Thursday, July 16, 2009

Unexpected Suprise

So much for the baby beard. 90 percent of you know what I'm talking about, but for the people who randomly came to the site Logan came early.

For the last few weeks people have been telling The Wife that she looked like her belly had dropped and she started to complain about her pelvic area. I thought she could go a little early, but on Monday July 13th at 3:30AM I wake up to The Wife leaning over me. Obviously I am a sleep and I have no idea what's going on, I thought see was leaving for work. "My muscus plug came out and my water broke. For weeks The Wife kept thinking up senerios about when her water was going to break. According to our baby classes, only 12 percent of all births begin with the water breaking. We had numerous friend with water breaks so law of averages were against this line of thinking. She needed to plan to have contractions and then maybe after a few hours her water breaking. Stupid classes making me look like a fool!

I get out of bed and we start to get the last items needed for the trip to the hospital. I'm calm when talking to The Wife, but inside I am freaking out that our son is coming a month early. We get on the road and we are making great time. So great of time The Wife lets me stop for a donut and a coffee. Mmmm donuts.

We get to the hospital at 4:30 and go up to the waiting area. The next hour and a half go by like a blur. The Wife is now on a gurney with an IV and a gown on. Around 5:00 we are told that it could be a while till we are scheduled, then at 6:00 we have a 7:15 time. Time started to slow down and we couldn't do anything, she's on a gurney and I'm internally freaking out. We talk and try to pass the time, but when you finally have the finish line in front of you, it feels so far away.

As we are given information, they mention the cathater will be put in a little bit. The Wife looks at me and ask, "where are they going to put that?" I explain that it's so she doesn't have to worry about going to the bathroom. Her eyes get the size of saucers and asks if this is done after the spinal tap. As a good husband I laughed for a good five minutes. She is always laughing at me when I get hurt and for some reason, seeing her worry of the cathater and not the giant hole about to be cut into her made me laugh. That was my pay back moment.

We are next informed that they are takin her to the OR and I will be put in scrubs. Me being me I lean over and ask if she can call me JD or Turk from the TV show Scrubs. She gives me the wife look of death and then I get the ol' stink eye when I ask if she can call me The Todd. We are seperated for a few minutes as I scrub up. I walk into the OR and all I see is The Wife's head and a giant sheet. It is mentioned that I can look over if I want and as I mentioned in a previous blog I did not want to see that. After about 15 minutes of pushing and moving behind the curtain we hear, "there's the butt" followed by "I think he's sucking his toes?" Followed by a cry and I look over to The Wife and she is balling, I am tearing up as well and we see our son being taken past us to another room.

I'm allowed to follow and to be honest a new born baby is kind of discusting, they are slimey and covered in blood. I of course don't care and crack out the video camera and digital camera and shoot away. After a few minutes they have me put the camera down and I am now holding my son. It's strange yet awesome all rolled into one. I take him in to see The Wife and as I sit down I accidentally glanced past the curtain, all I saw was a giant hole and what appeared to be flesh. I duck down fast and shudder for a second. The Wife is crying even more now and she gets to see him for a few minutes.

Logan and I leave the OR and we go to the nursery for all the tests and everyone loves this kid. Look at that picture with all that blond hair. Watch out newborn girls, Logan is on the prowl. By this time, he has only cried once, when he first came out. He was vocal, but never did that typical cry you hear from babies. The other two newborns in the room are doing that, but Logan is quiet. He passes most of his test with flying colors and after 30 minutes I go back to see The Wife.

For having a giant hole cut into her, she is doing pretty well and it even surprised the nurses. She instantly saw Logan again and went into mother mode in .00000001 seconds. From that point on things have gone smoothly. I know I'm a week behind and I'll try and catch everyone up within the next few days

Monday, July 13, 2009

Complaint Department

I will try and make this as short an not complicated as I can, but I am going to try and not reveal some names so this might be tough to read.

