat, hooked up to a monitor to check his blood pressure, his temperature and his oxygen levels, for an hour!
luckily, travis didn't mind at all and he slipped into a comfortable sleep:
in the meantime i settled the bill with the hospital (they first charged me for the wrong person, so after she double checked that our balance was only minimal, i made a "profit" of $1100, and we we will billed for the difference later on, which should only be about $150.
of course, there was much more paperwork to be signed and they double checked our bracelet numbers with travis's bracelet number, making sure we were not swapping babies. (not that we would have, because ours is the cutest baby boy, ever :P)
then denise had to take place in the wheelchair (hospital rules require each patient to be rolled out *rolls eyes*) and at the nurses' station they cut travis' ankle monitor off:
security is extremely tight: there are sensors in all three bracelets and if either just me or denise would walk out of the hospital with the baby, the hospital doors would go into complete lockdown! baby theft is a pretty major issue in the usa ...
a nurse rolled denise down the hallway, into the elevator and out the building and another nurse who was on a break enjoying the warm weather volunteered to take a picture of the three of us:
we installed travis in the car seat and drove to cvs to get denise her pain medication and while she was waiting for it i snapped a picture of travis:
at 12.15 we were back home, so all in all denise had only been in the hospital for 48 hours! pretty amazing!
once i got the car unloaded, campion and i went back to the hospital to pick up the vase and flowers that our friend alison dropped off as i finished installing the car seat after the test. the vase is huge and heavy and i didn't want to risk any breakage or leakage, so i decided to leave it at the hospital and return for it.
the ladies at the nurses' station were disappointed that i took it away from them, because they loved it.
back home, we started assembling the swing (campion) and the bouncy chair (pepper), which kept us busy for a while. then we cleared all the bags of goodies we received from the hospital, i did my finances and by that time it was getting close to dinner time.
i didn't want denise to cook so we all agreed on greek/middle eastern, so i drove over to the only gyros shop in a perimeter of 30 miles. when we were halfway through dinner alex and karen arrived on out doorstep.
we talked for a bit, i gave them the tour of the house (they liked the nursery and karen really liked the walk-in closed) and then we said down in the living room for some more conversation.
before we knew it it was 10.30pm and they left, because karen was getting a bit tired ... which is totally understandable seeing as she is 22.5 weeks pregnant!
and pretty much we all kinda shut down and got ready for bed.
one thing i would like to mention is that our choice of 8 pictures, that the hospital photographer took yesterday, are available from this website.
monday, june 1, 2009
you would think that after a day like yesterday, with travis being born and all, the day after would be more quiet. guess again. from the moment i got up, after 6 hours of sleep, by myself, i was in the hospital room with denise and travis 8 hours after i left. first order of business was getting a few snaps of travis together with denise:
at around 10am, the best man at our wedding, alex, you remember him, the really really really really really tall guy from neverneverland, and his life partner (or girlfriend, whichever you prefer) karen texted me saying they wanted to drop by between 11am and noon, which of course was not a problem:
after i took this picture i drove home to pick up pepper, because she wanted to see travis, but when i left the house earlier this morning she was still asleep on the couch in the living room. at the same time we were trying to host concurrent video chats with my parents and my sister and with sean, the young man who gave denise away at our wedding.
after alex and karen left for the mall of georgia we had a few moments to ourself, so i took a couple more pictures of denise and travis:
throughout the day nurses and lactation specialists and photographers and nurses kept coming into our room to perform their routine. it's like we are in a maximum security prison where the guards come in every 30 minutes to check if all bodies are still accounted for.
at around 4.15pm pepper and i left to pick up campion at the house, because at 5pm we were scheduled for an official photoshoot. we were back in the room at 5.01pm and right after i closed the door, the photographer came in.
she took about 50 pictures, travis by himself, travis with me, travis with denise, travis with campion, travis with pepper and a family shot. tomorrow we should be getting a link to the website where 9 of them will be posted, so i will share that here, too, because she managed to get a couple of really good shots.
denise got her dinner by the time we were finishing up the photo shoot, so after she left, campion and i drove to pizza hut to get our dinner. when dinner was gone i brought the kids back home, because they were bored out of their skill. upon my return i was able to talk to my best friend, ronald. he is new york at the moment and using a calling card he managed to get in 4 four minute calls. it was good to hear his voice again and to find out how he, patty and the kids are doing.
then, finally, i had some quality time with my son. he laid on my chest and legs, uninterrupted, for a good 30 minutes:
today was a very exciting and busy day for travis. today was a very exciting and busy day for denise and me and we both are pretty tired ... more news tomorrow ...
