Friday, February 29, 2008

The sickies have visited us...

Isaac is sick, so it seems. I won't go into all the details, but it hasn't been pleasant for anyone involved. I will try to post more of an update on Anna as well as her birth story, but it will probably be at least another day or so.

Our little country girl...

 
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The latest belly picture...

 
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Mommy & Anna Sophia

 
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Wednesday, February 27, 2008

We took Anna to the doctor yesterday. She has been nursing well since birth and her weight was 7lbs 8oz. We will go back in a week to make sure she is up to her birth weight. I am still working on the birth story and I hope to post it and some more photos soon.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Birth Story--Natural Childbirth!

My labor started on Wednesday, February 20th sometime in the evening. I was really hoping to hold out until Friday, so that my mom could be there and I could have my doctor present for the birth (as opposed to someone else from her office). I tried to focus my energy away from labor and spent the next two days relaxing in the shower or laying on the bed watching movies. The contractions were very sporadic and I was able to sleep a good bit and eat as I wished.

Thursday night it snowed about 4-6 inches in the city, which was the biggest snow this entire winter. Friday morning, I woke up to the news that the delay at the airport was 10 hours. My mom was scheduled to fly into New York at 11am that morning. Todd and I headed to my doctor's appointment at 9am and the doctor found that I was "probably in early labor" and she jokingly asked me to hold out until 5pm, because that was the time she was on call in the hospital. I got a call from my mom that her flight was delayed 6 hours and was very bummed, because I thought she would miss the birth. We headed across the street to the AOLTimeWarner Mall and got breakfast at our favorite pastry shop. My mom called and said that her flight was scheduled to take off in 10min. She called again as they were actually leaving. The contractions were still coming sporadically and I was having a bloody show, which usually indicates that labor is imminent.

After breakfast, we went to the Borders Bookstore in the mall. I found a chair and sat down because I was determined to wait until my mom arrived to go into labor. The contractions spaced out a little I breathed a sigh of relief. No baby yet I kept telling myself. Around 11:30am, my mom called and said her plane had landed. WOW! Apparently the 130mph tail wind helped rush them to NY.

Todd and I decided to go back the Obstetrician's office, because the contraction we really painful, but not regular. At the OB's office, she found that I was 4-5 cm dilated and she wanted me to go straight to the hospital. Meanwhile, my mom went to our apartment and got our bags, which were sitting by the door. She also headed up to the hospital. Todd and I walked the 2.5 long blocks to the hospital. It was a very slow walk. My contractions (still not regular) stopped me cold and had me hanging on Todd for support. We finally made it to the front door of the hospital and headed towards the elevator. There are 6-8 main elevators in this hospital. Labor and Delivery is on the 12th floor, which I think is the highest floor in the hospital. The elevator door opened and about 16 people filed in. *damn* I thought to myself. This elevator is going to stop on _every_ floor. It did, almost, and I had at least one very bad contraction, forcing me to grip the handrails of the elevator and try to breathe through it.

We got up to 12 and went into the triage room. Triage is the area of L&D where they determine whether or not you are in labor. The waiting room is small and dreary was filled with well meaning, but misplaced men and lots of bags filling up the remaining chairs. There was one free chair in the room and Todd motioned me toward it. I declined. Who wants to sit in a yucky chair next to a strange man while one is in active labor? The men in the room stared at me as I breathed through the contractions. They did not understand what I was going through and no one thought to get up from their chair or even to make space for us. I went out into the hall and labored for at least another 10 minutes or so, while Todd filled out some paperwork. I was hoping to use the hospital's Birth Center, as opposed to the regular L&D rooms. Unfortunately, I had to wait for my doctor to finish with her office hours before going to the Birth Center.

My contractions were on top of each other at this point. I was beginning to hope that our baby would not be born in the triage waiting room. Finally a nurse called me back to triage. Doctors and nurses surrounded me, because it was clear to them that I was in active labor, transition perhaps, and they might be needing to deliver my baby very soon. They all worked to get me in the bed and they check me and said that I was 6 cm dilated. When Isaac was born, I went from 6 to 10 cm in the space of 2 contractions, so I knew it could go very quickly. I was joking with the nurses between contractions telling them that I was waiting for my mom and my doctor to arrive before having this baby. I don't want an epidural, I added. One nurse was quite surprised and she asked me on how I would handle the pain of the rest of my labor. At this point, my mom had made it to the hospital. She visited me in triage and heard the nurses comments about my desire to go natural. She was not impressed.