A few days ago I was listening to a podcast of Bill Simmons (The Sports Guy) and he interviewed ESPN radio host Colin Cowherd. I use to be a fan of Cowherd, but I thought he got a little too big for his britches and stopped listening. Yet, I thought what the heck, I'm going to listen to this podcast. To my surprise, he seemed to be less jerkish than on his radio show and was even candid. Simmons did a good job an even brought up the fact he helped crash a blog. Cowherd apologized and to be honest I was a little shocked that he appologized and he is now a fan of that site.

Oddly enough I read that site as well and when I saw a response to the interview I got pretty much what I thought. They were bitter and upset and complained about how hard it is to make money as a blog and it seemed they had a thing against Simmons starting out on an AOL server and now being a success. They also felt Cowherd was a little demeaning at times towards blogs I decided to send a email to the site and just mentioned they need to back up a little on Cowherd and that blogs have only been around a few years and ESPN (for some reason the bane to all sports bloggers) started out small.

I actually got a response and come to find out that the creator passed the assignment off to another writer because he was too close. A good move and I read this writers comments to me and he had valid points and I moved on.

While driving to a shoot for a webcast something dawned on me about the writer... he was 19. Wait, he was complaining about making money and he is 19 and in college? At 19 I was working summers at Bob Evans saving all the change in tips so I could do laundry for a few months. I understand the main writers are probably older and my have more expenses, but when you are in college and an intern at this site, should you be writing about how hard it is to make a living as a sports blogger? I'll back track this to the Simmons comments in the article, Simmons is about to turn 40 and should be in a position to be making very good money at ESPN. I'm just stunned that I never picked up on this kids age until a day later. I think you can make money as a blogger in this new age, will it be tough, yeah, but you need luck, a story that breaks big and quality work to keep the momentum of that big break. Maybe that website should not pass off an article like this to a 19 year old intern. Like I said the kid seemed nice and could do something in the future, but for this story, give it to an older writer.

Baby Beard

We are in the last month of the pregnancy and I feel like this is the playoffs and we need something else... baby beard. Friday morning is the last time I will shave until Logan finally comes. I mean hockey players do it for the Stanley Cup and this is kind of as big as the Stanley Cup so I might as well try and get as much luck as I can. The longest I have gone without shaving is about two weeks and it was driving me crazy. Hopefully this will get The Wife a little help in the pain department, if she sees me struggling through the itchy part of full beard then maybe she will think that she can get through this. Who am I kidding, she will yell at me for complaining about an itchy beard while she as a small person inside her. At least this way I can save money on razors and shaving cream.

I'm taking a picture every day that I remember. I already forgot on day two, but you can't tell any difference between day two and three so that really doesn't matter.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Final Baby Class

With Logan being breech we almost didn't go to the last class, but since we threw 80 buck down we might as well go. Fortunately we went because they talked about C-sections. I had one problem with the instructor on this part of the class. We told her that Logan is breech and that a c-section was scheduled and she starts by saying that almost all c-sections are caused by bad health and things that could have been avoided. Well, geez, that's for that up lifting and made us feel all warm and fuzzy because we now thing we caused this. The biggest problem with the instructor is she is very anti drugs, pro breast feeding and pro natural birth. During the epidural lecture she kept telling us about how she never had one and all the women in the class are not in pain, they are just pushing hard. Last time I checked the only people to yell that loud and much were tennis players. I don't mind giving her views, but at times it was a little much. Give us the information and we will decide. I'm having the Stadol, I don't know about The Wife, but I'll need something to take the edge off.

She then went on to mention other reasons for a c-section and we saw our two reasons; breech and placental eruption. The eruption part was from an earlier incident, but that is part of the reason they don't want to try and turn him around. I start feeling a little better, then they showed the video. I was like the scene from Alien where that creature ripped it's way out of that guys stomach. I have seen way too much from this class.

I'm happy the class is over, but I think someone needs to retake it. The Wife keeps asking me questions about contractions and I keep giving the answers. "When do we have to go to the hospital?" I answer, "When the contractions are about 5 minutes apart and you should be about 4 centimeters." Why am I the one that has to know this? I should be asking not her. I finally asked her why she can't remember this. While watching the movies all she kept thinking was let's go up stairs and have this thing now!

