Padon's First SCA Event

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Walter and I are part of a group called the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism). This is world wide club that practices and studies what it would be like to live between the 10th century and the late 15th century (well with the addition of the women's movement because we are in the 21sst century). We get together (during the summer) every other weekend (almost) and camp out in local camp grounds dressed in clothing as "period" as we can and camping in canvas pavillions. There are many activities such as fighting in wars (sword, archery, etc) , arts and sciences, siege cooking, bardic and many other competitions. People come and practice their crafts and over all it is a really good time.
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When we go out camping with the SCA we camp with a household called Medlested ("Welcome" in Gaelic). Medlested prides it self on being a bardic group that fights in almost every war through out the summer season. Every night they get together and sing bardic tunes and people come from all over the camp ground (roughly 500-2000 people camp at single SCA event) to sing along and share food and drink that they have made. It is with this group that we planned an archery and throwing weapons event and BBQ in our backyard for the first weekend of June.



We have two acres, one of which is nicely landscaped. It is in the first landscaped portion that Walter and his friend Jason built and constructed an archery range, throwing weapons targets, and a mock castle wall for a mini battle. It was really really amazing and I don't think our yard has looked that good since we bought our house.
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It was great to present Padon to the group who was very eager to meet him, but much to their dissappointment they were only a loud to look and not touch since he was only 5 days old and so new. I was so impressed with the work that Walter had done and he even took time out to watch Padon while the gals in the group threw me a baby shower!

It was a cold and rainy day (go figure in Seattle) but it didn't keep us from having a good time inside and outside and we just made sure Padon was nice and snug.

To top off the night we were welcomed as official members of Medlested instead of just company of Medlested. It was a great time, roughly 30 people came, and they look forward to coming back again.

A Man Amoung Men

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I have a new respect and admiration for single parents, parents of multiple births, and teen mothers and parents. I don't know how you do it.

My first week home with my new baby bean was the most mind numbing week of my life. Right away because of Padon's jaundice they wanted us back at the hospital for further testing. We live 48 miles from the hospital, however, so it was a no easy task to pack us up and get us to the appointment on time. Walter immediately fell into a schedule of clean, fold laundry, meet with the neighbor about taking care of our mini farm, make sure there was a meal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with snacks offered inbetween, remind me to take my pain medication, change diapers as needed, make doctor's appointments and keep track of the ton of paper work given to us by the hospital. I watched him in awe as he totally stepped up to take care of us.

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First off we had to see the lactitions who I wasn't looking forward to seeing and had heard were very pushy. Trying to keep an open mind they set us up with a feeding schedule and tried to give us helpful tips on how to keep a lethargic and jaundiced baby alert enough to keep nursing. This first check up was also to make sure Padon was doing well and in an attempt to not alarm us they alarmed us even more when they said Padon was just in the high risk level of jaundice and they wanted us to walk next door to the hospital and the lab to have his bilirubin checked again adding that if it didn't come back ok that they were going to admit him. They pricked his already very pricked heal, took a blood sample, and the lab results came back ok.

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This whole process took us the better part of the afternoon as we were passed from one lactition to another due to scheduling conflicts and were pressured by a third lactition to rent and purchase an electronic pump. I already had an electric pump but because it was a hand-me-down they pretty much made us rent a pump which we did for one week to appease them. I wanted to get a nursing bra to make my very engorged breasts more comfortable and to make nursing and pumping easier. Because they said my breasts hadn't finished getting as big as they would they wouldn't sell me one, which made me very irritated. I was already crammed in my bra and very uncomfortable and they didn't care. I was exhausted and Padon was hungry. We had one lactition saying I should go back and learn how to use the pump, another saying that we should feed Padon because he wasn't getting enough to eat, and a third lactition trying to get us to fill out paper work for the pump and its parts. They weren't listening to each other and were all talking to us at the same time. Unable to deal with the bombardment of information and the fact that they were implying my baby was starving, I finally broke down and cried in the waiting room with my face buried in Padon's spit-up rag. That made them stop and listen and better explain what they wanted us to do. It all came down to the fact that they had kept us there past closing time and they all wanted to go home and so were rushing us.