The nurses moved me to a room in L&D and I laid on the bed in the room strapped to monitors and such. I hugged my body pillow and my mom gave me my cd player with some soothing piano music. I zoned out completely and actually tried to relax a bit after that triage ordeal. After 20 minutes on the monitor, I was allowed to get in the bathtub and continue laboring there. Once in the bathtub, I was really able to relax and chat with my mom about the triage experience. My contractions spaced out a bit and I asked Todd if he would call my doctor and see if she was on her way to the hospital.

One of the doctors came in and told me I needed to get back on the monitor because they didn't like the baby's heartrate and I would not be allowed to go to the Birth Center without a "better" fetal heart rate. Um........okay..... I got out of the tub and lay down on the bed again and this time I felt like transition was around the corner. I've labored naturally before so I know the feeling of transition contractions. I laid there for 20 minutes and tensed up during every contraction. I really really wanted to give birth in the birth center.

After the 20 minutes had passed, I was told that my doctor had arrived and was in the Birth Center filling up the jacuzzi for me. I was relieved to know that I would get to go to the birth center after all. The nurse wheeled me to the Birth Center (11th floor) and I got to my room got in the tub and was able to relax again. My doctor was there. My husband was there. My mom was there. I was in the Birth Center. I told my body it was time to have a baby. I labored through transition for about 40 minutes. Some of the contractions were really bad, some were less intense, but it was all pretty manageable. I knew I would have the baby very soon. My doctor offered to break my water once I hit 9 cm. I agreed and got out of the tub and laid on the bed.

After having another contraction, I was 10 cm. My doctor told me she was going to break my water and then she wanted my to give 3 little pushes with the next contraction. I sort of laughed to myself as I have already pushed 2 babies out and I *know* exactly how it will go. She broke my water and I started pushing almost immediately. I didn't know it at the time, but apparently as soon as she broke my water, she was holding the baby's head in. I told the doctor I was pushing and she was telling me to stop, because she had no supplies ready. She yelled at the nurses "get the tray!" or something. I kept pushing and she caught the baby with a towel that had been on the bed. I pushed 2 times, I think. Anna Sophia squirmed a bit and opened her eyes and within a few seconds she was screaming at world. She looked small to me, which I announced to everyone. My OB laughed and said she looked like a good size to her. Once she was weighed, we realized that she was my smallest baby at 7lbs, 14.8oz.

I want to add a bit more to this story, but that will have to wait for another day.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

 
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Introducing Anna Sophia Lewis!

We are now home and resting, but Anna Sophia Lewis was born on February 22, 2008 at 4:04pm. She weighed 7lbs, 15oz. and was 19 inches long. My labor was a really interesting one and I promise to write a birth story soon, but I just wanted to get the announcement out there.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

I think it will be soon...will update when I know more.
Here is a good article on people who are walking away from their mortgages.

There is a first time for everything, I suppose

Yesterday, I went to see a movie in the hopes that I could pass a few hours and not think about going into labor. Was it a success? I'm not sure, but it was interesting. I think it was the first time I've ever watched a movie while sitting next to a dog wearing a cream colored knit sweater and metal studded leather jacket. The dog was very well behaved and did not attempt to sneak any popcorn from me.

On a side note, I saw the movie "Definitely Maybe." It was a good movie, but nothing spectacular. It's billed as a romantic comedy so I *thought* perhaps mistakenly that I would be spoon-fed some sappy humor, an easy story line and happy ending. What I got was a romantic movie about divorce, the Clinton Campaign, and sex education???????? Okay, so I know I'm emphasizing the wrong parts of the movie, but when you're expecting to see a formulaic romantic movie and the opening scene is about sex education followed by signing divorce papers, it's a little unnerving. I guess I will have to watch Ever After today.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Hillary Clinton doesn't think that working at a Hedge Fund is "real work."

"We also have to reward work more," Clinton told a small group of Ohio residents today. "and by that, I mean, I have people in New York working on Wall Street as investment managers, as hedge fund executives. Under the tax code, they can pay a lower percentage of their income in taxes on $50 million dollars, than a teacher, or a nurse, or a truck driver in Parma pays on $50,000. That's very discouraging to people."

Gee, Mrs. Clinton...what was your income tax rate on the millions you received for your book deals? Oh......right, you have refused to release your tax records. This whole thing is just her way of promising to raise taxes on the rich. When that guy (or gal) quits their $50 million a year job because the tax rate is too high (thanks to a President Clinton)to justify their spending 80 hours a week at the office and not with their family, where o where is the the government going to get their tax revenue? From the person making $50,000 a year.