I hope for both our sakes he does not come early. I feel we will be one of "those" expecting parents, all crazy and clueless.

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Defiance In The Womb

The Wife and I went in for a baby appointment today and we found out that Logan is still breech. What does that mean for us? The Wife now gets to have a C section sometime around August 4th. My first thought was great, we paid for those child birth classes for nothing. The Wife's thought was great, now I can't tell out friends what a natural child birth is like.

They told us there is a 5% chance that he will turn around and with The Wife having gestational Diabetes, a placenta up front and this being our first child, they don't want to mess with trying to move him around. To be honest I'm fine with that, now we will know pretty much when he will be born and can prepare for it. The Mother-in-Law now can book a flight and we can get the house cleaned and ready to go.

Friday, July 03, 2009

The Revolution

I've been doing some work for a natural life science website that does a weekly webcast about the pharmacutial industry, I know it sounds hella awesome. Since the owner of the site has moved to Raleigh and the web presenter (I use that loosely) is a friend, we have been featuring different cities in each episode. This week being having Independence Day we thought it would be a great idea to do it at a Revolutionary war site.

Growing up in Ohio, I always thought of the Revolutionary War as happening in land far away, even the Civil War to an extent. As a few locations to shoot was mentioned, it finally dawned on me. The Revolutionary War happened close to where I live. Wake Forest is within an hour and a half of three locations that are registered sites.

We picked the Alston House or as it is known, the House in the Horseshoe. In the grand scheme of things it was not a major battle, it was barely a skirmish, but the house still has holes in it from the battle. Let me help you sink that in, these bullet holes are 227 years old. I'm not talking little paux marks I'm talking holes that go through a wall that then lead to another hole on the other side of the room.

What happened was this Alston guy had a group of patriots and they were attacked by a group of loyalist called the Tories. Alston's group thought they were going to lose and ended up retreating into his house. After a few days Alston surrendered and that was that. Your never going to see a major motion picture made of this incident, but for me it was the greatest thing. I was walking around in a house during the founding of our nation. These guys fought to become what we are today. Did these guys push us over the edge and made us free? No, but at least they tried. If I were alive I probably would have had the same thing happen to me, it's just my luck (or I would have died of dysentery).

So for me this Independence Day weekend, I feel I have learned a little and feel a little closer to our founding fathers. It's not every day that you can stick your finger into a hole made from enemy fire that's over 200 years old.

If you are wondering why I did not post a picture of the holes... I forgot to take a picture, I have video of them so that my get posted later.

Thursday, July 02, 2009

Baby Class Update


My sister Julie wanted an update about how baby class is going and all I have to say is I have seen too many breasts and vaja jays for my comfort. I keep hearing about how beautiful the birth of a child is and I want to know if these are the same people who enjoy crime scene photos. With TV shows like Baby Day and whatever else TLC shows, they usually blur out the lower region and truthfully that's fine with me. The class on the other hand shows it all. There's screaming, yelling, and a blood covered body sliding out of another person. It's like Alien, but with less death and toxic spit.

Coming from the TV world I sit in this class thinking how did the production crews get permission from these people to be in there. I had trouble getting people to talk about gas prices and these guys have a camera two feet away from the action. I can't get a digital camera two feet near The Wife before she starts freaking out. Yet after watching the carnage in the video The Wife leans over EVERY time and says that she wants to have the baby now. My reaction is why isn't this the 50s, I get to sit in a waiting room with 5 other dads and then the nurse comes out and says it's a boy. I get all excited and hand out cigars. I'm guessing it's going to be different when it's my kid, but freaking a man, do they need two solid weeks of showing me the delivery?

There has be one conversation I did giggle at for a few moments... episiotomies. This is where the doctors snip the region below the birth canal and the rectum. For most people my age, that region is know as the taint. I don't know why this turns me into a 13 year old boy, but it does. The Wife hates when I bring up the episiotomy, because she does not want it done and I giggle like a school boy. There was one point in the class where the instructor talked about rubbing some ointment around this area. The Wife leans over and gives me the best movie reference she has in months. "Can I just spray a little Pam down there?" Look at the above movie clip and you laugh as much as I did in the class.