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Walter was appropriately gruff. He took care of all the paper work, made them write out what they wanted us to do and went in the gift shop to purchase a bottle and timer so we could feed Padon and keep track of future feedings and diaper changes. He then packed us back in the car and we made our way home. I sat there so tired thinking about how glad I was that he was keeping track of all the paperwork and and was surprised at how much he had stepped up to take care of us. In the hospital he had given me the most beautiful sapphire necklace, had brought a huge bouquet of flowers, and had bought a large balloon that said "It's a Boy!"and I was thinking how wonderful he was and how I never wanted to take the necklace off and then it dawned on me that if anyone deserved a gift it was him and I hadn't given him anything to celebrate him being a new Dad. This sent me into a crying jag that went between sobbing and sniffles as I clutched his arm and he patted my leg. He was shocked I would feel that way and that I had given him a wonderful gift and that was our son sitting in the back seat. He then patted me some more telling me it was ok to cry and I cried most of the way home telling him how much I loved him inbetween sniffles.

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Over the course of the first week we saw the lactitions twice, Padon's pediatrician once, my doctor twice, and prepared for a huge BBQ that had been scheduled a month in advance. All of this Walter took in stride. Between helping with feedings and diaper changes, and making meals for me, he worked with his good friend Jason and relandscaped the back yard as well as built an archery range for the BBQ. It really was amazing and all I could think was that he was truly a man amoung men

No nurses to help me with the crying baby?

Leaving the hospital was a monstrous task. We dragged our feet trying to absorb as much information as we could from the hospital staff. I had thought we would be ushered into a new parents class where they would show us how to bath a baby and all that jazz. Finally I asked about it and was informed there was a video tape we could watch in our closet. Dissappointed we pulled it out and watched it. It was informative but I think the hands on approach would have stuck with me better.

When we tried to leave, however, it seemed as thought the staff that had been dropping hints about us leaving suddenly didn't want us to leave. It seemed to take forever for a nurse to come in and ok our infant car seat and give us one last leason in breast feeding a baby with jaundice. We finally were given the ok to go and we went to get our hospital pictures which weren't taken by a professional photographer but by a kiosk near the nurses station. The cool thing about it was you laid your baby in the bassinet and centered him in the middle of the camera, which you could see on the computer screen, and then you could take as many pictures as you wanted (15 at a time). You then chose your four favorites, put in the baby's information, your email address, and it printed out this certificate looking picture with all four pictures on it. You then had the option of purchasing a package which we didn't. It was time consuming however and threatened to finally break Walter and my good spirits. We were running on fumes and having to collaborate on which four pictures we thought were the best was threatening to make us have an argument. We weren't willing to leave the hospital however without trying to get the very best pictures. Soon we were in the car and my four hours of daily commuting by car and bus seemed to pay off and Padon was fast asleep.
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We got home in time to unpack, set the timer for 1 1/2 hours ( time mandated to us by the hospital staff on how often to feed our jaundiced bean), and climbed in bed. It seemed just a couple minutes before Padon was crying and my brain for a second paused for the now non-existent hospital door to open and for a nurse to swing in saying "now let me tell you how to handle this situation." A split second later I realized I was on my own and I my chest muscles tightened panicking at my perceived inability to take care of this precious being. Minutes later, however, a warm bottle was in his mouth, and he was happily snacking away and I was lovingly taking in every crease, wrinkle and fuzzy hair, and melting into those slate gray eyes. We were going to be just fine and we were going to learn a lot together.

So Many Visitors

We were so lucky to have so many people come and visit us right away while we were in the hospital. Our whole family came as well as a couple friends and cramed themselves in what had felt like a large room.

My Mom Christine, and nephew Gregory

My sister Sarah and her husband Wayne

Best friends Erin and Eliot ( Evan and Ivor were off watching from the side)

My Dad, Jim

and no pictures to represent them but: my sister Jane, her boyfriend Jason, my brother Patrick, his girlfriend Katherine, our great friend Nick, and Walter's Dad Leo all also came.

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Dad's get a raw deal in the hospital. To some degree all questions and discussions are aimed at the Mom as if the Dad would have no answer and isn't there and when it comes to care he is on his own for food and toiletries. The nurse that drove us crazy on the 1st hospital go round embarrassed Walter by making him feel stupid when she offered me (making it sound like she was offering us) breakfast and then scolded him by sayig "Not You!" when he jumped at the chance for a hot meal. On the 2nd go round at the hospital our nursing staff was cool and showed him where the kitchen was on the floor and where he could get sandwiches and juice while the fridge was still stocked. Their sandwiches only wet Walter's appetite however so when Erin and Evan called and offered to pick him up something from Red Robin I couldn't say the A1 Angus Burger fast enough and Walter couldn't have been any more grateful.