sunday, may 31, 2009
congratulations travis, it's your naught birthday :-)
denise slept on the couch mostly last night, so she was back asleep when i got up. i had breakfast, denise wasn't allowed anything. after breakfast we both took a shower and before we knew it was 11.30. i loaded all the bags, which have been ready for over a month now, our laptops and camera gear into the car and checked in at the hotel northside hospital.
we were taken to a prep room where first an ultrasound was done, confirming that travis was still very much in breech. so that ruled out a normal vaginal birth and after that denise was prepped for c-section; she was administered all sorts of iv drips and at the last moment she got the epidural (ruggeprik) and the catheter.
in the meantime i had to scrub up, too:
at close to 2pm denise was rolled to the operation room and i had to wait outside till she was lifted from the stroller bed to the operation table.
when i was called in a whole host of staff was busily working on denise. i was sat on a chair near denise's head, and only when they told me to stand up and look i could see what the surgeons were doing; unmentionable things really.
but i got to see him pulled out of the uterus and almost immediately he started crying, which was a good sign:
after he was cleaned he was bundled up and placed on denise's chest, while the doctors were putting the contents of her belly back in place:
when the doctor's were ready travis was put back in a little crib for some more cleaning and post-op stats:
when everything was done & dusted in the or, we were brought to the recovery room, where they washed travis, took all his vital stats and clothed him in northside gear:
denise tried to give travis his first feeding, which took a little doing, but in the end he laid down comfortable and ate for about 20 minutes:
after his first early dinner we placed him back in his bassinette:
after all paperwork was finished we were rolled to our room, 2w02, where denise and travis are going to be staying till they are dismissed. at that time it was close to 6pm and that meant dinner for denise. i took that opportunity to pick up the kids, who were waiting at home, get some dinner (they agreed on chik-fil-a), get some coffees and go on visitation. both kids were excited, in their own ways, to see their baby brother. if travis was just as excited we can't tell for sure:
after they finished eating and washing their hands, the kids got to hold travis. campion was up first, and even though he played being cool, we have photographic evidence (that we're saving for a later time *grin*) of him actually genuinely smiling. but this shot is good too:
(he may or may not like his hair)(and, of course, has a wonderful head of hair *grin*)
next up, was pepper, who with a little help from me, got to hold him too:
she did actually shine, even though she was a little disappointed she was not allowed to squish his little potato head ...
visiting hours ended at 8.30, and the kids were getting kinda restless, so i dropped them off at the house and came right back to spend some more time with my tired, but otherwise fine, wife and baby.
and as i am typing this i have already posted the 12 pictures from this blog in facebook and i want to thank all y'all for your comments there.
now daddy is getting a little tired, too, so once denise is done with feeding him i am going back home to see if 1) the house is still there and 2) to get a little sleep.
i will be back in the morning ...
saturday, may 30, 2009
today marks the end of the blog series about how my life changed and onwards.
today my wonderful wife gives birth to our son, travis john carlin wirtz.
below you can see how we got to the point where we are today:
first ultrasound
second ultrasound
first profile shot
third ultrasound
first baby's heartbeat
second profile shot
fourth ultrasound (first level 2)
third profile shot
fifth ultrasound
sixth ultrasound (second level 2)
fourth profile shot
fifth profile shot
sixth profile shot
seventh profile shot
seventh ultrasound
eighth profile shot
ninth profile shot
tenth profile shot
eleventh profile shot
twelfth profile shot
it is still a possibility that the c-section that is scheduled for today at 2pm is cancelled in favor for a normal, vaginal birth. this will happen if travis has turned the right way, and yesterday evening he did shift a lot, causing denise quite a bit of pain. since our preference has been to have a normal birth it would be great if travis turned the right way. if not, no big deal, we'll just cut denise open and drag him out. either way, he's gonna have his first birthday real soon :-)
saturday, may 30, 2009
the rest of the day was pretty relaxed. denise took a nap, pepper played outside, campion watched tv, the new neighbourette dropped in and we ate pizza. after dinner i took campion out for a drive in his car and this time he only almost crashed us once, but it was at very low speed. there is something else going on, though, something mecanical, which i think we should look into fairly soon.
campion dropped himself off at the movies and when i got back home i helped pepper start a load of her wash and spent some time at the computer and basically getting all our electronics ready to go to the hospital tomorrow.
since tomorrow, hopefully, denise is going to deliver travis to the world, i thought that i get one last profile shot in:
more news tomorrow, from the hospital :-)
friday, may 29, 2009
the doctor called 30 minutes ago, as i was punching in the number to call him :P
denise is scheduled for a c-section on saturday, may 30, at 2pm. she is not allowed to eat and drink after midnight tonight and at noon we have to be at labor & delivery intake at the hospital to go over the paperwork.
