Easter Pics

It was an early morning with mass at 7:45 and sleeping little between 1 and 5 a.m.  That meant both LL and I were pretty beat when headed out to Naperville to see my folks. Somehow we caught our second wind though and had a very nice day. Little Marissa was introduced to her auntie Bee and uncle Ray for the first time. Marissa was born on the day that auntie Bee started her new job, so it was a very good day for Bee!

Aunt Lori holding a very happy baby.

Bee holding Marissa. It was a tentative situation at best at first, but they both seemed to settle in after a few minutes.

Grandma Sutton holding a very sleepy Marissa.

And grandpa Sutton doing the same!

First Easter cake for Marissa!! It was pretty tasty too.
















Naperville Greg came through with a replacement hinge, which I installed yesterday. The last piece of the puzzle in the baby's room.

Happy Easter!!

Today, Saturday, was a bad day for Jesus' disciples. They had abandon their lives, their jobs, their wealth and invested themselves in a man they thought was the messiah. And he had just been crucified by the Roman Prefect under pressure from their own people and high priests. They sat inside and wondered what was going to happen to them next. I don't know about you, but I couldn't even imagine the type of disappointment or dismay or utter devastation they felt. After I left Morningstar due to some management changes that left people in charge who had low morality, little professionalism and bad character, I couldn't work for two years. It was a highly emotional and deeply disappointing time for me, but I'm sure it was nowhere near what the disciples felt on this day.

Thankfully for them, Sunday came and restored hope! Happy Easter everyone!!

2 week old pictures

Here are some more pictures. Our little delight is now 2 weeks old and is weighing in at 7 lbs 8 oz, healthily higher than her birth weight of 6 lbs 12 oz. Good stuff! She's very healthy and though it means little at this point, she's solidly in the 50 percentile of length, weight...maybe something else...oh, head size. Like I said, doesn't mean much.

You'll notice the pacifier in the last picture. Coincidentally, this was the first day that she tolerated it at all. Normally she would just spit it out. The doctor asked if she was taking to it all, so I guess it was time!

Happy Birthday to me!

I'm off to celebrate at the bar with Markakis and Bill the Bear....and some NCAA basketball. Here are some pics! Thanks to Joisey Ken for the cute shirt and matching onesy!

Week 1 complete!

Lots going on these past few days...all baby related as you might expect. In fact, I'd anticipate this theme to continue for the foreseeable future.

Our "routine" is somewhat interesting as it's a little nuts. We stay up until almost midnight (or a bit later) and then try to get some sleep before a 3 a.m. feeding. Sometimes I get up to cuddle Marissa if she's fidgety. Then LL tries to get some sleep between 4-6 or 7 before the next feeding. I sleep most of this time and get up around 8 or 9. We have a (now) late breakfast, late lunch, late dinner, stay up til midnight again, rinse, repeat. Yesterday I was able to hit the gym and tomorrow I have a business meeting, but for the most part, it's just a rotation of the above.

Today I broke out the Moby and carried the baby while LL slept. It was pretty nice as Marissa was on my chest while I worked on the computer. The Moby gives the term hands free device a decidedly low tech but very useful meaning!

Now for some pics!

Busy, sleepy, eatey days

Okay, this post is a few days late. Sorry! It's been an eventful couple of days as you might imagine. Learning lots of new things, cooking for LL so she can focus on Marissa, entertaining visitors, and taking pictures....ooohhhh the pictures. LL's mother has been staying with us and helping on all fronts whether it be taking care of Marissa or Molly, our dog. But she's a bit of a shutterbug, so you not only have to be constantly aware that a camera is present, but you need to make time for pictures as well. Last night I slept for 9 hours though, so I can put up with some pictures!

Yeah, 9 hours. I think I finally caught up from being in the hospital. LL has been getting some 90 minute to 2 hour naps during the day and about the same at night, if not a bit longer. Marissa has been sleeping 3-4 hours at night, so that's a good start. We've been working on keeping her up more during the day so she'll sleep more at night. It's a process.

Ricardo and wife Jodi came over last night and we brought in sushi from Mini and Eric's restaurant, Rollapalooza. The food traveled down the street very well. We had a fun time and downed some wine. Good stuff. Then tonight, my buddy Joe D. (who came down to the wedding in Puerto Rico) and his wife who just had a baby themselves, bought us dinner from Sapori Trattoria, our favorite Italian place. It was delicious AND we have leftovers for tomorrow.