Yummy Tired Face

It was so awesome to be able to share our new little buddy with everyone and I was so glad they were all able to make it to the hospital to visit us. The nursing staff was amazed at how many people came to visit.

Walter Padon

Padon was born June 3rd at 2:20pm. He was 7lbs 2 oz and 18 3/4 inches long.

His temperature was low so they tried to warm him on my chest with lots of blankets but soon took him away to warm him up under some heat lamps. I was so glad to be able to touch him and see his little face. I was ready for him to be a fuggly baby but trying very hard not to be biased I think he was one of the cutest babies I have ever seen.

Having A Baby Is A Piece Of Cake

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Having A Baby Is A Piece Of Cake! No that isn't the epidural talking....

Walter and I had, had a dry run the the hospital on the 25th of May but after the contractions drifted away laughing quitely to themselves my doctor practically put me on bed rest aside from my normal working routine. I was to lay down as much as possible because I wasn't due until June 18th and he really wanted the baby to be term. We were disappointed though and I was wishing that the baby would be early; I was so tired of being pregnant. On June 3rd, we got our wish.

After counting the contractions for two hours, waking Walter up to make a list of animal duties for the neighbor, and calling the doctor to confirm we should go to the hospital we were on our way. At 3am we rolled into the hospital and after giving me a gown they put us on walking duty to help the contractions along. Boring as it was Walter and I walked the hospital Child Birth Center for two hours chatting and laughing about Bill Cosby's "Self" comedy sketch where he describes his wifes birth experience. The nurses teased us and said I must not really be having contractions because I was laughing. I thought that was kind of rude. I felt I was lucky to be able to laugh especially since as we made our laps we passed two women's rooms where they had chosen to go the natural child birth route and were screaming in pain. And I mean screaming. We pretty much got to be there with them as they went through the last few stages of delivery (As Walter describes it: Oh ma gawd it is going to come out, Oh ma gawd I don't want it out, oh ma gawd I want it out now!). My back was killing me, however, as the contractions got stronger and soon I was back in my room being given an injection of Pitocin. Lovely stuff gets those contractions going but man can make them painful. Even still we talked about how it felt and how cool we thought our nurse was and made fun of the nurse we had had the last time we were in the hospital and who drove us nuts.

It was a fantastic learning experience to me. Here I was soon to be a part of "the mommy club" transitioning from "the pregnant club" and it was so cool to think of all the women before me who had laid in that bed and gone through a similar experience to what I was going through. I got so wrapped up in it that soon I was gasping in pain, telling Walter in the least alarming way I could, I was feeling choked up (meaning any second I'm going to start crying) and found my self thinking "Ok, superstar, what pain threshhold are you going for? You know you want the Epidural Guy to come in so what's up?" I laughed again at that and told Walter what I had been thinking and he went and got the doctor.

Two tries with getting the catheter placed and I was praising the Epidural doctor. My pelvic bones had been hurting me so much for the last month that I couldn't wait to try to turn over without gasping and tears coming to my eyes. I had to hold myself back from rolling back and forth on the bed singing "look at me!!!" because I knew when the epidural wore off I would be one sore cookie.

Before I knew it the nurse was telling me it was time to push and my response was a nervous "really?". I was totally excited to do it, but it seemed so surreal that it was really happening; I was about to have my own baby. It wasn't as fast as I thought it was going to be, however, and we were joking again about Monty Python and the Meaning of Life and its representation of Birth between contractions and pushing. The nurse thought we were a crack up but kept us on track. Walter was enlisted to help as he was handed my left foot and at his exclamations at how cool the process was as I pushed I agreed to a mirror so I could see too. I am so glad I did because it really was crazy cool. I had to remind myself again and again that that was me and I just couldn't get over how really cool it was.

At one point Padon got stuck and his heart rate plummeted. Nurses came flying in from every where and our nurse discussed getting me on my hands and knees. It didn't happen but I will always kind of wish they did because I am dieing to know how they would have pulled off getting a 200+ pound, dead from the rib cage down, woman from her back to her front and then onto her knees, to keep her there and not collapsing on her side or off the bed. I'm think'n I would have gone off the bed. Instead they got me on my side and Padon's heart rate started to come back up. Minutes later he was born (no episiotomy or foreceps necessary, yes!).