then before performing the c-section they are going to do an ultrasound again.
if it so happens that travis has turned the correct way, she will be moved to a normal l&d room where she will be induced for a vaginal birth.
if travis is still in breech, the c-section will be performed and he should be out in about 30 minutes after that.
more news at 11 ...
friday, may 29, 2009
we're waiting for the doctor to call to tell us if and when we are scheduled for a c-section.
we did the non-stress test and there were no abnormalities, other than the second he could get away from the heart monitors, he did. travis does not like to be restricted, not by a seat belt, not by being strapped into a set of heart monitors.
the doctor did an ultrasound again and confirmed that he is still in breech, and on top of that, he is facing outward from the belly.
this means that doing a manual version is going to be complex, because he needs to flip completely. with the placenta being alterior, we think that doing this would not be the ideal choice. so that pretty much ruled out vaginal birth.
the other risk, combined with the breech position, is that if denise's water breaks there is a possibility for his feet and/or the umbilical chord to slip out with all the risks of that. couple that with the possibility of a gbs infection, a quick birth would be beneficial, also since the baby is, supposedly, about 37 weeks now and measuring 38 weeks and 4 days.
so yeah, the doctor is seeing about scheduling a c-section for saturday.
more news later today :-)
friday, may 29, 2009
i managed to sleep in today, but denise was up at the asscrack of dawn, as per the norm lately. we didn't have anything planned, but since we have an important doctor's appointment on friday we decided to do grocery shopping today, as to not have to worry about that anymore.
after putting away all the groceries denise laid down to take a nap and an hour later pepper called me from casey's house to ask if i could help them load some heavy items into the moving truck (tomorrow they're moving back to west virginia).
it's been a while since i did some heavy phyiscal labor and boy, will i feel this tomorrow!
we had dinner relatively late at 8pm and then i heard for the first time that campion cut himself on a piece of sheet metal. it was bandaged but he couldn't use his hand very much, so we decided to keep safety first and we all hopped in the car to go to the er. so we spent about an hour there, to have him get 5 stitches in his hand. the dork.
came back home, i took a shower and started a load of wash (now waiting for the dryer to finish so i can fold it away) and watched the last half of the cavaliers-magic game (go cavs!).
it's close to bedtime now and hopefully tomorrow we'll have a better idea where we stand with travis.
thursday, may 28, 2009
denise called the ob/gyn herself this morning to find out what the result was of his night of sleeping this over. and the result was a little shocking: denise has to come in on friday morning to do a non-stress test and then he wants to see her at the regular weekly appointment next tuesday ...! yesterday there was a mild panic all around and today we're back to the waiting game.
i'm sure he will have his reasons for this sudden change of heart, but not even time will make all risks go away.
of course, denise has not been feeling comfortable at all, all day. some moments she was less uncomfortable, other moments she was in pain. travis is trying to turn, she thinks, but i think he can't make the turn to get his head down, so now he's pretty much laying sideways, kicking and punching frequently.
and there's times that denise's belly is rock hard, and not because she is having a contraction, because she only had a few of those today.
we're gonna see if we can get through the night as comfortable as we can and if she is still feeling as she does now, denise is gonna call the ob/gyn and see if we can check in to the hospital and then do the following:
- if he's face down, induce and have a vaginal birth
- if he's face up or sideways (not face down), schedule a c-section
the ob/gyn wants to take this pregnancy into week 37, but i can feel travis pretty much occupies all of denise's abdomen, so there's no real need to wait till he's ready ... he's ready. that is probably a reason he is making such a fuss in there, he wants out as well, poor kid.
more news tomorrow, i guess ...
wednesday, may 27, 2009
in the end, the doctor never called today. i think he wants us to sleep on it for a night ...
we had dinner without campion, because he was picked up by his (soon-to-be) girlfriend to go the graduation spectacle of his highschool; he would eat somewhere prior to the party.
pepper and i made dinner with verbal direction from denise and we did pretty good.
after dinner, pepper cleaned the stove and the countertops, while i stocked the dishwasher for its nocturnal spin. all this time, we were (on & off) watching my name is earl. denise spent a lot of time researching the pros and cons of vaginal birth vs. caesarean birth. and there is lot of things that don't make us very happy when reading through it. all the more reason, i guess, to sleep on it.
the one non-travis related thing that i did today was apply for my license plate. i decided a few months ago that if i would get my desired cx-9 i would get a vanity plate. no sooner said than done, i ordered me one, should be ready in about 3 months ... oh yeah, everything here works lightning fast ...