Even if the person at the hedge fund manager pays a lower tax rate (presumably due to a portion of pay in the form of capital gains) he or she is still paying millions of dollars into the federal coffers. I am quite thankful to the hedge fund manager for paying those millions too, because it is money that is not coming out of my pocket. When he/she stops working and those millions are missing from the wallet of the US government, where is the government going to get its money? From me.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Bye bye!

No, I'm not leaving for the hospital.......but I had you all going right?

I just found Isaac at the front door, with my Whole Foods reusable bag on his shoulder, announcing his departure whilst trying to open the door. Very cute. I took some pictures because I just couldn't believe it. He also walks all over the apartment calling for Caroline. "Caroline! Caroline! Caroline!" It doesn't get old to him. He has a very loud commanding voice too, which is definitely different from Caroline's. Oh, and he learned a new word. "NO!" Gotta love toddlerhood.

Monday, February 18, 2008

An interesting perspective HERE on protection in "gun-free zones." Perhaps places that enforce "gun-free zones" should be required to provide the protection that law-abiding individuals are not afforded.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

I've just found out that there is a full moon and lunar eclipse this Wednesday, February 20th. I wonder if the baby will arrive then... It is 5 days before my due date, so maybe???

UPDATE: Here is an article on the subject.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Thursday, February 14, 2008

I'm sure you all are looking for updates on the kids. I'm sorry for not posting about them more frequently, it's just that eh, I'm with them all day, so when I sit down to blog, I want a break. In any case, it's not fair to you, my readers, to deny you kiddie updates on my blog.

This morning, I heard Caroline name all the planets in the correct order. We include Pluto, since it is still sort of a planet. Isaac tried to get in on the action and he started naming random planets like "Neptune" and "Jupiter" while we were listening to Caroline. Do you know what? I did not even know that Caroline knew her planets! What kind of parent does not know these things? Apparently, Todd has been teaching the planets every night (we have them on the wall) and now they are common knowledge around our household. Both Isaac and Caroline know their dinosaurs. Caroline can identify quite a few--Brontosaurus, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Triceratops, Maiasaura (yeah, I had to look that one up), Archeoptryx, Pterodactyl, and really more than I can even remember for this post. She knows the ones that were fierce meat-eaters and the ones that were good mommies to their dinosaur babies.

How is this not buying votes?

Serious question. Read it here.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Arthur Laffer and the the Bush rebate

The proposed rebate of about $600 per man, woman and child is transferred to people based upon some characteristic other than work effort. In fact, if you've worked too hard and earned too much, you won't get a rebate. So in some instances the rebate actually requires the absence of work effort. Now it's true that some of the people receiving the rebate may also be workers, but working is not the reason each person receives the rebate; it's simply because he or she is a human being. Thus rebate recipients are given command over real resources for doing something other than working.

In this world of ours, those resources going to the rebate recipients don't come from the Tooth Fairy. They have to come from workers and producers. If the resources come from workers and producers who thereby receive less for their work than they otherwise would have received, won't they in turn spend less? Of course they'll spend less, and the people who now supply them with less will also spend less, and so on down the line.

As my former colleague and friend Milton Friedman liked to say, "There's no such thing as a free lunch," and this rebate is exactly what he meant. The net effect is that the reduction in demand from those who pay the real resources will be exactly the same size as the increase in demand from the rebate recipients. It's sad but true. Income effects always net to zero in a closed system.


Read it here

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Caroline at 18 months

 
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Still pregnant!

I went to the doctor yesterday and she said I am still very pregnant:) I guess I shouldn't expect an early baby, since I've never had one. If this little one comes on her own, I'm guessing it will be the 28th or 29th. I also have lost 4 lbs in the last 2 weeks. It's nothing to worry about as this is sort of normal. My total weight gain for this pregnancy is about 30 lbs, which I believe is less than I've gained with the other two babies.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Global Cooling

Is this what we have to look forward to?

Solar activity fluctuates in an 11-year cycle. But so far in this cycle, the sun has been disturbingly quiet. The lack of increased activity could signal the beginning of what is known as a Maunder Minimum, an event which occurs every couple of centuries and can last as long as a century.

Such an event occurred in the 17th century. The observation of sunspots showed extraordinarily low levels of magnetism on the sun, with little or no 11-year cycle.

This solar hibernation corresponded with a period of bitter cold that began around 1650 and lasted, with intermittent spikes of warming, until 1715. Frigid winters and cold summers during that period led to massive crop failures, famine and death in Northern Europe.

Tapping reports no change in the sun's magnetic field so far this cycle and warns that if the sun remains quiet for another year or two, it may indicate a repeat of that period of drastic cooling of the Earth, bringing massive snowfall and severe weather to the Northern Hemisphere.