I say the whole process was a piece of cake (not the third trimester part mind you) because it was so something I could handle. It was a fantastic experience for both Walter and I. We were never afraid, the staff was wonderful, we got to watch cable TV (we can't get cable at home so it is a big treat), and we were madly in love with this baby about to be born. No one was rude to us, the pain was tolerable, I got a kick out of how the wall paper matched the hospital gowns and there was absolutely nothing that made the process difficult. It really did seem easy as we moved from one stage to another and the best way I feel I can sum it up is to say it was a "piece of cake!" I will have no horrible and gorey story to tell young women in the future as was told to me and I will have no warnings to give. People probably will just choose not to believe me when I tell them I think it was a piece of cake...

Gregory Allan

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My sister Sarah found out she was pregnant a month before we did. It was really exciting to know that our babies would be born so close together in age. It was also amazing to watch Sarah's transitions through her pregnancy and see how those steps would effect me when I was that pregnant. Two months a head of me made a big difference on our experiences as we both developed.For the most part my pregnancy was a piece of cake with just about no morning sickness and managable fatigue. But by my 7th month my pelvic bones were starting to ache, turning over at night was difficult without help, and the baby kept doing things like play with my belly button from the inside and "scratch" me which I called wearing a pine cone hat, and that was wearing on my good pregnant vibes. So when Gregory was born he became my reminder of why I was on this trek.



Gregory was born April 19th, 7lbs 4 oz.
He gave me such a lovely baby fix and reminded me that the third trimester was worth working through so I could see Padon and hold my own wonderfully soft, sweet smelling, and cooing baby.

A Boy? You're Sure It's Not A Girl?

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Walter and I decided on Thanksgiving 2005 that we would have a baby and would start trying in April 2006 because by then we would have the house we were in the process of buying and be well established. It felt like forever till April but once we got there we found getting pregnant wasn't as easy as we thought it would be. After battling my hypothyroidism and infertility because of it with lots and lots of fertility drugs and thyroid medication we found out in October 2006 we were pregnant.

It was so exciting to be pregnant and every week held something new. At 4 months I could feel the tiniest of flutters and I couldn't stop thinking about whether the little person that was developing was a girl or a boy. I really was so pleased to be pregnant that I didn't care whether it was a boy or girl but this little bump felt so dainty. I was getting more and more stuck on my bump being called Hailey Nanci (girl's name we had chosen) and I couldn't imagine it being any different. On February 5th we went in for our Ultra Sound and after a lot of time spent looking at my kidneys, gallbladder, and other organs we finally got to see our little baby. It was a fabulous experience and it blew my mind. The technician rolled the microphone over and around me trying to get the baby to move and confirmed that he was proportioned correctly, he didn't have down syndrome and that all his organs looked like they were developing properly. Lastly, with our permission, the technician rolled over his bottom and announced we were having a boy.

I was dissappointed with myself for feeling my heart drop at the sudden loss I had at Hailey no longer existing. I felt as though she had died a little even though she never was. I looked at the rolling, pushing, and kicking person and thought so you are Padon... I loved him just as much as Hailey though when the technician realized that she had forgotten to press record on the VCR, preserving this special moment. She pressed record and he froze. He wouldn't move the slightest except to pat the top of his head with his foot. He looked like someone had folded him in half and stuffed him in a bottle. His head rested comfortably between his knees and his hands rested alongside his face. It seemed apparent to me that we were going to be in for the ride of our lives with him and I was exctied. Walter couldn't have been more pleased with finding out he was having a son and was dealing with an unexpected euphoria that only a Dad can know at finding out he is having a boy. He would have been just as happy finding out he was having a girl but, man, he was having a boy!

Third Times the Charm

This will be my third blog. "What blog, err blogs?" you might say. The blogs that I couldn't keep up with and messed up and were too embarrassed to share.

But now I am a Mom, or to my wee bean, "Mommy" and now it seems as though I have information worth sharing. I think I will put the information I had on the other sites in this one just because I didn't put it all in there for *&$?'s and giggles but because I did want to share I just never completed it.

So we will see if I can keep up a blog even though I can't keep my house clean, my laundry washed, my yard weeded, my knitting needles clicking, or my spinning wheel humming.

Deep breath, here we go...