tuesday, may 26, 2009
this morning we had an appointment with the ob/gyn. denise did the normal rigamarole of peeing in a cup, weighing and taking her blood pressure. after that the doctor took us to the ultrasound room where he did, yes really, an ultrasound.
from this ultrasound the following became clear:
- travis weighs 8 lbs 4 oz = 3.75 kg
- travis measures at 39 weeks and 2 days (as opposed to 36 weeks and 2 days, which was the initial thought based on the last menstral cycle)
- travis is in breech = stuitligging
- the placenta is grade 3, which means that the placenta is at its end of resources (food and oxygen) and since travis is already kinda big, he will use up what is left pretty quick
- denise tested positive for gbs, which means a potential danger for infecting travis during the birth = streptokok bacterie; this is easily resolved by mainlining denise with penicillin during the birth
- the placenta is anterior as opposed to prosterior = placenta is aan voorkant van de buik ipv de achterkant
this leaves us with the following options:
- schedule c-section = keizersnede
- do an ecv (external cephalic version), and the ecv is more complex due to the placenta being anterior, running the risk of needing to do an emergency c-section = externe versie (keren van de baby door manuele therapie)
- wait for travis to turn to cephalic presentation for a normal vaginal birth = hoofd naar beneden
the pros of c-section:
- minimum risk for both denise and travis
- a normal c-section is cheaper than an emergency c-section (our health insurance covers 90% of the costs in relation to travis' birth)
the cons of c-section:
- recovery is longer, because of the invasive surgery
- travis cannot be breastfed in the first 24 hours, which may cause him to refuse being breastfed
- c-section is more expensive than vaginal birth
the pros of vaginal birth:
- quick recovery
- breastfeeding from the word go
the cons of vaginal birth:
- requires ecv first
- without ecv if water breaks, there is a possibility of the umbilical chord being flushed out
a lot of things to think about. our doctor was going to call the hospital to see what his options would be and also to give us time to figure out our preferred approach.
as we're waiting for the call, denise is on the couch resting, because she keeps getting more and more uncomfortable, which doesn't surprise me with that huge baby in the wrong side up in her belly.
travis, if you hear this, turn over already, or you are grounded!
tuesday, may 26, 2009
after a relatively short night of sleeping in i got up to learn that denise had been up for hours already, again. she made us breakfast and after i got dressed i started on organizing the filing cabinet. during the whole time i was working on that (over 3 hours) denise was on the phone with her mother and by the time we were both done it was ready to get dinner going. it's funny how time flies ...
... speaking of which, this time it really has been a long time since I last wrote travis, so here goes:
"Dear Travis,
I'm sorry it took me this long to tell you more about your mom and me, but like I said last time, life can sometimes take over and life can be quite hectic.
I left you with the promise of telling you more about the whole visa and green card procedures I had to go (and still is going) through.
The company I work for graciously offered to have me transfer from the Dutch payroll onto the US Payroll and they would get me in touch with an immigration lawyer they use frequently, but I had to pay for it all myself. This I could understand, since it was me requesting the transfer, not them. And I figured I could use the help for the work visa, since I had already been looking into it and the forms the United States government uses are not exactly easy to read.
I filled out all the forms the lawyer told me to and after answering the few questions they had, they submitted the paperwork after which the first period of waiting started. The work visa application got approved, so the next step was to get the visa at the Consulate in Amsterdam and I could do that in combination with my last trip to Poland for one of my clients.
Of course, when I went to the Consulate on one day, they actually confiscated my Dutch passport (which is illegal as hell, but I didn't mention anything, because I was afraid that they would then refuse me my visa) to put in the visa. And I had to wait a couple of business days for the passport to be mailed back.
But, it all turned out fine, so one large step was taken and I was able to work and live in the USA until October 2010. Since it is my plan (and desire) to stay here we knew we also had to go through the Green Card application process. It took us a while to get to that point, but a few months ago we were able to fill out all the paperwork, or so we thought, and send it to United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (although that is pretty much an oxymoron). It didn't take long for them to request a few additional forms, and have those returned to them within 87 days. I needed a medical exam, have some immunizations and send a birth certificate. Luckily I was able to get those things arranged in a little over 3 weeks, so now the ball is back in USCIS' court.
When I was at my medical exam, the doctor said that once the medical exam was sent in I would have my green card in 90 days. Still, seeing is believing, because from what I gather it typically usually still takes anywhere between 1 and 2 years. Yes, Travis, red tape cogs here turn really really slow, nothing happens fast and you will see that for yourself when we apply for your Social Security Number.