This past week we had practice with dolls on how to waddle them and how to take their temperature. On the temperature there are two ways to do this, under the arm in rectally. The under the arm one seems pretty easy. Then we learned how to do the other and a collective groan went through the room. The instructor said the baby probably won't enjoy this. Really? The baby doesn't want something shoved into that orifice? I'm glad I'm past that stage and can just do an oral thermometer.

Finally, I felt bad for one guy in the class. We had to answer some questions and his was about warming up a bottle. He started out with the easy answer of running it under the faucet. Then he gave a wrong answer and said microwave. I thought four women in the class were about to get up and club him like a baby seal. He tried to recover by saying he was testing everyone but the damage was done, he's "that father" the one who is going to screw up his kid. To be honest, I would have probably said the same thing and looking around the room there were at least two others that would have said microwave. I'm glad we had the easy question about introducing your pets to the newborn (thank you Shawn, Melissa and magazine article in the doctors waiting area).

Next week will be just as fun, breast feeding and rehearsal for delivery. At least we're done with things coming out of vaginas.

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Recital Work


This past weekend I shot my first long recital, I had to clarify that because I've shot three mini musical recitals. While shooting and editing what has been condensed down to a three hour program I have learned a few things and also I have some questions.

The biggest question that I kept asking was when does grace occur. When I say grace I mean the fluidity while dancing. The five year olds were cute, but they weren't really moving to the music. Instead they were just jumping up and down and doing what they thought they were taught. As the age of each group started to rise I started to notice that around middle school some people were starting to show signs of grace. Of course, others were flopping around like fish, grace is something that can't be taught. Trust me I am not graceful at all, and this is not a slight towards The Wife, but grace has not been her strong suit. I remember in first grade during music class the teacher had me stand up and sing a song. I was actually singing, it takes a few years of like to actually sing and not just say the words in a rythmic pattern. What is that age when grace starts to creep in? What is the age when you finally say yeah, maybe you need to do something else.

Then I started to wonder, do the parents of the ungraceful not see the fact their child has no rhythm or major skill at dancing. One girl looked to be in high school and you could tell she had no desire to be on that stage. The other two girls dancing with her, were not the best dancers but they were putting out a very admiral effort. The other was going through the motions. I kept imagining her inner dialog.

"Gosh, why am I still doing this... step ball change... I hate dance, like, I haven't wanted to dance for like three years... hop, pop, slide... I just want to go home and read Twilight for the fifteenth time... spin, drop, pepper grinder... Edward Cullen is so dreamy."

Then you had the kids that you could tell LOVED being on stage yet did not have any skill. For them I say keep dancing, I would be in this group, they are oblivious to everything, but they just gotta dance man!

There were many kids on stage that just did a great job and have some sort of skill, yet with those kids there is a subset, the divas. They believe they have skill and they believe they are the next big Broadway star. Even though they can be a little "over the top" to be honest those are the kids with the parents that will ALWAYS by a DVD and even though I hope my kid will never turn out that way. The more the merrier, keep buying my DVDs for $25 and help me make a living.

For the most part things for me went off with out a problem, except for one guy. I'm shooting a tap group and this guy walks up to me all angry asking for the manager. It takes me a few seconds to wonder what's going on and during that time I swear I smelled Bourbon. I tell him I think the back because there is a production going on. He keeps asking me questions and finally I had to tell him I am not connected with the company directly, I'm just freelance. He storms off, come to find out his child's name was left off the play bill. I hated it for that kid, but really, you had to interrupt me shooting your kid dancing? Maybe I don't understand parent logic because my kid is still baking, but couldn't that wait till oh I don't know afterwards? It's not like they told her she couldn't be on stage, it was a typo. Deal with it later, enjoy your kids performance. Be happy now and then rip someone a new one. If I was vindictive a certain name might get left off of the DVD, but I can't cause I need money.

Over all it was a good experience and hopefully enough people will like this DVD and maybe I can get a few more ordered before I jump the price up another ten dollars. Even better I get 20 more after the price increase.