On Friday my sister Lori and bro-in-law Steve were downtown for a doctor's appointment so they came by for a visit as well. They brought MORE food for us including cupcakes and stuffed peppers (from my mom). Awesome stuff!

So it's been a busy few days with lots of naps during the day and lots of eating (I made crepes two days for breakfast and they are coming tomorrow as well!).  It's all good though. Now for the REAL reason you came by my blog today:

The last one is my favorite picture so far!

Welcome Home Marissa Ann Sutton!

Sunday night at 8:00, my buddy Nick (aka Markakis) picked us up in his friend's SUV and drove us to Prentice at Northwestern Hospital for our induction. A special thanks to Markakis as I completely forgot that he bought a new, smaller car in the Fall when I called him to see if he'd give us a ride. He gladly accepted the challenge and borrowed his buddy's car. Very nicely done!

We checked in around 8:30 and made it up to our first of two rooms relatively quickly. Around 10:00 or so, they started the induction process which started with a Cervix Ripening Balloon (CRB) and a low dose of pitocin. Upon arrival, LL was only about 1.5 cm's dilated....barely dilated at all. Around 2:50 a.m., the CRB had fallen out on its own after having done its job of getting LL to 4.5 cm's.  So they broke her bag of water and increased the pitocin level.

Around 5:30, they administered the epidural as the contractions which started around 3 a.m., were getting a little rough. By 10:30, LL was still only 6 cm's and was feeling nauseous. After we got that under control, I headed to the cafeteria to get some breakfast while LL rested and contracted, though post epidural, they weren't painful at least. LL's ob/gyn came in around 11:30 after performing a morning hysterectomy.  We were planning on another 6-18 hours of labor since there seemed to be little progress over the last 6+ hours. Much to our surprise though, the doc said,"Let's get ready! She's 10 cm's. We're having this baby!"

Yowza!!!

The doc prepped, the nurses prepped and I prepped. Wait. What? Yep, I held one of LL's legs up and back to help her while she pushed (better than nothing). And push she did. The nurse and doctor kept saying what a great job pushing she was doing, but both LL and I had the same cynical thought: what else could they possibly say? You're doing a terrible job? Ha!  Turns out, they weren't just placating her! 20 minutes after the pushing started at 12:45, out came baby Marissa Ann! She had made about 5 sets of 3 pushes and that was it. On push number 3 the doc asked if LL wanted to feel the baby's head, as it was almost out. Two more sets of pushes was all it took.

So here are the pictures. Marissa Ann was born at 1:06 p.m., was 20 inches long and weighed in at 6 lbs, 12 ozs.

More pictures and stuff to come tomorrow....ish.

The first rule of go bag? Never talk about go bag.

If you have a kid, you probably know of the "go bag" reference. It's the bag you have prepared in case labor starts early and you have to race to the hospital. If you know the movie Fight Club as well, then the title might make SOME sense to you. Mostly it's just something that LL and I say to each other and for some reason it cracks us up.

But we are scheduled to go to the hospital on Sunday night at 8:30, so even though we have our go bags, they are more like well packed suitcases. The current schedule is to check into the hospital at 8:30 and at some point in the evening, have a cervical ripening balloon, or CRB, inserted and pitocin will be administered in a low dose. That will help prepare for labor. After 6 hours or so, early in the morning on Monday, the pitocin will be stepped up and hopefully labor will be induced. It could take 12-24 hours though.

Soooo, sometime Monday or Tuesday early, we should a little baby girl in our hands! God willing!

Friday night, being a Friday in Lent, we went out for sushi. Tonight we're going to our favorite Italian place, Sapori Trattoria. Tomorrow, we'll probably just cook something at home and watch the start of the Blackhawks game before taking a cab over. Since we'll be there until Wednesday morning, there's no need to drive down and pay for downtown parking for 2 1/2 days. We'll use the saved parking money on a celebratory dinner!

Update time

Thought I'd shoot everyone an update on our status based on our visit to LL's doctor yesterday. First though, while I have your attention, MY back is doing better. Seems like the ibuprofen is working at keeping the inflammation down and allowing me to walk and such. I'm at about 85% now, can't go to the gym yet most likely, but can lift things and go up and down stairs as needed.

On to LL's status! We went to the doc and her blood pressure was elevated, but okay, so no need to induce. The doc wants her to come back on Friday and was thinking he'd send her over to the hospital to be induced then. I raised some objections though as there is a risk of having to get a c-section if you induce (about 40%).  If you don't induce though, there's a chance of a stroke for the mother as she goes further along with high blood pressure. Still, with the higher risk of a c-section, we're going to hold out til Monday if possible at which point she'll be 39 weeks.

Here are some pictures! Everyone has said to take pictures now as it will never be this clean/tidy again! So here we go.

The owl picture is a new addition.

Changing station!

Look at the expert hanging of those handmade pictures! Pics courtesy of LL's mom. She did a great job.

Even the closet seems somewhat organized. Nice.

A picture from another day which shows another angle.

Man (and woman) down!!

On Tuesday I did some light shoveling and felt a little twinge in my lower back. Nothing really at all and barely even of note, if not for what happened on Friday. After sitting at my computer most of the morning working on various things and feeling good about going to the Blackhawks' game that night, I bounded up the stairs towards my bedroom where I was going to get my gym bag ready for a post lunch workout. As I walked down the hallway, I felt my lower back tighten up and the pain literally brought me to my knees. Unable to move for a few minutes, I wrote off the idea of the gym fairly quickly. After getting to my bedroom, I was able to take some anti-inflammatories, but there was still a fair amount of pain.

It was tough to sit or stand, but doing either was fine.  Initially walking was tough too, but eventually I would "loosen up" a bit and be able to walk sort of normal. The really crazy thing is that I had PT on Wednesday and they really put me through my paces. Thursday was nothing out of the ordinary. Then BAM, Friday noonish it struck. Ugh.

But we had plans for drinks (just me) and fish at Emmit's before going to the Hawks game, so I had to suck it up. LL had a trip to the baby-doc where they strap a monitor on her and measure the baby's heartbeat for an extended period of time and make note of when she moves.  She was almost late for the appointment due to work and a stupid cab driver, both of which elevated her blood pressure, which is not good. As a result, the doc said he wanted her to go on bed rest starting today and to avoid going to work. He felt little things were elevating her blood pressure to bad levels.

Unfortunately, LL also wants to spend as much time as possible with the little gal on the back end after birth, so taking time off PRIOR to work is not a good thing. Sigh. We're working through it to come up with a good solution, hopefully involving working from home and/or me chauffeuring her as needed. Tuesday LL goes back to the doctor though and hopefully he won't want to induce or anything. There's a greater chance of having a c-section if they need to induce at this point, so we're hoping to avoid having to do that. Tomorrow LL is 38 weeks.

On a brighter note, the Hawks won in OT and recorded a point for their NHL best 21st game to start the season. It was also their 200th straight sellout and Hossa's 999th game. Good stuff!

Saturday night, tonight, will be another Pizza Group night! Should be fun!!

Sequester sets in

Unless you're totally avoiding the news, you know that spending cuts kick in today that I imagine will eventually impact me in some way, though I'm not sure how or when. Congress and the White House kicked the can down the road at the end of January with some tax increases and some spending cuts, but not enough of either. The GOP stated "that's it!" for tax increases though, so when Obama and the Democrats started looking for tax increases along with spending cuts to avoid these cuts, the republicans said no. The media has many several mentions of a "period of austerity" for our country that is looming. There doesn't seem to be a simple way around it, so I have to agree. If you owe a bunch of money, you either have to raise income or cut spending to pay it back. Do we need to pay it all back? No, but we do need to run at a surplus budget for a while if we're going to make a dent. So how do you do that?

Well, letting someone else play world cop for a bit would help. Wars are REALLY expensive....like CRAZY expensive and are a big chunk of the reason we have this tremendous debt to begin with, not to mention the thousands of lives we lost. We need to work smarter on that front.

Taxes need to increase in the short term. Not that it balances the budget, but why was the SSN tax ever reduced from 6% to 4% in the first place? Just a short term stimulus plan that was just that, short sighted.

Tax international companies for doing business here and have US corps creating jobs abroad bring back those jobs to the US. In the end, these two are the single most important things we can do for the long term health of our economy. Bring home jobs and employ people. A lot of problems go away if people have jobs and are paying into the system instead of living on the dole.

That's my political rant for the day! No baby yet and no indications that she's coming over the weekend or anything. Still prepping at the Sutton house!!