There is still one thing that I need to research and that is what your citizenship is going to be, Travis. By birth, you will be a US citizen, but because I am still, and probably always will stay, a Dutch citizen, you may get dual citizenship. Whenever I have a free moment I will see what I can find out on that count.
What is more important now is that you will have a loving home with caring family members.
Tomorrow your mother has an appointment again with the doctor who is going to deliver you into this world, and he is going to do an ultrasound to see how long you are measuring and how heavy you are weighing, in the hopes to better determine when you will be born. Since you have been ahead of the growth curve for the best 3 months now, we may decide to come and get you before the chosen date of inception (June 10/11) and well before the original due date (June 21), but I guess we will know more tomorrow, so until then stay tuned for more :-)
Always, your loving father."
... to be continued.
after memorial day dinner, cheeseburgers and fries, we loitered around the internet for a bit, moreover because there wasn't really anything else pressing to do.
all day long, denise had been having contractions, but just like before they are not consistent. after dinner, the contractions got worse and she also had some pain in her pubic bone and the inside of her thighs, since that is where all the pressure rests. while i took a shower, denise laid down on the couch and right now she is happily snoring away and happily igooring the contractions.
i really hope that tomorrow the ob/gyn will see that travis is well past 36 weeks, so we can take appropriate measures. so, more on that in tomorrow's blog. good night y'all!
monday, may 25, 2009
first and foremost: link to latest scheduling agenda (updated) ... last time i post this link, because it looks like i ain't going nowhere in the near future ... :P
sunday, lazy sunday ...
slept in, had brunch, did a couple of laundry cycles, twiddled on the computer, tried out video calling with my sister, but the connection broke before we could actually talk, talked to my mom on the phone, had dinner, re-made our bed, had dessert and watched a movie, the curious case of benjamin button.
tomorrow is memorial day, a holiday, so another sunday, lazy sunday ...
sunday, may 24, 2009
first and foremost: link to latest scheduling agenda (updated) ...
didn't do much exciting today. got up, drove the pt cruiser to walmart to get it inspected by the manager, who then told me to get an estimate on the oil pan and the gasket from the chrysler dealer, so i got that and after i got back i moved the car seat (for travis) from the pt to the mazda. it took me a minute to figure out the LATCH system, but once i did it was a piece of cake.
denise tried to take a nap, because she woke up too early, routinely, but she could also not find the peace at that time, because campion was frustrating her. so instead, she decided to go for a wax and a mani-pedi and she took pepper with her. campion and me went for a drive in his car, so he could deliver the job applications he collected, while doing some driving in busy stop and go traffic. all in all that went pretty well, didn't almost kill me once this time ...
when we got back, campion did his chores and i post-processed about a 150 pictures i hadn't done yet, half of them from the graduation yesterday. as promised, here's a few shots. this is pepper entering the cafetaria/auditorium:
this is her teacher looking straight into my lense:
pepper on stage with the principal, and you can tell she is about to cry, that's how nervous she was:
but luckily her nerves subsided fast, so in this shot you can almost see a genuine smile:
and right afterwards she was goofing off, showing her medal to us:
when the ceremony was over, pepper agreed to pose, but i told her that she didn't have to smile (because if she poses she breaks out the "retard look") and this is the wonderful result:
as part of their legacy all 5th graders made an artwork that was done in a glazed tile, which will be forever part of the walls of the elementary school; this is pepper's self-portrait:
and last but not least, this is pepper checking out her chik-fil-a lunch bag:
like i said yesterday, i thought the whole thing was pointless, but she did have a good day and denise and i were glad to be there for her.
when denise and pepper got back from their "spa" afternoon, we had dinner and not long after dinner campion went to the movies again and this time he drove himself. and this time around, he managed to almost wreck the car twice before even leaving the sub-division. but he got his act together and got us to the theater in one piece. i drove back home and watched some tv, while denise was writing thank you cards and doing her homework, and pepper was on the computer.
and this was pretty much my day ...
denise is getting more and more uncomfortable by the day, since travis has got less and less room to maneuver. but like i said yesterday also, we are ready for him ...
saturday, may 23, 2009
safe in the arms of mommie:
a slightly censored version of one of travis' more well-filled-out diapers:
a total fail in technical photographic terms, but one of my personal favorites:
his little and yet slender fingers:
travis in his typical position, ass in the air, like he just don't care:
a thoughtful moment:
his tiny toes:
and another shot of his tiny toes (because i know that denise wants to eat his toes *omnomnomnom*):
travis showing off his most pathetic sad litte face, while getting a bath:
right after being taken out of the bathtub and wrapped in a towel it still takes a few moments to calm down:
