What Day Is It?

I forgot how quickly you get disoriented from the rest of the world when you stop going to work. Not that I mind, Megan has no concept of weekends, why should I!? This first week has been going great. Megan is handling the change very well, although I honestly don't have a lot of things to compare against. Her general attitude is happy to see Casey, concerned for her well being, and loves to hold and touch her. In car rides, if Casey cries, Megan is the first to say "It's okay Casey!" I think the hardest part will be getting Megan to understand why she can't be physical with Casey at first.

I've managed to get two runs in this week, which has been great. Sleep wise, I seem to be okay, and Casey seems to sleep very well so far. Maybe too well, as Andrea has started to wake her for feedings instead of waiting for Casey. This will help Andrea as well as Casey regulate feeding patterns. But for the most part, we both feel "normal" in terms of rested, and that's a big change from our previous sleep deprivation and not leaving the house for 4 days.

Casey's post-birth time is overall much more relaxing and enjoyable, then stressful and tiresome. I've been kind of more hands off, both because my role right now is to manage Megan during the day, but also to let Andrea roll with the feedings. I know this sounds "lazy" on my part, but I do think I was a bit too intrusive with Megan. I realize now the importance of these early weeks for Andrea and Casey to find their "groove" with a routine.

We've also been getting meals all this week from the Apple Valley MOMS Club. That has been so great, so thank you so much everyone. Last night, in a rare occurrence, we even got to enjoy a quiet evening meal with just the two of us. Casey and Megan were both napping. A small calm in the excitement of this week, it was just awesome.

A few more pics for today:

Megan being her silly self.


Megan just loves to hold baby Casey.


As promised, a few pictures of Andrea as well.


More of the three gals.

Quick Pics

Casey and Andrea are napping for a bit (Megan is pretend napping), so sneaking a quick second to get these pictures up. I realize there are none of Andrea yet, that happened more by accident. Hopefully more pictures or more of my blabbing later in the week.

Casey, a few hours old.


Close up, no flash.


Our first visitors, Andrea's parents were watching Megan since Sunday.


Grandma B and Casey.


Just Megan being happy... if only that was how she ACTUALLY has behaved over the last 48 hours...


Me and my two daughters, isn't Megan photogenic?


Megan and Casey close up, no flash.


And finally, back home today...

The Adventure Redux

I'm running on borrowed time right now, having slept maybe 2 hours out of the last 36. My brain isn't firing on any cylinders for the most part. I should be in bed but I needed to unwind with some food. I forgot my camera at the hospital so I'll just keep this short:

Name: Casey Gayle Anderson
Born: May 25th 2009. 2:55pm
Weight: 9 lbs 1 oz (wow...)
Length: 21 inches (same as Megan!)

The short version: inducement still took a long time. Although overall shorter time span than Megan, in most ways (physically and emotionally), this delivery was tougher. They say that every birth is unique, and that I believe now. But the whole "second child is easier" is not always true.

In the end, everyone is doing great and baby and Mom are both in as good a shape as can be expected. By the time I left the hospital with Megan, Andrea was officially unhooked from all equipment and IVs. Hopefully she will manage to get some sleep over the next 12 hours, it felt pretty selfish coming home with Megan. We'll head back up tomorrow after Megan's preschool. More to follow!

First Hot Run

Tonight I did a normal run outside, 7.25 miles. I didn't bother to look at the temp before I left, because I didn't really care. With the last few cold / windy evenings, I've been wussing out and running inside more than I'd like. I ran at near normal pace, and didn't quite realize how hot my body was getting until I stopped once to tie my shoe and could just feel heat radiating from inside out. On the way home the radio weather guy said it was pushing 93 degrees. I figured it was mid 80s, didn't quite realize it was that hot. Oops! Lesson learned, first hot run of the summer out of the way, I'll have to be smarter in the coming days.

Everything with Casey is going as planned, which is to say, nothing new is happening. Andrea is still feeling good but with no signs of going into labor. The next Doctor visit is Friday afternoon. I will start my leave from work on Thursday and will go along for that visit. If everything is "looking normal" on Friday, we will most likely get an inducement scheduled for the following week.

So what will we do with our time between now and then? More movies! We already have babysitting lined up for Thursday afternoon, since Terminator actually comes out on a Thursday instead of Friday. WHOOT! Other than that, we don't have anything else planned but to relax and make sure Andrea doesn't have to go out in this heat much more this week. She spent a good hour with Megan outside today, and that was hard enough.

I might sign up for a half marathon for the end of the month, but a) it seems kind of selfish and b) the timing probably won't work. It's on May 30th, so if our inducement is scheduled for Thur or Friday that week, it probably wouldn't work to do a half marathon the next day. Yes, I'm a tad insane to even be considering it, but I wouldn't be me if I wasn't.

The Waiting Game

With the weekend behind us, and the "due date" over with, time to look to the next few days. As I suspected, the weekend was a pretty normal one for us. Saturday afternoon we even got another movie in, and saw Star Trek, which was awesome. I liked the cast they put together to play the various roles. I hope they make another movie with that group.

Saturday night Andrea even made it over to St. Paul for a going away party. Her old college roommate is moving to Las Vegas for awhile. Megan and I decided to have our own date, and we went to Red Robin together. She had a good time and afterwards we went to a park, where she made friends with a nice girl her age named Emma. Emma taught Megan how to climb all the way up the slides... I let it go this time cause they were having so much fun.

So tomorrow I will head in to work as normal, which is actually a good thing. Couple more loose ends I can tie up, and hand off a last few items. I'm definitely not very optimistic about where things are going at work, but none of that is within my control. We got one of those "oh shit the economy DOES suck" emails from the CEO recently. Sponsoring of corporate teams was among the various "cost cutting measures". That's right, no more free runs for me! Every time I make the mistake of reading a news paper or actually listening to the news, I'm damn glad I have a job, and I'm going to hold on to it until they drag me away kicking and screaming. I never thought one of the best side effects of not owning a TV would be how much easier it is to ignore hearing about all that shit that just pisses me off. Blinders for the win.

Casey: The Prequel

Since this year is all about the prequel movies, I figured why not have a little Casey prequel. As we lead into the last few days before official "due date", we find ourselves in pretty much the same situation as last time. The biggest difference is that Andrea is feeling much better. Much less stress, no worries about blood pressure, a picture of good health. So what next?

I know that we don't want to end up in the same boat as last time, spending 40 hours in the hospital hooked up to machines pumping drugs into Andrea that have no effects. Not that our experience was horrible last time, but we've learned what we do and don't want to happen. Andrea's next visit will be with her doctor, on Tuesday of next week (due date +2), and we will determine our options at that point. My guess is that nothing big will occur over the weekend. As a reminder, Megan's official "due date" was Sept 28th. We had our first attempt at induction 4 days later, and Megan was born on Oct 9th (due date +11). If we have the same thing happen this time, Casey won't be here until May 28th!

In the meantime, my World of Warcraft account is now expired as of last Saturday. It was a fun last hurrah these last 5 months, but time to put it away again. I'm giving serious thoughts to a new gaming PC sometime late this year or early next year, on the cusp of the Windows 7 release, which rumors are saying is being pushed for a "Christmas" type launch. This Alienware lasted well for 5 years, and although yes, older and a tad outdated, is still a nice PC. But it would be nice to have a new top end system for some newer gaming, including Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, and some of the new RPGs slated for the later half of this year.

And work is going swimmingly, and it would seem that rising above the crap is working out for me, as my bosses send "kudos" emails to each other about my recent "excellent efforts" and "stepping up" to get things done on time and without issues.

For those of you keeping score at home (and you know who you are), that is an example of how you can be a cog in a machine, but you can still choose to make a difference.

Quick note: I also wanted to say congrats to my former college roomie Adam & wife Pilar on the recent birth of thier first baby girl!!

Unbelievable Luck

What a crazy night. Crazy week really. On the verge of our pending arrival, trying to wrap things up at work, and keep my head above water. Tonight was all sorts of awesome. First, I'll start with my stuff, since, hey, its my blog! Tonight was the Twin Cities 1-miler, which I again ran this year in the hopes that it would give me a spot in the Twin Cities 10-miler. My time last year was 5:51. This year, I was shooting for 5:45. I came REAL close:



Still very happy about that, being able to beat last years time. And it definitely wasn't as painful, and I might have been able to go a bit harder. The real factor was the wind (sucked hard) and oddly, I think bad air. Everyone around me was coughing very hard at the finish line, and it down right hurt the lungs. I didn't have any of that last year. Maybe downtown isn't the best place to have an event like that?

Meanwhile, while I was running this silly (yes silly!) event, Andrea and Val (sister-in-law who is also expecting) were attending an new Mothers event that we got a random invite to. We honestly don't know how or why we got this invite, we only assumed it was through my work and/or insurance. Some type of work perk? Anyway, long story short, it was totally free, they had lots of things for new Moms to look at, get samples of, free appetizers and a non-alcoholic drink contest. (local bartenders trying to make the best tasting virgin drink) In addition to all that, they had lots of door prizes, a high end stroller, and a grand prize of a BRAND new crib.

So I walk in to the event just as things are wrapping up. What is the first thing I hear as I walk in? They are calling Andrea's name for a prize! No way! And so I go and sit down, and it turns out Val had also already won something! How awesome is that? But wait!

They then did the final drawing for the grand prize, and who should win? Andrea!! We couldn't believe it! Andrea was in such disbelief, she didn't even realize it was her number that was called. We are going to get a BRAND new crib from Becker Furniture! (minor drive up north, but way worth it!)

And a big thank you to my brother who made this all possible by baby sitting Megan tonight, YOU ROCK BRO!!