Friday, February 08, 2008

Isaac can peel and eat his own orange. I was trying to take a nap yesterday and Isaac was off somewhere being quiet (first warning flag) and after about 10 minutes Isaac came by and had an orange in his hand. It was half-peeled and half-eaten. He handed me a piece of the peel and said "yuck!" and continued to eat the orange as if it were an apple.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

A Thank you to the NYPD

I left the apartment this morning with the intention of seeing what this ticker tape parade was all about and to vote. I planned everything out and decided to catch the start of the parade from Battery Pl and Broadway and the head up to Trinity Place to vote. By the time I left my apartment building and saw the madness, I scrapped those plans and decided to catch a bit of the action from Rector Street. It was really really crowded, but I got a good view of the event. People were emptying their paper shredders from the top floors of the office buildings and there was lots of cheering and screaming and intoxication going on (yeah, did I mention the morning part?) I saw the coach and a few players go by on parade vehicles. It was controlled chaos, if that's possible. I enjoyed the bands, parade and flying paper for a few minutes and decided to up to Trinity Place.


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I walked north a few blocks to the polling place and went in and voted. When I came out, I was caught unaware in massive crowd headed north. I followed along and figured I would be able to return south after a few minutes. The area was barricaded and surrounded by police and they were shuffling everyone north and stopping anyone going in any other direction. After about 20 minutes of following the crowd, I started having contractions. Uh oh. I barely had room to walk, and stopping might have been dangerous. I finally pushed my way through the crowd to the edge where I found a police officer. He took one look at me and opened the barricades. I calmly explained my situation..."I need to walk home...I live south of here and I'm having contractions..." He and the other officers sort of freaked out and were like "What hospital are you going to???" and I explained that I didn't need to go to the hospital, I just needed to get home. They agreed to escort me through the barricaded area and I made it home. I was quite happy to get home and then of course realized that I actually had to go all the way back uptown for a scheduled doctor's appointment. I took the subway and it was blissfully uncrowded. My appointment was pretty standard. Nothing new to report. I am still having contractions, but I am still pregnant, so...stay tuned...

the kids are still here...

I haven't blogged about our young ones lately, but they are still here. Trust me! I was being a bad mommy yesterday morning. I slept in while the kids watched Barney a couple of times. :[ I didn't really mean to, but I couldn't will myself out of bed any earlier. When I finally woke up, I went out to find Caroline and Isaac sitting on the couch in a Barney induced trance. I don't like it when they watch television, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. Caroline promptly told me "No mommy, go back to bed!" several times, quite emphatically. I told Caroline that she shouldn't speak to me like that, while trying to hold a straight face. Wow. It was tough! I was laughing so hard on the inside... Lately, she has been trying to order adults around. "Light on!" and when I tell her that she needs to turn the light on, she will follow up with "No, you do it!" This exchange usually ends in (1) a timeout or (2) a beautiful moment in which she finally crumbles under my mighty mommy will. We are going to see the ticker tape parade today honoring the NY Giants. It should be interesting. I will take some pictures.

Monday, February 04, 2008

oh, that would be a nice day...

I've been a little bored sitting around waiting for labor to start. I don't think it will start soon or anything, but stranger things have happened. I was looking at the calendar for the baby's potential birthday. Here is what I've come up with:

February 14th: Not my favorite. It's a cheesy make-believe "holiday" created by companies to sell crap.

February 17th: My mom's birthday. Obviously, its an important day and well, Isaac was born on his great-grandfather's birthday, so I like it.

February 25th: Due date. Too boring and expected. I hope she surprises me on some other day.

February 28th: 4th Wedding anniversary. I think this is a good day for the baby to arrive.

February 29th: This is probably my favorite date for our little girl to arrive. Leap year birthday! I think that would be fun. Of course, I am getting eager to meet her and that is 25 days away!

wow, did you see that game?

I'm not really a huge football fan or anything. I think the Super Bowl was the only game I watched this season, in fact. But, you know, the commercials, the food...it really is an American tradition. Most years, I watch the commercials and not the game, since it is usually over before kickoff. I watched about 10 minutes of the pre-game show and assumed that that would be the case this year. Team with a perfect record versus a team that LOST its first two games this year...was it even a question? 'Nuff said. I decided to pull for the Giants because they were the underdogs and it is much more fun to see an "upset" than the predicted blowout. Way to go Giants!

Friday, February 01, 2008

It's Baby Month!

It's finally February! I'm fairly sure the baby will come this month and not in March, but I guess we will see. I'm getting excited...but she needs to wait until Monday, at least, when I will be 37 weeks.

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